ã€Š[Can&#x27;t Opt Out] : A Can&#x27;t We Get Rid of the Raids LitRPGã€‹


 Arc 1 | Chapter 1: Yeah, Actually, Mech Raids are Harder to Deal With

    Emilia hugged her legs closer, trying to bury herself further out of view as a group ran by, someone screaming at the others that no one in the raid knew shit about how to fight mech invaders.

    ¡°Give everyone a break,¡± one of the boys¡ªand he truly seemed to be a boy, probably only a few years into his 20s¡ªsaid softly as they skidded to a stop just within sight of Emilia. ¡°Mech raids have only been around for what? Two, three seasons?¡±

    ¡°This is so fucking stupid,¡± another boy hissed. The oversized sword in his hand clunked to the ground, too heavy for his level, even this late in the season. ¡°Why¡¯s everyone so fucking stupid!¡±

    ¡°Even the vets and top heroes can¡¯t handle mech,¡± the first boy said sensibly, eyes widening when the other boy turned on him, berating him for making excuses for incompetents.

    Emilia pushed herself further backwards. She didn¡¯t need a bunch of children calling her incompetent or asking why she was hiding¡ªwhy she was so pathetic that she¡¯d bolted the moment she realized this was a mech raid. She hated mech raids. So did most veterans. Humans weren¡¯t meant to fight machines. They were nothing like the enemies they had fought in the war that these stupid raids were supposedly meant to keep them prepared for a repeat of. They had fought monsters, not mechs or anything else made by human hands¡ªnot on purpose, anyways. Everyone who had survived long enough had taken out allies on the front, though. Blasted them out of the sky by accident or to stop crashing units from exploding across their own troops.

    No one wanted to be reminded of the times they had killed one friend to keep more safe.

    The group¡¯s voices rose around her, their argument about whether mech really were that different from biological invaders¡ªwhether they really were that much harder to fight¡ªintensifying and growing a little too personal. They were obviously friends, come to the raid together and hoping for a fun time. This was most certainly not fun¡ªnot that Emilia generally enjoyed raids, but this one was going spectacularly badly for everyone. That strain and tension was adding up, and by the sounds of it, this group was going to be getting out of here with some hurt feelings.

    Emilia almost wished she could pop out of her hiding spot to set them straight, to tell them that yeah, actually, mechs were that much harder to deal with. Give them someone external to argue with, so they could leave just as happy and ignorant as when they entered.

    Almost.

    Instead, she tilted her head upwards, watching as an electric skill spliced through the aethernet and connected with an invader. Its limbs sputtered and steamed. For a moment, it looked like it might split apart, burst into a thousand nuts and bolts¡ªpieces of aether the system had gathered together, twisted and mangled to create this game for them. Then, its eyes bulged, violent purple beginning to burn black, and it was exploding forward towards the hero¡ªthe stupid designation for people participating in raids¡ªwho had attacked it.

    Mech raids were too new, too rare. Even the people who lived and breathed for raids hadn¡¯t figured out how to consistently defeat them with more than a handful of difficult to master skills. Easier to use, mech focused skills were being released slowly¡ªtoo slowly¡ªbut even they barely took the edge off these fights. Almost no one¡¯s willbrand could make a dent in those things either¡ªespecially not the shit-tier willbrands that the government had been dolling out to everyone since the war ended¡ªand when Emilia peaked forward, watching the boy with the too big sword slide towards an invader, it collided harmlessly across the thing¡¯s too wide chest.

    The boy yelped in surprise, tried to bolt backwards, but his slide was too sloppy. The invader¡¯s thick, metal tail collided with his torso and he was sent slamming into a wall.

    [???: HP 0%] popped up across her Censor, and Emilia swiped it away in annoyance. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize that kid was unconscious. The system had cushioned the blow enough for him to have not sustained any serious damage, but he was definitely going to be sore for a day or two.

    She glanced at the stats in the corner of her vision, her own HP untouched as more and more heroes fell. There were too many invaders left, too few heroes. At this rate, the raid was going to last late into the evening, the system resisting letting the raid end until it was convinced there weren¡¯t enough heroes for a potential victory.

    Would it even let them leave, with her here and untouched? Her current level might be pretty pathetic, but it knew her. Knew she was powerful and skilled when she wanted to be.

    She didn¡¯t want to be. Not here, not now.

    She never wanted to be forced to be powerful again, not against things that her instincts told her contained friends, even if she logically knew they didn¡¯t.

    Emilia clamped her eyes closed as a scream echoed from somewhere in the distance, bouncing off the sides of the towering buildings. She had just wanted a snack, some sweet food she couldn¡¯t afford with her measly student paydrop, not a trip into a nightmare¡ªinto a raid she couldn¡¯t opt out of.

    ¡°Breathe,¡± she reminded herself, sucking in a shuddering breath as the world began to bend and break, the tall buildings of Piketown giving way to the rubble of memory. Blood and gore and the screams of dying comrades because there were never enough supports to do more than protect those still alive and moving.

    ¡°Move,¡± she hissed at herself. ¡°Move.¡±

    ¡°Move, Emilia,¡± another, deeper voice called to her, death already twinning through his voice. ¡°Don¡¯t die here, protecting me. Go.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Emilia scrambled up, heart slamming in her chest as she ignored the warning from her Censor about Balance Levels. How surprised would he be, to know she was listening to him now, of all times? She hadn¡¯t moved that time, almost a decade ago now. She had stayed to die beside her friend and torn the world apart keeping them safe.

    Torn a hole in her soul itself, keeping him alive.

    Another scream rang through the air, and Emilia sucked in a long breath, exhaling the tension back into the aether, her core shuddering with effort. She wasn¡¯t saving the world today, but those were still people out there, dragged into the government¡¯s stupid raids just like her. Children who didn¡¯t know better. Veterans who wanted to be anywhere but here.

    She could do this. She so totally could.

    ? ? ?

    [You have defeated Mech Lo¡ª]

    [You have gained¡ª]

    Emilia swiped the notifications away as she let {Starshine} scatter through the air towards another invader.

    [You have def¡ª]

    [You have¡ª]

    ¡°Shut up,¡± she mumbled to herself as she lined up another shot, aether gathering through her willbrand before she let another shot of {Starshine} go. More notifications flashed across her Censor, which she resolutely ignored.

    She really couldn¡¯t understand why you could mute communication within a raid, but not the over-the-top notifications. It was generally pretty fucking obvious when you¡¯d killed an invader, a notification about it was redundant. She cared even less about whatever she¡¯d gained. Any item drops from invaders this weak wouldn¡¯t be worth much, and she didn¡¯t need or want the experience, stacking up until it rolled her level down, closer to the perfect 0 top heroes craved so badly. Even if she had cared about her level¡ªwhich she most certainly did not¡ªit was too late in the season to bother actively trying to level down. She¡¯d be lucky to be sub-100 by the time the season ended in a few weeks.

    She sighed, looking around for another invader, but she¡¯d cleared out this area, the little map on her Censor indicating she¡¯d have to travel a bit to get to the next swarm. Annoying, and as much as she¡¯d connected to the communication network before muting it, there wasn¡¯t anyone in the raid she knew and could bum a slide or spark off of.

    Emilia pushed herself up, her willbrand shifting from giant ass gun into a smaller, handheld one that she could easily travel with. It wouldn¡¯t do much, if she was forced to use it against an invader, but it would fare better than a close combat weapon.

    She turned, making for the upline she¡¯d used to get to the roof and clumsily connecting to it. Her D-Levels were too high to let her ease down it, and instead she half-crashed to the ground. She cursed, watching as her HP lowered a bit, the raid system making a judgment call that her crash had lost her 10% of her HP. It hadn¡¯t¡ªthe system was just making shit up, like it always did. The only time its HP counter was accurate was when it said 0% because the hero was unconscious.

    She really hated this. Not just the raid part¡ªthat part sucked to begin with¡ªor the feeling like she was killing allies part, but the inane boredom of fighting mechs. She was a get up close and personal fighter. Barriers! Swords! Close range skills! That was where her passion¡ªlimited as it was¡ªand skill lay! Well, that wasn¡¯t quite true. She was just as skilled at shooting enemies down, but the monotony of aiming and firing, aiming and firing, aiming and firing¡ª

    It was going to drive her insane, especially against mechs, which required so much aiming it wasn¡¯t even funny. Most mech invaders required precise shots, shots fired at just the right moment and angle to slip between sheets of metal to hit their internal structures and trigger explosions¡ªbig ones. Emilia had already accidentally taken out a few dozen heroes who had chosen to get in her way and been a bit too close to the mechs when she shot them down.

    The irony that she was perfectly okay taking out stupid heroes and not mechs because they felt like they contained friends was not lost on her. That said, the heroes would be fine, the raid system protecting them from most damage and disallowing any skills that would cause real damage to them¡ªunfortunate, given Emilia had a few, real-world-only skills that could have easily taken out most of the raid¡¯s mechs in a single shot. Granted, she¡¯d probably send the majority of the heroes to hospital as well, but sometimes you just had to accept that collateral damage was unavoidable.

    That was another reason she hated these mech raids more than the more standard, biological ones: they normalized collateral damage. Even connected to the communication network now, ordering people to stay out of range of her attacks, people were still ignoring her, putting themselves in danger in an attempt to earn a bigger paydrop¡ªin an attempt to lower their level just a little bit so they could get bigger season rewards.

    Emilia didn¡¯t need any season rewards, not unless they were offering heroes the ability to leave raids at will. Now that she would rank #1 for, thanks.

    Emilia sprinted from tree to tree, watching her surroundings and map for invaders as she went. Usually, invaders showed on the map, but black sites and aether enhanced objects could screw with the aethernet and erase things. More heroes were taken out because they were relying too heavily on their maps than much else. Emilia wasn¡¯t going to be one of them.

    Around her, heroes who had been taken out sat dazed on the ground, their eyes empty as the sound of the few remaining heroes fighting mechs a few streets over surrounded them. Emilia had always thought the raids stupid, the government''s proposed reasons for them weak and questionable, but at least people had been able to find joy and amusement in the biological ones. Fighting monsters you could beat was fun, fighting ones you could not was war. What good was leveraging raids to keep people prepared for another war if you traumatized everyone in the process? If you trained them to view machines as the most dangerous thing on the field¡ªmachines that would contain their allies in a real war?

    Emilia skidded to a halt in front of another upline, listening for the sound of anything too close before clasping her hand around the aether filled bar.

    [You have attempted to connect to Piketown.upline#736]

    [Warning: Records indicate you may be unable to use uplines solo]

    [Do you still wish to connect to Piketown.upline#736?]

    Emilia mentally chastised her Censor for being too cautious as she told it, ¡°Yes, I do fucking want to connect.¡± It had been having issues recently, and while she had been mostly ignoring the errors and sarcasm, it was getting a bit excessive¡ª

    Emilia stumbled as she reached the roof, nearly falling to her knees as the world spun.

    [Your records have been updated]

    [Inelegant exit from Piketown.upline#736 added to records]

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Emilia hissed at her Censor as she peered off towards the next batch of mechs¡ªa group of 15 fighting at least two heroes, by the looks of it. They were a bit far off, and she wasn¡¯t connected to their communication network, but they would figure out they needed to get out of there after the first mech exploded.

    She squatted down, willbrand shimmering back into a large, metallic purple gun. Aether immediately began gathering inside it, the clear casing on top beginning to glow faintly golden.

    [Skill {Starshine} Activated]

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she whispered to the unknown heroes as her skill connected perfectly, and the mech exploded into a cascade of blinding golden light around them.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 2: I Can Hear the Stars Sparkling

    The world sputtered back into normalcy as the raid vanished. Everything just as it should be. No blood across the grass or broken mechs littering the roads. No dents or shattered glass or broken benches. Everything, sewn back into perfect existence by the system.

    Everything, except Emilia. Physically, she was fine. She hadn¡¯t even ruined her clothes, being forced to keep her distance from the mechs and all, although they were already pretty worn out to begin with. Her soul was another story. Her soul felt like it was a million pieces, scattered uselessly over the sidewalk. She needed to pick them up. She didn¡¯t really have it in her.

    [Em: hey want to go get smashed?]

    [Pria: Always~ where to?]

    The sound of people dragging their way through the streets slowly began to fill the area as more medical staff arrived, nurses, mostly, from the local clinic. Medical skills vibrated through the air, searching for anyone in need of attention. There wouldn¡¯t be many serious injuries¡ªthe raid system was powerful enough these days to even catch people stupid enough to fall out of the sky.

    Catch a falling hero, make them fight again another day.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± a woman nearby spit out, their limping form appearing out of an alleyway along with half dozen other people. ¡°That shit is rough!¡±

    ¡°Dude, yeah,¡± one of the other men sighed, his eyes catching on Emilia. ¡°At least we managed to take out a few invaders. Bet there were a ton who didn¡¯t do shit.¡±

    The eyes of the girl hanging off his arm followed his gaze, her fancy clothes torn up from whatever had happened to her inside the raid. ¡°Totally~¡± she agreed, eyes sliding over Emilia in a way she was far too familiar with, even if she received it less and less these days. ¡°These raids should, like, totally give us extra credit for having people like that holding us back,¡± she said, cruel amusement filling her voice. She reminded Emilia of the girls she had gone to compulsory school with, before she¡¯d become friends with kids that no one fucked around with.

    ¡°Shut up,¡± a younger man hissed, his voice not quite quiet enough that Emilia couldn¡¯t hear it. ¡°She might hear you.¡±

    The first man sneered at his friend. ¡°What do you care if she hears you? You got a thing for sub-300 sluts?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know she¡¯d sub-300. Physical, irregular deviations don¡¯t always affect D-Levels.¡± His eyes caught Emilia¡¯s, his face simultaneously managing to go ghostly white and burn hot with embarrassment. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± he muttered, looking away and trying to hurry his friends along, shushing their laughter and teasing as they went.

    Sorry didn¡¯t make up for keeping company with purists. If anything, it made it worse. Sorry didn¡¯t mean shit if your actions didn¡¯t reflect your beliefs.

    Emilia watched the group disappear, medical personnel sliding up to them and offering them a few boosters. No healing¡ªfor all they appeared injured, their clothes ripped and torn, they were overall fine, just a little worn out. They clearly didn¡¯t even need the booster, although that didn¡¯t stop them from taking everything they could off the woman, their entire vibe one of threat and dominance.

    The nurse shot her an apologetic look when their eyes met, a vague message about being out of supplies flashing across her Censor, before the woman disappeared the way she came. Just like always, raid medical support was questionable at best.

    [Pria: I don¡¯t wanna wait in a line tonight.]

    [Em: i think mazi¡¯s bouncing at the grint this week]

    [Pria: Ooh, yeah~]

    [Pria: Meet you at the station?]

    Emilia fiddled with her ratty clothes, hastily pulled on as she¡¯d headed to that morning¡¯s lecture. It had been a shit lecture, traumatic and filled with misinformation that Emilia had itched to correct her douche face teacher on. She couldn¡¯t, though, not without revealing more than she wanted about who she was¡ªabout the things she had seen and done during the war.

    So, she¡¯d sat there, listening to him drone on and on about things he apparently knew nothing about. All she¡¯d wanted was a snack, something sweet to help her miserable mood. Instead, all she¡¯d gotten was a raid filled with mechs. A normal raid she could have dealt with, as much as she still hated them. The mech part had just added a bonus to the general shittiness of the day.

    [Em: can you bring me something pretty?]

    A laugh echoed through her connection to her roommate.

    [Pria: Sure thing, love~]

    ? ? ?

    The world melted and Emilia¡¯s hand slid through it, wet and sticky and¡ª

    Whoops. That wasn¡¯t the drugs. That was the waterfall that stretched along the walk to her dorm.

    Emilia giggled, her head tipping back into the water, glimmering drops of the world sliding across her skin, seeping into her soul and cooling the burn aching through her. The world melted and swirled, the stars above her mixing together to create constellations that belonged to another world. Laughter of other students returning for the night swung through the air, pink and purple words vibrating against one another, and then the Strats were towering high above her. She hadn¡¯t been to the Strats in years, wouldn¡¯t be there anytime soon if she had anything to say about it.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    She glared at them, a wash of wonderful and terrifying and nauseating memories surging through her. She glared harder, as though her will alone would be strong enough to counter the song of drugs crawling its way through her blood and forcing such unpleasant things to appear before her. Go away. It needed to go away.

    [Warning: Balance Levels¡ª]

    Emilia mentally swiped the notification away. Her Censor could fuck off, thanks. She needed to focus.

    One. Two. Three. Focus. Breathe. Years of training¡ªof death and blood and smiles exploded into the aethernet¡ªflashed through her. Her willbrand, currently in its regular necklace form¡ªa tube of purple chemicals hung from a long gold chain¡ªvibrated against her sternum. It wouldn¡¯t be any good against a hallucination, but its power was comforting. Its power was courage given physical form. The Strats disappeared, and the colours sang, and Emilia pushed her thoughts away. She hadn¡¯t gotten this high to think about the past or battle with mountains of glass that were out of time and place.

    The vroom of someone sliding to a stop echoed nearby. She knew even without looking who it¡¯d be. She could hear them, the familiar patter of their heart and stretch of their lungs as they slid closer, closer. She shouldn¡¯t be able to hear them. Slides were silent, and the nearest exit wasn¡¯t that close. Must be the drugs¡ªthey¡¯d had some kind of hearing enhancer mixed into them. Pria had said she wanted to hear the music better, feel it echo straight through her soul. Emilia hadn¡¯t, but she wasn¡¯t the one buying. Where was Pria, anyways?

    [Location: {Pria}] flashed across her eyes, distant and blurry. Back at the club, back in the city. How had she gotten back to the school?

    [Receipt: {Bubble+}]

    Blurry lines of psychedelic lights flashing through a rainy window filled her mind at the reminder. It wasn¡¯t raining. Fuck. She¡¯d paid extra for a rainy vibe? Stupid. She¡¯d have to work extra to pay that off.

    [Current Account Balan¡ª]

    Emilia aggressively willed her money problems away. No. Just no. Her lack of funds was a tomorrow problem.

    Her hand brushed leaves, they grew under her hand, stretching up and over the ceiling of¡ªwhere was she? Not the walk back home anymore.

    Emilia smiled and twirled, thoughts and worries and her stupid Censor¡ªcurrently trying to ruin her adventure by telling her her {Current Location}¡ªspiriting off into the universe. The universe. Wide and open and spinning and black, and Pria had looked so beautiful dressed up in it earlier. That one girl¡ªthe one with the too dark tan, but killer eyes and purple hair¡ªhad been looking at Pria like she wanted to lick the stars off her skin. Star eater. Would her roommate bring the star eater back to their dorm to fuck? Emilia hoped they¡¯d be quiet. Hearing them fuck while she could hear the stars sparkling would bite.

    ¡°Em.¡±

    Emilia fell backwards, trusting Elijah to be there¡ªtrusting him to catch her. She smiled up at him, her silver bangs obscuring her view of his face. ¡°Sup, pretty boy?¡± she asked, drugs pulling the old, condescending nickname out of her. She didn¡¯t call her boyfriend that anymore, not unless she was mad, not unless she was high as fuck. Her smile widened as he frowned down at her. He¡¯d been doing that more recently, she thought, the frowning. She didn¡¯t know why. He didn¡¯t say anything about it. She wasn¡¯t going to bring it up. She¡¯d already programmed her Censor to stop encouraging her to.

    ¡°You¡¯re in the fitness centre.¡± His frown deepened and her smile widened.

    ¡°It¡¯s nice here,¡± she sighed, letting him pull her upright and giggling as the world spun. She gazed around. The greenery had stopped growing. Sad.

    Elijah pulled her by the arm, away from the plants that had stopped growing under his influence. Too sober. The plants knew. ¡°It is. Shall we get you to bed?¡±

    ¡°You gonna join me?¡± Emilia asked, her ass bouncing on her bed a moment¡ªor maybe it had been a thousand moments?¡ªlater. She hadn¡¯t made it that morning. She¡¯d woken up late and meant to make it when she came back from class. She hadn¡¯t come back. Class had sucked, then she¡¯d gotten stuck in that raid¡ªwhich had also sucked¡ªthen there had been all the drugs. The drugs, at least, had been nice.

    ¡°No,¡± Elijah said, as he should. Sleeping with someone as high as she was would not be a good look, even if they had been dating for nearly a year now. A year and now he was done with her and didn¡¯t know how to say so. ¡°I¡¯m not done with you,¡± her boyfriend added.

    Whoops, hadn¡¯t meant to say that out loud. Hopefully she wouldn¡¯t remember this in the morning.

    [Memo to Self: Do not remind Emilia of this conversation]

    Elijah shot her a look that seemed to say, ¡°You¡¯re saying plenty of things out loud that you probably don¡¯t mean to.¡± Instead, he asked her if something had happened. No, she said, letting him manhandle her into bed and cover her up with fluffy clouds. Clouds and nebulae were calling, softly whispering in her ears. Her Censor was silent. She¡¯d long since programmed it to stop telling her to be more honest. Honesty is overrated, little Censor! Didn¡¯t you know!?

    ¡°Class,¡± she added, offering a little piece of honesty as she snuggled into the clouds. They were so soft, one of the few things she¡¯d bought with her savings when she left home, before locking that money away¡ªone of the few things that would give her away, if anyone bothered to think about it, how she could have afforded something this bougie. No one ever thought about it. Well, maybe Sil did. Sil was good at not asking, though. Sil had his own secrets he hoped no one ever thought about. Past Emilia would have thought about those secrets¡ªwould have let herself be consumed by curiosity until she figured them out. Current Emilia barely spared them a moment¡¯s thought. ¡°Bad lecture.¡±

    [Warning: Balance Levels¡ª]

    Great. Just thinking about that stupid lecture was enough to set off her Censor.

    ¡°Been more of those recently,¡± Elijah noted. He was further away now. Was he further away now? Had he moved, or had she? Dreams sent from the aethernet were tugging her away. Dreams were nice. Dreams while high were even better. The drugs kept the nightmares at bay, and tonight was a night for nightmares even her Censor couldn¡¯t stop. Elijah wouldn¡¯t hold it against her if she needed a little escape.

    Elijah didn¡¯t know, though. Not about the nightmares she ran from, hiding in drugs and sex and adrenaline and so many knots she couldn¡¯t even count them anymore. Not about the reasons why they chased her, or why she dragged her D-Levels as high as she could stand. Not about her, either.

    No one knew about her. Not here, anyways.

    ¡°Sleep,¡± Elijah said, his hand brushing over her forehead. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in the morning, Em.¡±

    A kiss brushed her forehead too, she thought, a strand of light and love lingering around her as the dreams pulled her down, down, down, pressing back against the darkness lingering at the edges of her happy, dreamy world.

    Or, maybe that was drugs, keeping her safe.

    Yeah, it was probably the drugs.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 3: This Ainâ€™t Our Everyday Weather

    ¡°Yo, get up.¡± Emilia stared down at her roommate, plus guest. Neither moved, and she gave the base of the bed a stern kick.

    Pria mumbled in her sleep while her guest slept on¡ªwhatever the star eater had been on last night had apparently been even heavier than the shit Pria had gotten them. That, or she was using her Censor to dull out the sounds of the world, which was kinda a shit move when you were in someone else¡¯s bed, if you asked her.

    In the corner of her vision, an alarm lit up across her Censor:

    [Better leave for class now, dumbass]

    Emilia blinked it aside. It wasn¡¯t the last chance alarm¡ªthat one screamed at her and wouldn¡¯t stop flashing red across her Censor until it knew she was actually heading to class fast enough to make it. It wasn¡¯t even the penultimate one that vibrated her mind like a thought she couldn¡¯t quite catch hold of. She was good to keep prodding her roommate for at least another minute.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t get up now, Professor A is gonna stick you on paper duty,¡± she said, hoping fear of their oldest, if most charismatic, teacher would scare her awake. Nothing.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she said, turning to leave. She really couldn¡¯t afford to miss another class, not when a message from her Censor had informed her she¡¯d spent too much last night.

    ¡°Really, high as the night sky Emilia, mood rain?¡±

    She needed Professor A to give her a couple hours of something¡ªanything¡ªso she didn¡¯t starve till next paydrop. Don¡¯t piss off the hand that offers you easy work. Not when the other alternative was raids. No, thanks. Somewhat tedious work was better than raids any day.

    She halted at the door to her roommate¡¯s room, cringing as the physical alarm her roommate favoured started blaring. Pria and her guest slept right through it. Impressive, although Pria¡¯s own Censor¡¯s sound dampening shouldn¡¯t be affecting her perception of the alarm¡­

    She glanced back over her shoulder. Maybe¡­

    ¡°PRIA!¡± she yelled¡ªpractically screamed, really, her voice echoing through the aethernet and slamming into her friend in a dust of purple vibrations.

    Her roommate scrambled upright, blinking comically at her, her curly black hair a messy ball around her. ¡°Why are you yelling!?¡± she whispered back, voice raw and scratchy from sleep and all the shit she¡¯d done the previous night, before frowning. ¡°What? What? What the¡ª?¡± she repeated to herself at increasingly loud volumes.

    ¡°Aftereffect from the drugs. Must be messing with your hearing,¡± Emilia noted, turning to truly leave this time. ¡°Turn off that noisy ass alarm and hurry up. We¡¯re gonna be late.¡±

    ¡°What? Oh! Shit!¡±

    Emilia wandered through the house, grabbing drinks for both of them, as her second most serious alarm crackled across her Censor and brain. She sent it flying into the aetherlands as well. ¡°Hurry up,¡± she yelled again, smiling to the sound of her friend cursing.

    [Error: Door Jammed]

    She slid her shoes on and kicked the door. It popped open. In theory, it was supposed to open through her Censor, but something was wrong with the connection, and she could never quite bring herself to go down to dorm management and get it sorted. Mostly because she was pretty sure it was an issue on her end, and issues meant questions. She didn¡¯t need questions or someone shuffling through her Censor¡ªor worse, asking to check her knots for interference.

    Behind her, something crashed. Her roommate swore, and Emilia continued on. Pria would catch up.

    Her silver-grey hair swept behind her as she strode down the long hall. Despite being in her typical high ponytail, the ends still brushed the tops of her thighs, tickling the bare skin slightly. She¡¯d woken up later than she would have liked, rushed to pull her hair up and splatter on the most basic of makeup. Her Censor had informed her it was going to be hot and to dress lightly¡ªalthough it had been oddly cagey on how hot it was going to be, which was concerning. It had been acting up more and more recently, although in this case, she figured it was just that it didn¡¯t want to horrify her with how hot it was outside. Awesome.

    She¡¯d followed its advice, though, throwing on a pink and purple, sleeveless romper that hugged her ass quite nicely, her cheeks just barely hanging out. She¡¯d forgone any jewellery today, save her willbrand, still in her favoured necklace form. She never took that off¡ªnot unless she was using it.

    Emilia was watching the elevator doors close when her roommate caught up, a night black hand¡ªstill covered in galaxy dust¡ªshooting between the doors just as they were about to snap closed.

    ¡°Lot of trust you have in this thing,¡± she noted as the doors opened. Her roommate stepped inside, panting and holding her shoes, her hair now pulled up into a huge, imposing bun. She had thrown on some dark-grey lounge clothes, the kind she normally only wore around their dorm, which would most certainly be too hot, assuming her Censor wasn¡¯t lying to her about the heat.

    ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be safe,¡± the other girl sighed as she shuffled inside, the elevator hissing in what Emilia swore was annoyance as it snapped shut. It didn¡¯t make that noise unless someone had held it up because they were running late¡ªjudgy thing.

    ¡°And our door¡¯s supposed to open at the flick of a thought. It doesn''t.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s a you issue, not a door issue,¡± Pria teased, trying to force her shoes on. They were cute, shiny and purple. They matched her hookup¡¯s hair. They were nearly impossible to get on at the best of times. Now was not the best of times, Pria¡¯s skin sticky with sex and sweat and all that glittery dust.

    ¡°You¡¯re gonna get yelled at for the dust,¡± Emilia said nonchalantly. It wasn¡¯t like her roommate had had time to scrub it off, but their professor wouldn¡¯t be happy about it being around his babies¡ªfuck, he might even relegate Pria to paper duty because of it.

    ¡°Like I could have scraped it off in the two minutes I had to get ready,¡± Pria huffed, futilely scrubbing at her face. ¡°Fuck, why¡¯s my hearing still so hot,¡± she complained to herself, pushing at her ears, as though that would make the aftereffects disappear. ¡°That for me?¡± she asked, motioning to the drink Emilia held in her hand, even as she grimaced.

    Emilia handed over the thick, green juice. It was a great hangover cure. Really, it was a great dietary supplement in general, filled with all the nutrients you could possibly need. It even bumped up your stats, if you cared about that kind of thing, which Emilia most certainly didn¡¯t. It was also absolutely disgusting. The kind of shit you chug and hope to keep down. Emilia had already chugged hers and ignored the notification from her Censor about buffed stats. She dropped her empty can into a bin as they stepped out of the elevator and the abnormally hot summer heat hit them.

    All the buildings were climate controlled¡ªmost all the buildings in Baalphoria were, except in the slums, but those had been growing rarer every day since the war. For whatever reason, the architects had chosen not to install microclimate controls throughout the university¡¯s outdoor spaces, though. Something about nature and misery. Personally, Emilia figured it was because the founders had been trying to court a researcher from the far south, where outdoor climates were never tampered with. Hadn¡¯t worked. There was no fancy, non-dev southern teacher, and instead all the staff and students suffered.

    ¡°Fuck~¡± Pria moaned as they hurried down the long path that led to their first class, her heels clacking on the uneven stones. ¡°Why is it so freaking hot!?¡±

    ¡°Pink tide,¡± Emilia said, her Censor lighting up with a weather report about a rare pink tide on the northern side of the Penns. ¡°They tend to make everything a lot hotter,¡± she explained when her friend¡ªwho had grown up in the north-western part of the country and probably only ever seen a pink tide through her Censor¡ªshot her a confused and sweaty glance. She had managed to wipe a small amount of the galaxy dust away, so now only half her face sparkled like the night sky. If anything, it kinda looked even worse now.

    ¡°I thought it was like¡­ a goal, to be able to climb the Strats during a pink tide, though?¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± replied a male voice, and a moment later an arm was swinging over Emilia¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Hi, babe,¡± Elijah said, smiling that smug, lopsided smile of his at her. Bright blue eyes peeked out from beneath his dirty blonde hair, all of him shimmering in the mid-morning sun, the mess of curls more of a mess than usual¡ªprobably the result of him dragging his hand through his sweat damp hair as he hurried to class. He was always nearly late, always rushing and cursing and nearly bowling people over on his way to the slide lines.

    He wasn¡¯t wearing his normal clothes, though, this outfit leaning too far into the clean-cut, preppy college student he was supposed to be, not the jock-head he was. Formerly normal clothes, she reminded herself. He¡¯d been dressing like this since his visit home a few months ago. Elijah had once been bright and sloppy and infuriating. Now his smile was dimmer, his clothes ironed and expensive. He wouldn¡¯t talk about what had happened with his parents¡ªor older siblings, perhaps¡ªbut something had changed. About him, about them, about the clothes he wore and the things he expected in life¡ªthe things that were expected of him.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Want a lift?¡± he asked, just as he always did. At least that hadn¡¯t changed.

    ¡°Sure,¡± she replied. The only reason he got off the lines a stop early was so he could give her a lift, so who was she to refuse? Especially in this heat.

    [Access: Glide Along Request from Elijah]

    [Access: Granted]

    She smiled up at him as he pressed a little kiss to her forehead and their Censors connected. His smooth slide barely stuttered as she surrendered control of her movements to him, and he activated the slide across her shoes. These ones¡ªa pair of flats so purple they were almost black¡ªbarely glowed as the skill activated, just the slightest shimmer of darkness flowing out of them, and then she was being pulled along by her boyfriend, his own superior skill moving them effortlessly forward. Well, it took a little effort, but it was nothing compared to walking, nothing compared to the awareness that riding the lines themselves with a glide along required.

    ¡°Not fair,¡± Pria pouted, her steps speeding up to match their new pace.

    ¡°Hey, I told you,¡± Elijah said, his tone already edged with annoyance¡ªthey¡¯d had this same conversation too many times, usually when one or both of them was hungover¡ª¡°I¡¯ll teach you how to glide along. Just say when.¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Pria replied on instinct. Instinct to complain, instinct to offer, instinct to refuse. ¡°Why would anyone want to climb the Strats in this misery?¡± she asked instead, rather than the traditional line of making excuses that her Physical D-Level would make learning to glide along impossible. It wouldn¡¯t. It would make it harder, sure, but anyone could glide along, even those with completely deficient Physical D-Levels. Pria¡¯s might be low enough that she¡¯d never be able to slide solo, but it wasn¡¯t completely deficient, and her excuses were lame.

    Elijah shrugged, happy to not have to argue with her about D-Levels and her weight¡ªshe also said she was too fat to glide along, another meaningless excuse. ¡°It¡¯s pretty.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty?¡± Pria repeated, staring at him like she didn¡¯t force herself into painful shoes and uncomfortable outfits every day simply because they made her look cute. ¡°That¡¯s insane. It¡¯s like a billion degrees out!¡±

    [Current Temperature: 40¡ã], Emilia¡¯s Censor happily informed her. That was definitely hot for most of the country, save the Grey Sands and the Strats themselves, where the pink tides could drive the temperature into the high 50s on occasion. The 40s were definitely unpleasant¡ªand the sight of the Data-Recovery Lab¡¯s metallic roof coming into view through the trees was a welcome sight¡ªbut it was far from the worst heat Emilia had ever experienced.

    It wasn¡¯t even close to the worst.

    [Error: Memory Access Denied]

    [Input Access Code?]

    The request fizzled out automatically.

    Beside her, her roommate and boyfriend were bickering with each other¡ªPria¡¯s voice booming under the effects of the drugs¡ªas usual, and she tuned them out as she was pulled along. The wind slid through her hair, just a little coolness in the oppressive heat, and she let her eyes flutter shut, just for a few moments. The joy of no longer being able to slide herself: she could glide and let her mind slip away as she was safely escorted wherever she needed to go. Kept her close to campus, more often than not, and the slide lines were more convenient¡ªnot to mention less expensive¡ªthan getting a bubble, but¡­

    They turned a corner and the lab came fully into view. Three floors of towering metal walls and huge windows that offered views of the ocean to the east and the city to the south-west, both located at the base of the mountain the university sat on. Designs were etched into the metal, delicate and mysterious. Emilia had once heard the designs came straight from the OIC, but the system had refused to elaborate on what they were for¡ªif they were for anything. You didn¡¯t disobey the OIC, though, so on the designs went, beautiful and slowly being covered in vines that wound their way through the trellises that the OIC had also demanded be installed over the building. An odd choice, given that nearly a decade on, trellises and the vines covered the majority of the design.

    Ahead of them, Sil Xu popped out of a slide line in a spark of teal, dressed as always in a baggy sweater and sweats¡ªlight green and black today. He shook his head slightly, black hair shifting with the movement, and readjusted the bag slung over his shoulder, the one that contained all his expensive comp stuff¡ªbecause apparently his Censor alone wasn¡¯t powerful enough for whatever it was he did inside the Virtuosi System.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you burning up?¡± Pria asked when they reached him, interrupting Elijah in the midst of explaining that, were it not for the exuberant cost, he would totally, completely, go climb the Strats during a pink tide, regardless of the heat.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t particularly convinced. Her boyfriend loved climbing, yes, but there was something different about the Strats during a pink tide. It wasn¡¯t just the heat, or the waves crashing against the shimmering rocks more violently than usual. It wasn¡¯t even the vapour of the pink tides that hovered in the air, offering a hallucinating high to anyone brave enough to make the climb.

    There was just something different, something that she had seen scare away even the most experienced of climbers.

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Sil breathed out, quite obviously trying not to cringe at her loudness, and eyeing up the mess of galaxy dust covering her with distaste. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Yes? Yes, he says,¡± Pria complained as she practically ran into the building. She let out a loud moan as the cool air surrounded her, and more than a few of the students lingering around looked towards them. A few of the girls blushed. A few of the boys, who obviously didn¡¯t know which way Pria bent, gave her an assessing look. Stars protect them if they decided to hit on her.

    [Glide Along with Elijah Disconnected]

    [Access: Revoked]

    Emilia, Elijah and Sil let their slides shimmer back into the aether before they followed. Technically, you didn¡¯t have to heel-up inside most of the buildings, but the Data-Recovery Lab had its own private lines, and if you weren¡¯t connected to the building¡¯s system and hit one, well. Once, Elijah had been run into a wall. Another time he¡¯d ended up in a supply closet, locked in from the outside. It had taken his friends nearly two hours to find him. Technically, Emilia had found him almost immediately, but this had been back when they hated each other, and she had been disinclined to either let him out or tell his asshole friends where to find him

    As for Sil, he was never stupid enough to have his slides active in the building. Emilia had the sense there was a story behind that, but she¡¯d never been able to get it out of him. For someone so quiet and soft, the guy was particularly adept at keeping his secrets¡ªhers too. He didn¡¯t know many of her secrets, didn¡¯t even know any that were particularly important to keep, but he kept them all the same.

    ¡°Sil isn¡¯t outside long enough for it to matter how hot he gets,¡± Emilia said for her friend. It was true. Sil¡¯s dorm was close to a slide line. He probably only spent a few seconds outside between his dorm and the lab. That said, he was also definitely using a personal cooling skill¡ªthe one he didn¡¯t want Pria to know about because she would 100% be shameless enough to beg him to use it on her.

    Sil shot her an appreciative glance as they moved through the building, its security system scratching lightly at their Censors as they worked their way further inside, eventually reaching the elevator that would take them deep into the mountain.

    The Data-Recovery Lab¡ªwith its main research facility buried under rocks and concrete and reinforced walls¡ªwas one of the most protected places in the country. The university as a whole was, really. It had only been founded after the war had ended, a decade earlier. So many people had died, so many people had dropped out of their own elective education to fight and die. People had emerged different after the war, and many of the former students and their teachers had had no desire to return to the cold, harsh world of other Baalphorian universities.

    People wanted a new place¡ªa new home. If they had also added in state-of-the-art security and defence systems that would hopefully never be needed again throughout the place¡­ well, none of the people who lived and worked on campus were complaining.

    Astrapan: Home to All Who Need a Home

    That was how most of the residents thought of it. True to that ideal¡ªand unlike, all those old-school universities¡ªAstrapan even allowed citizens of the Free Colonies to attend¡­ in theory. In practice, Emilia only knew of a handful of students from the Free Colonies, mostly from the ones that had already had close ties to Baalphoria before the war. One day, though. One day, this place would be filled with people from all the myriads of Free Colonies. Even without them, the school had already done a good job of making sure Baalphorians from every social class were welcome, even if sub-50s were rare, although¡­

    ¡°Man, you look ever worse than Pria,¡± Emilia teased as they stepped out of the elevators to find Bethany Haelstrum¡ªone of the few sub-50s she knew, not just here, but anywhere¡ªwaiting for them.

    Beth grumbled, her short blonde hair hanging sadly around her tanned face as she leaned back against the wall, eyes firmly shut against the horrible artificial light. She didn¡¯t move as they passed her, and Emilia had to circle back to drag her along, her own lightly tanned arm slipping through Beth¡¯s golden brown, tattooed one. The taller girl slumped weakly against her, but at least her feet were moving, if moving slowly.

    ¡°Dude, I thought when you didn¡¯t join us last night, you were being sensible and staying home to study. But no! You obviously went and had fun without us! Didn¡¯t even give us a call!¡± Emilia half-teased, half-complained. Honestly, if this was the way Beth was looking after whatever night she¡¯d had, she was glad her friend hadn¡¯t invited her along. Beth was hardcore, and Emilia had been in the mood to get smashed. She was glad she hadn¡¯t been anywhere near whatever her friend had taken last night.

    Beth grumbled something that may have been, ¡°Fuck you,¡± before falling silent again and letting herself be dragged further down the long corridor.

    ¡°Well, at least Professor A is less likely to stick me on paper duty when that shows up,¡± Pria whispered¡ªor, at least, Emilia assumed it was supposed to be a whisper. Hopefully, the aftereffects from the drugs would wear off soon; otherwise she was going to be dragging her roommate to a clinic to get her hearing sorted out, and Pria was notoriously difficult to convince into going to a clinic. Most aftereffects would go away eventually. Emilia was not inclined to wait it out. The last time one of them had had a bad aftereffect, it had taken a week to dissipate. Emilia was not living with a nearly screaming roommate for the next week, thanks.

    This time, when Beth grumbled, it was definitely a, ¡°Fuck off, Pria.¡± She raised her head from Emilia¡¯s shoulder just enough to glare at the other girl before her eyes slid to Sil. ¡°How are you not dying too?¡±

    Sil blushed slightly. ¡°I didn¡¯t take what I got.¡±

    Beth raised an eyebrow, a weak smile tugging at her lips. ¡°The beautiful sub-30?¡±

    Pria whistled and Elijah coughed awkwardly, while Sil¡¯s blush burned a bit brighter. ¡°You don¡¯t know that he was a sub-30.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I do,¡± Beth said, a look of pain briefly crossing her face. She shook it off, though. It had been years since she had let family and sub-50 training¡ªsub-50 obligations¡ªdarken her day. ¡°Was he good?¡±

    Based on the way Sil¡¯s face managed to turn an even brighter shade of red before his steps widened, and he was leaving them behind, Emilia would say yes, the maybe-probably-definitely-sub-30 had been very, very good.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 4: So Totally Average

    Emilia plopped into the chair at her assigned terminal, the soft seat swinging gently with her movements. Technically, it had been decades since people needed designated terminals for accessing the Virtuosi System, but Professor A was old and slow to adapt. Didn¡¯t keep him from sticking his dick in any pretty student or TA who would let him, but other things? Total stick in the mud who refused to grow with the times, which was why¡­

    ¡°I swear, Professor!¡± Blaze Williams, one of Elijah¡¯s annoying, but overall tolerable. friends, whined. ¡°I didn¡¯t go over my weekly limit! There¡¯s obviously something wrong with the count!¡±

    Their professor did not look convinced. ¡°The system does not over-inflate numbers,¡± he said darkly, eyes narrowing as he stroked his short, greying beard. ¡°Records show you spent over two thousand hours inside the system over the weekend. I assume you did so on a hacked system and did not realize that it would still show up on the official count. Do you realize how dangerous that level of usage is?¡±

    Pria snickered beside her, obviously hoping that with their classmate being chewed out for overuse of the Virtuosi System¡ªprobably playing video games¡ªher own galaxy dust situation would go unnoticed. Perhaps, if her roommate¡¯s ¡°quiet¡± laughter weren¡¯t earsplitting, it would have.

    ¡°Pria Braybun!¡±

    Pria squeaked as she dropped her headset and scrambled to get up. ¡°Y-yes, Professor A?¡± she stammered, giving him a sweet, wobbly smile. Apparently the drugs were still messing with more than just her hearing, if she couldn¡¯t even attempt to charm their teacher better than that.

    ¡°Paper duty.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s roommate huffed and complained, but gathered up her drink¡ªstill untouched¡ªand marched off towards the room where the paper was kept.

    ¡°Good luck~¡± Emilia called after her friend, laughing when the other girl flipped her off.

    ¡°Did she really think she would be allowed to use mu equipment in that state?¡± her teacher asked, appearing by her side.

    Blaze had also been sent off to paper duty¡ªa much more deserved punishment in his case. Instances of overload from the Virtuosi System were rare these days¡ªunless they were hacked or turned off, Censors could easily detect their owners approaching overload long before it became a serious issue¡ªbut schools were still required to adhere to government mandated limits, which were set lower for students than the general population. Something about past misuse of students.

    [Top Universities Found to be Forcing Their Students to Designate All Virtuosi Hours to Research, Without Pay]

    Emilia glanced disinterestedly over the ancient article her Censor had supplied her with before swiping it away. How was lowering the total limit, not just giving a limit for school related activities, the solution they¡¯d come up with? That could still be the policy, could¡ª

    The thought hadn¡¯t even completed when her Censor supplied her with another article telling her that yes, those were still the rules all Baalphorian universities were forced to follow. The limit, of course, had risen as technological and genetic changes made prolonged use of the system safer.

    It was an open secret, however, that neither students nor the general population generally followed those limits, which were notoriously low to begin with. Hacked game systems had been common as long as the limits had existed. Even the most standard of Censors would ignore smaller blips, though¡ªthey weren¡¯t meant to be tattletales, after all¡ªbut they wouldn¡¯t risk their owner¡¯s mental stability either. Usually, people were just sensible enough to not overdo it to the point their Censors would be forced to note the discrepancy, which would subsequently lock them out of all but the most impressively hacked systems.

    ¡°Hoped, I think,¡± Emilia said, fiddling with her own headset. Her eyes slid over to Beth, who appeared to be trying to nap at her terminal. ¡°Not gonna stick her on paper duty?¡±

    The old man hummed, leaning back against Emilia¡¯s desk and crossing his legs. He might have been on the older side, probably edging close to 200, if not already a few years over it, but he had aged well. He was still fit, his muscles noticeable even through the dark suits he generally wore, he had very few wrinkles and the salt-and-pepper look suited him¡ªand when he smiled? Well, it was no wonder he had a constant line of students hoping to fill his bed.

    ¡°No,¡± he finally said, turning and giving Emilia that too beautiful smile.

    Sometimes, she regretted that she hadn¡¯t fucked him at least once before hooking up with Elijah¡ªtheir relationship might officially be open, but she didn¡¯t think he would appreciate her fucking their teacher. He was just so unfairly handsome, though, was the thing. And she¡¯d heard enough stories to know he was absolutely mind-blowing in bed. Service-top, she¡¯d once heard someone call him.

    ¡°I believe her general state of existence is punishment enough.¡± He gave Emilia a look, and she knew there was something else he wanted to say¡ªsome reason he had made himself comfortable on her terminal¡ªbut before he could do more than open his mouth a crash came from the direction of the paper room, followed by a long stream of profanities.

    Professor A sighed and pushed off the desk, already calling out, asking what had happened and how big the mess was, and leaving Emilia to slip her headset on.

    The cool metal of the headset slid smoothly against her cheeks and forehead. The cold neck rest pressed against the base of her skull¡ªjust in case her Censor overheated¡ªand her Censor whirled to life.

    [Connecting¡­]

    [¡­]

    [Connection to Astrapan Data-Lab: Established]

    [Configuring: Preferred Setup]

    She leaned back, her Censor arranging her chair just the way she liked it, so a couple hours sitting there wouldn¡¯t cause back problems. Some people preferred lying down, but this class was just so obscenely early. She¡¯d already spent all night laying down! She didn¡¯t need to spend any more time on her back!

    Well, okay, maybe she hadn¡¯t spent all night laying down, but the hours between Elijah dumping her at home and her alarm screaming at her to get the fuck up had still been substantial.

    [Sleep: 5 Hours], her Censor offered before the world blurred and blended, her Censor linking together with the Virtuosi System and allowing it access to her brain and core. Her senses burned and bled and melted, and then she was sitting at a desk within the system, an ancient looking computer system waiting in front of her.

    No one really knew who had designed the Virtuosi System, although, there were some people who suspected both the Virtuosi and OIC Systems knew more than they let on about the history of themselves and the planet. Officially, information about their creators had been lost several thousand years ago, during the Colonial Wars. The prearranged environments within the Virtuosi System told of someone old, though. Someone who at least knew more about the planet¡¯s ancient past than they did today, even their oldest relics, computers dating back almost five thousand years, looked more high-tech than the bulky thing sitting in front of her.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Unfortunately, if information about the creators or the ancient technology they based their environments on had every existed, it didn¡¯t anymore¡ªnot in Baalphoria, anyways. A lot of information had been lost to their country during the Colonial Wars. Traitors had wiped out entire databases and hightailed it out of the country, heading to the west and the south to join existing Free Colonies or start their own. Some of that information had been recoverable, through personal records, offaether and untouched by the hackers who had burned the aether of more information than anyone would ever know. Other information had been recovered from memories via Censors, but memories were fragile¡ªuntrustworthy¡ªand the information that had come out of them was treated cautiously.

    Stars, there were memory records that said the creator of the Virtuosi System lived inside the OIC and had been born long before people walked on Baalphorian soil. People might live to be 300, occasionally even 400, years old these days, but even after all they had lost, the oldest records of Baalphoria still went back over five millennia. Even if it were some poetic way to say, ¡°Before Baalphoria was called Baalphoria,¡± the consensus was that simply wasn¡¯t possible.

    More of the records had been recovered since the Colonial Wars, in information exchanges with the Free Colonies, especially in the last decade, since the war had ended. Many of the Free Colonies were still apprehensive of cooperating with Baalphoria¡ªone war of cooperation couldn¡¯t erase thousands of years of animosity, after all¡ªbut even the ones that were willing to cooperate and share information more freely than before the war¡­

    Not only was the stuff they sent of questionable quality¡ªnot particularly surprising given how dated the technology many of the Free Colonies used was¡ªbut the entire world had been flamed during the war. More data¡ªthousands of years of new and recovered data¡ªgone, just like that, and not just from Baalphoria, but from the Free Colonies as well. Burned to ashes by a large-scale electrical surge. Ashes that blew like wind through the aether. Even the OIC had been unable to keep the pieces safe, the system itself saved by the fact that it and Baalphoria¡¯s most valuable data had been moved to a secure location near the start of the war. It had still tried, though, gathering up whatever it could find and storing it away, hoping¡ªas much as an ancient and powerful neural-network could¡ªthat one day it could be pieced back together. That some sense could be made of the mess.

    That¡¯s what this place was for. The Data-Recovery Lab, the place where information was sorted through. Scraps of data puzzled back together by students and teachers, hoping that some of the history and knowledge that had been lost during the war, during the Colonial War thousands of years before that, could be found anew.

    At least, that¡¯s what it was in theory. Realistically, most of the students fell into three camps: those who actually cared about recovering data, those who had no idea what they wanted to do in life yet and were just wasting time, and those who were poor. The program¡¯s paydrop was particularly good, compared to other programs¡ªboth those at Astrapan and other universities¡ªand while the work could be slow and tedious, it was also significantly easier than other programs that had similar paydrops.

    Plus, the program accepted almost anyone. There was so much data, and no one was so inept they couldn¡¯t contribute at least a bit to the project. Some parts of data-recovery required time and thought: analyzing what was known about people at the time information was created to think through thought processes and figure out what the fuck the creators had been thinking. Other parts were just poking around, sorting what you could into different piles for different experts to look at. Anyone could do that.

    Originally, Emilia had been part of the latter group. Poke and prod at enough stuff, and eventually, you¡¯d find some hints about what it was, where it belonged. Then off it went! Off to be someone else''s problem! The program had been good and mindless, and paid enough that she didn¡¯t feel totally deprived of the joys of modern living¡ªmost of the time, anyways.

    Unfortunately, her teacher was just too fucking observant. Professor A might not have ever outright asked why she was hiding how smart she actually was¡ªthat she was perfectly capable of being one of those so-called experts, piecing the puzzle together with the obsession and focus such things often called for¡ªbut he had figured it out.

    Now, the work she got was a mix of things. Stuff to sort. Stuff to solve. They¡¯d never really discussed it. Her teacher was old and observant and seemed to know she didn¡¯t want to talk about it. He was also nice, so she kinda assumed the sorting stuff he sent her was just so she¡¯d have something to talk to her classmates about. Some way to continue pretending she was just a regular, average-dev person.

    In plenty of ways, she was average. She wasn¡¯t the person she had once been¡ªshe¡¯d made sure of that. She wasn¡¯t so far removed from that person, however, that she couldn¡¯t at least try to do the puzzling together¡ªwasn¡¯t so far removed that some part of her didn¡¯t want to do it, either.

    The ancient computer in front of her buzzed to life, the simulated environment of the Virtuosi System way too immersive. It was meant to be immersive, but the extra noises and steps of this particular environment had always annoyed her, especially since they were pointless decoration.

    ¡°Nostalgia, for times long gone,¡± someone had once told her, decades ago now.

    ¡°Nonsense,¡± she¡¯d laughed back, sticking her tongue out at them before she hacked the system they¡¯d been using and changed it into a sleek, modern one. No sounds, no artificial lag. Perfect.

    Luckily, she¡¯d been able to hack part of this system, too. The system wouldn¡¯t let her completely rewrite the environment, but it at least let her switch the interface fully over to her Censor, a distorted, pink and purple image flashing across the computer¡¯s fat, low-resolution monitor. Regardless of stories about long dead, near mythic creators of the Virtuosi System, whoever had designed this environment had been a cruel bastard.

    Over her vision, various information flashed.

    ? ? ?

    [World Level]

    [Temperature: 41¡ã]

    [Announcement: Please avoid the ocean and mountains until the pink tide has cleared]

    [Time Skew: 1s/0.2s]

    ? ? ?

    [Lab 806]

    [Assignments for the Day: {BeforeAR.sc}, {BeforeAR.scs}]

    [BeforeAR.sc Count: 217]

    [BeforeAR.scs Count: 57]

    [A¡¯s Announcements: Good luck!]

    [Time Remaining: 9 hours 58 minutes]

    ? ? ?

    Aside from the pink tide, a pretty standard class. Professor A had had them working on some information that appeared to be from the days before the most deadly attack during the war for a while now. She was slowly working through her assigned work¡ªwhich was helpfully sorted into two piles, one for each of her jobs.

    Plus, the countdown. Two real-world hours. Nearly ten simulation hours. The system could run harder, longer, but the department frowned on that. Longer work hours meant a reduction in the quality of work. More than a few of her classmates logged off after just an hour, or took long breaks in the middle, using the system to play and rest¡ªeven if naps within the system weren¡¯t quite as relaxing as ones outside it were. The department didn¡¯t care. They wanted good quality work, and as long as the system reported that you seemed to have worked hard, they didn¡¯t say anything about not working long enough.

    The irony, that traditional Baalphorian universities had been so happy to abuse their student¡¯s that the government had been forced to step in¡ªto legally require those universities let their students rest.

    Emilia never rested, though. Never logged out early¡ªif anything, the system had to knock on her brain a few times to get her to clue in that it was time to leave. Obsessive and focused. She¡¯d knotted those traits up a bit, too, just as she had her Physical D-Levels, but she wouldn¡¯t¡ªcouldn¡¯t¡ªknot them up entirely.

    Not without destroying herself. Not without completely erasing the person she was.

    ¡°I love your obsession. It¡¯s so fucking sexy¡ªintoxicating, even,¡± a voice called through her memory, blurry and a decade removed from reality, and she shoved it away. This was no time for ghosts.

    [Loading: {BeforeAR.scs}]

    [¡­]

    She was obsessive, even through all her knotwork. This place¡ªthis program and the work that came along with it¡ªwas a nice, productive outlet for that obsession that she had once revelled in, even if she¡¯d spent her first few years of study doing grunt work. Now, she relaxed into the seat, plushy under her. Mellow music began to float around her, the environment shifting into a warm summer day. Waves from the ocean lapped at the sand in the distance, just far enough across the pale green grass that the smell of if was only a faint taste across her senses.

    A little piece of the home she hadn¡¯t been back to in nearly a decade. That¡¯s what this place gave her, and she loved it all the more for it.

    The greatest thing about this place¡ªabout Astrapan University and its Virtuosi System¡ªthough? No raids. Raids were forbidden within most of campus, except inside dedicated gaming systems and during special events. Even then, the raids were limited to the real world. Annoying, but since such events were advertised long before they occurred¡­ well, she¡¯d hightailed it off campus or hidden herself away in the Data-Recovery Lab¡¯s system more than a few times, during campus raid events.

    Escape, at its finest. At least, it was until the ghosts came calling.

    [¡­]

    [Loaded: {BeforeAR.scs}]

    [File Select: Random]

    [Loading: {52.sn}]

    [Loaded: {52.sn}]

    [Re¡ª Kou: ¡ª.///t awa- -ro- bas¡ª. A¡ªc. im¡¯\\+t]

    Emilia¡¯s mouth twitched. Unfortunately, today was apparently a day for ghosts.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 5: Beyond Begging There is Kidnapping

    ¡°Fucking paper duty!¡±

    Emilia cringed at the loudness of her roommate¡¯s voice. Pria was always a bit on the louder, though, and she really couldn¡¯t tell if the other girl¡¯s hearing was still off or if she was just that upset. Either way, she needed to chill. Paper duty might be a pain, but it wasn¡¯t worth this level of yelling.

    ¡°Maybe you should have gotten up earlier,¡± Elijah deadpanned as they left the Data-Recovery Lab a few hours later.

    It was, unsurprisingly, even hotter than when they entered. The sun was now high above them, beating down on the paths and green spaces that filled the university. Around them, sprinklers were going wild, trying to keep the plants from dying in the sweltering heat, and more than a few of the students¡ªand the occasional teacher¡ªwere playing in them.

    [Join the Music Party Feed?], her Censor asked because someone had set up a music party as well. She swept the notification away, shaking her head at the people dancing to the music echoing through their heads. She wasn¡¯t staying out in this heat, thanks.

    High above them, if you knew to look, a thin haze of pink layered the sky. The university¡¯s decontamination systems would keep the vapour of the pink tides from getting into the university itself, but Emilia figured that at least a few reckless students had gone outside the system¡¯s protection in an attempt to drink in the hallucinogenic vapour. Hopefully, someone had had enough sense to send a SecOps patrol to the steeper parts of the mountain and down to the ocean, in case anyone tried to climb or swim while high¡ªor was just so out of their mind that they wandered somewhere they shouldn¡¯t. The problem with getting high on the pink tides was the drug was the air itself, inescapable unless you had the sense to get back into an uncontaminated area. Pink tide highs were spectacular, but potentially lethal.

    [Current Pink Tide Death Count: 0]

    Emilia shattered the notification, wondering why in the aethernet her Censor thought she needed a death count. She really needed to take a closer look at it soon, see what was happening inside its little AI brain.

    ¡°How was I supposed to get up earlier when my hearing is fucked? I know you know I hate Censor alarms,¡± Pria growled at him, hands planted on her hips as she glared. Then, her eyes widened, and she made to duck behind him, as though his tall, thin¡ªif moderately muscular¡ªframe could hide her own short, plump one. ¡°Oh shit, hide me!¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shifted in the direction her roommate had been looking, as did the rest of their friends¡¯. ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Beth asked, her arm linked together with Emilia¡¯s once more. She¡¯d woken up a bit, in the hours they¡¯d been inside the lab. It seemed as though their teacher had gotten her something to drink and eat. It had also taken him a while to log into the system himself, and Emilia was trying not to wonder if that meant anything had happened between them. Beth had been too hungover to do anything sexy with the man¡­ probably. Didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t plans for later, and she wouldn¡¯t put it past either of them to get it on right there in the middle of the lab¡ªin the middle of all the students deep in the Virtuosi System. Gross and kinda hot.

    ¡°That¡¯s the girl,¡± she whisper-spoke at her friends, laughing when Pria continued trying to hide behind her boyfriend. He moved, Pria moved with him, like his own personal, slightly off-sync shadow. ¡°The girl Pria brought home with her last night. What was her name?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Pria moaned as she and Elijah continued their shadow dance. Elijah didn¡¯t seem annoyed that he was being shadowed, more amused at Pria¡¯s actions, and was trying half-heartedly to lose her¡­ or make her trip. It was hard to tell.

    ¡°You forgot? And even your Censor doesn¡¯t know?¡± Sil asked, his expression tight. He glared at the girl for a moment before continuing on towards the slides. ¡°I need lunch. Anyone want to join?¡±

    ¡°Me!¡± Emilia and Beth cried in unison, skipping to catch up and attach themselves onto him.

    ¡°Not if you¡¯re gonna keep giving me those judgy ass looks,¡± Pria hissed at Sil, grabbing hold of Elijah before he could follow after them and leave her without a shield.

    ¡°I will,¡± Sil replied easily, his mouth twitching when Pria squawked. ¡°Plus, you don¡¯t have your willbrand.¡± Technically, Pria didn¡¯t need her willbrand, but if they got caught in a raid she¡¯d have to rely on skills alone, which was never ideal.

    Pria cursed loudly, her hands patting down her nonexistent pockets as though it would suddenly appear, and attracting more attention from the students around them as her antics grew more and more dramatic.

    Emilia didn''t generally think Sil and her roommate outright hated each other, but their personalities clashed too much for them to like each other either. Sil was too serious and reserved, Pria too loud and uncontrolled. They didn¡¯t mix. They didn¡¯t try to, but Emilia and Beth had been friends since shortly before they entered university¡ªif only very, very shortly before. Pria liked them both. Sil liked them both, too. So they tolerated each other, when they had to, anyways.

    Elijah barely tolerated her friends, and she still thought he was losing patience with her, even if he had denied it the night before¡ªunfortunately, she still remembered bits of that accidental conversation. Until he brought it up or broke up with her, she was fine living like this. She was fine, knowing eventually he¡¯d be done with her. She liked Elijah. She had fun with him¡ªhad great sex with him, too. She also knew it wouldn¡¯t last¡ªit wasn¡¯t meant to.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Good luck, babe!¡± she cheered over her shoulder as Sil led them towards the slide line entrance. ¡°Pria!¡± she added, frowning severely at her roommate. ¡°If your hearing is still fucked when I get back, I¡¯m taking you to the clinic myself!¡±

    Elijah tried to say something¡ªprobably a complaint about being left behind¡ªbut Pria yelled something over him, and from the corner of her eye, Emilia could see that her antics had attracted the attention of the girl. She smiled slightly as the girl began heading towards her roommate. Pria deserved for her nameless one-night stands to come for her, sometimes.

    ¡°So, where are we going?¡± she asked as the Sil¡¯s Censor lightly tapped at her own, asking for permission to take her on a glide.

    ¡°How about that place by the water?¡± Beth suggested, her own cheap shoes lighting up as Sil took hold of her Censor as well. ¡°Not the nice one¡ªI bet they¡¯re full up with subs enjoying the view. The little, shitty one in the slums.¡±

    ¡°Ooh, yes. We haven¡¯t been there in a while,¡± she agreed as Sil slid them along.

    Then, his slides caught on the lines, and they were moving, zooming through the university and out. Fast and untethered by anything but Sil¡¯s arm through hers, his Censor guiding the way down, down, down the mountain and through the city. They raced on, the world a blur that Emilia couldn¡¯t make out the details of¡ªdidn¡¯t need to. Sil was in charge, keeping them safe, finding the proper exit for them.

    A moment later, they slid out of the line, perfect and precise. Even with all the training in the world, most people exited lines a bit awkwardly. Most people, except those with perfect Physical D-Levels, like Elijah, or sub-30 D-Levels.

    Sil had never actually discussed his own D-Levels, so Emilia wasn¡¯t sure which category he fell into. She was pretty sure Beth knew, simply because she could usually tell what someone¡¯s D-Level was after watching them for a few minutes, but she¡¯d never tell. She¡¯d probably never brought it up to Sil himself, either. It wasn¡¯t any of their business, but Emilia was also pretty sure he was a sub-30¡ªa new gen one, too. If you knew what habits to look for, you could almost always figure out what kind of family a person had been raised in. Sil¡¯s habits screamed more of a breakpoint ex-100 family, just as Beth¡¯s said sub-50, even if she tried to shove those habits and her horrible upbringing aside with everything she did, every tattoo she covered herself with.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you bring us out here?¡± Emilia asked, looking around the area and not finding the broken exit of the slums she had expected.

    She didn¡¯t even recognize this particular stop off the top of her head. It was far fancier than the areas they usually frequented, with its perfectly manicured greenery and spotless buildings. Everyone she could see¡ªwhich was only a dozen or so¡ªwere dressed in outfits she couldn¡¯t dream of affording¡ªnot in this life, anyways¡ªand if Sil hadn¡¯t already been dragging them away from the lines, she would have thought they¡¯d exited at the wrong place.

    ¡°There¡¯s a raid starting soon,¡± Sill said, shrugging as he dragged them in the opposite direction most of the people she could see were heading, before her mind could put together that that was why so many of the people were heading towards the exit.

    Parents led their children towards the lines and bubbles. It seemed like almost everyone who didn¡¯t want to participant had already evacuated in the brief gap between the raid announcement and its start, and SecOps were helping to escort the parents, as well as those who would be unable to fight in a raid¡ªelders and people who were sick or too high¡ªout of the area. Many of the SecOp operatives were also mildly scolding them for waiting so long to leave, as the raid would be starting soon. It wouldn¡¯t be the end of the world if they became trapped in a raid. They wouldn¡¯t get hurt¡ªthe system would both designate them non-combatants and enact protective barriers around them¡ªbut they¡¯d be stuck inside until it ended.

    ¡°WHAT!?¡± Emilia yelled, wondering if she should forcibly revoke Sil¡¯s access to her Censor so she could get away. Would she even get far enough to escape the raid¡¯s range, since she couldn¡¯t use the slide lines solo? Without a valid reason, SecOps wouldn¡¯t help her get away either.

    ¡°Why would you bring us here!? What happened to lunch?¡± she asked incredulously.

    ¡°You said you needed extra money.¡±

    ¡°When!?¡±

    ¡°Last night.¡±

    [Received: {text.log} from Sil]

    [Opening: {text.log}]

    [Em: i fucked up]

    [Em: need money asap]

    Emilia gaped at the messages from last night. She most definitely didn¡¯t remember sending those! And her Censor didn¡¯t have a record of her sending them either!

    [Memo to Self: Emilia has asked to not be reminded that she ¡°desperately begged Sil for money¡±], her Censor explained, revealing the messages between her and Sil from the night before. Well, it had actually just been her messaging her friend, presumably because he had been busy with the sub-30. She also didn¡¯t think this counted as begging!?

    There were, however, several more messages in her newly uncovered logs than hadn¡¯t been in the ones Sil had sent her:

    [Em: fuck]

    [Em: forget i asked]

    [Em: i''m drunk and stupid]

    [Em: i don¡¯t need you cleaning up my drunk mess]

    As though he knew exactly what was going on between her and her Censor, Sil added, ¡°I do not think brining you to a raid counts as ¡®cleaning up your drunk mess.¡¯¡±

    Beth shot him a look at said, ¡°Yes, it does,¡± because they all knew that Sil carried them. Any big paydrops they received from raids were primarily because Sil¡¯s stats were so high. They also contributed to his paydrops, when they raided with him, providing support he wouldn¡¯t get from anyone else. It was why he was the one who usually bought their drugs and food.

    [Notification: Raid Starting in]

    [¡ª 5 ¡ª]

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Emilia swore, letting Sil drag her towards where he wanted them.

    [¡ª 4 ¡ª]

    [Glide Along with Sil Disconnected]

    [Access: Change Requested]

    [¡ª 3 ¡ª]

    [Access: Raid Companion Requested]

    [Access: Accepted]

    [¡ª 2 ¡ª]

    [Connecting to Raid System]

    [You have connected to {Sil¡¯s Silly Friends}]

    Sil huffed, glaring at Beth, who had named the group years ago and refused to change it. Emilia was pretty sure Sil accepted the name now, but the tradition was to huff and glare at Beth as though this time, if he glared hard enough, maybe she would change it.

    She wouldn¡¯t.

    [¡ª 1 ¡ª]

    Emilia¡¯s willbrand sparked slightly as the black raid barriers crashed down over them and aethernet activated.

    [¡ª 0 ¡ª]

    [Welcome to the Raid]

    [Enjoy Yourselves!]

    Yeah, right.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 6: Bait and Wait

    Emilia¡¯s willbrand screamed to life, filling her core with a spark of otherness as darkness surrounded them, all encompassing. It was barely a moment, but the pure darkness, the complete loss of all her senses and brief disconnection from her Censor¡ªher most constant companion since it had been installed when she was 15¡ªalways made her heart skip a beat. Then, the world returned, reformed.

    The basic shape and structure of raidlands were the same as they were in the real world. In the case of this place¡ªa shopping district known as Shivar, according to her Censor¡ªthe buildings looked nearly identical to how they had when they first arrived¡ªand the shape of them was most certainly the same. It was way too much work to return buildings and the things within them to their normal state once raids ended, so very few public raids altered more than the exterior appearance of buildings within them. While some raids¡ªmostly expensive, private ones¡ªtook place indoors, most government sponsored raids¡ªincluding this one¡ªwere held entirely outdoors.

    The plant life, however, was nearly always rendered into forms that were nothing like their natural form. Trees became foreign and wrong. The colours. The shapes. Everything natural shaped into something otherworldly and disturbing. This raid was perhaps even worse, given the way sunlight fell through the pink vapour, held back high above them by the city¡¯s decontamination system, in an entirely wrong shade.

    It was all wrong. It was also terrifying¡ªnot just the changes to the physical world, but how much the raid system could manipulate the aethernet after a decade of practice.

    Vines wrapped themselves around virtually everything in sight, turning the apparently quite popular area¡ªalthough she had never even heard of this place before; it was way outside of her paydrop range¡ªinto something out of an apocalypse film. ¡°No one has lived here in generations,¡± the place seemed to whisper now.

    Huge trees surrounded the borders of the raidland¡ªdense and inescapable for all but the most skilled hackers. This raidland was apparently a square kilometre, which wasn¡¯t too bad. Emilia had seen public raidlands reach over 10 square kilometres in size, and had heard of huge corporate sponsored raids spreading 100s. Those raids were often multi-day events, with lodgings¡ªvarying from fancy hotels to better have some skill making yourself a shelter in the woods¡ªand a story woven through it. There were also the raid servers spanning entire galaxies, virtual realities that ran complex environments, time skewed to excessive lengths. See one Blaze Williams and his 2000-hour weekend video game session, probably.

    Almost everyone under 150 played those, at least casually, these days. Emilia didn¡¯t much see the appeal. No matter how lighthearted the stories were, not only were there serious ethical issues¡ªgiven most were populated by complex, living, feeling AIs¡ªbut they were all essentially the same thing: war simulators. The war might have ended, but the threat wasn¡¯t gone. Echo events might have grown so rare most people would never run into one, but they still happened. The government wanted people to stay sharp¡ªto stay prepared and connected to the aethernet. Raids were effectively a way for the government to train and monitor Baalphorians, just in case another war broke out.

    Logically, she could see the need for raids and raid servers. People growing compliant and losing the ability to manipulate aether was a serious concern, but so was everyone¡¯s mental health. Veteran groups had been protesting the inescapable raids since their inception. Even if the monsters within raids were nothing like the things they had fought during the war, having to use your willbrand again¡ªhaving to kill again, even if they were simply creations of the raid system¡ªwithout any say in the matter was a constant torment¡ªa constant stirring up of trauma.

    [Warning: Raid Release in 30 seconds]

    Emilia looked around. There weren¡¯t many people in this particular area of the raid. Other than herself, Sil and Beth, she could only see a half-dozen other heroes on her map within yelling distance. Over time, more heroes could officially connect to each other, creating a communication network, but this small of a raid rarely resulted in a fully connected network. Unless it turned out to be a mech raid or some big bad boss appeared and there were a few heroes with levels sub-30, something this small usually only lasted 10¨C15 minutes.

    [Sil has added Lili to {Sil¡¯s Silly Friends}]

    Another name, and then another, popped up on Emilia¡¯s Censor.

    ? ? ?

    [Sil¡¯s Silly Friends]

    [Beth: lvl 60, HP 100%, stats+]

    [Sil: lvl 12, HP 100%, stats+]

    [Em: lvl 109, HP 100%, stats+++]

    [Lili: lvl 76, HP 92%, stats]

    [Haru: lvl 17, HP 100%, stats++]

    ? ? ?

    [Shivar Raid]

    [Raidland: {Tech is Dead}]

    [Species: {Unknown} + {Unknown}]

    [Time: 00:10]

    [Heroes: 357/357]

    [Invaders: ???/???]

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Hey, gorgeous, what¡¯s up?¡±

    Emilia turned, finding Haru walking casually towards her. He had aethered himself out, as usual, his normal clothing falling away into some limited edition outfit created via a willbrand he¡¯d received for scoring in the Top 100 Heroes a few years back. She was pretty sure he had ranked in the Top 100 the last five, but her kinda-sorta friend seemed to favour this particular outfit. It was almost pure black, the fabric loose around his tall, slim form, the sleeves hanging in long bells that looked both very impressive and very cumbersome when he fought. Not that they¡ªor the baggy pants¡ªseemed to inhibit him. He had once told her it had been designed by someone from The Core, one of the most secretive Free Colonies. Even those who left it never shared its secrets. This outfit, apparently inspired by a fashion common within The Core, was probably the most anyone had shared about its culture.

    Even the few Corrists who had helped during the war hadn¡¯t revealed their faces.

    Emilia fiddled with her own willbrand. It sparked lightly in anticipation, purple and gold aether wrapping around her fingers as if urging her to use it. Unlike most hero¡¯s, hers hadn¡¯t come from the government, but it was also the only one she carried, unlike Sil or Haru, who each carried a half-dozen¡ªrewards for being ranked top heroes. Even Beth carried two or three most of the time. Pria rarely remembered to put hers on.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°What¡¯s up,¡± she sighed, leaning back against the wall of the building Sil and Beth had abandoned her at, ¡°is I was tricked! Tricked and kidnapped!¡±

    ¡°Ah~¡± he laughed, taking a step, one moment meters away and the next leaning over her. He was so tall, the long back hair of his aetherform¡ªone she didn¡¯t think was fully the result of willbrands¡ªfalling in sheets around them. ¡°I was wondering how you¡¯d ended up here. Sil being a naughty little boy, eh?¡±

    As far as Emilia knew, Haru was the closest any of Sil¡¯s hookups had ever gotten to becoming friends with him. Haru wasn¡¯t exactly their friend, but when they ran into him in raids¡ªbecause, unfortunately, her so-called friends tricked her into participating much too often!¡ªthey were friendly enough. She had seen Sil abandon other hookups on the field without a shred of guilt, so Haru should definitely consider himself blessed.

    [Sil has connected {We the Day!} to your network]

    [Communication Network Expanded!]

    [Communication Network: 23/357]

    ¡°Yes,¡± she sighed, letting her eyes flutter closed for a moment.

    [Warning: Raid Release Imminent]

    [Prepare Yourselves!]

    [Sil has connected {Couple of Birds} to your network]

    [Communication Network Expanded!]

    [Communication Network: 31/357]

    [Sil: Bait at {Location}]

    [Samir: same as usual?]

    [Haru: who else acts as such willing bait?]

    [Communication Network: Muted]

    When she opened her eyes again, Haru was gone and the world had filled with giant bugs. Awesome. They were gross¡ªhideous even¡ªand looked nothing like the things they had fought during the war and all the echoes since. They also looked hilarious, their brightly coloured bodies contrasting too much against a world that had been taken over by dark, imposing plants. Across her Censor, [Species: {Unknown} + {Unknown}] updated to read [Species: {Crawlers} + {Unknown}].

    They looked at her, standing all alone. They were programmed to hunt heroes down. They couldn¡¯t kill you, but they could do enough damage that you¡¯d be sore for a few days. She smiled, waved cheerfully, her fingers wiggling in what invaders often took as an inviting taunt.

    One of the long bugs roared. It was huge, at least 20 feet long, with a million legs sticking out of its grey-blue body. Not just from the bottom like most normal bugs, but from all sides. Rolling it onto its back to stop it certainly wasn¡¯t an option, it seemed. Its back half swished, sending a huge gust of wind smashing against the building.

    Emilia smiled wider at it, her willbrand glowing a faint purple as its barrier expanded to protect her from the attack, neither her hair nor clothes rustling under the assault. ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to do better than that, if you¡¯re hoping to get me~¡± she teased. Depending on the raid, the invaders could be programmed to be more or less intelligent. Given the way her teasing seemed to piss this one¡ªand the collection of bugs around it¡ªoff, she guessed these ones were on the more intelligent side.

    It huffed, a noxious looking gas beginning to waft off it. Lovely. Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t one of those newer designs, where the scent would stick to you even outside of the raid. Some kind of public humiliation. ¡°Hey, look~ they got hit in a raid!¡± because yes, of course getting hit by an attack that during a real echo event would have killed you was hilarious.

    [Species: {Centaphoria}]

    [Spec¡ª]

    Her Censor tried to give her a full write-up on the invader, but she brushed it aside. She didn¡¯t need to know anything about it. She knew the big players memorized that stuff, glanced over the notifications whenever they raided, just to make sure nothing was odd about a particular incarnation.

    Waste of brain space, in her humble opinion.

    The bug roared, its mouth opening to reveal row upon row of tiny, jagged teeth. Its beady, teal eyes locked onto her, and then it was charging, every one of its legs moving as it ran. It rolled from side to side, momentum never slowing. It crashed through a tree, the black wood splintering and cracking so loudly Emilia cringed. At least it had briefly covered the sound of all those legs moving, so many of them that she could hear them.

    Disgusting.

    The bug continued charging and Emilia continued smiling it down, her arms and legs lazily crossed as it got closer, closer¡ªso close she could smell its gas. Sickly sweet, like rot. A smell that would linger inside her if she breathed too much of it in.

    A ray of blue light split through the aether and the invader. It exploded, blood and guts splattering across the dark grey grass. Emilia¡¯s willbrand shuddered harshly against her chest as it exploded outward, disintegrating anything that got too close to her.

    [Beth has killed {Centaphoria}]

    In the corner of her vision, Emilia vaguely noted both her overall and raid contribution experience rising. She didn¡¯t really care. Levelling down was useless for her. She didn¡¯t participate in nearly enough raids to make caring about it worth her while, and she didn¡¯t need to. She had a reputation. Within Piketown, at least, most people knew the silverstrain with the purple barrier willbrand was bait. Vague enough to go unnoticed outside of raids, specific enough that when she ran into people inside a raid, they had usually heard of her. She might not have a low level¡ªin fact, it was rare for people to have a level over 100 this far into a season¡ªbut her willbrand was power. Her willbrand¡¯s barrier was impenetrable to all but the most powerful bosses, which only appeared in special events.

    The irony that her willbrand¡¯s preferred form wasn¡¯t defensive.

    Another bug charged, another shot fired. Light and sound from Beth¡¯s willbrand splintered through the air, a siren call to all invaders in the area. Beth¡¯s stats weren¡¯t too bad¡ªlevel 60 was respectable, especially for someone who didn¡¯t play often. She certainly didn¡¯t avoid them like Emilia herself did, but Beth had been given an opportunity she had never expected, being able to attend Astrapan, and she took it seriously... usually.

    Compared to most people, who had at least some experience playing video games and using willbrands and the aethernet in their youth, Beth had never really had an opportunity to play before the government mandated raids had started, just after the war had ended a decade ago. Even a decade of this wasn¡¯t enough experience for her to match the skill of people who had fought in the war or been playing their entire life¡ªagainst people who tracked raids and actively trained, like Haru and Sil.

    Which was why they often let Beth take out the first wave of invaders, before the masses arrived and the front-line heroes came out of their hiding spots.

    Another shot. Another. Another.

    Beth waited until each invader locked onto Emilia, giving her an extra boost of level and contribution exp because the system considered her actively involved in combat, even if the creature never touched her. With each death, the paydrop she¡¯d get from this raid rose, and eventually, she felt the familiar tug of her level lowering¡ªof her access to the simultaneously augmented and limited aethernet of raids becoming a little smoother.

    A smile tugged at her lips as Beth took another shot, this one farther into the distance. Apparently, these invaders were quite intelligent, if something that far away had already been targeting her. Around her, the world filled with invaders and their noise. So, so many legs. Everything seemed to have too many legs. Some of their legs moved together, like the {Centaphoria}¡¯s had. The legs of others seemed to hang uselessly from their bodies, some even looking atrophied, as though the legs were a genetic abnormality.

    Somehow, the limp legs were worse than the legs running stupidly through the air.

    There were so many bugs¡ªso many eyes on her. Hundreds of pairs watching her because Beth was good at her job. Beth was good at attracting trouble, both inside raids and out in the real world.

    Emilia glanced at her updated raid information.

    ? ? ?

    [Shivar Raid]

    [Raidlands: {Tech is Dead}]

    [Species: {Crawlers} + {Unknown}]

    [Time: 03:27]

    [Heroes: 327/357]

    [Invaders: 967/1092]

    ? ? ?

    So, just over a hundred destroyed in 3 minutes, and somehow, 30 heroes down. That was¡­ odd. Maybe some of them had been grossed out by the bug aspect of them and panicked? She knew a few people who were deathly afraid of bugs. Like, I have one of the most powerful willbrands in existence but run screaming from tiny, friendly bugs level of fear.

    Hopefully, that was all it was.

    [Communication Network: 56/357], her Censor informed her before she had even thought to check. Still small¡ªsmall enough that something worse than the bugs could have popped up on the other side of the area, and they would have no idea.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 7: Itâ€™s Fine to Take Out a Few Heroes Every So Often

    Haru¡¯s sword swung through the air, decapitating one of the invaders that Emilia would passionately argue did not fit the description of {Crawlers}. Still, her Censor continued to read [Invaders: {Crawlers} + {Unknown}].

    A slash of red spit off Haru¡¯s sword as he spun in a haze of black aether, knocking back a dozen invaders before the slash exploded into darts that shattered through their skulls. Lovely, and nostalgic. It wasn¡¯t the first time Emilia had thought that Haru¡¯s favoured willbrand form reminded her of another she had seen, during her childhood. It had been decades, though, so she could just be imagining things¡ªfilling in forgotten details with the ones she saw semi-regularly through Haru. Then again, maybe she wasn¡¯t.

    [Lili has connected {Loser Squad} to your Network!]

    [Communication Network Expanded!]

    [Communication Network: 83/357]

    Lili, who Emilia had yet to actually see, had gone off to try and connect their network to someone who knew why so many heroes were being taken out¡ªi.e. left to move themselves out of active fight zones and forced to wait until the raid was over to be able to communicate with anyone again. Almost half of the heroes had been taken out in the first ten minutes, while more than two-thirds of the invaders still remained.

    Emilia sighed as she wandered through the carnage, her willbrand protecting her from anything that got too close. She had just wanted lunch! Now she was stuck in this raid where nebulae knew what was happening! She was hungry and just wanted out~

    An invader lunged towards her, pressing tight against the barrier of her willbrand and refusing to be pushed completely away. She frowned at it. Rude. She wasn¡¯t doing anything to it¡ªnot that they had done anything to the things they had fought during the war, as far as anyone could tell. And yes, it was programmed to attack her. And yes, she had spent ten minutes teasing the invaders and riling them up, but still! Rude.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you just go bother someone else?¡± she asked, smiling brightly and fluttering her eyes at it. You never know, it could worked.

    It hissed, apparently upset by her existence. Its feet dug into the ground as it pushed against her shield, the formerly limp legs hanging down like too long bangs over its face twitched, as though they too wanted to push but were too weak from disuse.

    ¡°Artificial disuse,¡± she reminded herself. These things didn¡¯t exist before a raid. They were simply constructs of the raid system, pulling at the aether to create monsters. They weren¡¯t as nearly strong as the real monsters were, but it disturbed her, how the system¡ªhow the government and corporations¡ªcould create such things with relative ease. Of course, that also meant heroes within the system often didn¡¯t realize the difference in strength between the invaders of a raid and an echo¡ªdidn¡¯t realize they might be able to beat invaders with the snap of a finger but would lose their lives against even the weakest of echoes.

    She glanced around as the creature¡ªa {Lithro} apparently¡ªcontinued pressing at her barrier. It didn¡¯t have teeth or a mouth on its face, as far as she could tell. Just leg bangs and slits that she assumed were eyes. Somehow, she¡¯d wandered a little too far from her friends. She could call someone to help her, of course, but she had a bit too much pride to do that when it was just her against a single opponent.

    She could hold her own even against a mob, thank you! She just would have preferred not to be here at all, was the thing.

    Abruptly, she released her barrier and bolted backwards. The bug overbalanced, landing with a wet splat across the spot she had just been, its body squishy like some gelatinous dessert across the ground. It was so flat for a moment that¡ªif not for the lack of any notification¡ªEmilia wouldn¡¯t have been sure it wasn¡¯t dead. Then it popped back up, its body reforming into a long tube that stood on its back quarter. It hissed from its missing mouth again, liquid squirting off its body that had her shooting further backwards, away from the smell.

    She watched in mild interest as the blackish-blue liquid burned the ground, like acid. ¡°Okay,¡± she thought as she swished out of range again, ¡°note to self: do not let that shit get on your cute outfit.¡± That was one of the most annoying parts of raids: the damage to clothes and hair and makeup. Her barrier might protect her from almost everything, but even it occasionally missed the smaller stuff¡ªlike a drop or two of acid split. She didn¡¯t have money to replace her clothes, thank you! And unless you were a top contributor to the raid, you wouldn¡¯t be getting a paydrop big enough to replace your entire outfit¡ªnot unless it was cheap to begin with.

    She burst back a few more steps, noting with annoyance that she was being pushed further and further away from the group. Annoying, but also interesting¡ªshe could swear the invader was purposefully isolating her.

    [Sil: Need help?]

    [Em: dunno]

    [Em: i¡¯m curious where it''s taking me]

    [Sil: It¡¯s herding you?]

    [Beth: Definitely. I can see them. That looks purposeful.]

    [Sil: You got a shot, Beth?]

    [Beth: Yup.]

    [Sil: Let me know if that changes, or if it takes Em too far.]

    [Beth: Will do.]

    Emilia continued dancing with the {Lithro}. It lurched and lunged and flung more acid at her and hissed, its movements irregular and unpredictable, but a bit too slow to actually be any danger. She was keeping her barrier firmly in place, though, and she was sure Beth was keeping her sights on it. Beth was keeping her safe, and even if she wasn¡¯t, Emilia could have switched her willbrand into a weapon. Her skills manipulating the aethernet were artificially lowered by the raid system, however. Something about keeping things fair. Your real skill utilizing the aethernet didn¡¯t always translate into raids. Her skill was still higher than it should have been, but it was nothing compared to how skilled she was outside the raidlands, even with her own slightly less artificial limits in place. The real world was the aethernet. The raidlands were the aethernet and a computer program, monitoring and controlling everything.

    Sometimes, she thought most people forgot that fact.

    [Warning: Obstruction Nearby]

    Emilia¡¯s eyes glazed over with an image of the world behind her. Until now, she had been moving through a mostly empty area, only the occasional tree jumping out of the landscape, which she could easily avoid with minimal effort. Now¡­ What were those things? She bolted far to the side and forward, getting behind the {Lithro} so she could get a full look at the area.

    Her best guess was that the thing her Censor had warned her about had been a playground¡ªan aether enhanced one. Anything that had been enhanced within the real world, in order to allow people easier access to the aethernet, acted differently within raids. You could often physically see waves of aether rolling off it. Black lines pulsed out of the deformed climbing toys, reaching out towards anything that got too close, even innocent leaves sent flying by the aether vibrating in the air.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    [Beth: I was just about to tell you, if you go any further that way I¡¯ll lose sight of you.]

    [Em: so you can¡¯t see it?]

    [Sil: It?]

    [Beth: It?]

    [Em: it¡¯s a black zone]

    Beth swore.

    [Sil: It¡¯s not on the map.]

    [Em: no it¡¯s not]

    [Sil: Haru and I will be right there.]

    [Sil: Keep clear of it.]

    Emilia watched as the black zone swelled to life, black waves erupting from it as the {Lithro} surged towards it. It exploded into a flash of blinding light, its aether consumed by the black zone.

    It pulsed.

    It breathed.

    [Beth: What was that?]

    [Em: one of the invaders just sacrificed to it]

    Both Beth and Sil swore this time as Emilia backed up slightly. Eyes trained to the black zone as it swelled and compressed, forming itself into a giant ball of muddy, formless blackness.

    [Invaders: {Crawlers} + {Deathly Black}]

    ¡°Thank you, Censor,¡± Emilia thought dryly, trying to throw as much sarcasm into it as she could. Her Censor only understood sarcasm about 50% of the time. She¡¯d tried to program it to understand more, but then it had learned how to be sarcastic back, so she¡¯d restored the previous, 50-50 sarcasm version. Interestingly, it was still sarcastic to her occasionally.

    She scanned the map, wondering which way to run away, noting the smaller black dots now spread over it¡ªbabies of the black zone, not as dangerous as this thing, but certainly strong enough that they could take out all those missing heroes. The dots were quickly converging back towards their location, drawn in as their creator gained a physical shape.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good thing or not, but she¡¯d wandered way further than she¡¯d meant to. This meant that no one was around to accidentally get dragged into a boss fight, but it would also take Sil and Haru longer to reach her than she would have liked.

    [Em: where do you have sight?]

    [Beth sent {Sight.map}]

    Emilia overlaid the maps before bolting to the right. The boss rolled after her, its muddy aether splattering across the world and destroying anything it came into contact with. Even the building enacted an impressive illusion to make it appear as though they had been affected by the hit.

    A bolt from Beth¡¯s willbrand struck the boss, a little notification altering Emilia that it had done 1/7777 damage. Awesome.

    [Beth: Well, that thing¡¯s out of my skill level.]

    The ball of darkness sputtered and then exploded into a roar that sent Emilia sprawling forward. Her palms and knees scraped the cement, and she swore, rolling to the side just in time to avoid being run over by it. In the corner of her vision, she saw her HP drop significantly, enough that she¡¯d probably done a little a bit of lasting damage to herself. Nothing hurt at the moment, but that was likely just the adrenaline talking.

    ¡°Sil, I am going to kill you!¡± she yelled, sending an echo of rage through the aethernet towards her friend. He might be too far away yet to hear her, but he would most certainly feel her anger.

    She huffed and flipped herself back up. At the very least, the boss didn¡¯t have the greatest of breaks, and missing her had sent it skidding away. It crashed into the side of a building so hard the ground rocked, and then Emilia was bolting away, thankful that she hadn¡¯t let her Physical D-Levels or her muscles themselves become so deficient that she couldn¡¯t outrun the boss through pure physical ability.

    [Beth: I can¡¯t see you anymore.]

    [Em: i know]

    [Sil: Get back into Beth¡¯s sights!]

    [Em: nah]

    An echo of Haru laughing and Sil cursing pressed into her skin, and she moved further away from them and closer towards the edge of the raid area.

    [Em: i have a plan]

    [Sil: The last time you said that, you accidentally took out a bunch of random heroes!]

    She had done that. It was difficult to hurt other heroes within a raid, but not completely impossible. There were a few powerful techniques that were a bit too hard to control or too wide-ranging. Even the system couldn¡¯t stop those from accidentally hitting someone like it did with normal attacks, instead only barely managing to limit the damage so people weren¡¯t completely mangled by the friendly fire.

    Emilia skidded to a stop in front of a large fountain, twisting back towards the boss barrelling towards her. She backed up, her legs bumping against the coolness of the fountain¡¯s edge, just wide enough that she could sit on it. She let her hand fall back¡ªlet the tips of her fingers slide through the cool water, which had been turned a rather off-putting shade of yellow by the raid. It would still do, however gross it looked.

    She smiled at the boss, noting with amusement that Sil and Haru were now running away from her location. You accidentally knock a few heroes out once and this is how people treat you.

    [Skill {Worriful Weather} Selected]

    [Skill Activation in]

    [¡ª 5 ¡ª]

    [Warning: Sub-30 Level Skill Activated]

    [Warning: Please take care to avoid the area!]

    [¡ª 4 ¡ª]

    [Warning: Sub-Containment Area Activated]

    [Warning: Please take care not to walk into the Sub-Containment Barrier!]

    [¡ª 3 ¡ª]

    Emilia watched the boss bowling towards her, a faint red barrier of aether forming behind it in an attempt to contain her skill¡ªto stop it from running too wild.

    It hadn¡¯t stopped it last time, but that had been a while ago. Maybe the sub-containment barrier had improved! Or, maybe anyone who didn¡¯t get out of this half of the raidlands fast enough would get hit. Ah well, they¡¯d be fine¡­ probably.

    [¡ª 2 ¡ª]

    On her map, she could see all the people in their communication network evacuating the area. Apparently, she wasn¡¯t the only one who thought the barrier was liable to fail. Given the way indicators for many of the heroes not in their network were headed in her direction, however¡­

    Not that she could blame them. Most people never got the chance to see a sub-30 level skill¡ªand practically no one ever saw one twice.

    That was mostly self-preservation.

    [¡ª 1 ¡ª]

    [Skill: {Worriful Weather} Activated]

    The water rippled. A single ripple from the fingers she had dipped into it. So small and unassuming until it hit the edges of the fountain and swelled into a wave that rose high into the sky, separating and turning into a night¡¯s sky worth of droplets. Drops splashed up Emilia¡¯s arm, and she was glad she didn¡¯t have long sleeves on.

    Unfortunately, she wouldn¡¯t be able to use her willbrand barrier until the skill released. Skills acquired from both official events and ranking high followed you into subsequent seasons, but her current level wasn¡¯t high enough to use the skill and her willbrand at the same time. She couldn¡¯t complain too much, though, because the power of permanent skills never degraded, although they were often quickly eclipsed by newer, limited¡ªor even single¡ªdistribution skills.

    {Worriful Weather} was still more powerful than any skill she could acquire just by levelling up, even though she had won it ranking in the Top 10 nearly eight years ago¡ªshe¡¯d been competing with Elijah that season. He had annoyed her from the moment they met, during their freshman year. She knew he had wanted to try and rank in the Top 50 that season, before their schoolwork got too intense. It was the only season she had ever really partaken in. She had beaten him soundly¡ªshe hadn¡¯t even realized her level had scored high enough that she¡¯d rank in the Top 10, whoops¡ªand become friends with Sil as a result.

    The droplets sputtered, beginning to vibrate with the aethernet. They sizzled, burning as they reached a state between existing in her world and returning to the aether.

    The boss rolled closer, closer and her skill waited, burning the world until it was close enough¡ªmere metres away from her.

    Then the tide broke.

    Water swelled through the world and her willbrand surged to life, a ball of glassy, swirling purple and gold wrapping itself around her as all the aether within {Worriful Weather}¡¯s area of effect became water and wind and destruction. Emilia had never experienced an aether storm¡ªthey weren¡¯t common in Baalphoria¡ªbut she imagined they must be something like this, only a thousand times worse. The power of the universe stretching and crashing around you.

    Waves of water and aether rocked against her willbrand, and she imagined that almost anyone else would need a low-10s level in order to use this skill. Most people favoured weapon coded willbrands over defensive ones, relying instead on skills acquired from levelling up to defend themselves.

    There was no way even the strongest of Sil¡¯s defensive skills could completely protect him from this. The boss¡¯s defences definitely couldn¡¯t, and when the world cleared, nothing was left of it, save a small token that burst into black flames and slotted itself into her account.

    [Congratulations!]

    [You¡¯ve Beaten the Boss {Deathly Black+}!]

    [You Acquired {An Eventful Moment Invite}]

    Emilia sighed. Looking over the details of the invite, annoyed to find that while she could bring a few guests with her to it, she couldn¡¯t just transfer it to someone who would actually want it.

    She slumped forward, resting her arms on her knees as she watched her Censor. Her contribution and level exp skyrocketed, and the number of invader¡¯s left plummeted because the sub-containment barrier had indeed shattered, and her skill had rushed outward, taking out almost half of those remaining¡ªand apparently a few heroes. Oops.

    Unfortunately for them, the system prioritized protecting other things, like buildings, non-combatants and downed heroes. Not to mention making sure no one actually died. Seriously, though? Why even create skills that the raid system couldn¡¯t contain!?

 Arc 1 | Chapter 8: Grudges are Overrated

    Usually, Emilia loved the slums. The main part of Piketown¡ªthe oh so original name for the city that lay at the base of Astrapan¡¯s Mount Pike¡ªwas clean and sleek. There were some more unique areas¡ªit was a college town, after all¡ªas well as more bougie areas like the one they had just left. For the most part, however, the city screamed that it was well maintained, old buildings constantly being renovated or replaced by OIC bots hired by the city. This part of town, a small stretch of land pressed between an industrial area to the east, Mount Pike to the north and the ocean surrounding the rest, was one of the last remaining slums in the country, at least within more populous cities.

    Dirty, rundown buildings stretched high above them, looking as though a sneeze could bring them crashing down. The sidewalks cracked and vanished. Little businesses poked out of alleyways, and uplines would take you towards businesses set high into the sky, having taken over whatever spot they could.

    It was unique.

    It was also less prone to raids than anywhere else in Piketown. Too many people in ill health, plus a substantial population of children and Free Colony expats, who often never bothered to install Censors¡ªa requirement for participating in raids.

    Yes, there tended to be higher rates of crime here than anywhere else, as well¡ªSecOps rarely even attempted to patrol the area¡ªbut the risk of being caught in a raid was so negligible that Emilia sighed in relief as she, Sil and Beth popped out of the slum¡¯s broken slide line exit.

    Then, the heat hit them.

    ¡°Ugh, I forgot this place doesn¡¯t have climate control,¡± Beth sighed as Sil let their glide along drop¡ªthe sidewalks were so uneven you couldn¡¯t hope to slide along them. Walking along the deserted street it was!

    Emilia felt the tingle of her Censor stretching outwards, searching for signs of other people. It was so hot, she doubted many people were out and about¡ªand her Censor couldn¡¯t even find anyone hovering in the shadows of the alleys they walked by. At least that lowered the chance of anyone causing problems. As much as they visited this place often and people knew them, there was still always some risk. It wasn¡¯t that she was worried they¡¯d get hurt or robbed if someone started something with them, it was more that if they defended themselves, they might end up not being welcome back, and they had great food here. It would be a travesty if they were banned.

    ¡°How are your knees?¡± Sil asked as they walked, a cooling skill rippling softly off him. It wasn¡¯t enough to lower the temperature much, but it took a bit of the edge off. He glanced down at the medical pads now covering her scuffed knees, wrapping a bit more of that coolness over them.

    A nursing student she hadn¡¯t met before had patched her knees and palms up for her after the raid ended. She¡¯d even matched them to Emilia¡¯s outfit, using a medical willbrand to gather up aether to form the patches of pink and purple that now pressed into her skin. She¡¯d have to remove them later, see if she needed to visit a clinic for follow-up treatment, but in the meantime, the patches were keeping the sting at bay and slowly drawing the skin back together¡ªassuming the girl had been as good a healer as she¡¯d claimed she was.

    Emilia glared at him. She had refused to speak to him since she¡¯d beaten the boss. Yes, the paydrop from the raid had been enough to clear her current debts, but still! She had been tricked! Kidnapped! She was entitled to be upset for at least a little longer!

    Her friend sighed, turning to Beth instead and noting that the area did have climate control, but it was broken, something odd flowing through his tone as he spoke. ¡°The city is trying to get the people who live here to sell, so they¡¯ve stopped maintaining a lot of things.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re pretty well-informed,¡± Emilia said¡ªten seconds of angry silence was ¡°a little longer,¡± right? Life¡¯s too short to be mad about such minor things! She stifled a yawn. Five hours of sleep wasn¡¯t too bad, but combined with 10 hours of work and two hours of sitting and a raid and this heat? She wanted to go to bed¡ªgo fall back into the fluffy blue clouds of her bedding. She knew she¡¯d regret it when she was wide awake at midnight. Future Emilia would not appreciate that. So food! Friends! Slums! And maybe making Sil make it up to her.

    Sil was quiet for just a beat too long before he hummed in agreement, and Beth was on him.

    ¡°And how, exactly, did you come to be so informed? Eh~ Sil?¡± Beth looked at him, eyes sharp and amused, a smile tugging at her mouth. ¡°Didn¡¯t think you were interested in current events~¡±

    ¡°Not unless they have to do with raids,¡± Emilia added, leaning forward to peek up at her friend. Payback time.

    A blush began to spread across the freckled bridge of Sil¡¯s nose¡ªanswer enough. Her friend might be a pretty damn good liar about most things, but his sex life was not included on that list, even if he most certainly wished it were.

    ¡°The sub-30?¡± Beth asked, leaning in so close to Sil that her nose brushed his cheek.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know he¡¯s a sub-30,¡± Sil said, his tone just as unconvincing as it had been when he had said the same thing earlier.

    ¡°Yes, I do,¡± Beth replied, just as she had before, although she showed none of the discomfort with her skill in assessing D-Levels on sight that she had earlier. ¡°So, how¡¯s he know about it?¡±

    Sil sighed, pained and long-suffering. More than once, someone had overheard him sigh like that in regard to Emilia or Beth¡¯s antics and asked why he was friends with them.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Life would be easier without those two around,¡± one of Elijah¡¯s friends¡ªone who was not welcome around Emilia or any of her friends anymore, but her boyfriend still insisted was a ¡°good guy¡±¡ªhad said once. ¡°I could see if you wanted to get inside one of them, but you¡¯re gay. Or are you just into dick? Guess if it¡¯s that, then Beth would be just your¡ª¡±

    The asshole hadn¡¯t finished because Sil¡¯s fist had met his face. Then Sil¡¯s knee had met his dick. Probably the worst dick Sil had ever had the misfortune of coming in contact with.

    Sil still hadn¡¯t answered when they arrived at the seedy little restaurant they all loved so much. It had been an accident that they¡¯d ended up here, back when they had first become friends. It was difficult to get lost on the slide lines, but not impossible, and they¡¯d accidentally exited early. Rare, but not unheard of. Normally, you just step back onto the line and end up at the proper exit. Except, the line was busted, the reason they were pulled them off early, and they¡¯d had to walk through the slums instead, looking for the next closest entrance or a bubble station.

    Then, it had started to rain. Actually, rain wasn¡¯t a strong enough word. It had started to pour on them. An outright rainstorm, as a sudden electrical storm gathered above them. They¡¯d booked it to the nearest building, discovering it to be the tiny, shitty little restaurant they now stood in. Dark and dreary and smelling like dreams come true.

    ¡°Ah~ if it ain¡¯t m¡¯favourite eaters!¡± Faylyn Adair, the owner¡¯s daughter, cheered from behind the counter. ¡°Y¡¯ll came at a time! Got the whole place to yerselves. Ain¡¯t no one comin¡¯ out in this shit. Whoa! Wha¡¯ happened ta you?¡± She looked over Emilia, her patched, dirty limbs and ruffled hair.

    ¡°Sil kidnapped me and dragged me to a raid,¡± she sighed dramatically, flopping into a nearby chair. ¡°I got hurt! I¡¯m all bandaged up! And look at those two! Not a mark on them~¡± If the counter she¡¯d sat at didn¡¯t have a permanently sticky top, she would have sagged onto it and pretended to pout. She didn¡¯t need more dirt or stickiness on her, however, so she refrained.

    ¡°You needed money,¡± Sil said sensibly.

    Beth slid into the seat beside her, and Sil the next. He, annoyingly, looked completely fine. So did Beth, although at least in her case, she was long-distance support. Sil had been right there in the action! Yet, his clothes and hair looked perfect! So unfair!

    ¡°You could have asked.¡±

    ¡°You would have refused.¡±

    ¡°Says who?¡±

    ¡°Says every Past Emilia since our freshman year ended.¡±

    ¡°Not true!¡± she bit back, a little too much triumphant energy in her voice. ¡°There was also that time I wanted concert tickets. Ha.¡±

    The look Sil gave her was withering, but he refrained from saying more, instead turning to a laughing Faylyn and asking how she was.

    ¡°Hot,¡± she said, pulling at the collar of her loose tank top, as though letting the stiffing air under it would help cool her. It might be cooler inside the restaurant than it had been on the streets, but it was still pretty damn hot.

    Faylyn let her shirt drop and grabbed a few menus¡ªalthough they had been here so many times in the last eight years, Emilia was sure they all had the menu memorized¡ªand skipped over to them, her short red hair bobbing along with her. ¡°Did ya at least win a lot for yer trouble?¡± she asked, eyes crinkling into happy lines as she handed the menus over, rare paper material in their digital world, even if this stuff was covered in some kind of protective material.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emilia admitted. Her paydrop from the raid had been quite a bit. Enough to cover the bubble from last night. Enough to pay for some new clothes. There was also that invite she¡¯d received. She had no idea what that was about, and given she had only just returned to talking to Sil, she had yet to ask him about it either.

    ¡°W¡¯ll, there¡¯s that, a¡¯least!¡± Faylyn said, always one to try and find the upside, despite her own life being kinda shitty. ¡°Lemme know when yer ready ta order,¡± she said cheerfully, before skipping back to the counter and sagging into the ratty chair she loved so much. Her head tipped up, returning to watching a rare physical screen mounted on one wall, a broadcast of the local news playing, the sound barely more than a whisper.

    ¡°It so quiet cause of the heat?¡± Beth asked as she began skimming the menu, finger tapping beside each of the items she was considering. If Sil was paying¡ªwhich he usually was¡ªshe might order all of them.

    ¡°That, and that,¡± Faylyn said, nodding towards the news broadcast. ¡°Lot¡¯sa people went t¡¯protest.¡±

    Emilia looked away from the ocean that spread, steaming and pink, across from the window side counter they had seated themselves at to the screen.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Beth asked, leaning so severely back in her seat that she looked as though she were about to topple over. ¡°Oh~¡± she breathed out, that sharp, teasing smile sliding back over her face as she read the screen. ¡°That what you totally know nothing about, eh, Sil?¡±

    Sil blushed, although his eyes were glued to the screen as well.

    Emilia leaned across Beth towards him, whispering, ¡°Trying to catch a glimpse of your sub-30?¡± She snapped back just fast enough to avoid the hand swiping through the place she had just been.

    ¡°Not mine,¡± her friend hissed, his eyes still glued to the ancient screen, obviously intent on catching a glimpse of his hookup despite his denial. Rare¡ªpractically unheard of, really¡ªfor her friend to show such interest in a hookup.

    She laughed, looking back at the screen and wondering if her friend had gotten contact information for whatever hottie he¡¯d fucked last night¡ªor been fucked by. Sil didn¡¯t talk too much about his sex life, but she knew he liked it both ways because his hookups were generally all too willing to talk about what a good fuck he was.

    Little dots appeared over the screen, the whispering volume rising as Faylyn pointed a remote at it. ¡°¡­promising to be quite the spectacle,¡± one of the women was saying, fake smile plastered over her face, thick with too much makeup, as she discussed the situation with another woman and a man.

    ¡°Well,¡± the other woman said, her own smile not exactly fake, so much as strained, as though whatever had been said beforehand had made her extremely uncomfortable, ¡°Olivier de la Rue is, perhaps, the most prominent lawyer of the last few hundred years. I¡¯ve heard that his great-great-grandmother was the last lawyer to have a records such as his.¡±

    The over-makeuped women¡¯s eyes narrowed, just the slightest but still noticeable through the screen. ¡°Of course, Olivier de la Rue¡¯s¡­ record is admirable, but I doubt more than aspiring lawyers and those most interested in the outcome of this case will attend simply to watch how he performs in court. No,¡± she quickly continued, cutting off her male co-host and making his jaw tighten, ¡°it is because he is an available non-dev¡ªand an extremely handsome one at that¡ªthat it will be a spectacle. All those girls and boys lining up to try and attract his attention! I¡¯ve heard that extra security is often needed at his hearings, in order to keep his fans under control!¡±

    Beth snorted, muttering something about stupid people, wanting to be with someone like that.

    ¡°H¡¯ is very pretty, though,¡± Faylyn said, her eyes glued to the screen as the shot cut to the front of the courthouse.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 9: Not a Princess

    The square outside the courthouse was filled with people. There were so many already gathered, many pressing banners and signs into the aethernet and being reprimanded by a combination of SecOps, court security and de la Rue private security. More people were arriving with every moment, almost all seemingly part of several distinct groups: the as foretold fans for the famous, non-dev lawyer, those protesting for either side of the case, and security. Occasionally, there seemed to be someone who didn¡¯t belong to any particular group in the crowd. A reporter or a law student, perhaps. Someone who had accidentally been dragged into the crowd and couldn¡¯t escape¡ªat least a few people seemed to be fruitlessly trying to get out of the chaos, only to be pushed further in as more people pushed forward.

    ¡°Is this program even gonna explain what the case is about?¡± Beth asked dubiously. She frowned severely up at the screen, the expression making her look far older than the 39 she was. She was a baby, just over half Emilia¡¯s age. If the world had been fair, she should have still been enjoying her gap decade. The world wasn¡¯t fair, though, and Beth hadn¡¯t been able to enjoy most of her life. Really, Emilia thought her friend had really only managed to enjoy the last few at Astrapan. Before that, there had been family obligations and homelessness and war raging around them, even if from what her friend had said, the war had been more of a blessing to her than anything.

    ¡°Less people to work, less people to rent,¡± her friend had explained once, back when they had first been getting to know each other, secrets slipping off their tongues with increasing confidence every day. ¡°People were desperate for workers and renters, they didn¡¯t push on getting paperwork and didn¡¯t care much that I was obviously underage.¡±

    Plus, there had been so many people missing due to the war already, and with SecOps focused on it, there had been no time or resources to look for a single, missing teenager¡ªone everyone knew had a strained relationship with her parents, no less.

    ¡°Probably not,¡± Emilia sighed, eyeing up what was less news broadcast and more gossip fest, before explaining what she knew about the situation. Some she already knew, some her Censor helpfully summarized for her. Beth could have looked it up herself, but she¡¯d gone through most of her life without one, having run away from her shitty parents before hers could be installed as a teen. Even almost a decade on, after she¡¯d had one installed before starting at Astrapan, using it wasn¡¯t completely natural to her.

    Plus, it was bad form to use your Censor to look up everything and remove human connection and discussion from your life. That kind of isolation wasn¡¯t good for your soul! So bad, in fact, that eventually your Censor would start refusing to provide you information if it thought you were becoming too dependent on it.

    ¡°Basically, the city has been letting this entire area fall into disrepair. They¡¯ve been saying repairs and upgrades are coming, the costs are more than expected, and a thousand other excuses for a long ass time¡ªthis is the oldest part of the city, after all. It¡¯s finally gotten to the point where they¡¯re just saying it¡¯s a write-off. No need to fix it up, just demolish the whole thing and start over.¡±

    ¡°Bu¡¯ it¡¯s our home!¡± Faylyn hissed.

    They all turned to look at her, her light-brown skin reddening under her rare show of anger. Emilia had seen her smile and flirt with even the most obnoxiously drunk customers, their hands slipping under her clothes and her smile never faltering. Smile when SecOps raided the place for no reason. Smile when her father and her barely had money for food themselves because his health was failing, and he desperately needed¡ªwanted¡ªknot therapy they couldn¡¯t afford. Faylyn didn¡¯t get angry, but obviously, she did.

    ¡°It is,¡± Beth said, nodding severely. ¡°They can¡¯t just get rid of it¡ªand where would all the people who live here even go? All the businesses?¡±

    ¡°Gov''ment wants to relocate us, but¡­¡± Faylyn trailed off, her slightly too big front teeth digging into her bottom lip.

    ¡°But they haven¡¯t been forthcoming about where they want to relocate people,¡± Sil finished. His face was tight, that same look he got when he was about to bodily remove someone from his presence. Sil might look fat, especially under those huge clothes, but Emilia knew that thickness was muscle¡­ under some fat. Her friend was built like a squishy brick wall, but most people assumed it was all squish. They generally regretted that assumption pretty quickly, if they decided to mouth off about Beth or herself, or anyone Sil viewed as defenceless. Neither her nor Beth were defenceless, but they also didn¡¯t have to worry about breaking their nails fending off fuck boys and bitches.

    No, they only had to worry about breaking nails when he kidnapped them for raids!

    ¡°My¡­ friend,¡± he continued, eyes trained to the screen as he ignored Beth and her whispering friend to Faylyn in a way that made it obvious¡ªas though it hadn¡¯t already been¡ªthat this friend was a more-than-friend, ¡°said that the documents they¡¯ve received as part of the case show the government is planning to relocate people all around the city, with little compensation. I assume they want to break up the community.¡±

    ¡°You guys sure talked a lot last night,¡± Emilia noted as Faylyn hissed under her breath, something about how that was what everyone had suspected, but it had never actually been confirmed.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t exactly blame the city for wanting to dismantle the area to separate its inhabitants. The place was a dump. That was largely the government¡¯s fault, of course. Centuries of mismanaging taxes and maintenance, letting buildings and infrastructure fall apart, watching as gangs and crime rose and fell and came back with a vengeance, all while never lifting a finger to stop it. This place was a mess of criminals and orphans; ancient technology and systems that were quickly breaking down. It hadn¡¯t really been a problem until Astrapan. The university meant more eyes on the city, more questions about what it was allowing to happen. It had taken a decade, but apparently they¡¯d finally decided on a so-called solution.

    ¡°Yer fuck friend works for them lawyers?¡± Faylyn asked, once she had stopped hissing to herself, her head tilting in thought as Beth and Emilia giggled at her wording.

    Unfortunately for Sil, they came in here often enough that Faylyn and all the regulars knew Sil didn¡¯t make new friends, but he did hook up with plenty of people. Never new friends, hookups¡ªfuck friends. A few, like Haru, had managed to become friend-ish with him, but there were never boyfriends, not even friends-with-benefits or any extended sexual relationship. Sil hooked up, Sil had all the friends he needed, and anyone else he mentioned was never anything more than a one-night stand, even if he was still trying to catch a glimpse of his latest conquest on the screen.

    He¡¯d hooked up with more than a few people from around here, too. Emilia wasn''t certain, but over the years she had come to think that the locals saw her friend as some kind of goal. Fuck the probably-sub-30. Most ex-300s never got a chance like that, especially not when they lived in this kind of hellhole, even if it was their home. Here was their chance for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Sil rarely walked out of the area without at least a few people offering him some kind of sexual favour, more than a few of which he accepted.

    Sil hummed around his blush, his hands gripping into his sweats in an attempt to not drag them through his hair. He used to, before she¡¯d started dating Elijah. Elijah dragged his hands through his hair in a perpetual attempt to get it out of his face. Sil didn¡¯t like Elijah; therefore he could not, under any circumstances, have the same habit as him, especially not now, when they actually had to spend a moderate amount of time around one another.

    ¡°He didn¡¯t say a lot about what he does for them, but¡­¡± His eyes briefly moved from the screen¡ªand his search for a glance at his hookup¡ªto Faylyn. ¡°He did say that his boss is confident they will win.¡±

    ¡°Well, guess there¡¯s nothing to worry about then,¡± Emilia sighed, smiling warmly at the young girl¡ªbecause she really was too young, barely out of her 30s, barely out of the compulsory education she¡¯d only passed because Sil had tutored her and several other local children for free. Too young to be stuck serving customers in this shithole. Family obligation, though. Her dad would die if she didn¡¯t help out, didn¡¯t help earn the money for the knot therapy that kept him kicking. The day was coming when he would be too sick to work, then she¡¯d be left to run this place solo. Faylyn seemed to be making the best of it, but Emilia¡¯s heart ached for her, as she knew Sil and Beth¡¯s did as well. Too similar¡ªtheir stories of obligation were just too similar, even if none of them knew the entire truth of each other''s struggles. The bits and pieces they did share were enough to know¡ªenough to ache for their younger selves and each other. ¡°If the great and powerful Olivier de la Rue is confident, then I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll succeed.¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Who is this Olivier dude anyways?¡± Beth asked. ¡°What?¡± she added, frowning when the other three turned to gape at her.

    ¡°Y¡¯dunno? Aye! I knew ya were bit deprived during yer childhood, but to not know who Olivier de la Rue is!¡± Faylyn cried, her expression etched with mock shock. Too amused, though, so she wasn¡¯t quite selling it. ¡°Y¡¯must know about ¡®is family at the very least, eh?¡± she asked, collapsing with a dramatic moan onto the counter in front of her when Beth shook her head.

    Once, Beth would have been ashamed she didn¡¯t know, angry that someone was calling attention to her ignorance. Sil and Emilia had beaten that out of her long ago. Questions were good, and anyone who actually meant to make Beth feel stupid would be promptly removed from her presence.

    ¡°They¡¯re basically just this big-shot lawyer family. Sub-30s, not from the Penns, though,¡± Emilia told her friend.

    ¡°Rare.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said, staring at a fridge¡ªjust as run down and rusty looking as the rest of the restaurant¡ªfilled with bottled drinks before hopping up and going to grab a few, Beth and Sil calling out what they wanted to her. ¡°I think there¡¯s just more work in the cities? They have a few offices throughout the country, and they¡¯re all workaholics.¡±

    She smiled as she slid back into her seat, the padding hard and worn out under her, and handed over the drinks¡ªAlpha Suds for Sil, Magic Pow for Beth, and Rain¡®n Ruin for herself. ¡°Anyways,¡± she continued, popping the top off her drink and taking a deep breath of a fresh and spicy scent, ¡°like¡­ a decade or so before the war¡ª¡±

    ¡°Eight years before,¡± Sil cut in, his eyes glazed over as he obviously read through whatever information his Censor was supplying him with.

    ¡°Eight years before the war,¡± she amended, ¡°there was this case. Most of the details were closed, cause the person charged was underage, but it was this whole thing. Precedent setting case. Won¡¯t bore you with the details, but that¡¯s how Olivier de la Rue became known¡ªwell, he was already known, being a public non-dev. This was how he made a name for himself, though.¡±

    ¡°Not jus¡¯ as a great lawyer,¡± Faylyn piped up, her eyes glittering as she stared up at the screen again, where people were now emerging from the courthouse, ¡°but as someone who ¡®ill fight ''gainst injustice.¡±

    ¡°Like this?¡± Beth asked, glaring up at the screen as well.

    ¡°Like this,¡± Faylyn agreed. ¡°Ooh! Ooh! ¡®dere he is!¡± she squealed, a rare show of the child she was showing through as she smiled and pointed up at the screen.

    On the screen, several people were now standing at the top of the courthouse stairs, although the building likely had a slide line they could have just as easily left by, rather than risk walking down through the mass of screaming fans and protestors being held back by security. A number of reporters had stepped up to the top of the stairs as well and were attempting to ask Olivier de la Rue questions about the case.

    ¡°Olivier de la Rue!¡± the reporters were shouting over one another, trying to get the reticent man to speak with them.

    Instead, one of his co-lawyers, a distant cousin who Emilia thought might be named Clovis, stepped up to answer. Later on, the non-dev would answer questions himself, once things really got started. Until then, he would simply ignore the crowds he didn¡¯t care for. Emilia wondered how many people knew he hated it, the fawning and screaming. It was considered natural for people idolize him. He was famous, beautiful and mysterious, and came from one of the most powerful families in the country¡ªprobably on the planet. He was also a non-dev, the closest one could get to being perfect.

    Of course, scientists were always fiddling with the list of what was considered the perfect gene-set, but even if the list changed during your lifetime, your first official D-Levels, assessed when you were a teenager, were the ones that counted. Olivier de la Rue had been designated perfect as a teenager¡ªsomething his family had been all too happy to share with the world, despite such information generally being kept private until the people themselves could choose to reveal it once they were adults. Almost no one ever revealed they were non-devs, though, and official estimates of how many there were in Baalphoria were questionable at best, such information only being revealed by the OIC System in very specific circumstances. Being a non-dev meant pressure and expectation¡ªhad once meant being held to higher standards in the eye of the law, until a young Olivier had smashed that precedent.

    Old laws that Beth could look up if she wanted. The laws that said the lower your D-Levels the more control, the more responsibility, the more ability and skill and restraint a person should have. As though someone with a low enough D-Level should be able to stop a gun pointed at their friend, as though any death that occurred when they were around should have been avoidable¡ªas though they should go to prison for life for keeping those they love alive in the face of a black knotted stalker.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why I should help you,¡± the cool, indifferent voice had said, echoing slightly in the now quiet room. It hadn¡¯t been quiet when she¡¯d arrived, nor had his voice¡ªlecturing on an obscure law that only existed in the far north¡ªsounded so harsh and uninterested.

    ¡°How about because I¡¯m cute?¡± she had tried, bold and inexperienced with the world then. She had been a baby, and she had needed help that no one seemed capable or willing to give her. ¡°I¡¯m also a good lay if you wanna bargain like that? You¡¯re pretty hot. I bet you¡¯re good in bed, too. How about it? Just a little legal help, and I¡¯ll let you fuck me till it¡¯s all sorted out.¡±

    A snort. If he¡¯d been facing her, would she have seen him roll his eyes, or was he too polite for that, even back then? Even the snort seemed too juvenile for him, but Emilia had always been good at pissing him off. ¡°You really think highly of yourself, princess.¡±

    ¡°I am not a princess,¡± she had said with more force than she¡¯d meant to.

    ¡°No? Your record would suggest otherwise.¡± He¡¯d turned to her then, and looked at her¡ªreally looked at her¡ªfor the first time since she¡¯d entered that tiny, prestigious little classroom he¡¯d been working in, come to beg for help because otherwise she was going to jail.

    She could still see him as he was that day, even now, decades on. Olivier de la Rue, the image of him nearly 40 years younger overlaying with the one on screen now. He was beautiful¡ªthen, now, probably until the day he died¡ªso heartbreakingly beautiful. Too bad his personality had been shit¡ªalthough it had gotten better over the decades. Those eyes, though. Those eyes still haunted her dreams sometimes. So did his cock and his hands on her¡ªinside her. Memories of the first time they had fucked, angry and horny and frustrated not just with each other but with her stupid case. It had been good, so good she¡¯s spent the rest of their time together pissing him off just to see where it got her. So good that once the case was over¡ªonce he had won her freedom for her¡ªshe¡¯d been afraid to seek him out for sex again. She kinda regretted it now, wondered what would have happened¡ªhow things would have been different¡ªhad she risked having¡­ something with him. Even just sex.

    ¡°Too bad that isn¡¯t the sub-30 you fucked last night,¡± Beth snickered, eyeing up Olivier and the way he effortlessly moved through the crowd¡ªeven she would have had to admit he had a presence, even if she disliked most sub-30s as a rule. ¡°Then again, non-devs are a different breed. Probably better to keep away from any of them.¡±

    Everyone moved aside for him. His fans giggled, trying to get as close as they dared, although his personal security were hovering around him. He didn¡¯t need them, but his family insisted. He was their most valuable possession, after all. Even when he¡¯d been a barely known teacher with only a passing record of court cases he¡¯d assisted on, they¡¯d been there, hovering outside his classroom door. They hadn¡¯t liked her, she was too good at avoiding their eyes¡ªshe¡¯d spent most of her teens evading her own security, after all. She¡¯d even managed to sneak Olivier out from under them a few times, usually without his consent.

    Sil shot Beth a look as the screen shifted away from Olivier to his cousin, still answering questions about the case. Confident they would win. Travesty. Misuse of power and funds. Bad planning was not the people¡¯s problem. He had a nice smile, nice voice. He wasn¡¯t Olivier, though, and Emilia shot her Censor a memo to send her videos of her former lawyer, once he did get around to speaking about the case. Usually, she avoided her past life, but this involved a place she liked, so she brushed off the tension she felt at getting too close to pain and suffering and trauma.

    ¡°Hopefully, they ain¡¯t jus¡¯ spouting off,¡± Faylyn huffed as the broadcast changed to news on the pink tide, and she muted the screen again. ¡°We really need to win this thing, ¡®specially if yer hookup was right and they wanna split us up. This place may be a mess, but it¡¯s home! Ya¡¯ll ready to order?¡± she added, frowning severely at them, as though she hadn¡¯t been the one delaying their ordering because she was watching a news conference.

    ¡°Fuck yeah, I am,¡± Beth cheered, looking ravenously down at the menu. ¡°You are buying, right? Gonna make up that whole raid kidnapping thing by filling our tummies up?¡±

    Emilia wasn¡¯t positive, but she was pretty sure the other girl had known about the raid. She certainly hadn¡¯t seemed kidnapped or complained even once.

    ¡°Yes, Bethany,¡± Sil sighed, long-suffering, although his eyes softened as he looked at her. ¡°I am buying. Order however much you like.¡±

    ¡°Good, then I¡¯ll have¡ª¡±

 Arc 1 | Chapter 10: Not a Day to Drown

    The bell above the door¡ªa real life bell, not the digital kind that were more common¡ªjingled and everyone looked towards it.

    ¡°Sup, man?¡± Beth asked around her mouthful of food. Considering their teacher had given her food¡ªand apparently more, Beth having reported on a lovely exchange of sexual favours between her and Professor A while they waited for their food¡ª just a few hours ago, the younger girl had managed to eat substantially more than her slender figure would suggest possible. Raids took some energy, but not enough to account for her friend¡¯s bottomless pit.

    None of them could ever remember the newcomer¡¯s name, it being something so foreign their Censors weren¡¯t capable of recording any sensible reading of it either. They weren¡¯t even sure where he had come from¡ªsomewhere in the Free Colonies, most likely¡ªbut he was friendly, smiling warmly at them every time they met.

    Helped that they gave him a lot of money.

    ¡°Ah~ my favourite customers!¡± he called cheerfully, sidling over to them and leaning against their counter. ¡°What a lucky day this must be for me¡ªand for you!¡±

    Emilia slurped her soup up, wondering if she had it in her to get high again. The man always had the most wonderful shit, but it was a little soon for a repeat of last night. Given the look on Beth¡¯s face, she had similar thoughts. They liked getting high, but too much wasn¡¯t good for the body, soul or core.

    ¡°These two are still recovering from last night,¡± Sil said tightly, always the responsible one, as long as the possibility of sex with a cute guy wasn¡¯t on the agenda¡ª¡°and a raid¡±¡ªor the possibility of a raid. Sil had been known, on occasion, to be extremely irresponsible when it came to raids.

    ¡°Ah~ but there¡¯s the catch, my little lover boy! This stuff is nice, but short lasting, and you won¡¯t suffer any aftereffects! Might even take any residual pain away from the silver one¡¯s injuries.¡±

    Emilia flexed her knees and hands. They didn¡¯t really hurt, although she could feel the quickly healing skin pulling uncomfortably. Sil frowned, and Beth eyed him up with a bit more interest.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Beth asked, finally pushing her dish aside and resting a hand on the little bump that had appeared on her stomach. She patted it, once, twice in satisfaction.

    ¡°Something rare!¡± the man exclaimed, looking like he was going to break into one of his amusing, if extraordinarily long, tales of how he had come to possess such rare and delicious drugs.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Emilia said. She didn¡¯t really want to listen to his meandering stories today, thanks. She doubted they¡¯d buy, so they¡¯d all be wasting time listening to the whole spiel. She leaned an elbow onto the counter, her sweaty skin sticking to the worn material, and rested her head on her hand. The patch across her palm rubbed roughly against her chin, but even the added pressure didn¡¯t hurt¡ªapparently that student nurse was as skilled as she¡¯d claimed. She hoped Sil had gotten her contact info, they needed more supports. ¡°Give us the short version, please.¡±

    The man looked around, as though worried some SecOp would pop out to arrest him, reminding her of the reason she was suspicious he had come from the Free Colonies. Countless soldiers had remained in Baalphoria following the war, especially those from more authoritarian colonies. SecOps in Baalphoria didn¡¯t care about drugs, as long as you weren¡¯t starting trouble or dealing something illegal. Eventually, your Censor would start harassing you to get help if your use became excessive. Technically, you could easily hack that out, but if your Censor showed concern¡­ Well, that was generally a bad sign, and you should listen.

    Emilia blinked as the man pulled a bottle of pink vapour out from inside his coat. ¡°Is that¡ª¡±

    ¡°You bet it is!¡± the man cheered, sliding a little closer to her. ¡°You ever partake?¡±

    She eyed up the bottle. She could see the remnants of a Magic Pow label attached to it. Hopefully, he¡¯d sanitized it before turning it into a vessel for toxic vapours. ¡°Not like that¡ªI didn¡¯t know it could be bottled like that.¡±

    ¡°Done all the time, if you know the right people¡ªwhich now you do!¡± He smiled, eyes crinkling, the rest of his aged face following. She didn¡¯t think he was that old, but living here and doing all those drugs had taken their toll, and like many people from the Free Colonies, he didn¡¯t have a Censor¡ªnot even a temporary one¡ªto monitor his body and mind for him. Not that he likely had the money to afford treatment for whatever was eating him alive¡ªaddiction, starvation, nights on the street. Government support only went so far, especially in forgotten places like this one, especially for people who weren¡¯t technically supposed to be there, which she doubted he was.

    The worst of the Free Colonies had demanded their soldiers be returned following the war, with or without their consent. The Baalphorian government had helped, as much as it could, trying to retain fragile alliances. The government had wanted to help more, but the OIC System¡ªused to monitor most of the country for crime¡ªhadn¡¯t cooperated. People could still manually monitor part of the system¡¯s records, but it wasn¡¯t the same, and it hadn¡¯t taken long for Baalphoria¡¯s new residents to learn where those accessible eyes of the OCI System were. It wasn¡¯t hard for them to avoid being caught on camera after that.

    The Piketown slums were one of those places. It had a few cameras, mostly on the main roads¡ªwhich could easily be avoided. It had been a decade, though, and manually monitoring the systems was expensive. Emilia was sure a few people still half-heartedly watched the feeds for ex-Free Colony soldiers on their wanted lists. She was equally sure they rarely¡ªif ever¡ªreported anything, even if they did see someone. It had been a decade. A decade for friendships to form. A decade for people outside the military to hear horror stories from some of those Free Colonies. More than a few ex-Free Colony soldiers¡ªthose still in Baalphoria, and those who had fled to less authoritarian Free Colonies¡ªhad shared details of what their homelands were like.

    You¡¯d have to be a sadist to send them back now, knowing they were most certainly going to find everyone they knew murdered by the government, knew they were going to be quickly killed or ¡°re-educated¡± themselves.

    ¡°So~ wanna indulge a little?¡±

    ¡°What even is it?¡± Beth asked, resting her chin on Emilia¡¯s shoulder to look at the bottle.

    ¡°Vapour, from the pink tide,¡± Emilia told her. ¡°It¡¯s a hallucinogenic drug. It¡¯s¡­ mostly fun, as long as you don¡¯t get lost in it¡ªphysically, I mean,¡± she added, motioning to the pink vapour hovering heavy over the pink ocean, held back by the decontamination system. People did get lost in it, when they climbed the Strats during a pink tide. It was part of the reason injuries skyrocketed during them. There was even the occasional death, from someone falling just right and the monitors being unable to stop them from crashing into the sharp rocks below.

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ¡°In other words¡­ we could take a hit, and enjoy the high without much worry?¡±

    ¡°Probably. I¡¯m not sure how long a hit would last, though.¡± Her only experience was being physically inside the vapour, after all, each breath sucking in more vapour, more universe bending hallucinations, more stupid, suicidal confidence.

    ¡°Not long,¡± the man supplied. Out of all the dealers Emilia had ever met¡ªand there were quite a few, going all the way back to her teens¡ªhe was one of the most honest. Didn¡¯t upsell or bend the truth. It was part of why their group always overpaid him, not bothering to haggle over the price like most people would. He might be a dealer¡ªand an addict himself¡ªbut he still needed to eat and get new clothes. Maybe it was naive, but she hoped their money made his life a bit better. ¡°An hour, maybe a little more, if you¡¯re lucky.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Sil asked, already shaking his head, as Emilia and Beth exchanged a look. ¡°You two are still recovering from last night.¡±

    ¡°I woke up fine,¡± Emilia said. It was true. She rarely woke up hungover. She hadn¡¯t been stupid enough to fuck with those genes. ¡°Just think of it as you making up for kidnapping me. I have been injured and had an extraordinarily stressful day! This is me relaxing and releasing all my remaining anger~¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been fine since Professor A went down on his knees and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Do not,¡± Sil growled, his cheeks already turning red.

    ¡°How much?¡± Beth asked instead of continuing on with the story about her escapades in their classroom. Say what you want about Sil¡¯s own sex adventures, but he was something of a prude when it came to discussing either his own or others sex lives¡ªand definitely wasn¡¯t one for public sex.

    Emilia¡­ could see the appeal, even if she¡¯d never had sex anywhere as adventurous as a classroom full of diving students before. Command centre during the war, once, but there had been no risk of anyone walking in on them. She couldn¡¯t really see Elijah being into public sex either, and as much as their relationship was open¡ªalthough she couldn¡¯t remember the last time either of them had taken advantage of that fact¡ªfinding someone she trusted enough to fuck her in anything close to public¡­

    ¡°Yo, Faylyn, want a hit?¡± Beth asked the younger girl as Sil grumbled but arranged to send the man some money for the drugs.

    ¡°Wha¡¯ if someone comes in?¡± she asked, even as the look on her face was very, very interested. She was so young¡ªso poor¡ªthat Emilia wondered if she¡¯d ever done drugs before. They weren¡¯t uncommon in the area, and any other, not swelteringly hot day you could easily see deals going down on the street, people wobbling through the world as it spun and melted around them.

    ¡°No one¡¯s been in ''cept the four of us,¡± Beth pointed out, accepting the bottle from the man.

    He gave her some basic instructions on how to take a hit¡ªuse the tube attached to the top to take a nice, deep breath, should be enough for five, maybe six hits¡ªthanked them for their time and money, and slipped out the door, the bell jingling behind him.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to,¡± Emilia added as she watched the man pull another bottle from his coat¡ªwhich, stars, he must be boiling alive in that thing¡ªand head towards the ocean. He slipped a personal decontaminator into his mouth, exited the city¡¯s decontamination systems and began making his way closer to the water, disappearing as he dipped over the boardwalk¡¯s edge. ¡°But, it¡¯s a short high. You can close the store for an hour or so, if you wanted to?¡±

    Faylyn bit her lip, fingers tapping an erratic rhythm over one of the grimy tables that even the best cleaning agents couldn¡¯t hope to save. ¡°Ya¡¯ll gonna leave?¡±

    ¡°Do you want us to?¡± she asked. Getting high for the first time by yourself wasn¡¯t exactly something she would recommend.

    ¡°I¡­¡± The younger girl broke off, nervous with energy that said she wanted to say yes. Yes, she wanted to try. Yes, she wanted to be alone when she did. Yes, she wanted someone with her when she did.

    ¡°How about this,¡± Beth said, tilting the bottle this way and that, watching the vapour inside sway with the movement, ¡°we¡¯ll take our hits and leave the rest here. You can decide later if you want to try. Maybe call that little blonde friend of yours over, when you¡¯re more in the mood?¡±

    Faylyn¡¯s entire posture relaxed a little. ¡°S¡¯nice of you.¡±

    Beth glared up at her, blue eyes sharp and focused as she said, voice half-serious, half-teasing, ¡°I expect a full retelling of how it goes, next time we come in.¡±

    Faylyn smiled, swiping up their dirty dishes and empty bottles. ¡°Sur¡¯ thing,¡± she said, skipping over to dump the dishes into the washer. It was relatively new¡ªnewer than anything else in the restaurant by far. It had just appeared one day, already paid for with a note assuring Faylyn that it was for her and not stolen or misdelivered. Her father had tried to sell it for more treatments, each one extending his doomed life a sliver more for a small fortune. Faylyn had refused, claiming it was a gift, and what if the person who had given it to them came in and saw it wasn¡¯t there.

    ¡°They cou¡¯ throw a fit, le¡¯ everyone know we¡¯re ungra¡¯ful!¡± she had said¡ªor, told them she had said, when they¡¯d come in later that week.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think Sil would have thrown a fit, only thrown her father into the ocean. What a tragedy that would have been.

    ¡°So, who¡¯s going first?¡± Beth asked, looking between Emilia and Sil.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what this stuff will do to us,¡± Sil said sensibly, always sensibly.

    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine,¡± Emilia assured him, winking and taking the bottle from her friend. ¡°It¡¯ll also be fun.¡± She might not have any desire to visit the Strats¡ªpink tide or no¡ªanytime soon, but she had to admit she missed the high of the pink vapour. It was magical and all-consuming. She hoped the bottled variety was just as awesome as the fresh stuff.

    She grabbed a sanitizing wipe from a dispenser and wiped down the top of the tube¡ªstars knew where the thing had been. ¡°Cheers!¡± she said, raising the bottle into the air and wrapping her lips around the tube.

    It tasted sourer than she remembered, but that was probably the Magic Pow Beth loved so much. The pink vapours filled her lungs, and she had a moment of solid, fathomless regret. Hallucinations. Hallucinations she had only ever experienced on the Strats, and that one time when her father had dragged her on a business trip to the Grey Sands¡ªpunishment for skipping too many classes, classes she was too smart for but was still a year away from being allowed out of, once her D-Levels were tested.

    Hallucinations she loved. Friends she loved. Memories of the worst day of her life.

    Then, all the regret was gone, and all that remained was deep contentment and the world spinning. A timer reading, [Pink Vapour: 00:59:59] popped up in the corner of her vision. Very helpful of her Censor, best thing it had done all day. Less helpful was the notification that her stats had been lowered by the drug. She had no intention of more raids today, thank you.

    She hiccuped, giggled, handed the bottle over to Sil, who eyed it dubiously but sucked in his own breath regardless. Stupid. They were all a little stupid, burying trauma and pain in drugs and dreams and sex.

    The bell jingled, and Emilia only vaguely knew that it was because she was leaving. Hot air danced around her and for a moment she eyed up the ocean, the pink vapours floating over it.

    No. She didn¡¯t need to be lost in the high and drown. Not today, anyways.

    Behind her, Sil and Beth popped out as well, practically falling into her as they giggled¡ªwell, Beth giggled, Sil smiled and huffed laughs that were practically giggles for him. Beth¡¯s halting breaths were hot against her ear¡ªhow could it be hot against her in this insufferable heat?

    Then Sil giggled¡ªan actual fucking giggle¡ªand both she and Beth looked towards him. Sil did not giggle, even high on the best shit.

    ¡°Thinking about your hookup?¡± Beth guessed.

    Emilia frowned. How did she¡ª

    She followed the angle of Beth¡¯s gaze and laughed. ¡°Oh~ like that, is it, Sil?¡± she teased as she eyed up his half-hard dick. Sil¡¯s preferred sweats might hide a lot of his body, but they did nothing to hide when he was popping a boner.

    Sil smiled softly, even as his nose reddened. ¡°Maybe¡­¡± he said, eyes glazing over as he did something with his Censor, then he was gone, risking sliding on the rough sidewalks as he presumably disappeared to find his hookup.

    ¡°Apparently he got the sub-30s contact info,¡± Beth noted, head bobbing and the world bobbing with her. She was beautiful and strong. So strong. Stronger than she should have needed to be. ¡°How we gonna get home?¡±

    ¡°You can slide,¡± Emilia pointed out, ¡°once we get to less¡±¡ªshe waved vaguely at the world¡ª¡°treacherous land.¡±

    Beth almost never slid solo, but she could. So, technically, could Emilia, but she was likely to end up crashing, her control sketchy at best and non-existent at worst. Neither of them would die sliding on the road, and they¡¯d probably be fine, even if they went on the slide lines¡­

    Beth looked at her like she had lost her mind, which fair, and also, yes.

    ¡°Walking it is then!¡± she cheered, trying and failing to loop arms with her friend.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 11: Like the Aethernet Itself is Guiding the Way

    The world was collapsing around Emilia, but at least it wasn¡¯t hot anymore. They had lucked out, on their way towards the closest bubble stand, and run into another of Faylyn¡¯s regulars. Alice Hayn had helpfully been headed into town to pick up her son and his friends, who had been protesting at the courthouse. She¡¯d offered them a ride in her beat up little vehicle¡ªso rare in a city that ran on slide lines and bubbles¡ª and then they¡¯d been bobbing along the cracked road until it reached the industrial area. The road had been clear and fast from there, and by the time she and Beth stumbled out of it, giggling about the world-bending hallucinations raging around them, less than half of their hour was up.

    ¡°Thank you~¡± they called between their giggles as Alice Hayn loaded up her son and his friends, still vibrating from the thrill of their protest, into the vehicle. There were a lot of them, far too many for the little thing to safely hold, Emilia was sure.

    ¡°Where now?¡± Emilia asked, trying to ignore the way buildings were crumbling around her. Birds of rock and glass flew by. The ground sprouted trees that grew to touch the sky and wither and die in the span of a second. Her shoes were gone¡ªshe wasn¡¯t exactly sure if that was a hallucination, or if she¡¯d been too hot on the ride and forgotten them in Alice Hayn¡¯s vehicle. Whoops.

    ¡°Beth?¡± she called, turning to find her friend gone. ¡°Fuck.¡±

    Emilia looked around, trying to glare through the explosion of trees to find her friend. Well, at least they were in the city centre now. OIC cameras monitored the majority of the outdoor space within most major cities¡ªmore and more minor ones, too, since the war. Not everywhere, but if the system detected anything funny going on¡ªlike Beth getting dragged away by someone the system couldn¡¯t identify as knowing her¡ªit would send SecOps to assess the situation. Awesome fun that would be, especially with Sil having disappeared, calls to his Censor on the ride over having gone unanswered.

    If Beth¡ªor her¡ªhappened to get arrested for causing trouble, they¡¯d need someone respectable to bust them out (Read: politely ask SecOps to release them into their care). Even while high as the clouds, Sil was their go to respectable friend. Without him¡­ Elijah? Maybe, but he¡¯d lecture them. Unpleasant. She could always call Olivier up¡ªwhat an experience that would be. First time contacting him in a decade so he could bust her or Beth out of a high hold. He¡¯d lecture them too, but he¡¯d be so cute and grumpy doing it. Elijah would be judgy and tired, his jaw tightening in that way that always made her imagine him as a curmudgeonly old man.

    More likely than the high hold, was that SecOps would escort them back to their dorms to sleep it off, if they thought they were too high for this early in the day. Wasn¡¯t like she was new to that kind of thing; she¡¯d been getting escorted home by SecOps since her teens.

    The other risk was that they¡¯d run into a raid. They¡¯d be flagged as noncombatants, but she didn¡¯t really want to waste her high stuck inside a raidland. Better to keep moving. If she was moving, the raids couldn¡¯t find her, surely?

    Emilia blinked around her and began to move, unsure of where she was going. She was sure she looked fucked out, blinking wide, blown out eyes this way and that, swerving around imaginary tress that bolted up in front of her and people who appeared from nowhere but had always been there¡ªunless she was hallucinating people, too. She definitely wasn¡¯t ruling that out.

    ¡°Princess.¡±

    She swore as Olivier¡¯s voice, that constant insult of his, echoed through her head, the words so loud they became a visible trail of letters through the world.

    ¡°Asshole,¡± she muttered to herself, even if his insult had come to hold a sliver of affection by the time he had won freedom for her. He was still an asshole, though.

    She followed the letters of his words¡ªshe couldn¡¯t help herself. She¡¯d never been able to help herself when it came to him. She had poked and prodded him until he broke more than once. Usually, he¡¯d ended up fuming, that carefully sculpted facade of calm cracking against her until he couldn¡¯t lie to her anymore¡ªcouldn¡¯t say that the life his parents demanded of him made him anything other than miserable. Other times, he had stomped out of his apartment, the one Emilia had taken over as her case got going. He still had some of her stuff, or she¡¯d left it there once things were settled, anyways. He¡¯d probably thrown most of it out long before the war had even been a ripple of thought across the world.

    Her hand slid over cool stone, and she finally pulled her eyes away from the Princess Princess Princess dragging her through the city. This was the part she had always liked about pink vapour, the pull of it, the feeling that it was the aethernet itself talking to her, guiding her hands over the Strats to find each hold with perfect accuracy, as though the high was a gift from the universe, pushing her where she was meant to go.

    Emilia¡¯s fingers dragged over rough rocks, some exterior of an old wall, surrounding the courtyard of a building she could only see the top of. It sat so oddly within this area of the city, the area¡¯s standard, stark white buildings towering floors and floors above the wall¡¯s red imperfection. She continued on, Princess still visible from the corner of her eye, leading her deeper down the alleyway. It dragged her onward, the area overgrown, and even she couldn¡¯t tell what was real anymore. Flowers and bushes and vines rose up out of the ground, natural and unmoving except against the brush of her feet¡ªher definitely shoeless feet. Whoops indeed.

    She laughed slightly before hissing. ¡°Fuck,¡± Emilia breathed out as she glared down at where she had stepped onto a thorny bush. Who even grew thorny plants these days? Hadn¡¯t genetic engineering weeded out the thorns on any plants worth growing yourself? And in the city, no less! True, people didn¡¯t generally walk about without shoes, but¡ª

    ¡°They are growing out from under the wall,¡± a too familiar voice said from behind her, and Emilia¡¯s heart stopped. ¡°My apologies. The gardeners should have kept better watch to keep them inside, although you should be wearing shoes.¡±

    Emilia swallowed, every fibre of her being shifting and moving towards the man slowly walking towards her. If she ran, would he give chase? Probably. How was he even out here, without his security. Her Censor reached out, searching for anyone else, but no. There was no one else. Fuck, leave it to the de la Rue¡¯s to have such a funky little house in the middle of the city.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Olivier asked, his voice far closer than before as his steps halted. Always so polite. Emilia had once assumed it was distance, apathy. He wouldn¡¯t have been the first non-dev she¡¯d met who barely gave a shit for anyone but themselves. As a rule, non-devs couldn¡¯t have black knots, but she¡¯d always found them more likely to be selfish pricks.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she replied softly, wondering if he would recognize her voice. If not for her hair, for the irregular deviation that gave it that particular silver-grey colour that hair stylists could never quite get right, maybe he wouldn¡¯t have. She heard it when he recognized her voice, the soft intake of air, the swallow of his throat as he tried to figure out what to say, how to make her not bolt away. Not that she could get away, not high, not knotted like this, her perfect Physical D-Levels long since reduced to less than perfect. They were still pretty damn good, and even against Elijah¡¯s perfect Physical D-Levels she¡¯d been known to win. Not against Oliver, not against any non-dev, every one of her categories was too reduced now. Even if she had wanted to run¡ªto escape him and her past¡ªshe couldn¡¯t.

    Emilia turned, her light-purple eyes catching on his. One a blue so light it almost appeared white, the other a bright, spring green. He was beautiful, just as he always was. Older than she¡¯d last seen him in person, nearly a decade ago now. Somehow, his normally light-brown skin looked a little darker, his dark hair a little sun-kissed, like he¡¯d actually spent time in the sun recently. Over a screen, he had looked good. It was nothing compared to him in person.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    ¡°You changed,¡± she said, stupidly. He had, though, the sharp suit he had worn to the courthouse discarded for less formal clothes¡ªstill formal compared to the current styles, the clothes she saw at school every day. Both the sleeves of his white shirt and the cuffs of his clay-brown pants were rolled up, the white burn across his forearm, from his near death during the last battle of the war, stark against his golden skin.

    ¡°So have you,¡± he replied, because, of course, he would assume she had meant he had changed in the last decade, not the last hour.

    She smiled, despite herself, despite the anxiety and drugs and how beautiful he was. ¡°I meant since you left the courthouse.¡±

    ¡°You watched?¡±

    Her smile widened, saddened. ¡°Not on purpose. I was in the slums. Girl who works the restaurant had it on.¡±

    His eyes flickered, open in the way he rarely was with anyone, maybe with no one but her. Had he found someone else to be open with since the war? Or had she worked that hard to open up his heart just to deny him that openness when she ran? ¡°You go into Alver?¡± he asked, using the rarely used name for Piketown¡¯s slum. So polite. So respectful. Did he know even those who lived there didn¡¯t use that name?

    ¡°Yes. They have fantastic food there,¡± she replied, wondering if it mattered. ¡°Ever eat anything from there?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he said, taking a tentative step towards her. ¡°It is quite good. I believe it has more preservatives than most are used to. I have heard that makes it slightly more¡­ tasteful, for a moment, at least.¡± He crinkled his nose, as though he¡¯d let food from the slums sit on his tongue a bit too long, actually tasted what lay beneath those chemical enhancers.

    Emilia laughed, leaning against the brick wall. Luckily, the vines climbing up it weren¡¯t filled with thorns like the ones at her feet were, their leaves instead reminding her of a soft summer afternoon at her childhood home. The second one, never the first. The first had been hard and cold, even if the government had tried its best to make it soft and filled with laughter and love. It had always been clear how cold that prison was, under all the cushioning.

    Olivier tilted his head, assessing or questioning, she couldn¡¯t tell. Would he be able to tell how knotted up she was these days? Probably. ¡°You¡¯re high,¡± he said, not exactly judging her, not exactly not.

    ¡°Oh, yeah~¡± she sighed, leaning further into the vines. Maybe if she played it up, he¡¯d just assume her empty brokenness was the drugs. ¡°Did you know you can bottle up pink vapour?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± He was so close. When had he gotten so close? ¡°You are also injured.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Oh, yeah.¡± She looked down at herself. She had looked cute this morning, despite the minimal makeup that was definitely not in style. Now, she was dirty, covered in specks of blood and patches of aether. ¡°Got forced into a raid. It¡¯s fine. A student nurse patched me up.¡± She shrugged, wishing she didn¡¯t look quite so gross.

    ¡°Emilia¡ª¡± he started to say, cutting off in a move that was so not Olivier that she smiled again, unsure of when she had stopped. He was one of the only people who ever called her that, except her parents when they were pissed. Whenever she got around to seeing them again¡ªif she ever got around to it¡ªhow long would they use that name? How long would their resentment that she had needed to get away last?

    ¡°How are you still so beautiful?¡± she asked, raising a hand to drag over his cheek, grateful she¡¯d wiped them down at the restaurant, and she wasn¡¯t dragging grime over him.

    He leaned, ever so slightly into the touch, his eyes fluttering, breath catching. ¡°I take care of myself.¡±

    She blinked at him. Once, twice, before bursting into laughter.

    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡±

    She giggled, the world buzzing around her, a thousand bugs that existed here and then and nowhere at all flying around them as the high began to peak before it would splutter out.

    ¡°You basically just confirmed for me that I look like shit now. I mean, I clearly do.¡± She smiled, cheeks aching with how wide it was. ¡°Most people would be too polite to say anything about it, though.¡±

    Olivier¡¯s jaw tightened, and then he was right there, pressing her back against the vines, which exploded across time around them, wrapping them into a safe, private cocoon. ¡°You do not ¡®look like shit,¡¯¡± he said, voice so harsh it reminded her of when she was younger¡ªwhen they had first met, and he hated her with every fibre of his soul. She didn¡¯t think he hated her anymore, but Olivier had always kept his softer emotions so tightly controlled that she really couldn¡¯t tell. Even if he hadn¡¯t hated her the last time they¡¯d met, who knew what a decade long vanishing act had done. ¡°You are dirty¡ªfilthy, actually¡ªbut you do not ¡®look like shit.¡¯¡±

    ¡°Then, why are you so pissy?¡±

    ¡°Because you imply that you are not taking care of yourself,¡± he bit out, jaw clenching as he tried not to say more.

    What could he even say? Guilt her into taking care of herself? ¡°People died so you could live. So live.¡± She¡¯d heard that one before. All it had done was make her feel guilty, the tiny nudge she¡¯d needed before her perfect Balance had shattered, traumatic knots winding their way through her genome until she was a fraction of what she had once been. Until she hadn¡¯t had the strength to even try unknotting the mess she¡¯d become.

    Olivier sighed, his head falling forward to press against hers. ¡°Are you at least safe? Happy?¡±

    Emilia let her eyes flutter shut¡ªlet herself just breathe their shared air. His hand trailed up her back. Fingers pressed at the base of her neck, a cooling rush of aether flowing over the small scars where her Censor was installed, before sliding further up, scratching into the base of her ponytail. She leaned into him slightly, letting him pull her hair free of the elastic. It fell messily around her, dirt and sweat and lack of a shower that morning making her cringe slightly. He didn¡¯t seem to notice or care, though, and his fingers were as gentle as they always had been as he ran them through it, pulling knots out as he went.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said a million years later¡ªor maybe it had only been a moment. Time was spinning around her, moving this way and that. Explosions and love and sex, fingers dripping blood over the Strats, cold rooms with two small forms pressed against her sides and a dozen others crying from their own beds because they weren¡¯t good enough to find homes for themselves.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she swallowed out, willing the drugs to dissipate, to spiral away and leave her to come down into the safety of Olivier¡¯s arms. ¡°I am¡­ happy.¡± She smiled up at him when he pulled back, a true happy one. She was happy. She had friends who loved her¡ªwho were willing to piss her off by dragging her to raids because they knew she needed the money. She had a boyfriend who¡ªregardless of whether he finally got around to breaking up with her soon or not¡ªhad given her a year of fun and laughter. He¡¯d also given her seven years of hating him before that, but even that hatred had been fun.

    ¡°And safe?¡± Olivier asked, eyes skimming over her, taking in her general state of filth, hair that definitely needed a trim, but she otherwise slathered in all the fancy shit she could afford. Not too skinny. She was high and slightly injured, yes, but she had no marks running up her bare arms or tucked behind her knees¡ªno signs of drug abuse so severe he should be worried. His Censor knocked lightly on hers, and she rolled her eyes before batting it away.

    ¡°Let a girl keep her secrets, will you?¡± she teased, taking the chance to run a hand through his own, dark waves, trying to ignore the burn stretching from beneath his collar to his ear. ¡°It¡¯s longer than when I last saw you,¡± she said, fiddling with the locks that fell to just below his ears, styled back to keep his bangs out of his eyes. It was a stupid thing to say. Hair got in your eyes in a war¡ªalmost everyone had chopped their hair short, or bound it up in ponytails so tight it made your head split apart. ¡°Bet your parents love it,¡± she added when all he did was watch her in that horrible, all-seeing way of his¡ªof all non-devs, but it had always felt like Olivier saw more of her than even he meant to. Lawyer skills, perhaps. Lawyer genes, even¡ªhundreds of years of lawyers breeding into the perfect, beautiful destroyer of injustice.

    ¡°Safe?¡± he asked again, and she had the distinct impression that he would not be letting her leave if he wasn¡¯t assured she was safe.

    ¡°Yes, mom,¡± she said, smiling brightly when his eyes narrowed at the familiar nickname. He¡¯d spent almost a year working on her case, she¡¯d spent that year thinking she was going to jail for life and partying as hard as she could. He had not been impressed. Locked her into the apartment she¡¯d taken over once, when he¡¯d gotten sick of her coming home wasted with some nobody he¡¯d have to kick out the next morning. Even her escape skills hadn¡¯t been able to break through whatever defences he¡¯d enacted around that apartment. She¡¯d screamed at him, hit him, pushed him up against a wall. He¡¯d flipped them, and then they¡¯d snapped. Fucked against that wall. Fucked on the couch, the bed, in the shower. She¡¯d stopped going out after that, content to push and prod at her new toy, see how far she could get¡ªhow much she could get away with¡ªbefore he snapped and bent her over the nearest piece of furniture.

    She pushed and prodded against the Censor that was still hovering at the edge of her own. Olivier let her in easily, let her press the memories of that night and a thousand fragments of the months after into him. He was so close, pressing her into the wall of life behind her, that she could feel his reaction, see the way his eyes dilated, those stunning, heterochromatic eyes of his filling with black¡ªjust like that first time.

    ¡°Wanna have some fun, ¡®vier?¡± she asked, tugging gently at a button on his shirt. ¡°Assuming I¡¯m not too dirty for you?¡±

 Arc 1 | Chapter 12: That wasâ€¦ Enjoyable

    Olivier¡¯s belt clinked as he slid it back into place. Emilia watched him through lowered eyelids, her day and the happy sex hormones catching up with her. If they¡¯d been near anything worth sleeping on, she definitely would have considered it. His eyes flickered up to her, just for the barest moment, before he was stepping forward and helping right her clothes because she¡¯d apparently just been standing there with her romper around her feet. Hilarious. She hoped Olivier¡¯s Censor had recorded her for later.

    The aethernet shuddered slightly as he knelt, summoning water from it to rinse her clothes and then her body once again. Where the first time¡ªbefore they¡¯d fucked¡ªhe¡¯d rinsed off remnants of dirt from the raid, this time it was all sweat and the stickiness of sex that his skill wiped away. He didn¡¯t touch his own clothes, marred with dirt from her raid, from when he had touched her before so thoughtfully cleaning her up while they waited for her to come down from her high, from when he¡¯d forced her to wait until she could fully consent to sex.  Now, when he pulled her romper up¡ªalthough, not before he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the constellation of stars that wrapped around half of her ribcage, a sprinkling of aether shuddering into her¡ªhe was the messy one.

    ¡°So polite,¡± she mumbled, smiling up at him as he adjusted her straps. He was so tall, so broad and muscular, it made her feel like a doll¡ªfragile, so easily broken if he only tried.

    He hummed quietly at her, the sound of people leaving their jobs beginning to reach them through the alley¡ªwhen had it gotten so late? Fucking nebulas, had she spent too long at the restaurant or too long fucking Olivier in the alley? She wasn¡¯t sure, but her Censor lit up to tell her it was almost dinner time, although she wasn¡¯t sure she was hungry just yet. Only tired.

    ¡°That was¡­ enjoyable,¡± Olivier said. He¡¯d never been good at knowing what to say after sex, and the consistency of it, even decades removed, made her smile a little sharper. The big strong non-dev, taken down by a good lay.

    ¡°Don¡¯t generally enjoy yourself with anyone?¡± she asked, curious. Olivier was hot, but like everyone in his family, a complete workaholic. His family might have been trying to hook him up with random girls since before she¡¯d known him, but he¡¯d never taken it seriously¡ªnot before the war, certainly not after¡­ Okay, she occasionally checked up on people from her old life. So sue her¡­ or maybe not.

    ¡°I have someone I see regularly. It is nothing serious.¡± He hesitated for a moment, adjusting the waistband of her romper, his fingers dragging across a ticklish spot that she knew he must have remembered, and making her squirm. ¡°They are also not a woman.¡±

    She gaped at him. ¡°Seriously? Do your parents know?¡±

    Olivier shook his head, freezing for a sliver of a second as he assessed a message through his Censor, so fast that unless they knew his habits well, she doubted anyone would know that¡¯s what he had done. ¡°It isn¡¯t serious,¡± he repeated, shrugging as he stepped away, his hands lingering on her hips like he couldn¡¯t bear to let go just yet. She hoped she¡¯d have bruises there later.

    ¡°Open relationship?¡±

    ¡°Not a relationship, just an arrangement.¡±

    ¡°Ah~¡± she sighed, bobbing up and down on her toes. Olivier had been sensible enough to move them out of the thorny patch, and the moss beneath her feet was soft and soothing. ¡°My boyfriend isn¡¯t serious either,¡± she said, for lack of anything else to say. How do you politely excuse yourself from the presence of an old acquaintance? ¡°We¡¯re open, though,¡± she added when Olivier¡¯s expression tightened slightly.

    ¡°I¡­ see¡­¡± he said quietly. Another message. Another.

    ¡°Someone looking for you?¡± she asked, hoping her tone didn¡¯t sound too hopeful. She liked Olivier, but she needed to get out of here before he figured out too much about what she¡¯d been up to the last decade.

    ¡°My mother,¡± he said tightly¡ªtoo tightly. Their eyes met for a moment, held together by understanding that even a decade apart couldn¡¯t erase.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    Olivier shrugged, like there wasn¡¯t anything to be done about it. ¡°She doesn¡¯t like that I¡¯ve grown out of obeying her every demand.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s gaze, which had been following a bug¡ªa real life one, her hallucinations having long disappeared¡ªscurrying through the plants at their feet, shot up to him. ¡°Seriously?¡±

    His eyes slid back to hers¡ªor maybe they had never left them while hers wandered. ¡°Seriously,¡± he deadpanned back to her, and then she was laughing, leaning into his chest, his hands sliding up her sides and shoulders, soft and tickling, like he wanted to take her again¡ªhe probably could if she let him. She wasn¡¯t going to, not now.

    ¡°Wow,¡± she sighed when her laughter ebbed. She leaned back, eyes trailing over him. She slid a memory of him in this moment into her Censor, saw his lips twitch as though he knew exactly what she would be using that memory for later. ¡°Never thought I¡¯d see the day when you¡¯d go against your family¡¯s wishes.¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°It has been a long decade,¡± he said, the look that shot across his face seeming to imply that he immediately regretted his words.

    ¡°It has,¡± she agreed, ignoring the implication behind his words¡ªthe ¡°You would have known these things, if you hadn¡¯t vanished.¡±

    ¡°You have to go?¡± Olivier asked, stepping away from her and letting his hands drop, and Emilia wondered if he knew how telling his tone and body language were. The slight tinge of sadness edging his voice, the way he moved slightly to the side, as though to block her from leaving.

    ¡°I should make sure my friends got back to campus okay,¡± she said, mentally swearing to herself. She hadn¡¯t meant to reveal she was a student at Astrapan.

    Olivier said nothing about it, although he had obviously made a note of it. Made a note of where to find her, if he needed her in the future. Made a note of where to check, to make sure she was still alive and kicking.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone, okay?¡± She looked at him pleadingly, hoping he would understand why she needed this¡ªwhy she needed to exist in a world separate from the one that he belonged to. No, that wasn¡¯t right. She didn¡¯t need him to understand why, she just needed him to trust her, or better yet, dislike everyone else in her former life enough not to tell them. He could do that! Olivier had always been an outlier in her life! He¡¯d even gotten into a very out of character fight with her ex once. Granted, said ex was now dead, but still! He¡¯d also had a few of them arrested by military SecOps another time, during the war. That might have been deserved, but it still showed a general dislike for the people she knew.

    Would he like her friends now more? Pria would annoy him at first, but then they¡¯d bond over seeing too much of other people. Sil and him would be awkward and silent. Beth and Olivier¡­ Emilia had no idea what they would be like. They¡¯d probably immediately love or hate each other, depending on their moods¡ªnot to mention whether Beth could get over the whole non-dev thing. As for Elijah¡­

    Emilia¡¯s lips pressed tight, trying not to laugh at the image of Oliver and Elijah together. That would¡­ not go well. Possibly even worse than it had with her ex.

    Olivier studied her for a moment, his body still angled slightly into her path, just enough that had she wanted to push past him, she would have to actually push. If he noted her amusement at his expense, he said nothing of it. ¡°Alright,¡± he said after so long that Emilia had begun to believe he wasn¡¯t going to agree. ¡°Let me give you some money before you go.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡ª¡± she started to say, mouth snapping shut when he glared at her.

    His eyes dragged over her again, head to toe, before snapping back up. He didn¡¯t say anything, but she knew what he was thinking. ¡°Yes, you do need my money.¡±

    Apparently, even slightly cleaner, she still looked rough. Which, fair. Also, rude. Well, he also now knew she was a starving student who hated raids. It wasn¡¯t exactly hard to guess that her bank account ran on fumes.

    She huffed, muttering about bossy old men and ignoring the way he muttered back about bratty little princesses, but this time, when his Censor tapped on hers¡ªnot asking for full access this time, just a request to be allowed to send some money over¡ªshe let him in. The money slid into her accounts and she didn¡¯t even bother to check how much he¡¯d sent¡ªwhatever it had been, it was surely too much. She definitely wouldn¡¯t have to worry about money for a while¡ªpossibly ever. It wouldn¡¯t surprise her if the amount were truly disgusting.

    Then, a contact number slid into her Censor. Olivier de la Rue, it read.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if you had erased it, or not,¡± he said.

    She looked back to him, finding, for perhaps the first time since he had entered the alley¡ªsave when he had been rearranging his clothing¡ªthat he wasn¡¯t looking at her. She followed his gaze to the top of a tree, reaching up towards a small stream of natural light slipping between the towering buildings around them. Most of the plants on the planet could survive in the dark, as long as they had natural air around them, filled with chemicals that could replace the light of the sun. They wouldn¡¯t generally thrive, but they could live. These alley plants were thriving, though. If she had still been close to Olivier, not hiding from his world, she might have asked what in the world was going on in his family¡¯s ancient compound. She wasn¡¯t, and she let her curiosity die inside her.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t,¡± she said, adding the updated photo of Olivier to her records¡ªso serious, too serious¡ªalthough she left the one that would light up her vision if he called¡ªif her Censor let his call through, which it wouldn¡¯t¡ªas an adorable one of him sitting at their kitchen table, sex tousled, shirt long-lost and pants still open¡ªalthough he had tucked himself away by then. He had been watching her then, too.

    She pushed the image away, something curling in her stomach at seeing it¡ªat seeing a body that no longer existed. She had never seen the healed result of the burns that covered so much of his body¡ªhad run away before he had even come out of the coma¡ªbut she had seen the burns, sizzling and spreading as she almost died trying to save his life. As she tried to make him stay with her.

    And then she had been the one to leave.

    ¡°You don¡¯t let us call you.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t.¡± She glared at him, still examining that stupid tree, all his focus on that tree, tucked away in the dark of his family¡¯s compound so she couldn¡¯t see more than its top, desperately seeking light it didn¡¯t actually need, just desperately wanted. The leaves at its top were the same fresh green colour as Olivier¡¯s right eye, the clouds far above still tinged with pink.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she grumbled, unblocking his calls. Her Censor still would have notified her had he¡ªor any of the other people she had blocked from calling or finding her¡ªtried to call, but only after they¡¯d given up. A few people still tried calling her, every once in a while. Most had long since given up. Only three¡ªnow four¡ªpeople¡¯s calls were allowed through. Two of those people barely called anymore. ¡°If you call me too often, I¡¯ll block you again.¡±

    Olivier¡¯s eyes snapped back to her, all interest in the tree gone since it had accomplished its purpose of pissing her off. So fucking annoying, that even after all this time, not having his attention locked onto her was like a scab she couldn¡¯t not pick at. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Emilia growled at him, finally pushing off the wall to leave. He stepped aside, cocky smile ghosting over his face. He let her pass, let her leave him standing there alone in the mess of plants as she ran away from her past¡ªfrom the mess of love and blood that hid there¡ªyet again.

    She thought she heard him whisper goodbye, but when she turned back, just before she reached the corner that would return her to the street, he was gone. Gone, just like he had been that first time they parted.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 13: What is it with Men

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to!¡±

    Emilia glared at her roommate. Pria was now clean¡­ish, her black skin shining with sweat from an excursion out into the quad, which had broken out into a rave while Emilia had been in Piketown. Pria had quickly changed her mind about partying, but the heat was so unbearable that a moment out in it was sweat inducing. She was also still suffering from the aftereffects of last night¡¯s drugs and needed to go to the clinic. Actually, if anything, her aftereffects were worse now than earlier, the other girl screaming at anyone who tried to talk to her that they needed to speak up.

    Pria had tried insisting it was the result of the music because someone had decided to use an actual sound system to blast music through the quad rather than let people control it themselves, through their Censors. The was not only loud, but whoever was controlling it had objectively horrible taste in music. So did all the people dancing. There were much better music options than this crap, in Emilia¡¯s humble opinion.

    Campus security had tried to break the party up, citing that physical speakers were forbidden without prior approval, before confiscating them all. Someone had proceeded to hack into the school¡¯s announcement system, meant to be used in emergencies where they couldn¡¯t afford for someone to ignore a notification through their Censor.

    The music was now blasting throughout campus, and nowhere¡ªsave their dorm¡ªwas safe. Emilia may have hacked into the system in order to mute it in their dorm. She could have turned off all the music, but campus security had annoyed her a few months ago, and she saw no reason to help them out now. She also could have turned the music off in all the dorms, but, well, there were long-standing rivalries to think of. This had slightly backfired, the fact that their dorm was comparatively quiet having resulted in far more visitors than usual, more and more people getting fed up with the music.

    ¡°You have to,¡± she yelled at her roommate. She had been trying to only speak extremely loudly to Pria, but annoyance was starting to filter through her voice. ¡°I will not be living with you like this for the next week.¡±

    She sipped at her drink, something her Censor had ordered for her in an attempt to wake her up. Apparently, while she was a little nervous about using all that money Olivier had practically forced on her, her Censor had no such qualms. She had already received a dozen receipts, probably for things she did truly need, but still! Very presumptuous of her Censor to just buy things without her permission!

    ¡°I¡¯ll go tomorrow if it hasn¡¯t settled by then!¡± Pria yelled back¡ªactually yelled. As previously noted, Pria did not like the clinic. She also didn¡¯t like knot therapy units or tattoo parlours or fitness centres or the school cafeteria, although no one liked that place.

    ¡°No, you won¡¯t,¡± Emilia spit back. She was working really, really hard at not stomping her foot at her stubborn roommate. She¡¯d already given in and crossed her arms, trying to enact a threatening posture. If she hadn¡¯t run into Olivier, she probably would have stomped her foot, but she knew if she did so now, she¡¯d be falling asleep to the sound of him calling her princess.

    Unfortunately, neither Sil nor Elijah nor even Blaze were around to help her physically get her roommate to the clinic. She wasn¡¯t sure where they were¡ªalthough she assumed Sil was holed up with last night turned this night¡¯s hookup. Curious. Sil didn¡¯t double-dip this close together. She had wondered in passing if Olivier knew who the mystery hookup was, or if she could search through de la Rue employment records to try and figure it out herself, but had quickly abandoned that idea. Either this would be the magical man who would get Sil to settle down and date, and they¡¯d meet him eventually, or it wouldn¡¯t. No sense wasting time tracking down the mystery man.

    Beth, on the other hand, was doing the sensible thing and sleeping. Emilia had tracked her down after leaving Olivier, finding her stuck inside another raid, which had unfortunately fallen after she sobered up. She had been rightfully exhausted when she emerged, and Emilia had had to drag her to the nearest bubble station and then into her room, where she had promptly passed out.

    ¡°It will be too busy tomorrow,¡± she explained, trying not to sound too condescending. ¡°It¡¯s probably already busy, with all those idiots partying out there, but it¡¯ll be worse in the morning. Then you really won¡¯t want to go.¡±

    ¡°Then I¡¯ll wait till the next day.¡±

    ¡°Class all day.¡±

    ¡°Then the day after that.¡±

    ¡°We have plans to go out, unless you want to cancel?¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°Then we need to go tonight¡ªright now, preferably. I don¡¯t know about you, but I need food, and soon.¡±

    ¡°We could¡ª¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°But!¡±

    ¡°No. No delays. No food now and clinic later. Clinic now, then I¡¯ll treat you to whatever meal your stomach desires.¡±

    Pria shot her a suspicious look. ¡°How you gonna afford that?¡±

    ¡°Got paid to have sex with a hot guy this afternoon.¡± Not exactly true, but somehow Emilia didn¡¯t think it was entirely untrue either. Something told her that, if she happened to drain her account of all the money Olivier had given her¡ªwhich would be a true feat, she was sure¡ªall she¡¯d have to do was ask, and he¡¯d send more. He¡¯d probably ask to meet up, though. He wouldn''t hold the money hostage, but he¡¯d ask so sweetly, so much concern lacing his voice, and then one thing would lead to another and boom! They¡¯d be fucking in a random hotel room. Not exactly money for sex, not exactly not money for sex.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Pria¡¯s eyebrows lifted. ¡°I thought you and Elijah closed your relationship?¡±

    ¡°Not officially,¡± Emilia said, taking her roommate¡¯s distraction as a chance to loop their arms together and begin dragging her out of their room towards the elevator.

    ¡°Sure, but neither of you have hooked up with anyone else in, what? Like three months?¡±

    It had probably been closer to five, but she didn¡¯t tell Pria that. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, but we never officially closed it.¡±

    ¡°Mhm¡­¡± Pria hummed, shooting her a look that told her didn¡¯t think her boyfriend would take the news too well. Too bad for him. If he¡¯d wanted her all to himself, he should have made that clear. Closing their relationship required consent and communication, not vibes. If he asked¡­ Well, she¡¯d deal with that if he did. Yesterday, she probably would have agreed. Today¡­ Well, she had been reminded of things she enjoyed and Elijah wasn¡¯t into. That didn¡¯t mean she intended to go out and find those things, but she liked having the option.

    They stepped out of the elevator and back into the oppressive heat, music immediately beginning to blare around them. It really was awful, some kind of niche dance music that was popular in some clubs at the moment¡ªthe ones she, Pria and Beth specifically avoided. She thought Sil liked it, something about how it was great music to grind to, but he never forced them to go with him when he was in the mood for it. It probably wasn¡¯t so much that he felt bad about subjecting them to music he knew they hated, and more that he was going to pull a disappearing act as soon as he could. When Sil wanted to dance, Sil wanted to fuck.

    ¡°Ugh,¡± Pria moaned, long and drawn out, as she let Emilia tug her through the crowd. ¡°This is awful! How long is this supposed to last?¡±

    Emilia¡¯s Censor popped up, saying¡ª

    ¡°A week!?¡± Pria yelled, more than a few heads turning towards them as her voice overtook even the music. ¡°No, no! I can¡¯t do it! I¡¯ll die! I¡¯ll die, I say! D. I. E. Die!¡±

    Emilia couldn¡¯t exactly disagree as her friend ranted about the university¡¯s shit decision not to install climate control. True, extreme weather was rare this side of the Penns, but still! It seemed like bad planning to not even have an emergency system, for when the rare pink tide or tundra swell hit, even if that was probably only once or twice a decade max. They had yet to experience a tundra swell, and Emilia really hoped the pink tide meant it would be at least a few years until one hit. Being hot was infinitely better than being frozen, if you asked her.

    They swerved through the gathered crowd, much smaller than most of the parties that exploded across campus. Usually, those parties were contained to specific events, like graduation, end of exams, holidays¡ªregular stuff. Nearly everyone attended those, even the more reserved and bookish making appearances, even if brief ones. The heat was obviously keeping people inside. That and¡ªif the pink bottles being passed around were any indication¡ªpink vapour. It didn¡¯t surprise her that news of the drug had spread, or that more people than just their slum town¡ª¡°Alver,¡± a voice that sounded suspiciously like Olivier¡¯s corrected¡ªconnection were dealing it. Likely, more than a few of the missing students were tucked away inside getting high in privacy, or had gone off to secure their own supply.

    ¡°The crowd isn¡¯t helping,¡± she yelled at her roommate over the noise crashing around them. Music and people and it was just so much. She tried adjusting her Censor, willing it to deafen her a little bit, tune her mind and ears to block out some of the sound, the heat emanating from the air and the people boxing them in¡ªbut it sputtered and failed.

    [Sound Control System: {Error}]

    [Error Code: {Error}]

    [Error Code: Error Code cannot be found]

    [Error Code: {Error}]

    [Error Code: Error Code cannot be found]

    [Error Code: {Error}]

    [Error Code: Error Code cannot be found]

    Fuck. She manually forced the error message loop to stop. Eventually, she was going to have to figure out whether she¡¯d hacked some error into it or if a knot was interfering with it. Hopefully, just a software issue, not a genetic one.

    Around them, someone from the engineering department had deployed a collection of drones. They dove and fluttered through the air, exploding into displays that people laughed and pointed at and left Emilia seeing stars and explosions much more deadly no matter how hard her Censor tried to hide those memories behind the walls she had erected around them, more system errors popping up across her blurry vision.

    ¡°Get out of there!¡±

    ¡°Fuck! Mayday! Mayday!¡±

    Someone had hacked the lighting system now too, it seemed. Lights flickered and changed colours, making campus look like the club people were pretending it was, even in the early evening light. One of the tallest building¡¯s lights had been manipulated to have a giant penis stretching up it. Lovely. What was with men and displaying penises on things?

    ¡°Why is there a dick on your jet?¡±

    ¡°Cause we¡¯re at war, and the only girls here worth fucking are already hooking up. Someone¡¯s gotta see my glorious cock~¡±

    ¡°You think, even if we were single, we¡¯d get near your nasty ass?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t we just go back home~?¡± Pria whined, leaning her weight onto Emilia. Their skin stuck together, bare tanned arm to night black arm. So sweaty. They¡¯d both needed to shower when they got back because, unfortunately, the growing darkness had done little to cool the air.

    ¡°You are such an ass! I just showered!¡±

    ¡°Aw~ poor little girl! Don¡¯t like being dirty? Well, guess what?¡± Dark blue eyes had stared her down. He had been just as dirty as she was, covered in mud and ash from head to toe, not that he¡¯d seemed to notice. ¡°This is war. You¡¯re gonna get a lot dirtier than that. There aren¡¯t showers at the front. Grow up or go home¡ªand cut that fucking hair.¡±

    Emilia shook her hair, wishing she¡¯d grabbed an elastic before leaving. There should be one around her wrist, digging a red line into her flesh when her hair wasn¡¯t pulled up. Olivier¡ªthe jerk¡ªhad pulled out her ponytail earlier and apparently pocketed her elastic. Now, she was elastic-less. Her long hair sticking to her, growing wet and disgusting with every step.

    ¡°It¡¯ll take longer to turn back than to get to the clinic,¡± she said, swallowing around the dryness of her throat. She wanted to die. She wanted to turn around and run home, hide in a cold shower and skip her classes for the next week. The idea of stepping back out into this firestorm¡ªof facing the memories it was dragging out of her¡ªfor the next week made her want to die. Death was better than this. Pria was right. If they stayed here, they were going to die.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 14: Gonna Kick that Guyâ€™s Butt

    Emilia and Pria exploded into the clinic, breathing in the cool air before realizing it was full up, packed with other students¡ªand a few teachers and other staff¡ªwaiting to be seen. Not a chair in sight. Fuck.

    Pria moaned beside her, and Emilia dragged her forward, towards the nurse working the counter. She smiled, trying not to look like a drowned rat, her hair sticking to her skin. She pushed it out of her face, wondering if she dared sneak away to the bathroom to do something¡ªanything¡ªto it. Maybe they had an elastic she could steal? Unlikely. She knew the data lab¡¯s paper rooms had elastics meant to do¡­ something with the paper, but those weren¡¯t quite the same as ones meant for hair. She was also pretty damn sure the clinic did not use paper, something about privacy. Fuck.

    ¡°She needs to see someone about an aftereffect,¡± she told the nurse, who looked up at her from under a tired-looking crop of brown hair.

    The nurse sighed, looking like he also wanted to die. ¡°Is it an emergency?¡± he asked, voice so exhausted that Emilia was surprised he was even managing to work. Weren¡¯t there laws about how long medical staff could work?

    ¡°No,¡± she said.

    Technically, you could lie, get taken into the back for an assessment quicker. Elijah and some of his friends had done that once, back during their first year, when she¡¯d been intent to beat him in every competition she could. She, Beth and Sil had signed up for a team obstacle event, so had Elijah, Blaze, and their asshole friend. Elijah had been an ass, too. She¡¯d pissed him off more. There had been an¡­ altercation, on the course. Things had gotten out of hand, they''d all pushed too hard and ended up in the clinic. They¡¯d felt like shit, sure. Not enough hydration, not enough calories for what they¡¯d done. Plenty of scraps and a few mild electrocutions and aether burns. One concussion¡ªthat had actually been serious¡ªbut everyone save Sil had most certainly not been emergencies.

    Emilia, Beth and Sil had left the clinic hours before Elijah and his friends had managed to. The clinic had basically held them hostage.

    ¡°You said it was an emergency,¡± the nurse had said, smiling ominously at Elijah with dead eyes, while Beth and Emilia lost their shit as they were bandaged up. ¡°We cannot allow you to leave until we run all the tests.¡± Somehow, the woman¡¯s smile had turned more threatening as she began swiping through a long list of procedures on a screen for everyone to see. Enema, prostate exam, colonic imaging along with many more, less embarrassing but potentially more painful procedures. Not only would their list take forever, but it was going to involve a lot of unpleasantness.

    Served them right.

    ¡°Her hearing is off,¡± Emilia told the nurse as his eyes glazed over, and he began logging information into the system.

    ¡°Enough that she can¡¯t talk?¡± he asked, giving Pria an assessing glance. Pria started a bit¡ªthe nurse having probably knocked at her Censor for information while she had been¡­

    Emilia followed her friend¡¯s gaze to an adorable little 40-something year old, likely only a year or two into her studies. She could even be 40, exactly, a little baby freshman. This would be the first year since the war, after all, where new students had been able to properly enjoy their gap decade. The war had delayed so much, aged people far beyond the normal 40 that most started university at. The people in their own freshman year had ranged from Beth¡¯s 32¡ªmuch too young, but she had had her reasons¡ªto a little over 70, which meant at 60, Emilia hadn¡¯t quite been the oldest of their cohort, but had been far beyond the 40 she had assumed she would enter university at.

    ¡°No, but she¡¯ll probably scream at you, and you¡¯ll have to scream back. I think her Censor hearing is messed up, too,¡± she added. She¡¯d tried to talk to Pria through their Censors, thinking maybe it was just her ears that were messed up. She had yelled in there as well, which wasn¡¯t exactly encouraging.

    The nurse¡¯s nose scrunched, and his eyes turned back to Emilia as he asked her a few more questions. How long? What did you take? Did you take it as well? No aftereffects for you?

    ¡°Do you know how long it will be?¡± Emilia asked, trying to resist looking to the crowd behind her.

    The man sighed, long and drawn out. He opened his mouth to speak when another voice cut him off.

    ¡°I can take you back now, if you like.¡±

    Emilia looked up to see one of their classmates¡ªone of the few older than her¡ªleaning against the door that led back to the treatment rooms.

    ¡°We aren¡¯t supposed to skip people up,¡± the nurse grumbled, although he seemed to lack much conviction. Emilia doubted campus nurses were paid enough to care about people being prioritized because they knew someone on duty.

    ¡°Everyone does,¡± her classmate, Payton something-or-other, said, stepping forward to smile down at the nurse. Unlike the nurse, Payton didn¡¯t appear to be tired, but then, he never did. They¡¯d been on a few so-called class bonding trips together over the last eight years, and she¡¯d never seen him yawn¡ªnot even during that horrible camping trip. ¡°Besides, unlike almost everyone waiting, these two were actually nice to you.¡±

    ¡°They could have been about to yell,¡± the nurse noted, seemingly out of habit more than an actual desire to fight about it, ¡°when I told them it would be a couple of hours.¡±

    Emilia was extremely grateful, at that moment, for Pria¡¯s lack of hearing. Had her roommate been able to hear that, she may well have yelled¡ªat her, not the staff¡ªthen stomped out. Why the clinic didn¡¯t put a system into place where you could leave and come back if your ailment was mild enough, she didn¡¯t know. Sitting among these sweaty, grumpy patients would have been miserable. She probably would have left too, used some of that money Olivier had forced upon her to bubble down to a clinic in the city.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Emilia said as Payton led them into the treatment rooms. Around them, a few doctors were moving between rooms, dealing with the more serious injuries. The majority of staff buzzing about were support staff and nurses, like Payton himself. She didn¡¯t know the older man very well, but she was pretty sure she¡¯d heard that he¡¯d been a medic during the war. She supposed that was true, if he was working here as a nurse. Why he¡¯d decided to pursue data-recovery and not continue in the medical field¡ªespecially since he was still managing to work in it¡­

    ¡°No problem,¡± Payton replied, giving her that soft, half-smile that always made her skin crawl a bit. She¡¯d seen that smile¡ªshe¡¯d grown up with that smile. That smile might trick most people, make them think you were just a normal person, but she knew better. It was probably why, the few times he¡¯d tried to get closer to one of her friends, she¡¯d conveniently found a reason to take them elsewhere. It wasn¡¯t that she didn¡¯t think he could be kind, that he could be a good friend¡ªone of her closest childhood friends was just like him, after all¡ªbut she didn¡¯t need someone with a black knot in her life right now. Especially not if it was a traumatic one. It could be natural¡ªthat would explain how he was still managing to work in medicine, when most war medics retreated from the memories they had experienced during the war¡ªbut she wasn¡¯t willing to risk it.

    She¡¯d risked it before, and that had almost landed her in jail for life.

    Payton motioned for Pria to take a seat at an assessor, the machine whirling to life and circling her a few times, looking for whatever was the cause of her hearing issues. ¡°You sure you aren¡¯t having any similar aftereffects?¡± he asked, glaring at the screen in front of him as information Emilia couldn¡¯t see flashed over it.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Yeah, why?¡±

    ¡°Nothing different, either? Nothing wrong at all?¡±

    She shook her head when he looked up at her, gaze hard in a way that suited him much more than the lazy smile did. ¡°Nope, nothing.¡± She thought back to the error her Censor had given her¡ªthe ¡°something is wrong, but I don¡¯t know what it is¡± error¡ªbut no. She¡¯d been getting more and more errors recently. That had existed long before last night¡¯s drugs.

    ¡°Sure you take the same thing? She didn¡¯t take anything extra?¡±

    Emilia opened her mouth to say no, but snapped it back closed. ¡°We¡­ weren¡¯t together the whole night,¡± she finally said. ¡°We took something with a hearing enhancer mixed in, so I kinda assumed this¡±¡ªshe motioned haphazardly to Pria, who was seemingly trying to ignore this whole situation¡ª¡°was from that.¡±

    Payton shook his head, glaring back down at the screen, then to Pria. ¡°You take anything extra last night?¡± he yelled at her, the earlier nurse¡¯s notes apparently having been thorough enough to mention that Pria would probably have to be screamed at.

    Her roommate bolted, attention recentring on the moment. She shook her head, then stopped, frowned. ¡°I did a shot. Bartender said it was something special? Figured it was just something rare? Foreign or something, not something¡­ extra.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s gaze hardened. Irresponsible, if the bartender was giving people random drugs disguised as alcohol.

    ¡°You''re going to need knot therapy,¡± Payton yelled.

    Pria¡¯s entire body tensed, her eyes growing so wide it would have been comical if not for the situation. The next moment, Emilia was right there with her, hands wrapped around her friend¡¯s, half to support her, half to keep her from bolting. It would be a massive pain to have to send campus security to drag her back.

    Payton shifted, moving so Pria and Emilia could see the screen of his tablet. ¡°I mean it,¡± he added, tone leaving no room for complaints when Pria started to object. ¡°This is serious. Knot therapy, or you could die.¡± Apparently, their classmate had been keeping notes on them, to know of Pria¡¯s hatred for knot therapy.

    ¡°Fuck~¡± Pria moaned, not even bothering to look at her DNA.

    Emilia looked, though, at the way it twisted and curved in a highlighted area. Compromised hearing because some drug had knotted her. Rude and rare. Dangerous, too. Knots from knotters weren¡¯t meant to be permanent. They were temporary things, meant to be removed within a few days¡ªsometimes even just a few hours. If you didn¡¯t, they could decay and spread. Payton wasn¡¯t exaggerating when he told Pria this could kill her, if she didn¡¯t deal with it now.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know there were any knotters in the city at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Neither did I,¡± Payton said, sliding back into his seat and crossing his legs. They were long¡ªthin and delicate and pale under his scrubs. She¡¯d seen Sil lust after them, seen Payton try to get closer to their group through Sil and his love of legs. Wouldn¡¯t have worked, even if she hadn¡¯t intervened. Fucking Sil almost always meant you¡¯d never be allowed into their group, although perhaps that sub-30 would change that record.

    ¡°Then how¡ª¡±

    ¡°Because they used them during the war¡ªthe soldiers, I mean.¡±

    She blinked at him. She hadn¡¯t known that.

    He smiled like he knew she hadn¡¯t known¡ªknew that hardly anyone knew, probably. ¡°On the field, where they couldn¡¯t get into clinics. That¡¯s where they became common. Take a drug, get more courage. Take another, undo the knot¡ªbecome yourself again.¡± He shrugged like it was nothing special. ¡°It looks a little different from a normal knot, like it''s meant to be temporary? To unknot easier? It¡¯s hard to explain to anyone who hasn¡¯t seen a thousand of them. Honestly, even I wouldn¡¯t assume it was a knotter if I wasn¡¯t in the same class as you two.¡±

    He shot Pria that brilliant, fake as fuck smile, explaining what Emilia had already guessed. ¡°I¡¯ve heard you say more than once that you refuse to do knot therapy. This¡±¡ªhe motioned again to the screen that Pria was categorically refusing to look at¡ª¡°is definitely an artificial knot. Could be traumatic in a child, not an adult.¡±

    Emilia looked at it, trying to see what her classmate saw. There were other knots through the strand on the screen, outside the part he was focusing on. Everyone had knots. Inherited ones, ones from the way they lived¡ªthe things they¡¯d eaten and seen and experienced. She hadn¡¯t known there was a visual difference between natural, traumatic and additive ones. It was part of why people kept records of their sequences over time. It was standard to take snapshots every time you had knot therapy. Normal to run a check against those records if something traumatic happened to you. To be able to see the minute differences without even comparing it to a recent sequence¡­

    ¡°Can other people do that? Tell what kind of knot it is just by looking?¡± she asked as Payton coxed a pouting Pria out of the chair and began leading them towards the clinic¡¯s knot therapy rooms.

    Payton hummed in thought as they passed door after door, the frames lit up red to indicate they were currently occupied. ¡°Probably not a lot? I was always good at observing finicky things like that.¡±

    Not exactly bragging, not exactly not.

    ¡°Here we go,¡± he said, the door to an unoccupied room sliding open for them as they approached. He held out an arm, motioning for them to enter first, and Emilia practically pushed Pria into the room.

    ¡°It will be fine,¡± she yelled at her roommate, who did not look convinced, not that Emilia could blame her.

    There had been a lot of misuse of knot therapy among the ex-100s, before the government had gotten a handle on the technology. People had been desperate to raise their social standing, to get better jobs, make better lives for their children. When the government had realized how badly the overuse of knot therapy was affecting people, they had regulated it, but it had already been too late. The damage was done. Infertility skyrocketed, children were born with higher D-Levels than normally expected, genetic spasms became more common, and more than a few people had been driven insane by their decaying genes. It hadn¡¯t been good, and even thousands of years on, families still told stories of the horrors that had befallen their ancestors¡ªabout the genetic implications that still affected them today.

    It didn¡¯t help that almost no one else had been affected. The ex-300s couldn¡¯t afford it, while the sub-100s and sub-30s had been happy where they were. The knot therapy they had done¡ªstill did today¡ªwas minor. Sub-50s, no matter what era they existed in, were too snobby to mess with their genes; reaching sub-30 status was only meaningful if it was done naturally, according to them.

    As a result, most of the world had forgotten the tragic beginnings of knot therapy. Those kinks had long since been ironed out¡ªEmilia¡¯s own extensive knotting was testament to that¡ªbut the ex-100s remembered. The ex-100s wouldn¡¯t forget.

    ¡°Pria,¡± Emilia yelled, trying to throw as much compassion as she could into her voice, then shaking her head. Instead, she knocked gently on Pria¡¯s Censor.

    Her roommate¡¯s eyes stayed glued to the white, plastic covered bed in front of her, but she let Emilia in.

    Emilia¡¯s vision filled with black panic and her heart clenched. She knew this much fear¡ªshe had done everything in her power to hide from it. So had Pria. She didn¡¯t knot herself, even when doing so could make her life a little easier, a little smoother. Here she was, though, despite her best efforts, staring down what might well be her biggest fear, and all because some asshole had dosed her drink.

    When Emilia got a hold of him¡­

    ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± Emilia said, forcing her mind¡ªthe illusionary, digital version of herself¡ªto push through the panic and fear to find her friend. She still had to yell, but within this space, it felt softer, more personal and private, without Payton or clinic cameras watching them. ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± she repeated as she knelt down beside her. ¡°I¡¯m not going anywhere. I know you¡¯re afraid, but it will be okay.¡±

    Pria looked up at her, her burnt-brown eyes wide and watery. She shook her head, the image of her an outdated version, from when she¡¯d had pink and purple braids. When had that even been? When had she last updated this place, this image of how her mind perceived herself?

    Emilia¡¯s own version was relatively new, she liked to keep it new. It was a nice contrast to the version she¡¯d used for almost three decades, between when she¡¯d formed it, just after Olivier had won her case, until a few years before the war ended. She shuddered, thinking of the thing that had represented her those last few years, before she¡¯d run away, leaving it and the person she was during the war behind to rot.

    ¡°It will be okay,¡± she repeated, grabbing hold of her friend¡¯s hands in this world and the digital one, pulling her forward, forward. They turned, and she helped Pria sit, encouraged her to turn and lay back. ¡°I can¡¯t stay with you, but I¡¯ll be right over there. It won¡¯t hurt. It¡¯ll only take a minute or two. Then we can go downtown, find the ass who did this to you if you want. Or we can go get the best fucking meal of our lives.¡± She smiled, the smile she reserved for moments like this, where she needed to be convincing and truthful and a little manipulative.

    Pria swallowed, nodded and fidgeted. Pulled her arms away from her sides, sweat slick skin sticking to itself. Her legs were probably sticking to the table too, which seemed like an awful design flaw that really should have been fixed long ago. Emilia had been in some pretty old clinics. They all had that same, horrible plastic covering on everything, so she assumed it had to do with cleaning or longevity or how cheap it was.

    She stepped back, eyes staying with Pria, relying on her Censor to see the world behind her for her.

    ¡°Ready?¡± Payton asked when Emilia was safely out of range of the machine. Technically, it was only supposed to affect the person on the bed, but if an accident happened it would be bad¡ªlike, you¡¯re dead now, bad.

    ¡°No!¡± Pria yelled, eyes flickering like she wanted to clamp them shut but didn¡¯t dare risk losing sight of Emilia, and the machine hummed to life.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 15: Stop Scratching

    ¡°Are you sure nothing looks off?¡± Pria asked for the millionth, billionth time. ¡°Has my skin always been this shade? It looks lighter to me. What about my eyes? Are they right? They didn¡¯t look right when I was doing my makeup. Too¡­ bright.¡±

    Emilia looked towards her friend, assessing, searching for any shift in her physical appearance that couldn¡¯t be chalked up to nerves. It wasn¡¯t the first time she had looked, but this was serious. Serious concerns meant you looked, you assessed, you answered properly. ¡°You look fine. Sweaty, but fine.¡±

    Her friend fidgeted. She¡¯d been fidgeting since they left the clinic. Even on a good day, during a routine visit, Pria was known to be twitchy for a while afterwards. Generational trauma, and all that. This had not been a routine visit. It had been horrible and stressful, and Emilia had been amazed when her friend had insisted she allow Payton to check her own injuries from the raid. Pria had sat there, suffering, scratching at her skin as though it felt somehow wrong, but refused to leave until her friend was cared for. Emilia had had to force down a well of tears for how loved she felt.

    Payton had removed the patches, checked the skin and asked who had done them. Emilia had embarrassingly had to admit she didn¡¯t know, but given her classmate a description of the student nurse. He had nodded¡ªalthough he had given no indication of it he knew the girl or not¡ªpressed more healing aether into her skin and then a layer of temporary skin over the bits that hadn¡¯t completely healed yet. It had barely taken five minutes, but she had spent the whole time watching her friend grow increasingly uncomfortable.

    By the time they exited the clinic, Emilia had made the executive decision that they needed to run. Pria hated running, but even she knew she had too much nervous energy inside her, just waiting to explode. It needed to explode out, and so they had run, giggling and panting and screaming through the stifling heat. She was pretty sure they had knocked over at least a few people on their way back to their dorm.

    Needless to say, when they reached their dorm, they were disgusting, and they had both wobbled directly into the shower. Hers hadn¡¯t been short, but when she¡¯d emerged, Pria had still been showering. Even over the water, through a layer of moderate sound proofing, she could hear her roommate crying¡ªscreaming, really.

    Emilia was going to make sure the man who had made her friend feel this way suffered. For a moment, she had contemplated handing him over to The Black Knot. Normally, Baalphoria¡¯s most secretive organization focused more on violent crimes¡ªterrorism, serial killers and the like. They¡¯d also been pretty active during the war, doing things that definitely weren¡¯t public knowledge. A knotter running wild in a town known for its party scene could fall under their jurisdiction. Knots created by drugs weren¡¯t as stable as those created via knot therapy. They could fall apart or morph into something unexpected, something unpleasant and violent.

    It seemed premature to bring them in, though, without knowing who was behind the knotter or how rampant the spread was. Plus, the clubs had their own ways of dealing with problems that affected them. She wasn¡¯t going to leave it all to them¡ªshe wanted to know the people behind this got what they deserved¡ªbut she knew enough about the club cartel¡¯s enforcers to know they could very well be a worse fate than The Black Knot. Assuming the cartel weren¡¯t somehow involved in this. It was unlikely, but it would be stupid to completely rule out the possibility.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Pria asked again, long nails¡ªcurrently a black and light-purple¡ªdragging across her skin and leaving horrible white lines in their wake.

    ¡°Stop that,¡± Emilia said, smacking at the hand. ¡°You¡¯ll be sad if you break a nail.¡±

    Her roommate huffed but slouched back into her seat, muttering about how everything felt wrong, itchy, sticky, like her insides were rotting away, and she¡¯d never be able to have children now. Emilia had not known Pria had ever thought about having kids of her own, and she was pretty sure the skin issues were due to the heat, not the knot therapy.

    She turned away from the other girl, looking out the bubble¡¯s window. The round vehicles ran along preset routes throughout the country, ranging in size from those meant for a single occupant to ones that could seat a few dozen people¡ªthose were usually reserved for class trips. They were fast. Not as fast as the slide lines, but fast enough. Emilia had slowed theirs down, though, as they descended into Piketown.

    Around them, the world was a haze of pink, no decontamination systems covering the steep cliffs of Mount Pike. She had never seen a pink tide this side of the Penns, touching the wildlife and plants of north-central Baalphoria. The animals and plant life of the Grey Sands, the Strats and even the southern tip of the Penns themselves, had adapted to be capable of withstanding the toxins in the pink tide¡¯s vapours, to not wither in the sweltering heat. This kind of event¡ªfor as long as a week, no less¡ªwas going to have consequences. She could already see them. She could already see plants wilting and trying to hide. It was too dark now to see much of the mountain animals, but she imagined even during the daylight, when they should have been most active¡ªlong since used to the odd, metallic blue balls that rolled through their home¡ªthey would be quiet and hiding.

    Her lips pressed harshly together. The pink tides were a natural phenomenon, yes. A quick search had her Censor informing her that there was evidence of pink tides reaching this far north once every few decades for at least the last ten thousand years. They weren¡¯t usually this long, however. Not even close. A week of this? What would even survive?

    ¡°What you thinking about?¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shifted back to her roommate. Pria¡¯s eyes were filled with concern because, of course, they were. Pria¡¯s empathy¡ªher connection to the aether itself¡ªwas horrifically high, so high that even her modified Censor couldn¡¯t spare her from most of what she felt. She hid the connection, more often than not. It was a pain, her roommate had told her once, to be able to look at someone and read all the little bits of their expression, body language, voice, energy. To feel the way the aethernet bent and twisted around them and their skills even when she was trying not to look. Exhausting. She could knot it away, but she wouldn¡¯t. She drank and got high a lot instead. Not exactly the best coping mechanism, but Emilia wasn¡¯t really in a position to judge.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Emilia motioned to the world outside their bubble. ¡°You think any of this¡¯ll survive the pink tide?¡±

    Pria frowned, refusing to look away from Emilia. She hadn¡¯t looked out into that dying forest since they¡¯d begun their descent. ¡°Probably not. There¡¯s nothing we can do about it. Why bother worrying.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t a question, just a pessimistic statement. There wasn¡¯t anything they could do, why even think about it. We are helpless. We are poor¡ªwell, technically she wasn¡¯t poor at the moment. She also wasn¡¯t as helpless as Pria thought.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she agreed, prompting her Censor to speed up their ride.

    The bubble pushed forward, the world around them beginning to blur as Emilia quickly fired off a message to one of the few people from her old life she still¡ªon very, very rare occasions¡ªcontacted.

    [Em: you have any portable climate units available?]

    The response was, as expected, almost immediate.

    [Rafe: Why?]

    [Em: pink tide]

    [Em: don¡¯t want local wildlife to die]

    Rafe took a little longer to respond this time, and by the time his next message came through, she and Pria were walking through the gloriously cool air of the hippest area in Piketown. Like Alver and¡­ whatever the name of the bougie raid area had been was, this area technically had a name, but Emilia didn¡¯t know it, and when her Censor tried to give her the name she resolutely ignored it.

    [Rafe: Big area. You¡¯d need more than one, and someone to manage them.]

    [Em: is that a no?]

    [Rafe: I didn¡¯t say that.]

    Another pause. Pria was leading the way, apparently quite happy to take Emilia up on her offer to pay for dinner anywhere she wished. Every so often, her steps paused in front of a restaurant, her eyes glazing over as she looked up its menu, then she would continue on, apparently not having found whatever it was she was looking to eat.

    [Rafe: Will you be there?]

    Emilia internally sighed. Rafe was¡­ generally the most understanding about her wish to be alone. It was one of the reasons she was still in contact with him. That, and he worked for D-Tect and had access to all the wonderful devices and cutting-edge research she could possibly need. That didn¡¯t mean he wouldn¡¯t potentially take this as a chance to come see her in person. She did not need more of her past popping up in her present. Even reaching out to him was¡­ a lot. Their interactions were usually limited to exchanging data and the occasional photo. An actual conversation? This was an act of desperation. She didn¡¯t want all the cute little lollibobs to die, okay!?

    [Em: probably not. it¡¯s miserable here. too hot. gotta go¡­ somewhere]

    [Rafe: Where?]

    [Em: no idea]

    Emilia added a little laugh along with that message. Rafe hated it when she sent sound clips with her messages, although the few times she¡¯d asked him why, he hadn¡¯t given her a reason. Technically, he¡¯d never asked her to stop, but when they¡¯d been younger she¡¯d always teased him with it. Blowing her voice into his mind when she was around to see his reactions. She hadn¡¯t been very nice to him, sometimes. He was just too fun to mess with.

    [Rafe: I¡¯ll send someone up. They were just saying they wished they could experience a pink tide. Perhaps it will make them happy.]

    Emilia was pretty sure that meant they¡¯d pissed her old friend off, and he wanted to be rid of them for a week, send them on an assignment they had said they¡¯d enjoy but were really going to hate.

    [Em: thanks. i¡¯ll send you some pics of the cute critters your generosity is saving!]

    She sent a little image of her virtual self blowing him a kiss. He sent back an obscene gesture.

    [Rafe: Of your vacation, too.]

    [Em: sure, i¡¯ll send you loads of swimsuit pics!]

    She hesitated for a moment before forwarding him a picture from when they had been teenagers. She was smiling, her tan so dark she internally cringed. Her bathing suit had been too small, leaving almost nothing to the imagination, although you couldn¡¯t see much more than a yellow strap, what with her arms draped around Rafe¡¯s shoulders. He was looking particularly unhappy, his light-brown hair dripping from her pushing him into the pool. Rafe never had been one for the sun, or fun, or people, other than her and Nettie. Rafe and Nettie had always been an odd combo, though. She certainly didn¡¯t understand it, and she knew Nettie¡¯s husband hated it, although she wasn¡¯t sure Nettie and Rafe had kept in contact after the war¡ªafter she had left.

    Rafe didn¡¯t bother responding to her picture, although she did feel a shudder of something that felt like him glaring at her. Rude.

    ¡°How about this place?¡± Pria asked, having kept quiet as Emilia messaged her friend. They hadn¡¯t explicitly talked about her messaging someone, but Pria could always tell¡ªcould always feel the vibrations of messages flowing through the aether around a person.

    Emilia looked up at the restaurant they had passed a thousand times over the last eight years. It had always looked too fancy for them, in their messy college sweats or too tight clubbing clothes. They¡¯d changed, after their showers, and gotten ready in record time¡ªthirty minutes, to be exact. Now, they were dressed in the most sophisticated clothing either of them owned.

    Emilia¡¯s hair had finally been pulled back again, her high, silver-grey ponytail swaying happily behind her as they walked. Her makeup glittered gold, her black dress¡ªanother of the rare items she¡¯d brought with her from her previous life¡ªflowed loosely around her, tugging tight in just the right places so she didn¡¯t look like she was wearing a bag. It reached down to just above her knees, a stark contrast to her usual short dresses, and shorts that barely covered her ass. Plus some gold jewellery and shoes. She¡¯d contemplated heels, since she wasn¡¯t planning on gliding anytime tonight¡ªyou could slide and glide in heels, it was just a massive pain¡ªbut in the end had decided on a pair of flats, just in case she had to kick anyone¡¯s butt.

    Pria¡¯s own black dress hugged her curves deliciously, but not too obscenely. It was lacy, reaching across her chest and neck and falling to her feet. Pria claimed she couldn¡¯t learn to glide, but the fact that she was able to walk in a floor length dress in heels would tell anyone she was full of shit. She¡¯d pulled her own curls back into a pair of buns, standing proud on either side of her head with cute little wisps escaping them. Her willbrand, a metallic-black earring that wrapped around the upper part of her ear, was also now in place, and she¡¯d also chosen gold makeup and jewellery¡ªincluding some fancy hairpieces that wrapped around her buns and dangled down to her shoulders, jingling as they walked. Gold was a rare colour that looked good on both of their skin tones, and while they didn¡¯t purposefully match often, tonight had just felt like one of those nights.

    Any other night, the hostess would have looked at them like they most definitely didn¡¯t belong in such an upscale restaurant.

    Not tonight.

    ¡°Shall we?¡± Emilia asked, smiling down at her slightly shorter friend.

    Pria smiled back at her, worries about knot therapy and knotters on the streets slipping away as they entered the restaurant.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 16: Not That Kind of Club

    Emilia and Pria stumbled out onto the street, giggling and tripping over their own feet. The hostess glared at them when they turned, bowing lowly and thanking her kindly for the most wondrously delicious food and the many, many drinks they had indulged in. The cost of their meal had, frankly, been obscene, probably because they had drunk the good stuff. Emilia hadn¡¯t even blinked at it. It had been years since she¡¯d had a disgusting amount of money in her bank account, generations of wealth accumulated to the point that she technically had never needed to work, even if Baalphorian culture and expectations meant that she would anyways.

    She hadn¡¯t needed to join the war, either, and that one she could have gotten out of. She¡¯d still joined. She didn¡¯t exactly regret it, but before she had started at Astrapan she had wondered¡ªdriven herself mad obsessing over it, really¡ªwhether her life would have been better if she had never joined. Probably not. War would have still raged around her. People would have died, her creations helping them fight their way to an early death, regardless of her stepping onto the front lines herself. Life still would have sucked, and she still would have left those decades broken, but she probably would have lacked the strength to leave and find her way away from the world she had grown up in.

    Astrapan¡ªher life now¡ªwas a reclaiming of herself. Without her experiences in the war, she wouldn¡¯t be here. In this time, in this place. She loved her friends. She hadn¡¯t lied when she¡¯d told Olivier she was happy. She missed the money, the way she had never needed to worry about what her next meal was going to be, whether she¡¯d be able to buy a new pair of runners when hers inevitably fell apart. Still, it hadn¡¯t been enough for her to go back, to beg her parents to give her freedom and money and forgiveness¡ªnone of which she deserved.

    She also wasn¡¯t above using Olivier¡¯s money, not when he¡¯d look at her so beseechingly, begging her to use what he gave her to make her life¡ªand by extension, those of her friends¡ªbetter.

    ¡°That was good,¡± she laughed, bumping shoulders with her friend as they straightened up.

    She shook off her fake-drunkenness. Pria did the same. They were heavyweights. Even the substantial amount they had drunk in the restaurant wasn¡¯t enough to take them down, thank you. It had been fun, though, making the rude wait staff think they were right and toasted. They hadn¡¯t done anything too atrocious to them, but they doubted they¡¯d be welcome back there any time soon.

    ¡°Best. Meal. Ever,¡± Pria agreed, swaying slightly with music only she could hear. ¡°Too bad we can¡¯t go back. Totally worth it¡ªthat waiter was a prick¡ªbut a little sad.¡±

    Emilia hummed in agreement. He had been a prick, making them prepay for their meal, plus extra. He hadn¡¯t said the extra was because he was worried they¡¯d break something, but it had been implied. Rude little shit.

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll have Olivier take me back, one day,¡± Emilia mused to herself as they made their way towards the clubs that they often frequented, only a short walk away. ¡°They wouldn¡¯t kick him out.¡± Who knew when¡ªor if¡ªshe¡¯d ever be willingly seen in public with people from her old life again, save Nettie. Nettie was different. No one recognized Nettie when she was out in public to begin with, even if she was more famous than Olivier. Not that she¡¯d heard from Nettie in more than pictures for a while now. Too busy with her picture-perfect life to bother with her sad, broken friend.

    The streets were busier than when they had entered the restaurant several hours earlier. Before, people heading to dinner had been their main company, their eyes trailing over her and Pria¡¯s outfits because fucking nebulas, did they look hot. Now, the streets were filled with people heading out to party for the night, more and more people passing around bottles of pink vapour. Emilia was half-tempted to get her and Pria some hits, but they were on a mission. No time for hallucinations tonight!

    The bouncer of The Grint, the club they were at the night before, eyed them up when they walked past the long line of people waiting to get in. ¡°You two look fancy tonight.¡±

    Emilia smiled at Mazi. He¡¯d worked a few different clubs, in the years since she¡¯d first met him, the night before she and Beth had started at Astrapan. He¡¯d just been another patron, but he¡¯d kicked a couple assholes who¡¯d been making snide remarks about Beth out. The bouncer who¡¯d been heading over to help had been impressed and offered him a job. That club had gone under a few years ago, but in a college town, there was always work for someone able to toss drunk students out on their asses.

    ¡°We went to a fancy dinner~¡± Pria bragged, blinking prettily up at him. She didn¡¯t need to¡ªany club Mazi worked at was open to them immediately. Perks of being nice to him and never causing problems¡ªnot without telling him first, anyways.

    ¡°You got a break coming?¡± Emilia asked, pressing herself up against him. Sadly, he wasn¡¯t into her; otherwise she totally would have jumped him years ago. To anyone watching, though, it would look like she was hitting on him, tempting him into a quickie in one of the club''s private rooms. Mazi knew her, though¡ªknew she was perfectly aware she wasn¡¯t his type.

    He raised an eyebrow at her, one of his huge hands dragging up her spine. So compliant in selling her scene to the people around them. ¡°Sure thing, sweetheart,¡± he said, just loud enough¡ªjust huskily enough¡ªthat all the people watching them would think he had agreed to that quickie. He called out to one of his coworkers, hovering in the doorway, chatting to a girl with a bob a similar colour to Emilia¡¯s own. Fake. You couldn¡¯t fake her shade, and she really didn¡¯t know why anyone tried. Anti-irregular sentiment might be less than it had been a few decades ago, but it still existed, and not everyone could tell a dye-job from the real deviation. The other man grumbled slightly, motioning the fake-irregular girl inside and stepping out to take over for Mazi.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a bit,¡± Mazi said, hooking his arm around Emilia¡¯s waist and pulling her close.

    The coworker glared. ¡°Last time you said that, it was an hour.¡±

    Mazi simply laughed as he pulled Emilia up and into the club with him, Pria following behind.

    ¡°Do not drink anything,¡± Emilia hissed at her through their Censors as she waved goodbye. Her friend rolled her eyes, and someone else might have assumed that she was about to go get something to drink. Emilia, on the other hand, knew her friend wasn¡¯t going to be risking a repeat visit to knot therapy anytime soon.

    The bouncer sent her a quizzical look, but at her nod, continued leading her into one of the private rooms. As a regular patron, getting one of the private rooms required a reservation, but a few were held aside for close friends of the staff, and Mazi ushered them into an empty one to talk.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, sweetheart?¡± Mazi asked, a slightly concerned smile over his face. His reddish-brown skin looked redder under these lights, burning soft and sensual around them, his dark black clothes shimmering slightly. It wasn¡¯t that kind of club, but what patrons did in the private rooms, the club didn¡¯t question, as long as they paid for the cleanup.

    ¡°Pria got dosed here last night.¡±

    The man¡¯s smile fell away, replaced by deathly rage. ¡°With what?¡±

    ¡°A knotter.¡±

    Mazi swore, something foreign, the sound musical and lilting compared to her own native tongue. He¡¯d been a soldier from the Free Colonies, one of the ones on the southern side of Baalphoria that the Grey Sands had held tenuous relations with for a few hundred years. When the war had ended, connections had been strong enough that travel and work exchanges between their countries had been officially opened up. Emilia had never been, but Mazi insisted that she go one day¡ªwould even take her and her friends himself if they could make it work.

    ¡°You sure it was here?¡±

    Emilia shrugged. ¡°Bartender gave her a shot of something ¡®special.¡¯ Other than that, we took the same shit, and I¡¯m fine.¡± She leaned back against a table, trying to not look like she was one moment away from heading downstairs and slitting the bartender¡¯s throat. She was, but she¡¯d prefer Mazi didn¡¯t realize she was that pissed off¡ªnot yet, anyways.

    ¡°Ain¡¯t been anything on the news,¡± the older man noted, his stance widening like he was preparing for a fight. Arms crossing over his wide chest, thick muscles flexing. It was seriously too bad he wasn¡¯t into her. The things he could do with that body of his¡ªmake her do with hers.

    ¡°There will be, unless we find out where the drugs are coming from.¡±

    He snorted, eyes that had been staring blankly into a wall flicking back to her. ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡±

    ¡°As a tundra swell,¡± she said, pulling herself to attention and saluting him. Technically, she had outranked him during the war, not that he knew that. Most people didn¡¯t even know she¡¯d been in active duty, but Mazi had known, asked about it in the way only other vets could¡ªawkwardly. She hadn¡¯t told him much, but sometimes she teased him by doing shit like this. Salute him, give him an order, reference something only they would understand. It both amused and annoyed him.

    Mazi¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°New guy? With the fake glasses and stupid hat?¡±

    Emilia¡¯s lips twitched. ¡°Yes.¡±

    The thick, black glasses really were quite obviously fake, and she was pretty sure the ugly hat was a distraction. She¡¯d assumed it was to distract from an equally ugly scar or a bad personality when he hit on his customers. Maybe it had been meant for this, though. Distract the customer while he slips them something extra. Maybe he¡¯d been meant to be gone by the time anyone tracked the knotter back to him, no one remembering anything about the man under those hideous accessories.

    Too bad for him, Emilia had insisted Pria go to a clinic today and Payton had been the one to check her out.

    She felt a slight twinge in her chest over that. He¡¯d tried, yet again, to get closer to her and Pria as they left. Pria hadn¡¯t been in the mood to say much, so it had been easy to make excuses and get out of there without being too rude. He had helped, though. He¡¯d been kind to Pria, not made her feel stupid for being afraid of knot therapy. Yes, he had a black knot. Yes, she had had bad experiences with black knots in the past. She¡¯d also had wonderful ones. Maybe she was being a little too insistent that he didn¡¯t join their friend group¡­ or that he wasn¡¯t at least given the chance to try and vibe with her friends, at the very least.

    ¡°How you wanna deal with this?¡±

    Emilia relaxed back against the table. ¡°We could hand it over to SecOps¡ªor The Black Knot¡ªbut I¡¯m fine keeping this internal. As long as I get a chance at him.¡±

    Mazi assessed her for a moment. They¡¯d known each other for eight years, but they¡¯d never talked like this. Talked like people who had killed before and would do it again, even if the enemy wasn¡¯t the usual monster, but one hiding in human flesh. ¡°Club business isn¡¯t any of the government¡¯s concern.¡±

    She smiled, slow and cruel. ¡°As long as I don¡¯t have to get rid of the body. That part can be the club¡¯s business alone.¡±

    Mazi¡¯s mouth twitched, not quite a smile¡ªunlike herself, he was much too serious to smile in the midst of this fuckshow¡ªbut just a sprinkle of amusement at her words. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back,¡± the bouncer said darkly, and Emilia snickered, wondering what the frighteningly massive man would say to get the bartender up here. Mazi could sweet talk with the best of them. He was also pure muscle. Fast and strong, eyes as sharp as the best pilots she¡¯d known during the war. She didn¡¯t actually know where Mazi had served, what his specialty had been even, but she liked to imagine he had an outstanding record, with many commendations and honours.

    She yawned, glaring up at the ceiling. Too long a day, it was catching up with her. Her Censor reached out, prompting the room¡¯s drink dispenser to give her a canned coffee. It wouldn¡¯t be as good as one made by an actual human, but she was not drinking anything prepared here until management had checked the place over.

    The top snapped open, fizzing quietly, and Mazi opened the door, the bartender flying to the floor as he was unceremoniously tossed inside.

    ¡°Hello there,¡± Emilia said, sipping her drink and gazing down at the man. ¡°Why don¡¯t we have a little chat.¡±

 Arc 1 | Chapter 17: Quirk of Genetics

    The room sparked. Emilia ignored it, so did her Censor.

    Having known Mazi for nearly a decade, they both knew the feel of his skills¡ªhad felt those skills that first night, when he had warped the aethernet around the men harassing her and Beth. His skills didn¡¯t feel quite the same as when a Baalphorian manipulated the aethernet, but Mazi had lived in the country¡ªtrained in the joint military forces that had heavy favoured Baalphorian techniques¡ªso long, that it had slowly morphed into some amalgamation between the abilities of Halberstie, the Free Colony he had grown up in, and Baalphoria. It was familiar, and when the room shuddered, the walls blackening under the force of the barrier he had formed around them, Emilia felt nothing but safe.

    It helped that she could break it, if she had to, of course.

    The bartender glared up at her, a flick of his eyes, a small swallow, the only indication that Mazi¡¯s manipulation had put him on edge.

    [Person: {Grandy Lane}]

    There was no way that was his real name, but it was apparently the one he had given her last night. She¡¯d been too high to retain it, but her Censor, of course, had. Always remembering the useless things for her, even if it couldn¡¯t always judge whether things were true or not.

    [Person: {Grandy Lane} Updated]

    [{Grandy Lane}: Possible alias]

    Emilia mentally shook her head. Sometimes she wasn¡¯t completely sure her Censor wasn¡¯t fucking with her.

    Grandy Lane¡¯s¡ª

    Nope. She couldn¡¯t even think of him by that stupid name.

    The bartender¡¯s fake glasses were askew, an arm fallen off one of his ears. They¡¯d caught on the tip of his nose, barely saved from flying across the room, unlike his ugly hat. ¡°What is this!?¡± he spit out, pushing himself up and glaring at Mazi behind him. He¡¯d barely spared Emilia a glance.

    ¡°Just a little chat,¡± Emilia said, continuing to lean back and enjoy her drink. She¡¯d never really been trained in interrogation, but she¡¯d been brought in on enough to know the basics of how they went down. She wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d be good at it, but between her and Mazi, she was sure they could get something out of him. How much was the question.

    Every time she had seen people come into contact with Mazi¡¯s abilities in the past, they had found it off-putting¡ªwrong. This guy, though¡­ he barely seemed to notice. Either he had experience with Free Colony abilities, had been expecting something like this to happen, or something was wrong.

    ¡°About what?¡± the man asked, finally looking at her, a sneer written across his face. He pushed himself up onto his knees, and righted his glasses. He glanced towards his hat, but it was too far away. Receding hairline¡ªso that¡¯s what he¡¯d been trying to hide under that thing, not that she still didn¡¯t think its distractive qualities were meant to hide more than the fact that he couldn¡¯t afford knot therapy to delay that little quirk of genetics. ¡°I¡¯m not having a three-way with you and the lynie.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s expression darkened slightly. ¡°Watch your mouth.¡±

    Mazi shot her a look that said, ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± as though being called an outdated and derogatory name for Free Coloniers was fine.

    It wasn¡¯t fine, but it was interesting. In Piketown, at least, most people kept their bigotry to themselves, especially in a work environment¡ªeven if this one was currently a little hostile. To let such sentiments so easily flow off your tongue¡­

    The bartender smiled up at her, rude and challenging, and like he didn¡¯t realize how fucked he was, stuck in this little, aether-enhanced room with two people who could rip him apart. Ex-military, they could claim it was PTSD¡ªwouldn¡¯t even be a lie, not for her, at least. ¡°Little irregular got a thing for the lynie?¡± he asked, eyeing her up with something between desire and disgust.

    ¡°You don¡¯t seem to like us very much,¡± she noted, taking a sip of her coffee as she forced her anger down, the too bitter flavour sliding over her tongue. She used to be good at keeping her cool.

    The man¡¯s nose wrinkled, but he said nothing more. His eyes flickered, pulling together in confusion, before they shifted back to disgust.

    ¡°No more to say?¡± she asked, setting her can down with a jarring clink that made the bartender jolt slightly. ¡°You¡¯re willing to call us names. You¡¯re obviously disgusted with us, yet you have nothing more to say on the matter?¡±

    His jaw tightened, like he was trying to hold himself back from saying more. His shoulders flexed backwards, bones cracking, and for a moment Emilia thought he was going to lunge at her. Then, Mazi¡¯s foot was forcing his face into the carpet.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± the man growled, yelping when he was forced further into the rough fibres. ¡°Fucking animal!¡±

    Aether fluctuated around him, like he was trying to summon power to force Mazi off. It wouldn¡¯t do him any good. Mazi¡¯s barrier limited the use of aether within it to only people he trusted. It goes without saying that this man was not included on that list, and after a moment the aether he had been trying to summon shuddered away from him. He cursed, and for the first time, true panic flashed through his eyes, then vanished, replaced by a distant look, before flashing back to that look of anger and disgust.

    ¡°Is that what I am?¡± Mazi asked disinterestedly, like it was something he had heard a thousand times before. He probably had. There was still a lot of anti-Free Colonies sentiment¡ªobviously¡ªand it had been even worse during the war. He¡¯d probably heard worse than this from people he was supposed to trust with his life.

    She had heard those things too, during the war, before and after it.

    ¡°Do not speak to them.¡± The crack of fingers snapping in an angry grip. A shoulder popping out of a socket. A hand on her arm, pulling her away, the others following close behind as someone shouted obscenities about irregulars and Free Coloniers behind them. ¡°Pieces of shit.¡±

    She supposed she¡¯d just lucked out, belonged to a unit of people who didn¡¯t quite belong. Who despite their differences¡ªtheir sometimes outright hatred for one another¡ªhad been connected by a thread of otherness.

    ¡°Better than someone who doses random women,¡± Mazi commented.

    Laughter.

    Emilia glared down at the erratic man, laughing into the floor. Her Censor reached out, sliding against the cool, chaotic vibrations of his. There was definitely something not right with it¡ªwith him. She wouldn¡¯t be able to tell what exactly it was without diving inside him. Insanity? Black knot? Personality disorder? Maybe just high? Hell, he could have even accidentally dosed himself, for all she knew.

    ¡°Random women?¡± the bartended asked between his laughs. When he looked up, trying to twist his head to look back at Mazi, his eyes were blown wide. ¡°What makes you think it was random? Or just women?¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Mazi asked.

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡±

    ¡°Says who?¡±

    ¡°You, dumbass,¡± Emilia sighed. ¡°You can¡¯t not know why you chose not-random people.¡±

    His laughter flittered out. Dark black eyes turned to her. They were so empty they made her insides roll. They hadn¡¯t been that empty a moment ago. ¡°Guess the irregular isn¡¯t completely deficient,¡± he said, head tilting to the side, as though trying to make sense of her. ¡°Too bad. Your type are better when they¡¯re ex-300. You make such pretty little toys to¡ª¡± The man broke off as Mazi¡¯s foot ground him further into the carpet. He was going to have some killer carpet burns on his face when this was over, not that they were likely to let him live too long.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Pria?¡± she called out through her Censor, hoping her friend was paying attention to her messages. She was supposed to be, but her friend was notoriously distractible.

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    Pria¡¯s vision overlaid her own for a moment. The club. It was hot, but nowhere near as unpleasant as campus had been. There was a pretty redhead, their hair falling in curls down to their tiny breasts, her dress so low they were practically popping out. She was smiling at Pria, giving her that look.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bring anyone whose been dosed back to the dorm, please,¡± she teased, making a mental note to mention to last night¡¯s girl, if she happened to see her again, that she might want to get her knots checked. Hopefully, within a day or two, the entire city would know about the knotter. This being kept as club business meant news would be a bit slower to spread than it would have through an official SecOps investigation, but it would get around. The Club Cartel would let clinics in their pocket know, same with dealers, who would be quick to tell everyone who bought from them about it¡ªno one wanted their drugs blamed for this. Eventually, it would make the news, but probably not until everything was settled¡ªuntil there was nothing left for SecOps or The Black Knot to do, no bodies for them to find. ¡°When did you get the shot?¡±

    A bubble of confusion slashed over her mind. ¡°I dunno? Not long after you left. I got one for you, too. Got your message about leaving after I paid. Gave it to a little gay boy¡ª Oh! Fuck.¡±

    Emilia wondered if her friend knew how lucky she was that she¡¯d given it away and not double dosed herself. She definitely wasn¡¯t going to point it out to her, in any case.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t meant for my friend,¡± Emilia noted, thanking Pria and wishing her luck with her conquest. ¡°It was for me.¡± Both she and Pria had been pretty smashed last night. People who knew them would have known they¡¯d be fine the next day, but this new guy? He¡¯d probably assumed Pria would be too shitfaced to remember details of where she¡¯d gotten the drink or when. There was safety in dosing someone blackout drunk, as long as they actually were blackout drunk.

    The man¡¯s eyes relaxed. Emotionless, calm. Then the anger and silence returned, the man seemingly having no clue that his sanity had every left. His lips pressed tight. She knew that look. That was the look of someone trying to keep their secrets and vitriol inside. She saw it often, on Beth¡¯s face, whenever her family came up, on stranger¡¯s, whenever they looked at her hair and eyes with barely suppressed disgust.

    ¡°This¡¯ll be easier, if you just tell us~¡± she said, leaning forward and sighing, like the idea of having to force it out of him was exhausting. It would be exhausting. She¡¯d really prefer he did just tell them what he knew, but she already knew that wasn¡¯t going to happen. They might be able to get a few more details out of him, little slips of the tongue, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough. She gave him a beat to consider¡ªto let something slip¡ªthen said, ¡°Hacking it is, then.¡±

    At the mention of hacking, the man tensed. ¡°There¡¯s no way.¡±

    Emilia bent, peeking at his face a little better. She could see herself, through her Censor¡¯s expanded view of the room. She looked more than a little deranged, like a child smiling down at a new toy. Well, it was only fair. He¡¯d implied she¡¯d be a great fuck-toy first. From the corner of her eye, she could see Mazi watching her. He was doing a pretty good job of hiding his own surprise, but she could still see it on his face. People who could hack another''s Censor, outside of The Black Knot, were rare. Emilia knew well enough that the few hackers in Baalphoria who were capable of forcing their way into a Censor and not part of the secretive organization belonged to the gangs. That was the only place they were safe from The Black Knot, who picked up people with that much skill before they could become a nuisance.

    Fortunately, The Black Knot wouldn¡¯t be picking her up. Not now. Not ever.

    ¡°Oh, yes,¡± she cooed, taking a step towards him. A ripple of pleasure she hadn¡¯t felt in a long time shuddered through her. She had missed this¡ªthis power, this control over the world around her. It was barely a fraction of what she had once been, but it was enough to sate the little hunger inside her she had grown used to ignoring. ¡°So, shall I hack you apart finding the answers? Or, do you want to tell us, about you and that knotter? The hack¡¯ll go better, the more you give me.¡±

    For a moment, Emilia was sure the bartender was going to resist, force her to go in with virtually no information. She¡¯d do it, but the more she knew about what she was looking for, the better, for both her time and his mind. Then, he sighed, the fight leaving him.

    ¡°I got them from some guy, some purist. He said give it to anyone who comes in who¡¯s wrong. Who doesn¡¯t belong here. You count. So do all the other irregulars who come in, and the lynies.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    The man shrugged, as much as he could manage to, still trapped beneath a man twice his size. ¡°Didn¡¯t tell me, and I didn¡¯t ask.¡±

    Emilia rolled her eyes. Of course, this guy hated people like them enough to mess with their genes just for the shits and giggles. ¡°Did he give it to anyone else? Did you?¡±

    Another shrug. ¡°Not me. Him? Probably. Guy seemed to be making the rounds at our, ah¡­ gatherings.¡± Our, as in, people who really hate people like you.

    ¡°Anyone you know?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± he lied. It wasn¡¯t even a well covered lie.

    ¡°Is that right?¡± Emilia asked, taking another threatening step towards him.

    ¡°Fine! Fine!¡± he yelled, mumbling off the names of a couple people he¡¯d seen the guy talking to.

    Mazi cursed. ¡°I know most of them. More bartenders¡ªmore new bartenders.¡± His eyes glazed over, presumably to contact bouncers at the clubs they worked for to tip them off that their patrons were being dosed with some bad shit.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Emilia said, squatting down next to the bartender. Her dress pulled against her thighs uncomfortably, but she needed to be closer, for this.

    He glared up at her, looking for a moment like he was about to spit at her, before thinking better of it. Wise decision. She¡¯d probably have cut his tongue out.

    ¡°One more question, before I decide if hacking you is really necessary. Then, we¡¯ll decide what we¡¯re going to do with you. ¡± She blinked prettily down at him, as though perhaps she really were considering if the crumbs he had given them were enough. As though there were any ways out of this that didn¡¯t involve his corpse.

    She wasn¡¯t completely sure he realized that, though. Either from whatever was eating him up or just general ignorance. He was going to be hacked, and whatever was left of him at the end, she and Mazi would hand over to the club¡¯s enforcers. Drugs were big business of the clubs. Bad drugs were bad for business. Bad drugs meant patrons might not come back, might not spend a fortune every few days getting safely wasted. Bad drugs meant SecOps might get involved¡ªor worse, politicians. There was always some politician running on a platform to make drugs illegal. They had been illegal once, before Censors had been programmed to monitor their owners for signs of misuse. A knotter that could drive people into insanity? If the clubs didn¡¯t get a handle on that immediately, it would be a shitstorm.

    The man¡¯s face twitched, although he said nothing. Too calm, again.

    ¡°Who was it, that gave you the drug?¡±

    ¡°The fuck makes you think I know?¡± he bit out. Was he getting as much whiplash from his mood swings as she was?

    ¡°Well, a more helpful man might give us any details he could. What he looked like. If he had an accent. Things like that.¡± Emilia smiled mildly at him.

    ¡°No idea. I ain¡¯t good with details like that.¡± Another calm.

    A lie and the truth. He¡¯d managed to remember Pria and Emilia had been buying for each other despite them only going up together hours before she had left, after all. The way his eyebrows pulled together, however, eyes shifting as though looking for something. A blank space where the memory of the man¡¯s face should have been? That was most certainly not good. That potentially put a time limit on this.

    ¡°So, when you ran out of the stuff, you were just going to give up this whole dosing not-random people thing?¡±

    ¡°Yup. Just a one-time thing.¡± Another lie. He really wasn¡¯t particularly good at it. He probably thought he was, with his cocky confidence. He had tells, though, and not ones related to whatever was eating memories and sanity up inside his head. No, this man raised an eyebrow, as though in challenge. ¡°Call me out on my lie, if you dare.¡±

    That, she was sure, was all him.

    On its own, a shit ability to lie was boring fact. Assuming she was correct, however, it did tell her that whoever had given him the knotter had either been a bad judge of character or wanted him to get caught. That, or whatever was eating him up was meant to leave him brain-dead before anyone caught up to him.

    ¡°You know I can tell you¡¯re lying, right?¡±

    The man glared at her a moment more before closing his eyes. ¡°You said one more question. I told you I don¡¯t know¡ªthat I don¡¯t remember anything. I don¡¯t care to answer anything else.¡±

    ¡°Ah~¡± Emilia sighed, straightening up. She turned, walking to one of the couches and plopping down. She yawned, arms reaching high above her as she stretched. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to rip the answers from you, after all.¡±

    ¡°You think I¡¯m stupid?¡± he asked, voice laced in that disgust that seemed much more natural than the calm. His eyes flicked open for a moment to meet hers. He looked tired, and done, like he was sick of looking at her. ¡°I know I¡¯m not leaving here alive.¡± He smiled, wide and cruel, for a moment. ¡°Least I can do is wreck that irregular brain of yours before I go. One less bitch to ruin this world with their shit genes.¡±

    She gave him a sleepy smile, letting his words wash over her as though they were nothing. They were nothing. Nothing but thousands of years of belief over whether genetic spasms were good or bad. Truth was, they were neither. They just were.

    She sighed, sagging lower into the couch. Her cloud filled bed was calling. If it hadn¡¯t been for this man, for the chaos he and the knotters could cause, she would have gone home after the restaurant. Sadly, it looked like it was going to be a while before she could fall into the land of dreams and nightmares¡ªnot that the place she was going now wasn¡¯t liable to be a nightmarescape.

    She didn''t want to face all the destruction and murder that was tucked away inside him, but the way things were going¡­ well, she didn¡¯t really want to wait for him to be moved to a Black Knot site for proper examination.

    Who knew what would be left of him, if something was inside him, eating away his memories and sanity.

    ¡°I ain¡¯t that easy,¡± she said, before sucking in a breath, her digital self and real world self breathing together, synchronizing. It had been a long time since she¡¯d hacked someone¡¯s Censor¡ªsomeone¡¯s mind. Hopefully, she wasn¡¯t too out of practice.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 18: A New Friend(?)

    The wall of electric blue shuddered, sparks flying as it prepared to fight Emilia off¡ªa useless waste of energy.

    Without thought, her Censor locked onto it and code slipped out of her and into the aether. [Wall Break] was barely worth considering a hacking skill, if you asked her. When she¡¯d been younger, she¡¯d believed anyone could learn to hack, as long as they had the right mindset and code. She¡¯d even tried to teach one of her friends to use this particular skill when she was a teenager. [Wall Break] was so simple even her Censor could manage it without any real input from her, but her friend failed spectacularly. Only one person, a teammate during the war, had ever been able to learn enough from her to call themself a hacker, and it had still taken them far longer to get a hang of things than it had her. If she hadn¡¯t already had a history of successfully teaching people other things, she might have assumed she was just a terrible teacher.

    The wall vanished, leaving in its place a red door, so small that someone taller than her would have had to crouch to get through it. Not the greatest start. Red doors generally meant: Beware! Monsters and Blood Dwell Here! Turn Back!

    It wasn¡¯t that the door itself was red. If the bartender had been standing here with her, examining his Censor¡¯s access point from the outside, the door he saw probably wouldn¡¯t be red because it wasn¡¯t. It was simply her own Censor telling her that something didn¡¯t feel quite right¡ªto be careful.

    It could be wrong, of course. Her Censor was programmed to be a bit paranoid and had been known to give her false warnings even when it had been in perfect working order. It was a warning that she¡¯d be stupid to ignore, however. Something had been wrong with the bartender, but she¡¯d kinda been hoping it was just normal insanity or a bad trip. She didn¡¯t particularly want to be fighting off some virus or security program, not during her first hack in years, but they needed information. Through the ominous red door it was!

    ¡°I suppose,¡± Emilia mused as she kicked the door down, the useless locks shattering into a sparkle of mist as her code collided with it, ¡°this is what I get for always complaining that hacking was too easy.¡±

    The hallway that Emilia entered was long and dark, for a moment at least. Every few steps, the world shifted. The colour of the world, the shape, the scent of it sizzled and sparked as it morphed, blasting her with fragments of images, forgotten scents of childhood, shifting the hallway into a giant park then a cloudless sky then an icy dessert then a small, dying farm. More and more¡ªthe world changed. Overwhelming and all consuming, and her eyes burned. A constant swell of too much information throwing itself at her.

    It was nothing compared to the sound.

    Voices echoed around her, overlapping with each other until they were thundering through her head, so strong she was sure if this were her real body she¡¯d have lost her dinner already.

    Unfortunately, her Censor¡¯s broken ability to turn down the volume of specific objects in her surroundings extended into the digital world. Annoying, but it also told her that that particular problem was probably a software issue. Her bad, accidentally hacking an error into it. Easily fixed, with a few hours tinkering with it in the Virtuosi System, though.

    Which reminded her, she wasn¡¯t in the system now. Usually, anyone hacking would be, so time could be slowed. Hacking a Censor could be time-consuming. Hopefully, this guy, who seemed to already have something funky going on inside his head, would be easy to hack. If not, well, her Censor would keep her awake, and the club¡¯s couch was pretty damn comfortable. Mazi would keep her safe, too. Pull her out if anything bad happened¡ªnot that pulling a hacker out was especially hard. Not unless they ran into a security protocol that refused to release them.

    A quick scan told her that this guy had nothing of the sort¡ªnot unless he¡¯d gotten his hands on something state-of-the-art, which she doubted. That shit was expensive. That said, there did indeed seem to be something lingering inside him that shouldn¡¯t be¡­

    The sound really was becoming unbearable, though. Every step seemed to bring a new voice into the swell of sounds around her. Her Censor burned slightly, trying to sort through them. The fact that it was already having issues wasn¡¯t helping it. Errors, plus running in real-time without any external support. It burned, pain spiking through the base of her skull, and she pushed it away, forced her Censor to stop analyzing the sounds. The last thing she needed was a headache in the real world.

    Her Censor had managed to isolate a few of the sounds before being forced to stop, however¡ªgarbled memories, it looked like. Too fragmented to really understand¡ªmaybe if she knew more about him, but she didn¡¯t. For all she knew, they were from media. Lyrics, lines from shows. Nebulas, they could be from books, if the guy had imagination enough to give them actual voices.

    [{Transcription.log}: Useless little thing. We should never have had you.]

    [{Transcription.log}: I love you.]

    [{Transcription.log}: Never¡ª away from¡ª forever.]

    [{Transcription.log}: Error]

    Could be from his life, could be nothing.

    What was clear, however, as Emilia summoned a set of noise-cancelling headphones from the aether¡ªor the digital equivalent of it, anyways¡ªwas that this wasn¡¯t a room just for her or any other intruder. This was part of the bartender¡¯s mind, echoing with things he couldn¡¯t let go of¡ªcouldn¡¯t silence. This also wasn¡¯t the kind of place she should have ended up, not without going further inside him. Not without wanting to find this place. Another very, very bad sign.

    ¡°This is even worse than my head,¡± she muttered to herself as she pulled the headphones over her ears. It wasn¡¯t exactly advisable to remove one of her senses¡ªtoo easy to miss something if you couldn¡¯t hear. She hadn¡¯t been able to hear through that mess, though, so she figured her teacher would forgive her. Maybe.

    Maybe.

    ¡­

    Or, maybe she¡¯d just never tell them, if they ever met again.

    She tugged on her necklace, the small purple tube that accompanied her everywhere, whether in the digital or real world. She didn¡¯t activate it¡ªit was too early for that. She did shift it into a ring chain bracelet¡ªgold and purple stars and moons that wrapped around her right hand¡ªfor easier access if she did end up needing it. She hoped she wouldn¡¯t. Fighting off rogue memories was always a massive¡ª

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Emilia twisted, purple and gold sparking across her hand. She glared into the silent darkness that surrounded the way she had come, lips pressing tight. She turned back, the world lighting up once more with overwhelming sensation, scent and sight and a frozen breeze rushing over her skin and sound that even her headphones couldn¡¯t completely block and¡ª

    Emilia twisted back into the darkness, glaring, glaring, glaring.

    Something was there. Watching her. Something waiting for her in the dark. The thing that didn¡¯t belong here? Perhaps.

    Perhaps not.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she thought, turning back towards the noise infested path and continuing on.

    This¡ªthis mess of everything¡ªwas annoying, but it was also one of the fun parts about hacking. The sorting through information to find doors and holes. Figuring out which way you wanted to go, when even a person¡¯s mind and Censor often didn¡¯t know. Some people could organize their thoughts and feelings and memories perfectly. Perfect balance. It was rare, outside of non-devs. It was also the most notoriously easy category to accidentally knot. Trauma was just too powerful. It slipped inside your soul, your very makeup, much too easily¡ªtwisting and turning until something monstrous lived inside you.

    Trauma was so revolting even the best knot therapist had a time removing it, and it was so infectious that the traumatized often didn¡¯t want to be treated, didn¡¯t want to get better¡ªdidn¡¯t want to be fixed. Emilia was like that. She was okay, being broken. Yes, there were cons to being so broken, and she was constantly knotting up other things, compensating for the trauma and hiding it away behind other bits of brokenness.

    It felt wrong to erase her brokenness, though.

    That was probably just the brokenness talking, intoxicating and intrusive and inescapable.

    It was easier being broken, though. Being balanced¡ªbeing the person she once had been? That would come with a whole host of other problems. That would come with *memories¡ª*with guilt. She still felt guilt, of course. Guilt was practically inescapable, unless you had a black knot. She had become a master at running from her guilt, however. She was much faster than it, usually, and when she wasn¡¯t, there was always drugs and sex to help empty her mind.

    Her hand snapped out, catching a moth that had floated across her path. An oddity¡ªup until this moment, nothing physical had gotten this close to her. Sensations, yes. Actual things, no.

    She looked down at it. It was beautiful, its wings covered in fuzzy, psychedelic patterns. She never wanted to look away from it.

    ¡°Hello, little intruder,¡± she whispered to it, shattering it in her hand.

    A hurricane of colour surrounded her¡ªthe same ones that had made up the patterns on the moth¡¯s wings. Pinks and purples and blues ripped around her, sending her hair swirling as she was left trapped in the eye of the storm. Electricity zipped around her, sparking against her mind and bracelet, the power of it keeping her safe from the backlash just as it kept her safe during raids.

    ¡°What are you hiding? Hmm?¡± she thought, watching as broken images ruptured from the storm and seemed to shatter apart into nothingness, leaving behind a gaping void where there had once been information.

    ¡°Me?¡± a voice called. ¡°What about you?¡±

    Emilia glared, sure she hadn¡¯t spoken her thoughts aloud. Either it had been a figment of her imagination, or the little moth was psychic. Probably the former, which was almost certainly worse overall than the latter.

    This place was toxic. Seeping into her like a new trauma, wrapping around her old wounds and squeezing until they felt ready to pop. The Strats appeared in the hurricane, exploded into nothing but pink vapour. Planes and blood and fire. Olivier burning, dying unless she got there faster, faster. She hadn¡¯t been fast enough when everyone else died. She wasn¡¯t going to lose another friend. Not another. Not¡ª

    The world halted. Her breaths stopped, and she saw.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she muttered, rolling her shoulders as she shook out the tension from the storm, what little tendrils of guilt had attached themselves to her slipping away into the aether.

    ¡°You can¡¯t change the past,¡± she reminded herself. ¡°You can only go forward, and protect the people you still have.¡± The decade old mantra settled in her like home, familiar and warm, and she returned to seeing the scene before her¡ªthe one she had been looking for. The one that would lead her to whoever was behind this.

    It was not what she had been looking for. It would lead her next to nowhere.

    The bartender was talking to someone, but he hadn¡¯t been lying when he¡¯d said he didn¡¯t know who. He didn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t even know what the man looked like because his face had been wiped from the bartender¡¯s memory.

    He truly had known nothing, although she didn¡¯t think he had known it¡ªknew that he had a virus inside him, fucking with his mind. Not completely anyways. He had been too confused by his own lack of knowledge. It was probably why his responses to their questions had been so sporadic. It was destroying his mind, bit by bit, stirring everything up until it was a hurricane of insanity. If it hadn¡¯t been for Pria, how long would it have taken for anyone to figure out what he was up to? Given how messy and broken his memories already were, a couple days from now he may not have even remembered he had been the one drugging people.

    He probably wasn¡¯t supposed to, by the time anyone found out.

    She saw it, the moment it happened. The mystery man and the bartender¡¯s Censors connecting, some information exchanged between them, along with the little moth. So tiny it wasn¡¯t even noticeable to the bartender¡¯s Censor. Her own Censor noticed it, trying to slip into her clothes so it could be taken back to her own mind when she exited. It was an interesting little thing. Smart and cute, and she let it settle against her, her Censor already building her a cage to contain it until she could reprogram it for her own use.

    The men parted, the mystery man heading to another person¡ªanother mystery person, their face erased from the memory¡ªas the bartender left the building. She didn¡¯t recognize the street, not at first¡ªshe¡¯d never spent much time exploring most of Piketown. Then she saw it: the odd little house that Olivier was staying it, red and weird and hideous. Well, that was a starting point in locating this place, at least. Leave it to the elites, though, to have a purist group gathering in broad daylight on their streets.

    The world began to fade, and Emilia sent her Censor flying, grabbing as much of the information that had been exchanged between the men as possible. What came back from degraded as shit, but there could be something still accessible inside it. Hopefully, there was, because even diving inside this man had shown her almost nothing useful.

    She turned back, eyes taking in the scene around her. The man¡¯s memories were quickly crumbling, the moth she had destroyed, the other she had taken, only two of a thousand swarming through his mind. It was a good thing, perhaps, that he had chosen this path before his mind had been contaminated. He was going to die for choosing to risk the lives of who knew how many people. There was no saving him from his fate, just as there was no coming back from this amount of destruction. Even if the contamination had come first, caused the hatred that sent him spiralling towards his destruction, there would be no saving him. There would be only pity.

    Images sped by her. Pictures of the man he had been, the teenager, the child. There was another person in so many of the memories, most of their appearance already eaten away, and the only way Emilia knew it was the same person was the love that followed them. Love so strong that it didn¡¯t fade even as the memories shattered and fell away into the abyss.

    There came a point, however, when the person vanished from his memories. There was no death¡ªno specific moment she could see where the person the bartender seemed to love so passionately disappeared. There was a rise in hatred, however. Anger and violence and Emilia couldn¡¯t see it, but she could guess.

    Someone had killed the bartender¡¯s person, probably some irregular or Free Colonier. It didn¡¯t excuse his hatred, but it did explain it.

    Emilia had always liked explanations. She hated unanswered questions and lingering doubts. She had no doubt this man had known what he was doing when he had taken the drugs¡ªhad known what he was going to do, how much damage he was going to cause. She also had no doubt that, to him, he was completely justified.

    Emilia tilted her head back, looking up into the swirl of memories as her Censor began to pull her out of the man¡¯s head. ¡°The things our love and hatred drive us to do,¡± she thought, before the world disappeared.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 19: Fancy Meeting You Here

    ¡°You okay?¡± Mazi asked when Emilia fluttered back into her body.

    She blinked sleepy eyes at him, rolling her neck and cringing slightly when it ached. She poked at her Censor, checking it for damage, then at the cage it had made for her new pet, looking for holes, before reaching her arms above her head and stretching. ¡°Yeah~¡± she moaned, sighing back into the couch. She probably couldn¡¯t sleep here. Probably.

    ¡°Is he¡­¡± Mazi trailed off, glancing towards the bartender.

    He was a mess, drooling onto the floor, his eyes dead to the world. Mazi had straightened him out, turned him onto his side in case he puked.

    ¡°He had a virus inside him, an extra special gift from the dude he got the knotter from.¡± She glared at the bartender, her Censor poking gently at him. ¡°I think the strain from the hacking broke whatever was holding him together, not that he was gonna last long either way. It was a mess in there. You should probably warn everyone off getting too personal with anyone else involved in this.¡± She sagged further into the couch while the bouncer swore, eyes glazing over as he contacted anyone else searching for rogue bartenders¡ªand hopefully an enforcer, to get rid of the body as well.

    It wasn¡¯t ideal, for his brain to have completely shattered, but it was probably for the best. That moth had been self-replicating. She had taken a single copy, meant for her. There had been the potential for infinitely more within his mind. Had she not hacked him, someone else would have. They might not have been so lucky. The Club Cartel¡¯s hackers were good, but she wasn¡¯t certain they would have noticed their own tiny stowaways, and they definitely wouldn¡¯t have been able to find the memories she had.

    Another thing, meant to spread and destroy, and far worse than the knotter. Knotter¡¯s might cause genetic problems and mental instability, but at least that wasn¡¯t contagious. Well, it could be passed on to children, but that wasn¡¯t quite the same.

    The little moth most certainly was contagious, although she¡¯d have to experiment to see just how contagious. Hopefully, not contagious enough that any connection between Censors was enough to transfer it. Probably not¡ªnothing had happened when her own Censor had touched his, only the slight feeling that something was wrong. Better safe than sorry, though.

    [Em: set up a cage, just like this]

    [Em sent {cage.specs}]

    [Rafe: Done. Why?]

    [Em: catch]

    [Em sent {moth.v}]

    A stream of curses followed, and Emilia fought down a smile. This was serious. A man was brain-dead, and who knew how many people he had affected with his knotters and virus. Still, it was nearly impossible to catch her friend off guard, she had to take a moment to pat herself on the back.

    She peeked inside her Censor to examine her copy of the moth as she waited for Rafe to respond. It fluttered in its cage, looking at her with huge, assessing eyes. A quick assessment of it told her it had tried to reach out to someone or something numerous times since she had captured it¡ªprobably had before as well. Luckily, Mazi¡¯s barrier should have stopped any attempts at communications or, at the very least, the bouncer probably would have felt messages passing through it if it hadn''t.

    What was more concerning, was the signal it was sending out. It wasn¡¯t quite a distress signal, more of a, ¡°Hey, I still exist¡± one. Which meant that whoever was meant to receive those messages likely knew something was wrong. There were few things that could interfere that completely with communication¡ªeven raids left a small gap for outside communication. Almost nothing took it completely away.

    The moth flapped its winging and Emilia took pity on it, giving it a little plant to sit on. It wasn¡¯t like it needed to sit, but it felt weirdly sentient and like it wanted to rest. What an impressive little AI, especially for how small its container and program were.

    [Rafe: What was that!?]

    [Em: a cute little friend?]

    [Rafe: WHAT WAS THAT!?]

    [Em sent {bartender.mem}]

    Rafe went quiet as he presumably went over the memories she had sent him. Pieces of what she had seen inside the bartender¡¯s mind¡ªcensoring out the bits where her own mind had wandered into PTSD territory¡ªand facts about Pria being dosed¡ªcensoring out her name and exact medical details, of course.

    She and Mazi waited in silence for their respective contacts to get back to them. Military habit, perhaps. It wasn¡¯t an emergency, so why explain the same thing more than you needed to. She¡¯d have to tell the club¡¯s enforcer what happened. Mazi didn¡¯t need to hear it twice.

    Rafe still hadn¡¯t messaged back when the enforcer pushed her way into the room. Probably analyzing everything she¡¯d sent him with a fine tooth comb, and she had sent him a lot.

    The enforcer was a pretty, if intense looking, woman, probably approaching middle age, the lightest of wrinkles edging her eyes. She was tall¡ªthough not as tall as Beth¡ªwith reddish-brown hair almost the same colour as her skin pulled back into a stern bun at the base of her neck. Another vet then, most likely.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    The enforcer eyed up the body of the bartender on the floor before turning to Emilia. ¡°Explain,¡± she said, her posture falling to rest. Yeah, definitely a vet, and¡ª

    ¡°Are you incapable of following orders?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember ever signing up to follow orders.¡± A smile. A slash of red and then blue, her slides activating and her unneeded babysitter¡¯s eyes widening. ¡°Catch me if you can.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes widened fractionally as she realized she knew the woman. Not well¡ªshe¡¯d been unable to catch Emilia and her father had decided she needed a babysitter who could ride the slide lines just as well as she could¡ªbut enough that the enforcer might recognize her. Damn hair and eyes. They made it almost impossible to not be recognized, within the right context. Hacking into someone¡¯s mind? Even just being part of the interrogation in the first part? Yeah, that was definitely the right context.

    Fuck.

    The woman, whose name Emilia annoyingly couldn¡¯t remember, even her Censor was drawing a blank, listened as she explained the situation to her. She didn¡¯t know what Mazi had told the woman, so she started at the beginning. Drugs and the shot. Her friend being dosed with a knotter. Tracking it back to the shot and the bartender. How uncooperative he had been, his bigotry and fraying mental status. Forcing her way into his head and the chaos she had found there.

    The woman seemed to have known most of that, although she made no move to interrupt, nor to inform Mazi that she knew Emilia. Her gaze sharpened, however, when Emilia began detailing what she had found¡ªor more specifically, not found¡ªwithin the bartender¡¯s mind.

    ¡°I took a bit of data,¡± she said, checking to see if her Censor had made any progress on deciphering any of it yet. Nope. It had confirmed it was safe, though. No funny moths to be found within it, and she offered a copy to the enforcer. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend going back in. It was collapsing as I left, and that virus is definitely still floating around in there.¡±

    The woman nodded, accepting the bit of data. Her eyes glazed over for a moment, then she was turning back to the bartender. ¡°We will dispose of him.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good because I definitely wasn¡¯t,¡± she couldn¡¯t help but tease. The enforcer glanced back at her, something between amusement and exasperation caught on her face. Probably a good thing that, with the angle, Mazi hadn¡¯t been able to see that look. He definitely would have known he was missing something. He wouldn¡¯t have asked, but he would have known.

    ¡°May I have your contact information?¡± the woman asked, not bothering to turn back to Emilia as she pushed herself off the couch, groaning as her muscles readjusted to the whole standing thing. ¡°In case we find something.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emilia said behind a yawn, throwing her contact info to the woman and receiving a contact in return. Sasha, it read. No last name, and she might not remember the woman¡¯s name¡ªit had been over five decades ago, okay?¡ªbut she was pretty sure it hadn¡¯t been Sasha.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± she mumbled before breaking off into another yawn. Fuck. As much as she wanted to go check out the building where purists had been meeting, she didn¡¯t think she had it in her to go tonight. Not that she could go alone¡ªshe wasn¡¯t that stupid. Close, but not quite.

    Not anymore, anyways.

    ¡°Oh,¡± she added as she made her way towards the door, ¡°you probably shouldn¡¯t let him out of this room until he¡¯s dead.¡± What a polite way to say, ¡°You should kill him before you remove him from the room.¡±

    Sasha looked back to her expectantly.

    ¡°The virus inside him. I¡¯ll look at it more later, but it seems like it was sending information back to someone. No idea who.¡± She nodded to the blurry, black barrier surrounding the room. ¡°Hopefully, that stopped whatever it was sending in here. Until he¡¯s dead, though, letting the barrier down might allow that information flow to return.¡± She shot Mazi an apologetic smile. ¡°They might have gotten your picture, from when you brought him up.¡±

    Mazi huffed. ¡°Yeah, that was always a risk. Maybe I¡¯ll luck out, and they¡¯ll just assume I was a lackey, pulling him off the floor. I put a blocker on his eyes, soon as I could, by the way. So as long as nothing got out of here, you¡¯re good.¡± He smiled slightly at her, apparently not too concerned with his own safety. That was probably reasonably, given the Club Cartel would protect him¡ªyou didn¡¯t retain loyal employees if you let them get fucked over for dealing with your problems, after all.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Emilia said. It didn¡¯t mean she was completely in the clear¡ªwhoever was behind this could have the resources to put it together that she was involved, if the bartender had seen Pria before being ripped away from the bar¡ªbut she was definitely in a better position than Mazi. ¡°Take care of yourself! I know this would have become a problem for the club eventually, but if you get whacked because I brought it to you, I¡¯ll feel bad!¡±

    Mazi¡¯s smile widened. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, sweetheart,¡± he laughed, giving her a wink. ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be getting myself a nice, intrusive bodyguard from the club pretty quick.¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± Sasha confirmed, not bothering to turn from her investigation of the bartender¡¯s body. At least she had the courtesy to wait until Emilia left to dispose of him.

    Emilia laughed as she skipped the rest of the way to the door. The world spun slightly, her brain twitching as it adjusted to the reality that it had a physical form again. ¡°Maybe you¡¯ll luck out and get yourself a sexy bodyguard,¡± she teased, nodding cheerfully to her friend before turning ¡°See you later, Mazi!¡± she called as she left the room, giving him a cursory wave.

    He waved absentmindedly, his attention focusing fully onto the bartender and the enforcer. Well, maybe more the enforcer. She did seem like she would be mean in bed. Emilia could not be mean¡ªit was why she and Mazi would never work. She was soft and useless. Bratty, but definitely not mean. Mazi wanted someone to take over, to make him. Emilia wanted that, too.

    The world spun a bit more as she pushed her way through Mazi¡¯s barrier and out of the room. She groaned, rolling her shoulders and neck out again. Her neck¡ªthe pockets at the base of it, where her Censor was installed¡ªburned slightly, and she cringed, wishing she had grabbed another canned drink, if only to have something cool to press to them.

    She sent a cursory ping out to Pria as she left the hallway of private rooms. She assumed her roommate had left, picked up the redhead or someone else for the night.

    A moment later, a ping came back, vague details about an address burning red across her Censor. Redhead it was then.

    ¡°See you tomorrow!¡± she cheered back, not expecting a reply and getting none.

    Now what, was the question. She really did want to check out that purist place, but alone? While tired? That seemed stupid, even to¡ª

    ¡°Whoops, sorry!¡± a voice she definitely recognized said as she walked into their chest. They had been simultaneously turning a corner and crashed into each other¡ªher trying to get out of the club, him trying to get in. ¡°Ah, Emilia.¡±

    She stared up at her classmate. Blinked at him twice and then raised an eyebrow. ¡°Quite the coincidence, running into you here, Payton.¡±

 Arc 1 | Chapter 20: Not My Usual

    Payton, at the very least, didn¡¯t even try to hide that he had come to the club because of Emilia and her roommate. He smiled something that actually looked like a real smile down at her, pulling them out of the way of everyone else trying to get in or out of the club. ¡°I asked around, found out where you two went last night. Figured I¡¯d check it out, see if I could find the bartender dosing people.¡±

    ¡°And what were you gonna do if you found him?¡±

    Payton¡¯s smile widened. Ah, that¡¯s what it was¡ªwhy it looked real. That was the smile of someone who had been quite looking forward to ripping someone to shreds. That was a smile of excitement and anticipation.

    ¡°Is this¡ªthe situation with the knotters¡ªjust an excuse to kill someone?¡± she wondered, ¡°or does he actually care enough to want to deal with it, regardless?¡± It was an important distinction under normal circumstances, even more, given if he did actually care¡­

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. What were you going to do, if you found him?¡± her classmate asked in return. The look in his eyes seemed to suggest he didn¡¯t need her to answer to know what she would do¡ªwhat she had already done.

    ¡°I already did,¡± Emilia replied, looking around disinterestedly. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t expect to be able to find him yourself.¡± She suppressed a shudder at the way Payton¡¯s energy changed, something feral rising up, even as nothing about his expression or body language changed. Anyone who said vibes weren¡¯t real was just too in their own head to notice them, as far as she was concerned. The aethernet vibrated with, all you had to do was listen.

    Most people did not know how to listen.

    ¡°Walk with me?¡± she asked, smiling up at him, the smile her father had once called her ¡°I¡¯m about to blow something up¡± smile. She had blown a ton of things up in her youth, usually by accident¡­ usually.

    If Payton was surprised, he didn¡¯t show it. He stepped back, motioning for her to lead the way, and followed her easily out of the club he had just paid to get into. Ah~ To not have bouncer friends who don¡¯t make you pay the cover charge!

    She looked him over when they got outside. He¡¯d probably had to pay extra to get in, too, given one of the club¡¯s less friendly bouncers was now manning the door. She knew the guy favoured letting women in over men and charged based on how hot he thought you were. Payton was attractive enough, but in his simple black pants and loose, grey button-down, he certainly didn¡¯t look like he belonged in one of the most popular clubs.

    Realistically, he looked more like he was on his way to book club, and now that she thought about it, she wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d ever seen him out clubbing. Even when he was trying to become their friend, he¡¯d never tried running into them while they were out partying. His attempts had always been limited to campus and school excursions, as far as she could remember.

    She wondered if she should ask about it¡ªfill the silence between them as they walked side-by-side¡ªbefore shaking off that thought. There was no point forcing awkward small talk, not until she figured out if she could trust him.

    The streets were crowed with people still, more and more bottles of pink vapour circulating now. Occasionally, she could see a temporary notice floating against the sides of buildings, informing people about the new drug and its potential dangers¡­ which was basically that you could end up a public nuisance, or become stupid enough to wander out to sea.

    They walked on, Payton letting Emilia lead the way. She knew where she was going, after all. They didn¡¯t say anything until she found the place she wanted. She turned, leaned against a wall¡ªone where the OIC System couldn¡¯t see them¡ªand looked up at the man. He gazed nonchalantly back, hands lazily tucked into his pant pockets as though this was something they did all the time. Nothing to see here. Just two people who often hang out together hanging out together.

    ¡°Natural, additive or traumatic?¡±

    The only sign her classmate was surprised by her question was the slightest movement of his jaw. Impressive. He watched her for a moment, assessing who knew what, before saying, ¡°Natural.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    ¡°Good?¡± he asked, blinking like he actually was surprised by that. Fair. Traumatic and additive black knots could be removed, natural could not¡ªnot without affecting the rest of a person¡¯s mind and sending them into a psychotic break, anyways. Natural black knots were generally less¡­ apathetic, however. In her experience, at least. They could be creepy as fuck, sure, especially if they came from a long line of black knots, generations of questionable parenting creating sketchy children. She¡¯d still take creepy, natural black knot over traumatic any day.

    ¡°Are we being honest with each other?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t lie. Won¡¯t necessarily answer any question you have, either,¡± Payton replied. He glanced around them, frowning slightly, feeling eyes he couldn¡¯t see on him. Emilia could feel them too, the eyes they couldn¡¯t see, off in the alley adjacent to them, but even when her Censor reached out, even when her eyes skimmed over the alley, there was no sign of anything other than dark emptiness.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    ¡°Same,¡± she said, nodding her head overdramatically and making him roll his eyes. Another good sign, the ability to be exasperated with her. ¡°Do you actually care about the knotter?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Knotters drive people insane. I saw enough people on the front not have them removed soon enough. I wouldn¡¯t wish that kind of death on anyone.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    ¡°You believe me?¡±

    ¡°You said you wouldn¡¯t lie.¡±

    ¡°Most people wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to believe that.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t wrong, and she¡¯d definitely trusted someone with a black knot when she shouldn¡¯t have before. She also knew her judgment was a little¡­ suspect. She also knew Pria had never sensed anything off about him. Her roommate might not actively speak about her empathy to many people, but she did tell Emilia about the random feelings she got about the people they met. Pria had never said anything bad about him¡ªother than that he usually felt a little flat¡ªand even if neither of them had taken that as a reason to invite him into their circle, it was enough to give her a little more confidence that this¡ªthat trusting him to help her¡ªwasn¡¯t a profoundly awful idea.

    Given their lack of friendship, she also wouldn¡¯t feel as bad if he ended up getting hurt, as cold as that was. More than that, he would be able to do what needed to be done, no matter how messy things got, which would be an issue if she brought Elijah. Not Beth¡ªBeth was perfectly capable of doing anything required of her, no matter the cost. As for Sil¡­ Well, Sil was all but impossible to understand. Emilia was sure he would kill, if he had to, but he wouldn¡¯t be happy about it either.

    ¡°I¡¯m not most people,¡± she said instead, throwing him a cruel smile and sending him the same redacted version of what she had learned as she¡¯d given Sasha. ¡°I¡¯ll be back.¡±

    She left him there, reading over the information she had sent him¡ªnot memories and images, she wasn¡¯t inclined to let just anyone watch things through her eyes, thanks¡ªand crossed to the alley. The mild current of a barrier rippled over her, before registering that she was a regular customer and letting her see what had previously been hidden.

    [Welcome, Silver Miss]

    ¡°''ello, Silver Miss.¡±

    Emilia rolled her eyes at the silly nickname one of her regular dealers had for her. ¡°Hello, Silver Mistress,¡± she replied in turn, giving the old woman a sweeping bow, the kind you only saw in movies from times long gone¡ªor completely made up. For some reason, authors really liked setting their stories in extravagant worlds with balls and daring adventures. She¡¯d been to balls, been on daring adventures¡ªwas probably on one right now, unfortunately. Neither were as grand nor as wonderful as authors seemed to want them to be.

    The old woman smiled back at her, her silver-grey hair shining in the pale blue of the personal security drones circling overhead. She¡¯d been robbed, more than once, over the years. The drones were a little extra dose of protection, capable of shooting tranquilizers into anyone who got it in their mind that she was an easy target. They had been a gift from Emilia, after she had talked Rafe into giving them to her (Read: Asked and received them via express post the next day without much talking or convincing involved).

    ¡°I was hoping you could help me with something a little bit different than my usual,¡± Emilia said, giving the drones little pats with her Censor, checking that they were functioning properly¡ªthey were.

    The old lady hummed, taking a long drag from whatever it was she was smoking. She didn¡¯t get high herself, as far as Emilia had ever seen, instead partaking in drugs that would bring her down, her entire demeanour a constant haze of sleepiness that seemed to always be pulling those around her towards slumber as well. More likely, there was probably something in the smoke, softening whoever inhaled in and making them easier marks for upselling. Emilia wasn¡¯t ruling out that the woman was manipulating the aethernet, either. She¡¯d seen some pretty wild abilities over the years. Someone being able to soften their customers via the aethernet while using smoke or a drug to make it a bit easier or obfuscate the skill wouldn¡¯t surprise her much.

    ¡°I need an upper. Not one to make me high,¡± she clarified, when the woman gave her an almost judgmental look. ¡°I just need to be awake and alert for at least a few hours longer. I have to go deal with something. Not something that will compromise my aether reach, either¡ªor something to counter that? Actually, do you have any boosters, too?¡±

    Another drag. She blew the smoke out in a ring. It floated away, expanding, expanding until it popped out of existence¡­ or straight into the aether to manipulate her. Emilia reached out slightly, searching for any sign that was the case, but just like every other time she had tried to feel the aether around the woman out, it felt completely normal, save the gentle vibrations of the illusion barrier.

    ¡°Tricky, and potentially more addictive than your usual.¡±

    Emilia smiled confidently at the woman, already digging through her products searching for what she needed despite her comment. ¡°I know, but I¡¯d rather deal with this tonight.¡±

    The old woman hummed, glancing across the way she had come, to Payton.

    ¡°Ew, no.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s cute.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s black knotted.¡±

    ¡°So are the best lovers,¡± the old lady laughed, nearly white eyes crinkling as she handed two vials over to Emilia. The pale green liquid inside it glowed faintly. Not exactly the most appetizing looking drug, but certainly not the worst. ¡°Never indulged?¡± she asked, digging around for a few, more normal-looking boosters.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if she was referring to sex with someone black knotted¡ªyes, she had, and yes, it had been mind-bending¡­ once they¡¯d both gotten better at it¡ªor the drug¡ªalso yes, but not since the war. She told the dealer as much, smiling when the woman laughed and told her that the man who had taken her virginity had had a black knot. Emilia hadn¡¯t lost hers to someone black knotted, but it had been close.

    ¡°Once ya go black, ya don¡¯t go back,¡± the dealer laughed, accepting payment from Emilia for the drugs.

    ¡°I did,¡± she didn¡¯t reply, instead wishing the woman a prosperous night before hesitating and telling her about the knotters.

    ¡°If you see anyone acting too odd¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll send ¡®em straight to a clinic. Don¡¯t need ¡®em thinkin¡¯ it was my wares that had ¡®em losing their minds,¡± she said, her face taking on such a serious expression that Emilia had to suppress a laugh.

    ¡°See you later!¡± Emilia cheered as she slipped out of the barrier and back onto the street, where Payton had been staring at the alley she had disappeared into.

    His eyes stayed trained on her as she skipped over to him, popped the top off one of the uppers, and chugged it. ¡°So?¡± she asked, rubbing an escaped drop from her chin. She split the boosters she¡¯d gotten in half, offering half to Payton. ¡°Wanna go on an adventure?¡±

 Arc 1 | Chapter 21: Donâ€™t Mess with Medics

    ¡°So¡­¡± Payton said as they exited the slide lines, ¡°why did you decide to bring me along? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m glad to be here, but you¡¯ve never really seemed to like me.¡± He shot her one of his fake smiles as he dropped their hands and glide along. She hadn¡¯t intended to glide tonight, but she was glad she¡¯d worn sensible shoes she could glide in¡ªit was just so much faster and more convenient than almost any other form of travel, save sparking.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know you,¡± Emilia said sensibly, if unconvincingly.

    The look he shot her this time wasn¡¯t even fake amused.

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know you,¡± she reiterated, ¡°but I¡¯ve known a few people with black knots. Some of them I love, some of them I hate. They¡¯re all different, but the one thing they have in common? They¡¯re all a lot of work. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t like you, but¡­¡±

    ¡°But you don¡¯t want more work.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Your friends always seem to be a lot of work,¡± he didn¡¯t quite mutter, not exactly sounding bitter than he had fallen into a position of being too much work by virtue of something he couldn¡¯t control, but not exactly not.

    Emilia laughed, trying to keep her discomfort and guilt out of it. ¡°Yes, yes they are. You have no idea.¡± She looked back at him, walking calmly through the area the horrible de la Rue house was located in¡ªthe area the purist meeting place was, as well. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be.¡±

    ¡°I should be.¡±

    His light-brown eyes met hers. ¡°I¡¯m used to people not liking me, even if they don¡¯t know about my black knot. People can just tell that I¡¯m different.¡± He was so accepting of it, like there was no helping it. It broke Emilia¡¯s heart a little, that he felt that way, that she had been partly the cause of it.

    ¡°Why us?¡±

    ¡°Why¡­?¡±

    Emilia shook her head, perhaps a bit too hard, her ponytail slapping lightly against her classmate¡¯s back. ¡°Why did you try to become friends with us? There are other friend groups in our class. Clubs to join. Other nurses, vets. Why us?¡±

    Payton¡¯s steps faltered slightly. They¡¯d turned off the main road, after exiting the slide lines. They weren¡¯t exactly going down back alleys, but the paths her Censor had mapped for them weren¡¯t side roads, either, instead being some odd middle ground. Every so often, her Censor would alert her that there was an hidden door nearby¡ªor, more that based on all the hidden doors she¡¯d encountered over the years, the weird disturbances in the aether it was detecting were mostly likely hidden doors. Emergency escape lanes, then. Ah, to be rich and powerful and fearful.

    ¡°Because you all seemed different, in your owns ways,¡± he said nonchalantly. Emilia could still hear the slight echo of pain in his voice. The want, that she because she hadn¡¯t been able to get over something traumatic that had happened over half a lifetime ago, had denied. Denied, because she had thought he would be too much work, even when he was right: everyone she knew was work. So much fucking work. She still loved them, but stars above did they give her headaches.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she spit out, pulling him to a stop to glare up at him. He really was too tall, not quite the tallest person she knew, but pretty damn close. He was thin, pretty in a plain kinda way. He looked down at her with a blankly confused expression, and she sighed. ¡°You¡¯re better like this,¡± she said, waving over his general existence like that would explain what she meant. ¡°When you¡¯re being honest, and being the real you, I mean.¡±

    His head tilted in thought, those light-brown eyes turning almost golden in the dim streetlight. ¡°My dad always told me I should try to be normal¡ªand that I should hold my tongue.¡± He smiled a little sadly, a little cruelly. ¡°I used to be a natural at pissing people off with the truth¡ªas I saw it, anyways.¡±

    ¡°Your dad was wrong,¡± she said, a little more anger than she would have liked seeping into her voice. ¡°They weren¡¯t black knotted?¡±

    Payton shook his head. ¡°My mom was. My dad left her when he found out.¡±

    ¡°He was wrong,¡± she reiterated, nodding as though that would make him believe her words. ¡°Just be yourself. It suits you.¡±

    She wanted to tell him that a big part of why he made her so nervous was that she knew he was lying¡ªknew he was hiding his real feelings with half the things he said, with every smile. She hid a lot though¡ªprobably more than him, if she were being honest¡ªso it seemed more than a bit hypocritical to point that out, even if she knew the things she hid didn¡¯t affect who she was as a person, wouldn¡¯t really affect how her friends saw her. Maybe when they¡¯d first met, but not anymore.

    She still wasn¡¯t going to tell them about her past, however, not if she didn¡¯t have to.

    ¡°I see¡­¡± he said, although she wasn¡¯t sure he believed her. ¡°Why did you swear?¡±

    ¡°What? Oh, because it¡¯s annoying that you¡¯re more likeable like this. Would have been easier if you still just¡­ existed. Now I¡¯ll feel bad if I get you killed!¡± She sighed dramatically, her shoulders deflating as they began to walk again.

    ¡°Ah~ the great and powerful Weather Girl will care if I die, such an honour.¡±

    ¡°Do not call me that,¡± Emilia said, wrinkling her nose at him. ¡°It¡¯s such a stupid epithet.¡±

    ¡°I heard you used your skill in a raid earlier.¡±

    ¡°Wow, you really did your due diligence stalking what we were up to today, huh?¡±

    Payton laughed. It was soft¡ªsofter than the laughs she had heard from him in the past, always holding a bit too much force behind them. It was a nice laugh, more a huff of amusement than anything. ¡°A couple of the people you hit came into the clinic earlier.¡±

    ¡°Whoops.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re fine.¡± He didn¡¯t particularly sound like he cared, so maybe he was taking her suggestion to be himself more to heart.

    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Emilia shrugged, looked away. She was glad they were okay, although if they had happened to be seriously injured¡­ Well, it would perhaps be a good way to get the raid system shut down, if people started coming out with more than a few scrapes and sore muscles.

    Not that she was going to go out purposefully trying to hurt people in raids. That would be insane.

    They walked silently through the area after that. It really was too bad that they were doing this all under the cover of shadows because she looked like she actually belonged here tonight, on this posh street, inhabited by the city¡¯s richest families and sub-30 vacation homes. It was probably for the best, though, that they keep out of sight. Her Censor was live mapping the area for her, searching up information on who lived in each building they came anywhere near. She recognized a few names. Some had children at Astrapan, although only a few were in the data-recovery program¡ªeven somewhere like their progressive school, rich kids were more likely to be seen in business courses and sports clubs. Occasionally, there was also a last name she recognized, however, the resident related to someone from her past life. Distant relations, it seemed.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    There was always the risk that she would run into someone she knew on the streets¡ªsee one Olivier de la Rue¡ªbut knowingly walking past places where their relatives lived? People they could conceivably visit from time to time?

    Stupid. Travelling via the weird, emergency exit lanes it was then.

    ¡°This is the place,¡± she said as they reached the edge of a building.

    It was tall, innocuous among all the other tall, imposingly white and glass buildings of the area. There didn¡¯t seem to be any lights on¡ªor, if there were, they were hidden behind aether-enhanced glass. Payton pressed a hand to a wall and Emilia reached out, trying to feel the subtle tendrils of his ability. Even this close, however, she could barely feel it.

    ¡°So¡­ what can you do?¡± Emilia had asked, after Payton had agreed to go on this little adventure with her.

    ¡°This and that,¡± the man had laughed and Emilia had contemplated smacking him, or leaving him standing there alone on the street¡ªpossibly both. Then, he had actually told her what he could do.

    It was an impressive list.

    [Skill: {Med Search} Activated] flashed across Emilia¡¯s Censor, the two of them having agreed to share limited data between themselves for the duration of their visit to the purist meeting place. Generally¡­ you didn¡¯t do that, not with people you didn¡¯t completely trust, not outside of war, anyways. During war, you had to trust the people you were working with, even if you hated their guts.

    She didn¡¯t hate Payton, if anything, she had to admit, the more she got to know him, the more she liked him.

    It was highly annoying, and if they continued on the road to becoming friends after this was over, she was going to have to make up for her previous coldness to him.

    As she said, annoying.

    [{Med Search}: 3 | 0 | 0 ]

    Emilia shifted her weight uneasily, fingers twitching, itching to reach forward and¡ª

    ¡°You can check, if you want,¡± Payton said, glancing back at her. ¡°Would defeat the whole purpose of using {Med Search}, but I won¡¯t be offended.¡± The glint in his eyes said he 100% would be, and Emilia sagged a bit.

    ¡°I won¡¯t check,¡± she sighed because he was right. {Med Search} was primarily used by medical staff. It was lightweight, returning only basic information about how many people were in the search area, whether anyone was injured, and a generic danger rating for the area. It didn¡¯t even return information about how serious any injuries were, that¡¯s how simple it was. As a result, it was extremely hard for all but the most sophisticated security systems to detect. Even when a person or security system did detect the skill, they usually ignored it, logging it for what it usually was: medical personnel searching for a reported injury they couldn¡¯t locate.

    Other than the most paranoid of people, no one paid attention to something like {Med Search} touching them, and as far as Emilia knew, there weren¡¯t swathes of people using it to scan buildings they were about to infiltrate either.

    ¡°What?¡± she asked, a hand planting on her hip as she glared her classmate down.

    Payton¡¯s eyes were so assessing, it was actually rather off-putting. She was used to people assessing her. People like Olivier and Beth couldn¡¯t help but assess everyone they met, but they were much more subtle about it. Payton was being so open. It was refreshing and incredibly disconcerting.

    She still liked him better this way.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± he said, shrugging and turning back to the building. ¡°You¡¯re up.¡±

    Emilia stepped forward, her own hand hovering over where Payton¡¯s was still resting before he pulled it away, leaving an echo of aether behind. There were three options, when trying to subtly break into places without having already hacked their security systems.

    One: Choose completely different points at which to use each skill, hoping the system wouldn¡¯t pick up on small aether surges from each. Generally, unless the system was complete shit¡ªor some, usually teenage, resident had hacked it for their own sneaking out purposes¡ªthis method didn¡¯t have the highest success rate.

    Two: Use some really state-of-the-art skills to get in¡ªskills that you had programmed yourself and the system wouldn¡¯t immediately recognize as an infiltration technique. That shit took time, planning and countless resources.

    Three: Purposefully use your skills at exactly the same point.

    Most people left behind an aether signature when they used a skill. Unless they were completely inept, it usually wasn¡¯t much, but it was enough for security systems to make a note that it might take a moment for the signature to disappear. The system would monitor the spot, make sure it didn¡¯t grow when another skill was used, but leave behind a big enough signature, then have someone else use a subtle enough skill that it would disappear within that first signature? Most security systems wouldn¡¯t notice the second skill¡­ if the second person was skilled enough.

    [Skill: {Hidey Hole} Selected]

    [Skill: {Hidey Hole} Activated]

    A small hole appeared in the wall, just big enough that Payton¡¯s shoulders would fit through it¡ªthey¡¯d measured.

    ¡°You know,¡± Emilia said, leaning back and admiring the small hole, leading into the dark building, ¡°I used to use this to sneak out, when I was a teenager.¡±

    ¡°Wild teenage years?¡± Payton asked, nudging her aside so he could go first. They hadn¡¯t really discussed the logistics after they got this far¡ªtoo many variables¡ªbut apparently he had decided it was men first, or oldest first, she supposed. What a novelty that would be! To not be the oldest in her friend group, if Payton made the cut.

    ¡°Oh yeah~¡± she said, watching him disappear into the darkness.

    [Payton: All clear.]

    Oh, there was also that. Unlike her, it wasn¡¯t a secret that her classmate had been active during the war. That could be helpful¡­ or it could lead to her fucking up and him figuring out she had also served. Potentially¡­ they¡¯d have to have a discussion, about the secrets they had. She, for one, wasn¡¯t about to reveal he had a black knot to her friends without his permission. So, maybe honesty was the best plan here? Hope for some mutual secret keeping?

    Payton politely helped her out of the hole. It had been surprisingly long, even for an exterior wall, being almost twice her length. She slid out of the hole a little clumsily, relying on her partner in crime and vengeance to not let her splat onto the floor.

    ¡°Well, that was weird,¡± she said as she righted herself. She probably should have changed beforehand, her dress was going to be ruined after this¡ª

    ¡°You have Olivier¡¯s money now,¡± she reminded herself. She could easily go and replace this one¡ªprobably even get an exact copy, if she wanted¡ªand not worry about the cost.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Payton said, glaring down the hall they had emerged into.

    It was so dark, her eyes couldn¡¯t see further than a few feet in front of her without the help of her Censor. Her Censor reached out, vibrating as gently as it could off the walls to get an image of the place. Ideally, they didn¡¯t want to trigger the security system, trying to find somewhere they could hack it. Technically, there could be a security officer on duty, or the system could be programmed to watch for random people who shouldn¡¯t be there. Both were rare in residential buildings, though, and while this building had another purpose, they were mostly just hoping the security system was relatively standard, monitoring aether activity outside the building and not much else.

    Actually running into a security officer would be annoying, but they¡¯d deal with that if they had to. Maybe it wasn¡¯t the smartest thing, to break into the building hoping it managed its security like everyone else on the block¡ªsave perhaps the de la Rues¡ªbut whatever. This was an adventure! This was vengeance! This was getting the information they needed before someone got wind of the bartender¡¯s disappearance and panic deleted it.

    The worst that would happen is she¡¯d be calling up Olivier to bail them out¡­ or maybe calling in a favour or two with The Black Knot. It would almost be fun, watching Payton¡¯s reaction when professional black knotters showed up to bail them out.

    ¡°Split up?¡± Emilia suggested, shaking off whatever nerves she had over how bad this could go if the security system were actually running responsibly. There were only three people inside, hopefully just normal residents, safely tucked into their beds on the upper floors. She didn¡¯t really see any reason to stick together while they searched for what they wanted, especially not when the two of them together were more likely to trigger the security system.

    Payton nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll take right. See you on the aether side,¡± he said, smiling darkly before he slipped down the hall and disappeared from Emilia¡¯s sight.

    ¡°See you on the aether side,¡± she whispered back. She stood there waiting for a moment, waiting for him to get far enough away, before she slipped into the darkness as well.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 22: So Ripping Into This Tomorrow

    The architecture of Piketown was, to put it lightly, batshit crazy, in Emilia¡¯s so, so humble opinion. The city hadn¡¯t originally been intended to be anything other than a commercial zone, was the problem. For over a thousand years, it had primarily been a shipping port. Ships arrived from both northern Baalphoria and foreign countries via the sea. Rivers and bubble transport lines brought in goods and materials from the south and west, including the occasional product from the Free Colonies. From there, materials were transformed, the goods distributed, sent for trade with other countries or Baalphorian cities, who heavily relied on Piketown¡¯s infrastructure. Manufacturing and shipping had been its main economy for so long it had been a surprise when the first families had begun to move to it, intent to make it their home, despite having no connection to either industry.

    Then more had come, and more.

    Largely, they had been workers from Roasalia, the capital of Baalphoria, which was only a short bubble to the south of Piketown. Roasalia had experienced a housing crisis, being not just home to those who worked in the capital, but also to so many people who worked in the Penns, commuting there daily rather than living in Baalphoria¡¯s most expensive province. The solution had been for its lower-class workers to move north, seeking lower living costs in exchange for a longer commute¡ªwhich, really, wasn¡¯t that much longer, given how fast bubbles and slide lines were, even then. They had turned Piketown into something closer to what it was today¡ªinto a town brimming with different cultures and classes. It was a far cry from the boring town it had been before, so empty that residents had needed to head into Roasalia for any fun¡­ or even the most basic of necessities.

    The ocean side areas, to the south and east, of Piketown were still dedicated to shipping and manufacturing, along with the Alver slums, which had originally been company housing. The northern part was edged by the mountain range Mount Pike belonged to, and had been where the majority of the first arrivals from Roasalia had set up their homes and commercial districts, winds from the ocean pulling over the mountains and taking most of the pollution the industrial areas created out of the area, before proper climate and decontamination systems had been acquired.

    By the time the more affluent members of Baalphorian society decided they also wanted a piece of Piketown, not much had been left. Now, their homes and commercial districts were set up along the western edge, and the residents were constantly fighting for the best view of the ocean. The result was a disgusting array of obscenely tall buildings, reaching as high as their owners could afford to make them, in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the ocean.

    It was embarrassing, to be honest, and it had only worsened in the last few decades. More and more people had moved to Piketown, one of the few areas that had been largely untouched by the war. Moreover, as Astrapan became increasingly influential, more children of the rich and powerful began to attend, their parents erecting tall, hideously white buildings for their university years. Worse? By the time those students graduated, their building wasn¡¯t likely to have much of a view anymore, meaning they¡¯d have problems selling it. So they wouldn¡¯t sell it, and taller buildings would pop up behind it, or it would be sold and demolished, so a new building could rise higher and impede the views of those behind it.

    Capitalism at its finest.

    The building Emilia wandered through now was one of those buildings. She¡¯d only been inside one once, but she¡¯d heard a few of her classmates rant about how stupid they were because most of the building was usually empty. There was no need to use the parts of the building that only had views of other white buildings, after all, no need to even rent the space out, when the building would be demolished within a few years.

    Emilia walked and walked, coming across exactly zero doors that went towards the centre of the building. She turned a few corners, went up two flights of stairs, exited out into another hallway, and repeated¡­ and repeated¡­ and repeated. Nothing. Just an empty hallway, then stairs.

    Empty hallway.

    Stairs.

    Empty hallways.

    Stairs.

    It was stupid, and she really wanted to reach out through the aether, see if there even was anything inside the centre, or if it was just a solid block, supporting the rich bigots high above.

    Logically, she knew there was something inside, though. She had seen it, inside the bartender¡¯s fragmented mind. There was an entrance to the centre, where the purist meetings were held, somewhere. She could not, however, figure out where the fuck it was.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she sighed, sagging against the blank, white wall of a hallway. She¡¯d at least gotten to the point where there were windows to look out of, but they just showed her the windows of the white buildings pressed too close to this one. Who had decided this nonsense was allowed? Why wasn¡¯t anyone regulating it even now? She¡¯d never voted in a local election¡ªshe might have been able to register at Astrapan as Emilia Daniels without the system flagging it as a fake name, but she doubted she¡¯d get away with that if she voted¡ªbut she was half tempted to look into the candidates next election, see who she could support, if not with her vote than with something else. Someone must be running on a platform that this shit needed to be regulated, right!?

    Emilia sighed, sagging further down onto the floor, her dress sliding against the smooth tile, and reached out to Payton. Fortunately, it was illegal for anyone¡¯s security to monitor or interfere with communication, except with some pretty hefty permits. The aethernet was everywhere and belonged to no one. You could monitor your building, people, and electronics, to keep them safe, but you couldn¡¯t monitor the aether itself, unless it was specifically interfering with something you owned. Well, you could, but the fines were no joke.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    [Em: find anything?]

    [Payton: No. You?]

    [Em: nothing]

    [Payton: There were no clues in what you found?]

    Emilia released a long puff of air, scanning through the fractured images she had received from the bartender yet again. There really wasn¡¯t much there. The outside of the building, so generic, but then the de la Rue compound. She¡¯d been able to count the buildings between them, pick out small landmarks, to find the correct white building. Inside it, however¡­

    The bartender had talked to the faceless man, received the information her Censor was still analyzing, and the moth virus. He¡¯d turned, taking in vague details of the room that had slowly been eaten away by the moth. There were no windows, only giant screens broadcasting the Penns, of all things. Ocean waves crashed over pale white beaches. Perfectly manicured grass and plants spread over the hills. There were no people, even though she recognized a few places that were constantly filled with locals¡ªat least, they had been last time she had been there.

    The bartender had taken a step, then another, towards a silver door¡ªno, not a door. An elevator. He¡¯d only made it a few steps, however, before he was pushing his way out of the building. Either the moth or the building¡¯s security had messed with his memory. It was rare, but sometimes security manipulated your mind to disallow forming memories. Hard to resist, unless you were paying special attention, which she and Payton were. If anyone was going to use such a technique, well, purists were probably pretty high on that list. The Black Knot took purist activities pretty seriously, and no one wanted them showing up at their door.

    She scanned back through the memory, trying to force it to go back further. Even a little further back in time could hold a clue and¡ª

    [Em: nope, nothing, nada]

    [Payton: Annoying]

    [Em: very]

    [Payton: Better keep going then.]

    Emilia groaned, but pushed herself up nonetheless. She glanced back down the hall before beginning to walk again, and walk, and walk, and walk, and¡ª

    She scuffed a shoe along the ground. So boring and annoying. They couldn¡¯t even use an elevator¡ªassuming they could even find one¡ªbecause that would certainly flag security. All they could do was walk up and up and up, and her clothes were the least of her worries at this point. She was going to walk holes in her shoes. Up and up and up and¡ª

    Emilia stopped, frowning as she glanced behind her. Now that there were windows, more light was coming in from the moons, but it still wasn¡¯t super bright. She could barely see the end of the hall. There was nothing there, but she knew that something was there. She turned fully around, readying her Censor to reach out, to find whatever was there. It shuddered and¡ª

    [Payton: I found something]

    Just like that, whatever she felt vanished. Her Censor still echoed out of her, reaching into the dark and coming up with nothing¡ªnothing it could detect, anyways. She was still running it at a lower spec, in order to not trigger the security system, after all. She reached out with her own core, ever so slightly.

    You weren¡¯t technically supposed to try and touch or analyze things with your core. It could backlash and, you know, kill you. Censors acted as a barrier, but Censors were much easier for security systems to detect. Direct core skills? Not so much.

    Mostly, because very few people were insane enough to use their core.

    [Payton: You¡¯re going to have to circle back around to me.]

    Emilia¡¯s core shuddered as it slid through the hall, rubbing over the edges of the smooth glass and wall and floors and¡ª

    [Payton: I¡¯m on the 31st floor. Sorry.]

    Emilia frowned. She was only on the 18th. How had he moved so fast?

    [Payton: Em?]

    [Em: sorry]

    [Em: distracted]

    [Em: how did you get up there so fast?]

    [Em: and you didn¡¯t happen to see any doors from your side to mine along the way, did you?]

    This building was so weird, with each staircase going up two floors at a time, so they had yet to actually come across each other. They were also forced to walk back down the hall to get to the next set of stairs, which took them two floors up, then a hall and two floors and who designed a building like that? What if there was an emergency on the other half of the building? You wouldn¡¯t be able to reach the other side unless you blasted a hole through the walls¡ªa skill most people, thankfully, did not possess. Honestly, she wasn¡¯t convinced the point of this building wasn¡¯t to make people who tried to break into it lose their minds!

    A laugh flittered through her mind, soft and huffing. Seriously, what had her classmate¡¯s father been thinking when he¡¯d advised his son to hide himself away behind bold laughter and lies?

    [Payton: Med skill, meant for sneaking through hostile territory. The code is kept pretty confidential, and changes a little every few months, to keep it out of security systems.]

    [Payton: Officially, it¡¯s illegal to even try to track it, not that many people outside of medics even know it exists.]

    [Em: cool]

    Too bad she didn¡¯t have anything like that herself¡ª

    [Payton sent {Light of Soul}]

    [Em: i thought you said confidential?]

    [Payton: It¡¯s due to change soon, and I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll go spreading it around.]

    No, she wouldn¡¯t spread it around, but she probably would analyze and adapt it for herself¡ªmake it just unique enough that if someone caught her using it they wouldn¡¯t know where it came from.

    [Em: thanks]

    [Em: be there soon]

    [Em: and keep an eye out]

    [Em: something doesn¡¯t seem right]

    Payton didn¡¯t respond as she loaded up the skill into her Censor. It did a cursory analysis of it, before deeming it safe and letting her activate it. Much like {Med Search}, {Light of Soul} was incredibly lightweight. Seriously, who was programming this stuff for them? She¡¯d never heard anything about these skills, even during the war, when information and secrets had been shared with perhaps too much ease. Yes, the military¡¯s medics had been known for being incredibly skilled, but not to this extent.

    She glanced over the specifics of the skill before she began to run, her body feeling light and invisible as she floated down stairs and around corners. It felt almost like she were vibrating with the aethernet, fitting inside its form and disappearing from sight.

    She was so ripping into the code of this skill tomorrow.

    Her fingers brushed the hole they had left in the first floor as she bolted past it. It had taken barely any time at all to make it this far, and while she knew going down was far easier than going up, it still surprised her that Payton had only made it twice as far as her.

    At least, it did, until she reached the top of the 3rd floor and skidded to a stop. Oh.

    [Em: dude, your side is so much more¡­ interesting than mine]

    [Payton: It is?]

 Arc 1 | Chapter 23: Keeping the Serial Killer Inside

    If Emilia¡¯s side of the building had been devoid of anything interesting, Payton¡¯s side was a mess of too much fascination. Art hung from nearly every available space along the hall, currently comprised of two solid walls, much like her side have been, until it had opened to windows at the 10th floor.

    She stepped forward, examining the art as she walked. They were, to put it lightly, disturbing. She recognized a few pieces, recognized artist of more. Pieces and people they had learned about in school because their legacies were so horrifying they were worth remembering¡ªworth using to try and teach children to not hate for the sake of hatred. Beautiful art that was the work of people who had led wars, tracked down innocent children just because they had been born of genetic spasms. Hideous creations of blood and gore, glorifying those murders¡ªglorifying outright genocide, in the most horrific of cases.

    [Payton: Your side wasn¡¯t like this?]

    Emilia shook her head, even though she knew he couldn¡¯t see her. She couldn¡¯t send messages like this, not when her stomaching was roiling as she witnessed an artist¡¯s rendering of one of the bloodiest moments in Baalphorian history. The artist had been skilled, and if not for the content, she would have said it was beautiful.

    Somehow, that made it worse.

    She should move on, she knew. Get out of here. It had probably taken Payton so long to get through here because he had been analyzing the artwork for signs that something other than bigotry and hatred were hidden inside them¡ªnot that those were all that hidden. Most were definitely proud of the fact that they were depicting such grotesque scenes, although occasionally, her eyes would catch on one far subtler. The eyes of someone in the background some unnatural colour, the framing making it clear that they were the evil of the scene. Someone wielding too much power, bending the aethernet to their will as they attempted to become a god. Fictional overlords destroying the innocent¡ªthe people who had been born naturally, whatever that meant.

    Genetic spasms weren¡¯t exactly rare, it was just that most of the deviations they created weren¡¯t quite as obvious as her own silverstrain was, nor as obvious as Olivier¡¯s eyes or Felicity¡¯s skin.

    ¡°No one will want that child.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯d just a distraction from the others.¡±

    ¡°Should we not let her attend¡ª¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s the sweetest child here, though.¡±

    ¡°That means nothing.¡±

    ¡°No one wants a child who will attract that much attention.¡±

    ¡°Every time she attends, though¡ª¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°I think the silverstrain is pretty.¡±

    ¡°You and no one else.¡±

    ¡°Shush! She¡¯ll hear you!¡±

    ¡°So? What do you think will happen even if she does?¡±

    ¡°No one cares about these children. Little irregulars like her, even less.¡±

    She swallowed, willing her eyes to look away. Look away from the evidence that people hate you, hate the people you love and cherish and would die for. Look away and¡ª

    ¡°Em.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shot away from the painting she had been staring at, a sickly rendition of a child who looked too much like her¡ªlike Nettie¡ªbeing thrown into a pink sea they weren¡¯t meant to escape from, to Payton.

    He blinked at her before offering her a hand. ¡°I didn¡¯t think,¡± he said. He didn¡¯t exactly sound sorry that he hadn¡¯t thought to warn her, more acknowledging that he had forgotten to partake in a social norm he knew, but didn¡¯t particularly care about. An unnatural concern. She¡¯d heard more than a few people with black knots say they didn¡¯t give a shit that people found them off-putting, people who thought all children should be tested for black knots and killed if they were misfortunate enough to have one. Hatred of strangers didn¡¯t bother them, why should they remember it bothered everyone else?

    She smiled, painfully, at him. ¡°You didn¡¯t know.¡± She shrugged, accepting his hand and reactivating {Light of Soul} when his Censor prompter her to.

    ¡°Not going to tell me not to follow some social contract I don¡¯t understand?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Fuck, no,¡± she said, frowning severely at him. ¡°That shit is what¡¯s keeping you from becoming a serial killer!¡± She threw in a smile, so he knew she was joking¡­ mostly. People with black knots were pretty apathetic. They could form solid bonds with people¡ªso solid they bordered on obsessive, in fact¡ªbut otherwise their care about the general population was lacking.

    ¡°Good,¡± he replied, tugging her along with him, up floor after floor, down hall after hall filled with purist artwork. ¡°That part of me I like.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I liked being a medic. I like being a nurse.¡±

    They skidded to a stop as they reached the 31st floor. Unlike the other floors, this one didn¡¯t just have artwork decorating the walls, but several statues and sculptures scattered along the hall as well. This hallway was wider than the ones below it had been, and in the centre¡ª

    ¡°I also like being here,¡± Payton added as they approached the open door.

    It didn¡¯t have a doorknob, and was the same shade as the wall. Several pieces of art hung from it. A hidden door, then.

    Emilia glanced around, trying to figure out where the switch had been. Nearby, sat several sculptures, one depicting a child¡¯s head being pulled from their body. It was unclear who was the irregular in the scene, but only one of the decapitated head¡¯s eyes was open, making it look just strange enough that she assumed closing or opening one of them had been the trigger.

    ¡°I like feeling like I can save people, even if I can¡¯t save myself.¡±

    Emilia frowned, watching her classmate¡¯s back as he strolled into the secret room, filled with computers and a small lounge area for whoever had the misfortune of being on duty that day. ¡°What makes you think you need saving?¡±

    He shrugged, running a finger over a Virtuosi access point. Another thing he had learned from his father, then?

    ¡°You going in?¡± he asked, glancing back at her. He looked tired, either from all her poking or however much energy he had used examining the artwork, she wasn¡¯t sure. Maybe a bit of both.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said, hurrying after him. The room was pretty plain. There were computers, a few dozen screens across a wall showing various area of the complex¡ªit was often easier to monitor things like security cameras through physical screens, especially in a place like this. It was huge and not important enough to have multiple security officers on duty¡ªand just like they¡¯d hoped, there wasn¡¯t anyone on night duty. It was rare for residential buildings to have private security running around the clock¡ªso rare, that having a night officer might even attract attention from nosy neighbours.

    ¡°What are they hiding in there?¡± little old ladies would whisper.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    No one wanted little old ladies gossiping about them. Much easier to just leave night watch to a monitoring system, even if that meant leaving giant holes in your security.

    She ran her hands over the Virtuosi access point. She didn¡¯t really want to have to log in, unless she absolutely had to. Going in externally, the system wouldn¡¯t automatically log her entrance. If she used the headset, logged in normally, she¡¯d have to go back and erase her steps.

    Problem was¡ª

    Emilia gasped when Payton¡¯s hand landed cold against the base of her neck.

    [Skill: {Iced Access} Activated]

    ¡°Fancy,¡± she murmured as she let her Censor begin pressing straight into the system.

    Payton said nothing, and when her Censor reached around her to look at him, she could see his eyes were closed. Apparently, keeping her Censor from overheating wasn¡¯t quite as simple as his other skills.

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    Her Censor automatically cut the notification, pressing harder against the security system as it worked to force its way inside.

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Den¡ª]

    [Access: Granted]

    Emilia¡¯s mind vanished from her body, and she hoped she wasn¡¯t about to fall over into Payton¡ªor worse, the access point. It had been so long since she¡¯d forced her way inside a system, she¡¯d kinda forgotten the whole¡­ better off being seated thing. Technically, you could stand. Technically, you were also quite likely to fall over.

    The world she opened her eyes to buzzed white around her because, of course, it did. White building, white security system. It was also ridiculously empty¡ªin the really suspicious way.

    ¡°Fools,¡± she muttered, sending out a collection of programs to gather up whatever they could find.

    Junk data. More junk data. A fake diary, unless there was a little mistress living here who was having an affair with someone from Alver¡ªpossible, but unlikely. Some generic emails. A bill for an elevator repair¡ª

    Emilia glanced over the bill, smiling to herself. Whoever loaded this place up with its supposedly boring data probably hadn¡¯t realized how much information was inside the bill. The repairs hadn¡¯t gone well, and the company had needed to order a part, return another day to finish the job. It was a big company, and they hadn¡¯t been sure the same repair crew would be assigned to return, once the part came in. As such, there were detailed instructions on where the ¡°very secret(?) elevator¡± was, as well as a note about ¡°weird vibes¡± from the staff, especially in regard to one of their Free Colony employees.

    Emilia doubted those notes were supposed to be included with the bill¡ªor maybe they had been. Some small fuck you to the people who had hired them. Either way, even without the map her code located for her a moment later, she now knew exactly how to get into the purist meeting place.

    [{Map} Acquired]

    [{Members.data} Acquired]

    [{p2.data} Acquired]

    More and more notifications of things her Censor had found as it dug through the system flashed across her eyes. She gave the items a cursory glance. Most of it was encrypted, and she¡¯d need a proper connection to decipher it¡­ or to at least be out of the security system¡¯s range before activating one of her more powerful skills to brute force it. Which reminded her¡­

    Her mind flipped through more of the information her Censor was slowly revealing to her, looking for the actual controls of the security system, so she could temporarily disable it.

    Or permanently turn it off. She hadn¡¯t decided yet if she wanted whoever was behind all this to know they¡¯d been inside the building yet. Probably not. They might already know one of their dealers had been taken out, but she didn¡¯t need them knowing someone knew where the knotters had been distributed or that purists were behind it¡ªor at least vaguely related to it. Who knew how far this went. The less notice they had that someone was on to them, the better. Obviously.

    She found the controls faster than she expected, the result of Payton¡¯s skill, she supposed. Normally, she¡¯d have to keep her speed and simultaneous skills down, or risk her Censor overheating. Payton¡¯s hand on her neck, keeping it cool and refreshed, was incredible. He¡¯d already given her one skill tonight, but maybe he could be talked into giving her this one, too? Was it a med skill as well? Probably. Which, seriously!? Who was the magician coding their stuff!?

    Usually, people that skilled were recruited into the Black Knot, D-Tect or criminal organizations. That level of skill was terrifying and coveted. People were killed for being less impressive than the creator of this stuff seemed to be. It was part of why they accepted¡ªeven sought out¡ªjobs in the most powerful Baalphorian organizations. Protection. Emilia didn¡¯t think the medics¡ªwho didn¡¯t even have a single overarching organization supporting and managing them¡ªhad that kind of protective power.

    Then again, if they¡¯d managed to keep this programmer a secret, maybe they did.

    Emilia flicked off the security system, quickly manufacturing a software issue that would explain the lack of video recordings since shortly before they arrived. Someone would have a terrible time trying to fix it when the next shift came in and realized all their cameras were down.

    She flipped over to the aether records. They operated in a different part of the system, and it would be too suspicious if they also completely vanished. Instead, Emilia switched it to run random loops of nothing wrong in the logs, erasing the few blips of their own power that had shown up. They were small, but there.

    [SecAlert: {Med Search} Detected]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Detected | Exterior | Moderate]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Cause | Exterior | Lack of Control]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party | Floor 1 | Moderate+]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party | Floor 1 | Moderate+]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party Solution | Send Patrol]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party | Floor 3 | Moderate+]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party Solution | Send Patrol]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Detected | Floor 8 | Minimal]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Solution | Send Patrol]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party | Floor 5 | Moderate+]

    [SecAlert: Unknown Party Solution | Send Patrol]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Detected | Floor 10 | Minimal]

    [SecAlert: Abnormal Aether Solution | Send Patrol]

    Unfortunately, there was no patrol on duty, and whoever was managing the system had disabled alerts below extreme from being forwarded to anyone on call. Actually, according to the work schedule that came up, there wasn¡¯t even anyone on call. Even if they¡¯d used their most powerful skills, the alerts would have been forwarded to no one. Probably, the owners were too cheap to pay someone to be on call¡ªmost people were because most people¡¯s homes were never broken into. They had also disabled extreme alerts from being sent directly to SecOps, less common than not paying someone to be on call. In this case, Emilia could understand it, however. With how much purist artwork they had on display, they definitely wouldn¡¯t want SecOps coming in, investigating some blip, and finding evidence of their bigotry.

    Officially, SecOps couldn¡¯t leak when they found stuff like that during investigations. It could only be revealed in court, on the rare occasion things got that far and it was relevant. Unofficially, there were enough former vets in SecOps who owed their lives to irregulars and Free Coloniers, and it never took long for information like that to leak.

    Want of privacy also explained the weird layout, now that she thought of it. The blank walled hallways were the public ones, just in case the main elevator, wherever that was¡ªapparently in a small lobby tucked behind another secret door on the first floor that they had both missed, according to her map¡ªcouldn¡¯t be used.

    In some ways, she thought it was nice that the world had changed enough that more and more people were hiding their bigotry, knowing they had fewer supporters every day. It helped that there had been more than a few heroes in the war who hailed from the Free Colonies, and almost everyone who had been part of the final strike had been someone that some part of the world thought was worth hating.

    Except Boyd.

    No one could hate Boyd, and luckily, Boyd could hate no one in return.

    ¡°Find something worth smiling about in there?¡± Payton asked as she slipped out of the system.

    ¡°Just a nice memory,¡± she said, rolling her neck and shoulders out as her classmate¡¯s hand pulled away. Nice memories were such a rarity for her these days, even this memory more passing acknowledgement that the world was less obviously hateful than it had once been.

    That was just an illusion, however. This place was proof of that¡ªproof of the things hiding in corners and secret rooms, just waiting for the chance to snap out and destroy the people they feared and hated.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t completely argue with some of that fear. Non-devs were only born of genetic spasms, and everyone knew they were downright terrifying, despite the fact that almost no one knew the half of it. If they did know¡­

    ¡°Security¡¯s down now, by the way. Feel free to go wild with all those skills you¡¯ve been just itching to use,¡± she added, reaching her arms above her head and stretching. They flopped sadly down beside her. Two hacking sessions in a few hours? She wasn¡¯t used to this kind of mental and physical strain anymore!

    ¡°Or, you¡¯re getting old,¡± a very rude part of her suggested. She promptly stomped that part down. She was not getting old, thank you. She was barely a quarter of the way through her life! Might only be a fifth, if she took care of herself!

    ¡°Which you definitely aren¡¯t,¡± the smushed part of her shot back. So rude.

    ¡°So, find anything interesting?¡± Payton asked, his hands returning to her shoulders and pressing lines of soothing aether into them.

    ¡°Fuck, that feels good,¡± she moaned, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. It did feel good, though. So, so fucking good. Even if she ended up hating her classmate¡¯s guts, she was half-tempted to invite him on every so-called adventure she had from now on, just so he could put those delicious, skilled hands on her. Not that she went on many adventures these days. Maybe she would start again, if Payton were up for it. He seemed to be enjoying himself, so perhaps he¡¯d be open to more vigilant justice?

    ¡°Was that another med skill?¡± she asked, sagging slightly into the touch as her eyes fluttered shut. ¡°{Iced Access}?¡±

    Payton hummed in confirmation, one last shudder of aether sliding through her muscles and Censor before he let his hands drop. He looked back to the door, eyebrows slightly furrowed, and she could feel his energy reaching out, more aggressive now that she had turned off the security system.

    She felt it, when it collided with something¡ªsomething that shouldn¡¯t be there. ¡°Get down!¡± she yelled, even as she was already throwing herself into him and sparking across the room.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 24: Well, This is Terribl(y Suspicious) Timing

    Emilia hadn¡¯t sparked in¡­ probably about five years, and even then, when her knots had been less intense and her control more¡­ existent, she¡¯d sparked straight through a wall. Left a giant hole and hightailed it out of there before SecOps could arrive and start asking questions she didn¡¯t want to answer. She didn¡¯t spark through a wall this time, but she and Payton smacked straight into it.

    Her classmate oofed. The thing smashed through the security console¡ªthrough the place they had just been standing, the sound covering up any subsequent complaints about her lack of control for a technique he surely knew she should not be able to do, even badly.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Payton swore through their Censors. ¡°Is that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± Emilia replied, already grabbing his hand and prompting him to reactivate {Light of Soul} so they could try and get the fuck out of there. ¡°That¡¯s an echo.¡±

    It really was terrible¡ªnot to mention very fucking suspicious¡ªtiming. Echo events were so rare these days to begin with, and they had always been rare in Piketown¡ªjust as rare as assaults on the city had been during the war itself. No one had ever been able to figure out why the things they had fought during the war had avoided certain areas. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything unique about any of the locations¡ªsave the Strats, which had never once been attacked. Echo events were the same. So rare in those same places they were almost unheard of.

    Emilia and Payton shot down the stairs, listening to the crashing roars of the thing behind them. Metal clanged against walls, presumably those ugly sculptures sent flying. ¡°Good,¡± she thought because as bad as this situation was, at least some of their horrible art would be ruined.

    ¡°The glass didn¡¯t break,¡± Payton noted, eyes peering into the dark world outside as they bolted towards the next flight of stairs. Above them, the echo was making so much noise Emilia could only assume it had lost them, {Light of Soul} helping them to fade into the aethernet and hide their presence. Highly convenient, but echos had other ways of tracking their targets.

    Emilia hurled a burst of pure aether towards the glass, cursing as it was absorbed. ¡°It¡¯s aether proof,¡± she spit out. Once, aether proof glass had been popular. It protected the building from aether attacks, up to a point. Helpful during the war, when you were primarily keeping monsters and counterattacks out of your home. A huge hindrance once the echos had begun, creatures popping into existence wherever they pleased, aether proof glass trapping you inside with a monster trying to eat you.

    Just like they were now.

    Emilia cursed, her senses itching as she felt the echo reach out in search of them, its attention dragging over her like the predator it was. The building rumbled, and then its steps were pounding down on them as it gave chase. They were so totally fucked if that thing caught them. She hadn¡¯t caught a great look at it, concerned with getting them out of the room before it turned on them, and they were trapped, but what her Censor had seen was so totally not good.

    ¡°You ever fight an echo? Or even on the field?¡± she asked, shooting Payton a look.

    For once, her classmate actually looked nervous. Great. Perfect time to have an actual emotion. ¡°Once,¡± he said, turning dark, humourless brown eyes on her. ¡°I almost died.¡±

    ¡°Eh,¡± she sighed, nodding along and trying to avoid panicking herself¡ªtrying to avoid thinking about the fact that the security system was set to never contact SecOps and no help was coming. ¡°I don¡¯t think I know anyone who served who didn¡¯t almost die at least once.¡± She hesitated for a moment, before adding, ¡°I almost died a few times.¡±

    Payton didn¡¯t seem surprised to learn she had served, simply blasting the next stairwell door open for them to scurry down. ¡°Any ideas?¡±

    Any ideas. Emilia almost laughed. She had a few, but they were almost all either suicidal, or worse, risked taking out the entire block. She didn¡¯t have nearly enough control of her skills anymore to take that thing out without some serious risk.

    The thing crashed into the floor above them. They were losing their head start too fast.

    Fuck. This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen here¡ªin this building, in this town. Part of why she had felt safe knotting herself so excessively here was because echo events were so rare! If she¡¯d been living practically anywhere else¡ªlike she had, in the two years between the end of the war and moving here¡ªshe would have barely had any knots, too paranoid that one of her nightmares would appear before her and kill her. Kill the people she loved. Destroy. Rip apart. Eat. Consume. Burn and burn and burn them until she was breaking herself apart to keep part of her soul alive.

    ¡°Stop acting like no one will care if you die,¡± he had spit at her. It had been so long since she¡¯d heard him mad. Everyone had been babying her since Alliance Ridge. No one had wanted to call her out, not until he had come. Not until he had watched her almost kill herself, being too stupid with grief and guilt to care if she lived or died. ¡°You broke when they died. I will break if you die. Do not break me, Emilia.¡±

    It had been selfish of him, to put that on her, but it had forced her to live. Not just then, but after the war as well. In her darkest moments, his voice was there. Even when they weren¡¯t talking, even when almost no one knew where she was¡ªwhen she wondered if anyone would even know or care if she died.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    It had felt like he would have known¡ªand she had certainly known he would definitely care¡ªso she had pushed on. She couldn¡¯t die. Not when someone still loved her¡ªwhen someone would still mourn her death.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she spit out, glaring at Payton. ¡°We¡¯re gonna have to have a long conversation about keeping secrets after this, you understand!?¡±

    He nodded. He looked like he had composed himself, whatever nerves he had felt falling away into the determination and solidity that anyone trained by the military and allowed onto the field had.

    [Em: hey]

    [Em: long time not talk]

    [Em: hope you¡¯re awake]

    [Em: kinda need help]

    [Em: echo]

    [Em sent {Current Location}]

    [Em: any help is appreciated!]

    She hesitated for a moment before throwing in a smile and a thumbs up. He was already going to be pissed¡ªat her, at the whole damn situation. Why not just go with that?

    [Olivier: WHAT!?]

    [Em: oh, and like, we kinda broke in and aren¡¯t supposed to be here?]

    [Olivier: You did what? WHY?]

    [Em: and the glass is aether proof]

    [Em: and the security system doesn¡¯t send reports to secops]

    [Em: that was their doing, not mine]

    [Em: just so you know]

    Olivier swore through their connection, and she could feel how angry he was. Not that she particularly blamed him. If she received a message like that from him, she would also be less than impressed.

    She also would have been less capable of helping him out, and a part of her heart cracked at that. Once, she would have been able to spark and slide across Baalphoria with ease, reach the people she loved to keep them safe if they needed her¡ªif they trusted her enough to ask.

    She didn¡¯t think most of them did anymore. Not after she¡¯d spent a decade running from them. Not after¡ª

    The world split apart as the thing chasing them sparked down the hall, having finally caught up to them. It smashed through the wall, crashed into the stairwell and turned on them. Liquid silver eyes glowed from the dark as they skidded to a stop, Payton¡¯s hand in hers tugging her own questionable momentum backwards.

    ¡°What now?¡± he asked, aether fluctuating around them as he presumably prepared to erect a defensive barrier if the echo attacked¡ªwhen it attacked.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s coming,¡± she said, willbrand sparking purple and gold against her chest.

    This was wrong. This was too much of a coincidence. For an echo to appear here and now of all things? That couldn¡¯t be a coincidence, but it had to be. There had never been any rhyme or reason to echos, just like there had never been any for the war or for the initial attacks that had set the world aflame.

    Not one they had ever found, anyways, not in 30 years of searching for answers that didn¡¯t seem to exist.

    ¡°How long?¡±

    The de la Rue compound wasn¡¯t far, but they had only made it down to the 19th floor before the echo had overtaken them. How long for Olivier to gather what he needed, wake whatever security he trusted to come¡ªif not trusted to protect her secrets, then trusted not to die or impede him. How long for them to make it up here? He could probably break the glass from the outside, but¡­

    ¡°Hopefully not too long,¡± she said, smiling as she reformed her willbrand. It wrapped around her wrist, the real life version of the bracelet form she had forced it into inside the bartender¡¯s mind. One of the dozen moons and stars adorning the chains already glowed in preparation. ¡°But, we¡¯ll have to hold our own for at least a little bit.¡± A few minutes, if they were lucky. A dozen, if they weren¡¯t.

    A roar ripped out of the monster of darkness blocking their way, one long, scaled arm emerging from the shadows. Its nails¡ªnails that she had seen shred soldiers and their planes into nothing with barely a drop of effort¡ªscratched the polished white floor. Its nose tilted out of the shadow, those purple eyes watching them unblinkingly.

    Drip.

    Scratch.

    Drool dripping across the floor.

    Nails dragging as it stalked towards them.

    Payton swallowed, aether pulsing around him. He was tried¡ªtired from keeping her from overheating, from searching through all of this hideously beautiful artwork. He wasn¡¯t trained for this¡ªwasn¡¯t ready, his only preparation having been basic training and years within the raids.

    The fucking useless raids.

    The raids that she knew Payton was an active player in¡ªfar more active than almost everyone else in their cohort.

    An active player in the raids that limited your skills within them, your level within the raids superseding your own skill manipulating the aethernet outside its boundaries. There, within the raidlands, limits were imposed on heroes so they couldn¡¯t do too much. Couldn¡¯t overexert themselves or attack other players. Couldn¡¯t destroy buildings. Couldn¡¯t do a thousand other things in the name of keeping the world safe.

    Worse than that limiting of your real skills? The raids enhanced your skills, augmented them in a way most people¡¯s could never exist outside its walls. Your ability within a raid didn¡¯t naturally translate into the real world.

    Her jaw clenched, thinking back to all the wannabe heroes who had died when echos had been more common. People who were woefully unprepared¡ªtold they were perfectly suited for war by a fucking game¡ªchallenging flesh and blood monsters, thinking their skill within raids would lead them to a resounding victory.

    It had not. So many people had died. The government had framed their deaths as heroic, and people had believed them.

    ¡°They died protecting Baalphoria!¡±

    ¡°Do not let their deaths be in vain! Continue your training with passion and make your country¡ªno, your planet¡ªproud!¡±

    Stupid. Most people didn¡¯t seem to realize the aethernet was condensed and artificially enhanced within a raid. Or, they did, but they didn¡¯t think it would matter that much.

    It did matter that much, but releasing your willbrand outside of a raid or echo event could land you in jail, if someone or the OIC system complained. So, people didn¡¯t activate them, didn¡¯t realize the true extent of the difference between a game and a war.

    Emilia tried to force those facts into Payton¡¯s head in the moments they had before the monster lunged.

    ¡°Do not die being stupid,¡± she tried to scream into him.

    ¡°Do not try to be a hero,¡± she said, knowing full well that, had they the time, he would have laughed and pointed out that she was the one trying to be the hero in this situation.

    She was a hero, though, was the thing. A broken hero, yes, but a hero, nonetheless, and when her willbrand expanded through the world, when her body sparked through the aether, and she sliced a long gash in the echo¡¯s side before reappeared behind it, it was like returning to a childhood home you had once loved. To a childhood home that had kept you safe, made you feel loved and cherished, until it had collapsed and killed half the people you loved.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 25: To Not Regret Being Selfish

    The thing screamed as it skidded past Payton, the impact from her blow just enough to force its trajectory to change. Good, she would have felt pretty bad if her classmate had been bowled over by it.

    Still.

    ¡°Payton!¡± she yelled, her eyes never leaving the form of the monster. It pushed itself up, scales shimmering sharp in the quiet moonlight that was able to find its way through the windows. The building next to them was so close, though. So close, only the barest reflection of light was managing to make it inside.

    She considered, for the briefest of moments, activating an illumination skill, before rejecting it wholeheartedly. Yes, they¡¯d be able to see the echo better, but these things were creatures of nightmares and blood. Of gore and hearts torn from the bodies of people she had known. She had no desire to ever see one again, no desire to stir up those memories when they already haunted her dreams.

    The thing sparked, the aether cracking and contracting as it appeared directly in front of her. Black teeth dripped over her, foul and nauseating, as it prepared to make a meal of her.

    [Skill: {Star Shoot} Activated]

    Technically, {Star Shoot} was an illumination technique, points within the aethernet converging to create a constellation of laser attacks. It was so fast, however, that if she ignored the image her Censor tried to send her of what it had seen during that moment, she could pretend she had seen nothing more of the creature trying to eat her than she had in the darkness.

    It screamed as shots of light ruptured through it, deformed hands groping over its body as it tried to find the tiny holes her attack had left behind. She bolted backwards. Too weak. Once, that skill would have been able to bring an enemy to its knees. Now, it seemed to have annoyed it more than anything, and when its eyes met hers again, they seemed more psychotic than before. Great.

    It bolted towards her, its existence warping the aether and making her stomach turn. She lifted her sword, purple and gold blade glinting with blood and aether and¡ª

    [Skill: {Warp Cloud} Activated]

    The warping worsened, and the monster crashed through it¡ªthrough the form of the universe itself¡ªand exploded out of it behind her and straight into the wall of windows. They creaked from the impact, but didn¡¯t even have the decency to crack.

    Emilia darted back to Payton. ¡°Thanks,¡± she mumbled, taking the chance to down one of the boosters she¡¯d gotten earlier.

    [Booster: {Structural Aura} Consumed]

    [Strength++]

    [Control+++]

    [Concentration+]

    ¡°You should take mine as well,¡± Payton tried to insist, but Emilia was already gone, feet losing the ground as she sparked.

    Her sword slide through the monster again, and she slammed into a wall. ¡°Fuck,¡± she muttered as she pushed herself back from it. She couldn¡¯t fight the echo in such a contained space without sparking¡ªthere wasn¡¯t enough room to roll around it here. At the same time, she didn¡¯t have the control to spark consistently enough to fight like this, and when she tried again, her sword swiped through nothing, despite the thing having barely moved as it shook off its own collision with the windows.

    Its tail flicked, slamming against the glass as though it wished it had shattered with the impact. She¡¯d seen echos less powerful than this one fall from the stars and pop up like nothing had happened. It really was a testament to aetherproof glass that it could do so much damage to the creature.

    Drip.

    Clack.

    She hated those sounds. Fighting these things outdoors had always been easier. Planes overhead, screeching through the air and crashing to the earth as monsters that could fly and fling themselves through the aether ripped them out of the sky. Explosions of skills across the world, tearing the aethernet apart as they fought to try and survive. Giant vibrating barriers that were quickly killing the people holding them up rattling your brain and control.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let the line break!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no one left to fill the line!¡±

    ¡°Fuck! If the barrier falls¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll hold it.¡± The tiniest little voice, tinkling and innocent. They had barely been a teenager. Their Censor had probably been installed only a year or two earlier. Children shouldn¡¯t be soldiers, but their entire family¡ªeveryone they knew and loved¡ªwas going to die if they didn¡¯t become one. If the adults who were supposed to be fighting the war didn¡¯t let that child tear their soul apart trying to earn the frontline another few minutes they were all going to die.

    They had had their minutes more. They had won that battle, and then they¡¯d stood at that tiny, brave child¡¯s funeral.

    Drip.

    Clack.

    Her willbrand vibrated, and the shield Payton had wrapped around her¡ªa smaller version of the one that had protected that city¡ªvibrated with it. Every moment this shield was up was a moment of his life he was sacrificing for her. This small, it wouldn¡¯t be much. Days, maybe years, by the time Olivier arrived.

    It was still too much.

    She ran, not sparked¡ªsparking was too unpredictable, even if her speed running was nothing compared to how fast the monster could spark. It snarled, head ripping and drool splattering over where she had just been.

    Did Payton know not to let it touch him? That it could burn holes straight through you, if it wanted.

    Always only if it wanted. Monsters that manipulated the aethernet with the ease of creatures born of it¡ªnot that that had ever been proven.

    She dropped, sliding under the thing, Payton¡¯s shield protecting her from drool and blood and the daggers it had for claws. Her sword slid into its stomach, slicing through scales that so few weapons could hope to even scratch with ease.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Roll. Get out of the way.

    Entrails and organs spilled out of it, and it howled because these things were the hardest fucking things in the universe to kill.

    Her back slammed against the wall, picture frames rattling with the force and Payton was pulling her away, some skill she hadn¡¯t even noticed him activating dragging her back towards him. His hands landed on her shoulders, burning away the injuries she¡¯d received. A slit across her thigh. A drop of blood burning through her wrist.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± he muttered as he healed her. ¡°My barrier wasn¡¯t good enough.¡±

    ¡°It was good enough,¡± she said, dumbfounded. She¡¯d had plenty of supports during the war. Most hadn¡¯t been half as skilled as Payton, and they¡¯d been trained for active combat support. She¡¯d almost always needed three or four protecting her from her own stupidity. Someone to form a barrier. Someone to heal her. Someone to keep her supports from getting eaten.

    More than a few of them had been eaten. War was like that.

    Her wrist burned, the hole the drop of blood had formed in it deep enough that she would need a proper visit to a clinic to heal it. She pushed the pain away and watched the echo rise back up.

    Splat.

    Drip.

    Clack.

    Great, now its insides were splatting across the floor.

    Emilia swung her feet back under her, eyeing it up. It might not be dead, but its movements were slower than before. These things might be able to keep themselves alive and snarling even when they should have been dead, but that didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t feel it. This was messier, though. This was more blood and drool and guts to avoid. They had had special suits in the war, designed to augment barriers and resist the corrosive effects of their enemies.

    Emilia had a formerly pretty dress. She had scuffed knees and elbows and a cracked rib because she had knotted herself up too much¡ªwanted to be too normal. Now she and Payton were going to pay the price for her selfishness.

    ¡°It¡¯s easier, to be stupid.¡±

    ¡°You are not stupid.¡±

    The other girl had given her a look, the same look she¡¯d been giving Emilia since they were toddlers. ¡°Yes, I am, and I¡¯m okay with that.¡± She had laughed, the sound warm and lovely, just as it always had been, even in the darkest moments of their lives. There was freedom in innocence. Freedom in not knowing how to see anything but the beauty of life. ¡°I¡¯m okay with being nothing, compared to you. I see you, how much pressure you are under. How much you hate the life that is expected for you.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t hate life.¡±

    ¡°You hate the life people want you to lead.¡±

    Emilia hadn¡¯t been able to argue with it then, just months after her D-Levels had been tested. Officially tested. She¡¯d already known the results for years, had been living on borrowed time. She had revelled in normalcy that had a timer.

    Decades later, when the war had been over, she hadn¡¯t been able to argue with those words either, spoken by that same girl she loved with all her heart, still as innocent as she¡¯d always been¡ªalmost.

    ¡°Go.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Go. We will be fine. We know you¡¯ll come back.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t just leave!¡±

    ¡°You can. Go. Be normal. Live the life you want to. We will be here, when you are ready to come back.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Emi.¡± Her voice had been so firm, so unlike its usual soft, naive tone. ¡°You have sacrificed so much for us¡ªfor the entire world¡ªalready. Take something for yourself, even if it is just a few decades of freedom.¡±

    They¡ªthe two people she loved more than anything else in the world¡ªhad looked at her, urging her to run, to disappear.

    One last hug.

    One last goodbye, more permanent than all the goodbyes they had whispered and signed during the war.

    ¡°I will come back,¡± she had whispered as she pulled away. Then, she was gone. One last spark across the world. She hadn¡¯t known where she was going, all she had known was she needed to go.

    And that she would be back.

    She still knew that¡ªthat she would be back. She would not die here. She had people who loved her enough to let her go, waiting for her.

    She would not regret being selfish.

    [Skill: {Blood Rain} Selected]

    ¡°I highly suggest,¡± she said, forcing Payton¡¯s barrier to shatter through pure force of will, ¡°that you protect yourself. I doubt I can control this well.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t see Payton, but her Censor helpfully informed her that he had a ¡°hilariously shocked look on his face.¡± Why was it that her Censor always seemed to grow a sense of humour at times like these.

    [Em: i hope you¡¯re nowhere near the 19th floor]

    [Olivier: 12th. Why?]

    Emilia smiled, sending her old friend a map of the building and an explanation of how he was on the wrong side. He swore, and {Blood Rain} broke free.

    The world vibrated, a million drops of blood and death vibrating free of the confines of a single plane of existence. They shuddered and the creature roared. Its eyes widened¡ªa moment of realization for what was about to happen. She had always found that fascinating. These things barely seemed to care about anything. She had seen them rip each other apart, trying to eat the most powerful person in the area in order to turn their power into their own.

    Yet, when confronted with death by human hands, there was always a moment where they seemed ready to flee. None ever did, and more than a few people had told her she was crazy for thinking they ever had anything in their minds except destruction. She still saw it¡ªeven a decade later. She saw that moment of terror, that moment of mortality.

    [Skill: {Blood Rain} Activated]

    {Blood Rain} ripped through the world, more powerful and uncontrolled than she had ever seen it. Even the first time she had used it, stupid and naive like any teenager who has found something they were not supposed to have, she had had better control of it than she did now. Now, drops of blood split through the air, shattering everything they came into contact with¡ªeven the damn aether proof glass. The glass cracked and strained, the aethernet trying to keep it together before it shattered, and a million pieces were crashing to the ground below.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± she spit out. She couldn¡¯t move¡ªshe wasn¡¯t powerful enough to move {Blood Rain}¡¯s safe zone. If anyone were standing on the ground below, they were going to die. They were going to be sliced apart, and it would be all her fault.

    All her fault.

    All her fault.

    All¡ª

    Payton¡¯s barrier crackled out of existence, and for a moment, she thought that he had passed out, or {Blood Rain} had broken through it. It might have been aimed at the echo, but smatterings of blood were still erratically pulling through the world behind them. When her head whipped around, prepared to see that her attempts to save them had instead led to her classmate¡¯s death, she gasped.

    Not broken.

    Not attacked.

    Payton had let the barrier down himself. His eyes were blank, focused on the world far below them, and then¡ª

    [Skill: {Exit Line} Activated]

    The aether below them screamed, and Emilia could feel Payton¡¯s skill activating, forcibly moving the few people standing below the shower of glass out of the way. It wasn¡¯t pretty. There weren¡¯t many people on the street, but someone had sensed something happening inside the building and a small crowd had gathered. They flew through the air, their backs slamming into the building on the opposite side of the street. People swore. Heads cracked against each other. A couple people wobbled uneasily before sliding to the ground.

    They were alive, though.

    Payton had¡ª

    Payton fell forward and Emilia lurched for him, a shard of hot blood slicing through her thigh as she caught her classmate. He¡¯d used too much energy. She gasped as her newly injured leg gave out under his weight, and they fell to the floor.

    Too much energy. They¡¯d both used too much.

    She glanced back towards the monster. The last embers of {Blood Rain} were converging on it, its body hacked into a dozen twitching pieces, and she sighed. The building rumbled slightly and she frowned downwards. Olivier, she assumed, her lips quirking slightly. Too bad for him, he¡¯d missed the show. Her eyes flicked back to the dying echo, more and more of its body parts were disappearing now¡ªreturning to the aether? Returning to wherever they came from? No one really knew. It was a welcome sight, however, and Emilia let out a long sigh.

    She looked out the broken window, her eyes catching on the reflection in the windows of the building opposite her. She twisted, Censor trying to activate something¡ªanything¡ªas the second echo lunged.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 26: Donâ€™t Kick the Medic

    {Rancid Lies} snapped through the air in front of her, brushing against the blade of her sword, raised in what most certainly would have been a vain attempt to stop the echo. The creature screamed as Olivier¡¯s skill made contact with it, sending it flying straight through the wall behind it.

    Her gaze snapped to Olivier, walking slowly towards them. He was still in his pyjamas, ridiculously luxurious looking even if they were covered in lollibobs, their long ears shiny with glitter. It was a shockingly funny contrast to the absolutely pissed look on his face. She¡¯d only seen him wear that expression a few times. Usually, she¡¯d caused it¡ªor her ex, which was tangentially related to her.

    ¡°Are those the pyjamas I got you?¡± she had to ask as he stopped beside them. It was silly to ask¡ªthey most certainly were the pair she had gotten him as a joke after he¡¯d joined the military. It had been a spur of the moment decision for him. His parents were going to be pissed. He had brought nothing with him and had always had people to do the shopping for him. So had Emilia, but she hadn¡¯t been afraid to go shopping like he was. She¡¯d returned with a few dozen essentially for him, including the adorable pyjamas. He had gotten different ones the next day, and she had assumed he¡¯d thrown her gift out.

    Evidently not.

    Olivier didn¡¯t deign to answer her, instead turning and staring into the depths of the hole the echo had disappeared into. ¡°Tariq.¡±

    ¡°Master Olivier,¡± Tariq said, sparking into existence beside him. He had barely changed over the last decade. Even then, when he had stood vigil beside Olivier¡¯s hospital bed and not known whether to thank her for saving his master¡¯s life, or blame her for him even being on the field in the first place, he had looked just as old and grumpy as the first time they had met, the same day she had met Olivier himself.

    ¡°Get them out of here.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Master Olivier,¡± the old man replied, already kneeling beside Emilia and Payton. He pressed a wrinkled hand to her classmate¡¯s forehead, eyes assessing, before he forced aether into him and Payton gasped back into consciousness.

    [Tariq has requested [Spark Shot] access]

    ¡°Accept,¡± Emilia told Payton as she granted the old man access. Her classmate nodded groggily, before grabbing their ride¡¯s shirt and pulling him close. Their foreheads pressed together briefly¡ªa physical transference of knowledge because Payton was still too weak to send it completely via the aethernet.

    ¡°Understood,¡± Tariq said, grabbing hold of Emilia and Payton and hauling them unceremoniously to their feet¡ªnot that she could blame him. He¡¯d been one of Olivier¡¯s primary bodyguards since he was a child, and she¡¯d spent a year torturing both of them, been the main reason they had joined the military decades later. To have to abandon his master in order to get her ass out of here must have been killing him.

    It was an order from his master, however, so he would do it. He had always been good about that¡ªabout letting Olivier live his life, even when he didn¡¯t agree. Even when he must have known he would be getting shit from Olivier¡¯s parents as a result.

    ¡°Be careful,¡± Emilia said, wobbling on her feet as her willbrand shuddered back into its normal, necklace form.

    Olivier didn¡¯t even glance back at her before he sparked through the hole and the sound of his own willbrand filled the air, and then Tariq was sparking them away as well.

    The world became light and shadows, the barest images of cities and forests flying past them. Time bent nauseatingly, before they exploded back into the real, solid world. It wasn¡¯t that the aethernet wasn¡¯t real, it was just that the world you were born into felt like the real one, as far as Emilia was concerned. Her stomach rolled slightly, her knees threatening to give way, only Tariq¡¯s arms around her keeping her upright.

    ¡°Is this the correct location?¡± he asked Payton as Emilia looked blearily around.

    She had no idea where they were, and even when her Censor informed them that they were somewhere called Yunalis, she had no idea where that was. Somewhere in the northern boonies, it seemed. Not quite into the far north, but north of the Turneus mountain range, where the world turned all but barren¡ªwhere most of the bigger cities had been flattened during the war and not nearly enough people had returned to rebuild them.

    Yunalis didn¡¯t seem to be the remains of a big city, however. Her Censor spitting out facts as Payton wobbled and told Tariq it was the place he had apparently requested they be taken.

    [Population: 50-200]

    [Primary Economy: Unknown]

    [Mayor: None]

    That was less than useful, and Emilia forced her Censor to stop giving her questionable information. That said, the fact that the information about the area for so unknown was interesting.

    Payton glanced towards the door of the house they had arrived at, surrounded by a dark, ominous looking woods. His aether tried and failed to reach out, presumably to whoever lived there. Not that it was needed, when a moment later, a young woman pushed the door open and nearly open fired on them. Aether shuddered around her, aiming for them before she had likely even fully taken them in. Awesome times.

    ¡°Seflora,¡± Payton called out, breaking into a stream of hacking coughs.

    Then, the woman was there, hands searching over Payton¡¯s face and body for injuries. ¡°Payton! What in the¡ª Why is your aether control so¡ª Who are these people?¡± Seflora glared between Tariq and Emilia, her eyes immediately catching on Emilia¡¯s own injuries. She blinked, then nodded. ¡°Echo?¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Emilia nodded back, wondering how she had known. True, serious injuries weren¡¯t particularly common, but to so decisively know her injuries were the result of an echo?

    ¡°I must return,¡± Tariq said, handing Payton over to the woman and letting Emilia unceremoniously drop to the ground before he sparked away.

    Well, she couldn¡¯t exactly say she didn¡¯t deserve to be treated like that.

    ¡°Rude,¡± the woman said, although Emilia could already feel the aethernet shaking as she activated a strength augmentation skill. ¡°I¡¯ll be back for you.¡± Then she was gone, not quite sparking through the world, but moving so fast that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if she had used some other skill or if her own grasp on the world was fading as the echo¡¯s blood twisted through her system.

    A moment later, Seflora was back, hoisting Emilia up, and then they were moving, and she was being dropped beside Payton. The woman, older than Emilia had originally assumed in the dark night, glowered down at them with stern, dark-blue eyes, and she could feel the telltale signs of a medic skill searching over her for injuries.

    ¡°You first,¡± she said, pointing to her. Her finger shifted to Payton, ¡°You, rest. You will be fine. You just overexerted yourself.¡±

    Payton nodded, letting himself slouch down on the couch they¡¯d been dumped on before passing right out. Emilia blinked at him. He really had overexerted himself, if he could fall asleep just like that, even after receiving an aether transfer from Tariq.

    ¡°Leg,¡± the woman said, already kneeling in front of Emilia.

    Seflora gathered her long blonde hair back into a perfect bun before reaching towards the slice across Emilia¡¯s thigh. She bit her lip, trying to not cry out as the woman healed her. It had been a long time since she had needed anything more than the most basic of medical treatment. Scuffs and scratches from raids¡ªnot to mention from fighting her boyfriend, back when they had been enemies, set on destroying one another. She had forgotten the burn of medic skills. Fast and fierce, leaving scars in their wake as they stitched up injuries from monsters, sucking out venom that could become toxic with a single thought from any of its kind.

    The cut was deep enough that pulling out those toxins made Emilia want to die. Her entire body ached, the woman removing her blood to purify it before forcing it back into her body. Blood wasn¡¯t meant to move this fast¡ªwasn¡¯t meant to be violently moved through her. This was fast and messy. This was not what you¡¯d get anywhere in the world but at the hands of someone who had been a medic during the war and never practised again¡ªnever learned the newer, gentler techniques that had been devised since.

    When the woman finally stopped, Emilia¡¯s fingers digging into the fabric beneath her as she kept from screaming or kicking the poor woman¡ªit wasn¡¯t her fault she¡¯d been burnt out by a war that had destroyed nearly every life that touched it, nor that Emilia had gone and fucked up. Injured herself. Nearly gotten herself and Payton killed. Not to mention that she had no idea how Olivier was handling himself. Yes, the echo had been wholly different from the whole break and enter thing. Someone would have had to deal with it anyways. It wasn¡¯t exactly their fault they had run into it¡ªthat she had needed to call for help.

    Emilia still couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that something was wrong about the timing, however. It seemed like too much of a coincidence.

    ¡°Well,¡± the woman sighed, leaning back and breathing out heavily, ¡°been a while since I¡¯ve had to do that. Never seen a blood injury quite like this was one, either.¡±

    Emilia didn¡¯t really think she was looking for an answer as to why the injury was so strange¡ªmost people never got a chance to see {Blood Rain} in action, and the few people who could use it generally weren¡¯t in the business of using it to injure other humans¡ªnot in the last few hundred years, anyways. It was meant to kill. It had killed that echo, even if her own lack of control had led to it injuring her as well. She was just glad that Payton hadn¡¯t been directly harmed by it.

    She glanced towards her classmate, sleeping soundly beside her. His mouth was ajar, arms slack beside him.

    ¡°It¡¯s a war medic skill,¡± Seflora said, mischief dancing in her eyes when Emilia looked back to her. ¡°Not a skill skill. Just an acquired gift, for people who are always on call.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, diligently letting the woman strip her so she could poke and prod at her other injuries. Bruises disappeared, blood forced out of the broken blood vessels and back into her system. Her ribs pulled back together, the sensation making her want to itch and earning her a smack on the hand when she tried.

    ¡°Do not touch,¡± the war medic said sternly, and Emilia smiled slightly. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You remind me of someone¡ªour unit¡¯s medic.¡± She didn¡¯t really see the point of hiding that she was a vet from this woman. She knew enough to guess that Seflora was like her, hiding in the middle of nowhere from a war she couldn¡¯t quite escape.

    ¡°Who¡¯s that? Maybe I know them.¡±

    ¡°Knew,¡± Emilia didn¡¯t say. Their unit¡¯s medic¡ªthe main one, who they had all grown to love and cherish¡ªhad died, long before the final days of the war. She hesitated, unsure of whether to give that much information about herself. Naomi had been famous, even before she had joined their division. She had become even more famous after joining, being one of the few people from their unit who were officially known to be members¡ªthey had always kept their membership list private, and for good reason. Sometimes, people had been able to guess. Usually, people guessing had never ended well.

    Fortunately¡ªor unfortunately, it depended on your point of view¡ªa loud knock interrupted their conversation.

    [Olivier: It¡¯s me.]

    Emilia sighed, telling the war medic it was the person who had taken over the fight for them. The woman raised an eyebrow at the fact that there had been two echos, but said nothing, simply tossing Emilia a blanket as she pushed herself off the couch and made her way to the door. She pushed the door open, breathing a small sign of relief when both her ex-lawyer and his silly pyjamas seemed to have been untouched by the fight.

    ¡°''vier,¡± she said softly, trying to hold his gaze before she realized she couldn¡¯t. He was just so upset, so disappointed in her. She¡¯d seen him disappointed in her before¡ªmore times than she could probably count, in fact¡ªbut this time¡­ this time, it felt different. Deeper and more cutting.

    More deserving.

    She could feel his eyes on her¡ªfeel his aether and then his Censor reaching out to prod at her. Unlike the first time, when she had brushed off his attempts to dig into her Censor, she let him in this time. She really didn¡¯t think he would be letting her leave without letting him check. He dug through her, which honestly, wasn¡¯t as bad as it could have been. More a surface dusting until he seemed to have found what he was looking for: the state of her knots. The sequences she kept stored inside her because she had long since stopped going to official clinics for knot therapy.

    Most knot therapists wouldn¡¯t reduce your D-Levels without a good reason, after all, and there were almost no good reasons.

    He turned, walking out into the dark night, expecting her to follow. She glanced behind her before she did. Seflora¡¯s hands were pressed to Payton, a slow stream of aether slipping out of her and into him. Her face was screwed up in concentration, a thin sheen of sweat already forming over her from the effort needed to bring his aether levels back up to something more acceptable¡ªor at least up to a point where aether would more easily flow into him naturally. Aether attracted aether.

    The woman didn¡¯t even glance up as Emilia followed Olivier into the darkness.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 27: I Wish Youâ€™d Yell

    Emilia hovered behind Olivier, shifting awkwardly from side to side. She¡¯d been standing behind him for a while now, waiting for him to say something¡ªanything. She could still feel the anger rolling off him, his hands flexing and clenching as he tried to reel himself in¡ªalthough she wasn¡¯t exactly sure why. She deserved to be yelled at. Being yelled at would be better than his pity or disappointment. Anger she could take. Perhaps he knew that¡ªknew that being kind to her would be the most punishing thing he could do.

    She couldn¡¯t bring herself to interrupt his thoughts, his attempts at controlling himself, however. She would take whatever he wanted to give her, not force him to give her what she wanted. So, she was left to just stand there in nothing but a blanket, because of course she hadn¡¯t been wearing anything under that dress. She didn¡¯t need to. It had a built-in bra, okay? And she didn¡¯t like panties! Now, though, standing in just a blanket, she felt exposed. Olivier had seen her completely naked before¡ªhad seen her naked earlier that day, in fact¡ªbut this felt worse. Naked without the intimacy just felt¡­

    Olivier turned towards her and she started. He looked her over, white-blue eye shining in the dark. ¡°Where is your dress?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ the medic took it off to check my injuries.¡± Technically, she probably could have done it with her clothes on. Visual confirmation just made things easier, and Seflora could have needed the reassurance she was healing everything properly¡ªwho knew how much she had practised since the war.

    She shifted her weight, trying and failing to keep eye contract with Olivier once again. She looked away, into the dark woods surrounding the house. Her aether had mostly recovered, and her Censor reached out into the dark. There were a few houses, dotting the forest. There was also a huge section missing, all barren nothingness, and it took Emilia a moment to realize she did know where they were.

    [Of course you know where we are.]

    [I gave you a map.]

    Yes, her Censor had given her a map, but she had barely looked at it, thanks. She¡¯d never been particularly good with reading maps, or remembering where things were located on them. Big things, sure. She was more of a landmark person, though. The missing section of the forest was a landmark, from one of the more bloody moments of the war. Also, from one of the few moments, before the final assault, where the Core had done more than offer technological information as their contribution to the war.

    That information had been extremely valuable¡ªsparking, for instance, was only copied from their enemies thanks to knowledge from the Core¡ªbut it hadn¡¯t been until the Battle of Luxor that anyone from the Core had actually risked their life to fight. No one knew who it was who had fought, their identity concealed by armour and anonymized communication. They had been a monster in their own right, possibly only on tier with the creator of {Blood Rain} in the ease with which they took down the monsters they fought.

    They had also killed nearly everyone in the area, friend and foe. Granted, by the time they arrived, very few of their allies were still alive, and nearly all of those remaining were seriously injured. Too injured to get out of range when the fighter from the Core let their skills loose, flooding the world with pure aether until nothing remained.

    In most areas, the ecosystems destroyed in the war were slowly returning. Volunteers replanted forests. Animals were bred in captivity and then relocated. Plants popped out of the ashes of ancient forests.

    Nothing grew at the site of the Battle of Luxor. Even plants that were brought in and planted into fresh soil died, and any animals taken in retreated into the surrounding forest¡ªthe one they stood in now.

    Whatever that person had done, it had permanently affected the place, and even standing there now, Emilia could feel the echoes of that damage in her core. She had never come this close, the fight having taken place while she was stationed far to the south. She had never realized how much that skill had affected the aether itself, left a mark across it that was still so powerful even decades on.

    She wondered if anyone who had felt it when it back then had felt it now¡ªif anyone knew whether that mark was fading, or if it was the same as always. She rather hoped it was the same, her stomach turning quietly under the oppression of it now. How bad would it have been nearly two decades ago if it was healing? If this was the fading version?

    ¡°I see,¡± Olivier said, before sparking away.

    Emilia blinked at the spot he had been standing, wondering where in the world he had gone. He appeared a moment later, holding a pile of clothing¡ªhis own, from the looks of it. He stepped forward, and fell to his knees, and she wanted to cry. The soft tap of his hands, urging her to lift each of her legs so he could help her into his too big sweatpants. The way he slid them up to her hips, his movements pausing as he spotted the new scar across her thigh, just barely overlapping with the other one¡ªthe one he had pressed so tenderly at earlier that day.

    He stood, pulling the pants tight before tugging the blanket away from her and forcing her into a sweater that was much too big for her. His hand, running over the back of her neck to pull her hair free, sending a shudder through her.

    ¡°Stop it,¡± she muttered, tensing when his hands froze where they were adjusting the hem of the sweater. It didn¡¯t need adjusting. It was probably just him fussing. Olivier was almost always fussy, but it was worse when he was anxious or upset.

    ¡°Stop what?¡±

    She huffed, her hands catching on his. ¡°Being so nice to me.¡±

    He turned her hands in his, fingers dragging along her palms. Was he also watching their hands, or was he watching her more directly? His eyes trained on her face for signs of whatever emotions she was feeling. She was afraid to look¡ªafraid to check and see whatever was floating in his own expression.

    ¡°I will always be nice to you, Emilia,¡± he said softly, so sincerely that Emilia had to laugh and look up at him. The expression he wore was sad, but amused, the barest hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

    ¡°I can remember tons of time you weren¡¯t nice to me,¡± she replied, frowning severely up at him.

    His lips twitched, memories of all the times he had been mean to her in bed flooding into her Censor. She blushed. She hadn¡¯t actually been thinking about those times. There were plenty of times in their normal life when he¡¯d been mean to her, too.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    He tugged, and suddenly she was engulfed in his arms, her head tucked perfectly under his chin, making her feel small and safe and definitely like she was about to burst into tears.

    ¡°I am glad you are alright,¡± Olivier said into her hair.

    She didn¡¯t really feel alright. She felt like she had fucked up, just like she had fucked up in that final assault, and when Alliance Ridge had burned, and she knew¡ªshe knew¡ªthere had been nothing she could have done better during those times. Shit happens during war, but this wasn¡¯t war. This was trauma and her fucking up and almost getting herself and Payton killed¡ªalmost breaking Olivier and her family¡¯s hearts. Not to mention her friends, those of the here and now and the days long gone.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she mumbled into Olivier¡¯s chest, her hands digging into the fabric of his silly pyjamas. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± She was crying, she realized. When was the last time she had even done that? Probably at his bedside, after he had burned and been caught in a coma after the war had ended. Crying because so many people had died¡ªdied because of her. Crying because she couldn¡¯t lose him too. Crying because she just couldn¡¯t anymore.

    ¡°Emilia.¡± That was all he said, and then she was crying harder, and sobs echoing out into the empty forest. His hand dragged through her hair, tugging it free of her ponytail, and she laughed, pulling back to glare at her ex-lawyer through watery eyes.

    ¡°Are you gonna steal that elastic, too?¡± she asked, frowning up at him. It wasn¡¯t a good frown, her lips twitching with amusement and barely controlled tears as he gazed softly down at her.

    ¡°I will not, nor have I ever, stolen one of your hair elastics,¡± he lied, hand rising to wipe the tears from her eyes. ¡°Emilia¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± she cut in, her tone more snapping than she meant it to be. ¡°I fucked up. I know. I just¡­¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± he repeated back to her. ¡°I was on the ground that day, too. I know¡ª¡± He broke off, glancing into the darkness behind her for a long moment, his breaths steady and grounding against her, before he continued. ¡°I can guess, why you have¡­ changed yourself so much.¡±

    ¡°Always the lawyer,¡± she muttered, affection swelling through her at the wording. ¡°Changed¡± was such a diplomatic way of saying ¡°fucked yourself up.¡±

    Olivier shot her a look, white-blue eye glowing in the dim light. Someone else probably would have said it was creepy. To her, it was just Olivier, and nothing about him could be creepy or wrong¡ªjust safe and comforting. ¡°You do not have to talk about it. You do not have to get over it, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°But don¡¯t fuck with my knots so much that I have to call you to save my ass again?¡±

    Emilia gasped when her back hit a tree. Olivier hovered over her, fury filling his eyes. It was hot, if also extremely terrifying. Even when he¡¯d appeared to fight the echo earlier, he hadn¡¯t looked half as pissed as he did now.

    ¡°Always call me to help you,¡± he said, and if not for how serious the situation was, Emilia would have melted at that voice. Fuck, why did she have to have such a thing for mean men!?

    ¡°You could have died,¡± she pointed out. ¡°I¡¯m not going to purposefully risk your life because I¡¯m doing something stupid.¡±

    Olivier looked like he wanted to say something about that, his lips pressing tight as he held whatever it was inside. ¡°You cannot control when echoes appear,¡± he said instead, quickly adding, ¡°Even if it isn¡¯t an echo, call me, when you are in trouble. What?¡±

    Emilia bit her lip. ¡°It just¡­ it seems like too much of a coincidence. For those echoes to have appeared when we were inside that building, I mean. You saw what that place was, right?¡±

    The man nodded, nose wrinkling in disgust. ¡°I had heard there was a purist club nearby, although I did not know where. That¡¯s why you were there?¡± he asked, looking concerned that she would break into a building just to mess with some purists.

    She shook her head, quickly explaining why they¡¯d broken in, and sending him a copy of her memories from the night when he asked¡ªthe full, unredacted version. He¡¯d already seen so much of her, it seemed silly to hide the night from him, even if some of it was probably¡­ not the most useful to him. A moment later, her Censor sent over a few notes on the night to him, little lines that effectively read: ¡°Hey, these moments here and here are filled with my owner being a traumatized child. So, like, look at them with care and don¡¯t traumatize yourself in return!¡±

    Olivier shot her a glance when he looked over the second note, although he said nothing about it¡ªabout how she still let memories from the war run her life, nor about whether he was ever chased by his own memories. Some people had adapted better after the war, left it behind them, or aggressively sorted through their trauma with the same discipline they had faced battle with. Olivier seemed the type who could have done that, buried himself in therapy for years and come out as a normal fucking person.

    People had once thought she was that type of person, too.

    ¡°It is¡­ odd timing,¡± he agreed after a long moment of looking through her memories. He wouldn¡¯t have had time to view them all, probably only focusing on the few minutes before and after she had contacted him. His expression darkened, likely as he witnessed how truly out of control her control was. ¡°Emilia¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± she said again. ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ fix it.¡± Maybe not fix it all the way, but even she had to admit she couldn¡¯t continue living quite this knotted up. Not if she was going to get to the bottom of this whole knotter business¡ªnot that she was going to tell Olivier that. He¡¯d just try to talk her out of it¡ªor worse, force her to let him come along. She was pretty sure she wouldn¡¯t be able to explain her sudden acquaintanceship with the famous lawyer to her friends, and while she had a feeling her days living in anonymity were quickly coming to an end¡­ Well, she wasn¡¯t going to bring that end about prematurely, not if she could help it. So, no famous friends. No links to her past.

    He blinked down at her, before releasing a long, worn out sigh. ¡°It was just a coincidence,¡± he said.

    She still wasn¡¯t convinced. Yes, coincidences happened¡­ a lot, especially when you were a paranoid puzzle solver to begin with. This just seemed like too much.

    ¡°You don¡¯t think so?¡± he asked, fingers scratching against her scalp and making her want to turn into him like a cat into the sun.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to think,¡± she said honestly. It felt like it couldn¡¯t be a coincidence, but she had nothing other than vibes and her gut telling her so. Echoes just happened. There was no cause they could find. They just happened.

    This hadn¡¯t felt like something that had just happened.

    ¡°I¡ª¡± Olivier broke off, his eyes glazing over for a moment before he was sighing.

    Emilia smiled painfully up at him, before pushing him away from her. ¡°Sorry. I made a mess for you.¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°The echoes made a mess. I just happened to be the one who showed up.¡± He smirked slightly as he added, ¡°On the plus side, I doubt anyone will know you broke in. SecOps arrived right after I left¡ªone of my men told them I was taking someone who was injured to a healer. They were¡­ less than impressed with all the purist artwork. They are already questioning the people who live there. Even if they find evidence you were there¡­ I do not think they will think much of it.¡±

    That he would protect her from SecOps and the owners, if it came to that, went unsaid. She might think of him as her ex-lawyer, but technically, he was still her lawyer¡ªshe just hadn¡¯t needed his services in a few decades, was all. She was actually pretty sure that, if she dared get herself another lawyer for even the most minor of offences, he¡¯d be rather upset with her.

    ¡°You should get back, though.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he said. He¡¯d already been away so long. SecOps wouldn¡¯t question him directly about his disappearance¡ªhe was a de la Rue, after all¡ªbut eventually they¡¯d grow suspicious. You did not want SecOps suspicious of you. ¡°I¡¯ve left Tariq at the house. He will return you to Astrapan when your¡­ friend is healed.¡±

    So, Tariq was to be the de la Rue bodyguard who was injured, then. He was going to just love that.

    ¡°Payton,¡± she said, shrugging. ¡°He just used too much aether.¡±

    Olivier hummed, the sound tight and¡ª

    ¡°He¡¯s not my boyfriend,¡± Emilia said, smiling up at Olivier when he glared down at her. ¡°Not gonna like my current boyfriend either, hm?¡±

    Olivier didn¡¯t deign to answer her, instead reaching back to her, giving her hands a final squeeze before he turned to leave. ¡°I expect that the next time I see you, you will be in better shape.¡±

    Emilia tried to throw him a cheerful smile before he sparked away. ¡°Goodbye, ¡®vier,¡± she said, smiling into the darkness, before her smile turned to a gasp.

    Bastard had stolen her hair elastic, again.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 28: A Charming Little Place

    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay?¡± Emilia asked Payton as he dragged her out of Seflora¡¯s house. The older woman had already bid them goodnight, disappearing deeper into the house after she had finished restoring Payton¡¯s aether stores¡ªfully restoring, no less.

    The woman had looked tired, worn out from both healing Emilia and transferring her own aether to Payton, but she had still been able to walk and talk. Her own aether stores must be giant, to be able to do so much and not be passed out cold.

    ¡°I am fine,¡± her classmate said, flexing an arm dramatically at her before closing the door behind them.

    Tariq stood on the porch, staring out into the cold night. His short, grey dusted hair shifted slightly in the wind, his brown skin looking almost black in the dim light. He barely glanced at them as they reached his side, his eyes glazed over¡ªpresumably as he was given updates on whatever was happening back at the purist building. Emilia was almost tempted to ask him what was happening, but given the strain that had perpetually existed between them, she figured she¡¯d be better off asking Olivier directly later¡ªhe¡¯d probably like that, hearing from her again.

    ¡°How fine?¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    She glanced at Tariq, trying to gauge whether it was worth trying to keep this from him. Probably. He already didn¡¯t like her, but he¡¯d probably just assumed that she¡¯d fucked up in the normal way, fighting the echoes. She didn¡¯t need him knowing she¡¯d fucked up in the not so normal way. The old man might generally be pretty willing to go along with his master¡¯s decisions, but she wouldn¡¯t put it past him to attempt to stop Olivier from helping¡ªstars, maybe even just seeing¡ªher again if he knew the truth.

    [Em: i need some knotwork done]

    [Em: sooner the better]

    [Em: not that you have to help me]

    Payton gave her a look. He didn¡¯t even have the decency to look tired, his power napping and restored aether having rejuvenated him, while her own upper and the adrenaline of the night were quickly wearing out.

    [Payton: I don¡¯t get to do knotwork nearly as much as I¡¯d like to.]

    [Payton: Do you have a place in mind? I assume this is off the books.]

    Oh, yeah. This was definitely off the books.

    She rambled off an address in Piketown to Tariq, who gave her a judgmental look, although she was pretty sure she could have said any address and been given the same look. She and Payton hooked their arms through his, granted him {Spark Shot} access, and then the world was bending around them once again.

    They popped out in front of the run-down little shop Emilia had told him to drop them at, and he shook them off. He glared at her a moment more, that perpetual frown of his growing deeper before he seemed to think better of telling her off¡ªor just realized it was a waste of energy¡ªbefore sparking off. Back to Olivier, she assumed. She¡¯d briefly messaged him after he left, sending him bits of information as she analyzed files while Payton recovered. He¡¯d quickly gone silent, something or other pulling his attention away, although he¡¯d had time enough to remind her to contact him if she needed anything. She¡¯d been able to feel his overbearing mother vibe through her Censor, and while she had once hated that feeling, she was surprised to find that now it felt safe and comforting.

    ¡°What a charming little place,¡± Payton said, eyeing up the shitty little building.

    ¡°It¡¯s worse inside,¡± Emilia said, stifling a yawn as she pushed her classmate inside.

    There were a few people in the shop, which was primarily a tattoo shop. Most of Beth¡¯s tattoos had been done here, as well as the few she herself had. Of course, none of theirs had been done up here. Their tattoos had all been done in the back, where the real magic of this shop and its artists lay.

    The receptionist glanced up from the magazine she was reading, someone in the area having recently decided to distribute actual paper magazines to the local shops as some kind of ad campaign, although Emilia wasn¡¯t actually sure what they were advertising. The magazines were cute, though, and she¡¯d seen them in more and more shops in the area over the last few months.

    ¡°Got a unit free?¡± she asked the woman. They¡¯d met before, but only ever in passing, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure they¡¯d ever been formerly introduced. Not that the people who worked or frequented this kind of place were generally formerly introduced. There was nothing formal about this place, and it was the kind of place that could potentially be raided by SecOps at any moment. Not knowing your coworkers by anything other than nicknames? Eyes glazing over with disinterest when you saw patrons? Those were the things that kept these places and the people who knew about them safe.

    The woman shrugged, looking back at her magazine. ¡°Probably,¡± she said, meaning either, ¡°Yes, one is free,¡± or ¡°I have no fucking idea.¡±

    Emilia hoped it was the former. While she doubted the receptionist cared that much about her job, she rather hoped the owner wasn¡¯t keeping someone who was outright disinterested in the safety of the staff and clientele employed. She¡¯d only met the owner once, though, and that had been by chance during a raid. She trusted the guy who had done her and Beth¡¯s tattoos, but that was about it. She was just going to choose to believe their tattooist was discerning about where he worked.

    She led Payton towards the back, the security system¡ªa custom mod of the OIC System¡ªletting them through the hidden door. Using custom mods was considered dangerous if you were doing something less than legal¡ªyou couldn¡¯t completely rule out that the system would tattle on you¡ªbut there were a collection of industries where the system quite clearly didn¡¯t agree with government policies. Enhanced tattoos and non-standard knotwork were included in that list, and it had become standard for shops to run security through it, relying on its programming and knowledge to both alert them when someone dangerous came in¡ªbecause these places did attract some pretty dangerous people¡ªas well as keep everyone¡¯s information safe.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    They slid through the door the system had opened for them and made their way down the long, dark stairwell. So many stairs today¡ªEmilia was sure her legs would be burning later, although if she were lucky, the knots Payton removed would allow her to recover faster. They were silent as they went, only their footsteps and then sounds of creaking pipes filling the stairwell. It echoed, and Emilia had to shake off the reminder of what she had experienced in the bartender¡¯s mind.

    Fuck, that seemed like so long ago, but it had only been a few hours ago.

    They emerged into a long hall of doors, the few lights set into the ceiling that weren¡¯t burnt out flickering. Most of the rooms were occupied, but the system led them to an unoccupied knot therapy room. The door hissed open, old and barely maintained technology dragging loudly against itself.

    Payton whistled as they entered. ¡°Been a while since I used something this old,¡± he said, hand running over the dusty console of the machine.

    The kind of knot therapy done in this kind of place was rare. Once, gangs had relied on places like this, but after the war¡ªafter government raids had made knotwork more popular among regular people¡ªthey had begun to hire and train their own technicians. For those first few years, these places had been too crowded with heroes getting fashionable knots at increasingly exuberant prices for gangs to use them anymore. That popularity had quickly faded, people realizing most knots weren¡¯t worth the cost, and virtual raids that were largely unaffected by knots or D-Levels very becoming increasingly popular anyways. Now, only the most intense heroes, as well as criminals not associated with gangs, generally frequented these shops. Emilia was the outlier.

    ¡°You can use it, though, right?¡± she asked, frowning over at him. The last thing she needed was for him to fuck up her knots even more¡ªor worse, accidentally kill her.

    Payton shot her a look that told her he didn¡¯t even think that question worth answering. ¡°You have private sequences, I assume?¡±

    She sighed, leaning against the crackling plastic of the machine¡¯s bay, and sent him her most recent few.

    He had a pretty good poker face¡ªnot that that was surprising. Most people with black knots were exceptional liars. They had to be. Children weren¡¯t stupid, they knew when people found them off-putting. Lying was the easiest way to put adults who could tell something was wrong with you at ease. Children who had black knots got good at lying really fast.

    He did glance at her once, assessing, as he took in her knots. ¡°How low do you want to go?¡±

    She¡¯d spent some time between Olivier leaving and Payton waking up thinking about that. Trying to figure out what was a good number. There were so many options¡ª63, to be very specific. She did not want to be a sub-50¡ªeven if that was more a societal designation than anything, the idea of being associated with those wack jobs was just¡­ no.

    51, on the other hand, felt too high. Had she had a D-Level of 51 today¡­ nothing would have changed. The easiest would be to say 10. 10 was a safe number. 10 meant she would be able to spark without difficulty. 10 would mean ease and near perfection and hating herself for a whole slew of new¡ªand decade old¡ªreasons.

    10 was definitely too low.

    She shrugged. She¡¯d been at 21 in the lowest sequence she¡¯d given Payton, one from when she¡¯d started at Astrapan and needed that skill to beat Elijah at everything she wanted. She wondered if Payton could tell how low she could go or see where trauma had wrapped up its own knots without her consent. If he were as skilled at reading knots as he had implied he was, he might be able to. If he could tell, he gave no indication of it¡ªdidn¡¯t ask for older scans, or even one clean of any knots.

    ¡°Up to you. Ideally, I¡¯d like to be able to spark more, ah¡­ consistently again.¡±

    He huffed, muttering about how while he appreciated not being run down by the echo, being run into a wall wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d like to repeat either. ¡°You¡¯re leaving it up to me?¡± he clarified, fingers tapping in thought when she nodded. ¡°This¡­ is going to hurt. Unless you want to do it over a few days.¡±

    She had expected that. ¡°I just want it over with.¡± Before she changed her mind, before the guilt of the evening faded, and she went and got high as the sky to bury her regrets.

    Her classmate hummed, pushing himself up from where he had sat in the technician¡¯s chair to check over the equipment. ¡°There¡¯s a Virtuosi System access here. I suggest you log in. Spend the next few hours inside. Skew time, if you can, to lessen the pain.¡±

    She nodded, eyes following him as he diligently checked everything. He was much more thorough than she¡¯d ever been, and whatever lingering tension she had over letting someone she barely knew mess with her genetics faded. ¡°How long will it take?¡±

    He shot her a knowing look, hearing something in her voice she hadn¡¯t intended to be there. ¡°Something you want to do in there?¡±

    Emilia smiled slightly at him. ¡°Gotta get us to the next stop on our mission.¡±

    Payton¡¯s eyebrows rose slightly, but he didn¡¯t ask for specifics, instead asking how much time she needed.

    ¡°Five or six hours, assuming I¡¯m right.¡±

    He nodded, motioning for her to take a seat. ¡°I can extend treatment over five, leave you under so you can come out when you want to. You should lose the clothing,¡± he added. ¡°You don¡¯t have to, but¡ª¡± He cut off as Emilia stripped.

    ¡°Already been naked in front of two people today,¡± she said, shrugging off Olivier¡¯s sweater. ¡°What¡¯s one more¡ªalthough, I guess technically I was naked in front of you, too. You just weren¡¯t conscious.¡± When she looked back at her classmate, he was politely looking away, although he didn¡¯t seem embarrassed. More a medic¡¯s training to not make someone uncomfortable. They were also both military. You got over being uncomfortable being naked around people pretty quick when you had to shower with a dozen people you didn¡¯t know¡ªwhen people were stripping you on the field to stop you from bleeding out.

    A skill vibrated in front of her as she reached for the bay¡ªPayton cleaning the suspect plastic for her. She flashed him a smile, noting how his eyes had caught on the scars across her thigh. Given how observant he was, and how she had never tried to hide the original scar, he probably knew the one was new¡ªknew it was from their fight earlier.

    He looked away again, as she awkwardly hopped up onto the bed. It squeaked under her. Her skin stuck to it, forcing her to lift herself up as she tried to position herself in the middle. Payton appeared at her head with the Virtuosi headset. It was old, too. Not just a metal visor, but a whole headset that he had to help her get over her head before positioning pads over the base of her skull to sync with her Censor.

    ¡°Amazingly,¡± he said conversationally¡ªprobably another habit from being a medic, something meant to make her feel as comfortable as possible¡ªas he laid her head back down, then set to work positioning her arms and legs into whatever he decided was the best orientation, ¡°this kind of headset is actually more powerful than the newer ones.¡±

    She¡¯d already known that. Most people didn¡¯t need the power older headsets had, and the people who produced them had begun to favour simpler, more comfortable and convenient designs for average users. Only hackers and people who were truly pushing the system and their brains to the edge needed something as hefty as this thing.

    ¡°See you in a few,¡± he said, and then her Censor was connecting her to the Virtuosi System and the world disappeared.

 Arc 1 | Chapter 29: Next Stop

    It hadn¡¯t taken Emilia long to realize leaving the decision of how much to reduce her D-Levels to Payton was the best¡ªor at least the easiest¡ªoption. As a result, the rest of her time between Olivier leaving and her classmate waking had been spent trying to decipher the information she¡¯d gotten from the bartender¡¯s head and the purist building¡¯s security system. She hadn¡¯t gotten far on either, her Censor alone not powerful enough to do more than glance over the material and extrapolate based on what the two of them saw, but what they had found had been interesting¡ªenough for her to know where they probably had to go next, assuming she had cleaned up the information correctly.

    Now, with the Virtuosi System vibrating around her, she reached out to her old code, urging it to go over the information¡ªto confirm that she hadn¡¯t massively fucked up when she¡¯d analyzed it earlier¡ªwith all the processing power of the system behind it. That code, so lovingly, tediously, obsessively created by her younger self was still inside her, even if she hadn¡¯t used it in over a decade. It swirled around her, grabbing onto the information and cycling through it, searching for what she needed. Her Censor burned, and then the knotting bay spit to life beneath her body, cooling her down as it worked.

    Time skewed, elongated until she could barely feel the coolness. She needed to not feel it, as much as she could because the knot therapy was going to hurt like a bitch. Bodies¡ªgenetic sequences¡ªweren¡¯t meant to be manipulated so much in such a short period of time. Small changes felt like nothing. The number of changes she needed was huge¡ªwas essentially like rotting her body from the inside out, forcing her to accept one change before changing it again and again and again and ignoring it as it screamed.

    So yeah, barely being able to feel the coolness was a step. Hopefully, by the time Payton really got started, she¡¯d be even deeper than this.

    Her Censor shuddered, the black world of the Virtuosi System¡ªbecause she hadn¡¯t bothered to load up a proper environment, given she wasn¡¯t planning to be here long¡ªvibrating a little harder as information from the bartender¡¯s head began to form in front of her, some of it weaving in with the security system¡¯s information.

    Most of it¡­ was still pretty garbled. A conversation about purist ideals. A mention of a younger sister¡¯s death. Employment information passed from the bartender to the strange man¡ªnothing given in return.

    Then.

    [You won¡¯t have long, before SecOps catches on. Knotters are rare but¡­]

    [I¡¯ll need to get out of the city.]

    Laughter¡ªthe man who had given the bartender the knotters laughing.

    [Out of the country.]

    Had the bartender really not realized this would lead to him being wanted throughout Baalphoria? Sure, there were probably purist clubs he could seek refuge with, but what kind of life would that be, trapped in someone¡¯s guest room while the world wanted you dead?

    [I ain¡¯t becoming a fucking lynie!]

    More laughter.

    [Do you think the only places outside Baalphoria are Free Colonies?]

    The bartender had sputtered, muttering about how of course he didn¡¯t, even as her Censor sent a feeling through her that implied he had thought that. There were other countries, ones not associated with the Free Colonies. They were rare and unpleasant and an entire ocean away from their own continent. They hadn¡¯t even helped in the war, instead erecting huge barriers using technology even D-Tect hadn¡¯t been able to guess at to block off both their enemies and the Alliance itself, even communication bouncing uselessly off them.

    Relations between Baalphoria and those countries had always been strained and silent, only goods moving between them. Never people. Never knowledge or news. Now, those relations were non-existent. Now, those same barriers still surrounded those countries, having never come down after the war ended.

    Some people thought they had died, locked themselves in with monsters who wouldn¡¯t be held back even by those mysterious barriers. Others thought they just didn¡¯t trust that the world was safe¡ªthat they couldn¡¯t see the world outside any more than the rest of the world could see in. Still more thought they knew something Baalphoria and the Free Colonies didn¡¯t¡ªknew that the world still wasn¡¯t safe.

    Of course, it wasn¡¯t. Not with echoes still occurring, but most people doubted those were worth keeping a barrier around your entire damn country.

    Personally, Emilia had little opinion on it, but she liked to think they were afraid. Not of echoes or enemies from the abyss, but from the humans they had abandoned. She, for one, would be perfectly willing to go find whoever had decided to leave them to die and get some answers out of them as to why. Why did they leave them to suffer? Why didn¡¯t they even give them a hint as to how to protect themselves?

    Would it have hurt them to give Baalphoria and the Free Colonies the secrets of that barrier?

    Did they feel anything for all the lives that two decades of war had cost?

    [Where then?]

    The man had sent the bartender a ticket, the little bit of information that Emilia had been able to decipher earlier.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    [Use this, whenever you need to get out. You can find me there.]

    [But where will I¡ª]

    Emilia might not have been able to see the expression of the mystery man, but she could feel the sheer terror it had caused in the bartender. Yet, when the man spoke again, his voice was calm¡ªalmost kind.

    Manipulative.

    [I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ve been burned before. I assure you, it is not that we do not trust you. However, for everyone¡¯s safety¡­ I¡¯m sure you understand why we cannot tell anyone the name of our supporter before¡ª]

    [I understand!]

    Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced the bartender had understood, but he had accepted the knotters, the ticket, smiled and waved and bid the man goodbye. Stupid. Desperate. Sure, the mystery man could have had good intentions¡ªintentions to truly keep both his supporters and distributors safe¡ªbut it didn¡¯t feel like that.

    No, it felt like a trap. Distribute our drugs for us, then when you need out, we¡¯ll kill you! Well, death was a way out, just not the one most people usually had in mind.

    Emilia sent her Censor out, searching for any information it could find on purists and foreign countries¡ªeven on the Free Colonies and any purist connections they had themselves because you never knew. Some of the Free Colonies were so secretive that they could have been anti-irregular, anti-every other Free Colony, and no one would know.

    Then, she pulled up information on the ticket the bartender had been given. She had glanced it over while waiting for Payton to wake. Ship¡¯o Stars was a bougie, astronomically expensive airship hotel. It had only been in operation for the last three years, travelling over Baalphoria and a few of the closer Free Colonies. Apparently, it was currently over the ocean to the east of Piketown, enjoying sights of the pink tide.

    It was also, unfortunately, extremely exclusive. The kind of place you only got into under three circumstances: you were famous, you were gifted a ticket, or you won a ticket. While Emilia could ask Olivier to get her a ticket, she didn¡¯t really want him involved anymore in this, especially since she would need him to, you know, not be involved if she was arrested and needed a lawyer. She also definitely wasn¡¯t being gifted a ticket, which left option number three: win one.

    Ship¡¯o Stars was, very fortunately for her, also a private raid platform. The rich and famous wanted mind-bending experiences in the real world, and Ship¡¯o Stars gave them just that. As a result, the ship needed great raid heroes to make the experience even better. That was where gifting of tickets came in, but it wasn¡¯t enough. Very few private raid platforms¡ªeither real world or virtual ones¡ªmade their player lists or statistics public, and as popular as public raids were, the best heroes devoted most of their time to private platforms these days.

    Which left exclusive, private raid platforms like Ship¡¯o Stars to host their own virtual contests. Fortunately, being a hotel with a constantly shifting guest list, they ran contests around the clock, hoping to find new heroes worth bringing to their platforms for a few days or weeks. Emilia had even heard that, if you preformed really well, they might offer you a long-term position on their staff.

    Her arm twitched, a muscle in her physical body contracting as Payton straightened out a gene. Physically, she couldn¡¯t move, but her virtual self still stretched her fingers as though it were her real body. The ache moved, slowly stretching out into her shoulder and down into her forearm. It would continue to spread and spread until her entire body ached. Then it would stop and Payton would move to the next gene and the next. So many knots to go through, not all of which were actively affecting her D-Levels, but would need to be straightened out to get to others that were.

    Even if he had seemed excited to be preforming knot therapy on her, Emilia knew she was still going to owe her classmate so much for tonight.

    Her Censor pulled up a list of raids being held by Ship¡¯o Stars. There were quite a few, some starting soon, others already ongoing. You could enter most virtual raids at any point¡ªas long as they didn¡¯t require an invitation¡ªeven if that were contests. Generally, you were unlikely to win if you entered too late in the game, but it wasn¡¯t impossible.

    It all depended on the rules, and Emilia had already read over the rules for the contests going on tonight, and she already knew exactly which one she was going to enter.

    {A Life (not) in the Stars} was a horrible name, but all of Ship¡¯o Stars¡¯ contests had similar names. Stars, stars, stars. Too much branding. This particular contest had caught her eye for one reason alone¡ªone reason that made it unique: you could win multiple tickets. Most of the contests offered only one or two tickets for the top heroes. Ship¡¯o Stars wanted what was all but free labour from their recruited guests, after all. Adding in friends and family who might be shit heroes, just there to eat free food and enjoy the amenities? Nah, not worth their money.

    {A Life (not) in the Stars} had some pretty hardcore rules, but it also offered a grand prize of ten tickets. Even the second and third place prizes were five and three tickets respectively.

    Emilia would be happy winning any of them, although, admittedly, finding ten people to come with her would be a pain. Maybe she¡¯d be happier with second or third. Yes, that sounded like a much better idea. Plus, she didn¡¯t want the publicity of winning the grand prize. True, most people didn¡¯t really pay attention to the winners of these kinds of events, but it was still a little too close to announcing to the people from her old life, ¡°Hey, look! I¡¯m right over here!¡±

    The last time she¡¯d been stupid enough to do that had been when she¡¯d accidentally ranked in the Top 10 Heroes for the season. She¡¯d been lucky no one had noticed, or at least, no one had ever said they noticed¡ªnever shown up in Piketown looking for her.

    She selected {A Life (not) in the Stars} and watched as the black world around her faded into a world of stars. Her Censor prompted her, asking if she¡¯d like it to continue searching for information on purists and any connections to foreign countries or Free Colonies¡ªyes¡ªand if she wanted to contact anyone, tell them she was going into a game¡ªno.

    No. She had thought that over¡ªthought it over far longer than she had her decision to give Payton control of her knotting or whether going into this game was a good idea or not¡ªand decided that no, she didn¡¯t need or want help with this. This, the world of {A Life (not) in the Stars} and the rules that bound it, was one better suited to playing alone.

    Most people could not be weak or ignorant. It was why, even though this contest was offering such a large prize, the hero count was low, barely 500, compared to other, single ticket contests, where tens of thousands of people were fighting each other for such a small prize¡ªwasting precious Virtuosi hours trying for the smallest chance at an all-inclusive solo trip.

    Emilia could be weak.

    Emilia could be ignorant.

    Emilia would not break from being weak and powerless or alone in an unknown world, the way so many people would.

    A small notification confirmed for her that she had successfully connected to the system and that the time skew was 5 days/hour. One month, crammed into six hours¡ª25 days crammed into five for her, since she was starting an hour late.

    Then the world, the stars, the feeling of the aether vibrating around her vanished, and she was falling through time.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 30: Innocent Little Princess Vibe

    Emilia came back into existence in a pathetically tiny room. Grimy and red-tinged¡­ everything. Even what light was sneaking in through ratty old curtains was bloody, although the room itself was surprisingly bright, light coming from¡­ somewhere.

    A creature, something black and long, scurried over the floor, and she tried not to squeak at the suddenness of it. Tiny. Gross. Evil. She pulled her legs up onto the chair she had come to on, her eyes scanning the room. Chair, bed, sad little kitchen and¡ªmost importantly¡ªno Censor. None of the information that normally chased Baalphorians through the world spitting across her vision. No time, date, temperature, news feed¡ªalthough she had long since turned that particular function of her own Censor to only emergency alerts.

    No notification of the unread messages from friends, classmates and teachers. None of her numerous group chats flickering as people made plans for meeting up. She almost always had at least a few dozen unread messages, which was better than it had been during the war. There had always been too many messages during the war, and even when she had tried to stay on top of them, she couldn¡¯t. Now she had nothing.

    Nothing.

    It was¡­ eerie. She¡¯d known it would be¡ªhad known that the few rules this platform had were isolating and extreme.

    Even more off-putting than the lack of her Censor, however, was the lack of connection to her aether stores. Normally, she¡¯d only feel them when she had nearly exhausted them¡ªdifficult, given hers were so large, but she¡¯d done it a few times during the war and, er¡­ ill-advised experiments, in the decades before that. Without her Censor, telling her what state they were in¡ªplus a little addon she¡¯d programmed, telling her how much she could access at once, given whatever state her knots were in¡ªshe had no idea if she even had aether stores in this world.

    Not that having aether stores would help her at the moment, her only way of potentially using them currently being through her core. Most Baalphorians were taught from a young age not to mess with their core, instead waiting until their Censors were installed as teenagers to experiment with skills and the aethernet. Emilia might have ignored the ¡°don¡¯t use your core¡± advice quite a few times in her life¡ªhad ignored it just a few hours ago, in fact¡ªbut she was by no means an expert, nor had she accessed it directly, without at least some aid from her Censor, since she was a child.

    Reaching towards her core now¡­ she could tell it was there, humming quietly inside her, but other than that¡­

    Nope. Nothing. Emilia couldn¡¯t tell if she had aether stores or core energy or anything else. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally fuck her core up by pushing too hard at it. It wouldn¡¯t affect her real body, of course, but for all she knew, damaging it could take her out of the game before she even knew what the game even was.

    Emilia forced her attention away from her core, returning to examining the room. She eyed up the hole the¡­ whatever creepy fucking thing that had been had scurried into. Nothing appeared, and she braved putting her feet back down, pushing herself off the chair. She was a big, strong woman! She could face tiny little things, no matter how creepy they were with their long tails and big red eyes!

    She walked to one of two doors in the room, this one slightly ajar, and was unsurprised to find a bathroom. It was even more disgusting than the rest of the apartment was, everything caked with dirt and other substances that she refused to think about.

    Toilet, suspect looking. Shower, built for one and probably cold water only¡ªassuming it had water at all. Vanity, complete with cracked mirror and only one drawer, two empty spaces below it. One of the vanity doors was missing as well, the pipes visible under it so dirty Emilia was afraid to touch them.

    Her reflection stared back at her through the broken, smudged mirror. She looked very out of place. The system had taken her most recent virtual self and supplanted it into the raid. She looked way too perfect. Perfect hair and makeup. Even her clothes were pretty, if also meant for comfort. Their blue and purple tones definitely didn¡¯t go with the room¡¯s red, white and black aesthetic, and when the mirror lit up, asking if she wanted to change her appearance, she may have hit yes a bit too fast.

    [Welcome to the Appearance Editor]

    [Please note: Once you leave the editor, you will be unable to further edit your appearance.]

    [There are, however, stores which offer more clothing options and haircuts.]

    [You may also acquire clothing from locals.]

    [You will be unable to alter several aspects of your physical appearance once you leave the editor.]

    [These aspects include: general body appearance, makeup, and scars.]

    Various options flashed across the mirror, and Emilia quickly skimmed through the them. This platform seemed to allow almost any change to your appearance, from race to height and weight, from adding scars to changing your bone structure and where and how you stored fat and muscle. Changing your gender wasn¡¯t off limits either.

    To the side of the mirror, the rules of the platform appeared. One last chance to read them over and return to the real world, it said, in much more legal terms. Along with an accept button for each rule¡ªmore official than her general acceptance from just entering the contest¡¯s platform. That was interesting, and somewhat ominous. It had been common practice for years that heroes were responsible for knowing the rules of a platform before entering it. Ignorance was not an excuse.

    Given the rules, however, it didn¡¯t surprise her that this platform required a more official acceptance. Granted, she didn¡¯t usually play on raid platforms¡ªor any less serious virtual reality platforms either¡ªbut these rules were intense. She¡¯d certainly never heard any of her more raid or gaming minded friends or classmates mention competing in anything like this.

    [Rule 1: Everyone begins {A Life (not) in the Stars} at level 300]

    That wasn¡¯t exactly rare. Every season, the government reset hero levels to 300. Then, if you were a serious player, you spent the next few months trying to get as close to 0¡ªas close to perfect¡ªas you could. Almost no one got anywhere close¡ªnot unless they already had sub-30 D-Levels or were frequenting underground knotting clinics.

    [Rule 2: The system is inaccessible until you complete ____]

    The fact that the system was inaccessible to begin with was weird. The fact that the rules didn¡¯t even tell you how you gained access to it? Emilia could understand there being a tutorial you had to finish before you received full access, or some kind of beginner quest.

    No information at all, though? No hint? Not even a vaguely named location or quest name? That was weird, and probably one part of why so few people had joined the raid. Even with the possibility they¡¯d learn how to access the system after formally beginning the raid, that kind of ignorance didn¡¯t sit well with most people.

    The bigger reason so few people had joined the raid, however, was rule 3.

    [Rule 3: Once you begin {A Life (not) in the Stars} you may not leave]

    You may not leave, as in, if you can never figure out how to access the system, you¡¯ll be stuck in this world as a level 300 hero¡ªsomeone completely helpless, without skills or the ability to defend themself¡ªfor a month.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Yeah, that was a big fat nope for most people. Emilia imagined that even if the grand prize were enough money to match even the wealthiest of sub-30s, most people still wouldn¡¯t touch a platform with these three rules, let alone when combined with rule 4.

    [Rule 4: Anything goes]

    Emilia had heard of her friends playing on anything goes platforms before. Sil had played one once, and only once. Anything goes truly meant anything goes. You could kill and be killed. Of course, you¡¯d wake up in your body, but that shit could be traumatizing, and being killed¡ªkilling in return¡ªwasn¡¯t the worst thing that could happen to you.

    Not the worst by far.

    Anything goes also meant you were signing away your rights. You could be tortured inside the platform and have no legal recourse against your attackers once you left¡ªassuming they were actual people, and not sadistic, AI constructs of the platform. Technically, there were laws to control that sort of thing, but you effectively had to prove that there had been intention to torture before your attacker entered the game, and you were all but shit out of luck if the AI constructs had tortured you.

    As fun as it would be, watching Olivier go after someone for her torture, not letting it go until there were much more sensible laws in place, she would much rather not be tortured.

    She sighed, leaning back to examine her new face in the mirror. It was pretty close to her normal one, just more delicate, a little younger. She hadn¡¯t changed her hair or eye colour, but she¡¯d cut her hair, the silver-grey strands now falling into a pin straight bob with a thick fringe, her larger, brighter eyes shining from under them.

    A little shorter, a little tinier, too. She looked innocent, as stupid as some people liked to assume irregulars were. Most people wouldn¡¯t let their guard down around someone on looks alone, but some would. Some people would be stupid enough to trust her¡ªto offer her help¡ªjust because she looked like a doll. Of course, it would also make her a target for certain, less than savoury people, but that could come in handy, under the right circumstances.

    She glanced through the clothing options before deciding on a pair of shorts and a loose, flowing top, its fabric delicate and poofy, giving it the appearance of a short dress. She cursed herself slightly for not having looked outside before she dealt with clothing, however. It could be a world of ice outside, and she¡¯d be totally fucked, and even if her outfit were a totally reasonable clothing chose, she had no idea on colours! What would fade into the world, allow her to disappear if she needed. The only clue she had was the red of her room and the light shimmering in, and after a moment of thought, she settled on a red so black it reminded her of dried blood for her top, and plain black bottoms.

    Emilia¡¯s fingers lingered where her willbrand would normally be, the golden necklace no longer hanging down across her chest. It had been a solid, comforting weight for so long. To have it gone¡­ she was trying not to think about how vulnerable that made her feel. After a moment of consideration, she decided to not replace it with anything. The last thing she needed was to forget it wasn¡¯t her willbrand and to try and use it in combat. That was the kind of fuck up that got people killed.

    After confirming that she could, in fact, take her clothes off at will, Emilia added in a pair of lacy black tights and a black cloak. A touch of makeup, the effect making her look somewhere between innocent and sick, and bing bang boom. Innocent little princess vibe: complete!

    Emilia twirled, cloak flying wide around her. She winked at the mirror, the kind of cheerful smile she had trained into herself as a teenager stretching across her face. Heel pop. Peace sign.

    Oh, yeah. She was fucking cute.

    She looked over the few other options available on the mirror, finding an option to take a photo of herself, to ¡°Remember this moment later.¡± Ew, no, but also¡­

    She repeated the movement, saving the adorable photo to show her friends later, and accepted all the rules. A thank you very much flashed across the screen, along with a long legal disclaimer that she was definitely not wasting her time reading. It would just be all, not legally responsible, can¡¯t be held liable for therapy costs, etc etc. She glanced over the emergency contact information she had filed earlier, stating that Payton was responsible for her. He¡¯d gotten his copy since then, his signature now sitting beside her own, confirming that he understood not to try and remove her from the system unless there was an emergency.

    Yada yada. So many useless details, and she swiped them and her last connection to the outside world away. The words across the mirror faded, and she was left staring at herself, so perfect and out of place in her new home¡­ gross. Temporary new home, hopefully. Better yet, spawning location. She¡¯d spawned here and she would leave and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts stalled as she peeked out the window she had walked over to and she took in the world. Everything was so fucking red. The sky, the ground, the buildings. Rusty, breaking apart red. Blood splattered across the world and left to dry too long red. Pollution that¡¯s going to rot your insides red.

    Lovely.

    Her spawn point was high up, at least a hundred floors, and if the surrounding buildings were anything to go by, this building probably stretched at least a few hundred floors higher as well. Possibly higher, some of the nearby buildings stretching so high they disappeared into impenetrable red clouds. Everything was packed together, so much like the neighbourhood of the purist building, except, you know, red. Short bridges connected the buildings occasionally, and on some of the closer ones, Emilia thought she could see people walking, but everything was smudged in red grime and for all she knew those were actually monsters.

    Maybe they were commuting to work. Monsters could have jobs, too.

    She let the curtain fall, glancing back towards the other, closed door. She assumed it led out of the room, but you never knew. Maybe she was supposed to break this window and climb to the nearest bridge or straight down to the ground¡ª

    What would even happen if she fell? If she died here? Would the system eject her, or would she be left to linger as a ghost for the whole five hours? Be forced to watch as heroes more skilled¡ªor at least more sensible¡ªthan her continued to fight for the grand prize while her mind lingered?

    Emilia shook off those thoughts. She wasn¡¯t going to die. She was going to win¡ªor at least get a respectable third place!

    She didn¡¯t quite skip over to the door, but she might as well have, the cute walking shoes she had chosen¡ªa pure black, because she had a feeling anything else would be showing blood stains pretty damn fast¡ªsquelching over the sticky floor. Sticky with what, she didn¡¯t want to know.

    She pressed an ear to the door, listening for signs of anything on the other side, but either the door was soundproof or there was literally nothing on the other side, and she pulled it open. Her head poked out, looking down each side of the long hall of doors, most of which were ajar. A quick trip down the hall told her each of the rooms was nearly identical to her own, presumably where the other people who had joined the raid had spawned.

    Some appeared to have been ripped apart, presumably by other heroes looking for clues. She went through the items littering a few of the rooms as well as her own, cringing as her hands began to turn red. Grease slicked over her skin, dirt clung to her nails¡ªalthough it was barely visible, given she¡¯d styled them long, sharp and black. She tried to wash her hands and discovered the water was just as red¡ªassuming the thick sludge that sputtered out of the pipes even was water.

    Could be blood, for all she knew.

    In the end, all she had was gross hands and the knowledge that, if there were some clue hiding in their rooms, it wasn¡¯t something consistent. Occasionally, there was an item missing from a room, but it was always different, and the identical item in her own room usually appeared completely normal. More likely, it was other heroes messing with their competitors. Drive them crazy, wondering why a throw pillow was special, why one specific fork was the answer.

    She still pocketed the broken-pronged fork from her own spawn room, the iridescent-red metal sparkling slightly in her hand. Just to be safe.

    She considered looking around for more answers, to see if she could find a clue no one had yet found. It had already been five days, though. Five days for everyone else to ransack their rooms, rip everything apart and find whatever was hiding there¡ªif there was anything hiding at all.

    Something in Emilia¡¯s gut was telling her there was nothing here. Some vibe saying, ¡°Move on.¡± She¡¯d always been one for going with the flow and following her heart. If she found out later that she¡¯d missed something, she could try to come back¡ªor just steal whatever she needed from another hero. Lingering any longer felt like it would just be wasting time she didn¡¯t have.

    Five days were already gone. Five days could give someone quite the lead, and catching up meant she¡¯d need to skip what might otherwise be the natural thing to do and hope it didn¡¯t fuck her over later.

    Emilia reached the end of the hall, a staircase offering to lead her up or down. Up into however many floors existed above her, or down to the ridiculously red world below.

    {A Life (not) in the Stars} could refer to anything¡ªcould refer to nothing at all.

    Your starting life isn¡¯t one in the stars, so rise.

    The prize you seek is not in the stars, so fall.

    This is just the random ass name we chose¡ªyou¡¯re reading too much into it!

    Options, options.

    Emilia looked up, looked down. How was it that she lived in such an advanced civilization, lines taking your right, left, up and fucking down, and yet! AND YET! She had been forced to follow so many fucking staircases today!

    Sometimes, life really wasn¡¯t fair.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 31: Stop Scratching (Another World Version)

    ¡°Down, down, down~ We go down, down, down! Down to the depths and then further still! Down we go, into the hell below. Hot and red and burning bright, we go down into the light!¡±

    Emilia jumped down a step as she sang. No one was sure where the song had come from, it having existed since before the Colonial Wars. A mining song, everyone assumed, from the days when that had been handled by people and not robots. Even thousands of years on, people still sang it, as well as other songs set to the same tune.

    ¡°Dream, dream, dream~¡± she sang, lyrics shifting into something newer, something more hopeful. ¡°We shall dream, dream, dream! Dream of a world that won¡¯t bend or break! Dream we will, we will never stop. Free and true and love so strong, we shall dream ¡®till the end of days!¡±

    As far as songs went, it wasn¡¯t the catchiest thing she¡¯d ever heard, the words sounding somewhat forced into the tune. She could remember it being sung to her when she was young, though. Songs of hope for children whose lives were hopeless. Then, they¡¯d sung it during the war. Dream of a better day, dream of a world without war, die trying to achieve it.

    Kinda morbid, if you asked her. Just like this damn world.

    She hopped down onto the next landing, spinning to head down the next set of stairs and starting when her eyes met wall. Had she really, finally, after having spent so much time going down these bloody stairs, reached the bottom!?

    She turned back towards the door that would lead out of the stairwell, pushing on the heavy red metal. A mechanism to ease its weight hissed, grinding against itself as it opened slightly before sticking. She gave it another push. Another. Nothing.

    Well, fuck.

    Emilia poked her head out the small gap, wishing she¡¯d reduced the size of her ass when she¡¯d adjusted her appearance. She could probably get the majority of her body through the gap, but not her hips and ass¡ªnot without potentially damaging her outfit, anyways. Considering she had no money, and no idea where she was or what this world was like, potentially ripping her clothes, so the entire world could see her butt, wasn¡¯t high on her list of things to do.

    The hallway outside the door was much more barren than the ones above, which she had taken cursory looks at. Most of them, anyways. Occasionally, she¡¯d ventured further down one, digging through the rooms for clues. Every hallway, until this one, had been identical to her own¡ªalmost. Each had rooms in various states of being torn apart, but it was impossibly to tell if they were constructs of the platform, or had been used during a previous raid. Eventually, several floors below the one she had spawned on, everything had been coated in a thin sheen of dust.

    The deeper she went, the dustier everything became, and once Emilia had gone far enough down, she could see footprints in the dust, sometimes with a layer of dust already beginning to cover them as well. She had followed several of those prints, but they had led her nowhere, just back to a kitchen and another missing fork.

    She¡¯d grabbed another fork for herself, from the adjacent room. Just to be safe.

    This¡ªpresumably the ground floor¡ªwas the first without any potential spawn rooms. It also appeared to be dust free, something or someone keeping it clean but not maintaining the damn door.

    ¡°Hello?¡± she called out. She was 50-50 on whether she wanted anyone to answer her, to show up to help her¡ªor kill her¡ªbut she had yet to see anyone else in the building, and if someone was on this floor, they were liable to notice her eventually anyways.

    Emilia waited a moment, listening and¡ª

    Nope. Nothing. She hadn¡¯t even seen any more of the creature that had startled her when she¡¯d first spawned, and the few times she¡¯d looked out a window, she hadn¡¯t seen anything either. Even the bridges, which had seemed filling with movement earlier, had been empty every other time she looked. No one walked the streets. Nothing existed.

    She sighed, leaning back and glaring up the stairs. She really, really didn¡¯t want to have to climb back up. Just climbing down had been hard enough, her level 300 body not made for this amount of physical activity. Her legs and feet ached. Her lungs burned. Even the idea of climbing up a single flight, searching the floor above for another stairwell or clue, was exhausting, and she slid to the floor beside the door.

    It was a dark stairwell, light only filtering in through slim windows set high on the walls. She assumed they were windows, anyways, given how red the light was. They could be artificial lights, she supposed. She hadn¡¯t actually seen any obvious artificial lights on her search, though, bright as the world seemed to be without them. Nor had she seen any control panels for anything electronic. As far as she could tell, there wasn¡¯t an elevator either.

    She let her eyes flicker shut, listening for any sounds. Something from the world outside the building, from the floors high above.

    Anything.

    There was nothing. Only silence and emptiness. No sounds echoed downwards. No sounds snuck through the walls or windows.

    Only silence to keep her company.

    She didn¡¯t particularly like silence. Too much noise could be overwhelming, sure, but as long as it didn¡¯t remind her of skills exploding across the world, of enemy claws clacking across tile and bones and blood¡ª

    Silence let the monsters in. Let her dreams become nightmares, let her thoughts become waking terror.

    Emilia tapped her nails idly against the floor, the sound a dull drumming through the air. She needed to move. She needed to not sit here and sulk and let people get even further ahead in a game she didn¡¯t even know how to access. She needed to fight the sleep chasing her, the nightmares within snapping at her memories.

    Emilia was tired, was the problem. Not just physically. She had dealt with physical exhaustion during the war. She could deal with the burn of physical pain, push through it until her muscles were tearing themselves apart. No, the real problem was her mind. She really should have given it a moment to rest, before joining the contest. There was only so much you could do to fight off your brain¡¯s need to shut itself off. Now, sleep deprivation pulled her down, and without her Censor¡ªwithout her genetics and skills or any boosters¡ªshe couldn¡¯t resist that pull.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ? ? ?

    The world was black, which was infinitely better than red. When had it stopped being red? Maybe it had never been red. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time Emilia had hallucinated blood where there was none.

    Yeah, that was probably it.

    She pushed herself up, sighing as she stared up into the depths of the staircase. So much walking. So much climbing. Her hand wrapped around the railing, and she moved, half-stepping, half-pulling herself upwards. Up. Up. Right, left, right.

    She huffed, from amusement and exhaustion. They¡¯d never had to do anything as ridiculous as climb stairs in the military¡ªeven in basic training, fast and fierce as it was. There was never enough time to train the newbies who needed the extra lessons, let alone those who didn¡¯t.

    They were sub-30s! They needed no physical training! They had needed the strength and skill to slice through their enemies, not the strength to climb stairs they could slide, and later spark, up without a second thought.

    She reached the first landing, hand already reaching for the door, blood-red nails glittering in the starlight filtering in from above. Her eyes shot up into the black sky. No sound. No nothing. Emptiness and she needed to go up.

    Emilia nodded decisively to herself. Up, she had to go up. The stars were waiting for her. She¡¯d been so silly to go down before and¡ª

    ? ? ?

    Emilia started awake, blinking rapidly into the stairwell.

    The red stairwell.

    The ground floor of the stairwell.

    ¡°Fucking dreams,¡± she muttered, scratching at her forearm and hissing when more than the phantom burn of Payton altering her knotwork shot through her. ¡°Fucking stars.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t sure how long she¡¯d been out for¡ªa thoroughly disconcerting feeling, the inability to tell time or ask her Censor how well she had slept or to replay that dream, already fading back into the abyss¡ªbut she¡¯d scratched through her skin in her sleep. Blood dribbled down her arm, clots already beginning to form over the long lines her black nails had left. She¡¯d styled them long and sharp earlier, and now she was regretting that. She probably wouldn¡¯t be regretting it if she happened to need to fight someone off, given they were currently her only weapon, but she would regret them for the moment, thank you.

    Her wound, though¡­ Granted, it hadn¡¯t been deep, but the speed at which it was healing was most definitely not what she would expect for a level 300¡ªno, fuck that. This was medic skill level healing speed. Why create a system with no rules, with a high starting level, and then give people super healing?

    She watched as the wound finished sewing itself shut, the blood that had leaked out of it slipping back inside her¡ªeven the blood on her nails shimmered through the air and returned where it had come from.

    That was weird.

    That was the kind of thing that made her gut clench and scream and demand she investigate.

    Emilia¡¯s nails clattered over the floor, as much as nails could clatter over gross, sticky tile. Then, she was digging through the pockets of her cloak for one of her forks. She examined it, just as she had before. The only thing that was different about it, compared to anything else in those rooms¡ªcompared even to all the other forks that each room had had¡ªwas one broken prong.

    One prong sharper than all the rest¡ªsharper than anything else she had found. Sharp enough that she certainly wouldn¡¯t be putting it in her mouth.

    She twirled it between her fingers, before unceremoniously slashing it across her arm. The mark she left wasn¡¯t deep enough, the slice barely bleeding before it sealed itself closed.

    Again. Harder¡ªthe blade of the fork dug through her skin, deep enough this time to make her gasp at the pain, even as she dropped the fork and grabbed her arm. Emilia leaned forward, squeezing her arm to get more blood out.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Blood oozed out of her, thick and syrupy as the building¡¯s water, onto the floor in front of her.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    The puddle of blood shimmered, wobbled, tried to reach back towards her arm. Its combined weight was too much, however. Every new drop pressed the puddle back to the ground as her wound grew smaller along with the blood¡¯s chance to return home.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    She watched her arm heal itself, skin slowly stitching itself perfectly back together. There would be no scar from this, not even in this world. No evidence of what she had done.

    Her puddle of blood rippled as another droplet fell into it. Another. It vibrated. Another. Shuddered. Another.

    By the time the wound had fully sealed, one last drop sliding out of her to the floor, her puddle was no longer contained by gravity¡ªno longer trying to return to her. It was practically a hurricane. A tiny one, but a hurricane no less. It ripped through the air, menacing and sharp, as though being sliced from its home had driven it to madness.

    Blood skills were rare, outside of medic skills. {Blood Rain} was one of the only exceptions she had ever come across, and terrifying for how powerful it was. Even her own altered version was terrifying. The full version? The version not meant for fighting echos and monsters but other humans?

    That version was truly a thing of nightmares that she hoped was never let loose on the world again.

    The final drop of her blood joined the frenzy, and she wondered if it would be enough for whatever was happening. It didn¡¯t appear to be losing momentum or form, at any rate, so she contented herself to lean back and watch it spin, her fingers taping out a beat of time. A couple minutes¡ªten at the most¡ªand she¡¯d add more blood.

    Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

    Minutes passed and nothing changed.

    Nothing changed.

    Nothing changed.

    Emilia sliced her arm open again, added more blood. Waited and watched and still.

    Nothing changed.

    Nothing changed.

    Over and over, she repeated their dance. She waited longer. An hour. Two. Added more blood than all the times she had before.

    Nothing changed.

    The hurricane grew bigger, bigger.

    Her body tired. Her mind bent as she sacrificed her blood for the gut feeling that there was some meaning¡ªsome purpose¡ªbehind the strange phenomenon.

    Then, the hurricane grew darker and Emilia leaned back, her arms falling limply to her sides. She¡¯d given it so much blood, her body feeling impossibly light for how little she had left¡ªimpossibly heavy for how tired she felt.

    Hopefully, she hadn¡¯t just massively fucked up and killed herself.

    Anything goes meant the platform could fuck with you too. Could throw in lies and tricks that would make heroes abandon a standard raid. This wasn¡¯t a standard raid. This was a raid of red silence¡ªof death, for all she knew¡ªbut her gut was seldom wrong.

    ¡°My beautiful silver girl,¡± her ex¡¯s voice called, and Emilia looked up towards it.

    The world was turning black again. Again? When had it been black to begin with?

    She blinked into his redness. He was barely there¡ªhe definitely wasn¡¯t there. Just a hallucination from the blood loss.

    He smiled, red lips slicing across his face the only detail she could make out under that mop of red.

    ¡°Em¡ª¡±

    She tilted her head, unable to make out his words as her blood shattered the world around them. The door blew open, the stair rail rattled and screws flew loose. The metal of the stairs bent and curled. When had it become this violent? Blood splattered across the blackness converging around them, too. Pushing it back. Claiming this place for the red.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she mumbled, letting her eyes flutter shut. ¡°Can¡¯t read lips right now. Try again later.¡±

    Her hallucination might have said more, or maybe it was her blood talking to her. Screaming at her, ¡°More, more, more.¡± More what? If it wanted more blood, she had none left to give.

    Emilia¡¯s head lolled, and the fork was in her hand again, her blood guiding it¡ªalthough she couldn¡¯t tell if it was inside or out. Maybe both. Maybe all her blood wanted to be one again, was dancing with her, forcing her hand so it could return to togetherness.

    What a thing that would be¡ªto feel like she was whole again. To feel like she had her life together.

    The blade of the fork slashed across her throat and everything burned red.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 32: Know Your Weapon; Be Your Weapon

    The world was red, but wrong. She blinked around, eyes landing on the stairs that would lead her back towards the stars, the black metal bent and twisted but still standing, then to the door. It hung limply off its hinges, the dull red metal bent but never broken. There was nothing sharp in this world¡ªnothing save those forks, and her nails.

    The world was still splattered with her blood. Gory paint pressing against the blackness that vibrated beneath it, trying to reach out towards her, but held back by her sacrifice.

    She pushed herself up, stared up into the stars, before making her way out into the hallway. Her shoes snapped against the floor¡ªthat was wrong, too. Shining red met her feet, slippery and sharp, not tacky and squishing. There were no windows. Just a long red hall, splattered with her blood¡ªhow had it made it this far outside the stairwell?

    Her blood, illuminating the world. Light vibrated out of it¡ªout of her, too, she realized. Her entire body glowed, straight through her clothing. Her red shuddered out of her, cutting through the air and bouncing off everything in sight. A stream of gold raced after it, swinging carelessly through the world.

    She ran a hand over the bare walls, her red nails glowing as they left slices in the thing that had eaten her. How huge it must be! To have an entire city inside¡ª

    ? ? ?

    Emilia pulled in a gasping breath, eyes flying open as she returned to the world of the raid. She shuddered. Inside something. What a horrible nightmare thought that was.

    She groaned as she shifted, arms stretching far above her head. She¡¯d been sitting too long. However long she¡¯d napped for the first time. The hours she¡¯d spent messing around with her blood. Then, however long she¡¯d been passed out for.

    Her neck cracked as she rolled it. She felt stiff, but surprisingly awake. Hopefully that would last once she got up. Blood loss was no joke. Then again, this wasn¡¯t the real world.

    She looked around, hoping to perhaps find some sign of the system¡ªsome sign that she hadn¡¯t just nearly bled out for nothing. There was no system, no Censor. No blood spattering over the world¡ªalthough the damage to the stairs and the door remained. Nothing else to show for her trouble, tho¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s eyes caught on a long, flat red stone, tucked under her knee. It was pretty¡ªheavy in her hand when she picked it up.

    It was also sharp. Sharper than the forks or her nails, although using it as a weapon would be difficult, given its shape¡ªthe shape of a blade without a hilt¡­ or any other covering. Just carrying the thing around was going to be a massive pain in the¡ª

    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Emilia muttered, pushing herself up as slowly as she could. The world, surprisingly, did not spin. Her stomach did not roll. Her head didn¡¯t even ache. Either she¡¯d been out for a long fucking time, or the effects of her blood loss had healed itself. Hopefully, it was the latter. She really couldn¡¯t do with losing more time, especially since she was going to have to drag her ass back up at least one flight of stairs and search for something to store her morbid weapon inside.

    She held it gingerly as she pulled herself up the stairs, groaning at the effort. This was why so few people had joined this raid. No one wanted to be this weak. Even Pria¡¯s pretty damn deficient Physical D-Levels were better than her current body¡¯s, her chest heaving as she climbed, lungs burning, and by the time she reached the top, Emilia was half-tempted to sit back down. Somehow, she doubted she¡¯d be able to get up anytime soon if she dared.

    This floor was ravaged far more than any of the upper ones. Probably, heroes had returned here, either having realizing they had missed something, or searching for any clue they could find when they got nowhere. All the forks were missing¡ªnot just the sharp ones, but literally all of them. Which, fair. People needed to eat. Maybe the local restaurants didn¡¯t supply utensils? Or people had to hunt their own food?

    Emilia grabbed the one normal fork she did happen find. Just in case.

    She looked around the dusty, destroyed little rooms. Worst-case scenario, she¡¯d use something fabric to at least keep her {Blood Dagger} from slicing through her, or worse, her clothes. She might heal, but she wasn¡¯t about to test if her clothing would as well. Something a little more sturdy than fabric would be better, but¡­

    Emilia frowned, looking between several of the rooms, all of which were missing their bathroom drawers, even the one that had been present on every other floor¡ªat least on the ones she had checked. She¡¯d stopped checking when the dust had gotten too thick, every step kicking up particles that her body did not like.

    An entire bathroom drawer, missing, was weird. She searched down the hall. All missing.

    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± she sighed, grumbling as she went up another flight of stairs, and then another, and another, until finally, she found a bathroom with its lone drawer still there.

    She wiped a hand across her nose, running under the oppressive dust because this body had fucking allergies. Awesome. Just what she¡¯d always wanted. Allergies were one of the few genes the government tested for from birth. There were a whole collection of knots and genes that gave you allergies to any number of things. The government was not having it. That shit was knotted out of children as soon as it showed.

    Emilia sneezed, coughed, cursed and grabbed the drawer, retreating back into the relative safety of the stairwell. Relative, because the dust was stuck to her now. Stuck to her clothes and her nose, and life was horrible.

    ¡°Kill me now,¡± she muttered as she looked over the drawer, rubbing the back of her hand absently over her nose again. Drawer, drawer, what was special about this drawer?

    Nothing, as far as she could tell. It was just a drawer, made of some material she couldn¡¯t even guess at. Not quite wood, not quite metal. Definitely not any plastic she¡¯d ever seen. It bent slightly in her hands if she exerted enough pressure. It popped back into position when she let it go.

    She pressed harder, willing the seams that connected the five sides together to break and¡ª

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Nope. The material snapped back with more force as she let it go, the sound of the snap echoing into the stairwell. Emilia slammed her hands against her ears as it vibrated around her, growing louder and louder and louder until she was sure her ear drums were going to burst and¡ª

    Yep, fuck. There once went. It didn¡¯t particularly hurt, but when she pulled her hands away as the sound finally began to fade, her palm dripped with blood.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    A drop hit the drawer and melted a hole straight through it. The material sputtered, and when she went to touch it, her body wouldn¡¯t let her get close for how hot it had become. It sizzled, and the smell of something melting reached her nose. Spicy and burning and making her want to sneeze.

    Well, time to make herself a hilt of blood and weird ass substance, apparently.

    Once, when she was in her late teens, she¡¯d been given a grumpy old man as a babysitter. By that age, her parents had figured out why she was such a nuisance, always causing fights and getting into trouble, never paying attention in school, favouring the same two friends that their entire neighbourhood avoided.

    She was just bored. People knowing she was bored was so much better than when they¡¯d thought she was ungrateful or traumatized from her childhood.

    Out went the old babysitters, mostly SecOps like Sasha¡ªor whatever her name had been at the time¡ªor actual babysitters. In came the new ones, people whose job it was to keep her entertained. Some had done better than others, but she¡¯d erupted from those years with So. Many. Skills.

    Not just skill skills, but more normal things¡ªthings sub-30s generally didn¡¯t bother teaching their children. How to cook and clean. How to play way too many instruments and sports. She¡¯d learned how to hack and program her own skills during her teens, too. Granted, she¡¯d already been quite a skilled hacker, but that particular babysitter had been one of her favourites. He definitely hadn¡¯t been meant to teach her hacking, but you didn¡¯t become a hacker by following the rules.

    Emilia was also certain that no one, not even her parents, had known he could program his own skills.

    Her grumpy babysitter, Master Shaw, hadn¡¯t been meant to be her babysitter. Her actual intended babysitter had been trying to teach her how to arrange flowers, the rules strict and boring. She¡¯d run away¡ªokay, so figuring out that she was just bored hadn¡¯t completely fixed her parents¡¯ problem child issues, whatever¡ªand run into Master Shaw.

    He had not liked her, but you didn¡¯t say no to her dad, and her dad didn¡¯t say no to her. She wanted to learn from Master Shaw, and while she hadn¡¯t realize it at the time, Master Shaw was practically a slave to the family they were visiting. He hadn¡¯t even been asked himself whether he would teach her.

    You didn¡¯t ask slaves what they wanted.

    She¡¯d felt bad about that later, knowing they¡¯d been visiting with people¡ªliking people¡ªwho kept indentured servants, people who had sold their lives away in desperation. Technically, they could always request their debt and freedom be returned to them, but very few ever did.

    Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t as common in Baalphoria as Emilia knew it was in some of the Free Colonies, with only a few sub-30 families in the Grey Sands and the far north keeping any¡ªat least as far as she knew. It wasn¡¯t exactly public record who kept them, and she¡¯d never had the heart to ask Beth if she knew of any sub-50s who kept indentured servants. She wouldn¡¯t put it past some of those families to be keeping their own private army of indentured servants, especially after all the poverty the war had caused.

    Master Shaw grudgingly taught her how to forge weapons, over that long summer, his grumpy demeanour slowly growing on her, even softening a bit. It had been so hot, the forge burning away in that tiny shop¡ªtoo tiny for someone as skilled and valuable as him¡ªbut she had known, even then, that she would never get a chance like that again. A chance to learn how willbrands were forged, back when only the rich and powerful bothered having them. Even then, very few had known how to use them properly. There was no war. There was always the potential of one, yes, but SecOps and Baalphoria¡¯s tiny, standing army would handle any skirmishes at the border.

    Then there had been a war, and Emilia¡¯s willbrand, forged for her that summer, ripping the world apart in ways the world hadn¡¯t seen in generations.

    Forging a willbrand was most certainly not the same as repeatedly cutting her palm with a fork to melt whatever the fuck this drawer was made of into a makeshift hilt, but it definitely gave her an edge.

    Emilia laughed at her own joke as she formed the hilt. She¡¯d started off with basic weapons, just like this one. You didn¡¯t jump straight into forging a willbrand¡ªthat shit could get you killed. There had been so few remaining willbrandsmiths back then, five decades ago now. Master Shaw had trained so many since then, after he had revoked his servitude during the war to join the military. Those students had trained more and more students of their own, and then they had corrupted the craft. The willbrands that had once required blood and sweat, transformed into weak weapons that the government gave out like candy for raids.

    The government paid them so much, even for those sloppy weapons. Now, the only families in Baalphoria who could hope to win the contract of a truly skilled willbrandsmith were far and few. The de la Rues, the Laprises, the Daymarks, her own family. There were more families with wealth enough to do so, but she didn¡¯t know them well enough to know if they bothered keeping a willbrandsmith on staff, just in case.

    The hilt Emilia managed to make for her {Blood Dagger} was shockingly good, if she did say so herself. The scabbard was a little more suspect, but that was mostly because she¡¯d tried to be a little too fancy making it¡ªtried to add unnecessary details and ended up making it look more than a little mangled.

    Ah, well, such was the life of a creative person! You were going to fuck shit up in the search for beauty!

    All in all, she thought her master would approve of the weapon she had created, even if the blade making part had just sort of happened. She pushed herself off the floor, cursing as her back ached. Seriously!? How did ex-300s live!? This was horrible. Aches and pains just from sitting on the floor too long? What even was that.

    She flipped the dagger through the air, testing out its weight, just as the man who had taught her how to fight had drilled into her.

    ¡°Know your weapon, Emilia,¡± his soft, ancient voice whispered in her ear. His robes had blown around them, black as always, even though it had been centuries since he had needed to camouflage blood covering him. ¡°Unless you are about to die, never use a weapon that you do not know as you know your soul. It must be part of you.¡±

    His phantom hands guided her movements, even as she wanted to laugh. This weapon was most certainly a part of her¡ªprobably a bit too much, in fact. It was perfectly imperfect. The weight strange and fitting. Every slash rippled through the air. The air screamed around it, as though her blood were cutting the universe itself¡ªas though every move she made, the blade was trying to make the aether bleed.

    She spun and danced. Years of practice flowing through her, ghosts of the past flashing through her mind as she cut them down, perfecting her movements as much as she could in such a flawed body.

    Her cloak flew wide around her as she sliced through the neck of an invisible enemy, blood splashed over her and for a moment she was back on the battlefield, bodies collapsing around her. Fresh food for the monsters that chased them. One of her supports was killing themself¡ªburning their core out, getting the blood off her. She¡¯d been sloppy. She¡¯d saved another support¡¯s life, stepping between them and those deadly teeth. Now another support was going to die anyways, and all she could do was watch because they all knew the truth: she was more valuable than a thousand of them.

    The world sputtered back into existence, and Emilia stood alone in the stairwell, dagger outstretched. She blinked at¡ªblinked at the tiny line of black it seemed to have cut in the world. Then the cut was gone, and she had no idea what was real. What was trauma and memory and the platform purposefully fucking with its residents.

    She sighed, sheathing her dagger and frowning. Where the fuck was she going to store this thing, anyways?

 Arc 2 | Chapter 33: No Reason to Resist

    Emilia emerged onto the street and immediately regretted every decision she had ever made. The air burned, and not in the normal it¡¯s really hot out way. No, it burned in the someone let the spice fiend cook and the entire house is toxic with aerosolized spice way. They¡¯d only been stupid enough to let that happen once, during the war. Their entire barracks had needed to be evacuated and fumigated. It had still tasted hot for weeks.

    This was worse. There was no escape from this, and even when Emilia turned and bolted back inside the building, the spice followed her. Hopefully, she¡¯d get used to it. Hopefully, her pussy wouldn¡¯t burn when she inevitably had to pee, which, food? Water? She¡¯d had none and felt no need for either since her arrival. Granted, she¡¯d been unconscious a significant portion of that time, and her one of her knots let her ignore hunger until it was quite serious, but still! It was weird!

    She sighed, shoulders sagging as she pushed her way back outside. It was worse the second time around. There also, shockingly, was no one in sight.

    ¡°Right or left~¡± she hummed to herself, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her cloak and looking down the street.

    It was just as red as it had seemed from inside, the ground a packed, brownish-red dirt. It was an odd contrast to the towering buildings of metal. There were no animals, no plants. Just dirt and huge towers of dull red reaching into the haze of red far above. Light shown down through it, seemingly from multiple directions.

    Well, might as well go left. Someone had once told her to always go left, when you had no idea which way to go in a game or maze or life in general. Something about the majority of the population being right-handed, so almost everyone naturally went right. Emilia had always figured that was stupid¡ªit just meant that game designers were liable to put important things to the right as well, or that they¡¯d figure out people were purposefully going left and would still put those things to the right, just to fuck with them.

    She didn¡¯t see any reason not to go left, however, so left it was.

    Her shoes slapped and sucked against the ground as she walked. Why was everything so damn sticky here?

    A door slammed shut and Emilia froze, eyes scanning the direction she thought the sound might have come from. Fuck, it was annoying to have her senses this stifled. Everything felt wrong, as though she were simultaneously experiencing the world with too much force and not nearly enough. Everything was dull, yet it was as if there were pins sticking into her. Spice that burned, eyes that could barely take in the details of the land, noises that crackled through her busted eardrum¡ªbecause that injury hadn¡¯t healed itself, just like her muscles were still sore and aching and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s eyes caught a shadow, vanishing down one of the narrow alleyways that separated the buildings. She took a step after it, another, and then¡ª

    Emilia slammed a hand to her good ear as sirens wailed from far above her.

    ¡°BREACH! BREACH!¡± They were so loud, the voice cracking and echoing. It reminded her of some of the more nostalgic Virtuosi environments. Ancient computers screaming in artificial voices that burbled and broke on the wrong syllables. ¡°BREACH! BREACH!¡± it continued screaming, presumably at her.

    Hopefully, whatever she¡¯d breached, it wouldn¡¯t kill her or any of the locals. Logically, she knew that they were AI constructs, but the most advanced platforms used organic constructs¡ªAIs grown from copies of human minds. How they were forced into specifically designed environments, Emilia didn¡¯t know¡ªdidn¡¯t really want to know, to be honest¡ªbut they were, in many ways, just as human¡ªjust as real¡ªas she was.

    They simply didn¡¯t have bodies to return to. There had been some talk, early in the war, of creating vessels for AIs. Send AIs into war, rather than breathing, bleeding, humans. It wouldn¡¯t have worked. Willbrands and weapons that blew toxic holes in the world were the only things that had worked against their enemies. No one was stupid enough to trust AIs with weapons of mass destruction, and willbrands required cores. Cores could be faked, within a virtual platform, but not in the real world.

    Emilia would have fought that plan, even if there hadn¡¯t been logistical problems. The idea of sending AIs capable of love, friendship, fear, out to fight a war had never sat well with her. Even this, effectively invading their home for a game¡ªfor a couple of tickets?

    Somewhere, in her head, more than a few people she knew were yelling at her for being stupid. ¡°They aren¡¯t real humans. Get over it.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t get over it, though, and when men in scary black armour appeared, quickly surrounding her, she didn¡¯t even try to put up a fight. She didn¡¯t think her single blade and nails would have done much against so many people anyways, but she could have tried. She didn¡¯t.

    ?Hands behind your head,? one of the men said, firm but not unkind. She assumed it was a man, anyways, but couldn¡¯t be sure. Not with his face covered by a mask, voice just as modulated as the siren¡¯s, still blaring above them as though she hadn¡¯t already been semi-captured.

    She followed their orders, the men exchanging glances behind their masks. The one who had spoken stepped behind her to gently gather her hands. Something clinked around them, burning slightly against her skin.

    ?This way, miss,? the man said, modulated voice soft. He pressed a hand to her back as she was led away.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    They walked, wherever they were going. Probably not the place her captors had come from¡ªunless they possessed super speed¡ªgiven how long they walked for. That, or they had some sort of fast travel that wouldn¡¯t work on her, she supposed. No one said anything, even to each other, except her escort, who occasionally mumbled apologies to her about this or that.

    ?Sorry, my fault,? after she tripped¡ªit had definitely been her fault.

    ?Sorry, I know the smell is a bit much,? after they went through a particularly spicy spot and her eyes had started to water.

    ?Sorry¡ªabout the noise, I mean,? when the siren started going off again.

    By the time they reached wherever it was they were going, Emilia was convinced the man only knew how to apologize. The building they entered looked nearly identical to all the others on the outside, save the door. Most of the doors they passed were a dull red or occasionally a cleaner, matte red. This door was a dark, shining red.

    Two of the armoured men approached the door, and for a moment, Emilia thought they were simply aggressively staring at it, hoping it would open¡ªor that perhaps someone on the inside would open it for them. Then, she felt the smallest spark across the aether, different from what skills within the real-world felt like. Whether due to her lack of system access, reduced abilities or the otherness of the feeling, she could barely feel it. Even when she focused, the shape of the aether¡¯s movement slipped away from her, like she was trying to catch a fish, darting through a river, with her bare hands.

    Suddenly, the door hissed open, and the two men bolted backwards, still staring daggers at the doorway as the rest of the group entered the building.

    The inside of the building was identical to the ground floor of her spawn building¡ªempty save a door at the end of a long hallway. A stairwell, most likely. Awesome. More stairs. The men led her to the stairwell¡ªbecause, of course, she couldn¡¯t have lucked out and found something else behind that door¡ªand began to climb.

    ?Do you need help?? her escort asked, hovering behind her awkwardly as she looked despondently up the stairs.

    Emilia glanced back at him, smiling and raising an eyebrow. ¡°You gonna carry me?¡±

    It was too bad he was wearing a mask, she would have liked to have seen his face as he took in her words, gave her a once over, and scooped her up into his arms.

    She squeaked, cursing the fact that her arms were locked behind her. Not exactly the most comfortable princess carry, but also, no stairs. Her legs were so fucking tired, so she wasn¡¯t about to complain about a little shoulder pinch and risk being put down.

    Up and up they went. To her escort¡¯s credit, he didn¡¯t seem even remotely winded by either the climb or her extra weight. She let her head fall against his chest, black armour cool against her cheek.

    Up and up. Who builds buildings this tall without having invented elevators? How did they even get building materials to the top?

    Up and up. She was pretty sure they were higher than she¡¯d spawned now, but she¡¯d lost track counting flights a while back. Apparently she should have just gone up, after all.

    Up and up. Emilia thought she might have dozed off as they climbed¡ªas she was ferried about like a princess. Olivier had carried her a few times, like this. Called her princess a few too many times for her liking, and ended up with an entitled brat on his hands, refusing to move. He¡¯d gotten her back for that, more than a few times.

    ?We are here,? her escort said softly.

    She hummed, blinking sleepily into his mask in question, then around the room they were now in, startling slightly when her eyes met a window. There was the world, the packed dirt ground, just barely below them.

    They were only on the second, maybe third floor.

    ¡°Did I fall asleep?¡± she asked, twisting as she looked around. She¡¯d dozed off, sure, but she¡¯d been mostly awake. How had they gone up all those stairs and yet only ended up one, maybe two, floors up?

    ?I¡­ think so?? the man replied. Emilia felt like he was blinking rapidly at her in concern or shock.

    ¡°Did we go up the stairs?¡±

    ?We are on the second floor.? The man¡¯s head tilted slightly, some universally human movement of question. He went to speak¡ªif his odd, modulated voice could even be considered speaking¡ªagain, some follow-up question, but he was interrupted by a door across the room hissing open.

    Her escort quickly put her down, his gloved hands skimming over her waist before righting her clothes and hair and twisting her towards the door. The other men were ignoring them, their eyes training to the slowly opening door.

    A young woman stepped out, everything about her red. Red hair and eyes. Most of her face seemed devoid of makeup, except perhaps her lips. So red. So flat. Unlike her black armoured captors, the woman¡¯s outfit was red, but in the same style and in much better condition. Where the men¡¯s armour was scuffed and layered in dirt and grime, hers was nearly pristine, sparkling as though it were brand new. If not for the slight scuffing around her feet, Emilia might have assumed it was.

    The woman barely spared her a glance, before turning to a man who Emilia assumed oversaw the group, given he had led them the majority of the way. He nodded severely to her, a black gloved hand pounding against his chest. She looked bored, almost impatient, as she watched his greeting. The leader¡¯s suit hissed, and he pulled his helmet off, revealing hair just as red as the woman¡¯s.

    They stared at each other. The man gesticulated, but said nothing. The woman nodded, glanced towards Emilia once more. The man glanced towards her, too. His eyes weren¡¯t as red as the woman¡¯s, more a pinkish-red than the pure blood of the woman¡¯s, staring through her more than at her.

    A hiss sounded behind her¡ªher escort removing his helmet¡ªand then the woman¡¯s eyes were on him, something wild and terrifying filling them. She swept a hand across the room, one of the other men bonked shoulders with another of their teammates. The leader glared at them, and they straightened, pounded fists to their chest and all but bolted from the room.

    The woman looked unhappy. The slash of blood across her face pressed harsher, her entire body tensed, and then she was turning away, her long red hair whipping around her. The thick curls, which almost reached her waist, bounced slightly as she walked, her shoes making ridiculous, sticking noises as she moved.

    ?This way,? her escort said, his voice just as modulated without his helmet off as it had been on.

    Emilia turned back to him, breath catching in her throat.

    He was beautiful. She didn¡¯t often think that about men other than Olivier. Men could be attractive, hot, fuckable. Boys could be cute.

    Olivier was beautiful.

    This man was beautiful, with his sharp features and deep set eyes. They were almost black, just the slightest hint of red layered through them. His hair was the same. She imagined in the sun he would shine, red catching light enough to break through the clouds. He was tall, his skin holding just the barest reddish-brown tint¡ªa contrast to the darkness of the rest of him. That, and his lips, just this side of pink and¡ª

    His eyebrows pulled together, the frown that had already been written across his face deepening. ?Are you alright??

    It was a different experience, hearing his voice while looking at him, watching those lips stay still as words slipped out of somewhere else¡ªslipped out of the aether itself.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 34: Yours or Mine

    Emilia let her escort guide her through the maze of hallways and floors, gathering her up in his arms every time they reached another set of stairs, before gently setting her back down. He didn¡¯t release her hands from the cuffs, however, and slowly her shoulders were beginning to ache.

    Unlike in her spawn building¡ªwhere the hallways had run down the centre of the building, blocking out views of the outside world¡ªthese halls were situated near the outside of the building. Giant windows spanned the length of one wall, looking out onto the empty street below. Occasionally, a door sat on the opposite wall, but they were rare. The building didn¡¯t appear to be rectangular, either, although her brain was fuzzy with lack of proper sleep or food¡ªbecause she was finally starting to feel the starvation that her knots suppressed until her stomach was beginning to eat itself¡ªso she wasn¡¯t exactly inclined to trust her mapping abilities at the moment¡ªespecially considering they were rather sketchy to begin with.

    They were on the twelfth floor when her escort stopped, opening one of the doors with an ominously blood coloured key. It reminded her of the {Blood Dagger}¡ªwhich she amazingly still had, no one having bothered checking her for weapons, not that she could have used it at the moment, what with her arms still trapped behind her. She had no idea if the key was made of blood, though. Instead, she had to content herself with only catching another, fleeting look at it as he pulled it free of the lock and ushered her inside with a hand because despite the fact that he could communicate with her, he¡¯d only said one thing to her since they left the others: ?You will see.?

    Even that had been hard-earned, on her part. She¡¯d spent the first three floors asking him where they were going, what his name was, what day it was, if there was any food, etc, etc. Her questions had been met with silence, and if not for the increasingly annoyed look on his face, she would have been convinced he couldn¡¯t hear her. Eventually, he¡¯d cracked and told her she would see where they were going soon.

    She had the distinct feeling that what he had really wanted to say was, ?Shut the fuck up.?

    His near refusal to speak was odd, given he¡¯d been quiet but slightly more talkative while they made their way to the building. If the man hadn¡¯t remained standing so close behind her the whole time, she would have assumed that that quiet, apologetic man and this quiet, stern man were entirely different people. Still, not wanting to overly annoy someone who had so far been nothing but nice to her, she¡¯d kept quiet for the remaining floors.

    For a time, she¡¯d kept herself distracted from her increasingly stiff legs and aching feet thinking of potential reasons for his suddenly palpable reticence. He was more comfortable speaking with his helmet on. There was something about the building¡ªwhether the building itself or someone who could overhear him¡ªthat was keeping him silent. Something had upset him during their meeting with that woman, and he was sorting through his thoughts and emotions. He had multiple personalities.

    Emilia really hoped it wasn¡¯t the last option. She¡¯d known a few people during the war whose personalities had been fractured by what they¡¯d seen and done¡ªor, worse, by some skill that had backfired and caused significant brain damage. She¡¯d tried¡ªrelatively unsuccessfully¡ªto shake off thoughts of those broken people, some of them still alive and confined to military hospitals, others put down because they had been too dangerous to be allowed to live.

    Fortunately, she¡¯d never had to do any of that putting down with her own hands. She had handed people over to The Black Knot, though, knowing exactly what the organization would do with them if they deemed them too dangerous. The Black Knot hadn¡¯t actually been the main organization who dealt with soldiers who went off the rails, but Emilia had connections to them, which had made handing problems over easy. As much as their reputation was harsh, the things she¡¯d heard about the other, even more secretive organization who actively sought out and dealt with rogue soldiers¡­

    Emilia had actively forced her thoughts to float away from those stories, urging her mind to forget about the horrors of the war. With Payton doing stars knew what to her knots, she needed to not rile herself up with traumatic memories as much as she could. She wasn¡¯t particularly skilled at staying completely silent and unthinking, though, and every so often, she had hummed to herself as they went¡ªher escort hadn¡¯t seemed to mind that¡ªand when she¡¯d asked to stop for a moment, because her feet hurt, he¡¯d guided her towards the windows, letting her rest and watch the desolate world outside.

    His own eyes had stared into the red fog above, the expression on his face something she couldn¡¯t quite decipher. He¡¯d caught her looking at him, given her a blank stare and a slow blink.

    Something about that look had made her cheeks burn, and she was glad she¡¯d decided to put on so much blush¡ªnot that she had any idea whether it was still in place or not. The appearance editor had implied her makeup would be permanent, but until she got a chance to actually she herself in a mirror, she wasn¡¯t going to rule out the possibility that her makeup could fade and smudge.

    The room she stepped into now was much nicer than the one she¡¯d spawned in, even if it was still obnoxiously red. It didn¡¯t have a kitchen, as far as she could tell, but there was a small table and a bed. A nearly black couch. A small shelf with several¡­ books? It was unclear from this far away, but something about the maybe-books looked weird. A door that she assumed led to a bathroom¡ªhopefully one less disgusting than the first building¡¯s.

    ¡°Yours, or mine?¡± she couldn¡¯t help but ask, smiling innocently at her escort.

    He did not look convinced of her innocence¡ªif anything, he looked mildly confused¡ªbut he did reach to release her hands as the door hissed shut behind him, the floor vibrating ever so slightly under their feet. ?Yours.?

    ¡°Ah~¡± Emilia sighed, rolling out her stiff arms. ¡°A prison, then, is it?¡±

    Her escort slipped the cuffs back into his belt. ?No.?

    ¡°No?¡± Emilia waited for him to explain himself, but he was annoyingly quiet¡ªeven quieter than Olivier, somehow. Something about this man¡¯s silence, however, felt wrong. Her ex-lawyer¡¯s always felt natural, as though the speaking, not the silence, were the unnatural part of his existence. This guy¡­

    ?It is not a prison,? the man¡¯s modulated, aethervoice said. ?It is a transitional house.?

    ¡°Transition from?¡±

    ?From your world to ours.?

    Emilia blinked rapidly at him, surprised. Most of the time, with these kinds of short-term raid platforms, the residents didn¡¯t know people were coming from different worlds. Often, the system would prompt you to say you were from some far away land¡ªoffer you some logical explanation as to where and how and why in the stars you were there.

    Of course, that wasn¡¯t possible without access to the system, but there was nothing stopping the platform from briefly overwriting your person with an avatar to give locals details of a fabricated backstory. Even as inexperienced with these raid platforms as she was, Emilia knew that sort of override was common. Many platforms had specific storylines, which relied on such overwriting to make the story come together, and many more had rules forbidding heroes from telling locals their world wasn¡¯t the real world¡ªwhatever that meant. This place¡ªthese people¡ªfelt pretty damn real to her.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Do people come here often?¡± she asked, spinning and taking in more of the details of the room.

    There was a window, hidden behind some blinds. Still no physical lights, despite the brightness of the room. The water in the bathroom still ran red, but at least it wasn¡¯t quite so thick. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, finding her makeup perfectly untouched.

    She peeked out of the bathroom, half expecting her escort to have left, given he hadn¡¯t answered her question¡ªshe also hadn¡¯t heard the door open, but who was keeping track? He was still standing there, watching her. Hands tucked behind his back like the soldier he was.

    ?Yes,? he finally said, walking towards the window, pushing the blinds aside. He looked up into the red fog again. It was still so high above them. He started slightly when Emilia appeared by his side, staring diligently upwards as well. ?Every few decades or so, a group of visitors arrive. Usually, everyone arrives within a few hours of each other. You are¡­?

    ¡°An anomaly?¡±

    The man nodded. He still hadn¡¯t told her his name, and she tried asking again. He didn¡¯t even glance her way before telling her that the men¡ªbecause they were usually men, she was also an anomaly for that¡ªusually caused disturbances, so their forces were sent out to bring them into custody until they could learn the rules of the world.

    ¡°I bet they cooperate until they learn you have no idea how to access the system¡ªor if you do, you have no intention of telling them how to access it?¡± Emilia guessed.

    Her escort¡¯s lips twitched, the first sign of a smile she had seen. Fuck, if he smiled, he¡¯d most certainly be even more stunning. It fell away quickly, though, so she was safe from death by smile for the moment. ?Visitors do not usually guess at that so quickly, either.?

    ¡°How long do you keep people here, searching for clues they¡¯ll never find?¡±

    ?A while.? Another barely there smile.

    ¡°So, until they naturally disappear, then.¡±

    ?Not always,? he said, eyes finally meeting hers. ?If they can prove they know our laws, and we feel that we can trust them, we let them go. They usually disappear within a few weeks. There isn¡¯t much damage they can do in that time.?

    Emilia was not convinced by his words. Even in normal raids¡ªwhich this, anything goes, raid certainly was not¡ªheroes were known to cause large amounts of damage and change within platforms. Some raids had much stricter rules, limiting the effect of heroes on the platform, though, and she supposed this could be the first time a raid in this world had allowed much. If it was, she felt even worse for the locals than she already did. They could be expecting calm, considerate heroes. Instead, they would be getting chaos.

    Anything goes meant mayhem¡ªoften meant the platform was either left in tatters once people left, or that constant backups were needed. That could also be the reality of this world: it was a backup of a backup of a backup, its residents perpetually stuck reliving these short, bloody visitations. If that were the case, how often had these people¡ªthis man¡ªbeen replaced by a previous version of himself? His existence, personality, history, so meaningless that the platform¡¯s owners didn¡¯t even care if they overwrote him.

    ¡°Just ones and zeros. Who cares if you write over them with a set of slightly different ones and zeros? Isn¡¯t that what humans do? When they rewrite their genes?¡±

    Emilia had fucking hated that ethics class. The teacher had been so biased¡ªand changing the way your body interpreted your genes didn¡¯t completely erase you!? Fucking stars, had he been a dumbass.

    Emilia glanced back at her escort, finding him watching her with something between curiosity and concern. ¡°Ah¡­ I see!¡± she cheered, doing a little fist pump that truly seemed to concern him, if his growing frown were anything to go by. ¡°So¡­ school? Law school?¡±

    ?Something like that,? he said slowly, eyes shifting between hers before turning back to the window. ?You are late, so joining the others would be pointless.?

    ¡°So¡­ private tutor?¡±

    ?Yes,? the man said, his modulated voice holding more than a little annoyance at what she assumed was his new job.

    ¡°Great! When can we start?¡±

    He was silent for a long moment, content to stare out into the fog. She wanted to ask what was up there. What mysteries did the stars hold. She had a million questions to ask him about just about everything. How many days since people had arrived? What was with the air? The spice? Could they talk? Where did their voice skill come from? Could anyone use it, or just him?

    Emilia blinked at herself, the reality of the situation rushing through her. The reality that, yes, her physical abilities were weakened in this place. Everything felt far away¡ªfar farther from her than her normal knotting took them¡ªbut her mind? She couldn¡¯t be sure if Payton had already unknotted some of her more extreme mental knots or if there was something about the world itself that had brought her back, closer to the person she had once been.

    Curious. Impatient. Impulsive.

    Brave. Fearless. Reckless.

    Bratty. Confident. Kind.

    Not fully, but enough that her mind was racing in ways that it didn¡¯t in class. Logically, she always knew that those classes¡ªthe things they covered¡ªwere fascinating. A younger version of herself would have loved them¡ªyearned to learn more, read ahead, submitted assignments worthy of praise and publication. The current version of herself was a ghost, floating through classes and living as wild and free as she could manage outside them. A side effect of knots, of trauma¡ªof trying to escape her past.

    The world blurred for the second time that night¡ªshould she consider this one night? She¡¯d already be in here long enough¡ªat least a day or two¡ªthat it seemed silly. It also seemed normal. 25 days squished into one giant, fucked up night. Yup, that sounded about right.

    She glanced back towards her nameless escort¡ªteacher? babysitter?¡ªonly to find him watching her. He didn¡¯t mention her crying, didn''t make any move to comfort her, but she could see the concern in his eyes deepening.

    She wiped away the tears, swallowing down her conflicted feeling¡ªpushed down the fact that she missed being this person she hated with every fibre of her being. ¡°So? Shall we?¡± she asked, turning back to the room and taking a seat at the table. Most of her tutors and babysitters had objected to her sitting on couches, or worse, lying on beds, during the lessons. Safe to assume this dude was the same.

    His steps were slow, soft as he followed. He didn¡¯t sit, just stood opposite to her. He was so quiet, but it felt like his thoughts were filling the room. Maybe they were. Maybe he was screaming and cursing at her, but she just didn¡¯t have the proper ability¡ªthe proper connection to this world¡ªto hear him.

    ?You should rest,? he said after a long moment of watching her.

    ¡°I don''t¡ª¡± she started to say, only to cut off when his eyes glazed over. It wasn¡¯t quite the same glazing over that people in her world experienced, when they were interacting with their Censors, but it was close enough that she assumed someone was contacting him through whatever means the people here communicated.

    ?Rest. Food will be delivered shortly.? He set the key to her room on the table. ?You are free to wander the building as you please. Do not leave the building.?

    Emilia had the feeling that even if she tried to leave, there were guards lingering about to stop her. Better not to get into even more trouble with the locals, if she could help it. Given the urge to fuck with everyone¡ªespecially this man in front of her¡ªwas currently vibrating through her, however¡­

    She smiled innocently up at him. He did not look particularly convinced, which, rude! She was good at smiling innocently! There were only a few people who had never been fooled by her most innocent of smiles! How dare this man add himself to the list without her consent!

    ¡°Rest and food!¡± she cheered, smiling wider as he frowned at her. ¡°Oh, ah¡­ question?¡±

    The man nodded, dark eyes staring straight through her. It made her want to squirm. Worse, it made her want to annoy him until he snapped and wanted to kill or fuck her¡ªit was usually one or the other, although Olivier had spent many months simply leaving her presence before he¡¯d snapped.

    ¡°So¡­ do I need to drink? Cause your water is¡ª¡±

    ?Red. Yes,? he said, mouth quirking in amusement for the barest of moments before it flattened back out. ?It has been a common¡­ complaint,? he added, when she tilted her head in question. ?We have not noted any issues with visitors consuming it. Nor with our food, which is similarly¡ª?

    ¡°Really fucking red?¡±

    The man seemed to hum in agreement, although the sound wasn¡¯t exactly human¡ªor a sound. More a feeling melting through the aether that made her shudder as it met her.

    He tensed, just for a moment, before turning to leave. ?I will return, once you are rested.?

    ¡°Vague.¡±

    ?Yes.?

    Emilia felt like he was laughing at her, as the door hissed closed behind him.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 35: Too Easy

    The rules of this world, as her nameless teacher¡ªbecause he still refused to answer that particular question¡ªexplained to her, were relatively simple. Nonetheless, Emilia had already managed to break just about all of the big ones, but she wasn¡¯t about to volunteer that information, not when they only knew about her breaking the one.

    Rule 1: Do not enter the outer streets without protective gear.

    ¡°What¡¯s out there?¡± Emilia asked, trying to ignore the odd wording of outer streets. The man was already answering so few of his questions, and she didn¡¯t think questioning whether there were inner streets would be appreciated.

    She was once again seated at her room¡¯s table, rested and fed¡­ kinda. The food she¡¯d been sent had been pretty disgusting, okay? She¡¯d managed to force a healthy portion of it down. She hoped they had other options.

    Her sense of time was still nonexistent, and she hadn¡¯t gotten the chance to ask how many days had passed since the first heroes had arrived¡ªnot when her teacher had launched straight into lecture mode the moment he arrived, his metallic voice ringing through the room. He had, at least, sat down as well this time, although she couldn¡¯t say he looked particularly comfortable, sitting ramrod straight in his black armour. She was a little short for her chair, her legs swinging absently under her. Every time she bonked the table with one, the man¡¯s expression tensed, his words cut out. She may have been purposefully knocking it, just to see if he would eventually tell her to sit still. No go, so far.

    ?Toxic gas.?

    ¡°Great. Am I going to die?¡± Emilia kinda thought he wanted her yes, but he told her she wasn¡¯t¡ªthat the toxin was slow acting.

    ¡°Then why keep people like me out of it?¡±

    ?It takes several weeks to become fatal. The death is unpleasant.?

    ¡°So~ basically, you¡¯re just protecting us from horrible deaths? Did nobody ever tell you we just go home, if we die?¡±

    ?Yes,? he said, not looking particularly convinced, which, fair. Even if they had heroes dropping into their world relatively often, the chances of someone coming in twice and meeting the same people was probably pretty low. ?Treatment is also expensive.?

    ¡°You bother trying to heal us?¡± she asked, incredulously.

    He ignored her, moving on as though she hadn¡¯t spoken. Rude.

    Rule 2: Do not kill, unless your life is threatened first.

    ¡°¡¯Threatened,¡¯ can be pretty damn vague,¡± she pointed out, thinking back to her own experience killing someone who had been threatening her and her friend. According to the law, he hadn¡¯t been threatening them enough, even with a willbrand pointed at them, his skills vibrating through the air, pressing at her own defensive ones and trying to decapitate her.

    ?It can,? he agreed. He seemed to have more to say about the vagueness, but unfortunately kept it to himself. The man was so private, it was rather annoying. ?It is more a rule for our collective safety. Try not to kill anyone.?

    Emilia frowned. ¡°Collective safety?¡±

    Rule 3: Do not bleed without cause.

    ?Blood is magic and power here,? the man said, his voice and expression grim and Emilia was so fucking glad no one had searched her when she arrived. She had the huge fucking feeling that, had they discovered her {Blood Dagger}, she would have been in trouble. Locked in a room until the raid ended, kinda trouble.

    ¡°Is that why everything is so dull?¡± she asked, trying to seem curious and observant, which was infinitely better than the innocent look her teacher didn¡¯t seem to believe.

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°Injuries must happen sometimes, though?¡± she asked, thinking back to her busted eardrum. Then again, everything here was normally so quiet¡ªsave that siren outside. That earsplitting noise could have been an anomaly caused by their visiting this world. She had yet to come across anything made of the same material that had made the noise in the first place, after all. Realistically, the building she had spawned it was probably a more purposeful construct of the system or the platform designers, meant to allow heroes to make themselves a weapon, if they managed to figure out how.

    Still. There were nose bleeds, serious falls that sent bones splintering out of your body. Not to mention the whole women have periods thing! And what about births!? Those were notoriously messy and¡ª

    Wait.

    ¡°What about surgery?¡±

    ?Surgery?? the man asked, looking truly confused for the first time.

    ¡°Like¡­ cutting someone open to fix something that¡¯s wrong inside them?¡±

    Her teacher looked thoroughly horrified at the thought. It was an amusing look on him, the wide eyes and gaping mouth totally didn¡¯t suit his generally stoic face. ?There is no such thing here.?

    ¡°What about births, and stuff related to that?¡±

    The man''s nose crinkled. ?There are¡­ places, where women go for that. People who deal with dispelling the blood and keeping the world safe.?

    Safe, as in the weapon she had tucked away under her pillow was considered potentially world altering. Awesome. Fun times.

    The man¡¯s aethervoice rippled, a question on his mind that he couldn¡¯t quite voice. Then the blush started, hot and furious and bursting across his cheeks. Interesting, to see blood inside a body when you were discussing how it couldn¡¯t exist outside it.

    ?Are you¡­ close?? he practically choked out, face burning impossibly brighter.

    Emilia raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°To my¡­ bleeding time?¡± she asked, laughing when he nodded. He was going to pass out, if the blood kept going to his face. ¡°Usually, we don¡¯t get those in places like this. When we¡¯re¡­ visiting? Women don¡¯t visit often?¡± He¡¯d already mentioned that her being a woman was something of an anomaly, but hadn¡¯t really offered any specifics.

    ?Not often. Sometimes, there are one or two among the visitors. Other times, none. I believe you are currently the only one. I assume female members of the guard inquired whether they were¡­ close.? The blood that had begun to dissipate from her teacher¡¯s face rushed back with a fiery vengeance. Apparently, this was not something men¡ªmaybe even people in general¡ªtalked about here.

    Emilia leaned lazily back in her seat, staring up into the weird, lightless ceiling. It had been bright since she¡¯d arrived. More than one sun lit up the sky, she knew that now, but there was also an ethereal light to this world that seemed to exist in the air itself. It had made sleeping difficult and broken. During the war, she¡¯d gotten good at sleeping under any condition. She couldn¡¯t do that anymore. It was rather annoying¡ªnot that she could complain about, you know, not having had reason to survive on drips of sleep for the last decade. It was a good skill to lose, overall.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°No women, eh¡­¡± she mumbled to herself. She knew men were more inclined to play these kinds of extreme raids, but for there to have been none? That seemed odd. More likely, they had changed their gender. Men and women might be treated equal in Baalphoria, but enough Free Colonies treated women as second class citizens that everyone knew it was a thing¡ªknew that when they entered an unknown raid platform, there was always the possibility of ending up somewhere similar. Somewhere where the world was cruel and brutal to its women. Being a man inside unknown platforms was usually the safer option.

    Of course, the opposite was also true, and Emilia smirked up at the ceiling, thinking of the time Elijah and his friends had ended up in a world where women ruled over men with an iron fist. It had been like this one, with a set timeline and little ability to log out. Annoyingly, her boyfriend and his friends had been very tight-lipped about what exactly had happened inside that raid. This had been before they were dating¡ªbefore they were even hate fucking each other, actually¡ªand Emilia had spent nearly two weeks torturing her annoying classmate. Sneaking up on him and making him shriek. He¡¯d run away from her a few times, even. Whatever had happened to them had been bad, although they seemed to have eventually gotten over it, more or less¡ªElijah¡¯s asshole friend had become an even bigger asshole after that, an impressive feat, given he was already one of the biggest jerks she¡¯d ever met.

    ¡°So¡­ what happens if someone bleeds?¡±

    Tension exploded through the room, so powerful that Emilia froze her fidgeting. Everything burned, ice and fire colliding around them, and then it was gone, and she was left blinking into space and wondering what the fuck that was¡ªif it had even been real.

    ?Nothing good,? was all the man said, his eyes boring into her. ?It is none of your concern.?

    Emilia collapsed back into her chair, lazy and slouching. She wasn¡¯t quite used to her smaller, weaker body yet, its muscles not used to rigid posture or doing anything for too long¡ªstars, her back had even hurt when she got out of bed! How did you strain yourself in bed!? ¡°You know, generally people are more inclined to behave if you give them a reason to.¡±

    The man looked like he wanted to scoff¡ªmaybe he was in his head, or through whatever communication network the residents of this platform used. ?Or, they will seek out trouble.?

    Emilia hummed, not quite in agreement with him. She¡¯d seen the way people behaved when they thought important information was being withheld from them¡ªhad actively fought against such censorship during the war, when people were dying because of secrets the higher ups insisted needed to be kept. Rules and regulations might keep some people in line¡ªmaybe keep these people in line, if they were raised to obey¡ªbut they could never hold everyone.

    Could never hold her.

    The people of Baalphoria weren¡¯t known to behave or keep silent. Not in the real world, certainly not inside a raid. Had the previous batches of heroes really been that inclined to obey the rules? To not figure out a way to bleed and see what happened? Then again, the fact that this platform was being recycled meant either the goal had changed or no one had ever succeeded¡ªyou didn¡¯t want someone who already knew how the system worked participating in a raid designed to be mysterious.

    That alone, that potential lack of knowledge¡ªlack of anyone being able to figure out how this world worked¡ªwas problematic. The most serious heroes memorized information about past raids. Recycling the platform meant things could get messy, if she ran into anyone who already knew the details of this world, or troublesome, if it was that difficult a world to master.

    ¡°Alright,¡± she said, instead of telling him any of that. No need to give him any reason to suspect she was interested in the whole blood magic thing. ¡°That¡¯s three rules. Any more?¡±

    Her teacher rambled off a few more rules, nothing nearly as important.

    Don¡¯t be naked in public¡ªapparently that had been a problem in some of the past groups of visitors. Emilia could definitely see that. Some raid platforms straight up disallowed any nudity outside of a person¡¯s own private rooms. There were some seriously perverted people out there and some pretty hefty ass fines for being one of them.

    Do not do bad things to locals or other visitors¡ªher teacher didn¡¯t actually say bad things, but that about summed it up. Just be a nice fucking person. Emilia could do that¡­ maybe¡­ Like! She was totally a nice person! Kinda to a fault sometimes, even. Take the current situation as a nice example of that. What kind of dumbass joins a raid platform¡ªwhich they ostensibly hate to begin with¡ªjust to track down some random dude distributing knotters to purist bartenders? Dumbasses who don¡¯t know how to leave well enough alone, that¡¯s who!

    On the other hand, she was a brat, and could be pretty mean spirited and petty. Hopefully, those didn¡¯t count as bad things? Her teacher hadn¡¯t specifically mentioned them, focusing on truly heinous things like rape, murder, torture, outright bullying, etc, etc, but¡­ maybe she should try to rein in her personality a bit? Or, at least try to?

    Thankfully, locals were also forbidden from doing harm to visitors¡ªapparently there had also been issues with that in the past, but when she¡¯d asked for specifics, her teacher had grown stiff and quiet. Something bad then.

    Report people who break the rules to the Risen Guard¡ªthe name of the group he was part of.

    ¡°What kind of group is it?¡± she asked, poking at the food that had been delivered to them. It looked just as bad as the food she¡¯d been forced to eat before her pathetic attempt at sleep. Weird and bloody, although she knew that wasn¡¯t the case¡ªthe people here didn¡¯t eat meat. Neither did she, but her normal vegetarian food didn¡¯t look like this¡ªlike it was leaking blood.

    Her teacher ate his own food quietly, taking slow, delicate bites of his food while seemingly trying to ignore her. She wasn¡¯t exactly sure if he couldn¡¯t speak while eating or was just choosing not to. It seemed an odd thing, to not be able to speak with through the aether with your mouth full, but what did she know. It was considered rude to chat through your Censors while eating¡ªalthough she knew more than her share of people who ignored that social expectation. It could be the same here.

    ?We protect the city from threats.?

    ¡°Is this the only city?¡±

    ?There are others, but we are the biggest.?

    ¡°We?¡±

    The man¡¯s eyebrows pulled together. ?Yes. We.?

    The man had a spectacular skill at making her feel like an idiot. ¡°Cities have names where I¡¯m from.¡±

    ?Strange,? the man said, taking another delicate bite of whatever the fuck their meal was. ?Our cities do not. We simply exist.?

    ¡°What do you call each other when you have to communicate? You can¡¯t just all be ¡®we¡¯.¡±

    The man frowned, looking at her like she was the crazy one. Fair. Getting to know a different culture made everyone involved seem crazy. When she¡¯d been younger, visiting some of the more civil Free Colonies with her father, or later on, meeting soldiers from them during the war, getting to know the other¡¯s culture¡ªgetting a feel for each other¡¯s customs and social order¡ªhad always been weird and uncomfortable, if also fascinating.

    ?We are we. They are they. We all know who is who.?

    Emilia let the conversation drop, continuing to poke at her food. She needed to eat it, no matter how spongy and leaky it was. No matter the strange way it had bounced in her mouth the night before. No matter how the taste had been¡­ not what she would ever willingly put in her¡ª

    Emilia barely caught the tug of a smile across her teacher¡¯s mouth. There and gone as fast as it had appeared. She gaped up at him. ¡°You¡¯re enjoying this!¡± she gasped, pointing an accusing finger at him. ¡°You¡¯re enjoying watching me poke at this food and psyche myself up into eating it!¡±

    The man¡¯s lips twitched again. He returned to eating, quiet and calm and ignoring Emilia as she ranted about horrible men who enjoy picking on poor little girls who have been dropped unceremoniously into strange, bloodless worlds.

    He didn¡¯t say anything, even as she ran out of words and her stomach willed her to swallow down the food. Nor did he say anything as he gathered up her plate, ignoring her pouting at the table. She was good at pouting¡ªgood at throwing her shame out the window and crossing her arms petulantly and sticking her lower lip out. He barely acknowledged her pouting, only glancing at her and raising an eyebrow before continuing cleaning up.

    It was infuriating.

    It was fun.

    It was the kind of game she liked playing.

    ¡°So,¡± she asked, giving up on her apparently quite useless pouting routine as he returned the dishes to the bag they had arrived in, ¡°how do I get permission to leave the building?¡±

    He glanced up at her, eyes sharp and critical. She had the urge to straighten up, to be the good student¡ªthe good solider¡ªbut no. She was not that here¡ªshe hadn¡¯t been either of those in a long time, and she hoped to the stars above she would never have to be again.

    ?You already have.?

    Emilia blinked at him. ¡°Seriously? That¡¯s it?¡± She had been expecting something long and drawn out, especially since, when she¡¯d asked if the other visitors were still being held by the Risen Guard, he had confirmed that yes, almost all of them were still being kept by various units. Not quite all of them, however, meaning at least a few had a head start searching for the system access.

    This, though? Her freedom returned to her after just a few hours of study? That seemed too easy.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 36: Shall I Tell You a Secret?

    No, apparently it really was that easy.

    ?You have learned all the rules. You have not objected to any, nor given any indication you intend to break them. You have asked respectful questions. You are free to go.?

    It was probably the longest she had heard the man speak in a single go.

    ¡°But I still have questions.¡±

    Something about the man¡¯s demeanour changed, shifted into something that seemed to say, ?That is unfortunate.? He made a motion with a hand, a ?Let¡¯s hear them then.?

    ¡°Well, where do you suggest I go?¡± That seemed a good place to start.

    That annoying twitch of a smirk. ?Up.?

    Fucking up. She¡¯d known she¡¯d have to go up, what with the whole, ?The outside will kill you slowly,? thing, but hearing it spoken aloud¡ªkinda¡ªsucked. She didn¡¯t have to listen to him, of course. She could go up a few floors, start searching for those bridges and descend back onto the streets. That would, of course, mean spicy, toxic air and inevitably triggering the sirens, which, now that she thought about it, seemed like a giant sign that she needed to come back down here to explore, but only once she was more skilled.

    Better to go up, for the time being. Still, she shot him a look, hoping her annoyance with his answer got across to him.

    He seemed to sigh, that near imperceptible feeling surrounding her for a moment before it vanished into the aether. ?I can take you.?

    Her mostly-faux annoyance fell away as she nodded a bit too enthusiastically. Escorts could definitely be pains¡ªshe¡¯d spent her young dodging the ones her father had assigned her with, after all¡ªbut in such a strange place, where she could barely communicate with people? Yeah, she wasn¡¯t about to refuse one under those circumstances.

    ¡°What would have happened, had I gone up, rather than down, anyways?¡± she asked, curious about what that path in life would have brought upon her.

    The man shrugged the smallest shrug she had ever seen. ?Another unit would have found you.?

    ¡°Ah~ so I would have been deprived of your sweet company then?¡± she sighed, breaking into a long-winded lament of how tragic that would have been when he glared at her.

    ¡°So,¡± she continued, once she figured her teacher-escort man had just about had it with her teasing, ¡°can everyone communicate with me like you can?¡±

    ?No.? So curt.

    She stared at him, willing him to elaborate. He did not. He was aggravating. She also had the feeling he had decided she was annoying and the best way to deal with her was to be similarly irritating. It was a good plan, in theory. It just made her want to bother him more.

    ¡°How do I communicate with people, then?¡±

    ?You don''t.?

    ¡°Say what.¡±

    ?You do not communicate with people here. Not directly. I believe visitors who are not afforded an escort usually give up, and return to a unit for shelter until their time here is over.? He looked away from her, the barest of smiles tugging at his lips. ?Even those with escorts do not find their stays here easy.?

    Emilia glowered at him. What. The. Fuck. Well, that explained his ease in returning her freedom¡ª in offering to escort her. He didn¡¯t expect her to last more than a few days upstairs. Screw that.

    She leaned back, watching him consideringly. ¡°You communicate with each other differently?¡±

    A nod. He looked like he was enjoying fucking with her.

    ¡°Is it something you¡¯re born with?¡±

    A shake of his head, so slight she almost missed it. Another look of enjoyment, and something else. Something extra that she couldn¡¯t decipher. Something left unsaid.

    ¡°Do you have access to the system?¡±

    Nothing, only the slightest flicker of a feeling¡ªof ?You don¡¯t really think I¡¯m going to tell you that, do you??

    He¡¯d been rather tight-lipped on what exactly the Risen Guard did, other than protect the city. Protect it from what. He¡¯d obviously heard of the system before, but was it something that existed for him, or something that had been mentioned by current and past visitors. She¡¯d mentioned it pretty damn fast, not seeing a point in hiding it.

    Sometimes raids let everyone access the system, AIs and heroes alike. More often, it was for heroes only. An extra, fun way of interfacing with the world.

    Usually, locals didn¡¯t hide their access to the system. Then again, this wasn¡¯t a normal raid platform, built to be a long term playground, or filled with locals unaware they were being visited by people from another world¡ªby murderers and world destroyers.

    ¡°When did the first visitors arrive, this time around?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ?Seven days ago.?

    Good, that meant she hadn¡¯t lost too much time with her blood experiment. She tapped her nails idly against the table, drawing attention to them for the first time, watching the way the man¡¯s eyes widened slightly as they took in the sharpness of them. As far as weapons went, they definitely weren¡¯t the most fabulous, but in a world where books were made of thick, bulky material so you couldn¡¯t even get a paper cut? Yeah, they were pretty damn scary.

    He didn¡¯t say anything about them, only looking back to her and waiting for her next question.

    ¡°Have any of them caused problems?¡±

    The man tensed slightly¡ªso slightly, in fact, that Emilia wouldn¡¯t have caught it, what with her reduced abilities, had the air around them not shifted. ?Visitors always cause problems,? he said diplomatically. It wasn¡¯t a yes, it most certainly wasn¡¯t a no. Rather, it was a ?We except that you will cause problems. We prepare for that.? Which begged the question, was he her polite escort or babysitter?

    She smiled at him, wishing him luck with his superiors when he inevitably lost her. Reduced abilities or no, she was used to losing annoying babysitters. ¡°Alright. Shall we go?¡±

    If he had expected her to ask more questions, he didn¡¯t show it. ?I must gather supplies,? he said as he rose. He grabbed the bag of dirty dishes and made his way to the door. ?I will return shortly. Do not go far.? He didn¡¯t quite say it like the warning it seemed to be. He might say she was free to go, make her feel as though having him as an escort was a privilege and not a requirement. It certainly didn¡¯t read that way, though.

    Emilia watched the door as it hissed shut, fingers tapping idly over the table as she waited. She¡¯d had enough babysitters burst back in on her to know you didn''t go grab the drugs¡ªor {Blood Blade}, in this case¡ªuntil at least a bit of time passed. A few had used skills on her, too. Forbidden skills peeking in on her. A few had caught her doing things, taken her to her father in hopes she would be punished. She was, and they¡¯d lost their jobs. Spying was illegal. You did not spy on his children, no matter how well-meaning you might feel your intentions were.

    By the time her nameless escort returned, Emilia had tucked her contraband items away. She really needed to get a proper bag, somewhere to store them that didn¡¯t involve waistbands and buttons and giant pockets and hoping everything held together.

    ¡°Shall we?¡± she asked for the second time, following behind the man as he led her to the next set of stairs. ¡°How many flights are we going up, anyways?¡± She frowned upwards. The first building she had been inside, the stairwell had gone up and up and up. These ones were inconsistent. Sometimes they went up two or three levels, other times only one. Then you had to walk to a different stairwell. It really was a horrible design¡ªdesigned to torture and confuse people, no doubt.

    ?Down.?

    She hurried after the man as he descended the stairs, leading her back the way they had come¡ªwhich seemed insane. Why bother bringing her up so many flights of stairs if they were just going to go straight back down!? Had he had no idea if she was going to be an ignorant or belligerent student and been forced to prepare for the worst? Probably, but that was no excuse! This was torture! Stairs, stairs, she was so done with¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s internal ranting broke off as they turned a corner and met with another group of people. They¡¯d seen no one on the way up, and seeing people now sent an unnerving shock through her. A dozen men, three members of the Risen Guard and nine others¡ªvisitors, by the look of them. Their eyes widened as they took her and her own guard in. Confusion, recognition of her silverstrain colouring. She could see the thoughts swirling through them, wondering if she really was a silverstrain woman, or if it was an aesthetic choice.

    Wondering why she was only showing up now.

    The Risen Guard nodded to each other, stopping for a moment to¡ªEmilia presumed¡ªtalk to one another. Now that she had experienced her escort within a confined space, she could feel the slight shift in the world as they talked. Were they talking directly over the aethernet? Pria had once said that she could feel it, to some extent, when people were interacting with the aether. Usually, it was just one bubble of overwhelming pressure for her, but when they were alone, when the world grew quiet because security systems were blocking aethernet access for tests or privacy, Pria could feel when it moved.

    The other guard¡¯s eyes shifted towards her, something unkind in them that didn¡¯t exist within her own guard¡¯s.

    ?Less than a day, and free,? one of them said, smiling almost cruelly back at his own group of visitors, who had tensed at learning she was free. They stared at her with wide, searching eyes, trying to figure out what made her special. Given the way several of them scoffed, she could already imagine what kind of reasons they had come up with.

    Her escort¡¯s demeanour tightened, eyes bleeding cold at his colleagues¡ªwere they colleagues? He had said there were different units. These men could have been from elsewhere, colleagues in simple existence within the same career and nothing more. There didn¡¯t seem to be any love between them.

    ?Let¡¯s go,? he said, glaring at the men until they made way for them to get by.

    The visitors hissed at each other¡ªat her¡ªas they moved on, trying to get even the slightest hint of an answer out of her.

    They were annoying.

    One of them tugged on her cloak. So rude.

    Her guard caught the man¡¯s wrist before he could pull harder, grip tight enough that the man gasped and let go. Her escort didn¡¯t release him until he had fallen to his knees in pain.

    Well, if you¡¯re going to have a babysitter forced upon you, a scary, protective one was better than a bitchy, controlling one.

    ¡°Thank you~¡± she sighed, leaning into the man and giving the other visitors a sensual smile. ¡°I¡¯m sure you can guess how I got my freedom, if you think about it really, really hard.¡± Her eyes slid to their guards, watching her with a look of confusion¡ªeven the one who had spoken and must surely understand her words.

    Interesting.

    ¡°Shall I tell you a secret?¡± she asked, leaning in towards the visitors, her arm slipping into her escort¡¯s and pulling him along with her. ¡°You can get free like this, too.¡± Her eyes shifted back to the guards. She bit her lip and smiled back at the visitors. ¡°Just depends on which way you swing, and what you¡¯re willing to do to win.¡±

    She popped back, falling gracefully into her escort, who thankfully had the decency to catch her. His arms were strong around her, unflinching even though, given the look on both his and the other Risen Guard¡¯s faces, none of them seemed to have any idea what she was doing or talking about.

    The visitors did, though, their faces an amusing mask of horror and denial and shame.

    ¡°Good luck~¡± she cheered, winking at them as she dragged her own guard away.

    He looked down at her, frowning slightly. It felt like he wanted to ask her what she had just done, but she had no idea how much to trust him¡ªno idea whether he would inform the other guards about the seed she had just planted. How long would that seed take to spread? How long before every visitor was trying to fuck their way to freedom?

    She was almost sad she wouldn¡¯t be around to see the fallout of that. She had always enjoyed a good show. She had important places to be, however! No time for stupid heroes, trying to manipulate their way out of confinement when all they had to do was be reasonable human beings.

    Too bad that was difficult for so many of them.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 37: Out the Front Door

    ¡°Freedom~¡± Emilia cheered as they exited the elevator. ¡°Thank you for the lift!¡± she said to the men who had hauled them upwards, standing just outside the elevator door. They didn¡¯t look tired, just as none of the operators on the lower floors had, each one having taken them up some 10 floors, before they walked to the next elevator, the next set of operators. None of them had looked like they understood her, either, but it was still polite to thank them, and she¡¯d taken to bowing slightly¡ªsomething that was nearly universally understood as a sign of respect in the real world¡ªafter her escort had ensured her no one would be offended by it.

    He had also told her that it was unnecessary to thank them, that he would do so, and they would not be excepting her to. She still insisted on thanking them, although she was pretty sure this meant he had to explain to the dozens of men they¡¯d met so far what it was she was saying and doing. He hadn¡¯t exactly complained, but she felt like he was growing tired of talking to people more than necessary.

    Everyone seemed to love talking to him, though. They¡¯d been stopped nearly a dozen times on their ascent by people who were also travelling. One woman had accompanied them at least 50 floors, before they had reached the point where locals began to live. What was in those middle floors, between housing (read: prisons) for visitors and residents, Emilia had no idea, and like so many of her questions, her escort had left that one unanswered. Not to mention in the 10 floors between elevators. Asshole.

    ¡°So, where¡¯s the next elevator?¡± she asked, arms stretching upwards as she yawned. It had taken a long time to get up here, some 100 plus floors¡ªshe¡¯d lost track, okay? She¡¯d leaned against her escort for a moment and kinda nodded off. She¡¯d woken in his arms sometime later, unsure of how many floors she¡¯d missed.

    He hadn¡¯t answered her about that either. Jerk. He was totally purposefully fucking with her. No one should be that secretive about what floor they¡¯re on!

    ?Over there, but we will rest for the night.?

    How he knew it was night, what with the perpetual light thing, Emilia had no idea. Maybe something in the system? Or some internal clock? Mysterious. Felt like the middle of the day to her. Granted, nap, but still! Middle of the day.

    ¡°Are you tired?¡± she asked as she followed her guard along. The areas that housed the elevators had been nearly identical. Several doors leading up or down, groups of workers pulling blood-red rope¡ªwhich Emilia would have been convinced were covered in blood if not for the whole moratorium on bleeding thing¡ªto move the creaking, metal elevators.

    In a shocking turn of events, her escort didn¡¯t answer her as they exited the elevator platform and entered a quiet street that¡ª

    Oh.

    This as why he hadn¡¯t answered her about what was in the floors between elevators: bastard wanted to surprise her when she walked into a bloody city being held high in the sky by another building.

    She had noted, during her brief time outside, how massive the buildings of this world were. Not just tall, but wide and long, spanning multiple city blocks before small gaps allowed for alleyways between more giant buildings.

    She still hadn¡¯t realized how truly gigantic they were. The city that stretched in front of her, numerous buildings reaching at least five floors up, held up by the floor beneath it. What kind of material could even support this kind of weight? Especially if there were more floors above, just as impressive in scope. There was nothing even remotely close to this in the real world¡ªthe reality that this world wasn¡¯t real, didn¡¯t have to obey the laws of physics and matter, slamming into her as they walked through the city.

    People moved busily around them, women in long sweeping skirts contrasting with members of the Risen Guard, in their skin-tight garb, lazily wandering the streets. They looked relaxed, compared to the guard below, with their strict expressions and cruel smiles. Almost everyone nodded in acknowledgement of her escort, several even stopping to converse silently with him while she gazed around.

    Everything was, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, still red, but the architecture itself was more diverse than the world below. She peeked around the people, trying to see the opposite end of the city, and caught sight of a large door, currently in the process of being closed. Glancing back, she saw a similar door to the elevator platform being closed as well.

    ¡°Do you have a curfew?¡± she asked as they began moving again. Slowly, the roads were growing even more quiet, civilians and the patter of their feet disappearing off the streets. Occasionally, an adult would appear to force a child back home. It was so strange, seeing such normal things¡ªthings she had experienced in her own childhood, could still see on the streets of Alver¡ªexist in such quiet. No parents yelling for their children to get their butts home, not out loud anyways, but the number of adults she saw ushering children inside told her either the children of this world were even worse at listening than the ones in hers, or whatever mode of communication they had was limited.

    ?Yes, and no.?

    So forthcoming.

    The inn they entered¡ªbecause it was far too rustic for Emilia to think of it as a hotel¡ªwas small and quiet. Even the clink of utensils from the dining area was soft. Not that there were a huge number of guests. Most appeared to be workers, their outfits screaming of uniforms and dirt. That was one of the more interesting parts of raid platforms. The culture, the economy. How everything had come together. There were even people who studied the ways platforms developed, how the resources of the world, visitors and monsters, shaped them. It was fascinating, but highly unethical, with the platforms run for research often being turned off once they were done with it.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Death, but not real death. Death that only lasted until someone booted up the server again.

    Horrifying, and as fascinating as she found the study, she could never do something so cruel. Not that this, invading a world of living beings just for a game, didn¡¯t feel just as wrong and make her stomach turn.

    ?Emilia??

    Emilia started, looking back at her escort. It was the first time he had said her name. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the few other patrons looking their way now as well, drawn by the sound of his modulated voice because apparently they could hear him, at least so some extent.

    ¡°Mn?¡±

    ?Do you require food??

    She made a face and was graced with the smallest smile from the man, and the room burned as the patron¡¯s minds whispered between themselves. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good ''till morning.¡±

    She followed him up several fights of stairs, a rickety metal thing that had seen better days. It groaned and creaked under her, screws rattling together. She¡¯d love to see how these places were built. It seemed like there must be sharp objects involved in at least some of the construction. Screws and drill bits and chisels. Even shovels could draw blood, under the right circumstances. Burns could, too¡ªshe¡¯d seen that first hand, seen Olivier bleeding out from burns during the final battle. There was no way to escape all risk of injury, and yet this world seemed to run on rules that forbid anything too dangerous.

    Even the children she had seen, playing outside before their parents and guardians gathered them up for the night, had seemed to behave more carefully than children in her own world. Kids were walking injuries, with head bonks and scrapes from all their falls.

    ?I rented two rooms for the night.?

    ¡°You? Or the Risen Guard?¡± she teased, poking her head into the room he opened up for her. It was nice, in a blandly red and clean sort of way.

    ?I will return in the morning. If you need me, I will be there.? He pointed to the room across the hall before effectively slamming her door closed as soon as she was inside, as much as a door that was hydraulic dampers could slam closed, anyways.

    ¡°Well,¡± she sighed, hands on her hips as she looked around. Now what?

    There wasn¡¯t much of interest in the room. Bed for one. A single chair. Tiny table. She''d seen plenty of hotel rooms over the years, even the occasional little hole-in-the-wall inn, this one was by far the smallest.

    She pushed the curtains open, looking out into the city. She blinked. The world was actually getting darker, something in the ceiling far above glistening and seemingly dragging light into it. Even the light of her room was beginning to fade, now that it had been exposed to that pull, and she pressed the curtains closed again. Inch by inch, the light of the room¡¯s air began to glow once more.

    ¡°Freaky,¡± she murmured, opening the curtains again to watch the world fade into darkness.

    Thin curtains of other buildings showed the slow darkening of those rooms, until they were lit by only a faint glow. Other windows glowed strong at the edges, whatever gave light to this world protected by thicker curtains and blinds. Shadows moved on the streets, now lit by only the echo of light from rooms above.

    Emilia eyed up the window, wondering what it was made of¡ªsurely not regular old glass. Something stronger, something that couldn¡¯t shatter and become a weapon. She could try to smash it, but the chances of that attracting the wrong kind of attention were too high. Out the front door it was¡ªstill liable to attract attention, but at least she could make excuses for leaving the building the normal way.

    Besides, hardly any of her babysitters had ever anticipated her making a break through the front door. Normal, ill-behaved children (not to mention their adult counterparts) snuck out windows and magical holes, after all.

    She peeked out the door. Empty, her escort¡¯s door still firmly shut. Didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t downstairs, but¡­ well, he hadn¡¯t told her she couldn¡¯t leave, right? She was just going to go on a midnight scroll. Couldn¡¯t sleep, yup. Nap threw off her whole sleep schedule. He should have woken her up if he wanted her to sleep like a regular person. That was totally plausible.

    The stairs creaked under her as she went back to the lobby. Barely anyone looked up at her, the few who did averting their gaze quickly. The man at the front desk glanced up, eyes serious and assessing, before he too looked away. A ripple ran through the air and her steps quickened slightly, just in case he had contacted her babysitter and the man was about to come screaming down the stairs after her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a bit!¡± she cheered at no one as she pushed her way into the dark night.

    Shadows shifted around her, some real people, others shadows that danced ominously across the world, black blobs of humanity that warped and rustled against the aether. She blinked at them, then they were gone, and she was left wondering if she was losing it.

    Someone rushed by her, long, bright red curls exploding out of their hood. They glanced her way, black eyes meeting her own for the briefest moment, and then they were disappearing down an alley and Emilia was following slowly behind¡ªshe didn¡¯t want to freak the girl out! If she were going anywhere special, she would certainly run into others headed that way. Follow the flow of traffic, find the best places to party.

    Indeed, as she walked, she came across dozens of people hurrying through the streets in black cloaks. They avoided the light, as much as they could. Emilia watched the windows above them. More and more curtains were being thrown open to let the darkness in¡ªalmost none of the people who did so spared a glance to the dark world. If anything, they seemed to actively avoid looking into it. Occasionally, someone¡ªusually a child or teenager¡ªwould risk a look, their expressions full of fear and anticipation and excitement before they hurried away from the window.

    Emilia halted as she came around a corner, watching as dozens of people disappeared down a narrow flight of stairs. Interesting, she had assumed whatever was below this level was either a support level or another city.

    The people, mostly young adults, smiled and the world quietly vibrated with happiness as they met up with their friends and descended into the world below. There didn¡¯t seem to be anyone guarding the door, but it wasn¡¯t like she could fit in with the locals¡ªnot with her odd hair and eyes and inability to, you know, talk.

    Someone bumped into her back and she stumbled forward, only stopped from slamming to the ground by an arm wrapping around her waist.

    Something apologetic vibrated through her, sending a shudder up her spine at just how intimate it felt. The person seemed to be saying something to her, her core tensing as something ran across it, but it was fluid and bending¡ªsomething less solid than the apology of someone who had just run into you.

    She turned, finding a cute young boy looking down at her. He wasn¡¯t much taller than her, his short, strawberry-blonde curls sneaking out from under his own hood. His eyes widened as he took her in and the feeling of someone trying to speak through her being disappeared, replaced by a general echo around them as several others joined him.

    Her assailant-saviour looked towards one of the girls, her expression just as stern as her babysitter¡¯s was. Dark eyes glared at her, jaw tensing.

    ?You should not be out here.?

 Arc 2 | Chapter 38: Stupider than Usual

    The group seemed to be having an argument about what to do with her. They gesticulated, looked annoyed, pleading, outright angry. From what Emilia could glean, based on vibes and body language, the girl who had spoken to her wanted to figure out who she belonged to and send her back, the boy who had bumped into her wanted to not. The others in their group, a short, bored looking woman, and a tall man who gave her this man is totally dangerous vibes, seemed more inclined to let her stay but also didn¡¯t seem inclined to get involved in the argument more than necessary.

    They¡¯d pulled her off the road, manhandling her into a closed shop using a key. Magic key, or one of them worked here. Emilia was betting it was the former, but the stakes were pretty low¡ªshe was only betting against herself, after all.

    The bakery they¡¯d ended up in smelled good, even if the bread was red. Maybe it wouldn¡¯t bleed or squish? Unfortunately, the dangerous vibe dude was watching her, bloody eyes predatory, so she couldn¡¯t just go swipe one.

    She glanced up as the girl who could vocalize and wanted her gone approached her. She¡¯d thrown back her hood, revealing a crop of strawberry-blonde curls and a spattering of freckles. ?How did you lose your guard?? she demanded.

    Guard. So, definitely not a polite escort, then. A guard she was not supposed to have run off from.

    She shrugged, leaning back disinterestedly. ¡°Back at the inn. He was asleep, I was bored. Thought I¡¯d see the city. He never said I couldn¡¯t leave¡ªor that I needed to be guarded.¡±

    The girl blanched slightly, realizing her mistake. She swallowed, straightened. ?You should not be out this late.?

    ¡°Should you?¡±

    A shudder of hostile amusement wrapped around her, and she resolutely refused to look at the tall man. She wasn¡¯t sure she should be able to feel their native communication around her, and even if that was normal, she wasn¡¯t giving that jerk the satisfaction of knowing she noticed him.

    ?We are free to come and go as we please.?

    ¡°Didn¡¯t look like it to me, but what do I know?¡± Emilia smiled up at them, swinging a leg over her knee. ¡°I¡¯m just an observer.¡±

    ?Observer!?? the girl practically snarled, surging forward and grabbing the front of her romper. ?You are not¡ª?

    ?Stop.?

    Emilia glanced towards the other girl. She still looked bored, but her muddy red eyes were sharper now, boring into her friend. She was cute, in a vicious sort of way. Nearly black, pin straight hair that fell just to her chin, sharpening her features. The only things soft about her were her boredom and full lips.

    ?What inn?? the other girl asked, voice deeper than Emilia would have expected from someone so small.

    ¡°No idea,¡± Emilia answered honestly. She had no idea what the place was called, the scrawling writing she¡¯d seen occasional completely foreign to her. Honestly, her sense of the direction of so shit, she wasn¡¯t even sure she¡¯d be able to find her way back¡ªshe¡¯d kinda been counting on her babysitter to track her down eventually. ¡°We came up through the elevator,¡± she added, not exactly wanting to stay with this group. At least her teacher-escort-babysitter-guard had been nice. These three were off-putting¡ª Well, four, if you counted the original boy. He seemed nice enough, but didn¡¯t seem capable of vocalizing.

    The group exchanged a look. More argument filled the room, heavy, and she really hated that overwhelming feeling. When the boy had tried speaking directly to her, it had felt different, lighter. Now, the conversation raged around her and¡ª

    Silence. The two girls gaped at the boy, while the taller man looked amused as he pushed himself up and out of the room. Then the argument exploded again, but the boy seemed uninterested in whatever it was the girls were saying, walking past them to Emilia and extending a hand. He smiled warmly down at her, and she suddenly realized they were siblings, him and the stern girl¡ªtheir strawberry hair, rosy eyes and freckles almost identical.

    She smiled back at him, accepting the hand and letting him drag her out of the shop. ¡°Goodbye, bread~¡± she said mournfully, shooting him a smile when he looked at her in confusion. ¡°Just a joke,¡± she said, smile widening when his confusion increased.

    Then a smile appeared on his face as well, presumably as one of the girls told him she was joking around. It was a nice smile. Cute and innocent, so unlike his probably sister¡¯s icy demeanour.

    They received more than a few odd looks as they made their way back to the entrance of wherever they were going, descending the long, winding stairwell with dozens¡ªif not hundreds¡ªof others. It was nearly pitch-black inside, long railings running the length and almost everyone keeping a firm grip of them. Occasionally, someone stumbled, and the group as a whole helped them back up, a surge of reprimand exploding around them.

    Then, the world tensed. The aether itself seeming to grow taut and silent, waiting for something to pluck it¡ªto send it reverberating out through the world.

    And when it did.

    When it did, Emilia almost fell to her knees. It wasn¡¯t the overwhelm of the locals arguing around her, or even of a thousand skills killing around her.

    It was the overwhelm of being filled up with power and essence and as they all stumbled out into a huge, gaping cavern, the world exploded into silent laughter and joy. The boy dragged her along, guiding her safely through the crowd, as she gawked upwards. The cavern wasn¡¯t a building or a city, it was the inside of a mountain¡ªnot really, obviously, but it had been designed to appear that way. Giant, menacing stalactites of black and red dripped down from the ceiling, glistening in light coming from¡­ somewhere. Not the air, like it did above, but somewhere else¡ªsomewhere far to the left, glowing an almost blue.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Blue, in a land of black and red.

    She wanted to see it.

    The boy stopped when she tugged on his hand, following her gaze towards the glow. He grinned, sweet and happy, and changed course. He forced his way through for them, nudging people rudely aside until they were standing before the lake. People were jumping in, tossing clothes aside into giant piles without a care.

    Water splashed onto her cheek and a shudder ran up her spine. She¡¯d been to plenty of places, been high on tons of things. This place, this water, it was all a drug. Intoxicating, at least to her. Glancing around, she could see the sheen of drunkenness in the eyes of everyone else¡ªmany of whom were eyeing her up in less than kind ways¡ªbut no one seemed overly high. Even the people who emerged from the water, eyes shining as they sagged against their friends and were unceremoniously pushed back in, didn¡¯t look nearly as high as she felt.

    Pity for them.

    The boy¡¯s hand tightened around hers, drawing her attention back to him. He nodded towards the lake, a silent question.

    She wished she could say yes, wished she could strip all her worries away in the high. She couldn¡¯t. Not with her belongings tucked into less than secure locations. She squeezed back, tugging, and then he was following her, passing the rest of their group on their way¡­ somewhere.

    She wove her way through the crowd, so unlike the boy¡¯s method of pushing people aside. Swerve and twist. When she looked back, he looked dazed by the experience, blinking wide eyes at her. They followed the flow of the crowd, everyone so packed together that the world burned against her skin. Sweat and the high and when they emerged into another cavern, the crowd thinning noticeably, she sighed in relief.

    He led her towards a bar, buying them both drinks. They glowed faintly pink, but at least they didn¡¯t look like blood¡ªdidn¡¯t taste like it either, the drink sweet and sour over her tongue. He smiled as she downed it, downed his own and ordered them another. His tall friend popped up beside them, brushing too close against her, and ordered his own drink¡ªat the boy¡¯s expensive. He didn¡¯t exactly complain, but something in the way he moved, in the look he gave his friend, told her he wasn¡¯t happy about it. It reminded her of someone¡ªsomeone who had been friends with her ex, until the woman had relied on him to pay, to bail her out, to be there for her, a few too many times without reciprocity.

    Reciprocity was required for any relationship to work. Too many people didn¡¯t get that until they burnt out all their relationships¡ªuntil that one person they relied on snapped.

    They left the tall friend there, hands locked together as they wound their way through the increasingly sparse crowd. People danced, lazy and swaying. Others drank and ate and played games, set up at a collection of tables. They weren¡¯t like any games she¡¯d seen before¡ªnot exactly unexpected, but it always boggled her, the extent of the imagination, the different ways people found joy and amusement.

    The boy let her stop and watch for a while, eyes sliding over the strange boards and pieces, the dice and cards with seemingly abstract shapes cast over them. She especially liked the cards, slowly learning the rhythm of play, the way the cards vibrated together with their player as a specific combination was played.

    Games that weren¡¯t raids reacting to the aethernet. Games that weren¡¯t miserable war simulations.

    He was watching her when she looked back up. His curls stuck to his forehead, freckles popping against the blush of heat on his cheeks. She wanted to brush them away¡ªwanted to be capable of getting him a drink to cool down.

    She squeezed his hand, and then they were moving again, further into the cave. She glanced behind them, finding no one following them, his friends having abandoned them for their own pursuits. Well, being alone with one strange man was better than being alone with that whole group, even if men were generally on better behaviour in front of women they knew.

    Guards lazed against the wall of the cavern, near a small doorway. They didn¡¯t look like Risen Guards¡ªat least not the few she had met¡ªbut they tensed when they saw her. Hands moving towards their belts¡ªtowards weapons that she hadn¡¯t seen her own escort carry. Blunt metal batons, meant to bruise and knock out but not cut¡ªnever cut.

    The aether rippled and their eyes shot to the boy. If she¡¯d thought them tense before, it was nothing compared to whatever¡ªwhoever¡ªthey saw in the boy. Their hands dropped away from their weapons, and the doorway that no one else was getting close to¡ªno one even sparing it a glance¡ªwas quietly pushed open for them.

    ¡°Mystery man of power, eh?¡± she mumbled to herself as they entered, darkness surrounding them once again.

    He didn¡¯t say anything, of course, but his hand tightened around hers as they descended more stairs. Tightened as though to say, ?Don¡¯t worry.?

    She didn¡¯t know how far they had gone when her core squeezed. Then it squeezed again, again, the feeling not exactly painful, but uncomfortable. Cores weren¡¯t meant to be touched¡ªweren¡¯t meant to be directly interacted with, in the real world or digital. Usually, there were safeguards in place to keep your core outside the system. Platforms that developed to use cores too directly were either scrapped or altered via a system, so heroes wouldn¡¯t have to worry about hurting themselves because core damage could follow you back into the real world¡ªor worse, you could learn how to use their core in the real world.

    An error in her access point, or in the platform itself? Some missed core access that hadn¡¯t been patched out by the system¡ªthe system she had no access to, currently. With the way she was becoming increasingly aware of the words of the locals, of their thoughts rubbing over her core¡­

    The emerged into a smaller room, and Emilia¡¯s breath caught as her eyes landed on the heart. Huge and towering, the stone heart pulsed with her core¡ªthe thing reaching out to her.

    She should leave. Get out of here. Run away from this thing trying to interact with her core. This could kill her, crack her already damaged core into pieces. Shatter her ability to interact with the aethernet at all, leave her a husk of a person. Brain-dead and just waiting for someone to kill her.

    She should stop the boy from pulling her forward. Ignore the silent words of calm and confidence that were sliding off him and surrounding her core. Her eyes met his as he pulled her to the heart. Searching. She searched his eyes for something¡ªanything¡ªthat told her she shouldn¡¯t touch it¡ªshouldn¡¯t trust him. This could be a trap, could be something to kill her. Her escort had mentioned something about previous violence against visitors. She should have put her foot down, demanded more information from him about that.

    She couldn¡¯t find anything but sincerity in those rose-tinted eyes. She¡¯d always been such a good judge of people, even as a child. She was broken now, though, her abilities hidden behind a system she still couldn¡¯t access.

    This seemed like the kind of thing that access could be hiding behind. Secret hearts in places few could access. This also seemed too difficult to find, too rare and risky.

    Everything was risk, though. She couldn¡¯t tell if her real core was beating with the heart or if it was just her artificial digital one. She couldn¡¯t tell if her real body was perfectly disconnected from this one. She didn¡¯t know, but if she let fear rule her, she would never win this thing. Whether this heart or something else, she had to decide whether to risk it or not.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably nothing,¡± she insisted to herself as she let the boy guide their joined hands to the heart.

    Aether pulsed through her. Pounding, pounding, breaking her apart, shattering her core and soul and¡ª

    And, she had always been more than a little stupid. There was a reason her father had always insisted she need a babysitter. Even this, however, felt more stupid than usual.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 39: What is a Personality, Anyways?

    ?Shouldn¡¯t have¡ª?

    ?She¡¯ll¡ª fine.?

    ?¡ªshe will.?

    That one sounded¡ªfelt?¡ªsarcastic. Emilia cracked an eye open. Somewhere new. Somewhere old. The world felt old¡ªshould the world feel old?

    ?Can¡¯t undo¡ª stuck with¡ª back??

    Everything felt so far away, but at least she was alive? Her core felt¡­ fine. Overused and burning, yes, but fine overall. That was good. Just as vaguely broken as before, even in the digital world.

    ?No choice. We should¡ª?

    Silence. Emilia could feel the flecks of sound¡ªof movement¡ªin the aether. She leaned into the boy, his arms wrapped tightly around her, keeping her from falling flat on her face. A hand dragged soothingly over her bare arm, having slipped under her cloak to get a better grasp of her¡ªor feel her up. She¡¯d been in and out of it for the last however many minutes. Hours? Time was pretty damn meaningless in this world of perpetual dark and light.

    ?Risen Guard.?

    The first solid words she¡¯d felt. Whatever that heartstone had been had, at the very least it had given her the ability to hear the locals. Awesome, except under the circumstances of nausea and headache and her core trying to burn itself out of existence, she would have preferred everyone shut up, their voices rubbing against her everything and¡ª

    Someone hissed to be quiet, not words¡ªripples of emotion across the aethernet that seemed to fitter out of existence as they echoed away from them.

    The tall man stepped forward silently, movements slow and careful as he put himself between them and the only doorway to wherever they¡¯d taken her. Still somewhere in the cavern layers, definitely. Stone walls and stalactites hanging above them, looking so out of place in a world of dullness. Did they never fall? Never break into weapons that could shatter the rules of this world?

    ?Come out,? the man called into the darkness.

    Silence.

    The drip, drip, swish of water, flowing somewhere nearby.

    Then, her guard stepped out, expression darkly bland. ?That girl belongs to me,? he said, eyes shifting to her as she tried to straighten herself up, her legs giving out under her.

    The boy¡¯s arms tightened around her, holding her up and tucking her further into him. ?The Risen Guards are not¡ª us.?

    Emilia blinked into the boy¡¯s chest, unsure if it was her grasp of the weird, core talking language that was fucked up or if she was fighting against passing out. Probably a bit of both.

    She tilted her head towards her babysitter, her breath catching as a flood of danger ripped through her. This wasn¡¯t good. They needed to leave, get away from him. There was something about him now, something dangerous and feral that hadn¡¯t been there before. Something that screamed for her to run, get away¡ªget these poor locals, who weren¡¯t a part of this, to safety.

    She pushed up, willing her legs to hold her weight and cursing when the buckled again. The boy barely noticed, his slim body stronger than she would have thought.

    Her guard¡¯s eyes shifted away from the man, flickering between the two girls. ?You are trainees,? he said, matter-of-factly, confirming her suspicion that they could only communicate with her due to a connection to the Risen Guard. ?Bring her to me.?

    The girls tensed, even the bored looking girl appearing suddenly uncomfortable. Their eyes flickered to her¡ªno, to the boy. Looking to him for advice? An order?

    ?They will do no such thing,? he replied for them, barely sparing the girls a glance, his eyes locked onto the guard. He had a nice voice, even through the scratchy, aggravated noise of her core¡¯s overstimulation.

    ?The girl is coming with me.?

    ?No.?

    ?I don¡¯t think she wants to go with you, mate.? The tall man glanced back at them, smile challenging in a way Emilia didn¡¯t like. Not because she thought he meant anything bad towards her¡ªnot now¡ªbut because she had seen that smile before. Had seen it when people went on suicide missions, intent to save their friends at the cost of their own life or core.

    Was this situation that bad? Bad enough that then weren¡¯t even considering giving her back to save themselves? Bad enough that even if they did, they felt their lives were in danger? Or was it dangerous for her to go with him? She¡¯d heard rumours of platforms where visitors were used as sacrifices, but most of those were blackaether, off the grid and for people who liked a challenge¡ªliked the thrill of being hunted and having no one hold them responsible for their own mayhem. That shouldn¡¯t happen inside this raid, bound by rules and laws and¡ª

    [Rule 4: Anything goes]

    They¡¯d agreed to that, thinking it was for them alone¡ªas was standard in anything goes raids. Heroes could do anything, but the platform would still be normal¡ªstill be safe. It didn¡¯t have to be. It didn¡¯t have to be safe or normal, and they had signed away their right to complain about it.

    They had signed away their right to complain about anything. Everything she¡¯d seen since arriving here could be real, or it could have been planted by the platform maintainers. Evidence of former visitors when there could very well have been none. Her guard had said they knew about visitors, that there had been many in the past but¡ª

    But nothing could be trusted here.

    Her guard lunged for the taller man as he turned back towards him, smile fading as he swerved, dodging the fist aimed at his face.

    ?Sk¡¯lar!? the sterner of the girls yelled, trying to bolt towards him but held back by the other girl. ?Rin! Let go!? she growled, trying to pull away from the smaller girl.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Heat blasted through the air, aether vibrating out of Rin and slamming into Emilia¡¯s escort. He gritted his teeth, a spark of his own fire erupting towards the girls. Too slow, Sk¡¯lar was already between them, erecting a barrier of shadows that ate the fire.

    The shadow burped, the sound echoing around them until Emilia was sure her other eardrum was going to burst and¡ª Nope, just her already injured one bursting again and¡ª

    Emilia scooped up the blood sliding out of her ear, unsure if her hunch about how blood worked in this world was correct, but willing to take a chance. She gathered as much energy as she could muster and flung the droplets at her guard, who was distracted trying to cover his own ears, unlike the others, who seemed to have erected sound barriers around their own ears.

    The man screamed as blood splattered over her cheek, burning holes through that too perfect visage, and he turned on them. ?I knew you were trouble,? he hissed, lunging towards her and the boy still holding her up.

    In the corner of her eye, she could see the other three preparing to defend them. They wouldn¡¯t make it. The guard was too close, and they were too far. The boy¡¯s hands tightened around her, moved to pull her behind him. She let him, using the momentum of his push to spin fully around him.

    Her escort hadn¡¯t been expecting her to come back¡ªhad expected her to cower behind the boy, leave him to take the violence that was aimed at her. His eyes widened as she swung back around, her legs giving out under her and sending her crashing to the ground. It was clumsy, but when she swiped up, her {Blood Blade} ringing through the air and crashing into his stomach, he wasn¡¯t prepared. The metal of his armour melted apart, her blade sliding into his intestines before he was shooting backwards, barely saving himself from another heat skill.

    A growl of rage vibrated through the aether, shocking Emilia¡¯s core, even as she watched with fascination as the man¡¯s blood shuddered across the mess of the floor.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    He was still dripping, still bleeding in a world where blood was forbidden.

    He did not look happy about it.

    ?Rin! Collect it!?

    ?What!? You can¡¯t be serious!? the stern girl yelled back at the boy, eyes wide as they shifted between him and Emilia. ?Rin?? Her voice wobbled as she stared at the other girl, already summoning a skill to collect the blood.

    It rippled and pulled together and the man surging backwards in an attempt to get out of range of the skill, sucking blood straight out of him. The blood across her blade vibrated, and her core vibrated with it. Red pulled towards her, calling to her, singing to her¡ªwilling her to use it.

    Her fingers ran through the blood. His blood didn¡¯t burn her, the way hers had him. It tingled. It called to her. It swirled and she told it no. It would not turn into a tidal wave of destruction. There were people here who she didn¡¯t want to die.

    The blood bubbled back at her. Another bubble, floating up into the air and popping across the aether, leaving tiny lines of death in it before they sealed themselves up.

    Just like before.

    ¡°That will do,¡± she said quietly to the blood, watching with wide eyes as it listened, as it pulled itself together into a perfect, bloody orb. It landed heavy in her hands, and the guard was already running, trying to retreat the way he had come.

    He wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    Bubbles exploded out of the {Blood Orb}, erratic, and the others slammed themselves to the ground. The boy was already behind her, his hands keeping her from toppling over yet again, dragging up her arms until they were resting over her own. Bubbles splashed over his hands, burning the skin, and she tried to shake him off¡ªtried to control the spray. What was the point of all this if she ended up killing the people who had helped her, somewhat begrudgingly on the part of most of them, but helped no less?

    ?Focus,? he breathed into her¡ªinto just her. She didn¡¯t know how she could tell, but she could. ?Let me in.?

    She felt the gentle knock across her core, so similar to the feeling of someone knocking at her Censor, requesting access. Access that she knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to limit, not without the system or her Censor or even the barest of practice controlling what secrets her core gave away. There was just so much inside your core and a million times more outside it, scattered across the world and the aethernet. Censors converted that data, made it understandable and hide what you wanted hidden, spared you from the overwhelm of the aether and the people around you. That¡¯s what students had always been taught, anyways.

    At times, Emilia had questioned just how imperative Censors were to core usage. When she¡¯d met people from the Free Colonies, using world-bending skills without even a temporary Censor. When she pressed her own core directly against things and knew what they were even without her Censor interpreting for her. Data straight from the core, however, was raw and personal and letting someone in¡ª

    Emilia moaned as the boy entered her, his aether guiding hers to control the {Blood Orb}¡ªno, that wasn¡¯t quite right. He wasn¡¯t guiding her, it was like he was controlling her, and her head lolled back onto his shoulder as he pressed himself through her to the bubbles the orb had created.

    They still weren¡¯t perfect, his friends still had to bolt out of the way occasionally, but by the time he had finished, there was a wall of death blocking the entrance to the cave.

    ?You will regret this,? the guard said, eyes dark and so unlike the man she had seen before. That man had been quiet and playful. This man was stern and cold.

    They didn¡¯t even feel like the same person¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t even sure they were. She had always been such a good judge of character. To have missed something so big? To have missed that his entire personality was hidden from her?

    Then again, hadn¡¯t she already thought his personality odd and shifting? What was another shift, even if this was much larger than the previous shift from apologetic guard to quiet teacher.

    Sk¡¯lar bolted back towards him, some sort of weapon she couldn¡¯t make out crashing through the air. Why couldn¡¯t she make it out? Blurry and black and¡ª Fuck. She was so tired.

    ?Hold on a little longer,? the boy whispered into her. Maybe whispered. He could have been screaming, and she wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell. His face was so close to her damaged ear. Too close. Hopefully, he wouldn¡¯t get blood on his face. She¡¯d already fucked up his hands, she¡¯d hate to fuck up that pretty face too. ?Just a little longer and¡ª?

    The world faded black and Emilia lost the words, trying to hold on a little longer. Her core ached and screamed, willed her to let go of the connection¡ªof the {Blood Orb}¡¯s power.

    ¡°So draining,¡± she mumbled. Trying to peak an eye open to watch what was happening. If she couldn¡¯t hear, how was she supposed to know when to stop?

    Her guard lurched to the side, fire sputtering out of his hand as he reached towards Sk¡¯lar. The man barely missed being hit. He wasn¡¯t good enough. For all that he had felt more dangerous than her escort, he was going to lose. He was going to die, and then the girls were going to be left to die as well, their trainee skills likely nothing compared to the Risen Guard¡¯s.

    ¡°Him,¡± she murmured to the blood, willing the bubbles to converge on her murderous, failed babysitter. They shuddered. A few popped. She thought the boy asked what she was doing, but he didn¡¯t get a say in this. No one was dying for her today.

    The bubbles surged towards the guard as he prepared to throw another raging flame at Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows. He bolted to the side, having noticed the popping and swaying of them. He glared between at the group of locals for a moment, assessing them, a bunch of scared, outmatched children. His eyes landed on her, as she tried to summon another wave of bubbles, her core melting inside her. She was going to kill herself, but better her than them. Her bubbles exploded across the aether, uncontrollable and ripping it apart, and then he was gone, disappearing out the door.

    Emilia wobbled, her hands shaking as the {Blood Orb} fell, and the blood bubbles were plucked out of existence. It cracked against the ground, rolling away from her, seemingly without any cracks of its own. Impressive. Her own core felt raw and brutalize, and when the boy¡¯s hands gently guided her back against him, she let him¡ªlet her eyes flutter shut.

    Let the darkness take her.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 40: Food That Isnt So Gross

    The world melted around Emilia. Black blood burst out of the holes she had scratched through it, her red nails dripping, dripping, dripping with the flesh of universe.

    She didn¡¯t know how she had done it, but she had. She¡¯d ripped the world apart. Cities crumbled around her, the blood of the aether burning it out of existence. Was it this easy, to end a world?

    There were fragments of an old poem, of the world ending in fire or ice¡ªremnants from before wars had burned knowledge into ash. There was no ice here, except in her heart. Empty, as she watched cities crumble. Toxic. This world was toxic and mouldering. Stinking of waste and corruption, spicy and burning everything it touched, and she needed to destroy it.

    She needed to, and yet, she cried. She rubbed away her tears, pulled her hand away, black. Bleeding black. Her heart was black ice, untouched by the death around her.

    Who cares about the death of AIs? They are nothing but tools and toys and¡ª

    ? ? ?

    Emilia gasped awake, heart pounding in her throat. She couldn¡¯t breathe.

    It had just been a dream.

    Just a dream.

    A dream of someone¡ªsomething¡ªelse invading her body. It had felt so real, filled her up so perfectly. She wanted to throw up, purge the feelings of that thing from her body and soul.

    She needed to calm down. Breathe. Breathe. Remember how to breathe. She¡¯d gone to therapy for this, learning how to breathe through the panic. It couldn¡¯t fix her fucked up knots, DNA wrapped around itself until her body screamed of trauma and everything was a potential trigger, but it was enough to breathe through it. It had to be enough.

    In¡­ out¡­ count to four. Hold on the beat. Every step a four count.

    One. Two. Three. Four.

    One. Two. Three. Four.

    One. Two. Three. Four.

    One. Two. Three. Four.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes fluttered open, blurry and sticky, and she rubbed away the sleep cracking over them. The bed under her was soft. Not as soft as her own, cloud soft bedding was, but soft enough that they called her back under. She was so tired, her core throbbing weakly within her, begging her to let it rest, just a little longer¡­

    Just a little longer¡­

    Just a little¡­

    Emilia gasped back awake. Core ache or no, she did not want to go back to that hellscape, thanks! She pushed herself up, glaring around the room. Red¡ªshocking¡ªbut more extravagant than the other bedrooms she had seen¡ªall, you know, three of them. Long, dark curtains fell around the sides of her too big bed, held loosely back by ropes of shimmering red, letting just a sliver of light suffuse the air. Stars gleamed across the ceiling, mysterious and an almost golden pink. The world outside her bed seemed huge. Chairs and a sofa, multiple tables and the smell of food.

    Okay, so she couldn¡¯t see the smell of food, but she was so hungry that she was sure her nose could follow its delicious, scrumptious, mouth-watering¡ª

    Emilia slithered across the bed, poking her head out one of the curtain gaps to check if anyone was in the room. No one, not anyone she could see, at least, and she crawled over the other edges. Nope. No one.

    Time to find that food~

    The source of the smell was several plates of food, hiding under domes, the iridescent red of them reminding her of her sharp fork and¡ª

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she mumbled, looking down at herself. Someone had stripped off her cloak and belt, probably so she would sleep easier, but that meant her forks and dagger were gone¡ªalthough the latter she had dropped on the floor of the cavern, in favour of that blood orb. Hopefully, whoever¡¯s home this was hadn¡¯t deemed her a threat.

    She pushed the thoughts, the slight rush of concern, away¡ªthere was nothing she could do about it, after all¡ªand pulled off the domes, grabbing a piece of bread from a platter. It was still slightly warm, fresh from the oven. She sniffed it tentatively. Smelled like normal bread, even if it was red. Felt like normal bread, slightly soft under the crust, and when she took a bite of it¡ª

    The resemblance to her world¡¯s bread all but ended. It wasn¡¯t bad, at least, just different. At least it wasn¡¯t the weird, spongy food that bled. There was some of that, on another plate, and she unceremoniously covered it again, the cloche banging slightly against the platter. Unless it was the only option, she wouldn¡¯t be eating that again any time soon.

    She yawned as she ate her bread and looked around. It was a nice room, reminded her a bit of pictures she¡¯d seen of Charles and James¡¯ home, in the Free Colonies, the twins smiling amongst their myriad of siblings. That one sibling¡ªone of the only ones she¡¯d never met¡ªalways severe and frowning as his younger siblings laughed and played and didn¡¯t have the weight of family expectations on them.

    That Free Colony, Charles had told her, was allegedly inspired by some long-lost book. Burned away by time and memory and the Colonial Wars. There were laws that governed how their home country worked, hard to amend, rigid and stifling, and keeping it firmly stuck in the past. Charles had been happy to marry a Baalphorian and never be forced to return for more than brief visits. James had gone back, she¡¯d heard. Broken by the war, just like her¡ªmaybe even worse, given what she¡¯d heard.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Everything in the room was ornate and over-the-top. Carvings adorned practically every available surface. Meticulous designs were embroidered into the fabric covering the furniture, precise little threads creating motifs of animals native to this world¡ªor myths. People were big on their myths, even if she¡¯d been raised without any such beliefs. Religion wasn¡¯t exactly popular in Baalphoria, and most of their myths and legends were treated as simple stories, imported from the Free Colonies or civilizations long gone away, just like the founding story of the twin¡¯s home.

    She plopped down on the sofa, crossing her legs and ripping into the bread. She eyed up the other options dubiously. They didn¡¯t look quite as weird as the other food did, but she couldn¡¯t say they looked appetizing either. Something about them just¡­ turned her stomach. That wasn¡¯t exactly uncommon in raids¡ªsomething about how your DNA literally knew what your ancestor¡¯s diet had been. Facing food that your ancestors had never come across sparked an instinct to get the fuck away from it as fast as you could.

    Danger.

    We don¡¯t know if that will kill us or not.

    Do. Not. Eat.

    Bread was bread, though. Flour or meal and¡ªmore often than not¡ªa rising agent. Sure, different types tasted different, but they were effectively all the same. Yummy goodness. Yummy enough that people spent a shit ton of money knotting out intolerances to ingredients. There were a few foods like that, so good that people were willing to pay out the nose for the privilege of consuming them without, er, bathroom issues.

    Emilia chanced a bite of a pale pink slice of something¡ªfruit or candy, based on the flavour that melted over her tongue. ¡°So sweet,¡± she moaned, grabbing a few more pieces. She¡¯d always had a soft spot for sweets, even knotted herself to handle the sugar better¡ªnot that that would help her here, where knots had limited effect¡­

    Maybe she should have mentioned to Payton that she wanted to keep that particular knot? Warn him that if he removed it, he¡¯d have a hyperactive child on his hands when she woke up? Somehow, she imagined he¡¯d either be a wonderful or atrocious child wrangler. No in between, he¡¯d be perfect or horrible.

    Oh well, too late now. Worst case, he¡¯d remove it and have to add it back in¡­ assuming she let him. In hindsight, leaving him to decipher her knots and genes without basically any guidance might have been a tad irresponsible. She was a brat, even with the knots. Unknotted Emilia was a fucking menace. Uncontrollable and unstoppable, and oh so traumatized.

    Emilia grabbed another piece of bread, unwilling to risk hyping herself up on raid world sweets¡ªshe had no idea if that was possibly, but it seemed smart to avoid that until she knew where she was¡ªand pushed herself up, walking towards a window. Light streamed in around the edges, the thick red curtains blocking out most of it. There were stars drawn onto the ceiling as well, she realized, sparser than the ones above the bed, but there nonetheless. They shimmered slightly, just like the sky of the city had, before the light had begun to fade.

    Some sort of light control, then, permanently etched into the room.

    She swept the curtain open, eyes slamming shut as light blasted into her. Warm, even through the glass of the window¡ªdid she need sunscreen here? It wouldn¡¯t hurt her real body, but getting a sunburn would suck.

    Wait.

    Sun?

    Emilia squinted into the world, trying to discern where the light was coming from. Above. This wasn¡¯t just light echoing out of the air. This was the light of the sun. Sunlight stretched across fields of pink and purple grass, rivers of red burbling through it. Trees with white and black and red trunks reached upwards¡ªsome so tall they seemed to stretch into the clouds, fluffy and white. Not ominous red clouds, just clouds of cotton candy, lines of delicious pink warping through them occasionally, and the sky above, a light, fluttering red, two glowing orbs shining across it and lighting up the landscape.

    It was beautiful, so unlike the world below, where even weeds hadn¡¯t dared grow in the hard packed ground. The city hadn¡¯t had any plants either, only people and buildings and a gorgeous cavern tucked deep beneath it.

    A child sprinted across the lawn, hand waving to someone else, another child appearing behind them, their long skirt impeding their escape. She tripped, slide forward into the dirt and came up bloody, palms dripping with blood that she quickly wiped across the grass. The blood sizzled slightly before it sparked out of existence, leaving behind a slightly burnt looking patch of grass.

    The boy bolted back to her, hauling her up by a wrist, careful not to touch the still healing scrapes. They both stared at them, unafraid and impatient, until they sealed closed, and they were linking hands and dragging each other away.

    Emilia shuddered as the light amusement reached her through the aether, like a child laughing through a closed door. A sound that shot straight to your core and made you smile, except it really was shooting into her core, rubbing against it, close and intimate and not meant for her, just the way the laughter of children playing in her own world was meant only for them.

    The children ran and ran, their happiness rising into a wave as they hiked up their pants and skirt, tossed their shoes and socks aside, and stumbled through the river. They weren¡¯t very good at it, red water catching on the hems that were too low, turning the fine fabric¡ªso fine that Emilia could tell, even from here¡ªa deeper shade of red.

    They both glanced down when they reached the other side, pointing to the other¡¯s ruined clothes as they argued over who was stupider, their argument rising like a swell around her, even through the window. If they didn¡¯t want to be caught, they had better¡ª

    A voice called out to them through the aether, quieter than the children¡¯s ongoing argument, so quiet Emilia couldn¡¯t make out what they even said. The children started, wide eyes turning towards the young man walking lazily towards them, his strawberry-blonde hair rustling in the wind. He stopped at the edge of the river, talking softly to them. They pointed, each shouting about how it was the other one¡¯s idea.

    Emilia had never done that when she was younger, pointed at one of her friends or siblings and blamed them when her own plan had failed. Everyone knew it was always her idea, and even on the rare occasion that it wasn¡¯t, adults inevitably knew she had encouraged whatever was happening. She¡¯d always been good at getting an adult involved, when someone was about to do something even she deemed stupid.

    When she did, the adults came running and screaming because she didn¡¯t claim she needed help¡ªthat someone else needed to be stopped¡ªwithout a good fucking reason. Even when she¡¯d messaged Olivier, joking and calm about the echo, he had come running, swearing and fully armed because he had known it would be bad.

    Across the lawn, the children were scuffing their feet against the rocky ground, pouts written across their faces, and then the young man said something. Their faces lit up, and they were running for a copse of trees, their hands clasped together once more.

    The young man turned back towards the house, his eyes clasping onto Emilia¡¯s. The boy from the night before¡ªassuming she hadn¡¯t been out longer than a single night. He smiled, waved.

    ?I¡¯ll be up in a moment.?

    Emilia tried not to visibly shudder as his voice swept through her, intimate and fucking hell, she wasn¡¯t sure whether to hope his voice was the only one that had that effect on her or if everyone¡¯s did.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 41: Some Syllables Are Better Than Others

    The boy¡¯s knock was soft across the door, tentative, as though perhaps she might refuse to let him in. Well, she hadn¡¯t actually agreed to let him in, only watched him stride back across the grass. His loose white shirt and pale red pants had rustled in the breeze, his steps confident yet lazy and relaxed and reminding her so much of the boys she had grown up with, before he disappeared under her.

    When she pulled open the door, he was already smiling, hair a messy ball of windswept curls.

    ?Hello,? he said cheerily, the sound whispering over her core.

    ¡°Do not squirm,¡± she scolded herself, stepping aside to let him in, and closing the door behind him¡ªthis one didn¡¯t have hydronic dampeners like the one¡¯s at the inn.

    This little bubble of the world was so different from the one¡ªpresumably¡ªbelow that, for a moment, she questioned if she was really in the same world. Then she turned, eyes scanning over the red and, yeah, definitely the same world. Just a different style of it.

    ?You ate?? he asked, leaning over and swiping a piece of something she had yet to try. He peeked under the patter she had re-covered with the cloche, smiling at her when he realized she hadn¡¯t touched it. ?Not a fan??

    Emilia shook her head. ¡°No, not a fan. And yes, I ate a bit¡­¡± Her words trailed off as his smile faltered. She could understand him, but that didn¡¯t mean he could understand her. She swallowed, trying to figure out how to make the aether¡ªhow to make her core¡ªspeak to him. She focused, trying to will a yes through her mind and core and¡­ Nope. If she could speak through the aether, she couldn¡¯t do it as naturally as the hearing thing.

    ?Ah¡­? He rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck, eyes scanning over the room. ?I can¡¯t understand you, but, you can understand me, yes??

    She nodded.

    ?That¡¯s a yes??

    She nodded again, then frowned. A bubble of amusement surrounded her as he realized the problem as well, the assumption that she hadn¡¯t just nodded no twice.

    ?Yes,? he said, all inflection of question gone from his voice.

    She nodded.

    ?No,? he continued.

    She shook her head.

    His head titled, assessing. ?No idea.?

    She shrugged.

    ?Absolutely not.?

    She glared ice at him, partially because that was what she would do to say ¡°absolutely fucking not,¡± and partially because he was teasing her now.

    Another laugh surrounded her as he rattled off a few more emotions and potential answers for her to emote. If was fun, but also revealed to be completely useless when he informed her that her chosen movements were pretty close to what he would expect from a local. She¡¯d glared ice at him as he sat back in one of the chairs, smiling at her like she was the most amusing thing he¡¯d come across in a long time. It wasn¡¯t a mean smile, more one that reminded her of Rafe and his brother¡¯s smiles, deprived of friends and attachment to the outside world until she had fallen¡ªquite literally¡ªinto their life. The smile of someone who wasn¡¯t used to being with people they hadn¡¯t grown up with.

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re not as nice as you look,¡± she muttered, falling onto the couch and grabbing more of the sweet, maybe-fruit.

    He watched her movements, so contrary to his own graceful ones. She could be graceful¡ªshe¡¯d been sent to boring ass classes specifically to learn to be the proper young lady she was supposed to be¡ªbut she wasn¡¯t going to be forced to be that person within her own temporary room.

    Instead, she flopped a leg lazily over her knee, giggling internally when a light blush pressed over his nose as he got an eyeful. She¡¯d noticed, below, how covered nearly everyone was. Layers of protection from injury, she had guessed, but perhaps it was more than that. Even here, where the children had seemed freer, they were fully covered. The cuffs of the boy¡¯s shirt were rolled up slightly, exposing the lower half of his forearms to her, but otherwise, he was covered from neck to toe in loose, flowing fabric.

    Emilia tilted her head as she examined him. Was he a boy? She had assumed that before, based on looks alone, but her only frame of reference was her own world, where lifespans had been drawn longer and longer by knot therapy and genetic manipulation. He reminded her of how she had looked, just before the war. She¡¯d been an adult who looked younger than she should have, the result of possessing ridiculously good D-Levels and the money to take care of herself.

    She sighed, collapsing further into the sofa. They needed one of the girls¡ªthe Risen Guard trainees¡ªto come join them, to cooperate and help her get answers. Getting answers was going to take forever if they were going to be playing a guessing game¡ªnot that the boy seemed inclined to talk to her. If anything, he seemed perfectly content to just watch her. It was a bit creepy, but mostly just so, so frustratingly intimate.

    ¡°Well, you can¡¯t understand me, so you¡¯re gonna have to do the talking,¡± Emilia said, levelling him with a look that she hoped conveyed her words. He blinked at her. She waved a hand through the air, a ¡°Your turn.¡±

    ?My name is Key,? the boy¡ªman? Guy? Guy seemed generic enough. Wait, hadn¡¯t he just given her his name? Why did she need a defining word? That seemed like a waste of time, although defining words were useful, even if they could be stupid and overly specific. Actually, he could very well not be a he, for all she knew. Hopefully he¡ª they¡ª Key would tell her, were that the case, and¡ª

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she grumbled to herself, resisting glaring at the sweet fruit. She knew she shouldn¡¯t have eaten all that sugar! Stupid platform, taking into account how sugar in the real world would make her spin and spin and lose control of her brain and¡ª

    ?Do you have a name?? he asked, interrupting her spiralling thoughts.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Emilia,¡± Emilia tried, hoping that maybe a single word would catch across their language barrier.

    The name that Key repeated back to her sounded virtually nothing like her name.

    ¡°Em?¡± she tried, nose wrinkling when he repeated, ?Ma?? back to her. She signed, deflating further into the couch.

    ?No go, hm?? he sighed, scratching idly at the back of his neck again. ?How about I try some sounds, and you can tell me if they are close to your name??

    Emilia shrugged, the movement she had said meant both ¡°no idea¡± and ¡°whatever.¡±

    It couldn¡¯t hurt, although she was certain this would be far easier when one of the girls who could understand her were around. Then again, Key¡¯s probably sister hadn¡¯t seemed impressed by anything that had happened the night before¡ªwhich reminded her that Key hadn¡¯t actually told her where she was or how long she¡¯d been out for. This one way communication thing was a pain. Unfortunately, unlike the last time she¡¯d had to communicate regularly with someone who couldn¡¯t speak, she wasn¡¯t a child, with a million, billion hours available for them to design their own, personal sign language. She could revert to that, to childhood hand-waving. She could try regular Baalphorian sign language, too, forced into them by tutors who insisted their self-designed signs would not suffice in the real world.

    It hadn¡¯t stopped them from only using their personal sign language to communicate with each other, even decades later¡ªthe last time they had seen each other.

    Emilia¡¯s heart gave a little squeeze, longing for home and family¡ªthe ones she had chosen¡ªracing through her. It had been a long time since she had truly missed anyone and¡ª

    Key¡¯s hand caught her own, scratching bloody lines in her arm again as Payton unknotted stars knew what¡ªprobably something having to do with longing. She hadn¡¯t purposefully knotted away her ability to miss her family, but it had definitely deadened under all the knots, not dragging through her soul quite as deeply as it otherwise would have.

    ?Be careful,? he scolded her, ignoring the glowering look she turned on him as he examined her arm, the red lines quickly sealing up. His eyes shifted to her nail, long and bloody, drops dripping through the air and back into her body.

    ?Dangerous,? he teased, a hint of something almost admiring in his eyes as he let her wrist go. He shifted back, seating himself beside her, a comfortable distance between them. ?You don¡¯t generally find things that sharp around here, but I think you already figured that out.?

    She nodded, tucking her hands under her ass in an attempt to not scratch at her itching soul. Itching was better than aching. She¡¯d had conscious, mass-knotting done before, in an emergency. Nebulae willing, never again. That shit had nearly killed her for how bloody¡ªha¡ªpainful it was.

    ?Something funny? Want to share?? Key asked, smirking at his own, not so funny joke. Once again, he ignored the ice she glared at him. ?So, name.?

    He rattled off various syllables, going through them as though this world¡¯s alphabet was either completely different from her own, or he was purposefully randomizing the order. By the time he got to ¡°Eh,¡± his voice somehow both precise and clipped, she almost missed it, her mind beginning to wander off in boredom.

    She clapped her hands¡ªwhich, when had she removed them from under her? She hadn¡¯t clawed any more holes in herself, at the very least.

    ?Eh¡­ plus something else?? Key clarified, his nearly perpetual smile faltering for a moment, apparently having deemed ¡°Eh¡± to be an unreasonable name.

    She nodded, trying not to judge him too hard. She knew at least one Free Colony gave their newborns single syllable names, slowing adding on more as they grew and learned. She¡¯d never met anyone from there, but she knew their baby names could conceivably be Eh. Her own baby name would have been Em, transitioning through Em, Emi, and Emili, before finally ending at Emilia, by which time she would have been an old lady.

    ¡°Oh, shit,¡± she thought, staring into space as Key began adding extra syllables to Eh. Echo. Evade. Escape. The fact that her own name hadn¡¯t been discernible to him and yet, the options he offered to her followed the same pattern in both their languages was interesting, but not particularly helpful when she had jumped the gun. She¡¯d gotten too excited that she¡¯d managed to find part of her name, and now he was just assuming the first syllable of her name was Eh when it wasn¡¯t! Fucking hell.

    She sighed, wondering how far she could sink into the couch. Luckily, unlike her own wandering attention, his was focused solely on her, and he quickly gave up adding new syllables to Eh, backtracking into single syllables that included the sound.

    Key¡¯s lips twitched when he found ¡°Em¡± and she bolted upright, waving her hands for him to stop. Getting to Em had been torture! They were not doing more and¡ª

    Her jaw dropped when he continued adding sounds to her name, begging with her eyes for him to stop. Em was fine! Most people called her Em! Em was great and perfect and¡ª

    She lunged towards him. She might not be able to cover his mouth to make him stop this nonsense¡ªwhich he most certainly knew was nonsense, given the way his eyes were dancing with mischief and the names he was suggesting were increasingly absurd. Empirical would be a horrible name! She might not know how the names in this world were chosen, but Empirical was objectively horrible!

    She slammed a hand into his chest, and then he was gone, laughter vibrating around her as she twisted, wondering where he had gone. He smiled at her from beside the window, light catching in his curls and turning it a brighter shade of red.

    ¡°So you do have some skills¡­¡± she muttered, glaring as she slowly approached him. Whatever that had been, it hadn¡¯t just been fast, it had been undetectable¡ªat least at her level. She really needed to figure out how to access the system, level herself up so she was less twitchy. Especially with her brain starting to ripple with the effects of ADHD¡ªeffects she hadn¡¯t felt the full force of in half a decade.

    She didn¡¯t actually dislike her ADHD brain¡ªmore often than not, she actually loved it, missed the full force of it. It was obsessive and focused, when it wanted to be, anyways. It let her see the world in a way she generally enjoyed. It also made her a rather awful roommate and student. Messy and chaotic, caring only for the interesting things and getting wound up in them for days, until she was sleep-deprived and talking a million miles a minute, driving herself and Pria and everything she came across wild for how intense and restless she was and¡ª

    Key slipped through the world as she reached him, her focus sliding after him. The aether pricked, tiny and delicate. So different than a spark¡ªdifferent than anything she¡¯d ever seen¡ªand she bolted after him, making him move over and over again, analyzing every shift in the air, every hair out of place as he landed again, amused and happy to play her game, even if he couldn¡¯t understand the excitement vibrating through her.

    She tripped over a stool, landing gracelessly on the couch with an oof. A smile spread over her face as she took in the look of concerned surprise on Key¡¯s face, easy-going smile wiped away by her clumsiness. She¡¯d like to say the clumsiness was from lack of system access as well, dragging her up into regular person territory, but she¡¯d always been clumsy while hyperfocused. She¡¯d forget to eat, too. Lucky she had friends to order her food, a week of meals showing up at her door to keep her alive while she refused to leave or talk to anyone who didn¡¯t have something she needed.

    So, yeah, ADHD was great for some things, not great for others, and bored, mostly mellow focus had been what she had wanted out of university. Normalcy. Friendship. Fun.

    Emilia had, for the most part, achieved those things, and as Key stared down at her in concern, his face slowly softening back into one of amusement as he hauled her to sitting, she wondered if this¡ªthis raid, this trip to Ship¡¯o Stars and the man who waited there¡ªmight be the end of all that. She hoped not, but if it was, she was happy for the decade of normal she had managed to carve out for herself.

    ¡°Thank you~¡± she teased, even though she knew he couldn¡¯t understand her. She¡¯d have curtsied, if she wasn¡¯t too lazy to stand.

    Key smiled down at her, his own gentle laughter rippling through her, just as intimate and personal and overwhelming as before, and¡ª

    ?What¡¯s so funny??

    Emilia¡¯s laughter broke as she looked towards the doorway, where Key¡¯s friends had silently appeared.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 42: So, Do People Here Flirt?

    ?I am Harmony. This is Rin and Sk¡¯lar, and you¡¯ve already met Key.?

    Emilia tilted her head at the girl. ¡°You¡¯re speaking like you did last night, not like Key.¡±

    The girl¡¯s nose wrinkled, her seemingly perpetual frown deepening. It made her look older than she likely was, wrinkles tugging at her eyes and mouth in a way that told of a lifetime of severity. ?You can understand now?? she asked, switching dialects, her voice shifting from the modulated voice of the Risen Guard¡¯s communication method to what Emilia assumed was their native tongue, a sound that vibrated into her through the aethernet.

    Emilia nodded, and the girl turned a glare on her probably brother.

    ?This is your fault!? she hissed at him.

    Key eyed her lazily, unconcerned with the venomous tone. ?I suppose.?

    Emilia and Sk¡¯lar snorted, while Rin sagged lazily into one of the chairs. She snuggled into a ball, and a moment later, Emilia swore she was already asleep.

    ?She¡¯s got the napping gene,¡± the man¡ªSk¡¯lar¡ªsaid, coming to sit beside her, his weight making the couch sag and Emilia was forced to adjust herself or risk toppling into him. He might have saved her last night, fought off her guard rather than let her be taken, but he still gave her a bad vibe.

    She glanced at him, trying to figure out if he was serious about the girl having a napping gene or not. From what she¡¯d seen, there was little to no technology in this world, but she¡¯d seen so little. Who knew, the upper class¡ªand these people were certainly upper class¡ªcould be hoarding such knowledge. Stars knew that happened in Baalphoria. For all she knew, they could possess technology for analyzing genetics. She also couldn¡¯t completely rule out a skill that allowed them to do so. No one in her world had ever been able to code a skill capable of analyzing genes or preforming knot therapy without a machine, but you never knew.

    Or, it could just be a joke she was reading too much into.

    ?Mother and father will be¡ª?

    ?Mother and father will accept what has happened. There is no undoing it. There is only going forward.?

    ?You think too easily of them, Key,? the girl growled, glaring dangers at her brother. ?And even if they accept this, grandmother will not! This is bad. It will not take the Risen Guard long to track us down, not when Rin and I do not return to training next week.?

    ?Then we have a week.?

    The girl¡¯s eyes rolled as she began to pace, ranting about how Key never thought things through, never thought of the consequences or how much time things took or the danger.

    Emilia could relate to that. For all that she could be extremely smart, her brain thinking through every possibility before most people could think of even one or two, she was also horrible at remembering to do the thinking before the doing. See: current situation.

    ?All those years of work, shot. And not just me, but Rin! Rin had nothing to do with this, and now she¡¯s involved.? The girl ran a hand through her curls, fingers catching on the knots and whirls. She cursed¡ªor at least, Emilia assumed that ?Boil it!? was a curse.

    ?I don¡¯t think the little girl cares,? Sk¡¯lar noted, popping one of the disgusting, not-blood leaking cubes into his mouth. Asshole hadn¡¯t even bothered to ask. ?She hasn¡¯t even asked about it all, and I¡¯d take her over you any day. At least she helped last night.?

    Key took a step back as his sister turned on the taller man, the boy quickly edging around the couch until he could pull Emilia up and away from the arguing pair. ?Sorry,? he said, smiling apologetically. He gently nudged Rin, the girl opening startling, muddy red eyes. ?Can you come translate??

    Rin side eyed the arguing pair before letting Key haul her up, and then the world bent and broke, and they were standing on a patio, a gentle breeze blowing in from across a burnt red lake.

    ?You took us far,? Rin noted, taking a seat in a large, egg-shaped chair.

    ?Harm was in a mood,? he sighed, motioning for Emilia to take a seat in one of the other, identical chairs as he rang a bell. ?I don¡¯t think she will be productive to the conversation.?

    ?True,? the girl replied, legs pulling up onto the chair. She was so tiny, not quite child sized but close enough that the chair seemed to be trying to swallow her up. ?I don¡¯t know as much as she does about all this.?

    Key politely lowered himself into his own chair, sitting straight and proper while Emilia fidgeted, trying to get comfortable for what was likely to be a long chat.

    ?True¡­? he said, smiling as a servant appeared on a path leading away from the lake. ?I largely need you to translate. I also think you have a right to know what is going on.?

    Rin watched him through suspicious eyes as he ordered food from the servant, occasionally offering suggestions as to what they should get¡ªthings she¡¯d learned in training that visitors tended to be more inclined to eat.

    Emilia looked around while they ordered, taking in the new location. The landscape was similar to the last, except the lake, so it couldn¡¯t have been too far from where they had started¡ªalthough, who was to say if this world¡¯s biomes operated the way the ones of her world did, numerous and diverse. The entire planet¡ªassuming this world even was a normal planet to begin with!¡ªcould be a single biome, for all she knew.

    The only other discernible difference was the lack of any buildings, although the servant must have come from somewhere, must be going somewhere to get food.

    ?Is something wrong??

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Emilia glanced back at Key, watching her with that happy expression of his once again. She opened her mouth, intending to tell him that in her world it was considered strange for a lake to not be surrounded by houses of the rich and powerful, before turning to Rin. ¡°Do you mind translating for us? You don¡¯t have to. We¡¯ll figure something out, if you¡¯d rather not.¡±

    The other girl¡¯s eyes widened minutely, that deep red searching for something before she said, ?It is fine. It is kind of you to ask; however, it is unnecessary.¡±

    Emilia resisted the urge to frown. It was necessary. She¡¯d been forced to be a translator so many times in her own youth, obligated and annoyed to have never actually been asked if she would. She would have done so easily, if asked. Instead, she¡¯d always been slightly belligerent, running away from demanding adults and hiding until they gave up searching for her. She had been almost six, by the time anyone bothered to ask, her smile soft and calm and understanding in a way so few adults were.

    ¡°Where I¡¯m from, it¡¯s customary to directly address the person you are talking to, regardless of whether there is a translator,¡± she continued¡ªshe didn¡¯t want to accidentally break some social norm!

    Rin confirmed this was fine, before adding, ?It is my understanding that you do not wish to offend us? May I assume, then, that you would prefer to be informed if you are doing so??

    Emilia nodded gratefully to the girl, the two of them agreeing that Rin would tell her if she was being a rude asshat in her presence¡ªKey as well, once Rin had caught him up on Emilia¡¯s half of the conversation.

    ?You¡¯re different,? he noted as a different servant appeared with drinks for each of them, ?from the other visitors, especially ones the Risen Guard target.?

    ¡°So, I was specifically chosen, then?¡± Emilia said, taking a sip of her whitish drink as Rin translated for them while drinking her own, black tinted drink. So, people could indeed speak with their mouths full here, her guard had just refused to do so.

    ?Yes. The Risen Guard monitor visitors, picking out ones they deem dangerous and letting them loose on the world,? Key explained, swirling his own drink the way people did wine in Baalphoria. ?Most wind up like you, running from them¡ªcausing trouble. It gives the Guard an excuse to get rid of them.?

    By the look on Rin¡¯s face, minute as her expressions were, she hadn¡¯t known this, despite apparently being a Risen Guard in training.

    ¡°What were you being taught the Risen Guard did?¡± she asked the girl, startling her further. A fraction of a second later, her flat, bored expression returned as though nothing secret had been revealed¡ªas though the weird, not-red coded girl hadn¡¯t just spoken to her unexpectedly.

    ?That they protect the city and the cities within from external threats. Visitors, as well as foreign powers. They work to contain the danger posed by blood magic.?

    ?They don¡¯t set up visitors to cause problems so they can murder them,? went unsaid.

    ¡°Do visitors visit other, er¡­ foreign powers, as well?¡± Emilia asked. She¡¯d been curious about that. Platforms could drop heroes in any location, but they often ignored entire areas for one reason or another. Some systems even made travel to certain locations impossible, even for the most skilled heroes. Too much danger, or not enough. Things the platform maintainers didn¡¯t want heroes to know existed, either for future raids or because something truly egregious existed in the world they had created.

    Rin translated her question, her and Key glancing between each other.

    ¡°I''ll take that as a mutual ¡®no fucking idea.¡¯¡±

    ?What does ¡®fucking¡¯ mean?? Rin asked, just as Emilia was taking another sip of her drink¡ªit was pretty good. Sweet. Her brain was already buzzing again.

    She choked, waving Key off when he tried to come to her aid. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she wheezed around her coughs. ¡°Swear word. It¡¯s a vulgar word for sex.¡±

    ?Aren¡¯t all words for¡­ that vulgar?? Key asked, looking truly distressed, and Emilia had to try not to laugh. Laughing would certainly make her coughing worse.

    So, it was going to be a prudish world after all, huh? That sucked. This was going to end up being her longest dry spell in a couple of decades, wasn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Is sex taboo here?¡± she asked, looking between the two. Rin still looked bored, although even her pale pink cheeks had begun to redden.

    ?It is generally kept private. It is not forbidden, although neither is it encouraged. I would say it is¡­ rare, outside of marriage.?

    ¡°So, do people flirt? Like, make their interest in getting together known¡­¡± Emilia trailed off, trying not to laugh as Rin outright refused to translate her words for Key. Out of all the things to talk about, this definitely wasn¡¯t the most important. On the other hand, she had a substantial sex drive and was something of a chronic flirt. Based on their reactions¡ªbased on Rin telling her that no, people did not make such interest known¡­ ever¡ªshe was completely fucked, while simultaneously being forced to remain completely unfucked.

    That said, her guard hadn¡¯t actually noticed her flirting, so maybe she was good? Perhaps sex was so removed from social life that no one would realize her tendency to flirt to get a rise out of someone?

    One could certainly hope. Still¡­

    ¡°Well, I feel a bit bad now¡­¡± she sighed, frowning upwards. The clouds looked tasty, just like delicious candy. She twisted her empty cup in her hand. She wanted more of that sweet maybe-fruit.

    ?You feel bad about¡­?? Rin asked, glancing towards Key, who looked equally concerned.

    ¡°Well, I walked by some other visitors while my guard and I were leaving. They weren¡¯t very nice, and were implying I had sex with him to gain my freedom. I kinda¡­ leaned into that? They probably spread the word, and now all the visitors there are most likely trying to get it on with the guards.¡±

    Rin looked horrified. Key looked horrified that not only did Rin look horrified, but she was also refusing to translate Emilia¡¯s long speech. It was rather funny.

    ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll be okay?¡± she asked, clarifying that she meant the visitors. They''d been rude, but she didn¡¯t want them to be tortured for getting too familiar with the guards or anything.

    ?They will likely¡­ be fine,? Rin said diplomatically, changing into the dialect of the Risen Guard, which Key could not understand.

    ¡°So, why can you understand me, and he can¡¯t?¡± Emilia asked, motioning towards Key, who was looking increasingly put out at being actively excluded from the conversation. ¡°He can¡¯t understand when you speak to me like that, like a Risen Guard, right?¡±

    Rin nodded, glancing towards Key. The tiniest bit of amusement shone in her eyes as she continued leaving him out of their conversation. ?Our hearing is naturally too strong,? she explained, ignoring Key when he grumbled something about girls. He looked like he wanted to pout, but was too polite to do so. ?When we are born, our hearing is magically suppressed. During training with the Risen Guard, our hearing is slowly returned to us, although never fully. Very few people outside the Guard remove their suppression more than necessary.?

    The girl¡¯s nose scrunched in thought, the barest of frowns tugging at her full lips. ?I believe the magic we use to speak to visitors also translates our words? I am not fully aware of the details. However, I believe that even were Key able to hear you better, it would be unintelligible.?

    ¡°So¡­ the system¡ªyour magic¡ªtranslates our words?¡±

    ?I believe so, but most of the Guard never reaches the level where they would learn the specifics.?

    ¡°How far along are you?¡±

    ?I have finished basic training. I am not far into specialization,? Rin said, switching back to the aether-powered dialect.

    Key glowered at his friend¡ªwere they friends? Emilia really should ask¡ªhis fingers tapping over the arm of his chair. He didn¡¯t seem like the type of person used to being defied. Even the night before, no one but his sister had tried very hard to disagree with him.

    ?Oh, are you going to include me again?? he asked, his voice not quite spitting but close enough that someone softer might have pulled away.

    Rin was not soft, simply glancing his way and continuing on, telling Emilia details about the Risen Guard that her failed babysitter had refused to speak of.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 43: Change Is Not Always Good

    ?How much has your sister told you about the Guard?? Rin asked, eyes turning toward Key.

    He hesitated, a look of concern briefly crossing his face, so fast that Emilia would have assumed she had imagined it if Rin¡¯s expression hadn¡¯t sharpened. ?Not much,? he said. He reminded her of a guilty child, trying to skirt the truth of the matter and not completely aware of how bad they were at it. ?More than she should have, less than I would have liked.?

    An echo of general disbelief surrounded them, before Rin continued. She obviously didn¡¯t believe him, but apparently wasn¡¯t about to push the issue. Another small nod to his authority¡ªto his power. That, or she¡¯d force the information out of his sister later.

    ?We are recruited from the city and the cities within,? she began, waving a small, delicate hand through the air. A deep red band, wrapped tight around her wrist, sparked and an image appeared between them, teenagers standing in less than perfect lines. The image shifted through fragments of training, brutal and fierce. How to use weapons, to avoid blood magic, to use more advanced forms of acceptable magics, the excited teenagers slowly growing into dead eyed young adults as the years passed. ?While we can refuse, it is considered an honour to be chosen. We are taken for training, returned home every few months for a break.?

    ¡°You¡¯re on a break now?¡± Emilia asked. Best to be on the same page.

    ?There¡¯s a holiday in a few days,? Key supplied, smiling as a servant appeared along the path with their food, floating on platters around her. ?It is one of the bigger celebrations, so the break is longer.?

    ?It will not take the Risen Guard long to track us down, not when Rin and I do not return to training next week,? his sister had said.

    ¡°Sorry to be spoiling your holiday,¡± Emilia mumbled as she eyed up the food, the servant placing it onto the large table set between them with ease. It was interesting, seeing the way these people seemed to use skills¡ªmagic¡ªso fluidly, when she had seen nothing like it below. Even the elevator operators, who could surely have benefited from the use of magic, had used none.

    Rin shot her a glance she couldn¡¯t quite interpret, plating food and then handing it to Emilia. ?Eat, you were unconscious for quite a while. You must be hungry.?

    Emilia didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her that no, actually, she wasn¡¯t. Not yet, anyways. Not only had the food she¡¯d eaten earlier sated her for the moment, but her hunger knotted away behind a knot Payton either hadn¡¯t noticed or hadn¡¯t gotten to yet. Hunger was distracting and annoying, and usually, she relied on her friends or Censor to remind her it was time for food. Eventually, she¡¯d notice outright stomach pain, as her stomach tried to eat itself in desperation, but until then, she¡¯d exist on whatever was inside her, her genes lending her an extra boost in energy naturally, even if she was starving.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± she said instead, smiling warmly at the girl. She knew enough about raids to know you took friends where you could find them¡ªcollected them like trophies, some said¡ªand even with how outwardly cold the other girl seemed, she had also been pretty nice to her so far.

    She nibbled at her food as they spoke, learning some of the intricacies of the Risen Guard. Mostly, they were just an extremely secretive organization. They policed the city and monitored visitors, that was what most locals knew about them, and it wasn¡¯t until nearly a decade into their training that trainees learned they did more than that.

    ?Not everyone learns,? Rin said, digging into a frozen desert that had been delivered for her specifically. It glistened in the sunlight, but gave off a slightly off-putting smell, even the servant having been unable to fully hide the grimace on their face as they handed it over. ?Most of the trainees graduate, before learning more. Harmony and I are¡ª ¡­were part of the group who was allowed to continue on. It has only been a few years, and we still do not know much.?

    Information delivered in drips and drabs.

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that your group lessens slowly, as more trainees are deemed ready to graduate?¡±

    ?Naturally.? Rin took a small bite of her desert, eyes squeezing shut in the most expressive look Emilia had seen her wear. Happy, delicious, ecstasy. ?People are stupid,? she added, ignoring the way Key choked on his own food at her words. ?The Guard thins the pack as necessary.?

    So cold.

    Emilia chewed delicately on her own food, melting oddly over her tongue. It wasn¡¯t bad, just strange. ¡°So, what do you know that regular people shouldn¡¯t?¡± she asked, wondering if someone needed to pound Key on the back as he continued to cough, the only sound she had heard come from any of the locals mouths thus far. Even their eating and drinking had been eerily silent.

    ?The heartcores, for one.?

    Key went to say something, eyes wide, surprised that she knew about them, before another coughing fit overtook him.

    ¡°That¡¯s the thing he took me to last night¡ªwas it last night?¡±

    ?Last night¡­ yes. It is late evening, however. You were asleep nearly an entire day.?

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± That was a while, no wonder Rin had assumed she would be hungry.

    ?And yes, Key took you to one of the heartcores.?

    ¡°One of?¡±

    Rin hummed an agreement, looking off towards the other side of the lake. Waves slapped lightly against a dock nearby, red splattering over the heavily stained wood. A collection of birds sat on it, pitch black and squawking when the water dared hit them. It was a dreadful sound.

    ?There are many, buried beneath the cities, guarded by the Enclave.? She turned her gaze onto Key, just recovering his breath. ?He will know more about that.?

    ?Ah¡­ figured that out, did you?? he asked, aethervoice curiously rattled from the stress of his experience. ?Or, did my lovely sister tell you??

    ?It does not take a genius to realize only a member of the Enclave could have passed those guards, once you know enough of the pieces.?

    Key didn¡¯t look convinced¡ªif anything, he looked like a man about to rip his sister to shreds for revealing information she shouldn¡¯t have. Ironic, given he had also admitted she had told him more than she should have about the Risen Guard.

    ?Well,? Rin sighed, fingers drumming against the edge of her bowl, ?in any case, the Enclave and the Risen Guard are something like enemies, each fighting for a different goal. The majority of the population do not know of the Enclave¡¯s existence, however.? She shrugged, telling Emilia that the most basically trained of Risen Guards only knew where some of the access points to heartcores were, knowing nothing about what was within them. They were simply told to report anyone visiting them to their superiors.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°So, they don¡¯t know who or what they¡¯re trying to stop? What do they and locals usually think those Enclave guards are, then? And the people who are allowed into that place? It¡¯s not like the door was hidden, or like we tried to hide going down there.¡± She glanced between the two, Rin looking at Key with pure judgment as he tried and failed to resist fidgeting. ¡°Couldn¡¯t the Risen Guard have seen us go in?¡±

    ?Ah¡­ yes¡­? Key admitted sheepishly, hand once again scratching the back of his neck. ?Normally, we would endeavour to visit at a better time, with transportation or illusion magic¡ªwhich the guards also use to hide themselves and the entrances. I was a bit too hasty. Although, I believe the Risen Guard has magic to tell when a heartcore is activated¡ªas do we. It would not have taken them long to realize you were missing and likely involved, even if we had waited for a more opportune moment.?

    ¡°Has anyone else in this group of visitors activated any?¡± she asked, latching on to him as a potential source of information on her competitors¡ªnot that this had to be part of the raid they were meant to be meddling with. It was still good to keep up with her competition, in any case.

    Key hesitated before admitting he didn¡¯t know. He had heard whispers of a visitor being brought into another Enclave family¡¯s home, but he was unaware they had been taken to any of the heartcores yet.

    ?We as in the Enclave, then?? Rin teased, snickering slightly when he looked at her like he wanted to tell her to fuck off but¡ª

    ¡°You can communicate more, ah¡­ directly, yes? Person to person? Less publicly?¡±

    Rin nodded, while Key actually managed to look embarrassed at having been caught leaving her out of the conversation. Understandable, given how unimpressed he¡¯d been being left out by the two of them just a little while ago.

    ?Sorry,? he told her, actually standing and giving her a fucking bow! ?Rin has been friends with my sister since their early training years. I am comfortable speaking to her in ways I am not in front of relative strangers.?

    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s fine!¡± Emilia said, huffing at Rin when she translated her words as, ?It is a bit rude¡­?

    ¡°Seriously?¡±

    The other girl shrugged, going back to her desert. ?There are very few things in life I find pleasure in. Annoying this guy is one of them.?

    Emilia hummed as she waved Key off, urging him to sit back down and stop apologizing with her body language. He seemed to understand¡­ maybe. Or he just thought she was even more upset, she wasn¡¯t sure.

    ?The Enclave is a rather¡­ diverse group,? Key explained, each word slow and careful. His eyes shifted around them, a whisper of energy warping outwards, searching for any listening ears. ?We do not always cooperate, even if our goals are the same. There is some¡­ prestige, if your family sponsors the victor.?

    Rin scoffed, a flutter of annoyance bursting out of her.

    ¡°You disagree?¡± Emilia asked while Key¡¯s expression darkened.

    ?The Enclave is idealistic. They seek change that is not always good for the world.? She motioned around them, her illusion magic sparking across the grass, transforming everything into a land of colour.

    Emilia gaped, taking in the greens and oranges, the deep blue of the water, just barely touched by the girl¡¯s ability, then it ruptured out of existence and the world returned to red.

    ¡°The result of visitors, and the Enclave?¡±

    ?Yes,? Rin replied, tossing her empty dish towards the table, magic grabbing hold of it with lazy efficiency. ?Visitors bring change. Change is not always good.?

    ?That¡¯s just an excuse to keep things the way they are,? Key broke in, lips pressed tight in anger. His jaw flexed as he told her, ?These latest changes gave the Risen Guard power. Of course, they don¡¯t want to risk a visitor changing the status quo.?

    ?The status quo is better than the situation worsening.?

    ?We are beholden to the Guard. We have no freedom, no choice.?

    ?We have safety. More people die up here, where the laws are treated more as guidelines, than in all the cities combined.?

    Key scoffed, looking away from her as he told her that people dying of injuries was a normal part of life. ?What is a life if there is no fun? No risk? You saw those people yesterday. Didn¡¯t you notice how things have worsened since we were teenagers? You are sequestered near year round in that place,? he practically snarled, his demeanour so different from the soft, cheerful¡ªplayful¡ªboy she had previously seen that it was rather shocking. Even Rin¡¯s expression looked somewhat shocked at the change in her¡­ friend? Were they friends? She had assumed so, but now, she wasn¡¯t quite sure. They had clearly been raised to believe two vastly different things, and¡ª

    ?You make it sound as though their lives are not worth living.?

    ?Can you say they are? Everyone, so afraid the Guard will appear and drag them away¡ªkill them under the claim they are a danger to society.?

    ¡°What kind of things make them do that?¡± Emilia interrupted. As illuminating as their argument was, it seemed to quickly be escalating, the aether around both of them beginning to boil with power that she, quick frankly, was not inclined to be caught in the middle of. She was as powerless as a newborn! She couldn¡¯t handle a magic fight!

    Key rattled off a collection of reasons, which varied from serious¡ªfights that should have been avoidable¡ªto insane¡ªwomen who had dared to bleed out of cycle.

    ¡°They kill women for having an irregular cycle?¡± she asked, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, food long forgotten on the plate in her lap.

    ?Yes,? Key spit out, glaring at Rin and daring her to deny it. She couldn¡¯t, her own expression tight with the reality that something like that was unfair, regardless of what the Risen Guard may want people to believe. ?They¡¯ve even taken women who had miscarriages and early births away. Women are not allowed to bleed in the cities.?

    Emilia¡¯s stomach rolled. Normally, such things weren¡¯t common in Baalphoria, medicine being as advanced as it was, but with the war¡­ So many women had become pregnant during the long decades of war and lost their babies. Stress, doctors focusing on the war effort, women having to flee their homes as the war raged around them. There were so many reasons for a miscarriage¡ªreasons completely out of their control and¡ª

    ?Are you alright??

    Emilia blinked through watery eyes, finding Key kneeling in front of her. He reached a hand up, wiping away a tear as it slipped down her cheek.

    ?I¡¯m sorry. I did not mean to upset you,? he whispered softly, intimately¡ªwords just for her then.

    She could feel Rin¡¯s eyes on her as well, could feel the ugly reality settling into her as well¡ªthe reality that this had become a world where the unpredictability of life and having a body could lead to your death.

    ?Key¡­ I didn¡¯t know,? the other girl said, her voice cracking and almost making Emilia smile because how could a voice that isn¡¯t actually a voice crack? ?They¡­ the laws are altered so often, they do not teach us most until we are to join the force directly.? She swallowed, her hands digging into her loose, pale pink pants. They were nice, the fabric as expensive looking as Key¡¯s clothing¡ªas those children¡¯s had, even from afar. Only the man, Sk¡¯lar¡¯s, had looked more average. Not cheap, but certainly not as nice as the other¡¯s. Now, they were both going to wreck their pants because she was crying. Rin was going to tear holes in hers. Key was going to scuff and stain his.

    All because of her and her heart, aching for the children she hadn¡¯t been able to save, for the people she hadn¡¯t been able to spark to safety fast enough, for the doctors who had been healing her stupid ass rather than being with the people who needed them, for¡ª

    ?Generally, we prefer to keep our visitors happy, not leave them sobbing in our hideouts.?

    Key visibly tensed, eyes growing wide as they all slowly turned towards the old woman now sitting in Key¡¯s seat. She delicately placed a piece of food in her mouth, shaking her head slightly.

    ?Oh, Key, at least request something better than this for our Harbinger.?

 Arc 2 | Chapter 44: Just a Little Lost

    Emilia was pretty damn sure the Stringer Matriarch¡ªwhich was literally what Key and Harmony¡¯s horrible, awful, miserable grandmother had introduced herself as¡ªhated her.

    The feeling was mutual.

    The woman, old and wrinkly and smelling of decay hidden behind a too thick slathering of perfume, was somehow the most severe woman Emilia had ever had the displeasure of encountering¡ªand she had known her fair share of terrible, grumpy, stick in the mud old ladies over the many decades of her life. She also had expectations of Emilia as the Stringer family¡¯s Harbinger Candidate¡ªshe¡¯d made it extra clear that she was currently only a candidate, something Key had tried to argue against. Emilia was sure she wouldn¡¯t last long as a candidate, as she absolutely refused to go along with anyone¡¯s expectations¡ªher brain just wouldn¡¯t let her, and the woman had done absolutely nothing to convince her to cooperate since they had met.

    What kind of woman sneers at another for crying over people killed for miscarrying? The kind of woman who should be pushed into a dumpster fire, that¡¯s who.

    ?Blood is dangerous. Spilling any, no matter the reason, is prohibited and must be punished without hesitation until the world is set right.?

    Emilia had glowered at the woman, mouth pressing into a tight, unhappy line. She could have argued, debated the woman¡¯s horrific views until the raid ended. She had known it would be a waste of breath. People like that rarely changed their views, and even when they did, there were a thousand other, more insidious beliefs buried inside their festering souls.

    Plus, the woman had gone on talking, words never stilling as she talked down to their group. Key was impulsive. Key had endangered them all. Key would be lucky if Rin would be allowed to live after this.

    The Stringer Matriarch hadn¡¯t even bothered to look at the girl she as she spoke, her eyes focused entirely on her grandson. Occasionally, as she reprimanded him for being a ?stupid little boy,? her eyes had flicked to Emilia, searching for something that Emilia had promptly decided she did not have¡ªand if she did, she most certainly wasn¡¯t letting this old bag know about it.

    She had been obstinate after that, refusing to answer questions with anything but the most basic answers or outright lies. This hadn¡¯t exactly made things better for Key, his grandmother eventually having turned to him and told him he had made a bad decision, bringing someone like ?this ill-behaved child here.?

    The last words the woman had said, just as Harmony and a man Emilia eventually learned was her and Key¡¯s father¡ªthe Stringer Matriarch¡¯s son-in-law¡ªarrived, was that Emilia was Key¡¯s problem now. ?The Stringer family will find someone better suited to even be a candidate, let along our Harbinger. Take this child away from here. Leave her to the Risen Guard to dispose of. I do not want to see her again.?

    Honestly, the woman had better hope the Risen Guard did dispose of her because if Emilia ever figured out how to access the system and this world¡¯s magic, the woman was probably going to be on the receiving end of her anger.

    Thankfully, Key had taken his grandmother¡¯s dismissal as a challenge, and now they, along with the rest of Key¡¯s group, were wandering through a city, intent on visiting another heartcore. Or, at least, they had been. Emilia had, rather accidentally, gotten lost.

    It wasn¡¯t her fault, okay!? Her sense of direction had always been rather horrible, as previously noted, and there was just so much to see! Plus, Rin and Harmony had joined their magic together to create a temporary illusion spell for her, turning her hair, eyes and complexion into something closer to that of locals. It wasn¡¯t perfect, and it wouldn¡¯t last long¡ªonly a few hours, apparently, then they¡¯d have to recharge it¡ªbut for the moment no one was giving her more than the occasional double take.

    So, when Emilia had stalled for a moment¡ªjust a second, really¡ªand then turned to find her new friends gone? Disappeared into the early morning crowd? Well, it wasn¡¯t like she could just stand there and wait for them to come back. She¡¯d wandered off the main road, following a mouthwatering smell down an alley, and used some of the money Key had given her for emergencies¡ªand her now grumbly tummy was totally an emergency¡ªto buy some sort of sweet, warm dessert. It was delicious, and Emilia had turned back and gotten a second helping before reaching the end of the street.

    She was wandering through the streets now, listening to the people talk. It was so much louder now, the aether vibrating around her with words of all volumes and privacy. Children giggled around her, parents beginning to appear to usher them towards schools. People¡ªmostly men¡ªwere making their ways towards the giant doors at the centre of each of this city¡¯s walls, just as wide and towering as the ones of that first city. Doors that led to elevators that would take them away to their jobs, she was able to glean by eavesdropping on the locals.

    The most interesting thing she learned¡ªconfirmed, really¡ªhowever, wasn¡¯t from the city itself, but from the fact that Key couldn¡¯t find her with that aether jumping magic of his. He had brought them into the city, onto a landing pad of sorts. Combined with what she had seen the day before, with the way she had seen the aether bend with him as he moved around her room, she had guessed the magic could only move him to a specific place. In other words, he couldn¡¯t use it to find a specific person¡ªto find her.

    That was fine by her, she was perfectly content to explore. She¡¯d been told the basics of where this city¡¯s heartcore was and would come across the library that housed it eventually. The worst that would happen is she would die, which, to be honest, she wasn¡¯t completely convinced she could do. She had no particular proof of that, just an unsettling feeling that even if she hurled herself down an elevator shaft she¡¯d somehow survive¡ªor, at least, her consciousness wouldn¡¯t return to her body until the raid ended. She didn¡¯t exactly want to die¡ªeven if platforms could mitigate some of the unpleasantness of virtual death, that didn¡¯t mean it would¡ªbut knowing she couldn¡¯t escape this place by offing herself was a bit unsettling. It would have been nice to have an emergency out.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Emilia paused as she passed a store, the bright red circle above the door having drawn her eye. Most of the businesses had some sort of foreign writing over them, but this one had nothing but the circle. The inside of the store was dark, when she pushed into it, the hinges of the door loose and rattling. Thick red curtains were pulled over all the windows, thick streaks of the light eating substance smeared over the walls and ceilings and robbing the world of its light. Even through the dark, she could see a thin layer of dust settled over nearly every surface.

    ¡°Hello?¡± she called out, immediately smacking herself in the head. ¡°Seriously? ¡®Hello?¡¯ As though we aren¡¯t supposed to be pretending to be a local who can¡¯t speak? Dumbass,¡± she scolded herself. Harmony had been the one to point out, when they had been discussing the issue of travelling with someone who couldn¡¯t communicate via the aether, that there were some locals whose grip of magic was so fleeting that they couldn¡¯t speak. It was rare, yes, but not unheard of. With her colouring shifted to something natural, people were more likely to assume she was muted, rather than a visitor in disguise.

    That only worked as long as she didn¡¯t fuck up and speak!

    ?Hello, miss,? a voice called out to her, young and quiet, and when Emilia located the source of the voice she was unsurprised to find a small girl. ?You don¡¯t look like most visitors.?

    ¡°No?¡± Emilia asked, smiling at the child. She was cute, with her long waves and big, bright eyes, her pupils dilated in the dim light.

    The girl shook her head vigorously. ?Nuh-uh! Granny said visitors never know to look like us. Said the visitors don¡¯t spread information about this place in their world.?

    That was about what she had heard from the Stringer Matriarch, that visitors rarely arrived with information about this world.

    ?They come often enough, that many say they are surprised there is so little information circulating among the pros¡ªwhatever that means. Perhaps that has changed??

    It had been like pulling teeth, trying to get the damn woman to tell her why she thought it might have changed, and by the time she finally told her, Emilia had been angry enough to lie to her.

    ?The last time visitors arrived, there was no Harbinger. Blood magic is taboo in your world, is what each of our candidates told us. They considered it unnatural and could not think of ways in which to utilize it. They failed to find the system, and we remain as we are, with blood destroying the world and the Risen Guard gaining more power with each passing day.?

    ¡°Blood is the key to accessing the system?¡± Emilia had asked, fingers tapping over her chair, toes wiggling and legs flexing as the Stringer Matriarch explained that the last Blessing of the Harbinger¡ªthe world altering change visitors were apparently capable of bestowing on the platform¡ªwas always the key to finding the system for the next batch of visitors.

    ?Stop that!? the woman had hissed, face twitching with annoyance as she glared at Emilia¡¯s tapping fingers. ?It is unbecoming for you to fidget. Didn¡¯t anyone ever teach you to sit still??

    ¡°Yes, actually, someone did. I eventually pushed them into the ocean,¡± Emilia had wanted to say.

    Instead, she had smiled politely, and she forced her limbs to chill, before lying to the bitch, explaining that there was a war in their world a decade previous. This, the woman, as well as Key and Rin, had known, most platforms having been created since the war ended. What they hadn¡¯t known was how secretive the government was about what had occurred during the war.

    ¡°Slowly, more information is being released,¡± Emilia had told them, Key and Rin tensely watching their conversation. That part was true. The government was slowly releasing bits of information about what had occurred during the war, but what she told them after that, that the government had revealed that one of the most powerful soldiers of the war had used blood magic¡ªblood skills¡ªover the course of the war? That that person had brought the war to an end through blood and destruction? Well, it was true that she had done those things, but the government certainly hadn¡¯t revealed it to anyone.

    Would that information make it back to other Harbinger Candidates? Probably, but if she ever ran into them, she¡¯d just convince them she made it up. She was good at lying to people, and there were so few blood skills¡ªnone of which were in the public domain¡ªthat she was pretty sure most people wouldn¡¯t believe the tale about blood skills being used by war heroes anyways.

    She also wasn¡¯t completely convinced the old woman¡¯s story was true because even she knew enough about platforms to know that while blood skills and magics weren¡¯t exactly common, neither were they unheard of. For no one to have been willing to interact with this world¡¯s blood magic? Something about that didn¡¯t seem right, although she had no idea whether the Stringer Matriarch was lying or if the visitors had decided not to cooperate with the Enclave, for whatever reason.

    Emilia smiled at the little girl, telling her that it was simply a coincidence that her colouring was similar to the locals.

    The girl nodded sagely, as though she had known all along that Emilia must just be lucky, and it occurred to her that what was weird was that the girl could hear her.

    ¡°You¡¯re not like other locals,¡± she noted, trying not to laugh when the girl¡¯s eyes flew wide, and she slapped her hands to her ears, as though that would cover the fact that her hearing was less reduced than was typical¡ªnot to mention having some way to translate her words.

    ?Her grandfather was a visitor,? a man said, appearing in a nearby doorway, his bulky frame taking up the entirety of it. The girl bolted towards him, hiding behind his leg. An echo of an apology surrounded the pair, and the man gently pat her on the head. ?Why don¡¯t you go play, little one.?

    The girl nodded, giving Emilia a wary look before disappearing further into the building.

    The man gave Emilia an assessing look, eyes scanning slowly over her before he stepped forward. ?You lied to my daughter. That is illusion magic,? he stated as he came to stand behind the counter. He didn''t exactly look mad that she had lied to his child, more cautious of her general existence in the shop¡ªmore concerned that she knew something she shouldn¡¯t.

    Emilia shrugged, holding the man¡¯s gaze as she said, ¡°I figured it was better that she doesn''t realize I was trying to hide in plain sight. I suppose, since you two are the same, I probably don¡¯t have much to worry about.¡± She winked conspiratorially at the man. ¡°I won¡¯t tell anyone if you don¡¯t.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 45: Gotta Listen

    ¡°Just kidding,¡± Emilia cheered, smiling at the man. ¡°Even if you turn me in, I¡¯m not gonna say anything about you. It¡¯s not really any of my business.¡±

    She shrugged, turning away from the man to look around the store. It really was incredibly dusty, looking as though no one actually frequented it. Small fingerprints had been wiped through the dusty shelves, the little girl wandering about no doubt, but aside from a few items, almost nothing looked like it had been touched in ages.

    ¡°What kind of store is this?¡± she asked, glancing back at the man, unsurprised to find him watching her with assessing eyes. ¡°Not the kind most locals frequent, I¡¯m guessing?¡±

    ?No¡­? he finally said, blinking those dark eyes at him. He leaned back against the shelves behind the counter, crossing thick arms over his chest, and for just a moment, light caught over his eyes¡ªhis deep green eyes. ?We have a very¡­ specific clientele.? His lips twitched before magic burst out of him, smashing through the room and locking them inside¡ªor the world out.

    ¡°What kind of clientele?¡± Emilia asked, ignoring the vague threat of separation. She was separated not just from her kinda-sorta new friends but from her whole damn world¡ªfrom her whole past as well, before all this. A little barrier spell wasn¡¯t enough to do anything other than attract her curiosity.

    The man tilted his head, considering her, before telling her they served a less than legal crowd. ?Magic is forbidden to most¡ªah, perhaps the Enclave has already explained that to you??

    Emilia shook her head. ¡°Nope,¡± she popped out, bouncing on her feet like a small child, the sugary dessert starting to run wild through her digital nervous system. She wanted to move, run, fly through the sky and books and talk people¡¯s ears off. Couldn¡¯t. She needed to listen. She¡¯d gotten better than shutting her mouth, even when she didn¡¯t want to, over the years. ¡°My conversations with them have been kinda disjointed? Then the bitchy matriarch arrived, and I got almost nothing of value out of her.¡±

    ?The Stringer family, then?? he asked, giving her an apologetic look when she nodded. ?We are not associated with the Enclave anymore, but my mother was, before she ran away with my father. I heard enough stories from her about the families. The Stringer family¡­ they were once sponsors with a well established record. Many of their Harbingers won Blessings for them¡ªtrue Blessings, that did good for this world, not the Curses that sometimes occur, not that many people willingly refer to them as such.?

    ¡°So, what? Something happened to bring down their reputation? Was the one that brought about the blood curse one of theirs?¡±

    The man shook his head. ?No, but their Harbinger should have been the one to win the Blessing. Instead, they gave it to another. My mother told me that the repercussions to their family wouldn¡¯t have been as severe if their Harbinger had caused it directly. Giving their right to the Blessing away¡­?

    Emilia hummed in understanding. It was like doing horrible on a group project. Leaving all the work to your team and getting a shitty grade was worse than if you¡¯d actually tried and still gotten that shit grade. At least try, if you¡¯re gonna fail. ¡°Why¡¯d they give it up?¡±

    The man¡¯s lips quirked. ?Love.?

    She rolled her eyes, unable to help smiling when a ripple of amusement rolled off the man. ¡°Love, but of course.¡±

    ?Hey now, don¡¯t knock love. I only exist because my mom was an idiot who fell in love with a visitor.?

    ¡°Is that not allowed?¡± she asked, looking over the man. He didn¡¯t exactly look part visitor, aside from the eyes¡ªnot that her real body looked much different than the locals in anything other than colouring, either. It wasn¡¯t like he held himself differently, or spoke differently. He just existed, same as anyone else. The only real difference seemed to be that he could hear her.

    ?It isn¡¯t forbidden¡ªat least, it wasn¡¯t when visitors last came. My mother¡¯s circumstances may have changed that.?

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Emilia said, feeling the tension rise in the room. Dropping the subject, then. ¡°So, most people aren¡¯t allowed to use magic? I¡¯d kinda figured, since I haven¡¯t really seen anyone using it in the cities.¡± Even the elevators, which Emilia figured would run much faster with the use of magic, didn¡¯t seem to utilize any. ¡°You used magic just now, though. Are you allowed?¡±

    ?Shopkeepers can use magic to protect their stores, if they are able. We are not encouraged to learn, but neither are we denied use of barrier magic if we manage to learn on our own or from another shopkeeper.? The man looked away from her for the first time, off towards the door.

    Emilia followed his gaze, watching as a shadow fidgeted in the light slipping under the door. ¡°Should you get that?¡±

    ?No. They will come back later, if it is important,? the man told her, his tone implying that it probably wasn¡¯t very important, and he would be glad if whoever it was left.

    After a moment, the shadow disappeared, whoever had been trying to enter the store slipping away.

    ?Magic is thought to be too dangerous,? he continued, eyes shifting back to her. ?Once, before blood became destructive, it was widely used. Now, the Risen Guard and upper class are the only official users.? The man¡¯s nose wrinkled in distaste as he explained you needed training to be allowed to use magic, but that training was only available with money or the approval of the Guard.

    ?People still train in secret,? he added. ?The Risen Guard cannot extinguish magic entirely from the poor.?

    ¡°Especially not when the child of an upper-class lady and a visitor is running the local underground magic school~¡± Emilia teased, glancing towards the doorway the man had appeared from.

    ?Ah~? the man sighed dramatically. ?How did you ever guess my secret??

    ¡°I¡¯m very, very smart,¡± she said sternly, frowning severely at him. ¡°Don¡¯t imagine you¡¯d be willing to teach me a bit of that good ol¡¯magic, eh?¡±

    The lingering humour vanished from the man¡¯s eyes. ?It won¡¯t do you any good without access to the system. My mother tried to teach my father, but he could never do anything more than directly affect things with aether and haphazardly use his core energy. Useful in an emergency, she said. Useless in regular life.?

    ¡°Don¡¯t imagine you know how to access the system?¡±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ?Nope. Didn¡¯t the Stringer family tell you the visitors failed last round??

    ¡°They did, I was just hoping that woman lied to me¡ªor someone lied to her.¡± Emilia tapped her fingers across a dusty table as she thought about that possibility. If the Stringers were on bad terms with the rest of the Enclave, they could mean any information she received through them was unreliable¡ªeven more unreliable than she¡¯d already thought them.

    ?They did not lie, however¡­? The man hesitated, looking back towards the doorway for a long moment. ?Come with me.?

    Emilia skipped happily behind him as they exited the main shop, the man leaving the magic he had sealed the shop closed with active. The hallway they entered was just as dark and dreary as the front was, smelling mildly of a musky dampness that made Emilia want to sneeze.

    ¡°My name¡¯s Emilia, by the way,¡± she said. She¡¯d somehow fallen into a bad habit of not giving her name here, probably because her guard hadn¡¯t ever bothered to ask her, only learning it after she told him in an attempt to learn his. He hadn¡¯t told her his name, which was annoying when talking or thinking about him. Well, she supposed it didn''t matter much anymore, not when she might very well never see him again.

    ?Zach,? the man told her in return, pushing open a door that led downwards.

    ¡°Ooh~ down~¡± Emilia sighed as they began their descent. ¡°I liked my last time going down, even if I¡¯m so totally done with stairs. Those ones led into a giant cave, though? Under another city?¡±

    ?There are a few cities like that. My mother told me several contain heartcores.?

    ¡°What are the heartcores?¡± she asked, accidentally running into Zach¡¯s back when he stalled on the stairs.

    ?Did the Stringers not tell you?? he asked, turning back towards her. Even in the near black stairwell, this close, Emilia could make out the angry expression pulled over his face.

    ¡°No really? They were kinda¡­ hand wavy about it? All ?you¡¯ll see eventually??¡± she said, rubbing her nose. It was running under the trauma of being rammed into the thickset man¡¯s back, but given the lack of aether activity, it didn¡¯t seem to be bleeding.

    The man grumbled to himself as he turned, and they began to work their way down the stairs again, something about irresponsible sponsors. Emilia couldn¡¯t really disagree, but she was choosing to believe Key and the others didn¡¯t know much more than they were telling her. Key knew the heartcores were important, yes, but his entire vibe was one of someone pretending they knew more than they did, and that there were reasons as to why he wasn¡¯t telling her much yet, rather than that he just didn¡¯t know. It wasn¡¯t exactly his fault, and having his help was better than not, so she had decided to just go with the flow. They¡¯d all figure things out eventually.

    ?People born within this world have a natural connection to the heartcores. Our magic exists because of them. Each heartcore connects to a different strain of magic, and the closer our birthplace to each heartcore, the more powerful our connection to them. People like to think that women are taken to special locations to give birth because of the blood. In reality, our people have been doing that for generations.?

    ¡°Yet, magic is largely forbidden now?¡±

    ?Yes, and the Risen Guard has closed many of the more powerful birthing homes to all but their own families. The upper class retain several private homes, as well.?

    ¡°Ah~¡± Emilia said, before tripping when she tried to step down another step, not having realized they had reached a landing.

    Zach twisted and grabbed her arm, his movements too fast to have been natural. ?Careful,? he said, tone the same as what she imagined he used on his daughter when she tripped.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± she cheered, straightening herself up and shooting him a wide smile he probably couldn¡¯t see in the dark, although, who knew what kind of magic he possessed. ¡°Why are there no lights down here?¡±

    ?This place is made of material that consumes the light.¡±

    ¡°Like the stuff that¡¯s on the ceilings?¡±

    ?Yes. It is often mined for such purposes. Countering it is difficult, and expensive. It is also rare, and the Risen Guard and Enclave often hoard what is available,? Zach said, dragging her down the hall because he apparently didn¡¯t trust her not to fall again, which, fair. ?We get the counters we can and use it where it is most important.?

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, trying to ignore the vague feeling of guilt at having asked such an inconsiderate question. She already knew the people here were far poorer than the Stringers, and even with his magic, she could tell this man wasn¡¯t well-off. ¡°The heartcores can connect visitors to magic the way it does the locals? But, you said I can¡¯t use magic without access to the system?¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°So¡­ visiting the heartcores is somewhat immature?¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°Great¡­¡±

    ?After visiting one or two more, you will likely acquire the ability to communicate in our language, but it will also attract more attention of the Risen Guard. They watch known heartcore locations diligently, but especially during visitations.?

    The hallway broke off into three directions, Zach leading them down the right path, which bent and twisted before beginning to decline downwards, the stone beneath their feet slowly growing more uneven as they went.

    ¡°They watch them all the time?¡± Key definitely hadn¡¯t mentioned that. He had only said the Risen Guard likely had magic that monitored the cores.

    ?Yes. It is possible for locals to visit and increase their power¡ªalthough that is increasingly uncommon¡ªhowever, this is not well known, and the Enclave guards the entrances to most. Previously, they did not stop anyone capable of seeing through their illusions from entering; however, that has changed in the last few decades.?

    ¡°Maybe to keep the Risen Guard from getting into them and increasing their power?¡±

    ?It¡¯s a contributing factor. I believe the Enclave families have become more¡­ intense and dogmatic as the decades have worn on. They complain that the Risen Guard is hoarding power, but if they were allowed to take that power for themselves, the Enclave most certainly would.?

    ¡°You are way more helpful than the Enclave was,¡± Emilia mused as they exited the tunnel into a large training room, lit up by the rare, glowing paint, smeared across the walls and ceiling in cartoonish designs. ¡°Why? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m grateful for your help, but considering I just fell into your lap¡­¡±

    The man glanced back at her, green eyes glowing slightly. He wasn¡¯t exactly the most attractive man, which Emilia had already guessed based on what she could see through the dark, and was older than she¡¯d guessed based on his attitude and voice, appearing just slightly younger than the Stringer Matriarch, who was apparently in her early 60s.

    ¡°How old are you?¡± she asked abruptly, quickly clarifying that she was just curious about how long ago the last group of visitors had come. That was another thing the Stringer Matriarch had refused to answer her on, and while her guard had made it sound like it wasn¡¯t that long ago, she had a feeling he wasn¡¯t being upfront with her about the timeline either.

    ?I¡¯m almost eighty,? he said, glancing upwards and adding, ?Yes, my daughter is very young, and I have aged well.?

    Emilia laughed, telling him that in their world, people as old as 375 were known to have children. Not well-thought-out children, but children nonetheless.

    ?That is old¡­? Zach said, leading her towards another set of doors.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t realized how huge and gaping the room was until they actually entered it. The ceilings stretched high above them, marks across the walls reminding her of scars that had marred the walls of their own training rooms, in her world. A dozen training dummies were set into the floor, surrounded by complicated circles of red, which Emilia assumed were magical. They seemed to call in aether in the same way that engravings in their own world did, although these days those engravings were so fine they could barely be seen as more than intricate designs by the naked eye. Sometimes, even the designs were left out, and you couldn¡¯t tell an item was engraved until it was activated.

    ?People here are lucky to make it to my age,? he said darkly, hand hesitating around the doorknob. ?I have heard that once you get to my age, diseases become too common. The Risen Guard¡ª?

    ¡°Takes people away to mercilessly kill them?¡±

    ?Yes. I am lucky, and am aging slower than most.?

    ¡°Perhaps because of your father?¡±

    ?Perhaps. There are very few records of children like me, and what I know comes from my mother¡¯s knowledge, from before she met my father and left her family.?

    Emilia hummed in awkward understanding. Rumours and broken truths, passed down from mother to son, with no idea how accurate any of it was.

    ?So, are you ready to learn a bit more about magic?? Zach asked, pushing the door open.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 46: Options and Memories

    ¡°So, why are you helping me?¡± Emilia asked as they headed out of the training rooms and back up to the shop. She¡¯d been tempted to ask earlier, but there was a good chance he either didn¡¯t know and drawing attention to that fact would change his mind, or she didn¡¯t want to know the answer. If someone wanted you to owe them in the future, for instance, it was easier to refuse after you already had what you wanted. It wasn¡¯t your fault they didn¡¯t ask for an IOU before giving!

    ?My father was an extremely kind man, according to my mother. I was born long after he left this world, but she told me as many stories as she could about him.?

    ¡°It must have been hard, for him to disappear once the visit was over,¡± Emilia mused quietly, one hand dragging along the rough walls of the hallway upwards while the other held her new ¡°Notebook of Magical Facts¡± to her chest. It was a strange item¡ªfor this world, anyways¡ªbeing a more normal type of paper. She¡¯d even given herself a paper cut on it, more out of curiosity than anything else, and accidentally burnt a hole in one of the tables.

    Zach had not been impressed, and she¡¯d behaved¡ªmore or less¡ªfrom then on.

    ?He died before the¡­ what was the word you used for your visit??

    ¡°Raid, although some people would just call it a game. Your dad died before the raid ended?¡±

    Zach nodded, the movement slight in the near darkness. ?He was killed trying to access the system. He wanted to help the people of this world.? He hesitated a moment, the tension palpable through the air, before he asked whether his father was still alive.

    ¡°Probably,¡± Emilia told him, explaining that at most a decade would have passed in her world between the last batch of visitors and this one¡ªmost raid platforms had only been created after the war¡ªbut it was likely far less. ¡°It could have even been a few hours our time, actually.¡± It wasn¡¯t unusual for platform maintainers to speed though time between raids, so the platform¡¯s environment would be substantially different for the next group. It kept people from cheating too badly, especially in events like these. It wouldn¡¯t exactly be fair if Zach¡¯s father came back, already having an ally, for instance.

    That said, the whole ¡°anything goes¡± thing implied that platform maintainers would consider that fair, even if other heroes wouldn¡¯t.

    ?Do you think he could have come back? That he could be inside this raid?? Zach asked, voice barely more than a whisper.

    Emilia deflated slightly. ¡°That¡¯s a hard question to answer. If the last raid was only a few hours ago, probably not. Our brains can¡¯t take that amount of stress so close together, plus¡­ there was no indication what platform¡ªwhat world¡ªthis raid was. Even if he could come back¡­¡±

    ?He wouldn¡¯t have known this was the world he left a family behind in,? Zach finished. He sounded as though he had already expected that answer, maybe from his mother. If you were in love with a visitor, of course you would try to learn if they could ever return. Still, it broke Emilia¡¯s heart a little, to think of this man, never having met his father¡ªof that father, never being able to return to his loved ones. Perhaps he had even tried to return, but been unable to find this raid¡ªor worse, had found it, but been unable to join.

    Parents were important, even if she was currently avoiding hers. That wasn¡¯t because they didn¡¯t love each other, though. If anything, it was because they loved each other too much¡ªbecause Emilia deserved to be treated like a naughty child who had run off during a tantrum. Instead, they were more likely to smother her in affection and cookies, and her guilt would swell until she burst apart.

    She wouldn¡¯t be surprised if only a mass of blood and muscle was all that remained of her after her parent¡¯s love destroyed her. Better to just avoid them.

    ¡°Do you know his name?¡± she asked as they reached the top of the stairs, Zach pushing the heavy hidden door open for them and ushering her through.

    ?Why?? he asked, suspicion suddenly tight in his voice.

    Emilia rolled her eyes as she made her way back to the front of the store. ¡°Because, if I know his name, I might be able to find him in my world. It won¡¯t let you meet him, but maybe he¡¯d like to know that he had a kid and a granddaughter.¡± She smiled, adding that if she managed to win this thing, she could also brag that his son had helped save the world.

    ?You will have to gain access to the system before you can save the world,? Zach said, although when his eyes met hers, there was something soft and yearning hidden in them.

    ¡°True~¡± Emilia sighed, long and hard. That was just for dramatic effect, of course, in case anyone had gotten through Zach¡¯s security barrier¡ªwhich were notoriously unreliable, especially against the Enclave and the Risen Guard, according to him¡ªand was listening. They¡¯d already discussed the problem of how to access the system below, with Zach giving her all the information he knew about what the last batch of visitors had tried, in their own attempts to access it.

    The list had been extensive and horrific¡ªsome visitors, under the guidance of their Enclave sponsors, had bled out both locals and other visitors, in an attempt to see if more blood was the key. It was not, and instead they¡¯d just left a trail of bodies and trauma behind them.

    When she heard stories like that, Emilia hasn¡¯t completely sure the Enclave wasn¡¯t just as bad as the Risen Guard. They could be even worse now, if this is what they had been willing to do nearly a century earlier. In Emilia¡¯s experience, people and organizations didn¡¯t generally get better with age, they rotted until someone came along to hurl them into a trash pile.

    Emilia was quite willing to do that, at least with people like the Stringer Matriarch¡ªthe jury was still out on the other members she¡¯d met. They seemed nice enough, but anyone who grew up in that kind of society, where such terrible beliefs were normalized? She had seen Beth struggle with the beliefs growing up in sub-50 culture had drilled into her. Her friend might have left for her safety and sanity¡ªnot to mention that whole happiness thing¡ªbut Emilia still saw phantom traces of those beliefs from time to time, toxic and terrifying.

    Seven had been even worse off. For all she had ever been able to tell about the quiet young man, forced to join the war effort by parents seeking more power and influence, he hadn¡¯t exactly believed in the rules that governed the lives of most sub-50s, but he knew his place in a way Beth hadn¡¯t. They might have both been new gen sub-30s¡ªtheir families way out of the sub-50s and into the sub-30 Penns¡ªbut they had treated it so differently. Where Beth had run, Seven had dulled himself, becoming the sad shell of a boy she had fought alongside.

    She had seen moments of his brightness, his humour and kindness, but the shadows of obligations and cruelty had always followed him. Then the war had latched onto him, and like herself and James, he had vanished in the chaos of the days after the war ended. His parents were still looking for him, as far as she knew, their golden child gone from their control.

    Even she and Rafe had been unable to find him, for all the access to the OIC System they had between them and their connections. Seven didn¡¯t want to be found, and the OIC System wasn¡¯t about to give him up, only ever telling them that he was safe, and he was working on being happy, something it had taken to doing once a year, as though it knew they cared¡ªknew they worried for the soft, kind little boy they had once known.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The OIC System, if you thought about it too much, was a little creepy. Kind, but creepy and somewhat overbearing.

    ?Emilia?? Zach called, dragging her attention back to the current moment.

    ¡°Ah¡­ sorry. Got lost in thought.¡±

    The look Zach gave her was the same one he had been giving her all day¡ªone that said, ?Again??

    ¡°So?¡± Emilia asked, bouncing on her heels in the dusty store. ¡°Name? No name?¡±

    The man¡¯s fingers brushed over an item, less dusty than the rest, but even in the dim light Emilia could make out dust stuck in the crevices of the intricate designs covering it¡ªalthough, oddly, she couldn¡¯t make out what the item itself was.

    ?Remy. He never gave a last name.?

    ¡°Remy, eh¡­ Don¡¯t know anyone by that name.¡± Not directly, anyways.

    She knew there was a Remy who regularly ranked in the Top Ten, although he operated almost exclusively out of the Penns. Personally, she didn¡¯t care, but she¡¯d heard Elijah and his friends bitching about the young hero quite often, claiming it was unfair that people could use custom willbrands within raids as though they themselves didn¡¯t have custom willbrands. Granted, their willbrands were most certainly far cheaper than whatever someone from the Penns was using, but they were still custom and far better than the shit the government gave out.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see if I can find him,¡± she told Zach after she had relayed information about her potential lead to him, although she omitted the fact that she was pretty sure the Remy she knew of was still a child, in the eyes of her world, being in his early 20s, if that. ¡°I doubt he would be able to meet you, but maybe he could arrange to meet your daughter. Sometimes the platform maintainers will let heroes¡ªvisitors¡ªreturn outside of events for things like this.¡± It was rare, but it happened. Having children within raids was itself rare, most systems sterilizing heroes in order to avoid such things. There had been¡­ issues, in the past. If not for Zach¡¯s eyes, she might have assumed his mother had lied about his parentage.

    ?Thank you,? Zach said after a long moment, his fingers still dragging over the unidentifiable item, before he flipped the top off it using a series of complicated motions. He pulled out a small greyish stone that glowed faintly. He wrapped one of his large hands around it, the glow growing until it was so bright that his hand glowed.

    The aether shuddered. Once, twice, before it surged in towards Zach¡¯s hand, so powerful it briefly became visible. Then, everything was silent. The glow was gone and when the man opened his hand, the stone had turned a matte black.

    ?For you, in case of emergency,? he said, handing her the stone.

    It was heavy in her hand¡ªeven heavier than the much larger {Blood Orb}, which she had rather forcibly taken back possession of from the Stringer siblings, along with her {Blood Dagger}. They hadn¡¯t exactly wanted to give them to her, concerned that she would take her dangerous magical items and disappear into the wind, which, she supposed, was precisely what she had done. She was planning to meet back up with them, though! So she¡¯d only temporarily absconded with them! And even if she did take off and never look back, they were hers! She had a right to be in possession of them, thanks.

    ?I have poured the majority of my magic into that,? Zach continued, his voice and breathing laboured as the effects of his decision to drain himself of magic caught up with him. ?It is effectively a bomb. Slip a bit of her core energy into it, and get as far away from it as possible.?

    ¡°How long will I have?¡± she asked, giving a dramatic sigh when Zach told her somewhere between 10 seconds and 3 minutes.

    ?Take this as well,? he said, pulling a ring he had grabbed from the training rooms below from his pocket. ?It was a gift from my father to my mother¡ªone of the blood weapons he created. It requires physical contact with its target, and will be¡­ messy. Several of the other blood weapons he created were a result of using this in battle.?

    ¡°Lots of blood then, awesome.¡± They might have determined that bleeding someone out wouldn¡¯t get her access to the system, but it did seem that there were no limits on the number of blood weapons visitors could make, and the more blood, the more powerful the victim¡¯s magic, the stronger the weapon. Not that bleeding anyone out was on her to-do list, but it was good information to have!

    Any information about what hadn¡¯t worked to gain access to the system was useful, and she had several pages in her book dedicated solely to noting all the things Zach knew had been tried by the previous batch of visitors. There was also a shorter list of ideas Zach had come up with over the years, all to be attempted before she resorted to the one they mutually agreed was the most likely. As likely as it was to grant her system access, it was also, unfortunately, the most dangerous. Not just to Emilia¡ªor anyone else who attempted it¡ªbut potentially to the platform itself. Therefore, last to try. Definitely.

    Zach had also informed her of yet another tidbit of information, during his crash course on magic, that the Stringer family had not: the Risen Guard had ways of tracking visitors via aether use.

    ?My mother believed that they were capable of tracking visitors based on their use of the aether. My father was only found after he used direct aether magic in an emergency. I would not be surprised if they have developed ways for tracking the use of more magically inclined blood weapons as well.?

    Emilia had drawn a tiny man with black exploding out of him. Zach was not a fan of her doodles. She¡¯d taken actual notes, of course, her rarely used handwriting sloppy and only half-legible over the pages of her notebook. She¡¯d learned a lot from him, though, even if it was premature.

    ?I can teach you, so when you gain access to the system, you will be better prepared.?

    His confidence that she would gain access was both encouraging and terrifying, especially as he gave her more tips about his world, their magic and the system. Previously, it had felt like if she failed, she¡¯d just be annoyed. She¡¯d have to pay for tickets to Ship¡¯o Stars or plan to go another time, after she won tickets in a less intense raid. Annoying, but not the end of the world.

    Now, she had not just his hopes and decades of research resting on her, but the hope and safety of the people of this world, forced to live in fear and oppression because the system had decided to fuck with them.

    ?This as well,? the older man said, holding out another, smaller stone to her, the kind he had said could be used to hold magic sequences. He¡¯d already given her a whole collection, now safely tucked away in the satchel Harmony had begrudgingly given her that morning in order to hold her weapons.

    She hastily stuffed the apparently very dangerous black stone inside the bag, along with her notebook¡ªvaguely wondering why she hadn¡¯t put it in there earlier¡ªbefore accepting the small stone. Unlike the other magic stones Zach had given her, this one was completely round with no engravings over its smooth, cool outer layer. She held it up to the sparse light, catching sight of what appeared to be engravings inside it.

    ?A message, for¡­ for my father,? Zach said quietly. He was looking away from her, his dark skin sweaty from the exertion of creating the black stone for her. He looked like he needed to go lie down¡ªsoon, before he passed out on the floor.

    ¡°From you?¡±

    The man shook his head, staring off into the back of his shop. Something scuffed across the floor, and then his daughter was peeking around the door frame, her wide red eyes watching them anxiously. ?From my mother.?

    Emilia swallowed, looking back down at the precious stone.

    ?When you can access the system, you may be able to find a way to take her words with you. If not, you may listen to it¡ªtry to relay the message to my father, if you find him.? Something in his voice told Emilia that, for one, he would prefer she didn¡¯t have to listen to it, and two, he wasn¡¯t completely convinced she would find his father¡ªmaybe wasn¡¯t even convinced that she would follow through and try.

    ¡°I will find a way to access the system,¡± Emilia promised him. He had faith in her¡ªblind faith, but faith nonetheless¡ªso she would have faith in herself as well. ¡°I will find a way to get her message to him.¡±

    Zach nodded, taking a shaky step towards his daughter. ?Little one, could you dissipate my barrier, so our guest can leave?? he asked as he reached her, his hand landing heavy against the door frame.

    The little girl nodded vigorously, eyes clamping shut. Her mouth moved slightly, reciting an optional summoning spell, meant to help her concentrate, then the barrier was gone, fading back into the aether.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Emilia said to them, her hand wrapping so tightly around the stone that her nails dug into her palm. She needed to find a safe place to put it¡ªsafer than her bag, definitely. She smiled at the little girl. ¡°Can you get your father to bed?¡±

    The little girl straightened, looking offended that Emilia had even asked. ?Of course!?

    ¡°Good,¡± she replied, hesitating a moment before turning to leave the store. There was no good way to say goodbye to these people, no comforting words to give. She wouldn¡¯t be back¡ªcouldn¡¯t even if she wanted to, each visit a risk to their safety, a chance that the Risen Guard would visit them as well.

    The door rattled open, and she stepped outside into the busy, late afternoon street.

    ¡°Alright,¡± she thought to herself, pulling the door softly closed behind her, ¡°time to find that library.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 47: Not a Good Cover Story

    Emilia was sure, that if she could only focus hard enough, she could tune out the sound of Harmony droning on and on about responsibility and how inconsiderate she was. The girl really did enjoy lording over people, even her brother cringing away from her as she let all her frustrations go on Emilia.

    Sk¡¯lar seemed the least put out by her ranting, although he didn¡¯t try to stop her, either. Emilia had the feeling there was more to the man and his relationship with the Stringer siblings than they were letting on. Key had vaguely told her he was a childhood friend, but unless he had aged particularly badly, he was clearly at least a decade older than them.

    He also still gave Emilia the creeps, although she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on why. It wasn¡¯t exactly the same as the feeling people with black knots gave her, nor the feeling of someone who was simply dangerous¡ªwhich she had no doubt he was. There was something else to him, something mysterious and most certainly more frightening than even a black knot or skill that could destroy the entire world was.

    Emilia had known more than a few people with world ending abilities, usually they were just regular people, although that was probably because The Black Knot swiped up people with personality issues pretty damn fast. Well, criminal organizations snatched them up too, but they generally weren¡¯t any more interested in destroying the world than the government.

    It probably wasn¡¯t the best idea to try to judge the tall, seemingly laid-back man based on her own world¡¯s fucked up way of managing dangerous people, though. The better plan was to treat him with a distant respect and hope whatever was up with him wasn¡¯t going to be a problem for her.

    Emilia yawned as Harmony continued ranting on. They were making their way through the library, which was maintained by an Enclave member who had helpfully closed the doors due to a ¡°sudden staff shortage,¡± and kicked everyone but them out. It wasn¡¯t exactly the most subtle of plans, but by the time the truly scary members of the Risen Guard managed to get word of the library¡¯s odd hours, they would hopefully be long gone.

    ?You cannot jump from just anywhere,? Key had explained when she¡¯d asked about what was stopping the Risen Guard in the city from using the technique to go alert the higher ups before Harmony had started going off on her. ?Even the Guard must use the landing pads.? He had grimaced slightly, telling her that while jumping to specific locations was relatively easy, the chances of accidentally landing inside something¡ªor worse, someone¡ªwere relatively high.

    The landing pads were an easy way to manage that risk, and while they had jumped directly between a pad near the Stringer household and this city¡¯s, when they wished to travel further, they would need to jump between several interconnected cities, each with designated landing pads between them for safety.

    ¡°So¡­ they have to notice something is up, go to the landing pad, and then get to wherever the big bag Risen Guards are?¡±

    ?Yes, and they are quite a few jumps away.? Key¡¯s lips twitched in amusement and pride¡ªwherever he had managed to get that information from, it must have been unexpected. ?We chose this heartcore not only because of how close to our home it is, but because it is relatively removed from the Risen Guard¡¯s personal landing pads.?

    ?They maintain a network of their own pads,? Rin had told her, eyes glued to Harmony, who had looked about one wrong word away from exploding at all of them. ?Due to magic and cost constraints, only the main cities are directly connected.?

    They had gone back and forth a bit after that, Rin and her discussing some of what she had learned from Zach¡ªalthough she had kept his name out of it¡ªas they climbed the long, winding staircase. Both Rin and Key had been impressed with how much she had learned in such a short period of time. Sk¡¯lar had offered to fight her¡ªshow her that she really knew nothing¡ªonce she gained access to the system. Harmony had asked if she had any leads on how to access it.

    ¡°A few,¡± Emilia had said, before falling silent and refusing to say more, no matter how loudly Harmony screamed at her¡ªor how long. She¡¯d been yelling for at least two stories now, and Emilia was quite done with her tantrum.

    ¡°You know this is a competition for us, right?¡± she finally cut in, between Harmony¡¯s huffing breaths. ¡°I know that¡¯s cold, given that you guys are suffering, but I¡¯m not going to give you information that you could give to one of my competitors.¡± Just saying it made Emilia feel dirty, even if it was true. That said, she¡¯d probably share information with the right person. Harmony was definitely not the right person.

    ?We aren¡¯t going to give the information to anyone!? the girl hissed, her normally beautiful features hidden under a mask of increasingly red ire. ?We don¡¯t have anyone to tell!?

    ¡°Not now, but your grandmother made it pretty damn clear she hates me,¡± she said, pausing so Rin could translate her words for Key and Sk¡¯lar, although the older man didn¡¯t seem to be paying attention to their argument, his fingers running absently over the magic engraved into the staircase¡¯s banister¡ªfor fire and theft protection, allegedly.

    ?My grandmother will come around,? Key said, his voice filled with childish conviction. It was sweet, if too innocent for this kind of situation, especially since Emilia was pretty sure that woman rarely¡ªif ever¡ªchanged her opinion.

    Nope, she was just going to perpetually be on the woman¡¯s bad side¡­ unless she won. If she did manage to change the world¡ªreceive the Blessing of the Harbinger¡ªshe was sure the woman would go around singing her own praises. ?Of course, I always knew that girl would be the one. I just knew she needed a little extra push! This is all due to me~ ho ho ho~?

    Okay, so, maybe she wouldn¡¯t say that exactly, but the vibes would definitely be there. The ?I¡¯m the one you should be thanking? vibes.

    ¡°I guess we¡¯ll find out,¡± Emilia said, rather than burst the boy¡¯s bubble.

    It was easy to forget that these people were far younger than her¡ªshe was actually closer to the Stringer Matriarch in age, although none of them had mentioned it, if they even knew. Emilia wasn¡¯t about to tell them how differently people in her world aged, and she imagined most other heroes felt the same way¡ªit was almost always better that people assume you were younger and more innocent than you actually were.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    On top of that, while she might have as many decades under her as the Stringer Matriarch, but their cultures were completely different. Inside, Emilia was just a university student¡ªa few decades older than normal, yes, but one nonetheless. She wasn¡¯t a grandmother or even a mother. She didn¡¯t have a family to run¡ªonly one to run from. She might be more experienced than these children, but her culture had moulded her into someone barely older than them mentally, even with all the war and trauma inside her. Living through a war wasn¡¯t the same as living through a life.

    If anything, the empty looks she occasionally saw pass through her new friends¡¯ eyes, memories and fear welling up inside them, told her they might very well feel older inside than her. A lifetime of conflict and tension versus her few decades, even if those years added up the same. Growing up in what might as well be considered a war zone, always worried for their lives, was far different from stepping into war as an almost formed adult. Take away these children¡¯s innocence and na?vet¨¦? Emilia was afraid of what she would find, of what horrors were buried inside not just them, but the children who had grown up during her world¡¯s war as well.

    ?I swear my grandmother is nice,? Key insisted, glaring at Sk¡¯lar when he snorted. ?She is!?

    ?That old bat would rather see the world burn than not be the one responsible for saving it,? the man said, darting out of the way when a burst of magic surged towards him, although Emilia couldn¡¯t tell which of the siblings it had originated from.

    ?Watch your mouth,? Harmony said, her shit mood shifting onto her so-called childhood friend.

    It really was a bad cover. Harmony seemed to outright hate the man, while Key treated him with a passive disinterest.

    ¡°What is he to them, really?¡± Emilia whispered to Rin as Key sighed, his own anger with the man vanishing as fast as it had appeared as he began trying to diffuse the fight.

    ?There will be problems if you ruin any of the tomes,? he insisted, although neither Sk¡¯lar nor his sister appeared to hear him through their argument.

    ?I was told what you were told,? Rin replied, her voice a whisper of cool indifference and disbelief over Emilia¡¯s core. ?I also do not believe them.?

    Emilia snorted as they passed the trio, leaving them behind to continue up the stairs. Outside, the building had reached up to the ceiling itself, disappearing into the magic splattered metal. Occasionally, a window opened up, and each floor the ceiling grew closer, closer, until Emilia could make out a number of huge circles built into it, each covered by the same odd collection of metal plates spiralling towards their centres.

    ?They open to create darkness,? Rin told her as they stopped in front of what seemed to be the last window before they reached the ceiling. ?The plates slide open, revealing the magic beneath.?

    ¡°Is that common knowledge or just something the Risen Guard know about?¡± she asked. She¡¯d found, through conversations with the former Risen Guard trainee, that numerous pieces of information she would have thought everyone would have widely known were actually only known by the Risen Guard¡ªofficially, at least. Zach had been the same, sharing tidbits of the most seemingly banal information with her while simultaneously telling her almost no one knew.

    Rin stared out the window, expression blank as usual, as her muddy red eyes passed over the tops of buildings, most of which were barely half as high as the ceiling. ?It is relatively common knowledge. Anyone may visit the library and watch the eyes open. However, I do know more about them than most, as my mother was an architect. I would ask her questions, when I was younger.?

    ¡°Didn¡¯t want to follow in her footsteps?¡± Emilia asked, leaning against the window frame as they waited for the others to catch up, their yelling now a distant echo. She wasn¡¯t even sure they had noticed the two of them leave, perhaps the only sign they actually had known each other since childhood: the ease at which the world fell away until only the three of them existed.

    ?I would have,? Rin said slowly, as though she wasn¡¯t used to answering such questions¡ªwhich maybe she wasn¡¯t. She had already said people rarely refused an invitation to join the Risen Guard, or perhaps no one had ever bothered to ask what she actually wanted in life. ?My mother died long ago. Becoming an architect died with her.?

    The girl turned, continuing upwards, telling Emilia the others would catch up as she scrambled to follow.

    ¡°Do they do that a lot?¡±

    ?Often enough that I have learned to not wait for them unless I want a headache.?

    Emilia laughed as they went, trying to coax stories of the trio out of her new friend¡ªthey could be considered friends now, right? Rin didn¡¯t disagree with the friendship sentiment when Emilia claimed that as friends, they should totally be sharing embarrassing stories about their other friends.

    ?You first,? Rin said, eyes filled with rare amusement as she slid a challenging look at Emilia.

    Emilia hummed and hawed, going over potential options in her head. The problem was that a lot of her stories were sex stories, especially the newer ones, where pretty much everyone in her friend group were low-key sex addicts. The goal was to tell embarrassing stories and get more details on the Stringers, not embarrass Rin with stories of Sil being caught with his pants down.

    She contemplated going back further, back to her childhood, but those memories were too painful¡ªtoo close to the desperate want for family and friends that was beginning to swirl within her because of whatever Payton was doing¡ª

    Actually¡­

    ¡°I have this friend,¡± Emilia started, telling Rin a tamed down version of how she had gone to school with Payton for years, but they¡¯d only become friends recently¡ªa couple of days or a few hours recently, depending on your point of view. ¡°He was a medic during the war, so people in our class have gone to him quite a bit for help with this and that. Sometimes it was just because he was there, other times it was at the clinic where he works.¡±

    It was unfortunate that Rin was so against sex stories. Emilia had more than a few about classmates awkwardly asking her new friend about sex related issues. Once, a story had even gone around about how one of their former classmates¡ªhe had given up on the program after only a few years, being wholly unsuitable for doing anything with his brain¡ªhad tried to coerce Payton into helping him remove a foreign object from his ass. Apparently, the drugs had made him do it. Apparently, it was not his first time getting something stuck up his ass.

    Payton had not been impressed, and while Emilia couldn¡¯t prove he was the one who had leaked the story¡ªthe stuck-something-inside-him guy himself had actually blamed Elijah¡¯s asshole friend for that¡ªshe was pretty sure it had been Payton. Elijah, for his part, had insisted his friend hadn¡¯t told anyone about the guy¡¯s anal experimentation, although Emilia was sure that if Payton hadn¡¯t leaked it first, her boyfriend¡¯s asshole friend certainly would have.

    Unfortunately, Emilia couldn¡¯t tell Rin about that, and was instead in the middle of telling her about the time someone had brought an injured wild animal in for Payton to look at. It had been adorable, watching Payton nurse the small, fuzzy creature back to health, until it had gotten lost in the building.

    ¡°This is a high-tech building,¡± Emilia told the other girl, trying to find the best way to explain what that meant to someone who lived in a world seemingly devoid of tech. ¡°Imagine there are a lot of magical items¡ªor even expensive food¡ªin a building, and an animal is running around in it.¡±

    ?Damages.?

    ¡°Damages,¡± Emilia agreed, pausing as they passed a window, this one looking out into a black expanse. ¡°Shit, that¡¯s dark,¡± she muttered. If there hadn¡¯t been a window, casting the barest of light out into the darkness, she would have been convinced the library was rising into something solid, and the window was just looking out into a wall. ¡°Why isn¡¯t whatever¡¯s out there stealing the light from in here?¡± she asked, thinking back to the way anything that created darkness seemed to eat all the light it could find.

    ?Engravings on the building,? Rin told her, stepping forward to point out a long stream of words etched into the window frame. ?It can neither become more nor less dark inside the library. The temperature is also maintained by magic.?

    ¡°Oh~¡± Emilia sighed, eyeing up the engravings. ¡°Does that fall under the purview of architects? Or someone else?¡±

    ?A combination,? Rin said, her voice suddenly sounding distant and distracted.

    Emilia glanced back at her, eyes squinting as they readjusted to the moderate light of the library. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± she asked, following the other girl¡¯s eyes towards the floor. Her core reached out on instinct, searching for something amiss, and finding it just before the building began to shake.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 48: Step, Breathe, Relax, Reach

    ¡°Up, up, up,¡± Emilia chanted to herself as she and Rin bolted up the rumbling stairs. The library creaked and cracked, the metal supports of the building bending in ways that shouldn¡¯t be physically possible¡ªnot without the entire building collapsing in any case. ¡°Can you get us out of here?¡± she yelled at Rin, her voice barely audible even to her own ears over the sounds of the world breaking apart around them, and given the way she received nothing from the other girl, her own magically dampened ears couldn¡¯t make out her words either.

    Emilia cursed to herself as they pulled themselves up flight after flight, the library seemingly stretching on forever. That was both horrible¡ªbecause she was quite done with stairs¡ªand wonderful¡ªbecause the floors beneath them were slowly falling away from them.

    Fucking, everlasting nebulae. This was so bad¡ªnot for her, but for her friends and the locals. Zach had made it pretty clear that locals had very little magic themselves, and that the Risen Guard¡¯s magic ranged from sketchy to world bending, with the normal patrols primarily having physical enhancement magics. How many people were going to die beneath them because this damn building had decided that now was the time to forget physics existed? Not that it had personally had a choice in the matter.

    Emilia grabbed hold of the railing as the stairwell swung wildly to the side, her waist crashing into the metal. ¡°Fuck!¡± she wheezed as the air was forced out of her, her ribs grinding ominously against her insides. The last thing she needed was to add blood to this whole situation¡ªmore blood, that was.

    Below them, she could feel the call of the blood, its energy reaching up towards her. Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t the others bleeding out. Hopefully, they had been able to get out of the library somehow. Jump back to the Stringer family¡¯s private landing pads and hope no one was using them. Someone was bleeding below them, though¡ªthat was just simple fact. Whether friend or foe or random stranger. Most of the librarians had left, but a few had still remained and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s hand tightened around the railing as she hauled herself up onto another landing, this one more intact than the last, its floor practically flat and definitely not moving. Rin had stopped on it as well, apparently having deemed it safe enough to pause and assess the damage below them. Emilia turned her eyes and core to the crumbling ruins below them, her breath coming in heavy, strained breaths as she poked and prodded her ribs. Nothing broken, not inside her, anyways.

    The library was a different story, the clang of metal plummeting through the mess of mangled architecture below echoing up around them. The world had stopped bending, at the very least, whatever magic had caused the library to suddenly collapse dissipating back into the aether.

    ¡°What in the world was that?¡± she asked, turning wide eyes on Rin. She knew large scale, building oriented skills had been used during the Colonial Wars and the various conflicts between Baalphoria and the Free Colonies since, but she hadn¡¯t been expecting to see something like that here¡ªthey were too bloody and uncontrollable. Either the Risen Guard had decided collateral damage was unavoidable when dealing with visitors and the Enclave¡ªwhich seemed insane, this early into their visit¡ªor someone else had caused this.

    ?I do not know,? Rin said, her own breathing ragged from their ascent. ?Nothing I have seen or learned about.?

    Great, mystery magic¡ªnot that she was one to talk, with her forbidden blood weapons. The {Blood Dagger} was normal enough, but the {Blood Orb} was like nothing any of them had seen before, which was apparently how weapons forged from another¡¯s blood worked.

    ?What records we have of the last visitation,? Key had said that morning, his tone somehow managing to say ?What records that I have access to? without his consent, ?note that the weapons created with the blood of another create unique magics.?

    This had also been backed up by Zach, who, despite having frayed and distant relations with the Enclave, had known more on the subject than Key or Harmony. Weapons forged from your own blood had little magic, but could cut through virtually everything, save another blood weapon¡ªalthough there were exceptions to that limit based on how powerful the visitors had been when they were forged.

    Weapons forged from another''s blood varied more, although more blood usually meant more destructive power. A full body¡¯s worth of blood? Multiple bodies? The blood of another visitor? Emilia¡¯s stomach had rolled as Zach described some of the weapons those methods had created, forcing magic even more monstrous than the murders themselves into strange weapons.

    ¡°Why did the Risen Guard even let any of us live?¡± she had asked him, genuinely confused. If there were random groups of potential murders capable of making weapons of mass destruction coming into her world, you can bet your ass she¡¯d be all for killing them off before things got out of hand, no questions asked.

    ?I am also surprised,? Zach had admitted, giving Emilia a curious look.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me,¡± she had said, half-joking, half-concerned as she pushed her chair back. They had stared at one another for a moment, Zach looking too assessing by half, before he rolled his eyes and looked away.

    ?Not worth the cleanup,? he had said, returning to telling her that it was possible the higher ups in the Risen Guard were keeping the existence of such powerful weapons under wraps.

    ¡°You mean, they still exist?¡± she had asked. Everyone knew that blood magic didn¡¯t work quite the same for locals¡ªit was still dangerous, yes, but in a more raw, barely controllable way. Only visitors could create actual weapons.

    ?I believe so,? Zach had confirmed, explaining that he still had several of his father¡¯s and while he had never been tempted to try and destroy them, his mother had seen her own family attempt to destroy one of their fallen Harbinger¡¯s weapons. They had been unsuccessful, and the dangerous weapon had been sealed away, not just due to the risk that another visitor could steal it, but because it was semi-useable by locals.

    ¡°¡®Semi-usable¡¯ makes it sound like something bad happened.¡±

    ?Yes,? Zach had whispered, his eyes skimming over the notes in front of him, although it had seemed more out of nervous habit than actual need¡ªhe¡¯d told her he had been running the area¡¯s underground magic school practically his whole life, so he probably had the whole curriculum memorized, even if he was giving her a highly redacted version of it.

    ?The locals who tried to use blood weapons all died, but the damage they did¡­? he had trailed off, his eyes far away with some memory he couldn¡¯t bring himself to share.

    Emilia could guess. Catastrophic damages, and whenever they had happened, he had been old enough to see and remember, meaning there were other blood weapons from the last visitation out there¡ªweapons that could potentially do something like bring a building crashing down. Some 80-year-old weapon given to a Risen Guard suicide bomber or a new visitor. That, or a new visitor having already learned how to make weapons of such destructive powers.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    None of those were good options.

    ¡°Do you think the others got out?¡± she dared ask, the sound of the collapsing building beginning to change from earsplitting bangs to the ominous creek and clatter of everything settling.

    Rin swallowed, her jaw working through her thoughts, before she said she didn¡¯t know. ?Probably. They can all jump, and the Stringer family has private landing pads.?

    ¡°Can you jump us out of here?¡±

    Rin shook her head, eyes turning away from the rumble below, from the bent metal of the stairs, hanging limply off the walls, to the intact world above them. ?I was assigned a temporary pad, but I cannot jump with this an amount of magic in the air. It will dissipate eventually, but we should not remain here.?

    ?Something else could happen, or the magic could be activated anew,? went unsaid as they began to climb the stairs once more.

    ¡°Does that mean¡­ the others may not have been able to jump either?¡± she asked, mulling over how that also potentially explained why her guard hadn¡¯t just jumped out of the fight the other night either: too much magic. It seemed like a visitor¡¯s personal babysitter should have a personal, emergency escape landing pad somewhere¡ªa place just for them, so they wouldn¡¯t jump into another jumper. Her guard hadn¡¯t jumped, though, even if he¡¯d taken the first chance he could to get out of there¡ªnot that that wasn¡¯t its own can of weird worms, given he probably could have killed them all but had left.

    Then again, maybe he simply couldn¡¯t jump. It wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d volunteered to jump them to one of the cities, instead making them use those stupid elevators. Honestly, it was pretty damn rude of him if he¡¯d forced that travel on them for no reason!

    ?Possibly, if they noticed the gathering magic before it loosened,? Rin said, her voice tight and very much telling Emilia she needed to shut up. As much as the girl didn¡¯t seem as close as the trio they had left behind, she was still friends with them¡ªhad still not hesitated to help Sk¡¯lar fight off her guard, or follow Key¡¯s instructions to gather up blood for her to create a weapon. Her new friend might seem distant and bored, but she probably felt a lot more for her friends than she was letting on.

    ¡°Is there an exit up here?¡± she asked instead, turning the conversation back into what the fuck are we going to do? territory. They were going to reach the top eventually¡­ probably.

    ?I do not know.?

    ¡°Do you know where the heartcore is?¡±

    ?I do not.?

    ¡°Great¡­¡± Emilia sighed, just another shitty thing to add to this shitty outing. They could very well have run past it on their escape¡ªfuck that, it could be lying in pieces now for all either of them knew.

    ¡°Not your fault!¡± she added hastily when Rin shot her a look. ¡°Everything just sucks, and it¡¯ll quadruple suck if we can¡¯t even get what we came here for.¡± If people were going to die, at the very least they should try to fulfill their objective.

    They climbed in relatively silence, haphazardly stepping over the books that had toppled onto the floor during the building¡¯s half-collapse. Honestly, the architecture was probably the only thing that had saved them. Emilia was willing to bet that, if they were willing to risk trying to descend, they¡¯d find supports built into the city¡¯s ceiling keeping them afloat, either by accident or design. Who knew how long that would last, though, and Emilia was almost tempted to speed up her steps so they could get the fuck out of these faster¡ªforce her mind to ignore the burn of her thighs and calves before they started to fall.

    Almost.

    Instead, she focused on her steps and the vibration of her core¡ªone of the few things she could work with, despite her lack of system access.

    Zach had been surprised when she¡¯d brought her core up¡ªor, more specifically, brought up the feeling of people touching her core with words directed solely at her. She¡¯d been more curious to know if she should be able to tell when people were speaking directly to each other, like something just out of reach was scratching at the edges of her core.

    ?Locals can¡­? he had told her, thick black eyebrows pulling together. He really had aged incredibly well, only a few grey hairs beginning to work their way through his facial hair.

    ¡°I''m guessing that means you never heard of a visitor being able to?¡±

    ?No. From what I know, it has always been something of an issue. Visitors could never fully utilize their cores, and often refused to even try.?

    ¡°We don¡¯t use our cores directly in our world. It¡¯s actually, like, super, super frowned upon? I didn¡¯t have anyone to tell me better until I had already started messing with mine, though? And it¡¯s damaged, cause I¡¯m uh¡­ kinda reckless.¡±

    ?I noticed,? Zach had replied blandly, shooting her a highly unimpressed look. He had already reprimanded her for following strange men into dark, grimy basements. It had been sweet and annoying all at once. She already had enough men looking at her like her life choices were insane, she didn¡¯t need one more, thanks. Well, Pria also looked at her like she was judging her quite often¡­ so did Beth¡­ and Serena¡­ Okay, so maybe pretty much everyone she knew gave her the look, it was still rude!

    ¡°I¡¯m also connected to an old machine,¡± she had continued, glaring harshly at the older man, daring him to say more about her recklessness. He hadn¡¯t seemed phased, but given he had a daughter who radiated trouble, Emilia was pretty sure he was used to dealing with troublesome women. ¡°It could be malfunctioning, connecting my core to the platform in ways it shouldn¡¯t? I¡¯m not sure. There was a moment where I thought maybe it was? Now, I¡¯m not so sure.¡±

    Aside from feeling like she was more connected to her core than she should be, she really hadn¡¯t felt anything else off about it, but honestly? That could just be the platform if core use was normal here. It could totally just be that other visitors didn¡¯t have the natural connection to their core that she had, and had never noticed the natural push and pull against their cores.

    An unimpressed sound from Zach had drawn her out of her wandering thoughts. ?Perhaps you should avoid using your core¡ª? he had started to say, only for her to cut him off.

    If she wanted to avoid using her core, there was no way she could continue competing. She couldn¡¯t escape words of locals edging over her core, so unless he was going to be feeding her in silence for the next 20 some days, he was better off teaching her how to utilize it, so she didn¡¯t accidentally fuck it up.

    Meditation. That was how you accessed your core¡ªhow you learned how to harness it and bend the magic of this world more easily. Emilia hated meditation. The man who had taught her how to wield a weapon had tried to teach her meditation as well. She had repeatedly run away until he¡¯d finally given up.

    It takes a lot to make one of the most feared men in the Free Colonies give up.

    ?We have had children like that,? Zach had said, a smirk tugging at his lips as he compared her to an unruly child. ?I generally suggest a moving meditation.?

    Well, moving was better than sitting¡ªher mind spiralling away inside her as she tried to stay still and quiet¡ªand what better way to meditate while moving than in the monotonous step, step, step, step of climbing stairs. Yes, there was the occasional obstacle to climb over, but as they ascended, Emilia tried to focus.

    Focus on your core.

    Focus on the feel and weight of it.

    Let it reach out and become part of the universe¡ªpart of the aether.

    It was once a part of the everything of the world, let it become part of it again.

    Her core shuddered with effort, the muscles around it, just below her belly button, somehow vibrating with effort. What those muscles were doing, she had no idea, but it seemed important, and she leaned into it.

    Step, breathe, relax, reach.

    Step, breathe, relax, reach.

    Step, breathe, relax, rea¡ª

    A smile split across Emilia¡¯s face as her steps stopped, Rin looking back at her and frowning slightly.

    ?What is it??

    ¡°I think I found the heartcore.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 49: So Stable

    So, problem. Big, fat, heavy ass door problem.

    ?I don¡¯t think it will move,? Rin sighed, the magic she had been using to try and force the door open dissipating around her. ?Apologies.?

    Emilia waved her off. It wasn¡¯t her fault she was still so early in her Risen Guard training that she¡¯d only learned a few of the more complicated magics. She had considered giving her new friend one of the magic gems Zach had given her¡ªhe¡¯d made her memorize which would enhance which magic type or activate which particular spell¡ªbut he¡¯d also told her mastering them took a while, especially for locals. If the stories his mother had told him were to be believed, the system visitors accessed was far more extensive than the one locals did, which operated more as an organization system than whatever visitors received. Where she would need to practice for a few hours to master each type of magic, once she got access to the system, Rin and the others would likely need months.

    Even if she was willing to give the other girl one of the gems¡ªwhich she wasn¡¯t even sure she was, given they would be permanently bound to their first user¡ªit could be dangerous for both of them. Blowback was the biggest risk¡ªZach had warned her off trying to use the gems without at least a little training behind her¡ªbut there was also the risk they would attract the attention of anyone else in the building.

    The last thing they needed was whoever had destroyed the lower levels tracking a disturbance in the aether back to their location. Emilia definitely didn¡¯t want to be hit by whatever had caused so much damage.

    ¡°Guess we¡¯re going the long way!¡± Emilia cheered, doing a little fist pump that simultaneously seemed to confuse and annoy her friend.

    ?I think we should return at a later time,? Rin said, not for the first time.

    ¡°You can go back alone, if you don¡¯t want to come along,¡± Emilia said, turning back the way they had come.

    They had climbed almost a dozen more floors before reaching the level that seemed to hold the heartcore. It hadn¡¯t been on that level, though, and they¡¯d eventually had to split up, each going up and down the nearest floors until Rin found the entrance two floors down, at the end of a long hallway filled with ancient, decaying books¡ªliterally. It smelled like death and rot, and when Emilia had pulled a book off a shelf, the thick pages had fallen to pieces in her hands.

    Unlike the cavern where that first heartcore had been located, this one didn¡¯t seem to have human guards, and instead, magic had been woven into the floor and bookcases. That magic had been disturbed by the quake that had rolled through the lower levels, however, and the few that had still been activated had been weakened enough for Rin to blast them out of existence. They¡¯d then spent a good 30 minutes trying to force the damn door open, failing miserably.

    ?You know I cannot leave you here,? Rin practically growled as she followed Emilia back down the hall to where it had split off between the easy, door entrance to the heartcore and a hall that had dangerous vibes.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t liked those vibes, but she wasn¡¯t about to turn back now. Interestingly, Rin hadn¡¯t been able to sense anything, giving her a look of concern when she¡¯d mentioned the danger emanating from it. Then again, maybe it wasn¡¯t so weird, given the girl also seemed incapable of sensing the heartcore.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. Worst that will happen is I die and wake up back in my real body.¡±

    The other girl tensed at the reminder that this wasn¡¯t her real body. ?You do not know that.?

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty damn sure.¡±

    ?You cannot be sure. Visitors never return to this place. For all we know¡ª?

    ¡°You know,¡± Emilia cut in, her tone tightly amused, ¡°our government can be pretty shit¡ªI mean, they at least partially fund platforms like this and do nothing to stop the utter murder and mayhem we bring with us, so of course they¡¯re shit¡ªbut if our real bodies started actually dying in these things? You can bet it wouldn¡¯t stay secret long.¡±

    For all that both the government and the OIC System kept secrets, the OIC was pretty damn nosy and protective. Unless it thought the collateral damage was worth it¡ªor it was being purposefully excluded from whatever was happening, which it definitely wasn¡¯t from official raids like this¡ªit would certainly make no secret of coverups.

    The Virtuosi System, with its time skew and ability to simulate the aether, had been built into the original system behind the raids. While the Virtuosi System and the OCI were technically different, they were so closely related that keeping the OIC out of anything that utilized the Virtuosi System was extremely difficult, and was almost always accompanied by a note¡ªthe Virtuosi System had seemingly been programmed to warn users if the OIC System weren¡¯t currently involved in its use.

    There had been no warning; therefore, Emilia would be hard-pressed to believe the OIC wasn¡¯t monitoring the raid.

    Then again, the OIC did support the real-world raids, so maybe she had a bit too much faith in its morality¡ªit was just a neural network, after all. A domineering, overprotective and nearly all seeing neural network, but a neural network all the same.

    Rin didn¡¯t exactly look convinced, and Emilia couldn¡¯t think of a good way to explain nosy neural networks to someone who lived without any technology. ?You should still avoid dying.?

    ¡°Noted,¡± Emilia said cheerfully, turning the corner and stopping short. ¡°Well, I think you¡¯re gonna have to come with me, regardless of whether you think it''s a good idea or not.¡±

    An echo of pissed off annoyance rolled off the former Risen Guard trainee as she came to stand beside Emilia. ?I did not think they would return to functionality,? she said, sounding both hilariously defeated and extremely put out.

    Emilia tried not to laugh or cry as they watched the aether bending defensive magics vibrate through the air. ¡°I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s not exactly normal, for them to return to working?¡±

    ?Indeed not,? Rin told her, blinking those muddy eyes at the display of power she couldn¡¯t hope to dissipate before turning down the dangerous vibes pathway. Emilia had to hand it to her, she had yet to see anything really faze the other girl. Attacked by a Risen Guard? Didn¡¯t hesitate to help her friends and ruin her career path. Asked to translate for weird visitor person? She hadn¡¯t even blinked. Possibility all her friends were blobs of flesh under a thousand tons of rumbled? Her voice had barely cracked.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Being forced to go the long way around to get to the heartcore? Annoying, but the girl just rolled with it. Emilia liked people who rolled with things, although getting pushback and alternative opinions was always good too. It was probably why she and Payton had immediately clicked as break and enter partners. He was smart and calm and didn¡¯t hesitate to act or look at her like she was crazy.

    Emilia eyed up the other girl as they moved down the increasingly dark hallway. She knew very little about her¡ªtoo little, even her relationship with the Stringer siblings reduced to her and Harmony being classmates when there was clearly more to it. Generally, people didn¡¯t betray the organization they had spent a decade of their life with¡ªnot to mention been tapped for specialized work for¡ªso easily.

    A hand shot out in front of her and Emilia¡¯s steps halted, her short bob swaying with the movement. It was still red, Zach having recharged the illusion magic that Harmony and Rin had cast on her before she left him. His only remark about it was that it had been sloppy, which wasn¡¯t exactly the greatest boost in confidence, considering she and one of the casters were about to face things that she certainly wasn¡¯t prepared for.

    ?We¡¯ll be going to the excavated heartcores,? Key had explained to them that morning. ?The heartcores have existed as long as anyone knows. Some existed on or in the earth, and were moved to new locations. Others appeared over time. We know very little about them, other than that they offer power to those who commune with them.?

    Assuming he was still alive, Emilia was going to have to ask Key and the others if they knew about the heartcores offering of power to newborns. He certainly hadn¡¯t implied he knew anything about that, although who knew what that boy did and didn¡¯t know with his constant half-truths and misdirection.

    ?What we do know,? Key had continued, shooting a cold look at Sk¡¯lar as the man yawned and seemingly paid him no attention, ?is they alter the world around them. Shortly after appearing or being placed in a new location, they create a warped reality. It has been speculated this is to protect themselves, although it could simply be a result of their power. These labyrinths are extremely dangerous and must be passed through in order to access the heartcores.?

    He had looked expectantly at Emilia, silently urging her on to ask the question rolling around in her head¡ªthe question that a good teacher would have just answered. Apparently, Key was more inclined to be a teacher who needed his students to ask obvious questions.

    ¡°There was nothing dangerous blocking the way to the heartcore we visited,¡± she had mused, mentally patting herself on the head when she managed to not roll her eyes. ¡°Was there something different about that one?¡± For effect, she had tilted her head, lower lip sticking out just the barest amount, her teeth dragging a corner into her mouth. Key¡¯s cheeks had reddened and Harmony had looked about ready to launch herself across the table at her, so apparently she was pretty damn cute.

    ?That¡¯s a good question, Emilia,? he had replied, after Rin had translated for her¡ªHarmony had effectively refused to translate for her. ?The heartcore we visited was excavated. Enclave members worked their way through the altered reality and created an easier way to access it.?

    ¡°So~ are there other excavated heartcores for us to visit?¡± She had blinked wide, red rimmed eyes at him. If he was going to treat her like a doll, she might as well mess with him a bit. Given the way he coughed and looked away, mission successful.

    ?Yes. There are a number we can visit, rather than risk the more dangerous, unexcavated ones.?

    That only worked if they could use the excavated entrance, which, no go. Onwards, down the path of potential no return!

    Rin had frowned severely when Emilia had called it that, though, the hallway filling with icy annoyance, and now she was following behind the other girl in silence. The was probably for the best because she had just realized that even when they reached the heartcore they still weren¡¯t going to be able to get out past the wall of magic barriers. Not unless someone showed up with more magic skill than Rin, anyways.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes flittered around the dark space. It was incredibly boring, just a long walk of darkness and increasingly powerful vibes of danger. Having nothing else to do, she returned to her moving meditation, each step another chance to practice using her core¡ªto practice so if she did have to use it directly in battle one day, she was less likely to kill herself in the process.

    Above them, she could still feel the heartcore, its existence pounding into the aether. Emilia had felt powerful skills before, but the energy the heartcore was giving off really took the cake¡ªand it was only one of dozens, scattered throughout the cities. More interesting than that power, however, was its stability. Emilia had skills capable of rending the world apart, but even the most impressive ones tore and shredded the aether in ways that were wholly unnatural. They didn¡¯t beat with the aether, filling and spreading it like it was a part of the aether itself.

    It was fascinating, and Emilia was sure that, given the chance, she would be totally down to sit and analyze a heartcore for hours trying to find any hint of the how behind it so she could create something just as stable in her own world. That said, there were other, more life-threatening things to search for, and she tried to turn her core away from the call of the heartcore. It protested, shuddering within her, before she swatted it on the butt.

    ¡°Behave,¡± she mentally chastised it, promising to feed it some of that yummy fruit¡ªapparently from something called a wandering tree¡ªif it cooperated with her. Despite having no expectations that that would work, her core settled slightly, contracting its view to the hallway. Emilia frowned down at her stomach, barely visible in the dim light. Weird. Zach had certainly never said anything about being able to talk to your core, although, what was meditation but bullying your core into cooperating with you? Maybe she just needed to bribe hers? She was certainly easily bribable with food and sex and snuggles, why shouldn¡¯t her core be any different?

    Even to her core, the hallway was startlingly dark and seemingly endless, the walls a blank canvas of depthless black that only found form when she reached out a hand to touch them. Her core couldn¡¯t touch them at all, instead reaching out into the ominous, empty, black world beyond them.

    Except it wasn¡¯t empty, at least, she didn¡¯t think it was. Her mapping skills were sketchy, even if she had something to draw on that wasn¡¯t her flighty mind, but she was positive that there should be a library out there somewhere. She could have sworn they¡¯d been walking straight, and there had been another, just as straight hallway, running parallel to this one some 30 feet away. When she tried to reach out towards it, however¡­

    Nothing. There was nothing.

    Emilia turned, walking backwards as she sent her core and aether spiralling back the way they had come, the abrupt rise in her core usage stalling Rin¡¯s steps until Emilia backed past her. Their eyes met before Rin was turning as well, her own core soft as it wound its way effortlessly¡ªbeautifully¡ªoutwards and¡ª

    ?Where did the library go??

    Well, good to know she wasn¡¯t completely losing it.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 50: Endless Hallways

    ¡°Do you think we¡¯re gonna die here?¡± Emilia asked as she skipped along beside Rin. Overall, it was pretty clear that her come-what-may personality and frivolous actions were annoying the other girl. That said, not only could the former Risen Guard trainee not get away from her¡ªthey were stuck in a long hallway with seemingly no end or beginning, after all¡ªbut Emilia had also realized they both needed something to keep them from freaking the fuck out.

    Not that she was liable to freak out, because of the whole, you know, can¡¯t really die thing. It was still rather creepy, though, for the library to have suddenly vanished, or for them to have been moved through the aether without their knowledge¡ªit was unclear exactly what had happened. They¡¯d headed back down the hallway, going far past the point where the library should have been and finding more empty hallway, and as much as she knew this was a world easily manipulated by the system, the strangeness of the situation would get to her if she let it.

    Still, even if she ignored the displaced from reality part, it was such an odd place. Nothing echoed off the walls¡ªif anything, the depthless black seemed to eat all sound that touched it. Everything was smooth, not even the ripple of panels of metal or wood or any other material meeting each other marring its perfect length.

    They also had no idea where the light was going, Rin having assured her that there was no sign of magic or light eating material anywhere around them, and yet, the hallway was darker than the normal, unaltered air of the world. Everything was just empty and existed. For Emilia, that was fine. She was used to weird things¡ªnot to mention compartmentalizing¡ªand was in a world where everything was new and strange. For Rin, it was a different story, and for the first time in their brief friendship, Emilia could see her starting to crack under the pressure of the otherness of this place.

    So, distraction via being so totally, completely annoying it was.

    ?I do not know,? Rin replied testily. Honestly, Emilia was surprised she was answering at all.

    ¡°I feel like we really should have asked Key more about these original access routes,¡± she mused, more to herself than her friend, eyes glued to the ceiling she couldn¡¯t actually make out but knew was there after she¡¯d taken a running jump a while ago, her hand having swiped across the equally smooth material. The one good thing about the boring tunnel was she didn¡¯t have to worry about tripping, as long as she picked her feet up properly.

    ?I doubt he knew.?

    ¡°Oh~¡± Emilia sighed, skipping ahead so she could turn and walk backwards as they spoke. ¡°Noticed that too, did you?¡±

    Rin¡¯s eyes clasped onto hers. Her core was still active, vibrating gently out of her, searching for something¡ªanything¡ªdifferent about the world as they moved. Emilia had given up using hers. Not only was it tired and achy, but using it had been starting to give her a headache.

    ?He does not hide his lack of knowledge well.?

    ¡°Did he only start hiding stuff when I showed up? Or did he do it before all this as well?¡± Emilia asked, hands clasping behind her back.

    ?Before, but it was never over something so important.?

    ¡°No? What did he lie about then?¡±

    The other girl bristled slightly. ?I would not call it lying.?

    ¡°Okay~ What did he bend and avoid the truth over, then?¡±

    Rin still didn¡¯t seem to like her phrasing, but she said nothing about it, instead listing off a handful of reasons Key hadn¡¯t been entirely forthcoming in the past.

    ¡°He let his sister bake using the wrong recipe?¡± Emilia asked incredulously, blinking wide eyes at her friend. ¡°That seems like a stupid thing to lie about.¡± She had also been known to lie and avoid giving all the information all her life, but something like that? Even she would never. ¡°Was it a prank?¡±

    Rin shook her head, rare amusement shining in her eyes. ?I believe he did not want to let Harmony down. She really wanted to make that cake.?

    ¡°What was so special about it?¡±

    Rin gave her an exasperated look¡ªat least, that¡¯s what Emilia assumed it was. It was a difficult to tell what kind of look the girl was giving her sometimes, what with how¡­ muted they were.

    Despite the look, Rin indulged her, explaining in exaggerated details that she certainly knew Emilia wouldn¡¯t understand¡ªwhat was lough? Sterial? Plunting the batter? Mysterious cooking terms, that¡¯s what they were. By the time Rin¡¯s aethervoice trailed off, the last of the recipe fading into the depthless black of their surroundings, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if the girl had been indulging her or torturing her¡ªit really was a very complicated recipe.

    She also still had no idea what made the cake special.

    ¡°Do you think we should¡­ do something different?¡± Emilia asked a short while later, Rin once again walking slightly ahead of her. They couldn¡¯t just keep walking forever.

    ?Such as??

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Emilia stopped, bouncing on her feet and trying to work the kinks out of her legs. Too much walking. Too much running. Too much footwear. She tugged one of her borrowed shoes off, Harmony having grudgingly told her these would be better for walking than the ones she¡¯d opted for on arrival. Personally, she didn¡¯t really see it, and she groaned as she flexed her feet, stretching the ache out of them.

    ¡°We could run? Skip? Split up¡ªalthough, that could end with us getting permanently separated, so maybe not. You could ditch your shoes, too. We could ditch out weapons¡ªbut, that also seems like asking for trouble, plus with magic your entire body is kinda a weapon?¡± Emilia ran her eyes over the former trainee¡¯s body. Fit, if still shorter than even she was, and dressed in loose, greyish-pink clothes that reminded Emilia of her world¡¯s loungewear.

    ?Those are all ridiculous suggestions,? the other girl said sharply, the stress of the situation probably beginning to get to her. It was going to happen eventually, no matter how much Emilia tried to distract her, but she¡¯d honestly figured they¡¯d have a bit more time before she started to get so testy.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Maybe, but walking isn¡¯t doing it. So we have to do something.¡±

    ?No.?

    ¡°No?¡±

    ?No.?

    Emilia blinked at the girl. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious. You really want to keep walking until our feet fall off, or we die of dehydration?¡± She wasn¡¯t entirely sure that was a thing here, but it certainly felt like it could be a thing, given she¡¯d forced herself to down the weird red water multiple times since arriving here.

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°That¡¯s insane.¡±

    ?Then you can stay here.? Rin¡¯s eyes narrowed, just the slightest bit, and for a moment Emilia could see the Risen Guard inside her¡ªcould see the person who would have become a killer just like all the rest of them.

    ¡°It¡¯s more dangerous if we split up,¡± Emilia argued, trying to be sensible. She wasn¡¯t used to people ignoring her in emergencies. Even when she was younger, before the military and rank had placed her firmly above practically everyone, people had defaulted to leaving her in charge. Usually, it had been annoying as fuck, but given the circumstance, she¡¯d much rather be capitulated to!

    ?Probably.? Rin turned back the way they had been heading, leaving Emilia behind in the darkness, her slim shoulders vanishing far too quickly.

    ¡°Well¡­ fuck¡­¡± Emilia sighed, gazing around at the nothingness of the hallway. They really should have tried to get more details out of Key¡ªstars, even Zach might have known a bit about these original passageways, had either of them thought to discuss the heartcores and how to get to them. Instead, they had nothing. No facts or clues, just an empty hallway and a vanished library and, well, there was one fact: someone had once gotten through this place and excavated the easy entrance. That was assuming the passage hadn¡¯t changed, though¡ªhadn¡¯t adapted to become harder to navigate.

    The wall of the hallway met Emilia¡¯s back, and she slid to the floor, pressing a hand to her mouth as she yawned. She was tired, the adrenaline from the building collapse dissipating into the general norm of stressful situation. That wasn¡¯t new, even if she hadn¡¯t experienced it much in a decade. This level of vague threat wasn¡¯t new¡ªif anything, it was like a long-lost home. Shitty and unsafe, but hers, and it was easy to let her eyes flutter shut and let sleep take her.

    ? ? ?

    Emilia¡¯s eyes opened for exactly .3 seconds before she slammed them closed against the blinding light of¡­ something. There was no way the world was suddenly as bright as the sun, right?

    She grumbled, pushing herself off the floor¡ªwhich she had apparently decided to topple over to nap on¡ªback to sitting. Even closed, light blasted through her eyelids strong enough to make her slap a hand against her eyes. She leaned back against the wall, debating what to do since she definitely couldn¡¯t open her eyes like this, and¡ª

    Emilia yelped as she fell through the nonexistent wall, her head whacking soundly against the floor. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± she growled, rolling over and groping for the wall, thinking that maybe she had rolled during her nap.

    She spun in a circle, reaching in another direction when the hand came up empty. Empty space met her hands again, again, again. Her knees ached from crawling over the ground, going far enough in every direction that she couldn¡¯t lie to herself: the walls were gone. Instead, the bright room seemed to gape around her, just like the black, endless world her core had seen before her nap, not even being able to detect those depthless walls¡­

    Her core. It hadn¡¯t been super useful in the dark hallway, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to try it out here, right?

    Emilia tentatively stood, hands raised above her head, lest the ceiling of this place suddenly be lower. Nothing, and when she reached a hand up as high as she could, even jumping to see if she could reach anything, there was nothing.

    ¡°Guess I should be grateful there''s a floor,¡± she mumbled, arranging her hands so one was reaching far in front of her while the other was protecting her face.

    ¡°Breathe,¡± she reminded herself as she began to walk blindly through the world. Her core vibrated slightly, both it and the muscles around it immediately straining with effort as she sent her power hurtling through the aether, searching for something, anything, and¡ª

    And that was easy? Emilia walked towards the wall her core had located, outstretched hand waiting to connect with it and¡­ nothing. Her core vibrated, spiralling out again and¡ª

    No. According to her core, something was definitely there¡ªsomething that her physical body couldn¡¯t connect with.

    Emilia grumbled, letting her core search farther. Only a few feet farther, her senses detected another, just as formless wall running parallel to the first.

    ¡°Invisible hallway, eh~¡± Emilia muttered to herself, walking herself between the two. ¡°Which way, then¡­¡±

    She let her core reach out down either way, searching for any difference in the two aetherwalls, but everything was so wide and unknown, her core control too questionable, and all her search accomplished was leaving her with the feeling she had missed something¡ªprobably multiple somethings.

    ¡°Well, can¡¯t be worse than the other hallway,¡± she sighed, choosing a direction at random and pulling her core back in towards her, willing it to etch its way along the edges of the world it saw while she walked.

    It was, quite frankly, exhausting. With almost no experience using her core, the effort was quickly draining her and requiring that she sit and wait for her energy and control to return every few metres. Worse, she couldn¡¯t trust what her core saw, and was forced to keep her hands positioned so she didn¡¯t accidentally walk into anything. Not being able to see the ground, every step was careful and precise, and the few times she dared to open her eyes¡ªto see if the world was somehow less bright¡ªshe came away cursing herself for being, well, herself.

    She¡¯d never been good at the whole patience thing¡ªit was part of why she hated doing long-distance support. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike was boring and anticlimactic and¡ª

    ¡°Focus!¡± she mentally hissed at herself. Damn wandering brain needed to chill, or they were going to miss something important and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s stepped halted as the smallest flaw in the wall to her left caught her attention. The slightest scuff, the aether bubbling slightly and protruding where it didn¡¯t belong. She swallowed, stepping towards it, her hand finding where it would have existed if it weren¡¯t formless. It felt like nothing against her skin¡ªnot a single indication that something was wrong¡ªbut her core could feel it. Her core knew something wasn¡¯t right.

    ?When you want to use your core to effect the world¡­ it is slightly different. Where searching and touching with your core is a small dribble of any energy out of your body and back, interacting requires more precision. You need to use¡­ specific energy to do your bidding,? Zach had told her, his words hesitant and leaving Emilia feeling like he hadn¡¯t wanted to tell her this particular piece of information. She¡¯d asked, though, and he hadn¡¯t once refused to answer her questions, even if he often didn¡¯t have clear answers for her.

    Now, Emilia focused, trying to draw the smallest tendril of energy out of her core and through her body.

    ?The risk,? Zach had explained, jaw flexing with every word, even as his voice spilled out of the aether itself, ?is you can burn yourself out. Especially without the aid of the system. If you let out too much power at once, you will destroy the path it travelled. You could lose use of a limb, destroy an organ, die. If you do not use enough, you will fail and potentially lose your energy to the aether, and while it will recover, there can be¡­ consequences for losing too much, either at once, or over time.?

    Emilia had smiled at her teacher and told him what she told everyone: that she couldn¡¯t really die. He, at the very least, had acknowledged that fact, muttering that it would suck if he had wasted all his time teaching her only for her to destroy her body before doing anything useful.

    He really was such a grumpy old man.

    Still, grumpy safety dad or not, she would be stupid to not listen to him. She clamped down around her core, forcing all the focus she had onto it.

    ¡°Just¡­ a little¡­ bit¡­¡± she breathed through her body, searching for whatever specific type of energy Zach had mentioned. She gasped when she found it, warm and tiny within her, willing the smallest wisp of it out, out, down the natural pathways¡ªmeridians, Zach had called them¡ªof her body. Breaching and connecting, weaving its way through her body and soul and¡ª

    A bubble of power burst out of her fingertips, connecting with the anomaly in the aetherwall, and Emilia fell, barely registering the smack of her body against the floor as the world melted black.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 51: Us and Them

    Emilia slipped back into wakefulness, which was significantly better than the abrupt wakings that she¡¯d been experiencing since arriving in this world. Part of why, she imagined, was the shoulder she was leaning against¡ªshe¡¯d always fallen out of dreams and nightmares easier with someone next to her.

    ¡°Rin?¡± she croaked, her voice scratching in a way that indicated she¡¯d been asleep far longer than she¡¯d first thought¡ªshe certainly didn¡¯t feel like she¡¯d had more than a power nap.

    ?Finally awake?? the other girl asked, her own voice sounding tired¡ªlike she hadn¡¯t slept in who knew how long, which, perhaps she hadn''t. It would have been rather irresponsible for them both to sleep, even if Emilia had passed out after Rin had left her to her own devices.

    ¡°You came back.¡±

    Rin snorted¡ªor, made a sound that Emilia assumed was this world¡¯s equivalent of a snort, and she suddenly wondered if the people here had ever been able to talk. She had tried to ask Key about what other blessings visitors had bestowed on this world, but¡ªmuch like so many things¡ªhe hadn¡¯t really known. It was perfectly possible¡ªlikely, even¡ªthat the residents of this world had lost their ability to speak through another so-called blessing.

    Worse, she supposed, was the possibility that their inability to speak was the result of a blessing much like the last, blood curse one¡ªthat it was something unwanted that they had hoped the next blessing would correct. If that were the case¡­ would someone gaining a new blessing even fix the dangerous nature of blood? Or were they stuck with destructive blood magic, now that it had been written into the framework of the world, the only option being to learn to live with it the way locals had learned to live with their lack of ability to speak?

    Lack of vocal cords? Emilia wasn¡¯t actually aware of the cause. Not that they simply couldn¡¯t be a population of mute people¡ªshe knew a few people who were mute for reasons not related to a physical abnormality.

    ?Of course I came back,? Rin snipped, although her tone lacked any true conviction, as though even she hadn¡¯t been confident she¡¯d return as she stormed off. ?Did you do that??

    Emilia forced her eyes open, the pale skin of her friend¡¯s neck filling her vision before she turned her head and¡ª

    ¡°Uh¡­ no?¡± she said, straightening up, her back cracking as she groaned and stretched and eyed up the doorway set into the otherwise empty wall.

    ?Are you sure??

    ¡°What makes you think I opened it?¡±

    ?You were passed out when I came back. A short while later, the door opened.?

    ¡°The door opened while I was unconscious, and you thought that I was somehow responsible for it?¡±

    Rin shrugged, as though the how of how a door had appeared in the otherwise empty hallway wasn¡¯t particularly interesting. ?Stranger things have happened. You could have used magic and worn yourself out.?

    ¡°I don¡¯t have magic.¡± Not really, anyways. She was pretty sure she could force a bit out of her with her core, but it would be sketchy at best until she gained access to the system. Not to mention potentially dangerous.

    Rin¡¯s eyes shifted away from the doorway, which she had been watching intently for who knew how long, her eyes rimmed with an extra dose of sleep-deprived red. ?That we know of.?

    ¡°You think I¡¯m lying?¡±

    The other girl shrugged again, eyes returning to the doorway. She sucked in an odd breath¡ªa suppressed yawn, Emilia realized, trying not to coo at the too cute gesture. ?I see neither a reason to trust you outright, nor a reason to distrust you.?

    Emilia wiggled back and forth, trying to loosen up her tight muscles¡ªnot only had she slept in an awkward position, but muscle soreness from all those flights of stairs was starting to set in, her calves clenching around her bones as she scrunched her toes and flexed her ankles. ¡°Risen Guard training?¡±

    ?Rise Guard training,? Rin agreed, something in her tone tired and telling Emilia that she wasn¡¯t exactly content with how that training had made her inherently untrusting, probably always too aware of her surroundings in a way that must be mentally exhausting.

    ¡°I was in the military, during the war,¡± she offered, eyes skimming over the doorway, trying to find any discernible features. Mostly, it just looked like a section of the wall was suddenly missing. ¡°We had lots of training that fucked with our minds. Even now¡­¡± she trailed off, thinking about the way mech raids were messing with heroes¡¯ perceptions of what an enemy was, of how she sometimes found herself falling into that same, tiresome vigilance that her new friend carried with her.

    She glanced towards Rin, finding the girl¡¯s eyes on her once again. Emilia smiled cheerfully back at her. ¡°Some of those things are difficult to escape, but if you want to be different, you can be. It gets easier, eventually.¡±

    The former trainee didn¡¯t particularly look convinced¡ªif anything, something in her expression, blank as it was, told Emilia there was something that she didn¡¯t know. That was¡­ slightly concerning. The Risen Guard was out to get her, after all. If there was some secret that Rin was keeping that would put her¡ªnot to mention all of Rin¡¯s friends, who she presumably cared more about the wellbeing of than she did Emilia¡¯s¡ªin danger, why wasn¡¯t the girl telling?

    Emilia was about to ask¡ªtake advantage of the younger girl¡¯s sleepiness to get answers¡ªwhen Rin pushed herself up.

    ?We should go.?

    Emilia blinked wildly up at her, mouth falling open slightly as a burst of energy shot out of the girl. It swirled around her, growing as it dragged aether into itself. Rin wobbled slightly, looking like she might fall to the ground asleep at any moment, before the magic pressed back into her.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    The girl released a long, drawn out sigh before blinking wide awake eyes down at Emilia, who blinked startled eyes up at her. After a long moment, a hand reached towards her, thin and pale and surprisingly strong when Emilia set her own into it, letting Rin haul her up.

    ¡°That was cool,¡± Emilia said, half-tempted to try letting a bit of her own energy spiral out of her core and into the other girl in an attempt to learn how she had done that¡ªyet another skill she had forced information about out of Zach, not that he¡¯d been inclined to let her try it out on him. She didn¡¯t think Rin would appreciate her searching much, though, and the last thing she needed was to accidentally hurt the other girl with her shit control. ¡°There¡¯s nothing like that in my world. Medics can heal you¡ªgive you an aether boost to wake you up¡ªand there are drugs you can take as well. Using your own magic to wake yourself up, though? Not possible, as far as I know¡ªalthough, I did hear a rumour about something like that in the Free Colonies once?¡±

    Emilia tilted her head, trying to think of where and when she¡¯d heard that. It must have been a long time ago¡ªor when she was stressed or near death¡ªfor her to have outright forgotten the source. Usually, her memory for everything important¡ªsave directions¡ªwas pretty good.

    ?Free Colonies?? Rin asked, glancing down when Emilia hooked their arms together and began walking them towards the doorway.

    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re like¡­ uh¡­ different cities? My guard kinda talked about an us and a them?¡±

    ?Yes,? Rin agreed. ?Our city system is under the purview of a single entity. There are other city systems that exist under other entities.?

    ¡°He said you don¡¯t have specific names for your cities? Doesn¡¯t that get confusing?¡± Emilia asked as they hovered outside the doorway. Going through it seemed like the kind of momentous occasion that you worked up to, given the whole mystery doorway that could very well kill them thing.

    Rin shook her head, her hair brushing over her shoulders. It wasn¡¯t straight anymore, the chaos of the day having curled the ends slightly and given it a somewhat frizzy look. ?It is challenging to explain,? Rin told her, the corners of her mouth pulling down in thought. ?There are two city systems bordering ours, but regardless of which is being talked about in conversation, it would be impossible to not know which is being discussed? They are very different.?

    ¡°So¡­ it¡¯s context-based?¡± Emilia mulled that over. Some of the Free Colonies were like that. If you were talking about the Free Colony with the tower, you were obviously talking about the Core. If you were talking about the floating Free Colony, the Atrium. Those were just physical features, though. If someone mentioned an authoritarian Free Colony or one that was rampant with religious extremism¡­ there were a few that came to Emilia¡¯s mind in both those cases, and there were so many Free Colonies that no one knew much about.

    ¡°What about the other ones? The ones that don¡¯t border yours?¡±

    Rin gave her a slightly puzzled look. ?We have no need to communicate with anyone else.?

    ¡°You don¡¯t have trade routes?¡±

    Rin¡¯s frown deepened into one of true confusion. ?We trade between our internal cities. We have everything we need here.?

    So, that was a no on the trading between different city systems¡¯ thing.

    ¡°Do the other cities systems have problems with blood magic?¡±

    For the briefest of moments, Rin¡¯s arm tensed around hers. Something flashed over her face¡ªsomething alien and other, and definitely not the girl she had just been having a mostly civil conversation with. Then, as fast as the tension had come, it disappeared, the blank faced girl returning and shrugging.

    ?I do not know. I only know we have minimal communication with our neighbours.?

    Emilia hummed, trying to sound like she totally, completely believed that story. A story that Rin seemed to believe, regardless of whatever that had been.

    ?Free Colonies?? Rin asked, breaking the silence.

    ¡°Hm? Oh, yeah!¡± Emilia cheered, bouncing on her toes as she tried to work out the kinks in her legs and feet. She seriously hoped she got access to the system soon, so she could earn herself some fancy skills and turn herself back into a fitness machine. Zach hadn¡¯t known the most about the system she would gain access to¡ªthe one for visitors being different from the one for locals and all¡ªbut from what he had known, it would include some nice abilities that would bring her body back up to what she was used to¡ªif not further past the realm of reality.

    ¡°The Free Colonies are my world¡¯s neighbour cities? There are other countries further away, as well, although our relations with them are basically just trade¡ªor they were. Things have been strained since they screwed us over during the war? We still trade, to some extent, but it''s all pretty¡­ weird? Like, I think the companies that handle the shipments still communicate somehow, but I¡¯m actually not too sure of the details?¡±

    Her face scrunched in thought. Both Seven and Halen¡¯s families had been involved in international trade, but Seven had always been so reticent¡ªso aware of the fact that he was different from every other member of their division¡ªand Halen¡­

    Well, she wasn¡¯t exactly glad Halen was dead, killed in the attack that wiped out most of their division, but he had also been one of the least pleasant people she¡¯d ever met, and she definitely hadn¡¯t mourned the asshole. He¡¯d offered up information on his family¡¯s holdings occasionally, but it had always held too sharp an edge of arrogance and over-exaggeration. She had known Halen most of her life, but could only think of a handful of times when he was actually pleasant, and as a general rule, she had refused to retain virtually anything he ever said¡ªnot that she¡¯d always been successful, many of his less savoury jokes and comments written into her memory. There were a few good memories she had retained, however short and rare those moments had been.

    She was pretty sure he¡¯d never talked about how trade had worked during the war, however. That would have actually been worth paying attention to. Instead, it had usually just been information about how much money his family had made the last quarter¡ªthe war had been obscenely profitable for them.

    Emilia glanced back at Rin, finding those muddy eyes watching her with something almost like concern. ¡°What?¡±

    Rin blinked slowly at her, before turning back to stare into the abyss of the doorway. ?Nothing. Shall we??

    Emilia glared at the door and the ominously empty blackness of the other side. ¡°Do you have gods here?¡±

    ?Yes. Why??

    ¡°Think we should pray to any? Make peace with ourselves and the world?¡±

    ?What. Why??

    ¡°In case we die going into that thing.¡±

    ?We are not going to die,? Rin insisted, sounding exasperated with her once again. Annoyed was a much better look on her than dead eyed tiredness or whatever those weird, angry mood shifts had been.

    ¡°How do you know?¡± Emilia asked, throwing a dramatic sigh in for effect. ¡°We could walk through that thing and straight into the afterlife¡ªinto a never-ending hell, even!¡±

    ?What is hell??

    ¡°Uh¡­ some, like¡­ ancient myth of what awaits you when you die? I think there are some groups in the Free Colonies that revived the belief, but it''s not common where I¡¯m from. We just have some ancient manuscripts that mention heaven and hell. They¡¯re pretty degraded, though. From what I understand, it¡¯s supposed to be a scary place where you spend eternity being tortured for the most boring of reasons? One of the manuscripts mentions being gay? Another eating certain types of food, and I¡¯m pretty sure the gods mentioned are¡ª what?¡± Emilia¡¯s rambling halting as she caught Rin¡¯s eye.

    ?You talk a lot.?

    ¡°My brain to mouth filter may have been unknotted while I napped.¡± Payton obviously hadn¡¯t gotten to unknotting the ones that brought that filter back a bit yet, which seemed like a giant oversight on his part.

    Rin sighed, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. ?The Guard was right. Visitors are exhausting.?

 Arc 2 | Chapter 52: Too New

    Emilia blinked into the middle distance as Rin vomited beside her. They had survived going through the mystery doorway, but the experience had been less than pleasant, like a thousand amusement park rides smushed into a single, blisteringly short moment. Only her own flight training was keeping her stomach contents inside her, but even they were roiling with threat.

    ¡°You okay?¡± she asked weakly, sparing a glance towards the other girl. It was a good thing her hair was so short, her shoulder-length locks in little danger of falling into the mess at her feet.

    Rin made an unintelligible noise, half through her aethervoice, half seeming to actually gurgling out of her before her stomach decided more needed to come out. Lovely.

    Emilia sighed, looking around them. They were no longer stuck in the endless hallway, nor were they in the abyss that had existed outside its walls. The new space looked closer to the library they had originally been in, although it was in far better shape than either the areas that had been mangled by the earlier destruction or the ancient, mouldering ones they had passed through on their way to find the heartcore.

    This place wasn¡¯t exactly like either of those areas, however, appearing to be more suited for sitting down and studying a book you¡¯d grabbed. Large tables spread through the room, with lights that seemed to simultaneously be too dim to read by and the exactly correct mood for the space set onto each table.

    ¡°Odd¡­¡± Emilia thought, stepping forward to examine the lights. Lights hadn¡¯t existed until this moment, the world instead relying on magic substances that absorbed the natural light that suffused most of the world. The few places she¡¯d been in that were seemingly devoid of that light¡ªoutside of that weird hallway from before¡ªwere the underground caverns surrounded by the light absorbing material. Those had either been lit by stalactites, as the one that led to the first heartcore had been, or magic, as Zach¡¯s training rooms had been. The only other things she¡¯d seen emitting light was fire magic and the heartcore itself.

    She peeked under the shade of one of the lights, finding the lightbulb wasn¡¯t a lightbulb at all. Instead, a golden red stone was glowing faintly, its edges surprisingly jagged.

    ¡°Are these stone lights common?¡± she asked, moving around the tables to examine each of the lights. Most of the stones were the same golden-red, however a few edged closer to a bloody red, the light they cast ominous, reminding her of the horror movies Beth and Pria loved¡ªone of their few shared interests, outside of partying.

    ?No,? Rin said, sounding worn out and still a little woozy from their entry. ?I have only¡ª? She broke off, and when Emilia glanced back at her, her eyes were clamped shut, a hand resting gently over her stomach.

    ?No¡­? Rin started again, shaking her head slightly before risking opening her eyes once more. ?There are stones that glow¡ª?

    ¡°Like in that cavern.¡±

    ?Yes, but they are never removed.?

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    Rin stepped forward to examine one of the lamps herself. She reached out with her energy, a barely there pink wrapping around the light, before she overturned the lamp to look at it better. ?The caverns are considered a blessing from the visitors. They are sacred and not to be harmed.?

    ¡°And¡­ a bunch of young people getting drunk and high in them isn¡¯t considered harming them?¡± Her own country was pretty lax on their drug laws, but it was only in the Free Colonies that you found governments who considered being intoxicated to be a sacred experience. It was a bit of an issue, what with all the immigration since the war. People brought their customs with them, and sometimes those customs didn¡¯t mesh with the normal flow of Baalphorian life and culture. Neither side had been particularly good at finding a middle ground.

    ?That is not considered harmful,? Rin told her, fingers brushing over the stone. Pink tendrils slipped out of her again, winding their way through the cracks in the stone until the aether itself seemed to be screaming.

    ¡°Uhm¡­¡± Emilia gulped out, the hands pressed to her ears doing nothing to protect them from the sound that seemed to be the world itself complaining about how Rin was treating it. ¡°Should you be doing that?¡±

    Just like that, Rin¡¯s energy scattered through the air and the screaming stopped. ?I was demonstrating what harming these stones actually feels like,? she said matter-of-factly, as though she hadn¡¯t just finished doing the thing she¡¯d said people weren¡¯t supposed to do. ?Simply enjoying their company is not harming them.?

    ¡°I¡­ see¡­¡±

    Emilia rubbed absently at her ears. At least the screaming hadn¡¯t been actual screaming, which was definitely liable to burst her eardrum yet again. As much as her body seemed inclined to heal more serious injuries in this world, her eardrum apparently wasn¡¯t vital enough for the system to heal it. Key had also healed up his hands, after her blood magic had mangled them during the fight with her former guard, but even for locals, healing abilities were built into the system. As much as locals could increase their skill in healing others, more energy was focused on giving people the skill to heal their own injuries, even those who were generally discouraged from using magic by the Risen Guard.

    According to Harmony, who had stepped in to answer questions when her brother had begun to fumble them, this had always been the case, even before blood became such a toxic substance. The introduction of blood magic into the world had simply upped the need to make sure everyone could heal themselves with the upmost efficiency and speed.

    This, unfortunately, meant that no one was capable of healing her eardrum and she was just going to have to live with the itchy feeling and quiet, inescapable buzz. Given most of her body was now itchy from her ongoing knot therapy, though, and she wasn¡¯t even sure the itching was because of the damage. All she knew was she was itchy, pretty much everywhere. Her ear was by far the itchiest, however, and she couldn¡¯t soothe it. It really sucked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering¡­¡± Emilia started, coming to stand beside Rin as she disassembled the lamp, examining each piece with the concentration of someone who had wanted to spend her life creating.

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Rin didn¡¯t even glance up when Emilia trailed off, her focus entirely on the magic item before her. Emilia shrugged, turning back to explore the room. She knew enough about obsessive people to know you didn¡¯t interrupt them when they were focused¡ªnot unless it was an emergency, and sometimes not even then.

    The room itself was tall, bookshelves reaching several floors up, walkways that glowed faintly edging the walls and allowing access to the books. Sliding ladders covered the space as well, attached to the walls by rails. It was strange. Nothing like this existed in her country, where paper copies were to be avoided whenever you could¡ªand the books here really were a more regular paper, unlike the ones in her Risen Guard holding room. Some of the room¡¯s design reminded her of the strange and outdated architectural and interior design choices Charles had brought from the Free Colonies, though¡ªmuch to Nettie¡¯s everlasting annoyance, her own aesthetics leaning hard into the futuristic.

    He had also brought with him a large collection of paper books, which had been relegated to his library and office. What the man needed an office for, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure. He had come from a rich family, but unlike in Baalphoria, where even those who could retire on family money were expected to join the workforce, the Free Colony Charles and James hailed from had no such customs. If anything, after decades of learning bits about their home, she had come to believe that earning enough money to retire early was considered desirable¡ªeven better if your descendants could retire from birth. Even Halen, who she had seen attempt to avoid work on many occasions, had been put off by the idea of living off accumulated wealth.

    Money was meant to be used. Yes, many of the more affluent Baalphorian families kept their fair share of cash sitting around for emergencies, but between taxes and donations and the cost of their often opulent lifestyles, if they didn¡¯t work, that cash would quickly vanish. She knew that in the years since the war, many of those families had increased their donations, working overtime to help rebuild the country in any way they could. Even the people who continuously built and demolished the towers of Piketown worked and donated substantial amounts of their wealth¡ªtheir choice of where to spend their remaining cash was still stupid, though.

    Charles had always sworn there were some Baalphorian customs he would never adopt¡ªa Censor being one of them, preferring the temporary, external model when he had to use it¡ªbut maybe working, helping the country recover, managing the substantial profits from his wife¡¯s job, were ones he had learned to accept?

    Maybe. The man had always been¡­ difficult to understand. He had married a temperamental and high maintenance woman whose country he seemed to viscerally dislike half the time, after all.

    Her fingers ran over the spines of the books. They were so¡­ fresh. She¡¯d seen collections of books in some of the Free Colonies she¡¯d visited as a child. They had been old, their spines cracked with misuse and love. Even the newer ones, still being manufactured for people who preferred paper to digital for whatever reason, had generally been noticeably worn after a single read through. Pages crinkles and bent and ripped. Spines and covers were scuffed and marked up, even with the most attentive of owners.

    These books looked too perfect¡ªtoo new.

    ¡°I think this place is fake,¡± she said to herself, giving a squeak of surprise when Rin popped up beside her, an echo of agreement flooding out of her.

    ?I agree,? the other girl said, ignoring the way Emilia was dramatically clutching her chest.

    ¡°Stars above, you¡¯re stealthy.¡±

    ?Trained killer, remember?? Rin joked¡ªat least, Emilia thought it was a joke. She had been under the assumption that the Risen Guard were more of an authoritarian police force, and that while they did kill, they weren¡¯t trained to be outright killers, except in the higher ranks. That said, Rin and Harmony had both been tagged for more training, so maybe they had already known the general direction of their careers?

    Maybe, Rin had already known she would be forced to kill her fellow citizens, in an attempt to protect the world¡ªin an attempt to earn the Risen Guard more control and power. She had seemed to know that the guard were killing people they viewed as dangerous, after all, even if she was surprised at who and why those people were being killed.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, glancing back at the mess of the lamp Rin had disassembled and left in pieces across the table. ¡°What makes you think this place is fake?¡±

    When she looked back, Rin¡¯s eyes were glued on the books, assessing them with the same intensity she had the lamp. Emilia blinked and then Rin was gone, moving down along the shelves examining the books and shelves, occasionally pulling out a book to flip through it.

    Okay then. Still focusing.

    Emilia pulled out a few of the books as well, grimacing down at the symbolic writing before sliding each back into place. Worth a shot, even if she had already figured the writing here would be indecipherable to her. Not only had they already discussed the possibility that the system was translating their words for one another, but the writing she¡¯d seen in the cities had been nothing but mysterious scribbles to her. It would have been weird to discover the writing in this room was something she could read, but it didn¡¯t hurt to check.

    She might not know a lot about raid platforms, but she knew they varied in how much the challenges within them were natural constructions of the world and the system that managed it, and how much the maintainers interfered, designing intricate events for heroes to partake in. She had heard Elijah and his friends arguing over which was better on a few occasions. Maintainers could be far more creative than the systems, but the systems could leverage knowledge and understanding of itself and its population far better than any human maintainer ever could.

    Sil had his own views on the topic, but his general dislike of Elijah and his friends generally kept them from interacting, and he knew Emilia didn¡¯t particularly care for the topic of raids or raid platforms, so she only knew he had opinions, not what they were.

    It was almost too bad the books here weren¡¯t written in her native tongue. The proof that the maintainers were interfering in this world would have taken the question of how much of this was natural out of her mind. The fact that this world was a construct used as a game by her world was bad enough, but one could argue the system was its god, manipulating it as it saw fit, slotting visiting heroes in as best it could. When people from her world got even more involved in it¡ªwhen they came in, twisting and destroying the natural progression of a world for their own amusement¡­

    It made everything worse, but she also knew the difference was minute and hardly worth thinking about.

    These people weren¡¯t some foreign country they had invaded in a war and made a cruel vacation spot for themselves in. This world and its people wouldn¡¯t exist without these games, and that fact blurred the lines so much it made her head hurt.

    Her own ethics told her this was wrong. The laws of her world had long since determined that AI were not people with rights, even if they had long since passed the point where you could never hope to differentiate a human and an AI.

    Emilia released a long sigh as she pulled herself up onto the lowest of the balconies encircling the room. There were more tables and lamps here as well, these ones giving off a faintly green glow that made everything look poisonous. She poked her head back over the railing, catching sight of Rin looking over another book, flipping the pages so fast Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she was actually seeing what was on them.

    The book snapped shut and Rin glanced up towards her. ?Find anything??

    Emilia smiled down at her, resting her elbows on the railing. ¡°Not really, but I do have a question for you, if you¡¯re ready to hear it?¡±

    Rin¡¯s expression pulled tight. ?Why would I not be?? she asked because apparently either no one had ever pointed out her single-minded focus to her, or it was new.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 53: Maybe Itâ€™s Actually a Trap

    ?I do not ignore people when I am focused,? Rin insisted again as she stepped onto the balcony.

    ¡°Yes, you totally, completely do!¡± Emilia laughed, her feet swinging idly under the seat she¡¯d taken at one of the tables.

    She couldn¡¯t tell if the seats were overly high or if she was just too short, but she was okay with either. The seats in her own world tended to be adjustable, and people found it annoying when she fidgeted, forcing her to set her chair to the proper height lest anyone get too pissed off. She hadn¡¯t always done that, especially when she was younger. A few times, things had even escalated to fights. She didn¡¯t want to stop swinging her feet, someone else wanted her to stop. Words were said. Fists were thrown.

    She always won.

    Rin glowered at her as she sat down, her eyes narrowed so harshly Emilia could barely make out the red of them. ?I do not ignore people.?

    ¡°It¡¯s fine that you do!¡± Emilia insisted, leaning an elbow on the table and swinging one leg gracefully over the other, the fabric of her skirt sliding up her thigh. ¡°I do it, too. So does a good friend of mine¡ªalthough, you might not want to use him as inspiration? He¡¯s kinda bad at like¡­ taking care of himself?¡±

    Rin blinked at her, eyes that had been glaring at her slowly riding up skirt turning back to her face. ?Worse than you??

    ¡°Hey, now!¡± Emilia said, pounding a fist dramatically against the table. ¡°You don¡¯t know me well enough to say whether I take care of myself or not!¡± She didn¡¯t, generally, but that was beside the point!

    Her friend¡¯s mouth quirky, ever so slightly. ?You have a vibe.?

    Emilia gaped at her, fighting down her own amusement. She needed righteous fury, not laughing encouragement of this assault on her character!

    ?You had a question??

    ¡°Hm? Oh, yeah!¡± Emilia shifted back in her seat, her back cracking against the¡­ wood? What even was this thing made of?

    ?Wood?> Rin asked when Emilia questioned her about the materials used for construction in the world. ?If memory serves, wood was once used, but that was many centuries ago¡ªmaybe even millennia. You wanted to ask me about our building materials??

    ¡°What? Oh, no¡ªor, well, yes? I was just thinking back to that cavern? The one we went to that first night¡ªI mean, obviously that¡¯s the one I¡¯m thinking of. It¡¯s not like we¡¯ve been to any other caverns¡­¡± Emilia trailed off. Technically, she had been inside Zach¡¯s training cavern, but she wasn¡¯t supposed to talk about the specifics of that. Although, the moment anyone saw her use magic once she did gain access to the system, they were probably going to know she had gotten help from someone in learning the basics. Maybe. It was impossible to know how much Zach¡¯s knowledge was going to help her until she actually had access to the damn thing.

    She shook herself slightly, smiling at Rin as she refocused on the moment. ¡°See? I also lose myself in thought!¡±

    The look Rin levelled at her looked thoroughly unimpressed, although she didn¡¯t say anything about how rude it was to space out in the middle of the conversation, which Emilia thought was probably exactly what she wanted to do. Instead, she made a get on with it motion with her hand, and Emilia continued on with her question.

    ¡°It¡¯s just, the glowing stones there and that little lake-pond weren¡¯t red? And these lights up here¡±¡ªshe motioned around them, her black nails glinting in the dim, greenish light¡ª¡°they certainly aren¡¯t red. Everything else, though? Definitely red. Red and black and white and anything you can make with those colours.¡±

    Rin blinked muddy red, almost brown eyes back at her. ?Yes.?

    Emilia frowned as she waited for the other girl to continue, her fingers dancing over the not-wood of the table. Rin hadn¡¯t actually told her what kinds of materials they used to make things, so not-wood it was.

    ?Things like the stones¡­ and the cavern,? the girl said carefully, her eyes sliding away from Emilia to the lamp sitting near the edge of their table, ?were created by blessings. They are governed by their own rules.?

    ¡°Right¡­ but you said that the red of this world was due to a blessing as well¡ªor, you didn¡¯t exactly say it, but you heavily implied. You even said something poetic about not all change being good.¡±

    ?I did.?

    ¡°So, what? The blessing that granted the stones and the caverns just overwrote the redness of everything?¡±

    Rin¡¯s face betrayed nothing as she remained silent, neither confirming nor denying her guess. The only hint that she had guessed wrong was in the fluctuation through her energy, small and controlled, but there.

    ¡°No¡­ the redness came after¡­ and couldn¡¯t overwrite what had already been written.¡±

    Rin blinked back at her, still not speaking or contributing, something holding her back from actively guiding Emilia¡¯s thoughts.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean that even if someone wins a blessing this round, it might not be able to change what happened last time around?¡± she asked. If that¡¯s the case¡ªif blessings aren¡¯t able to affect anything already touched by another blessing¡­

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    It meant this world would be stuck in this blood magic hellscape forever.

    Rin shook her head. ?I do not know. Records of blessings have been lost over the years, but¡­? She trailed off, a conflicted look flashing over her face.

    ¡°But¡­¡± Emilia said, softly encouraging Rin to share her beliefs and knowledge.

    Rin shot her a glance, her expression tight. ?But there are stories of dual blessings¡ªof a curse followed by a blessing which not only removed the curse, but strengthened the world as well. I believe the Enclave is hoping that the blood magic is a curse, and the subsequent blessing will undo it.?

    ¡°You aren¡¯t convinced,¡± Emilia noted.

    ?I do not know what to think,? Rin admitted. ?The Risen Guard do not believe it is fixable¡­ not anymore.?

    ¡°The failure of the last group of visitors?¡± she guessed. Her eyes shifting towards the greenish light. It was nice, seeing a colour that wasn¡¯t red, even if she wasn''t particularly fond of green.

    ?Yes,? the other girl agreed, her hands finding the lamp Emilia had been staring at and beginning to disassemble it, just as she had the orange-red one below. ?They failed, and the guard believe that was our only chance to change things. Some even believe all blessings from now on will be curses.?

    ¡°Well, that would suck.¡±

    ?Yes,? Rin replied blandly, her hands making quick work of taking the lamp apart until all that was left was the glowing stone in her hands, all the other various pieces pushed to the side. ?The leadership seems inclined to believe something in between those two theories.?

    ¡°So, the reason they¡¯re fighting against visitors isn¡¯t to hoard power, but to try and keep it safe? Shouldn¡¯t you have¡ªoh, I don¡¯t know¡ªtold the others about all this? Don¡¯t get me wrong, hope can be a great and powerful motivator, but sometimes knowing things might not work out is better.¡±

    Rin¡¯s thumbs rubbed over the jagged stone, her eyes turning a swampy colour as she gazed into it. ?I have mentioned it to Harmony, both in the past and again last night. She did not seem inclined to believe me.? She sucked in a long, drawn out breath, releasing it just as slowly into the quiet library. ?She thinks I have been fooled by the guard.?

    Emilia frowned. She knew what it was like to think a friend had been caught on the wrong side of things¡ªconvinced by lies and half-truths. ¡°She still seems to trust you, from what I¡¯ve seen.¡±

    ?Maybe she shouldn''t,? the former guard said, the vibrations of her words through the aether so soft Emilia almost didn¡¯t hear them¡ªwasn¡¯t sure she was meant to hear them.

    ¡°Why are you helping, if you think us visitors¡ªHarbingers or whatever¡ªmight make your world even worse?¡± she asked.

    Rin shrugged, an echo of something that truly felt conflicted and confused sliding off her. ?I cannot abandon my friends, even if I am not sure that they are following the correct path.? The girl¡¯s eyes met hers, dark and serious, as she added, ?I will not leave them to die at the hands of visitors and the Risen Guard.?

    Emilia opened her mouth to say something¡ªalthough she had no idea what you even said to something like that¡ªbut Rin cut her off.

    ?We should explore further. I do not want to remain here forever.? The girl pushed herself up, stepping towards the next ladder with sure steps.

    ¡°Ah¡­ yeah,¡± Emilia said, scrambling to catch up with her. She glanced at the stone on the table, abandoned by her friend among the pieces of the lamp. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if Rin would notice her pocketing it, before she decided she didn¡¯t care and slipped it into her bag. It was heavier than she had thought it would be, similar stones of her own world tending to weight less than regular rocks did. This thing weighed far more, pulling awkwardly against the fabric of her bag.

    ?What are you going to use that fake stone for?? Rin asked when Emilia reached the third landing.

    Well, at least there would be no guessing whether her friend knew she had swiped it or not.

    Emilia shrugged, readjusting her now too heavy bag. ¡°I dunno. What makes you think it¡¯s fake, though? That was my other question. I also think this place isn¡¯t real¡ªor, if it¡¯s real, it''s only recently been created¡ªbecause all the books are too new. I know rich people do some crazy things, but a library filled with books no one has ever opened seems a bit extreme.¡±

    Rin nodded, explaining that the way the aether had behaved when she sent her energy into the golden-red stone was not natural. ?There should have been more complaint from the aether. Those complaints should have dissipated slower, once I removed by energy from it.?

    ¡°How do you know so much about something you said people aren¡¯t supposed to do?¡± Emilia asked, shooting her a suspicious look before beginning to wander the balcony.

    Much like below, this level contained a collection of tables and stone lamps¡ªthese ones letting out a hideous, pale blue colour. It was so pale, in fact, that if she hadn¡¯t come across the green lamps below, she might have assumed it was an off-white colour and the blue undertones were simply a trick of perception.

    ?And I suppose you never do things you are not supposed to?? Rin asked, voice filled with condescending knowing.

    ¡°Oh, no~¡± she teased back, shooting her friend a shit eating grin over her shoulder. ¡°I definitely fuck with boundaries as much as I can¡ªespecially when they¡¯re from the government and so-called authority figures.¡±

    Rin did not look surprised, which was fair. She¡¯d ditched everyone earlier, after all, and shown up with no answers as to where she had been and only the barest of apologies. Authority and seniority were just so overrated, in her most humble opinion. Half the time, idiots gained control through chance and nepotism¡ªespecially in family businesses, which were rampant in the upper echelons she¡¯d grown up in. The rest of the time, people actually competent were in charge, but she¡¯d seen how easy it was for that power to go to people¡¯s heads.

    Emilia had seen too many lives lost in the war because leaders and superiors hadn''t wanted to listen to anyone¡¯s advice. They were too good for the opinions of those beneath them, and she¡¯d found over the course of her life that usually it was better to not bother trying to convince them they were about to do something spectacularly stupid. Going your own way, accepting that consequences would follow, was generally the better option. Usually, at least a few people followed her, risking their lives and ranks to do the right thing.

    That was how Boyd had ended up in their division. He¡¯d been one of the few members who¡¯d been regular army before the war. Obedient and soft, he¡¯d risked his career following Emilia and the rest of her division. It had worked out for him, in the end, but there had been some years there where things had been rough between him and his former army buddies. They seemed to have worked it out now, if the occasional news clips she caught of Boyd working alongside his former teammates for this or that were any indication¡ªhe was also the only one of them still in active duty.

    Not that any of them had ever officially left the army either, her own reserve paycheck being automatically donated every paydrop. She might generally need the cash, but she also knew other people needed it more and were much less capable of getting it that she was.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Emilia called back to Rin as her fingers ran across one of the bookshelves, ¡°do you think I should activate this?¡±

    ?Activate what?? Rin asked, an adorable wrinkle appearing between her eyes as she eyed up the bookcase.

    ¡°The secret doorway?¡± Emilia¡¯s fingers tapped over the edge of the bookcase. ¡°At least, I think it¡¯s a doorway? Could be a deadly trap, for all I know.¡±

    2261

 Arc 2 | Chapter 54: Canâ€™t be Good

    After a respectable amount of back and forth about whether triggering the mechanism Emilia had found was a good idea¡ªRin had, unfortunately, stuck to her insistence that Emilia shouldn¡¯t risk her life because she had no way of knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt if her real body and soul would actually be okay¡ªRin had finally capitulated and agreed to let her activate it. It had taken about thirty minutes, the other girl searching through the library¡¯s three levels looking for any other mechanisms or hints as to how they should proceed, but now she stood a ways away from Emilia, waiting for her to activate the thing.

    Emilia was pretty sure the distance was ridiculous¡ªneither of them could sense anything connected to the mechanism other than another hidden door¡ªbut she resisted doing anything more than rolling her eyes at the girl before reaching her energy out towards the thing.

    It shuddered. She shuddered back.

    ?Are you alright?? Rin asked as Emilia staggered slightly, although the other girl made no attempt to move towards her, probably thinking she¡¯d deserve it if the mechanism killed her.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emilia said, stepping back to lean against a table as the bookshelves opened, metal grinding loudly together as it did so. She smacked her free hand to her injured ear, wondering if the people of this world weren¡¯t fortunate to have magically deafened hearing.

    ¡°What was that?¡±

    Emilia and Rin¡¯s eyes flew wide as another voice floated towards them from below¡ªfrom beyond the still open doorway to the endless hallway. Rin bolted towards her, grabbing hold of her wrist and tugging her into the newly revealed tunnel.

    ?I do not know,? another voice said, slithering through the aether towards them and sending a shudder through Emilia as Rin turned back towards the door, her eyes flittering about searching for some means of closing it.

    Emilia tugged her along. ¡°It¡¯s a waste of time,¡± she hissed, cursing the fact that she was so helpless as they hurried along the dark corridor. ¡°They¡¯ll hear it close, and they¡¯ll obviously know there¡¯s a hidden door. Even if they have to search it out, it wasn¡¯t hidden well enough to slow them down much.¡±

    She glanced back, catching the way the former guard¡¯s jaw tensed, although she said nothing about the people behind them, instead telling Emilia she should watch where she was going.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Emilia¡¯s gaze shifted back to the long corridor, which apparently wasn¡¯t as long as she thought. She cursed, twisting her momentum to the right as the corridor split in two, a sharp edge leading the path to each side. ¡°Shit,¡± she hissed as she slammed her shoulder into the wall, Rin¡¯s own momentum stymied by some sort of magic. Why she didn¡¯t¡ªor perhaps couldn¡¯t¡ªuse it on her as well, Emilia had no idea. Something told her it might have simply been a petty desire to see her slam into the wall, though.

    ?Are you okay?? Rin asked, although Emilia could see the hint of amusement in her eyes. At the least, it was a good sign that the former Risen Guard was still capable of finding levity in the moment. In Emilia¡¯s experience, taking things too seriously was more likely to lead to fuck-ups than trying to stay calm and enjoying the ride, even when unknown and potentially dangerous people were following close behind.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, eyes turning back the way they had come. The corridor was so long and dark that she couldn¡¯t see the entrance, although they certainly hadn¡¯t run far enough to completely lose what light had been making it into the darkness from the library. Hopefully, they hadn¡¯t ended up in yet another endless hall they¡¯d struggle to find their way out of. Then again, maybe if it was, those people wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up with them? Unlikely, given they¡¯d also found their way into the first endless hallway, but a girl could hope!

    ¡°We should keep going,¡± she said, turning away from the way they had come. She glanced down each of the paths, finding both just as black and empty as the other. ¡°I think we go right.¡±

    ?Why??

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    Rin, rather unsurprisingly, didn¡¯t seem to like Emilia¡¯s non-existent reasoning for going right. Really, she had mostly chosen that path because that was the natural direction her body had moved when the split had popped up in front of them. Somehow, she thought Rin would like that reason even less, so she kept her mouth shut as they hurried down the path, neither of them inclined to dawdle while there were unknown people not too far behind them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t imagine you recognized them?¡± Emilia asked. Around them, the world spread empty and black and too much like the first hallway had.

    ?No,? Rin replied, her steps lighter across the floor than Emilia¡¯s own.

    Emilia reached out her core, probing the aethernet for signs that her friend was using some sort of magic, a slight zing shot through her. It wasn¡¯t a zing from Rin or whatever magic she may or may not have been using to soften her steps, though, as far as she could tell.

    ?I am not acquainted with many members of the Enclave,? Rin continued as Emilia began searching for the source of the zing, the other girl¡¯s words falling away slightly as she concentrated.

    Something was hovering around them¡ªlurking. It felt like it was lurking, reminding her too much of the way the monsters during the war had felt, slinking through the aether until they were ready to jump out and¡ª

    ?Are you listening?? Rin half-growled at her.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Emilia glanced towards her. ¡°I was looking for something. What do you feel here?¡±

    Rin¡¯s energy filled the space, flowing like water around them as it whipped at the edges of the world, curling into the aether until¡ª

    Rin frowned, deep and strange looking across her normally bored face.

    ¡°Do you know what that is?¡± Emilia asked, glancing behind them as though she¡¯d be able to see if the strangers were now chasing them. It was impossibly dark behind them, however, and all she managed to do was trip over her own feet, stumbling forward with a yelp. Her knees banged and skidded across the sticky floor, and even without looking, she could tell she¡¯d drawn blood. ¡°Fuck,¡± she mumbled, flipping onto her butt to examine the damage.

    The tights Harmony had lent her, after deeming her own, lacy tights too risqu¨¦, were definitely ruined. Giant holes crossed her knees, blood slowly oozing out of the scuffs, the skin burning when she bent her knees to examine them more closely. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it going back in? The times I was injured before, my blood just kinda¡­ seeped back into me¡ªor became a weapon. This blood isn¡¯t doing either.¡± She peered up at Rin who was resolutely looking away from her, her eyes instead staring into the abyss they had come from.

    ?It¡¯s not?? she asked, energy still spilling out of her as she searched for whatever was zinging through the aether. Her jaw tightened for the briefest of moments before she glanced down, watching with wide eyes as blood dripped out of Emilia¡¯s scrapes, caking her tights in what would definitely become uncomfortable spots of dried, cracking blood too quickly. ?That is not good.?

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I didn¡¯t think it would be. Do you think it¡¯s this place?¡±

    ?Perhaps. We should go. If it is this place, we do not want to be caught by those people here. Can you walk??

    Emilia pushed herself up, cringing a bit as pain spiked through her. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. Stings, but it¡¯s not too bad. Ideally, we find a spot to stop, so the blood will clot, but I get what you¡¯re saying. We definitely don¡¯t want to be fighting someone where my wounds won¡¯t heal.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t sure if any injuries Rin sustained would heal by themselves, even under normal circumstances. She¡¯d seen her former Risen Guard babysitter¡¯s wounds start to heal, seemingly of their own accord, the night they¡¯d fought, but it had seemed slower than her own healing. Key¡¯s hands had needed healing magic, and while everyone had been rather tight-lipped about it, Emilia assumed the Risen Guard were capable of using a lesser version of whatever was healing visitors. It was just a question of whether Rin had the same ability¡ªnot to mention if anyone outside the Risen Guard did as well.

    Rin blinked at her.

    ¡°What?¡±

    Rin shook her head. ?It is nothing. I am simply not used to people treating injuries so nonchalantly.?

    ¡°There were some kids at the Stringer house that did as well,¡± Emilia said as they began moving again, their steps quick but not quite the run they had been previously.

    ?Those children are¡­ odd. Their father and Key have allowed them more freedom than is common.?

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Emilia trailed off, thinking of the way the children had failed in their attempts to be sneaky, instead tripping and bleeding and soaking their clothes in a matter of minutes. She had thought it cute, at first, but after having met the Stringer Matriarch, who she supposed must be their grandmother or another close relative¡­

    Stars above, she really hoped that woman never found out about their escapes. Emilia had experience with people like that¡ªhad spent the first few years of her life surrounded by adults who thought children were too much trouble, even when they weren¡¯t actively up to anything. She¡¯d never been good at staying out of trouble, even back when there had been all that pressure to be good, and certainly not a single moment since escaping that oppression.

    ¡°You don¡¯t think children need freedom?¡± Emilia asked.

    She¡¯d seen a general lack of freedom and play in the two cities she¡¯d visited so far. Children shuffling quietly through the streets, nearly every scrap of their body covered by thick, uncomfortable looking cloth in what was likely a vain attempt to keep them safe. Children were meant to run and play, to get into trouble and fun, to scuff their knees and palms, just as hers were now.

    Out of all the things wrong with this world of red, that¡ªthat disappearance of what had hopefully once been a standard childhood¡ªwrapped itself around her heart in a wholly different and uncomfortable way. Even her own quiet childhood was nothing compared to the way these children seemed to live. She knew that in some of the Free Colonies, especially the more authoritarian ones, the lives of children were often strictly controlled. You didn¡¯t get good little soldiers, parroting back government propaganda by letting them have imaginations, after all. Even from what little she¡¯d heard about how this world had existed before the blood curse had arrived, it didn¡¯t sound like that had been the case here.

    More than likely, once, children had grown and lived and laughed. There were so many horrors in this world, but that one¡ªthe loss of childhood¡ªwas so tangible. Emilia was sure she could walk down any street and see how normal something so wrong had become. Other things were easier to hide, but they were hidden because even the locals would find them horrifying. Killing people to stop their blood from becoming a weapon was terrible. Ruling with an increasingly ruthless hand was definitely not ideal. Destroying the happiness of children because they may injure themselves was just as traumatizing.

    Emilia frowned when the former guard failed to answer her question, instead leaving her mind to wander about. She turned towards where Rin had been hurrying along beside her a moment earlier and startled to a stop. ¡°Rin?¡± She glanced behind her, finding no sign of the other girl.

    ¡°Well¡­ that can¡¯t be good¡­¡± she mumbled to herself, hands planting on her hips as she backtracked a few steps. Emilia reached her energy out, searching for any sign of the other girl, frown deepening when she found neither any sign of her nor the previous zing through the aether. ¡°Also not good.¡±

    She took a few more steps back towards where the entrance¡ªin theory¡ªwas located, her steps pausing when another person¡¯s energy ripped through the aethernet. ¡°Fuck,¡± she hissed under her breath, twisting and bolting away from the theoretical entrance as magic pricked against her skin.

    ?I think I found someone~? a voice, cold and cruel, vibrated through her, the speaker having purposefully thrown his voice towards her.

    Asshole. Emilia had seen enough horror flicks to know the man was fucking with her, his voice holding the same malevolence that she¡¯d heard in those of serial killers¡¯, chasing down their next victim and revelling in the fear their actions garnered them.

    Distantly, she thought she heard their companion¡ªthe visitor she had heard earlier¡ªsaying something to them, but they were too far off. A laugh echoed through the world, and Emilia shuddered before steeling herself. She would not be afraid¡ªnot of someone like that. This wasn¡¯t her first time being chased by someone who wanted to kill her. Between monsters, black knotted stalkers, crazed soldiers and a few outliers, Emilia was used to fighting for her life.

    She might be running at the moment, but she¡¯d always found it convenient if people thought you a dumb irregular or a terrified victim. She might have her faults, her scratches and broken bits, but Emilia had never considered herself a victim.

    She wasn¡¯t about to start now.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 55: Golden Strands and Teeth Marks

    Emilia could feel the people chasing her. It was an odd sensation, the one person¡ªthe one who seemed to be a local¡ªsending energy and magic spiralling after her as she ran.

    Stalking her.

    He was stalking her, his energy latching onto her, snapping at her heels because he found this fun. She could feel that, too, the air of amusement and outright joy sprinkled through his energy. Even during the war, when everyone with enough connection to the aether could feel monsters lurking in shadows across the aethernet, waiting to pounce and devour anyone who got too close, it hadn¡¯t felt this malevolent. That was truly impressive, that the people behind her had managed to surpass those monsters.

    No, not people, person. Emilia could only feel the one person behind her, only his energy reaching out towards her, forcing her onward. Aside from the brief whispers she¡¯d heard from the other person, she could only assume they were like her: a visitor who had yet to gain access to the system, although she supposed they could simply be lacking control of this world¡¯s magic.

    They could still have blood weapons, however, and she was rather disinclined to linger and find out. Even the person she assumed was local could have magic she didn¡¯t want to clash with, especially not here in this empty, cramped hallway. One of them could very well be the person who had destroyed the lower levels of the library, after all, and she didn¡¯t exactly want to tangle with that power unless she had to.

    She also still didn¡¯t know where Rin or that zinging sensation had gone. Every step she took, her scuffed knees stinging quietly as she went, she reached out her core, searching for any sign of¡­ anything. This stupid hallway was just like the previous one, though. There was nothing about it of interest¡ª Well, there was one difference, one point of vague interest: there was no empty void outside its walls. Instead, there was solid, impenetrable darkness.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure that was any better, but it was different, and she¡¯d had far too much of the same the last few days. Stairs and hallways and stairs. There had been the ladders in the library behind her, but that was close enough to being more stairs that she was going to count it as such. If she never saw another set of stairs again, it would be too soon. Luckily for her, despite the fact that she had climbed more stairs than she cared to count before entering the raid, Baalphoria wasn¡¯t known for its stairs, almost everything running on elevators and uplines. That wasn¡¯t particularly helpful while she remained in this world, but the reality that she eventually wouldn¡¯t have to see stairs for a very, very long time was heartening.

    When she reached an abrupt turn in the hall, however, and came face to face with yet another set of stairs, Emilia wasn¡¯t particularly surprised. ¡°Fucking stars,¡± she grumbled, peering up and then down the staircase. Neither turned. Instead, what she could see was long and straight, before the steps disappeared into blackness. ¡°Awesome.¡±

    After a moment of thought, Emilia took a step down. Originally, when they had stood before the shortcut to the heartcore, it had felt as though it were right there, and depending on how much this weird ass place had bent the rules of physics, right there was now below her. It was shaky logic, however, and when her knees screamed in complaint after just a few steps down, she twisted and went to try the stairwell that led up.

    Her knees still stung as she climbed, but barely controlled steps down had hurt far more. She could have pushed that pain aside¡ªshe had more than enough practise from her time as a troublesome child, then a soldier, then a troublesome university student¡ªbut she needed to focus as much as she could on not tripping and moving quickly. Wasting time carefully traversing downwards because maybe the heartcore was that way definitely didn¡¯t seem like the right move.

    Still, her legs quickly began to burn again, the muscles complaining that they were being terribly misused, and Emilia took the chance to try out one of the techniques Zach had taught her. Slowly, as carefully as she could manage while still trying to run up the stairs, she wove her energy downwards, cycling it through her meridians and letting the energy seep out into her muscles.

    She had very briefly tried the technique back at Zach¡¯s, although their limited time together meant he had only explained the basics of core usage and made sure she could actually do it. They¡¯d been sitting down then, though, and doing it while not just standing, but running was an experience all on its own.

    Little bits of her energy splattered golden across the world, leaking out of her pores and leaving a physical imprint on the walls and stairs as she went. It was strange, and she really had nothing with which to compare it to.

    She knew some people in her world had problems controlling their aether stores, which were similar but not the same are cores. Where cores had some amount of energy inside them, that energy was created by the person themself. Cores, along with Censors and anything run on the Virtuosi System¡ªlike raids¡ªcould use that energy to some extent, but more commonly they used aether stores. The amount of the world¡¯s aether each person could store inside them was unique, with sub-30s and non-devs in particular often capable of storing enough to destroy entire cities if they used the right skill.

    Core energy was a person, whereas aether stores were the universe itself.

    People who found themselves unable to control their aether stores, that aether leaking out into the world due to a defect in the storage area, were rare, and the condition was barely studied. Before the war, it had largely affected teenagers, puberty growing their storage capacity too quickly and leading the defect to shatter. Since the start of the war, more adults had damaged their aether stores in combat, and there was slightly more research on how to treat people with the condition.

    Only slightly more, however, as it was more common for the person¡¯s aether storage to burst and kill them¡ªand anyone unfortunate enough to be standing too close¡ªin the backlash. A few divisions had been taken out by storage explosions during the war, a consequence of aether storage perpetually growing and expanding with use. A teenager¡¯s storage exploding could destroy a room, a solider from the front¡¯s exploding could level the area.

    This¡ªher energy literally leaking out of her in a splatter of gold¡ªreminded her of that, but it was also wholly different. Thankfully, it was different in a way that didn¡¯t seem to be leading her towards exploding, but it was off-putting to look back and see her energy glowing across the steps like some abstract art piece. The colour alone was strange, as when she more purposefully reached out with her core, the energy it produced was almost translucent, as had Rin¡¯s. She even took a moment to double-check, letting her energy wind its way to her fingertips to make sure she wasn¡¯t crazy. A nearly invisible strand of energy slipped out of her, sliding through the world and disappearing behind her.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    She¡­ didn¡¯t really know where it was going, which was also somewhat concerning. It had seemed to have a mind of its own, which was a small part of why direct core usage in her world was heavily discouraged. It wasn¡¯t quite illegal, but being caught using her core could definitely land you in a Black Knot facility, answering questions about why you were using your core and not your Censor or one of the similar devices used by some of the Free Colonies, although those had mostly become obsolete in the face of Baalphoria sharing information about their Censors during the war.

    Behind her, the energy of the person chasing her shuddered, the world itself shaking with them, and Emilia only barely managed to not go tumbling to her knees. A growl of rage filled the aether and Emilia could feel that little strand of energy blinking out of existence, either whatever it had done sapping all its energy or the people behind her destroying it.

    It was nauseating, and if she hadn¡¯t been excellent at not throwing up, she probably would have done just that. Actually, maybe her puke over the stairs would slow down her pursuers? Oh well, she couldn¡¯t throw up on command, so as amusing them slipping in her stomach acid would be, it wasn¡¯t going to happen.

    She pushed herself up and onward, listening for more action behind her, but the people had gone eerily silent. Maybe, if she were lucky, they¡¯d been sucked away by whatever had taken Rin. Although, maybe not. Who knew if they¡¯d end up in the same place as Rin, and Emilia would rather she¡ªas the person who couldn¡¯t die, regardless of how much the other girl argued that she actually didn¡¯t know that for absolute certain¡ªbe the one whose kinda-sorta life was in danger.

    There was nothing she could do about any of that, and Emilia instead returned her focus to her core and trying to stay on her legs¡¯ good side, returning to streaming her energy through her lower limbs. More energy dripped out of her, and although her legs were aching considerably less, but she couldn¡¯t tell if using/losing her energy was affecting her actual energy levels. Normally, when she used a skill and her aether stores, she had her Censor to helpfully tell her what her aether level was at. Her stores were pretty massive, knotting only affecting how much aether she could use and how well she could handle it, not how much she could store. As a result, she generally ignored her aether levels, and there were only a handful of times she could remember actually feeling like the level was too low.

    Zach hadn¡¯t really known what to say when she asked about monitoring energy levels, as locals monitored theirs through the system. Children had moderately limited access to the system, their access increasing as they aged, but general knowledge of how much energy they had was standard by the time they began learning to use their core. Emilia had learned from Zach that children learned the basics of core usage from a young age, mostly directly at self-healing. It was an interesting contrast to Baalphoria, where most people didn¡¯t begin learning until their Censors were installed. Some families taught their children the theoretical side of aether usage before then, but that was relatively rare and confined to sub-50 and the occasional sub-30 family. Given the vastly different life expectancies between their worlds, perhaps that was to be expected. What was losing a few years of study when you had three or four hundred years to master your control of the aethernet?

    As for the idea of aether stores, as far as Zach had known, locals had nothing of the sort. He had admitted that sometimes both the Enclave and the Risen Guard hoarded secrets, however, and he had no idea if visitors maintained any connection to their aether stores. For the moment, Emilia was going to assume that visitors without system access didn¡¯t¡ªalthough if she ran into any visitors with system access, she was going to assume they could access theirs, just in case.

    Behind her, the world shuddered again and this time Emilia did stumble, catching herself on a stair and cursing when her palm landed square on the edge. ¡°Fucking nebulae,¡± she hissed, flipping onto her butt and shaking out her hand.

    The world below her was dark and silent, save the rattle of rubble and her energy still glowing dimly, like some horrific safety lighting, on the stairs.

    She waited, listening for the sound of her pursuers, concentrating on listening to the aether for signs of them. No sign or sound of them came, only the rattle of more rubble falling, of rocks rolling down the stairs and disappearing into the abyss below.

    Tentatively, she released another shard of energy, letting it melt through the aether in search of whoever had been chasing her. It slithered through the world, going down, down, down until it finally reached the bottom, having found nothing save a giant gouge in the wall twenty or so metres away from where she sat.

    Her energy shot back towards her, banging against the walls, searching for anything else amiss. By the time it returned, Emilia had descended the stairs to inspect the damaged section. It wrapped itself around her like a child hugging a parent, seeping back inside her core, where it vibrated gently, its presence more palpable than it had previously been.

    Emilia¡¯s fingers dragged over the wall. It looked as though something had taken a bite out of it¡ªsomething much too large for the hallway, the damage nearly seven feet high and almost as wide. The pads of her fingers brushed over the edges, over what felt like teeth marks and she hoped to the stars above¡ªassuming this world even had stars that weren¡¯t suns¡ªwasn¡¯t. She¡¯d dealt with enough man eating monsters, she didn¡¯t need anymore, thanks.

    The energy inside her wiggled, urging her to let it out again. It zoomed about the area when she did, watching as the shimmering, clear energy investigated. It returned occasionally, lingering inside her just long enough to give her whatever information it had found before asking to be let back out again to gather more¡ªnot that Emilia knew how to analyze what it brought her. Whether a language or a skill or a lack of the system issue, Emilia could only glean vague vibes from the information now filling up her core.

    Mostly, those vibes said the person who had been chasing her was just gone, and they probably weren¡¯t coming back, the only evidence they had ever been there were her memories and the damaged wall. Something in the information also seemed to imply the only one person had been chasing her, and Emilia wondered if the other person¡ªthe presumed visitor¡ªhad been spirited away just as Rin had been.

    Eventually, her energy settled back inside her, seemingly exhausted from its excursion, which was an odd sensation. Baalphorian skills used aether, and then that aether returned to the aethernet while fresh aether was slowly pulled back into your aether stores¡ªthis had actually been something of an issue on the front lines, where the fresh aether wasn¡¯t always so fresh. Absorbing aether that had been used recently was revolting, but having her energy return to her core was like tucking a child safely into bed.

    It was like welcoming a family member home after a long separation.

    Emilia shook her head, once again contemplating whether to go up or down, now that she was no longer being chased by a random person with bad intentions.

    Up, something told her. She wasn¡¯t sure if she was her losing her mind or if vibes from her core were urging her upwards, but she sighed, turning to return to climbing. After a step, Emilia stilled, glancing behind her to where her golden energy still littered the floor. Her thoughts floated to the piece of energy now vibrating, exhausted, within her.

    It took a moment, but eventually, she was able to coax a new strand of energy out of her core, reaching out with it towards her lost energy. She was relatively unsurprised when that lost energy began to hum. Louder and louder it hummed before shooting towards her energy, each tiny drop forcibly joining up with it before it was all tunnelling back inside her and returning to her core, seemingly stronger and wiser for having existed outside of her so long.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 56: Freedom

    ¡°Freedom!¡± Emilia cheered as she reached the top of the stairs. Almost immediately, she cringed, eyes clamping shut. ¡°Please don¡¯t just be a landing before there are more stairs. Please don¡¯t just be a landing before there are more stairs. Please, please, please, please, please, please don¡¯t just be a landing before there are more stairs,¡± she chanted to herself as she opened an eye, peering around the large, empty room.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she cheered, doing a little fist pump when there were no stairs in sight.

    Unfortunately, the room was so large that it stretched out into the eerie darkness, its walls disappearing much too quickly. So, there could be stairs just out of sight, but she wasn¡¯t going to think about that. Instead, Emilia sent her wisp of enthusiastic energy, which had recovered while it napped¡ªor rested, although that seemed too boring a word to describe anything the little wisp did¡ªsurging out into the world.

    She had spent the majority of her time climbing¡ªwhich had not been insignificant in length¡ªpractising using her core. It had gone much better without the running or her stalker¡¯s magic surging after her. The practice had been worth it, even if it had quickly grown boring and tiresome. Now, she felt relatively more confident at using her energy and core for both examining the world, and more importantly, keeping her muscles from collapsing under her.

    Her energy zipped around the room, the translucent blur vanishing into the dark, while Emilia went the other way. Quickly, the doorway she had emerged from slipping away, into the darkness, and Emilia skittered towards the wall. Given how untrustworthy this place was, what with its fabricated lamps and books, and changing, yet infinite hallways and mysterious monsters, she didn¡¯t really think it would do her much good to know which direction the staircase had once existed, but it couldn¡¯t hurt either¡­ unless the wall had eaten Rin or the asshole who had been chasing her¡ªnot to mention the asshole¡¯s missing companion¡ªand she should actually be keeping her distance from it. Personally, Emilia didn¡¯t really want to add her name to that unfortunate list, although at least then she¡¯d end up with the others? Maybe?

    A droplet of her energy pricked against the back of her neck, shooting through her body to rest in her core. Information seeped out of it. Blackness. Nothingness. More searching.

    More searching indeed.

    Emilia sighed as she trudged on. Once, she¡¯d loved things like this. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was age or the war or all her knots, but now it just seemed tedious and stupid. This place was simultaneously a puzzle and an endless tunnel, just guiding her along. Hopefully, it was at least guiding her towards the heartcore¡ªor an exit. Emilia would also take an exit, or her friend. For all she knew, this place could end up being a boring maze she¡¯d be spending the next 20 some days inside.

    That would suck.

    The sound of something hitting the ground stopped Emilia in her tracks, her eyes shooting towards the general direction it had come from. She waited, watching and listening for anything else in the darkness. Nothing came, and Emilia glared into the abyss. She was almost positive she had heard something. She couldn¡¯t completely rule out stress or hallucinations, but she had spent so long dealing with those in her regular life that she could usually tell the difference.

    That particular sound hadn¡¯t sounded like a figment of her imagination, stress swirling through her until it exploded out into the world as something there and not there all at once. When she¡¯d been fresh from the war, she hadn¡¯t always been able to tell what was real and what not, and to this day, there were still a few hallucinations she wasn¡¯t positive hadn¡¯t actually been her accidentally using skills.

    Worry that she could be losing control of not just her mind but her abilities as well had been part of the reason she had started knotting herself. She had seen a therapist once, before deciding to hit up an illegal shop. The therapist had looked at her knots, tied up from decades of unresolvable trauma, and deemed them impossible to remove.

    ¡°Maybe with a few decades of counselling they will unknot naturally enough for a knot therapist to unknot the rest,¡± they¡¯d said.

    Emilia had been able to hear the lie in their voice. They had thought her too broken. She hadn¡¯t been able to argue, and every moment running around like that had been another moment closer to potentially losing control of herself and blasting a hole in the world.

    Blasting another hole in the world.

    Emilia¡¯s feet scuffed the ground as she continued walking, not seeing the sense in lingering while something or someone maybe watched her from the dark. Her worst fear was she¡¯d get out of here, feel the way Payton had stretched and reformed her genes and hate how it felt¡ªthat she¡¯d drop back into that paranoid, near cracking soldier she¡¯d been a decade ago.

    Ironic as it would be, for the country to be inadvertently wiped out because one of their so-called war heroes accidentally blew it up in a haze of traumatic hallucinations, it wasn¡¯t exactly how she wanted things to end. She¡¯d been responsible for enough deaths in the war¡ªsome avoidable, many more not¡ªshe wasn¡¯t going to kill anyone else, not unless she had to.

    Emilia twisted, blood blade sliding through the air as someone else¡¯s weapon nearly collided with her. Whatever the weapon had been, it vanished as soon as her own blade touched it, drops of blood splattering through the air and forcing her to dart backwards. ¡°Why, hello there, little stalker,¡± she said sweetly, ignoring the blood now wiggling on the ground as she twirled her blade idly.

    Out of the dark, a young boy appeared, walking slowly towards her. ¡°Ah~ I¡¯m sorry!¡± the boy swallowed out, his voice shaky and innocent sounding. ¡°I was just afraid and¡­¡± he trailed off, biting a thick bottom lip as he looked nervously around.

    ¡°And?¡± Emilia asked, concern lacing her voice as she pushed her skepticism aside in favour of some maternal worry. She wasn¡¯t a mother, but she knew enough great and terrible ones to know how to reflect the perpetual care, concern and acceptance the better ones had. Her own mother was excellent at making her children feel like scum for doing wrong without actually saying anything negative towards them.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Sometimes, her kindness was part of her plot to force her children to confess what they had been up to. More often, making her children feel bad wasn¡¯t the woman¡¯s goal, just an unfortunate side effect of her kindness. Her mother was just so naturally kind and concerned, and the fact that her soft acceptance of errors had once accidentally caused Emilia to burst into tears over a dropped plate of food was part of the reason she was avoiding her parents.

    She may have been about seven at the time of the plate dropping incident, but it was still a totally valid reason for avoiding the woman! Olivier¡¯s kindness had been bad enough. She didn¡¯t need her mother¡¯s as well.

    And stars above, she most certainly didn¡¯t need whatever she¡¯d get from her father.

    Sometimes, it would have been easier to have parents like Olivier¡¯s. Actually, parents like Rafe¡¯s would be even better. Rafe¡¯s moms were a whole different breed, and they had certainly never made their children feel loved or cared for. They were nice and neutral, neither too concerned about their children nor too apathetic.

    For the moment, however, she needed to channel her own mother¡¯s ability to get answers with a smile. Kind and suspicious and ruthless when she needed to be. That woman knew when to put on a smile and wait for her children to either confess their crimes or fuck up and accidentally reveal something that would lead her back to whatever nonsense they had gotten up to.

    Emilia needed this boy¡ªif he even was one, given how the appearance editor had allowed them to so drastically alter everything about their appearance, including their age¡ªto fuck up and prove he wasn¡¯t actually the innocent boy he was pretending to be.

    Two could play at being innocent, naive children.

    The boy licked his lips, eyes darting nervously around. ¡°And there was a guy with me. Before. We were separated a while back. Or¡­ he disappeared? It was weird.¡±

    ¡°Just a ¡®guy with you?¡¯¡± Emilia asked, trying to keep her eyes as subtly glued to the kid as she dared. She didn¡¯t want him to outright know she didn¡¯t trust him, but she also wasn¡¯t about to just let him stray into a blind spot¡ªespecially since she had no idea how convincing her trusting act was. She¡¯d always been a pretty good liar and actress, but that was in normal, everyday life. This was a raid, where everyone was bound to be running on paranoia and killing instinct.

    Plus, with her knots doing stars knew what, she wasn¡¯t even sure she could trust her own perception of herself.

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± The boy glanced away, his steps halting a little ways away from her. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt, a ratty burnt-brown thing. He wasn¡¯t wearing shoes, either, and the cuffs of his pants were torn to shreds from being too long. Mud was caked to the bottoms, really selling the whole innocent¡ªif potentially homeless¡ªchild look.

    ¡°He was¡­ someone who was helping me? Sort of. He was creepy. I didn¡¯t like that he was chasing you.¡± His faced twisted, hands digging into the fabric of his shirt. He looked almost like he was about to cry. ¡°He wasn¡¯t very nice. Not to me or anyone else.¡±

    His eyes met Emilia¡¯s, so much pain ripping through them that she was almost inclined to believe him. She might have, if not for the fact that she¡¯d seen some of Olivier¡¯s memories of her and knew she could be just as convincing in her lies. Everyone had some terrible memory they could summon up to draw out of time and place emotions across their features. Maybe this boy had really been hurt by the psycho who¡¯d been chasing her, maybe not.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Emilia said, sliding her suspicions behind a friendly smile. ¡°My friend disappeared as well. She was a local, so her colouring was all¡­ red.¡± She laughed, throwing enthusiasm into it, hiding every thought she had about the boy behind her own innocent, ignorant mask.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen her,¡± the boy said.

    ¡°Too bad,¡± Emilia sighed, letting her eyes flicker away from the boy for the slightest moment. When her eyes turned back to him, he was still standing there wearing a blankly worried face. ¡°Shall we? I don¡¯t really know where I¡¯m going, but I figure moving is the best option. I think the guy you were with might have been, ah¡­ eaten by something? I don¡¯t know about you, but I don¡¯t really fancy being monster chow.¡±

    The boy blinked, expression barely changing at the revelation that his companion, someone who had hurt him, was likely dead. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s smile widened as she walked towards him. He didn¡¯t look nervous, even when she was right there, staring into his eyes¡ªlight-brown meeting silver. She looped an arm through his¡ªbecause she certainly wasn¡¯t going to be letting him walk behind her¡ªand off they went.

    ¡°I¡¯m Emilia,¡± she said, wondering not for the first time if giving out her real name had been the smartest decision.

    The OIC System might make it relatively hard for anyone who didn¡¯t want to be found to be found, but she also knew her old friends and family mostly didn¡¯t find her through other means because they were polite enough to know finding her would send her running. Well, a decade ago¡ªmaybe even six or seven years ago¡ªit would have, anyways. Now, she had connections she wasn¡¯t as willing to lose. Now, when she ran into her past through Olivier, the thought of running had barely occurred to her.

    Still, if she ran into anyone she knew in here, they would immediately figure out who she was¡ªhow many silverstrain Emilia¡¯s who were insane enough to join a raid like this could there be in Baalphoria? Not a lot, that was for sure.

    ¡°Cade,¡± the boy said in return.

    Emilia glanced at him. He was tense beside her¡ªfar more tense than he¡¯d been before, his arm ridged under her. ¡°How old are you, Cade?¡±

    ¡°Thirty-one,¡± Cade replied immediately.

    Emilia nodded to herself, telling him thirty-one was a good age. Her own thirty-one had been a celebration and a funeral. A celebration because she was free¡ªbecause she wasn¡¯t going to jail for life. A funeral because she had lost something of herself during that long year of court, and it had taken over a decade to find it again.

    Sometimes, she wondered if she¡¯d ever actually found it again, or if she¡¯d just been fooling herself.

    ¡°Is this your first raid like this?¡± she asked, trying to distract herself from that particular strain of thought. This probably-lying-and-conniving boy didn¡¯t need to hear her moan about how terrible her life was even before the war.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Not going to be a talkative partner/potential enemy, then.

    Emilia was just opening her mouth to say something else when her energy came surging back towards her. The boy, luckily, didn¡¯t seem to notice it plunge into the base of her skull.

    Information flashed through her, garbled and all but unintelligible. The only thing she could understand was that her energy had found something back there. Unfortunately, she now had a companion, and she didn¡¯t necessarily want him to know she had any control of her core, let alone that she could send her energy out on spying missions.

    Slowly, another piece of her energy slithered out of her. It shot backwards, sacrificing itself to explode into a flash of light and sound back where she had emerged from the stairwell¡ªcloser to where her energy vibes were telling her something was located.

    ¡°Ah!¡± Emilia cried, the perfect picture of innocent confusion, concern and curiosity. ¡°What was that?¡± She squeaked as the boy turned around, her body swinging awkwardly around with him.

    ¡°We should go back,¡± he said, his innocent act dropping away before abruptly reappearing. ¡°As long as you think that¡¯s a good idea? I don¡¯t really know, but¡­¡± He looked off into the direction they¡¯d been heading before the explosion had attracted their attention. ¡°I¡¯d rather go towards the light than the dark.¡±

    Emilia blinked wide, innocent eyes up at him. ¡°Sure!¡± she said, smiling warmly at him. ¡°I don¡¯t see any reason not to go back.¡±

    Cade visibly relaxed slightly, and when they began walking towards the light, his steps were faster and more confident than before.

    Emilia wondered if he knew how bad an actor he was.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 57: Totally Trustworthy

    ¡°That¡­ is one huge ass door.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s head tilted back, her neck pinching and energy slowly swirling out of her core towards the ache. It was strange how naturally her body had begun to use her core to heal the parts that weren¡¯t affected by the system¡¯s healing¡ªeven her knees now hurt significantly less. It was also strange, how similar her real world core felt compared to this virtual one¡ªnot that she used her core enough to say definitively how similar they were. Still, she was interested to see if any of her newfound ability in manipulating her virtual core would translate to her real-world one. Even if what she achieved in the real world was a pale imitation of this, any extra edge she could get was¡ª

    Was what? It wasn¡¯t like they were at war anymore, and she certainly wasn¡¯t out using her skills to hunt echoes or even participate in raids.

    It was an odd feeling, this return of her curiosity and intense desire to learn and expand herself, even if what she learned was useless information. She had so much useless information rattling around in her brain already¡ªor, more accurately, information that she had once deemed useless. The war had shown everyone that you never knew where your seemingly silly hobby would come in handy.

    Old habits die hard, but Emilia had murdered hers with knots. Those habits rising from the grave wasn¡¯t exactly bad, but it was like reuniting with a long-lost friend, and it was awkward. Half of her wanted to embrace her returned desire to learn and expand her skills, the other half wanted to get the fuck out of there, to return to safe ignorance¡ªnot to mention all the partying and drugs and sex.

    ¡°Maybe I can combine them all together,¡± she mused to herself as she and Cade examined the door. ¡°I always did like trying new things in bed¡ªbefore Alliance Ridge, anyways¡­¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a keyhole,¡± Cade said, sounding more like he was speaking to himself than anything.

    Emilia glanced towards Cade. His innocent act had all but fallen away as they walked. His eyes were too sharp now¡ªtoo assessing of the environment. She couldn¡¯t exactly tell if it was simply the abilities of an avid raider showing or those of someone far older than the thirty-one he¡¯d claimed to be.

    She sidled up beside him, peering at the humorously small hole, barely a speck compared to the towering door, so tall it disappeared into the darkness above. The hole looked about the size of the keyholes she¡¯d seen on other doors in this world, ones on the front doors of businesses or in her spawn building¡ªeven if those doors had all been unlocked. There had also been the doors in the Risen Guard building. Her little room there had had a key, one seemingly made of blood and currently tucked into her bag along with her other blood items.

    Cade barely looked at her, instead fumbling with the blood weapon he''d attacked her with when they first met. It didn¡¯t actually look like a weapon, instead being a small red vial that Emilia assumed was filled with blood. Indeed, when Cade popped the stopper off the top, a drop of blood rose out of it. Another, another, another, more blood joined the first drop, forming a key shaped object, which the boy grabbed and slotted into the lock.

    His face scrunched in concentration, the aether rattling erratically around him as he tried to, presumably, force his blood key to adapt to the shape of the lock. Even without being the one holding the key, Emilia could tell it wasn¡¯t working. The aether vibrated and shook, but it reminded her of the night she had used the {Blood Orb}. Yes, she¡¯d gotten the thing to work, but for the most part, it had been haphazard and outright dangerous to everyone in the room. Key had been the one to control it, and in hindsight, she imagined he had been using a combination of magic and his core to guide the orb¡¯s {Blood Bubbles}.

    This¡ªCade trying to force the key into the necessary shape¡ªwas just as shaky and uneven. Given the way his jaw clenched, his teeth grinding together as aether shuddered away from him, she was sure he knew that as well.

    Emilia was extremely thankful she¡¯d been, for one thing, closely watching her suspicious companion, and for another, had never really trusted him. If she¡¯d been paying less attention or been even a little more trusting of him, she likely wouldn''t have noticed his fake-{Blood Key} shifting into an arrow. She shot backwards, and the arrow spiked through the spot she had just been standing.

    ¡°Ah~ I¡¯m sorry,¡± she sighed, smiling mildly at the boy. ¡°Did I do something to upset you?¡±

    Cade¡¯s faux innocence dropped fully away. ¡°I believe I will need another blood object to open this door.¡±

    ¡°And I¡¯m your sacrifice? You know, either of us could bleed in a more sensible way trying to make a key. Why resort immediately to murder?¡±

    The boy¡¯s head cocked. His eyes were so dead. Emilia hoped the kid¡¯s actual personality landed somewhere between naive child and cold-blooded killer. ¡°Do you not know? Simple bleeding of us heroes only grants simple weapons.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes flickered to the {Blood Vial}, which she definitely wouldn¡¯t classify as a simple weapon. ¡°Got your hands on a local¡¯s blood, then? Or maybe you bled out another hero?¡±

    ¡°This is from the Risen Guard who tried to kill me. Do you not have one as well?¡±

    ¡°Sure, but it''s a bit cumbersome, so I¡¯d rather not bring it out.¡±

    Emilia took a step back as Cade stepped towards her, his movements slow and calculated, while her own were jerky and uneven. ¡°Do you have access to the system?¡± she asked. As much as she was playing up her own incoordination, the other visitor seemed shockingly skilled at moving, even though he also would have arrived in this world at level 300.

    She hadn¡¯t expected a few days to make sure a difference¡ªnot until visitors gained access to the system, anyways.

    ¡°No, but I¡¯m not an irregular like you.¡± His voice wasn¡¯t filled with the judgmental hatred of a purist, nor even that of those who viewed irregulars are a mild nuisance. Instead, it sounded more¡­ matter of fact.

    Emilia had never understood that generalization of irregulars as lesser, even if she¡¯d experienced it more often than outright hatred. Yes, there were a number of physical irregularities that were always accompanied by mental deficiencies¡ªat least, that¡¯s what they were officially called. She¡¯d known a few such people over her life, especially when she had been very young, still living at her first home. They weren¡¯t deficient, just different from the regular population. Sometimes those differences made life a whole lot more difficult, but more often, they just made life something else¡ªsomething unique to them.

    There was nothing wrong with that.

    Also, for every one of those physical irregularities accompanied by mental differences, there were dozens without any exact correspondence. If you had one irregular deviation, there was a significantly higher risk you had suffered multiple genetic spasms in the womb, yes, but there was no guarantee. Yet, people had looked at her her entire life and immediately assumed she had more wrong with her than simply silver hair and eyes.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    She¡¯d never really been able to understand that easy assumption either, even if it came in handy at times like these. It really was too easy to act the foolish irregular when half the people you met automatically assumed that¡¯s what you were on sight, and the other half wouldn¡¯t question you if you started acting out.

    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t make that much of a difference,¡± Emilia replied, throwing a little whine of complaint into her voice as she stumbled backwards, not quite falling over but coming close enough that she could see Cade briefly tensing to bolt towards her.

    His lips twitched. ¡°It does.¡± Again, there wasn¡¯t exactly anything malicious in his words, more quiet acceptance that the world was what he believed it was. ¡°I am sorry it has to be this way,¡± he continued, face and eyes softening for a moment, and Emilia hoped that was the real him¡ªthat the real person behind this boy was soft and kind and only playing the killer for the sake of the game.

    He could have also been playing up that innocent act a moment more, however, and when he surged towards her, eyes once again icy sharp, Emilia was unsurprised. Still, she forced out a squeak of surprise, skirting out of the way and fumbling with her bag. That part, the fumbling, wasn¡¯t on purpose¡ªshe didn¡¯t actually want to get hurt or die, but the bag wasn¡¯t familiar, and she had barely gotten in open when she was forced to drop to the ground, Cade¡¯s arrows shooting through the place her head had just been.

    Emilia swore as she rolled to the side, then rolled more as his {Blood Arrows} turned on her. Down they shot, slicing through the ground she had just been occupying. The only good thing was once his blood weapons hit something, they splattered back to liquid, which Cade seemingly couldn¡¯t wield again. He¡¯d left the drops from his initial attack, during their first meeting, littering the ground where they had fallen, and these ones similarly lay inert across the ground.

    Emilia¡¯s wisp of energy slipped out of her. It slithered across the ground, probing at the droplets before bolting up to wrap around another of Cade¡¯s {Blood Arrows} midair. Thankfully, she was able to roll out of range again, but she had been herded by enough raid invaders to know he was doing exactly that: herding her towards a wall. Eventually, she¡¯d run out of places to roll and¡ª

    The wisp shuddered back into her, confusing information surging through her mind.

    ¡°Please be reading this right,¡± she thought, sucking in a breath before rolling out of another arrow¡¯s path, except this time she rolled back the way she had come. Droplets of blood stuck to her clothing, disturbingly hot even through all her layers. Luckily, all they did was burn slightly, no arrows shooting up through her, just as her energy¡¯s information, garbled as it was, had assured her.

    Her enemy hadn¡¯t been expecting her to reverse course, and Emilia took the chance to get her feet back under her. By the time Cade snapped back into the moment, she was right in front of him. He cursed when her palm collided with his nose, and she was suddenly extremely thankful for the self-defence lessons her father had made her and her siblings take. They might have eventually figured out her D-Levels made normal self-defence relatively pointless for her¡ªwhy know how to defend yourself as the weaker party when you are so rarely the weaker one¡ªbut it was suddenly extremely relevant to protecting herself in this world.

    Too bad the one time she could have used it to protect herself in the real world, nearly a dozen years after those first lessons, she¡¯d been too out of her mind to make use of it.

    Cade staggered back, gripping his now bleeding nose. He spit out a few more expletives as he tried to keep his distance from her darting approaches.

    She forced him back, back, his watering eyes and bleeding nose impeding his ability to stop her from herding him.

    ¡°Why isn¡¯t it stopping?¡± he spit out¡ªliterally spit out, blood and saliva spraying out of him and forcing Emilia to once again bolt backwards.

    ¡°No idea,¡± Emilia replied, taking the separation as a chance to snatch her {Blood Dagger} out of her bag. She slipped it out of its sheath, stuffing the ugly thing back into her bag as she flipped the blade lightly in her hand. She hadn¡¯t seen Cade use anything other than his {Blood Vial} to fight, but since he¡¯d known that weapon¡¯s forged from the blood of visitors were limited to physical weapons, she couldn¡¯t rule out that he had something else on him. ¡°I tripped while we were running from you and your friend. Scuffed my knees. They took a hot minute to clot.¡± She was also pretty sure they were bleeding again, after their rough treatment as she rolled across the floor.

    Cade glared up at her, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stop the blood. His eyes caught on her blade. ¡°Yours, or some other poor sap¡¯s?¡±

    Emilia shot him her most dazzling smile. ¡°Mine.¡±

    ¡°Impressive,¡± he said, truly seeming to mean it before bolting to the side.

    Red slashed through the air and Emilia barely had time to block the arrow he flung towards her, her dagger slicing through the air and shattering it, just as it had the first. She knew her senses were off, but she was pretty sure that one had moved a lot faster than Cade¡¯s previous attacks had.

    The boy appeared before her, her balance not quite stabilized from her block yet, his eyes wild as he sliced upwards with some weapon he pulled from the pocket of his pants.

    Pain erupted through Emilia¡¯s cheek as she brought her own dagger down on him. Her frame was too small, though, and the Cade easily blocked her attack, their forearms crashing together. Fortunately, the jarring force of it was enough to send his weapon clattering to the ground. He yelped as she wrapped her other hand around his arm and tilted them backwards. They both crashed across the rough ground, Emilia gasping as his weight landed wholly on top of her.

    Mostly, she was just thankful he had decided on the form of a young adult, still not quite fully matured. She was light, but so was he, and it barely took a moment before her breath returned, and she was tugging her arm and {Blood Dagger} out from between them¡ªshe was also thankful she hadn¡¯t impaled herself accidentally when they fell.

    That would have sucked and been terribly embarrassing.

    Cade cursed, reaching to grab her wrist. He didn¡¯t quite grab her, but the move did deflect her attack¡ªinstead of slicing into his shoulder, she instead got his forearm. His efforts to stop her were enough, however, and through his howl of pain, Cade managed to pin her wrist and weapon above her head.

    ¡°You¡­¡± he said between panting breaths. He swallowed, blood from his nose dripping across Emilia¡¯s shirt. ¡°You¡­ are a lot of work.¡± He smiled down at her, something a bit too real in the cruelty of it. Even if he weren¡¯t a killer in the real world, Emilia was sure that he did truly enjoy the blood and chaos of raid platforms.

    ¡°You have no idea,¡± Emilia replied, tugging ineffectually at her wrist and fighting down memories from too long ago¡ªmemories she had long thought healed. Her other hand shot up, palm once again colliding with the boy¡¯s nose.

    She hadn¡¯t broken it the first time. This time, she most certainly had.

    Cade screamed, although it sounded more outraged than pained. His other hand came down across her face, his thighs tightening where they rested against her hips. ¡°Bitch.¡±

    Well, if anything, the fact that he was stupid enough to let his fingers get anywhere near her mouth was a testament to the fact that he had no experience with manhandling women to the ground. Her teeth latched onto his hand, his howl of rage shifting to one of pain and outrage.

    ¡°Let go!¡± he yelled as he tugged his hand free, not that she had particularly been trying to keep hold of it.

    ¡°You have five seconds to get off me, or I¡¯m going to kill you,¡± Emilia spit up at him, the hand pressed above her head twisting and tugging while she rammed her free hand into the base of his jaw, blood from his nose slowly leaking down her arm. ¡°Five.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you,¡± Cade bit back, ignoring her countdown. He shook out the hand she had bitten before reaching for his dropped weapon. ¡°I¡¯m going to win this, even if I have to kill to do so.¡±

    ¡°Two. One¡ªlast chance to move.¡±

    Cade glared down at her as much as he could, what with her hand forcing his head upwards. ¡°Sorry,¡± he said, sounding like he actually meant it. ¡°I hope your mind isn¡¯t stuck alone in here until the raid ends.¡±

    His weapon came down, and Emilia let the magic of the {Blood Ring} Zach had given her crash upwards.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 58: Letting Magic Live

    The aethernet screamed as the {Blood Ring}¡¯s magic collided with it and Cade¡¯s head, the sound splitting and silent across the world as it shattered apart. The aether wasn¡¯t meant to move like this, wasn¡¯t meant to have so much energy forced through it in such a singular moment¡ªyet that was precisely what was happening.

    Exactly what Emilia and this ancient ring, forged from the blood of someone long since gone from this world, were doing.

    She had only heard the aether scream like this a few times in the real world, all but one time during the war. They had always been so overwhelmingly powerful¡ªeven from miles away, stationed far to the south, she and most of the members of her division had been able to feel the Corist in Luxor tearing the world apart to destroy their enemies, and during the final battle¡ª

    Emilia had felt the aether dying under her hands before, but it hadn¡¯t been like this. It hadn¡¯t literally been happening under her hands, more¡­ helpfully adjacent to them. Far up in the sky adjacent. She had gone through the last decade wishing she hadn¡¯t felt that rending so close¡ªhadn¡¯t been the one responsible for it.

    Now, laying there, her core energy cracking through her as it instinctually attempted to keep the magic from backlashing at her, she realized that destruction had been so far away it was laughable that it had affected her perception of herself so much.

    That moment was nothing compared to this¡ªwas nothing compared to the brief moment where magic ruptured through her and the aethernet and Cade¡¯s body because it was just that: barely a moment. It felt like an eternity, time freezing as the universe tried to figure out what it would do with itself once a giant hole was blasted through it, and then Cade¡¯s body was exploding. Blood and gore rained down on her, painting her with fluids she would rather not think about.

    At least, as far as she knew, this blood wouldn¡¯t become toxic within her. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t do more than what the remnants of Cade¡¯s {Blood Vial: Arrows} did: burn slightly, because more than a little was definitely getting inside her.

    Emilia coughed, rolling onto her side to spit out as much blood and brain matter and whatever the fuck else she¡¯d just gotten in her mouth. She wanted to puke. She really didn¡¯t think that would help the situation.

    Something thudded beside her, and even without looking she knew it was part of the boy¡¯s lower body, the magic having not quite blasted him away in his entirety. She didn¡¯t need to look. She didn¡¯t need more nightmares, even if that¡¯s precisely what this place was: a realm of dreams and nightmares.

    The aether vibrated, a pounding beat, and then another. Emilia blinked, wiping at her eyes with a hand, trying to get stars knew what out of her eyes¡ªoff her eyelashes. The aether vibrated, another pounding beat, and when she finally managed to see again, Emilia¡¯s eye¡¯s flew wide.

    The puddles of blood around her vibrated, as though something huge and monstrous were taking lumbering steps towards her.

    Pound.

    Vibrate.

    Ripple.

    Emilia swallowed, eyes taking in the surrounding carnage. It wasn¡¯t anything new. The monster¡¯s of war had shown her practically ever horror one could imagine. Usually, she didn¡¯t get to see the brutalized bodies of the humans whose deaths her own hands had brought.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she whispered to Cade¡¯s blood. Hopefully, he hadn¡¯t felt it and had now been taken out of the raid¡ªallowed to return to their world a few hours early. She wondered why he had wanted to win. Based on the way he had spoken, it hadn¡¯t seemed as though he simply wanted to win for the sake of winning a vacation on Ship¡¯o Stars.

    Everyone, she supposed, had their reasons for being here, some better than others. She had her reasons, and they were pretty good, in her opinion, even if she could have contacted Olivier or one of her other, rich and famous contacts to get tickets directly from the source.

    Pound.

    Vibrate.

    Ripple.

    Again and again the blood rippled, the only thing convincing Emilia that she wasn¡¯t liable to be eaten up by some mystery monster the fact that there was no sound, no pounding footsteps in the distance of the room¡¯s abyss. The pounding, the vibrations echoing through the room, was all aether.

    Pound.

    Vibrate.

    Ripple.

    The aether swirled around her, grasping at the blood. Maybe it was a consequence of blood being less magical here¡ªneither Cade¡¯s injuries nor her own had ever healed, and now she could feel her energy reaching towards the cut on her cheek, trying to pull it back together even as the aether tried to pull the boy¡¯s blood out of her.

    Disgusting. It was disgusting, and yet the only thing that had truly upset her was the blood and guts in her mouth.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Idly, Emilia scratched at her arm as Cade¡¯s blood worked at dragging itself together. Payton was doing something, she could feel it. It was great timing, this random bout of empty apathy, although she hoped it didn¡¯t last too long. She¡¯d had additive black knots in the past, and she¡¯d always left that state of mind more fucked up than when she entered.

    Pound.

    Vibrate.

    Ripple.

    Emilia released a long puff of air. This was boring and potentially a waste of time. Yes, eventually the blood might manage to gather itself up and form some kind of scary blood weapon, but who knew how long that would take.

    She rubbed the sleeve of her shirt over her face, trying to remove as much of Cade¡¯s blood as she could, before flipping herself up, blood splashing up her legs. Her shoes squelched every step, and digging through her bag for the maybe-{Blood Key} was difficult with her slippery hands, but she eventually managed to get it out.

    Her head tilted back, staring up at where the door disappeared into the darkness. She was almost tempted to send a bit of energy squirrelling upwards, have it explode so she could see just how high the ceiling actually was. Almost. She still had no idea how much energy she did or didn¡¯t have, and she wasn¡¯t about to waste energy she might not have to sate her curiosity, no matter how much she wanted to¡ªand she really, really wanted to.

    ¡°Maybe there¡¯ll be light on the other side,¡± she sighed as she slid the key into the lock.

    At first, nothing happened, and even when she sent an echo of her energy into the key it remained static. The aether behind her pounded and vibrated while blood rippled, but the aether around the key remained still and solid.

    She was about to pull the key out, reexamine it to check if she was crazy¡ªduring her brief examination of the key, back in the Risen Guard building, she¡¯d figured it was probably blood, but she could have easily been wrong¡ªwhen a surge of power erupted out of the {Blood Key}, sending her soaring backwards. She landed with a wet splat in Cade¡¯s blood, but when she pushed herself up on her elbows to glare back at the door, she realized she was much better off where she was now than by the door.

    Sparks of liquid red cracked out of the key, the heat and power of them shuddering through the aether and burning her core even from so far away.

    Shudder.

    Shudder.

    Spark.

    Even the pounding of the aether around the blood stilled as the key¡¯s magic overtook the room.

    ¡°Man,¡± Emilia muttered to herself as she watched the world spin while the key transformed itself, ¡°I¡¯m really lucky I didn¡¯t try and use that thing in the Risen Guard building.¡± There would have been no hiding that she was trying to use the key to investigate rooms she probably wasn¡¯t meant to be in if this was the way the thing behaved when used.

    A flash of red exploded out of the key, Emilia flattening herself back to the ground in case touching it would result in her being decapitated. What a turn that would be! Beat the bad guy and almost get the door open just for a backlash to off her.

    Emilia peeked up at the {Blood Key} again. It appeared to have calmed down, but she still approached it cautiously, crawling over the ground towards it. A hand reached up, twisted the key and¡ª

    Ancient gears ground together, the room shaking as the door opened. Luckily, Emilia was already on her knees; otherwise she definitely would have fallen over due to the veritable earthquake happening under her feet¡­ or knees and ass, as the case may be.

    Slowly, the doors opened, the slightest crack appearing and light shining in through¡ª

    Emilia yelped as magic surged into the room, heavy and oppressive. It collided with her and then the blood behind her. Near instantly, the cut across her face, which her energy had still diligently been trying to stitch up, sealed shut. The scrapes across her knees from falling, and all the new ones from her tumbling and rolling, burned slightly before they too disappeared, and behind her¡ª

    The world behind her torn itself apart. The blood across her own clothes and skin pulled off her, droplets bolting towards the hurricane of Cade¡¯s blood and the magic curse of this world. If she had thought the hurricane of her own blood was intense, slicing the world apart to form her dagger, it was nothing compared to the destruction this much blood and life created. Slashes of blood slapped across the otherwise blank walls, leaving giant lashes across them. Droplets splattered across the walls and the floor, leaving giant divots in everything they touched and forcing Emilia to scurry out of the room, hoping the door wouldn¡¯t give way under the magical assault.

    It didn¡¯t, thankfully, but when the storm had settled and Emilia poked her head back into the room, the opposite side of the door was just as scarred and battered as the walls and floor were. Far off, near where she had killed Cade, something red shone, and Emilia was forced to scramble over the rubble of the room to get to it.

    Not it, them. Cade¡¯s blood vial, along with a small, multipurpose tool, which she realized must have been the second weapon he¡¯d pulled from his pants pocket to slice her cheek with. Next to them sat the new weapon¡ªweapons. It was a collection of half a dozen needles, each the length of Emilia¡¯s hand, all nearly weightless when she picked them up.

    ¡°Great,¡± she sighed to herself as she tucked the weapons into her now thankfully clean bag, the blood magic having helpfully cleaned her and her things up as it gathered Cade¡¯s blood for the new weapon. ¡°Just what I need, a weapon to remind me of Halen of all people.¡±

    She twirled one of the {Blood Needles} through her fingers. They seemed simple, but given she¡¯d killed someone to get them, there must be something else to them. On a whim, her mind still lingering on her former teammate and his own, skilful manipulation of needles of destruction, she sent one flying towards the wall. It collided with the wall and exploded, Emilia¡¯s hair blowing back from the force of it.

    ¡°Okay, not a simple weapon then.¡±

    Aether inside her bag rustled, and when she peeked inside, five needles had returned to being six. She fingered them lightly, wondering where the blood to recreate the sixth had come from¡ªthen again, an entire body¡¯s worth of blood could certainly have created more than the first six needles, so perhaps the aethernet was hoarding the excesses to create more needles as needed?

    That¡­ was a highly disturbing thought. Blood magic alone was something most people considered wrong and immoral and dangerous, even within her own world, where few people ever experienced the true terror of blood-based skills. For the aethernet of this world to be capable of hiding blood within it¡­

    Emilia shuddered as she stepped through the doors for the second time, actually taking in the new room this time. She steps halted as she entered the light.

    ¡°Oh, fuck.¡±

    Stairs would have been better than this.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 59: Now I Understand

    Emilia had never understood how people could hate The Strats. The Strats were great, even if she still had no intention of visiting them anytime soon. The wind in your hair as your fingers latched onto iridescent stone! The exhilaration of hovering over the ocean waves below, crashing up the jagged, sparkling rocks! Sea creatures and birds soaring and splashing around you! The thrill of knowing one little slip, and you¡¯d be plummeting downwards! It was great fun! A nice respectable hobby, which yes, sometimes ended in serious injuries if the climber weren¡¯t paying enough attention, but still!

    But still, there was nothing quite like climbing The Strats, and Emilia had done and seen countless impressive things. Sitting at the top of those spires, taking in the stunning sunsets and the Grey Sands far in the distance with her friends. Laughing and drinking and taking so many ill-advised drugs because they were stupid and powerful and fearless¡­

    Those were some of the best moments of her life¡ªmoments that were four decades removed from the moment she decided that no, actually, she did understand why people hated The Strats.

    Emilia cursed as she climbed the rock wall that had awaited her behind the stupid giant door. It was an equally stupid rock, reaching so high that even though this room was lit up with the world¡¯s near-perpetual light, she still couldn¡¯t see the top well.

    She was going to fall and die, go splat across the ground now far below her and turn into a weapon no one would ever find. There she and her weapons would sit, waiting for someone to eventually come along, but no one would ever come. The next visitors to come searching for the library¡¯s heartcore would be sensible enough to wait for the damn shortcut door to open and not be forced to endure all this running and chasing and climbing of stairs and rocks and¡ª

    Her foot slipped and Emilia cursed harder, her knee slamming into the rock. It burned for a moment, whatever injury she had sustained stitching itself up. That was one of the few good things about this situation: that as long as she kept hold of the stupid rock wall, any injuries she earned would quickly heal. Her fingers were the ones taking most of the beating, earning her a constant burn of healing through them as she moved from ill-advised hold to absolutely insane hold.

    Emilia sighed, glaring upwards as much as she dared¡ªshe didn¡¯t really want to completely overbalance herself trying to see how far she was from the next section of the wall. Some twenty feet were left before she¡¯d reach the small platform where she could take a moment to rest, her muscles screaming at her for all the effort she had forced out of them during the hundreds of feet she¡¯d already climbed.

    Fucking stars above was she lucky she¡¯d made such a habit of climbing The Strats for most of her younger life. Without that knowledge and muscle memory, she definitely would have failed at this. Even now, due to her comparatively weak muscles, her body was making its complaints known. She¡¯d stopped a few times in the more stable holds, urged her energy to cycle through her in an attempt to soothe her muscles even the smallest bit. It had helped, but not much. Climbing, catching her toes and fingers in the correct spots so she wouldn¡¯t go sliding to her gruesome and potentially not instantaneous death took too much concentration, however, and despite her previous practice, she couldn¡¯t get her energy to circulate while she moved.

    A hold brought her body flush against the rock, her cheek scrapping against the blackish rock. It sparkled, bits of red shining through the dark rock if she looked close enough. It was pretty, if nowhere as beautiful as The Strats.

    Almost nothing was as beautiful as The Strats, though. It really was unfair to compare anything to that mountain range, more towering gemstones than normal rock formations.

    Emilia sucked in a deep breath, resisting the urge to adjust her bag, which she had stuffed her cloak into and turned into a makeshift backpack. It was awkward and terrible¡ªshe wasn¡¯t used to climbing with anything save a few snacks, let alone a bag filled with weapons of destruction and her outerwear.

    She lifted a foot from its hold, thankful that despite her relative lack of strength, she was bendy and light. The next hold was high, her knee rising to a point that even at her best, she definitely would have only tried something similar on The Strats if a monitor was hovering nearby, ready to whip out aether to catch her.

    No, that wasn¡¯t quite right. At her best, she had tried even worse holds than this, her body plummeting towards the ocean only for her to spark upwards, landing weightlessly back where she had fallen.

    Only once¡ªEmilia had only climbed at her best once, during the war. She and half of their division had descended onto The Starts during a pink tide for a little rest and relaxation. She and the few others who had climbed them before the war had felt the difference active combat had left on their skills. They had all been brilliant and terrifying sub-30s even before the war. They were even more terrifying then, flying and whipping and sparking themselves through the air without a care in the world.

    The war was far away.

    They were having a rare day of fun and ease.

    Then, the world had exploded.

    Then, only half of their division had been left standing, their hearts and soul ripped to pieces as they watched their friends and teammates die¡ªas they listened to them die.

    Emilia''s muscles shook as she pulled herself up, trying to get enough weight onto her newly positioned foot to feel like she wasn¡¯t a moment away from watching herself die too. She¡¯d tried to find another hold¡ªanother path¡ªto take, but the others had either been just as awkward as this one or had holds so small that one wrong pivot and you¡¯d lose it.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Shitty, too high hold it was and¡ª

    Her right arm shot up as her now free foot settled beside the other, her hand fumbling for a hold that she was so, so hoping wasn¡¯t too high and¡ª

    A slow breath escaped her as she found purchase. It was a bit awkward, but she felt more or less stable. Just a few more transitions, and she¡¯d be able to sit and breathe and lean over the edge and feel the joy of being so high up.

    She needed a bit of joy because regardless of whether she had any intention of visiting The Strats soon, she knew one day she¡¯d want to go back. She didn¡¯t want to hate or fear them when she did, even if they still haunted her nightmares. She didn¡¯t want to leave here, hating the feel of rock under her hands and feet or the sight of the world far below.

    Emilia could understand now, why people hated the climbing aspect of The Strats. This was hard, and even if she knew most people visiting them wouldn¡¯t be as weak as she was now, anyone with a D-Level above 50 and no perfect physical category would definitely find it challenging¡ªperhaps even terrifying, and not in the fun, adrenaline rush way.

    It was probably worse now, too. Even if sparking wasn¡¯t exactly the most common skill outside of veterans and SecOps¡ªand maybe sub-50s and sub-30s, she wasn¡¯t exactly sure on that¡ªit could definitely have become something common among climbers, looking for an extra ounce of safety so they could enjoy the risk of dangerous climbs¡ªformerly dangerous climbs.

    Trying to climb The Strats for the first time while people played carelessly around you? Relying on monitors to keep you safe while the best shooed them away?

    Yeah, Emilia could see how that would make climbing The Strats even less enjoyable for people without the kind of experience she had. In all honestly, even now¡ªeven with the shifting love and hatred she had for The Strats¡ªshe was more the person who would be spinning through the air, shifting her skills to fly and spark and attach herself to the rocks via ropes of shimmering aether.

    She¡¯d always been something of a show-off, especially when she was younger, as long as it hadn¡¯t been important. She had always been good at making herself as small as possible when it was important.

    Her arm scraped over the ledge of her soon-to-be sitting spot. There were almost no holds here for her feet, and even the idea of trying to gain footing on the near vertical rocks had Emilia imagining her foot slipping, her balance sliding downwards with it and then SPLAT!

    Emilia did not particularly want to splat, and was therefore stuck hoisting herself upwards on her forearms. Her shoulders ached, her makeshift backpack was too damn heavy, pressing her back towards the earth while what she really needed was to get it and her ass up into the air and¡ª

    ¡°Fucking nebulae,¡± Emilia groaned as she collapsed onto the ledge, her legs still hanging half off it because she was too tired to look around and see if she could safely rearrange herself. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she had to make a concerted effort to not accidentally fall asleep. Now that was certainly nightmare material. Make it to safety and then fall asleep and roll off the bloody¡ªha¡ªledge!

    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± she cheered to herself, blinking her eyes open again and looking around.

    It wasn¡¯t the largest of ledges, but it would do for her brief respite before she had to climb the rest of the way up. She tugged her backpack off, setting it against the wall and planting herself beside it as she looked upwards. She was about halfway, maybe, but the rest of the climb would likely be easier. Unlike the lower section, where there had been no proper resting spots, the upper section was littered with them¡ªand for good reason.

    While the lower half was nearly vertical, the upper half was a mess of bouldering challenges. Overall, each challenge would be more difficult than the tedious climb of the vertical section, but at least there were rest stops. Of course, there was more risk of falling, less ability to correct mistakes when you have to fling yourself between holds and contort your body into less than ideal positions.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes flickered away from the climb¡ªaway from the wall¡ªto the world opposite it. Even though this room was just that¡ªa room¡ªthe view was still stunning. The opening of the giant door, which was just slightly shorter than the rock wall, had allowed light to fill the cavern she and Cade had been wandering through. While it was still empty, save the destruction caused by the creation of her {Blood Needles}, the view was still as beautiful as taking in the wide, empty ocean from The Strats, or even from the university¡ªthere were more than a few places in Astrapan that offered breathtaking views of the endless ocean far below. The Penns were sometimes visible from Astrapan, if the day was clear enough, nearly always visible from the eastern end of The Strats, where you could see all the way up to Roasalia on the best days.

    The western view from The Strats was¡­ something else. She hadn¡¯t seen it herself, not the way it was now, but she had heard about it¡ªhad listened when Rafe told her to not look.

    ¡°One day,¡± he¡¯d told her, his voice a whisper through their Censors, ¡°I¡¯ll take you, and we¡¯ll look together. Don¡¯t go alone, though, and not until you¡¯re ready¡ªand I mean really ready.¡±

    For Rafe of all people to be telling her to stay away, emotion drifting through his voice even through the distance of the aethernet¡­

    Yeah, she might be noted for doing some pretty stupid things¡ªsee: climbing these rocks without enough muscle strength or safety equipment, not that she had any other option¡ªbut she wasn¡¯t stupid enough to do something Rafe told her not to¡­ not with that much sincerity in his voice, anyways. Other things¡­ Yeah, she had totally done tons of other things he¡¯d told her not to, that adorable scowl of his deepening as he eyed up her exceptionally untrustworthy smiles and promises to be good.

    Honestly, she was lucky to have such good friends. Not just the ones she had now, but the ones she¡¯d left behind¡ªassuming any of them would even consider her their friend anymore. Olivier, kind and sweethearted asshole that he was, could have just been an anomaly. Rafe she had stayed in contact with, even if minimally, but the others she had left behind¡­

    Emilia swallowed down a wave of regret, scratching idly at her arm once again. ¡°Time to move,¡± she mumbled to herself, blinking watery eyes away from the beautiful, empty land below to look towards the sky. ¡°Fuck. This is gonna suck.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 60: This is How I Die, Isnâ€™t It!?

    Emilia bounced on her hold. She huffed. She huffed.

    ¡°Just fucking do it,¡± she muttered to herself, giving the next hold a death glare. It was the last big one before this torture would be over. The top ledge was Right. Fucking. There. It was so close she¡¯d been able to hurl her backpack onto it at the last rest spot. Granted, there had been a very serious moment where she had thought the bag wasn¡¯t going to make it, and she¡¯d be forced to descend several dozen feet to retrieve it¡ªshe¡¯d purposefully aimed it so it would land on a relatively close ledge if it didn¡¯t make it, but it still would have sucked.

    Luckily, the bag had made it. Now, she just had to follow.

    Easier said than done, especially given this section was terrible. Who had designed this? The sadistic system or the platform maintainer? Emilia didn¡¯t like to think humans could be this terrible, specifically designing challenges that were, quite frankly, suicidal, but she knew they were¡ªshe knew the maintainers of the biggest platforms got paid the big bucks just to make their gameplay as difficult as they could.

    She didn¡¯t really think this particular challenge had been designed by a human, however. Not entirely, anyways. It was just too much of a coincidence, was the thing. She could climb, and she could climb well, despite the years since she¡¯d last climbed anything other than a man. Most people couldn¡¯t climb even the most basic of courses, let alone this disaster waiting to happen. For her to have ended up here, performing something that was as difficult as it was a part of her soul?

    Too much of a coincidence by far, and she was almost certain the system had designed this challenge just for her.

    It was too bad Cade and his mystery acquaintance were dead¡ªpresumed dead, anyways. If they¡¯d been alive, she could have asked them if they could have climbed this monstrosity¡ªafter all, they¡¯d been on the path towards this door as well. Perhaps, if one of them had opened the stupidly large door, the rock wall would have been something different? Or maybe they wouldn¡¯t have been able to open the door at all? Perhaps the reason Cade had been unable to form a key wasn¡¯t the fault of the {Blood Vial}, but simply that this wasn¡¯t his door?

    Ironic, if that were the case.

    Emilia shook herself. She needed to stop mulling over the specifics of this stupid world and its terrible games.

    ¡°Stop wasting time and just do it,¡± she growled at herself, bouncing on her current hold again.

    The next holds were a ways off. One big side jump. One big side jump over a gaping hole that would send her plummeting to her death if she missed¡ªif the holds weren¡¯t as stable as they were everywhere else.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she spit out at herself, willing away images of herself catching the hold only for it to break away from the rock wall. None of the other holds had been loose under her heavy jumps and pulling, why the fuck would this last one be!?

    ¡°Do not,¡± she said sternly to herself, sucking in as grounding a breath as she could under the circumstances, ¡°start thinking about horror movies where people are kidnapped and set up to fail and die horrific deaths.¡± Not that this place wasn¡¯t a veritable horror movie. She¡¯d already ended up covered in someone¡¯s blood and other bodily fluids, after all.

    Another bounce.

    One more, and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s cheek cracked into the rock wall. One foot made it. One hand. She scrambled, trying to figure out where the other holds were before her precarious balance failed, and she was falling backwards, the holds slipping out of her grip as gravity called her home¡­

    Her other hand found the hold, but she had no idea where the other foothold was. She tried to look, tried to figure out where the fuck it was under her, but it was almost like it had disappeared, and the foothold she had found was too small for both her feet to¡ª

    Wait.

    What.

    Too small? It certainly hadn¡¯t been too small when she¡¯d been eyeing it up before jumping. Emilia tightened her grip. Rock scrapped over her nose and forehead as she twisted her head, trying to confirm that¡ª

    Yup. She¡¯d jumped too far and somehow ended up with her right foot on the left foot¡¯s hold. And here she¡¯d been worried she wouldn¡¯t make the jump at all, and instead she¡¯d overshot it.

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

    There was no way to get her right foot onto the proper hold. The holds for her hands were too small to get enough leverage on to risk trying to hop onto it, and as previously noted, the left foothold was too small for both her feet.

    She glanced at the holds she¡¯d jumped from, wondering if she could jump back and try again¡ªhighly unlikely with only her one foot for power¡ªwhich left risking a hop onto the proper hold or continuing on. Problem was, the next foothold had been meant for her right foot, which was very seriously occupied with keeping her alive. Emilia could feel the hold, jutting out from the wall under her right thigh. She somehow had to get her left foot onto it without losing her grip or falling backwards...

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Yup¡­ she was going to die. There was no getting around it. This was how it ended for her. The only thing she could hope for was that she¡¯d return to her body and not be stuck wandering through the cavern below along with Cade¡¯s spectre. Sure, she¡¯d be able to ask him a few important questions, but she didn¡¯t think those questions were worth spending 20 some days with¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts halted.

    ¡°Shush,¡± she mentally scolded her brain when it tried to start useless wondering about how death in this world would work. She needed to concentrate¡ªto hear¡ªand those meandering thoughts weren¡¯t¡ª

    Step. Step. Step.

    A rock tumbled off the edge, just a few feet above her. It clattered over the jutting rocks of the wall¡¯s upper section before reaching the vertical section and disappearing from sight. The sound of it hitting the ground never came.

    Instead, the voice of someone she didn¡¯t know came.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Need a hand?¡±

    Emilia swallowed. Slowly, she tilted her head up as much as she dared.

    Whoever was above her moved slightly to the right so she could get a slightly better look at them¡ªas in, instead of not seeing them, she could make out that they were wearing dirty, loose grey pants. Not quite sweats, but almost. They could have moved further to the right so she could see their face. They didn¡¯t.

    ¡°Yes, please,¡± she said after a moment. Chances were, if she tried the next hold, she was going to die. Whoever was above her could drop her, or push her overboard once she was up there, but they could also be a total sweetheart, and she was willing to risk it.

    Plus, if they really wanted to kill her, they could just wait for her to attempt the hold and push her over if she didn¡¯t die the moment she tried to get her foot on it.

    Above her, something scrapped. Fingers brushed one of her hands.

    ¡°Can you reach any higher?¡± the stranger asked. His voice wasn¡¯t very deep, not quite the young adult voice Cade had possessed, but there was something musical and teasing about it, despite the circumstances.

    ¡°Not unless I jump and, uh¡­ if I jump, I¡¯m not getting my hold back.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll catch you.¡±

    He sounded so sure. Emilia wasn¡¯t so sure.

    She contemplated sending him to grab her cloak out of her bag to use as a rope¡ªstars, even the bag could potentially be used to extend his reach¡ªbut stopped herself. She had no idea how the material of this world would fare under so much pressure. It could tear in half the moment her weight was on it, and even if she used it to just get the extra support to reach the next hold¡­

    ¡°If you drop me, I¡¯m gonna haunt your ass, just so you know,¡± she said, making sure to throw it out in a teasing tone.

    The man laughed, and she smiled into the wall, despite herself. If she were going to die, at least she¡¯d die having enjoyed the moment. She hoped her potential saviour was okay with her general state of brattiness. Even if she were under better control of her mouth¡ªwhich she certainly wasn¡¯t, what with the stress and whatever Payton was currently doing inside her¡ªshe had always leaned into teasing and taunting, especially in the midst of danger. Some of her division had loved that, many had not, and she had eventually been forced to remove the ability to mute coms for a few because they kept disappearing during fights.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯d like my ass much. It¡¯s not nearly as nice as yours, and I¡¯m shit at showering regularly, so double whammy there.¡±

    ¡°I like showers,¡± Emilia replied, ignoring both the crudeness of the man¡¯s implication and the fact that even through the tension of the moment the man above had taken a look at her ass. It was hard to miss, although usually people didn¡¯t comment on it before she gave them permission to. She bounced slightly, testing the range of her ankle as much as she dared.

    ¡°I like showers with pretty girls.¡±

    Emilia snorted. ¡°Shower sex is overrated.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know. Most girls don¡¯t want to fuck someone as filthy as me,¡± he retorted, something in his tone implying that he didn¡¯t just mean filthy in the cleanliness sense.

    ¡°In my experience,¡± Emilia said, grunting slightly as a rock dug into her sternum, ¡°as long as you¡¯re physically clean, you can always find someone down for the filthy sex.¡± Actually, chances were there were people out there down for physically dirty sex too, not that she would know. To each their own, though, as long as everything was consensual.

    The man¡¯s laugh was lower than his voice, all chest and amusement and the feeling that he was smiling. ¡°Ready?¡±

    ¡°As I¡¯ll ever be.¡±

    His fingers brushed across her knuckles again, and Emilia dropped as far as she dared, willing energy to furl through her calves and thighs and give her the smallest bit of extra strength so she could jump high enough and¡ª

    His hands caught her wrists, hers around his, although the difference in their sizes meant her grasp was comparatively weak. His hands were strong and firm around her, though, and he easily held her as she found the next foothold with her right foot, the next with her left.

    The man¡¯s grip loosened on one arm, seamlessly allowing her to slide her grasp of him higher. His fingers tightened further up her arm, the other hand loosened, and she climbed his arms, using him as her tether to life. Overall, it was harder than using the holds would have been, but she was a thousand times more secure, and she wasn¡¯t about to return her hands to the rock wall and demand he let her go.

    She was stupid, not suicidal.

    Her hands reached his shoulders, and suddenly, his arms were wrapping around her and hauling her the rest of the way up. Mortifyingly, she squeaked. Then, the ground was under her again and she was face to face with her saviour.

    Beautiful blue eyes stared up at her from under dirty hair¡ªso dirty that she wasn¡¯t sure if it was light brown or if dirt was turning blonde to brown.

    She made a face. He laughed knowingly, smiling wide. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, dimples poking out on either side of his face that somehow looked wrong. She wasn¡¯t sure why, if it was something about the placement of them or if the system just hadn¡¯t rendered them quite right. Something about them was wrong, though.

    ¡°Told you I was filthy,¡± he teased, rotating them so he could set Emilia down beside him. His fingers lingered for a moment at her waist before he pulled away, the burn of his touch lingering.

    ¡°Yes, you are,¡± she agreed, glaring when the man¡¯s smile widened impossibly more. ¡°I know the red water here is strange but¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not a water thing,¡± the man assured her, shifting onto his butt and dangling his feet over the edge of the cliff. ¡°I¡¯m just as disgusting in real life.¡± He winked. It would have been charming if not for the grime covering him.

    Emilia levelled a flat look at him. He grinned back at her, completely unfazed by her judgment. ¡°Sensory thing?¡±

    ¡°Nope. Just have better things to do.¡±

    ¡°Than shower?¡±

    ¡°Yup¡ªunless there¡¯s a cute girl involved, as I said.¡± His eyes shifted into the distance, into the cavern far below them and the rubble of the {Blood Needle}¡¯s creation.

    His smile fell away, and for a moment, he was someone else¡ªsomeone Emilia had once known, although she had no idea who that someone was even supposed to be. He wasn¡¯t, though. He wasn¡¯t anyone she knew, in looks and certainly not in personality, and she had no idea where the thought that he looked like some nameless person she had once known had come from.

    ¡°Or a boy, maybe?¡± he continued, legs kicking listlessly into the abyss. ¡°Never tried it with a boy, but I¡¯m not against giving it a shot.¡±

    He gave Emilia an expectant look.

    ¡°Boys,¡± she replied, face scrunching in thought, before she added that she¡¯d never tried it with a girl, but wasn¡¯t exactly against hooking up with one.

    ¡°¡®Not exactly?¡¯¡± he asked, laughing and smiling with such carefree happiness that Emilia felt her heart squeeze, when she admitted that she¡¯d had a few offers, but none of the girls had ever sparked her interest.

    ¡°There was a girl, during the war, who offered. I might have tried with her, but¡­¡± Emilia trailed off, fingers digging sharply into her palms. She looked away from the stranger, taking in the newly revealed landing for the first time. There was another, more reasonably sized door to the side, presumably where the man had come from.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± the stranger said solemnly¡ªknowingly.

    Emilia looked back at him. He wasn¡¯t looking at her anymore or smiling, instead staring off into the distance again. ¡°I¡¯m Emilia,¡± she said, holding out a hand to him. Glimmering black dust covered it, but all the little scrapes she¡¯d gained climbing had vanished into the aether while they chatted.

    He blinked, eyes turning towards her, and for the briefest moment, Emilia thought she saw recognition in them. It was gone so fast, though, that she wasn¡¯t convinced it hadn¡¯t just been a trick of the light¡ªa trick of her mind, which was obviously already running funny if it was seeing someone she knew in this messy, dimpled man.

    ¡°V.¡±

    ¡°V?¡±

    ¡°V.¡± He smiled, almost like he knew full well what thoughts were turning through her head.

    Emilia stared back at the man¡ªat V¡ªher expression empty. At least if he had given her a realistic name, she could have assured herself that she didn¡¯t know anyone by that name, and she was going crazy. V, however, was almost certainly fake, which meant she couldn¡¯t just assume the mysterious familiarity she felt with him was nerves and stress and a thousand other factors.

    Going crazy was significantly better than not knowing!

    ¡°Don¡¯t imagine you¡¯ll tell me your real name?¡± she asked as sweetly as she could, trying not to grind her teeth as she did so.

    V smiled back at her, innocent, and Emilia didn¡¯t know whether to believe it or not. ¡°Nah. I¡¯d rather keep my anonymity. Why?¡±

    Emilia sighed, collapsing onto her back. ¡°No reason. Just curious how you get V from your name,¡± she lied.

    The man laughed, the sound of him laying down as well filling the space as the world fell away.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 61: Do We Really Need Food?

    The world was empty, but that made sense. What was a raid platform but ones and zeros decorating the aether? Winding their way through genetics and minds to create blank, fascinating worlds for people to rip apart?

    Emilia stared into the abyss, and nothing stared back. Was it black? Red? White? Had it ever been anything at all? She reached out a hand, her fingers slipping through golden strands that reminded her of herself. Why did they remind her of herself?

    A scream echoed out of the dark light, brilliant and earsplitting. She couldn¡¯t scream back. She tried, but there was no oxygen here, and she didn¡¯t know how to speak into the aethernet. Feelings, sometimes. A laugh, a sliver of anger. Those things could shutter through the aether with enough concentration or emotion, but a word? A scream?

    Even Emilia didn¡¯t know how to¡ª

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Hey, cutie. You¡¯re awake.¡±

    Emilia rubbed a hand over her eyes, pushing sleep aside to blink up at the strange man¡ªV. V, who most certainly wasn¡¯t giving her his real name. She blinked at him, trying to find the familiarity that had occasionally swiped at her memories before she¡¯d fallen asleep. She saw none of it, just a sloppy, cheerful man.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, pushing herself up and stifling a yawn.

    V looked like he wanted to coo, his smile pressing into a tight, wobbly line. ¡°I have food, if you want some,¡± he said instead. He offered up a bag to her, stuffed full with¡­ something.

    Emilia eyed up the dubious looking food.

    ¡°They¡¯re pretty good. Not as good as most of the stuff from our world, but¡ª¡± V shrugged, popping a few of the orangish-red blobs in his mouth. He chewed¡­ and chewed¡­ and chewed.

    He didn¡¯t look particularly put out to have needed to chew his food so much before it became swallowable, so Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if he normally chewed his food thoroughly or if it was tough or tasted gross or what. Regardless of the why, Emilia was slow to take a piece herself, V watching her with glittering, expectant eyes.

    The thing was squishy in her hand, and weighed far more than she would have thought. She brought it to her nose, giving it a little sniff.

    V laughed, those awkward dimples of his popping up across his face. Apparently, her nap hadn¡¯t erased her dislike of them.

    ¡°You gonna eat that, or what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m working on it,¡± Emilia said, glaring at the piece of food.

    ¡°Just get it over with.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m psyching myself up.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re gonna psych yourself out of it at this rate.¡±

    ¡°Says who?¡±

    ¡°Says me~¡± V sighed, leaning back on his elbows to continue watching her attempt to eat the thing. His focus wasn¡¯t making her attempts to just put the strange food in her mouth any better. ¡°Seriously, it¡¯s not that bad¡ª¡± V cut off, making a little ¡°ah~¡± sound, his mouth holding open for a moment.

    ¡°Ah~ what?¡± Emilia asked, scowling at him. She thought it was a pretty good death glare, but V seemed annoyingly unfazed by it. Most likely, she made herself too cute. Instead of looking scary, she probably just looked like a tantruming child.

    ¡°Ah~ you must be one of those people who only eat the food they grew up with.¡±

    ¡°I grew up eating plenty of different things,¡± she snapped back. ¡°And just today¡ªlike, our time today, although I guess it was technically yesterday afternoon¡­¡± Emilia trailed off as she contemplated how weird the concept of time was. Even Censors could skew time, to some extent. It wasn¡¯t exactly recommended, but they¡¯d all done it during the war¡ªat least in their unit they had. Skew time a little to get a moment more to analyze the situation. Hope you didn¡¯t burn your brain out doing so.

    Only one person had completely burned their brain out. It had been horrible, but none of them had been able to deny that their effective death had been worth it. Almost none of them.

    Emilia blinked back into the moment, finding V still watching her intently. She swallowed, glanced away. ¡°Anyways, I just ate at a place in the slums near where I live. They have good food. Then we had dinner at this totally upscale place. The waiter was a jerk, but we ordered food from the west.¡± It had only been afterwards that Emilia had realized the restaurant Pria had chosen had served food from the region she was from. Expensive, bougie food, but from the region Pria had grown up in, nonetheless.

    ¡°Then why not try this?¡±

    ¡°Because almost all the food I¡¯ve eaten here so far has been gross,¡± Emilia replied, annoyed that the man was so¡­ sensible. No, that wasn¡¯t quite right. He was sensible, but in a way that implied he was actually extremely illogical in most matters of life and was just saying things he knew he would hate to be told himself.

    V simply laughed, popping another piece in his mouth. At the very least, he didn¡¯t eat with his mouth open. Emilia wasn¡¯t a fan of seeing mashed up food inside someone¡¯s mouth.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    She hated it enough that she had hidden inside a cave by her house once, when her father had tried taking her on a trip where she knew eating with your mouth open was a thing. The cave had flooded as the tide came in, and she¡¯d almost died¡ªshe¡¯d only been eight, and the water had come in so fast it had forced her further back into the cave. A young man who¡¯d been visiting his girlfriend¡¯s family for the summer had rescued her. She could still remember his arms around her, still remember his softly soothing voice and wet blonde hair.

    She hadn¡¯t seen him again. It had been the end of summer and by the time she¡¯d been allowed out of the hospital, he was gone¡ªreturned to university with his girlfriend. He¡¯d never come back, and she¡¯d eventually learned he was from a sub-50 family¡ªsomething he apparently hadn¡¯t even shared with his girlfriend. The name he¡¯d given¡ªthe only thing she¡¯d had to potentially track him down and thank him properly¡ªwas fake.

    During the war, she¡¯d considered asking Seven about it. He could have known if some sub-50 had run away to attend a regular university under a fake name, then tried to marry his way into a sub-30 family and saved a random, stupid little irregular girl on the beach. Seven had never really been one for chatting, though, and Beth wouldn¡¯t have even been alive yet when all this happened¡ªactually, Seven might not have been either, now that she thought about it¡­

    ¡°Open up.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes narrowed as V tried to press a piece of food into her mouth. She wanted to say she wasn¡¯t a child, that she didn¡¯t need to be fed by hand. She certainly didn¡¯t need to be fed by such a filthy hand. Seriously, if they happened to come across water, she was half-tempted to manhandle the man into it.

    ¡°Come on,¡± V pouted, his bottom lip even sticking out. ¡°Just try it. Please~?¡± Thick lashes batted at her over those gorgeous blue eyes, the effect somewhat dampened by a black stain under one.

    Tentatively, Emilia opened her mouth, watching as V¡¯s face lit up with something between astonishment and¡­ something else. Arousal? Maybe. Fascination? She had no idea, but those unlikeable dimples of his deepened as he slid the food into her mouth, politely careful to not actually touch his fingers to her mouth.

    He leaned back, gazed locked onto hers as she chewed. He swiped the uneaten piece from her hand, popping it into his mouth and rubbing crumbs off his hands and onto his pants. Based on the way his lips twitched and amusement danced in his eyes, he knew full well he shouldn¡¯t be wiping his dirty hands on himself¡ªnot that his pants could get any dirtier.

    ¡°So?¡± he asked as he swallowed.

    Emilia continued chewing her piece, trying to figure out if she should swallow it or spit it over the edge of the rock wall. It wasn¡¯t exactly good, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as the food her Risen Guard had given her, during her first few meals in this world. This thing, though¡­ it reminded her of a horrible sweet they had in the north¡ªsweet being a relative term. She¡¯d only had it once, when she was young and stupid enough to eat the gifts her father received from people looking for his attention and support.

    ¡°It reminds me of pranpran,¡± she said, grimacing as she choked the so-called food down.

    V laughed, his eyes squeezing shut as his head tilted back. When he stopped, he continued staring upwards, because even though the rock wall had ended, there was still impossibly more space until the ceiling. ¡°Had that, have you?¡±

    Emilia blinked at him, nodding as she used her tongue to try to remove the sticky substance from her teeth. ¡°Have you?¡± It was rare, if he had. Pranpran was only produced in one of the sub-50 wards, sections of land within larger regions that were almost exclusively inhabited by sub-50s and their servants. It was rare for them to accept visitors, and many of their creations¡ªwhether food, artwork or people¡ªrarely left the area. Even children rarely attended normal Baalphorian universities, and adults usually worked inside or nearby their ward.

    ¡°Not often,¡± V told her as he continued staring upwards, ¡°and not in a long time.¡± He shrugged, shooting her a smile. ¡°It¡¯s not the worst thing in the world, but I can¡¯t say I¡¯ll be craving it or this stuff once we leave here.¡±

    She hummed, starting when he reached into his coat and pulled out another bag of food, handing it towards her.

    ¡°This is actually good,¡± he promised.

    Emilia tried to not snatch the bag of sweets out of his hands, recognizing them from her lunch with Key and Rin the day before. Given the way V¡¯s smile deepened, he seemed to have realized she was trying to downplay her enthusiasm for the delicious food.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said sincerely as she popped a few pieces in her mouth, moaning as sweetness melted over her tongue. ¡°I love sweets,¡± she mumbled, eyes squeezing closed.

    Across from her, V was silent as she ate a few more pieces, and when she finally opened her eyes again, she was unsurprised to find him watching her. His smile had fallen, his dimples disappearing into his skin. Emilia tried to imagine him clean. He¡¯d still have the terrible dimples when he smiled, but with clean hair and clothes? Without the lingering scent of sweat and grime?

    She shook herself. ¡°Don¡¯t do that,¡± she scolded herself. ¡°Hoping someone will change for you isn¡¯t sensible. Plus, you have no idea what he looks like outside of the raid. Plus, open relationship aside, technically, you¡¯re already taken. Plus, this is a competition! Don¡¯t just blindly trust people, dumbass.¡±

    Still, tit-for-tat, and Emilia couldn¡¯t stop herself from picking another sweet from the bag and leaning forward to offer it to V. His eyes widened, his smile wavered. He was a good boy, though, opening his mouth to let her press the sweet into his mouth, the pads of her fingers grazing over the tip of his tongue and lips. He didn¡¯t stop her hand from leaving¡ªdidn¡¯t clasp his mouth around her fingers or anything else¡ªbut she didn¡¯t miss the way his eyes darkened, nor the way his eyes didn¡¯t leave hers as he chewed.

    She didn¡¯t break the eye contact, either. Partially, because this was a simple, soft moment that she didn¡¯t want to break. Partially, because she was a little worried if she looked away her eyes would confirm the hardness growing in his pants, just out of sight enough that she could deny that she¡¯d had the effect on him. It wasn¡¯t a bad effect¡ªwith only a few exceptions, she¡¯d always loved the fact that people found her attractive¡ªbut she¡¯d feel bad for causing it when she had no intention of things going further than this brief moment of fun.

    She had tried to change men in the past. She wasn¡¯t going to let herself fall into a trap of trying again, just because she¡¯d met a nice boy who seemed full of intoxicating joy and freedom.

    Emilia and V¡¯s eyes shot simultaneously to the doorway on the other side of the ledge. The sound they had heard¡ªthe soft whispers of voices floating through the aether¡ªgrew closer, closer. V flipped over, all ease disappearing from him as he skirted back to her side, both of their eyes glued to the doorway as he passed her her bag.

    Her hand rummaged through the bag, wrapping around one of her new {Blood Needles}, in case they needed a quick attack to blow some enemy up¡ªnot that she particularly wanted to risk destroying their only means of getting off this ledge that didn¡¯t involve a surely suicidal attempt to descend the rock wall and¡ª

    ¡°Rin!¡± Emilia half-yelled, half-sighed in relief as her friend appeared in the doorway, an older man stepping in beside her.

    ¡°Taoran,¡± V greeted beside her, voice shocking cold, all levity gone from it. ¡°Guess our babysitters found each other, just like we found each other.¡±

    Emilia glanced towards him, finding her saviour turned maybe friend was no longer the cheerful, smiling man he had been only moments before.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 62: This is a Game, Afterall

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you, you know, didn¡¯t die,¡± Emilia said to Rin as she and the other man¡ªTaoran¡ªapproached her and V.

    Beside her, her new friend shifted somewhat uneasily, and Emilia had the distinct impression that he wasn¡¯t so happy that his own Enclave babysitter hadn¡¯t been killed during their time apart.

    ?I am also glad you did not die,? Rin said, eyes shifted between her and V, and back to Taoran. ?It does not appear that your charge ¡®ran off¡¯ after all.?

    Taoran glowered at the younger girl, and Emilia suddenly felt like she should be getting in between them. V seemed to be of the same opinion, and a moment later he was on his feet and taking long strides towards the doorway.

    ¡°We should go,¡± he said briskly, neither looking back nor saying goodbye before disappearing into the darkness beyond.

    His Enclave babysitter glared between Emilia and Rin, before turning to follow his charge, the anger vibrating out of him into the aethernet so powerful it lingered long after the sound of their footsteps disappeared.

    ¡°Want some?¡± Emilia asked, lifting the bag of food V had left behind to offer a piece to Rin, who was glaring over the edge of the rock wall.

    Rin glanced back at her, still lounged out over the hard ground. ?Where did you get that??

    ¡°V.¡±

    The other girl¡¯s face looked vaguely troubled by that news as she came to sit beside her. ?You should not trust other visitors.?

    ¡°Oh yeah~¡± Emilia sighed, popping another piece in her mouth and nodding towards the disaster far below them. ¡°Already learned that¡ªnot that I was particularly trusting of Cade before we fought, but still.¡±

    Rin watched her blankly as she explained the details of what had happened while they were separated. Being chased, meeting and killing Cade, climbing the wall and being helped by V. She didn¡¯t know why she left out the bit about experimenting with her core energy, but she did. Habit, perhaps. She¡¯d spent decades hiding experiments with skills and the aethernet from nearly everyone, after all.

    ?Even if he saved your life, you should not trust him,? Rin repeated as she turned Emilia¡¯s new blood weapons over in her hands.

    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± She wasn¡¯t really sure if she trusted V, but she felt like she mostly did. Even she had to admit, however, that that trust was more¡­ wide-ranging? Like, she would trust him with something serious¡ªsomething in their own world, with real, palpable consequences. This world was not real, and as much as Emilia thought of the people here as real and worthy of help, she knew she was an outlier. Even then, she certainly viewed this world as less real than her own, and while she was trying to take the competition and finding a fix for the world¡¯s blood curse seriously¡­

    Nope, she couldn¡¯t take make herself take the situation as seriously as she would something in her own world, even taking the bloody reality of this world into account. Maybe because she knew, even if she didn¡¯t want to involve Olivier or someone else in reaching Ship¡¯o Stars, she could. Maybe, Payton had messed with her knots enough to make everything soft and lazy¡ªfor the moment, anyways. Maybe both, maybe something else, Emilia didn¡¯t know.

    She did know she should be taking the raid more seriously, if only so she could potentially win some freedom for this world. Even if, as her discussion with Rin about the reality that the blood curse could be permanent had revealed, that freedom might be impossible. With the Risen Guard attempting to stop visitors¡ªHarbingers¡ªfrom bringing new blessings to the world, the locals deserved as many people as possible fighting for their freedom. Some of them still held hope in their hearts, and Emilia needed to value and respect that. So, she really did need to take this all a bit more seriously, and not trust boys with dimples that just seemed a little wrong.

    Rin turned one of the {Blood Needles} over in her hands, a light flutter of her energy searching through it.

    ¡°Be careful with that,¡± Emilia said, half-teasing, half-serious. ¡°It¡¯s explosive.¡± She grabbed another for herself, flinging it across the room towards an odd rock formation on the opposite wall, near the top of the giant door.

    The {Blood Needle} collided with the rock almost perfectly¡ªperfectly enough that Emilia wondered if, despite not having active access to the system, she was being guided by it at least a little.

    ?Oh¡­? Rin breathed out¡ªas much as an aethervoice can breathe¡ªas they watched the rocks fall away from the wall and¡ª

    ¡°Bingo~¡± Emilia cheered as a gaping hole was revealed in the wall. ¡°Secret entrance!¡±

    Rin frowned slightly as their eyes met. ?You guessed that was there??

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emilia said, shrugging as she tossed another piece of food in her mouth and began gathering her stuff. After a moment of thought, she tucked the {Blood Needle} Rin had been messing with into her bag as well. The chances of it exploding on accident were pretty low¡­ probably.

    ¡°I kinda hate to put it this way, but this world is essentially a game to people from my world. Sometimes, these game worlds are allowed to grow and change naturally. Usually, the platform designers and the system mess with it at least a little. Yes, there are ethical concerns about that. No, nobody really gets anywhere in trying to regulate how you¡¯re treated.¡±

    Even through her mild facial expressions, Rin did not look happy, although she also didn¡¯t look surprised. Instead, the look written across her face was more akin to someone being reminded of a particularly unpleasant fact they already knew.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°That said, I think this place, more than the other places I¡¯ve been so far, is meant to be a game. Not a very fun game, if you ask me, but a game nonetheless.¡±

    Rin nodded slowly, saying, ?And games are meant to be understood and played.?

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Emilia agreed, already planning out a route across the rock walls that extended around the upper section of the room. She was a bit surprised V hadn¡¯t said anything about the room¡¯s odd design¡ªnot that they had talked a whole lot. Then again, maybe he had realized there was something hidden across the way, but didn¡¯t have the necessary climbing skills to get to it himself and hadn¡¯t wanted to give her any clues.

    ¡°The key for many games is to look for little, out of place things. I haven¡¯t played a lot of games in decades¡ªand I¡¯ve played almost none like this. It¡¯s not my favourite way to spend my time, by far. I remember one of my friends, back when we were kids, obsessively going around checking every garbage can they came across in a game for hidden items.¡±

    Rin nodded again, eyes suddenly searching around the area for anything else that looked wrong. ?I understand,? she said simply, eyes continuing to flick around, her mouth pressed tight. ?You do not like these games??

    ¡°Nah,¡± Emilia said, fiddling with her bag to turn it back into a backpack arrangement. ¡°I think it¡¯s kinda cruel, to design entire worlds for players to destroy.¡±

    ?Then why are you here?? Rin asked, following along as Emilia made her way to the first step in her get across the giant canyon plan.

    ¡°The company that is running this raid¡ªthat¡¯s what these kinds of visitations are called, in my world¡ªis offering a prize to the people who do the best.¡±

    ?Do the best at what??

    ¡°No idea. I think everyone is hoping that once they get system access it will become clearer?¡±

    Emilia eyed up the course she had planned as they reached the wall. It was far easier than the ones below had been, seemingly having been designed, so a beginner could attempt the climb and only risk falling a dozen or so feet to a ledge below if they messed up¡­ assuming they didn¡¯t bounce or roll once they landed, anyways. Even the reaches between holds were shorter than below, as though Rin had always been meant to climb this section with her.

    ?Maybe it is to acquire a blessing,? Rin said sensibly, although her voice was somewhat tight, and when Emilia looked back at her, she found the girl staring nervously up at the rock wall. ?You cannot intend for us to climb that.?

    ¡°Do you have any magic that will get us up there?¡±

    Rin looked as though she were running through every magic she knew, trying to find one that would allow her to skip the climb. ?No,? she finally admitted, quickly adding that she had no experience climbing such things.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Emilia said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. ¡°We¡¯ll start here,¡± she added, pointing to a section of climbs that were above the main ledge, far enough from the edge that even if Rin fell off the holds then decided to tumble back a few feet, she still wouldn¡¯t fall into the abyss.

    ?Must we??

    ¡°Well, we don¡¯t have to,¡± Emilia admitted. ¡°But, for all we know, it could be a shortcut. I don¡¯t know if you faced any challenges on your way here, but I certainly did! I¡¯d rather avoid anything extra, if possible.¡±

    ?Only that man,? Rin told her, mouth pressing into a grim line.

    ¡°Not a fan?¡± Emilia laughed, thinking back to the grumpy old man who V was unfortunate enough to have as a babysitter.

    ?No,? the other girl said, a bit too sharp, as she slowly followed Emilia to the place she would be getting a crash course in climbing at.

    ¡°He was a member of The Enclave?¡±

    Rin hummed, her agreement floating through the aether as Emilia explained the basics to her and forced her to work through a few of the holds and transitions. Fortunately, her friend was a quick learner and already physically fit, her movements quickly becoming more confident as Emilia talked her through them.

    ¡°See, not that hard,¡± Emilia cheered as Rin pulled herself onto a more difficult hold¡ªlikely far more difficult than any they¡¯d face manoeuvring across to the secret door, assuming they went the easy route.

    Rin glared at her, and Emilia laughed as she helped her friend down. ?I do not know if this is still a potential shortcut given how long this has taken.?

    Emilia scoffed. ¡°You¡¯re a natural. Honestly. Probably all that extra training with the Ris¡ª what?¡±

    Across from her, Rin¡¯s glare had darkened, waves of threat seeping off her and sending a shiver up Emilia¡¯s spine.

    ?Do not say¡­ that. The man may overhear,? Rin said, her voice floating straight into Emilia, hidden from anyone who might be listening.

    Emilia made a little ah-ing sound. That made sense. The Enclave and The Risen Guards were enemies in all this. Key and the others might trust Rin, at least to some extent, but other Enclave members might not. They could even kill her outright, if they found out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± she cheered as she dragged Rin back towards the stretch that would take them over to the doorway, ¡°I¡¯ll protect you if anything happens¡­ assuming we don¡¯t get separated again. Kinda difficult to protect you if we¡¯re not together.¡±

    Rin barely seemed to be paying attention to her, instead examining the scuffs on her hands, slowly healing up despite the lack of blood.

    ¡°So¡­ long and easy way, or want to try and short and hard way first.¡±

    ?Will we die if we fall off the hard way??

    ¡°Nah.¡± Probably not, anyways. Maybe if they bounced. They probably wouldn¡¯t bounce.

    Emilia pointed out the different routes to Rin. The shorter route involved simply walking to the far end of the ledge. Near the very end, about twenty feet below the doorway, was the beginning of a significantly more difficult section. It was also a significantly faster section.

    ?We could¡­ try,? Rin said, somewhat unconvincingly.

    ¡°Great,¡± Emilia said, grabbing her friend¡¯s hand and dragging her along the bridge. ¡°I¡¯ll go first, show you where to put your hands and feet¡ªassuming your memory is good enough to remember?¡±

    Rin glared, not even deigning to answer.

    ¡°Fine, fine. You have a perfectly great memory. I¡¯ll come back down when I¡¯m done, but I¡¯ll come down back there a bit.¡± Emilia pointed to the spot she¡¯d pegged as being the easiest to fall from. ¡°Wish me luck!¡±

    Emilia pulled herself onto the first hold. This particular section was a maze of holds and jumps and strange bends, although the holds still reminded her as ones meant for beginners, being large and sturdy. Even keeping her movements slow, so Rin could memorize the shape of them, it took only a few minutes for Emilia to reach the top and climb her way back along the easier path and fall several feet onto the bridge.

    ¡°Think you can do that?¡±

    ?Yes,? Rin said, her voice sure and steady, even if her hands were clenched into fists.

    Emilia shot her a toothy grin. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Even if you fall, I won¡¯t let you fall all the way down there.¡± She laughed, bolting back slightly when the other girl looked liable to push her off the edge.

    ?Do not joke,? the other girl growled, hands already reaching out for the first hold.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 63: Time to Fall

    ¡°You did great!¡± Emilia cheered as she pulled herself up onto the landing near the doorway.

    Rin had collapsed against the wall, her breathing still haggard as she gazed down at her bleeding palms, wounds slowly squeezing closed under the pressure of the system. ?I fell twice.?

    ¡°The first time I climbed, I fell almost 100 feet before a monitor caught me. I thought I was going to die. Then they found out who my dad was, and they figured they were going to die for almost letting me die!¡± Emilia laughed, thinking back to the horrified look on the monitor¡¯s face when he¡¯d gotten her name¡ªher real one, not the Emilia Daniels she used these days.

    ?Your father is powerful?? the other girl asked, flopping over to lean on Emilia¡¯s shoulder.

    She wanted to coo, but she was certain Rin would not appreciate it.

    ¡°Yes¡ª Well, he used to be? I guess he still is, more or less. It¡¯s just¡­ less direct?¡±

    Rin nodded like she understood, mumbling about how the Risen Guard leader had retired, but still held a significant amount of sway.

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Emilia whispered, listening to her friend¡¯s breathing even out as she fell into a short sleep. Short, because several minutes later, Rin bolted upright, immediately cringing and clasping a hand to her ribs.

    ?I think I broke a rib,? Rin hissed, which was slightly amusing as hissing required breath.

    Once they got out of here, and had a few moments of quiet, she was going to have to ask around¡ªto the few people who could understand her, anyways¡ªabout whether some of the ways in which their aethervoices worked were based on custom. If they had once been capable of speech, it made sense that some of their pseudo-auditory habits might be based on a remembrance of what it was like to speak with their vocal cords.

    Emilia leaned over and poked at Rin¡¯s ribs, trying to feel out any bones that could be sticking into an organ. ¡°Maybe,¡± she said when she came away feeling nothing. ¡°Could just be a crack. I thought you guys had healing magic?¡±

    Rin nodded, eyes squeezing shut as she began to focus on her energy, slowly spreading through her rib cage. Small tendrils of aether circled her, seeping into her and joining her own energy. ?Our healing techniques focus on external injuries,? Rin explained as she worked. ?Internal injuries require more concentration to heal.?

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Emilia sighed as she watched Rin work, trying to glean as much about her healing magic as she could. Without system access, she couldn¡¯t gather aether to herself yet¡ªnot without blood, anyways¡ªbut she still sent her energy twinning out towards her own cracked rib.

    She was almost done, and already thinking that perhaps Rin wouldn¡¯t notice her attempts to heal herself, when the other girl frowned and looked over at her.

    ?Where did you learn to do that? And why are you injured??

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Emilia glanced away, nervously admitting that Rin had elbowed her pretty hard on the second fall. She did not mention that the angle of her fall had just about knocked them both over the edge. Her friend already looked horrified enough that she¡¯d injured her, she didn¡¯t need the added guilt that ignoring Emilia¡¯s instruction to backtrack and grab the correct hold had almost killed them.

    ?I am sorry,? the girl said, an actual expression of remorse crossing her features.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Emilia assured her. It wasn¡¯t, but she had a feeling Rin was the type to internalize these kinds of mistakes. With any luck, that internalization wouldn¡¯t be needed, and they wouldn¡¯t run into anything that needed climbing in the near future. No stairs. No rock walls. No ladders. No cute boys. Nothing worth climbing.

    With any luck, the next time she gave the younger girl some advice, she¡¯d actually listen.

    ¡°Well, shall we?¡± she asked, stretching her arms above her head and trying not to grimace at her shitty rib healing job.

    They rose and Rin took the lead, peeking into the doorway, a spiral of energy circling out of her and down the passage.

    Emilia peeked around her, finding only darkness waiting for them. ¡°Dark,¡± she said, for lack of anything better to say.

    Rin, on the other hand, chose silence. A few moments later and her energy sparked back into her. It was formless, merely a blur across the world. No gold glitter like the energy that Emilia had accidentally lost and regained on her trek there¡ªnot that the energy she¡¯d been using to search occasionally was golden. She was curious about it¡ªabout core energy in general¡ªhowever, and found herself making notes on how Rin¡¯s looked and moved.

    Eventually, she was going to have to ask someone about the colour some of her energy had acquired. Not now, but eventually. She¡¯d have to find the right way to ask, though, in case she had massively fucked up and wrecked her core or done something illegal¡ªnot that her Risen Guard babysitter had mentioned any such rule. Then again, she had no idea if any other visitors were ever able to access their cores. Virtually all platforms circumvented such direct core access for safety concerns, instead using the system to create something different enough from real-world cores that heroes couldn¡¯t learn how to use their cores in game, then leave and accidentally fuck their cores up.

    Or blow something up.

    If not for the fact that she already had some experience using her core in the real world, slight as it may be, Emilia might have assumed her ¡°core¡± was just a fake version of the platform. It was her core, was the thing. Maybe not her real one, but certainly a digital equivalent. A digital equivalent that her Censor relied on to use skills while she hacked and was utilized by the systems of more standard platforms.

    She really should have asked V whether he had any type of core access before they split up. Stupid her, having their weird food flirting moment instead of sharing information, and she wondered if he was out there, wandering through this maze, regretting their lack of actual conversation or¡ª

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Whoa~¡± Emilia breathed out as the dark tunnel she¡¯d been absently following Rin down opened into a giant cavern.

    It reminded her of the cavern they had met outside of. Above them, giant stalactites glowed in a faint mix of pale pinks and purples, while far below, a giant sinkhole filled with aquamarine liquid lay, the colour so clear that Emilia could see that the hole seemingly went on forever without end.

    ?There does not appear to be a way down,? Rin noted, her voice holding no amazement for the beautiful sight they¡¯d ventured upon.

    Emilia tore her eyes from the sinkhole below to look around as well. From what she could see, Rin was correct. They had come to the end of the tunnel and there was no further path, no sign of any further hidden path. She peeked over the edge, trying to see if there were any paths to climb down, but while she imagined she could potentially attempt the climb down, she was positive Rin wouldn¡¯t make it. The holds had been designed to be travelled up, and given the way the edge jutted out, the portion under them would require hanging holds that even she wouldn¡¯t be inclined to attempt unless she had to.

    ¡°Anything poisonous in this world look like that?¡± Emilia asked, eyeing up the liquid far below them. It was pretty far, but she¡¯d fallen further.

    Rin looked horrified when she realized what Emilia was thinking. ?You cannot be serious.?

    ¡°As a heart attack!¡± she laughed. ¡°Or should I say, a heartcore attack?¡±

    Rin didn¡¯t understand her joke, and after a brief explanation of how heart attacks in the real world were often fatal, even the best medical treatment unable to reverse brain damage that occurred if the person¡¯s heart completely stopped for too long, she also did not find the joke funny.

    ?You should not joke about such things.? Rin glanced away, seemingly choosing her words carefully, before asking what happened when a heart attack didn¡¯t lead to brain damage.

    ¡°Depends on the extent of the damage,¡± Emilia explained. ¡°I heard from my guard when I first got here that you guys don¡¯t have anything like surgery¡ªopening someone up to fix an injury¡ªhere?¡±

    Rin shook her head, resolutely looking away from Emilia. ?No. If the injury is severe enough that we cannot heal it ourselves, we are taken to special locations to die.?

    Emilia hummed, still eyeing up the sinkhole far below. ¡°Are these the same locations pregnant women are taken?¡±

    Rin nodded, explaining there were special carers who specialized in dispersing blood magic. ?Not much is known about them,? Rin admitted, telling Emilia that most people hope to only see them a few times in their lives¡ªonly once, if they chose to never have children.

    ¡°Injuries are pretty common in my world, and our medical system is pretty good. Well, some people complain about the government putting caps on life extending care once your body decays past a certain point. For something like a heart attack, though, you can have surgery to repair the damage, or even get a new heart, if it¡¯s too damaged. That¡¯s all assuming you made it to a doctor in time, of course.¡±

    Emilia nodded to herself, thinking of Faylyn¡¯s father, extending his life long past the point that the government would pay for treatment, at his and his daughter¡¯s expense. It was a complicated topic, deciding when to withhold care. Faylyn¡¯s father¡¯s care had reached the point, however, where virtually everyone would agree that he needed to accept his fate. The things she was sure he was doing to his body in knot therapy¡ªthe illegal kind, some backstreet therapist distorting his genes in ways that were wholly unpredictable if not outright dangerous, just so he could earn himself a few more weeks of life one giant bill at a time.

    A life he was barely living, each visit leaving him frailer and more unstable than the last.

    Emilia knew her pain and trauma were sometimes intense, but even as she lost herself in her knots, even as pieces of herself fell away, and she knew she was a ghost of her former self, there was still so much to love about life. To watch Faylyn¡¯s father lose every bit of himself, to seemingly hate the world as the days ticked on and still cling to life¡­

    She truly wondered why he bothered. The only thing he was doing at this point was running his family even more into debt, some sketchy doctor getting rich off him and¡ª

    ¡°Huh¡­¡±

    ?What??

    ¡°I just had a thought that maybe some guy I know who should probably just let himself die might be being manipulated by his doctor.¡±

    It wouldn¡¯t be the first time a knot therapist was caught adding in extra knots to mess with their patients, to make them more docile, more obsessive, more erratic. Most cases were relatively isolated and difficult to prove. Genetics were complicated and therapists messed up all the time, although usually those mistakes were small and quickly noticed and fixed. Most people probably didn¡¯t even realize therapists could be so malicious, despite more than a few having been caught knotting their patients so they¡¯d continue with expensive or experimental treatment they may otherwise have refused. Emilia herself only knew such cases happened because she had heard Olivier lecturing about it, during the days before her legal case really got started, and she¡¯d snuck into his classes.

    Virtually everyone in Baalphoria knew about the larger instances of a therapist non-consensually knotting their patients. The most recent case had been around the time she was born, in the Grey Sands. Even now, seven decades on, the consequences of what that man had done could still be seen in the people who had escaped him, in the families of the people who hadn¡¯t.

    Emilia looked back at Rin, who was no longer watching her, but instead glaring down at the liquid far before them. ¡°What do you think? Safe liquid? Think you could make the jump?¡±

    ?Could you??

    ¡°Sure. I grew up climbing this range of mountains near where I live. Even before I had skills¡ªmagic¡ªfully under my control. Usually, monitors were around to catch you, but there were a few places where you were left to fall into the ocean.¡± Those sections were always the funnest during pink tides, although monitors had been around at those times to stop people from drowning in the high.

    Rin seemed to sigh, annoyance and exasperation flooding out of her. A second later, the aether was surging upon her and then bolting downwards.

    Emilia watched as whatever magic Rin had used scooped up some of the liquid and brought it back to them. It glowed slightly, although she couldn¡¯t be sure if it was a result of the glowing stalactites above them, or just more noticeable now that it was so close.

    Her friend sniffed delicately at it, energy leaking out of her fingers to poke the liquid. ?I believe it is water,? she said after several long minutes, during which Emilia had wandered away and taken to glaring out at the world, looking for any secrets they may have missed.

    ¡°Great! So jumping it is, then?¡±

    Rin released the magic holding the water, letting it fall back home. ?You can go first.?

    ¡°Don¡¯t want to jump together?¡±

    ?No.?

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ?Because, as you have repeatedly said, you cannot permanently die in here. If you jump and die, I will simply turn around and search for another exit.?

    Emilia laughed as she hurled her bag towards a small ledge near the sinkhole. It wasn¡¯t going to make it, but luckily Rin was already reaching out her magic to help it along.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± she cheered, turning her back to the sinkhole and backing towards the edge. ¡°Wish me luck!¡±

    Another step back, and the world disappeared from under her feet. Emilia screamed or whooped or made some other noise of careless freedom that she hadn¡¯t heard herself make in years. Everything but the wind whipping by her fell away, if only for mere moments, as she fell, twisting and spinning through the air. She rolled, arms extending above her head, and then she split the surface, her body enveloped by the calm of water so clear and pure that when she opened her eyes she could see jagged, sparkling rocks extending into the darkness far below her, the surface glowing far above.

    Her legs kicked. She hadn¡¯t been swimming in forever, and like so many other things, she suddenly found herself missing it, even as her heart clenched in remembrance of the people she had last swum with.

    Remembrance of the person she had been, way back then.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 64: From the Depths Below

    ¡°Come on, Rin! It isn¡¯t that far!¡±

    Rin glared down at her¡ªor, at least, Emilia assumed that was what she must be doing. Not only was the other girl so high above her that Emilia couldn¡¯t barely see her face as she continued psyching herself up to jumping, but her expressions were already so mild! The fact that she could already guess what emotion that girl was probably showing was a testament to how observant she was!

    Emilia¡¯s legs cycled under her, keeping her afloat in the water. She hadn¡¯t even bothered to go check her bag, which in hindsight, she should perhaps be taking better care of. Not only did it have multiple blood weapons in it, one of which exploded on contact with things and another that was literally a vial of blood, but it now had snacks! She didn¡¯t want her gifted sweets to be damaged in her tossing around of the bag!

    Above her, Rin disappeared from sight. At first, Emilia thought that perhaps she was going to give a running jump, but when nearly a minute had passed and even Emilia¡¯s yelling hadn¡¯t drawn the girl back, she was left to assume her friend had backed out of jumping.

    That, or she¡¯d been disappeared again by whatever had taken her the first time.

    Eh¡­ better to just assume she was afraid to fall so far, which was fair. It just would have been helpful to know she was that nervous before she herself had jumped.

    ¡°So much for being able to do the jump,¡± she muttered to herself, wondering if she should attempt to climb back up or explore the area. It seemed a waste to have jumped and not explored at all, so explore it was!

    Emilia hummed to herself as she swam towards shore, thankful that the water beneath her was so clear. She knew some people would rather not see the depths below, the dark slowly opening up instead of quickly shifting from the murky mist of dirt and debris into darkness, but she liked knowing nothing was lingering just below her feet.

    She may have been attacked by a water dwelling monster once, during the war. It had been terrible, and several of her teammates had drowned, been dragged under by a monster they could only catch occasional glimpses of.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shifted away from the edge where her bag had landed to the cavern below her. As far as she could see, there weren¡¯t even any plants lining the walls. Instead, rocks of purple and blue and sea green jutted out, their edges jagged and sharp looking, and she made a note to be careful not to kick them once she got closer to the edge.

    She slid easily through the water, her body naturally buoyant¡ªmore buoyant than she was used to, and she had once spent her summers living in the water. She could still see her, Rafe and their siblings playing in the pool and the ocean, and especially in the little swimming hole they¡¯d come across in the forest, deep and clear, just like this one. They¡¯d turned it into a little hideout for the five¡ªoccasionally six¡ªof them, their sad little structure made of fallen limbs and rocks. Eventually, they¡¯d built a treehouse house after nearly a year of trial and error, before turning it into something far more grand the year Emilia had been assigned a babysitter who had once been an architect.

    Later, when they¡¯d reached their 20s and the other kids in the area had finally learned to not be afraid of them, they¡¯d held parties there¡ªdesigned skills so they could sink into the depths of their sinkhole and breathe where they shouldn¡¯t have been able to. They¡¯d done so many stupid things in that place, the way kids were supposed to.

    The land, they¡¯d later discovered, belonged to one of their neighbours who was rarely home¡ªa shame, given the property was wonderful, surrounded by forest on one side and the ocean on the other. Emilia hadn¡¯t thought they¡¯d care much about a bunch of kids playing in a section of the overgrowing forest that covered their property, but one of the last things she¡¯d had Olivier do as her lawyer was approach them with a generous offer to subdivide the property and sell her the portion they had claimed for their own.

    Turned out that despite the couple never being home and never saying anything about it, they¡¯d known for a long time what the kids from down the road were doing. Childless and kind, they¡¯d sold the entire property to Emilia, refusing her offers to pay more than her original offer. She¡¯d only lived in the house briefly before the war began, and only visited it a few times during. Now, it existed as a vacation home for any of her former friends who wished to visit. A cleaner and a gardener attended the property every so often, her Censor managing them without much input from her. She didn¡¯t know anything other than no large problems had ever occurred, and she had no idea if any of her friends ever actually made use of the property.

    Emilia floated idly on her back as she considered how to get up onto shore. The rocks around the edge had proven to be so sharp that even carefully attempting to manoeuvre them had left her bleeding through the water. Interestingly, the blood hadn¡¯t returned to her, instead dispersing through the clear liquid until it vanished.

    Rin still hadn¡¯t reappeared, and Emilia was just beginning to contemplate checking to see how sharp the rocks at the bottom of the climb back to the top were when a rumble startled Emilia upright. She looked around, wondering where the sound had come from and what had caused it. Without conscious thought, her energy surged out of her, splitting into two. One surged upwards, disappearing over the cliff, while the other zigzagged downwards, lighting up the darkness far below and¡ª

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Emilia cursed as she began to swim towards shore, hands wrapping around the cutting rocks as she hauled herself out of the water and away from whatever the thing swimming towards her was. Rocks bit into her hands and legs, and she was almost positive she¡¯d left a giant hole in her foot from stepping on a particularly pointy rock, but within moments she was crawling onto shore and getting as far from the water as she could.

    The world rumbled again and her energy shot upwards, lurching for her as a giant creature flew out of the water. Barely half of its pasty pink body made it out before it was falling back down, sending a wave of water surging after Emilia.

    Emilia was sent hurling onto shore, her back and side dragging over the rough ground, and if she hadn¡¯t already known her clothes were ripped to shreds from her adventure climbing the rocks, she would have known they were in tatters now.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she breathed out, sprawling backwards before rolling over just in time to avoid something shooting for her. ¡°Ew¡­¡± she moaned, catching sight of the disgusting liquid now sprayed over the spot she had just been laying.

    She rolled, forcing herself to move and get back to her feet, despite the pain erupting through practically her entire body. Muscle soreness, cuts and bruises, a liable hole in her foot and some water in her lungs.

    She needed to get to her bag. Realistically, she should have kept at least one of her long-distance weapons with her, in case she was attacked by something. Although, given she hadn¡¯t seen any monsters in this world so far, she had been expecting anything she came across to be another human. Humans could be reasoned with, distracted, gotten close to so she could blow them up with her {Blood Ring}. Emilia had no desire to get anywhere near the disgusting pink monster¡ªanimal?¡ªthat was currently trying to spray her with some sickly liquid.

    Emilia had also, perhaps stupidly, thought that Rin would be with her! Her so-called friend could use magic! And even if her magic turned out to be useless against this thing, she still could have brought her bag closer!

    The monster sprayed another glob of liquid just in front of Emilia, the smelly, sticky looking substance barely missing her, but leaving her trapped between two piles of the stuff.

    ¡°Well, shit,¡± she spit out, bolting back towards the edge of the cavern to avoid another shot. At this rate, she was going to be trapped, so through the yucky liquid it apparently was!

    The liquid burned as she ran through it, working straight through her shoes and as Emilia bolted for her bag, diving towards it to avoid being forced to stop when the creature once again shot in front of her, she debated whether losing her burning, melting shoes or grabbing a weapon was the first course of business.

    ¡°Weapon,¡± she muttered to herself, unceremoniously dumping her bag out and grabbing one of her {Blood Needles}. ¡°Always weapon first.¡±

    Once, during the war, there had been an attack while Emilia and her ex had been hooking up. They¡¯d rushed to the front in nothing but their underwear¡ªnot exactly the best armour against monsters with toxic blood, but they¡¯d made do. When nightmares came, weapons were the priority over clothing, over injuries, over friends.

    The {Blood Needle} shot out of her hand, dragged along its near perfect path by what she could only assume was the system. The creature was preparing to spit at her again, its gaping maw stretched so wide she could see saliva accumulating in its mouth, seeping out from glands across the back of its throat. The {Blood Needle} slid into its mouth, lodging against one of those glands, and Emilia was already throwing the cloak that had fallen out of her bag over as much of herself as she could when it exploded.

    Blood and gore and disgusting liquids pressed down over her and Emilia threw the burning cloak away, hissing as it stuck to her skin, and she reached for her shoes. She screamed as she pulled them off, pieces of her flesh peeling off with them.

    ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck,¡± she groaned, not even sparing a moment to see if these injuries would¡ªor even could¡ªbe healed by the system before beginning to strip the rest of her clothing off, smaller drops of the monster¡¯s attack slowly bleeding through the fabric to her skin.

    By the time she was bare, Emilia could see dozens of smaller burns and missing sections of skin littering her body. She grimaced, pulling one of her feet closer and breathing a small sigh of relief when she saw the damage was attempting to repair itself. Attempting, but only barely succeeding. The smaller dots across her skin healed far faster, the burns sizzling out of existence while she sat there, catching her breath.

    Emilia was just starting to pack her bag again, feeling slightly ridiculous as she sat naked, cross-legged on the hard ground, when something rumbled under her feet.

    ¡°Oh¡­ you have got to be kidding me,¡± she grumbled, praying to the aether that the rumbling wasn¡¯t the result of yet another monster coming out of the depths to dissolve her with its saliva.

    A second passed, the rumbling subsided and then another, pink fleshed monster burst from the water. Its flabby body didn¡¯t even get a chance to splash back under, Emilia already sending a {Blood Needle} shooting towards it. It exploded. Thankfully, not only was it further away than the first had been, but it also hadn¡¯t been preparing to attack, and only a small amount of gore sailed back at her.

    She wiped the speaks of blood and other liquids off with her forearm, unwilling to risk injuring her hands more than necessary, should the creature¡¯s blood also be toxic. It didn¡¯t appear to be, and she returned to packing her bag.

    Another rumble. Another monster. Another {Blood Needle} sent soaring after it. More packing.

    Emilia popped one of the sweet snacks V had left her into her mouth. Then another.

    More monsters popped up, each alone and attempting the same strategy as the first and exploding as a result of their predictability. They were slowly coming further apart, however, and in her boredom Emilia took to counting the seconds, to gauging how much her feet and larger injuries had healed between each attack.

    Eventually, nearly two hours later, neither had Rin returned nor had she seen any monsters in nearly 20 minutes¡ªthe longest stretch of time by far.

    ¡°Rin~¡± Emilia whined up into the abyss. ¡°If you¡¯re hiding up there, now would be a really great time to come back~¡±

    Emilia stared upwards, hoping that someone would poke their head over the edge.

    Nothing.

    No one.

    Great.

    She sighed, looking down at her mangled clothing.

    Out of all the things she had imagined could happen when she jumped, ending up with only the barest scraps to cover herself had not been on her list.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 65: A Lesson in History

    Emilia had just finished tugging a strap of her makeshift outfit taut, trying to get the more important bits covered¡ªalthough she was sure that nearly everyone would consider her outfit far too revealing¡ªwhen the aether rippled. At first, she thought that it was yet another monster coming for her, or perhaps the aethernet itself about to attack her¡ªshe had no idea where the thing that had stolen Rin the first time had come from, after all. Then, she felt the aether within her straps vibrate¡ªspecifically, the aether around the blood that still marred her clothes.

    She¡¯d thought it odd, when she¡¯d been ripping the fabric into bandages in order to better cover herself, that blood had remained on them. As far as she¡¯d been able to tell, however, the blood had been relatively inactive. It hadn¡¯t swirled or melted or burned or done anything else that she¡¯d come to expect from blood in the moments before it transformed into a weapon.

    That was why, when her clothing shuddered around her, tightening until she gasped in pain, the idea that her clothes may finally be transforming into a blood weapon¡ªor armour perhaps¡ªdidn¡¯t cross her mind.

    Instead, she panicked. Her clothes kept growing tighter, tighter¡ªso tight that she quickly lost the ability to move her arms, her attempts to pull the straps stalled as she was trapped. Her breathing stuttered, her panic spiking, the straps pulling tight enough that they began to draw blood. Red seeped out of her, dying the already dark fabric nearly black.

    Emilia wobbled, her body collapsing to the ground as whatever was happening bled her dry. Nothing left to give¡ªshe had nothing left to give. It only took a few minutes for someone to bleed to death¡ªEmilia had seen that first hand on the front, had held the hands of friends as their life drained out of them.

    It had been more than minutes.

    The world was so cold.

    Too cold.

    Where had Rin gone?

    Was she okay?

    Maybe she had decided Emilia was too much work, left her here to die.

    That was fair.

    That was also incredibly unkind.

    The least she could have done was say goodbye.

    When was the last time she¡¯d been left on the battlefield to die? Even Halen hadn¡¯t been that cruel. In all his arrogance, he had still stayed. He had almost died protecting her¡ªhad died defending Alliance Ridge, even when he was far enough out that he could have left.

    He hadn¡¯t had to return, but he had.

    The world blurred. Emilia¡¯s eyes flittered shut, and she dreamed of the girl she had only known for a day¡ªthe girl she thought she had been becoming friends with. She dreamed of the boy she had spent three decades hating, who she still didn¡¯t particularly miss. She still wished that rude, crass boy was with her now, though. Right in this moment, she missed him.

    ¡°Dumbass. Of course I¡¯d stay to protect you!?¡± Halen had glared at her, his perpetually smug smile disappearing into anger and severity. It was so rare to see him take anything seriously. The only good things he¡¯d ever brought to their unit were money and frivolity. War was too serious. Halen couldn¡¯t be serious to save his life¡ªor, he could. She¡¯d heard that in the moments before he died. Halen taking the attack serious, for once.

    It had been a terrible sign, of how horrible things were back at base, that even Halen was taking it seriously.

    ¡°We might not like each other, but you¡¯re my teammate. I¡¯ll fucking die for you, even if I think you¡¯re a stuck up little princess.¡±

    ¡°Do not call me princess.¡±

    ¡°Why not? Your big shot lawyer does.¡±

    ¡°Because only he is allowed to call me that.¡± It was true. Even decades on, Emilia wouldn¡¯t let anyone else call her that. She was a princess to herself and Olivier, and no one else.

    ¡°You know it¡¯s weird that someone who isn¡¯t your boyfriend calls you that, right?¡± Halen had mused as they walked, their aether so depleted they didn¡¯t dare slide¡ªthis had been in the days before sparking had become a usable skill¡ªlest they run into something they had to fight. ¡°I mean, I could understand if he said it like he hated you, but that guy definitely doesn¡¯t hate you.¡±

    ¡°He used to,¡± Emilia had replied, limping along on a makeshift crutch, her left leg broken in at least three places.

    Halen hadn¡¯t said anything about how Olivier used to hate her. Instead, they¡¯d bantered and teased, as though he were a wholly different person in that moment. Perhaps it had been the reality that death might be coming for them when no one had any idea where they were. It had been almost pleasant.

    Then they¡¯d fought a monster, the aether spike drawing in their allies. They¡¯d been returned to base, and Halen had become the same unpleasant little shit he¡¯d always been.

    Emilia didn¡¯t mourn Halen, but she did mourn the person he had been in those moments¡ªthe man he had been when he tried to save the rest of their team, even if his attempts had failed.

    ¡°Halen,¡± Emilia muttered into the dark abyss coming for her. ¡°If you¡¯re out there, listening through the aether, know that I¡¯m proud of you. It might not have worked out the way you wanted, but you tried¡­¡±

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Emilia.¡±

    Emilia blinked into the darkness, liquid life breathing around her, clear and depthless. ¡°Halen?¡± she called. It had been so long since she had heard his voice. No, that was a lie. Hadn¡¯t she heard a fragment of it in her dreams? Was she still dreaming? And earlier that night¡ªthe real-world night¡ªtoo? When she¡¯d been with Pria, dragging her towards the clinic. Explosions had been rupturing around her, and Halen¡¯s voice had been there, in those memories her Censor tried its hardest to keep from haunting her waking life.

    Halen stepped out of the abyss for her, wearing that signature smirk of his. One corner pulled up, his dark, sharp cut features just as beautiful as always. She¡¯d thought his attractive when they¡¯d first met, back when they were teenagers. It really was too bad his personality was shit.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Hey there, pretty girl,¡± he said.

    She¡¯d forgotten he used to call her that. When had she forgotten? It was astonishing the things our brains remember, the things they forget.

    ¡°You know, I used to call my boyfriend pretty boy, back when I just thought he was a jock head.¡± Emilia glanced away from Halen¡¯s infuriating smile. ¡°I think I was channelling you. Not on purpose, but¡­¡±

    ¡°But you hated him just as much as I hated your prissy ass?¡±

    ¡°Yup!¡±

    Halen laughed, not the laugh of the man he had been most of their life, but the one he had been for those few brief hours when it had just been the two of them, dying in the wilderness.

    ¡°What are you doing here, Halen?¡±

    ¡°You called for me.¡±

    ¡°Did I?¡±

    ¡°Fuck yeah, you did!¡± Halen peeked up at her, suddenly so close she could smell the expensive cologne he wore. Subtle. Some of the boys she¡¯d grown up with were terrible for dousing themselves in the stuff. Halen never had. ¡°Anything I can help you with?¡±

    Emilia shrugged, looking away from his knowing eyes. He¡¯d always been too good at seeing through her¡ªtoo good at coming up with the most biting things to say to her. He¡¯d been cruel to nearly everyone, more often than not, even to his friends. They¡¯d stayed his friends, of course. Even within their ridiculously wealthy community, Halen¡¯s family has loaded, and their only child had thrown that money around without a care in the world.

    Money bought him friends, and Emilia remembered thinking about them at Halen¡¯s funeral. Those so-called friends had been there, trying to make her feel bad for not being at base when the attack came. She¡¯d already blamed herself so much for not being there¡ªeveryone who had been away from base had felt that overwhelming guilt for years afterwards¡ªand she had been prepared for his parents to hate her as well. They hadn¡¯t. Instead, they¡¯d taken a moment to yell at their dead child¡¯s money hungry friends before kicking them out.

    ¡°Your parents miss you,¡± Emilia told Halen suddenly, blushing at the abruptness of it.

    He snorted. ¡°Sure.¡±

    Emilia shook her head, looking back at her old teammate and finding him turned away from her now, staring off into the distance, smile disappeared into the moment. ¡°They do. I know you never felt like you lived up to their expectations, but you did.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, when I died.¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Emilia agreed. It hadn¡¯t been a secret how much Halen¡¯s parents had thought him an entitled brat. Their parenting¡ªor lack thereof¡ªhad been the cause of it, of course, so there was little comfort anyone could give him. Plus, for all his faults, Halen had been skilled in business¡ªso skilled, that even if his parents had cut him off, he would have been just fine. ¡°I know you would have made them proud eventually, if that¡¯s what you wanted.¡±

    Halen raised an eyebrow at her, golden brown eyes shining against his dark skin¡ªnot quite as black as Pria¡¯s, but pretty damn close. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it be?¡± he asked, tone biting, even as a genuine smile tugged at his lips.

    Emilia smirked back at him. ¡°Seven fucked off.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Halen laughed, clear through the abyss of aether around them. ¡°Well, fuck me. I never thought that little guy would find his balls. Don¡¯t look at me like that! I know you thought that kid was a weirdo and needed to grow a pair!¡±

    Emilia rolled her eyes, but didn¡¯t deny Halen¡¯s words. Seven had been odd, and definitely had needed to learn to stand up for himself. She hoped the OIC System wasn¡¯t lying to her and Rafe, when it told them he was out there, slowly becoming as happy as he deserved to be. ¡°I miss you.¡±

    Halen snorted. ¡°Yeah, right, and I¡¯m fucking alive out there somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I miss you in moments like this, where I need a teammate who¡¯s actually reliable.¡±

    ¡°Someone fuck off and leave you?¡±

    ¡°Looks like it.¡± She shrugged, eyes shifting uneasily around the area as something rippled through it. ¡°She vanished, and I¡¯m probably bleeding to death.¡±

    ¡°Awesome! Was it gory?¡±

    ¡°My clothes attacked me.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in a raid? Ah¡­ it¡¯s like a video game? They¡¯re based on those training simulators we designed.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you liked that shit.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­¡± Emilia sighed, core trying to reach out, searching for whatever had attracted her attention. ¡°I want the prize for winning.¡±

    ¡°Not something you can just buy? If people are using our software for shit like this, you must be fucking rolling in cash.¡±

    She frowned at Halen. ¡°No?¡±

    Halen frowned back at her. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®No?¡¯ That shit belonged to all of us.¡±

    ¡°I thought you ran it through your company? Your second-in-command took it over after you died and monetized it for the company.¡± She¡¯d only heard about it after she¡¯d left, and as much as she hated raids, the idea of entering into a long legal battle to try and claim some control over the software had been daunting to her trauma ridden brain.

    Halen looked¡­ comically shocked. ¡°Sure¡­ but it¡¯s under all our names! Fucking nebulae, Em! Did you think I just ran it through my company and was going to screw the rest of you over? I know I can be fucking selfish, but¡ª¡±

    He cut off, growling and running a hand through his hair, messing up the picture-perfect style. He tried to activate a skill to fix it, frowning when it didn¡¯t work. ¡°What¡ª¡±

    ¡°The raid. It isn¡¯t based on our real-world skills.¡±

    Halen did not look impressed. ¡°Fuck. How much has changed in¡­ how long has it even been?¡±

    ¡°About a decade and a half since you died. A decade since the war ended and all this started,¡± Emilia told him, her energy reaching back into her and reporting that it hadn¡¯t really found anything¡ªor, what it had found hadn¡¯t exactly been dangerous but was also a big question mark as to what it even was. ¡°These raids have become so popular now, I bet it''s been a few times longer than that for most people now.¡±

    ¡°Fucking Virtuosi System.¡±

    Emilia laughed at the vitriol lacing through his voice. They¡¯d only added the Virtuosi System¡¯s time skew into their training simulator to save time. Halen in particular had never liked the system, but she wasn¡¯t sure why. Even when they¡¯d been cooperating, trying to create the simulator, he¡¯d been tight-lipped on that.

    ¡°Em.¡±

    ¡°Hm?¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t your non-dev lawyer sue to get rights to the system? He was one scary fucker. There¡¯s no way he finds out you lost out on control of something that could do all this and doesn¡¯t sue.¡±

    She opened her mouth to say something¡ªto explain that she had run away and Olivier likely hadn¡¯t seen the point in suing Halen¡¯s company over something like this, especially not as he was recovering from his own injuries¡ªwhen the world shook.

    ¡°Ah¡­ looks like our time is up,¡± Halen sighed, giving her an almost kind, melancholic smile. ¡°It was good talking to you again, Em. I mean, there¡¯s a lot of people I¡¯d rather talk to, but at least you are what you are, and won¡¯t lie to me or some shit.¡±

    ¡°Halen¡­¡±

    ¡°Goodbye, Emilia,¡± her former teammate said, stepping backwards and disappearing into the abyss. ¡°I¡¯ll see you again.¡±

    Emilia stared into the spot he had just been, gone as though he had never existed in the first place. ¡°Bye¡­¡± she whispered, wondering over his words¡ªwondering if he really had set things up so they would all control their creation. Wondering if some part of her had known that and this was how her brain had decided to tell her, or if it was their software itself, using the avatar of one of its parents to tell her the truth.

    Unfortunately, even if they did sue, their software was already out there. She doubted any court would order the government to cease using it, just because one or two of its creators popped out, a decade later, screaming about how they hadn¡¯t given anyone permission to use their creation for real world or virtual, war simulations.

    And they¡¯d never stop the corporation sponsored or blackaether raids.

    The world shook again, and Emilia gazed up into the sky. How different would the world be, had Halen lived? Had his second-in-command respected his wish that all of them control the fate of that software they had created in desperation.

    ?Emilia!?

    Emilia smiled, breathing in the pure existence of the abyss. So clear and empty, and her mind floated away¡ªfloated back to her body, a smile still echoing through her eyes as they opened and found Key frowning down at her. ¡°Hello, Key. Glad someone came back for me.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 66: Sink

    Emilia was happy to see Key, for a few moments, at least. She smiled up at him. He sighed with relief, and then promptly turned around. It was only after Emilia had examined her new clothes, realizing her blood soaked rags had transformed into a set of armour that left little to the imagination, that she realized there had been a substantial amount of red burning over the younger boy¡¯s features.

    ¡°Key~¡± she whined, after pulling at the boy¡¯s sleeve and failing to get him to look at her, because seriously? There was no way they¡¯d be able to communicate if he wouldn¡¯t look at her to see the signs and movements they had agreed on the previous day. Without Harmony or Rin there¡ªand Emilia had looked around, finding neither of them either on the ground with them, or back atop the cliff¡ªthey were going to be relying on Key interpreting her body language to communicate. That would be impossible, if he was too embarrassed by her state of dress to look at her!

    Emilia sighed, temporarily giving up on getting the boy to look at her, and wandered over to the sinkhole. The clear water reflected her image back, even if she was largely a blur of cloth and skin. Her new armour was a glittering red, with tiny red and black stones scattered over it like stars. The majority of her stomach was visible, although strips of thick fabric connected the short tank top and shorts. Bands similarly wrapped around her arms and legs, and when she did a small jump, testing the give of the material, she found they enhanced her strength, her jump far higher than she had expected.

    ¡°Sweet,¡± she cheered, bouncing on her feet. They were largely bare, save a band wrapping around the insole. Her palms were also covered, while her fingers were free. Both her ankles and wrists were bound in a slightly thinner, gauzy black fabric that simultaneously offered flexibility and support, and along her forearms were a collection of larger black stones. After a moment of examining them, she realized she recognized them: they were the magically engraved stones Zach had given her¡ªthe ones that either enhanced their owner¡¯s overall connection to the different magic systems, or had specific spells written into them for easier use.

    ?From the man you met in the city?? Key asked, his voice tight and awkward, and when Emilia turned away from her reflection to look at him, he was resolutely looking away from her, although at least he was facing her general direction now.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, nodding¡ªtheir agreed upon sign for yes¡ªand throwing in her childhood sign for yes as well, just for good measure.

    It was the sign that seemed to attract Key¡¯s attention back to her. ?What was that?? he asked, clumsily mimicking the motion.

    Emilia repeated it for him. He mirrored her. She nodded, made the sign.

    ?Yes?? he asked, hands working through the sign for yes.

    She nodded, happily signing to him, ¡°Yes, it means yes.¡±

    He watched her hands move through signs that were a part of her soul, even if she hadn¡¯t used them much in a decade, with wide eyes. ?It is a language??

    ¡°Yes!¡± Emilia cheerfully signed. ¡°Someone very important to me does not like speaking. We devised this when we were children, so we could communicate! There¡¯s an official sign language in my world, as well, but we always liked our personal version the best~¡±

    Key, obviously, had no idea what she had signed at him, but he was watching each movement so carefully that Emilia didn¡¯t really care. She¡¯d always liked signing¡ªhad even taught her friends a little over the last decade. Plus, at least Key was looking at her now, and she hoped that by the time she stopped signing, he would have chilled out enough to look at her so they could actually figure out what they were going to do.

    Slowly, after a few minutes had passed of her rambling about how she had taught members of her division during the war signs for secret communication¡ªwhich they had largely used for gossiping during boring, war councils¡ªEmilia worked through the signs for, ¡°What now?¡±

    The boy¡¯s mouth screwed up as she repeated it. Part of what she liked about their personal sign language was how simple it could be. While their childhood sign language could be convoluted, that was more as a result of its users purposefully obfuscating their signs. Official sign language was often confusing for no other reason that it was.

    ?What are we going to do now?? Key asked, smiling when Emilia bouncing in excitement. A light blush spread over his cheeks as his attention was called back to her barely covered body by the movement, but thankfully, he didn¡¯t turn away from her this time. ?I assume you can swim??

    Emilia planted her hands on her hips and levelled a look at him.

    He laughed good-naturedly. ?Yeah, yeah. I get it. You jumped into the water. Obviously, you are a wonderful swimmer.?

    She nodded at him, looking him over properly for the first time. His reddish-brown clothes¡ªjust as fine and modest as the day before¡ªwere dusty, but didn¡¯t appear to have any obvious tears or burns from blood on them. Assuming he wasn¡¯t a hallucination¡ªor an illusion created by someone¡¯s magic¡ªhe, and hopefully the others, had escaped the library before it collapsed.

    ?I have magic,? he was explaining while she examined him, ?that will allow us to breathe underwater. While I could take us back up, it will be more dangerous and time-consuming than trying to find an exit below.?

    Emilia tilted her head in question, prompting Key to explain what he knew about these heartcore labyrinths.

    ?Obviously, our information comes from previous visitations, although¡­? he hesitated, red spreading over his freckle covered nose. He sighed, admitting that most of the stories he had heard over his life were just that: stories.

    ?Many Enclave members were lauded as heroes for their performance in solving these labyrinths. Unfortunately, many of the stories are so old they are considered more myth.?

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    ¡°So¡­ what do you know?¡± Emilia signed for him. It took a few tries, but Key was smart, and a combination of the simplicity and sensibility of her signs, along with the natural course of the conversation, had him at the right answer in a few tries.

    ?There are generally three to five sections. From what I heard from Rin, you¡¯ve already been though at least three sections.?

    Emilia waved his hands for him to stop, trying to ask when in the world he had heard anything from Rin.

    ?Oh¡­? Key awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from her to the cliff above them. ?I came into communication range with Rin shortly after you jumped. She came back to the cavern entrance to talk me through the climb over.?

    Emilia wanted to collapse. Seriously!? Why hadn¡¯t the girl said anything!? How rude was that? To just leave her there, at the bottom of a huge cavern! Fucking nebulae. She¡¯d known some pretty inconsiderate people in her life, but to not take a second to tell her why she was leaving? And! The girl hadn¡¯t even come back! Instead, she¡¯d seemingly just given her to Key to deal with! So much for friendship! At this rate, she would have been better off sticking with V!

    ?I believe she told you where she was going,? Key quickly added, noting her increasingly despondent mood. ?I can see now, that just as something has been interfering with magic usage throughout the majority of the labyrinth, something is interfering with communication magic here as well. I assume you did not hear her??

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Emilia glanced away, guilt at having thought her friend stupid and inconsiderate racing through her. It had been a while since her brain had been running so fast that she was making judgments of people and situations before having all the information. Something to keep in mind, in case that jumping judgment lingered.

    Part of it was she¡¯d knotted some of her mental speed away, removing the need for her to remember her brain was terrible at jumping to conclusions. The other part of it was just a lack of practice. Not only had she not particularly needed the skill to hold her thoughts in reserve for years, but even before that, during the war, she and so many others had run on instinct. Yes, those instincts could sometimes lead them into deep, fucking shit, but the times snap judgments had saved their lives far outweighed those bad moments.

    The war had forced her and so many others to purposefully ignore the years they¡¯d spent as teenagers and young adults slowing their thoughts and mouths. It was going to be an annoying habit to reform, if Payton didn¡¯t knot that speed limit back in. She rather doubted that he would¡ªit was one of the main reasons her abilities were so questionable these days.

    ?What¡¯s wrong?? Key asked, breaking through her spiralling thoughts.

    ¡°Nothing. Thinking.¡±

    Key nodded, seemingly understanding the signs on his first attempt. Impressive.

    She made a ¡°Sorry, keep going¡± sign, and he understood that well, because apparently he was an extremely quick learner.

    ?Ah, yeah. So, it can be difficult to differentiate the sections. I¡¯ve heard there is a specific way of classifying the sections, but no one has needed to classify them in a long time. Even during the last visitation, only a few labyrinths were accidentally opened,? Key explained, adding that heartcore labyrinths were generally only opened when something disrupted their magics¡­ things like the buildings they were housed in collapsing.

    ¡°Do you think it was on purpose?¡± Emilia signed, although even after a half dozen attempts and a few rewordings, Key still had no idea what she was asking and she gave up. She could try asking if he thought someone had activated the labyrinth deliberately later. For the moment, she contented herself with listening to him describe how no one had ever discovered a room that abruptly ended.

    ?In other words, there must be an exit to this area somewhere,? he finished, looking particularly pleased with himself.

    Emilia looked at him, then the water, dubiously. ¡°Monsters,¡± she signed at him, the movement large and obvious, and he laughed.

    ?Yes, those do sometimes pop up in these things. Thankfully, they are relatively rare, and in the stories, the monsters of a section always attack until they are depleted. If none are attacking us now, it is unlikely there are more in this area.?

    Well, that was about what Emilia had assumed when the monsters had ceased appearing. Still, it had seemed prudent to warn him, just in case.

    She peeked back over the edge of the water. Eyes flittering over the jagged rocks that had sliced her to shreds and back to Key, wondering how he hadn¡¯t been cut up. Actually, now that she thought about it, he wasn¡¯t even wet.

    ?Are you alright with swimming down there to take a look??

    A thousand thoughts rippled through her brain. Images of Key¡¯s magic giving out, of running into more monsters, another visitor, the Risen Guard or some hostile member of the Enclave. They could die down there. She had seen it happen before, skills suddenly giving out under the pressure of tones of water. Worse, they could suffocate. A slow, horrible death. At least being smushed by pressure was quick.

    She smiled at Key, and motioned for him to explain what his plan was. Immediately, the aether surged around her and her breathing felt somehow¡­ easier. As though the air was clearer, cleaner.

    ?My magic will allow us to breathe under the water. In addition, if we go too deep, I will use magic to protect us from the weight of the water.? He rubbed the back of his neck, looking exceedingly guilty. ?Don¡¯t tell anyone, but I used to go diving when I was younger.?

    Emilia had no idea who she would tell, but she made a sign for promising¡ªthey¡¯d devised a few different versions of promise when they were younger, and this one in particular held a general vibe of ¡®of course, you dumbass.¡¯ Key¡¯s smile, as he confirmed the general meaning of the sign, his own hands floating clumsily through the pattern¡ªwhich effectively indicated that he knew he was a dumbass¡ªwas adorable. She hoped that they¡¯d still be friends, by the time she could communicate with him properly. Zach had guessed it would take another heartcore or two for her to gain that particular ability.

    ?Shall we?? Key asked, holding out a hand for Emilia to take.

    He dragged her around the sinkhole, looking for a section with the most abrupt edge, she realized when they had gone around its circumference, and he turned, dragging them a quarter of the way back. The section would still require they take a running jump to get over the sharp shore of rocks, but it was significantly shorter than anywhere else.

    ?Can you make it??

    Emilia took a few steps back, bouncing on her new, armour enhanced feet. A few, smooth and graceful steps later, and she was jumping far farther than necessary, giggling as she cannonballed into the sinkhole. She breathed as water surrounded her, the feeling of water entering her lungs momentarily causing her to panic before Key was sliding through the water as well. His own mouth opened, a wide smile on his face as he swallowed down the water.

    ?Good?? he whispered into her, the sound somehow even more close and personal than anytime before and causing Emilia¡¯s stomach to tighten.

    She nodded, swallowing down her own gulp of water along with all her panic, and letting herself sink into the clear abyss beside him.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 67: Floating

    The bubble of a giggle erupted out of Emilia as she soared through the water. She was weightless, sliding through the clear, increasingly dark liquid as Key trailed behind her, a smile plastered over his face.

    According to what she¡¯d learned from Zach, most of the Enclave families could use all types of magic with relative ease, but they generally specialized in one or two, depending on the lineage of their parents. The Stringers had previously specialized in air magic, and while Zach hadn¡¯t known what magic the sibling¡¯s father specialized in, Emilia could guess that it was water.

    Occasionally, Key would float by her as they descended, eyes closed in the way only someone who felt perfectly at home in the water could. He was beautiful¡ªstrange for how red he was against the glittering green and blue rocks, but breathtaking.

    As they fell, light began to glow from Key¡¯s shirt, and he removed a necklace from beneath it, the amber stone on it emitting the light. He reached out, catching her hand and tapping against one of the magic stones attached to the armour bound across her forearms. Her companion¡¯s energy raced through it, tingling slightly as it interacted with her own energy, which had naturally latched onto the stones after they had merged with her armour, even if she couldn¡¯t yet use them. He looked mildly surprised for a moment, before continuing on and activating her light magic stone as well.

    Their finger¡¯s wound together, and they fell into the darkness, their speed slowing in case they ran into anything. Emilia let her eyes flutter shut, trusting Key to keep them safe, his magic slowly gathering heavy around them to counter the weight of the water bearing down on them.

    ?There,? Key called, pulling them to a stop.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes opened, and she looked around, trying to find what he saw. Whether he was using something to enhance his sight, or hers was just shit from being a level 300, she couldn¡¯t see anything. Not the ground or the walls or whatever had drawn the boy¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Is something out there?¡± she signed at him, although with her one hand clasped securely in his, she doubted he could understand her single-hand question.

    Luckily, he did remember the marker for questions, and was able to guess that she had no idea what he was talking about. Slowly, magic vibrating through the water so gently Emilia almost didn¡¯t notice it, he pulled them close to whatever he was looking at.

    It wasn¡¯t until they were practically inside the cave that Emilia noticed it. Its entrance was relatively small, the same jagged rocks shooting out from the entrance, looking equal parts beautiful and terrifying. It felt like they were entering the mouth of a monster, and Emilia was reminded of the dream she had had, back when she had created the blade of her {Blood Dagger}. She had dreamed of a hallway inside a monster that had eaten the world, its flesh sticky and squishy under her hands.

    She eyed up the cave nervously. It wasn¡¯t a monster mouth, obviously¡­ hopefully. Key, on his part, seemed to have no such worries, easily dragging them past those sharp teeth. Perhaps he had never seen a monster before¡ªperhaps they were things that existed only within these near mythological labyrinth walls.

    Monsters in her world were common. Even ignoring the monster¡¯s of the war, there were huge beasts that lived in the northern reaches of Baalphoria, in the Grey Sands and the depths of the oceans. Most had been driven out of the more populous areas, but they existed. Ones were even known to attack the cities, occasionally. The Penns in particular was known for dealing with sea monsters every few years¡ªit was part of why many of the most skilled soldiers had emerged from the coastal towns of the Penns during the first few years of the war: it wasn¡¯t just their sub-30 D-Levels, but the fact that they already had practice using their willbrands and skills in battle.

    A thousand bubbles of light erupted out of Key¡¯s necklace, floating outwards to light their way. The inside of the cavern was much larger than the opening, quickly opening up above them into an air pocket.

    ?I will keep my air magic active,? Key informed her as they poked their heads out of the water. ?I cannot access the magic necessary to analyze the safety of this air.?

    Emilia appreciated his attention to details, and ability to err¡ªha¡ªon the side of caution, especially since she wasn¡¯t known for being the best at doing so. Dying because they breathed in some sketchy fumes wasn¡¯t on her list of things to do.

    Before them, a long, pitch-black tunnel opened up, the rocks around the rim just as jagged as everywhere else.

    ?I will lift us to shore,? Key said, almost immediately frowning. ?Something is interfering with my ability to use more magic.?

    He had already explained, on their way down, that these labyrinths often enacted limits on which magics people could use and when, although visitors were often less affected by those limits. It was due to this that Rin¡¯s magic usage had been sporadic.

    ?The limits are often designed to guide each of the labyrinth¡¯s challenges. We could not use movement or strength magic while climbing, for instance,? he had told her, blinking absently at her while she ranted about how it would have been helpful if Rin had told her her magic was behaving erratically. She¡¯d just assumed it was a result of the aether disruption caused by the building collapsing, although as time had gone on, she¡¯d wondered if that was the only cause. Had the other girl told her that the magic she could use were shifting as they moved¡­

    ?From what I know,? Key had continued after she had stopped ranting into the abyss, words too quiet for him to hear even murmurs of and hands too fast for him to even hope to understand the basics of, ?these limits vary between stopping the use of specific magics or specific types of magic, and limiting the number of simultaneous spells.?

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Emilia had mulled over that last one in particular. From what Zach had told her, magic in this world often involved the use of multiple magic types. Even moderately simple spells required layering different spells from different magic types to achieve the desired result. This was part of why the closure of more powerful birthing homes had affected residents of the platform so profoundly. Without even basic connections to several types, and without a powerful, grounding connection to at least one, using magic was difficult without years of training. Even with training, Zach had admitted that more and more of his students were finding it all but impossible to use even single type magics.

    Allegedly, this was part of why the Risen Guard directly recruited new trainees. Their members birthed children in some of the most powerful homes, but those children were not enough to fill their numbers. They filled out their numbers by recruiting children who possessed more connection to the heartcores and the world¡¯s magic than typical. It both bolstered their power and kept those recruits from seeking out magic training from less legal schools.

    ?I¡¯ll have to let the light go,? Key said, eyeing up the distance to the shore¡ªit would definitely suck to be dropped on top of those rocks. ?I will overshoot the edge, in order to see you safely over.?

    There had been many moments on their trek where Emilia had been highly annoyed at her lack of ability to communicate with Key. Not being able to ask him if he was a good judge of distance¡ªnot to mention how he was going to find out if she¡¯d actually landed on shore!¡ªwas definitely one of those times.

    She had always hated being unable to ask questions. Unfortunately, she had had a few teachers over the years who disliked being questioned. When she was younger, she¡¯d had her parents¡ªand occasionally Rafe¡¯s¡ªbehind her, eyes dark and menacing as they questioned teachers about why they weren¡¯t allowing questions within their classes. Having three of the most powerful people in Baalphoria staring down their noses at you? Threatening to take things public if the school didn¡¯t fire you?

    Yeah, watching their parents stand-off against those shit teachers had been great, and as much as Emilia knew it would be mortifying for her dad to show up at Astrapan to call out some of her more dubious teachers, sometimes she missed that protectiveness¡ªthat never bending support. Sure, there had been times when she¡¯d gotten in deep shit with her parents for the stunts she pulled, but her father had always been there bailing her out before grounding her.

    Not that her groundings had ever been particularly effective¡ªas previously noted, she had been a problem child most of her life. There had been a few months at the beginning, where she had tried to behave. She¡¯d been miserable, and both her parents had assured her that they¡¯d prefer she be herself. They had never wanted her to dampen herself, even if living as herself had caused them problems and heartache and¡ª

    Emilia squeaked as she landed roughly on the ground, and was then forced onto her back when Key seemingly didn¡¯t realize she had already hit the ground.

    ¡°KEY!¡± she yelled, wondering just how dampened his hearing was. Given the way gravity continued pressing down on her for several seconds, apparently dampened enough that even her yelling couldn¡¯t make it through from this far away.

    ?I hope you made it,? Key whispered into her, and she lay, sprawled on the ground, contemplating life.

    Emilia gasped when, a second later, Key landed on top of her.

    ?Oh! Oh! I¡¯m¡ª? Key cut off as he scrambled off her, then yelped.

    A moment later, light erupted out of his necklace once more and Emilia found herself staring at Key¡¯s impaled shoulder, the boy having scurried back so far he hit a wall covered in jagged rocks.

    ¡°Well, fuck.¡± Emilia crawled her way over to him, examining the injury before unceremoniously tugging him off the rock.

    Key cursed¡ªsomething about burning metal¡ªbut let Emilia haul him away from the wall. ?Sorry,? he muttered, cheeks burning in the dim light, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if he was apologizing for landing on her or for panicking and injuring himself.

    Emilia fingered Key¡¯s shoulder, the wound slowly starting to seal itself up, drops of blood sliding back inside him. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ll be okay,¡± Emilia said solemnly, giving him a double thumbs up.

    Key looked half-amused, half-horrified by her bland acceptance of his injuries, but whether he understood what she said or not, he nodded and began to inspect the surrounding area, little bubbles of light once again floating away from them.

    The cavern reached out, spanning into the abyss of the hopefully imaginary monster¡¯s throat. Seriously, hopefully they didn¡¯t end up as monster food, dissolving in acid once they finally reached his stomach. Literally walking into a monster¡¯s stomach would be such an uncool way to die.

    ¡°Guess we gotta walk!¡± Emilia cheered, walking two fingers up Key¡¯s thigh and watching as his blush burned brighter, although he didn¡¯t edge away from her.

    Instead, his eyes caught hers, their rosy pink colour shining in the light of his magic as he caught her hand and pulled it upwards. For a moment, she thought that he was going to kiss it. That wasn¡¯t really a thing in Baalphoria, but she¡¯d met a few people during the war, from the Free Colonies, who had a custom of kissing hands as some odd, courting ritual. Charles and James¡¯ homeland in particular had some interesting customs, and Emilia had enjoyed watching Charles attempt to court Nettie in a wholly foreign way. Someone, although she still wasn¡¯t sure who, had eventually given him a few hints about how Baalphorians courted, and while he had still included many of his Free Colonies¡¯ customs, he had also included more local ones in his attempts to woe her.

    Key didn¡¯t kiss her hand, though, and when he instead pulled her up with him, she couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly disappointed. Realistically, she didn¡¯t need the complication of starting something up with a local boy. It would be short, impermanent, and likely result in heartbreak for at least one of them.

    Plus, hadn¡¯t she just been flirting with V!?

    ¡°For star''s sake, Emilia,¡± she chided herself, letting Key drag her along through the dark path. ¡°I knew we were a sex addict, but this is a little too much! Chill!¡±

    Something inside her hissed at being told to chill, which, fair. Even if she hadn¡¯t slept with anyone other than Elijah in months before today¡ªreal-world today¡ªthis was excessive! First, Olivier¡ªwhich, fair. The man was just so fucking hot, it really was unfair to expect anyone to resist him. Then, V¡ªwhich, come on, Emilia! Have some standards! Yes, he was a cheerful, smiley little thing, but also, cleanliness is important! And now, Key! Out of all the people on the list of people she had lusted over since the pink tide had arrived, he was definitely the most problematic!

    Oh, wait. He actually wasn¡¯t, because she¡¯d definitely thought her Risen Guard babysitter turned attempted assassin was hot. There had been all that teasing and¡ª

    ¡°Why are you muttering to yourself?¡± a voice asked, shocking a squeak of surprise out of Emilia, first at the sound, then at Key, tugging her protectively behind him.

    ?Who are you?? Key snarled through the aether, the air suddenly heavy with threat.

    ¡°Ah~ you found another Enclave bodyguard, just as I finally managed to lose mine again,¡± V laughed, stepping out of the shadows towards them. ¡°What happened to the little girl, though? Did you off her?¡±

    Emilia tugged on Key¡¯s arm, stepping out from behind him. ¡°No,¡± she laughed, ¡°but for a bit, I thought she¡¯d disappeared and left me to die!¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 68: To Like, or Not to Like

    Key did not like V. Key disliked the visitor so much that it would have been amusing, were they not currently stuck together and trying to figure out how to get to the next area. Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure why the Enclave boy disliked V so much, given the dislike had been palpable since practically the moment V had appeared. Key couldn¡¯t even understand what V was saying, for stars sake!

    ¡°So¡­¡± Emilia started as they walked along the sea cavern tunnel. She had been forced to plant herself squarely between the two boys, after Key had refused to stop glaring and bumping shoulders with the other man. Even worse, every time Key bumped into V he would wipe his shoulder and make a disgusted face. This was somewhat fair, given how much mud was currently caking V, but also! Rude! ¡°Where did your babysitter go?¡± she finished asking, smiling at V and trying to ignore the angry energy radiating off Key.

    V smiled back at her, his teeth oddly clean compared to the rest of him. He¡¯d grown even dirtier over the last few hours, explaining that he¡¯d ended up crawling through a small, maze-like cave system and a portion had been flooded with water and mud.

    ¡°Honestly? I¡¯m not sure if my babysitter turned back or is still stuck in there¡­¡± V mused, gazing upwards as they walked down the twisting path. ¡°There was a section that was really tight, and I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d make it, so I told him to turn back. I¡¯m actually a little surprised I made it!¡± he laughed, eyes crinkling as though he weren¡¯t talking about potentially dying a slow death, stuck in a cave.

    ¡°Did you cave in the real world?¡± Emilia asked, curious about whether the labyrinth really were designing these challenges specifically for each person or not.

    ¡°Not in the real world,¡± V told her, ¡°but I used to be really into this game that involved caving. It was one of the early ones, from before they sorted out how to emulate humans so well? Really dark shit. A lot of the caves were designed to kill you. Some had monsters, too. It expanded over the years but, ah¡­ it¡¯s not really playable anymore.¡±

    Emilia frowned up at him, wondering what detail he was obviously leaving out. He was taller than both her and Key¡ªjust slightly too short for her to be tucked under his chin.

    Not that that was on the agenda.

    ¡°That sounds horrible,¡± she said, fighting down a smile when he laughed and explained that he¡¯d had a few rough years after the war and buried himself in gaming to cope.

    ¡°Did you play many of the early games?¡± he asked, eyes sparkling as he listened to Emilia tell him that she hadn¡¯t.

    ¡°I also had a few rough years after the war,¡± she admitted, something about the slight anonymity of the situation making her more open about herself and her past than she normally was. ¡°I avoided pretty much everything scary for a while. Even moved to one of the cities that rarely get echoes, eventually.¡±

    V¡¯s eyes flickered, his smile flattered slightly. ¡°I think I was the exact opposite.¡±

    ¡°The astoundingly different ways people deal with trauma~¡± Emilia teased, bumping shoulders with him. ¡°Did you find what you needed in the scary games?¡±

    ¡°And real-world raids,¡± V said, smile breaking out across his face again. So wide and carefree. ¡°And yes. They did give me what I needed. I always felt a little¡­ lacking, during the war. I was a good soldier, but¡­¡± he trailed off, and Emilia didn¡¯t need him to say anything more to know what he meant.

    You could be a great soldier, and it was still never enough. Or, it was for some people. People without hearts. Emilia had never liked those people, instead surrounding herself with people who had always been training¡ªalways been trying to be just the slightest bit better. That had created a whole different set of problems in their unit, however. Some of them grew and learned so fast, it was inevitable that many of their slower members felt useless and left behind for much of the war¡­ especially in the later years.

    ¡°It might not matter that much,¡± V continued, feet scuffing over the ground as they moved, ¡°but I¡¯m good at games¡ªI¡¯m really great at real-world raids.¡±

    ¡°I hate real-world raids,¡± Emilia sighed, sagging dramatically and startling when Key caught her arm, eyes wide and concerned. ¡°Ah¡­ sorry,¡± she said and signed at him. It really was rude to be excluding him so much from the conversation, but it wasn¡¯t like he could hear them, and even if she signed everything, it wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d be able to catch most of it¡­

    Okay, maybe that was part of why he disliked V so much¡ªthe exclusion that naturally came with being around two people with more in common and the ability to easily communicate.

    ¡°Ah¡­ how long do you think this goes for?¡± she asked each of them, her signs coming out as something closer to ¡°Where this go?¡±

    ?Why would I know where it goes?? Key grumbled, because apparently he was now in a mood and not willing to read between the lines of her easy-peasy signing.

    ¡°I assume it goes to the next part of the place,¡± V offered, blinking awkwardly between Emilia and Key, and she abruptly realized that Key had only spoken to her. Great. Now she was effectively stuck with a sulking child as her babysitter.

    ¡°Maybe if we¡¯re lucky, it¡¯ll go to the heartcore,¡± she said, stalling out when she got to heartcore and had to make a new sign for it.

    Key, at the very least, enjoyed that, and they spent several minutes going through potential options for the sign, eventually ending on a grasping motion¡ªwhich was itself part of a sign used for acquiring power from something¡ªthat moved between the signer¡¯s core and heart.

    Her friend smiled at her as they laughed and made the sign together, but it was short-lived, his amusement dropping away the moment V spoke and drew her attention away.

    Emilia wanted to sigh. This was too much like the time she¡¯d been stuck having dinner with Olivier and her ex. It had been after the two had gotten into a fight and ended up spending the night in the brig as a result. It was supposed to be a peaceful meeting¡ªa mending of bridges between two of the people she cared the most for. Instead, she¡¯d spent the evening being pulled between their conversations because they refused to speak to each other in anything more than snorts and snide remarks.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    This was worse, because neither she nor V could talk to Key and Key was refusing to talk to V! That said, at least Key was a veritable child. It wasn¡¯t a good excuse for his behaviour, but at least it was something. Her ex and Olivier had both been adults, acting like spoiled children, forced to make nice with their worst enemy!

    ¡°What¡¯s a heartcore?¡± V asked again, because she¡¯d been too distracted mulling over the stupid men in her life to have acknowledged him the first time.

    ¡°Wait, you haven¡¯t come across any yet?¡± Emilia asked, blinking widely at him.

    ¡°Should I have?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ maybe not? But¡ª wait. Does that mean you can¡¯t hear the locals speaking?¡± Not that not being able to hear locals would have helped him with Key, given Key was speaking only to her.

    V smiled somewhat tightly at her. ¡°I assume you¡¯re not referring to the way some of the Risen Guard and Enclave members speak?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ wait. Why did your babysitter even tell you you¡¯re here for, if not to find the heartcore?¡±

    The man shrugged. ¡°He just said something about this being a first step. He¡¯s not the most talkative of fellows.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s stepped stuttered. Fellows. It was just a word, but it was an odd word, and her mind raced as it tried to track down every memory she had of someone using it in a sentence. It was such a rare wording that she was certain that if she figured out where people used it, she could narrow down who V was¡ªor at least who the man reminded her of!

    Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t think of anything concrete, and V was continuing to talk, complaining about how secretive the Enclave was. She really needed to listen.

    ¡°How¡¯re these guys?¡±

    Emilia signed, gazing into the distance of the tunnel. It was a lot like the other tunnels she¡¯d encountered in this place: dark, boring and long. ¡°They¡¯re nice, although I think Key isn¡¯t quite at the age where he would be properly taught all he needs to know.¡±

    Key perked up at the mention of his name¡ªat seeing the sign Emilia had given him float through her hands¡ªand their conversation briefly derailed while she tried to get him at least partially to what they were talking about. Mostly, what she got to him understanding was she thought he was too young, which was neither entirely accurate nor entirely inaccurate, and he went back to pouting.

    ¡°Too young indeed¡­¡± V whispered, as though Emilia didn¡¯t need yet another reason to suspect they knew each other in the real world¡ªher attempts to communicate with Key had been entirely in sign language, and V was either just as fast a learner as Key was, or he already had some knowledge of her signing.

    She glared at him. V smiled back as though nothing were amiss. Fucker.

    ¡°So, why did they stick you with someone too young?¡±

    ¡°His grandmother hates me,¡± Emilia replied, still glaring daggers at V. At the very least, Key had noticed her annoyance with the other man and had perked up. ¡°She doesn¡¯t think I¡¯m suited for this, so wouldn¡¯t support me as their candidate. She straight up told Key to keep me out of her sight.¡±

    ¡°Dude, what did you do to piss her off so much?¡± V asked, expression so incredulous that Emilia added another item to her list of reasons they likely knew each other: He was shocked anyone could potentially find her wanting. Well, that at least narrowed it down a bit. Most of the people she¡¯d met in the last decade found her wanting, so V was probably someone from her old life.

    Emilia shrugged, looking off into the distance of the tunnel, where a small surge of energy had drawn her attention. ¡°I cried because they kill people who miscarry or have irregular periods.¡±

    The anger that flooded out of V was, quite frankly, shocking. Where she had been upset and saddened by the reality of what locals did to those who bled outside of schedule, V was¡­

    ?What is his problem?? Key asked, his hand wrapping around Emilia¡¯s arm and pulling her away from the fuming man.

    Emilia made a series of signs and general movements that she hoped conveyed that she¡¯d told him about their conversation regarding the killing of locals by the Risen Guard.

    ?Oh¡­? the sound came out was more a breath across her core, intimate and¡­ something. Something she couldn¡¯t quite put her fingers on, but when Emilia glanced away from V to Key, she saw it in the boy¡¯s eyes: respect, and perhaps a healthy dose of hero worship.

    My, how fast the little local boy changed his tune, although, given the way he had also spoken passionately on the topic, it was perhaps unsurprising that he would appreciate V¡¯s anger.

    ?Is it normal,? he asked, throat bobbing as he swallowed around whatever else he was feeling, ?for men from your world to become so upset on the part of women??

    There was so much in there for Emilia to respond to, and now, inside this cavern without a proper way to communicate, was definitely not the time. Instead, she signed, ¡°It¡¯s complicated,¡± to him, along with the sign for later¡ªwhich they¡¯d spent a portion of their descent deciphering, since it had seemed liable to become a necessary sign. They¡¯d used it a few times as they made their way downwards, once when Key had been telling her about his adventures in less than approved diving, as well as when Emilia had tried to ask him what magic types he specialized in, wanting to know if it really was air and water or not.

    Key nodded, although he seemed to be paying very little attention to her, his eyes glued to V instead.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Emilia asked after whatever internal battle the other visitor had been having seemed to come to an end.

    V shook his head. ¡°No. That is¡­¡± He ran a hand through his hair, still wet mud flicking off it. ¡°The Enclave family that grabbed me implied there were some pretty nasty things going on with the Risen Guard, but¡­¡±

    ¡°But they didn¡¯t say it was that bad,¡± Emilia finished, thinking back to her own conversation with Key and Rin. ¡°I mostly found out because this guy and the girl from before were arguing about whether the Risen Guard has good intentions or not.¡±

    The man hummed in thought, eyes vacant as they walked. It was so different than before. Before, he had been cheerful and smiling, seemingly having no cares until his babysitter had appeared. It had been the same when he¡¯d reappeared. He was all smiles and laughter until he wasn¡¯t.

    ¡°I think the lower level Risen Guard care,¡± he finally said, smile sad as he looked at her. ¡°My assigned guard was nice enough. I almost think we could have been friends. Then¡­¡±

    ¡°Then he wasn¡¯t?¡±

    V blinked at her, too thick eyebrows pulling together. They messed with the balance of his face, just like his double dimples did. ¡°No. Then the Enclave killed him and made me make a weapon from his blood.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s steps faltered and Key pulled to a stop beside her, eyes shifting between her and V in concern. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she whispered to V. He wasn¡¯t looking at her, instead simply staring off into the distance, no smile or amusement to be found on his face.

    ¡°Well, collateral damage and all that,¡± he said, shooting her a sharp smile. ¡°Yo, Taoran! Glad to see you aren¡¯t gonna be rotting away in that tunnel for the rest of time!¡±

    From the dark, V¡¯s Enclave babysitter stepped into view.

    ?Uncle,? Key squeaked from beside her, his entire body pulling taut.

    Emilia looked between the two of them, finding not a shred of resemblance, as Taoran barely spared her friend a glance.

    ?We are leaving,? he said to V, his long, black jacket flying wide as he turned, expecting V to follow.

    V did, but his steps were so slow that Emilia knew he must be fucking with the man¡ªthe man who had possibly killed his Risen Guard babysitter.

    The man who had possibly killed someone he was friendly with, and almost certainly supported it.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 69: A Good Time to Have Readable Expressions

    ¡°Please, stars above, let this be the end! Let this be the end! Let this be the end~¡±

    V¡¯s babysitter shot Emilia the same look he¡¯d been giving her since she and Key had caught back up with him and V. The cave had continued on in a ridiculously straight line, and she had forced Key to hurry his steps so they could all travel together.

    Now, neither Key nor Taoran were happy. V was quiet, smile nowhere to be seen, although occasionally his and Emilia¡¯s eyes would meet, and she could see the amusement dancing through them.

    At least someone appreciated how much effort she was putting into annoying the older Enclave member. Seriously, what kind of man barely acknowledges anyone? He was so rude! Even ruder than the Stringer Matriarch, which was so impressive Emilia was half-tempted to bring back her annual ritual of giving each of her teachers awards for being the best or worst in whatever category she and her friends decided fit them best. None of her friends had ever volunteered that they had played a part in the awards, although it wouldn¡¯t have been hard for anyone to guess who had been involved. Instead, she¡¯d been the one to present the awards to their terrible teachers. She¡¯d gotten in trouble a few times, but it was usually the end of the school year and there was little her teachers could do to her at that point.

    Actually, the only one to ever volunteer they¡¯d been a part of the process was Halen, after one of their teachers had threatened to fail her because of the award. He certainly hadn¡¯t been her friend, but by that point their entire grade had known about the ritual and hated their teacher enough to offer their votes. The teacher had been awarded a dozen rewards, varying from ¡°Worst Dressed¡± to ¡°Best (and Worst) Stench¡±¡ªseriously, how none of this man¡¯s coworkers told him he stank was beyond any of them. He had not been happy, and Halen of all people had backed her up, and then their teacher had Halen¡¯s parents threatening to pull funding from the school if they let the teacher remain. It had been nice, not having to drag her own parents into her fights with the school system for once.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think Taoran would appreciate an award for being ¡°Rudest Man I¡¯ve Ever Met,¡± but she was going to keep her options open, if they all survived, which¡ª

    ¡°Yeah~¡± she cheered as they came around a rare corner and finally found the heartcore. ¡°Finally! Does this mean we can leave soon?¡± she asked, not sure who she was directing the question at, given Key couldn¡¯t understand her and V¡¯s babysitter had refused to speak to either of them, even ignoring her attempts to introduce herself.

    She felt bad for V, being stuck with such a terrible man, and for Rin, who had been forced to travel with him while they were separated, speaking of whom¡­

    ¡°Your other half,¡± V said blandly, nodding in towards where Rin was sitting against a wall, fast asleep.

    ¡°Rin~¡± she cheered, skipping off towards her friend, who startled awake when Emilia plopped down beside her. ¡°You¡¯re okay! I was worried!¡±

    Rin blinked adorably sleepy eyes at her. ?Did Key not tell you I went to find another way through??

    Emilia sighed, shaking her head at the girl as Key came to stop in front of them, a mild smile on his face. ¡°Sure, but there are monsters! Who knows what you could have run into!¡±

    Rin tilted her head, eyebrows pulling together minutely in confusion before she turned her eyes on Key. ?Did you not tell her visitors are more likely to face difficulties traversing these labyrinths??

    ¡°What?¡± Emilia asked, gapping up at Key. ¡°No! No, he didn¡¯t tell me anything like that. Although, neither did you.¡±

    Rin shook her head. ?Key told me when we split up. I was also concerned, but he assured me I was more likely to be led easily from room to room while there were visitors also inside,? she explained, shoulders rolling as she yawned.

    ?Sorry,? Key said quietly, glancing back at the men behind him.

    Emilia peeked around him, finding V being pushed towards the heartcore by Taoran.

    ?Hurry up,? the man grumbled, glaring at the slightly taller man¡¯s back as he refused to move any faster. ?We don¡¯t have all day!?

    ¡°Psst~¡± she whispered, leaning in towards Rin, abruptly wondering if the former trainee could even hear her when she was whispering. ¡°Do you think he knows V will pass out when he touches that?¡±

    A whisper of private aether racketed between Rin and Key as they translated and discussed her question.

    ?I do not think so,? Rin told her, and fucking stars was it nice to have an interpreter again. ?Key says he did not know you would pass out. He asked his father, and apparently it is a new phenomenon.?

    So, either it was just a her thing, or something had changed since the last visitation. A moment passed and V finally reached out to touch the heartcore and¡ª

    ¡°Nope, not just a me thing,¡± Emilia thought as V collapsed to the ground, startling his Enclave babysitter, who bolted forward to roll him over.

    ?At least I caught you,? Key scoffed, jaw tight as he watched the pair. His weight shifted uneasily from side to side, eyebrows scrunching together in what would have been an adorable look of concern were he not currently focused on Taoran.

    He really was terrible at hiding his emotions, which was helpful in this case, because when Taoran abruptly threw a spell in their direction, Emilia was already prepared to stop it with a wall of pure aether¡ªone of the few skills which had transferred between the real world and this one. The ability to throw up a defensive shield without going through your Censor had been drilled into every soldier capable of doing so, even if they were usually only good once or twice in a fight due to how exhausting they were.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Taoran blinked, surprised that his spell had been stopped by sheer force, the moment enough for Rin and Emilia to get their feet under them and haul Key out of the way of a second attack.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Emilia asked as they bolted behind one of the giant boulders littering the area.

    ?Key?? Rin asked, voice strained as she enacted a proper magic barrier to protect them.

    Key swallowed as he peeked out from behind the boulder at his uncle. ?I believe he wants to win the blessing. He is taking the opportunity to be rid of competition.?

    ¡°So he decided to kill his nephew?¡± Emilia asked, garnering her an odd look from Rin.

    The girl shook her head when Emilia explained that Key had referred to the older man as uncle. ?It is simple a term of familiarity among the Enclave. I doubt they are related more than distantly, and even if they were¡ª?

    Rin¡¯s words cut off as a spell slammed until her barrier, the air vibrating and screaming from the force of it.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t suppose anyone will care if I kill him?¡± Emilia asked, already digging through her bag for her weapons. She¡¯d spent a portion of their fall and walk examining her new clothing. Despite his embarrassment, Key had helpfully pointed out several spots that seemed designed for her weapons. Her {Blood Blade} slid into a new belt at her hips, while she had a number of slots on her leg wrappings for {Blood Needles}. She grabbed her {Blood Orb} as well, and elbowed Key in the side. ¡°A little help?¡±

    Key didn¡¯t even need Rin to translate to know what she wanted, his body immediately wrapping around hers, his hands finding a home over hers. Energy ruptured out of him, reaching into the world in a way that reminded Emilia of her own, far-seeing skills.

    ?Brat,? Taoran spit out and Emilia could hear him moving, trying to evade whatever attack he could surely feel them preparing.

    Key¡¯s energy vibrated through her, sliding up her meridians and into her core, until they were a hook through her soul and he was guiding their attack. Bubbles of blood splattered out of the {Blood Orb}, once more threatening to mar his hands with burns. Now, however, Emilia had training, and while it wasn¡¯t much, she was able to focus and drag her unwieldy energy away from both Key and Rin¡­ and after a moment of thought, V as well.

    She didn¡¯t know if he had known about this attack beforehand, but something told her not. The way the other visitor had angered at the needless spilling of local blood, his sadness over the murder of his Risen Guard babysitter¡­

    No, Emilia was quite sure that he hadn¡¯t known about this. If he had, Taoran waiting until his charge had passed out would also make little sense. But why attack them at all? She knew there was some amount of tension and competition between the Enclave families, but to attack your allies? To risk killing them, just so your family could claim the glory of supporting the Harbinger who attained the Blessing?

    ?I do not understand why he is attacking us,? Rin noted, her words echoing Emilia¡¯s thoughts as she sent out a barrier of fire when Taoran¡¯s energy smashed towards them. Whatever attack he had been aiming at them burnt up under the pure force of the girl¡¯s barrier. For all that Rin wasn¡¯t yet the most experienced with spells, she was extremely capable with those she did know. Emilia had noticed it while they walked, that Rin¡¯s energy was always tightly controlled when she let it out, searching for clues as to their location. It had vaguely reminded her of something at the time, but now she realized it reminded her of a girl she had known during the war¡ªa soldier from the Free Colonies named Airilynn, who had possessed so much raw power that she had had difficulties controlling it.

    Not that that was particularly relevant in the moment, except to make Emilia a little wary of accidentally getting in Rin¡¯s way. While she had no idea if the other girl truly did have enough power that controlling it was difficult, she wasn¡¯t about to risk it. Some people could pull their skills back with barely any thought¡ªEmilia had no desire to be accidentally burned to death because Rin could do no such thing.

    ¡°Rin!¡± she called, risking dragging the other girl¡¯s attention away from the fight so she could ask her to translate. ¡°Can we fill the room with as many stationary bubbles as possible?¡± she asked, directing her question at Key, focusing diligently behind her. ¡°So I can use my other weapons on him,¡± she added, when both of the locals gave her incredulous looks. The fact that she wanted to go fight the man head on didn¡¯t do anything to help their skepticism.

    ?You cannot be serious!? Key said, gaping at her. ?Uncle¡ª Taoran,? he corrected himself, shaking his head, ?is one of the most skilled Enclave members. Without magic¡ª?

    ¡°I have weapons,¡± Emilia said, cutting the boy off before he said something stupid¡ªor called the intentions of the universe down on them. She had no idea if such beliefs were a thing here, but in Baalphoria some believed that speaking¡ªeven thinking¡ªsomething was enough to encourage it.

    ¡°Be mindful of your intentions, lest you bring misfortune upon yourself¡ªor worse, bring a cracked, incomplete wish crashing down upon you,¡± was a popular adage. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much she believed it¡ªwhile some areas of Baalphoria held firmer beliefs and customs regarding intentions, none of the places she had even lived did¡ªbut she also didn¡¯t purposefully give voice to things she¡¯d rather avoid.

    ¡°I also have decades of training,¡± she added, realizing too late that if Key and Rin hadn¡¯t realized she was older than them before, they definitely did now. Oh well, they were bound to find out eventually. ¡°Ready? Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Key blanched as she sent a hurricane of her energy racing into the {Blood Orb}, what may well have been hundreds of bubbles exploding out of it. From the other side of their hiding spot, Taoran swore, the sound followed by a thump and another curse. The bubbles paused, finding a home within the membrane of the aethernet, and both she and Key dropped their connection to the {Blood Orb}¡ªor, Key dropped his and without that extra help, Emilia¡¯s naturally fell away.

    Emilia righted her weight, giving the pair of locals a wink as she said, ¡°Cover me?¡± Her smile widened when neither looked impressed. Rin¡¯s aethervoice vibrated against her, preparing to say something about how stupid she was, or how she didn¡¯t know what awaited her in death, but Emilia was already bolting forward, hand reaching for one of her {Blood Needles}.

    She was a moment away from letting it loose, Taoran¡¯s furious, black eyes glued to her when suddenly he screamed out. A spear exploded out of his chest, bloody and brutal even before the beautiful, iridescent red metal of the shaft split open, ripping a hole twice the size of Emilia¡¯s arm in the man.

    The Enclave man fell to his knees, V stepping up behind him, flawlessly manoeuvring between the bubbles of glassy red floating through the area.

    ¡°How very rude,¡± the other visitor said, his expression harder than Emilia had seen it before¡ªeven harder and more frightening than it had been while they discussed the lengths the Risen Guard were willing to go trying to keep this world¡¯s blood under control. His hand wrapped around the other end of the spear, just before the other, spiked weapon attached to the other end. He pulled, gore and muscle snagging on the spear end and pulling free of the man. ¡°It is extremely rude to attack your allies,¡± he said quietly, barely blinking when his babysitter¡¯s blood began to swirl around them, shooting through Emilia¡¯s bubbles.

    ¡°I suggest we take cover,¡± Emilia said, smiling shakily at V.

    ¡°Mm¡­¡± the man agreed¡ªprobably agreed, his hum soft as his eyes rolled back and Emilia lurched forward, trying to catch him before he fell to the ground once more.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 70: When You Donâ€™t Remember Napping

    Once, when Emilia was still a child, she almost died.

    Okay, so maybe she almost died as a child more than once, but in one particular instance, she almost died protecting an animal. It wasn¡¯t a house pet, or even anything that most people would consider particularly cute. Pravas were, in fact, often hunted. Native to only the Grey Sands¡ªwhich, while still technically part of Baalphoria, existed separate from it in many of its laws and customs¡ªthey were prized for their fur, and while hunting was legal, there were still yearly quotas, and poaching was common.

    Emilia had come across the baby prava¡ªwhich weren¡¯t exactly noted for their pleasant interactions with humans¡ªand proceeded to protect it from the people chasing it. She¡¯d escaped her babysitters, who hadn¡¯t been expecting an eight-year-old to be quite so slippery. She and the prava had gotten lost in the desert, running from the hunters¡ªor poachers. No one had ever found out exactly who they were, so it was impossible to know whether they had been hunting legally or not.

    The point is, Emilia has a long history of protecting things and putting herself in harm¡¯s way doing so. Flinging herself forward to catch V. Covering him with her body¡ªas much as someone so much smaller could, anyways. Not bothering to even try to escape the war of her Risen Guard¡¯s blood and his Enclave babysitter¡¯s raging around them.

    Almost no one who knew Emilia¡ªand especially not those who had known her before the war ended¡ªwould be surprised to learn that this was how she was spending her time inside the raid: protecting her competition.

    Regardless of whether V was competition or not, he had still protected them¡­ or simply taken the opportunity to kill someone he obviously didn¡¯t care for.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t had to fight Taoran because of V¡¯s actions, and she wasn¡¯t about to abandon him out here, all by himself, while he was unconscious! That said, this really was a miserable place to be!

    ?Emilia!? she heard Rin¡¯s voice call through the aether, a burst of someone¡¯s energy trying to wrap itself around her a moment later. It was trying to keep her safe, she realized as it was blasted away by the power of the blood storm. That was sweet, even if whoever had sent it should be trying to keep themself safe instead.

    How long had the last blood storms lasted? Not long. Mere moments.

    This one lasted a lifetime. Perhaps because it was so wild¡ªuntamed in a way that the previous ones hadn¡¯t been. They¡¯d been violent, yes, but that violence had somehow seemed organized and purposeful. This was all chaos and destruction.

    Then again, it hadn¡¯t been since that first one that she¡¯d truly been at the centre of one, and she¡¯d been nearly unconscious at the time, slowly bleeding herself to death on a hunch.

    Had V followed that hunch as well? The {Blood Spear} he had used to kill Taoran was almost certainly far too complex for it to have come from his own blood, especially since she had no idea where he had been keeping it. Something like a willbrand, she supposed. Tiny and cute and innocuous¡ªas long as you wanted it to be¡ªuntil you needed it. She wondered if it were a skill, something the other visitor could teach her¡ªassuming they both survived all this.

    As though the universe wanted her to know that was unlikely, a drop of blood shot straight through her arm. Emilia gasped in pain, tucking her body further over the important bits of V, keeping his head safe, even if there were a thousand other places that could be skewered and cause irreparable damage¡ª

    Or, not. Emilia could already feel the aether stitching the hole in her arm closed. Well, at least the system¡¯s healing system was working here, not that it had saved Taoran¡ªnot that that was a bad thing. The man had clearly been bad news, and she was glad that she had come into the care of more reasonable Enclave members.

    Probably¡­

    Maybe it was a bit early to tell? Still, she was pretty sure they were unlikely to go around killing other visitors just because they were competition.

    Or¡­ at least Key was, and possibly Rin¡­ Harmony, she had no idea.

    Sk¡¯lar, as far as she could tell, would probably kill anyone, save perhaps the Stringer siblings, given the chance.

    Okay, so maybe she hadn¡¯t come into the care of the best of people, although for all she knew, they could very well be the best the Enclave had to offer. Hopefully not. Hopefully, someone out there was completely, totally reasonable and sane¡ªin the way Zach was. He¡¯d been nice enough. Informative, even with his decades old information. Willing to indulge her. Had a cute child¡ªalthough the Stringer children had been cute, from a distance, anyways.

    Another drop of blood swiped over Emilia¡¯s arm, between the bindings wrapped around her. More often, the drops were splattering across her armour, which seemed impervious to the blood. Lucky her. Not so lucky V, his legs being slowly ripped to shreds as she prioritized keeping his head and torso safe¡ªand his nether regions. She had no desire to inflict that sort of psychological trauma on the guy!

    ?Emilia!? she heard Rin call again, followed by a trail of words that she thought belonged to Key but somehow sounded¡­ wrong. Why would they sound off? His, but not his?

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Emilia risked glancing up, immediately regretting it when blood sliced across her forehead, just above her eyebrow. The vessel split and blood splattered out of her and across V¡¯s face, already red with the remnants of her bubbles, the storm having popped the majority of them. She wasn¡¯t sure why the blood hadn¡¯t returned to the {Blood Orb}, but it hadn¡¯t. Perhaps there was too much blood? Or the aether couldn¡¯t figure out what blood belonged where? Hopefully, she wasn¡¯t about to get some sketchy disease from any of the blood! There were so many sources, who knew if she¡¯d even know whom to blame!

    A whisper of energy seeped out of her, searching for what was strange with Key¡¯s voice. It had barely gotten a metre away from her before a zing vibrated through her.

    A zing. The same zing as before¡ªas the moments before Rin had disappeared, before whatever had appeared and seemingly eaten Cade¡¯s deranged babysitter.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she growled, pulling closer to V as the storm picked up. ¡°Rin! Something¡¯s wrong!¡± she yelled, although even before hearing the silence that followed her words, she was sure the other girl would have difficulties hearing her over the raging storm.

    Silence, just the whistle of blood swirling, the crash of rocks ripped from the walls tumbling and shattering across the ground. There were no more calls of her name, and Emilia¡¯s energy wasn¡¯t strong enough to make it through the world to search for her friends.

    Hopefully, if they were gone, it was because they were being sensible¡ªbecause they knew that at this rate, the cavern was liable to collapse¡ªand not because some mystery monster had kidnapped them.

    ¡°Em?¡±

    Emilia looked down at V, wide-eyed as he blinked out of focus eyes up at her. ¡°Careful,¡± she told him, wiping a hand over his forehead, hand coming up smeared with blood. ¡°We¡¯re stuck here for a bit, unless we want to die.¡±

    V blinked slowly at her, and for a moment, Emilia thought he was going to pass back out. Then, he smiled. Sunshine and happiness, so out of place that she almost laughed.

    ¡°So, this is what it¡¯s like,¡± the man said.

    ¡°What what¡¯s like?¡±

    The other visitor¡¯s eyes focused, for the barest of moments. Confusion and regret flashed through them before the clouds shattered, that smile growing teasing and sweet once more. ¡°Having you on top of me.¡±

    Emilia glowered down at him, as much as someone hovering only inches above the object of their annoyance¡ªand amusement¡ªfor safety reasons could. ¡°Ridiculous,¡± she muttered, tucking him back into her neck as the storm began to stutter and break.

    V laughed into her neck, body flinching as feeling and pain likely began to return to him. ¡°Yes,¡± he agreed. ¡°But ridiculous is better than too serious.¡±

    ¡°Stars, yes,¡± she agreed. Too much seriousness was a terrible fate indeed, especially in the midst of something that was simultaneously dangerous and completely safe. The only people seriousness ever looked good on were Rafe and Olivier. They wore seriousness every day of their lives, although Olivier of the¡ªreal-world¡ªday before had definitely seemed more relaxed than the man in her memories. As for Rafe¡­ when that guy wasn¡¯t serious, that¡¯s when it was time to panic.

    ¡°I think¡ª¡± V started, before breaking off into a coughing fit that had Emilia trying to lift as much of her weight off his chest as possible. ¡°I think, it¡¯s stopping,¡± he finished.

    Indeed, around them, the blood was slowly falling out of movement, simply hovering in the air as though waiting to pounce. It was strange and off-putting, reminding her far too much of {Blood Rain} for her liking.

    Seconds passed and nothing changed, nothing changed, nothing changed, and Emilia almost hoped that something would change, except that rarely led to anything good. A string snapped through the universe, sharp and dry, and both she and V sucked in harsh, broken breaths.

    The world screamed, the blood that was splattered over them and the ground¡ªtheir own, the remnants from the {Blood Orb}¡¯s bubbles¡ªshot upwards, joining the droplets of Taoran¡¯s hanging ominously in the air.

    They screamed as the blood converged on them. Joining them, not attacking them, but painful and overwhelming all the same, and by the time it was done, Emilia was certain that being unknotted cold had hurt less. Everything burned, and she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised had her heart given out from the stress of it all.

    Too much, it was too much. There were very few times in her life where skills had been too much. She¡¯d been hit point-blank by some of the most painful skills in Baalphoria, and yet they were nothing compared to the instantaneous forever of whatever the fuck that had been.

    ¡°Em?¡± V croaked up at her.

    ¡°Mn?¡± She couldn¡¯t move¡ªcouldn¡¯t muster anything other than an acknowledgement of question, and even that burned her soul. Could souls burn? Obviously, they could because hers was currently inside an oven. Would there be anything left, other than ash and destruction, when she stopped burning?

    ¡°That was terrible,¡± the man said, and Emilia cursed him for making her laugh. His mouth twitched against her, a limp hand rising to wind its way through her tangled hair.

    Her nose pressed into the crook of his neck¡ªwhen had she gotten so low? She¡¯d been hovering over his head before, keeping him safe. Had felt his mouth against her own neck just moments earlier. Now she was the one being held safe, somehow. ¡°How do you have so much energy?¡± she asked, even as she could feel her own energy righting itself with the speed and efficiency of someone under the care of the most skilled medic. Her soul, sadly, was still burning inside her¡ªtrying to burn itself out, obviously. She¡¯d be trying to escape the crazy person who put her in this shitty situation, too, if that person hadn¡¯t been her.

    It really sucked to not be able to ditch herself, sometimes.

    V huffed under her, fingers gently unknotting her short hair in a far too intimate gesture that she couldn¡¯t possibly bring herself to object to. ¡°You seem pretty awake, too, now that you¡¯ve napped.¡±

    Emilia frowned, pushing herself up to glare down at the other visitor. ¡°When did I nap?¡± she asked.

    V frowned up at her, eyes sleepy and worn out. ¡°A bit ago. You were out for at least 20, 30 minutes. You don¡¯t remember?¡±

    They frowned at each other.

    ¡°No¡­¡± Emilia said carefully, pushing herself more fully up, cognizant of V¡¯s hands hovering protectively around her, as though worried she were about to topple over or pass out again, which was perhaps fair. ¡°Where are the others?¡±

    ¡°No idea,¡± V said, shrugging slightly. ¡°If they¡¯re around, I haven¡¯t heard or seen them. Although, I supposed I can¡¯t say I¡¯m certain I¡¯ve been conscious the whole time either, if you can¡¯t remember being asleep.¡±

    Emilia hummed in empty acknowledgement, cursing the burn through her soul and core. ¡°Rin?¡± she called, hoping that perhaps they had tried to speak to V, and he had simply been unable to hear them.

    Silence returned to her, only the sprinkle of rumbling settling surrounding them.

    ¡°Well, fuck.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 71: Missing Weapons Located(?)

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    Emilia glanced back at V. They¡¯d been walking beside each other for a while, as they searched for Key and Rin, but he had paused to examine a cut on his leg that was taking particularly long to heal and fallen a few steps behind. ¡°What¡¯s what?¡±

    ¡°That thing on your back. Did you really spend the time giving yourself a custom tattoo? Or is it a reflection of real life?¡±

    Her steps halted and V ran into her, his chin colliding painfully with the side of her head. ¡°What tattoo?¡±

    ¡°The one on your back,¡± V said, absently rubbing both her head and his chin as he smiled innocently at her. Fucker.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t give myself a tattoo,¡± she said, trying to twist so she could see whatever was on her back. ¡°Key didn¡¯t say anything about it, either, when he found me before.¡±

    ¡°Would he have?¡± the other visitor asked, taking a step back, his eyes glued to her back.

    ¡°Uh¡­ maybe?¡± Maybe not. Key had been particularly embarrassed by her clothing, and aside from pointing out places to store weapons, hadn¡¯t really commented on it. She was almost certain she would have at least caught him staring at her back, were it suddenly covered in a random tattoo, however.

    V¡¯s fingers ran over the lines of her tattoo, sending a shiver through her.

    ¡°You know, most men ask before touching.¡±

    The man¡¯s fingers stilled for a moment, before continuing on their path. ¡°Sure, but you¡¯ve already been on top of me. I think that affords me a moment of touching, as payment.¡±

    Emilia snorted. ¡°Payment for climbing on top of you, so I could save your hide?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah~¡± V teased, one finger dragging over her armour, presumably where the tattoo disappeared into her shorts. ¡°I¡¯ll have you know people buy me all sorts of stuff, trying to get on top of me.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Really.¡±

    Emilia glanced back at V again, finding him already smiling at her, and she rolled her eyes. ¡°Of course they do.¡±

    ¡°Of course they do,¡± he parroted back. ¡°These lines are red, like blood.¡±

    ¡°Like our missing blood weapons, you mean?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    They¡¯d woken up and searched the heartcore cavern, but found no sign of either Emilia¡¯s {Blood Orb} or any new weapon, created during the storm. Eventually, they¡¯d given up, and figuring that an extra few minutes were unlikely to affect Key and Rin¡¯s wellbeing much, Emilia had also touched the heartcore.

    So far, she had no idea what new ability the heartcore had given her, but waking up with her head cradled in V¡¯s lap had been an experience. A nice one, and despite her misgivings about any sort of friendship or relationship with the competition¡ªespecially one so clearly in need of a good shower¡ªshe was definitely entertaining the idea of asking if he¡¯d like to engage in the sex that locals could barely even speak of.

    Had they been in the real world, she was certain her Censor would have questioned her about that particular decision and her seeming sex addition, but hey! If she had to be without her Censor for a month, she might as well make some fun, if possibly ill-advised, decisions!

    ¡°I really don¡¯t like the idea that there¡¯s now a blood weapon integrated into me,¡± Emilia said, a shudder running up her spine. Random blood inside her skin was bad enough, let alone the fact that she¡¯d both lost a weapon and potentially gained one that she had no idea how to use and¡ª

    Emilia cut off, pulling away from V¡¯s lingering fingers to turn towards him. ¡°Show me yours,¡± she said, enjoying the way V smiled and waggled his eyebrows before turning and letting her examine his back.

    ¡°Tattoo,¡± she said, tugging the torn fabric up as far as she could.

    ¡°Sweet. Does it look nice?¡± V asked.

    Emilia ran her fingers over the fine lines, trying to find a pattern but¡ª

    ¡°Lose the shirt,¡± she said, taking a step back and coughing. ¡°It seriously stinks.¡±

    ¡°The smell might be more me than the shirt,¡± V admitted, shooting her an almost apologetic smile¡ªalmost. Regardless of his worries, he stripped the shirt off and Emilia sucked in a harsh breath. Not from any smell¡ªthankfully it did seem mostly contained to the shirt¡ªbut from the sight of the tattoo, as well as¡ª

    ¡°I can read¡­¡± she whispered, fingers running over the symbolic words etched into V¡¯s back. Was her back covered in something similar? Exactly the same? They¡¯d have to have someone check, once they found the others¡­

    ¡°We should go¡­¡± she said, swallowing down the want of knowledge cracking through her. ¡°We¡¯ve already wasted enough time, and need to find the others.¡± She¡¯d feel seriously bad if something terrible happened to them while she was wasting time examining V¡¯s tattoo. Sure, it could come in handy to know what it said, but¡ª

    ¡°Should we?¡± V whispered, so quietly Emilia almost didn¡¯t hear it through her thoughts.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    V hesitated, the tension through him almost palpable, before he said, ¡°I know it¡¯s cold, but shouldn¡¯t we be trying to win? I don¡¯t mean the game, but the blessing, so maybe the whole blood magic thing will stop, or at least calm down. Don¡¯t get me wrong!¡± he quickly added, tone tight and strained. ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone to die¡ªnot unless they deserve it, like Taoran¡ªbut if it¡¯s between finding the others and figuring out the secrets of this world¡­¡±

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    He trailed off, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure what to say. He was right. He was wrong. Collateral damage was an acceptance of war, and not a nice one. Sometimes, you had to sacrifice one city to save another, basing your choice on the chance of winning and the importance of locations. She had made many of those decisions during the war, when even the OIC System been overwhelmed and hesitated to condemn people to their deaths simply because they¡¯d chosen to live in the wrong spot.

    It was terrible.

    It was also inevitable.

    Emilia swallowed around her guilt, blasting up through her in full force as faces of people she had watched die flashed through her mind, and suddenly a laugh burst out of her. Small and humourless, but there, and V turned towards her, eyebrows pulled together in concern.

    ¡°Emilia?¡± he asked, eyes searching hers.

    ¡°Ah~ sorry. I was just thinking that it¡¯s weird to have memories without my Censor? I don¡¯t know about you, but I always¡­ blur my memories of the war a bit with it.¡±

    V hummed in something along the lines of agreement. ¡°I don¡¯t quite do that, but I do use my Censor to manage them a bit.¡±

    Emilia nodded, telling him that while she¡¯d had moments of reflecting on the war since arriving, something about the being reminded of the people she had chosen to save and chosen to die during the war had highlighted how strange it was to remember without a Censor.

    ¡°Can you remember anything before you had a Censor?¡± her friend¡ªEmilia thought they were probably friends now?¡ªasked, truly curious. Almost too curious, and she wondered if perhaps he didn¡¯t have many memories of his own childhood.

    ¡°I do,¡± she told him. ¡°From one on? I¡¯ve heard that¡¯s a little young,¡± she added, almost immediately cursing herself. One of the main ways you could guess at a child¡¯s D-Levels before they were tested as teenagers was through the age of their first memories and the clarity of them. To be honest, Emilia had a few memories from before that, most notably one of taking her first steps, one of the carers cheering her on in a way that wholly unlike the standard, serious nature of the people who had taken care of them during those first few years. She¡¯d been about seven months at the time.

    If V knew the significance of memories and D-Level¡ªwhich admittedly most people outside of the sub-50s didn¡¯t, she¡¯d only learned it because of her own odd circumstances¡ªhe gave no indication of it. Instead, he simply waited for her to ask why he wanted to know.

    He shrugged, telling her that he had always found pre-Censor memories to have a slightly different flavour to them than the ones that came after. ¡°This¡ªbeing here without a Censor¡ªreminds me of that. It¡¯s different, but in a way that seems more natural?¡±

    Emilia contemplated that, his voice echoing similar sentiments she¡¯d heard from Free Coloniers who had chosen to never fully install a Censor, as she examined his tattoo more closely, fingers running lightly over the lines and swirls. It wasn¡¯t like the writing she had seen in the cities, decorating sandwich boards and the shops she¡¯d wandered by, nor did it remind her of the writing she had seen inside the few books she had glanced through.

    Honestly, the entire thing was barely discernible as writing, and had she not apparently gained the ability to read through the heartcore, she would have actually assumed it was a simply a piece of art. The entire design covered the majority of the other visitor¡¯s back, and as Emilia told V what she saw, he confirmed that he had also seen the majority of the details in her tattoo, even if he couldn¡¯t read it or confirm they were identical.

    ¡°Huge. Pretty. Ominous,¡± he laughed when she asked him to describe the image she wasn¡¯t bendy enough to see more than the edges of. ¡°It reminded me of a war zone. Bodies¡ªor in this case, balls of lines and fine details¡ªscattered over a battlefield.¡±

    Emilia hummed in thought. ¡°Yours is similar,¡± she told him, although she wouldn¡¯t have described it in such a terrible way. ¡°I probably would have described it as bloody flowers over a field.¡±

    Her friend laughed, firm back muscles shaking under her fingers. ¡°So I got the pretty version, eh?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Emilia agreed, nodding sagely. ¡°You¡¯re definitely the prettier of us. A little flower~¡±

    ¡°Cute nickname,¡± V said, smiling sharply at her. ¡°Little Flower and War.¡±

    Emilia rolled her eyes. ¡°You cannot go around calling me War.¡±

    ¡°Why not, War?¡±

    Emilia didn¡¯t dignify him with an answer, but when she began broadly explaining to him what words she could read on his back, she couldn¡¯t resist calling him Little Flower.

    ¡°So¡­ it¡¯s not even instructions for anything?¡± V sighed as she finished explaining that all she read was a muddled biography.

    ¡°Not unless I¡¯m missing something, which is pretty likely. As far as I can tell, there are multiple ways to read this thing? But when I try¡­¡± Emilia glared at the red lines, trying to switch up the order in which she took the lines in. Almost immediately, her brain began to hurt. ¡°Fuck. Yeah, no. There¡¯s definitely more to it, but I can¡¯t read it without my head wishing it was splattered across the wall.¡±

    ¡°Gross,¡± V laughed, turning and giving her head another little rub.

    Emilia turned into his hand, and when her eyes, which had clenched closed under threat of popping out of her head, opened, she found him watching her much too closely¡ªmuch too softly. ¡°Not gonna tell me?¡± she asked, wishing he would just admit that he knew her and put her out of her misery.

    The man smiled, all soft, innocent, sadness. ¡°Tell you what, Emilia?¡±

    She sighed, hand snapping up to grab his hand. ¡°You¡¯re an ass.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that,¡± V laughed, tugging playful against her grip. ¡°Only recently, though.¡±

    ¡°How recently?¡±

    ¡°About a decade¡ªa little less, I suppose.¡± He smiled, sharp and evil and reminding Emilia much too much of monsters that lurked in the sea. The smile of a creature waiting for just the right opportunity to rise up and clamp its jaws around your leg. ¡°I changed a lot, after the war.¡±

    In other words, if she had known him¡ªand at this point, she was just going to assume she had because fucking stars was the man being overly familiar with her!¡ªshe had likely known him before the war and was unlikely to find anyone with his personality in her memories. Vague verbal ticks and knowledge it was then. Surely, if she spent enough time around the man, he would eventually slip up¡­ right?

    ¡°So, what kind of weird biographical information can you read on my back?¡± he asked, turning away again so she could summarize the exact details to him¡ªas much as she had come to agree that perhaps prioritizing winning a blessing for this world should come before protecting a few locals, they were still her friends and she wanted to find them quickly.

    Emilia had barely gotten through two sentences of her summary when V stopped her.

    ¡°That¡­ sounds familiar,¡± he said, telling Emilia that the information sounded a lot like what he had learned about his Enclave babysitter. ¡°He didn¡¯t tell me much himself, but he had a sister who seemed to¡­ not like him. She gave me some¡­ less than savoury information about him. I think she almost wanted me to kill him? She didn¡¯t say it in so many words but¡­¡±

    He trailed off, and Emilia didn¡¯t really know what to say to that.

    Luckily, she was saved from having to say anything when V clarified that that wasn¡¯t why he had killed Taoran. ¡°He was threatening you,¡± he explained when Emilia asked why he had killed his main ally. ¡°He was part of the group that killed my Enclave guard, so I knew he was capable of murder. I was trying to not hold it against him, but to try a kill you? Your Enclave babysitters? People we are supposed to be allies with, if possible?¡± He growled lowly.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have a problem being allies with me?¡± Emilia asked, returning to running her fingers over V¡¯s back, more in an attempt to soothe the man now than anything else.

    ¡°Nah.¡± He smiled back at her, eyes adorably crinkled, his image overlaying with another for the barest of moments before it was wiped away by time, trauma and her lack of Censor. ¡°I don¡¯t want the tickets that badly.¡±

    ¡°Then why¡¯d you come?¡±

    V watched her consideringly for a moment, a thousand thoughts floating through his blue eyes, beautiful and intuitive, before he said, ¡°I knew what raid I was entering. I already had information about the platform and the previous, failed raid.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 72: Those Who Deserve Punishment

    ¡°But¡­ how?¡± Emilia asked, blinking wide eyes at V. As much as she knew little about virtual raids, she knew enough to know that ones like this¡ªshort-term events, especially those sponsored by corporations¡ªwere often given relatively nondescript names, so people wouldn¡¯t know which raid they were joining. While she could understand someone potentially recognizing the platform after they joined, to know beforehand? That was¡­

    V nodded, his weight shifting from foot to foot. He swallowed, glanced away. ¡°I knew about this platform from message boards and a friend. They were part of the previous raid. They¡­ they felt bad that they weren¡¯t able to change this world for the better.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± That didn¡¯t explain how he had known which raid to join, however.

    Apparently, V could read her thoughts, and said, ¡°There are ways to figure out when a platform will run again, if you know what to look for.¡±

    That sounded like something she would say, especially while hacking into a system. Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t much use. It was a common sentiment of hackers, almost all of whom had a few teachers and idols in common, but even if V had heard it from her, hundreds of people had seen her hack during the war.

    Factions had emerged during the decades of conflict, and while the strain and tension between those factions had ebbed and flowed, there had been many times when one group or another had withheld important information. Funding for the best willbrands, planes, and mechs. Access to the best supports and bases¡ªeverything had been restricted and lacking during the war. Resources were dolled out to the best units, and that environment had inspired a fiercely¡ªtoxically¡ªcompetitive atmosphere. Emilia had forced her way into rival faction¡¯s systems dozens of times, searching for information. Not because it would gain them more fame or funding¡ªthey were already the most effective unit by far¡ªbut because those withholding information were putting lives at risk.

    Once, another division had wandered into a known nest of enemies¡ªsomething known by several factions, who were withholding their information. They had known for months that that area was unstable, some of the most dangerous monsters emerging from the aether to attack anyone who got too close.

    The division had gotten too close. Not a single person returned from that mission.

    So yeah, V might be quoting one of the impassioned speeches¡ªand occasional lectures¡ªshe had given on the topic. There was no way for her to know. Regardless, she certainly understood what he was saying in not so many words, lest the system decide he had cheated, and he should be booted out: he had hacked someone and found the raid he wanted.

    ¡°You did that¡­ just to come and try to fix this world?¡± Emilia asked blankly. That was¡­ kind. Stupid, as well, perhaps, to enter a raid knowing full well how difficult the challenges within it were, but also impossibly kind.

    Hopefully, no one tracked it back to him. There could be big, legal consequences for him if they did.

    V shrugged. ¡°Someone I care greatly for has strong views on how AIs shouldn¡¯t be treated as less than human. Coming in here and trying to¡­¡± He shrugged again, mumbling about how he would have been playing a raid anyways, so he might as well try to do some good.

    ¡°That¡¯s really sweet,¡± Emilia whispered, stepping to the side so she could meet his averted eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know many people who would do that¡ªnot in a raid with rules as intense as this one, anyways.¡±

    A snort escaped V. ¡°Fucking stars, yes. I knew these rules were going to be brutal, but¡­¡± He trailed off, a dirty hand running through his filthy hair. Mud from his adventures in the caves coated the ends, flecks of still glistening brown further darkening the already dirty brown locks. Emilia still wasn¡¯t convinced his hair wasn¡¯t blonde, browned by dirt.

    ¡°Well,¡± she sighed, planting her hands on her hips. ¡°Shirt? Finding my friends?¡±

    V blinked at her, asking if they really were her friends as he began pulling his shirt back on.

    To Emilia¡¯s great amusement, even he grimaced as he pulled the disgusting thing back on. She was almost tempted to encourage him to toss it and walk around topless. Almost.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d say they¡¯re my friends. Or, at least almost friends? It¡¯s a bit difficult to be friends with Key when we can¡¯t communicate much, but I think we¡¯re on our way there?¡±

    ¡°How long have you known them for? Three, four days?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ one and a half? Maybe two now?¡± Granted, she¡¯d been unconscious for the majority of that time, but still! It counted!

    Wide blue eyes blinked at her. She blinked back.

    ¡°When did you get out of Risen Guard custody?¡± V asked as they began to walk.

    ¡°You first,¡± she shot back.

    V laughed, telling her she was ¡°extremely petty, War.¡± Emilia still wasn¡¯t convinced that War was an acceptable nickname, but given the other visitor wasn¡¯t constantly calling her it, she wasn¡¯t going to bother trying to stop him.

    ¡°My friend knew what they were looking for in the visitors they let go, so I escaped their holding cells pretty quickly. I hung around with my babysitter for a few days, before the Enclave killed him.¡± V¡¯s voice cracked slightly on the last bit, his eyes flicking away as guilt rolled off him. ¡°I should have tried to escape him sooner. If I had¡ª¡±

    ¡°He might still be dead,¡± Emilia cut in, snatching up one of his hands. She gave it a squeeze before beginning to pull him along. They needed to move¡ªneeded to figure out what the fuck had happened to the others. ¡°My guard tracked me down after I slipped him. I was already with Key and his friends, and they fought.¡±

    ¡°Is he¡­¡±

    Emilia shook her head. ¡°Last time I saw him, he was bleeding but alive¡ªhis blood created the weapon that created those bubbles that are now¡­ uh¡­ part of our tattoos? Or mine?¡± It was unclear how her guard and V¡¯s babysitter¡¯s blood had been split between them. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know why he left? I¡¯m almost positive that, injured or not, he could have killed us all.¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Was he trying to?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah~¡± Emilia sighed, debating for a moment the pros and cons of confiding her thoughts in V, before regaling him with the details of that night, as well as her late arrival into the raid. He raised an eyebrow at her late entry, but didn¡¯t ask why she¡¯d risked being so behind.

    ¡°His personality changed?¡± V asked, his arm swinging their joined hands as they walked. She¡¯d noticed it before, but despite the fact that he was noticeably taller than her, he was good at slowing his steps to match her own shorter gait.

    Emilia hummed in confirmation. ¡°Yeah? Like, he was quiet but teasing, and mostly nice, then he was¡­ murderous. I¡¯m pretty good at reading people, and it was just so abrupt.¡±

    V hummed his own contemplative sound. ¡°How long were you with him?¡± he asked, voice already implying that he¡¯d done the math and knew it couldn¡¯t have been long.

    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    The man shot her an incredulous look, which was patently unfair! She hadn¡¯t actually admitted that she¡¯d only spent a few hours with the man¡­ almost all of which she¡¯d also been unconscious¡­ Still! She was a good judge of character!

    Probably.

    Maybe.

    ¡°Should you really be making me second guess my stellar ability to judge people, considering I¡¯ve only known you for a few hours but judged you to be mostly reasonable?¡±

    ¡°Mostly?¡± V asked, smiling innocently at her.

    ¡°I¡¯m reserving full judgment for after you¡¯ve bathed,¡± Emilia deadpanned, forcing herself not to smile when the man burst out laughing.

    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s fair,¡± he said when his laughter had finally subsided. It was a nice laugh¡ªjust as nice as his carefree smiles. Sunshine and stars, given form through happiness and freedom.

    She¡¯d done a pretty good job of attaining that sort of happiness, since leaving her past life behind, but compared to V¡­

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that,¡± V sighed, smile falling into something sadder.

    ¡°Do what?¡± Emilia said, voice coming out far too petulantly for her liking.

    ¡°Look at me with envy.¡±

    Emilia blinked back at V. She hadn¡¯t realized she¡¯d been showing her emotions so visibly. Then again, if he did know her, perhaps he had experience reading her¡­

    ¡°Everyone has their own problems,¡± Emilia agreed, nodding sagely, as though she hadn''t just been envying someone she barely knew over their seeming ability to leave the past behind them¡ªor at least to be happy, despite the nightmares she was sure existed there.

    Even if he hadn¡¯t served as a soldier on the front¡ªdespite his mentions of being active during the war he hadn¡¯t given her any particular details about his service, nor had she particularly see him acting the soldier¡ªeveryone who had lived during the war had seen terrible things. Even the youngest, those toddlers who had the barest of memories of the last days of the war, had been able to feel the tension through the adults in their lives.

    How could they not? The entire country had known, those last few days, that the end was coming, and they were not going to win. The military brass had practically thrown in the towel, some of the highest-ranking officers disappearing into bunkers that had never been found¡ªor if they had been found, it had never been made public. Most of those who fled had reemerged following the final assault. Emilia had been gone by then, but everyone knew what had happened to them: the Black Knot and the secretive organization that dealt with problem soldiers had tracked them down, and they had never been seen again. Some people assumed they were dead, others that they had been shipped off to the least pleasant of the Free Colonies, a few that they had been locked into bunkers and left to die, more still that they had been forced into indentured servitude¡ªthe last was by far the most outlandish idea.

    As much as Baalphoria had indentured servants, it was a choice the individual made, in order to pay their debts. The idea that the government could force high-ranking soldiers, who had made selfish decisions at a time when everyone was rioting, assuming the world was going to end?

    Emilia shook her head, earning her a confused look from V.

    ¡°Ah¡­ just a wandering brain,¡± she explained, awkwardly scratching the back of her head with her free hand, V¡¯s fingers still firmly wrapped around the other.

    V didn¡¯t say anything about her distractibility, however something in his expression softened and Emilia felt her heart squeeze, stupidly. The man didn¡¯t understand just how distractible and obsessive her brain was. Feeling any sort of¡­ anything for him because he didn¡¯t shoot her the annoyed looks Rin and so many of the other people who had been forced to deal with her brain did was insane.

    So few people in her life had ever appreciated her for the way her brain ran away with itself. Olivier¡ªeventually, at least. Her ex¡ªas long as it wasn¡¯t interfering with his own plans. Sil, sometimes. Rafe and his brothers and a handful of others. She could see it, even in some of her closest friends, however, the annoyance they at least occasionally felt with her. Some tolerated it, many hated it, forcibly dragging her out of that distraction when they saw it coming on.

    As a result, whenever she came across someone who outright enjoyed how her brain worked, it was like they pressed a button¡ªa button that read: keep this person close and safe and learn to love them.

    It wasn¡¯t the greatest of buttons. She had hated her ex, and then loved him. Then he had died, and she had mourned and moved on through the war and school. Now, when she looked back through older, colder eyes¡­ she couldn¡¯t deny that something about their relationship may have been wrong. Sometimes, it seemed forced. Sometimes, she let herself be dragged into situations she never would have, simply because he was there, urging her on and that little part of her brain that wanted to be loved was screaming at her to keep him happy.

    Keep him around¡ªno matter what.

    And here, by the start of the war, she¡¯d thought she¡¯d gotten over her childhood trauma and learned to be herself¡ªto stand up for herself and her wants and beliefs and values¡ªno matter who was questioning her, making her question herself.

    It was strange, to look back and wonder if she¡¯d been wrong, or if the years and the trauma of the war and death had skewed her memories.

    ¡°Wandering again?¡±

    Emilia started back into the present, blinking absently at a pair of doors. When had they reached doors?

    ¡°Ah¡­ yes?¡± she asked, half-smiling, half-grimacing at V. ¡°Sorry.¡±

    The man¡¯s hand tightened around her, just this side of painful. ¡°Do not apologize for your¡ª¡± He cut off, something strange crossing his face before he was shaking his head and starting again. ¡°Do not apologize for being yourself.¡±

    Emilia blinked at him, wondering what he had been about to say before thinking better of it. A wrong phrasing? Something too personal? Something that he wouldn¡¯t be able to deny was the result of a shared past?

    ¡°Shall we?¡± he asked, nodding towards the doors.

    They were smaller than the last set of doors she¡¯d come across, but were still moderately tall¡ªthe height of three people, at least. They were also extremely boring, being a bland, dirty black against the cavern¡¯s gently shimmering blues and blacks. The two sections had no decoration, save a handle on each side, each a slightly darker black than the doors.

    ¡°I suppose,¡± she said, glaring at the doors.

    ¡°Something wrong?¡±

    She hesitated, swinging their arms between them, V letting her swing them as far as they could go and watching her softly. ¡°Just a bad feeling, is all.¡±

    V hummed, giving her hand another squeeze as she stopped violently swinging them. ¡°I guess we should be careful then, eh, War?¡±

    Emilia glared at his back as he let their hands drop to approach the door.

    ¡°One side or two?¡±

    What a silly question¡ªyou always open both sides of a door like this. Dramatic and wide, throwing them open without a care in the world, the wind blowing through your hair.

    ¡°One,¡± she said instead, hands already hovering over her {Blood Needles} as V grinned and began pulling a door open.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 73: Just a Panic Attack or Two

    Emilia¡¯s willbrand screamed through the air, sudden and harsh, and she blinked through the world. Around her, monsters screamed, and her allies screamed louder, anger giving way to pain and death.

    ¡°How¡­¡±

    The sound of nails clattering over blood slick rocks raced towards her, and she dodged to the right, shoulder slamming into the sharp edge of a cliff¡ªperhaps the most obvious sign that this wasn¡¯t real: her relaxes and instincts had been infinitely better during the war, when she had worn her D-Levels like the shield and responsibility they were.

    Life was easier without all that responsibility, and as much as her parents had tried to shield her from it, her teachers and the laws of their world had chased her. So when given the chance, she had run. She didn¡¯t generally regret running, hiding her D-Levels away and living the normal life she had craved for so long.

    She regretted it now¡ªregretted the echo and the way her body and personality were shifting hour by hour as Payton unknotted her. She liked being herself, whatever that meant, when she had no idea who she was anymore. This strange, in between place, however, certainly wasn¡¯t her¡ªnot for more than fleeting moments that felt much too short and impossibly long.

    ¡°V?¡± she called, rubbing her shoulder as she tried to find him in the battlefield of nameless faces and trying not to panic¡ªa wholly unwanted and unnecessary emotion. She was good at staying calm in confusion and crisis, even within the real world, where her life may suddenly grind to a stop with one flick of aethernet. This wasn¡¯t the real world, no matter how real it felt. Her life wasn¡¯t in danger, and there was no need to panic.

    Her heart still raced.

    Her throat still dried as she spun and spun, looking through too wide eyes at the blurry faces of everyone around her. Someone¡ªshe just needed to find someone. One single person she knew. Then things would be okay. Things were always okay when someone she knew was there.

    She needed someone.

    There was no one.

    No one¡ªshe didn¡¯t know a single person, had no idea how she had ended up here, when just moments before she had been watching V open a door.

    Talk about her instincts being right, that something horrible had been hiding behind those doors. This was worse than she had imagined¡ªthis was nightmares brought back to life, not just through memories or trauma, but through pure image and malice. The only thing saving her from breaking down was that this wasn¡¯t a specific memory of the war, just an amalgamation of pain.

    It was still terrible.

    She still wanted out.

    Out.

    Out.

    Out.

    ¡°Emilia?¡±

    Emilia spun, searching for V among the mess of bodies and monster, black and red blurs rushing through the crowd, snapping and clawing at anyone who got too close. Purple scales shimmered in the fading sunlight. Who had approved this battle? Fighting these things at night had never ended well for them¡ªsome of her unit¡¯s most powerful members had been torn down in fights like these. Darkness dancing across the world. Night black creatures creeping out of shadows to snap jaws of death around their throats. Life drained out of them. Aether feeding their enemies. Their skills twisted and mutilated until they were weapons that ripped soldiers apart and¡ª

    Emilia sucked in a harsh breath, a rock stabbing into her back. She shouldn¡¯t be this close to the rocks, one of her potential escape routes blocked off, blocked off, blocked off, how often had she lectured people on keeping their exits open?

    Don¡¯t back yourself into a corner.

    Don¡¯t separate from your team, your supports.

    Run when you have to.

    Don¡¯t leave anyone behind. Leave everyone behind. Save yourself¡ªthere was never a good answer on that front. Groups were exterminated because they were trying to save a single member. A single member ran and everyone else died because they had broken formation.

    There was never a good answer, but everyone had their opinions. Emilia had always tried to keep hers to herself, fluid and shifting with each situation as they were. Others had been louder¡ªothers had purposefully teamed up with people they deemed to have made the wrong decision and driven them into corners to die.

    Abandoned them on the field to be monster feed. Bodies torn to shreds, because personal opinion and rage overpowered orders and¡ª

    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. ¡°Fuck,¡± Emilia spit out, forcing her sticky throat to swallow. She needed to chill. She knew this wasn¡¯t real, and yet¡ªand yet. It was too much. It wasn¡¯t war or battle or real. No one she knew was dying, and yet.

    Inside her, her heart pounded, loud and cracking, and she was breaking apart because something was wrong. The platform, the moment, her stupid fucking knots.

    And she knew¡ªshe knew¡ªit wasn¡¯t real, and she hated herself all the more for being unable to force herself back together.

    ¡°Get it together, Emilia!¡± she snapped at herself, sucking in a grounding breath. The only thing meditation had ever been helpful¡ªat least until recently, when she had used those skills to work with her core¡ªhad been bringing herself down from panic attacks. ¡°You can do this. Fucking breathe, you stupid bitch.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t¡ªshe couldn''t breathe. All that practice. All those therapy sessions, learning to breathe through the panic. They did nothing. She couldn¡¯t breathe.

    Had her Censor been there, warnings would have been flashing across her increasingly blurry vision. Emilia had hated that features with a fierce passion. She already knew when she was unbalanced, her balance related genetics tangled up in so many traumatic knots that even therapists had been afraid to touch¡ªto even talk to¡ªher.

    Too broken.

    Too messed up.

    Might as well be dead.

    But you have to live.

    ¡°People died so you could live, so live.¡± A single note in an argument drawn out by pain and trauma; so much death they¡¯d been buried in bodies and blood without enough crematoriums to burn all the bodies, not enough funeral parlours to help the living mourn for those they couldn¡¯t save.

    ¡°Do not come!¡± Halen¡¯s voice growled through the coms. ¡°You don¡¯t need to die too, you fucking idiots! There¡¯s nothing you can do!¡±

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    They wouldn¡¯t have been able to help, even if they had been able to make it. They never would have made it. It had taken Emilia years to accept that: they were out of range. Even if they¡¯d been sober, not on a rare rest from the war.

    They wouldn¡¯t have made it. At most, they would have hit the edge of the explosion that had wiped out the base, caused earthquakes and tsunamis that even their environmental controls had barely been able to stop. They would have died. No one would have been around to fight that final battle.

    Would Olivier have still joined, even with her dead? Would he have fought in that final strike, alongside Seven, their only member neither at base nor with their group, vacationing?

    Seven. Seven, sweet and sad and missing. Just like her. Had he ever tried to find her, like she had tried to find him? Did he care that they worried for him, more than anyone worried for her? At least with her, Rafe¡ªand the few others she still talked to on those rare occasions where they needed something from one another¡ªhad still told people she was alive.

    It probably hurt them, that they weren¡¯t worth her words, her energy¡ªweren¡¯t worth her dredging up trauma in an attempt to speak to them. Rafe was different, however. Rafe knew her in ways that no one else ever would. Rafe had been her friend for practically their entire lives, save that weird bit in the middle where he had forced violent distance between them. Rafe had killed for her, and would do it again, if she needed him to.

    Would kill for her, if he deemed it necessary, even if she did not.

    Rafe, who had even approached his older brother and demanded information from him, so Emilia could cope, way back when they were teenagers and those first, horrific panics had come. Before the war, before she had killed black knot stalkers or run away from all she knew.

    ¡°Here.¡± Rafe had practically forced the file into her. She hadn¡¯t bothered to look at it, her brain foggy from lack of sleep. She hadn¡¯t slept well in weeks, although she¡¯d been sleeping better after Rafe had started sneaking into her room to hold her safe¡ªto keep the nightmares at bay. No one but Rafe had noticed her slowly falling apart, but he was always good at that¡ªat seeing the bits of her that no one had any right to.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Some techniques for calming yourself down.¡± He¡¯d shrugged, like it meant nothing that he¡¯d approached his brother searching for ways to help her. Maybe in another life, it wouldn¡¯t have. In another life, Rafe would have followed in his brothers¡¯ footsteps¡ªwould have joined the organization that everyone in his family, save Rafe and one of his cousins, did. He hadn¡¯t, and even then, young as they were, his brother had known of Rafe¡¯s intentions to work elsewhere. The fact that he had provided Rafe information¡­ Emilia still wondered what her friend had promised, in exchange for it.

    A thousand details of those techniques ratcheted through Emilia. They weren¡¯t meant for long-term use. They were brutal and forced and meant for emergencies, for being tortured or for standing on a battlefield, panicking so hard that she couldn¡¯t even see the world around her anymore. She couldn¡¯t breathe¡ªcouldn¡¯t use the better, more sustainable techniques she¡¯d learned decades later to deal with entirely different trauma to chill the fuck out.

    Almost immediately, the world began to come back to her, but she could feel the consequences of what she had done wearing on her. They had always worn on her, but now? Inside a game with fucked up knots and no aether stores or Censor?

    Yeah, she needed to get out of here ASAP. Thankfully, despite the situation, the techniques had worked, even if she¡¯d been forced to break a few fingers in the process.

    Hopefully, this area was either completely separate from the one she¡¯d come from, and she wouldn¡¯t pop back into the heartcore labyrinth with a busted finger¡ªor if she did, they would heal with the help of the system.

    ¡°V?¡± she yelled, trying and failing to raise her voice above the cacophony that was suddenly pounding around her again. Her voice stuck, sticky in her parched throat.

    ¡°Emilia?¡± he called again, as though she hadn¡¯t disappeared into trauma for what felt like hours topped by millennia, as though her voice was actually audible. ¡°Emilia?¡± V called once more, his voice distant and weak, like he was injured and needed her and¡ª

    Her feet were running before she thought better of it. She was exhausted, her body and mind screaming at her to rest.

    She needed to keep going, even if she had no idea where she was going, V¡¯s voice too weak to give her any indication of where to go. Instead, she reached out, feeling wholly wrong for using her core in the real-world¡ªor a simulation of it, in any case. She had no aether stores, even here, however, and she needed to find him.

    Her core was the key to finding him.

    Reach out¡ªfind the person who feels different¡­ maybe. The beings around her felt wrong, however, and Emilia had to hold on to the hope that V would feel right.

    Emilia¡¯s core ached as she sent spike after spike of energy out, searching for V before rushing back to tell her they found nothing. ¡°V!?¡± she called again, hoping that perhaps he would try to yell once more, but nothing came back to her.

    He was gone.

    She¡¯d run too far, escaped the echo of his voice.

    He¡¯d died, bled out of the field like so many others¡ªlike Olivier would have, if she hadn¡¯t¡ª

    A spark of aether ruptured through her, wild and free and blasting everything¡ªfriend and woe¡ªaround her to bloody pieces. She hadn¡¯t had aether stores a moment ago, and yet now she felt as free and powerful as ever. Wider and wider her aether spread¡ªthe connection she had forced into the aethernet during those moments of desperation vibrating as she forced monsters to yield to her, as she destroyed faceless, nameless allies in the hopes of saving the one person she did know.

    The one person she couldn¡¯t find, but needed to find.

    Blood and gore painted the world. People screamed, not at the monsters but at her, and suddenly, it all came surging back into her, the pain of her shattered fingers bleeding away to shock and panic.

    She should have done better.

    She should have been able to stop it.

    To stop Alliance Ridge.

    To stop the battles that had slowly drained their hearts, loved ones exploding and eaten alive.

    She should have been able to do that¡ªshe¡¯d done it, eventually, ground the world and the war to a halt. Torn holes in herself and the aethernet to stop everything, at a cost of too much to bear. If she were going to tear everything apart, why did she wait so long?

    Why?

    She didn¡¯t even know now.

    ¡°You should have done that sooner!¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t¡ª¡± The words had caught in her throat, dry from stress and crying and her core trying to rip her to shreds from the inside out.

    How she had survived, forced her core to hold together, she¡¯d never really understand. Pure force of will, most likely. She¡¯d needed to know Olivier would live¡ªneeded to know she hadn¡¯t killed him with her selfishness. She¡¯d intended to stay, to sit quietly by his bedside while Tariq ignored and glared at her in equal turn, while Olivier¡¯s family wandered in for mere moments before disappearing back into the halls. They hadn¡¯t blamed her, at least. Olivier was a grown man, capable of making his own decisions, even when they didn¡¯t agree with them.

    Or, maybe they did blame her, and just didn¡¯t think her worth their effort to even speak to. Honestly, she wasn¡¯t even sure they¡¯d known who she was. Olivier had always been so private, holding as much back from his controlling parents as he could.

    Then again, perhaps she wouldn¡¯t even have ranked high enough for him to have spoken of her. She was just a random client, after all. One who had begged for his help time and time again and almost killed him as a result. She¡¯d like to think they were more¡ªand even a decade on, in those too short moments she¡¯d spent in his arms, they¡¯d certainly seemed like more than lawyer and former client.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t what!?¡± the man had snarled, so unlike the happy, carefree person who had once been one of her best friends. War and death had changed him¡ªchanged them both. Emilia had looked at him in that moment, seen the hatred written across his features, and what little bit of sanity and balance she had been managing to hold on to had snapped.

    They had screamed and cried, and then she had run, his words and the vitriol they had contained echoing through her head for years, until she had finally managed to leave them behind¡ªand leave them behind she did.

    She did.

    She did.

    She did.

    ¡°Fuck you!¡± she snarled at the phantom memory of the man she had once told practically everything to, had nearly died for time and time again. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have done it sooner! And even if I had, that was not something to be used just because a few fucking people died. They were nothing compared to how many people I could have killed!¡±

    Emilia¡¯s aether, which had rioted and stilled in a wave of motion as panic overtook her, cracked through the world. Giant tears rent through the aethernet, ripping the simulation apart and for the barest of moments, she could see the code of this world. It shouldn¡¯t be visible, and yet here it was: ones and zeros, etched into the fabric of the universe¡ªof this specific, fabricated universe.

    She sucked in a grounding breath as the world fell apart. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± she thought, eyes fluttering shut as the end came, ¡°this is how it could have ended.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 74: Distract Me

    ¡°Em!¡±

    A hand wrapped around her arm, and suddenly, she was spinning, finding herself engulfed in a pair of thin, pale arms. Blonde hair brushed over her face as someone far taller than her buried their nose in her neck.

    ¡°You¡¯re okay¡­¡± the person said, and Emilia could almost recognize their voice¡ªcould almost find that missing resemblance, a decade and an entire world removed from this single, painful moment.

    She couldn¡¯t find it, and when the person finally pulled away, V was staring down at her, fear and anguish mixed through his features. Emilia smiled up at him, wiping a stray piece of hair behind his ear, her hand coming back flaked in mud.

    ¡°The mud hasn¡¯t dried,¡± she noted absently, mind naturally latching onto some strange detail of reality, just as those notes from Rafe¡¯s brother had told her to, so many decades ago. She rubbed the sticky substance between her fingers. It didn¡¯t feel exactly like mud, but it certainly was. She¡¯d crawled through enough mud in her life¡ªfirst as a misbehaving child, later as a soldier and even once as a petty and ambitious university student¡ªto know it was mud. Little pebbles rolled between her fingers, debris that seemed organic, despite the fact that she hadn¡¯t seen a single thing growing within the labyrinth poked out of the brown substance. Thick and sticky, it reminded her of blood.

    She really hoped V hadn¡¯t been forced to drag himself through a tiny tunnel of blood¡ªor if he had, hopefully he hadn¡¯t actually realized the mud contained blood. She¡¯d crawled through blood before, on the battlefield. More often than not, the worst of her nightmares came from those moments. Blood caking her as she crawled, trying to avoid monsters and hoping the blood she dragged herself through was that was allies and not the toxic blood of monsters.

    Then, of course, she would feel sick for hoping it was dead humans she was scrambling through.

    She wouldn¡¯t wish those sorts of thoughts and nightmares on anyone¡ªnot unless they truly deserved them. While she was certainly the type of person to keep her options open¡ªyou never knew what kind of terrible people you were going to have the misfortune of meeting¡ªshe had never come across someone deserving of such terror¡ªnot even the men who had brought her stumbling into Olivier¡¯s classroom or left Rafe sneaking into bed to comfort her through nightmares.

    V blinked at her, fear giving way to incredulous concern. ¡°Uh¡­ no? Should it have?¡±

    ¡°Should it not have dried?¡± she returned, wondering if he knew something about how things dried in this world that she did not. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since you went crawling through dangerous caves¡­ good thing that was just part of the game.¡±

    Just part of the game.

    This was just a game, and so was that world she had just destroyed. That wasn¡¯t an actual world she had just accidentally destroyed in her panic, just like she had spent the last decade worrying she would. At the very least, this world seemed unaffected by whatever had happened in that other world, wherever it had been¡ªand she wasn¡¯t even convinced it hadn¡¯t been a dream or hallucination.

    Granted, the labyrinths seemed to be somewhat disconnected from the platform¡¯s actual world, and the main part of the platform could be¡­

    Emilia shook herself. There was no point in worrying about whether whatever had happened had affected the world outside the heartcore labyrinth until she could actually, you know, check.

    The man¡¯s lips twitched, and he looked about ready to roll his eyes at her. ¡°Says the person who climbs in real life.¡±

    Had she said that? Told him she climbed The Strats in the real world¡ªor that she at least once had? She didn¡¯t know. It felt like she¡¯d met V forever ago, not mere hours. Maybe hours¡ªwho knew how long they had been unconscious for. They didn¡¯t even know if V had also passed out after the blood storm.

    Did you even count time spent unconscious as hours you had known one another, when it was cumulatively such a short period of time? You counted years of knowing someone, ignoring the sleep between in favour of ease. Did you do that for hours? Even a day or two? Emilia didn¡¯t think so, but she¡¯d been counting time strangely the entire raid, so why start counting more appropriately now.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± he asked, hands gently checking her over, as though whatever had happened to her had broken her body and not her mind.

    ¡°What happened?¡± she mumbled, noting that her fingers at least weren¡¯t broken in this life. She¡¯d fought with busted limbs and fingers before. It had always sucked, and those times she¡¯d had her Censor and skills to aid her¡ªexcept during a few serious childhood scraps.

    ¡°You¡­ you just kind of zoned out? It was like you were gone. I tried calling to you, but¡­ but you were gone for a while.¡±

    ¡°It didn¡¯t feel like a while.¡±

    ¡°No?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emilia said, shaking her head. Time hadn¡¯t felt long, but she felt foggy, like she¡¯d just woken from a long dream. ¡°I was back in the war, but not the war. I don¡¯t think I was there long. How long was I¡­¡±

    ¡°An hour? Two? It¡¯s difficult to tell time down here, but it wasn¡¯t just a few minutes or anything,¡± V sighed, still looking her over, as though her experience, wherever¡ªwhatever¡ªthat had been, would show across her skin.

    Now, if the man could see inside her heart, that would be a different story. Then, he would be able to see the scars bleeding anew.

    She smiled weakly at him, belatedly realizing they were actually sitting, when she wiggled and the ground rubbed over the bare sections of her legs. How out of it was she, to now even realize she was no longer standing? ¡°I¡¯m cold¡­¡± she absently noted, eyes shooting back to V when he immediately began to finger his shirt.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°I¡¯d give you my clothes, but they are objectively disgusting.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were okay being gross?¡± Emilia laughed, feeling so very tired. She wanted to sleep¡ªwanted to lean over and fall asleep next to her kind and concerned friend. She was afraid of what nightmares she would find within her mind, company or no.

    V practically growled, not exactly at her, but more in frustration. A hand ran through his hair, sending mud splattering over them, and he cursed, rubbing the mud that had marred her away.

    ¡°V,¡± she called, catching his hands. ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s just mud, and I¡¯m not cold enough to need your gross shirt. If I were, I¡¯d take it, but I¡¯m not. I¡¯ll warm up again once we¡¯re moving.¡± Probably, but he didn¡¯t need to know that. Move to warm up, move to shave away the shock.

    The other visitor¡¯s eyes didn¡¯t meet hers, instead staying glued to their once more joined hands. He reminded her of a child, or a small, frightened animal, and she felt it again, that pull of nostalgia and knowing.

    Too weak¡ªshe was too weak to even attempt to follow the thread of whom this man had once been to her. She hoped he wasn¡¯t offended that she couldn¡¯t place him, although, given that he had said he had drastically changed over the last decade, perhaps it was cathartic for someone to not be able to place him?

    Emilia was sure that, were she not wearing skin so close to her own, she would be ecstatic for someone she had once known to not recognize her, and she had barely changed at all. She had changed, a bit, but most was the result of her knots. How much of that change would stick, once her knots were removed, was a question she was trying to avoid thinking about.

    Actually, with so many of her core personality traits dampened by knots, she could very well be different enough that V looked at her in confused familiarity as well, assuming they had even been close enough for him to memorize her core traits. She was acting as though they had known each other well, but it could very well have been a passing familiarity.

    ¡°What did you do while I was out?¡± she asked, instead of giving in and asking him the thousand questions rattling through her. She leaned forward, and despite her misgiving about the state of V¡¯s clothing, rested her forehead against his shoulder. Horrible. That world had been horrible, and dirt and smell aside, she needed more than someone holding her hands. She could get by without the comfort¡ªshe¡¯d spent years dealing with traumatic nightmares by herself, after all, never confiding her secrets in anyone, not even her closest friends¡ªbut if V was willing to give her the comfort she craved¡­

    The man tensed as she rested against him before all the tension leaked out of him, and he was sagging into her as well. ¡°Nothing. Worried for you. Made sure the thing that took your friends didn¡¯t take you too.¡±

    ¡°Mm, my hero,¡± she sighed, smiling as V huffed.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the thought that counts,¡± she assured him, adding, ¡°Plus, for all we know, the fact that you were watching me is what kept me safe.¡± She nodded into him, mumbling about various animals that hunted lone animals, versus those that hunted packs, picking off the weakest member, often when their pack left them behind.

    ¡°There used to be some animals, near where I grew up,¡± V told her, perfectly willing to indulge in her attempts to calm them down through random facts and anecdotes, ¡°that sometimes took local children.¡±

    ¡°Ugh. Well, that¡¯s terrible.¡±

    V hummed, his thumb idly rubbing over her knuckles. ¡°Locals tried to hunt them all to extinction at one point, but the government stepped in. Things got a bit¡­ ugly.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Emilia asked, leaning back to meet V¡¯s eyes.

    He smiled sadly, sucking in a long breath and gazing upwards. ¡°A couple kids were killed by a particularly vicious pack. It was a few decades before I was born, but we were told horror stories about it during compulsory education. It was¡­ quite messy, and the city¡ªour parents and the local government¡ªbecame colder, darker, more restrictive. There are rumours that the animals tried to kill more children, but failed, and that¡¯s the reason our parents were more intense than even our grandparents: they saw their friends being hunted by the things. I have no idea if that¡¯s true, though.¡±

    ¡°What happened to the animals after that?¡±

    ¡°The locals culled them,¡± V told her, looking vacantly away from her.

    ¡°Were their consequences¡ªfrom the government, I mean?¡± Emilia asked. Usually, the Baalphorian government didn¡¯t take well to smaller areas disregarding their laws, but this seemed like a situation where the government should have stepped in and relocated the animals or something.

    ¡°Nah,¡± V sighed, shoulder¡¯s pressing back as his spine cracked. It would have been easier if he had dropped her hands. He didn¡¯t. ¡°The government fucked up, the locals took things into their own hands. There wasn¡¯t much to be done, and I¡¯ve never heard anyone talk about it outside of horror stories growing up.¡±

    ¡°In other words, it¡¯s a secret history?¡±

    V laughed. ¡°Oh yeah. Even before The Flaming, it seemed to only really be known where I grew up. I went to a talk about ethically dealing with animal displacement following the war. A few similar cases were brought up, but no one mentioned this one. It wasn¡¯t like the government was going to spread news of such a massive fuck-up, and I don¡¯t think anyone really talked about it with outsiders? You¡¯re the only one I¡¯ve ever told.¡±

    ¡°Ah~¡± Emilia signed, trying to sound as innocent as possible when she asked, ¡°And where did you grow up?¡±

    V smiled innocently back at her. ¡°Ah~¡± he echoed, eyes crinkling with too much amusement even as her own smile was already falling. ¡°Now, why would I tell you that, Emilia? Don¡¯t you know, people usually don¡¯t share such personal information in raids like this?¡±

    ¡°Mm¡­¡± Emilia grumbled, scowling at him and cursing as his smile grew. ¡°I¡¯ve heard most people don¡¯t even use their own names.¡±

    ¡°Or their own colouring,¡± V agreed, smiling growing even wider, his dimples etching distractingly across his cheeks.

    ¡°Who says my colouring is my real!?¡± she objected, pulling back to glare at the man more effectively. Granted, if they knew each other, he¡¯d obviously know it was her own from that fact alone, but still! There could be someone going around pretending to be her, or something!

    V¡¯s eyes glittered with mischief and secrets. ¡°Silverstrain can¡¯t be faked, in the real world or in raids.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s glare and frown dropped, leaving her gaping up at the other visitor. ¡°I¡­¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t know that? I figured,¡± V said, leaning back and shrugging, the cute and happy man shifting into something teasing and a bit mean, and Emilia hated the way the shift affected her. ¡°To be fair, I¡¯m not sure most people do. I¡¯ve seen people try to simulate silverstrain, though. It never looked quite right.¡±

    ¡°Do you know anyone with the silverstrain¡ªin real life, I mean?¡± Emilia asked, hoping that perhaps V would mess up and reveal something important about whatever connection they had.

    In was a long shot, however, and when V simply said he¡¯d met a few people with it during the war, she was unsurprised. It was, however, a helpful bit of information, even if just slightly: V had known a few people. There were a few of them, during the war, but not more than a handful. Once, they¡¯d all gotten together, just to complain about the assholes who judged them based solely on their irregular deviation. It had been great.

    ¡°Shall we?¡± the man asked, legs shifting until he was easily hauling them both up with a shocking amount of coordination and strength. ¡°You good to try again?¡±

    ¡°Mhm!¡± Emilia cheered, still watching the man through narrowed eyes as he dragged them towards the doors.

    It was a good thing she was watching him so closely, otherwise, when whatever had caused her mind to float away hit him as well, she wouldn¡¯t have been prepared to catch his not unsubstantial weight as he toppled over.

    ¡°Shit!¡± she squeaked, trying to not splat onto the ground.

    Emilia grunted as they hit the ground, V¡¯s eyes staring vacantly up at her. ¡°Creepy,¡± she sighed, grimacing as her fingers brushed over his eyelids to close them. ¡°Well¡­ fuck.¡±

 Arc 2 | Chapter 75: Calling Down a Calamity

    ¡°Hey there, stinky little flower~¡± Emilia cooed as bright blue eyes fluttered open to peer up at her.

    V frowned, lips tilting down and eyebrows pulling dramatically together. ¡°Do I smell that bad?¡± he croaked up at her, the swallow that followed audible¡ªthey really needed to find something to eat or drink soon. V had, unfortunately, been forced to abandon his coat filled with supplies in the cave system, and Emilia had eaten all the treats he had left for her while she waited for her injuries to heal by the cavern lake.

    ¡°A bit,¡± Emilia said, fingers brushing through his hair.

    She¡¯d spent the majority of the time the man was out pulling bits of mud out of his waves. They were still dirty, coated in more grime than just the mud, but at least if he decided to shake himself like a dog¡ªor in frustration¡ªhe wouldn¡¯t splatter her with mysterious, undrying mud.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay, though,¡± she assured him when his eyes clamped closed, mouth pinched in frustration. ¡°I¡¯ve mostly gotten used to. Seriously, though! I thought you were fine being a dirty boy! You don¡¯t seem that fine to me!¡±

    V¡¯s frown deepened before he released a long, annoyed breath. ¡°I don¡¯t really care, but I also don¡¯t usually have people around me who might care¡ªor whose opinions I care about.¡±

    ¡°Ah~ I see, I see,¡± Emilia sighed, nodding sagely as she ignored the clench of her heart and continued working a knot out of V¡¯s hair. Something was weird with it. She swore the moment she untangled all of it, working methodically from one side to another, more knots would appear. It was truly an impressive and terrible skill! It had kept her busy the last hour or two, however, while the other visitor presumably dealt with his own internal hell. ¡°So¡­ wanna talk about it?¡±

    V¡¯s throat bobbed with another painful swallow. ¡°I was back in the war as well, but not in a battle or anything.¡±

    ¡°No?¡±

    The man¡¯s head shook slightly. ¡°No. I was¡­¡±

    His face screwed up, and for a moment, Emilia wondered if he was trying to find the right words to hide something from her. Then, she shook those thoughts off. Maybe that was it. More likely, he was just trying to find the words to explain whatever trauma had been swirled back up for him. Now was not the moment to be selfish and wonder if she was so important as to be in his memories.

    ¡°There was a moment, during the war, that I¡¯ve regretted every day since,¡± V continued, eyes shifting under his lids, as though he were still seeing whatever nightmare had been chasing him, which perhaps he was, and Emilia rubbed at the corner of his eye.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± she asked, actually thinking that she managed to not sound overly enthusiastic about hearing it, which she certainly wasn¡¯t! Yes, whatever V had seen could potentially lead her back to his identity, but that was the least of her concerns! She wasn¡¯t heartless, thank you very much!

    V¡¯s mouth twitched, and when he opened his eyes¡­

    ¡°I said something I shouldn¡¯t have, and refused someone¡¯s kindness when I should have accepted. It wasn¡¯t until many years later that I realized what a gift they had been offering me.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you try and find their kindness again?¡± Emilia asked. ¡°In my experience, it isn¡¯t until someone has burned a bridge a thousand times that it truly stays burned.¡±

    The man smiled softly up at her. ¡°I hope that¡¯s true. I feel like I¡¯ve been working to become someone they¡­¡± He shook himself, once again trying to find his words.

    ¡°Are proud of?¡± Emilia suggested, smiling when he glared up at her.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Hate?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± V deadpanned back at her, although she could see the amusement dancing in his eyes as they went back and forth, Emilia suggesting more and more ridiculous things he could hope whoever he had offended would think of him now.

    ¡°Want to baby?¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    Emilia blinked down. V smiled innocently up at her.

    ¡°What? I like being babied. Is that a crime?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Emilia said slowly. ¡°I also like being babied.¡± Olivier, in particular, had always been great at babying her. There had even been a few times when¡­

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts shuddered back into the present. No, no, no! She did not need to be thinking about sex things with her shockingly kinky lawyer¡ªbecause seriously, who would look at that man and think he was into anything other outside the box!? Yes, he looked like the type to be a bit mean in bed, but not the type to be into anything¡­ extra.

    And oh, was Olivier into so much more than regular, rough sex.

    ¡°Uhm¡­ you want them to be attracted to you?¡± she tried. She really needed to get away from this train of thought. Just thinking about Olivier left her hot and bothered. She didn¡¯t need her mind wandering away, thinking of specific, sexy moments with the man!

    ¡°Ah~¡± V sighed, something soft and distant entering his eyes. ¡°I suppose it would be nice if they were attracted to me now.¡±

    ¡°Oh, did you have a thing for them?¡±

    V¡¯s laughter was like sunshine returning to the world, even if they were currently trapped in this terrible cave system, searching for Emilia¡¯s missing friends, who she really hoped were okay! Between all the passing out, they¡¯ve been separated for at least three or four hours, and considering how oddly time seemed to stretch and compress here, it could easily have been more.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°I think everyone had a crush on them,¡± V laughed, eyes staring away blankly, like his vision were filling with memories decades old¡ªwonderful memories, if the smile tugging at his lips were any indication. ¡°They were just that sort of person? Kind and smart and beautiful, dragging everyone into their orbit. Even the people who hated them generally respected and admired them.¡±

    Emilia was trying really, really hard to not assume the person V was talking about was her. It could have been Naomi! Naomi had been all those things too! Rebecca was kind¡ªat least to the people she liked¡ªand so incredibly beautiful it was unfair. And it didn¡¯t even have to be a girl! V had already said he was open to either sex, after all. Olivier fit the bill as well, even if he hadn¡¯t often shown his kind side to anyone, but he was certainly the most admirable of them. Halen¡­ was so rarely kind, V probably wasn¡¯t talking about him, but there had been other men in their unit who were. Even her ex had usually been kind, unless the person were an idiot.

    Of course, if V were thinking he could potentially reconnect with the person, that took half those people out of the running, given they were, ya know, dead, and all.

    ¡°Stop that!¡± she mentally chastised herself. Seriously. She was going to drive herself crazy trying to figure out who this man was to her!

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you ever¡ª¡±

    ¡°Make a move on them?¡± V asked, smile tilting sadly as he cut her off. ¡°There was no way I could have. Back then¡­ I was different. There was no way I could have asked them out. I thought about it, near the end of the war, but there was never a good time, and then we all floated apart.¡±

    ¡°We all?¡±

    ¡°My division. I know some units stayed together, but ours¡­¡± V shook his head, eyes fluttering shut as he mumbled about how they had all just seen too much on the front.

    Emilia blinked at him. ¡°So, you did serve on the front?¡±

    V blinked at her, his attention snapping back to her from wherever¡ªwhenever¡ªit had floated off to. ¡°Did I not mention that?¡±

    ¡°No, just that you served.¡±

    ¡°Oops?¡± He smiled painfully at her, and the niggle that she had felt that he might have purposefully been hiding that part of his past from her slipped away, just like telling her had slipped away from him. ¡°You¡­ couldn¡¯t tell?¡± he asked after a long moment of the two staring at each other.

    ¡°No, not really,¡± Emilia told him, one of her fingers dragging along the edge of his jaw and drawing a shiver out of him. ¡°Nothing about you really screamed soldier to me¡­ other than your general calm, I guess. I know a few people who have the calm from games, though?¡±

    She smiled, telling V about how her boyfriend had complained to her a few times about friends who only had that cool in virtual games. ¡°Sometimes, cool calm when you can¡¯t die doesn¡¯t translate into the real world at all! Even though you¡¯re unlikely to get more than a minor injury in raids,¡± she laughed. Elijah had returned from a few raids over the last year, bitching about teammates he had met in VR games and thought would be reasonable people to team up with in real-world raids. Not so much. Still hadn¡¯t stopped the man from defending raids as a good tool from keeping people prepped for war, much to her annoyance.

    ¡°You have a boyfriend?¡± the other visitor asked, eyes flickering shut, his jaw tensing slightly under Emilia¡¯s fingers.

    ¡°Yeah~ but it¡¯s nothing serious,¡± she sighed, leaning back against the wall she had dragged V¡¯s body towards while he was unconscious, her own eyes flickering shut as well.

    ¡°Why date him then?¡±

    Emilia shrugged, realizing V couldn¡¯t see her and telling him she didn¡¯t know why they were still dating. ¡°It was fun, for a while. We actually started as enemies hate fucking each other,¡± she laughed, thinking back to that first time they had hooked up. Where she and Olivier had been all sexual tension before they had snapped and fucked against his apartment wall, she had never had much attraction to Elijah. He was objectively attractive, but personality wise¡­

    She shrugged again. ¡°I think it¡¯s coming to an end. He kinda seems to want to¡­ change our relationship¡ªwe¡¯re open,¡± she added. ¡°I think he wants to close things, but I¡¯m not really into doing that.¡± Her fingers dragged through the man¡¯s hair as she told him about how Elijah had gone to visit him family a few months previous and returned different¡ªhow they hadn¡¯t really been hooking up with anyone else since then.

    ¡°I say that! But I hooked up with my ex-lawyer in the real-world today, or yesterday, I guess. Ugh, time is impossible to understand.¡± Her eyes opened, and when she looked down, she found V staring intently up at her. ¡°What?¡±

    He frowned slightly, looking conflicted, before he shook himself. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t date someone who makes you unhappy.¡±

    ¡°Who¡­ who says I¡¯m unhappy?¡± Emilia asked, startled by the statement¡ªstartled that something about her words or tone or whatever else had told V that Elijah wasn¡¯t really making her happy anymore. Personally, she thought her words reflected more neutrality on the subject, keeping what mild unhappiness was beginning to bubble around her relationship out of her words and tone.

    He smiled sadly up at her, head tilting into her hand, before he was pushing himself up. ¡°We should go,¡± he said, rather than tell her what specific thing in her existence had told him she was unhappy with her relationship at the moment.

    Honestly, if she popped out of this raid and told Elijah she¡¯d hooked up with Olivier had he dumped her, she would probably feel a little relieved. It would mean freedom. It would mean not having to deal with whatever tension Elijah¡¯s family had caused within their relationship¡ªbecause as much as Elijah wasn¡¯t bringing it up, eventually he¡¯d have to, and she was sure it would be¡­ aggravating and annoying, and they¡¯d probably break up anyways. She¡¯d thought the fun moments of their relationship were worth the current strain, but she was starting to question whether that were true, or just her wanting to spare herself from having to break up with him.

    ¡°You never said what specifically you were doing, in¡­ wherever we ended up,¡± Emilia said as she let V haul her up, his hands warm and large around her own. ¡°Not that you have to tell me.¡±

    V laughed his sunshine laugh. ¡°You first. You just said you were, shall we say, dreaming of the war.¡±

    Emilia sighed, letting V drag her back towards the door that had trapped them each in nightmares of the past. ¡°I was dreaming of lots of trauma, and then one of my skills going out of control.¡±

    The other visitor¡¯s hand tightened around hers. ¡°I was dreaming of making things with the person worse¡ªof permanently destroying everything I could ever have with them, even friendship.¡±

    Emilia squeezed his hand back as they walked, V carefully peering through the doorway in case they were hit with another wave of nightmares. Nothing came, and they cautiously moved through to the next room.

    ¡°So¡­ we both had nightmares of our worst fears and memories from the war? That¡¯s a bit¡­ odd.¡±

    V hummed in agreement. ¡°I¡¯ve seen similar things in other raids, but usually, there¡¯s some goal you have to reach? Something like¡­ overcome your fears to escape or get a special item or bonus against the boss, or something.¡±

    ¡°V.¡±

    ¡°Emilia?¡± V frowned back at her.

    ¡°You did not just jinx us like that.¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡± V asked, although the shit eating grin on his face and the way he seamlessly pulled her out of the way when a blast of sticky mud came flying their way told Emilia that the bastard had totally expected to call down some sort of calamity upon them.

    Stars help her, she had somehow found herself in a partnership with someone who enjoyed teasing the universe.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 76: Shrinkage

    V¡¯s laughter as they fought what Emilia could only hope was the boss of the library heartcore¡¯s labyrinth was equal parts endearing and aggravating. Yes, they were having fun fighting the boss, but also! This was serious! Many lives were on the line¡ªfour lives, to be precise. Theirs, along with Rin and Key¡¯s, who¡ªrather amusingly¡ªwere currently locked in a cage, suspended high above their battlefield.

    Even from so far away, Rin looked simply bored, while Key looked irate. Occasionally, he would yell advice at them, although virtually none of it was of particular use¡ªas much as Key had fared well in their previous fights, first against her Risen Guard babysitter, and then Taoran, he clearly wasn¡¯t formally trained in combat.

    She and V, on the other hand¡­

    A decade and an entire world removed, Emilia knew that both of their fighting styles were vastly different from anything they would have been in the war. Even with someone like Rafe, who she had known and worked alongside most of her life, their previous synchronicity had become scattered and unreliable during their years apart, following the war. It should have been the same with V: if they had ever fought alongside one another, they should have fumbled and misread each other, excepting one, common war strategy and receiving something wholly different.

    It should have been awkward and stilted and dangerous.

    It wasn¡¯t.

    They were perfectly in sync. They danced and swerved around each other, despite the fact that Emilia could find no resemblance to anyone she had fought alongside in V¡¯s movements¡ªat least not obviously. Clearly, the man hadn¡¯t been lying or exaggerating when he had said he served.

    Well, it wasn¡¯t that people lied about whether they had served or not, more that they implied they had been active combatants or supports in the war, when in reality they had held behind the scenes jobs. Those jobs were important¡ªthe military couldn¡¯t run without cooks or engineers or people keeping their gear maintained¡ªbut those who had fought on the frontline, even in the less active zones, were regarded much more highly than anyone else.

    So, people exaggerated their roles. Usually, it became pretty obvious they were lying once anyone who actually had been on the front¡ªhad actually learned to fight in ways that were most effective against their enemies¡ªsaw them in action. Even a decade on, you could still see aspects of those skills in a person¡¯s fighting style.

    Emilia could see those aspects in V¡¯s style¡ªcould see them in the way his body moved, so many echoes of the amalgamated martial arts they had created in those first few years, when the monsters they fought had been smaller. A decade into the war, the monsters had outsized most of humanity by several feet. By the end, the largest recorded monster had towered nearly a hundred feet above them.

    This thing, gross and slimy and dirty as it was, was nothing. It was larger than them, yes, but compared to the things she had faced on the front, it was nothing but a nuisance that they had to figure out how to rout. V seemed of a similar mind, either from his own experience during the war or in the decade of raids since. Cool and collected, they danced around each other, V swinging and throwing his spear while laughingly trying to explain to Emilia how he had shrunk it down.

    She didn¡¯t understand, V¡¯s words more practical than logical, but her own weapons, small as they were, weren¡¯t exactly suited for shrinkage anyways. She didn¡¯t need to know¡ªto understand¡ªhow he had done it. Not that that was stopping her from wanting to know the how of the shrinking. One day, she might have a weapon she wanted to shrink, and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts cut off as V¡¯s {Blood Spear} slid into the ground next to her.

    ¡°Try with that,¡± V called back at her, spinning gracefully out of range of a mouthful of the monster¡¯s spit.

    It was just as toxic as the spit from the monsters she had faced at the cavern lake, although unlike their clear spit, this guy¡¯s spit was muddy. Both she and V had been splattered by a moderate amount of it, her own {Blood Armour} protecting most of her skin, while V had been forced to abandon his shirt after the fabric had begun to meld to his skin.

    Emilia had bolted over and helped him yank it off, before it permanently melted to his skin. It had been disgusting, and now his admittedly attractive body was marred with splotches of red and slices of missing skin. Slowly, they were healing, but Emilia had been counting and comparing the healing time to her own previous wounds. These ones were taking significantly longer to heal, unfortunately.

    ?Behind you!? Key yelled, V seamlessly bolting forward because his visit to the heartcore had helpfully(?) supplied him with the ability to hear the local¡¯s native tongue.

    ¡°Couldn¡¯t I have gotten the ability to understand locals at a better time?¡± the other visitor had muttered when he realized he could hear Key¡¯s extremely distracting yelling. Even more unfortunate for him, Key had realized V could hear him and had taken to mostly yelling at him, all but forgetting that Emilia existed.

    That was fine with her. All she had to do was tune Key out and listen to the rare comment from Rin, speaking directly into her core about one danger or another. While more personal, the touch of her voice intimate across her core, it was still somehow less intrusive than Key¡¯s screaming.

    ?I believe he has summoned friends,? was all the other girl had to say, and Emilia was spinning, level 300 eyes taking in not nearly enough information about the environment, but enough to tell her there were at least a half dozen of the smaller, lake cavern monsters beginning to ooze out of the room¡¯s muddy walls.

    ¡°Gross,¡± she muttered, sending a {Blood Needle} shooting towards the largest group of them. Wet screams fizzled out as it exploded, and mushy pink flesh splattered outwards. Another needle shot out of her hand. Another. More and more of the creatures fell while she tugged the {Blood Spear} from the soft earth.

    It was heavy in her hands and far taller than she was. She heaved it upwards, following the shocking instructions that V had given her earlier.

    ¡°Is that a skill that your weapon came with?¡± she had called over the grumble of the monster. The grumbling was weird, at least to her. She was used to monsters that roared and shrieked and growled¡ªand in a few unfortunate instances, howled with laughter. Grumbling and belching was just too¡­ normal. It was off-putting in its own, strange way. When she had told V this, after he had asked about her glaring at the monster whenever it made any sort of sound, he had practically fallen over for how hard he had laughed.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Emilia really didn¡¯t think it was that funny. The universe had soundly punished him, however, when his amused distraction had resulted in him getting hit by a shot of mud on his upper thigh. Luckily, whatever his pants were made of was sturdier than whatever his shirt was, and he hadn¡¯t been forced to lose them as well. She did feel a bit bad, watching him limp about, but not that bad. The man really did tempt the universe too much.

    ¡°No¡­¡± V had replied, something off in his voice, and Emilia had been forced to follow him around the area, nagging him with questions and promising not to do anything bad with whatever he told her or judge him too harshly if it was something weird.

    V¡¯s steps had finally halted as one of her {Blood Needles} collapsed a portion of the ceiling, bringing it toppling down on top of the monster. The monster had grumbled and begun shaking the rocks off, but they had had a few moments for V to look seriously at her, returning to being the man he had been in the moments he had spent with his now deceased Enclave babysitter: serious, stern, cold.

    ¡°Not something weird,¡± he had muttered, eyes shifty and reminding her of a child who knew they were about to be reprimanded.

    ¡°Then¡­¡±

    The man had sighed, hands sliding into the back pockets of his pants as he stared upwards and sorted out his thoughts. Across the room, the monster had sent one of the larger sections of ceiling rolling away, and Emilia had sent another needle flying into the rocks above it. More had tumbled downwards, crashing soundly over the ground and the monster¡¯s head. The monster had grumbled in lazy complaint and returned to removing rocks from its body, while she shuddered at the terrible noise.

    ¡°Then~¡± she had tried again, giving him an encouraging smile as she shifted her weight in front of him, bobbing cheerfully from side to side.

    He had sighed again, giving her an impossibly fond and long-suffering look. She knew that look, although not from any particular person. She¡¯d been getting that look from half the people she knew most of her life, but usually, it took at least a few days for new friends to get there.

    ¡°I¡¯ve played blackaether raids,¡± V had told her, explaining that they often involved¡­ less than legal setups.

    ¡°They use cores,¡± Emilia had guessed before he got around to telling her himself, his words instead avoiding the reality of what happened in those illegal raids.

    He had blinked at her and nodded. ¡°How did you¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in an illegal knotting clinic at the moment,¡± she had told him, almost immediately regretting telling him so much. If he did know her, he would surely be wondering what she was doing there. Then again, maybe if he did and was wondering what was up with her personality, he would assume it was the knots.

    Some of it was the knots. Not all of it, however.

    ¡°Anyways, I¡¯ve been having some¡­ weird core issues in here? I wasn¡¯t sure if it was the platform or the access point¡ªor both.¡±

    ¡°I thought you said you didn¡¯t raid often?¡± the other visitor had asked, face screwed up in confusion as they bolted away from a rock the monster had hurled their way.

    ¡°I don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Then how do you know how to access your core? That¡¯s not a normal skill. Seriously, they run entire blackaether courses, so people can learn how to use their cores in raids. Most people can still barely utilize them.¡±

    Emilia had shot him a wide, toothy grin. ¡°I was a little shit, even as a kid.¡± Better to leave out the part where she still fucked around with her core a bit, even as an adult, and she certainly wasn¡¯t mentioning the whole busted core thing.

    The man had blinked at her before breaking into more laughter as they bolted through the rain of rocks coming down around them. ¡°I can believe that,¡± he had sighed, before giving her basic instructions¡ªhalf of which had been screamed over the monster¡¯s assault¡ªon how to shrink blood weapons down.

    Now, Emilia held his {Blood Spear} in her hands, watching with wide eyes as he flitted here and there through the room, decades of experience in the war and who knew how many years within virtual raids shining through. Even with such a high level, the man was astonishing. Skilled and confident, even without a weapon. Her hand tightened around his weapon, forged from the blood of someone he had viewed as a friend because the Enclave could be just as cold and heartless as this world¡¯s police force.

    ¡°V!¡± she called, hurling her {Blood Blade} at him. It wouldn¡¯t be nearly as effective against the monster as his spear or her needles were, but it was better than nothing.

    The other visitor caught it perfectly, shooting her a terribly dimpled smile before surging forward because apparently he was suicidal. Giving her his only weapon¡ªat least, it was the only one she had seen him use so far¡ªand then attempting to take their enemy on with only the smallest of daggers!

    The man was insane!

    Yes, he couldn¡¯t die, but he had also sought out this platform with a purpose. She wasn¡¯t going to get in the way of him fulfilling his goal.

    Her core spiralled outwards, burning her meridians as her energy collided with the {Blood Spear}. He had told her it would burn. Still, she hadn¡¯t expected it to be this painful¡ªnot when the man had shifted the weapon¡¯s size with barely a flicker of pain. Maybe he was just more experienced. Maybe she was just a weeny. It was impossible to tell when her entire body burned and the world went white, becoming an empty void of pain.

    A second later, the world exploded back into view and the spear in her hand had returned to the small, necklace shape V had shifted it in and out of in order to make manoeuvring with it easier. It reminded her of her own willbrand, in a way, and every instinct told her to use it that way. Energy flooded back out of her, vibrating through the {Blood Spear} and burning twice as bright as before, shuddering out into the world and latching onto the monster¡¯s head.

    Her arm pulled back, the tiny spear gripped perfectly between her fingers. They had all learned how to use each other¡¯s weapons during the war. Their willbrands, expensive and forged just for them, were difficult for anyone else to use. As a precaution, they had forced themselves to practice with every member¡¯s.

    It had sucked. Some people¡¯s willbrands had been more volatile in the hands of others than expected. One person had lost an arm and been forced to choose between reattaching the mangled thing or learning to live with a prosthetic¡ªthey chose the latter. Overall, however, that training had saved more than a few lives, when people went down and their willbrand was destroyed. As cold as it was, looting a corpse for a willbrand was far better than dying a stupid death while you waited for help.

    They had rarely been forced to remove willbrands from the bodies of their unit¡¯s members, but the training had enabled them to more easily use the willbrands of other soldiers. Now, Emilia extended that knowledge into the present, the hours she had spent learning to use James¡¯ willbrand¡ªwhich usually took the shape of a shape or spear¡ªrising up within her.

    V¡¯s eyes caught hers as he continued moving forward, dodging the monster¡¯s attacks and thoroughly distracting it. He winked, and she smiled back, light steps taking her forward as her arm moved and the {Blood Spear} shot out of her hands. Her energy glowed golden around it, guiding it home¡ªguiding it to grow into a monster of a thing, perfectly suited for taking down pink, fleshy, grumbly monsters.

    The monster¡¯s steps halted as the spear, huge and heavy, slipped through its slimy head. It blinked and then V was there, Emilia¡¯s {Blood Dagger}¡ªher blood itself¡ªslicing through each eye, through places here and there, searching for vital spots. He bolted backwards just as Emilia let another {Blood Needle} fly, praying it wouldn¡¯t hit him or destroy his weapon. Somehow, just like every other moment of the fight, he had known it was coming.

    Gusts and gore exploded across the room, but V was already there, scooping her up and rolling them behind one of the larger boulders littering the area.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± she sighed, leaning into him as liquids slid, burning and sizzling, down the walls of the room.

    ¡°Of course, Emilia,¡± V sighed back, head tilting over to rest against her as they took a moment to breathe before they had to figure out how to get Key and Rin down.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 77: I Thought We Were Friends

    Getting Key and Rin down proved to be more difficult a task than either Emilia or V had expected. The problem was, they had no idea how the cage the locals were being kept in had been suspended from the ceiling, and the pair had been unconscious when they¡¯d been put inside it.

    The exact shape of the cage. The distance between it, Emilia, and V. How it opened and closed. They couldn¡¯t make out the details of the cage, and none of them could figure out how to get it down to even attempt to force it open. Neither Key nor Rin had access to any magic, either¡ªnot that they were particularly inclined to use any. Emilia had already vetoed V¡¯s¡ªhopefully joking¡ªsuggestion that she let one of her {Blood Needles} loose and simply hope it hit something. Given the height of the cage, Emilia didn¡¯t think either Rin or Key would appreciate being dropped and left to the fate of gravity.

    ¡°So¡­ what do we do?¡± Emilia asked, turning only slightly beseeching eyes on the other visitor. He was the one with the experience in these games and was more likely to have some idea of what they should do now. Unfortunately, the man seemed much too amused by the whole situation and was in no rush to find a solution.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t holding it against him. None of them knew what awaited them outside the labyrinth doors¡ªwhich they had briefly seen back in the heartcore chamber. The Risen Guard could be waiting for them, or whoever had sponsored V or Cade, neither of whom were likely to be too happy about their Harbinger Candidates being taken from them.

    V had already told Key, through a mix of screaming and Rin half-heartedly translating for them, that he had no intention of returning to the Valoren family, who Taoran had been associated with. Key had looked equal parts enthusiastic and queasy at the prospect of sniping candidates from another family. Rin hadn¡¯t known the full details, but she had whispered theories into Emilia about how she didn¡¯t believe it was forbidden to take candidates from another family, but it was frowned upon.

    Or, at least, that was how it had seemed during the last visitation, according to what she had learned during her training. Shortly before the last visitation, the Risen Guard had managed to insert spies into the Enclave families, largely through marriage. Those spies had learned a lot, but one had actually fallen in love with their wife and spilled everything to them, included names of other spies.

    In the end, everyone¡ªincluding the man who had actually loved his wife¡ªhad been brutally slaughtered by someone. The Enclave, secretive and non-communicative as it was, had actually sought out the Risen Guard to insist they had nothing to do with, or that if one of their members had killed the spies, they had done it without the permission of the other families.

    Regardless, the Enclave had heavily closed their ranks in the decades since, instead moving to work their own spies into the Risen Guard¡¯s ranks, as in the case of Harmony. Apparently, despite all the information the Risen Guard had learned, they had missed the existence of several families, including the Stringers, making their children the perfect pawns for infiltrating the organization.

    ?I do not believe the Stringers particularly liked this plan,? Rin had confided, Emilia quietly translating her words for V while Key was meditating, trying and failing to pull the smallest tendril of energy from his core.

    ¡°After we ran into you two, Taoran told me the Stringers are in an odd position. They have lost most of their influence, and now live to serve the Enclave as best they can. He said there were many things they were doing to make amends,¡± V had told them, Rin nodding along above them as she levelled an unamused look at Key¡ªat least, Emilia thought that¡¯s the sort of look she had been giving the boy. It was a bit challenging to tell from so far away.

    ¡°He knew we were with the Stringer family?¡± Emilia had asked, concern already starting to drag through her. She had peered up at Rin, asking, ¡°Did you tell him?¡±

    Her friend had shaken her head, telling them they had barely talked. ?We did not even exchange names. We simply asked if the other had seen our charge, then were forced to travel the same pathway together. It was uncomfortable.?

    ¡°You aren¡¯t part of the Stringer family?¡± V had asked, looking between the two of them, a little furrow between his eyebrows and a frown marring his face.

    Emilia had hesitated a moment, exchanging a look with Rin. The girl had seemed relatively nervous about the prospect of telling someone about her ties to the Risen Guard, but had told Emilia had she trusted her judgment. It was sweet, and possibly very stupid, given how frequently she made bad decisions.

    V had cared for his own Risen Guard babysitter, however¡ªstill seemed to mourn and regret his death, as far as Emilia could tell¡ªand she trusted that he wouldn¡¯t care that Rin had been a Risen Guard in training until a few days prior.

    Indeed, the man had barely batted an eye, simply nodding and saying that made sense. When asked why he thought that, the other visitor had told them that, if you looked close enough, the Risen Guard all held themselves slightly differently than the rest of the population.

    He had shrugged, saying, ¡°I spent years training myself out of being a soldier. I learned how to see the things that betrayed me as one.¡±

    Emilia had nodded in the same knowing way, while also giving V the once over. Once you served, it was almost impossible to get rid of all the little quirks. Your posture was straighter, your movements sure and precise. She had seen soldiers tracking the movement of the aether with their eyes, felt their aether stores flicker when a skill was used too close to them outside of raids.

    Worse, she had seen them straight up breakdown inside raids, the noise and monsters dragging them down into a spiral of trauma.

    Within battle, it had been clear that the other visitor had been unable to completely shake the training he¡¯d received as a soldier. Outside it, V¡­ existed. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t have good posture, but it was more relaxed than a soldier¡¯s, more in line with what she had seen in many sub-30s following the war, their already perfect posture and instincts altered into something other by what they had experienced. Relaxed, but poised to snap at the slightest provocation, while simultaneously seeming so lazy they couldn¡¯t possibly be a threat.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Yet, other things about him were certainly not sub-30, his habits and speech speaking more of someone who had spent too much time inside virtual raids. Everything about him seemed to shift from one world to another, one D-Level to another, and she didn¡¯t know what to think of him¡ªwhere to place him in the little tally of people she knew.

    Solider: Yes.

    D-Level: Unknown.

    Age: Unknown.

    Real Name: Unknown.

    Trustworthy: Probably.

    Observant: Definitely.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think locals notice the difference, though,¡± V had continued telling them, explaining that he had seen Risen Guard¡¯s in plain clothes while with both of his former babysitters. Neither had seemed to notice, despite their posture and movements screaming they were Risen Guards.

    ¡°I can¡¯t say they were particularly good undercover operatives,¡± V had laughed, before having to explain to Rin what undercover operatives were. She hadn¡¯t said anything, but Emilia had the feeling that she had believed the Risen Guard had ceased doing much spying after the last raid.

    ¡°They screamed undercover,¡± V had continued, laughing as he told them a few of the things he had noticed. ¡°My Risen Guard friend and I weren¡¯t around each other long,¡± he had adding, nodding to Rin, ¡°but I saw a few of his idiosyncrasies in you, as well.¡±

    ¡°I guess if you don¡¯t realize the Risen Guard are working undercover, you don¡¯t look for those things?¡± Emilia had mused, nervous energy flittering through her. ¡°It wasn¡¯t like Taoran immediately killed Rin for being a Risen Guard¡ª¡±

    ?Former,? Rin had cut in, her tone sharp and sad and unbending.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t like Taoran killed Rin for being a former Risen Guard,¡± Emilia had continued, fingers tapping idly over her thighs as they waited for Key to either perform a miracle or give up. She had pulled at the material of her armour, noting the red lines etched over the fatter parts of her. Bored. She had shifted into boredom and started to fidget. Rin had looked annoyed, even so far above, while V barely seemed to notice. ¡°If he were trained to see spies, I would think he would have offed her when they met. I mean, she could have been lying about looking for a charge? Or been a Risen Guard, trying to make a visitor more powerful for whatever reason.¡±

    ?Indeed,? Rin had agreed. ?It would make no sense for him to have let me live if he knew.?

    An awkward silence had enveloped them, V quietly telling the girl that he would have stepped in, if he were around, to stop Taoran. Rin seemed to believe him, nodding before turning back to Key. Apparently, she had been done waiting for him, and proceeded to kick him, the Enclave boy starting out of his meditative state¡ªwhich Emilia had to admit, was pretty damn good. Even if he couldn¡¯t hear any of them¡ªhis hearing too weak to make out either her or V¡¯s words, while Rin had purposefully only spoken directly to her and V¡ªit was still something, to manage to meditate in such conditions.

    ?Get anywhere?? the other girl had asked, tone implying that she knew full well her co-captive had discovered nothing.

    Key¡¯s face had lit up red as he admitted that no, he hadn¡¯t found anything.

    Which is how she and V had ended up digging through the remains of the monster, looking for anything that could conceivable get the pair down. They had already examined the room in depth, fingers edging over practically every surface searching for clues.

    They had found none, and were now alternating between gagging at the monster¡¯s scent, ransacking its body¡ªcurrently, they¡¯d only found items that could potentially be helpful in the future, if they had something to store them in, which they didn¡¯t¡ªand waiting for their wounds to heal; unfortunately, the dead monster¡¯s muddy spit was just as hazardous as when it had been alive.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Emilia spit out as mud stuck to her shins, slipping between the wrapping of her {Blood Armour}. She attempted to wipe it off, the skin of her hands sizzling and burning worse, but at least she could wipe her hands off on her armour or the closest rock. ¡°This sucks. Can¡¯t we just leave you guys up there and promise to come back another day?¡±

    Rin glared down at her. ?If I were alone, I would say fine. However, you cannot leave me alone with this man.?

    ?Hey!? Key whined, a dramatic frown pulling over his face. ?I thought we were friends.?

    ?Just because we are friends does not mean I want to spend the next few days alone with you.? The girl¡¯s hard gaze turned to Key as she asked if he really wanted to deal with peeing and pooping in front of her.

    Even from so far below, Emilia could see the blood rush out of Key¡¯s face, and she was forced to turn her eyes away from the bickering pair, lest she burst into laughter.

    ¡°They¡¯re quite the pair,¡± V whispered as he came to plop down beside her. He¡¯d rolled up his pants, hoping to spare the ends from becoming more mangled than they already were. As a result, his feet and ankles were charred from the spit, the skin black and most certainly painful.

    ¡°You¡¯re good at ignoring that,¡± Emilia noted, nodding towards his slowly healing injuries.

    ¡°Hm? Oh¡­ yeah.¡± The man looked away, something awkward in his expression, and Emilia expected him to change the subject. Instead, he told her about his experience in the war. ¡°Someone I respect a lot was seriously injured in the war. They¡­¡±

    V¡¯s words cut off in that way that made her think that he was choosing his words with the specific purpose of obfuscating who he was. ¡°What they went through inspired me to learn how to compartmentalize pain.¡±

    ¡°And how do you do that?¡± Emilia asked, already sure she wouldn¡¯t like the answer.

    The other visitor¡¯s eyes caught hers, pupils blown out in a fascinating, disturbing and impossibly entrancing way. ¡°Do you really want to know, Emilia?¡±

    Emilia was about to open her mouth, about to whisper that she did, that she loved learning and expanding herself¡ªor at least she had, until all those knots that Payton was slowly stripping away had been laced up inside her. She was about to tell him she wouldn¡¯t judge him for practically anything he did¡ªwith a few exceptions that would have her sending The Black Knot chasing after him¡ªwhen she heard something.

    ¡°Did you¡ª¡±

    Her words cut off and V¡¯s eyes shot to the door, all soft teasing gone as his hand wrapped around one of the {Blood Needles} Emilia had gifted him. Interestingly, when he used needles she gave him, replacements returned to her. Key had speculated they could learn to get around that quirk of the system if they really wanted to, telling them that several antique blood weapons functioned similarly when lent out. The Enclave had always found ways around it, although they used their cores and the system to do so. Apparently, Rin hadn¡¯t told him about their earlier conversation about core usage and shrinking weapons¡ªwhich she had most certainly heard.

    The two of them tensed, preparing for another monster¡ªor worse, a visitor or local¡ªto appear via the tunnel they had come from. No more sound came, and Emilia was beginning to think that perhaps the same nightmare trap that had gotten them had trapped whatever¡ªwhoever¡ªwas coming, when a strawberry-blonde girl came stomping into the room.

    ?There you are!? Harmony growled, glaring daggers at Emilia before outright sneering at V. ?So, what? Did you abandon my brother just to hook up with this¡­ disgusting thing??

 Arc 2 | Chapter 78: Abandoning | Abandoned

    Emilia levelled her most annoyed look at Harmony¡ªat least, it would have been her most annoyed look in the real world. She¡¯d spent time in her teens practising so many looks in the mirror, but she wasn¡¯t sure how those perfected expressions would translate into her new body. Whatever look she was giving the local girl, however, Harmony didn¡¯t seem fazed. Worse, from the corner of her eye, she could see V practically cooing at her!

    She was a big, scary war hero! Yes, she had purposefully designed this body to be cute and innocent looking¡ª And yes, no one actually knew that she was a war hero¡ª Well, V might, but she had no proof of that and¡ª

    ?Why¡¯s the chick so adorably pissed? What¡¯s got your panties in a knot, hm??

    V¡¯s warm, teasing smile vanished as Sk¡¯lar appeared behind Harmony. ¡°Who is that?¡± he hissed under his breath, eyes glued to the man in a way they certainly hadn¡¯t been glued to Harmony.

    ¡°Someone who is allegedly their friend but acts more like a bodyguard,¡± Emilia whispered back, watching the pair take slow, menacing steps into the room.

    Their eyes were glued to her and V as well, and were it not for Rin and Key calling down to them, she was sure they would have fought. Fought to the death, most likely. Harmony was pissed, and while she had no idea what sort of training the former Risen Guard had, she was more worried about Sk¡¯lar.

    As much as she¡¯d seen the man in battle with her former, Risen Guard babysitter and knew he was nothing special¡­ something about the man was just too unnerving. The grin across his face was practically bloodthirsty in the moments before he had realized Key was in the room, and Emilia was sure that had something happened to the boy while they were together¡­

    Emilia did not want to have to deal with the man if he were actually upset, when even the possibility that something had happened to one of his so-called friends had left him so menacing.

    ?How did you get stuck up there?? Sk¡¯lar called up to Rin and Key, barely noticing when V grabbed hold of Emilia¡¯s hand and tugged her up and towards the wall.

    Key laughed, the sound echoing through the aethernet and bouncing off the walls. ?We were bait. The boss kidnapped us. Did you know that was a thing??

    ?Yes,? was all Sk¡¯lar said because apparently, despite how he had never offered up more than unhelpful comments during any of their conversations, he did know more about the labyrinths than he¡¯d let on.

    Rude.

    ?We¡¯ll get you down,? Harmony assured them, seemingly not noticing Emilia and V edging towards the door either.

    The only one who did seem to notice was Rin, who barely glanced at them before letting her eyes flutter closed, as though she were preparing to have to deny that she had seen them go.

    ¡°Their problem now,¡± V whispered as he pulled them out the door.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emilia agreed, easily letting herself be towed along. ¡°Why are we leaving, though? I know the other two¡­ suck, but at least they were our allies.¡± Mostly. She still didn¡¯t doubt Sk¡¯lar would kill them at the slightest provocation, but Harmony was just¡­ unpleasant. Key and Rin had been good allies, though!

    ¡°I didn¡¯t like the way that man felt,¡± V told her as he pulled them into a run, his steps carefully short to keep pace with her shorter gait.

    ¡°I don¡¯t much like his either¡­¡± she replied, trying to keep her footsteps on the quieter side. As much as most of the locals couldn¡¯t hear well, there could still be other visitors or Risen Guards, with less deafened hearing, lingering about.

    V¡¯s expression was tight when he glanced at her, easily dragging them through the branching tunnels. At least one of them knew where they were going¡­ hopefully. ¡°You did not feel what I felt.¡±

    ¡°And what did you feel?¡±

    The other visitor¡¯s mouth tightened. ¡°Something¡­ wrong. I don¡¯t know how to explain it. Everyone has a different flow to their energy, although very few people can read it. Even for the residents of virtual raids, it¡¯s an uncommon skill.¡±

    ¡°But you learned it?¡±

    ¡°I learned¡­ a bit,¡± V admitted, giving her hand a little squeeze. ¡°I can¡¯t say it¡¯s perfect. Out of all the things I¡¯ve been able to make my Censor let me do with my core, reading other people isn¡¯t on the list.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Emilia asked, perking up at the prospect of discussing hacking Censors. She¡¯d been hacking hers for as long as she¡¯d had it, but she rarely met anyone else interested in hacking theirs for more than the most basic of things. Hacking her Censor so it didn¡¯t freak when she used her core had been one of the first modifications she¡¯d ever made to it, and she¡¯d never met someone else who¡¯d done that, although she¡¯d heard of several Free Colonies whose expats generally did so.

    Usually, it didn¡¯t go well for them. Their Censors didn¡¯t want to exist like that, and getting them to agree that it was safe¡­ Honestly, in Emilia¡¯s experience hacking her own, it was almost like the thing required assurance that you weren¡¯t going to abandon it for core usage? During the war, they¡¯d had problems installing Censors into those from the Free Colonies that used their core as the norm¡ªthat was part of why temporary Censors had been developed. Those removable Censors were less temperamental, as though knowing their relationship with a person were more ephemeral changed their very personality.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Yes,¡± V said, although he said no more on the topic, only promising to discuss it more with her at a better time. ¡°Mostly, I¡¯ve been able to practice reading people who are really awful. That my Censor is okay with me doing.¡±

    ¡°Because it keeps you safe?¡± Emilia guessed.

    The man nodded, pulling her around a corner.

    In the distance, Emilia could barely make out the glow of the heartcore chamber, a dull pounding that she hadn¡¯t heard before emanating from it. Why had she heard that first heartcore, but not this second one until? That was¡­ weird.

    ¡°Yes, it keeps me safe. I run with some pretty bad blokes,¡± he admitted, staring straight ahead and refusing to meet her suddenly intent and probing gaze. ¡°That guy reminds me of the way some of the worst people feel. Like he has killed before and enjoyed it. Like he¡¯s on a leash that he¡¯s just waiting to snap.¡±

    Emilia glanced back over her shoulder as a shudder echoed through her. She half-expected to find Sk¡¯lar there, chasing after them. The tunnel was empty, and so was the heartcore chamber when they burst into it, heading straight for the door. ¡°What are we gonna do, once we¡¯re outside?¡± she had to ask. Neither of them really knew anything about this world, and it was pretty obvious they were visitors, which¡ª

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you make yourself more¡­ red?¡± Emilia asked as V pulled them to a stop in front of the door.

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± the man hesitated, teeth digging into his bottom lip. He looked somewhat embarrassed, and when he admitted that he¡¯d forgotten about the really red part¡­

    ¡°What?¡± he asked, free hand planting on a hip as he glared down at her. ¡°I have a lot of information about a ridiculous number of raids rattling around up here,¡± he said, pointing dramatically to his head. ¡°I¡¯m allowed to forget a thing or two.¡±

    It seemed like a pretty fucking big thing to forget, in Emilia¡¯s opinion, but apparently it was a touchy subject, and she wasn¡¯t about to poke at it. ¡°So¡­ what do we do if there¡¯s anyone waiting for us out there?¡±

    V¡¯s glare softened slightly, something telling her that he had expected her to complain more about his sketchy memory. He still seemed wary¡ªand she rather hoped that one day he would explain to her why he didn¡¯t want to elaborate on such a minor moment of forgetfulness¡ªbut visibly relaxed as he swiped one of her {Blood Needles} from her thighs. ¡°Blow them up?¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we wait to see if they¡¯re friend or foe?¡± Emilia asked, shaking her head at the man as he turned and began examining the door.

    ¡°I guess,¡± V said, sounding so thoroughly unconvincing that Emilia grabbed his arm and hauled him back. They really couldn¡¯t afford to waste time¡ªeventually, the others would notice they were gone, and Emilia was just hoping they¡¯d be too busy getting Rin and Key down for either Harmony, or worse, Sk¡¯lar to come after them.

    ¡°Let me go first?¡± she asked. ¡°I have armour, after all. You don¡¯t even have a shirt anymore.¡±

    V¡¯s shirt had practically melted away after they¡¯d stripped him of it, during the fight, and he was now wandering around topless. Emilia couldn¡¯t really complain¡ªthe man had a lovely, if a little too thin, body¡ªbut depending on who they ran into outside of the labyrinth¡­

    ¡°If we meet anyone, we should try and take their clothes,¡± Emilia told him, already trying to push the heavy door open.

    For a moment, she thought the thing wouldn¡¯t open¡ªthat much like the library side, the door was busted and wouldn¡¯t budge from this side either. It took both her and V, pushing with their combined strength and a significant amount of core energy enhancing their muscles and bones, to get the thing to move. It creaked and groaned and seemed to scrap roughly over the aethernet itself.

    ¡°That¡¯s freaky,¡± V breathed out as the blackness behind the door was revealed to them. ¡°Do you think that¡¯s normal?¡±

    Emilia shook her head. She had no idea whether it was normal or not, but something about it felt wholly unnatural. ¡°Who knows. You wanna wait for someone who actually knows something to catch up?¡±

    ¡°Fuck no,¡± the other visitor said so fast that Emilia laughed.

    He peeked over at her, offering up a hand to her. She wrapped hers around it, smiling and trusting. ¡°Shall we?¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± V laughed as they took a step and fell through the universe.

    ? ? ?

    Emilia was floating, and she wasn¡¯t alone. She was with a friend¡ªa friend she hadn¡¯t seen in forever. It had been too long, and now they were gone from her memory. The details of them, blurry and imperfect and so mismatched with the man beside her that she couldn¡¯t reconcile the person he had been and the one they seemed to have become.

    ¡°Is something wrong?¡± they asked, that sad little smile of theirs crossing their face.

    A sunshine bright smile lit up his face, and Emilia glared at the pair. They were a single being, and yet two all at once. It was as annoying and frustrating as the asshole¡ªthe sweetheart¡ªwas in real life¡ªin virtual life.

    ¡°You changed,¡± she said, giving their joint existence the once over.

    ¡°So have you,¡± two voices said, one mouth moving, two souls talking. ¡°It¡¯s been a long time.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t recognize you anymore,¡± she said, matter-of-factly.

    Something in their conjoined expression dropped. ¡°Is that a bad thing?¡± they asked, voices so soft and sad that Emilia wanted to cry. He of all people didn¡¯t deserve to feel any sort of sadness at her words.

    ¡°No, but I liked you the way you were before, too. I like you now. I liked you then.¡±

    The pair didn¡¯t seem to believe her, something between affection and disbelief and outright anger flashing through their features, and¡ª

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Emilia?¡±

    Emilia sucked in a harsh, shocked breath. It felt like she hadn¡¯t breathed in a lifetime, her lungs burning and itching just as badly as her throat did. They really needed to find food, and more importantly water, soon. She had liked that first day more, when she¡¯d been unsure if such things were a requirement in this world. They were, and somehow, it pissed her off.

    ¡°Where are we?¡± she croaked, letting V haul her upright.

    She squinted into the suddenly bright world. She didn¡¯t remember the library outside the labyrinth doors being quite so bright. Around them, cast across the ruddy ground, lay heaps of mangled, twisted red metal, and it took longer than it should have for Emilia to realize they weren¡¯t just outside the labyrinth doors, but outside the library as a whole.

    ¡°Well, I guess if anyone was waiting for us, they¡¯ll be sorely disappointed to find they missed us,¡± she said, looking around to see if anyone else was lingering about.

    There was no one, even the tendril of energy she sent searching returning having found nothing. She frowned and sent more energy searching further out, more, more, V quickly joining her in her search when she told him what she found: no one.

    The city, which had been bustling when they entered the library, was now seemingly abandoned.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 79: One More Set of Arms

    ¡°How long do you think we were in there for?¡± V asked, pushing himself up to get a better look at the disaster that was now the library, extending a hand to haul Emilia up as well.

    The area was worse than she would have expected. It wasn¡¯t just that the building had fallen, a gaping hole visible in the ceiling far above, where the rest of the library continued to exist. Whatever had brought the building down hadn¡¯t just pulled screws loose, or broken the foundation, or even just compromised the structural integrity of the library. Emilia had seen tons of buildings destroyed during the war. Most had fallen more naturally. Earthquakes racketed through the planet as skills were slammed into it. Monsters and humans and mechs alike had destroyed them by blasting skills about, or throwing their opponents straight through them.

    It was never pretty, and she had seen more than a few people killed because a building had tumbled down upon them.

    This wasn¡¯t like that.

    The supports of the building were mangled¡ªtwisted in wholly unnatural ways. Remnants of the staircase banister lay in balls and ribbons that were barely recognizable across the ground. Books were shredded, their pages unnatural in their thin, cracked apart state.

    ¡°I have no idea,¡± Emilia said, eyes wide as she took in the scene¡ªas she registered the blood splattered over the remains of the library. There were no bodies, as far as she could see, but¡­

    ¡°Where do you think the blood came from?¡± V asked before she could, his own eyes wide and shifting erratically over the scene.

    ¡°No idea. Key had almost everyone evacuated from the library before we entered. There should have only been a few people inside¡­¡± Certainly not enough for this amount of blood. Emilia took a few, careful steps over the wreckage, toeing at some of the library¡¯s remains. Half of what was around them was unrecognizable. Walls, which had been beautiful and shining from the outside, had been reduced to scattered, burnt husks that snapped under her feet.

    V followed quietly behind her as she walked, and walked, and walked. For whatever reason, the library¡¯s destruction had spread far farther than it should have. Buildings several streets over had been flattened and bowled over by the crash, and beneath her feet...

    V¡¯s hands wrapped around her arms as a sob broke out of her. ¡°Fuck,¡± he breathed out, his own energy reaching out perfectly in the direction hers had gone searching.

    So many bodies¡ªthere were so many bodies under all the destruction. People who couldn¡¯t get away fast enough, who didn¡¯t have the magic that Key and the others had. People who had just been living their lives, when someone decided to destroy a building next to their homes, just because¡­ something.

    ¡°Was the building already gone, when you entered the labyrinth?¡± she asked quietly, wondering if V had perhaps seen something that would help in figuring out who had done this and why.

    The other visitor hesitated a moment before telling her yes. ¡°It collapsed shortly after we arrived in the city.¡± He pointed towards one of the huge doors, which led to elevators and other cities and the fast travel landing pads. ¡°Taoran¡­ left me where we arrived. He said he had something to do. When he returned¡­¡±

    Emilia looked back at him, taking in the anger and frustration radiating off him.

    ¡°I thought it was strange timing, for the building to begin collapsing while he was gone, but I didn¡¯t think¡ª¡± The man shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he growled and cursed. ¡°I didn¡¯t think there was any reason for him to destroy the building.¡±

    ¡°Maybe he saw us,¡± she said quietly, reaching out to grab his hand before he started tugging out his hair. ¡°Or heard us¡ªthat¡¯s probably more likely. Harmony was screaming at me, then at Sk¡¯lar, before the collapse. That could be how he knew who we were.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ so stupid! Fuck!¡± V kicked a piece of the building, sending it flying. It bounced off a nearby building, damaged but not fully destroyed by the library¡¯s collapse.

    ¡°Fucking stars,¡± he laughed, shaking his head and turning sad, beseeching eyes on her. ¡°I know people were petty and possessive of information and fame during our war, but at least most people didn¡¯t actively try to kill their rivals.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s mouth twitched. ¡°Not usually, anyways.¡±

    On top of the divisions who had held back intel, a few of the more extreme divisions had made a concerted effort to kill their so-call rivals. They had given out inaccurate information, hoping other divisions would be destroyed following their leads. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for intel to be wrong, and it had often taken years for anyone to realize specific divisions were purposefully fucking with people who were supposed to be their allies.

    Both The Black Knot and the more secretive group that usually dealt with rogue soldiers had taken care of those responsible for such events, but everyone knew there were people who had never been caught¡ªwho were still out there, pretending to be good soldiers, despite the deaths they had caused. Emilia even knew of one instance of someone acting the war hero despite the military knowing they had encouraged their subordinates to alter information.

    There was no proof, unfortunately¡ªvirtually their entire division and everyone who could have confirmed suspicions against them had been killed in the last days of the war. One of the few remaining members had confessed that it was all them, that they and several others had decided to alter the information on their own accord, and their captain had nothing to do with it.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Emilia knew it was bullshit. The Black Knot, military brass, practically everyone important knew the captain had been the one to encourage, if not outright order, their subordinates to fuck over the rest of the military effort.

    It didn¡¯t matter. As much as The Black Knot could disappear people with very little proof, in this case, they couldn¡¯t. Not now, anyways. That captain was famous now. If they disappeared, there would be questions¡ªquestions no one wanted to answer, because as much as everyone in the military knew information couldn¡¯t always be trusted, no one wanted the public learning how untrustworthy many of the people they had been depending on had been.

    That would only raise more questions about other incidents during the war.

    Still, every time she saw that captain on the news, had to learn about them in class¡­ it was frustrating. Frustrating and upsetting, and she was pretty sure if she ever got the chance to kill them, she¡¯d take it. The world would be a better place without the asshole.

    Besides, the government was using raids to keep them ready for another war, and as much as Emilia hoped to the stars above that war never came again, if it did, she certainly didn¡¯t want that captain returning to service.

    Emilia scuffed a foot against the bloody ground, frowning severely down at it. When she looked up, she found V watching her, giving her a knowing look. ¡°People are stupid,¡± she muttered, foot continuing to swing.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he agreed before pulling her closer¡ªor at least, he started to pull her closer. Something crossed his face, and suddenly, he wasn¡¯t pulling her into a hug or kiss or whatever he had been planning. Instead, they were moving, V¡¯s steps sure over the rough ground and his grip around her hand tight as he pulled her along.

    ¡°What is it?¡± she asked, trying not to trip. Honestly, the only reason her real body had any coordination at all were her D-Levels. That coordination had already been fucked when she was unknotted, and only worsened by her knots. Being a level 300 in this world? With no Censor to help guide her way?

    Yeah, it only took a dozen steps before she stumbled.

    V darted back to her, and suddenly that aborted, possible hug was him catching her. ¡°Sorry,¡± he mumbled, something unreadable in his voice and gaze, and she had no idea what he was actually apologizing for.

    ¡°I can carry you,¡± he offered, voice soft. ¡°It¡¯ll be faster. I don¡¯t think we should linger here.¡±

    Emilia nodded dumbly, letting herself be hauled into yet another man¡¯s arms. ¡°Are you going to be okay?¡± she asked, realizing that despite the ease he had hauled her up with, he was also a level 300, his body far weaker than it likely was in the real world.

    Maybe.

    She¡¯d been thinking back on his earlier confession, that he regularly played blackaether raids. Not being interested in raids in general, Emilia knew little about the illegal raids, but she did know there were a variety of reasons people played them. The most common¡ªaccording to the media, anyways¡ªwas the illegal aspect. Rape, murder, illegal sex acts; there were blackaether raids to suit every desire out there. Other reasons included less restriction¡ªand although she hadn¡¯t known it, she assumed being able to use your core was a draw to at least some clientele.

    The other big reason, which the media hadn¡¯t covered, but her Censor had (un)helpfully supplied her with after she¡¯d been slapped with a SecOps warning about avoiding blackaether raids a few years previous, was the potential to feel like more. Just as she currently felt like less, forced into a body that was so much lesser than her real one, people could exist in higher level bodies in raids.

    While that was true for all raids, blackaether raids did it better. Where normal, legal raids, largely allowed heroes to use skills far above their levels, blackaether raids allowed for so much more. According to the information her Censor had gathered, there were even people who claimed they were ex-300s in real life, but could attain sub-30 status in not just skill but mental capacity as well within illegal raids.

    If that were true¡­ Well, Emilia could definitely understand the draw of feeling like you were more skilled. She¡¯d always been skilled, but before this last decade, she had also possessed a burning desire to always be better. It hadn¡¯t just been a love of learning, but a need to be the best as well. It had helped that some of her childhood friends were just as competitive, and the majority of their unit in the war had enjoyed one upping each other¡ªsometimes to the point of being suicidal.

    Once people got a taste of being the best, it was challenging to let go of the desire to continue on being the best. While eventually their unit had become very firm on monitoring its members and making sure they weren¡¯t putting their physical or mental health at risk for such stupid reasons, most divisions had no such qualms. She had seen her fair share of people burn themselves out during the war, due to pushing themselves too hard. Officially, the military didn¡¯t support such selfish heroics. In practice, they encouraged it.

    Emilia looked up at V, seemingly effortlessly carrying her through the rubble of the destruction that they had accidentally brought into this world. If it wasn¡¯t for them¡ªfor humanity and raids and heroes¡ªthis world wouldn¡¯t exist, either whole or in pieces. If they¡ªher and V¡ªhadn¡¯t collided here, this city would still exist. People wouldn¡¯t be dead, even if they would still be living in a secretly violent world.

    This was what most heroes wanted when they joined raids. To be powerful. To face dangers that wouldn¡¯t do more than cause them a little mental trauma, if even that. People were so good at compartmentalizing what happened within these worlds¡ªshe¡¯d seen that when, within months of returning from the matriarchal raid that had left Elijah and his friends jumpy, they had been seemingly perfectly fine. She might not know what exactly happened in that raid¡ªwhat the matriarchal society they had landed in had done to them¡ªbut she was pretty fucking sure they shouldn¡¯t have been fine that fast.

    ¡°What?¡± the man asked, after she¡¯d spent too long gazing up at him, trying to figure out if he were someone who could compartmentalize like that¡ªif he were someone who was living inside raids because his real life self wasn¡¯t who he wanted to be.

    ¡°Just thinking,¡± she said, instead of asking him about it. He wouldn¡¯t answer her, even if she asked. ¡°Do you think we can just leave via the front door?¡± she asked, noting that V was leading them towards one of the city¡¯s giant doors.

    ¡°Probably not,¡± the other visitor admitted, eyebrows pulling together. ¡°I just figured we¡¯d employ the same strategy we were going to use if we met people outside the labyrinth doors: blow them up.¡±

    Emilia glared up at him. ¡°No. Go that way instead,¡± she said, pointing in one direction before shifting her hand about 50 degrees to the left. ¡°Or¡­ was it that way?¡±

    V gave her that too familiar, long-suffering look, but shifted direction nonetheless. ¡°We¡¯re going to get lost, aren¡¯t we?¡± she thought she heard him mutter under his breath.

 Arc 2 | Chapter 80: Clean Hands

    V¡¯s energy erupted through the store¡¯s door, soft and violent all at once. The magic that had been holding the store hostage from them shattered across the aethernet, hopefully subtly enough that no one would be able to track them to this exact building.

    ¡°You have got to teach me how to do that,¡± Emilia demanded as V hauled her inside.

    He was, unfortunately, rather done with her and her bad sense of direction. Not wanting to risk exiting the city via one of the normal exits, as that seemed like a wonderful way to be either arrested by the Risen Guard or swiped up by another Enclave family, Emilia had suggested they search out the home of a friend: Zach.

    Regardless of whether the man and his daughter had remained in their home following the collapse of the library¡ªand a quick search with her energy through the house told Emilia they¡¯d probably left¡ªthe building would offer a safer place for them to regroup and figure out what to do next. Plus, she had a sneaking suspicion that Zach¡¯s training cavern had an emergency exit. While he hadn¡¯t pointed it out, there had been signs of something extra in the room he¡¯d taught her in.

    She hadn¡¯t mentioned the latter reason to V given the man was already inclined to follow her lead, as their only other option had been breaking into a random house. The man had been cooperative until Emilia had gotten turned around¡­ four times. After she led them down the wrong street for the fourth time, he had taken over, methodically leading them through the streets until Emilia found something she recognized. Except, she¡¯d gotten it wrong and accidentally led them down the wrong street for about 20 minutes before admitting she was once again turned around.

    V had stopped speaking to her around then, only leading them through the streets until he recognized Zach¡¯s shop¡ªhe¡¯d forced her to tell him what the building looked like because he was that done with her.

    She didn¡¯t really blame him, but as he shut the door behind them and icily made his way for the hall that would lead deeper into Zach¡¯s home, she could feel herself deflating. She had hoped that once they arrived, the other visitor would relax and forgive her. So far, no go. If anything, he seemed to be growing increasingly angry as time went by.

    ¡°Down here,¡± she practically whispered as she pushed by him and motioned to the trap door that would lead them lower. Hopefully, there was no one following them and learning what they were doing. She had never intended to return to this place, lest she bring problems down on Zach and his daughter. The only reason she¡¯d risked it now was because the city was abandoned, but she knew there were skills in her world that could be used to hide a person¡¯s presence, even if they tended to be highly restricted and difficult to use.

    V glanced back at her, blue eyes shockingly empty. He looked conflicted, jaw tensing before he finally spoke. ¡°We should look around for anything useful up here.¡±

    He was right¡ªEmilia knew he was right. Chances were, Zach was never coming back here, and all his items would simply continue to exist here, growing thick with dust and mould as time went on. They should take whatever they could. It still seemed wrong. She didn¡¯t say that, instead watching him head towards a set of stairs and slowly climb them.

    Emilia released a long puff of air, bouncing on her sore legs and looking around. List¡ªshe needed a list of things they needed!

    First things first: food, water, clothing, shower.

    That was a list she could live with, although she knew full well that the shower could wait. The idea of a shower though, red as it was liable to be¡­

    ¡°I found some food!¡± she called upwards, cringing slightly when it occurred to her that she probably shouldn¡¯t be yelling. If there were anyone around, and they had yet to notice them, she didn¡¯t want to accidentally attract them with her voice¡­

    Her voice, that they were unlikely to be able to hear.

    ¡°Fucking stars is it hard to alter the way I think,¡± she muttered as she climbed the stairs, turning a corner and smacking into V¡¯s chest. ¡°Oh, hi,¡± she said, trying to swallow down the awkwardness of the moment.

    He blinked placidly at her. ¡°What are you trying to alter?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh! Uhm, that people might hear me, I guess? If I yell or scream¡­¡± she trailed off, face scrunching up as she contemplated whether locals were likely to vocalize during sex. That seemed like something to ask¡­ someone. Who, she had no idea. Maybe Zach, if they ever met again. As much as he had sometime found her questions annoying, he had also given her answers for all of them. Plus! He had a daughter! He¡¯d need to get used to having chats about sex¡­ or maybe not, given the platform¡¯s prudish culture.

    The man sighed, long and drawn out, the puff of air brushing against her skin. ¡°It takes practice, to change your mindset between raids and the real world¡ªand even different raids.¡± He ran a hand through his hair, once again dirty from their time spent laying in the rubble of the library before they awakened. It was disconcerting, that they didn¡¯t even know how long they¡¯d been out for. ¡°You get used to it¡­ mostly.¡±

    ¡°I guess you spend a lot of time inside raids?¡± Emilia asked as V continued down the hallway that the staircase had opened up to.

    There were three doors along the hall, the one at the opposite side of the hall was ajar, showing a bedroom that almost certainly belonged to Zach¡¯s daughter. V pushed open another door, revealing Zach¡¯s bedroom.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he replied before entering the room. It didn¡¯t seem like he would say anything more on the matter, instead occupying himself pulling open drawers and looking through what he found.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Emilia pushed open the last door, squealing happily when she found a bathroom. ¡°Bathroom~ Shower~ My loves~¡± she cooed, stepping forward to turn the tap. The pipes rattled and a second later¡ª

    ¡°Dude.¡±

    ¡°Dude what?¡± V asked, shockingly close to Emilia.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± she squeaked, slapping a hand to her pounding chest and staring back at the man. ¡°You¡¯re so quiet.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he agreed, running a finger through the pale pink water. ¡°This is much nicer than the other water I¡¯ve seen.¡±

    ¡°Mood,¡± Emilia replied, nodding as she reached forward and ran her hands through the water, scrubbing at her dirty hands. She glanced around, trying to find soap, only for V to hand her some. ¡°Thanks,¡± she muttered, scrubbing the dirt from her fingers and trying to ignore the awkwardness of the moment.

    V leaned against the counter, arms crossed against his still bare chest. Apparently, he either hadn¡¯t yet found anything worth wearing or had decided to wait until he was cleaner to put anything on.

    Somehow, Emilia was almost certain it was the former. She didn¡¯t think the man the type to care about putting clean clothes over his grime, or dirty clothes over his cleanliness.

    ¡°I¡¯m not mad at you,¡± he finally said, eyes glued to her face, although she was patently refusing to look at him, her attention focused solely on her hands.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine if you are. I know my sense of direction is abysmal.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes it is,¡± he replied, and when Emilia chanced a glance at him, he was smiling slightly. ¡°I don¡¯t handle frustration well.¡±

    ¡°No?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± V¡¯s hand snapped out to grab her wrists, tugging them away from the water. ¡°Do not rub your wrists raw.¡±

    Emilia looked down at their joined hands, V¡¯s filth next to her pale cleanliness. ¡°We should shower, after we eat, but you should wash your hands before we eat. I found food downstairs. It looks acceptable.¡± Her eyes flickered up to the man¡¯s, something in them giving her pause.

    Soft, affectionate eyes looked down on her, all annoyance gone. ¡°A little dirt never hurt anyone.¡±

    She snorted, her own fingers wrapping around his wrists as she pulled him towards the still running water. ¡°I dunno~¡± she sighed as she soaped up his hands. ¡°You eat the wrong thing and boom! Sickness.¡±

    Something flashed through V¡¯s eyes, something like amusement, but also not. ¡°You have no idea what the human body can consume and still be okay with.¡±

    ¡°Like?¡± she asked, using his distraction to clean his hands as thoroughly as she could. Hers had been bad enough, coated with dirt and mystery liquids. V¡¯s were coated in mud and mystery liquids, the substances thick and worked into the folds of his skin and edging under his nails and cuticles. The man really did need a good long soak to get the majority of it off.

    His hands shifted within hers, cooperating with her efforts, even if she was sure he wouldn¡¯t have bothered if he were alone. ¡°Maybe one day I¡¯ll tell her about it. Not today.¡±

    When Emilia looked back at him, that mysterious non-quite amusement was gone. In its place, she found a wall that she knew wouldn¡¯t fall, whatever the man had been referring to now safely tucked behind it. ¡°Okay,¡± she said, shrugging and giving him a small smile. ¡°One day. Ah~ but don¡¯t wait too long! If one of us leaves or the raid ends, we won¡¯t be able to share our secrets.¡±

    It had been meant as a joke, but V seemed to take it more seriously, a frown pulling across his face. ¡°Maybe¡­ we meet up in the real world.¡±

    Emilia blinked at him. She knew that people did that, although it wasn¡¯t something common in one-off raids like this, mostly because there was a general recommendation that you know someone for at least a few months onraid before meeting offraid. Even if she and V stuck together for the rest of the raid¡ªand who knew if they would, regardless of whether they both survived to the end¡ªtheir 20ish days of friendship would still be well short of that recommendation.

    ¡°We¡­ could,¡± she said, throwing what little caution she had to the wind. If V knew who she was already, she didn¡¯t see much risk in meeting with him offraid. If he didn¡¯t, well, it wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d be able to do much with her false identity, and she could defend herself!

    ¡­

    And, she could also bring Sil and Beth to defend her.

    V watched her with a curious expression, and she hated how hard it was to read the man. She could only assume it was due to her actually having seen his real body, her mind unable to connect the two people but seeing enough of that original person in the other visitor¡¯s avatar for her to be thoroughly unsure of how to interpret the man¡¯s expressions half the time.

    ¡°There¡¯s a place,¡± he said, pulling their hands free of the water and grabbing a dingy looking towel set nearby to dry their hands.

    He was surprisingly gentle and diligent as he dried hers, while unsurprisingly brusque and rough with his own. Emilia really wanted to rip the towel away from him and offer his hands the same care he had given hers, but his roughness was efficient, and before she could snatch the towel, he was done. Tossing the towel lazily back onto the cabinet, the man grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the kitchen.

    ¡°A place?¡± she asked, wondering what had made him lose his words so abruptly.

    V hummed absently before seeming to spark back into himself. ¡°Ah, yeah. There¡¯s a place I like. It¡¯s a bar, in Roasalia. It¡¯s kinda in a sketchy part of town¡ªsketchy in the very important people from all walks of life frequent the place way,¡± he clarified, laughing to himself as they reached the kitchen, and he began to dig through the food options.

    Having been in the world longer than her, he seemed to have a better idea of what everything was. Occasionally, he pulled an item out of a cupboard or the magic device that seemed to function like a fridge. He¡¯d diligently look over the item, weighing some internal battle before deciding whether they would eat it or not¡ªand if so, which one of them would eat it.

    Quickly, the two plates he had pulled out filled with various items, none of which Emilia recognized. Some items went on both plates, but mostly they were only placed on one. The amount of care the man was putting into trying to choose food they would each eat, when it surely would have been easier to give them the same food and just hope it went down easy enough¡­

    ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± she asked, leaning against the ledge next to him¡ªtoo close to him. She really shouldn¡¯t be letting this man and his sweet gestures affect her so. She¡¯d always been a sucker for being taken care of, though. It was the way to her heart, even if just for a night or two.

    V looked at her¡ªreally looked at her. Debating. He was nervous, too¡ªlikely knew this was much too soon to meet even more than she did, given his experience with this sort of thing. If he did know her, what was there to be nervous about, then? That she¡¯d freak when they met? Accuse him of tricking her?

    Maybe she would. It would probably depend on her mood and knots and how the rest of the raid went.

    ¡°It¡¯s called Korantum.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 81: The Truth Will Come Out (but not today)

    They flew through the grass, stained blood-red over its already purplish tones. It would have been easier, were they in their own world. The night would have covered them there, but in this perpetual world of light, they had been forced to improvise¡ªto grind out a collection of magics to aid them in their quest.

    And what a quest it was.

    Not that Emilia was particularly happy to have ended up here, on this stupid, ill thought out quest. Instead, her mind shifted through options for how she could get out of here: how she could stop this group from leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Honestly, none of the options were great, and for the moment, she was stuck here.

    It wasn¡¯t like she could leave her friend behind, anyways, assuming she could find him¡ªassuming his mind was still intact.

    ?Shh!? hissed the man in the lead, everyone who had chosen to follow this suicidal path tugging to a halt. The woman who had been altering their movement cringed, one hand wrapping over her already overextended core while the other pressed over her mouth to cover a scream of anguish.

    They¡¯d already been caught once¡ªbeen forced to kill someone who was practically a child because they¡¯d been unlucky enough to have spotted them. It was sad, but expected. There would be collateral damage today, there was no way around it. All they could hope for was to keep it limited, to hope that the people they left alive wouldn¡¯t come seeking vengeance for those who died.

    They probably would, but even if their group escaped with every life intact, half of them would be gone by the time those who lived could possibly gather the experience needed to take them on. Emilia and the other visitors would be gone, evaporated out of this world and back into their own. The locals¡ªthe vigilantes who had chosen death and freedom over the oppression that both the Risen Guard and the Enclave were bringing down upon them¡ªwould be dead, if not on this mission, then in the ones that would follow.

    As much as Emilia hoped that some of them would make it out of this nightmare and into the new world they hoped to create, she knew they had all accepted their all but inevitable fate already.

    ?Let¡¯s go,? the man said, eyes flashing black as magic swept over them and the aether sucked them into itself.

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    ¡°Emilia~¡±

    Something blew against Emilia¡¯s neck, and she batted it away, grumbling with sleepiness.

    ¡°Emilia~¡±

    Something blew against her again, and this time, when she raised a sleepy hand, it collided with skin and bone.

    ¡°Oof.¡± Something¡ªsomeone¡ªfell down beside her, the bed bouncing comically for how lightly she had tapped them. ¡°Ah~ how cruel, to be so violently assaulted by someone I had such a good night with.¡±

    Emilia peeked open an eye to glare at V. He smiled, unrepentantly back at her, head propped up on one hand.

    ¡°Morning, beautiful,¡± he said, smile widening even as nervousness entered his eyes. He looked like he wanted to lean in and kiss her, but wasn¡¯t sure if he was allowed, after their night of sex and showering and more sex.

    Emilia didn¡¯t blame him¡ªit was relatively rare that she spent the night with one-night stands. Generally, she fucked and split. It was helpful for avoiding awkward moments like this, even if sometimes she wished she could wake up like this: soft and safe next to a gorgeous, naked man.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± she replied, fingers lazily dragging up his bare chest as she turned towards him. Despite the shower, he was sweaty again¡ªprobably due to the post-shower sex. Given the whole abandoned city thing, she didn¡¯t see much of an issue with showering again¡­ or just repeating last night in general.

    She shifted, arms stretching over her head as she yawned, and V made a noise that sounded suspiciously like cooing as she tucked herself into him. Technically, she and Elijah had guidelines about how close they could get to anyone they hooked up with. Cuddling, sleeping in the same bed, having too many repeats¡ªthose definitely crossed those guidelines, or got close to crossing them, anyways.

    ¡°Don¡¯t catch feelings for the people you fuck¡±¡ªthat was the official rule. Don¡¯t fuck up our relationship falling for someone else. Don¡¯t risk what we have for good dick or pussy.

    Emilia should care about messing up her relationship, but she really didn¡¯t. Realistically, she should exit the raid and break up with the man. They¡¯d both be happier for it. Maybe she¡¯d meet up with V in real life and something would spark between their real bodies¡ªalthough, that would entail her having to keep the man clean, which had been¡­ an experience. It hadn¡¯t exactly been a bad experience, but it had also been rather exhausting.

    The man was exhausting. Usually, she was the one wearing out her partners. Olivier had complained about it more than once, both when they¡¯d been hooking up and long after. Fortunately, he¡¯d never seemed to mind taking care of her¡ªseemed to enjoy it, actually, as far as she could tell, even if it still wore on him.

    She was work. V was work. Work and work didn¡¯t go well¡ªnot without someone more responsible to manage them, anyways.

    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± the other visitor mumbled into her hair, one of his hands running idly over her back.

    ¡°I was thinking about us teaming up on a friend of mine. In bed, I mean. He recently told me he¡¯s into women and men.¡± She nodded into V¡¯s chest, telling him about her and Olivier¡¯s random hookup in the alleyway, although she didn¡¯t mention him by name. Her ex-lawyer didn¡¯t need it getting around that he was fucking people in semi-public locations.

    ¡°Kinky,¡± V laughed, pulling back to look down at her. ¡°Just a random guy?¡±

    ¡°Something like that¡­¡± she mumbled, fingers dragging lower, lower, lower¡ª

    V¡¯s hand caught hers, just before they could reach their destination. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not teasing,¡± he whispered, thumb rubbing lightly over her palm. His hips pressed into her, hardness rubbing against her thigh.

    ¡°Never~¡± she whispered back, pressing up into a kiss.

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Food?¡± V asked as Emilia entered the kitchen.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°But of course,¡± she replied, trying to not feel too domestic as she rolled her too big clothes up and took a seat at the table, watching the other visitor shuffle about the kitchen, getting them food.

    Sex and showers and sleeping beside each other before having a morning fuck? It was nice, but also felt so¡­ normal. Generally, she and Elijah didn¡¯t spend the night together. Their schedules often didn¡¯t mesh, and she really, really liked having her own bed. Sleeping beside someone often kept her nightmares at bay, but it wasn¡¯t a guarantee, and she¡¯d woken sweating and panting beside her boyfriend more than a few times over the last year. It sucked¡ªshe liked morning snuggles and soft morning sex¡ªbut she had never really liked waking up next to someone while panicking.

    Not unless it was someone she trusted with her entire soul. Rafe, Olivier, a few other people. They were good at handling those moments, knowing exactly how to support her and not make things worse. Pria was pretty good at it too, oddly. Maybe it was due to her empathy, although Pria had never explicitly said so. It was a large part of why they had remained roommates for as long as they had, though, regardless of the reason.

    That, and the whole friendship thing. Not to mention the lower cost of rent.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± V asked as he slid a plate of food in front of her.

    It was filled with the food she had enjoyed the night before, as well as a few other options, and despite her better judgment, she reached for one of the new items first. ¡°Eh¡­ I was thinking about how little I trust my boyfriend.¡± It wasn¡¯t that Elijah was untrustworthy, he was just¡­ unobservant and awkward when it came to emotional things. For all that she¡¯d woken up next to him from nightmares at least a half dozen, he¡¯d never seemed to notice. If he had, he¡¯d never said anything, even when she was tired and bleary-eyed the next day.

    ¡°Seriously, why are you dating this guy?¡± the other visitor asked, sliding into the seat next to her, his foot bumping her own. He stuffed a piece of food into his mouth, red liquid immediately dripping onto his sorta-borrowed, sorta-stolen clothes. Despite her eyes following its descent down his chin and shirt, the man didn¡¯t seem to notice.

    ¡°Cause it used to be fun, and I¡¯m a baby who won¡¯t break up with him.¡± Emilia frowned, V frowned back at her. Apparently, whatever Payton was doing with her knots now had made her overly truthful? Wasn¡¯t that fun. ¡°Uh¡­ I¡­¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t mean to say that?¡± V guessed, confusion evident in his expression.

    ¡°Uh¡­ no.¡± If V had been someone she didn¡¯t think she knew, she probably would have told him the truth, an explanation about her knots scratching at her throat. As much as he knew she was in an illegal knotting clinic, that could be for a number of things, including just access to the raid. To actually tell him how fucked up her knots were? How much the war had affected her?

    No, thanks.

    ¡°But yeah,¡± she said, trying to turn the conversation back to the awkwardness of her crumbling relationship, because even that was better than talking about her knot situation. ¡°I guess I just hoped he¡¯d break up with me. I don¡¯t know if he will, though, is the thing.¡± He¡¯d certainly seemed adamant the night before¡ªthe real-world night before¡ªthat he wasn¡¯t going to break up with her.

    ¡°I mean, why would someone break up with you? They¡¯d have to be fucking stupid¡ªstupid and deranged! You¡¯re just about the perfect girl,¡± V laughed, stuffing a piece of food in his mouth before his eyes shot wide.

    They blinked at each other, having a silent conversation about how it was odd that they¡¯d both suddenly found themselves being so honest. As much as the prospect of getting answers from the man was intriguing, she would get them eventually¡ªas long as they did meet up in the real world¡ªand she¡¯d rather not reveal something too important herself.

    Plus, weird and potentially dangerous truth magic!

    V pushed himself softly back from the table, expression growing serious as he let a series of searching energy wisps shudder out of him. His eyes flicked in the direction one of the wisps had gone. ¡°Someone is there,¡± his expression seemed to say.

    ¡°I dunno~¡± Emilia sighed, leaning forward and scuffing her chair back. ¡°I¡¯m really not that great. Plus, people are always weird about dating irregulars. Half of them are weirdly fetishistic,¡± she told V, although she was certain he already knew. They simply needed the conversation to keep flowing, so their spy didn¡¯t realize they were onto him.

    ¡°And your boyfriend isn¡¯t?¡± V asked, sounding genuinely curious. He flicked one of Emilia¡¯s {Blood Needles} over in his hand, stepping into the hallway, Emilia remaining in her seat, but turned, in case she had to bolt after him.

    Seriously, the way they so easily fell into step with one another was something else.

    ¡°Nah~¡± she sighed, telling him in broad strokes how she and Elijah had met, before accidentally falling into telling him some of the more salacious stories of her hookups¡ªor wannabe hookups¡ªsexualizing her. Well, at least if she was talking about the asshole who had tried to convince her to be a free use slut for him and his frat bros, she wasn¡¯t liable to tell V anything she didn¡¯t want him to know.

    ¡°The worst¡ªand funniest¡ªthing,¡± Emilia was telling him when the aether in the direction he had gone ruptured, ¡°is they tried to pay me, but it was practically nothing. Even just standing around doing nothing in a raid would net you a bigger paydrop. Those guys really thought I was brainless.¡±

    She stared at the doorway, waiting for V to return, her energy friends¡ªwhich she had been cycling after him since he left, making sure he didn¡¯t need help¡ªassuring her he was fine and on his way back. Her fingers moved idly over the table, nails tapping out the rhythm of a song she couldn¡¯t quite place.

    ¡°So, what did you do to them?¡± V asked as he reappeared, tossing an unconscious looking man onto the floor. He held out a hand and Emilia obediently handed over her {Blood Vial} and nodding as she explained that she¡¯d used a skill that had left them wandering around naked. She didn¡¯t know what had happened to them after that, although chances were SecOps had picked them up.

    V¡¯s mouth pulled into an amused smile as he began manipulating the {Blood Vial}. They¡¯d spent a portion of the evening before, between dinner and Emilia coercing V into showering, discussing what they knew about the world and their various weapons. V indeed only had one weapon, although he had agreed that he should probably attempt to make one from his own blood sometime soon. Emilia had also offered up her own blood, but the man had seemed rather put out by that.

    He had, however, agreed to continue borrowing Emilia¡¯s growing collection. Now, he effortlessly pulled blood from the {Blood Vial}, shifting it into a haphazard looking rope. They both frowned at it, and he tried again and again. It took several more tries before it looked like a proper rope, the material glistening like it was wet as he tied it around their voyeur¡¯s wrists.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem to be a local,¡± Emilia noted, looking the man over and noting his pale blue hair. ¡°Or, he¡¯s the child of a former visitor.¡± Zach had had green eyes, after all. Not that natural blue hair was common, outside of one particular Free Colony.

    V plopped back down beside her, giving her a confused look. ¡°What makes you think this place allows heroic children?¡±

    ¡°Wait, there¡¯s an actual name for them?¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t play raids, so how would I?¡±

    V shrugged, telling her that she just seemed the type to know random information like that. That was both somewhat accurate¡ªshe loved random factoids¡ªand extremely inaccurate¡ªshe really didn¡¯t like raids, and only knew what she did from accidentally hearing it on the news, supplemental information forced on her by her Censor, and the ramblings of her friends.

    She¡¯d brought it up, but she also didn¡¯t want to out Zach, who almost certainly didn¡¯t advertise who his father was. ¡°I can¡¯t¡ª¡±

    The other visitor pressed a finger to her lips. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± he said, somehow knowing she was about to tell him she couldn¡¯t explain why she thought this world allowed visitors to spawn children.

    ¡°More likely, he¡¯s a visitor,¡± she said, lips moving over his finger. She wanted to suck it into her mouth, before the man inevitably covered himself in grime again. It was just a matter of time.

    V hummed in agreement, finger dragging over her lips and chin. For a moment, she thought he would tip her head up and kiss her, but he had been looking at her that way since the night before¡ªlike he wanted to do too intimate things to her so much it hurt. He still had yet to follow through in taking the first step, however¡ªsomething was holding him back. Unless she made the first move, nothing more than sweet touches would occur between them.

    The hand fell away from her, and V looked back to the man. ¡°I guess¡­ we should just go back to breakfast?¡±

    ¡°I guess,¡± Emilia agreed, the two of them shifting around so they could eat, arms brushing against each other, while they watched their captive and ate Zach¡¯s admittedly quite delicious food.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 82: Of All the Things

    ¡°There are at least a dozen people in there.¡±

    ?Shit, that¡¯s way more than we expected.? The man spit on the ground, and Emilia was reminded yet again of the strangeness of this world¡ªof the fact that it had no technology, no ability to analyze fluids found at a crime scene in order to test it for DNA.

    Granted, testing and comparing that DNA wasn¡¯t quite as cut and dry as it could be. In the real world, there were laws in place that stopped the government from matching that DNA to anyone in Baalphoria, despite their genetic sequences being stored in the OIC System following their D-Level assessment. Well, it was a law, but not one that the government was usually happy about.

    ¡°Does anyone know why law 23, section 176, ¡®The Right to Genetic Privacy¡¯, exists?¡± Olivier had asked in a class she had snuck into, this one before he had agreed to take her case, and she had been hoping to wear him down with her persistence.

    The class had grown shockingly quiet, and Olivier had looked disappointedly out at them, carefully avoiding looking at her, the annoying irregular who was stalking him, trying to become his client.

    ¡°Because the OIC System is a stubborn bitch.¡±

    Olivier¡¯s eyes had snapped to her, narrowing when he realized she was the one who had answered. ¡°Do not give snarky, half-answers,¡± he had chastised her, which was better than telling her to get the fuck out of his classroom, which had been his go-to comment¡ªalbeit in slightly more polite language¡ªevery other time she¡¯d spoken in the few weeks she¡¯d been stalking him.

    Granted, all those previous times she¡¯d been making truly egregious comments, but still. The man had been rude and infuriating and wouldn¡¯t even sit down to discuss her case or look over the basic facts of it! He had deserved to be heckled a bit.

    Why she hadn¡¯t heckled him in this case¡ªwhy she¡¯d given an accurate, if still snarky, answer to his question¡­

    At the time, she hadn¡¯t known why she had spoken up. Now, she knew it was because she hated seeing her the man disappointed. Even back then, before they had even liked each other, something inside her had churned at seeing that dead, let down look cross his face.

    She had sighed and shook out her long hair. Several of the other students had looked back at her with a mixture of awe and annoyance. Beautiful and annoying, back then she had radiated power¡ªhow could she not? Designer clothes and perfect everything. Her accent had told everyone exactly where she hailed from, and here she was, invading their classroom day after day and talking to non-dev Olivier de la Rue like he was just a regular person.

    The little irregular girl that even their teacher couldn¡¯t keep out of his classroom.

    Within Olivier¡¯s classroom, Censors were not permitted to research answers. As she wasn¡¯t a student, she was under no obligation to follow that rule of his, but she had still forced herself to follow it nonetheless. She¡¯d been half expecting him to brush her off, when she nudged his Censor, offering him access to her logs so she could prove she actually knew what she was talking about. Not that she couldn¡¯t have just altered those logs, but he hadn¡¯t known that, and she hadn¡¯t altered them anyways.

    To her surprise, he had let himself be pulled inside her, his presence dragging over her logs and memories and making her squirm slightly in her seat as she began to speak. ¡°The Right to Genetic Privacy, officially, came into existence near the beginning of Baalphoria¡¯s founding. Not much is known about it, due to information loss during the Colonial Wars, however, what is known is that in 3:179, during the hay days of the wars, a more militant political party came into power.¡±

    Around her, students had begun to mumble and fidget, wondering where her random history lesson was going. Someone less confident than herself might have balked and backtracked¡ªclaimed they were sorry and didn¡¯t actually know what they were talking about.

    Not her. She knew she was right, and while she didn¡¯t need the subtle nod of encouragement from Olivier¡ªand what a surprise that had been!¡ªshe appreciated it nonetheless.

    ¡°Two years later, in an attempt to control increasing civil violence and protestation of the war and the government, the party altered several laws. These laws included a handful of privacy rights. The Right to Genetic Privacy, The Black Knot Doctrine, various laws that managed drug use, personal safety and responsibility, as well as the way in which SecOps¡ªalthough they were known by another name at the time¡ªdealt with those who violated related laws,¡± she had continued, watching with fascination as Olivier increasingly relaxed.

    The man¡¯s ever stiff posture and glaring eyes shifted into something softer. He had leaned back against his desk, crossing his legs and arms and reminding Emilia of the teachers she had often seen in movies and shows. The hot teachers, flaunting their brilliance so they could get students into their bed.

    Okay, maybe not so much normal movies and shows as porn. A girl had needs, okay!? And she had always had a thing for stronger, smarter, older men.

    ¡°What does that have to do with the question?¡± someone snapped, a boy from the northern Penns, closer to Roasalia, based on his accent. Dark brown eyes and plain features had glared up at her from the front-row seat. Turned as he was towards her, he hadn¡¯t been able to see the venomous look his teacher had given him. A couple of people around him had noticed, however, each of them edging away from him like he was suddenly poisonous.

    Emilia had simply smiled down at the student¡ªthe same, confident and teasing smile that she had so often given her teachers throughout compulsory school when they had questioned her on something. Off she had gone, explaining in detail all that was known about how the OIC System had refused to follow any of the government''s new rules.

    ¡°So many of our laws and regulations rely on the OIC System to be properly monitored and enacted. If the system refuses to cooperate, there is little to be done to convince it. While it is true that many records have been lost, we do know that the government has tried to change several laws on multiple occasions. The OIC never allows it. The OIC does not change its mind. Therefore, laws such as The Right to Genetic Privacy exist because the system refuses to let them not exist. Today, laws that will rely on the system are preemptively run through it, to make sure it will comply with enacting them.¡±

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Olivier had nodded in seeming approval, looking as though he were about to say something when she had cut him off, watching gleefully as all that approval vanished into near anger.

    ¡°Some would even argue it can be inferred that the OIC System itself is the true architect of most of our laws.¡±

    Wherever Olivier had been intending his question to lead into, she never learned. The rest of the class had devolved into the two of them debating whether her suggestion had any merit to it, ending in a stalemate when Tariq had appeared to tell them, ¡°Class is over, Master Olivier. You need to release your hostages,¡± more or less.

    Emilia assumed he had completely his lesson the next day, but she didn¡¯t actually know for sure. It was the first class in weeks she hadn¡¯t attended, because that night he had appeared at her hotel room door and told her he would look at her case.

    Of all the things to change his mind, knowing a random history fact¡ªone she only knew from being so closely associated with one of the most powerful Black Knot families¡ªand being able to hold her own in a debate with him had not been one she had been expecting.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes flickered away from the clear spit slowly evaporating in the sunlight, wondering how the Risen Guard investigated crimes without access to more modern, technological techniques. Skills in her world were important to investigations, but she couldn¡¯t imagine doing it all with skills or magic.

    ¡°Should we reassess?¡± someone was asking, their face screwing up in worry and frustration. ¡°Come back later and¡ª¡±

    ?We can¡¯t!? one of the women snarled. She¡¯d only joined up with the group earlier that day, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure they¡¯d actually been introduced. ?Someone is already dead. If we abort now, there won¡¯t be another chance.?

    Yuka took a step towards the new woman, bright red eyes glittering in the sweltering sun.

    The air was spicier here than it had been at the Stringer Estate, yet was nothing compared to the world far below them. It still tingled at Emilia¡¯s nose, and she wanted to sneeze, but sucked it in as best she could¡ªas much as their intel said no one here was a visitor or capable of hearing them, that information was only so reliable.

    The last thing she wanted was to catch anyone¡¯s ire by risking their location when everyone was already running so hot.

    ?We will go on,? Yuka assured the woman, placing a placating hand on her shoulder. ?There is no turning back, I thought I made that clear!? they growled, turning back to the other woman, each of their eyes flashing with too much aether¡ªwith too much uncontrollable anger.

    Emilia sighed, taking a step into the firestorm, just moments from breaking loose.

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    ¡°So¡­ your name is Toby?¡± V asked, squatting in front of their so far quite cooperative captive.

    The blue-haired man nodded vigorously at V. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± he cried.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure why he was treating V like a drill sergeant, but he was. She also wasn¡¯t sure why he¡ªToby¡ªwas all but completely ignoring her, but he was doing that as well.

    V either hadn¡¯t noticed the fact that their captive was ignoring her yet, or he was waiting for the right moment to bring it up. Emilia rather thought it was the latter, although the fact that she hadn¡¯t gotten to watch the other visitor reprimand the, well, other other visitor was a bit disappointing.

    ¡°Why were you spying on us?¡±

    Toby¡¯s eyes flickered up to Emilia, one of the first times he had even bothered to look her way. ¡°I¡¯m a pervert?¡± he said, sounding thoroughly unconvincing.

    ¡°Do you want me to kill you?¡± V asked, all soft coercion gone from his voice.

    The other man swallowed, eyes the same shade as his hair blowing wide behind his bangs. ¡°No! No! Please don¡¯t! Oh, I¡¯m going to be in so much trouble,¡± he cried before bursting into tears.

    ¡°Dude,¡± Emilia hissed when V pushed himself out of his squat and came to stand beside her. ¡°How old do you think this kid is?¡±

    Technically, you only had to have a Censor to partake in most virtual raids, although usually ones that were this intense had age limits. This one hadn¡¯t had any, but most parents had enough sense to require their children get their permission to join more than the most basic raid platform. Either this guy¡¯s parents were crazy, or he was older than his wailing implied.

    V simply shook his head, cringing as their captive¡¯s cries grew louder. ¡°Should we, I dunno, gag him or something? Who knows who else is hanging around and might hear.¡±

    ¡°I think even the locals would hear this,¡± Emilia said, pushing her chair back until it bumped against the kitchen table, as though those few inches would make the sound more tolerable. It didn¡¯t. ¡°So¡­ maybe?¡±

    Her friend didn¡¯t need to be told twice. He did, however, apparently need to be told not to use his borrowed clothing as a gag.

    ¡°V~¡± she moaned, giving him a despondent look. ¡°Really? There are towels right over there! Or you could have used a sock!¡±

    The man stared down at the strip he had torn off the grey-brown sweater he had pulled on. Emilia couldn¡¯t say she¡¯d be sad to see him forced into something else¡ªthe colour didn¡¯t suit him, and V had only chosen that particular sweater because it looked comfy¡ªbut wasting clothing was just stupid!

    ¡°Whatever,¡± V mumbled, stepping forward to stuff the fabric into the (likely) teenager¡¯s mouth. ¡°Now, I¡¯m sorry about this, but you really are too noisy,¡± he said in the relative silence, their captive too shocked to continue crying. Then¡ª

    ¡°Fuck,¡± V sighed, voice barely audible over the teenager¡¯s muffled screams. He flopped back into the chair beside her. ¡°This sucks. Maybe we should just leave him here and fuck off?¡±

    Emilia didn¡¯t respond, instead frowning at the crying teenager. She felt a bit bad about potentially leaving him here, but if he continued with the waterworks, they would be risking anyone who was still wandering about the city finding them. That said, other than this guy, there¡¯d been no sign of anyone else. There also hadn¡¯t been any sign of the others exiting the library labyrinth¡ªnot that they¡¯d been awake the whole time, but during those first few hours, when they had both assumed the others wouldn¡¯t be far behind them, no one had appeared. Either the others had ended up somewhere else entirely¡ªback at the proper exit, perhaps¡ªor they were still stuck inside, trying to free Rin and Key or just plain old stuck.

    Emilia felt a bit bad for them. She¡¯d been stuck in various places throughout her life¡ªsee: shitty first home, flooding sea cave, middle of the wilderness with monsters lurking in the shadows, just to name a few¡ªand definitely knew the sort of stress being stuck could cause you, especially when you had no idea when or if you were ever getting out.

    ¡°Maybe we knock him out until we actually leave?¡± she suggested. Leaving the guy here really seemed too cruel. Plus, if someone did come along and find him, they¡¯d know exactly where to start looking for secret doors.

    V hummed in contemplation, popping his last piece of food in his mouth. ¡°Sure, why not,¡± he said, standing and stretching, arms reaching high above his head as his back cracked.

    The teenager shook his head vigorously, a comical contrast to his earlier nodding. If he had stopped crying, perhaps they would have let him remain conscious. Unfortunately, his wails simply grew more frantic. Before either of them knew what was happening, however, he was gone.

    ¡°Well, fuck,¡± V said, dumbfounded. He looked back and Emilia, and they shrugged at each other.

    ¡°I guess¡­ we should probably get out of here?¡± she suggested, scratching the back of her head before popping up and heading off to find V a new shirt.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 83: More Vanilla Than I Thought

    Someone was screaming, but Emilia couldn¡¯t place their words.

    Everything was so far away, and she really regretted trying to stop the fight.

    This hadn¡¯t been worth it.

    Not just this, everything.

    Everything was wrong, messed up, broken.

    They¡¯d been wrong.

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    V giggled¡ªfucking giggled¡ªas they haphazardly made their way down the dark path that, in theory, led to Zach¡¯s training rooms.

    ¡°Oh, shit,¡± Emilia laughed as she smacked into a wall. She had no idea how Zach had navigated them through the passages so effortlessly¡ªmagic and memory, most likely¡ªbut she could do no such thing and the two of them had been left to wander through the tunnels, using only their hands and the occasional light to find their way.

    This, of course, meant they were hopelessly lost, as Emilia had forgotten that there were several diverging tunnels.

    Thankfully, unlike the day before¡ªwhen V had grown frustrated with her and the situation as she led them through the empty city streets, searching for anything she recognized¡ªthe other visitor was taking their current state of wandering around completely lost much better.

    Almost too much better.

    ¡°Hm? Oh, because I¡¯m used to this sort of lost,¡± the man told her when she asked about his relative calmness. ¡°I told you, I used to be obsessed with an old caving raid. Those raids¡ª Oh, fucking stars.¡± He laughed as he began to fill the dark silence with stories of things he had experienced inside that particular raid.

    As much as Emilia hated raids, even she had to admit¡ªadrenaline, climbing junkie that she was at heart¡ªthat the raid sounded pretty sick. ¡°You said it still exists?¡± she asked as V finished telling her about the time he¡¯d run into a group of cannibals¡ªwho he still wasn¡¯t entire convinced hadn¡¯t been a group of psychotic visitors¡ªin a particularly squishy cave system. He had been unwilling to tell her whether he had been able to make it out of there, or if they¡¯d caught him and, well, eaten him.

    V¡¯s hand squeezed hers, a little lifeline so the darkness couldn¡¯t steal them away from one another. ¡°Yeah, it does, but¡­¡± He hesitated, and Emilia gave his hand an assuring squeeze in return. ¡°Okay, so, you know how I was saying that this platform was a free-for-all raid? True anything goes, being blackaether?¡±

    Emilia hummed as her fingers edged around an abrupt corner that she definitely didn¡¯t remember having seen on her first tour of the place.

    ¡°Well¡­ eventually, it did have actual human game souls and other races living in it. They were like the people here: fully aware they were part of a game where heroes¡±¡ªthe man scoffed as he practically spit out the word¡ª¡°could come and do fuck all to them and their world.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that¡¯s often the draw of blackaether raids¡ªthe freedom.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± V agreed, explaining that some blackaether maintainers cared about their platform remaining as they had designed it, but most platforms were created solely for the maintainers to have a place to live out their wildest dreams. ¡°A lot of the mobs maintain raids for training¡ªand pay big bucks for civilians to come play in them¡ªbut people run them as a hobby too. That¡¯s what this one was to someone: a hobby.¡±

    ¡°So, what happened?¡± she asked when the other visitor was quiet for too long.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really know,¡± he said quietly, something uncomfortably sad entering his voice. ¡°The person who was maintaining it disappeared, but the platform was hosted by someone else, and they chose to keep it up. They weren¡¯t in a position to maintain it¡ªthat stuff, especially for blackaether raids, is tough shit¡ªand it sort of¡­ fell apart?¡±

    ¡°So, it exists, but you can¡¯t play it anymore?¡± Emilia asked, vaguely contemplating how many legal raid platforms she¡¯d heard about being shut down over the last few years, even if she¡¯d only generally heard about the big ones that closed their servers. Even removed from the world of virtual raids, the closing of platforms reached her, due to how¡­ intense some of the players could become, when they realized their years of hard work and friendships¡ªeven romantic relationships with game souls¡ªwould be erased. How much larger was that number, when you considered all the blackaether raids?

    Then again, perhaps people who played illegal raids were more understanding that the platform could disappear overnight.

    ¡°Oh, fuck no, you can play it,¡± V said, sadness shifting into a scoff. ¡°If you want to be killed by the locals¡ªwhich, some people do, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait, wait. What?¡± Emilia said, pulling to a stop, V bumping into her back. ¡°People want to be killed in these things?¡± she asked, incredulous. Who in their right mind sets out to join a raid with the goal of being killed?

    ¡°Did you not know?¡± V asked, enough amusement running through his voice that, had she been able to see him, she was sure she would have found a too wide grin stretching over his face. ¡°People go into blackaether raids for all sorts of things. Some of absolutely terrible¡ªI spend a good portion of my time hunting down heroes who go around raping and murdering people in raids. Others are more¡­ horrible in the other direction.¡±

    ¡°Like going into a raid wanting to be killed,¡± Emilia muttered, wondering why in the world someone would want to die. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t something like that cause psychological trauma?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°Who says it¡¯s not the other way around? That legal raids are the traumatizing things, and people are left to seek out a way to cope in blackaether raids? It¡¯s not like normal raids keep people from dying. You killed someone yourself, after all. He could very well want to go and experience that feeling again.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­¡± she breathed out. She shouldn¡¯t ask what other sort of things people did, but there was so little to do as they wandered the tunnels, and she couldn¡¯t help herself. ¡°So¡­ what other sorts of horrible things do people do in blackaether raids?¡±

    V hummed in thought as they edged their way around the suddenly huge cavern they had wandered into. In the distance, Emilia could hear the patter of water dropping across stone. Not quite a waterfall, but neither was it a single drop falling at a steady rhythm.

    ¡°Third or fourth door?¡± V asked when they had come full circle back to the door they entered through. How the man could tell which door was which in such darkness, Emilia had no idea, but the few times they¡¯d been forced to turn back, his instructions had led them perfectly back where he wanted them.

    Probably.

    He certainly seemed confident, in any case, although she had no idea why he was making her lead when he was their map. Maybe it was just pettiness from the day before, when she¡¯d gotten them so lost.

    ¡°Why not the second?¡± she asked. There had been nothing strange about it, as far as she could tell.

    Their hands bobbed, V shrugging. ¡°Vibes.¡±

    ¡°Of course, of course,¡± Emilia said, nodding in total understanding as she led them back to the fourth door.

    ¡°Why this one?¡± the other visitor asked, laughing when she gave the expected answer of vibes, his laugh was soft and sweet, echoing off the cavern walls and definitely not matching the mood when he began to give her examples of other things people sought out blackaether raids for. ¡°Kinky sex is big. Not just illegal stuff, but just stuff that¡¯s dangerous or too difficult to do in real life. Raids offer an anonymity you can¡¯t get in real life. You see a lot of extreme body modification, as well¡ªboth in general and related to the sex.¡±

    ¡°Body modification in sex?¡± Emilia asked, not appreciating it when V burst into near hysterical laughter. ¡°It¡¯s not that funny,¡± she muttered, wishing both her hands were free so she could cross her arms and pout, even if the other visitor would be unable to see her ire.

    V pulled her back, swinging his arm over her shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s a bit funny. I sorta took you for the type to know a lot about kinks. Yet, here you are, an innocent baby who doesn¡¯t know nearly as much as her vibe might suggest.¡±

    ¡°My vibe does not suggest I know about kinky sex that much,¡± she grumbled, even if she knew it wasn¡¯t exactly true. She¡¯d always been into more diverse forms of sex¡ªalthough, apparently not as diverse as some of her previous partners had implied. Her ex in particular had been much more strait-laced in bed than she would have preferred.

    ¡°What is it?¡± V asked as she huffed to herself in amused exhaustion.

    ¡°Ah~ I was just thinking about my ex,¡± she said, noting the way V¡¯s hand tightened in her own, even if just slightly.

    ¡°Oh?¡± he said, seemingly trying to sound nonchalant and absolutely failing at it. Maybe it was the darkness, the intensity to which her ears and nerves were now focusing on taking in the world. Maybe this was just something he couldn¡¯t pretend to be so removed from.

    Well, if this of all things were a topic that might help her crack the man¡¯s identity, who was she to resist his questioning?

    ¡°Yeah, I was thinking about how if we met today, rather than during the war, I probably wouldn''t have dated him.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t completely sure about how true that was¡ªPayton was current winding through some knots that were making her feel extremely confident. Suicidally confident, even. It was pretty true, though. At the time, she had been young and a bit broken, fragile and searching for love with practically anyone who would give it to her.

    Her ex¡­ when they¡¯d first met, he hadn¡¯t like her. It hadn¡¯t been the outright hatred she and Elijah had had for each other, but there had been a long few years, near the start of the war, where she¡¯d been sure he wanted her gone.

    She hadn¡¯t gone, and instead she¡¯d earned his respect and his heart. It should have been good, expect he could be an ass. It had nearly always been his way or no way. So she had made herself smaller¡ªnot always, but often enough that after Alliance Ridge it had taken her as much time to learn how to be powerful again as it had to learn how to mourn and continue living.

    ¡°I¡¯m just different now,¡± Emilia explained the V, rather than blurt out decades of trauma to him. ¡°We¡­ kinda worked, during the war. I don¡¯t think we would now.¡± Plus, she¡¯d spent the last decade having great, apparently only slightly kinky sex. Elijah might not be into some of the things she was, but that¡¯s where hookups came in.

    She most certainly couldn¡¯t see her ex being into sharing her with people, although the idea of even asking him to open their relationship had Emilia laughing to herself.

    ¡°I¡¯d be into an open relationship,¡± V mused when she explained why she was laughing. ¡°I think if my connection with someone was strong enough, and I trusted them¡­¡± He trailed off, likely thinking back to her earlier, magically induced truthfulness that she wasn¡¯t sure she trusted her boyfriend much.

    Emilia shrugged into the darkness, telling V that for her, it depended on the relationship. ¡°If I was absolutely head over heels for someone, I¡¯d have to trust them to be safe and respectful to our relationship. With Elijah¡­ it ain¡¯t love. Affection, sure. I think there were times when I could see myself falling for him more seriously, but¡­¡±

    Silence fell around them again, Emilia unsure how to explain that she had old friends who would absolutely eat Elijah alive. Olivier and Rafe would be bad enough, Nettie would be a monster of threat to him, and Rafe¡¯s brothers¡­

    Emilia didn¡¯t even want to think about the possibility of those two meeting Elijah, especially now, when he was being so¡­ weird. Back when he was a bit more normal? When she¡¯d occasionally imagined taking him home, introducing him to her family and best friends? Showing him her house and the places she had played as a child? Telling him about her life before him, before the war?

    Back then, they still wouldn''t have liked him, but at least he¡¯d treated her like a regular person, with their own needs and wants. Now¡­

    Yeah, now she definitely couldn''t let anyone meet Elijah.

    Behind her, V might have muttered something about how she needed to break up with the dude, but the increasingly loud splatter of water covered most of what he said.

    Emilia¡¯s hand reached another wall, a quick search around them revealing it was a dead end.

    Except, it couldn¡¯t be. There was too much noise. The water was so close, and yet¡ª

    ¡°Try up?¡± V asked, dragging her back towards the wall at the end of the hallway.

    ¡°In the dark?¡± she asked, wondering if the man had truly lost his mind. There was no way she could climb in the pitch black. Forget about finding holds, she also ran the risk of hoisting herself into banging her head on the ceiling! V might be strong, but she doubted he¡¯d want to carry her concussed body out of this place.

    A spark lit up the other visitor, his veins¡ªmeridians, she supposed¡ªglowing faintly as energy twirled out of him and into a ball inside his palm.

    Emilia glowered up at him. He smiled innocently back.

    ¡°I would have run out of energy,¡± he explained, before she could even ask why in the nebulae he hadn¡¯t lit anything up before then.

    ¡°Mhm¡­¡± Emilia hummed dubiously. Even if he could only use the technique a few times, there had definitely been a few other moments where seeing would have been beneficial. ¡°Whatever,¡± she muttered, turning back to the wall and gazing upwards into the empty darkness.

    ¡°Good luck~¡± V cheered, giving her a little smack on the ass as she stepped forwards.

    ¡°Sure,¡± she muttered, cheeks burning slightly at the gesture. Men and her ass.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 84: Easier the Other Way

    Someone was fighting, but even shifting in and out of consciousness, Emilia could tell it wasn¡¯t their group fighting the targets.

    This was simply their group fighting within itself.

    Had that been her fault? Had she stepped between two people about to snap, and instead of them simply sputtering out, it had become the mess cascading through her ears?

    ¡°EMILIA!¡± someone yelled¡ªV, maybe. He sounded so far away, his voice not quite right. She¡¯d need to hear it a bit more, to figure out what was wrong with it.

    Or, what was right with it. His voice hadn¡¯t been wrong, she realized, passing from one moment laid across the grass to another in someone¡¯s arms¡ªalthough they weren¡¯t V¡¯s. How odd was that? To have spent enough time in the man¡¯s arms that she could recognize them by the feel of muscles under her?

    Who was it then? He¡¯d been the only one she truly trusted in that group of visitors and misfits and renegades. Everyone was so focused on the mission, they would let her die before saving her.

    Someone was saving her, though.

    Stupid. She didn¡¯t need saving. All she did was cause problems.

    They should have just left her to die.

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    V was good at climbing, which shouldn¡¯t surprise Emilia, but somehow did.

    ¡°Of course I can climb,¡± the man sighed, too dramatic as they hoisted themselves from hold to hold.

    The wall was wide enough that they were able to climb side by side, which was fortunate, as the light emanating from V¡¯s hand was the only light available. Emilia¡¯s own attempts to activate the light gem attached to her armour had failed¡ªapparently she still needed someone local to activate them for her, despite her increasing control over her energy. With only V¡¯s light, they still couldn¡¯t see the top of the wall, but they¡¯d climbed far enough at this point¡ªnot to mention past more than a few holds that would be difficult to descend¡ªthat Emilia was hoping they¡¯d see an end soon.

    ¡°Climbing and caving go hand in hand,¡± V told her solemnly, before breaking into a story about the first time he¡¯d had to climb in the caving raid. ¡°It was totally unexpected. I think the person who created it originally intended for it to just be caving, but after a few months, they added in the climbing. I wasn¡¯t prepared at all. I spent hours trying to get just a few feet off the ground, trying to get the hang of things.¡±

    ¡°Did you eventually get anywhere?¡± Emilia asked.

    ¡°That time? No. I starved to death.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s hands stalled over the rocks. ¡°You what?¡±

    V blinked owlish blue eyes at her. ¡°Oh. Another thing you didn¡¯t know? A lot of blackaether raids don¡¯t allow logging out unless you¡¯re at a hub or there¡¯s an emergency in the real world.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re just¡­ left to die, if you can¡¯t get out?¡± Emilia asked, blinking wildly back at him. ¡°How does that work with Virtuosi limits?¡±

    V hummed as they moved further up the wall, as though he wasn¡¯t exactly sure what to tell her¡ªor perhaps how to tell her the truth. ¡°Do you know how inaccurate those limits are?¡± he asked, tone implying he already knew she did. ¡°Most people who play blackaether raids have highly hacked Censors. I know a few people who have completely overridden their Censors with blackaether breaks that have no limits. Although, most of those people have put their own limits into place. Most blackaether raids let you preset a logout limit, but for most people, it¡¯s far past the point where you¡¯d starve to death.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s fingers dug into a stone, jagged enough that she felt her hands begin to bleed. The magic down here was powerful, though, and between one hold and the next, the cuts had sealed over.

    The prick of pain wasn¡¯t enough to distract her from either the climb, where one slip would mean certain death at this point, or the fact that V could have just said the last bit. He could have just told her the system would kick you after a limit was reached, but instead he chose to throw in the bit about heavily hacked systems being common among blackaether heroes.

    ¡°So, what? People could log themselves into a raid and just leave themselves inside it until their real-world body dies? Or their brain melts under the pressure?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s highly unlikely,¡± V laughed, explaining there were groups that helped newcomers find a more realistic limit for themselves. ¡°Usually, it¡¯s a few dozen times higher than the legal limit¡ªsometimes even hundreds in the case of sub-30s and ex-300s.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± the man cheered, head tilting back as he frowned upwards. Apparently, he was also hoping to find an end to the climb soon. ¡°Someone in that group has done research on it¡ªI actually think they¡¯re doing research for their university, and using the newcomers to find research subjects. Ex-300s are apparently more likely to have brains that can tolerate more stress?¡±

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Emilia tossed that over in her head, thinking about the ex-300s she knew in Alver. They lived stressful lives from the moment they were born¡ªbefore that, even. Where every over social class generally did all they could to reduce stress and remove knots while pregnant, not wanting to risk passing along trauma to their unborn children in the womb, ex-300s often didn¡¯t have that option.

    The government ran children of ex-300s through knot therapy to remove as many reductive knots as possible, but there was only so much they could do when the lives the children led caused more to build up over time. The fact that the lifespan¡¯s of ex-300s weren¡¯t significantly shorter than sub-30s was quite impressive. She could definitely see all that stress leading to ex-300s handling large amounts of time in the Virtuosi System better.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s my understanding of it,¡± V said as she finished explaining her thoughts on the matter¡ªalthough she left out the specifics of knowing people in Alver, lest the man decide to try tracking her down if she backed out of meeting him in person. He glanced over at her as he waited for her shorter limbs to catch up to him, his expression one of the ones she couldn¡¯t quite interpret. ¡°Have you read any of their research?¡±

    ¡°Nah~¡± Emilia said, before being struck by a note of intense sadness. Her fingers shook as she sucked in a breath.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s wrong?¡± V asked, suddenly so close.

    Emilia looked away from her vibrating fingers, finding the man had indeed moved slightly closer to her. A waste of energy. There were no holds for him to continue up on from so close to her, and he¡¯d have to move back¡ªand if her fingers let out, there was no way he could catch her. She still appreciated him coming to check on her, stupid as it was. She¡¯d feel pretty fucking back if he died one to two holds from the top¡ªassuming they ever found it¡ªnow, though.

    ¡°I just¡ª¡± Emilia broke off, swallowing around her cracking voice. Why was she so emotional? She didn¡¯t feel like Payton had done anything dramatic to her knots in the last few moments, but she certainly hadn¡¯t been this emotional the day before, when she¡¯d mused about missing being the person who loved learning. Yet, here she was, crying because she hadn¡¯t read any of the research V was talking about. Crying because she wished she hadn¡¯t lost a decade of knowledge. As much as she could catch up¡ªa not so little part of her screaming that she would catch up¡ªit was still sad to think of all the time she had lost.

    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to explain,¡± she told V. It was, and it wasn¡¯t. She could explain it, if she really wanted, but not without explaining her knots and how much the war had driven her into a ball of shame and depression.

    V¡¯s beautiful eyes met hers, over a nose covered in freckles so faint she hadn¡¯t noticed them until that moment, with the man¡¯s glowing hand hovering right next to his face. ¡°Maybe some other time,¡± he said quietly.

    She smiled weakly back at him, willing her breathing to even out. ¡°Yes,¡± she sighed, eyes dancing between his. ¡°I¡¯d like that,¡± she whispered back, shocking herself when she found she really did mean it.

    The rest of their travel up the wall was silent¡ªnot because they suddenly had nothing to say to one another, but because only a few holds later, the world suddenly opened up. Except, it opened up on the other side of the passage up, some seven feet behind them.

    ¡°Well, fuck,¡± Emilia muttered as V laughed.

    ¡°I think you¡¯ll have better luck with it than I will,¡± V commented, tone much too morbidly amused for Emilia¡¯s liking.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say it like that.¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡± V asked, shit eating grin plastered over his face.

    ¡°Like you¡¯re going to try and make the jump and fall to your death,¡± Emilia hissed back, limbs already teasing under her clothing to make the jump. Beneath her stolen clothing¡ªstolen from one of Zach¡¯s neighbours, after they had determined his were big to the point of potentially being unsafe, even if V had insisted she looked adorable in the too big clothes¡ªEmilia had her armour active. The extra boost of strength it gave her was more than enough to let her easily make the jump.

    Now, she just had to make sure her friend made it.

    ¡°Do you think you can make the jump? Or, at least come close enough for me to grab you?¡± She really, really didn¡¯t want to have to watch V fall to his death, even if it wouldn¡¯t be a real one.

    ¡°Maybe?¡± V asked, which was very much not encouraging. ¡°I can load some energy into my limbs, but fuck, is that far. Plus, twist.¡±

    Emilia sighed, wondering if she could jump back, grab the man and either toss him over or just jump with him. Neither of those options seemed doable, what with how small the surrounding holds were.

    Even if she had thought herself capable of doing it, the decision to try was taken out of her hands when a moment later V was tensing, his shuddering meridians the only warning Emilia had before he was flinging himself across the passage.

    V¡¯s fingers scrapped over the edge of the ledge. Too short¡ªhis jump had been too short, and Emilia lurched forward to grab him. The man let out a pained breath as his stomach and face collided with the wall, but at least Emilia had managed to grab him.

    Now, she just had to get her friend up.

    ¡°Fuck, you¡¯re heavy,¡± she muttered as she tried to get a better grip on him. Unfortunately, the rock wall on this side of the passage was all but perfectly smooth, and V had nothing to find purchase for his feet on, leaving her holding his entire weight up.

    ¡°You said that already,¡± V laughed, despite the fact that he was currently suspending from her hand.

    ¡°Now is not the time for sex jokes,¡± Emilia muttered back, trying to get her other arm over the ledge so V could grab it and take some of his weight off her one arm. She didn¡¯t like this, hanging half off the ledge while someone far heavier than her was using her as their lifeline. ¡°Can her grab my other hand?¡±

    V tried to not yank on her arm as he reached up towards her other hand, but he couldn¡¯t completely stop the pull, and Emilia was forced to bite back a yowl of pain. At the least, V had a pretty good gasp of her, and even if her hands gave out or her shoulder dislocated, she just had to focus on not letting herself get pulled over with him.

    She doubted that would happen¡ªchances were the man would let go before bringing her down with him.

    The fingers of V¡¯s other hand brushed hers, and between tolerating him pulling his weight up by her arm and her reaching a bit further, he was able to grasp her hand.

    ¡°Fucking stars,¡± she wheezed. Even with her enhanced strength, it wasn¡¯t enough to keep everything about this from hurting. ¡°This was much easier the other way around,¡± she noted, thinking back to the way they had met. Her being the one hanging had been far easier than this reverse of circumstances.

    ¡°Definitely,¡± V huffed, each of them using the moment to catch their breaths before they were going to have to try and get him onto the ledge. ¡°I got to see your ass last time.¡±

    Emilia laughed, looking down at her friend. ¡°I¡¯ll show you when you get up here,¡± she promised, smiling painfully.

    ¡°Oh~ you¡¯re bribing me into living?¡± the other visitor asked, face tilting up slightly to meet her gaze.

    ¡°A girl¡¯s gotta do what a girl¡¯s gotta do.¡±

    ¡°Well, in that case, who am I to let you down?¡± V asked as he began to climb her arms, just as she had his.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 85: A Dozen Unvoiced Questions

    The world faded in and out of existence. There were moments when Emilia thought she was dead, her soul trapped within this world of ones and zeros etched across the aethernet. Then, the pain would return, and she could imagine no platform where the maintainers would allow such torturous deaths to linger.

    The world faded, and Emilia heard someone singing, their voice distant and scattered, tinging over the bricks.

    What bricks?

    When had she seen bricks?

    When had she last been injured so badly that she wished she were dead? Had she ever been that desperate for the pain to end, before this moment?

    Was this how Olivier had felt, laying in his hospital bed and slowly coming out of his medically induced coma? The doctors waiting to see how his mind would handle his new reality?

    Why had she left him there, alone, but not alone?

    She should have stayed, like whoever was singing to her now had stayed.

    Who was it, who had stayed with her?

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    ¡°This is it,¡± V said solemnly from beneath Emilia.

    ¡°Hm?¡± she hummed, unsure what in the world he was talking about. Maybe it was post-orgasm confusion, or the stress of almost dying finally coming through¡ªalthough she had rather assumed that the post-near-death-experience sex had been largely stress induced.

    Not that it had been bad sex!

    As far as ill-advised, post-something-terrible-happening sex went, this had definitely been one of the more enjoyable sessions. Plus, she had already had sex with the man and had intended to do so again at some point. So, no regrets, which was always ideal after sex. Bad sex and a pile of regrets always sucked, although her Censor was pretty damn good at making sure to smack her upside the head¡ªfiguratively and literally¡ªif it thought she was about to have sexual relations she would regret later.

    ¡°This is it,¡± V repeated, letting out a long sigh, the puff of hair ruffling Emilia¡¯s already sex tousled hair. ¡°I can now die a happy, happy man.¡±

    Emilia propped herself up to look dubiously down at the man. He smiled innocently up at her.

    ¡°We already had sex before this,¡± she pointed out.

    ¡°Yup,¡± he answered.

    ¡°So, why is this time death worthy?¡±

    The other visitor¡¯s smile wobbled slightly, his eyes shining with hard fought amusement. ¡°Cause, last time I didn¡¯t get to enjoy your ass.¡±

    ¡°If I had a dollar¡­¡± she muttered, even as she tucked herself back into V¡¯s chest, enjoying the vibrations of laughter echoing under her.

    ¡°You¡¯d probably be ridiculously wealthy,¡± he noted. His breathing stuttered under her ear, just enough that when he asked if her ass was real a second later, she knew it was a forced question.

    The man clearly already knew she¡¯d barely changed her proportions. Of course, when she glared up at him, he was still smiling innocently at her, and she had to fight down her own smile at their now constant game. It was cute, if frustrating.

    She¡¯d find out the truth eventually, of course¡ª Well, as long as neither of them backed out of meeting up in person.

    Three months. They''d discussed it and decided to give themselves just over three real-world months before meeting up in the days before the Eve of the Astral Storm. So much could happen between then and now. They could become enemies in this world. They could find something better to do in the days before one of the country¡¯s biggest celebrations.

    It would be summer vacation for her by then. School would be done, and she¡¯d have to decide if next year would be her last¡ªor, if she was just going to say fuck it and graduate without officially finishing the program. Moving on would be both impossibly hard and easy.

    A next raid season would be just days from beginning, the current season coming to an end in the next week. Assuming what V had said was true, he was an avid player of real-world raids as well. How powerful would he be? Did he rank in the top heroes? If she looked, when she returned to the real world, would she be able to find him?

    Would he be disappointed to learn that she didn¡¯t just dislike real-world raids, but actively avoided them and generally kept her level high?

    Would he look and feel the same way? Would she be with Elijah still, risking their relationship to meet up with someone she had hooked up with too many times during a virtual raid?

    Would she care?

    Would V still like her, with the little difference in her appearance? Those between this avatar¡¯s and her real body? Those between how she had looked whenever they¡¯d known each other and now?

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, deciding to be honest, as she explained the little tweaks she had made to her body. A little shorter, a little smaller¡ªthose things he surely already knew. If he wanted to play pretend, she was game to play along. ¡°My hair in longer in real life.¡±

    ¡°Perfect for tugging during sex?¡± V asked cheekily, hissing when Emilia turned her head and clamped her teeth into his bare chest, their clothes having been tossed aside¡ªand thankfully not accidentally over the ledge¡ªas they tumbled together.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she responded, because despite the bite, she did quite enjoy her hair being pulled during sex. ¡°I¡¯m older in real life, although I think I still look pretty good for my age. Maybe a bit rundown by the last decade.¡± That was true, at least. She looked tired and a bit too skinny, but overall, she didn¡¯t think she looked much different than she would if she¡¯d actually been taking perfect care of herself¡ªshe¡¯d been as careful as possible not to mess with any of her age related genes, although her knots had still brushed over a few of the less important ones.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°I think I look a lot of older than I did during the war,¡± V mused, fingers running idle circles over Emilia¡¯s back. He seemed to be tracing something specific, although she couldn¡¯t figure out what¡ªthe movement just seemed too purposeful to not be.

    ¡°All those blackaether raids,¡± Emilia replied blandly, wondering just how much raiding with your life on the line¡ªeven if it wasn¡¯t really on the line¡ªconstantly wore on your body on soul.

    V laughed. ¡°A bit,¡± he admitted, ¡°but it¡¯s more that I was so young during the war¡ªor, I felt young anyways. I¡¯ve just grown in the last decade.¡±

    ¡°Got fat, did you,¡± Emilia said, nodding into V¡¯s chest. She giggled and swatted at his hands when they slid down, tickling at her waist.

    ¡°I did not,¡± he stated firmly, easily resisting her attempts to pull his hands away. ¡°Nothing wrong with being a curvy fellow, but I mostly got buff.¡± One of his hands pulled away so he could dramatically flex nearly non-existent muscles at her.

    Emilia blinked blandly at the lack of definition. ¡°So¡­ how close is this body to your real one?¡±

    ¡°Depends on what you consider my real one~¡± the horrible man teased, laughing when Emilia swatted at him again.

    She shook her head, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. ¡°Do you have any avatars you¡¯re that attached to?¡± she asked.

    She knew some people got overly attached to their avatars, it was why it was recommended to either raid in a version of your real body, or something you were unlikely to get attached to. Cases of people growing too attached to their virtual selves often made the news, especially when servers closed down. Realizing that the one and zeros you¡¯d come to view as your true self were about to be erased? That was traumatizing shit, and had resulted in a number of suicides over the last decade.

    Not only that, but more than a few companies¡ªwho were usually the owners of raid platforms that were shuttered¡ªhad been issued threats over the years. Buildings had been locked down, especially during the first few server shut-downs, when no one had been expecting such visceral reactions to video games being closed. Several companies had been targeted by shooters, or hit by bombs and chemical attacks.

    Now, The Black Knot and SecOps were always informed of shutdowns in advance, their agents slotting themselves into companies as new hires in order to prepare for attacks. It wasn¡¯t exactly common knowledge, but Emilia also knew The Black Knot now utilized the OIC System to track people who were liable to react badly to shut-downs, grabbing them before the announcement was even made to have them placed in facilities that were equipped to help them deal with the transition.

    Those transitions¡­ were a bit hit-and-miss, as far as she knew. People, especially those who had something wrong with their real body, understandably took the destruction of the body they wished they could inhabit full-time rather terribly.

    It didn¡¯t help that therapists had once recommended virtual raids to people with severe injuries. Injured in the war? Lost a limb? Experience an injury that causes chronic pain? Lose a family member or lover? There were so many reasons therapists had once thought virtual raids a good place to gain a piece of yourself back. Have all your limbs again. Erase that pain. Start a new family. Find new love.

    To be returned to a body and life you had managed to escape was not something those people willingly accepted.

    ¡°This body is actually closer to my younger self,¡± V told her, explaining in vague, non-detail that he¡¯d added a few details, taken a few away. ¡°I am a bit taller in real life,¡± was the most concrete detail he gave her. That, and that he had removed his tattoos from his body.

    ¡°Ah~ I did that, too,¡± Emilia said, pushing herself up to sitting, enjoying the feel of V under her ass. She pointed to the place on her rib cage where several stars lay on her real body¡ªthe illegal ones.

    V¡¯s hand moved to rub at the spot. ¡°Cute,¡± he whispered, as though he could see them.

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll let you see them in real life,¡± she couldn¡¯t help but add, cheeks burning slightly at the implication. She had a few outfits that left the tattoo visible, but not many¡ªand definitely nothing appropriate for the place they¡¯d agreed to meet up.

    The man¡¯s eyes, which had been roving shamelessly over her naked torso, snapped up to hers. So intense¡ªthey were so intense.

    Intense, and disbelieving. Considering they¡¯d just had great sex for the¡­ fourth? fifth? time in less than 24 hours, she found it difficult to believe he didn¡¯t think she¡¯d at least consider fucking him in real life.

    Maybe there was something undesirable about him physically? Not that that had generally stopped her. Nearly everyone could be beautiful, even if that beauty was sometimes extremely unique. She hadn¡¯t seen Olivier under his clothing, but for all that his face was untouched by the injuries he had sustained during the war, she was sure his body was rippled with scars and burns that even the best surgeons couldn¡¯t completely erase.

    It wouldn¡¯t have mattered if he had stripped down right there and shown her. Olivier was beautiful, even with his mangled body, the ripple and edge of those scars having brushed against her fingers even as they only touched him through his clothes.

    If there were something about V that he truly believed made him that undesirable¡­

    Emilia mentally shook her head. No. There were very few things she¡¯d consider to be absolute dealbreakers, in terms of physical appearance.

    More likely, the man was anticipating that she¡¯d either be pissed when she realized who he was¡ªa possibility she definitely wasn¡¯t ruling out¡ªor that something in their real-world relationship would stop her from hooking up with him after learning it.

    As interesting as that would be¡ªbecause, seriously, she¡¯d both fucked her friends before and managed to maintain the relationship, and fucked enemies and ended up dating them¡ªit would also be annoying: she certainly didn¡¯t want to end up in a position where she regretted these moments together.

    ¡°Am I going to regret this, when we meet in real life?¡± she asked, actively choosing to say when and not if.

    V hesitated for a long moment, eyes flicking rapidly around the darkness surrounding them before finally landing on the ceiling. ¡°I hope not,¡± he finally said, sucking in such a deep breath, the movement lifting Emilia slightly. ¡°I can¡¯t rule out that you will, but I do hope you won¡¯t?¡±

    He looked at her with that long-suffering look, eyes too fond, and Emilia reached out to brush her thumb under his eye. V sucked in another long breath, letting his eyes flicker closed as he turned into her hand.

    ¡°You¡¯re rather unpredictable,¡± he breathed out, in a rare moment of honesty. As far as honestly went, it wasn¡¯t much. Even through so many knots and personality shifts, she was known for being chaotic and impulsive¡ªit was part of why her babysitters had found her so troublesome and why her friends were constantly monitoring her for erratic decisions¡ªbut she¡¯d been relatively calm during her time with V.

    She¡¯d been so predictable, in fact, that when they fought together, they had been perfectly in sync. According to those moments, she wasn¡¯t difficult to predict at all.

    When V opened his eyes again, all honesty was gone, instead replaced with a healthy dose of teasing malice. ¡°Perhaps, I can predict what you¡¯ll do more often than I think,¡± he said.

    Emilia blinked down at him, confused by his words and the evil intent written over his face. A squeak escaped her when the man abruptly flipped them, hips shifting over hers because either this world had the shortest refractory period in the world, or V really was just that insatiable.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 86: Secrets for Another Day

    V sparkled like a man refreshed, which Emilia found absolutely fascinating. She¡¯d come across a few men, over her many decades and one-night stands, who seemed to be rejuvenated after having sex, but they were few and far between. Roll over and try to nap was more the norm, outside of sub-30s, who seemed to have a penchant for not needing to nap after orgasming.

    ¡°What¡¯s that look for?¡± the other visitor asked as he pulled his borrowed/stolen sweater over his face. One eyebrow cocked as Emilia gave him a funny look as he fussed with his clothing. For a man who didn¡¯t seem to find issue with being a filthy mess, V also appeared to have some finicky needs for his clothing, meticulously rolling up each sleeve with barely a glance at the fabric. Perfect movement. Perfect folds.

    ¡°I was wondering if anyone every studied whether sub-30s were more likely to have a lively after orgasming gene,¡± she said blandly, fighting down a smirk when V all but gaped at her.

    ¡°Wh-who says I¡¯m sub-30?¡± he almost didn¡¯t stammer. Almost.

    Apparently, her brief pondering about V¡¯s D-level being higher than average, blackaether raids being an escape for him, had been incorrect.

    Emilia shrugged. ¡°I wasn¡¯t actually thinking about you, but thanks for confirming your D-level. I was just thinking about how tired men get after sex. You don¡¯t seem to get tired at all.¡± Even the night before, after their experience in the labyrinth had left them exhausted, the two of them had rolled around in bed chatting and laughing late into the night.

    Granted, they had mysteriously passed out more than a few times during their trek, but still! They should have been tired! Stress! Sex! Fights and trauma and killing people! Yet, neither of them had been particularly tired. Even now, Emilia felt almost rejuvenated. She didn¡¯t generally grow tired enough to nap after sex¡ªnot unless it was a particularly spirited session¡ªbut it was a little weird how she felt energized, right?

    V blinked back as she continued to watch him and think over their current liveliness. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you some other day.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ not a gene thing?¡±

    The man hesitated a moment before admitting he had no idea if there were any genes involved in keeping him awake. There was, however, something more specific that he leveraged, but he wasn¡¯t currently sharing.

    ¡°Some other day inside the raid, or the real world?¡± Emilia asked, bobbing beside V as he continued fiddling with his clothing. His eyes slid over her, and unlike most people¡ªwho often looked upon her hyperactive, bouncing self with disdain and a desire to make her cease¡ªV looked almost fond of her fidgeting.

    ¡°Real world, probably, unless it becomes relevant here,¡± he said, reaching for their bags and shouldering them both. ¡°Shall we?¡± he asked, motioning down the dark hall that awaited them.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she sighed, mulling over V¡¯s words as they trudged forward.

    ¡°Something that¡¯s not relevant here?¡±

    Emilia tossed ideas about what could make something only relevant in the real world through her head. There were tons of things that definitely weren¡¯t relevant here. Politics, for one. As much as she¡¯d explained bits of her country¡¯s complicated political issues to both her Risen Guard babysitter and Rin, she could have done without. Foods that weren¡¯t available here were useless to think or talk about, unless she really wanted to compare things. Her Censor wasn¡¯t worth anything here, although she supposed that once she got access to the system she was liable to compare the two control devices.

    Okay, so maybe she couldn¡¯t actually come up with any good ideas about things that were only relevant to her world. It was hard! Almost everything had an equivalent or place where it would¡ªor at least potentially could¡ªcome up in conversation.

    That was only part of why V¡¯s refusal to explain what was keeping him so peppy under wraps was odd. The fact that it was possibly affecting her as well was the other. If whatever he was doing could be used here, and could be shared with others, why not talk about it?

    V¡¯s hand, which had naturally wrapped itself around hers as they slowly made their way down the tunnel, tightened slightly, the man¡¯s steps slowing in the darkness. The other visitor had let his glowing energy dissipate a short ways into the tunnel, not wanting to waste more energy than necessary. Emilia had no idea how low his energy might already be, after keeping the world lit during both the climb and their coupling.

    Emilia peeked around him, wondering if something had put him on edge. She neither heard nor saw anything but black silence. ¡°V?¡± she asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

    The man¡¯s hand squeezed hers again. ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± V assured her, voice sounding so reassuring that Emilia didn¡¯t think she should believe him.

    She squeezed his hand back as she kept her thoughts about his trustworthiness to herself. Somewhat surprisingly, overall, she trusted the man. If he didn¡¯t think she needed the details about whatever had given him pause, she was inclined to believe him¡ªeven if she also wished he¡¯d speed up a bit. She was just so done with walking¡ªwith moving in general. It was rather ironic, considering she¡¯d always loved moving. Sports, physical hobbies, training for combat¡ªshe liked that sort of thing. Apparently, she only loved it when her body was speed running through recovery.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    She probably could have gone without learning that her genes played that much of a role in her enjoyment of strenuous activities. Not that it should have surprised her. It was a lot like her realization that climbing was hard as fuck without her genes backing her up. With her body now acting against her, she could appreciate the terrible pain of movement and recovery¡ªalthough perhaps not fully. There was a big difference between knowing she could escape and run back to her pretty fucking perfect body, leaving this broken, painful one behind. If she couldn¡¯t escape this body, if that option were completely cut off from her¡­

    Emilia shuddered slightly at the thought of being stuck in a body this weak. The thought turned her stomach, just as the fact that it turned her stomach made her heart clench. This body was the reality for so many people in Baalphoria and the Free Colonies. There was no escaping it for them, and they would also be dragged down by mental limits as well.

    Yes, they wouldn¡¯t have felt what they were missing, but they would know well enough the difference between themselves and the elites. The difference between a non-dev and a 10D was a lot, let alone an ex-300.

    It was no wonder people freaked, when their worlds and avatars of escape were wiped from the aethernet. It was a no wonder people turned to the blackaether, searching for some way to be just a little more.

    ¡°Do you smell that?¡± Emilia asked, nose wrinkling as something foul wound its way to her nose. She wanted to plug it, but wasn¡¯t sure that was a good idea.

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± V breathed out, voice sounded strained as he likely tried to breathe in as little of the stench as he could.

    Their steps halted as they took a moment to listen, only their slow, shallow breath filling the silence.

    ¡°I don¡¯t recognize the scent,¡± Emilia noted as she took stock of how her body felt.

    They¡¯d learned how to check over their body¡¯s vitals without Censors when she was a kid, from a book swiped from Rafe¡¯s library. Their family¡¯s library had been small, the ¡°books¡± actually decorative tablets that lined the walls and were resistant to most forms of interference and theft. They¡¯d even survived The Flaming, and the one time Emilia knew someone¡ªa distant relative who thought the main branch of the family was hoarding their knowledge¡ªhad tried to steal one, they¡¯d lost their hand for their trouble.

    The books they¡¯d read in that room, tucked into corners and reading about things they definitely shouldn¡¯t have been, trying those things out on one another?

    Emilia would shake her head at her younger self, were she still not so noisy and ill-behaved. They were lucky the only one who¡¯d ever found out about it, outside herself, Rafe and his siblings, had been his cousin. That girl, of course, was always a nuisance, and had blackmailed them with the information until Malcolm was old enough to protect them from his mothers¡¯ wrath.

    Not that she, or more importantly Rafe, had realized that his elder brother was willing to protect them at the time. Those secrets hadn¡¯t been meant for their eyes, was the problem, and had Rafe¡¯s mothers learned they¡¯d read those books¡­

    Well, needless to say, her and Rafe¡¯s lives would have been much different. It would have helped if Malcolm had just told them he wasn¡¯t about to easily let his mothers have them, but that guy had always been so difficult to understand. It really hadn¡¯t been until they were older, in the years after her legal case, where she and Rafe had finally come to understand the older man. She¡¯d never be as close to Malcolm as she was to his younger brothers, at least partially due to him being nearly a decade older than them, but where she had once assumed he would leave her to die without a second thought, she now knew he would be the first of his siblings that she would call for something more¡­ low-key.

    Malcolm would threaten people for her, kill them if necessary. Rafe and his younger brother were liable to kill first and ask questions later¡ªat least, Rafe was. Emilia had no idea what his twin brother was like these days, the two of them having fallen so far apart in the last few years, despite him having been the person she had originally kept the most contact with.

    Once, he had been the easiest of his siblings to understand. Malcolm had been an impregnable fortress of older sibling, while Rafe had been stone faced and grumpy, seemingly hating her while continuing to tag along on all her adventures. Rafe¡¯s twin, the youngest and now most powerful of his family¡¯s children, had been easy to understand¡ªhad been one of her best friends, until suddenly, he hadn¡¯t been.

    ¡°You should slow your breathing,¡± Emilia breathed out at V, wishing she had her Censor so she could forward him more specific information about how to control his breathing to keep at least some of the mystery fumes out. Of course, if she had a Censor, she¡¯d also have her skills and could just activate {Burst of Fresh} to cleanse whatever was in the air out of their breathing space. It didn¡¯t catch all contaminants, but it generally did a pretty awesome job of it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯ll help¡­¡± V muttered as pulled them forward as quickly as he dared, his stepping foot brushing over the rough terrain in an attempt to not topple into any gaping holes and accidentally kill them.

    Emilia wanted to agree that it probably wouldn¡¯t help, but the chance that it could was worth the effort in controlling her breathing. Talking would negate those potential effects, however, and she simply snapped her mouth shut and continued breathing, her muscles tensed slightly, lest she needed to zip forward to catch V if he passed out.

    V sucked in a breath¡ªwhich was very much not what she had recommended he do. At first, she thought he was about to pass out, and the breath was a final note before unconsciousness or death came.

    Then, she saw the light.

    ¡°Light~¡± she didn¡¯t quite squeal. She wanted to walk faster¡ªget out of this place before they died of stars knew what. When she moved to step past V, to zoom her way through the dark and into the light, the man tugged her almost violently back. ¡°Wha¡ª?¡± she started to ask, eyes widening when V shushed her, his free hand rising up to find her mouth and clamp down over it.

    Screaming or kicking the man seemed excessive, and she had just spent some time contemplating that she trusted him, so, doing so would also be rude. Emilia didn¡¯t really appreciate being forcibly silenced, however.

    It took several long moments of them simply standing there, breathing in the hopefully not poisonous scent of mould and burnt sugar, before Emilia heard what her friend had.

    Talking.

    Someone was talking, their voice carrying like a whisper through the tunnel.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 87: A Strange Otherness

    ¡°I still don¡¯t think we should be just, like~ hanging out here,¡± someone sighed, her voice high and aggravating.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah. We¡¯ve fucking heard your thoughts on the subject already¡ª¡± a grumpy sounding man replied.

    ¡°And every day in the last, what? Six or seven years?¡± another female voice sighed, although there didn¡¯t seem to be much bite in her words, more good-natured teasing, unlike the other voices.

    ¡°Felt like longer,¡± a teenage voice laughed, several members of the group of visitors bursting into fits of deranged giggles as the first person to speak¡ªa young woman with what were most certainly fake silverstrain locks¡ªhuffed and crossed her arms.

    ¡°I¡¯m just saying this place gives me the creeps,¡± she muttered at the group, her jaw tensing so hard that her delicate features grew strained and ugly under the pressure. ¡°Don¡¯t forget, the last time you guys didn¡¯t listen to me¡ª¡±

    ¡°We all died~¡± the teenage boy, his body a tall, gangly thing that Emilia was shocked anyone would willingly choose to run around in, said. He shot the girl a smile that Emilia 100% did not like, and based on the way V¡¯s hand squeezed around hers, he didn¡¯t like it any better.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like them,¡± he whispered, pulling them back behind the wall they had been subtly poking their heads around¡ªnot that either of them were particularly dressed for stealth. V¡¯s now-blonde hair¡ªthe previously dirty brown curls having been diligently washed clean by her the night before¡ªand her own silverstrain colouring were not suited for hiding in darkness.

    ¡°Me neither,¡± she agreed, chancing another glance around the corner¡ªthe last thing they needed were those weird ass people sneaking up on them. As much as both she and V had already pulled out their own weapons, they had no idea what the other visitors had managed to acquire since arriving. They were already outmatched, their only advantage being that the group had no idea they were there yet. They needed to not lose that advantage.

    Behind the wall, the group continued to squabble about whether they should find somewhere else to hunker down or not. From what she could make out in the cacophony of overlapping voices, the group had heard some of their louder sex noises, although they had been unable to determine what was the cause of the noise and no one had been inclined to go searching through the cave system.

    ¡°It could have been a monster!¡± another voice, much younger than the others said, and this time when Emilia poked her head around the corner, she was surprised to find a child with bright red hair pouting up at the grumpy man who seemed to be the most adamant that there was nothing hiding in the cave system. She stomped her little foot, glittery pink shoes flashing in the firelight. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be eaten by a monster again!¡±

    ¡°That was a pretty terrible way to go,¡± the teenage boy commented, although they sounded less than genuine, and when Emilia managed to locate who had spoken, she found a grin ripped across their face. Their mouth opened, jaw hinging almost inhumanly low as they stuffed something into their mouth. Red juice spurted out of it, splattering the back of the little girl¡¯s dress.

    The girl screamed as she twisted in circles, trying to see the damage. ¡°You!¡± she started to say, only to cut off when a woman¡¯s voice cut through the mayhem.

    ¡°Children,¡± the newcomer said coldly, her steps cracking over the stony ground as she came into view. ¡°Behave yourselves.¡±

    A ripple ran through the group as the woman looked over them, disapproval clear in her eyes.

    Beside her, V tensed, and when Emilia glanced back at him, tucking herself behind the rock wall once more, she could see how wide his eyes were. Even in the dim light of the fire flickering around the corner, she could see the shock and concern marring his face.

    That was¡­ concerning. It was concerning for a number of reasons, not least of which was this was their only way out. There had been no branching passages on the trek between their climb and here. They couldn¡¯t turn back and descend back down the wall. Even in the real world, with all her abilities intact save her ability to use skills, Emilia wouldn¡¯t have risked the climb. It would mean near certain death, regardless of which world they were in.

    Plus, Emilia had never been one for retreating. Straight through had always been her motto!

    That was only going to work if V could, you know, snap out of whatever had overtaken him. Emilia waved a hand in front of his eyes. Nothing. She supposed she could pinch him or something, but that seemed like a terrible idea¡ªshe had no idea where the man¡¯s instincts on yelling lay. The last thing they needed was for him to accidentally give away their position.

    The other option¡­

    Emilia rose onto her toes, wondering if being closer to the other visitor¡¯s height would gather his attention. She blinked as she watched his eyes, their noses almost brushing, and¡­ nope. Nothing. She plopped back down, sighing and beginning to fiddle with her weapons, her attention turning back to the conversation happening between the other group.

    From what she could understand, the woman appeared to be mother to the rest of the group, although Emilia had the distinct impression that some of the children were either adopted or just friends of her actual children. Some of them just¡­ spoke in such a wholly different manner that she found it difficult to believe they had all been raised by the same person.

    Granted, she knew that every child was different. Rafe and his siblings were certainly different breeds of people, but the ways they spoke¡ªthe words and inflections they used? Those were the same, more or less. Rafe¡¯s had grown a little more diverse in the years since he had left home, given he worked in a different industry than most of his family. He still sounded like a member of his family, however, no matter how much he generally wished he could escape their shadow.

    Emilia sighed, letting herself drop to the ground to peek at the group again, finding each of the previously rowdy visitors now standing like politely chastised children as their mother spoke.

    ¡°What kind of noise?¡± the woman asked, turning towards the one member of the group who had remained largely silent during the exchange.

    The shift towards the young man was convenient, as all eyes turned towards him and away from the place where Emilia and V were hidden. She wasn¡¯t about to risk poking her head out much more, but she did take the opportunity to size up the members of the group more properly.

    There was the first girl who had spoken. She reminded Emilia so much of her real body that it was eerie. The only real difference was that where her own ass and hips were wide and thick, this girl¡¯s fat was distributed more evenly between her butt and chest. Even her fake silver hair was pulled up in a ponytail, just as her own normally was. This girl¡¯s was far longer, however, wiping hazardously over the stones.

    Emilia had once had hair that long. She¡¯d grown it out following the war, some internal protest against the short hair soldiers had been all but required to have during combat. It had been great, for a while, then someone had stepped on it during a raid a second before she had bolted off. Terrible¡ªit had been terrible and painful and ripped a piece of her skin away from her skull! It had been so grotesque that she¡¯d been allowed to leave the raid early¡ªa relatively rare phenomenon¡ªand had required surgery to fix it, which had been¡­ an experience.

    She may have panicked about the surgery¡ªsomething that had certainly gone on her permanent record. Well, as permanent a record as ones under a fake name could be, anyways. Mostly, she¡¯d panicked because she knew full well that needing surgery could lead to so many bad things. It could flag her identity as fake in the system, or prompt the OIC System or her Censor to contact her family¡ªor Olivier, if she happened to need an attorney. Someone could take a sample of her DNA to test it for knots and D-Levels, and oh dear nebulae, how many questions that would raise!

    So, yeah, she¡¯d panicked. It hadn¡¯t been great, and since then, she¡¯d kept her hair to a respectable, upper thigh length, although there was still the occasional moment where she worried someone would step on it if she was kneeling. People regularly sat on it as well.

    Honestly, long hair was kinda a pain? It required work to wash and style¡ªalthough that had been less of an issue in the last few years, since she and Pria had pooled their paydrops to buy a state-of-the-art styling system. It was the bomb~ but had cost them a small fortune and required an entire season of grinding raids for cash. They¡¯d still been a bit short, but Sil had taken pity on them and covered the remaining 15%¡ªthat man was such a sweetheart.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    That, or he had been sick of hearing them complain about the raids. Either or.

    Regardless, watching the girl¡¯s hair wipe over the ground was giving Emilia flashbacks, and her eyes flickered away, across the rest of her supposed siblings.

    There were six in total¡ªseven, if the Mother were included. Aside from the Child and Silverstrain Girl, there was one other woman. Emilia had mostly determined her to be somewhat cheeky, making jokes and puns as the other argued, laughter constantly flowing from her mouth, interlacing with her words. The Cheeky Girl was also a grubby thing, reminding Emilia of V with how dirty her tank top and capris were, the skin around it covered in a film of grime that made her look more burnt brown than the white occasionally poking up from under her clothes as she moved.

    The other three were men¡ª Well, the one¡¯s avatar was a man, the other two¡¯s leaning more into adolescence. The man¡ªwho Emilia dubbed Grumpy Man¡ªhad spent the majority of the argument telling everyone they were stupid, his face growing increasingly red until he¡¯d eventually stomped off. He was now leaning against a wall a ways away from the other, thick arms crossed over his chest, cropped black hair and deep frown making him look put out.

    Of the boys, the one that Emilia had most pegged as not having been raised in the same environment as the others also gave her the most pause. The smile perpetually pulled over the Gangly Boy¡¯s face reminded her of people who had black knots and loved it¡ªloved the mayhem and murder that having such low empathy allowed them. His long limbs swayed, almost as though they had extra joints, sending an extra shudder of discomfort through her for how inhuman he looked.

    If things came to blows, Emilia would definitely be watching him the closest. It wouldn¡¯t be hard, at least, what with his bright pink hair and pastel clothing. If the one girl looked like her, this guy dressed like her, her favourite colours and normal style reflected in what he had chosen for his avatar. It was a stark contract to the rest of his group¡ªsave the child with her sparkling pinks and silver¡ªwho were decked out in reds and blacks, as though they were trying to fade in with the locals.

    The Quiet Boy was by far the most bland, his features so nondescript that Emilia was worried she wouldn¡¯t recognize him if they met again. Light-brown hair and eyes, neutral expression and relaxed posture. There was nothing about him that stood out, even his existence seeming to fade into the background despite the fact that he was currently the centre of attention.

    It was fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.

    ¡°It sounded like distant moaning,¡± Quiet Boy was telling his mother, his voice falling gently through the air. ¡°It could have been a monster. It could have been the wind, winding through the tunnels just right.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no wind in this place, dumbass,¡± Gangly Boy laughed, not even flinching when Mother turned hard eyes on him.

    She was by far the most severe, black hair pulled back into a tight bun that reminded Emilia of the style worn by soldiers. Her face was scratched over by wrinkles, her lips pulling down into a resting frown. Everything about her avatar told Emilia that it should be her real body, for how easily she wore it and how meticulous the details of it were. Something also told her it wasn¡¯t¡ªthat none of these people were wearing their own skin.

    Yet, they were.

    It was a strange dichotomy that she wished she could ask V about, given he had more experience with people who raided more. She was nearly positive what she saw in the other visitors was a result of using the same avatars between multiple raids, their brains learning to adapt to their second skin in a way that resulted in a strange otherness that her brain didn¡¯t like. Natural and yet not, all at once. Honestly, it was probably the result of those books she had read as a teen, some of them covering topics such as how to spot spies or people affected by illegal, personality manipulating skills.

    It hadn¡¯t been until then that Emilia had even considered there could be skills that could manipulate someone else¡¯s brain. Bodies? Sure, but brains? The fact that she had never heard anything more on the topic¡ªnever even a whisper of such skills existing outside those books¡ªwas perhaps the most obvious evidence that she, Rafe and his brothers should not have been reading them. Of course, now Rafe¡¯s brothers had learned that information more officially¡ªpotentially used it in their work, not that either were likely to tell her about it. She¡¯d be more likely to get that sort of information from their big mouthed cousin. Honestly, that guy couldn¡¯t keep a secret to save his life¡ªnot exactly great, given his occupation required keeping secrets.

    What she saw in the group reminded her of some of the things she had read in those books, though. They were walking billboards that screamed something was wrong with them. As far as she knew, most people did adapt well to their avatars, even ones that were different genders or species. Unless platforms wanted new heroes to struggle, learning to use your new body should be easy¡ªwhich made Emilia think that perhaps these people were purposefully shifting their movements into something just a little strange and off-putting.

    That, or something was seriously interfering with their ability to fully settle into their bodies¡ªa wholly terrifying idea.

    ¡°I still think it was a monster¡­¡± the child whined. While the rest of the group were keeping their distance from their mother, Child stepped forward fearlessly. They tugged on the woman¡¯s shirt, looking upwards with beseeching eyes that Emilia was glad she could barely make out, the glow of the fire, casting over their red eyes, making the Child appear to be a demon in a child¡¯s skin. ¡°Mommy~ can¡¯t we get out of here?¡±

    Gangly Boy snorted, and Child turned on him, lips pressed tight. They seemed to grow in that moment, not just their height pulling up slightly straighter, but their entire aura growing and reminding Emilia that they weren¡¯t a child. At the very least, they were in their mid-teens, their Censor a fresh installation. They could very well be far older, however, either mentally stuck in a child¡¯s body, or enjoying the role playing.

    ¡°Fine!¡± Child particularly snarled at the boy, their lips pulling back over perfect white teeth. ¡°You go investigate it then!¡±

    Gangly Boy¡¯s grin sent a shiver down Emilia¡¯s spine. ¡°Only if I can use you as bait, brat.¡±

    ¡°Children¡­¡± their mother cut in again, their tone sounding long-suffering and fond even as their eyes shifted venomously between their children. ¡°I believe I told you to behave.¡±

    Her eyes landed on the boy, harder and colder than they were when directed at anyone else in the group. ¡°If you do not believe anything dangerous is out there, I suggest you go check.¡± Her tone implied that she rather hoped something was out there and her so-called child would not return.

    If the boy noticed the tone in his mother¡¯s words, he gave no indication. Rather, his grin grew wider, and he pushed off the rock he had been lounging against, the surrounding floor splattered with bloody juices. So much of the food in this world squirting vegetarian blood was like a cruel joke from the system, aimed at vegetarians who didn¡¯t want to eat something so viscerally meaty.

    ¡°Fine~ I¡¯ll go,¡± Gangly Boy crooned, head tilting abnormally as he sized up his mother. ¡°I can kill anything I come across, yes?¡±

    The mother¡¯s eyes shifted, so quickly, Emilia almost questioned whether the woman had ever been looking at the teenage avatar with so much disinterested hatred. ¡°Of course, my love,¡± she cooed, stepping forward to give the boy a hug. Her steps sent red liquid splattering across the stones, too sincere smile etched over her face until it dropped away in the midst of the hug.

    The boy, at least, seemed to hug her back genuinely. If the others in the group noticed to strangeness of the interaction, they gave no indication, and Emilia had no idea what to think about any of them.

    All she knew was if that boy found them, he was definitely going to try killing them.

    The main question was, fight him one on two¡ªassuming she could get a still zoned out V to come back to reality so they could relocate further down the tunnel¡ªor step out now and try to talk their way around the group. Not that she thought that was likely to work. More likely, they¡¯d end up fighting.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes slid to the exit¡ªto the proper light shining gently in through it.

    They were so close, and as much as taking on seven people at once seemed like suicide¡­

    Emilia shook herself, images of her and V lying dead under the other group skipping away from her. It was dangerous, yes, but so was trying to fight each member in the cramped tunnel they had just travelled down. Fighting one person in the darkness would be bad enough, but what if his family decided to come when Gangly Boy didn¡¯t return? What if one of them possessed a more violent blood weapon, one capable of killing them if they were trapped in such a cramped space?

    No. Both options were bad, but Emilia couldn¡¯t help but think their chances would be better if they faced the group head on.

    Emilia popped back behind the wall, half listening to the group discuss how long Gangly Boy should look for and what they would do if he didn¡¯t return.

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna go out there,¡± she whispered to V, only a moment before bolting out of their hiding place.

    That, at least, seemed to snap the man out of his stupor. Not quite fast enough to stop her from putting herself in a potential line of fire, but enough that out of the corner of her eye, she could see him preparing to bolt out and help if a fight broke out.

    ¡°Hi!¡± she cheered, waving empty hands at the group. ¡°Sorry if I startled you, but do you guys happen to know where the exit is?¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 88: Lack of Options (for close range combat)

    The group of visitors fell humorously silent. They obviously hadn¡¯t been expecting someone to randomly pop out of the tunnel they had just been discussing sending a pro-murder member down. They blinked at her, the world seeming to move in slow motion before shock and violence rippled through the aether.

    Emilia had enough time to dive out of the way before a blade of some sort shot through the place she had just been standing. Luckily, V had had enough sense to not immediately emerge from behind her, and she wasn¡¯t about to waste the chance that the group hadn¡¯t realized he was there. Her {Blood Armour} tensed over her limbs. One moment she was near the mouth of the cave, the next she was in the middle, {Blood Dagger} already in hand and striking up through the air.

    Silverstrain Girl¡¯s throat split apart, and if Emilia had thought it would be strange seeing someone who so resembled her real body falling to the ground half-decapitated, it wasn¡¯t¡ªwhich was concerning. Probably Payton doing something, touching the genes that affected her empathy a little too closely again.

    The world felt blurry and far away. These weren¡¯t real people she was killing¡ªthey would simply return to their bodies, knowing they had been bested by another hero. It wasn¡¯t real¡ªwould just be a touch of violence and fear across their souls¡ªbut she should have felt something more, right?

    The child shrieked, tiny legs taking them too quickly to the exit as they wove their way through the shocked adults. Grumpy Man, who had been the one to throw the weapon, was the first to reach her, feet heartlessly tramping over the Silverstrain Girl¡¯s quickly reddening locks. Her body convulsed. Neither of them spared her a glance as another red blade collided with her {Blood Dagger}.

    He was strong, her single-handed hold on the weapon not nearly enough to stop his weapon coming down on her. For all his strength, however, the man either had no formal training or hadn¡¯t been in the right headspace to use it. Emilia swerved under the weight of his strike, shifting around him and pulling a {Blood Needle} out of her pocket.

    Unfortunately, as much as her armour had spots for storing many of her blood weapons, they were covered by clothing, and she¡¯d been forced to choose between improvising ways to grab the weapons or using different ways to store them, and walking around half-naked. She¡¯d chosen the former option, not only because her state of undress would attract attention, but because enemies not knowing she had armour under her clothes could be useful. While she had so far successfully dodged most attacks from Grumpy Man¡ªas well as a near hit to her back from someone else¡ªthe fact that she could be more erratic with her moves, trusting the armour to protect and support her, was a boon.

    ¡°Kill her!¡± Cheeky Girl screamed, her voice cracking like she truly was sad her sister was temporarily dead. Perhaps she was¡ªperhaps the idea of being unable to talk to each over for several weeks was too much for her.

    ¡°Livia!¡± their mother hissed. ¡°Get after your sister!¡±

    Cheeky Girl¡ªLivia¡ªhesitated a moment, her eyes flicking between Emilia and Grumpy Man¡¯s fight and the route their sister had gone. Emilia rolled out of range of another attack just as the girl screamed, the sound distracting Grumpy Man long enough that Emilia surged backwards, letting her {Blood Needle} fly through the air. It collided with the man¡¯s head, and she rolled behind the closest rock.

    The shrapnel of an exploding body rocketed through the air, more screams erupting along with Gangly Boy¡¯s deranged laughter.

    ¡°We got ourselves a fighter, eh!?¡± he drawled, voice suddenly thick with an accent she couldn¡¯t place. She¡¯d known countless people in her life, met thousands of people from the Free Colonies and every corner of Baalphoria. Nothing in her memory was anything like the voice Gangly Boy was adopting, the intonation not even scratching against her mind in lost remembrance the way V¡¯s words and accent occasionally did.

    Something flicked. Something else whistled. Things collided, and V¡¯s voice yelled across the screams of Livia. ¡°Go right!¡±

    Emilia bolted to the right, muscles and {Blood Armour} sending her flying across the room.

    ¡°Another fighter, I see~¡± Gangly Boy laughed, eyes manic as he turned on V. His head cocked, a predator sizing up prey who, Emilia realized in horror, had thrown his main weapon in order to keep her save. Between her and the boys, V¡¯s {Blood Spear} lay across the ground, some sort of boomerang shaped weapon lying several feet away from it.

    V blinked disinterestedly at Gangly Boy, one of the {Blood Needles} she had given him twirling between his fingers and dragging his opponents'' attention towards it.

    The boy¡¯s eyes flicked between the two of them. ¡°You two sharing weapons? Tell me, whose is it? Who killed and got such a lovely weapon?¡± he asked in that same lazy drawl of drawn out vowels.

    ¡°I did,¡± Emilia said, edging herself slowly to the left so she could make out the moving shapes of the other living members of the group.

    The mother was hovering near the door, pushing Livia violently through it even as the girl threw vengeful looks back at Emilia.

    ¡°But mother!¡± she was screaming, tugging ineffectually at the arm her mother had caught. A bloody gash had been ripped through her cheek, the wound slowly healing as blood dripped back into it¡ªblood that was splattered over her mother¡¯s hand.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The woman raised her bloody hand, red bracelet glinting as she drew her hand back and¡ª

    ¡°No!¡± the girl shrieked, backing herself up into a wall. ¡°I¡¯ll go! I¡¯ll go!¡±

    ¡°You will,¡± her mother said darkly, hand still raised in threat. ¡°Your brother,¡± she said, practically spitting out the word, ¡°will avenge the siblings the silverstrain whore killed.¡±

    To her credit, Livia seemed to find issue with her mother¡¯s words, her eyes sliding to her sister¡¯s barely discernible fake silverstrain hair. Whatever their mother thought about using the irregular deviation as an insult, it seemed that her daughters may not agree.

    ¡°Go,¡± her mother spit out, hand raising once more in threat. Her bracelet caught in the firelight, and even from so far away, Emilia could see the spikes etched over it, each spike a blade that the woman wasn¡¯t afraid to wield against at least one of her children.

    Livia¡¯s jaw tensed, and she sent Emilia another hateful look. ¡°You better let the bastard kill you,¡± she sneered, nose tilting up in a move that certainly didn¡¯t fit her state of filth and revealing clothes. ¡°You do not want to see what I¡¯ll do to you for this.¡± Her short brown hair puffed upwards with the force of her turn out of the cavern, her steps somehow delicate over the stones and sending an echo of familiarity through Emilia.

    She didn¡¯t have an opportunity to dwell on running into yet another person who scratched against her memory, however, not when Gangly Boy was surging towards V, manic grin plastered over his face. V had been expecting the attack and dodged out of the way, but he didn¡¯t have any items for close combat. Even if he hadn¡¯t sacrificed his {Blood Spear} saving her from the boy¡¯s attack, it wasn¡¯t suited for a fist fight, which was what the boy seemed to be going for.

    ¡°Is this a weapon?¡± the other visitor had asked the night before, as the two of them lay twined together in bed. His fingers had run over the ring Zach had given her, stilling when she had laughed and explained what sort of devastation the {Blood Ring} was capable of. ¡°And I had that thing near my cock?¡± he asked, shuddering in mock horror, before his hands had begun to wind through hers.

    Emilia had hummed in confirmation and tucked herself closer to him, sleep slowly pulling against her mind. ¡°You should be careful, not to let people touch you.¡±

    ¡°Unless I¡¯m sure they ain¡¯t gonna blow a hole in me?¡± V had laughed, leaning in to whisper about how Emilia had certainly blown a hole in his soul with everything they¡¯d done that night.

    V dodged out of range of another attacks, bolting far enough back that when Emilia sent another {Blood Needle} shooting towards their opponent, she had no worries about him potentially being caught in the explosion.

    Unfortunately, the boy wasn¡¯t stupid or unobservant. He dropped to the ground, knees colliding heavily with the cavern floor. Emilia¡¯s {Blood Needle} whizzed past him, shattering into a wall.

    The room shook and Emilia rolled behind another rock as debris was sent flying by the needle¡¯s explosion. V¡¯s shoulder collided with hers as they hid, the boy behind them howling in amusement and pain as Emilia forced more of her weapons on her friend.

    ¡°Such a fun weapon~¡± Gangly Boy laughed, voice suddenly too close. ¡°Is there a limit to how many there are? Should we find out together?¡±

    V was better at manipulating weapons¡ªthey¡¯d learned that last night as well. Perhaps it was his previous experience with manipulating his core, perhaps he just had a more vivid imagination. Regardless, when Gangly Boy skirted around the edge of their rock, his boomerang shaped weapon already pulled back, just a wrist flick from slicing into them, V was the one who wrapped his hand around the {Blood Vial} tucked away in one of her pockets.

    Blood shot out of the vial, a thousand branches twining out of it towards Gangly Boy. His eyes widened, his grin split wider, and he let his weapon fly. Sharp, strong waves of violence split through the {Blood Vial}¡¯s branches, sending splatters of red across the area.

    ¡°That ain¡¯t gonna be enough!¡± Gangly Boy laughed as he pulled back his weapon and brought it down again, again, ignoring the fact that one wrong move¡ªone strike too weak¡ªand the {Blood Vial}¡¯s tree would reach him and slide effortlessly through his body. A thousand spires reaching for him and barely stopped.

    They were stopped, however, and the {Blood Vial} was limited by how much blood it contained¡ªalthough that amount seemed to be augmented by the system, else it would have run out long ago. They¡¯d refilled it with their own blood that morning, but every new reach of limbs was quickly running it dry, and then¡ª

    Emilia rolled to the side, leaving V holding the weapon. A sheen of sweat across his forehead glistened in the shimmering firelight. One moment of lost concentration and the tree would fall, V would die, and she¡¯d be left fighting this guy alone.

    This guy and Quiet Boy who¡ª

    She looked around, searching for the only person she hadn¡¯t seen leave the cavern. He was nowhere to be found, even the energy she sent spiking into hidden spaces behind rocks and debris coming back with nothing.

    Apparently, he had also left his brother¡ªthat bastard¡ªbehind to fight them alone. He hadn¡¯t even said goodbye.

    Emilia heaved up V¡¯s {Blood Spear}, twirling the heavy weapon in her hands and willing it smaller. She could have used her {Blood Dagger} to fight the boy, but the last thing she needed was to accidentally get hit by the {Blood Vial}¡¯s tree because she got too close¡ªor worse, leave them both without close range weapons.

    The boy¡¯s eyes shifted uneasily towards hers before he brought another slash down on V¡¯s expanding attack. His smile flattered, even if just slightly. ¡°Gonna off me?¡± he asked, another attack punctuating his question.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emilia said matter-of-factly, arm pulling back as energy wound through her. ¡°Perhaps you should use the time to get away from your obviously shitty family.¡± She had no idea if the guy was actually in a situation he could get out of¡ªlet alone if whatever those interactions had been reflected what the family was like in real life¡ªbut it felt like the thing to say.

    Sil was always complaining about people chatting, rather than killing, in virtual raids. Sure, it could definitely lead to problems, give your opponent time to dodge an attack or escape, but Emilia was between him and the door and¡ª

    ¡°Watch your fucking mouth!¡± the boy snarled, twisting and charging at her.

    V¡¯s attack sliced through Gangly Boy¡¯s arm, all but ripping the limb off his body. The boy hardly seemed to notice as he charged at Emilia, her own eyes focused as she let the {Blood Spear} fly, and it collided with¡­ a wall.

    Emilia blinked into the space Gangly Boy had just been standing, catching V popping back up out of the corner of her eye. ¡°Uh¡­ did you see which way he went?¡±

    V shook his head, eyes searching the area. ¡°No?¡±

    They blinked at each other, confused for just a beat too long, apparently. Blood crackled around them and suddenly V was tackling her, throwing her over his shoulder and bolting towards the cavern¡¯s exit, natural light sliding out of the distance.

    The room shook, the entire aethernet seeming to vibrate with it, as the blood of three people began to scream through the air.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 89: Save Yourself

    Emilia tugged the hood of her cloak further over her head, keeping her eyes down and hair tucked back as she moved through the crowd. She had no idea where V had gone, the two of them having been forced apart by two members of the other group of visitors¡ªof the family of visitors.

    They¡¯d been waiting for them at the cavern exit, which shouldn¡¯t have been a surprise, except it was. It had been a surprise¡ªone had left them wandering the city they had emerged into alone and injured. Her own arm had healed, although she could still feel the slash across her stomach sealing closed, her hands tugging her cloak across her body to keep the wound hidden.

    Fortunately, it seemed to be the height of the workday. Aethervoices were echoing across the streets, rattling through Emilia¡¯s senses as she slipped through the crowd of potential customers and workers. She didn¡¯t completely disappear into the locals, but with her minimal height and locally sourced clothes, she fit in well enough.

    Hopefully, it was well enough that she¡¯d lost whoever had been chasing her. She couldn¡¯t tell, though, the man¡¯s own clothing and colouring had been that of a local, and had he not spoken to her and V, she might have assumed they were being attacked by an Enclave member, or undercover Risen Guard.

    He had spoken, however, his voice cold and detached as he and the man with him had asked if they had killed their niece and nephew, because the psychotic family of visitors had even more members. That was why it had been such a surprise when the pair had suddenly slipped out of the locals, who had been shooting her and V questioning glances when they¡¯d emerged from the cavern. Most of the locals had been quickly moving as far from V and Emilia as possible, whispers of ?More visitors?? floating around them, because the family had only recently erupted out of the cavern as well.

    Not these two. Unlike every other person on the street, the two men were silent as they stepped towards them, eyes hard and cold until that single question left them.

    If they had been preparing for members of the family to step into their path when they emerged, they hadn¡¯t been expecting for there to be more members, and that second of confusion had given the pair the chance they needed to split them up¡ªto slice through them with blades and arrows.

    In the distance, someone screamed, and the world erupted in fear. The aether shook, and Emilia shifted with the suddenly uneasy crowd.

    ?Someone¡¯s bleeding!? a voice yelled through aether, as though no one had ever told them that screaming in panic never ended well.

    Just as suddenly as the uneasy energy had appeared, it shifted. People bolted, pushing and shoving their way past slower people in a hurricane of motion, everyone on the street¡ªincluding Emilia¡ªforced along with the stampede. More screams echoed through the street, children calling for their parents in broken sounds that rattled through Emilia¡¯s bones and¡ª

    She swerved, hauling a pair of children up just moments before the feet of panicked adults slammed into the place they had just been laying. Blood surged through the air, more and more adding into the power of the moment, as people yelled and growled. Falling, shoving, knees sliding through the ground and adding more to the chaos as Emilia slammed her back into the wall of a nearby building, children tucked into her neck, their quiet sobs of fear vibrating her brain and body.

    Chaos. So much chaos, and why? Because of blood? Because one of the other visitors had decided to attack them? Had they attacked a local? Driven the world into this madness simply because they could? Because they were trying to kill her and V in the mayhem? Or was this the result of V and one of the men fighting?

    Was V the one bleeding out somewhere?

    People rushed past them, pushing their way through the older and slower residents of the city as they raced for the closest door out of the city. Emilia could barely see it, but what she could see betrayed a door slowly closing.

    Closing in the blood curse raging through the city.

    Closing in any local who was unlucky enough to not make it there fast enough. Trapping them on this side.

    There was no way that Emilia could make it, not holding two children, their weight dragging her body downwards even as she stood still.

    ?Mommy!? another child called, their voice broken and far away, but dragging both her attention and that of one of the children in her arms towards it.

    ?Ally!? the child in her arms yelled, fighting with Emilia¡¯s grasp in an attempt to get down. ?Ally!? they yelled again when she refused to let them go. If she let them go¡ªlet them run off into the veritable stampede happening around them¡ªthey¡¯d almost certainly die.

    Just like the others¡ªlike the child whose blood she could smell, whose little hands she could see through the trample of feet. Blood was dangerous, so dangerous locals were willing to spill more and more in their attempt to escape it.

    Not that Emilia could blame them¡ªnot completely, anyways. She¡¯d seen what blood could do, in small and large amounts, in injuries and both singular and multiple deaths. This wasn¡¯t making that blood count better, this wasn¡¯t fair to the people sprawling and dying across the ground, but she couldn¡¯t begrudge the people for their actions.

    A little body knocked into her side, arms attached to a mop of unruly black hair wrapping around her.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ?Ally!? the child in her arms yelled again, and this time when they tried to get down, Emilia let them go, arms offering to put the other child down as well. Their little red head didn¡¯t seem to notice the offer, and she straightened back up, one hand resting on the back of the other child¡¯s dirty brown hair as he hugged their new arrival.

    ?Where¡¯s Mimi?? he asked.

    Ally shook their head into Emilia¡¯s leg, mumbling that they didn¡¯t know. They didn¡¯t know where Mimi or their mother was.

    ?They¡¯ll find you,? the little boy assured Ally, his voice sounding so confident it would have been funny, if not for the fact that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure they would find them. There was too much chaos as people rushed past them, too many bodies, their energy and blood quickly beginning to burn the aether.

    It was going to rupture soon, and Emilia could see enough blood splattered across the ground to know that they would be in danger here. Her eyes shifted over the surrounding area, looking for somewhere safer. The closest doorways weren¡¯t close at all, nor protected from the struggling locals. If they tried to push their way through, they¡¯d die too, and¡ª

    ¡°Emilia!¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shot towards V, pushing his way through the crowd towards her¡ªalthough, not nearly as violently as the locals pushing him. He was still several metres away when suddenly he went down, and she found herself screaming his name, body willing her to go to him¡ªto throw the children off and draw her weapons and make people move for her.

    If she¡¯d been able to tell the kids to stay there, she might have. She couldn¡¯t speak with them, though, and couldn¡¯t leave them, knowing they might stupidly try to follow or race with the crowd and find themselves heartless trampled under blindly stepping feet.

    Luckily, she was saved from having to wish she could abandon them when V popped up slightly closer to her, his own arms filled with more children. He emerged from the sea of frenzy, his body pressed against hers in the tight space of safety. The children between them all startled, before almost all of them, save the child still in her arms, began to yell and scream in excitement and relief¡ªapparently they all knew each other.

    ¡°We have to get out of here,¡± V said, eyes searching the area just as hers had. The other visitor''s gaze landed on the same storefronts she had scoped out, his expression tightening as he also realized how difficult they would be to get to, before his eyes flicked upwards. ¡°You got anymore climbing in you?¡±

    ¡°If I have to,¡± she replied, already planning a route to the nearest window. It wasn¡¯t too far, but they had a lot of kids to tout up and over the roof. The three she¡¯d acquired, plus the two that V had¡ª

    Plus the other four who had suddenly appeared at their feet.

    Emilia blinked down at the new arrivals, three younger children and one who appeared just on the cusp of becoming a moody teenager. The teenager stared back at her, black eyes glaring up into her own very unnatural silver ones.

    ?You¡¯re visitors,? she stated, not quite a hiss of anger but certainly not full of love for what they were either.

    The rest of the children¡¯s eyes shot up to her, before flicking to V¡¯s face as well.

    ?Him too?? one of the children the man had rescued asked the teenager, pale brown eyes wide and shocked as he looked between them.

    At the very least, no one was running away in fear, and if anything, the shock that they¡¯d been rescued by visitors was distracting them from the mayhem around them. Ah~ to be a child with such single-minded focus!

    ?Were you the ones who caused this?? one of the younger children asked, more in awe than fear or sadness.

    Emilia shook her head and looked to V, who thankfully also shook his head. Even more thankfully, unlike her, V wasn¡¯t completely caught out by the children suddenly talking to him. He pointed, first to the teenager, and then up and to the window they had scoped out as hopefully being able to get into. He made a series of motions which clearly indicated they wanted to carry the children up there, and were it not for the seriousness of the situation, Emilia might have laughed at him doing so with such a stern expression.

    Several of the children did laugh, although most were also eyeing up the climb with little enthusiasm.

    ?Can you really make it?? the teenager asked, hands landing on her hips as she levelled a 100% teenage look at them.

    It was rather amusing how ubiquitous the teenage experience seemed to be between countries and even entire worlds. Whenever she¡¯d met people from the Free Colonies, some of the first questions she¡¯d ask them was what their teenage years had been like. Inevitably, even the most strait-laced of people would admit to engaging in at least some teenage angst and attitude, as well a healthy dose of cringy and potentially deadly behaviour.

    Both she and V nodded, Emilia giving a dramatic flex before she adjusted her hold on the child in her arms. Little red eyes peeked up at her, glittering with unshed tears. She gave the kid a reassuring smile before turning and lifting a foot. V¡¯s hands seamlessly appeared under her foot, and one heave later, she was grabbing hold of the roof¡ªnot the eaves! She¡¯d accidentally grabbed the eaves and fallen off a roof when it snapped, during her own badly behaved teenager stage, and fallen nearly 30 feet. The child in her arms hugged her slightly closer, but didn¡¯t scream or struggle to get away as she settled them onto the roof.

    ¡°Pass me the hammer,¡± she called down, catching the {Blood Hammer} when V passed it to her. It was one of their new items, this one created by the death of Silverstrain Girl and Grumpy Man. They had a handful more split between them as well, swiped off their corpses.

    ?Is that a blood weapon?? one of the children asked as Emilia made her way across the roof, feet stepping carefully over the dilapidated tiles.

    They cracked and snapped under her feet, and each step seemed to be an accident waiting to happen. She didn¡¯t have time to be as careful as she wanted, however. More and more, blood was rending its way through the world, snaps of red cracking through the aether and leaving holes across it. They didn¡¯t have time to be careful, not when chances were they might not have time to get everyone inside safely at this rate.

    The {Blood Hammer} collided with whatever material the windows of this world were made of. It shattered easily under the weight of the hammer, sparkling shards decorating the floor of the room inside. Emilia dragged the {Blood Hammer} over the edge of the frame, breaking away as much as she could before setting the child inside, as far from the potentially sharp shards as she could manage. Thankfully, despite the child¡¯s disinterest in letting her go earlier, they seemed to understand that now they needed to, their little hands disappearing from her neck.

    She glanced around the room, which appeared to be a bedroom. Internally cursing their inability to communicate, she made a series of gestures that she hoped the child would take to mean go hide behind the bed because maybe you¡¯ll be a bit safer there, before turning and racing back to the edge of the house.

    They had more children to get inside.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 90: Not a Good Place to End Up

    ?This way!?

    Emilia readjusted the children in her arms as they followed the teenager through the house and down, down, down. Little feet slapped against the floor, alongside her and V¡¯s heavy steps, the man also weighed down by the children in his own arms.

    So many children. Each time she had returned from dropping a child into the house, more little faces had found their way to V, the teenager having taken it upon herself to brave the stampede and find anyone else who needed help. Luckily, she had also found another, slightly older teenager, who had been confident enough to help Emilia transfer the children V¡ªand later another adult¡ªhanded upwards.

    She¡¯d lost track of how many children they had accumulated. The man and other teenager who had joined them had stayed behind, lest anyone else appear who needed help. The younger teenage girl had made them promise to follow soon, but something in their eyes had told Emilia they wouldn¡¯t be following so easily.

    The eyes of people who would die, hoping to save even one more person. She¡¯d seen that look in countless people¡¯s eyes, on the front lines. In the beginning, she had tried to force them to move¡ªto try to save themselves, even if it meant someone might die because they had left.

    Then, too many people had died, her words having convinced someone to leave them behind. Their life wasn¡¯t worth the dozens who had died because they saved themself¡ªnot to them, anyways. They hadn¡¯t been able to live with that guilt, and then they¡¯d been dead anyways, and Emilia had stopped trying to convince people to leave.

    Usually.

    Sometimes, she couldn¡¯t leave the people she loved behind. She¡¯d knocked someone out once, carried them out of the front lines. They hated her now, for making them leave that suicide mission alive¡ªfor all the other little perceived injustices she¡¯d been party to during the war. Generally, she didn¡¯t really care¡ªshe kinda hated them in return now. Too many terrible words had been spit out between them, words and feelings that couldn¡¯t be taken back¡ªthat couldn¡¯t be forgiven, even within the context of vitriol spoken in the midst of tragedy and grief.

    Emilia didn¡¯t regret saving them from their own stupidity, but she did mourn the person they had been before that moment. Then again, given all the things they said to her the last time they¡¯d seen each other, maybe that person had already hated her. Maybe, he had just been keeping that hatred bottled up inside. She certainly hadn¡¯t thought him that hateful until after the war ended, years after that moment of forcing him to keep on living.

    It was ironic, that some of his last words to her had been about how she should keep living because people had died so she could live. For a long time, she had thought it something kind to say¡ªher former friend forcing her to continue on living because of guilt and obligation to the dead. One last kindness before cruelty slipped out of him in unstoppable waves that crashed over her balance and drove her to run.

    Now¡­ now, she wasn¡¯t so sure those words hadn¡¯t been the most selfish thing he had said to her that day. ¡°Live, so you can continue to wallow in your guilt. You do not deserve to escape this world through death.¡±

    ¡°Emilia?¡±

    Emilia startled out of her wandering thoughts, glad that out of all the skills she had lost in the last decade, her ability to mindlessly follow the leader wasn¡¯t one of them. ¡°Hm?¡± she hummed at V, blinking at him and the increasingly dark world around them. Somewhere along the way, house walls had shifted to rock, light eating material speckled through them.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± the man asked, shooting her a concerned look as he readjusted the children before the tunnel they were following began to tilt steeply downwards.

    Ahead of them, one of the children slipped, feet sliding out from under them, their butt dragging painful over the ground. Two of their friends skidded to a stop and bolted back to them, hauling them upwards, and off they continued.

    ?Am I bleeding?? the boy asked, trying to check their pants for any stains.

    One of their friends checked, shaking their head and telling the boy that he was fine. Either the child was a fantastic liar, or they hadn¡¯t noticed the red splotch slowly growing and then beginning to disappear on the boy¡¯s behind. Within moments, the blood had completely returned to the boy, the red mark gone and whatever scuff had marred his butt likely sealed up.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Emilia told V, shooting him what she was certain wasn¡¯t a convincing smile. ¡°Mind is just wandering to that pair we left behind.¡±

    ¡°To die, trying to protect people?¡± V asked. He didn¡¯t sound happy about it, but there was a note of resignation in his voice, just as there was in her thoughts.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she sighed, adding in vague details about her thoughts¡ªabout the friend she had saved and the shattered relationship they now had, the blame he put on her for nearly everything bad that had ever happened to him and the people he loved since they had met. To her surprise, V¡¯s expression turned so dark that her feet momentarily stalled. ¡°V?¡±

    The other visitor shook him head, the children in his arms glancing nervously up at him. He smiled at them, telling him he was fine and sorry, despite the fact that they obviously couldn¡¯t hear him. His smile, awkwardly dimpled as it was, was disarming, however, and the children tucked themselves against him once again.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°It¡¯s not fair for someone to put so much blame on you,¡± V said, tone sharp, even if his expression had mellowed out.

    Emilia almost laughed. ¡°How do you know I don¡¯t deserve the blame? Maybe I¡¯m a terrible person in real life.¡±

    V¡¯s gaze shot to her, wide and horrified. He looked like he was about to say something, perhaps about to spill his identity in order to assure her that he did know she wasn¡¯t a person deserving of so much blame, when the children running in front of them began to stop.

    Emilia and V¡¯s steps slowed, their eyes scanning the area and the gaggle of children for anything amiss. Ahead of them, the tunnel of the cave system they were wandering through split off into three directions, their leader looking down each path with all but panicked eyes.

    Despite the entrance to Zach¡¯s underground magic school having been hidden, they had learned that most of the buildings within the cities had their own connection to the cave system, although many only had small, stone cellars that weren¡¯t directly connected to the main system. Some sort of bomb shelter¡ªthe bomb in this case being the blood curse¡ªalthough most were used for storage these days. Luckily, the building they had broken into was connected to the main system, and they were currently following the young teenager¡ªa girl who had testily introduced herself as ?Gale, not Galentia,? to much laughter from the other children¡ªas she navigated the maze of tunnels.

    Occasionally, one of the younger children had asked if they were lost, Gale snapping back that of course they weren¡¯t. Even through her distracted attention, Emilia hadn¡¯t been completely convinced, but being lost in a maze of caves was better than being out in whatever hurricane of blood and power was surely raging above them. Besides, even without asking, she knew V had been making his own mental map of the area. Worst case, they¡¯d have to turn around and make their way back rather than get¡­ wherever Gale was taking them. Had she actually told them where she was taking them? Wherever it was, unless they were hit with a miracle, Emilia doubted they were liable to find it with how concerned the girl now looked.

    That was fine. Eventually, they¡¯d find some sort of exit, she was sure, especially since they hadn¡¯t done anything as insane as her and V, during their own pitch-black cavern adventure. No impossible to descend rock walls here!

    What was more concerning was the lack of anyone else around. As much as their conversations with Gale and the children were largely one-sided¡ªalthough everyone seemed to enjoy watching the combination of Emilia¡¯s signing and V¡¯s charades¡ªa number of them had been chatty and forthcoming with information about the city and the cave system beneath it.

    While not all buildings connected to the main cave system, enough did that it felt like they should have seen at least a few more people seeking refuge within them, especially considering that the city ran evacuation drills. One of the children had suggested it might be the time of day, nearly all adults out working or shopping, but no one seemed convinced: surely at least some of the businesses had access points, where employees and customers could have disappeared below when the chaos started.

    Yet, there was no one. In the brief moments of silence, every member of the group reflecting on the death and carnage occurring far above their heads, only their feet and the occasional sob echoed through the tunnel. No other sounds reached them. There were no distant voices bouncing off the stone towards them, no sobs from unknown people or even distant screams from outside, leaking through entrance doors left ajar by panicking locals. Emilia might have assumed that aethervoices didn¡¯t allow for such things, but she had heard it before, and she knew they should be hearing such things, but they weren¡¯t.

    Now, with everyone watching Gale, barely whispering to each other as they waited for her to pick a path, there was nothing. It was eerie and felt wrong in a way that Emilia could only chalk up to instinct and years of experience on the battlefield.

    Something was wrong, and the only thing Emilia could think of was the way they had entered the library labyrinth: abruptly. There had been no warning as the library transitioned into endless hallway, no escape once they noticed.

    ¡°Is it just me¡ª¡± she started to ask.

    ¡°Or is this eerily similar to the labyrinth we just managed to escape?¡±

    Great, so they were thinking the same thing. That didn¡¯t bode well for this being anything else¡ªsomething that wouldn¡¯t be terrible with so many children they couldn¡¯t properly communicate with, relying on them to keep them safe. That was the worst thing: they had been trying to keep these kids safe, and instead, it seemed that they had accidentally led them into an even more dangerous situation.

    ¡°Key told me these places tend to focus on being difficult for visitors,¡± Emilia told the other visitor, her eyes glued to the back of one of the older children, one who seemed to be growing increasingly agitated as Gale looked wildly between paths. ¡°If we leave them, the labyrinth might just guide them out¡­¡±

    ¡°Or eat them.¡±

    They¡¯d briefly discussed Cade¡¯s Enclave babysitter being mysteriously eaten in the library labyrinth. Emilia had been half expecting to find him with Rin and Key, being held hostage by the boss. She¡¯d been equal parts relieved and put off when they hadn¡¯t found him. If Taoran had been similarly eaten when he attacked their trio, she would have assumed the labyrinth didn¡¯t want any locals taking out visitors within it¡ªit seemingly hadn¡¯t had any issue with her and Cade fighting, after all. He hadn¡¯t been eaten, however, and even with both her and V¡¯s brains combined¡ªsleepy as they had been¡ªthey could think of no reason why Cade¡¯s babysitter had been taken out by the labyrinth and Taoran hadn¡¯t.

    ¡°Let¡¯s¡­ not think about any of the kids being eaten by phantom monsters¡­¡± Emilia half-hissed at her friend, glaring when she noticed the slight amusement dancing in his eyes. There was a healthy dose of fear in there as well, but morbid jokes about the lives of children went a bit far.

    Ahead of them, Gale and the agitated boy began to argue, the boy¡¯s voice somehow managing to crack with puberty. How, Emilia had no idea¡ªshe¡¯d never gotten the chance to ask Rin or Key about what dictated the intonations of aethervoices, or why locals sighed or hummed or did a thousand other little sounds that seemed to be more tied to people who spoke verbally. Stars knew that the people she knew who signed didn¡¯t have any particular signs for sighing or humming, although their signs could adopt a more specific style or flow to express emotions a verbal speaker would use tone to convey.

    ¡°We should probably make sure they don¡¯t kill each other,¡± she sighed, abruptly passing her children to V and stepping forward to make sure the pair didn¡¯t kill each other over being lost in a magical maze.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 91: Deadly Games

    There was a drip, far in the distance, the sound echoing gracelessly over¡­ whatever the world was made of. Metal, maybe¡ªat least, that¡¯s what Emilia would have assumed if she were in her own world. Of all the material she had seen used in this world, a few had reminded her of certain types of metal, but nothing had seemed to quite be metal, except in the library¡­ maybe.

    The lack of metal made sense, in her rattled brain¡ªdid she had a concussion? She was pretty sure she did¡ªgiven metalwork was dangerous. She¡¯d almost lost a few fingers learning how to forge willbrands. The fact that she¡¯d escaped that summer with only a few scars across her body from flames and spitting metal and chemicals, from skills gone awry and shattering glass, was a miracle in its own right. How could the things in this world be made of metal if the locals couldn¡¯t risk working with the material¡ªcouldn¡¯t risk the blood those injuries would leak into the world?

    ?It is metal,? a voice said, loud and cracking through her head and core, the feel of their energy coated aether sliding through her meridians. ?There are some older buildings that use metal. The library the man from the Valoren family destroyed was designed before the blood curse began.?

    Had she been speaking aloud? She didn¡¯t think so, but¡ª

    ?You weren¡¯t,? the voice continued. It sounded familiar, but in a far away way¡ªin a barely touched way. Maybe if she¡¯d had her Censor, it could have placed it, just like it would have helped her place V¡¯s voice. ?You have lost control of your aethervoice,? the person continued.

    Oh, that made sense. She¡¯d only had that particular ability for a few days, and learning to speak to locals had been low on her list of priorities. It had been annoying, getting the ability to use her aethervoice so late in the game. It would have been much more useful to have gotten it¡ª

    ? ? ? One Week Earlier ? ? ?

    Breaking up fights was hard. Doubly hard when there were angsty, moody preteens involved. How much harder was it when you couldn¡¯t actually speak to the children? Emilia had no idea, but it was proving to be next to impossible.

    Not only could she not communicate with the little shits, but because of how young she had skewed her appearance, she might as well have been one of them! She was cute and tiny and was pretty sure that when she crossed her arms she just looked like a tantruming child. Emilia would have been okay with that, if it had served to distract Gale and the boy¡ªSawyer¡ªfrom their fight, but they had chosen to ignore her.

    Even worse, the pair were apparently old enough to have learned a little magic, and neither Emilia nor V¡ªonce he stopped laughing at her and came to help¡ªcould get close enough to physically pull them apart without risking some minor burns.

    All in all, it really sucked. Lesson learned: don¡¯t help random children, ever.

    ¡°This is the last time I deal with kids,¡± Emilia muttered under her breath, earning her an odd look from her friend. ¡°What?¡±

    V blinked at her. He was once again holding several of the smaller children, more in case Gale and Sawyer fucked up, and they had to bolt out of a collapsing cave, than to let their little legs rest. ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Why are you saying it like that?¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡±

    ¡°Like you¡¯re disappointed I don¡¯t want to deal with kids again.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± A light blush dusted over V¡¯s nose and he looked away, teeth digging into his lower lip.

    Emilia was about to dart in front of him and demand an answer when the man himself darted away¡ªdarted into the middle of Gale and Sawyer¡¯s fight. Somehow, the other visitor had managed to put the children he had been holding down before moving, although Emilia had no idea how. Given the wide, startled eyes of the children, they had no idea how, either.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough,¡± V said, making several large, sweeping stop motions with his arms. He made another set of motions which weren¡¯t quite the same as either Emilia¡¯s sign language or official Baalphorian sign language, but were close enough that she assumed V knew at least one, if not both¡ªnot that it was the first time she¡¯d had such thoughts.

    The children at least seemed to mostly understand what he was signing, which essentially amounted to telling them both to chill, before asking Sawyer what his problem was.

    The boy huffed, his chest pulling up and air actually escaping his mouth, even if the sound itself came through the aether. ?She was saying we¡¯re lost. We aren¡¯t lost.?

    ?You shouldn¡¯t be eavesdropping!? Gale hissed, bloody red eyes boring into the younger boy.

    ?I wasn¡¯t,? he said, nose turning up as his eyes slid to another of the children.

    They hadn¡¯t had much time to work out who knew who, or how everyone was related, but Emilia knew the girl, who appeared to be around the same age as Sawyer, was friendly with Gale. Given the way Gale gaped at the other girl, her eyes beginning to brim with tears, Emilia could guess that she¡¯d been privately telling her friend that she didn¡¯t know which way to go. The other girl had apparently told Sawyer, and well¡­

    ?I¡¯m sorry¡­? the other girl whispered, her own eyes spilling over with tears. ?I just¡ª?

    ?Don¡¯t!? Gale snapped, jaw flexing as she glared at her friend, all icy hatred that Emilia was glad she didn¡¯t have to be on the receiving end of. Gale¡¯s eyes shot back to Sawyer. ?Fine, if you know so much, you can lead.?

    Gale turned, long legs taking her into the group of children and far from either Sawyer or her crying friend. She towered over the other children, but that didn¡¯t seem to bother her. Several children approached her, giving her reassuring pats, the aether shifting with private conversations¡­

    Blearily, Emilia added another question to her growing list about how communication in this world worked: if you could have private conversations, how did you avoid overlapping with another private conversation? Was their etiquette? Was it like making a call, where you¡¯d get a busy signal if the person were otherwise occupied?

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    That was how Censors worked. A request would go out to the person you were trying to contact. If they were busy, you¡¯d get a little notification and could try again later, or send a message. Emilia had always found most people were too busy to talk, preferring to send messages for even the most urgent reasons.

    Most people called for emergencies, though, hoping the person would pick up. It was a bit hit or miss, even when you tagged the call as urgent, the result of too many people using the tag for things that definitely weren¡¯t emergencies. Messaging people was more reliable, in her opinion. Unless disabled, messages floated through the corner of your vision, words lightly tapping at your senses. Red messages of deadly importance burned your brain, and while people could also stupidly tag any message as urgent, somehow, that was less common through messages than calls.

    If she was sending an urgent message? Well, pretty much everyone knew it was really fucking important. For the people she had known the longest¡­ well, the reactions she got out of those people with her urgent tagged messages were always the best. She¡¯d been more reasonable with her messages the last decade. Emergencies were always tagged as urgent, but when she was younger? There had been a handful¡ªor two¡ªof moments where she had sent messages about emergencies tagged as only slightly important. It seemed to have traumatized people, who now viewed her urgent messages as potentially world ending, which¡­ fair.

    She could handle herself, back then, was the thing. Why risk someone else¡¯s safety when she could handle things herself? Today, she relied on her friends more¡ªrelied on them to show up and bail her out of the trouble she occasionally found herself in. Thankfully, it was usually the fun sort of trouble.

    The Emilia of old would have marked messages to people about this particular problem¡ªbeing stuck in a potentially deadly labyrinth with a bunch of children¡ªas only slightly important. Certainly not an emergency. The current Emilia wished they could contact someone. Whoever they contacted wouldn¡¯t be particularly helpful, unless they were a local, but even having another visitor to bounce ideas off of would have helped.

    ¡°He says he¡¯s been here before.¡±

    V¡¯s voice snapped Emilia out of wherever her brain had disappeared to¡ªcontemplating how stupid she was, was it?

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she mumbled, smiling weakly up at him. ¡°Got distracted by¡­ nothing particularly important. Sorry.¡±

    The other visitor looked like he wanted to tell her it was fine, but he seemed to think better of it and instead tilted his head at the boy. ¡°He says we are in the labyrinth,¡± he explained, grimacing slightly.

    ¡°He¡¯s been here before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, apparently some of the older kids accidentally busted the shortcut entrance a few months back. That¡¯s probably why none of the locals evacuated down here. Most of the kids are too young to know.¡±

    ¡°But he¡¯s been here before?¡± Emilia asked, looking the boy over. He was young, dirty, constantly rubbing the sleeve of his too big shirt under a runny nose. She wouldn¡¯t have been surprised to learn he was homeless, or at least from a poor family. Then again, half the children were in similar or worse condition, and surely, they couldn¡¯t all be homeless?

    V nodded, a little smile tugging at his lips, despite the shitty circumstances. ¡°Apparently, he and a bunch of the other local kids come and play in here sometimes. He says the labyrinth is fun and potentially lucrative, although not always. Throws harder challenges at them sometimes, but he says it wants to be solved.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ in other words, he¡¯s not concerned about us being ¡®lost¡¯ and believes we¡¯ll come out of this perfectly fine?¡± Emilia asked, smiling hopefully up at V.

    The man grimaced down at her, because of course it wasn¡¯t going to be that easy. ¡°The kid said it was a better option than facing the blood curse, which is why he didn¡¯t say anything before. He seems to think it would be that easy, if not for us.¡±

    The boy had been one of the last to join them, and had joined them after they had started descending into the house. He probably hadn¡¯t even realized there were visitors with the group until it was too late.

    Emilia sighed, shaking her head. ¡°The labyrinths are harder for visitors?¡± she said, thinking back to her conversation with Key, about how the labyrinths tended to focus its attention on whatever visitors were inside them, leaving locals to wander down boring paths.

    ¡°Yup,¡± V agreed, giving the child he had hoisted back into his arms a little boop on the nose. They giggled, the sound rocketing through the aethernet.

    The other children he had been carrying had scattered through the area as they all waited for someone to decide what they were going to do. Sawyer was talking to a group of children, some of them shooting menacing looks at Gale, standing across the tunnel and surrounded by a similarly menacing group.

    Apparently, their group had split into three factions: Sawyer¡¯s, Gale¡¯s, and a mixture of children who didn¡¯t seem to care, liked neither of the older children, or hadn¡¯t noticed the strained relations rising around them. While some of the last group were simply too young or unobservant, most were just too stressed by the situation to have noticed much. Tears stained their cheeks and sleeves as they huddled into older siblings, Emilia or V¡ªor worse, leaned alone against the labyrinth walls. For most, any comfort was better than none, and the two of them had adopted a give any child who needs a hug a hug attitude.

    The ones who wanted nothing to do with anyone, though? Those ones she was worried about. She had never seen anyone benefit from silent, lonely suffering, but all attempts to reach those children had been met by a mix of glares or empty stares.

    ¡°Does he think we should leave them?¡± Emilia asked, wondering just how out of it she had been to miss an entire conversation between V and the boy.

    When she asked about it, however, V shook his head, telling her that their conversation had been private. ¡°He basically info dumped me,¡± the man laughed. ¡°And I don¡¯t think he wants us to separate. As much as he thinks it will be harder and more dangerous with us, he also knows they aren¡¯t getting the smaller kids out of here without us.¡±

    ¡°He could just leave them with us,¡± she pointed out. That would be pretty selfish, and so far, this world seemed a rather selfless one to her. As much as some of the Enclave and Risen Guard¡¯s actions had seemed pretty selfish, they also seemed to have an underlying selflessness attached to them as well. They wanted the world to be better¡ªwanted to keep its residents safe¡ªeven if the way they went about it was a little fucked.

    ¡°I tried suggesting that,¡± V said, shrugging absently. ¡°I think he understood, but based on the way he was glaring at me, he didn¡¯t particularly like the idea. He just sorta blinked at me, looking way older than he is, before going off on how one of us should decide which way we go next.¡±

    ¡°Us? I thought he said we weren¡¯t lost?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± V said, lips twitching. ¡°We¡¯re in the middle of a labyrinth that changes based on who chooses the direction, or who it wants to fuck with the most. It can go either way, but usually the challenge it creates is suitable for all party members.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ one of us decides the direction, and we hope the labyrinth designs a challenge based on that person¡¯s abilities?¡±

    ¡°Basically.¡± V¡¯s smile was pained as the reality of the situation set it.

    ¡°Me,¡± Emilia sighed, thinking about how getting the children up a rock wall would be infinitely better than getting them to crawl through claustrophobic caves. Of course, there was no reason why the challenges this labyrinth threw at them would be even remotely similar to those of the first.

    When she pointed this out to V, however, he simply grimaced. ¡°I have some terrible skills from my blackaether raids,¡± he said quietly, as though anyone could possibly overhear him. ¡°Better to not tempt fate.¡±

    ¡°Better to not tempt it indeed,¡± Emilia thought. She certainly had some annoying and terrible skills as well, but there were few she could think of that were as terrible as V¡¯s expression was implying his own were. Sucking in a deep breath, she stepped forward to choose one of the three paths¡ªone of three potentially deadly games¡ªto lead everyone down.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 92: Memories Across the Ages

    ¡°Stop. Laughing.¡±

    V¡¯s laughter stopped, his lips pressing tight as he attempted to hold a straight face. It didn¡¯t work, and a moment later, laughter was erupting out of him once again. ¡°This is¡­ quite the challenge,¡± he snorted.

    Emilia would have glowered at him, but the brief moment of attention she had given him was already causing her problems. ¡°Shut. Up.¡± she hissed instead, a frown of concentration marring her face as she attempted to beat the stupid machine¡ªthe stupid game¡ªbefore her.

    Out of all the skills and talents and interests she had, the one the labyrinth had pulled on to create this challenge was both one of the easiest and the most annoying. No one would be dying in this section of the labyrinth, and if anything, the silly joy of the challenge had lightened nearly all their moods.

    Still, this was ridiculous.

    Emilia¡¯s hand darted forward to grab a ball as it shot out of the winding graviplex track. She dropped the ball back into the top of the contraption, the heavy ball clunking before it began to roll back down the track. Her hand shot back down to catch the next ball falling out of the machine.

    The next fell out of a different hole.

    The next another hole.

    The next the same as the last, barely a second between the drops.

    She missed one, the ball falling out of a hole she hadn¡¯t noticed before and into the second, painfully slow track. Two more places to watch for falling balls now, so she could win.

    How was she¡ªor any of the children who were diligently playing alongside her at their own ball tracks¡ªsupposed to win? Emilia had no idea. She could only guess that there was a time she had to beat¡ªprobably a personal best, or whatever the labyrinth thought was a good minimum time, given her reduced abilities.

    Would something happen to indicate someone had passed the challenge? Were the children aiming to beat the same time as her, or some time designed specifically for their little arms and muscles. Their own ball tracks were noticeably simpler than her own disaster of twisting metal and a half dozen holes, so it made sense that their goal would also be easier to achieve.

    Did everyone need to complete? Emilia hoped not. Only about half of their group was competing now, a mixture of children too young and children too afraid or downcast sitting it out with V.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you used to be obsessed with this game,¡± the other visitor said, his voice too close behind her. His warmth echoed through her, his loose clothing brushing over her own and sending a shiver she didn¡¯t need through her. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen someone actual play graviplex before,¡± he added, his voice a whisper over her ear.

    ¡°V,¡± she hissed, wishing she could push him away or kick him without making the situation worse. They¡¯d been at this so long already, and while the failures and restarts of the children had confirmed that they could try to beat the challenge at least a few times, Emilia¡¯s arms were already aching. Even the hand tucked diligently behind her back, as per official regulations, was beginning to ache.

    Stupid level-300 body. The labyrinth had better have set a more reasonable goal for the challenge, because there was no way she was making it anywhere close to her personal best in this body. Her muscles screamed with strain. Her eyes were watering. She needed to blink. Blinking took concentration, and all of her focus was currently on the balls.

    Falling. Catching. Dropping. Falling. Around and around, in a torturous loop that would not end.

    The room rumbled, just as sudden and ominous as the first few times it had done so. Nearby, the older children grumbled in complaint while the younger ones bounced excitedly. Emilia, personally, wanted to die. Her machine already had over a dozen potential routes for the balls to take, chance and gravity and the levers each ball bounced against leading the balls from route to route until they fell out fuck knew where.

    The arrays beneath each of the machines began to glow, aether so powerful it froze the balls in place shuddering through the room. Whatever the machines were made of began to vibrate, the dark grey material transitioning into a hot red that bent and shifted until a new, more complicated maze came into existence.

    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Emilia sighed as the aether let go¡ªsettled back into itself¡ªand the balls began to fall again.

    Her feet were moving before she gave conscious thought to it, years of training to play in graviplex competitions during compulsory schooling filling her muscles. Around, skid, step step step and grab. Drop. Drop more. Faster. Always faster. You could never be fast enough. Don¡¯t drop the ball too soon. Don¡¯t hold on to it too long. Know your limits, know your body and believe in it.

    This wasn¡¯t her body, and yet it was. This was, more or less, the body of her youth. There were slight differences, but those were mostly etched across her face. Younger, cuter, smaller. Her features were pulled different, wider, more delicate than they¡¯d been since she was a child, but this was her body. The height and reach, the size of everything important; this was the her of her teens and 20s.

    This was the her who had competed across Baalphoria in this silly game. These were the muscles and proportions she had trained with, and even if she was weaker and slower, at least she wasn¡¯t overreaching. She wasn¡¯t dropping too late or scraping too long fingers over the game. Had she been in her current body, she would have been worse off, her mind unable to reconcile memory with everything being just a touch larger.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t even touched a machine since one drunken night at a bar during the war. It was a good memory, if also filled with pain and sadness. Laughter and smiles, her and her ex¡¯s hands, although they hadn¡¯t yet been dating, flying over their respective machines. Hot and angry and happy, Nettie cheering her on from the side while Charles watched her with doe eyes and James watched his twin like he was the stupidest man in existence. Their supports in the corner, awkward and tired and aware that their lives could burn out at any moment. Naomi trying to restore the energy of their youngest member, complaining in broken Baalphorian that they hated the noise of the machines, the smell of booze and sting of drugs drifting through the air.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Halen had been there, too. Their voluntary ref, a surprise given he had played alongside her in compulsory school as well¡ªhad been almost as good as Emilia, no less. He could have competed that night, there were enough machines in that place. Why were there so many? Emilia had no idea. It was such a strange, niche game that nearly three decades on, it still struck her as odd that the bar had had a half dozen of them.

    This had been early in the war. Before Alliance Ridge was even a thought through their heads. Before more than military brass knew of their unit¡¯s skill. Before Seven had joined, young and nervous. Before Boyd and the drama that all that had been. Before they had become so closely associated with The Black Knot or the de la Rues.

    It had just been their small group, stuck together because one person had said it was a good idea¡ªhad insisted that their Free Colony would not be sending their strongest support unless this specific group was formed. The core of it, anyways. Most of the supports, Halen and Nettie had been acquired at random¡ªmore or less. Then everyone else had come at random as well.

    Almost everyone, but that particular person didn¡¯t join until later¡ªuntil the war had become so terrible that their government could no longer insist that, distant as their home was from Baalphoria and the monsters of war, they had no need to send help.

    Emilia¡¯s knee collided with the corner of the machine as she reached low to grab the escaping ball. If it fell out of the machine¡ªrolled into the inaccessible container of lost balls¡ªshe had no idea what would happen. In a normal game, you continued on, hoping your opponents would lose all their balls before you, the goal of the game being to last the longest. Lose a ball, lose a life.

    Of course, there was strategy in losing a ball¡ªin giving yourself space to breathe and hoping that space was enough to make up for the lost ball. Such things had been seen as weak during her years of competition, although the few times she¡¯d watched more recent, university and professional level games, that stigma didn¡¯t seem to exist.

    Whether viewing it as a show of weakness was something that had existed at all levels before the war or just at the compulsory school level, Emilia had no idea. Her Censor had looked it up, but she¡¯d refused to read it¡ªrefused to learn if she and the other competitors had just been being ridiculous teens or not. Those memories, happy and free, didn¡¯t deserve to be marred by the strain of reality and age.

    She had considered taking the sport back up when she first started at Astrapan. It had felt too hard, too risky to the joy of playing during her youth. It also would have been too obvious. People didn¡¯t pop out of nowhere being a master of this game. Niche and silly, the greatest players had played since childhood, just like she had.

    They¡¯d had a machine at her first home, too complicated for any of their little hands. Someone had donated it, probably thinking it would suit the children well. There had been a few of them who had obsessed over mastering it. None of them ever had, and when she¡¯d returned to that place in her 30s, wondering if her skills were now enough, it had been gone.

    Given away. Scrapped. None of the adults, with their insincere smiles and dead eyes, had any idea or care. All they had cared about was her money¡ªher and her family¡¯s fame. Once, she might have donated, hoping the money would make that place a little kinder¡ªa little warmer. Olivier, of all people, had talked her out of it.

    ¡°There are better ways to make a difference for those children, if you wish to do so,¡± he had said, after overhearing her talk about it. A stack of information about those better ways had slotted itself into her before he walked away. It had been weird, interacting with the man after her case was over, after they had stopped having sex, after all the regret of those final moments between them.

    Well, final moments until she¡¯d shown back up in his life, laughing and high and trying to enjoy her gap decade. It had been in those years when she hadn¡¯t been able to read him. Did he hate her? He had certainly kept his distance, as though even looking at her were unpleasant¡ªas though the sight of her were something to be avoided at all costs.

    Then the war had come and she hadn¡¯t known what to think. He had hated her ex and seemed to once again like her. He had joined the war for her. He had almost died keeping her safe.

    A ball dropped into the slow track, and Emilia cursed herself for letting her mind be distracted by Olivier. The man was too fucking distracting, popping up in her mind too easily.

    ¡°Should have dropped a ball earlier,¡± she muttered as a new ball slid into the fray of a dozen balls, then another.

    Fourteen balls. One was slowly following the bottom track, bumping and stalling on its way to falling. She should have timed how long the track took before more balls dropped into the game, now she was stuck watching it from the corner of her eye. The bottom penalty track was always the worst. Too slow. Emilia had never been good with slow. She had loved this game because it was always fast, shifting, a single moment of distraction a recipe for disaster.

    It calmed her brain, the single-minded focus of it. Hands and feet and eyes shifting in perfect unison. Peripheral vision guiding your way because a moment of looking away was the end.

    Don¡¯t look away.

    Don¡¯t get distracted.

    Just grab and drop.

    Don¡¯t get too caught up in timing, not until you have the machine mastered. Emilia had seen competitors fall out because they tried to spread the drop of balls, one ball lingering in their hand before they dropped it, only for them to miss another ball as it exited the track.

    Or worse, to fuck up and reach with their dead hand. There was nothing holding it behind their backs but force of will. Instincts left behind. Don¡¯t move that hand. Don¡¯t let your instinct to grab the ball, no matter what, cost you the game.

    Don¡¯t¡ª

    The arrays beneath the machines began to glow again, and Emilia almost screamed. There was no way the labyrinth could expect her to keep going. Her clothes were heavy with sweat, her limbs damp and sticky, armpits chaffing, which, seriously? Who had designed her {Blood Armour} to not protect her from chaffing? Given where the bands fell on the thighs, she was pretty sure she was going to chaff there too, which was objectively terrible.

    ?Hey! Look!? one of the children yelled, their voice scratchy and high in a way that implied they could have been a preteen boy or a young girl.

    Even with the balls once again frozen in time and place, Emilia didn¡¯t dare look away from the machine. It wasn¡¯t until V¡¯s hand wrapped around her own, still poised to reach for the next ball, that Emilia realized the game was over.

    ¡°Emilia,¡± he said quietly, head tilted forward to rest against the back of hers, ¡°it¡¯s over. You did it.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± she breathed out, letting her shaky arms fall. Her eyes squeezed closed, and she leaned back into the other visitor. ¡°That¡¯s good. Can I rest now?¡±

    Behind her, V huffed before rearranging them so she was tucked into his chest. ¡°Yeah. You can rest for a bit.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 93: A Race Against Whom?

    ¡°Is it just me or does this labyrinth seem¡­ easier than the last one?¡± Emilia asked V, although her eyes didn¡¯t leave the children giggling as they stripped out of their clothing and pulled on swimsuits. There were booths that the children could change in as well, but other than a few of the older ones, most had been content to strip down in front of their friends. Apparently, despite how anti-sex talk and covered up the locals were, children were just as free here as they were in their own world¡ªor, at least they were without any local adults watching over them.

    Several of the children had already grabbed the tubes that were hung against the walls of the second challenge area and were heading for the racing slides. Despite the fact that they couldn¡¯t communicate normally, between her and V¡¯s combination of sign language and charades, and several of the kids offering their own well reasoned suggestions as to what the challenge could be, they¡¯d managed to tell the children what the challenge was: a race. A race against whom? None of them had any idea. When children popped out the bottom, the winner didn¡¯t appear to win anything other than glory, as far as any of them could tell.

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± V agreed, eyes tracking two boys who were preparing to launch themselves down the twisting waterslides. ¡°These challenges definitely seem easier. It¡¯s almost like the labyrinth is just filling its challenge rooms for the sake of it, and giving the kids fun things to do?¡±

    Even after she¡¯d beaten the first challenge, a number of the children had insisted they wanted to play more. The room had even allowed them to, shifting the machines back to their first configurations for the children to play with for a while.

    Now, the kids flew down the slides, giggles and happiness rupturing through the aethernet. It was sweet, and Emilia was glad that the challenges were serving as a distraction from the carnage above them for at least some of their party. The problem was the ones who weren¡¯t distracted. While every moment more and more children were being coaxed from their despondent moods by the energy around them, by the tugs of friendship and easy competition, there were a number of children who wouldn¡¯t budge.

    Several of the children wouldn¡¯t move more than a few feet from her or V. When she¡¯d be competing in the first challenge, it had been difficult to keep a few from getting in her way, even with V and some of the other children stepping in to give them support.

    Emilia readjusted two such children in her arms, another tucked against her leg. Other than the one girl, Astra, who had been one of the two children she first grabbed off the street, she had no idea why these particular children had become so attached to her. V certainly didn¡¯t have this problem, the children who were sticking close to him being perfectly content to be transferred between their care, while the three attached to her only seemed to want her.

    These kids would be problem enough to get down the slide, given that was the only way forward. Then, there were the other problem children, those who had tucked themselves against the wall, knees pulled close as they cried into their arms or stared absently into space. They might be able to take the kids who were attached to them down, holding them while they slid or using their descent as leverage for them to slide on their own.

    The second group of kids, though? It had taken Emilia, V and a half a dozen of the older kids to get them moving after the last challenge. Once they sat down, they hadn¡¯t seemed to want to move again¡ªseemed content to die in the labyrinth, as far as Emilia could tell.

    She got that. Practically every soldier had carried people off the battlefield, civilian and soldier alike. The things that broke someone were wide and varied, and these kids had just seen their home destroyed in a matter of minutes¡ªhad likely seen people they knew and trusted be trampled to death, or worse, abandon them in favour of saving themselves.

    Getting those kids down the waterslide safely was going to be¡­ something else. They could force them down, of course. Lift them up and dump them down the slide, hope they came out the other side alive and talking.

    That seemed like a terrible idea, but when she and V bounced ideas between them, they couldn¡¯t think of any better ideas, and their time to figure out another option was quickly disappearing. Around them, the children were quickly thinning out, more and more pairs racing down the slide. As far as they could tell, there were no negative repercussions for those who lost the race, which was odd, but also not. It wasn¡¯t like the kids who hadn¡¯t won¡ªor even participated¡ªin the graviplex game had suffered anything, after all.

    ¡°So¡­¡± V asked, trying to sound nonchalant as they began stripping off their own clothes, as well as that of the children who were glued to them, ¡°waterslide races?¡±

    Emilia grumbled as she tugged a pair of shorts onto a boy who was only two or three, one of the youngest children they¡¯d acquired. Out of all the children, there were a few she was worried wouldn¡¯t be able to safely go down the slide. Not only was the course potentially too intense for such small children¡ªespecially given thrilling games seemed lacking from local culture¡ªbut also unsafe. The last thing they needed was someone dry drowning in a few hours because they¡¯d swallowed too much water. As much as they could watch out for the signs of dry drowning¡ªcoughing, laboured breathing, vomiting, fatigue¡ªthey couldn¡¯t tell anyone else to watch out for those symptoms.

    Plus, did locals even cough? Would they be able to hear laboured breathing? They hadn¡¯t been in the labyrinth long, but with such little legs and hearts and minds and the stress of everything, half their group was already looking drowsy.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to need to rest soon,¡± she said, rather than address her friend¡¯s question about why the labyrinth had decided this was a reasonable challenge.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he agreed, watching her with a smirk as he handed her a swimsuit for herself. ¡°Waterslide races?¡±

    Emilia contemplated popping behind the screen to finish changing, if only to get away from V and take a moment to scream. She didn¡¯t, instead stripping off her remaining clothes and tossing them into the shoot that would take their clothes and other belongings to the other end of the slides. V was polite enough to not let his eyes wander over her in front of the kids, most on the younger side now, save a few who had hung back in case they needed help getting the unmoving ones along. Not that looking her over would have been scandalous or anything, given she hadn¡¯t removed her {Blood Armour}. She probably didn¡¯t need the swimsuit, but wandering around without one seemed too close to walking around in her undies.

    ?Hey~!? a voice called from below, barely reaching them over the screams of the current race or the water splashing down the slide. ?I think we found a way back up!?

    Emilia tugged on her swimsuit¡ªa bright pink one piece, which seemed a choice on V¡¯s part¡ªand skipped over to the edge of the platform.

    Far below, most of the kids had gathered around an elevator that certainly hadn¡¯t been there the last time Emilia looked over the edge. Unlike the elevators that she had travelled with her Risen Guard babysitter, this one appeared to be powered by magic. Arrays were etched over the outside of it, which appeared to be made of glass¡ªor whatever this world¡¯s equivalent was¡ªalthough it was difficult to tell from so far way.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s such a good idea,¡± V said, trying to convey his thoughts to one of the older children who had remained above¡ªMiira, the girl who had told Sawyer that Gale had told her she was lost.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    The girl was nice, if quiet and sad since her friend was no longer talking to her. She was also rather quick to catch onto V¡¯s words, her aethervoice reaching for the children below to tell them they shouldn¡¯t use the elevator only a second too late.

    Four? Five? of the older boys had already stuffed themselves into the small box, which reminded Emilia far too much of death traps she had seen in horror movies. Elevators going up, up, up, until programs crashed, cables snapped or skills gave out and the box was plummeting down towards an unstoppable crash.

    V¡¯s breath stilled beside her as they watched the elevator rise, both of them waiting for it to fall¡ªfor the tiny lives inside it to be snuffed out because a bunch of kids had decided they wanted to race again, because some psycho had decided to kill in their city and panic had overridden common sense.

    There was no ding when the doors opened, no screams because it was falling. There were only smiles and laughs, an ?I told you it¡¯d be fine? from one of the boys as they grabbed new tubes and went shooting back down the slides.

    ?I¡¯ll beat you this time!? Emilia thought she heard one of them yell, but her brain was too burned over with stress to fully believe that¡¯s what she had heard.

    ¡°Maybe¡­ things will be fine?¡± V asked, his own voice hoarse with the strain of reconciling reality with the horror that had consumed their minds.

    ¡°Maybe we watch too many horror movies,¡± Emilia suggested. She¡¯d been a fan when she was younger, although the war had turned the genre into a traumatic trigger she didn¡¯t need up until recently. Sometimes she watched horror movies with her friends now, but only on the good days.

    ¡°I don¡¯t watch horror movies,¡± V said mildly, cruel smile tugging at his lips when she gave him a disbelieving look. ¡°I only play horror games. Much more terrifying,¡± he laughed, ignoring her eye roll in favour of stepping forward to examine the elevator. His fingers skimmed over the controls within it, a gemstone similar to the ones Zach had given her¡ªthe ones now melded into her {Blood Armour}¡ªhovered over them.

    ¡°Powered by external magic¡­?¡± Emilia pondered, squinting at the purplish stone. Unlike hers, it didn¡¯t have any obvious engravings on it, and when she held up her arm to compare colours, none of hers were the same shade as it, although Zach had briefly explained to her that clarity, colour and size were what affected the types of magic that could be engraved into them.

    ?One of the few places where colours other than red are still expected in this world,? he had told her, holding up two pale green stones that contained similar magic. ?That said, these sorts of things are rare. I doubt most people would actually agree other colours are to be expected in them.?

    ¡°Everything has been a normal colour¡­¡± Emilia noted absently, looking around the area. The water was a pale red, the slides a dark, reddish black. All the swimsuits were in tones she would have expected to find in the red world outside the labyrinth. Inside the library labyrinth, however, there had been more colour, even if just occasionally.

    ¡°So?¡± V asked, eyes glued to the magic stone.

    He reminded Emilia of a grave robber, from the old action movies that her father loved and her mother hated. He wanted to take it, or to at least examine it. Maybe if she hadn¡¯t been there, he would have. Gamer instinct: take everything you can, learn every secret offered to you.

    Emilia shrugged, watching as the boys who had ascended on the elevator began to congregate around the bottom of the shaft again¡ªnot that it was a shaft, per se. Two bars that appeared to be made of pure aether had appeared as it rose, connecting the outside corners of the box to a slightly discoloured platform back where it had appeared.

    ?Send it back down!? one of the boys yelled, another boy¡ªpossibly Sawyer, but Emilia wasn¡¯t completely sure¡ªappearing to smack him on the back of the head.

    ?Ask nicely,? the boy¡ªdefinitely Sawyer, based on the way his voice cracked¡ªhissed.

    Emilia blinked away from them as they began to squabble about what was polite and what wasn¡¯t. ¡°Do you think we should send some kids down?¡± she asked V. She still wasn¡¯t particularly confident about the integrity of the elevator, but when it came to the children who barely wanted to move¡­

    V followed her gaze to the kids leaning blank eyed against the wall. ¡°Worth the risk?¡±

    A long sigh leaked out of Emilia. ¡°Yeah, I think so. We could send them down the slide, but it could make things worse. This thing might not be safe, but¡­¡±

    The other visitor nodded, slim hands encouraging the children surrounding him to go to her instead, before he disappeared to gather up several of the kids. They barely blinked when he appeared, hauling them upright and dragging them along to the elevator. ¡°We can send two or three at a time,¡± he noted when each of the kids immediately collapsed onto the floor of it.

    Nearby, Miira was watching, and although she, Gale and Sawyer were on the outs with each other, she seemed to realize they would need to cooperate. Her voice flew through the aether, reaching everyone but focusing on the other two as she told them what was happening. Words and plans echoed between them, barely registered by Emilia as she watched with bated breath for something to go wrong as V hit the elevator¡¯s down button.

    It could fall.

    It could descend so quickly that V¡¯s arm was ripped off.

    How powerful was the healing magic here? Would the system reattach his limb? Stitch up the torn skin? Leave him to bleed to death? The system hadn¡¯t saved Cade, with his exploded head, nor Taoran with the hole ripped through his chest, nor the countless people who had died between the city of the collapsed library and the one screaming above their heads.

    V snatched his arm out of the elevator, each of them watching as the elevator¡­ did nothing. ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°Huh indeed¡­¡± Emilia sighed, glaring at the thing. ¡°Maybe it only goes up once? But, why have down buttons then?¡±

    The world rumbled, and Emilia shuddered with it. Two more bars of aether appeared several feet from the elevator, stretching from floor to ceiling, and far below another elevator rippled into existence.

    ¡°Well, that can¡¯t be good,¡± V noted, all the children remaining above huddling closer to them as the aethernet rioted with whatever was happening.

    Above the elevators, where Emilia would have expected a floor indicator to have been in the real world, symbols appeared. The one at the top had three lines scratched through it, while at the bottom¡­

    ?It says zero,? Gale called up to them.

    Discussion broke out between the children, Gale, Sawyer and Miira taking the lead, although occasionally another child broke in with an opinion. It didn¡¯t take long for everyone to land at the same opinion: for every person who came down via the elevator, the same number had to go up.

    ?That¡¯s stupid, though!? one of the younger boys who had gone twice grumbled. ?We want to go back up, so what kind of stupid requirement is this??

    ¡°What kind indeed¡­¡± V muttered to himself, eyes flying over the area.

    As far as Emilia could see, nothing else had changed, but the aether felt heavy¡ªexpectant. ¡°Feels like the war¡­¡± she breathed out, fighting down the urge to reach for her non-existent willbrand.

    ¡°I was just thinking that,¡± V agreed, his expression pulled into one more serious than she usually saw on him. In the moments where they¡¯d met Sk¡¯lar he had looked that way, same as when he¡¯d been pissed at her sense of direction, and when he¡¯d killed Taoran. ¡°It feels like something is hiding.¡±

    Behind them, the elevator began to move, three boys having chosen to ascend, so the other children could descend. The group had decided that risking something else happening once they were at the top again was worth it. Everyone realized sending their practically catatonic friends down the slides wasn¡¯t a good idea.

    The boys stepped out. Far below, several stepped forward to drag their friends from the elevator. Above the elevators, each of the symbols returned to reading zero.

    The world burned and shifted¡ªa consequence come to life, literally.

    Figures stepped out of the aether, slim and black, their faces blank and formless. Children screamed, the boys tried to force their way back into the elevator, but without three people in its twin, it would not move.

    Behind the figures, boxes rose above the opening to the slide. One black box, one white, zeroes etched into each. A figure stepped toward the black box, back muscles flexing as it began to stretch.

    ¡°Well,¡± V sighed, hands pressed protectively against the heads of the children around him, ¡°I¡¯m gonna guess this ain¡¯t just a friendly game anymore.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 94: A Careful Sacrifice

    Sawyer had volunteered to go first, something Emilia had to commend the boy for. As much as he and one of the other boys, Caro, had played around in the labyrinth, they had never faced anything like this before. Puzzles and games, competitions against each other that often left the loser naked or covered in sticky liquid¡ªthat was what they were used to. Faceless monsters, not so much. As it was, they had no idea what losing in a race against the things would entail.

    To go first was to risk terrible consequences, but Sawyer had been convincing in his logic as to why it should be him, and not Emilia or V, who take that risk.

    ?I¡¯ve raced twice and won both times,? he had started, words rolling out of him a touch too fast. His dark eyes had darted between their little group, huddled up as they attempted to discuss the situation¡ªa difficult task given they couldn¡¯t really communicate¡ªand the strange, faceless beings. ?More importantly, if those things try something, we¡¯re gonna need you two to fight them.?

    Neither Emilia nor V could argue with that, or with the boy¡¯s request that they give him one of their weapons, just in case something happened below. Emilia¡¯s {Blood Dagger} had passed between them, the boy¡¯s eyes lighting up the way most children¡¯s did when offered something dangerous and forbidden. She doubted he had ever held anything so dangerous.

    ¡°Careful,¡± she had signed at him. He seemed to understand, the excited glaze of his eyes calming slightly, although not completely.

    If she arrived at the bottom and discovered that he had accidentally hurt himself, or another of the children, trying and failing to use the blade to do stars knew what, she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised. She¡¯d still sent a little prayer to the stars above, hoping nothing would happen. Sawyer wouldn¡¯t need to use her {Blood Dagger} to protect himself and the others, and he would be able to fight his desire to pull it free of its sheath to show it off. They¡¯d all win, or whatever the penalty for losing was, it would be minor.

    It wasn¡¯t minor.

    So, Sawyer had gone first, {Blood Dagger} tucked safely into his waistband as he slid head first down the slide. His phantom opponent had soared through the twisting tunnels of water as well, his aura one of a serious, determined competitor.

    The local boy won. He popped out of the bottom, into the small pool of sparkling pink water below, and when his opponent flew out a second later, they popped out of existence.

    That should have been their first sign that something bad would happen to the loser. In the cacophony of celebration above and below, however, the idea that popping out of existence might be the penalty for losers of either side had barely rustled through Emilia¡¯s brain. If V thought it were an option, he certainly hadn''t said anything about it.

    In hindsight, perhaps the way he pushed so forcefully for the strongest local children to go first was a sign he had guessed at it. The other two boys who had gone twice already went, each of them winning by mere seconds. Then they transferred more of the empty eyed children, the same three boys returning to the top in exchange for those children¡¯s safety.

    Over and over they went, Emilia minding the children who remained above while those three boys ran themselves down. Occasionally, V would go, one of the smaller children tucked against his chest, because he had thought the risk worth it. Then he¡¯d come up again, exchanging himself and more children, confident in their ability to win, for those who stood no chance of winning.

    She should have asked¡ªshould have forced an answer out of him. By the time she thought to, however, it was too late. V was gone, along with a handful of the local children.

    ?Go!? someone had screamed as one of the local boys who had already raced a half dozen times dove into the water slide.

    He was tired, Emilia had seen it in the moments before he disappeared from sight, his limbs landing not quite right on the tube. The squeaking scrap of skin against the edge of the tunnel, the dark red drops that she barely saw before he vanished, already behind his opponent. When the faceless man exploded out of the bottom first, she hadn¡¯t been surprised, as much as she had also hoped she would be wrong.

    And when the boy popped out¡­

    Emilia stood, surveying the damaged morale of the remaining children, most of them now sharing the empty gaze of the children they had been trying to save by risking the safety of their strongest members. She had spent decades learning to deal with the death and destruction etched into her memory. Even she couldn¡¯t shake the disappearance of the children¡ªcouldn¡¯t erase the screams of their friends when they realized that first boy had disappeared, his presence erased just as easily as their faceless competitors.

    The first time had been bad, every subsequent disappearance worse. Some children had won their races, most had lost. Mental strain. The distraction of disappearance¡ªof death, as far as anyone knew. It was difficult to focus again, after you¡¯d been rattled. The boys who had been sliding the track so many times refused to rise to race again¡ªexcept for Sawyer. That boy had kept going until Gale had ordered him to stop, taking his place as potential sacrifice in getting as many kids down as possible. Miira, too, and V.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    They¡¯d done well, and even though she had tried to race as well, V had refused to let her.

    ¡°Some of these kids will break without you,¡± he had sensibly pointed out. He was right. Through her support of so many of the children, more were attached to her now than before. Their little bodies pressed against hers, trembling sobs that she couldn¡¯t hear ripping out of them. They wouldn¡¯t have hated to be stuck with V alone, but it would have been harder.

    Stupid. This had been her challenge, a stupid, silly obsession she¡¯d had as a child. For someone who had grown up next to the ocean, Rafe had hated the water so much. Getting him into the sun, into the waves¡ªit had always been so hard.

    Emilia, originally hailing from the interior, had fallen in love with the ocean through pictures, long before she ever dreamed of being lucky enough to live near it. Lakes and ponds, diving and sailing and a thousand over water sports. Gliding over the water on boards or falling off the Strats into it from a breathtaking fall¡ªshe loved every aspect of the water.

    It had been her mission for over a year to get Rafe to like the water. He had eventually learned to tolerate it, although he would never love it the way she did. The key to his heart letting in a speck of affection had been competition. Rafe was just as stupidly competitive as she could be. Be better, especially compared to your own personal best¡ªespecially compared to your friends and annoying siblings.

    They had all loved going to the water slides, their parents ordering bubbles to take them into Roasalia along with a babysitter or two. Really, the babysitters had been unnecessary. That young¡ªthat excited to swim and dive and slide¡ªnone of them had been flight risks. Even Malcolm, grumpy older sibling, forced along because his childhood was quickly coming to an end, that he was, had enjoyed himself¡ªhad enjoyed teasing his younger brothers, and occasionally, their cousins.

    Do better.

    Be better.

    Be faster, stronger. Go harder.

    Train.

    Train.

    Train.

    It was a ridiculous thing to obsess over, but they all belonged to powerful families. Their parents loved work and philanthropy and parties, and in the case of Rafe¡¯s parents, had plans for their kids. Her parents had been a bit better, their main expectation that their kids be happy when they grew up.

    Maybe that was part of why it was impossible to go home, the fact that she wasn¡¯t as happy as she knew they wanted her to be.

    Eventually, of course, their obsession with water slides had faded away, just as most childhood obsessions do. Days spent at water parks shifted into weekends sleeping under the stars at their hideout. School became a thing, their eyes shifting towards knowledge and learning more, more, more. There was always more to learn, more to read. The childhood hobbies they loved fell away in favour of new ones they loved more.

    Malcolm left, his gap decade cut down to only a few years because he could never quite settle into normal life, and the rest of them moved up in life¡ªhad D-Levels tested and Censors installed and then life had shifted so harshly that, had they not already been expecting it, it probably would have broken their little group.

    They had expected it, though, even if their parents hadn¡¯t. Somewhere around then, the water slides that they¡¯d still made a point to visit once or twice a year vanished from their minds. Emilia hadn¡¯t even thought about those childhood memories of happy competitiveness in decades¡ªprobably since that first summer when they didn¡¯t go a single time, when the mark across her calendar saying they had actually had plans to go that day went ignored. Everyone forgot, or didn¡¯t care enough to mention it, and that was the end.

    She¡¯d been looking forward to racing again, during the time between entering the second challenge area and everything going awry. Maybe she and V could have raced, a child tucked into each of their laps.

    That never happened, and when V and Gale insisted that she descend via the elevator¡ªinsisted she not risk herself because the kids needed her¡ªshe had been relieved, and horrified at her relief. Someone would have to race for her, someone already exhausted, most likely.

    Emilia still couldn¡¯t argue, and let herself be dragged to the elevator by V.

    ¡°Meet you at the bottom,¡± she had said to him, swallowing down the fear already rippling through her. He looked tired, and why wouldn¡¯t he? He¡¯d gone so many times, racing a creature that was far faster when facing him than it was against the children.

    The man had told her, before everything went to shit, that he¡¯d never even been on a water slide before, a sad smile tugging at his mouth. ¡°There wasn¡¯t anything like it where I grew up, and my parents weren¡¯t the sort to travel for this sort of thing, or trust us to go alone.¡± The other visitor had looked almost excited to get the chance, even if he knew he probably wouldn¡¯t be any good at it.

    He wasn¡¯t. Every time he returned, Emilia could see more blood beginning to pool under his skin. Did bruises not heal here? She wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d ever made a note of whether they did or not.

    ¡°Yeah, at the bottom,¡± V had agreed as he hit the down button, the lie in his voice apparent. A sort of lie, in annoyed hindsight and jokes that wouldn¡¯t come until much later, but realistically, he intended for it to be a lie. He knew she wouldn¡¯t have left him if she¡¯d known his plan.

    Emilia had barely registered the elevator¡¯s descent. It was as though one moment they were at the top, the next, Sawyer and Miira were pulling them out¡ªthe last group. Above, four people had prepared to race against their faceless opponents.

    Two made it down.

    V wasn¡¯t one of them, his final words said to her through a teasing voice, even though he was yelling. Tired, worn out¡ªthat was how he had sounded, calling down to her what she had expected and yet found a total surprise.

    ¡°They could be alive. Someone needs to go after them, just in case.¡±

    V had been the last to race, his opponent shooting out nearly five seconds before he appeared. He really had been intent to lose¡ªintent to chase after the children they had lost, even if they had no idea if those the labyrinth had disappeared were alive or not.

    ¡°Idiot¡­¡± Emilia muttered, bare foot scuffing over the ground. ¡°If you don¡¯t come back, I¡¯m totally kicking your ass when we meet in real life.¡±

    She sucked in a long breath, steeling herself as she looked up. Regroup. They needed to regroup.

    ¡°Okay. Clothes first, what do you think?¡± she said, looking down at little Astra, staring up at her with eyes that were far less afraid than they probably should have been.

    In hindsight, she should have given the strange child a little more thought. There was so much going on at the time¡ªso much grief and stress, and so many children to manage¡ªthat she could probably be forgiven for not realizing something was off with the perpetually silent child.

    Probably.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 95: Hitting Isnâ€™t Helpful

    If you asked Emilia, she would say the third challenge of the labyrinth should have been babysitting the children. Forget anything actually designed by the labyrinth, this was harder than anything it could possibly throw at her. Before the second challenge, they had largely floated along the path, guided by Emilia and V and the older children, even if those older children had been glaring daggers at one another.

    The most despondent of children had been ushered along by the other kids, the smallest carried by Emilia and V and occasionally Gale. Several of the other children had volunteered to carry them as well, but their too small bodies would have been worn down too quickly by the added weight. Those children had been sad, to have their help rebuffed, but they understood.

    They had just wanted to be helpful. It was sweet, even if unnecessary and potentially more trouble than it was worth.

    Now, Emilia, Gale, Miira, and Sawyer were left practically begging the others to help. They needed to move. They needed help moving the smallest children, their legs too weak to walk much more, their brains screaming at them to sleep. They needed the few children who weren¡¯t staring into the middle distance to help move the ones that were.

    There were too many who were, and the ones who were holding on had no idea how to get the others moving.

    At the very least, Gale and Miira were talking again. It was a small silver lining, with so much of their group now gone, but it was there. Emilia had learned during the war to hold on to positivity, even in the middle of a nightmare. Latch on to hope and encouragement, even in the midst of a firestorm.

    It was what had kept her alive during that final battle. It would keep them alive now.

    ?Any other ideas?? Gale asked as she and Miira gave up trying to haul the dead-eyed children off the ground. The moment they got their feet under them, the moment the two girl¡¯s hands fell away, they would fall to the ground again. Knees tucked close, expression empty and hopeless.

    Sawyer had already given up trying to get his friends moving, instead gathering the few boys who were still moving and talking against one wall, along with their friends who weren¡¯t so active. They were playing some sort of word game now, the mood subdued, but occasionally one of the quiet children would speak up, so whatever they were doing was working, if slowly and haphazardly.

    Astra pulled closer to Emilia¡¯s neck, her eyes fluttering as the girls began to throw more ideas between them about how to get the other kids moving. The children who knew Sawyer might be coaxed out of their stupor by his easy friendship, but the ones who didn¡¯t¡­ well, one of them had bitten him when he tried to play with them. Another had kicked, and then he¡¯d given up on helping the kids he didn¡¯t know.

    Given up for the moment, at least. Every so often, the little boy¡¯s eyes would float back to the other children, and if any happened to look interested in his game, he would pop up to drag them over. Stubborn little thing.

    Emilia herself had sat down, a dozen children tucked into her as they napped. Some of the older children had joined the younger ones, any embarrassment they had for seeking comfort from an adult¡ªlet alone one who was a visitor¡ªfalling away in the wake of so much¡ª

    Not death. Emilia wasn¡¯t going to think death, and any time someone dared speak or even suggest those who had disappeared were dead, Benny would pipe up to tell them to knock it off, or he¡¯d knock them off their feet. Seeing as the boy couldn¡¯t have been more than six, setting him firmly in the middle of the group¡¯s age range, it wasn¡¯t the most effective threat. Gale¡¯s glare, however, was, as were the sparks of barely controlled magic shuddering over her hands.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re dead,¡± Emilia had tried to tell them. The combination of stress and sadness and no common language meant that her words had gone misunderstood, several of the kids becoming convinced she knew they were dead. An argument had ensued, Emilia shaking her head vigorously as she tried to make them understand that she did not know anything.

    She hadn¡¯t brought it up again¡ªhad said very little since then, for fear that she¡¯d make things worse. Realistically, she didn¡¯t know what she¡¯d been thinking, bringing it up in the first place. Sure, she really didn¡¯t think the others were dead, her mind constantly fluttering back to the first labyrinth eating people before dropping them into other locations.

    They¡¯d never found Cade¡¯s guard, but for all they knew, he had just been dropped elsewhere and never made it to the end. The labyrinth may not have killed him outright. V had said he almost got trapped in the caves. She herself had almost fallen off the rock wall several times, then been trapped in that lake cavern until Key arrived. Perhaps something similar had happened to the Enclave man. Yes, Key had said the labyrinth was more liable to leave locals alone if there were visitors inside, but he hadn¡¯t said it always did so, and¡ª

    Emilia cut her thoughts off, eyes clamping shut, as though that could cut off both the noise in her head and the chaos of the children arguing over whether trying to scream the others into movement was a good idea. Had they been able to communicate, perhaps she would have shared a few stories of her military training¡ªof the screaming soldiers who thought that was the way to get them moving.

    ? ? ? Three Decades Earlier ? ? ?

    It was raining. It never rained in this part of the country, tucked far to the south, not quite the Grey Sands, but close enough to be a veritable desert.

    ¡°It¡¯ll be raining on the front!¡± their teacher screamed, a response to someone¡¯s muttered complaints. ¡°You better fucking get used to it, sniv¡¯liers!¡±

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    There were more murmurs from the group of young cadets, as though no one had ever heard a teacher swear before, let alone had one call them names. Maybe they hadn¡¯t. Emilia wasn¡¯t one of them¡ªshe¡¯d driven Olivier to swear at her in class a few times, both before and after he had agreed to be her lawyer. That had been in anger, though. This guy, thick with too much muscle in his neck and shoulders and not enough in his lower body, just seemed to be yelling and swearing and referring to them as insects for the fun of it.

    Or for effect.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t we use skills?¡± a girl asked¡ªa silverstrain just like Emilia. The girl hadn¡¯t cut her hair yet despite the repeated warnings about safety concerns, the dampening curls falling to her mid-back. The girl was cute, and popular it seemed, despite her irregular deviation. Around her, a dozen other girls leaned out of the perfect posture expected of them and towards her, like she was their sun.

    The man who had been tasked with giving them the most basic of training¡ªfar too little for where they were going, but the brass had decided there wasn¡¯t time to learn everything they needed, and they''d have to learn on the job¡ªstepped in front of the girl. Emilia had met men like him before, through her father¡¯s work. Bullies. Men¡ªand occasionally women¡ªwho believes violence and threats and being bigger gave them power over others. Assholes who believed it gave them the right to strike someone who was barely into adulthood for asking the question that everyone had been thinking.

    He yelled something¡ªprobably something about skills attracting their enemies and the risk of running your aetherstores out, points that would have been reasonable if not screamed. His hand pulled back when the girl sneered, her mouth opening as though to say something more.

    That thick, skill-enhanced fist came down. The girl¡¯s eyes widened. Someone else was moving, trying to get between that fist and her face, but they were too slow¡ªEmilia got there first.

    ¡°Fucking rude,¡± she spit as she flipped the man easily onto his back.

    Nearby, a boy from one of the Free Colonies whistled. It wasn¡¯t until later that he¡¯d introduce himself, and she¡¯d learn that he¡¯d seen her teacher¡ªthe great Blood Rain General¡ªin an exhibition once. ¡°Recognize that style anywhere!¡± he¡¯d cheer. The first of many people to follow Emilia just because a great hero of the Free Colonies had liked her teenage self. Her adult self too, technically.

    In that moment, however, Emilia had barely registered the whistle, her focus trained on the man at her feet, the girls at her back, now pulling in behind both her and the other silverstrain girl. What a pair they made, girls who so many assumed were empty brained, genetic wastes.

    ¡°You!¡± the man started to say, eyes growing wide as her power pressed down on him.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t sign up to get yelled at or watch people I should be able to respect beat on their students,¡± Emilia sniffed, holding herself back from leaving¡ªfrom following half the class leave, mostly the girls and Free Coloniers, she¡¯d later learn¡ªin case the man decided to try something else. Another boy joined her, aether flooding out of him in silent threat, his appearance so out of place that it had taken a moment to realize she knew him¡ªknew him well, unfortunately. ¡°Halen!?¡±

    Halen¡¯s lips pulled up into that terrible, arrogant smirk of his. ¡°Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be seeing you of all people here, Em.¡±

    ? ? ? Present ? ? ?

    Three children tumbled off her as Emilia bolted up and towards the group of children, who were quickly growing too irate¡ªtoo handsy¡ªin their attempts to get the others to move. ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± she said, hand clasped around the wrist of the boy who had been looking like he was about to hit the boy at his feet. No one could hear her, but her intention was clear enough: there will be no violence between us.

    She sighed, making a series of motions that thankfully Gale was about to decipher. Everyone needs to rest. Do not hit. Sorry, I rolled a bunch of kids off me. One of the children she¡¯d disturbed grumbled in complaint, tucking themself into another child who was somehow snoring through their aethervoice nearby. Astra yawned and pushed herself up, wiping furtively at a patch of dirt wiped over her nose. The third child watched her sleepy, half-hearted attempts at cleanliness through wide, blurry eyes. They laughed, the sound like a bell of calm hope through the room.

    It had been an hour, maybe two, since a third of their group had disappeared. No one had laughed or smiled since, not until this moment. The girl leaned forward and wiped the smear of wet dirt off Astra¡¯s cheek, laughing and smiling. Gale¡¯s mouth twitched, and Emilia could see the sleepiness there. It hadn¡¯t been long since they¡¯d entered the labyrinth, nowhere close to how long they¡¯d spent in the library labyrinth, but it was late into the evening now. Everyone was tired, practically sleep-deprived and starving, and when Gale¡¯s laughter broke it was as though everyone was pulled along with it.

    Miira¡¯s shoulder¡¯s shifted with her silent laughter¡ªa body laughing even if its owner¡¯s voice could not. The aether ruffled over with laughter echoing out of heads and magic, splattering over the room. Several of the children rolled their eyes before letting them fall shut, something understood between everyone that if they weren¡¯t laughing¡ªweren¡¯t loosing their shit and falling to the ground in painful giggles¡ªthat it was time to sleep. They still smiled, though, lips pressing tight as they tried to fight down amusement over nothing and everything.

    Hours of strain and sadness exploding out in inappropriate giggles. It would have been more understandable to hit, kick, bite their way through the stress. Giggles were better, although Emilia knew that if they didn¡¯t find the others¡ªif they really did turn out to be dead¡ªthen this moment would haunt them.

    It probably would haunt the children who returned home to find family and friends had died in the stampede. How many times had the laughter and joy of those final hours before Alliance Ridge haunted her? Of course, no one that day had known what was coming. They¡¯d known the next day, though, when they¡¯d drank themselves into unstoppable laughing sobs.

    So much death. So many people never coming back. Olivier¡¯s arms lifting her up. She¡¯d never found out why he¡¯d come¡ªwho¡¯d called him. For so long she¡¯d assumed she¡¯d known, and only in hindsight did she learn that person would never have called him for her¡ªwould never have given her a flicker of kindness as they both broke under the weight of grief and regret.

    ¡°Rest,¡± Emilia whispered in Astra¡¯s hair, into the hair of another child they didn¡¯t know the name for. The child wouldn¡¯t speak, and no one knew them. Mystery child, one of the ones who rarely let go of her. They couldn¡¯t hear her, of course. No sound for their ears, no lips or hands moving for their sleepy little eyes.

    Emilia blinked up into the white stoned ceiling of the cave. Water from the slides still poured out, loud to her own ears, silent to everyone else. Someone needed to stay awake, but she knew she wouldn¡¯t manage it. There was a strange middle point, between stress enough to keep you awake and too much. Too little and you slept, too much, and it pulled out down. She certainly had too much in her¡ªtoo many little lives relying on her.

    It was too much, and her body knew it. There was no fighting, and when sleep took her, it took her deep and soundlessly.

    Soundlessly, until it didn¡¯t.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 96: The Love We Had

    ¡°Hey there, Em.¡±

    Emilia stilled, refusing to look towards the voice at her back. ¡°You aren¡¯t real.¡±

    A laugh, just the same as always. Filled with love and a healthy dose of something else¡ªsomething that a younger version of herself had been unable to name. Although, maybe it had more been that she was unwilling to voice any definition for the terrible emotion seeping out of the man she loved¡ªout of the man who was supposed to love her in return.

    No wonder Olivier had disliked the man enough to come to blows with him.

    ¡°As real as Halen was,¡± her ex said, his steps soft over the invisible ground.

    ¡°Halen wasn¡¯t real either,¡± she whispered¡ªwhy was she whispering? Had she whispered when she spoke to him during their life together? Had she feared his moods the way she did now? It seemed like she hadn¡¯t, but her memories from those years before Alliance Ridge were always blurry with the strain of grief and trauma.

    ¡°You sure talked to him like he was,¡± he said, closer now. Right behind her, a threat of¡­ something. This wasn¡¯t real, there was nothing he could do to her here in this world of red nightmares.

    Emilia¡¯s lips twitched as she turned to look at him. Unhappy eyes blinked back at her, all but hidden under unruly red hair. ¡°You fit in here,¡± she said, one of her placating smiles pulling across her face, although she had no idea which body she was currently inhabiting, how well such a recently unused smile would translate onto her features.

    She didn¡¯t even use this carefully manicured smile on her teachers these days. There was no one she cared about enough to placate¡ªno person or consequence she feared enough to humour in such a way.

    ¡°Oh?¡± he asked, blackish eyes flicking between her own. ¡°Here? In your mind?¡±

    Her head shook, long hair whipping around her¡ªher own body then, or something closer to it than the one she¡¯d created for the raid. ¡°In this raid¡ªI assume since you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Halen, you don¡¯t need me to explain the details to you?¡±

    Blank eyes blinked back at her. Not even humouring her then. Emilia would have liked to say the man in front of her wasn¡¯t her ex¡ªthat he¡¯d almost always been the smiling, snarky man he had faced the world with. She couldn''t.

    Originally¡ªnaively¡ªEmilia had thought seeing all the aspects of the man she had come to love was an honour¡ªsomething only given to someone he loved. Like so many things about their relationship, she now looked back on those secret sides of him with vacant, aged eyes. Where she had previously seen truth and honesty, she now saw burden and¡­ and she didn¡¯t want to say abuse, but it certainly felt like it at times.

    When the man you love is only ever a handful of moods in front of everyone you know, it can be hard for people to accept he has other sides¡ªdarker sides¡ªand while the man had never hurt her, never raised a hand or skill at her¡­ there had certainly been times when Emilia had worried he would. There had been mood swings and cruelty of other sorts. Cruelty of silence and isolation, of nights spent out with his friends, coming home drunk and snide.

    ¡°I should have let Olivier hate you,¡± she found herself telling him, unsure where the honesty was suddenly coming from. This man wasn¡¯t real. He didn¡¯t care about her opinion of him. Then again, maybe that was why it was so easy for the words to slip out of her. ¡°I worked so hard to make him like you, or at least tolerate you. Two of the people I loved most. I needed you to like each other as well.¡±

    Those empty eyes sharpened, something unkind entering them¡ªthat part that he had never let anyone else see. Even when he and Olivier had been fighting, their skills shuddering through the base and blowing difficult to replace equipment up, only Olivier had been upset¡ªirate, practically.

    ¡°Fighting over a girl,¡± one of her ex-lawyer¡¯s bodyguards had been saying as she came to check on him, tucked away in a little prison cell, far from the cell where her ex was being held.

    ¡°That man isn¡¯t good for her,¡± Olivier had replied, tone just as hard as when he¡¯d been speaking to her ex. It had been a long time since she¡¯d heard it that cold, and other than a few times during her court case when he¡¯d been questioning officials who had spoken badly of her, she¡¯d only ever heard him speak so coldly to her, although that had been decades past by that point.

    The moments after that were faded in Emilia¡¯s memory, but she knew whatever she¡¯d said to him had been bad. They¡¯d made up, of course, and Olivier had come and tried to make nice with her ex. The two of them hadn¡¯t even spoken to each other that night, behaving like immature children as they held independent conversations with her between. Terrible.

    Then, her ex had been dead and Olivier had been there, helping to pick up the pieces of her¡ªhelping the remains of their unit pull themselves together so they could keep going.

    A snarl ripped across her ex¡¯s mouth, for the barest of moments before it flattened back into that blandly unimpressed face. It was fast, but not fast enough, and before he could react, Emilia was letting skills she didn¡¯t know she had rip through the aethernet. He slammed into an invisible wall, a gasp escaping him as she sparked forward to glare at him. Skills felt strange, without her Censor there to guide her, but whether due to the system or the dreamscape or the raid itself, she could feel them gliding through her body. Ones and zeros that the aether had etched into her core.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    No, that was crazy. Whatever the reason for her ability to use skills was, it certainly wasn¡¯t anything like numbers and data scarred into her.

    Probably.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked, more skills racketing through her as the man struggled.

    ¡°You know who I am, Em,¡± the phantom clone of her ex said, all empty annoyance with her gone, that mask of carefree happiness suddenly pulled over his voice and features. His lips quirked up, that smile that had always had all the girls swooning¡ªeven she had been able to admit, back when they hated each other, that he was an attractive man.

    A scream broke free of him as she squeezed her skill. ¡°You are not¡­ him,¡± she said, voice and brain skipping over his name, just as it had done since the moment the dust settled over Alliance Ridge, their coms remaining dead as they screamed for someone¡ªanyone¡ªto respond.

    His smile twisted, turning from charm and beauty into something she had never seen him wear before, even in the darkest moments of the war. ¡°Says who? You? Because you knew me so~ well.¡±

    The aether shuddered and suddenly the man¡ªthe thing¡ªwas free, its own skills throwing her across the empty, invisibly walled space. She was better at defence than both this thing and the man it had been modelled after, though, and thankfully her skills and instincts were in top shape at the moment. That was strange¡ªshould have been impossible, given even raids were not an escape from knots and trauma, but it was happening regardless.

    Dream, then.

    {Patterned Love} exploded out of the thing¡¯s fists, the reality that she was seeing the techniques of someone she had once loved¡ªtechniques that she had designed for him, no less¡ªthrown at her startled her, only her feet falling out from under her saving her from the attack plummeting towards her.

    Just a dream.

    Her core? Meridians? Something inside her shuddered as she rolled, sparking further out of the thing¡¯s reach. {Rupturing Love} automatically found its way through her, out of her. Mirror skills, designed together¡ªdesigned to be each other¡¯s companion in war. They weren¡¯t meant to meet like this.

    A dream she could wake up from.

    They were going to meet like this. There was no stopping it. The two skills collided, not converging upon a shared enemy but upon each other, each of their users thrown back by the explosion that rattled their invisible fight cage.

    You need to wake up!

    Emilia spatted into the clear wall, her insides smushing and grinding against her bones. The world blurred¡ªwas her brain spatting, too? If her brain was flattened within a raid, would she die? What a way to die, killed by a creature masquerading as her ex.

    ¡°Emilia!¡± the thing hissed at her, its limbs pulling inhumanly off the wall it had crashed into. Too long¡ªits limbs were too long, like a nightmare had forced itself into human flesh. That flesh bubbled and broke, a galaxy of sparkling ones and zeros breaking across the surface. ¡°You think you know so much,¡± it spit out, its body wobbling towards her.

    Was one of its legs longer than the other? It certainly seemed that way.

    The thing sparked, and suddenly, it was right in front of her, her own body still trapped against the wall. She tried to pull away from it¡ªfrom the monster, from the wall¡ªbut she couldn¡¯t. Blocked from avoiding the monster, her body stuck to the wall behind her.

    Prisoner¡ªshe was a prisoner.

    ¡°Just so fucking smart,¡± it sniffed, its visage suddenly falling back into her ex, the conversation falling into one that she had always imagined her ex wanted to scream at her but had never had the backbone to. ¡°You aren¡¯t that smart, you know.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± she agreed. Emilia knew she wasn¡¯t that smart¡ªwasn¡¯t as smart as she¡¯d often felt she was before the war, or worse, been told she was by well-meaning adults.

    She hadn¡¯t been expecting her words to appease the thing, but she hadn¡¯t been expecting it to explode in rage either. Burning black eyes widened, that snarl crashing across its face once more, all resemblance to her ex lost under the vitriol and jealously that he¡¯d never been able to voice, only poke at with snide remarks and silence.

    Please! Wake up!

    Then, that sneering look was gone¡ªvanished back under the mask yet again. The mask of her ex or the thing before her, she had no idea where one ended and the other began. ¡°Please, don¡¯t lie to me, Em,¡± it said, voice sparkling sweet, meant to coax confessions out of her like she was an ill-behaved child.

    All the confessions her ex had ever wanted to force out of her rattled through her head, stupid and draining¡ªit was easier to confess to the sins of nothingness than argue with the man or face his wrath.

    We need you!

    ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± she said diplomatically, years of training herself to be smaller rising back up until they snapped to pieces inside her, ¡°but I am smarter than you.¡±

    That mask shook, lips wobbling with barely controlled rage.

    We?

    ¡°Is that you, or him? Raging inside you, I mean.¡± Her ex had never been good at being second best.

    He was always second best. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Six. Always the weakest of them all.

    ¡°Bitch,¡± it growled, hand slamming across her throat. Breathe cut off. It wouldn¡¯t take long for this nightmare to turn to blackness.

    What ¡®we?¡¯

    Herself. Olivier. Charles and James. Half a dozen others.

    They were always better, even if within their unit so many of them had softened that superiority for him.

    Hadn¡¯t she been talking to herself?

    What had he ever done for them? Even in those last moments, it had been Halen, rushing back to his death when he could have saved himself, who had made the biggest impact.

    Still failed, but at least he tried. Halen had faced death head on, while her ex had¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s brain cut off, those fine details of that day shuddering away from her, just like always. She couldn¡¯t blame herself, though. Practically everyone had been that way: unable to reconcile the people they knew and loved with their actions in their last moments.

    Hadn¡¯t her brain been creating a web of dreams?

    Some of those actions were worse than others, of course. Yet, they were all treated like war heroes, even those who deserved to be treated like the cowards they had proven themselves to be.

    What had this man ever done for them, though? Even before those final moments, he hadn¡¯t someone worthy of the praise piled upon him. He had smiled and drank and manipulated. Inspired a confidence they didn¡¯t earn or deserve in them. Thrown tantrums in private and denied, denied, denied in public. Stood in front of cameras and told their story, because no one else was interested in the glory.

    Perfect man. Public face of the unit. Betrayer.

    Dreams to drag herself out of a nightmarescape.

    Creator. That was what he had done¡ªthe one good thing. He had created her and the others. Dragged them through the mud of training and the front lines. They¡¯d come out the other side with bruises and cracks and the brutality needed to face monsters head on.

    Too bad so many of them could never leave that brutality behind.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you,¡± the monster before her sighed, all anger dissolved into the aether as its free arm ripped up, the lightning of a skill crackling over the peeling skin, and something grabbed her arm. Not the dream, not the monster in front of her, but¡ª

 Arc 3 | Chapter 97: Bonk

    Emilia bolted upright, her forehead colliding painfully with something¡ªwith someone else, given the yowl of pain that echoed through the aether a moment later.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she muttered, rubbing at her head as she peaked an eye open.

    Nearby, Gale was leaning over Miira, asking if she was okay. Several more children, including a number who had been despondent before they had all fallen asleep, were gathered around the pair, looking less concerned so much as amused.

    ?What are you smiling about!?? Gale growled at one, their smile falling as the teenager glared.

    ?Nothing,? the younger girl responded, pitch-black eyes wide as she pushed herself up and away from the rest of the group.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Emilia muttered and signed at Miira as they mutually rubbed their heads. ¡°Bad dream,¡± she added, throwing in a couple of signs for various monsters that amused the children still lingering around them, although many were following the previously smiling girl back towards one of several larger groups scattered around the area.

    To Emilia¡¯s relief, nearly all the children seemed to be in better shape than the night before. Night? She really had no idea whether it had been night or not when they¡¯d fallen asleep, not that it mattered all that much. The raid might have a time limit, but winning was the least of her concerns when she needed to get all these children to safely¡­ somewhere.

    ?No shit you were having a bad dream,? Gale spit out, as much as someone could spit out words through the aether. ?You were waking everyone up. Then you wouldn¡¯t fucking wake up!?

    Under her hand, Miira shot her friend a disapproving look, while behind them, several of the younger boys giggled and began swearing quietly to each other. The younger girl looked like she wanted to reprimand her friend, but whether due to the recent strain on their relationship or something else entirely, she stayed quiet.

    Emilia looked to the children still around her, sleepy eyes gazing up at her in a mix of fear and concern. ¡°Sorry,¡± she signed at them as well. ¡°It can¡¯t have been fun to be tossed around in your sleep.¡±

    ?Tossed?? Gale asked, tone oddly incredulous. ?Is that really what you said??

    Emilia nodded, frowning at the teenager as she scoffed and told her that she had not been tossing.

    ?You were frozen solid, more like. It was the screaming that woke us up.?

    Emilia froze, blinking wide eyes at the girl. ¡°What?¡±

    ?Yeah, that¡¯s what we were wondering. I have no idea if you were just screaming so loud we could hear you or what, but everyone could hear you,? she said, nodding her chin at Astra, the silent child who had become the most attached to Emilia since she had first been picked up off the street. ?That one¡¯s definitely taken it the worst.?

    Against the wall, as far from Emilia as she could get, sat Astra and Benny, the other child Emilia had picked up with her. They didn¡¯t know each other, Benny had told her. He had just seen her fall on the street, during the beginnings of the stampede, and tried to help her. He was a good kid, even if his actions had almost gotten him killed¡ªtrampled under the feet of unseeing adults.

    Then again, perhaps if he hadn¡¯t tried to help a child he didn¡¯t know, he wouldn¡¯t be here now. Perhaps, he would have died like so many others had in the chaos of that panic. Although, it wasn¡¯t like their current situation was going much better, what with them being stuck in a labyrinth and a third of their group missing.

    ¡°Hi,¡± Emilia signed as she came to sit beside the pair.

    Benny¡¯s eyes flashed to her, concern flooding through them. ?Are you okay now?? he asked, a little frown tugging at his mouth as he gave her a once over that would have looked more appropriate on an adult.

    She nodded before frowning and signing, ¡°Kinda sorta.¡±

    The boy¡¯s frown deepened. ?Does that mean not really?? He waited for Emilia to nod before going off on a story about his own nightmares. Apparently, his mother had died some years earlier and he had witnessed it.

    ?So much blood,? he was telling her¡ªtelling the group, a significant portion of the children having gathered closer to hear him talk. His aethervoice shook slightly, a child¡¯s fear cracking over the bravado that had had him continuing to challenge the water slides even after his friends had begun to vanish. ?It was always worse in the nightmares, of course!!? he added, chest puffing up and making more than a few of the children giggle, their own chests pushing forward in mockery.

    Benny growled, demanding that they stop.

    They didn¡¯t, of course. Kids will be kids, and kids are mean. Kids, unfortunately, are also quite likely to fight¡ªor run to find an adult. Benny was of the former variety, probably due to the fact that he had largely been living on the street since his mother died.

    According to Sawyer, who had filled Emilia and V in on some of the details of their group before the last challenge had erupted into chaos, about half their group¡ªSawyer included¡ªwere homeless. Most of the city¡¯s homeless children had been homeless for a long time, and were largely left to their own devices by the adults of the city. Benny, on the other hand, had only recently lost his mother, and was still bouncing between friend¡¯s of his parents and the streets. Their city was relatively poor, unfortunately. Even people who wanted to help¡ªand Sawyer had made it clear that many did not¡ªstruggled to do so. Bringing in another mouth to feed would put everyone else in their family at risk of getting too little to eat.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ?It didn¡¯t help that Benny became a bit violent as time went on,? one of Sawyer¡¯s friends, one who had been spirited way, whisper-hissed at her. ?The only reason my ma lets Sawyer stay around so much is he¡¯s a good little boy~?

    Sawyer hadn¡¯t liked this framing and told him to get lost, the boy stomping off and pushing his way through the line of kids nicely waiting for their turn on the slides.

    ?He doesn¡¯t mean to do bad,? Sawyer had explained, sliding down to sit beside Emilia and Astra. ?Our town is so poor, though, a lot of kids are kicked out for being too¡­ anything. Too loud, hungry¡­ big. Friend of mine was booted, cause he kept growing too fast. Parents didn¡¯t want to keep buying him clothes.?

    The boy had shrugged, bare foot rubbing idly over the ground. Where he was boastful and confident in front of his friends, in that moment, he had been quiet and sad.

    ¡°Is that why so many kids have been wandering the labyrinth?¡± Emilia had tried to ask. It took a few goes, but Sawyer had eventually understood the gist of what she was asking.

    ?That¡­ that¡¯s part of it¡­? he had whispered, eyes growing shifty in a way that Emilia knew meant he was hiding something. All it had taken was an accusing eyebrow raise for the boy to break¡ªthe boy really did just want to get everyone out of there alive and whole, even if he wasn¡¯t the most forthcoming with information.

    ?We definitely get good things in here,? he admitted, explaining that the labyrinth sometimes led them to rooms with treasures they could take out and sell. Pretty much all of them, even those with families, could benefit from the money, and the adults they sold the items to took them to other towns, where they likely got far more in return. The kids were generally content to sell their stuff to adults with families to take care of as well, even if they sometimes gave them too little money for their trouble. ?But that¡¯s only part of it. You see, every time we complete the labyrinth, we come out somewhere else in the city¡­ or the outskirts. A couple boys never even came back!?

    Emilia had shot him a dubious look, hearing the unsaid presumption of the missing boys ended up in another city in Sawyer¡¯s words.

    The boy had bristled slightly at her silent accusation and assured her that he knew they had come out in another city. ?We got a letter from one!? he had insisted, as though a single letter from who knew how many missing children confirmed that the labyrinth was a potential way out of their shitty city.

    Emilia had seen a lot of cities in her life, usually, they were all the same. Sure, they looked different¡ªpretended to have different cultures and values and aesthetics¡ªbut at their core, they were the same. Sometimes, the poor part of town was smaller, more fragmented. Other times, it was a thriving city within the city. There was crime and knowledge, fun and misery, love and internal wars for power and money and control. The flavour, size and shape might change, but a city was a city, no matter how much it claimed to be better than others*.*

    Looking at Sawyer¡¯s enthusiastic, defensive and hopeful little face, Emilia had known that, even were they able to communicate properly, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell him such hard truths. Some things you just had to see for yourself. Even if she had told him the truth of the world, he wouldn¡¯t have believed her¡ªmight even have said his world wasn¡¯t like that.

    She would have had to agree with that sentiment. If, as he said, his entire city was poor and struggling, she would have had to tell him that it had been thousands of years since an entire city within Baalphoria had been defined as poor. Parts of a city, sure, but an entire city? There were probably some small towns, populated by a few hundred people, that leaned poor, but a city? Thousands of people left to be so poor they couldn¡¯t house orphans?

    No. Such things wouldn¡¯t stand in Baalphoria. Even in Alver, poor as it was, the residents had enough money to survive, even if that survival was painful at times. When children roamed the streets, homeless and afraid, some adult swiped them up and gave them a home, and the few adults who did so with ill intentions were quickly snuffed out by The Black Knot. Even the government and its enforcers didn¡¯t completely ignore the struggles of the poor.

    Children who were too much work for the area were moved to homes elsewhere, ones that were better equip to help them. From what Emilia had seen during her years at Astrapan, however, those homes were treated as an absolute last resort by the residents of Alver. Sub-30s and ex-300s didn¡¯t get rid of their kids, unlike every other social class, especially the sub-50s. Children who were difficult, who needed extra care and help, were loved, just like any other child. Despite their lack of resources, the residents of Alver converged around those children to help them flourish.

    Yes, the adults of Alver and other poor areas might go forgotten by the majority of Baalphoria, but the children? The children were never forgotten, not like they seemed to have been in this city¡ªor perhaps in this world as a whole. Perhaps something was different about this city¡ªperhaps some corrupt or inept politician managed it¡ªbut it could just as easily be the whole city system that was corrupt, leaving its children to suffer in cold hunger.

    That was concerning, especially in the wake of Sawyer¡¯s belief that they could pop out somewhere completely different. No matter where they came out¡ªassuming they actually managed to get out of this place¡ªEmilia had no idea where they would go. If they ended up back in the city they¡¯d come from, at least the kids might have some idea of where to go¡ªof where they would be safe.

    Assuming there was anything left of their home, anyways.

    And if they came out somewhere completely different? The three cities she¡¯d been to so far had been wholly unique from each other, stylistically. There was no common aesthetics or city plan. Neither she nor the kids were likely to have any idea of where to go¡ªof where to leave the children so they¡¯d be taken care of. Honestly, she could already see how things were going to end up, unless something major changed: with her being forced to go to the Risen Guard or Enclave for help.

    The Enclave would probably be the better bet, for her, anyways. Chances were they¡¯d take her in, or maybe even return her to Key and the others. She wasn¡¯t looking forward to meeting Harmony or Sk¡¯lar again¡ªalthough perhaps Key and Rin had reprimanded them for their earlier behaviour¡ªbut they would be better than ending up with a family like Taoran or Cade¡¯s babysitter¡¯s Enclaves.

    There was no telling what they would do with the children, however. If she spilled the secret of the Enclave¡¯s existence to the children, they were unlikely to let them go free¡ªmight even kill them outright, for all she knew.

    The Risen Guard were more likely to keep them safe. Probably. They didn¡¯t like spilling blood, at the very least, so while the Enclave could very well try creating blood weapons from¡ª

    Emilia shook herself as she pet Astra¡¯s head, the little redhead tucked quietly into her. She wasn¡¯t going to think about the possibility that the Enclave could do such terrible things to children, even if she was sure that many of the Enclave families would have no qualms about doing anything necessary to change this world¡ªto win a blessing for it.

    She wasn¡¯t going to think about it, even if that fear was going to guide her decision once they were free of this place. No matter what, she was not turning these children over to the Enclave, even if that meant turning herself over to the Risen Guard.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 98: The Judgment of a Child

    Emilia stuffed a piece of food into her mouth as she circled the room. It wasn¡¯t the best thing she¡¯d eaten inside the raid, but it was also far from the worst. The tiny pastry was burnt, the butter not actually butter and probably not working quite right within its chemistry of recipe transplanted from her world, but it was close enough to the pastry she had been imagining that it was acceptable¡­ mostly. It also contained tiny bits of dried aloonm, which, if she didn¡¯t think too hard about their weird, shrivelled skin, she could almost pretend actually were chocolate.

    Abruptly, Emilia reached out a hand to catch Benny¡¯s, just inches from smacking into the heating array. ¡°Careful,¡± she sighed at him, not for the first time and probably not for the last either.

    The boy looked apologetic, but he was energetic and unobservant, things that didn¡¯t exactly mix in the kitchen that was the stage for their third challenge. What exactly the point of the challenge was, none of them had any idea¡ªnot that that was new¡ªbut the kitchen and the supply of ingredients they had found inside it had allowed them all to eat, something that had been an increasingly worrisome topic as their time in the labyrinth went on.

    They¡¯d been inside this challenge far longer than the others, assuming you didn¡¯t count the time they had spent asleep at the base of the water slides, or the time it had taken for her, Gale and Miira, along with a previously despondent boy named Kelly, to herd the rest of the group to this challenge. There had been a long hallway involved, and the trek had required a number of trips due to how tired the smallest members of their group were.

    The four of them had been forced to walk the long, rough path several times in order to move everyone. By the time they were done, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure they weren¡¯t just as tired as the children they¡¯d been carrying. Thankfully, behind the door that had refused to open until every member of their group was before it, they had found the kitchen. Say what you will about homeless children¡ªand Emilia had heard enough aimed at orphans in general to guess what kind of shit people said about homeless kids¡ªbut one thing they do know is food.

    Emilia was sure that when she was a child, and even more so Rafe and his siblings and nearly everyone else she knew who had led a more privileged life, she wouldn¡¯t have had a clue about what food could be eaten raw and what was liable to kill you. These kids knew, the ones who Sawyer had previously pointed out as having no stable housing easily picking out food they could safely eat.

    A few had even had a vague idea of what ingredients went into a few more complicated dishes and how they were cooked. When faced with the prospect of actually cooking anything, however, they had balked. There was a difference between knowing and doing, and while a few had fearlessly stepped up to attempt to cook some of the more nutritious and satiating foods, most had watched them with mildly terrified eyes.

    When one of them had blown up their station a few minutes later, Emilia understood why: the cooking equipment of this world didn¡¯t use¡ªas far as she knew non-existent¡ªelectricity, but magic. Magic all but a few of the children weren¡¯t old enough to know how to use, even at the most basic levels.

    Zach¡¯s words on the state of magic in this world had rattled back through her as she pulled the child away from their sparking station. As he had explained it, locals were connected to the different branches of magic through their birthing location¡ªand to a lesser extent, their genealogy¡ªbut the Risen Guard and Enclave had been closing and hoarding the most powerful of those homes for decades.

    For all she knew, most of these children may never be capable of learning the magic that, based on the way they talked of watching their parents and relatives activating the magics of their kitchens, was required for life. Gale and Sawyer had magic, but without anything to judge them against, Emilia had no idea if they were skilled or inept, ahead or behind of where they should have been. Within Baalphoria, children their age wouldn''t even have Censors yet, and while some children certainly learned the fundamentals of skills¡ªespecially in the years since the war¡ªbefore their Censors were installed¡­ Well, she couldn¡¯t even compare their knowledge to children in her own world.

    What she did know? Children in this world were just as mean and judgmental as those in her own world¡ªjust as she had been in her own youth.

    ?You can¡¯t activate your gems?? Gale had asked, hand planted on her slim hips. She had levelled a truly scathing look at Emilia, one that had left her wishing she had the ability to speak to the girl, just so she could bite back. It really wasn¡¯t fair that she was being blamed for not being capable of speaking their language when it was the system¡ªthe veritable god of this world¡¯s¡ªfault!

    Actually, as far as she¡¯d seen, there didn¡¯t appear to be any religion in this world. Between losing Key and the others, meeting Zach, and heading to the library, Emilia had spent quite a long time wandering that city. While it was true that being unable to read meant she wouldn¡¯t be able to read any signs that said, ¡°Come Worship the Great System Here,¡± in her experience, there were usually signs of organized religion to be found everywhere, no matter how subtle.

    Religious garments. People with perpetual smiles¡ªor, occasionally, perpetual scowls. Ardent followers out spreading the words of this god or that. Even though religion wasn¡¯t the biggest in Baalphoria, she still saw those people on the street, and they were even more common in the Free Colonies¡ªat least, in those that didn¡¯t have government mandated religions. In those countries, religion was screamed across the world. Symbols and motifs designed into every building and life¡ªit was inescapable, and even when she had been young and naive, not knowing even the vaguest of details about the religion of a given place, she had been able to see those signs written over the world.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    There had been nothing of the sort here, and as she had idly let Gale and Miira try to figure out how to activate the water magic gem on her {Blood Armour} so they could put out the fire slowly taking over the station¡ªluckily, only the station¡ªher mind wound back through the cities, back through the people and their actions, and¡­ Nope. There hadn¡¯t been a single thing that reminded her of religion. Even in the moments before she had been forced to climb, Rin had shown no sign of praying¡ªa nearly universal show of faith in her own world¡¯s religions.

    Emilia might have assumed she¡¯d missed something¨Cthat transplanting her perspective of religion into this world was useless and presumptuous¨Cbut from what she had heard of raid platforms that knew they were part of a game, some system and its administers watching over them, almost all had some sort of religion, and usually an obnoxiously visible one at that. Unfortunately, until she saw more cities, she couldn¡¯t say whether the cities she¡¯d been to so far were outliers or if it was the norm, but it seemed unlikely that she¡¯d wind up in only outlier, religion-less cities. She couldn¡¯t ask the children, either, questions like ¡°Do you worship the system?¡± much too complicated for their broken attempts at reading her signs. She couldn¡¯t even ask V what he thought, or a member of the Stringer family, and it was frustrating.

    She should just let it go. Such a mundane detail about the world shouldn¡¯t be important¡ªshouldn¡¯t be bothering her so much.

    It was bothering her, however. Something about the lack of any sort of religion, even Zach¡¯s descriptions of the world¡¯s magic¡ªand oh how she wished she had thought to ask him about all this!¡ªbland and instructional. There had been no indication that magic was seen as a gift from god, something that it ostensibly was: a gift bestowed on this world by the system. The system created the world, its magic, its blessings and curses. It should have been easy to worship or fear the system, or even just refer to it as the stupid ass thing that fucks with our world so people can come play a game.

    Nothing¡ªthere was nothing of the sort, and that¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts had cut off as Astra popped up beside them and tapped the sea green gem that the older girls had been trying to activate. Water magic had surged out of her, the blast shattering the station, but putting out the fire.

    Everyone had stilled. Gale and Miira, the child who had started the fire in the first place, as well as the ones yelling at them for being so reckless.

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Emilia had breathed out, once she managed to figure out how to stop the flow. The gem glowed faintly against the black of her armour, although she assumed it would fade eventually, just as the light gem activated by Key had eventually faded into inactivity. ¡°Thanks?¡± she added, quickly signing a less confused, ¡°Thank you!¡± at the child.

    Astra had blinked large red eyes up at her, head cocking, before she turned towards the nearest, not-burnt-to-the-ground station and began activating its magic arrays with ease¡ªwith too much ease. The girl turned to the next station, and the next and the next, activating each until the eleven stations were lit up with perfectly flowing magic, aether running through the room like a calm and cooling stream of life.

    The little redhead was too short to do any of the cooking herself, and had instead wandered over to sit against the wall with the other young children and those who were still too stressed and upset to be of much use in¡­ whatever this challenge was. As those of them who faced the challenge of the kitchen worked to try and both feed everyone and get the door to the next area to open, Emilia¡¯s mind kept wandering back to the little girl.

    Astra. The little girl hadn¡¯t spoken a word since Emilia had picked her and Benny up off the street, not even her name. One of the older boys¡ªone of Sawyer¡¯s friends who had disappeared during the last challenge¡ªhad been the one to give her name.

    ?Astra¡¯s always quiet,? was all he had said before racing off after Sawyer and the boys who had gathered around him following his conflict with Gale and the revelation that they were inside a labyrinth.

    ?Astra?? one of the children V was holding had asked, smiling at the girl curled into Emilia¡¯s shoulder. They were about the same age, but hadn¡¯t known each other¡ªno one, except that one boy, had. Half the children didn''t know each other, though. The city was large, and they had been in the central shopping area when the stampede began, children from all through the city accompanying their parents to shop or work, while those who were homeless scurried the streets, hoping to find scrapes to eat.

    The children who had families, especially those who knew few, if any, of the others had definitely fared the worst, keeping quietly to themselves. Astra was no different, and when spoken to, had simply nodded in confirmation, before turning further into Emilia¡¯s arms. Thankfully, children at that age are less likely to be offended by such things, and the other little girl had turned back to chatting nonsensically with the other child in V¡¯s arms, the two telling stories about some giant sky monster that ate naughty children for dinner, if they didn¡¯t go to sleep before the monster appeared in the sky.

    Apparently, no matter what culture you came from, there were always going to be parents who used myths and monsters to scare their children into following the rules. The fact that the silly fable was the closest anyone had come to referencing a god was not lost on Emilia, but she rather hoped the locals weren¡¯t going around worshipping or fearing some child eating monster.

    Then again, given her earlier worries about the Enclave potentially being onboard with murdering children to make more blood weapons¡­

    Emilia shook herself out of those thoughts, and not for the first time since it had first floated through her head. She didn¡¯t want to think about it, but the fact was that the more powerful the source¡ªthe more terrible the source¡ªthe more devastating the forged weapon would be. Her eyes lingered on Astra as she stirred the food she was trying to make, following Caro¡¯s less-than-helpful instructions.

    Astra was so young, yet so powerful, and Emilia couldn¡¯t help but worry that when they made it out of here, if anyone found out just how powerful she was, it would leave her a target for both the Risen Guard¡ªhoarders of power that they were¡ªand the Enclave alike.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 99: Alternative of an Alternative

    The room rumbled and roared, and Emilia cursed. Loudly¡ªthere was no reason to keep her swearing out of the ears of the children surrounding her, after all. Other than when she¡¯d apparently been screaming during her nightmare, no one had been able to hear her say¡ªor scream¡ªanything else.

    Personally, she wasn¡¯t convinced they had heard her scream, so much as perhaps she had let a rip of energy escape from her during the dream. That had happened on the battlefield, occasionally. Death roar was the name they¡¯d given it, although medics had their own particular name for it, researchers something else entirely. Both were so complicated that most people couldn¡¯t be bothered to remember them, hence, death roar.

    Technically, it was a loss of core control, usually in the moments before death. Due to a combination of factors, usually core damage, aether overload or one last suicide attack, death roars were explosions of sound through the aethernet, the result of large-scale attacks through the aether. They could be caused by normal attacks, but usually involved the destruction of the person¡¯s core¡ªsomething that inevitably led to death.

    Emilia had heard death roar¡¯s without death, however¡ªhad heard the terrifyingly human sound rip through the world, like one last scream from a dying soul before it burned out. She had heard it in the moments before her own core cracked, and she thought she would die on the field with Olivier. She hadn¡¯t died, and she hadn¡¯t heard a death roar since, but she knew her core was capable of making them without burning her out. Although, hopefully within a raid, that burning out wouldn¡¯t actually be possible?

    Still, the idea that she could have accidentally let her core loose while she was dreaming was terrifying, especially given the previous labyrinth had featured an entire challenge that had involved passing out and dreaming of the battlefield. Before they¡¯d entered the kitchen, when the door had finally swung open, Emilia had tensed, worry about what they would find on the other side surging through her. Concern for the fact that she didn¡¯t have V as back up anymore, concern for the possibility that the system could suck her away again, into some walking nightmare¡ªinto another world for her to destroy.

    It hadn¡¯t, but now, as the kitchen rumbled and rocked, the older kids grabbing the younger one¡¯s hands to keep them from reaching for a heating array to steady themselves, she worried again.

    What if this time I¡¯m trapped in a nightmare?

    What if I lose control of my core?

    What if I kill all these children?

    Forget about the trauma from the war, if she killed any of these kids¡ªaccident or not¡ªshe would never forgive herself. She¡¯d spent so much of the last decade worrying she¡¯d lose control of her skills and hurt someone. It would be ironic if now, after several years of not worrying about it¡ªafter just having experienced regret for how much she¡¯d knotted her skills away¡ªher fucked up core killed people anyways, and¡ª

    The room stopped rumbling and everyone turned towards the door that would lead them to the next area and¡­ nothing.

    Kelly, who had been cooking some local specialty at one of the stations closest to the door with limited success, stepped towards it. He pushed, tugged on the handle. ?It won¡¯t open.?

    ?Did something else change?? Gale asked, her apron swishing and sending flour billowing onto the floor in a pale pink haze as she peered around.

    ?Something very important changed!? a voice cheered¡ªan adult voice.

    Everyone startled, twisting and turning and searching for the voice¡¯s source, but¡ª

    ?There¡¯s no one!? someone hissed over the worried murmurs of the others.

    ?Right you are!? the voice called back, dramatic and seeming to echo out of the aether itself. ?I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve been pelted by food in the past, so no! I will not be appearing before you today¡ªor tomorrow, if the challenge lasts that long!¡± the voice laughed, although no one else was amused by its comment.

    ?What challenge?? Benny asked. He had straightened back up, having tucked himself against the ground when the voice began to speak. Apparently, now that he knew the voice wasn¡¯t some physical being in the room, he wasn¡¯t afraid¡­ or at least was better at acting brave. That said, his voice still shook slightly as he spoke to the disembodied voice.

    ?Well~ I¡¯m glad you asked little man!? it replied, tone still filled with too much humour.

    It was the kind of voice the host of game shows had, their intonation dramatic and loud and filled with unamusing humour. Emilia had never been a fan of such shows¡ªeven the commentators for sports she was into tended to aggravate her¡ªbut during the war, their unit had watched a few. Nice, low-key media. You could zone out and come right back into the show. Contestants could lose, get voted off, disappear into the abyss, and you¡¯d barely notice¡ªunless the person had been your favourite to win, of course.

    Emilia had rarely had favourites, being content to instead critique the competitors and the challenges they faced. Once, she had even¡ª

    ¡°Oh, fuck,¡± she groaned, smacking a hand to her forehead¡ªa hand that was unfortunately covered in her failed attempt to melt the dried aloonm. More swearing followed as she attempted to get the bits of dried, fake chocolate off her skin¡ªa vain attempt, unfortunately, as the stuff was ridiculously sticky¡ªand listen to their annoying host explain what they were doing.

    A cooking contest. Not just any cooking contest, but one based on the modified cooking contest she¡¯d created for their unit during the war.

    The original source¡ªa terribly executed cooking show¡ªhad just done it so badly, okay!?

    Thankfully, whether due to the children or the lack of proper partners, the challenge was a simpler, modified version¡­ which rather defeated the point of most of her and Halen¡¯s changes, but whatever. Easier and stupider was better than impossible, which her version most certainly would have been.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ?So, we¡¯re just supposed to make what we cook look like water slides?? Sawyer asked, as though it would actually be that easy. ?As a group project??

    ?Tha~t¡¯s right! Be grateful that¡¯s it!? the voice boomed, aggressive humour flowing through it. ?We decided to make the challenge easier for you all. Normally, it would have to be an edible and functioning water slide!?

    Several dozen pairs of eyes looked at her. Most of the children understood that her interests and skills were guiding the labyrinth¡¯s challenge, and the reality that the normal of their challenges was something she¡¯d been into had continuously left them a mixture of confused, impressed and incredulous.

    Emilia was okay with that. She didn¡¯t regret her love of graviplex or water slides, or the time she¡¯d spent redesigning the silly engineering + baking show that had been oddly popular during the war, all so it was more reasonable¡ªnot that she could blame the show for being so ridiculous. The war had dragged engineers with any skill into the military, leaving the show to bring in less than impressive¡ªor extremely difficult to work with¡ªengineers.

    The show had had an interesting concept: bring a baker and an engineer together to make something that is both edible and capable of overcoming challenges traditionally seen in engineering competitions.

    To say the show had failed was an understatement. As far as Emilia could tell, half of the engineers were terrible at their jobs and had never even seen an engineering competition before, let alone competed in one. They couldn¡¯t troubleshoot. They couldn¡¯t design the most basic of robots. They didn¡¯t even understand the importance of centre of gravity!

    It was terrible, and she would have felt bad for the bakers, if not for the fact that they had obviously not seen an engineering competition either. Too serious¡ªthey were all too serious. Where the inept engineers could at least laugh at their mistakes, the bakers looked like they were liable to kill their partners and bake them into a cake. That hadn¡¯t happened, as far as Emilia knew, but she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if one of the engineers popped up dead one day, the prime suspect their cooking show partner from decades earlier.

    Emilia had spent the entire time they were watching this terrible show critiquing it, much to the annoyance of several other members of the division. Halen, to his credit, had hated it more than she had. While she certainly had some skill in engineering and design, her talents tended more towards software and the delicate details of willbrands. Halen was engineering and software. Annoyingly, it was what had allowed them to collaborate so well in creating the training system that would become the raid system. There had been other people involved, of course, especially when it came to the minute details of interfacing with the human body, but it had only been because of them¡ªher and Halen¡ªthat any of it had been possible.

    This¡ªtheir silly, alternative version of a horrible cooking competition¡ªhad been the first time they had collaborated. A spur of the moment shift in the mood. They had been biting out complaints about the latest episode one moment, contemplating how to do it better the next.

    ¡°This needed less improvisation,¡± Halen had muttered, explaining to James when he asked what he meant: that in engineering innovation sometimes happened in competitions, but usually, someone had already discovered something new before showing it off at the competition. ¡°The way they¡¯re designing the recipes for waterproof supports in the moment? That¡¯s unlikely in an engineering competition. Not unheard of, but unlikely. I understand these people have not met beforehand, and have no experience in the other¡¯s field, but 100% pickup competitions like this are uncommon in the real world.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t the real world,¡± Nettie had sighed. She had swung one leg over the other, his shorts ridding up on her pale thighs.

    Charles had had to leave the room, much to everyone¡ªsave his bother¡¯s¡ªamusement. It wasn¡¯t until later that Emilia learned the twin¡¯s home was rather conservative, both men and women showing little skin outside of their marriage.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not stupid,¡± Nettie had added, frowning severely at the screen. ¡°I¡¯ve been in singing competitions¡ªones where we got, like¡­ matched up with random people to do duets and shit like that with? If I got stuck with someone who had never sung duet before? I¡¯d be so fucking pissed. There¡¯s a level of expectation in these things. You know your genres, your range, how to be a teammate.¡± She¡¯d motioned a delicate hand at the projection they were watching. ¡°These bakers do not know how to be on a team. They¡¯re giving, like¡­ murderous vibes. Not a good look. They gotta contain, man.¡±

    ¡°The bakers are terrible,¡± Halen had agreed.

    ¡°Most of the engineers aren¡¯t much better,¡± Emilia had bitten back. There had been some animosity between them while watching, simply because Emilia could cook¡ªa relatively rare skill in their social circle¡ªand a few choice comments on the reasonability of some of the engineers'' more insane requests. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like they did any research on basic ingredients, to learn melting points and what not? Even the basics of engineering are difficult to grasp, so I understand the bakers not knowing shit, but for so many of the engineers to have not even learned some basic facts about chocolate?¡±

    Halen had, much to his annoyance, been forced to agree with her. ¡°There should have been some standard recipes for a few things, like supports. Not the best recipes, but a base to start with, something to then adapt with their knowledge and experience.¡±

    ¡°Definitely,¡± Emilia had found herself agreeing, and suddenly, they were making a list of all the things they would change.

    Base recipes.

    More knowledge of their challenge.

    Some way to switch partners, so you could ditch someone you hated¡ªthat one hadn¡¯t been a rule in any competitions either of them had ever seen, but they¡¯d added it after her future ex had joked about how the world would end if she and Halen ended up together. They¡¯d agreed, and added the rule, even though there had been no intention to actually hold their alternative, engineering + baking competition at the time.

    Ironically, when it had become reality, they had been paired up together. Then, they had won, because as much as they had disliked each other and butted heads over practically everything, they also worked well together.

    Then, they had continued working together, creating weapons of mass destruction and war, creating systems for training and skills for healing and killing¡ªand in one case, either or. They had still hated each other, except during those brief hours of being lost on the battlefield. Then Halen had been dead¡ªa war hero in all his moments, but especially those last ones.

    ¡°This is for you, Halen,¡± Emilia murmured as the voice stopped explaining the alternative rules of their challenge. The aether seemed to flutter around her, strange and other¡ªas though it were offering her comfort and support and¡ª

    Emilia shook herself. She was losing it. Too much stress. Thankfully, this challenge, strange as it was, wasn¡¯t going to be too difficult. She looked to Gale and Miira, who had come to stand nearby to translate for her. ¡°Ready?¡± she signed, the two girls nodding in unison. ¡°Let¡¯s get started then.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 100: The Resiliency of a Child

    Outside of when she¡¯d¡ªyou know¡ªbeen one, Emilia hadn¡¯t spent a lot of time around children¡ªwhen would she have? She¡¯d known a few people who had kids during the war, but it wasn¡¯t like the kids were on the battlefield with them. Their parents told stories, she¡¯d smiled politely at the photos they shared. A few of those kids had lived on base with their parents, but she¡¯d rarely seen them. Their unit was always so busy, and any leisure time went to more¡­ pleasurable things. And research. And training. And staring into space, more often than she¡¯d care to admit.

    Then, Alliance Ridge had happened. Alliance Ridge had changed everything about the war, and those few children had been sent away to relatives, or the multitude of homes set up for war orphans. They hadn¡¯t had much relaxation after that, either.

    Some of her war buddies had had kids in the decade since, but Emilia didn¡¯t see them through more than photos, shared in group chats she only occasionally glanced at. Nettie used to send photos of her kids, but eventually, she¡¯d stopped¡ªhad given up communicating with someone as flaky as she¡¯d become. Rafe still sent her photos of Nettie and Charles¡¯ children, snuggled into his grumpy lap. They were cute, although Rafe had complained more than a few times about how spoiled they were.

    ¡°The oldest is the worst of Charles and Nettie combined,¡± Rafe had grumbled recently¡ªif you could consider nearly three years earlier recent¡ªduring a rare call between the two of them. It had been the anniversary of Alliance Ridge. The entire world was mourning, and neither of them could take it, so they called and chatted and pretended nothing was different about that specific day and hour.

    ¡°Oh fucking stars,¡± she had laughed, listing off the traits about their friends that she had always found the most aggravating.

    ¡°That, and more. They¡¯re all little monsters. Resilient as fuck, though. I didn¡¯t really realize how unstoppable kids are.¡±

    She had hummed, taken a sip of the expensive drink she¡¯d gotten at one of the campus caf¨¦s. It had struck her in that moment, just as it struck her again now, just how different Rafe was. As a child, she had certainly known how resilient some of her peers were, how fragile others were. How they were raised. Base personality. D-Levels, once those were revealed. All those things played a part.

    Then again, she¡¯d grown up so different from Rafe. Her first home had been one filled with children from all walks of life, all D-Levels and social classes. Some remembered their parents¡ªremembered love stolen from them, or fists pounded into them. Others knew nothing but those cold walls, and their caretaker¡¯s fake smiles, empty eyes and strict rules. Rafe and his siblings had grown up in a vacuum, its seal only cracked when she¡¯d fallen into their life and dragged them out of that house¡ªout of the loneliness and separation that generations of their family had suffered.

    It seemed a bit much to think herself so important that she was the thing that had changed over a thousand years of inadvertent separation, but she had been, and she had been able to be that because of her own resiliency¡ªbecause of her own ability to push boundaries and not accept no. Luckily, that no hadn¡¯t lasted long, but the uneasy looks from other adults when she¡¯d brought her new friends around had lasted all her life¡ªhad still been present on the faces of so many people the last time she¡¯d seen the people she¡¯d grown up around, in the waning days of the war.

    How Rafe, whose family had faced so much condemnation and suspicion for generations, couldn¡¯t see how resiliency was built into his upbringing, she had no idea. Genetics, she supposed. Rafe and Malcolm had always brushed off looks and whispers about them with the ease of people who really didn¡¯t give a shit. Their youngest brother, on the other hand¡­

    ¡°Not going out to party?¡±

    The voice had startled Emilia out of her conversation with Rafe about how work was going, his voice falling silent as her Censor notified him someone was talking to her.

    ¡°Ah, no¡­¡± Emilia had said, smiling as painlessly as she could manage at Professor A. ¡°Not enough money to enjoy myself,¡± she had lied, as though her hand wasn¡¯t wrapped around the most expensive drink available on campus.

    The old man had raised an eyebrow, unwilling to give her the lie. Annoying. He could have wandered away¡ªsaid goodnight and left her alone like she wanted to be. Why had he even been there? She still didn¡¯t know. She might have still been in a public area of campus, but it wasn¡¯t a well trafficked one on a busy day, and days like that¡ªdays of importance to the war¡ªcertainly weren¡¯t busy ones on campus.

    Almost everyone went out on days like that¡ªon the days that marked the best and more horrific days of the war. People knew, even if they¡¯d never talked about it, that Alliance Ridge had been a turning point in the war¡ªin the mentality of their unit. They¡¯d been monsters before that day, they were even worse after. Days like this should be solemn, but a combination of the military pushing everything war related into a celebration of sacrifice and hope, and that undying knowledge that without Alliance Ridge, the war may never have ended¡­

    Well, where the mornings were for sadness and reflection, the evening became a celebration and nearly no one else had been lingering around boring old campus. No one, but the vets. It didn¡¯t matter if they had never been to Alliance Ridge, if they¡¯d never even met anyone from their unit¡ªand most people hadn¡¯t¡ªor hadn¡¯t yet joined until the latter part of the war. Nearly every vet hated these days¡ªhated the way the government had skewed public perception of it and the way the public treated them.

    The way people who hadn¡¯t served treated them.

    For as old as Professor A was, as far as she could tell, the man hadn¡¯t served. If he had, it wasn¡¯t on the front¡ªwasn¡¯t in any job that would have required the training that had beaten inescapable habits into them. There were plenty of jobs like that, and given the man¡¯s experience with technology and his ability to design something like the data-recovery program, it would have been easy to assume it had worked behind the scenes.

    When she¡¯d sent Rafe a picture of her teacher, however, he hadn¡¯t known the man. Rafe had known practically everyone who worked war tech, through his own work for D-Tect and the military. Even if he hadn¡¯t known Professor A personally, he would have known his reputation. He didn¡¯t, and a search through Rafe¡¯s records revealed he either hadn¡¯t served or had been part of a secret project, one even Rafe didn¡¯t have access to.

    ¡°Why aren''t you out?¡± she had found herself asking, hoping the man would tell her¡ªlet some secret about himself slip. The man was too mysterious, even what records Rafe could get on him filled with vague statements and blank spaces. Not so much that it was suspicious¡ªthousands of years of records erased during the war, right?¡ªbut certainly enough that Emilia had been able to feel a scratch of curiosity running through her.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    If she was being honest with herself, even several years on, and with no more information about the man than she had that night, she still felt the itch to dig into him. Ask around. Hack into Astrapan and get their facts about the man.

    The man had smiled. Not quite the smile that brought students tumbling to his bed, but close enough that Emilia had had to swallow down the longing to scratch that itch of curiosity and demand her Censor not let her consent to sex with the man¡ªnot tonight, anyways. Tonight was too heavy.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t only veterans who find this day difficult,¡± he had said, voice empty of accusation that she was one such veteran. His eyes had met hers. They had looked sad, in the distant sort of way. ¡°I lived in the area when I was far younger. It was only for a short time, but I still knew civilians who died.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Emilia had breathed out, deflating slightly. ¡°Sorry.¡± She had almost told him that she¡¯d known civilians too¡ªknown dozens of innocent, defenceless faces of those killed at Alliance Ridge. She¡¯d lived there so long, after all, and gotten to know the locals, known a few from visits to the area when she was younger as well.

    She hadn¡¯t said anything, and he¡¯d nodded goodnight and wandered off, stride lazy in a way that always reminded her of something not quite that of a Penn¡¯s sub-30.

    ¡°It¡¯s funny,¡± she had laughed into the silence of their ongoing call.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I always thought myself a resilient child, but turns out I¡¯m a pretty fucking fragile adult.¡±

    Silence had met her, Rafe¡¯s existence vibrating around her brain the only reminder that he was still there.

    ¡°Do you want to meet up?¡± he had finally asked, quiet and unsure in a way she always hated. He¡¯d been like that since their late 20s, although the frequency had lessened over the years of war, before rising into a near constant thing following her disappearance.

    One day, their relationship would settle, and they¡¯d return to the friends they had once been, sure and confident in their every word and request. They couldn¡¯t be that now, not when her moods shifted and fear of meeting the past pressed down on her so often.

    ¡°Sure,¡± she had managed to say, because the fear of seeing an old friend¡¯s face was far less than the fear of breaking alone.

    A moment later, Rafe had been there. A single spark away.

    ¡°Want to get out of here?¡± he had asked, posture rigid in a way that didn¡¯t suit him. ¡°Go somewhere¡­ else,¡± he had finished lamely, because they both knew that fun wouldn¡¯t suit the mood of the day, and yet, they both needed something light and cheerful.

    ¡°Sparker¡¯s choice,¡± she had teased, holding up grabby hands like a helpless child, demanding to be hauled up.

    Her friend had rolled his eyes, but grabbed hold of her and off they went, vanishing into the aether for not just a few hours, but days. There was a school break, so why not? It had been fun, and that made the guilt build within her. Emilia had never told Rafe about that¡ªabout the guilt his gift of time and friendship had given her¡ªbut she was sure he knew that was why she was avoiding him now. Brushing off his hands when they reached towards her.

    She shouldn¡¯t have told him not to visit her¡ªshouldn¡¯t have rejected his offer to come mitigate the pink tide himself.

    She was more resilient than that.

    If these children could continue to stand and fight for their and their friend¡¯s lives, she could face her friend¡¯s kindness and love.

    Emilia shook herself out of her wandering thoughts, little bits of future intentions setting into her. Around her, the children under her care failed to cook, smiles plastered over most of their faces, nonetheless. A few scowled at their ingredients, mixing and melding wrong, even as the older kids read recipes that had been bestowed upon them by the labyrinth.

    Through all their failure, they still kept trying. Most of them, anyways. A few of the kids had given up, some in anger, others in apology. Rather shockingly, everyone was understanding of their forfeiture of the challenge. When she was little, almost none of the kids she knew were nice to quitters. They teased, biting words leaving their lips until fists were thrown and adults were yanking them apart.

    They were not good kids, in either her first home or her second. Then again, the first one had practically encouraged toxic competition, while the second¡­ well. Her parents hadn¡¯t encouraged competition, but they and all their neighbours were at the top of their fields. The adults encouraged skill and resiliency, and to their little minds that had meant dying before you quit.

    That probably wasn¡¯t the best mentality, and when the labyrinth had bestowed them with writing instruments and paper to make planning and noting recipe alterations easier, and she¡¯d discovered that she could not only read the local language now¡ªthank you, weird {Blood Tattoo}¡ªbut also write? Well, Emilia wasn¡¯t about to write anything about perseverance and never giving up. These kids didn¡¯t need that¡ªdidn¡¯t need her to introduce some weird mentality from her own world to them.

    Reintroducing it to herself, though? She could do that. So many bits of her had been lost over the last decade¡ªover the last three, she supposed. Things torn away by the war, by death, by cruel words from people she considered her friends.

    They weren¡¯t her friends, and she wasn¡¯t a very good friend to the people she still loved and missed¡ªto people who still breathed and lived, missing her.

    ?You have a funny look on your face,? Miira noted. The girl was standing across from her, the two of them responsible for making some of the more complicated pieces of their edible water slide.

    Emilia blinked at the resilient little girl. They¡¯d chatted while they cooked¡ªor, Miira had chatted while Emilia occasionally signed or scratched out questions at her. The local girl was eleven and had lost her family in the chaos of the stampede.

    Miira didn¡¯t think they were alive.

    ?They were there one minute, and gone the next. There¡­ there was a lot of blood¡­ where they were.? Watery eyes had glared down at their project, her hands shaking as she assembled tubes for the slide. It was a delicate job, one requiring far more attention to detail and patience than most of the children had.

    ?I¡¯m waiting for it to hit me,? she had added when Emilia asked how she was doing. The girl had shaken herself, chest expanding as she sucked in a long, grounding breath. ?We don¡¯t have time for it to hit me now. So it won¡¯t.?

    Okay, so resiliency and stubbornness, not that Emilia could fault her for stubbornly avoiding dealing with the loss of her family. It would come, just as it had come for the children still staring absently into space, just as it came for the kids who occasionally burst into tears for moments of time before forcing themselves to stop, dirty sleeves running over damp cheeks and snotty noses.

    Kids broke and mended so fast, it was impressive. Many of them pulled themselves together better than soldiers on the battlefield. Single-minded focus¡ªthose of them who had possessed the ability to focus and compartmentalize had always fared better on the field. They were better at forcing those feelings away, but she knew first hand the pain of doing it too long.

    All those feelings would crash down on these little hearts sooner or later, and the longer they waited, the worse it would be. While it would be nothing compared to the decades she and others had avoided their grief and regret and guilt for during the war, the faster they let it out, the better.

    Key had said the labyrinths were usually three to five stages. Hopefully, this one would be on the shorter side, because who knew what awaited them on the other side.

    Who knew where they would go, and what they would face, once they were free of this prison.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 101: Luckily, I Have Not Blown Up the Kids

    The room¡ªthe entire fucking universe¡ªheld its breath as Gale and Miira slowly removed their hands from the miniature water slide. Every piece was so delicate, moulded over hours and hours of work. Half their group¡¯s hands were stained with dye, ingredients caked under their fingernails¡ªinto their fingerprints themselves. Remnants of stolen bites streaked everyone¡¯s cheeks, evidence of their theft laying under heavy eyes and dark circles. Where both inspirations for this challenge had had time limits, this one had not¡ªone of several alterations that had both made their ordeal easier and longer.

    Thankfully, as everyone watched with bated breath to see if their edible glue would hold, it also seemed their efforts wouldn¡¯t be wasted.

    ¡°Thank the stars,¡± Emilia sighed to herself as a buzzer went off, excitement of a job well done screaming through the aethernet. Their host¡ªwho had popped in occasionally with snarky commentary and unappreciated jokes¡ªhad refused to tell them what would happen if their design wasn¡¯t successful, but the potential consequences had not been something Emilia had hoped to experience.

    Having to try again.

    Being given a penalty challenge.

    Everyone who participated vanishing and leaving the smallest, weakest members of their group to try again, or continue on alone through a suddenly open door.

    Nope, nope, nope. Emilia hadn¡¯t even been letting herself contemplate potential consequences for losing as they worked. Her heart knew their loss would have had terrible repercussions, her brain hadn¡¯t needed to know as well.

    ?Congratulations~? the host cheered, streamers exploding out of the aether. ?Now, tha~t was a good show of creativity and perseverance! Why! I thought that when the little klutz broke the whole damn thing, ya¡¯ll would have thrown in the towel! Ah~ I do like being surprised by these things!? it continued, sounding very much like it didn¡¯t actually like being surprised.

    The host was¡­ an oddity. While it could simply be another construct of the system, Emilia wasn¡¯t so sure. Something about it¡ªabout the words and phrases it sometimes used, the references lingering under its jokes¡­

    No. It could be a construct of the system, but those constructs were usually designed to meld into the world of its creation. While she could admit that the labyrinths existed somewhere outside of this world¡¯s reality, they also hadn¡¯t felt completely foreign, the way she and other visitors did. Labyrinths felt like an extension of this world, strange and other, but still connected to it.

    This thing, which had spent the last dozen plus fucking hours harassing them, didn¡¯t feel a part of this world. It felt separate, like it was either a creation of the platform maintainer themself.

    That¡ªeven the possibility of it¡ªwas pissing Emilia off. She knew people often viewed the residents of raids as nothing. Their lives meant nothing to so many people. Just meaningless ones and zeros someone had carved into the universe for bare breaths of time. They were not breathing, living things, even if they breathed and lived and loved in their own fucking way. For someone to sit around and watch these children suffer, however. To have had an active hand in their misery? Emilia¡ª

    Emilia sucked in a slow, grounding breath as they listened to the voice go on and on about all the mistakes they had made, her rage bubbling. The host, regardless of what or who was behind it, sounded like it was enjoying this¡ªenjoying making children feel like they had failed when really they had just succeeded. They should be celebrating, and yet this cruel, hateful little thing was seemingly trying to make them feel like they should be apologizing for every little fuck up.

    Everyone had done so well, been so strong. They had messed up and started over, taken breathers and passes. Cried and curled into little balls of shame, other children appearing over them to pull them out of their misery because it was ok. Mistakes happened. No one was hurt or bleeding, and they could try again.

    The way the host was speaking, it was like it thought trying again¡ªnot giving up¡ªwas a defect in their personality and¡ª

    Energy exploded out of Emilia, filling the aether so profoundly that even she froze in shock. The voice of the host disappeared, not because it had grown silent in shock¡ªalthough it may have done that as well, for all she knew¡ªbut because her energy had filled the world of the kitchen so entirely that it had been blasted out. There was no room here for it anymore, her power and presence filling everything so entirely.

    There was only her.

    The children stared at her with wide eyes, even the youngest aware enough of the flow of the aether to know something strange was happening, and it was because of her.

    ?Emilia¡­? Gale said, the children having finally learned her name after they were bestowed with the ability to write to one another. ?You¡­ you¡¯re¡­?

    ?You¡¯re so bloody bright!? Benny said, eyes wide and shining with a glow that Emilia realized was coming from her.

    Gold seeped out of her, her meridians stuffed with too much power. She hadn¡¯t touched her core since they entered the labyrinth, save when the first children had disappeared. Both she and V had sent wisps of energy to search the area for any sign of where they had gone. Neither of them had found anything, but Miira had given her a funny look. Only her, and even though the girl had said nothing about it, she could guess: energy wasn¡¯t meant to glow the way hers was now doing more often than not.

    V¡¯s could glow, but only when he wanted it to. During those moments of search, it was a silent, transparent existence, winding its way through the world in search of any clue as to what had happened to the children who had vanished. Hers glowed fucking golden. Loud and proud. Before, in the moments she had used it in the library labyrinth, it had mostly been clear, with occasional strands of gold escaping her. She had assumed it was the energy she had reabsorbed, following its accidental escape from her body while being chased by Cade¡¯s babysitter. Something about it had changed during that chase, and whatever it was seemed to be spreading.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Emilia didn¡¯t feel any different, but she didn¡¯t really think being capable of filling a room with her energy by accident was normal, especially not when her level was still so high¡ªwas it still high? She had been assuming all the visitor¡¯s levels would stay at 300 until they gained access to the system, but had the rules actually said that? She didn¡¯t feel different, but she was. That in itself felt wrong. Every knot across her genome she felt, like a stitch through her soul, and the fact that she couldn¡¯t tell what was happening inside her now? It could be Payton, knotting and unknotting her as she went. It could be the system, dragging over her artificial levels, making her more skilled as time went on, or it could just be whatever the fuck she¡¯d done to her core.

    Hopefully, whatever she¡¯d done wasn¡¯t permanent. Given V could use his core as well, her ability to use her own was unlikely the result of a faulty entry point. That didn¡¯t actually rule out that it was faulty, however, and that something of her experience was echoing back into her real body¡ªor that her brain would remember how whatever this difference was felt, and then emulate it in the real world. She¡¯d have a nebulae of a time explaining her glowing energy if anyone saw it in the real world.

    A strangled breath escaped her¡ªhad she been holding it? No wonder she couldn¡¯t stop her core from going nuts when she wasn¡¯t even breathing. That wasn¡¯t just the first thing teenagers learned in her world about controlling skills, but it had been told to her by Zach of this world as well.

    ¡°Breathe. Your breath is the light of the universe¡ªof the aether¡ªfilling you up, connecting you to creation and all the power it bestowed upon us. Use that gift of connection to ground yourself¡ªto fill this world of ours with your power in return.¡± Those were neither the words of Zach, nor of the grumpy teacher who had been responsible for drilling their first skills into them as teenagers. They weren¡¯t even words from her swordmaster, calm and soothing and murderous presence that he was, seeming to slide into the mystery of the universe without conscious thought.

    They were words from a book, one of the ones she, Rafe and his brother had secretly read during their childhood. She¡¯d heard it reiterated a thousand times over since then. Teachers of skills. Her graviplex coach. Mentors for the thousand other sports she had learned. Doctors, other soldiers, Olivier the first time he¡¯d fucked her ass.

    Always fucking breathe. You¡¯d think, after a lifetime of reminders to do so, she¡¯d fucking breathe. Maybe that was why people were always reminding others to breathe? Didn¡¯t matter how many times you were told to breathe, somehow it was always falling to the wayside. Fill your lungs¡ªthe entirety of them. Don¡¯t be afraid to look fat. Get those yummy chemicals inside you, seeping into your blood and¡ª

    Emilia sucked in another shuddering breath, willing her brain to chill out¡ªseriously, there were more important things going on! Chill! Focus! Thinking about breathing was all fine and good, except her meandering thoughts on the origins of breathing instruction weren¡¯t helping! Another breath entered her, her lungs shaking with the effort. They needed to stop that, or she¡¯d never get her core under control.

    Fortunately, only she and the annoying host seemed to have been affected by her core going haywire. While all the kids could certainly tell something was going on, only the older ones seemed to be able to feel what was happening, and they appeared more concerned for her than themselves.

    It was only a matter of time before they panicked. Not because of the absolutely insane amount of energy her core was letting loose, but because eventually, it would hit them: if her core burned out, they¡¯d be alone. These three children, only on the cusp of even being teenagers, would be responsible for getting the others out, for figuring out what to do with them once they escaped this place. Gale, Miira and Sawyer might be responsible¡ªmight have stepped up to a challenge most kids their age would have balked away from¡ªbut they would never be able to manage all the younger children by themselves.

    Fuck managing them, they wouldn¡¯t even be capable of moving most of them. Forget the kids who were barely conscious of the world. The little ones? The ones like Astra and the nameless child who they¡¯d had to cannibalize some of the missing children¡¯s clothing to create clean diapers for? Gale, Miira and Sawyer wouldn¡¯t be able to move those children. There were too many to carry between the five of them, Gale and Emilia weighing themselves down with as many children as they could manage because there were too many. They might have extra help now, as more of the children came to their senses. There were still too many little ones.

    Too many.

    Too many children.

    Too many things to manage.

    Too much trauma and sadness.

    Too much hunger and sleep deprivation.

    Too out of control.

    Emilia¡¯s finger snapped backwards as she forced herself to chill¡ªforced herself out of her looping thoughts by force of pain and shock. It had been years since she¡¯d been forced to use such brutal means to calm her heart and head, and yet here she was, doing so twice in so many days¡ªor were they on the third day now? The library labyrinth and all she had experienced there felt so far away now, yet simultaneously, it felt like it had barely been any time since their escape. There had been a few days in between, but time was so stuttered and uneven in this place of dreams and nightmares.

    ?Emilia!? someone gasped, her vision and mind too blurry to recognize who. One of the younger children, assuming the small figure who appeared in front of her, grasping her hands and tugging them away from each other, was the one who had spoken. ?Your hand!?

    ¡°It¡¯s broken,¡± she mumbled, relieved that she could speak. Her eyes floated unevenly over herself¡ªover what little of her skin was visible to her. She¡¯d pulled up her sleeves to cook, but her {Blood Armour} still covered most of her arms. What skin she could see, however, was beginning to fade back to normalcy, the energy within her cycling back into her aching core.

    Her uninjured hand moved, reaching for the bent digits that the child¡ªCaro; she could see them properly now¡ªwas diligently examining.

    ?What are you doing?? Caro asked, tugging her injured hand away from her searching one.

    ¡°I need to set them,¡± she said, attempting to sign something along those lines to the child. An impossible task, given the language barrier and her single-handedness.

    They glared, although she was unsure whether they understood or not. ?Why did you break them!?? they demanded instead, startling when Benny and several of the other, younger and homeless kids popped up beside them.

    ?That was so cool!? one of them cheered. Emilia had learned nearly everyone¡¯s name, save the few who weren¡¯t speaking to anyone and no one knew, but there were too many children, too many potential sources of the young voice. ?Just like Carne, right??

 Arc 3 | Chapter 102: The Cringe of Childhood

    ?Yeah,? another child agreed. ?Just like Carne.?

    Emilia tilted her head in silent question, several of the children lighting up and beginning to explain who Carne was over each other. Loud and overlapping, Emilia only managed to retain a few details about whoever they were referring to.

    ?You!? Gale growled, pushing her way into the group and glaring down at several of the animated children. ?You aren¡¯t supposed to associate with that¡­ that¡­ that¡­ ugh!?

    Several of the children looked shyly away, their cheeks lighting up as they realized they¡¯d been talking about something they knew they shouldn¡¯t have been. The excitement had gotten to them. Most of the kids, who Emilia abruptly realized were all homeless children, or at least from unstable homes, simply rolled their eyes at the teenager.

    ?Come on, Gale,? Sawyer sighed, arms crossing over his thin chest as he glared the older girl down. ?It can¡¯t really be a surprise we¡¯ve been hanging with Carne. You must have guessed as much, when you learned we were messing around in here.?

    Gale glowered at Sawyer, the de facto leader of all the homeless children, at least until they got out of this place. ?Carne is bad news.?

    ?Maybe,? Sawyer agreed, shrugging like it was nothing, ?but they¡¯re also cool.? The boy¡¯s eyes flicked over Gale, a smirk tugging at his lips. ?Not that you¡¯d know anything about being cool.?

    Emilia snorted¡ªshe just couldn''t help herself. Children were just so funny! Obsessing over what was cool and what wasn¡¯t. She¡¯d been the same when she was little, although not quite so young as them. It hadn¡¯t been until her teens and twenties that she became stupid enough to care about things like what was cool and what wasn¡¯t. The cool things to wear and do, to listen to and watch.

    Thankfully, she¡¯d never been as obsessed as some of her friends were, only generally finding interest in things that were cool because, most of the time, they were cool for a reason. Not always, of course. Sometimes things that were cool just had fantastic marketing, or got some added prestige from being expensive or difficult to acquire or do.

    The same went for things that were uncool! Sometimes, a common understanding that something wasn¡¯t cool meant it really wasn¡¯t. More often, it just meant some cool person hadn¡¯t liked it, and that feeling had echoed out through their friends. Halen had been considered cool at their school. Halen hadn¡¯t liked action movies, and half their class had avoided ever watching them, simply because they worried what the cool kid would think of them if he found out.

    Luckily, by the time they¡¯d had to spend swathes of time around each other during the war, Halen had mostly grown out of his penchant for teasing people for being into things he deemed uncool. Not completely, but the tone of his teasing had definitely shifted from the maliciousness of a teen into something that simply¡­ was by the time of his death. Something gentle and friendly with most people¡ªthose he hadn¡¯t grown up with, anyways.

    His teasing, both when they¡¯d been classmates and teammates, hadn¡¯t personally bothered her. She¡¯d spent the majority of her life being judged by outsiders. Besides, if she had been concerned with only liking and interacting with cool things, she would have had to drop being friends with Rafe and his brother. They were not cool¡ªwell, Rafe wasn¡¯t. His brother had become cool, in his own odd way, over their teens and into the present. Her caring about being cool as a teenager would have meant ditching them. They had been her best friends¡ªher rocks and support system more than she¡¯d even realized until her late teens¡ªand as much as she¡¯d effectively ditched them after the war, it wasn¡¯t because they weren¡¯t cool.

    Still, having been even vaguely interested in things just because they were cool was kinda embarrassing now. Then again, it was a bit embarrassing looking back on all the things she¡¯d been into as a teenager. Being young was just a long stream of embarrassing moments, interspersed with joy and freedom and breathing in the world¡¯s knowledge like it was the source of life itself¡ªat least, that¡¯s what it had been to her. She knew many people found no joy in their childhoods, no freedom, only the prisons of their parent¡¯s rules.

    Not to mention all the people who not only hated learning but had somehow managed to pop out of their compulsory education knowing absolutely nothing. That alone was an impressive skill¡ªusually the government stepped in to make sure students learned at least the basics of the fundamentals of life and science before they graduated. Those people who had somehow managed to slip through the cracks were rare, but she¡¯d met a few during the war. Just like everyone, they could be sweet or terrible. Just because someone hated learning, it didn¡¯t make them a bad person! That said, it had often meant their usefulness on the field was lacking, given most couldn¡¯t¡­ you know, remember the strategy for assaults or be relied on in emergencies.

    Regardless of what things had filled a person¡¯s formative years, however, from the stories she¡¯d heard other people tell, it seemed as though practically everyone looked back on their youth through the glasses of time and common sense they¡¯d lacked at the time. Young brains were still developing and were often unable to gasp how terrible some of their interests and decisions were.

    This? Bickering over whether this Carne was cool or dangerous, whether Gale was uncool or not, was one of those moments that would be a stain of embarrassment for at least one of them later in life.

    ¡°I just have to make sure they actually make it out of here and to that later,¡± Emilia grumbled to herself as she slowly slipped her hand away from Caro and moved to snap her broken fingers back into place. She¡¯d only had to deal with the consequences of this sort of forced grounding a few times over her life, mostly when faced with terrible raids and trauma. Usually, she¡¯d just book it to the nearest clinic. They asked questions, sometimes. Usually, the nurses were too tired and done with whiny patients to bother with her. She was quiet, considerate, and generally patient, things that meant she got bumped ahead of everyone else regularly, even when other, even less serious injuries brought her in.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡­

    ¡°Should I be concerned with how often I end up at the clinic?¡± she wondered as she sucked in a grounding breath. Realistically, the fact that she kept herself so knotted up meant she was more likely to be injured than most, her body often trying to move in ways it was no longer quite capable of. Then again, even when she¡¯d been younger, she¡¯d been a constant sight at the clinic in her hometown. That hadn¡¯t been the result of too many knots, so much as too much confidence and not enough common sense. She liked to think she had more common sense now, but then again¡­

    Her finger tightened around her finger. ¡°Count to three and¡­¡±

    Luckily, the sound of the children arguing covered up the sound of her fingers cracking back into place. They might not be able to hear the sound, but Emilia had never been a fan of hearing her own bones break¡ªanyone¡¯s really. There had been more than a few times during the war¡ªand occasionally during her daredevil youth¡ªwhere she had been forced to listen to the bones of her allies snapping.

    Hiding under dead bodies, hoping the enemy wouldn¡¯t see her as they ripped the body of someone she had known apart. Bones snapping in their giant maws. Blood dripping out across the world. Sinew and flesh ripping apart and¡ª

    And she really shouldn¡¯t be thinking about this. Life was already hard enough, at the moment. The last thing she needed was to be either panicking¡ªagain¡ªor losing her lunch¡­ or stolen bits of questionably prepared food.

    ¡°We should make some food to take with us,¡± Emilia signed at Miira, who was blinking awkwardly between Gale and Sawyer. The younger girl had tried to intervene in their increasingly mean-spirited argument, but neither had seemed inclined to listen. Given neither were letting magic spiral out of them, Emilia wasn¡¯t particularly concerned. The two weren¡¯t friends to begin with, so ruining a friendship with awful words wasn¡¯t a possibility.

    That said, she had no idea if they were actively choosing to keep their energy and magic contained, or if it was a residual effect of her own energy encompassing the room. The host had yet to return, even the small spark of life she had identified as belonging to the thing having remained absent from her senses as her energy slowly dissipated from the room. Her energy was still there, even if it was lessening, following the natural flow of the aethernet as it circulated the room.

    That alone was strange, being capable of feeling that natural flow, her connection to her energy highlighting those the aether¡¯s movement. In her world, Censors largely did that interfacing for their users, but even then, most skills didn¡¯t require such finicky calculations. Only the most powerful and complicated skills required such information, melding their code to the world from use to use¡ªeven second to second, if the skill was long-lasting¡ªto optimize it. Those skills, rare and destructive, were what made sub-30s the power they were on the battlefield. It didn¡¯t matter how much Censors could take the burden off a person¡¯s brain and core; unless they had the innate core strength and aetherstores required, the person wouldn¡¯t manage to let the skill loose¡ªor worse, kill themselves in a backlash. Sub-30s didn¡¯t always satisfy those requirements, but those who did¡­

    Well, there was a reason why their division, composed entirely of sub-30s, had been the most powerful unit during the war¡ªhad been the only reason the war was won, as far as most people were concerned.

    Still, even in all her years on the front lines, working alongside Baalphoria and the Free Colony¡¯s most powerful soldiers¡ªnot to mention designing many of their most powerful skills¡ªEmilia had rarely seen the aether etched in this much detail. This¡ªmagical as it was, not just in the literal but the metaphorical sense¡ªwas not something that happened in her world without something having gone terribly wrong, or someone from one of the Free Colonies¡ªthe ones that utilized their cores¡ªburning themself out.

    Emilia pressed a hand to her core as she, Miira and several of the other children¡ªthose who weren¡¯t egging Sawyer or Gale on in their bickering¡ªworked to prepare food for their travels. They could very well push open the next door and find the heartcore and exit. They could be popping out the exit in moments, and find themselves surrounded by people who would help them¡ªpeople who would feed them something that wasn¡¯t the suspect food they were putting together.

    That certainly could happen, but Emilia was a soldier, and soldier¡¯s prepared for the worst. Better to waste time over-preparing than step out into a firestorm when you hadn¡¯t put on pants.

    ¡­

    There may have been at least one time when she had gone into battle without pants, but there had been extenuating circumstances! There had been people dying! And she hadn¡¯t gone far from base. She could have always popped back in and gotten pants if things got worse. They hadn¡¯t, and thankfully, during The Flaming, all picture evidence of her fighting nearly naked had been destroyed¡­ probably. Emilia had some suspicions that Olivier, who she had drunkenly sent a photo to, might still have a copy.

    Olivier had been one of the fortunate people, during The Flaming. There had been a handful of people, herself included, who had been outside of the attack¡¯s reach, their own abilities and records untouched. The entire world had been lucky they were, when the flesh and blood attacks had come soon after. Nearly everyone had been left scrambling to rewrite skills that had been blown across the aethernet, remnants of them only found in the memory and code of those who had been spared The Flaming.

    ?This should be enough, I think,? Miira said as they finished packaging up the food.

    Some of the younger children sat nearby, eating quietly, along with some of the most despondent children. A few of them had avoided eating, determined not to interact with anyone, determined to reject any attempts at kindness. They could only avoid their hunger and thirst for so long, however, and apparently the time to crack was now.

    Thankfully, eating also seemed to be snapping a few of them out of their stupor, and several of the more observant children had plopped down near them to try and drag them further out of it.

    That was good. Just like in the first labyrinth, each subsequent challenge appeared to be more difficult than the last. This one hadn¡¯t exactly been difficult, but it had certainly been time-consuming and laborious. The more capable, moving hands they had, the better.

    Plus, Emilia couldn¡¯t shake memories of the last challenge¡ªcouldn¡¯t ignore the fact that the labyrinth may very well give them another challenge with a penalty like the water slides: an unavoidable challenge, unless others risked themselves for those who couldn¡¯t participate.

    They really couldn¡¯t afford to lose more of their group, especially not when she couldn¡¯t split herself in half. If more children disappeared, she wouldn¡¯t be able to chase after them without risking those who remained in this realm.

    Hopefully, she wouldn¡¯t have to make sure a decision.

    Not now. Not ever.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 103: Biting Tongues

    ¡°Freedom. Freedom. Please, please lead to freedom,¡± Emilia chanted to herself as they worked to get the next door open¡ªif the thing in front of them could even be called a door.

    Realistically, the thing that had awaited them at the end of the long, winding tunnel they had found on the other side of the kitchen reminded her more of a drawer. The door or drawer, or whatever she was going to consider it, spanned nearly all the wall¡¯s ten or so metres, less than a foot of clearance on each side. Its bottom was a few feet from the ground, while the top was several meters above their heads and still a good ten or so more from the ceiling.

    How they were going to actually get into the next area, assuming they could get the thing to move more than a few feet, Emilia had no idea. Human ladder, perhaps. If they were lucky, something would appear to help them into it. She wasn¡¯t holding out hope on that, however.

    A long, polished black bar extended from one side of the ¡®door¡¯ to the other. It was set low, just below Emilia¡¯s hips. Most likely, it had been set there, so the majority of their group could help open it, a useless gift on the part of the labyrinth, as a large portion of their group had already given up, after nearly an hour of trying and failing to get it to move.

    A few of them had refused to give up, and slowly the thing was opening.

    Very, very slowly. They¡¯d been working on moving it for at least three hours at this point, and it had moved exactly 4.3 feet, almost two feet of which had simply revealed the top edge of the door-drawer to them. Emilia had measured.

    Still, a dozen tiny hands joined her own in their refusal to give up, little digits wrapping around the bar, their feet braced into the too soft earth as they put their entire weight into it. To each side, Gale and Sawyer were working to use what little magic they had to add leverage along the edges. Realistically, they didn¡¯t need to move it far; they just needed to move it enough that they could safely work to get everyone through the gap at the top.

    Safely was the problem.

    As soon as they¡¯d opened the gap of a few feet, children had begun to pipe up, saying that was enough space for them to fit through. Then, one of the younger, homeless girls had interjected, telling everyone that it reminded her of the local garbage shoot, where she had once seen someone decapitated by the top abruptly clamping shut around them.

    ?Why have you been there?? one of the non-homeless¡ªhomed? Emilia wasn¡¯t exactly sure what to refer to the three subgroups that had formed in their group as, but homeless, homed and outliers seemed the most obvious lines of division¡ªgirls had asked, her voice filled with a bark that Emilia didn¡¯t like but wouldn¡¯t dare speak against. ?Going looking for food? What, you couldn¡¯t steal enough from us that day??

    Around the girl, a half dozen recently despondent children had snickered, while the homeless child glowered. Sawyer and a number of other homeless children had stepped between them, the aether scratching with private conversations until the homeless girl had allowed herself to be pulled away.

    ?We should open it further,? Sawyer had told her, smile grim and pained as he ignored the whispers of the homed children. ?I don¡¯t think many of us will be willing to go through without more of a¡­ safety margin. We¡¯ve all seen things like that happen¡ªinjuries that occurred due to desperation.? The boy had smiled in the direction of the snickering homed children, something in his expression telling her that he wouldn¡¯t much care if they got decapitated¡ªlooking like he wanted to tell them off¡ªbefore wandering off for a brief reprieve.

    More and more of the children who had been absently staring into space since the beginning of their journey had been snapping back into reality since the end of the water slide challenge, and everyone was aware that pushing those children too far¡ªeven just upsetting them¡ªcould risk their awareness of the situation. Unfortunately, avoiding upsetting them was proving to be a difficult task. It hadn¡¯t taken long, since those first few had come back to awareness, for Emilia and the older children who had been helping the most to realize they had a problem.

    It had already been evident that Gale held some negative views on the homeless children in their group, constantly biting at Sawyer and his friends, most of whom were homeless as well. Their comments had never transgressed into anything too awful, and Emilia hadn¡¯t felt the need to step between them since those first, magic sparking moments at the beginning of their journey. All the same, it had been clear there was an invisible line of division between them.

    Gale¡¯s wariness of the homeless children¡ªwhich Emilia had discovered through Miira was more a result of Gale¡¯s parent¡¯s dislike of them than any real slight between them¡ªwas nothing compared to that outright dislike of the previously despondent children, most of whom had parents and homes they were hoping to return to. Their negative views of the homeless residents of their town were palpable. Unlike the few homed children who hadn¡¯t fallen apart in the aftermath of the stampede¡ªwho had worked together with the homeless children to get them through the first several challenges and Emilia now considered outliers¡ªthe newly aware homed children held no such camaraderie with children they had spent most of their life avoiding. Worse, some of the homed children had seemingly been taught to hate their city¡¯s homeless children, a feeling they were doing nothing to contain now that they were talking and interacting with the world again.

    This left their group with something of a problem. None of the homeless children or the outliers liked hearing the homed children speak negatively about the homeless ones, and it certainly wasn¡¯t fair given how much work the homeless children had done to get them this far. After all, they were the group who had lost the most members saving the despondent, mostly homed children during the water slide challenge.

    It didn¡¯t matter that Sawyer had assured her that he and his friends had heard worse. It wasn¡¯t fair to them, but after a brief discussion, their group¡¯s leadership had decided that listening to the homed group speak harshly to and about them was better than risking their minds floating away once more. They would bite their tongues, keep their glares from growing too sharp, and continue on as they had¡ªas the heroes of this disaster, willing to risk their lives for children they must have known would do not such thing for them, were their places reversed.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The fact that the homeless children were willing to be the bigger people wasn¡¯t stopping Emilia from fantasizing about giving the homed children a piece of her mind, however, nor was it stopping her from muttering about them under her breath. Astra and Miira had both given her odd looks, when they¡¯d noticed her talking to herself. It had turned out to be a stroke of luck, however, as it opened the door for her and Miira to discuss some of the finer details of communication in this world during a brief break from their tugging.

    ?Hmm¡­ not really?? Miira told her, glancing up from the paper Emilia had scrawled her question across: Are your thoughts ever accidentally heard by other people?

    Gale scoffed as she plopped down beside them, returned from telling one of the homed children to keep it down. ?Only if it¡¯s on purpose,? she grumbled, eyes sliding back at the child she had just finished telling off, their voice still carrying uncontrolled over the area. ?Plenty of people claim to lose control of their voice from time to time. They say it¡¯s an accident. It never is.?

    ?Ah¡­ that¡¯s true¡­? Miira admitted, explaining that after a certain age, losing control of your voice was difficult. ?It¡¯s more common in times of high stress,? she added, telling Emilia that her parents ran a restaurant. During times of high traffic, sometimes their voices would escape them without conscious thought, but it was rare.

    ?It¡¯s the same with volume and who can hear you. That kid back there? Totally faking it when she says she¡¯s being loud by accident. Yeah, sure.?

    ?The same things happens with¡­ ah¡­? Miira trailed off, cheeks lighting up red and highlighting the smattering of freckles over her cheeks.

    From the corner of her eye, Emilia could see Benny¡¯s head twist their way, his eyes blowing wide as he watched the girl. He had a bit of a crush on her, Emilia had learned. Miira seemed aware of it, but unsure of how to respond, especially under the circumstances of not just the labyrinth but their different lives as well. Emilia didn¡¯t have the heart to point out that if Miira¡¯s suspicions were correct, and her parents had indeed died in the stampede, she was just as much an orphan as Benny now.

    Then again, Miira was a sweet, well-behaved child. Perhaps friends of her family would take her in, assuming there was anything left in their town to go back to.

    In a truly teenage move, Gale¡¯s eyes rolled. ?What she means to say,? the girl sighed, annoyance filling her voice even as she leaned in close to Emilia, a conspiratorial smirk on her face, ?is people¡­ let things slip¡ªtotally by accident, of course¡ªall the time. By fake accident,? she added, just in case Emilia was as stupid as the teenager seemed to assume all adults were.

    ?Sometimes¡­ people will accidentally let secrets slip,? Miira said, apparently trying to toe a middle ground between claiming people were lying and that something less malicious was going on.

    ?So-and-so likes so-and-so, and then, oops! Did I say that out loud! How terrible of me! Alas! I cannot control my thoughts~?

    The three of them looked up to find Caro smiling down at them. Astra, who was snuggled into Emilia¡¯s lap snacking away, did not look up.

    ?My sister does that all the time,? Caro explained, sliding down beside Emilia and grabbing some of the food they had prepared. ?She let it slip that her best friend was going to break up with her boyfriend. Claimed it was an accident. It wasn¡¯t. I actually think the best friend told her to do it, because she didn¡¯t want to be the one to break up.? Caro shrugged, explaining the friend had gotten pity points for being broken up with. The girl¡¯s parents had apparently taken her to a concert in a nearby town, in an attempt to cheer her up.

    Emilia pulled the notepad back from Miira, scribbling, ¡°How do you control whether you¡¯re thinking or talking out loud?¡± onto it.

    Caro peeked at the paper, squinting at it like if they tried hard enough they¡¯d suddenly be able to read. It didn¡¯t work, and they flopped backwards when Emilia passed the book back to Miira, Gale peeking over her shoulder in turn. The pair glanced at each other.

    ?Thinking?? they asked in unison.

    ?We don¡¯t¡­ think words?? Gale said slowly, as though she were talking to someone particularly stupid. The girls exchanged another look, their eyes flickering as a private conversation flowed between them. After a long moment, Gale deflated and turned back to Emilia, nervously asking, ?Do you¡­ think with words??

    What followed was a discussion about how locals didn¡¯t think in terms of words. Emilia had met a few such people in her own world: people who thought in pictures and emotions and vibes, as opposed to a concrete, inner dialogue. They weren¡¯t common, and most simply leaned further into abstract thought. Words and numbers still existed within their heads, but they were often the minority, in comparison to the more abstract thoughts. They had little internal voice.

    Life for them¡­ was difficult, to say the least. While Censors could interface with those abstract thoughts, they were designed to work with solid, voiced thoughts. A significant portion of a teenager¡¯s life, after installation, was learning to work with their Censor, their Censor learning in turn to read not just solid thoughts, but also the more abstract ones. A freshly installed Censor couldn¡¯t understand that the vague lines of thought that represented the picture of a specific dessert represented that dessert, but after a few years it could, connecting the voice of I want x dessert with that image and negating the need for the voice.

    It was why her own Censor could track her balance levels, monitoring her mental state for dips and highs that indicated a problem. That sort of thing was only possible with a Censor that knew you¡ªthat had lived with you for the majority of your life, and understood your voiced thoughts first. Hence, life for people who had little internal voice often couldn¡¯t interface with their Censor well, and that sucked. So much of Baalphorian life relied on working with your Censor, after all.

    ¡°There aren¡¯t many people like that in my world,¡± Emilia wrote out, along with a brief explanation that her society was difficult for people who couldn¡¯t think in words, at least to some extent.

    A groan of annoyance escaped Gale, and Emilia really wanted to ask whether such sounds were the result of locals thinking the sound as words. Did they think ¡°Arrg~¡± or did it just escape them unbidden? Before she could snatch her notepad back and scribble the question, however, Gale¡¯s voice filled her ears¡ªher aether? her core? She actually had no idea what organ heard aethervoices.

    ?No wonder you visitors can¡¯t access the system or use magic, if you¡¯re thinking about it all wrong.?

 Arc 3 | Chapter 104: Just Focus (it isnâ€™t that hardâ€¦ maybe)

    Emilia tried to still her mind. It refused to be stilled. Abstract thoughts and images floated through her head, filling the space that was usually reserved for words running a mile a minute. She could do this, she so totally could. All she had to do was do the exact things she¡¯d trained herself to do a week earlier, just on a much larger scale.

    Still your mind. Let the aether just exist within you. Let your thoughts be as they should be: abstract and winding. Imagination is your friend¡ªyour guide in making your will reality. No words or numbers or facts. Just let that internal voice turn itself off and¡ª

    A laugh rippled through her from the next room, and she growled, the sound ripping out of her mouth and rumbling through the aether. The laugh continued, and Emilia wished the man¡ªher stupid saviour¡ªhadn¡¯t stripped her of her {Blood Armour}. She didn¡¯t think he¡¯d taken it because he was worried she¡¯d blow him up with her magic, but had she had her magic gems or {Blood Needles} at the moment, she might have.

    ¡°?Shut it!?¡± she yelled, cringing when the words echoed out of her core as well, the words finding shape within the aether. ¡°?Fuck!?¡±

    She flopped back on the bed, glaring up at the ceiling. Stars of the world¡¯s light eating material were scattered over it, glowing faintly in the dim light. The city had fallen into darkness several hours earlier, and her room¡¯s cracked curtains had allowed the city¡¯s own light consuming devices to steal most of her light.

    Her legs kicked idly against the bed. Her saviour had offered her food at the time, but she¡¯d refused it¡ªshe was still upset with him and his secrets. Now, with her stomach rumbling quietly inside her, she regretted that decision. She also regretted thinking about her stomach when another snicker echoed through the room, her thoughts still escaping from her mind like leaves caught in the wind.

    ¡°?Annoying,?¡± she muttered, closing her eyes to the reality that her thoughts refused to be contained.

    She¡¯d had better control of it during their assault¡ªfailed assault, her brain reminded her¡ªbut that had largely been thanks to one of the members of their group being a parent. They had used some sort of magic to help reign in her thoughts, because the way things had been going, everyone would have heard her coming. The magic had been overwhelming, itchy, and she¡¯d felt like a baby for needing the help. While it was true she¡¯d been one of the last visitors in their group to attain the power of speech and most of them had taken at least a week to get a hold of containing their thoughts, usually she was a fast learner. Not so much in this case.

    ?You¡¯ll get there,? her saviour said, suddenly appearing beside her bed.

    ?Before I spill every thought I¡¯ve ever had?? Emilia asked him, jaw clenching as she focused on only letting her thoughts be spoken by her aethervoice. At least se could do that, even if it wasn¡¯t particularly difficult.

    ?Probably,? he replied. Something clinked and when Emilia dared open an eye, she found her plate of food sitting on the bedside table. It looked¡­ not terrible, thankfully.

    Emilia sighed, pushing herself up and letting her mind wander through thoughts about how this world was totally, completely not meant for someone with a brain as loud as her own.

    ? ? ? One Week (minus at least one day) Earlier ? ? ?

    The gems at Emilia¡¯s wrists exploded, again. Technically, the gems themselves didn¡¯t explode, but the energy she had been gathering inside them did. It splattered out across the world, leaving lines of harmless light across the wall the children had pointed her at, just in case. Quickly, the light faded, and Emilia was left staring at a blank, stone wall.

    ?Try again.?

    ?Do better.?

    ?Not like she can do much worse.?

    Emilia turned to glower at the Gale and Sawyer. Miira was the only one who was nice. Her, and Astra. Astra wouldn¡¯t¡ªor perhaps couldn¡¯t¡ªspeak, however, so it was easy for her to be nice. Gale and Sawyer, on the other hand, were just mean.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying my best,¡± she signed at them, arms moving with more exasperation than they had in years. It had been a long time since she¡¯d used the language of her youth so much that her emotions filtered through the signs. On the rare occasion she¡¯d signed in the last decade, it had only ever been in Baalphorian Sign Language, careful and precise as she translated for some random person she¡¯d come across. Short and sweet. No need for anything other than kindness in her hands.

    Most of those times she¡¯d also been speaking, giving voice to someone involved as well. Normally, Censors translated for each party¡ªor they could just message each other outright¡ªbut the influx of people from the Free Colonies had created difficulties on that front. There could be a verbal language barrier, and for people from the Free Colonies without permanent Censors that alternative communication through a translation program was impossible.

    It wasn¡¯t exactly common that she ran into situations where two people who couldn¡¯t communicate needed help, even less common when one of those people was using BSL, but it had happened. Those few times hadn¡¯t been enough to reignite the spark of confidence and love of signing she had. This¡ªbeing forced to sign to dozens of people over the last few days¡ªwas. Where previously she might have reverted to speaking unhearable words at the children, now, her frustration floated through her signs, the moves growing sloppy as official sign language shifted haphazardly into the signs of her youth and back, slang and anger melding their way into her one-sided conversation, the children having lost what she was trying to say long ago.

    Emilia huffed and turned back to the wall. As much as the children were annoying, their teaching styles suspect and mean, they did know what they were talking about. In hindsight, perhaps that shouldn¡¯t have surprised Emilia as much as it had. Zach had led her to believe that magic in this world was fading, more and more of his students coming in with almost no connection to the world¡¯s magic, but he¡¯d never actually quantified that with a number.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Sawyer in particular, despite being the youngest of the three, knew a lot about how magic worked. Some of the older, homeless boys and grannies had taught him, he¡¯d explained. They, in turn, had learned magic from the older homeless population, many of whom seemed to live underground¡ªnot just literally, the people often making their homes in the city¡¯s caverns, but in the sense that the Risen Guard didn¡¯t bother them as much as the average person.

    ?They just sort of¡­ forget we exist?? Sawyer had explained, most of the other homeless children nodding along with him. ?Not great when we need help.?

    ?Like food!?

    ?Or health shit! I¡¯ve had a bloody cough for months and no one will help my sorry ass!?

    A number of the children had burst into giggles, swear words of various seriousness shifting between them. Nearby, the homed children had looked scandalized by the language.

    Emilia didn¡¯t have to hear Sawyer tell her what else that forgetfulness meant: that when the homeless and forgotten broke laws, the Risen Guard was similarly uninterested or unaware.

    ?Some of the grannies are really, really old,? Caro had piped up. They had a home, parents and siblings, but they were apparently quite a troublemaker, constantly showing up in the areas of town frequented by the homeless folk and asking questions. Eventually, their father would show up to drag them home, offering bits of support to those he could. Caro¡¯s family wasn¡¯t particularly well off, from what Emilia understood, and what their father could offer was limited but appreciated.

    ?You aren¡¯t supposed to talk to them!? one of the homed children had hissed at Caro, Emilia¡¯s brain flitting back to Gale telling Sawyer the same thing about this Carne person.

    The conversation about whoever Carne was and how Emilia had reminded the children of them had derailed, following Gale and Sawyer¡¯s argument over the cool factor, but from what had been said, they weren¡¯t one of the homeless elders the kids were currently talking about. From the bits she had been able to make out¡ªthe children having all been talking over one another in their excitement to talk about Carne¡ªCarne were an older teenager, maybe even a young adult. They weren¡¯t completely homeless, bouncing between the homes of friends, but they were associated with the city¡¯s homeless population.

    They were also a bad influence, if Gale was to be believed. Honestly, as much as the teenager was, well, a teenager, Emilia was inclined to trust her. Teenagers generally didn¡¯t say someone wasn¡¯t good news unless they really weren¡¯t.

    Caro had shrugged, telling the homed child that their parents didn¡¯t care, so they could talk to them if they wanted.

    ¡°Kids aren¡¯t supposed to learn what these¡­ old grannies know?¡± Emilia had guessed, scribbling the question out for Gale and Miira.

    Sawyer had peeked at the note as well, his eyebrows pulling together in a way that told Emilia that if he knew anything about reading, it wasn¡¯t enough to read what her note. As much as Gale didn¡¯t like the boy, she was also an extremely observant and kind child under her angst, her aethervoice answering Emilia¡¯s question in a way that made it clear to everyone around what her question had been without being so blunt as to read it aloud for the group.

    ?Those old grannies,? the teenager had said, ?learned magic before it stopped being taught. Our parents know a bit of magic, but they mostly learned from their parents. The Risen Guard shut down the magic schools a long time ago because they were too dangerous. Our parents and grandparents follow their laws, only teaching us what we need to live. Those old homeless people¡­ don¡¯t. So, most of our parents don¡¯t let us near them. Some even have really, really strict punishments if they catch you talking to them. They just don¡¯t want us to get hurt, and what those grannies know is dangerous.?

    ?Magic isn¡¯t dangerous!? Sawyer had piped up, tone sounding so much like a teacher¡¯s that Emilia was sure he was mimicking one of the people who had taught him. ?It isn¡¯t any more dangerous than other things. What matters is how you use it¡ªwhat your intention is!?

    That was how Sawyer had ended up their teacher. Emilia and all the homeless children had gathered around him to hear what he had to say. Most of the outlier children, including Gale, Miira, Caro and Kelly, had stayed as well. The majority of homed children, on the other hand, had sneered at them before moving themselves as far from their group as possible.

    Magic wasn¡¯t to be spoken of outside of official lessons with their parents, or rarely, with proper teachers or the Risen Guard itself. While the homeless children had no qualms about breaking that rule, and the outliers, while still nervous, were curious and confident, the homed children wanted no part of any illegal magic talk.

    At least, most of them didn¡¯t. Emilia had seen a few glancing back their way, the only reason they had followed the rest of their group being peer pressure and fear of being excluded from the group if they stayed. A couple had wandered closer as Sawyer spoke, pretending to examine this or that in the cave as they listened. Eventually, one of the other children would stomp over to drag them back to the main group.

    ?Magic,? Sawyer reminded Emilia as she began to focus on her gems again, ?is all about focus and intention.?

    She had pointed out that locals also had access to the system, but both Sawyer and Gale had brushed her off, telling her that even without access to it, she should be able to use the gems.

    ?If they were empty, without engravings, then sure, you¡¯d need the system to write magic into them or the world. They have magic in them already. You just have to activate it, and all you need for that is a core.?

    Gale had made it sound so easy, despite the fact that she couldn¡¯t consistently activate Emilia¡¯s magic gems either. In theory, all anyone had to do was empty their mind and focus on the gems, let abstract belief that they would activate flow through them and into the gems. Magic required no words. Magic was the world, and the world had no language, only intention and belief.

    Emilia was pretty damn sure this world was made of ones and zeros, but pointing that out seemed cold. Plus, she was supposed to be focusing. Empty her mind of words. Turn off her internal voice because, as the children had cheerfully pointed out, using magic when you were speaking was extremely difficult, and for them, all words led to their aethervoice forming. Using magic while having a voice was impossible, according to some, only for the most skilled users, according to others.

    Baby magic user that she was, Emilia needed her brain to shut up. Such things were, unfortunately, practically impossible for her. Even in the moments where she¡¯d managed to focus on her core, working to let her energy fill her meridians with power and life, her brain hadn''t been quiet. Words were something she couldn¡¯t turn off. Her brain was always running, internal monologue filling the silent void of existence. She was fine with that¡ªshe liked her thoughts, as long as they weren¡¯t running down the trauma road, anyways. To have to shut them off¡­

    The energy that had been gathering inside the gem at her wrist shuddered away from her again. Instead of getting better, she swore she was getting worse. Each new attempt, her brain seemed to be rebelling, filling what little silence she could manage faster and more violently than during the last attempt. ¡°I will not be silenced!¡± it seemed to be saying, but unless it shut the fuck up, she wasn¡¯t going to be capable of using this world¡¯s magic. Maybe system access would make it easier, but according to the kids, it would only make it a bit easier.

    ?I think¡­ we should take you to the grannies,? Sawyer said when she turned back.

    Yet another reason to hope they popped out of this place in the same city they¡¯d left, Emilia supposed.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 105: Follow the Scars and Scratches

    The fact that their group popped out of the labyrinth in an entirely different city seemed like a punishment from the universe¡ªor the platform maintainer, perhaps. There had been so many reasons to hope they would end up in the city they had entered from. Back to Livery¡ªEmilia had finally been able to ask the kids what their city was called, after being bestowed with her notebook¡ªand whatever awaited them there: death and destruction, but streets the children knew and loved.

    The homeless children had been convincing in their arguments that it was unlikely the older homeless people would have evacuated the city. Most were too old, and their underground homes would have been safe enough from the blood magic raging through the streets above¡ªthat was, after all, why their group had descended into the caverns and accidentally entered the labyrinth in the first place: it was the safest place to go, as the giant doors of the city closed in the stampeding adults.

    They could have gone to them, to the old grannies who ran Livery¡¯s homeless population. They could have found support and knowledge to fill in the gaps in Emilia¡¯s impromptu education, which was currently being sponsored by Sawyer. He was still a child, however. An intelligent child, but a child nonetheless. Most of what he was telling Emilia was only theoretical, his own core too weak yet to support more than the most basic of magics.

    That basic magic¡ªshort bursts of pure energy, wind and the occasional spark¡ªwas far more than she¡¯d been able to accomplish. Her magic was strong¡­ when it worked. Usually, it didn¡¯t, and the few times it had, she¡¯d either used the wrong magic or missed whatever she was aiming at.

    The problem was how different the techniques used in their worlds were. While Censors certainly picked up the bulk of the work for skills, running activation sequences and math in the background before forwarding the information and allowing the skill to be let loose, the user¡¯s brain was still involved in the process. Filtering out that useless background noise, ignoring it in favour of something more important¡ªlike not getting eaten¡ªwas an important combat skill. A person could only use a skill their core could handle and their brain could effectively ignore their Censor activating.

    Well, mostly. There were some skills that required stillness, the user¡¯s full focus aimed onto the skill and what came before its activation. Those people had to rely on supports and allies to keep them alive, but in return, the skills they released were monstrous.

    The point was, Emilia was good at multitasking¡ªgood at ignoring the minute details of one thing while focusing on another. Entire equations could flitter through her head without distracting her. Her brain was made for her world¡¯s skill system, and it was not meshing well with this world¡¯s empty-headed magic system.

    Where skills used math and logic and fact to work, this world¡¯s magic relied more on imagination. Fine. You didn¡¯t get to be a wildly successful skill coder by having no imagination, but Emilia¡¯s imagination was code. Ones and zeros that slid their way into people¡¯s minds for use, that code shuttering through the aether to write itself temporarily¡ªhopefully, anyways¡ªonto the code of the universe.

    Casting magic while imagining what it was going to do without giving voice to what it was going to do? Fucking. Hard.

    Impossible. It could very well be impossible, for someone like her.

    Imagine the light magic gem glowing. Imagine it¡¯s a lovely gold, lighting up the world like a glow bug, or a night light. Do not give voice to those thoughts. Vibes and intent and images only, and Emilia wanted to die.

    It should be so simple. Even Astra could do it! Granted, no one was sure how she could do it, but still! The silent girl¡ªwho everyone had agreed was far younger than was normal to be using even basic magic, let alone the complicated stuff she was doing¡ªwas obviously a prodigy! It was probably why none of the other kids knew her. Her parents were hiding her away! Keeping her abilities a secret from the world! That would be fair, given what she¡¯d learned about the Risen Guard swiping up the most skilled children for their ranks.

    Emilia grumbled as she held out her wrist to Astra, letting the child reactivate the quickly fading light shimmering out of the one stone. Astra, at least, wasn¡¯t rubbing the fact that her assistance was needed in her face. It still sucked. Even with all her knots, it wasn¡¯t often that she had to rely on other people for help¡ªnot for anything as serious as this, anyways. Money, occasionally, and it was nice to have allies to do most of the hard lifting in raids, but at the same time, she didn¡¯t actually need help with either of those things. She had money, even if she refused to access it, and she could take on raids alone, even if she hated them with a burning, undying passion. Needing a child¡¯s help now for something that everyone said she should be able to figure out was terrible, and saying no wasn¡¯t an option.

    The world was dark, pitch-black save a few windows with the curtains closed to the light eating substance splattered over the ceiling high above them. Light peeked out behind those curtains, but they were so rare and dim that they were practically useless as they traversed the streets. Where they were traversing the mystery city¡¯s streets to, none of them had any idea.

    ?We¡¯ll follow the magic of the universe!? Benny had confidently declared during the discussion that had ensued as they exited the labyrinth, and they¡¯d realized no one recognized anything.

    To Emilia¡¯s general horror, practically all the homeless children had nodded along in agreement. The homed and outlier children seemed less enthusiastic, several even refusing to go along with such a stupid plan.

    ?Fine,? Sawyer had said, shrugging as he led the homeless children away. ?Enjoy standing around. Hopefully no monsters come out of that door to eat you~?

    The homed children had turned wide eyes on the labyrinth exit¡ªor entrance? Random doorway? Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if going back through it would take them back to the heartcore chamber or to the beginning of the labyrinth or what, and she wasn¡¯t about to go see¡­ That said, the little, impossibly curious part of her kinda wanted to go back and check. Just a little.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    ?There¡­ there were no monsters in there¡­? one of the children had stammered, little foot stomping into the ground.

    ?Yes, there were,? Gale had reminded them, glaring down at the child. ?Are you forgetful, or just plain stupid? A third of our group is gone because they lost to monsters!?

    The reminder of both the monsters and their missing members had quieted the group. They had all been hoping to run into their missing members once they exited. The fact that there was no one to be found, and no sign anyone but them had exited before them was defeating, and combined with their fear of monsters chasing after them, the homed children had contented themselves to following Sawyer through town. Emilia, pulling up the rear with the slower children, had paused, pulling out her {Blood Dagger} and slashed a message across the wall nearest to their exit. Something for V to find, if he and the others found their way out of wherever they had ended up.

    Occasionally, as they went, Sawyer would stop, his energy reaching out and winding through the aether looking for¡­ something. When she wasn¡¯t busying trying to empty her mind and send her own energy to the gems¡ªshe was hoping more walking meditation would work, ok?¡ªEmilia sent little wisps of her no longer golden energy out to search the area and feel for what Sawyer was doing: looking for snags and cracks in the aethernet¡ªor the universe, as the children called it.

    It was an impressive skill, and one that certainly required a lot of concentration and attention to detail. Many of the cracks the boy followed were so subtle that, had her energy not been following the trail of his energy, she likely wouldn¡¯t have noticed them herself.

    Cracks and tears were common in her world. They¡¯d always been there, some more dangerous than others. The Strats were the result of a long since sealed hole in the aethernet, pure aether converging into the visible world and creating the beautiful cliffs. As far as anyone knew, they were the result of a natural rip in the aethernet. If something had created it¡­ well, the hole the Strats had come out of would have been even more extreme than the strange area created by the Corist during the Battle of Luxor, which was largely the result of tears through the area¡¯s aethernet. To imagine some sort of skill¡ªsome attack or accident¡ªhaving caused damage to the aether even worse than what had occurred in Luxor was unimaginable.

    Damage to the aether was the norm for her world, these days. Most were minor rips and cracks in the aether, the result of decades of war. Usually, damage was quickly sealed up by the aether itself, but it wasn¡¯t uncommon to feel ripples in it when your Censor and skills hit bigger ones. During the first days of the war, those ripples and tears had occasionally caused issues as skill failed to deploy due to too many scratches over the universe, and most skills had been updated to account for a less even surface.

    The point was, it had never occurred to her to follow those tears, although perhaps it should have. The monsters during the war had followed them, their claws ripping holes bigger so they could fall through the aether. While sparking wasn¡¯t quite so brutal, it still leveraged making holes in the aether to travel. The holes it created, however, were nothing¡ªthey were small enough for the aether to immediately stitch itself back together. Originally, there had been some concern that sparking could permanently damage the aethernet, but decades on, there was no sign of any such thing¡ªit was one of the few bits of research Emilia kept up on, given she¡¯d been instrumental in creating the skill.

    SecOps, The Black Knot, various mobs and criminal organizations, the military and government; practically every group with any power in Baalphoria had tried to track people through their sparkmarks. None had ever gotten anywhere with it. That was as far as anyone got to letting the defects in the aethernet guide them, and it was fascinating watching Sawyer let such small marks guide their way.

    The boy was so confident, not just in his use of his core and energy, but in his belief that he was doing the right thing¡ªthat the small line of damage across this world¡¯s data was an intentional thread, leading him right or left or forward. Never back. They never needed to go back. The universe knew all, after all. Past and present, the future of everything.

    At least, that¡¯s what Benny had explained to her, eyes bright with facts that he had apparently learned from the same old grannies who taught the children forbidden magic.

    ?Does the universe care about all the shit happening in it?? Gale growled out at him.

    Emilia had figured it was just a matter of time before someone expressed annoyance that the universe was apparently aware of everything, guiding what happened, yet had turned a blind eye to the carnage of the blood curse. Similar things had been said in her own world during the war, after all, especially to those who practised religions with similar beliefs in all knowing, all controlling gods.

    ¡°Why does god, the universe, the aether, forsake us? Does it not care for all the destruction those monsters are wreaking on the world?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t surprising that such questions came up now, but Emilia was slightly surprised it was Gale who voiced her incredulity that Benny believed in such a seemingly malicious and apathetic universe.

    ?Of course,? Benny replied, glaring over at her and the rest of the homed and outlier children.

    Even as they¡¯d gone on, their journey through the city so far shockingly smooth, the two groups had refused to accept that they were following some secret message in the fabric of the world. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be dividing the group back into simple groups of homed vs homeless. No more outliers. ?Everything happens for¡ª?

    Benny¡¯s voice cut off as someone¡ªalthough Emilia couldn¡¯t figure out who¡ªforcibly silenced him. The aether around the boy shuddered, and although he didn¡¯t appear to be in any pain, he also couldn¡¯t speak.

    Their group halted, heads twisting as they looked for the source of the energy surrounding Benny.

    ?Who¡¯s there!?? Gale yelled, her previously contained voice echoing out through the street. They waited, but no reply came, and slowly, the energy surrounding Benny dissipated.

    ?We should go¡­? Miira said, tugging on her friend¡¯s arm. Sawyer had already begun to move again, the homeless children following behind like his own personal army. The homed children lingered around Gale, Miira, and to a lesser extent, Emilia¡ªthey were more afraid of the dark than the homeless kids, the primary reason she¡¯d been keeping her light gem activated to spare them from the fear. ?We don¡¯t want someone to poke their head out and find us¡­?

    ?Says who!?? one of the most opinionated of the homed children demanded, tiny legs stomping forward until they were glaring at the slightly taller Miira. ?There are adults here! They could help us!?

    ?Yeah, could,? Caro piped up. ?They could also do bad things to us! Or turn us over to the Risen Guard!?

    ?Then the guard will return us to our parents!?

    ?Assuming they¡¯re they¡¯re even still¡ª? Energy whipped through the street, wrapping itself around Caro and cutting off their words, just as it had Benny¡¯s.

    The eyes of the child Caro had been arguing with bulged¡ªapparently they didn¡¯t like the energy getting so close to them, the children standing practically nose to nose as they argued. Their mouth wobbled and before Emilia could grab them, they were bolting down the street and not in the direction the rest of their group had gone.

    Emilia blinked into the darkness the child had just disappeared into, readjusting the kids in her arms. ¡°Well¡­ fuck.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 106: Canâ€™t Be a Dozen People

    ?SHUT. UP.?

    For all that Gale¡¯s new position as person who was keeping all the kids quiet wasn¡¯t endearing her to said children, it was a relief to Emilia. At least she didn¡¯t have to deal with signing at them to zip it. She had enough to worry about as it was, her attention split between walking¡ªand not falling or dropped Astra while doing so¡ªsending her energy zipping through the city, searching for the missing child, and turning what little focus remained on using her energy to heighten her hearing. Oh, and she had to pay extra attention to any sound lingering in the aether. Double hearing.

    Every little sound, distant as they usually were, was a potential sign of where the child, Stephy, could have run off to. Half the time, the energy she sent squirrelling after the mystery noise returned having found one of the homeless kids. They were still grouped together, thankfully, but their haphazard twists and turns through the city, following signs from the aether, were making it difficult for Emilia to immediately rule out that they were the cause of any noise.

    The rest of the time, her energy had bonked against the glass-like material of one house or another¡¯s windows, the occupants the source of the noise. Most of those times, Emilia hadn¡¯t wanted to dwell on the exact source of the sounds she¡¯d overheard¡ªit was the middle of the night, okay!? The origin of most noises was¡­ you know, obvious. Personally, not being a voyeur, she was contenting herself to believe whatever noises she heard¡ªmoans, grunt, spasms, banging¡ªwere children crying. Children cried out all the time, but especially when nightmares of the dark came. Nightmares and the hunger of babies was clearly the cause of all the noises she heard.

    Actually, it would have been nice if she couldn¡¯t convince herself of such things¡ªif the noises she heard had been more clear-cut as either adult fun time or crying children sounds she could have ignored the former. They weren¡¯t that clear, however. A noise could come from anything, but the majority of the sounds filling the night were distance voices, and the aethervoices that floated her way were too far away, too obscured for her to realize what their source was until her peeping energy returned, and she regretted searching for the runaway child.

    That regret wasn¡¯t going to stop her from continuing to search, however. These children, regardless of how caring for them had become increasingly painful as their trek went on, were still children. They were innocent and scared, and Emilia had to keep them safe, not just for her or them, but for V and the children who had risked their lives to keep ones like Stephy safe.

    In hindsight, it was possible the homed children had actually been less work while they were catatonic. Being slow and difficult to move was infinitely better than this panicked desertion of their group!

    ?Shh!? Gale hissed at one of the kids again. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure which one it was. There were just so many moving and talking now. She had definitely been told all of their names¡ªsave the boy who no one knew and still wasn¡¯t talking, currently being totted around by Kelly. Many of them were so quiet and distant from her and the core group who had been working on the challenges, however, that she hadn¡¯t retained their name.

    The chastised child grumbled, foot kicking against the ground and catching on something. Whatever it was went flying, colliding loudly¡ªat least to Emilia¡¯s enhanced ears¡ªwith a building.

    ¡°This is terrible,¡± Emilia mumbled to herself as she caught Benny¡¯s hand, the boy having stumbled. At least in her case, the only ones who could potentially hear her or the noise of their walking were other visitors or the rare local with their hearing intact. Honestly, at this moment, she¡¯d accept anything coming along. Most people had a soft spot for kids. There was just something inherently inhuman about hurting kids, and she figured that regardless of who came along and how seriously they were taking the raid, they¡¯d be pretty likely to help her deal with the kids¡­ before killing her.

    Emilia was okay with that. She was pretty done with the raid anyways. It wasn¡¯t fun. It was stressful and terrible, and she was going to need a vacation once all of this was over. Screw the Ship¡¯o Stars and the mystery knotter man waiting for the bartender up there. She was going to use Olivier¡¯s money and go somewhere else¡ªtake all her friends on a vacation out of the pink tide. The Black Knot and SecOps and the Club Cartel could deal with the knotters being slipped into people¡¯s drinks.

    She was a civilian¡­ kinda. Technically, she and the rest of her unit had never been decommissioned and were still on active duty, even those who had returned to the Free Colonies. Something about how it was easier to keep them on, and pay them for doing nothing, than deal with giving them access to military shit if something happened. Nothing had happened, although she knew a few of her unit members used their active status to get around the laws and regulations when it came to dealing with echoes, or stay up to date on the latest military intel and research.

    Emilia shook herself as she readjusted her hearing, her energy having naturally shattered with the loudness of whatever the child had kicked. She was about to return to moving, the group having briefly stopped while Gale and the child bickered about how whispering wasn¡¯t being quiet, when Miira caught her sleeve.

    The preteen looked grave¡ªfierce and determined in a way Emilia had only seen her during the chaos of the water slides. Her jaw flexed, she sucked in a long breath. ?I think we should stop looking.?

    The group stilled, all eyes turning to Miira. In Emilia¡¯s arms, Astra peeked out of her neck.

    ?Why?? Caro asked.

    ?We¡¯ve been looking a long time,? Miira explained, turning to look at the other kids. Nearly all were younger than her, only Gale older, while Kelly was around the same age. ?We haven¡¯t seen any sign of them. Benny even tried to search the aether, and before you say anything, I know most of us don¡¯t believe that stuff, but he still tried for us. Neither he nor Emilia have found anything. Gale, Kelly and I have been looking too. There is no sign of her, and we can¡¯t wander the streets forever.?

    ?But¡­ we have nowhere else to go.?

    Miira shifted, eyes turning back to Emilia. ?You can find the others, right??

    Emilia nodded, while the others broke out into a chorus of complaints. In the opinion of many, they had made the wrong decision to follow Sawyer in the first place, and the disappearance of Stephy had been a wonderful excuse to be free of the homeless children.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ?You can¡¯t be serious, Miira!?

    ?They were running around the city all willy-nilly! That brat pretends to be reading the will of the world, but he¡¯s just getting everyone lost!?

    ?Yeah!? a number of the children replied in unison.

    Miira turned back to them, eyes burning as she glared them down. ?They risked their lives for us! They lost a bunch of their friends, getting you lot down those slides! We might not believe what they do, but we owe it to them to trust that they¡¯ll keep doing what they think is best, not just for them, but for all of us!?

    ?Then why didn¡¯t they come back!??

    ?Because the universe didn¡¯t tell them to,? Benny piped up. He still sounded confident¡ªimpressive, given he was the only homeless child in their group now¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t lost on Emilia that he had tucked himself next to her. ?To trust the universe means to follow it, no matter what your heart says. They definitely wanted to stay, but if they¡¯d stayed, they would have lost the confidence of the universe.?

    Emilia closed her eyes and groaned as an argument broke out between Benny and the group, who were not impressed by his words. It would have been fascinating, listening to them argue¡ªas previously noted, Emilia was really curious about the seeming lack of religion in this world, and the homeless children''s beliefs did seem to lean into the religious, after all¡ªif not for the fact that this wasn¡¯t the time or place. They didn¡¯t have time for this¡ªnor for her to ask the thousand questions about religion and beliefs trying to rattle free of her brain. They needed to move.

    They needed to decide what they were doing¡ªwhere they were going.

    Pulling out her handy dandy notebook, Emilia scribbled on it, ¡°Ask Benny if he can lead everyone back to the others.¡±

    Miira, the only one not actively involved in the ensuing argument, peered at the paper and nodded. Steeling herself, the girl stepped between the arguing parties to ask Benny if he could lead them.

    Benny, who had been looking about ready to launch himself at one of the younger boys, straightened, eyes turning first to the notebook¡ªthough she was certain he couldn¡¯t read it¡ªand then to Emilia. ?Yes! I can do it! I can find them, I promise!?

    ?You can¡¯t seriously be willing to trust this kid with our safety,? Gale growled, glowering at Emilia.

    ¡°I will look a bit more. I can move faster without you. If I haven¡¯t found them in an hour, or I hear your group having trouble, I will come find you. I can¡¯t just leave Stephy to fend for herself,¡± Emilia wrote, holding the pad out for Gale to read.

    The teenager continued glowering at the paper, but knew she couldn¡¯t argue. No one wanted to leave Stephy out in the dark alone, but since they couldn¡¯t find her¡­ eventually, Emilia would have to give up searching¡ªhope someone found her in the morning. Someone kind and helpful, hopefully. Emilia knew the terror that some people could be, however, and just leaving the girl alone to face their evil, without searching at least a little more¡­

    Astra¡¯s arms tightened around Emilia as Gale began trying to convince the others to go along with the plan to let Benny lead them. The boy himself had already turned, his energy reaching out weakly in search of some sign of which way to go. Honestly, Emilia was pretty sure she was going to regret letting the boy lead them. He might believe in the power of the aether¡ªin the signs hidden within it and the universe¡ªbut he was young and his core weak. It wouldn¡¯t take long for him to wear himself out searching for signs.

    Mostly, Emilia was just hoping that she could send the group off in the general direction of the other group, and they¡¯d magically find each other.

    ¡­

    Technically, Emilia supposed that Benny and Sawyer¡¯s aether reading was magic. She was hoping for the other sort of magic, the things just work out kind of magic¡­ which might also technically be the same thing that their aether reading was? Trust the universe to guide you, so things work out?

    Emilia stared into the middle distance as she contemplated whether they were the same thing or not. All things considered, the few, mostly superstitious beliefs that some Baalphorians had, most at least jokingly referring to occasionally, were pretty close to the beliefs that the homeless kids seemed to have.

    Belief in the universe guiding your way, all your thoughts and intentions and hopes potentially being heard and written into existence.

    It was probably a coincidence¡­ or some visitor had brought their belief system into this world, and it had spread, at least among some of the population.

    Benny¡¯s energy caught on something, and he perked up. Fortunately, it was in the same direction that Emilia had last sensed the other group, and when dozens of eyes turned on her, expectant, she was able to confirm that that was also the direction she would have gone, were she leading.

    ?If this goes badly, I¡¯m blaming you,? Gale hissed as she gathered the group.

    Benny and Miira took the lead, the girl quietly encouraging him. Her own energy was shuddering within her, attempting to reach out and do¡­ something. Before their group had split, Miira had been interested in what Sawyer was doing, asking him and Benny questions about the process¡ªabout how he was doing it and what he was looking for. It was possible she was trying to put what she had learned to use now, but she could just as easily be attempting to follow Emilia¡¯s own example and send her energy searching through the world.

    Gale pushed her way into the centre of the group, arms full with two of the younger children, their eyes wide and afraid. Kelly took up the rear, quietly encouraging the few straggler children to get moving.

    ?Do you want me to take her?? he asked, nodding at Astra.

    The girl¡¯s arms tightened further, her message clear: don¡¯t make me leave you.

    Emilia shook her head, quickly scribbling out a message to the preteen boy. ¡°No, she won¡¯t weigh me down, but take this.¡±

    Kelly glanced at the message, eyebrows creasing. An outright frown broke out across his face as Emilia held out her {Blood Dagger} to him. ?You¡¯re the one who will be alone.?

    Emilia made a sign for more, motioning to herself. The boy nodded, accepting the dagger with an only barely shaking hand.

    ?I¡¯ll keep them safe,? he promised, which wasn¡¯t something that should have been on him. He was a baby¡ªthey all were. None of this was fair to them, but it wasn¡¯t something so simple that Emilia could just will it away. She couldn¡¯t make herself a dozen people, each intent to meet the needs of each individual child.

    All she could do was her best, and hope she wasn¡¯t fucking up¡ªhope the universe was guiding her correctly, she supposed.

    ¡°Well,¡± she sighed as the group disappeared into the darkness, the children who had been afraid of the dark tucking themselves closer to the others, ¡°shall we get going?¡±

    Astra tilted her head at Emilia, a silent question of ¡°What?¡± before tucking herself back into her neck.

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± she breathed out, looking around before choosing to backtrack.

    The universe might not send those following it backwards, but Emilia had never been one for listening to authority figures.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 107: A Different Sort of Knot

    Water crashed down around Emilia. So cold¡ªthe water was so cold, and when the torrent stopped, her attacker¡¯s magic briefly stymied by the burst of energy Emilia had sent spiralling towards them, her body screamed at her for making it move.

    She needed to move. Freezing limbs or no, she needed to move¡ªbecause of her freezing limbs, she needed to move, needed to get her blood moving.

    The sound of Astra forcing herself smaller in a nearby alley stung Emilia¡¯s senses. Luckily, from what she could tell, her attacker was either a member of the Enclave or just some other random local. Had they been a Risen Guard, they likely would have been able to hear Astra for how much noise she was making. The person¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t sure if they were a man or a woman¡ªhad given no indication they could hear Astra, who Emilia had set aside while she worked to extricate Stephy from the hole she had tumbled into.

    At the moment, Stephy¡¯s safety was more on the line. The girl had fallen too far down, one if not both of her legs broken, based on what the girl had said between her sobs. Who leaves a random, street entrance to the cavern system open? So unsafe.

    Emilia had been in the midst of trying to figure out how to get down to the girl, after having convinced Astra to tuck herself away in a little area cut out of a nearby building, several side roads away. Something had just felt¡­ wrong, and Emilia wasn¡¯t one for ignoring those feelings, something she was now profoundly grateful for.

    Crates full of bottles had littered the area she had left Astra in, and Emilia assumed it was used for either recycling or a change over of supplies. Her parent¡¯s estate had something similar: an area where the staff would put out items to be taken for recycling or reuse, to be exchanged with fresh food and supplies.

    None of that mattered, what mattered was Astra was safe and this asshole was endangering Stephy. The child couldn¡¯t move, but water from her attacker¡¯s magic was sliding down the hole to join her. She could hear the girl¡¯s screams, and Emilia cursed herself and the last heartcore for not giving her the ability to speak to locals.

    ¡°Move yourself!¡± Emilia tried to scream at the girl, willing some of her intention to reach her through the aether. The girl¡¯s legs might be broken, but she had arms, and she needed to not just sit there and wait to drown! ¡°Move! Claw your way to safety!¡±

    If she had thought her words would somehow transmit through the aether to Stephy¡ªwhich she hadn''t, because, seriously? Everything about this raid was going wrong and there was no way something like that was going to happen for her¡ªthey didn¡¯t. Instead, Emilia switched her thoughts to her magic gems. She just needed to get one of work. Gale and Sawyer had pointed out the ones they thought would be the most powerful for combat, but they had warned her they would be difficult to use¡ªnot to mention extremely dangerous to her if they failed.

    Another {Blood Needle} shot from her hand. It sang through the air before colliding with her assailant¡¯s magic, just as all her previous attacks had. The needle exploded harmlessly, several metres from the person. Against her thigh, Emilia felt the telltale sign of blood converging out of the aether to form another explosive needle for her, not that it would do her any good. At this rate, she was just wasting ammo. She¡¯d hoped the sound¡ªreal and physical as it was¡ªwould attract the attention of someone, but it hadn¡¯t. As much as another visitor or a Risen Guard showing up would potentially put them all in more danger, she needed help.

    She wasn¡¯t enough, and at this rate, they were all going to die for it.

    She wasn¡¯t used to not being enough, but this was the umpteenth time in only a few days where she had needed help. This was why so few people had joined this raid. This¡ªthis helplessness¡ªwas why she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if half the people who had risked joining would be popping out with at least a little psychological damage.

    The fact that this raid was designed to have such disparity in its rewards certainly wouldn¡¯t help either. She may not have come across many other visitors, but this raid was designed to force separation between them¡ªunless they were like V, more concerned with the welfare of the locals than winning, or that crazy family, who had entered alone.

    A raid designed to be completed solo.

    Allies were a necessity, as much as the government was obsessed with stressing the importance of self-reliance and solitary ability onto the public. Why the government tried to encourage both soldiers and heroes alike to work alone more than as a team, she had no idea. During the war, the government and military had pushed for units and teams to be mixed and shifted more often than necessary or sensible. Her own unit had never had to deal with that¡ªnot for more than a few rotating members who came in to learn how they did things before reporting back to another unit, anyways. For the most part, their unit was set. They didn¡¯t have to worry about such strange politics. They were above the control of their so-called superiors. They could rely on each other, learn each member like the backs of their hands, and trust them in times of trouble.

    Emilia rolled through a torrent of frozen rain, her body screaming at her to stop¡ªto get out. She still couldn¡¯t stop. There was no one to help her, no magical ally to show up and blow up the random asshole who¡¯d decided to attack her while her back was turned¡ªwhile she had been trying to save a frightened child.

    Seriously? What kind of person attacks someone who is trying to save a child? Yes, she was a visitor, but still! The child was obviously local, their broken calls for help a clear indicator¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts cut off as she contemplated that. Stephy was being loud. They had still been blocks away when the girl¡¯s aethervoice reached them. Someone else should have heard her¡ªrealistically, it could have been her cries that brought their attacker to them.

    So, why was no one else coming?

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    As far as she¡¯d seen, the buildings in these cities weren¡¯t made of anything aethervoices couldn¡¯t penetrate. Briefly, she turned her focus to the buildings around her and¡ª

    ¡°Fucking stars!¡± Emilia hissed as she scurried back, trying to get as much distance between her and the hole Stephy had fallen into as possible. It wasn¡¯t easy, the alley the girl had fallen into cramped with tripping hazards.

    The people inside the surrounding buildings were awake. She could hear them¡ªcould hear them listening to the battle and Stephy¡¯s screams. They knew what was happening, the words visitor and enemy and magic and child thrown between all the people who had been awoken by their fight, maybe even the child¡¯s first screams.

    They didn¡¯t care. These people hated her, regardless of what she¡¯d done¡ªregardless of the fact that she was trying everything she could to save the kids in her care or the fact that she wanted to help remove the blood curse from this world. They might not know most of that, but to hate her simply for her existence here? Had other visitors been here before? Had someone from her world come here, and done something terrible to the people of this city? Or was this simply the result of a near century of hatred for the group who had failed to earn a blessing? Perhaps an even older hatred for the fact that a blessing had caused the blood cause in the first place?

    Hatred for the fact that they knew their world was a game to the people outside it?

    Honestly, there were a thousand reasons to hate her¡ªEmilia would hate people like her too. If the next echo she saw was a fluffy baby, wanting to snuggle her and be loved, she wouldn¡¯t hesitate to kill it.

    But if it were protecting a human child? If killing it meant endangering some child who had befriended it?

    Emilia shook herself as she dove behind a pile of crates. They shuttered when her attacker¡¯s magic hit it, whatever was inside clattering loudly through the otherwise silent night. Her breaths, the sound of her attacker¡¯s steps, slowly bringing them closer, and the sizzling of fire and¡ª

    Sizzling?

    Fire spewed through the air, not from the direction of her attacker, but from the opposite end of the alley. It avoided her and all the supplies stuffed into the alley, seeking out her attacker. A scream erupted out of the aether, her attacker¡¯s feet racing back the way they had come¡ªback towards Stephy.

    Emilia swore, surging back towards the girl as well. Behind her, she could feel whoever had stepped into the fight following, their steps light and effortless over the cluttered ground. Sliding forward, she peered down the hole, finding Stephy alive and no more harmed than when she¡¯d first found her, only a lot wetter.

    ?Emilia!? the girl called up, voice filled with tears and stress.

    ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± Emilia signed down at the girl, cursing herself for her inability to even reactivate her light gem, which had gone dark as she tried to survive her assailant¡¯s magic.

    The person who had helped her stopped moving, their body positioned between Emilia and her attacker, who was backing slowly away from them. The person¡ªa man, based on their height and build¡ªglanced back at her, face obscured by the mask of a Risen Guard. Emilia had only seen them wear those masks in the world below. She had assumed their purpose was to keep their wearer safe from the hazardous air, but perhaps that wasn¡¯t all.

    The man nodded to her, to the child below them, before turning back to her attacker.

    ?Get out of the way, Risen Scum,? her attacker hissed. Veins of water swirled around their arms, lashing out at the aether and leaving brutal scars across it.

    Something in the man shifted as they watched the scars bubble closed. Emilia couldn¡¯t put her finger on what, his stance never shifting from that of a perfect military man. Something in his vibe, perhaps. Where serious, unbending protectiveness had been, there now lay anger with her assailant as well.

    ?The Risen Guard does not abide vigilante justice, regardless of the target,? he said, voice sharp and icy. ?There is a local child here, and yet you attack in ways that care nothing for their safety. Shame on you.?

    Her attacker hissed¡ªa mesh of gibberish and garbled insults¡ªat the Risen Guard. ?The Risen Guard are fools. You should be happy we are doing your job for you.?

    The man¡¯s head cocked. ?Not all of you.?

    ?Enough!?

    ?I don¡¯t imagine you¡¯ll tell me who, exactly, is involved in all this?? the Risen Guard asked, tone holding a touch of amusement and complete knowledge that they would be getting no answer.

    Technically, they did get an answer: another hiss, following by a wave of water rolling towards them. A wall of flame rose, the heat enough to make Emilia wish she could skirt out of distance. The flames settled, the wave evaporated, and their attacker was bolting away.

    ¡°There¡¯s another child!¡± Emilia yelled, as the Risen Guard moved toward follow her attacker.

    The man looked back, whatever eyes lay behind that mask of his analyzing her. ?Where??

    Emilia blurted out a description of where the girl was tucked away. Fast and dirty and somehow barely intelligible. Why was she fumbling so much? They¡¯d had entire lectures during the war on effectively relaying information¡ªshe¡¯d even led a few of those lectures, for stars sake! Something about the situation, and her sudden saviour who almost certainly had designs on killing or at least detaining her, perhaps.

    The man nodded, turning back to her attacker. Magic sparked around their fingers. ?I¡¯m going to enjoy this,? he said, voice chasing after the figure disappearing into the dark, before his was surging after them.

    Magic collided, fire and ice rending their way through the aether. Emilia didn¡¯t have time to deal with that. Either the man would win, and he¡¯d be able to help her get the child out, or he¡¯d lose, and then she¡¯d better hope Stephy was already free and they could run away.

    Or, she could run away. Fuck. Carrying a seven? eight? year old and Astra? Running for their lives while doing so?

    Her eyes flicked back to her saviour as she rummaged through the junk cast through the alley, looking for anything that could help her get Stephy up. The man¡¯s moves were confident as he danced through waves of water magic, his own fire sizzling out as their magics collided.

    He seemed confident. He seemed like he could win.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t going to be waiting to find out. Her focus narrowed down onto the alley, onto the items strewn through it and¡ª

    Rope. Old, worn rope, but rope enough to at least try getting Stephy out with it. Focus¡ªshe needed to focus on this and this alone. Hope the man won, hope he kept Astra safe as he did so.

    Emilia slid back towards the hole, her clothing increasingly coated in layers of grime, increasingly weighed down by all the water covering the ground. Stephy¡¯s wide eyes peered up at her, watery even in the dimness of the cave. She sniffled, and Emilia¡¯s heart clenched. Something crashed nearby. Someone swore. Emilia looked at her rope and nothing else.

    Knots. She needed to tie some knots.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 108: An Interview With a Potential Running Partner

    Stephy and Astra were heavy, but for the moment, at least, Emilia was content to carry them at a sedate pace. Behind them, she could still hear the echoes of the Risen Guard and Enclave member¡¯s fight. She¡¯d overheard their saviour ask some leading questions about the Enclave while she worked on getting Stephy free, so she assumed that was who her assailant was associated with¡ªnot that any of those questions had been answered with anything more than curses and magic.

    Not that the designation of Enclave member seemed to mean much, either. A loose collection of families; she¡¯d already understood that much, from the things she¡¯d heard about the Enclave. There was a big difference between Enclave families holding similar goals, with some willing to do anything for their harbinger to earn a blessing for the world and¡­ whatever that had been. That person could have been targeting her because she wasn¡¯t their family¡¯s harbinger, but she doubted it. Something in the way they had attacked her¡ªin the way they had looked at her like she was the scum of the universe, worthless and so dangerous that Stephy¡¯s life had been considered acceptable collateral damage.

    Zach had said the Enclave had been fracturing since the last blessing¡ªthe one that had granted this world the blood curse. He hadn¡¯t mentioned anything this extreme, however. Evidently, even more cracks had appeared in the Enclave since the last group of visitors had failed¡ªcracks that Zach, separate from the Enclave as he was, hadn¡¯t learned of.

    Or, hadn¡¯t told her about. That wasn¡¯t something she could think about now, however. Thinking about whether the man had tricked her, potentially given her false information deliberately¡­

    Emilia¡¯s steps stilled as she reached out her aching core, searching for the two groups of children wandering the city. From what she could tell, Benny was either extremely lucky or there actually was something to his reading of the aether: the two groups were heading in the same general direction. They hadn¡¯t met up yet, the homeless group moving significantly faster¡ªlikely due to a combination of being used to wandering the streets at night, Sawyer¡¯s proficiency with reading the aether, and their lack of small children. They would meet up eventually, however, assuming nothing happened.

    Emilia had absolutely no confidence that nothing would happen. There could have been only the one Enclave member and one Risen Guard wandering the city. There could easily be more. As much as she could hope that any others would target her¡­ she couldn¡¯t trust that.

    The OIC, SecOps and The Black Knot were good at picking up people before they did horrible things, but people slipped through the cracks¡ªhacked Censors let them slip through the cracks. Dozens of news articles from centuries past flittered through Emilia¡¯s memory. Terrorists and other criminals grabbing up people who they could leverage for what they wanted. Baalphoria didn¡¯t negotiate with terrorists, rare as they were, but civilians did. Grab a wife, a child, a friend of someone important and¡ª

    Emilia had already proven she was willing to risk her existence within the raid for these children. If someone figured that out¡­

    ?Emilia, it hurts,? Stephy sobbed in her neck.

    She readjusted her grip on the girl, hoisting her up with the arm tucked under her butt. Both of Stephy¡¯s legs had been broken in the fall, and they hung uselessly under her, knocking against Emilia¡¯s own with every step. There had been blood, Stephy had told her as they walked, something about talking it over helping to calm the girl. Bone had split out of at least one of the breaks, but the system had healed her¡ªsealed up the cuts and pulled the bone back insider her. It seemed like the first serious injury the girl had ever sustained¡ªpossibly the first one she¡¯d ever seen.

    Lucky¡ªshe was lucky, all things considered. Had it been an internal injury, something the system seemed more inclined to ignore, the girl could have bled out down there. Emilia had probed her with her energy, however, and determined that if the girl as internally injured, it was probably minor. Hopefully, if something was wrong inside the girl, it would heal on its own. Rin had told her healing magic in this world focused on the self, and while Emilia was sure there must be doctors somewhere, both Rin and her Risen Guard babysitter had told her nothing like surgery existed.

    If you couldn''t fix it yourself, if the system left that internal injury bleeding and killing you, it seemed like there was little to be done.

    Emilia really hoped that she wouldn¡¯t have to watch this girl die from some internal injury.

    Astra¡¯s hand reached out to rest on Stephy¡¯s, a silent show of support, as Emilia swerved down a side road. This city was terrible. Half the alleys were filled with debris. Junk and garbage scattered everywhere and making it difficult to traverse the thin connecting roads. She would have avoided them entirely, except they also seemed to be the only way to move through the city. Wide, sparkling clean streets with red cobblestones that glittered under the light of her once more active light gem¡ªthanks to Astra, again¡ªran parallel in one direction, and as far as she could tell, only the cluttered, packed dirt alleys connected them.

    It had been hard enough traversing them when Sawyer had been leading¡ªwhen she hadn¡¯t been laden down with a child half her weight. Dead weight, no less. For as much as Stephy¡¯s arms were around her neck, they were doing nothing to help Emilia carry her. That was probably for the best. All things considered, the child putting much more of her weight onto her neck would have hurt. Not that she already didn¡¯t hurt everywhere.

    Her back. Her muscles. Her joints. She hadn¡¯t even known joints could hurt! On top of that, she was cold and tired and lonely. She missed the older children and V¡ªfucking stars, she¡¯d even take Harmony or Sk¡¯lar¡¯s company at the moment!

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Okay, so maybe that was a lie. Harmony would be¡­ acceptable, even if Emilia knew she¡¯d quickly come to regret having the girl with her. Sk¡¯lar would be terrible. The man was a creep, and they wouldn¡¯t even be able to communicate. At least she and Harmony would have been able to chat, and as much as the Enclave girl wasn¡¯t exactly the nicest person in the world, at least the Stringer family actually seemed to care for the locals. Harmony probably would have helped her care for the kids.

    Emilia cursed as she stepped on something round, her balance disrupted. Luckily, she wasn¡¯t sent sprawling, but her stumbling steps sent her shin colliding into a nearby box. More cursing followed, along with Stephy weakly asking if she was okay. Emilia nodded as she continued cursing, every creative expletive she¡¯d heard during the war slipping out of her.

    ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t heard cussing quite like that since th¡¯war.¡±

    Emilia froze. Shit. She¡¯d been so distracted by the pain that she¡¯d forgotten to keep her voice down. Peeking up, her eyes caught on the man standing at the alleyway¡¯s exit. Light from a nearby window lit up his back, sending his features into stark shadows.

    It didn¡¯t matter, Emilia recognized him, even in the dim light, and her legs were moving, racing back the way they¡¯d come before her brain had fully registered how fucked they were.

    One of the men from Livery¡ªone of the members of that family who had attacked her and V as soon as they¡¯d exited the cavern. An uncle, to the heroes they¡¯d killed.

    ¡°How did he find us?¡± Emilia wondered as she ran, Stephy¡¯s feet jostling painfully against her thigh. That pain was likely nothing compared to what the girl herself was feeling, however. Moans and screams escaped the girl as they ran, her arms tightening around Emilia¡¯s neck until they were another note of pain through her body.

    Emilia didn¡¯t have time to worry about the girl¡¯s legs or the pain they were causing her, not when she could hear the man chasing them¡ªnot when she had no idea how many more members of his crazy family were in the city.

    ¡°Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.¡± Emilia swerved down another alley, one that was slightly less of a mess than the others they¡¯d passed, but not by much.

    Laughter floated after them, because of course someone who was related to the psychotic family they¡¯d met in the cavern was just as psychotic. ¡°Where are you going, little irregular?¡± the man cooed, his voice sending a chill down Emilia¡¯s spine. ¡°I just wanna ask you some questions.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah?¡± she yelled back, jumping over yet another hole that opened suddenly into the road. Her legs screamed at her as she landed, one giving out, her knee colliding painfully with the ground. At least she wasn¡¯t lying inside the cave, her own legs broken under her as they waited for their psycho stalker to catch up. ¡°What questions are those?¡± She wasn¡¯t about to stop and chat with the man, but she was curious whether he was just taunting her or not.

    ¡°Why don¡¯ you stop, and we c¡¯n chat?¡±

    ¡°No, thanks¡±

    ¡°Ah~ so rude. Don¡¯ you know it¡¯s rude to run fr¡¯m people who jus¡¯ wanna be your friend?¡±

    ¡°I have enough friends to stop and chat with, thanks. Now, if you really want to know the way to my heart, I need a running partner,¡± she called back, cursing herself for enjoying bantering with the man. He clearly had bad intentions, but this sort of biting back and forth was something she had always enjoyed¡ªwas the way to her heart, more often than not.

    It probably wasn¡¯t the healthiest way for choosing boyfriends, considering it had led to her ex and Elijah¡ªnot that Elijah was anywhere near as bad as her ex. It had also gifted her with Rafe and Olivier, though, even if neither had ever been her boyfriend.

    Not really, anyways.

    ¡°Oh?¡± the man sighed, voice closer than it had been a moment earlier, her fall having strained her knee enough that it was slowing her pace too much even with the extra speed granted by her {Blood Armour}. ¡°S¡¯this my interview, then?¡±

    ¡°Something like that!¡± Emilia cheered through gritted teeth.

    This was so bad, and she had no idea how to get out of it. Either the man had somehow managed to end up in the same city as her, or he¡¯d followed her. Fucking stars, he could have been following them since the city, for all she knew. Sawyer had said he didn¡¯t know if the labyrinth would drop Emilia and V¡¯s group¡ªassuming they were alive¡ªin the same location. The kids who frequented the labyrinth were never stupid enough to split up while exploring. They¡¯d also never been separated.

    Maybe they would come out in the same place, maybe not.

    That meant this man could have been following them since the city. Maybe if he had been, the labyrinth was just sadistic enough to drop them in the same place, and V¡¯s group in another.

    ¡°How long have you been following us?¡± Emilia called back, chancing a glance behind her as she raced down the main street. The man was so close¡ªtoo close. She doubted she could even dump the children safely, so she could either lead the man away or figure out a plan of attack. If she tried dropping them safely, he would be on them before she even fully let the girls go.

    Before them, the city gates loomed. Even if she kept running, she was going to end up with no options soon, unless she tried to circle back around. She couldn¡¯t run forever. Eventually, the day and residents of the city would come, or her legs would give her. No matter where she ran, it would eventually lead to a dead end, which only left desperation, and the bad decisions that came with it.

    Emilia sent a spiral of energy surging backwards, hoping that her broken internal map wasn¡¯t completely busted for this city. It was just a series of straight streets. Three over¡ªthey¡¯d only run three over since she¡¯d rescued Stephy. Three over, and one back while being chased. It should be easy for her energy to¡ª

    Something collided with her shoulder, sharp and bloody but thankfully not long enough to skewer Astra¡¯s head. Emilia screamed¡ªhalf in pain, half in effort as she used what little energy she had left to send the children flying away from her. She spun as she threw them, hoping they¡¯d land in the same general area and Astra, smart child that she was, would be able to get Stephy to move herself away from what was surely about to become a bloodbath.

    Emilia¡¯s ass and shoulder crashed into the ground, whatever had been thrown at her digging further into her flesh. Could have been worse¡ªat least it hadn¡¯t been knocked away, or pulled back to the other visitor.

    He was so close, so tall. Even through the dark, Emilia could see the grin on his face. All teeth¡ª perfect and straight in a way that didn¡¯t quite suit his avatar.

    The man opened that perfect mouth to say something, teeth glinting in the light emanating from a nearby window. Whatever he had been about to say broke off into a scream as Emilia tugged, the weapon the man had thrown at her pulled free of her shoulder and suddenly embedding itself in his chest.

    ¡°Wow... you¡¯re a feisty one!¡± he groaned, smile shifting into a shaky grimace. His own hand rose, tugging the weapon out just as brutally as she¡¯d pulled it free of herself. ¡°You¡¯re gonna regret that. Shoulda jus¡¯ stopped, and had that nice wee chat wi¡¯ me. Now, I¡¯m gonna send you back a little bit broken.¡±

 Arc 3 | Chapter 109: Friend or Stalker Material

    ¡°What are you smilin¡¯ about?¡±

    The man stared down at Emilia, his pained grimace falling away into a look of confusion as she smiled up at him. It wasn¡¯t a smile of sadness¡ªa result of her impending release from this world¡ªnor one of cruelty because she had some plan to torment him in return¡ªshe was way too tired for that. To Emilia, her smile felt more like one of amusement¡ªa smile of freedom, in a way.

    ¡°I came here more than a bit broken,¡± she told him. There was no reason to tell him the story of her life, except he either hadn¡¯t noticed Astra trying to get Stephy into a nearby alley or couldn¡¯t be bothered with them for the moment. Either way, Emilia needed to keep the man¡¯s attention on her. ¡°I think, despite everything, I¡¯ll be leaving a little less broken? Thanks to those kids, mostly¡­ and a friend. Say, you didn¡¯t happen to run into anyone in the labyrinth, did you? The guy I was with?¡±

    Dark eyes blinked back at her. ¡°The man my brother was chasing?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ is he your brother? You guys didn¡¯t look much alike,¡± she laughed.

    The man¡¯s lips twitched, a small huff escaping him at the bad joke. ¡°I didn¡¯t see him, sorry. I don¡¯t sense him in the city, either.¡±

    Somehow, Emilia didn¡¯t think the man was lying¡ªor, if he was, he was an excellent at it. He truly didn¡¯t sense V, and he was truly sorry he couldn¡¯t give her an update on him. What a strange fellow. ¡°Point is, there isn¡¯t much you could do to me that¡¯ll send me back worse than I was.¡± Except kill the kids she was protecting, although she obviously wasn¡¯t going to be telling him that.

    His head cocked. ¡°Experienced a lot in your life, have you?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Emilia sighed, relaxing backwards slightly.

    Might as well relax, given she wasn¡¯t in any position to hurt the man, being sprawled out across the ground as she was, the guy flipping the weapon had thrown¡ªa dagger similar to her own, it looked like¡ªidly in his hand. He could gut her before she had a chance to get close to any of her weapons, and from what she could tell, the man could use his core to some extent as well. It didn¡¯t feel like he had happened upon her by chance, nor did it feel like he knew V wasn¡¯t in this city because he¡¯d been watching the labyrinth entrance or anything.

    No, chances were he was using his core to monitor the city¡ªanother person who had learned to use their core within blackaether raids? Someone from the Free Colonies? Emilia had no idea, but her gut was telling her that if she tried to use her own core to gather energy and blow him back, the man would realize it and gut her.

    Better to just chill and try to distract him.

    ¡°War, terrible childhood, rough teens¡­ and thirties¡ªwell, late twenties and early thirties. The rest of my thirties were okay, until the war, anyways¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh? S¡¯that all?¡± the other visitor asked, a note of amusement in his voice. ¡°So, what? Your mid-thirties and early twenties were okay? Maybe a bit of th¡¯last decade? Y¡¯already said you were broken when you entered th¡¯raid, so I assume recently life has sucked, too? You¡¯ve only ¡®ad a few years of life not sucking?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ last bit of the decade has been better than the first bit. Still sucked quite a bit. So did my early twenties¡ªmid was okay. Teens were rough, but enjoyable.¡± Emilia shrugged, as though she hadn¡¯t just admitted three fourths of her life had been shit. There had been fun among that shit, sure, but she¡¯d have sacrificed the fun, had she been able to get rid of the shit as well. Then again, what would be left without fun and shit? A boring neutral existence? Okay, so maybe she would keep most of the shit; at least it made life interesting.

    The man blinked down at her, something incredulous in his expression, which¡­ fair. If Emilia heard someone describe the majority of their life, including the last three decades, as having been terrible¡­ Well, she¡¯d be a bit confused by them as well. Not that there was much help for people like her, their minds so wrapped up in traumatic knots that even professionals looked at them with sympathetic, apologetic eyes that said there is no helping you.

    ¡°The war was rough on people,¡± he said, rather than question why she wasn¡¯t getting help¡ªwasn¡¯t at least tucking herself away in one of the many homes that had popped up during and since the war for vets and anyone else traumatized by the war. Virtual raids weren¡¯t forbidden in those homes, but ones like this certainly were.

    He looked away, towards where the children were making too much noise. Astra had knocked something over as she dragged Stephy away, the child gritting her teeth against the pain. Still, sounds of broken pain escaped her. ¡°What happened t¡¯her?¡±

    ¡°She fell in a hole, broke her legs,¡± Emilia replied tightly, startling when the man¡¯s eyes snapped back to her.

    His head cocked. His eyes analyzed her. ¡°I don¡¯t hurt kids. Is that why you¡¯re talking t¡¯me?¡±

    Her jaw tightened, anger rending its way through her. ¡°How many kids do you think died in Livery¡ªin the city where that stampede¡ª¡±

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t me,¡± the other visitor cut in, voice harsh and upset. ¡°That was my brother. I would have stopped him, if I was with him.¡± He looked away again, back to the children. It was an interesting decision, given the children were slightly behind him, and he was effectively leaving himself open for her to attack.

    ¡°So, what? You care about the lives here?¡±

    A smirk. ¡°No, not particularly.¡±

    Nearby, the curtains on a building were swung shut and slowly light began to glow behind it, the perpetual light of the world beginning to gather once more. The man was beautiful, in a terrifying sort of way. Dark features that reminded her of Olivier, just harder, stricter. Where Olivier had softly beautiful, this man¡¯s bones could cut glass. He shifted, and in the light, his movements reminded of the woman from the cave¡ªthe mother, this man¡¯s sister, perhaps. Sure and strange; other in a way that made her think this wasn¡¯t an exact replica of his real body, but still one he had spent years¡ªif not decades¡ªliving inside while raiding.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Emilia tried to bite down the question inside her. She still didn¡¯t think the man was lying, not about V or his refusal to hurt the children. There was no reason for her to continue talking to him, and yet¡­

    ¡°Why won¡¯t you hurt them, then?¡± In hindsight, the way the question came out may have sounded like she was trying to convince the other visitor that he should be willing to hurt them, and when he laughed and pointed that out a moment later, Emilia just sighed and collapsed further onto her back.

    ¡°Because of my brother¡ªmy other brother.¡±

    ¡°You have more family here?¡± she asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. It didn¡¯t particularly work.

    The man laughed, shifting his weight before squatting down before her, dagger still idly flipping through his fingers. It was beautiful¡ªa complicated movement that left her repeatedly thinking he was going to cut himself, but he never did. The skilled moves of someone who had fiddled with blades for decades.

    ¡°Yes, and no. No, this brother isn¡¯t here¡ªnot really his style. He¡¯s a bit like you, traumatized by th¡¯war. Hides it pretty damn well, but I can see it in him as much as I see it in you. Unlike you, he has sense enough not to come here and fire it all up. Yes, I have other family here you haven¡¯t met.¡± A frown pulled over his face. ¡°Actually, I guess I can¡¯t say how many of us you¡¯ve met. You could¡¯ve met us all, and just not know it. A few of us¡­ don¡¯t really want to be cavorting with that main group.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t imagine you¡¯ll tell me how many of you there are¡ªor were, I suppose? I must say, considering your¡­ nieces and nephews, was it?¡± A nod. ¡°Well, considering they attacked me first, I think it¡¯s rather unfair that you all seem to be blaming me for their deaths.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right. It isn¡¯t fair, but most of us will protect our own, even if they had it comin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Even when they attack random girls who were just trying to get by them to the exit?¡±

    ¡°Even then.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Emilia sighed, shoulder¡¯s flexing as the energy she had sent squirrelling off shifted back inside her. She¡¯d sent off the wisp that seemed to be learning and growing a personality of its own, hoping that it would be able to sneak by the other visitor on both its escape and return¡ªit would have been a little sad if he snuffed it out of existence, but it also had an important job.

    As far as she could tell, the man hadn¡¯t noticed it sneak along the street and slither back into her, so hopefully, mission accomplished.

    ¡°So, what now?¡± she asked, because seriously, what now?

    The man seemed to have relaxed into talking to her, but she¡¯d seen people with black knots have reasonable conversations with people just to turn around and snap their necks. Actually, Emilia almost would have assumed this man had a black knot, except something in his personality didn¡¯t seem to fit¡ªthe way that he had been tracking her didn¡¯t seem to fit. Familial obligation could be the cause of that chase¡ªall black knot relationships tended towards intense, if not outright toxic and obsessive. Except, when he spoke of a few members not wanting to be involved with the main group, it sounded like he was including himself in that group, just as when he spoke of most members protecting their own, no matter what, it sounded distant, annoyed, almost. Emilia had never heard of someone with a black knot either hating their family with a passion, or being willing to burn the world down for them, and she highly doubted this man was some mysterious outlier. That said, something about him still scratched her familiarity with black knots.

    Another strange thing was he hadn¡¯t hurt her, not really. The wounds on both her shoulder and his chest had already healed. He felt threatening, but also not, and Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced stress and sleep deprivation and the darkness weren¡¯t driving her perception of the man. His blade was still out, but he wasn¡¯t actually threatening her with it¡ªit seemed more like a habit that he wasn¡¯t thinking about. Emilia had no idea what to think of him, or the why of his stalking. If not for his family, why chase after her? Unless it had just been a coincidence they ended up in the same place?

    ¡°Now¡­¡± the man trailed off, neck snapping back to look over his shoulder. Finely manicured eyebrows pulled together and Emilia focused, her core reaching out, not trying to find what he had heard or sensed. Instead, she focused on him¡ªon reading his core and meridians, trying to see if she could feel him using his core and¡ª

    And yeah, she most definitely could. The same way she¡¯d been able to feel the shape and shift of Rin¡¯s energy as she healed herself, following their climb in the library labyrinth, she could feel this man¡¯s energy swirling and reaching out into the world and¡ª

    And fucking stars, his core was powerful and controlled. It reached out all around him, a thousand vines filling the world. It should have been erratic, a complete waste of energy. Emilia had seen a few people use similar abilities with both skills and their core during the war. Only a few people with excess control and concentration categories¡ªan ECC dyad¡ªcould manage those abilities to this extent, everyone else hemorrhaging energy and aether because the information gathered from such wide scale monitoring was worth risking their lives for.

    The man could have excess control and concentration categories, but Emilia doubted it. The few people she knew with such genetics tended to be¡­ eccentric, to say the least. They weren¡¯t just obsessive, but finicky and standoffish. They could be the sweetest people on the planet, but they tended to barely tolerate people they didn¡¯t know, or talking about things they didn¡¯t care for.

    The thing was, even perfect control and concentration levels¡ªwhich were uncommon outside of non-devs¡ªwouldn¡¯t have been enough for the control this man was exerting. This sort of control only came with those excess categories, as far as she¡¯d ever seen, and¡­ maybe that was why this man was so strange? Some odd genetic combination she¡¯d never come across, confusing her perception of him?

    Emilia felt it when someone crossed over the man¡¯s web of awareness, subtle as it was, like a brush of air over the fine web of a spider. Again, again, again¡ªlittle brushes as whoever it was moved. Further away, she could feel the children moving. Closer, Astra and Stephy. Hundreds of bodies inside the buildings, their existence muffled because this man was purposefully avoiding them, and it was overwhelming.

    The man saw so much. No wonder he was a bit off. Forget about anything strange going on in his genetics, this alone was enough to explain the quirks of his personality. She¡¯d be off too, if her brain was taking in this much information at her current level. In real life? At her prime? Even then, it would have been a nuisance to see and feel so much. Then again, that¡¯s what Censors were for: deafening the roar of feedback.

    A smirk pulled at the other visitor¡¯s lips, his eyes sliding back towards her. ¡°Nosy,¡± he said, although there was no bite in his words. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re still conscious. You really are so much like my brother.¡±

    Emilia blinked at him, frowning. ¡°Yes,¡± she admitted. ¡°I am nosy, especially when it¡¯s about things like¡­ this.¡± Her energy vibrated over his web, like a fine mist of herself surrounding him. Emilia was trying to not think about how intimate it was. Some would have even seen it as a violation, to look so closely at another¡¯s energy, but he didn¡¯t shake her off, which he certainly could have.

    Instead, he continued watching her, attention more focused on her than whoever was quickly approaching. ¡°Fascinating,¡± he said, dagger suddenly grasped in his hand. ¡°I¡¯ve met so few people that can handle even looking at my web. You are a special one, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    A shiver shot up Emilia¡¯s spine. Suddenly, all thoughts that this man wasn¡¯t as dangerous as she¡¯d first assumed vanished, instinct from decades pushing its way to the front of her brain to say: run.

    That, and a healthy dose of self-chastisement, her brain screaming, ¡°You¡¯re a fucking dumbass, and probably just acquired yourself a stalker.¡±

    Thankfully, Emilia didn¡¯t have to think about that at the moment, a giant wall of fire slicing through the street and separating her and the man.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 110: Things You Canâ€™t Come Back From

    Emilia¡¯s Risen Guard saviour landed lightly before her. Well, more over her, the flames he had sent to wrap around her stalker only inches from her toes. They sparked and sizzled, a bubble of heat erupting out of them, and¡ª

    ?E-Emilia!? Stephy yelped as Emilia was unceremoniously dropped beside her, the place she and the Risen Guard had just been standing now a raging inferno.

    ¡°Strange,¡± her stalker said, stepping out of the flames unharmed. ¡°I didn¡¯t think the Risen Guard were in the habit of protecting us visitors.¡± He cocked his head. A predator sizing up its next meal. The seemingly normal man he had been moments before falling away into something terrifying¡ªsomething that fit much more with his family than his previous soft teasing. ¡°How about I make a deal with you? Give me the silverstrain, and I¡¯ll let you and all the kids she¡¯s gathered up out of this city alive.¡±

    ¡°You said you wouldn¡¯t hurt the kids,¡± Emilia bit out as she crawled over the Stephy and Astra. They were coated in even more grime than before¡ªunderstandable given they had not only been tossed aside by her, but with Stephy¡¯s broken legs, they had had no choice but to crawl through the dirty streets trying to get away from her and the man.

    Said man hummed consideringly, dagger once again flipping through his fingers. ¡°I won¡¯t, but only because neither you nor my brother would ever forgive me.¡±

    A shiver ran up Emilia¡¯s spine. Hopefully she was right, and this guy didn¡¯t have a black knot. She¡¯d already had once black knot stalker in her life, it seemed profoundly unfair that she may leave this place and find herself with another. If she had been annoyed before, when realizing her mistake in using her real name and base appearance for the raid, she was now afraid of what she had potentially brought down on herself. She had enough programs floating around inside various systems, including Astrapan¡¯s, that if someone tried to hack it and find her, she¡¯d know. Suddenly, those programs didn¡¯t seem like enough.

    This man and his strange, erratic personality could just be an act, and perhaps if he was here on his own, she might believe that. Cade had certainly given the impression of child playing a part. This man¡¯s family did not. They seemed to what they were, but Emilia had no idea where he fit in with them, with his shifting moods. Certainly, she didn¡¯t need a stalker with his erratic temperament, inside or outside the raid.

    This man though¡­ he was such a question mark. He felt like a puzzle to be pieced together if she dared.

    She really, really shouldn¡¯t dare to pick up any of his pieces.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t,¡± she confirmed, swallowing around the mixture of fear and curiosity swirling in her stomach. They¡¯d had so little food, and she¡¯d left most of it to the children, a good thing now that her stomach was threatening her throat. ¡°There are some things a person can¡¯t come back for.¡±

    Her stalker blinked at her, eyes blowing wide and incredulous, before he burst into such sweet laughter that her heart froze. A laugh so at odds with the man he had been second before that it was off-putting. A laugh that didn¡¯t belong to the man making it, and yet it did.

    ¡°You''re s¡¯like my brother,¡± the man laughed, eyes crinkling as he smiled at her. Inside those dark eyes, something like fascination loomed¡ªfascination, or obsession; Emilia wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°He¡¯s said exactly that t¡¯me, almost word for word.¡±

    The vague image of a man floated through Emilia¡¯s head. Strong and sharp and unbending and¡ª

    There was no way. This family couldn¡¯t be¡ª

    ? ? ? Sometime During the First Half of the War ? ? ?

    ¡°Not going home for the break? I know you just got here, but you can totally go. I mean, the entire unit will be gone. It¡¯d be silly for you to stay here alone,¡± Emilia¡ªyoung and not yet broken by the war¡ªsaid to the man. He¡¯d only just joined their unit, after his Free Colony had finally been attacked after years of them mostly ignoring the fact that there was a war raging a quarter of the world away.

    Golden eyes snapped to her, the colour so off-putting and strange that she¡¯d assumed he was a non-dev when they first met. She¡¯d asked, he¡¯d assured her he wasn¡¯t, a wry smile tugging at his eyes. What little he¡¯d been willing to say on the matter was that he couldn¡¯t be, some specific, terrible genetic irregularity making it impossible for him to qualify as a non-dev. He hadn¡¯t even wanted to admit what his D-Levels were¡ªstrange, given he was obviously sub-10.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much she believed him about the whole not a non-dev thing, but practically everyone had told her to drop it: they needed every capable hand they could get. He looked and fought like a non-dev, was the thing, and since he hadn¡¯t been willing to tell anyone what his irregular deviation was, and she wasn¡¯t allowed to ask about it or his D-Levels anymore, Emilia had mostly been left to assume his D-Level tests had been wrong.

    That, or the abnormality was being overblown in how it detracted from what must otherwise be a perfect specimen. It wasn¡¯t a secret that irregular deviations were constantly categorized as detrimental when they really weren¡¯t. Stars, some even left their owners stronger because of them. Not that anyone wanted to acknowledge that¡ªacknowledge that a non-dev with a lavender code wasn¡¯t actually a 2D but something beyond a non-dev.

    No one could really fault the people who managed what was and wasn¡¯t a non-dev for such exclusions, however. One of the few guidelines they had was to only consider one additive genetic spasm when assessing D-Levels, allegedly due to concerns about how those genetic abnormalities could affect the person later in life. Additional additive genetic spasms were treated as potentially detrimental. It was stupid, but it was how things worked. It was how a non-dev with a lavender code ended up labelled a 2D, while someone like Olivier, was still considered a non-dev. Both his heterochromia and non-dev status were the result of genetic spasms, but his eyes were just pretty. They didn¡¯t give him better vision or anything else, just made him more of a dream boat.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    If scientists suddenly included other additive genetic spasms and their irregular deviations into their equations¡­ things would get messy. No more straight line of these specific genes are ideal. Plus, people were already afraid of non-devs as it was. Olivier and the few non-devs who had publicly revealed themselves throughout the war had lessened that a bit¡ªhaving reasonable public faces always helped normalize people and their oddness¡ªbut if the public realized there were a few people even more powerful than non-devs out there?

    It was one thing to accept that there were a few dozen terrifyingly powerful humans running around out there, especially when someone like sweet, altruistic and vicious Olivier had accidentally become the most famous of them. It was another to realize there were a handful more humans who could put all of them to shame.

    ¡°No,¡± the man finally responded, snapping Emilia out of her increasingly annoyed thoughts about what the man could be hiding within his genes. His eyes turned back to where mechs were being assembled in the courtyard. A lot of the tech for the mechs had come from his home, even if they¡¯d also refused to send soldiers until the last few months. From what Emilia had heard, most were just as eccentric and strange as this man. ¡°My family are not¡­ pleasant.¡±

    ¡°Oh? This is nice vacation from them then?¡± she asked, skipping over to the window and peeking up at him. Maybe if she made nice with him, managed to crack that shell of his and become his friend, he¡¯d spill his secrets. Probably not the best motivation for making friends, but it wasn¡¯t like that was the only reason! Everyone was friend material! Except Halen. Halen could be blasted into space. All his shitbag friends, too.

    Emilia blinked up at their new member, trying not to come off too strong. She knew her personality could be¡­ overwhelming, especially when she was hunting for information.

    The guy was tall¡ªprobably the tallest in the unit, although she hadn¡¯t bothered to ask her Censor to confirm such a silly fact. She could find out things like that the normal way¡ªby, you know, looking¡ªbut most of their unit had yet to all be formally introduced to their newest member, nearly everyone currently deployed to the main battlefronts in preparation for the upcoming holiday. It wasn¡¯t like they could negotiate a temporary cease fire, but they could clear out as many enemies as they could and hopefully edge out a little break in the fighting.

    ¡°I like a few,¡± he said, tone implying that few meant one or two among a hoard. ¡°Our home¡­¡± He shook himself slightly, seemingly thinking better of spilling secrets about his reclusive Free Colony.

    Emilia waited, staring up at him. He didn¡¯t look at her again, and finally, she popped back to watch the construction below them. Quickly, it and the silence grew tedious, and she turned to disappear. Back to¡­ something. There was always stuff to do, new skills to code up, enemies to go hunt down¡ªalthough she was supposed to be getting ready to head home for a few days of R&R.

    ¡°Ri.¡±

    Emilia looked back at her new teammate, just as she was reaching the door. ¡°What?¡±

    The man didn¡¯t turn towards her, but she could see those golden eyes of his glowing in the window, watching her reflection. ¡°When we met, I told you not to call me by my name. You said you needed to call me something. Ri.¡±

    Emilia blinked back at him. She had said that, but only after asking why he hadn¡¯t wanted to be called by the name on his file, only his first name having even been given. The man¡ªRi¡ªhadn¡¯t liked the question, and they¡¯d argued. Politely argued. Mostly politely argued. Ri had given her a thousand reasons why, but none of them had seemed like his reason. The closest reason that felt almost real had been that he wanted to leave the war behind when it was over. He didn¡¯t want phantom voices screaming his name in nightmares for the rest of his life.

    If she had to bet on it, Emilia would guess it was the other way around. Ri didn¡¯t want whatever his life had been before this moment slipping into the present. Given what she¡¯d heard about his home, one of the terrifyingly authoritarian Free Colonies, it was easy to imagine that war was better than life had been before he had been shipped here.

    ¡°Alright, Ri,¡± she said, swallowing down her questions and accusations and meandering suspicions. ¡°Do you want me to let everyone else know? Ah~ I should add you to the group chat¡ª Oh. Did you decide if you wanted a Censor permanently installed?¡±

    Ri finally looked at her again. ¡°I¡­ will get in trouble if I do.¡±

    ¡°Temporary one, then? Or, just never go back!¡± Emilia had meant it as a joke, but for a moment, Ri had looked like he was actually considering never going back. ¡°You can think about it,¡± she quickly added instead, voice cheery in a way she didn¡¯t feel. Working with people from Free Colonies like his was difficult because everyone knew once the war was done, they¡¯d be going back to some dystopian homeland, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

    Well, they could burn those festering excuses for governments down, but that would probably cause even more problems, all things considered.

    After a long moment of awkwardly staring at each other, Ri nodded, and turned back to watch the mechs they would lead to war be constructed. More outfits for the average solider to wear to their death.

    ? ? ?

    There¡­ was no way this man was related to Ri, just on the basis that he was here. Here, inside a raid that he shouldn¡¯t have been capable of joining because Ri¡¯s home had remained firm: anyone found to have installed a Censor would be executed upon return. Ri had returned home following the war, along with nearly all the other soldiers from that dumpster fire of a Free Colony. A few had stayed in Baalphoria, or fled to other Free Colonies. Most had been hunted down with brutal efficiency by their government, public executions broadcast through the world.

    Chaos had broken out after one of the last executions, some important member of a powerful family. Civil war, a colony wide lockdown that had never been lifted. Ri, disappeared into that cage of a home, the temporary Censor he had smuggled home disconnected from the aether so no one could learn whether he was alive or not.

    No, there was no way this man¡¯s brother was Ri. For as much as she and Ri had often held similar beliefs, for as much as it had been him to question some of the ethics of her and Halen¡¯s training simulator, prompting them to alter how AIs were created for it, he couldn¡¯t be.

    Still, an image of Ri, refusing to follow orders, and saying, ¡°There are things you can¡¯t come back from. This is one. I will not lose myself doing this,¡± floated through her mind.

    It was¡­ impossible. His home was locked down, without Censors or any connection to Baalphoria¡¯s raid system. The Black Knot, SecOps, the OIC System¡ªsomeone would have noticed if people from there were somehow sneaking into Baalphoria or its raids, right?

    ?You will not be hurting the children, or taking the girl,? the Risen Guard man said.

    The man cocked his head, his neck twisting inhumanly and reminding her of the way the one boy had looked as he moved, like his limbs were too long, joints too loose. ¡°Sorry, little boy,¡± he laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t take orders from anyone but my brother. Ah¡­ but maybe taking orders from the little silverstrain would be nice too.¡±

    Emilia didn¡¯t have an opportunity to bite back¡ªto say something insanely inappropriate. Something about how she was firmly a take orders in bed type person, perhaps. One moment, her Risen Guard saviour was standing between her, the children, and the man, then the next he was inches from her stalker, his body erupting in an avatar of flame and shadow.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 111: Someone (else) Dies Tonight

    ?Hurry up.?

    Emilia forced herself not to start¡ªor growl¡ªas her Risen Guard saviour¡¯s voice slide through her, close and intimate. Instead, she focused on the makeshift carrier she was creating for Stephy. Carrying the child on her hip had been difficult, but it wasn¡¯t like the girl could wrap her legs around her middle to help support herself. Hence, makeshift carrier. It was taking a bit, but her saviour seemed to be holding his own for the moment, even if the man was getting a little testy. It would make travelling with the girl faster, less painful and more convenient, and she figured it was worth lingering,

    ¡°If you have enough time to tell me to hurry up, do you have enough time to translate for me?¡± she hissed under her breath. She had no idea if the man would be able to hear her over the scream of magic around them, but it was worth a shot.

    Was Emilia currently thinking about the fact that her stalker had magic? Bubbles of something shadowy slipping out of the aether at his command? No, no she was not. It was good to know it was possible to figure out how to use magic in this world, but for all she knew, this man was just one of dozens who had learned how to use magic¡ªor worse, gained access to the system¡ªlong before she¡¯d done so.

    Fuck, she hadn¡¯t even had a chance to try her and Zach¡¯s one theory on accessing the system yet. The night before¡ªtwo nights before? Fuck, fuck, fuck. Whenever she¡¯d slept with V, she¡¯d contemplated asking him to help¡ªor at least asking for his opinion on the matter. You let someone stick their dick inside you, you should trust them with such things. They¡¯d never gotten the chance to even chat about it, let alone try anything out, however.

    Toby¡¯s fault. That kid had stumbled in, and then they¡¯d had to get out of there and¡ª

    ?What do you want translated?? the Risen Guard asked, voice more strained than the last time he¡¯d spoken.

    Emilia chanced a glance behind her, to where he and her stalker were throwing magic across the world. Above them, more window frames had lit up as their fight woke the neighbourhood. Occasionally, eyes peered out of those windows, taking in the raging flames below. Flames splashed up the buildings, but whatever they were made of was apparently fireproof, and other than a few singes here and there, they appeared otherwise unharmed. Even when those flames spiralled upwards, sizzling across windows and upper floors, the eyes in the windows didn¡¯t vanish¡ªdidn¡¯t disappear to hide from flames burning the world a pane of glass away.

    The Risen Guard¡¯s voice echoed through Emilia and the children¡¯s heads, repeating her instructions to them. Get Stephy to sit. Get her onto Emilia¡¯s back. Help Emilia to stand. Get onto that barrel so she can grab you as well.

    Emilia¡¯s arm pulled Astra to her, the impossibly helpful little girl¡¯s arms wrapping around her neck while she tried to figure out where to put her legs now that Stephy was effectively locked into place, her useless legs secured around Emilia¡¯s hips. It had hurt, but not as much as Emilia would have thought. A brief peek at Stephy¡¯s own energy¡ªto make sure she wasn¡¯t bleeding internally or anything¡ªhad revealed the Risen Guard¡¯s energy, suppressing the girl¡¯s pain, she assumed.

    ?Follow this.?

    A map popped up in the corner of Emilia¡¯s vision, startling her. It hadn¡¯t been so long since her Censor had been removed from her constant vision, but the suddenness of being connected to the system shocked her¡ªno one had ever said something like this was possible.

    ?For the Risen Guard it is,? her saviour said when she asked him about it. His voice was calm once more, perhaps because Emilia and the children were finally moving, following the winding trail he had set out for them. ?It is temporary. I will try to keep it updated, but I suggest trying to memorize it, in case it disappears.?

    Something in the man¡¯s voice implied that if he died, it would disappear.

    ¡°Update?¡±

    ?Yes, the childre¡­ marked on¡­ moving¡­?

    Shit. Out of range. Well, at least Emilia knew the guy was attempting to keep them all safe. Her core shuddered, energy reaching out of it and lurching in the direction the map indicated the children would be found. From the looks of it, Benny¡¯s group was no longer headed in the same direction as Sawyer¡¯s. They also weren¡¯t moving as fast as they should have been. Sawyer¡¯s group had always been faster, but the gap between the groups had grown so wide in so little time¡­

    ?Emilia¡­?

    Emilia¡¯s neck twisted. There was no way she could see Stephy, given the awkward angle, her still aching knee and Astra in her arms, but hopefully the slight acknowledgement was enough. It took the girl a moment, until she finally mumbled an apology.

    ?I didn¡¯t mean to run off and cause all this,? the girl sniffled, arms tightening around Emilia¡¯s neck.

    She wished she could say something in response¡ªtell the girl that it was fine. Accidents happened, people freaked out, and freaking out because energy had suddenly engulfed the air next to you was probably a pretty reasonable thing to freak about. Tell her that, realistically, her running off had saved the rest of the children from being caught in all this.

    If she could speak, however, Emilia thought she would have more to say than that, even if she knew the words she wished she could scream at the girl would do more harm than good.

    There¡¯s no need to be sorry about running.

    What you should be sorry about is the way you¡¯ve been treating the homeless kids.

    They risked their lives for you, and yet you treated them like trash.

    Stephy had been one of the crueller homed children, ever since she had come back to herself during the kitchen challenge. Some of the kids seemed to just go along with the hatred of the others. Stephy was one of the leaders, constantly speaking disparagingly about them, making faces at them, refusing to entertain their opinions on everything from what food they should make to where they should go and whether they should rest.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The girl was afraid and stressed, but neither of those were excuses for her behaviour, and Emilia wished she could tell her that, even if she was sure it wouldn¡¯t help. She knew well enough how closed people¡¯s brains became in the middle of terrible situations, and even when they seemed open¡­

    Emilia shook herself, reaching her free hand awkwardly over her head to pat Stephy. All she could do was keep working to keep these kids alive and hope that one day their views would change¡ªthat one day, perhaps, the homed and homeless children would find friendship, or at least a middle ground of tolerance, with one another.

    The map across Emilia¡¯s vision flickered, the image slowly overridden by a new map, the indicator dots all a bit removed from where they had previously been. Unfortunately, the dots that indicated her stalker and saviour fighting also moved. That wasn¡¯t a complete surprise¡ªEmilia could hear their fight following her, but she¡¯d been holding out hope that the sound was mostly just echoing through the city, and they weren¡¯t actually as close as they seemed.

    They were as close as they sounded, unfortunately, and Emilia abruptly switched direction. The alley they moved down was just as cramped and dirty as the other ones they¡¯d traversed, and Emilia was forced to slow her steps, lest she trip and bang her knee again. They¡¯d have to travel down an alley eventually, although the one the Risen Guard had picked out was still a ways off. Why the man had bothered to pick out a specific route in a city of infinitely interconnecting roads, she had no idea. Probably just the system auto-mapping, or something like that.

    They emerged onto the next main street, and Emilia briefly contemplated continuing on to the next main road or heading down this one. The map updated again, a static of slowly updating sections of a map revealing themselves.

    It looked like the group of homed children had¡­ started backtracking? That was concerning, giving Benny had specifically said that the aether didn¡¯t lead people backwards. While it was possible he had just decided he¡¯d read the universe wrong, it seemed more likely that something bad had happened.

    Emilia moved quickly through the street, searching out the alley¡¯s that seemed the least cluttered so she could make her way to the kids as fast as she could.

    Another update. More backtracking. The kids were moving too slowly.

    They were still streets away. Emilia couldn¡¯t even ask either of the girls to try and reach out to the group, let them know they were coming. Then again, perhaps their doing so wasn¡¯t the best idea.

    Another update. Another. They were coming through faster, as though the Risen Guard or his system also knew something was wrong. He and the stalker had barely moved, compared to Emilia or the homed children¡¯s movements, but it was clear that one or both of them were forcing their conflict to follow her path.

    Then, there was the strange dot coming from the far left. Their group was congregated in the upper right section of the city. Had the strange dot been moving slower, she might have assumed it was just a local, up early. They were moving faster than even she was, however, and Emilia¡¯s stomach dropped. There were so many options of whom the strange dot could be, and practically none of them seemed good. Had there been another bundle of dots elsewhere, she could have pretended it was V, returned from his disappearance in the labyrinth, along with all the other kids.

    There was no third bundle of dots on her map. Only the homed children, driven back her way because of stars knew what. The homeless children, their group slowly appearing increasingly fractured along their route¡ªanother concern that Emilia was trying to ignore because they were too far away for her to do anything for them. Her and the girls. The Risen Guard and her stalker. That strange, speedy dot.

    And one black dot, unmoving. Emilia couldn¡¯t be sure, given her abysmal sense of direction, but it seemed to be located near the hole Stephy had tumbled into¡ªwhere the Risen Guard and Enclave member had been fighting. Dead, or knocked out. It seemed more likely they were dead, but Emilia didn¡¯t have it in her to send her energy searching out that answer.

    Instead, she sent energy surging into the darkness, searching for the unknown dot. That could just as easily be that Enclave member, having escaped the Risen Guard and now headed for the kids. Emilia hoped not¡ªshe hoped that the energy she had sent back to the Risen Guard, the one that had screamed ¡°HELP¡± at him before scurrying back to let her know it had accomplished its mission, hadn¡¯t inadvertently put the other children in danger.

    Another update. Emilia slid around a corner, Stephy¡¯s chin digging painfully into her shoulder with every step, but Emilia didn¡¯t dare slow down and the girl didn¡¯t dare complain. Kids aren¡¯t stupid, and these kids knew that her racing through the city was a sign that something bad was happening.

    Potentially bad. Who knew, maybe the kids were just having an argument. The homed children already hadn¡¯t wanted to go along with Miira¡¯s plan to have Benny lead them. Perhaps this was just the consequence of that: the homed children finally deciding not to continue on with him and trying to find their own way.

    The map update again. They were a single main street apart. The children were just entering an ally on the other side of it. Emilia tried to count the dots, line them up with the children in her head. It was impossible. There were too many kids, too many faces that she couldn¡¯t quite recall. Which group had which child belonged to? Had all the homed children stayed with her when Stephy ran off? She thought so, but¡­

    The dots overlapped with each other. The youngest children tucked into the arms of the older kids. Kelly and Gale and Miira weighed down by sleeping bodies, or legs that couldn¡¯t bear to walk more. There were too many dots, Emilia thought, but her brain burned. Too many dots. Too many faces. Too much stress.

    It was all just too much.

    An aethervoice shuffled through Emilia¡¯s head as she swerved down the next alley, her body pulling up into a walk. She turned, as much as she could, and pressed a finger to her lips. Unfortunately, she had no idea if this world understood the symbol to mean quiet, but it was the best she could do.

    Astra, quiet as her general state of being, blinked back at her. A tiny hand rose to her mouth, a delicate finger pressing to it. Big eyes turned on Stephy. Emilia couldn''t see the older girl¡¯s expression, but hopefully she understood the assignment: be quiet.

    Emilia stepped carefully around the items scattered over the ground, stopping at the edge of the alley. Her map updated. Across the main street, one alley down, the children would be emerging soon.

    Unfortunately, her hair was just as bloody silver as ever. Her coat had been cannibalized for Stephy¡¯s support, hood included, and when she peeked out of the alley, searching for any sign of the kids, Emilia knew how much she would stand out.

    Several of the younger kids emerged first¡ªstrange, given it would make more sense for an older child to clear the way. They didn¡¯t notice her, but when Miira stepped out a moment later, her eyes snapped to Emilia¡¯s¡ªher wide, terrified eyes.

    The girl¡¯s head shifted, the most minute of shakes, before her eyes flicked backwards and then back to the road in front of her. The rest of the group followed, Benny carting along the child that Kelly had been holding, both of their eyes wide and teary. Gale was the last to come, several long seconds after the previous members of their group had emerged. Against her, one arm slung over her too high shoulder, Kelly was being hauled along, his other arm¡ª

    Even before the last figure stepped out of the alley, Emilia had already decided that if she had to kill anyone tonight, it was going to be the person who had done that to a child.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 112: Probably Not Meant to be a Toy

    Emilia¡¯s eyes snapped to the person stepping out of the shadows after the children, her {Blood Dagger}¡ªthe one she had entrusted to Kelly¡ªgrasped in their hand. In her arms, Astra tensed, while Emilia was glad Stephy couldn¡¯t see anything from her position.

    ¡°?Get moving,?¡± the person said, their voice simultaneously tumbling out of their mouth and aether. A rough brown hand reached out to push Gale forward. ¡°?You¡¯re too slow.?¡±

    Gale tripped, Kelly gasping as his arm slipped from her shoulder and he tumbled forward. The rest of the children turned, eyes wide and horrified as the boy collided with the ground, his mangled arm reaching out as though to stop him. It couldn¡¯t, whatever had been done to it leaving it weak and useless. Several stepped forward, as though to help, but a head shake from Gale stopped them. Most looked about ready to burst into tears. A few were already crying, their shoulders shifting with silent sobs.

    ¡°?Get him up, or I¡¯ll do it for you!?¡± the man snarled, a painfully wide grin stretching over his features as he stepped forward, not giving the teenager a chance to help Kelly. Instead, he pushed past Gale and pulled his foot back as though to kick the boy.

    Emilia was tugging on the knot that would leave Stephy tumbling off her back before any of the children could react. Both the girl¡¯s ass and Astra¡¯s didn¡¯t deserve the pain of being tossed aside yet again, but their butts would recover. One wrong kick, one rib splittering through an organ, and Kelly would bleed out before they could figure out some way to help him.

    ?Emilia!? Gale gasped as Emilia slid between Kelly and the man just moments before his foot collided with the boy¡¯s stomach, her hand catching his foot.

    It was an odd angle, the wrong arm reaching around her to grab him, her shoulder twinging painfully. It was worth it, however, even if she felt bad for Gale, given the girl was in splatter range. Aether and blood magic exploded out of the ring Zach had given her. Her connection to the man wasn¡¯t enough to do more than blast his leg off, blood splattering over Gale, but it sure was satisfying.

    Gale screamed, stumbling backwards onto her ass. All the children screamed, tiny feet bolting out through the streets. Hopefully they¡¯d stick together, or some would come across Astra and Stephy and stop, but the kids wandering the street was better than them being around to see this.

    The man toppled backwards, his own screams of horror echoing through the physical world and aethernet alike. ¡°?Wha¡­ wha¡­?¡±

    ¡°I know you,¡± Emilia snarled, surging over the man, hand clasping onto his face. ¡°You¡¯re the brother who apparently started all this. Big mistake.¡± Another wave of aether rippled through her and into the man, his head blowing wide across the street.

    Gale let out another shriek, feet pushing her backwards until her back collided with a nearby wall. Behind her, Kelly was pushing himself up unevenly on his one good arm, and when Emilia turned towards him, she was surprised to see he wasn¡¯t as phased by what had happened as the others.

    ?Sorry,? he croaked out, chest heaving with effort. Given the state of his arm, he had probably lost a substantial amount of blood before the system had healed it over, huge sections of both his upper and lower arms having been sliced away. ?I tried to protect everyone, but¡ª>

    The boy¡¯s words cut off as Emilia surged forward and wrapped him in a hug. She wished she could speak to him¡ªcould tell him he had done a good job, regardless of the outcome. The boy had tried to protect everyone, something he never should have been forced to do, and he should be proud of his actions, regardless of how well or badly things had gone.

    Emilia glanced back at Gale, finding the girl near tears. Her arm opened, and suddenly the teenager was there, sobbing silently into their embrace.

    If the world was fair, they could stay like this forever, the children taking as much time as they needed to recover from their ordeal. It wasn¡¯t fair, however, and there were dozens of children running wild in the streets, potentially running into the fight occurring several streets away, or the mystery dot that was¡ª

    Shit. It was so close to the homeless kids now, and their group was now a long trail of children following the same path. A moment later, the map refreshed again. To Emilia, it looked like the dots at the end were moving slower, implying that Sawyer and the faster children had decided to leave the stragglers behind. She hoped that wasn¡¯t the case, but if it was¡­

    Emilia pulled out of the hug, tugging out her notebook and scribbling a collection of notes: ¡°Need find runaways. Stephy and Astra there. Go rest with them.¡± Emilia pointed to the road she¡¯d left them in. According to the map, at least half a dozen of the kids had run that way and stopped when they found the girls. Probably a group led by Miira, given the girl had seen the alley she¡¯d emerged from.

    ¡°Stephy¡¯s legs broken,¡± she continued, tugging the children up with her. She pushed them in the proper direction, scribbling, ¡°Be back,¡± before shooting off towards the closest missing children.

    About half the missing children hadn¡¯t gone far, only tucking themselves into the safety of nearby alleys, and as Emilia found them, she was able to pull them out and drag two or three at a time back to the alley she¡¯d left the girls in.

    On her third trip, Emilia circled back out onto the main street, to look over the man¡¯s body¡ªthe body of her stalker¡¯s brother. The man who had caused the stampede and the deaths of so many people. She wasn¡¯t particularly surprised when she pulled a collection of blood weapons from his body, one of them practically vibrating with power. The weapon created from all the death that had swamped through the city of these children¡¯s childhood, she assumed.

    ?Those are¡­ blood weapons??

    Emilia glanced back to find Miira¡ªwho had indeed had enough sense to run in the direction she had seen Emilia come from with a number of the children when the fight began¡ªand Benny¡ªwho had followed several of the other kids down an alley and stopped them from running far¡ªpeering over her.

    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t know where most of them came from, but I¡¯m sure this one is from what he did to your home,¡± Emilia wrote, pointing to the strange, blackish loop that radiated destruction. Without using it, Emilia had no clue as to what it could possibly do. Honestly, she¡¯d rather not even keep it on her, but that would risk someone else picking it up¡ªnot unlikely, given she could feel its power echoing through the aether.

    Hopefully, once she gained access to the system, she¡¯d be able to figure out what it did¡­ Actually, fuck that. If she ran into that Risen Guard again¡ªwhich was likely, given a few of the kids had run way too close to where he and her stalker still seemed to be fighting¡ªshe¡¯d just hand it over to him. It was weighty, and nearly a foot in diameter¡ªnot the easiest thing for her to carry¡ªbut she stuffed it into her bag, nonetheless, along with all but one of the weapons she picked off the man¡¯s body.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Whatever this thing was, it was bad news. Power was great, but too much power led to bad things, like your core cracking. Personally, she¡¯d had enough of bad consequences for big power, thanks.

    ?That¡­ my parents were¡ª were used to make that??

    Emilia gazed up at Miira. They didn¡¯t know for sure that her parents were dead, of course, but the chances that they were¡­ ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she signed, emotion she couldn¡¯t properly convene floating through her hands.

    It wasn¡¯t enough, her simple apology. This wasn¡¯t her fault, and yet it was. If she¡¯d let that family kill her and V in that cave, it was unlikely this would have happened. That family would have just left the city, perhaps gone through the labyrinth¡ªbecause that must have been why they were in that city to begin with, right?¡ªand come out somewhere else.

    It was just a matter of time until they did something like this somewhere, though. Perhaps they already had, turning Livery into the collateral damage that had brought her wrath down on them¡ªbecause it had. This man was dead, the main culprit if his brother was to be believed. If her stalker was to be believed, however, that also meant other members of his family could be just as ruthless. They would come for her eventually, and she would be all too willing to kill them for what this man had done in their so-called defence.

    Tit-for-tat. If they hunted her for defending herself, why shouldn¡¯t she hunt them for defending a mass murder.

    Miira swallowed, eyes blinking wildly as she tried not to cry. Benny wrapped an awkward arm around her, the slightly taller Miira resting her head against the top of his head.

    The boy frowned. ?What¡¯s that?? he asked, pointing to something a few feet from the man¡¯s exploded head.

    Despite the fact that the man was laying in pieces across the street, none of the children had so far expressed much disgust at his mangled corpse, perhaps the result of his blood being the more concerning aspect of his death. All that blood was gone, although Emilia had been unable to find whatever weapon it had coagulated into. Unlike with the other blood weapons she had seen created, there had been no storm of blood after this man¡¯s death, yet the blood had slowly disappeared as she gathered the children.

    Emilia moved to the place Benny had pointed out, and indeed, flat against the ground, barely visible in the dim light, was a thin red layer of¡­ blob. That was the only way she could think to describe it, especially when she picked it up and it was squishy. Ew.

    ?What is it?? Benny asked when she turned back to them, her nose scrunched up in distaste.

    Whatever the new weapon was, it was weird. Its viscosity was¡­ fucked up. The weapon¡ªassuming it even was one¡ªmoulded to her hand and fingers when she squeezed it, turning into something almost firm as she handled it. When she stopped moving it, however, it began to slowly melt, attempting to slip over the edges of her hand and forcing her to continuously fiddle with it.

    It was sort of satisfying, if also gross, and she vaguely remembered something about a science experiment kids could do at home that made a similar, gelatinous material. She loved science, but had often been more of a go out and explore sort of child¡ªthe type of child who built perfectly to code treehouses in their spare time. A random experiment with an expected result hadn¡¯t exactly been her scene. That said, squishing the thing was quite soothing. On the other hand, she really needed her hands back.

    ?That¡¯s so cool¡­? Benny said, eyes growing wide with fascination. His hands flexed, and against her better judgment, Emilia handed it over to him.

    ¡°Do not try to use energy on it,¡± she wrote firmly into her notebook, holding it out for Miira to relay to the boy. The tone she used was even more stern than the one Emilia herself would have used, and Benny appeared thoroughly chastened as he mumbled about how he wasn¡¯t going to.

    Miira looked about as convinced by his words as Emilia was.

    ¡°We need something to hold it,¡± Benny said, scurrying off to search for something to contain the thing.

    Miira nodded, before hesitating and asking about the children they hadn¡¯t gathered yet.

    ¡°They¡¯ve run really far,¡± Emilia wrote, eyes flicking to the map. A few of their group members had stopped moving further from their location, presumably having tucked themselves into an alleyway or perhaps to knock on someone¡¯s door. Most were still moving through the city. Two were running so fast that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d been able to catch them before they ran into the edge of the city, even with her {Blood Armour} augmenting her movement.

    Plus, there were still the homeless children to think about, their group fracturing more and more with each map update, the mysterious dot only minutes from reaching them.

    There was so much, and Emilia couldn¡¯t do all of it.

    She needed help, and as much as she didn¡¯t want to leave the kids alone again, she knew she needed to.

    As quickly as she could, Emilia scribbled out the main problems happening and her plan. Miira didn¡¯t look happy as she read it, but she didn¡¯t complain either.

    ?Are you sure we can trust him?? she asked as they moved back to join the rest of the group.

    Out of everyone, Gale appeared the most shaken. Even Stephy and Kelly, injured as they were, appeared to be doing better than her. That was fair. Emilia had generally found that being injured was infinitely better than being covered in blood. As they came closer, it became clear that Gale also happened to still be covered in blood. Odd.

    Thankfully, when Benny knelt down to show the other kids the now jarred {Blood Slime}¡ªthe blood lingering over Gale¡¯s body seemed to realize it belonged to the strange object, slithering through the air to join it in Benny¡¯s hands. The teenager looked thoroughly put out by the way it had dragged over her skin, rubbing vigorously at her arms, as though she could still feel its phantom shape, and releasing a high-pitched whine.

    Miira squatted down in front of her friend, concern written over her face as she conveyed their plan to her and Kelly. Emilia was certain the girl would barely acknowledge them, given how empty her eyes seemed as she stared at Miira.

    There wasn¡¯t much Emilia could do for her in so short a period of time, and instead she plopped down in front of Kelly, holding out a blood weapon to him.

    He hesitated, staring at the small marble. ?Is that¡­ from me?? he finally asked, tongue flicking out of his mouth to wet his lips. It was a strange, off-putting thing, considering she had only seen locals open their mouth to eat so far.

    Emilia nodded, offering it to him again. He didn¡¯t have to take it, but it felt right to offer it to him, given parts of his flesh had been sacrificed to create it. After a moment of hesitation, the boy accepted it, rolling the shimmering pink ball between his fingers before wrapping his hand around it, his eyes flicking to his damaged arm.

    ¡°Be careful with it,¡± Emilia wrote out for him. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it does.¡± She hesitated a moment before asking if he wanted her {Blood Dagger} back as well. Things hadn¡¯t gone that well for him the first time she¡¯d given it to him, but he was¡ªfor better or worse¡ªstill going to be the one in charge of keeping the younger children safe.

    The boy blinked blankly down at the paper, head cocking before he shook himself and nodded, accepting the blade back. He set it in his lap, returning his gaze to the marble designed from his blood. ?Be careful.?

    ¡°You too,¡± she signed back, reaching forward to brush a lock of hair behind his ear before pushing herself up.

    Kelly shot her an annoyed look, a little flicker of the teenager he was quickly becoming shining through, before he smiled and rolled his eyes.

    Emilia turned to go, halting to frown down at Astra, when the child appeared at her side and demanded to be taken along with huge, pouty eyes. Her attempts to convince the child to stay¡ªprobably a lost cause, regardless of how convincing she managed to be¡ªwere cut off by Gale¡¯s voice, ringing clearly through the din of the children playing with the {Blood Slime}.

    ?You¡¯re going to need all the help you can get.?

 Arc 3 | Chapter 113: A Five Part Plan

    Step one of the Find All the Kids and Meet Up With the Other Group and Hope Whoever is Coming for Them Isn¡¯t a Sociopath Plan was, all things considered, the most dangerous step until the fifth and final step.

    [Step 1: Find the Risen Guard and help get rid of the man he¡¯s fighting]

    They needed help, more help than Miira, Gale and Benny could offer. Luckily, Kelly had been able to talk Astra into staying with them, arguing that Emilia would need both arms to carry the other kids back. The girl hadn¡¯t liked it, but had plopped sadly down beside him after Emilia promised to come back.

    It felt weird being without the little girl. The child had been practically living in her arms since she¡¯d snatched her and Benny off the street, in the first moments of the stampede. To be without her now felt¡­ wrong. Worse, even as time dragged on, she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that something was missing. Probably, it was the result of her own stress and trauma from the ordeal, her soul clasping onto someone safe to connect with.

    Hopefully, that connection would fade. They were going to have serious problems if they couldn¡¯t detach by the time she had to leave.

    Emilia¡¯s heart clenched at that thought, but thankfully, they¡¯d arrived a few blocks from where the Risen Guard was still fighting her stalker.

    ?Stalker?? Gale had asked, unimpressed when Emilia wrote out the word. At first, she¡¯d assumed such things didn¡¯t exist here, but they did. Gale was just confused why anyone would want to stalk her.

    Benny had come to her defence, informing the group that she was ?totally cool enough to stalk?, as he caught up with them after he¡¯d stopped to dig through a garbage heap in search of something to help him carry his ?new toy.? What he¡¯d found appeared to be a net that wrapped tightly around the jar he was storing the {Blood Slime} inside, the ends forming into a loop that he was using as a shoulder strap. When Emilia asked about how he¡¯d managed to find a net in the exact shape he needed, Benny had informed her he¡¯d only found the rope and had tied it into the net form himself.

    Industrious little fellow.

    ¡­

    Fuck, Emilia missed V. Now she was using his words. Worse! She still couldn¡¯t place where the term fellow was commonly spoken! Instead, she was left to hear it wiggling in her brain, like an itch she couldn¡¯t scratch.

    ?Should we help him?? Benny asked as he peeked out at the fight. Emilia would have preferred to keep the kids out of this, but her hair was just too bright, and she was forced to rely on the fearless boy to be their spy. His hand wrapped around his maybe-weapon, and Emilia quickly scribbled that if anyone would be helping the Risen Guard get rid of her stalker, it was going to only be her.

    Benny deflated, but accepted his fate of hero in the making, watching from the sidelines.

    ?You¡¯re gonna go, though?? Gale asked, peeking over Benny¡¯s head, their respective brown and black hair keeping them hidden in the shadows.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she scribbled out, digging through her bag for the specific weapons she wanted. After a moment of thought, she handed a {Blood Needle} over to Gale, darting down instructions of how to use it, which effectively amounted to: throw it at something that¡¯s far away, and don¡¯t blow yourself up.

    While some of the blood weapons seemed to need a bit of energy to activate, many more simply existed¡ªsuch as her {Blood Dagger} or the {Blood Hammer} that V had been carrying, and speaking of which, where had his bag gone? It had been dropped down the shoot at the water slides, along with everyone else¡¯s clothing and belongings, but it hadn¡¯t been there after their nap.

    Emilia blinked into space for a moment before shaking the thought off. Something to worry about later, she supposed. Hopefully, the labyrinth had just disappeared his bag to wherever he had gone. It hadn¡¯t taken any of their missing member¡¯s clothing, but perhaps moving the bag had been a kindness on the part of the labyrinth.

    Unfortunately, with her and V¡¯s luck, that was unlikely.

    Regardless of where her missing companion¡¯s weapons had gone, her {Blood Needles} were of a different, mixed type. They needed a bit of energy to make a big explosion, but they did just fine exploding when they collided with anything, something about being thrown activating their abilities.

    Gale tentatively took the weapon, nodding when Emilia held out a note that read: Only in an emergency.

    A moment later, she was gone, bolting through the street, one of the weapons picked up from the silverstrain girl¡¯s corpse gripped in her hand. The Risen Guard skirted backwards, his map having obviously alerted him that they were close. Her stalker, on the other hand, didn¡¯t see her coming.

    Apparently, he had magic, his brother had the ability to speak the local tongue, but neither had system access¡ªor if they did, it didn¡¯t include maps.

    Her weapon, a strange piece of dark red fabric, snapped through the air, colliding with the man¡¯s arm. Unfortunately, his magic and the shadows surrounding him made it impossible for her to get close enough to snap his head off, but the sharp edge of the fabric slid through his upper arm like it was butter. It wasn¡¯t quite enough to remove the limb entirely, but he did scream in pain, darting away from her.

    The Risen Guard darted with him, swerving and trying to make the most of the man¡¯s momentary weakness, his arm lying limply at his side. It was too shallow, however, and quickly, Emilia could sense the system healing him back up.

    She wasn¡¯t going to give him the chance to fully recover.

    {Blood Needles} shot out of her hands, the Risen Guard given mere seconds to get out of range by her yell of ¡°Look out!¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    The other man tried to get clear of her attack as well, and he did manage to avoid a direct hit. The needle shot through the place he had just been standing, colliding with a nearby building. It was a risky gamble. The buildings might be resistant to normal magic, but for all she knew, blood magic could seriously damage them¡ªhurt or kill the people inside, even.

    Luckily, the gamble paid off, and the explosion left little more than a bloody burn across the building, most of the energy instead redirected outward. Debris from the nearby alley went flying, as did her stalker. The man skidded over the city street, covered in rough paving stones. An assortment of objects sent flying landed on top of him, and the man released a long stream of creative expletives.

    Had the situation not been so serious, Emilia would have laughed. For as much as the man was strange and dangerous, he had been dressed relatively well, his clothes perfectly styled before the fight. To see him now covered in the garbage that the residents of the city seemed to be constantly dumping into the side streets was rather amusing.

    He didn¡¯t seem to think so.

    ¡°You!¡± he growled, pushing off his stomach to glare at her. The shadows surrounding him burbled, bubbles of rage dragging lines of damage through the aether before they were surging towards her.

    The Risen Guard was coming¡ªtrying to get between her and the attack, presumably.

    He wasn¡¯t going to make it.

    He didn¡¯t need to.

    Pure energy shuddered out of Emilia, slicing through the shadowy magic as though it were nothing. She smiled, pleased with the look of shock on her attacker¡¯s face. The Risen Guard had also startled to a stop, and Emilia wished he weren¡¯t wearing a mask. The expression he must be making under that thing¡­

    Cores were cores, regardless of what world you lived in and how utilized they were. Even among people from the Free Colonies who used their cores regularly, Emilia had rarely come across anyone outside of lavender codes capable of using their energy in the same pure, forceful way she could. Very few people had ever seen her use her core like this, but every one of them was always shocked, their faces contorting into the most amusing shapes, shifting into the silliest of shades of horror, disbelief and awe.

    ¡°You know,¡± she sighed, looking back to her stalker as he steadied himself, her blast of energy having spread far enough to temporarily disrupt his core and magic, ¡°I killed your brother, just a little while ago.¡±

    The man¡¯s eyes widened, his lips twitched, and then a stream of laughter was slipping out of him. Whatever emotion Emilia had been expecting from the man, it wasn¡¯t laughter that sounded almost¡­ happy. Two options¡ªEmilia had imagined there were two options for how the man would react to learning his brother was dead, each a checkmark against his strangeness. Was he actually someone separate from his family¡ªsomeone removed from their vendetta against her and V¡ªor would his brother¡¯s death spur him forwards towards revenge?

    Her stalker¡¯s laughed was a bit deranged, sure, but there was no cruelty in it¡ªit wasn¡¯t the kind of laugh to be followed by, ¡°Well, you just sealed your fate! You just added another reason to my list of reasons to kill you!¡±

    Instead, what followed was a single, ¡°Good.¡± Then, with all the suddenness one could imagine, his eyes blew even wider. ¡°Wait¡ª¡± he began to say, but his words were too slow, cut off by his abrupt disappearance.

    ¡°Uh¡­ where did he go?¡± Emilia asked, looking to the Risen Guard. Across her vision, her map updated, the man¡¯s dot seemingly gone from the area.

    ?Someone removed him from the city,? the Risen Guard said darkly, head turning to look in the direction of the children. ?You may come out now. It is safe.?

    Three heads poked out from the alley, Benny¡¯s eyes shining in hero worship, although for whom, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure.

    ?That was so cool,? the boy cheered as he ran over, looking mostly at Emilia. Well, considering how much the homeless children, and even many of the homed children, seemed to dislike the Risen Guard, it wasn¡¯t too surprising the child would be more interested in her.

    ?Thank you for helping,? the Risen Guard said, slow steps bringing him to their little foursome.

    Emilia nodded, refusing to startle when [Step 1: Complete!] popped up across her vision. ¡°Yeah, well, we were kinda hoping you could help us in return.¡±

    The man nodded as another notification lit up across her eyes: [Step 2: Hope the Asshole Risen Guard can give everyone maps].

    ¡°So¡­¡± she sighed, glaring between the Risen Guard and the strange notifications that had been floating across her vision since they¡¯d embarked on their mission. ¡°Did your map give me extra access to the system? To a quest system, perhaps?¡±

    The man cocked his head, and despite the lack of laughter, she felt like he was laughing at her nonetheless. ?Yes. I gave you temporary access to the Risen Guard system, although I only activated the map. The quest system is activated at random, as the system sees fit.?

    Well, that made sense. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure why it still felt like the man was laughing at her about it, however. ¡°Cool, cool,¡± she said, rather than smack him for being an ass. ¡°So, we need help finding a bunch of the kids. Can you give these guys access to the map as well? Not sure how much you were able to pay attention to us while fighting, but there have been some, uh¡­ problems.¡±

    ?I noticed.? He said nothing more, but Benny¡¯s gasp of awe a moment later was telling enough that the children had been granted access to the system. If that wasn¡¯t enough proof, the [Step 2: Complete!] that popped up a moment later was.

    ?So cool¡­? the boy murmured, spinning in a circle before bolting down a nearby alleyway.

    ?Do you think it¡¯s a good idea to let him go alone?? Gale asked, the frown that had been written over her face near constantly since they''d left the others deepening as she examined the Risen Guard.

    To Emilia¡¯s surprise, the man nodded slightly to her. Gale scoffed and looked away.

    ?Fine,? she muttered, turning and trudging off in a different direction.

    Miira looked between Gale, Emilia and another alley. ?Should I¡­?

    ¡°Go,¡± Emilia signed, preening slightly when she felt the amusement of the Risen Guard fall away into confusion. ¡°Your friend needs you.¡±

    The girl hesitantly nodded before chasing after her friend, quickly catching up to her and pulling her into a slightly faster pace¡ªat the rate Gale had been moving, they would be lucky if they found even one of the missing kids.

    ¡°And then there were two,¡± Emilia muttered, eyes sliding over the man. ¡°Can I trust you?¡± Might as well get the big thing out of the way.

    ?Depends.? Not exactly the best answer, but certainly better than an outright lie of, ?Yes, you so totally can. I¡¯d never betray you!?

    Still, Emilia rolled her eyes. ¡°You know what happened in Livery?¡± she asked, watching as the man tensed, his already perfect posture growing strained and angry, as though he were preparing to pounce on an enemy.

    ?Yes,? he said, the sound short and clipped and oh so fucking pissed. Good.

    ¡°That¡¯s where the kids are from, if you didn¡¯t know.¡±

    ?I didn¡¯t.?

    ¡°I picked them up there, during the stampede. We accidentally ended up in the labyrinth, then here,¡± she said, fumbling with her bag. These weren¡¯t relevant facts, simply the truth filling the time it took for her to pull the {Blood Loop} from her bag. ¡°That guy¡¯s brother caused the stampede. They followed us here. He¡¯s dead, and I got his stuff.¡±

    Emilia held out the loop to him. She really, really didn¡¯t want the thing, with all its terrible destruction ringing through it, and in the brief space of time when she thought the man might not take it¡ªsome law or rule perhaps forbidding him from accepting it¡ªher heart dropped, and time stopped. Then, a gloved hand extended, accepted it.

    ?Thank you. Most visitors do not¡ª? he cut off, looking away in the direction of one of the children bolting through the city. ?I must go,? he said, before bolting off in their direction.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t be sure the man really was heading for the child, but given the way the child¡¯s dot suddenly swerved down a main road when they¡¯d been bolting down alleys the rest of the time, she was almost positive he was.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 114: Everyone Foundâ€¦ Probably

    [Step 3: Find all the missing kids]

    Emilia found Caro first, although that wasn¡¯t completely accurate given she¡¯d taken off in the opposite direction the Risen Guard had gone, heading for the furthest child. She¡¯d passed by a few children as she went, travelling as close to them as she dared, making sure they weren¡¯t seriously injured or anything. Most of the kids couldn¡¯t read, leaving her unable to communicate with them, and as much as leaving them alone longer sucked, she had to. It would be easier to grab them on the way back, rather than drag them along with her.

    It was a bit of a surprise to find Caro had been one of the runners. Generally, the child took everything in stride, but when she slid in front of them, trying to stand in as much light as she could, she found the child still crying as they ran.

    Caro skidding to a stop, eyes wide and teary, before they bolted into Emilia¡¯s arms. Luckily, the child was on the lighter slide, and their added weight barely slowly her down as she made for the next closest child.

    ?I¡¯m sorry!? they sobbed into Emilia¡¯s neck, fingers digging painfully into her. ?I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry.? They continued repeating their apology, never expanding on it, until they had reached the next child. They had taken one look at the new child and burst into more tears before thankfully passing out¡ªtheir sobs had been so loud they hurt. Hurt what? Emilia had no idea, but exceptionally loud aethervoices were certainly capable of hurting something.

    On the bright side, their sobs had helpfully altered the new child of their presence.

    ?It wasn¡¯t Caro¡¯s fault,? the child¡ªAlly, the child who Benny had originally tried to escape her to rescue during the stampede¡ªsaid as they went, moving as quickly as her legs could manage through the city.

    Emilia had offered to carry her, but Ally had shaken her head and insisted she was fine. ?I¡¯ve been carried along enough¡­? she had mumbled, and while Emilia wanted to disagree¡ªshe had been one of the homed children who had managed to stay aware for most of the labyrinth, despite Emilia knowing she had been separated from both her sister and mother during the stampede. The girl was small and had needed to be carried for large portions of their trek. Perhaps she felt bad, given she¡¯d bolted and run quite far.

    Emilia wanted to tell her that was understandable, adrenaline was a great beast, but they couldn¡¯t communicate, and instead she had simply smiled down at the girl and patted her head.

    Teary eyes had looked up at her before a wobbly smile spread across Ally¡¯s face. ?Plus, I can walk,? she had cheered. ?You should save your strength for when you have to carry someone who can¡¯t.?

    The next two children they found could walk, the third couldn¡¯t, and Emilia was forced to shift Caro¡¯s weight so she could carry both children, the other boy unfortunately much heavier than any of the kids she¡¯d carried so far. They¡¯d tripped and injured their ankle, however, and while they could walk, they would be slow.

    ?What¡¯s wrong with them?? the new, blond boy asked, glaring at Caro.

    ?They cried themself out,? the black-haired boy responded. Emilia couldn¡¯t remember their names, and neither of them had reintroduced themselves, okay? The best she could do was think of them in terms of appearance, and hope none of the kids she picked up were so alike she couldn¡¯t differentiate them with such designations.

    The blond boy snorted. ?Serves them right,? he grumbled, turning his head away from Caro¡¯s sleeping face.

    ?It wasn¡¯t their fault,? Ally insisted.

    The girl didn¡¯t expand on why it wasn¡¯t Caro¡¯s fault, and the older kids had been cagey when she¡¯d asked them for details of what happened. She¡¯d assumed they were just traumatized by what had happened, not wanting to talk about it. Evidently, there was something they were avoiding telling her.

    As the children began to argue, the little pug nosed boy who rarely spoke walking quietly beside her, Emilia began to put the pieces together.

    Caro had been fooling around, running wild down through other roads and meeting up with the group on the other side. Benny had told them to stop, the universe didn¡¯t like what they were doing. Gale, who had been tired of the child¡¯s unending chatter and questions, had told Caro to just be quiet and not wake up the city as they played.

    They¡¯d played and played, and then they¡¯d returned with the man in tow.

    ?Caro looked so scared¡­? the black-haired boy whispered, eyes glazed over as though he were back in that moment¡ªand perhaps he was. Back to a place of remembering what it was like to watch Caro emerge from the darkness, their own eyes wide and fearful, some crazed visitor stepping out behind them. Perhaps the visitor even had a weapon on them¡ªEmilia had certainly picked enough off their corpse that they could have wielded something else before picking her dagger off Kelly.

    ?They should have stayed with the group.?

    ?Gale told Caro they could go.?

    ?That homeless brat said¡ª?

    ?Since when do you listen to anything the homeless kids say, huh? You don¡¯t believe in that the universe is guiding us stuff any more than the rest of us!?

    ?Miira seemed to believe it, Caro too, even if they went back to ignoring it when they went running around, putting us all in danger!?

    ?I think they did believe they were following it, though¡­? Ally said, her voice wavering like she believed what she was saying, but knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to defend that belief is pushed.

    Emilia glanced down at the girl, her feet scuffing against the ground as they walked and the argument dragged on her. She¡¯d been subsisting on adrenaline and shock, and that was clearly running its course. If the girl fell asleep or couldn¡¯t walk anymore¡­

    Stolen story; please report.

    Well, she could always wake Caro up, make them walk a bit. Given how this argument was going and how far they¡¯d run¡ªhow much they¡¯d sobbed¡ªshe wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if they tried to run off again the moment they woke. Hopefully, the girl would be able to carry on, or they¡¯d get back to the others soon, and whatever kids they¡¯d found didn¡¯t need to much assistance.

    ?It¡¯s a stupid belief, if it leads to things like this¡­? the boy in her arms muttered.

    Emilia disagreed on that point. To her, if the belief that the universe is guiding us to what is meant to be led to this, it was tragic and fascinating.

    If Caro had thought they were following the universe, and they¡¯d certainly been playing close attention to Sawyer and Benny¡¯s lectures on the topic before their group had been split, then it was possible they had been following whatever this will of the universe was. Part of the system, machinations of the platform maintainer¡ªor perhaps something else, something real, that Emilia had never realized existed in the aethernet.

    If it was the game leading them, well, that was terrible and cruel. If it was real, however, it meant there was a reason that man had been led to them¡ªa reason Caro had been led across their path.

    These were vaguely terrifying possibilities, because Emilia had never considered herself much more than a passive, skeptic believer of such things. Don¡¯t give too much thought to terrible outcomes, but don¡¯t take that too seriously, either¡ªbecause seriously? Some people took it way too far, refusing to even plan for worst-case scenarios because they were giving the bad things energy.

    Stupid.

    Regardless, without knowing who was behind whatever was guiding the signs in the aethernet, or whether Caro really had been following them or not, Emilia couldn¡¯t do anything with those thoughts. Still, knowing she couldn¡¯t do anything with them¡ªcouldn¡¯t figure out some part of a missing puzzle¡ªdidn¡¯t stop her from wondering about them as they continued searching for the remaining children.

    Finding the kids was, thankfully, a rather speedy process. Benny and the Risen Guard in particular bolted around Emilia¡¯s map, although they had very different strategies. Benny, she imagined, had taken to finding children and pointing them towards their agreed upon meeting spot¡ªback where the Risen Guard and her stalker had been fighting.

    In hindsight, Emilia realized she hadn¡¯t actually told the Risen Guard that¡ªhe¡¯d run off so fast, okay!?¡ªbut he seemed to figure it out on his own. Where Benny sent children stumbling through the streets alone, his dot darting off to the next closed dot, the Risen Guard was capable of zipping through the city, snatching up one or two dots and depositing them with the others.

    He was fast, but whatever had happened with the first child he¡¯d taken off to help had been time-consuming, and in the end his main contribution was grabbing Gale and Miira¡¯s group, as they had been quite far out by the time she, Benny and the Risen Guard had made their way back to the centre.

    ¡°Do you think they¡¯re in trouble?¡± Emilia asked, already planning on bolting to their rescue. Even if they didn¡¯t need her, she could at least accompany them back.

    ?I will go see,? the man said, practically vanishing into thin air. Actually, maybe he had. The transportation magic in this world relied on landing pads for safety, but since the man had a map, perhaps he could jump anywhere he wanted, without risking landing inside something¡ªor worse, someone? At least within the city. Perhaps not the whole city system, although who knew what the Risen Guard¡¯s map was capable of.

    Emilia glared at her display. Other than the map and current step of the plan, it said nothing else. The Risen Guard had said that he¡¯d provided her with access to his system and activated the map for her, the system then activating the quest system for her. Technically, that didn¡¯t rule out that she could activate other features.

    What sort of features, she had no idea, but as the man darted through the city, bringing a collection of injured children¡ªapparently they had been in a group and knocked a pile of, thankfully empty, crates onto themselves¡ªback to their meeting place, Emilia focused on trying to activate any other features of the system.

    Lines of text, blurry and unreadable but there all the same, crossed over her eyes. She could almost make out what it said, almost force it to come into permanent existence. Just a little more and she¡¯d¡ª

    ?Impressive.?

    Emilia so totally did not squeak when the Risen Guard appeared directly beside her, a child in his arms and his hand wrapped around Gale¡¯s. The teenager tugged her hand away and ran over to where Miira was already trying to soothe the exhausted and terrified children.

    ¡°What¡¯s impressive?¡± Emilia asked, glaring at the man. It didn¡¯t feel very effective, given the darkness and how tired she felt, her eyes trying to flutter shut near constantly and burning in complaint when she refused to let them rest. [Step 3: Complete!] flashed through over them, followed by the fourth step of their plan: regroup.

    ?Usually, it takes recruits much longer to figure out how to activate features of the system on their own.?

    Emilia blinked at the man before it dawned on her that, for one thing, the man could apparently tell what she was seeing through the system, and for another, she was apparently so tired that her brain was starting to slow down.

    That wasn¡¯t good. They needed to regroup and get to the homeless group before her brain completely melted. Luckily, the mysterious dot meeting up with their group didn¡¯t appear to have resulted in any mayhem or death, although they had largely stopped moving as well, their long line slowly becoming a mass of children again. That didn¡¯t mean whoever it was still wasn¡¯t good news.

    ¡°We should go,¡± she told the man blandly.

    ?Agreed,? he said, before turning and directing the group to form several smaller groups, so he could move them to the others. ?You should be in the first group,? he told Gale, stepping towards the group he had organized her into.

    As far as Emilia could tell, there was no limit to the number of people the man could move, but there did appear to be a weight limit. Herself and Gale had been placed with two of the smallest children, while the other groups consisted of four or five children each.

    ?The children trust you.?

    ?You could take Miira instead. People like her more than me,? the teenager sniped.

    ?Gale¡ª? Miira began, only to be cut off by the Risen Guard.

    ?We do not have time to argue. I was being polite, by asking. If you cannot put your feelings for the guard aside, then you are not the girl I heard so much about.?

    Gale looked like she wanted to hit the man, which probably wouldn¡¯t have ended well, given his full suit of armour. Her jaw flexed, nostrils flared, before she muttered, ?Fine,? and held out her hand for him to take.

    Emilia looked to Miira as they vanished, but the girl simply shook her head. Whatever that was about, either Miira didn¡¯t know, or it wasn¡¯t something she was comfortable speaking about.

    The Risen Guard popped back into existence and grabbed another group. Another. Another. Another. Their group really was huge, and Emilia felt a little bad for having never had the sense to do a headcount, lest they lose anyone. As it was, someone could have disappeared during their trek through the city and she would never know. Miira probably would, but it really wasn¡¯t something that should have been left to the young girl.

    The man slipped through the aether once more, right in front of her. ?Ready??

    A smile tugged at her lips, tired and sad. ¡°Take us away,¡± she singsonged, offering him her hand.

    Hopefully, this wouldn¡¯t be the moment where he finally decided to fuck them over¡ªdisappear her elsewhere and leave the kids to fend for themselves in the dark, wondering why the Risen Guard had forsaken them.

    Hopefully, she wouldn¡¯t regret trusting this man.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 115: Consequences Coming Soon

    [Step 4: Complete!]

    Well, at the very least, if Emilia assumed the system and its strange quest system were accurate, then she could rest assured that all the children had been gathered. None were missing, somehow disappeared from the city or hidden from the map¡¯s view¡ªafter all, none of the buildings had dots moving around inside them, and Emilia knew people were wandering around inside half of them, awoken by all the fighting yet not bothering to even try to help.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she trusted the system, was the thing. Had they been in her own world, she would have said sure, she trusted the OIC to keep things honest. The OIC was built into the world and its stupid raid system; therefore, if it happened to give her a quest¡ªand thank the stars no such thing existed in real-world raids!¡ªand marked it as complete, she would trust it.

    This wasn¡¯t the real world, however, and virtual raids weren¡¯t governed by the trustworthy and often maniacally ethical OIC system. Instead, raids were ruled over by cruel maintainers, who could easily reach their grubby hands into the game and fuck with things. Emilia was already sure they had interfered and create¡ªor even outright inhabited¡ªthe host of the kitchen challenge, after all. What would stop them from changing the direction of the raid again?

    And even if they weren¡¯t directly interfering, the fact that she and those visitors had ended up in the same city was just too much. The system itself may very well be the one fucking with her and the other visitors, something hateful programmed straight into it. She saw no reason it wouldn¡¯t continue doing so if it had.

    Either way, she was fucked and could trust nothing.

    [Step 5: Find the homeless kids and hope whoever was chasing them isn¡¯t a sociopath]

    Who had named these steps? Had she done that? She must be tired, to have written sociopath into existence and risked that word becoming reality, especially given she was in a world where at least some people believed that shit. Writing such things down just seemed like asking for trouble.

    ¡°We should go to the other kids?¡± Emilia asked, looking to the Risen Guard, who was already watching her¡­ or, she assumed he was, anyways. Bit difficult to tell with the mask and all. He was facing her, in any case.

    ?Yes.?

    Talkative fellow.

    ¡­

    ¡°Fucking fellow,¡± she grumbled to herself, setting Caro and the other child she had been carrying down and gathering an anxious looking Astra back into her arms. ¡°Hello again, little one,¡± she sighed as they shared a tight embrace, the girl¡¯s legs wrapping firmly around her waist.

    Emilia would have liked to say that in the twenty or so minutes they¡¯d be separated, it had gotten easier to be away from the little girl. It hadn¡¯t, and having the child back in her arms felt right.

    They were so fucked.

    ¡°Should we go first? Alone, I mean?¡± she asked, her weight naturally beginning to shift from side to side as she soothed the child. ¡°There was that weird dot heading towards them, and¡ª¡±

    ?They are not a danger.?

    Emilia levelled her most unimpressed look at the asshole. ¡°And you didn¡¯t tell me that earlier because¡­?¡±

    He shrugged, a small and silly movement on his frame of muscle and perfect posture. ?You didn¡¯t ask.?

    She was going to hit him. It had been a long time since she¡¯d come to blows with someone in law enforcement, and she¡¯d had to promise her parents¡ªand then Olivier, after she broke that first promise¡ªthat she would stop punching them when they pissed her off. She was about to break her promise again because this man definitely deserved to be slugged.

    Where though¡­ the man was covered in armour, and while she had no idea what it was made of, the fact that he¡¯d come out of two battles without so much as a scuff was kinda proof enough that his armour was tough shit. Maybe her one of her blood weapons would work? That seemed a bit excessive, though¡­

    ?I will move everyone in groups again,? he continued, turning towards where Kelly and Stephy were sitting against a nearby building.

    They had fallen asleep, their bodies either protecting them from the pain of their injuries or simply a result of sheer exhaustion. Between them, several other children had curled up to sleep. It wasn¡¯t exactly the biggest issue, but she did wonder who had been standing guard, given everyone who had remained behind appeared to have been asleep when they arrived, save Astra, who was now asleep in her arms. Astra might have some magic, but it seemed insane to have left her in charge of guarding everyone.

    Several of the kids had awoken after they began arriving, their eyes crusted with sleep that Miira occasionally reached out and rubbed from their eyes, her hands smoothing their hair and rubbing dirt and tears from their cheeks. They were cute, maternal gestures that made Emilia¡¯s heart ache for her own mother.

    ¡°Hello, little one.¡±

    Little Emilia, drawn in fuzzy detail in her memory, had looked up to find a woman in a beautiful floral jumpsuit¡ªalthough Emilia hadn¡¯t known the word for it at the time¡ªlooking tentatively at her from the doorway to the room she¡¯d been confined to. She¡¯d punched the new boy in the nose¡ªbroken it¡ªand he¡¯d be rushed to the clinic, herself sent to sit in silent contemplation.

    The woman had been the most beautiful person Emilia had ever seen. Wavy blonde hair had flowed down her back, those always perfect curls only just beginning to grey the last time they¡¯d seen each other, decades after this first meeting. The woman had looked sad¡ªnervous in a way the adults who visited her first home rarely were. The good ones were always nervous, in both the worried and excited way. Most of the adults who had visited Emilia¡¯s first home were not good adults.

    ¡°Hello,¡± the little her of her memories responded. ¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to be here.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    The woman who would become her mother had looked surprised before telling Emilia she had permission. It had been the truth, but not, and when Emilia had pointed this out, saying she didn¡¯t want to get in more trouble for entertaining visitors who shouldn¡¯t be there, the woman had simply smiled and slid into the seat across from her. It had been too small for her. The chairs in that room weren¡¯t meant for their hateful caretakers to sit in.

    ¡°Neither of us will get in trouble. My husband doesn¡¯t know I¡¯m here, is all. He won¡¯t be mad, I just didn¡¯t tell him.¡±

    Little Emilia had examined her so seriously that the details of her mother before she was her mother were burned into her brain, even without the aid of her Censor pulling those details out of her. Perfect, pink toned makeup, a mole under her left eye, lips too dry. She had looked tired, still nervous. Older than most of the adults who visited that place, by at least four or five decades, although Emilia would later learn it was more. Despite her age, she hadn¡¯t yet begun to form more than the finest of wrinkles¡ªthose normal marks of age came quick, though, once her home filled up with problem children, her own and the friends who followed.

    It had amazed Emilia, when she was younger, how quickly her mother¡¯s face had filled with lines. She¡¯d blamed herself, tried to keep the chaos to a minimum so the woman who had opened her heart to her wouldn¡¯t age because of that kindness.

    ¡°My silly girl,¡± her mother had laughed, when Emilia had finally confessed her concerns to her. ¡°Do you see how my lines move and shape?¡± she had asked, a bright smile tugging over her features, all the lines of age pulling into ones of happiness. ¡°These are not lines from hardship or sadness or stress, my silly child. Well, maybe a few are from stress! You are quite a little menace, you know! But I never want you to change because what you bring my life is happiness. My bright little star. These aren¡¯t lines of age, but of love and contentment.¡±

    Emilia sniffled into Astra¡¯s hair as the Risen Guard spirited away their group in pieces, Miira assigned to gently wake up the sleeping children so they could be moved as well.

    ¡°Your husband doesn¡¯t know you¡¯re here?¡± her little self had asked, unimpressed. ¡°You can¡¯t just¡­ decide this sort of thing on your own.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I know¡­¡± the woman had replied, blinking wildly, like she hadn¡¯t expected¡­ something.

    Hadn¡¯t been expecting so much snark or knowledge of how these things worked, perhaps. Whenever Emilia had asked her mother about that first meeting, wondering what the woman had been thinking, all her mother would say is she remembered being impressed with her. That seemed like looking at the meeting through rose-coloured glasses, if you asked Emilia.

    ¡°I¡ª¡± the woman had started, looking away.

    The silence had lingered and Emilia had gone back to doodling. She¡¯d only been given a tiny scrap of paper and a black pen, so her lines had been small and precise, the entire page filling up with her lines. The caretakers never told them how long her punishments would be, so she always had to make the most of what she was given. Make it last.

    ¡°I came to see, for myself, what my husband saw. Truth be told, he may not have said as much, but I think he already decided this¡­ thing on his own. He¡¯ll never tell me that, of course, but I can tell he left a bit of his heart here.¡±

    ¡°You can say no.¡±

    ¡°I heard you say no.¡±

    ¡°I do.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps you would like to tell me about that? About why you say no?¡±

    Emilia remembered looking up, seeing the pure acceptance on the woman¡¯s face. It hadn¡¯t been something she was used to, adults listening to her¡ªadults caring about what she said and what she wanted.

    There had been one person, several weeks earlier, who was the same. A man, his hair already greyed over, sitting in a slightly larger chair as he escaped the chaos of the event happening outside.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you out there?¡±

    A man, smiling in quiet apology as she told him, telling her she was so very kind for the why of it all. A man¡ªa husband¡ªlooking back at her like he didn¡¯t quite want to leave her there, but knowing he must.

    She wouldn¡¯t go alone, and he couldn¡¯t take her without¡­ something, his words trailing off, a quiet ¡°sorry¡± floating through the room as he disappeared.

    She hadn¡¯t expected to see him again. Certainly not the something¡ªthe someone¡ªhe needed permission from, either.

    ¡°Sure,¡± her little self replied, turning back to her drawing. Even the little, six-year-old version of her loved multitasking, drawing as she told this not-so-random woman the story of her life and others, the reason why she couldn¡¯t be chosen, no matter what. As she told the woman, she hadn¡¯t expected to be chosen.

    She had already met one person capable of saying yes to her demands, and even if the woman was his wife, she hadn¡¯t expected to find a second person in her soft sadness.

    ?Emilia??

    Emilia blinked up to find Benny, who had been entertaining the grumpy children Miira had woken with his {Blood Slime}, staring up at her. He was looking up at her with concerned eyes, and she glared down at him.

    ¡°You know I know you touched the heartcore, right?¡± she asked the little brat. He had been doing a relatively good job of hiding the fact that he¡¯d acquired the ability to hear, but not good enough. The fact that he could apparently hear her crying was just too much to overlook, however.

    The boy froze, looking like he was also about to burst into tears, which definitely wouldn¡¯t help things.

    Emilia sighed, awkwardly squatting down to glare at him. ¡°You know that was dangerous, right? And as far as I know, this is permanent, and it could have been something worse.¡±

    ?I know¡­? he said, voice wobbling so much that Emilia took pity on him and pulled him into an awkward, one-armed hug.

    ?He will likely be taken in by the Risen Guard, when this is all over.?

    Emilia looked up to find the Risen Guard returned and standing nearby. There were only two groups left, she realized, the man having moved fast as she contemplated whether having a full on breakdown over missing her parents in the middle of the street would make her feel better or not. It probably wouldn¡¯t, but then again, maybe it might?

    She cocked her head in silent question. ¡°Is there any other way?¡±

    Then the man vanished, the penultimate group vanishing with him. Well, as far as head tilt questions went, Emilia didn¡¯t blame him for not understanding her.

    ¡°Do you¡­ want to join the Risen Guard?¡± she asked softly, eyes glued to her map, watching for the man¡¯s return. This wasn¡¯t a conversation for his ears, not that she had any idea how far his hearing went, if his map could cover the entire city.

    Benny shook his head. Nodded. ?I don¡¯t know¡­? he said, voice tight as wetness slid over the skin of her shoulder. ?It would¡­ it would be a home¡ªnot to mention there would be lots of adventures, and I like those! But¡­ I don¡¯t really like them. But, also,?¡ªthe boy pulled back to look at her, rubbing the filthy cuff of his shirt over his tear-filled eyes¡ª?that guy seems different? He¡¯s a lot nicer than the Risen Guard in Livery are¡­ were?? Benny frowned, eyebrows pulling together in thought, and Emilia reached out, rubbing a bit of dirt off his cheek.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she whispered. ¡°Then we¡¯ll figure something out.¡±

    The boy had only been there because of her and the other visitors, and she had known, as they passed through that room, the risk of the kids touching the heartcore. She had told them not to touch it, but the reality was that she needed its power¡ªnot just for the raid as a whole, but to protect them. Touching it had been risking passing out, and when she¡¯d woken slumped against the cavern wall sometime later, she hadn¡¯t been surprised. No one had said any of the kids touched the stone, but she had felt the lie in their words, several pairs of eyes flicking to the children sleeping against another wall.

    Curiosity kills, or in this case, potentially ruins a child¡¯s life.

    Emilia had no idea if she could stop the Risen Guard from taking the child, but she would figure something out. Benny deserved a choice as to where his life went, even if something told her he would be happy with the Risen Guard¡ªwould be happy with the adventures they could offer him.

 Arc 3 | Chapter 116: Not My Brother

    ?It¡¯s weird that he won¡¯t tell us what we¡¯re heading into. We could be heading into a magicstorm, or some nest of hostiles,? Gale grumbled as their group walked behind the Risen Guard, the man having thought it wise to approach the homeless group on foot after moving everyone closer.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure where the teenager had learned to talk like that, given she didn¡¯t seem the type to play soldier or¡­ something? Did kids here play soldier? Risen Guard? Kids in her own world had played solider, going off to fight in the Colonial Wars, during her own childhood. She assumed some kids played at going to war with monsters now, or perhaps hunting down echoes. Some probably pretended to be SecOps, surging into buildings and using phrases they¡¯d heard in a game or show. Most likely, no one pretended they were suddenly a member of The Black Knot.

    Books, however, didn¡¯t seem particularly common in this world. The lack of technology made movies and shows unlikely. Plays, maybe? Music? Oral history? Or perhaps she was reading too much into the girl¡¯s choice of words.

    Yeah, that was probably it.

    Except, it wasn¡¯t.

    ?Carne!? Benny yelled as they circled the last corner and the homeless children came into view, a rather plain looking young man, with light-brown hair and skin, standing among them.

    Benny bolted for the man, a small, tired smile spreading over the man¡¯s face. Caro, who had woken and been talked out of running off again by the combined efforts of Miira and Miira translating for Emilia, tucked themself further behind her. To Emilia, it seemed as though they wanted to join Benny in body checking Carne, but were resisting the urge for whatever reason.

    Gale, who had been stomping along just in front of Emilia, pulled to a halt. Miira stopped beside her, all the other homed children stopping as well, nervous energy swelling through them.

    Emilia glanced over at the older girls as she too stopped, Astra perking up as she looked around their new surroundings, which were identical to every other alley they had wandered down. To her, Gale looked more expressive than she had probably ever seen the teenager, which was saying something. Half the time the girl looked unimpressed, bored, annoyed, the emotions written plainly over her face. Now, she looked a mix of irate and on the verge of tears.

    Miira, on the other hand, looked shocked, and when she looked to Gale, hurt. ?Gale, why didn¡¯t you tell me??

    ?I¡­? Gale began to see, her voice cracking.

    Emilia wished she could reach over and comfort the girl¡ªeither of the girls, really¡ªbut something told her her support wouldn¡¯t be appreciated by Gale, and Miira¡­ Well, Miira would accept it, but it would drag a line between her and her friend that wouldn¡¯t do anyone any good. Then again, Miira had been acting distant since they had regrouped, barely looking in Emilia¡¯s direction and talking to her only when she had to. So, maybe she wouldn¡¯t accept her comfort any more than Gale would.

    ?Gale¡­? Carne said, stepping through the children surrounding him. It was creepy, the way they parted for him, like the ocean parting for the god of some ancient myth Emilia had heard some of the Free Coloniers mention occasionally.

    It was¡­ strange, and off-putting. Benny might have tackled the man, but the other children seemed to be pushed away by his energy, gently rebuffed in a way that Emilia could feel. The separation wasn¡¯t an unheard-of skill in her world, especially among people who used their cores. What was unusual was the ease with which Carne seemed to be using the technique at a constant rate, the aether rippling to the constant wave of his existence.

    A sort of protection, one that would probably have at least a few people in her world following him around like he was a god. Given the way the homeless children were watching him, their eyes lit up in worship, perhaps that was precisely what was happening here as well.

    Gale, much to Emilia¡¯s concern and amusement, let out a growl. ?Do not talk to me!?

    Behind Carne, a few of the children bristled, their energy beginning to warble in words about to be spit out at her. A single raised hand from the man, however, and they fell silent. His energy spread to them, calm and soothing and snuffing their voices out, just like the energy that had silenced Benny and Caro¡ªhad sent Stephy running panicked through the streets.

    ?Sister¡ª? he tried again, a burble of chatter from all the children breaking out, neither the homed children¡¯s nervous shock nor Carne¡¯s energy suppression enough to keep them quiet.

    ?Shut up!? Gale yelled, a rarity outside of fights with Sawyer. ?I¡¯m not your sister anymore!?

    ?You will always be my sister.?

    ?You don¡¯t even call yourself Ash anymore!?

    Ah. Well, that explained why Miira looked hurt. Gale had obviously known that Carne was her brother¡ªor former brother¡ªand not told Miira.

    Carne sighed slightly, that sad smile of his twisting into one of melancholy¡ªinto a smile that begged the person to understand.

    Emilia didn¡¯t like it.

    Emilia didn¡¯t like him.

    It was the feeling of someone dogmatic. Thankfully, she¡¯d met very few such people in her life, but the war had included all types. Every person willing to fight had been accepted into the military, and that meant some pretty intense people had crossed her path. They all felt like this: like they would die for their cause, religion, government, obsession, no matter what. Nothing would talk them out of their profound, unbending belief, and they would try to recruit every person they could along the way. They wouldn¡¯t expect people to be converted¡ªalthough there had certainly been others who practically demanded people convert¡ªbut there would be an undertone of failure on their part when they couldn¡¯t convert someone.

    Criticism turned inward in a way that asked their victim to feel compelled to help them be free of it. ¡°If you convert, I will be free of this guilt, but I would never ask that of you,¡± it seemed to say. A strange flipping of the script that had resulted in a small exodus of Baalphorians following the war, their bodies following their leader, saviour, kidnapper, into the Free Colonies, never to be seen again.

    ?I was never Ash,? Carne said, their face turning upwards as their eyes fluttered shut. Their energy rippled, and the universe moved with them, a more powerful version of Sawyer and Benny¡¯s universe reading. ?I am sorry you cannot accept it, but I am now who I always was.?

    ?You¡ª? Gale began to say, her hands clenching into fists so tight her nails drew blood. It wasn¡¯t enough that the blood escaped her fists, the system quickly healing her as best it could, but Emilia could feel the blood vibrating with the aether nonetheless.

    So could her Risen Guard saviour, who had placed himself somewhat between Gale and Carne, given the way he did¡­ something. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure what he did, but something about the man changed, and she knew it was because he could sense the blood.

    Carne noticed as well, his eyes flicking to Gale¡¯s hands. ?You should be more careful with your precious blood, sister mine.?

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Gale lurched towards Carne, the Risen Guard darting between them and catching her by the waist, hauling her off her feet. ?Let me go!? she screamed, trying to pull the man¡¯s arm off her, her legs kicking wildly.

    ?Ah,? Carne sighed, ignoring the way Gale screamed in favour of turning his attention on the Risen Guard. ?Forgive me, I did not properly greet you. Hello, Boundary.?

    The Risen Guard¡ªBoundary, apparently¡ªseemed to assess the other man for a moment. ?Carne,? he finally greeted, turning his attention to the homeless children. ?You may choose to go with Carne or come with us. I will advise those who are injured to come with us, as you are unlikely to find adequate treatment where Carne is going.?

    The way Boundary said it, Emilia knew he expected none of them to return to their side. A few had minor injuries, scuffs across their body that would heal with time. Only one likely had an injury that needed attending, a boy who had cracked his chest against the water slides and likely broken a few ribs. He didn¡¯t move to come with them, and when Boundary translated Emilia¡¯s concerns, he shook his head.

    He was going with Carne, nothing would stop him.

    The terrifying thing was, Emilia was sure he meant it. He could be slowly bleeding to death as they spoke, a rib spiked brutally into one organ or another. Even if they knew for certain he was, she was sure the boy would still choose to follow that man.

    ?Will you allow all the children to choose their path, or just these ones?? Carne asked, head tilting in curiosity. An innocent question, packed with intent to disrupt their group.

    ?We wouldn¡¯t want to go with you anyways!? Stephy growled from her seat against a nearby wall. Boundary had been carrying her, but had set her down when he realized things between Gale and Carne were tense.

    Actually, Emilia wasn¡¯t positive he hadn¡¯t set her down before the tension began. Hadn¡¯t the man said he had heard good things about Gale? Had those things come from Carne? Yet, these two men certainly weren¡¯t friendly, and Emilia was willing to bet anything Carne wasn¡¯t a Risen Guard.

    At least, not anymore.

    Around them, most of the other homed kids mumbled in agreement, and Caro tucked themself back behind Emilia. They wanted to go, but they also wanted to stay.

    Behind Carne, Sawyer looked resolute, his energy wrapping around the other homeless children and reassuring them they were making the right decision. It seemed unnecessary, all but one of the homeless children needing no encouragement to stay. All, except Benny.

    ¡°Can Carne hear us?¡± Emilia asked, hoping that Boundary would know the answer.

    Carne¡¯s eyes snapped to her, sliding over her with amusement and a healthy dose of hostility.

    ?No,? Boundary assured her.

    ¡°How certain of that are you?¡±

    ?Positive.?

    ¡°Benny, do a better job of pretending you can¡¯t hear us,¡± Emilia said, eyes still glued to the Risen Guard¡¯s back.

    Honestly, the boy had been doing a pretty good job of hiding his new ability to hear. Despite clearly knowing what ability the heartcore had given him, he hadn¡¯t told anyone. It wasn¡¯t hard for anyone to believe that, given many of the possible options didn¡¯t reveal themselves until the right moment. She and V hadn¡¯t realized they could read until shortly after they awoke, and it had been two days until she learned she could write. She still didn¡¯t know what the last heartcore had given her.

    Benny¡¯s weight shifted slightly, his eyes flicking between everyone. No one was really watching him, but she wanted him to focus. If this was going to work, he needed to keep it between them and not freak.

    ¡°Okay, sweet little boy. Don¡¯t move. Don¡¯t speak. Don¡¯t nod or shrug or anything else. I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to choose now, whether you want to help us know what is happening wherever Carne is taking you. Not to be our spy¡ªnot if you don¡¯t want to be that, anyways¡ªbut to keep everyone safe. I can see that you feel it too, that something is wrong.¡±

    Benny tried not to move, but he couldn¡¯t quite manage it, his eyes flickering in uneasy confirmation. He hadn¡¯t been homeless long, and it was possible that whatever the other homeless children felt for Carne¡ªwhatever acceptance of his strangeness they had acquired over visits with the man¡ªBenny wasn''t quite there yet.

    This was too much for him. Carne was taking him too soon.

    ¡°If you agree, do nothing. If you don¡¯t¡­ either come her¡ªbecause you do not have to go with them¡ªor just do something to tell us you don¡¯t want to do this.¡±

    When had she and Boundary become us? That was certainly an unexpected turn of events.

    Benny did nothing, only blinking as calmly as he could as they all watched her speak, assuming she was talking to Boundary.

    ¡°Can you give him access to the Risen Guard system for longer?¡± she asked Boundary, hoping she hadn¡¯t just wasted Benny¡¯s courage for nothing. ¡°More permanently, I mean.¡±

    The Risen Guard huffed slightly, the smallest speck of amusement, even though when he spoke, his voice was strained. ?I understood what you meant. I can.?

    ¡°Does it have something like a way to message people? Anything that would be useful for him to have? Oh shit, he can¡¯t read, though¡­¡±

    Benny tensed slightly as Boundary presumably lit up another portion of the system within his head.

    ?The messages will go directly to Emilia and me. Simply think of telling us something, and we will receive it. The system will aid in translating what you receive; however, those translations may cause you headaches, especially if we send too much at once. Apologies, as you will be unable to deactivate it. Most trainees are not bestowed with system access until much later. I suggest you use it for messaging and nothing else. If you try to manipulate it, you may be unable to undo what you changed.?

    Benny swallowed, looking as though he were doing everything in his power to not respond to what the man said.

    Several more words and instructions were exchanged between them, before Boundary turned to speaking to Carne again. ?She disagreed with letting you take the children. I assured her that you will not hurt them. Do not make me a liar, Carne.?

    The man¡¯s smile barely changed. Still sad, manipulative, accepting, but something else entered it. ?I would never hurt the children,? he lied, his army repeating his sentiment in a chorus of too much conviction. ?Can she hear us??

    ?She can,? Sawyer responded, ?but she can¡¯t speak.?

    Carne¡¯s smile split into one of happiness, a wisp of his energy reaching back to wrap affectionately around Sawyer. ?The universe led me to you, it would not have done so were I a danger to its precious children.?

    ¡°Precious children who it leaves homeless orphans and tramples in stampedes,¡± Emilia didn¡¯t say. Instead, she simply nodded and waving goodbye to the children as they finally began to continue on their journey stars knew where. At the very least, most looked sad to be parted from her.

    ?Gale,? Carne sighed, their fake ass smile finally falling away as they blinked at the teenager. ?One day, I hope you can accept the person I am, not the person our parents wanted me to be.?

    ?Don¡¯t you dare talk about my mom and dad,? Gale spit out from her position of prisoner in Boundary¡¯s arms. ?You lost the right to talk about any of us when you fucked off and abandoned your responsibilities.?

    The man¡¯s frown dropped away, face becoming so blank it sent a shiver up Emilia¡¯s back, her senses and intuition screaming for her to run. Get as far from this man as possible. He is dangerous.

    ?Believe that as long as you wish. I will not stop you, and I will accept you with open arms when you accept the will of the universe.?

    Gale tried to bite back at her former brother, but a bubble of Carne¡¯s energy wrapped around them, silencing her words. To Emilia¡¯s amazement, Boundary didn¡¯t tackle the man and kill him for it, although she had a feeling he wanted to. Impressive, the amount of emotion she could feel from the man when she couldn¡¯t see his face.

    ?Caro¡­? Carne sighed, turning towards Emilia, although just like the other times he had looked her way, he barely seemed to see her. ?I knew you weren¡¯t good enough for us.?

    Caro tensed, and for a moment, Emilia considered launching herself at the horrible man. Then, he was gone, transporting himself down the street to lead the children stars knew where.

    Across her vision, a message dialogue lit up.

    [Emilia: be safe]

    [Emilia: let me know if you need anything]

    [Emilia: i will do everything in my power to get you out, when you want to leave]

    [Benny: I know]

    [Benny: I¡¯ll be okay]

    [Benny: Don¡¯t worry]

    [Benny: And yeah, this kinda hurts my head¡­]

 Arc 4 | Chapter 117: A Potentially Toxic Training

    Emilia was unsure if she was a hostage or not. Well, maybe hostage wasn¡¯t quite the right word. Unless V suddenly reappeared¡ªor the Stringer family¡ªit wasn¡¯t like anyone would be coming for her. Perhaps she was more of a generic captive, being held semi-against her will by the Risen Guard?

    It was unclear. Extremely unclear. She had been treated nicely enough, in the two days since they¡¯d been brought to this place by Boundary, who had promptly disappeared, leaving a blandly smiling woman in his stead.

    Lanaira wasn¡¯t exactly unkind, but she was certainly unhelpful. That probably wasn¡¯t her fault. All the kids, save Astra and the boy who still refused to speak, wanted to know about their parents. Lanaira had no answers for them.

    Things in Livery were a mess, and the Risen Guard were still working to sort out what had happened and where everyone had ended up. The stampede had happened so fast that the elevators and landing pads hadn¡¯t been shut down or even monitored as people started evacuating, and once the Risen Guard had realized the local guards had panicked and shut people in? That the labyrinth entrance had been damaged and the area¡¯s overseer hadn¡¯t informed the higher ups?

    Yeah, it was a giant mess. A mess of politics and bodies and missing people. There were also still people inside the city, trapped. The homeless population, plus everyone who had been locked inside and was too afraid to enter the labyrinth. No one had any idea how many people had entered the labyrinth, and the Risen Guard was currently sending members into it, searching for people lost or stuck or dead. From what Lanaira had told them, searching the labyrinth was extremely difficult, as there was no set path. Essentially, the Risen Guard was left to send in guard after guard, hoping they¡¯d run into people.

    They¡¯d found a few dozen people so far¡ªmany quite seriously injured or dead¡ªand located another dozen who had made it out the other side and popped out in one city or another. Apparently, while some labyrinths had set exits, others had none. The Livery labyrinth in particular could open exits virtually anywhere. The only good thing about that was it meant that even if the Risen Guard didn¡¯t find V and the missing children, it didn¡¯t prove they were dead or gone. Then again, some closure might have been nice.

    Of the people the Risen Guard did find, some had been stupid enough to touch the heartcore, creating even more headaches for the Risen Guard. Given what they¡¯d heard from Emilia and the kids about Livery, in the days since their arrival, the guard had also realized some amount of the population was unlikely to report they were residents of of the city: this chaos was the perfect escape from lives they abhorred. It was too good a chance to pass up.

    Within the city itself, there had been riots, and while the Risen Guard would normally send in people to control the situation, they were currently stretched thin. The visitors who had escaped the Risen Guard were causing problems throughout the city system¡ªpossibly even outside it, if what Emilia gleaned from overheard conversation and words left unsaid was correct. Incidents like the one in the library heartcore city and Livery were happening everywhere, and there weren¡¯t enough Risen Guard to go around.

    According to Lanaira, the fact that Boundary had even shown up to help them was sheer luck. He¡¯d been in a nearby city and felt the tug of a new potential Risen Guard.

    He¡¯d come because of Benny¡ªbecause the little boy had been filled with uncontainable curiosity. It was a stupid thing to do, but if he hadn¡¯t done it, they may have all died in that city. The Enclave member, the two members of that family, Carne; there were so many places where things could have gone wrong.

    So many, in fact, that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she believed it was a coincidence that they had all crossed paths.

    Thankfully, she had Caro, nosy little child and gossip.

    Caro had, thankfully, be reassured publicly by Boundary that what had happened to the homed children was not their fault. That man would have found them anyways, they simply found Caro first. Some of the children still muttered about how Caro had caused it, but those words were quickly shut down by Miira, who had fallen effortlessly into her role as mini-maternal figure of the apartments they¡¯d been placed in. She was doing pretty good, working under Lanaira to guide the children through their¡ªhopefully temporary¡ªnew life.

    Caro was mostly back to their cheerful, flighty self, but was still sticking close to Emilia, apparently trusting her to death glare anyone who said bad things about them. After a short stint of begging with Lanaira to either translate or give Caro access to the messaging system or send someone else along to translate for them, Emilia had been bestowed with a Risen Guard in training: Honey.

    Honey was cheerful and clumsy and an Enclave spy.

    Okay, so Emilia wasn¡¯t positive on that last point, but the signs were there! If Honey weren¡¯t a spy, Emilia would eat her hat¡­ if she had a hat, anyways.

    Luckily, Honey was also completely content to translate for her and Caro, offering up their own information as they went. Emilia was pretty sure Honey wasn¡¯t supposed to be telling them so much information, which was part of what had convinced her the young woman was a spy. Only part of it, of course.

    Things Caro knew:

    One: Carne had grown up in Livery

    ?I don¡¯t know why everyone was so surprised he¡¯s Gale¡¯s brother?? Caro mused as they fiddled with one of the toys Lanaira had secured for the children.

    ¡°Not her brother.¡±

    ?What? But they¡¯re¡­ brother and sister? My mom knows their mom and dad. She says Gale and Ash looked similar, just like their daddy, so they can¡¯t be, you know¡­? Caro¡¯s cheeks lit up and Honey helpfully supplied the missing words, which Emilia didn¡¯t recognize but assumed was a local equivalent of affair child.

    Emilia shook her head, explaining that family was more than blood¡ªchoosing your family was just as important¡ªas she put more food on Astra and the silent boy¡¯s plates, the two children having remained her responsibility along with Caro. Gale had decided she didn¡¯t want to be Carne¡¯s sister, and as her friend, they should respect her decision, and that meant not thinking of them as siblings.

    Caro nodded along, a little furrow between their eyebrows. They could be a bit young for this sort of conversation, but Emilia really had no idea. Neither did Honey when she asked.

    ?I don¡¯t have any kids in my life. Most Risen Guards don¡¯t. Lanaira comes from a Risen Guard family, so she sees her family more often, and has a few younger members she¡¯s close with. I think that¡¯s why she was assigned this gig.?

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°And why were you assigned this gig?¡± Emilia wanted to ask, but something told her now wasn¡¯t the time.

    ?Okay, so, I don¡¯t know why nobody knew Carne was Gale¡¯s¡­ uh¡­ former brother??

    Emilia nodded, it was good enough. ¡°Well, you knew Gale and had seen Carne and knew Gale once had a brother who looked like her, so it would be easier for you to know. Did you tell anyone?¡±

    Caro shook their head. ?I think Sawyer knew too? And maybe Benny? But, Benny isn¡¯t that observant. Carne left before most of us were even born!? Caro¡¯s eyes blew hilariously wide, as though the fact that things occurred before they were born was the most amazing thing in the world. Vaguely, Emilia wondered if they knew their entire life could pass in the span of a few minutes to days in her world, depending on how fast the platform maintainers ran the world once the raid was over.

    ¡°To become a Risen Guard?¡±

    Two: Carne had once been a Risen Guard in training

    ?Yup!? Caro cheered, going on a long, winding tail about how some Risen Guard really, really suck, but some are really cool.

    Honey laughed and added in a few of her own thoughts on the organization, distracting the children with stories of her terrible and wonderful peers and seniors.

    ¡°Where does Boundary fall on your scale?¡± Emilia asked, poking at the food that had been bestowed to them. It was, unfortunately, the same terrible, faux-bloody lumps she¡¯d been given during her first visit to the Risen Guard. Luckily, the children didn¡¯t seem to have a problem eating it.

    Honey contemplated for a moment, telling them she didn¡¯t know the man personally. ?I¡¯ve seen him a few times, heard a lot about him. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s very nice to most people? Kinda standoffish. He¡¯s really skilled, but not the most skilled Risen Guard by far. I think I heard he went back into training a few days after you visitors arrived, though? People have mixed views on that.?

    ¡°Why?¡± Emilia asked, as nonchalantly as she could manage.

    ?It¡¯s dangerous.?

    ¡°Too much power?¡±

    ?Mhm!? Honey responded, munching down a handful of dried snacks that looked far too much like dried bugs for Emilia to even contemplate eating.

    Her original Risen Guard babysitter had told her none of the food in this world was meat¡ªtoo much blood involved¡ªbut did bugs have blood? Emilia wasn¡¯t sure. They must have something running through their systems, but was it close enough to whatever was affected by the blood curse to also be affected? Certainly, bugs being affect by the blood curse seemed like the sort of thing that would end the world.

    The cities seemed to be devoid of animals, so no fights could break out between strays or badly trained pets. It was nearly impossible to keep bugs out of anywhere, however. After over a hundred years of the blood curse, Emilia supposed it was possible the bugs had been driven out of the cities, but that seemed unrealistic. Plus, the Stringer compound had been outside! It seemed much more likely that bugs were unaffected by the blood curse, or their blood not enough to actually activate it, otherwise stepping on bugs would be dangerous!

    Not being in a position to request a random excursion out onto the street¡ªand not wanting to interrupt the flow of the conversation¡ªEmilia could only guess at such things. Personally, she wasn¡¯t about to risk eating an actual bug. Logically, she knew it wasn¡¯t actually a bug¡ªor anything, really. It was just random data for her body to convert into digital energy. She still wasn¡¯t eating it.

    Honey offered no more information about the dangers of Risen Guard training, and when their eyes met, Emilia could see a hint of¡­ something. Something that added another note of suspicion that Honey was a spy.

    ¡°So, Carne was excited to become a Risen Guard?¡± she asked, filling in the unsaid parts of Caro¡¯s story.

    ?Yup! He was! He wanted to become someone great! Come back and help the people of the city. My mom and dad said the entire city was looking forward to celebrating his success!?

    ¡°But that didn¡¯t happen?¡±

    Caro deflated, whatever happy memories they had of being told Carne¡¯s origin story by their parents fell away. ?No¡­ there was an accident. I was nearby when Gale¡¯s family was told.? Their eyes blew wide, and suddenly, they were promising Honey that they hadn¡¯t meant to listen in, it had just happened.

    Honey smiled and told them it was fine, pushing more food towards the gangly child as she told Emilia that Ash¡¯s story was famous among the Risen Guard¡ªa tale of what can go wrong during training.

    ?It was a few years ago. There¡¯s no way Caro had enough control over their hearing magic to control what they did and didn¡¯t hear yet,? the trainee explained.

    ¡°I see¡­ so, what happened?¡± she asked, wondering which of her companions would explain.

    Both, each explaining and filling in details as they went, although it was clear that either Honey didn¡¯t know everything or was purposefully leaving things out¡ªprobably both. Whatever Caro knew was public knowledge, Honey was just adding in the facts they had forgotten. Perhaps adding in a bit more, but certainly not much. Just enough that they wouldn¡¯t get in trouble for telling her things she shouldn¡¯t know, Emilia suspected.

    Effectively, there had been some sort of training accident. It was an expected risk that all trainees were informed of before they began certain aspects of their training. Usually, things went fine. In Ash¡¯s case, it hadn¡¯t, and they had been fatally injured.

    Except they hadn¡¯t been.

    ?From what I understand, no one expected Ash to survive,? Honey told Caro when they admitted they had thought they¡¯d heard the Risen Guard informing his family of his impending death. ?He did survive, and then¡­ he left. I don¡¯t know anything about what happened with that!? she added quickly, and Emilia was inclined to believe her.

    ?Honestly? I think the Risen Guard want him dead, but something is stopping them. No idea what, but it¡¯s common trainee gossip. Oh! And we¡¯ve been told to avoid him at all costs, and to not fight with him, no matter what.?

    Well, that would explain why Boundary hadn¡¯t attacked the man when they talked, despite his obvious desire to. Still, it begged the question of why Carne was so dangerous. He clearly had some insane core control, and the fact that he¡¯d found them, having apparently followed the will of the universe to them, travelling stars knew how far to get to them?

    ?There are hundreds of things the heartcores can give people!? Caro had cheered as they examined the heartcore. Most of the children would go nowhere near it, for fear of touching it, because you never knew what sort of gift it would give you.

    ?In the stories, some gifts are more common than others,? Miira had added, Sawyer telling them that the grannies said there were statistics involved, his young brain fumbling over the word. He had subsequently been unable to tell the others what statistics were, and Emilia had been forced to give an impromptu math lesson.

    ?Your ability to hear is considered common, in the stories about visitors,? Miira explained after several of the children had begged for the math lesson to stop. Apparently, many of the stories about previous visitations were now considered myth, but were regularly told by parents and grandparents. It was unclear how much of them was real, and how much dramatic detail or errors of time.

    ?Some of the abilities are really terrible. Life changing or deadly,? Gale had grumbled, glaring at the heartcore from across the room.

    In hindsight, perhaps it made sense that she would get nowhere near the thing, if she knew touching it potentially led to becoming a Risen Guard¡ªor, that one had potentially stolen her brother from her. According to Zach, heartcores were where visitors and locals alike expanded their power. They were now largely controlled by the Risen Guard and Enclave, making it nearly impossible for locals to accidentally acquire new abilities.

    It was possible Ash¡¯s training accident had involved the heartcores, something about the power given to him toxic and dangerous, creating the man he had become. Something disturbing and feared. Perhaps, Gale even knew that, although how, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure. Caro and Honey had simply called it a training accident, but then again, siblings talk.

    Just as friends share secrets they shouldn¡¯t, so do siblings. It was easy to see Gale and Ash whispering secrets about his training during the rare breaks that brought him home, the same way Rin and Key did¡­ just with slightly less malicious intention.

    Emilia would love to ask Gale about it. The problem? Emilia was positive they were all being watched.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 118: Split

    ¡°I feel like Risen Guards are not normally in the habit of kidnapping captives from the Risen Guard.¡± Emilia glanced over at her kidnapper, who she assumed was Boundary. He had the same height, same build, same general reticence. The man didn¡¯t respond to her comment on the strangeness of the situation, simply continued walking through the quiet halls and letting her fill the silence with her babbling.

    Well, if the man wasn¡¯t going to contribute to the conversation, their two tiny companions just as quiet as he was, then she¡¯d just have to fill the space. Small hands clasped both of hers, Astra on one side, and the little nameless boy between her and probably-Boundary, his own gloved hand held by one of the boy¡¯s as well.

    It had surprised her a bit, both that the boy would want to hold the quiet man¡¯s hand and that he had accepted. Probably-Boundary had protected the children, though, so maybe he had a soft spot for them? That at least gave her something he might be interested in talking about, and she began to talk about all the things that had happened in the three days they¡¯d been held by the Risen Guard.

    Honestly, it wasn¡¯t a lot. The most exciting thing that had happened was someone had popped in to take Miira and several of the other kids away for assessment. She had gone with the first few, to make sure everything was on the up and up¡ªit was. From what the Lanaira and Honey had been able to tell her, the kids who were being taken were those whose parents had been discovered dead or in no condition to take them back. They needed somewhere to go now, and they, along with all the other city system children who were suddenly orphans, were being assessed for where they would best fit.

    Some would end up as Risen Guards, others sent to trades people or academics or other family members. The fact that Livery was so poor, however, meant that even those children with surviving family may not be welcome back into their homes. It was rough, but at least the Risen Guard seemed to be taking the children¡¯s wellbeing seriously. She had also heard whispers that the overseer who had let the city fall into such disrepair wouldn¡¯t be seen anytime soon. Good.

    ¡°What¡¯s going to happen with these two?¡± Emilia asked, glancing down at the tiny children who accompanied her practically everywhere. The boy could be talked into staying with one of the other adults or older children, but Astra barely left her side. It had made going to the bathroom and bathing awkward for the first day, but she was a kid and neither nudity nor bathroom stuff seemed to bother her, and Emilia had quickly learned to be something much too close to a mom for the little girl.

    Boundary¡ªseriously, Emilia was just going to assume some other random Risen Guard hadn¡¯t kidnapped her¡ªglanced down at the children as well. ?We do not know who they are. Those with missing children are being asked to report to the Risen Guard with descriptions of them. We have noted their descriptions into a database for comparison.?

    ¡°And if no one claims them? Don¡¯t think I haven¡¯t noticed that none of the kids under five have been taken for assessment. I highly doubt none of their parents have popped up dead.¡±

    Boundary didn¡¯t answer for a long while, content to continue wandering the halls in silence while Emilia debated kicking him. ?Generally¡­? he finally began, words slow and precise, ?children are only picked for vocations once they are ten or so. Only in cases where a child shows extreme aptitude, or they have been orphaned, are they assessed early.?

    ¡°So, it¡¯s actually a normal part of life here?¡± Honey had told her that, but something in the trainee¡¯s words had read as a lie. Boundary¡¯s, on the other hand, seemed completely genuine. ¡°Wait, so shouldn¡¯t the orphans of Livery have been assessed?¡±

    ?Yes,? Boundary didn¡¯t quite growl. ?The overseer of the area¡­ greatly failed in his vocation. He will not be responsible for managing anyone again.?

    ¡°Himself included?¡±

    Boundary shot her a look¡­ probably. The man was still wearing his mask, despite the fact that she had seen no one else wearing one inside the compound. He didn¡¯t answer her question, instead telling her that not all families allowed their children to be assessed, but most did, especially if the child did not have a passion for any particular career path.

    ?When they do wish to become something specific, it depends on the job and their connections, whether they will still need to be assessed.?

    ¡°So¡­ if their family runs a restaurant, and they want to be a cook, they¡¯re probably all good? But if their dream is to be an¡­ overseer, they have to be assessed?¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°I see, I see¡­ so, does that mean kids like Gale, Miira and Kelly¡±¡ªnot to mention the missing Sawyer and several other homeless kids who had disappeared with V¡ª¡°are late being assessed? Even the kids with homes weren¡¯t handled properly?¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°But you didn¡¯t take Gale?¡± Kelly hadn¡¯t been taken either, but he and Stephy were still in recovery.

    Stephy had been confined to bed, her legs bound up in thick bandages and suspended awkwardly to help them heal. Her prognosis was¡­ unknown. Broken legs were a difficult thing. They took time to heal, and her muscles would atrophy in that time. Assuming they healed properly¡ªand given what passed for doctors here had little ability to see their patients insides to fully assess them, that was a big if¡ªshe¡¯d have a long, painful road of recovery ahead.

    As for Kelly¡­ there was little to be done for him. Several sections of his arm muscle had been carved away. The system had sealed the wound, creating new skin from the aether to stop the bleeding, but the muscle was still gone¡ªthe arm, largely unusable. The preteen was taking it in stride, but for the moment, it seemed no one wanted to push him too hard. Taking him into an assessment where the first question was ?So, what do you see yourself doing with your life?? was too harsh. What if he answered something that required two arms? No one wanted to risk that just yet.

    ?Gale¡­ does not like us.?

    ¡°Really!¡± Emilia asked, feigning shock just to annoy her companion a little. To her delight, he looked her way and she could practically feel the glare he was giving her. ¡°I did notice that. Something about Ash having been a Risen Guard trainee, before he touched a heartcore and gained some potentially fatal power that corrupted him and made him super, duper dangerous?¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    The man¡¯s glaring vibe intensified. Emilia smiled innocently back.

    ?Perhaps I should have a conversation with Honey about what is secret Risen Guard gossip, and what can be shared with outsiders.?

    Emilia gasped dramatically, wishing she had a free hand to clasp just as dramatically to her chest. She didn¡¯t and was forced to instead sag, all the life draining out of her. ¡°And here I thought that being in a world that was not my own meant I would escape the prejudice of being a stupid silverstrain girl! Alas! Boundary still assumes I have no thoughts in my silver little head.¡±

    ?What is a silverstrain??

    ¡°Eh¡­ it¡¯s like a genetic abnormality? Ah¡ª Do you know what that is?¡±

    No, Boundary did not know what those were, and for a few halls and staircases, the two of them compared notes on birth defects, the easiest comparison she could think of.

    ?There is a similar sentiment here,? Boundary said, setting the little boy down as they reached the top of another set of stairs. ?Children who are born¡­ wrong are often handed over to the Risen Guard to deal with. The risk that they will be unable to understand rules on safety and blood is too high for most people to risk.?

    ¡°And what do you guys do with those kids?¡±

    ?We do not kill them, if that is what you are asking,? Boundary snipped, although it didn¡¯t take a genius to hear the hesitation¡ªthe lie¡ªin his voice, and after a long moment of Emilia death glaring him, he relented and explained it was slightly more complicated than that.

    ?Overseers manage such things. As you have seen, some are corrupt. It is a problem the higher ups have been trying to deal with, but there are hundreds of overseers, each managing dozens of cities. The situation in Livery was egregious, and from what I understand¡­? The man hesitated for a moment, his energy rippling as he searched for something¡ªlistening ears, perhaps. ?The overseer of Livery was close friends with one of the higher ups. As a result, they were able to circumvent inspections and received special treatment. We are not sure how far the conspiracy goes, nor how much the higher up in question knew about the actual state of the city.?

    ¡°Trusting a friend versus giving them a chance to fix things and not ruin their life with their corruption versus actually not giving a shit about the terrible things they are doing~¡± Emilia singsonged. ¡°Yeah, we have people like that in my world too. There are a few people I¡¯d probably off if I got the chance, but I¡¯m not even sure my lawyer could get me out of those repercussions.¡±

    ?What is a lawyer??

    After a quick back a forth, Emilia learned this world had no concept of lawyers. The Risen Guard managed cases, and generally if they came for you, you were already deemed guilty.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean corruption goes undetected? If the innocent can¡¯t ask for a more formal hearing?¡±

    Somewhat to Emilia¡¯s surprise, Boundary agreed.

    ?There are similar¡­ hearings for us Risen Guard if we are accused of misconduct. It is a good system. We have a hierarchy, but for the most part, we are treated as equals. If I accuse a subordinate of misconduct, we are offered the opportunity to each defend our opinions and actions in front of a panel of seniors.?

    ¡°Don¡¯t the people listening to the arguments have biases?¡±

    ?Yes. They try not to, but I will not argue this system is without issue. It is better than what occurs when civilians make complaints against the Risen Guard, however.?

    ¡°Nothing?¡±

    ?Or worse.?

    ¡°And you support this organization.¡±

    ?You make it sound like I or anyone else have a choice. While you can say no to joining, it is considered an honour to be chosen, shameful to refuse.?

    Hadn¡¯t Rin said something along those lines as well? Although, she¡¯d excluded the shameful part. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you can¡¯t quit?¡±

    ?No. Some manage to retire, but it is rare. Most will die in service, supplying several children to join before doing so,? Boundary said, a note of resentment in his voice.

    ¡°You¡¯re one of those children?¡± she asked softly¡ªsadly.

    The man nodded slightly. ?My parents were both powerful Risen Guard. My mother still is. My father is gone.?

    Emilia blinked at him, hearing the note of something more in his gone. It wasn¡¯t her place to pry, however, especially not when the man was clearly taking her on a winding walk through a seemingly abandoned section of the Risen Guard compound to give her information someone didn¡¯t want her to have. Why he was giving her so much information, she had no idea. Most of it wouldn¡¯t exactly be of use to her, and some of it she probably could have gotten from the older kids¡ªalthough it was interesting that neither Honey nor Lanaira had apparently had permission to tell her what was mostly public knowledge. The information itself was also still interesting, and Emilia wasn¡¯t about to risk learning more by asking probing questions. Better to just continue babbling and wait for him to tell her whatever information he actually wanted to tell her¡­ or take the opportunity to trick information she wanted out of him.

    ¡°I have friends like that. Their moms are really influential, and basically everyone in their family is expected to join the organization they run¡ªran, now, I guess. One of their kids took over after the war ended. It isn¡¯t exactly the nicest place.¡±

    ?Do they all join??

    ¡°Most. One of their kids escaped, but only thanks to their brothers. Another cousin legit ran off and hasn¡¯t been heard from since she finished her schooling. Honestly, we¡¯re not even sure she¡¯s still alive. No one with her description was ever listed as dead during the war, but we¡¯d already suspected she¡¯d fucked off to the Free Colonies, and a lot of them didn¡¯t report their deaths quite as well as Baalphoria did. The Free Colonies are like different cities? Like the big cities you mentioned the first time we met?¡±

    Boundary hummed in agreement, his voice catching when he realized his mistake.

    ¡°I knew it!¡± Emilia hissed, glaring accusingly at her former babysitter turned attempted killer turned saviour, apparently.

    ?How did you¡ª?

    ¡°Voice and body type and general quietude. And! You¡¯re kinda a bitch,¡± Emilia shrugged. She hadn¡¯t been completely positive the man was the same one who had been assigned to watch her those first few days in the raid, but there had just been too many similarities. There had also been that comment from Honey, about how Boundary had gone to train several days after the visitors arrived¡ªnot that she was going to sell out the trainee like that. Certainly, something else could have prompted the man to seek out more power, but combined with every other similarity, it was easy to consider that the loss of his charge¡ªthe loss of her¡ªto the Enclave could have been the catalyst.

    ¡°So~ how¡¯s your stomach?¡± she asked, glancing down to where she had slid her {Blood Dagger} through the man¡¯s abs.

    ?Fine,? Boundary said, and when Emilia looked back up, he was awkwardly removing his mask one-handed.

    ¡°Was that so I didn¡¯t recognize you?¡±

    Deep black eyes glared at her from under deep red hair.

    ¡°What? Worried I¡¯d be upset that someone tried to off me.¡±

    The man¡¯s glare darkened, his energy bubbling out again, once more seeking out spies minds. Emilia¡¯s energy wound after it, finding what he did: nothing. This part of the compound truly did seem completely abandoned, and there was no one around to listen to them. No one had followed them¡ªalthough, perhaps there was no need. Perhaps Boundary¡¯s superiors trusted him to be good¡ªtrusted him to report back on what they talked about, on what she knew.

    Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn¡¯t. Either way, she was currently stuck in this place with no magic or weapons. She may never get out. The least she could do was hunt down answers to a few of her burning questions.

    ?You really are too smart for your own good,? the man said, voice quiet and personal, sliding over her core.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that all my life,¡± she whispered back, grateful for the man¡¯s honesty¡ªgrateful for the confirmation that something in the Risen Guard training caused its trainees to develop a split personality.

    A normal expectation¡ªone that in Ash¡¯s case just seemed to have gone particularly badly.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 119: Yet Another Kidnapping

    Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the situation was Emilia knew Boundary was going to tell her more, if only she¡¯d been able to stick around long enough for them to talk again.

    ?We can only be away so long,? he had said, when they parted earlier that day. ?I will find another opportunity for us to speak soon.?

    After the Risen Guard had more or less confirmed that the power bestowed on them by the heartcores caused¡ªusually slow¡ªpsychological damage, this being the primary reason most of the heartcores were now locked down, he had asked her a few questions about her own experiences. Apparently, he had been tasked with getting information out of her, and as long as she answered some of his questions, he would be allowed to take her out again.

    When she had asked why they weren¡¯t talking in an interrogation room, he had told her the higher ups didn¡¯t want the wrong person overhearing her answers.

    ?There are spies in our organization, as I¡¯m sure you are aware.?

    Unsurprisingly, the Stringer family¡¯s spy status was toast, and Emilia had been more than happy to supply some basic information about them¡ªit''s not like any of it was going to be of use to the Risen Guard. The Stringer Matriarch was a bitch. Key was nice, if also a pushover, but seemed to actually want to help the world. Sk¡¯lar was a sadist, as far as she could tell. Harmony had a problem controlling her temper. Rin was conflicted about the Risen Guard, after learning about its corruption.

    And corruption it was. The things Key had said about women being killed by the Risen Guard for miscarriages or bleeding outside of their cycle? Another result of overseer corruption. Boundary had been irate to learn of these rumours and had promised to pass them along to the people who were supposed to be searching out corrupt overseers and Risen Guards. Emilia almost felt bad for them because Boundary¡ªeven in his normal, not magically created split personality¡ªcould definitely be terrifying. Almost.

    Other than some basic information about the Stringers and the few other Enclave members and visitors she¡¯d run into, there wasn¡¯t much Emilia could give the man. It was at least enough that he¡¯d been sure he could relay it to his superiors with promises that he knew she was holding information back and with a little pushing he could get it.

    Mostly, the only information she was holding back was information about Zach and how much she¡¯d been fucking with her core. Given Boundary had fought her stalker, another visitor capable of using his core, she had assumed the Risen Guard would have known at least some visitors were capable of using their cores. She wasn¡¯t certain of this, however, and she was never given a chance to ask.

    ¡°Want to get out of here, little irregular?¡±

    Emilia slid in front of Astra as she turned, glad that the nameless boy had become oddly attached to Boundary and wasn¡¯t here. Somehow, the little boy had convinced the quiet Risen Guard to hang out with him a little longer. She wasn¡¯t sure where they¡¯d gone, but Boundary had assured her the boy would be back for his bedtime.

    Well, their haphazardly created bedtime routine was about to be fucked by her getting kidnapped. Again. Technically, her time inside the raid was just a long stream of kidnappings, most had just been less cut and dry kidnappings than what was definitely about to happen. The labyrinths, for instance, had trapped her inside. That was a kidnapping, of a sort, definitely.

    This, having no weapons while her stalker blinked lazily at her from the doorway, seemed like it was going to be a plain old kidnapping, unfortunately.

    ¡°Hello,¡± she replied, wishing the Risen Guard had left her with something to defend herself with. They hadn¡¯t, a grumpy old lady stripping her of all her armour and weapons. ¡°Didn¡¯t expect to see you here. How¡¯d you get in?¡±

    ¡°Th¡¯Risen Guard are less observant than they like t¡¯think,¡± the man replied. ¡°It wasn¡¯t even that hard gettin¡¯ in here. Doubt it¡¯ll be much harder gettin¡¯ out.¡±

    ¡°The Risen Guard can hear.¡±

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°So, if you try to take me, I¡¯ll scream.¡± Emilia wasn¡¯t positive anyone would hear her, only a few Risen Guard wandering the area. As much as they often turned their ears on her when she was with people she could actually talk to, they tended to ignore her when she was alone or with the younger kids. Chances were she could scream and no one would come.

    The man¡¯s head cocked, deep purple eyes she hadn¡¯t been able to make out the last time they¡¯d met, several nights earlier, catching in the light. He was such an odd-looking man, with his odd eyes, too big mouth and sharp, dark features. He was too tall, too thin, the fingers once again fiddling with his blade too long and bony. The look wasn¡¯t exactly unattractive, more unnatural. The type of body that got swiped up for ad campaigns because strange bodies attracted more attention.

    ¡°I woulda thought you¡¯d want t¡¯get out of here,¡± he mused, not exactly asking. ¡°Perhaps I was mistaken.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡± Emilia cut off, unsure of what to say to that. She didn¡¯t want to be here, not really. Regardless of how done she was with this raid, V was still potentially out there, in need of help¡ªnot to mention the entire city system needed a harbinger and her own world needed¡­ something. They probably just needed her to refer this whole knotter fiasco to the proper authorities. They could handle whatever was happening on Ship o¡¯ Stars¡­ maybe.

    This world¡ªher friend¡ªneeded her to at least try to help, however, and she couldn¡¯t do that while she was here.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    The man patiently waited for her to churn her thoughts, playing with all her information and facts and how likely a chance to escape would come again. Realistically, this was probably her only chance to leave, even if it seemed too soon¡ªeven if she would have loved to say goodbye to all the kids, but especially the ones who had helped so much, before he vanished forever.

    That didn¡¯t change the fact that this man was untrustworthy. As much as he had implied he wasn¡¯t fully aligned with how his family did things¡ªhad laughed and cheered when he found out his brother was dead¡ªhe had still hurt her, still chased her, Astra and Stephy through the streets before fighting Boundary.

    ¡°You owe the girls an apology.¡±

    A light-brown eyebrow raised, a few shades darker than the brown of his hair, many shades lighter than his deep brown skin. ¡°Which girls?¡±

    ¡°This one,¡± Emilia said, tilting her head behind her, where Astra was busy being the chill child she naturally was, continuing to eat her food and barely glancing at the adults, ¡°and the other one. If you remember, her legs are broken. We can go to the infirmary.¡±

    The man looked incredulous. ¡°You want us to waste time¡ªto risk getting caught¡ªso I can go apologize t¡¯that girl? And don¡¯t try an¡¯ tell me I broke ¡®er legs or anything like that. I know they were already broken when I stepped in front of you.¡±

    ¡°Oh~ so you chased us even knowing the girl was seriously injured and the jostling would hurt her?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t chase you, you ran an¡¯ I followed. An interview for a runnin¡¯ partner, I believe you said.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, cause I was just going to wait there and assume you had good intentions?¡±

    ¡°Who says I didn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Then what were they?¡±

    The man glared at her, eyes filled with annoyance and a healthy dose of amusement at their arguing. It was a good thing his body was thoroughly disconcerting to look at. Emilia had already slept with one visitor, she didn¡¯t need to keep adding to that list¡ªnot that she found herself with any desire to seek anyone else out.

    Mostly, she just wanted to find V.

    ¡°I was a medic in the war. I thought maybe I could help the girl,¡± her stalker said, sounding almost¡­ sincere. Probably. That or he was an excellent actor, but everything the man had previously said to her had seemed sincere as well, which was¡­ strange.

    The man was strange.

    Emilia shifted her weight uneasily. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just tell me that? Or help her when we stopped? I seem to remember you just chatting with me, while the girls tried to crawl away.¡±

    His eyes shifted away, towards the bed she and the children shared. Someone had been kind enough to send over some of the fluffiest blankets she¡¯d ever had the pleasure of sleeping under¡ªa feat, considering she¡¯d spent a significant portion of her life collecting blankets for making nests and forts. She suspected they¡¯d been sent by Boundary, but had forgotten to ask about it.

    Now, she supposed she may never get the chance, unless he tracked her down again¡ªassuming her stalker didn¡¯t just off her the moment he got them out of here.

    ¡°I got caught up in the moment,¡± he replied. He didn¡¯t blush or look particularly embarrassed at having gotten caught up in chasing her and scaring the shit out of a couple of kids, but neither did he look proud of the fact. More¡­ accepting, like it was something he couldn¡¯t control. Another note in Emilia¡¯s list of why the man was strange.

    ¡°Skills and magic in this world are different. How in the world could you help her?¡± Emilia asked, although she already knew the answer. Medics were trained for emergencies, and those emergencies included situations where using skills might not be possible. Plus, given the control the man had of his core, it was possible he may know how to leverage it for treatment as well.

    The man answered as such, passing Emilia¡¯s little test. As far as tests went, it wasn¡¯t particularly impressive¡ªever solider knew these things about medics, after all¡ªbut at least he hadn¡¯t fumbled and proven himself a liar.

    ¡°Why are you here? Like, I want to get out of here, but you¡¯re basically stalking me at the moment.¡±

    Her stalker didn¡¯t look at her as he told her that he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about her. ¡°I told you,¡± he said, cutting off her remarks about how that wasn¡¯t exactly encouraging her to go along with him, ¡°you remind me of m¡¯brother. If he were you, I would want t¡¯burn the world down, gettin¡¯im out.¡±

    ¡°Want to?¡±

    A wry smile pulled at the man¡¯s lips, and he finally looked at her again, deep purple eyes bright in the light filling the world. ¡°He wouldn''t believe ¡®is life worth the collateral damage, even in the real world, let alone in one where he couldn¡¯t really die.¡±

    ¡°Low self-esteem?¡±

    The man snorted, pushing himself away from the door frame to step inside, the door sliding shut behind him. A moment later, the sound of children chatting slid through the aether, obscured by the door and walls, but kids will be kids, and kids are loud.

    ¡°No. M¡¯brother just dogmatic in what he believes is right and what is not. If someone deserves to die, he¡¯ll kill ¡®em and feel no remorse. If they do not, well¡­¡± A humourless laugh escaped the man. ¡°My brother does not believe in collateral damage, unless it is for a good reason.¡±

    ¡°This¡ªrandomly breaking him or me out of here¡ªwould not be a good reason,¡± Emilia noted. ¡°Does that mean you''ll treat our escape like that? Like we¡¯ll die before harming the kids and anyone else who doesn¡¯t deserve to be hurt?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± The answer came faster than Emilia might have expected. The man was clearly earnest in his dedication to following this brother¡¯s philosophy, even if he didn¡¯t completely agree with it.

    His behaviour reminded her of members of The Black Knot, in a way. The organization had rules its members followed, no matter what. Their superiors could override those rules, but that was rare. Those rules were in place to keep civilians safe¡ªto keep the people within its organization from losing control and letting their lack of empathy drive them to do terrible things.

    Not that this man seemed to have a black knot, something similar, perhaps. Not a standard black knot, for sure.

    ¡°We should go,¡± the man said, cutting off the million more questions Emilia had about him¡ªabout his family. Why was he in this raid with his family when clearly they had different values? If his brother was so serious about his ethics, why was he allowing his family to run wild? Was he going to take her to his family?

    Actually, that last question was too important to ignore, and as Emilia dumped the few belongings the Risen Guard had left her with¡ªmostly her stolen clothing¡ªand the items Astra had had on her into a bag, she had to ask.

    ¡°No. I used my other brother¡¯s death as an excuse t¡¯leave them. The Enclave they joined may be able t¡¯call me back t¡¯them, as they did when I was fighting you and your Risen Guard, but they will not be able t¡¯take you.¡±

    Emilia glanced over, intending to ask how that worked, but the man had already pulled up his shirt. Across his hip, a complicated looking array had been burned into him. ¡°Something to call him back with,¡± she supposed, stuffing a few more items, including some snacks she¡¯d conned Lanaira into leaving with her, into the bag and grabbing Astra, who seemed content to be dragged along wherever they were going¡ªnot that Emilia would be able to stop her from coming, even if she tried leaving the girl behind.

    ¡°Alright. Infirmary?¡±

 Arc 4 | Chapter 120: Wishing You Death In Silence (not)

    Boundary looked up from where he had been attempting to teach Emilia how to still her mind. It had been working, kinda¡­ sorta.

    ¡­

    Okay, it hadn¡¯t really been working, but it at least felt like she¡¯d been on the path to quieting her mind. Maybe.

    Her own core spiralled outwards, following the trail of his. Nearby, something¡ªsomeone¡ªrippled.

    ?You are loud,? he noted, her concentrated thoughts on the process of moving her energy through her meridians and sending it off after Boundary¡¯s energy loud and clear through the otherwise quiet room. ?Does that actually work? If it does, it is something not taught here.?

    Emilia glared at the man. He really was terrible, even if¡ªaside from the times his evil, heartcore corrupted personality had tried to kill her¡ªhe had only ever tried to help her. Still, he was mean and refused to answer most of her questions. It was annoying, but the man had been annoying her for the entirety of their relationship.

    ¡°?Do you think it¡¯s the Risen Guard??¡± she asked, silently¡ªwhich currently meant through her aethervoice¡ªreprimanding herself for her inability to remember to only think. There was no reason for her to speak anymore, after all.

    Still¡­

    ?We do not silently swear at people,? Boundary sighed when she asked how locals thought bad things about people.

    Emilia levelled a look at the man. She had seen Sawyer and Gale argue often enough, seen them glaring at each other across the room with enough venom to know they had been wishing bad things on each other.

    ?We do not silently swear at people,? Boundary repeated as he stood, moving towards the door. ?We send very rude vibes and hopes their way,? he added, before telling her he was going to investigate. She was to stay in the room and practice silencing her bad thoughts, because eventually, someone was going to overhear her wishing death on them, and they weren¡¯t going to be as understanding as he was.

    Emilia sent a few more death wishes trailing after the man, smiling to herself when softly amused laughter brushed against her.

    The man¡¯s lack of answer wasn¡¯t lost on her, despite his attempts to make her forget that he may very well be heading out to face an army of irate Risen Guard.

    ? ? ? Three Days Earlier ? ? ?

    Several times, as her stalker lead them through the Risen Guard compound, Emilia braved reaching out towards him with her energy. He didn¡¯t seem to mind, rude and nosy as it was. The man and his abilities were just so fascinating. So much information was relayed to him through whatever technique he was using to read the world, and what she saw was only what could be seen from the outside, her energy winding around his.

    For him, what he received was surely more, and yet he barely seemed to notice. Even the few times Emilia was connected to his information network and something big crossed through it¡ªsome magic item, she assumed, as the objects definitely weren¡¯t living, but were infinitely powerful¡ªher own steps faltered and her stalker¡¯s never did. Actually, not only was the man unaffected by such power flittering into his senses, he was able to reach out and steady her!

    It was truly insane, and Emilia really wanted to ask if he was this powerful in the real world¡ªpossibly even more powerful, if his D-levels were on the lower end¡ªor if a heartcore had given him this ability. If one had, it was truly unfair. The ability to hear locals, to read and write, and some ability she had yet to even figure out: these were the things the heartcores had given her, and they kinda sucked.

    She couldn¡¯t ask the man about the source of his ability, however. His only rule as they travelled the halls had been for her to be as quiet as possible. They both understood that the Risen Guard were listening, even if they weren¡¯t actively spying on her.

    ¡°From what I can tell, they consider this place secure. Th¡¯outer guards monitor for intruders, and th¡¯interior guards trust they¡¯ll not miss anyone. I haven¡¯t felt anyone inside using their core or magic to search for intruders. Their hearing is like ours, though: always on. ¡®Specially since they¡¯re worried ¡®bout you, they¡¯re payin¡¯ more attention t¡¯sounds in the building than usual. Polite, though. I can feel their ears reachin¡¯, an¡¯ they ain¡¯t lookin¡¯ in here.¡±

    So, quiet she had to be, outside of the apparent privacy of her bedroom. No questions, just holes burning through her curiosity for how much she wanted to ask them.

    The most unfortunately thing, however, was that she¡¯d spaced and forgotten to ask the man¡¯s name! Now, she was left referring to his as the man and her stalker, and it was terrible! She would be able to ask it once they got to the infirmary, of course, as she still had her notebook¡ªshe probably would have bitten anyone who dared try and take it from her¡ªbut stopping in the hallway to ask something so mundane seemed like asking for someone to come upon them, no matter how much the man¡¯s energy could see. Plus, she had more important notes to write as they moved.

    That said, her stalker didn¡¯t seem particularly concerned with running across anyone. Apparently, he could usually differentiate between the children and Risen Guards¡ªand indeed, as they grew close to the infirmary and the number of people lingering around them increased, even Emilia could feel the difference between someone trained in magic and someone not. With so many people around, however, it was harder to differentiate them, and occasionally a body she thought was a single person split and became two or three, their forms appearing under her stalker¡¯s web of understanding. Suddenly, where the latent magic of a child had been, wild and uncontrollable, a Risen Guard would appear, surrounded by the wild but weak energy of a child or two.

    Unable to speak, and not willing to risk the kids giving her away, Emilia slipped into the infirmary with a finger pressed to her lips. It wasn¡¯t a universally understood symbol for silence, Emilia now knew. She and the older children had discussed it after arriving at the Risen Guard compound, Stephy having asked what the movement meant. As a result, even though the local version of shush was actually something quietly whispered through private conversation, the children in the room understood she wanted them to be quiet.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    Kelly and Stephy blinked up at her from their beds, while Gale frowned back at her from the chair she was pouting in. She glared at Emilia, then at the man stepping in behind her. If Stephy recognized him, she gave no indication of it. Miira, who Emilia hadn¡¯t noticed lingering by a snack bar on the other side of the room, froze when she turned.

    Emilia pressed her finger harder to her lips, willing the girl to stay quiet. They needed to talk, but not about the man helping her escape. Beside her, Astra pressed a finger to her lips as well, and when Gale glared even harder at the man behind her, Emilia was unsurprised to find him making the same gesture when she turned back. One smack on the arm later, he was no longer making the gesture and instead rubbing his arm and pouting, three of the children laughing quietly behind them¡ªshe hadn¡¯t hit him hard, and it certainly hadn¡¯t hurt, but at least the mood was lighter.

    Stepping forward, Emilia held up the note she had scribbled as they ran, the one explaining that yes, this was the man who had chased them, but he may be her only chance to get out of here, and they were leaving, but not before he had a chance to apologize and look at Stephy¡¯s legs.

    The group exchanged a series of glances, aether rippling between them in private conversation, the kids having understood that all communication needed to be private¡ªwhich even the Risen Guard couldn¡¯t overhear, as far as any of them knew¡ªor through notes.

    The man stepped in front of her, moving to stand beside Stephy¡¯s bed. He bowed to her, offering her the note Emilia had written, explaining it was an indication of apology for scaring them that night. The world rippled as Stephy spoke to him alone, he nodded and stepped closer.

    Gale looked about ready to launch herself at him, but Emilia was between them before she could, scribbling out, ¡°He might be able to help her heal faster or better.¡±

    The teenager glowered at the note before her voice slid through Emilia. ?Where are you going??

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but hopefully, wherever I end up, I will be able to search for a way to end the blood curse.¡±

    ?And you can¡¯t do that here.? Gale deflated, sagging further into her pout. Even as she said it, her voice shifting between question and statement, the teenager clearly knew the truth in what she said.

    ¡°No. I wish I could stay and the Risen Guard would help me and the other visitors try to fix this world. They will not.¡±

    Emilia had actually been able to ask Boundary, Honey and Lanaira about that. All of them agreed that the higher ups would never approve trying to break the blood curse. For them, the risk was just too great. They had learned how to live with the curse. Getting rid of it would be great, but they weren¡¯t willing to risk another curse being brought down on the world.

    Both Honey and Lanaira had looked accepting that this was how their world was, Boundary vaguely frustrated. Emilia didn¡¯t believe Honey, however, and when the Risen Guard trainee suddenly walked into the room a moment later, Emilia was unsurprised to see them smile, glance between her and her stalker and disappear back the way she had come.

    ¡°I think she¡¯s an Enclave spy,¡± Emilia scribbled in Baalphorian and held up for her stalker. When she pulled it back, she jotted down the question of his name. Something for when he wasn¡¯t busy letting his energy flow through Stephy¡¯s body. Something that she was not going to forget to ask.

    ?Do you think they¡¯ll let us leave??

    Emilia looked back to Gale, finding the teenager glaring around her and at the other visitor¡¯s back with all the anger and suspicion in the world. She hesitated before telling Gale they would be letting most of the kids go. Lanaira had told her arrangements for the new orphans were already being made, as their assessments came back. They would be going to their new homes soon. As for the children whose parents were still missing¡­. Emilia assumed they would be letting the kids return home, except in the case of the older children. It was, unfortunately, easy to imagine the Risen Guard viewing the older kids, who had learned stars knew what from her and V, as potential threats. If they did¡­

    ?I don¡¯t trust them either,? Gale spit out, eyes sliding up when her stalker appeared behind her.

    The man took her notebook and pen, asking her to tell Stephy he was going to help her, but it was going to hurt, and she needed to keep it down.

    Miira sat with her while he broke and reset one of her legs, the girl¡¯s energy wrapping around the younger girl in both support and suppression of her aethervoice. It was similar to what Carne had done, snuffing out the aethervoices of the children. She¡¯d seen Lanaira do something similar to the children, when they wouldn¡¯t quiet down for her as well. She was almost positive the Risen Guard wouldn¡¯t have outright taught Miira how to do the same, but the girl had obviously been paying attention.

    Stephy sucked in heaving breaths as the man finished, his energy shifting to a healing slide that seemed to make her sleepy. When Emilia poked her own energy at the girl, she found that whatever the man had done seemed to be encouraging her body to heal faster as well.

    ¡°Tell them she will be fine,¡± the man wrote out, his writing surprising crisp and precise. Emilia did so, translating his words into the local tongue, and then a few dozen more lines, when he wrote out various pieces of recovery advice. They probably didn¡¯t have time for this, and he would be in much more of a bind than her if they were caught¡ªalthough she could still sense Honey outside, lingering and likely standing guard for them¡ªbut he was doing it nonetheless. For her¡ªfor the brother she reminded him of.

    The man slipped over to Kelly as she translated his instructions, Miira diligently looking over her shoulder, one hand wiping sweat from Stephy¡¯s forehead as she read. Behind them, Gale continued glowering at the world, although she did allow Astra to climb into her lap.

    Her stalker was surprisingly gentle as he examined Kelly¡¯s arm, pulling the bandages off and examining what his brother had done. Focused on translating as she was, Emilia only vaguely knew that he was doing something, holding up the note Emilia had given him that read ¡°This will hurt.¡±

    Whatever he did, Emilia felt Kelly¡¯s energy shake, his need to scream so loud that even though he managed not to, he couldn¡¯t quiet his core itself from raging. When she did look up, the boy was blessedly unconscious, the blood covering her stalker¡¯s hand slowly being pulled back inside him.

    Stephy gazed over at them with glassy, unfocused eyes, she blinked and suddenly the man¡¯s energy was surging down on her and she was out. It was probably a good thing Astra was on Gale¡¯s lap, the child the only thing keeping the teenager from launching herself at the man.

    ¡°I just helped her rest,¡± he wrote, obviously reading the hostility aimed his way. ¡°I reconnected several of the boy¡¯s blood vessels. With those missing muscles, he will never regain full use of the arm again, but with luck, he will regain use of his hand and some movement.¡±

    Emilia quickly translated, fighting back tears. Regardless of what this man was or wasn¡¯t, how he felt about these kids and any obligation he had to them¡ªthis was all his brother¡¯s fault, after all¡ªhe had still helped them. He had even helped Kelly, without her asking because even she had thought it a lost cause.

    Not him. For whatever reason, instead of dragging her out of there, demanding she give her goodbyes and let them leave, he had helped¡­ probably. Technically, knowing little about medicine, she supposed he could have made them worse.

    She didn¡¯t think so. This was just her stalker doing what he¡ªor more likely his mysterious brother¡ªthought was the right thing to do. It was sweet, and it made it so much harder when helping her and the kids fucked him over.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 121: A Broken Friendship

    The first problem they encountered trying to get out of the Risen Guard compound came quickly and with no solution other than to let it happen: Gale wanted to come with them.

    ?I do not want to stay here. I do not trust the Risen Guard,? Gale hissed into Emilia as she attempted to say her goodbyes¡ªit was a little difficult, given two of the four kids were now unconscious, one didn¡¯t want a goodbye, and the last was effectively ignoring her.

    Nearby, Miira sat gently soothing Stephy¡¯s air, her eyes glued to Kelly¡¯s still form as Emilia¡¯s stalker rebandaged his mangled arm. If Gale¡¯s friend knew she was intending on leaving, she gave no indication, but from what she had seen the last few days, she doubted Miira would care.

    ¡°The others are staying,¡± she pointed out, even if she knew it would make no difference in the stubborn teenager¡¯s decision.

    ?Neither Stephy nor Kelly can move! And even if they could¡ª? Gale cut off, bottom lip pulling into her mouth in what had become an increasingly common habit of anxiety over the past few days. Emilia wondered who in her life she had seen do it, the habit only finding a home in the girl now that they were separated. ?They wouldn¡¯t come, even if they could. They¡¯re still hoping their parents are alive.?

    ¡°Miira¡¯s are dead,¡± Emilia wrote. It wasn¡¯t completely confirmed, but their restaurant had been abandoned and looted. The Risen Guard were still identifying the bodies of those killed in the stampede, and Lanaira had admitted that there was a good chance some of them would never be identified, due to how trampled they were. A lifetime of never knowing what had happened to their parents was in these children¡¯s future, their minds holding on to threads that they wouldn¡¯t have abandoned them.

    Gale shook her head slightly, nose tucking into Astra¡¯s curls, the child still sitting contently on her lap. ?Miira fits in here. She wants to become a Risen Guard, she doesn¡¯t¡ª? The girl¡¯s voice cut off again, wobbling slightly. She didn¡¯t have to tell Emilia that she¡¯d told Miira at least some of what had happened with Carne. Whatever had been said, Miira was still insistent on this path¡ªon a path that Gale saw as dangerous. Perhaps, Miira hadn¡¯t even believed Gale; the younger girl had been incredibly hurt by Gale keeping Carne¡¯s identity and past from her, a line neither knew how to cross had dragged between them in that moment when the truth had come out.

    The girl sighed, her eyes flickering shut. Emilia turned back to the others, writing out notes of goodbye for Kelly and Stephy¡ªalthough Stephy would need someone to read hers for her. Another note for all the other children came next, another for Boundary, one asking him to make sure the nameless boy was cared for and to apologize to the child for her. The boy had already lost so much, and here he would be losing another pillar of support, even if they had only known each other a few days.

    ¡°Be good. Do good.¡± Emilia handed the note over to Miira. There wasn¡¯t much she could say, her own thoughts on the sensibility of the girl joining the Risen Guard clouding her judgment. The organization had so much corruption, but hopefully the girl would be okay¡ªhopefully she would be able to take what she learned and make whatever world came to be once the visitors left a better place.

    ?I doubt we will see each other again,? Miira said, and for a moment, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she would look away from Kelly. Then she did, and Emilia saw the same thing that had been in the girl¡¯s eyes since she had witnessed Emilia fight in the city: wariness. Not quite fear, but for whatever reason¡ªwhether due to her or the man who had hurt Kelly¡ªthe girl no longer trusted her as wholeheartedly as she had while they were in the labyrinth.

    It didn¡¯t matter that Emilia had never harmed her or the others, nor that V was still missing, after risking his place in this world going after the missing children. Something in Miira had shifted¡ªsome invisible switch that made locals untrusting of visitors switched. Something told Emilia there wasn¡¯t any coming back from it.

    It had been the same in her world, during the war, with the Baalphorians who distrusted Free Coloniers, the Free Coloniers who feared Baalphorians. It didn¡¯t matter how friendly they became with each other, a whisper of that separation always persisted. People learned to deal with it, to work around differences and generations of hatred and war. Usually, it worked fine, and there were enough people on either side who were able to approach the other side with more open hearts¡ªthose people who were able to fully let their prejudices go.

    For the former group, however¡­ once that tentative trust was broken, Emilia had rarely seen anyone come back from it. Friendships dissolved because some random Free Colonier had betrayed the Baalphorian. Romances collapsed because a friend of a friend¡¯s Baalphorian girlfriend cheated on them. Hatred and distrust rose back up, and even when it wasn¡¯t directly connected to the person¡ªto the relationship¡ªin question.

    Hatred was a toxic thing, eating away at hope and trust and confidence until all that existed was a skeleton, the muscles and tendons that held it together eaten away by doubt.

    Miira doubted visitors now, and that doubt extended to her. It was painful to watch, knowing she could do nothing for the girl¡ªknowing she had saved the child¡¯s life, but scarred her nonetheless. Hopefully, once they left, she would leave her doubts behind, her heart opening back up. Hopefully, at the very least, her doubts wouldn¡¯t spread, seeping into the rest of her relationships.

    As Emilia watched her and Gale talk, the older girl bidding her own goodbyes¡ªEmilia was under no illusions that she could talk the teenager out of coming with them; much like with Astra, she knew when arguing would get her nowhere¡ªshe could see the flecks of that doubt spreading to Gale as well. It wasn¡¯t just the situation with Carne driving them apart, and it was painful, knowing this little girl doubted her friend all the more for the fact that she was choosing to trust Emilia over the Risen Guard¡ªover Miira¡¯s own opinions as well.

    Lines drawn. Emilia couldn¡¯t leave Gale here, even if she tried. There was no friendship left here for Gale, not with Miira, anyways.

    Miira looked away from Gale and Emilia, and she wondered if the girl had even bid a proper goodbye to her one-time friend. How far they had come, from Miira crying because her friend wouldn¡¯t talk her to, to bonds reforged and now shattered. If they met again, would it be as enemies? Something told Emilia they might very well be. Some silly origin story, to be told to Miira¡¯s peers one day, when she and Gale met again and everyone had questions.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ?Once we were friends. Then, she chose the visitors over the Risen Guard. Gale is a betrayer of the cities.? Then, Miira would unleash decades of anger on Gale, magic sparking through the air and¡ª

    And Emilia better make pretty damn sure Gale got to someone who could keep her safe¡ªcould teach her the ways of magic. Gale would definitely put up a fuss about going to Carne, even if he could teach her, or leveraging heartcores for the potential of power. Maybe an Enclave family? The Stringers, or whatever family Honey hailed from? Speaking of whom¡­

    Emilia poked her head out the door, scribbling a note for the trainee: ¡°Can you go cause a distraction?¡±

    The girl nodded, looking her normal, cheerful self, and disappeared. Emilia didn¡¯t need to ask to know the girl radiated trouble in the same way her younger self had. Honey¡¯d get the job done and make it seem like the most natural thing in the world had just happened.

    She herself had once started a small fire as a distraction. Lit a curtain on fire before she¡¯d managed to put it out with a skill¡ªa lie, she totally could have activated the skill faster. No one had questioned her, though. Accidents happened to her all the time¡ªshe was both clumsy and reckless¡ªand while that didn¡¯t excuse what had happened, it did make it more believable. The teenagers sneaking out of the upstairs bedrooms they''d been getting high in had gone unnoticed in the wake of her fire and her parents shaking their heads.

    Emilia had no doubt that Honey would be capable of the same subtle trickery. It would be a novel experience, to be the one sneaking out this time.

    Her stalker¡¯s hand slid over her waist in a way too familiar gesture. Emilia smacked the hand, which quickly disappeared, and when she turned to glare at him, she was unsurprised to find him rubbing his hand with the same over dramatic flair he¡¯d rubbed his arm with after she¡¯d smacked that. Those purple eyes of his glinted with mischief, however, and Emilia rolled her own. She thrust her notebook at him, the question of his name written in angry script over the page.

    As she pushed past him, intent to gather up Astra and Gale, she caught the hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he began to write his response. It was cute, and she was pretty sure whatever he wrote was going to be equal parts amusing and annoying.

    Emilia held out the note she¡¯d written before handing her notebook off: ¡°Done with your goodbyes?¡±

    Gale¡¯s jaw tensed, like she wanted so admit that she wasn¡¯t¡ªthat she wanted to argue her case for leaving with Miira longer. The girl wasn¡¯t stupid, even if she was stubborn and hated to lose, and instead, she nodded. Astra gathered up in her arms, Gale rose, readjusting the child¡¯s weight. She sent Miira one more look. Emilia, nosy as she was wont to be, poked at the aethernet, looking for any sign the two were communicating again. They weren¡¯t, and Gale left without saying anything more to her former friend.

    Miira didn¡¯t look as they left, and only Emilia looked back. She and Astra, the child peeking over Gale¡¯s shoulder as she passed Emilia¡¯s stalker¡­

    Conrad.

    An obvious lie, the writing of the man¡¯s name stilted in a way that none of his previous precise script had been. Oh well, not everyone could be as stupid as she was and use their real name in raids.

    Below the name, the man had written, ¡°but if you like, you can call me¡­¡± followed by a string of inappropriate names. Emilia would most certainly not be calling him babe. Asshole, maybe. Not babe.

    Quickly, she translated the name for Gale to read and communicate to Astra, ignoring the worm in her head telling her to give them the wrong name just to spite him. The child, despite never speaking, shot Conrad a look that Emilia could only describe as strange. Actually, the little girl had barely acknowledged Conrad, now that she thought about it¡ªnot that that was necessarily odd. Astra rarely acknowledged anyone Emilia hadn¡¯t handed her over to, and even then, she tended to treat them with the suspicion of someone who didn¡¯t like people who weren¡¯t Emilia. It would have been cute, if slightly concerning, were they in the real world. They weren¡¯t, so instead it was just really fucking concerning.

    Mostly, Emilia was just hoping that eventually they¡¯d come across someone Astra liked more than her. It would hurt¡ªEmilia rather liked having the child¡¯s attention so firmly placed on her alone¡ªbut would be for the best. Astra couldn¡¯t come with her, and therefore, Emilia needed to figure out a way for the girl to be safe and content once she left.

    So far, this plan had largely failed. Astra hated Lanaira, and even among the other children, the girl only tolerated Gale and Kelly¡ªnot that she would be seeing the boy again, most likely.

    Emilia wanted to sigh dramatically as they followed Conrad through the halls. She had no idea where they were going, mostly just trusting that the man hadn¡¯t screwed them over yet and was therefore unlikely to start.

    It was a therefore a surprise, when they turned a corner and shadow magic surged out of him towards two Risen Guards. The men gasped, but Conrad¡¯s core energy wrapped them, snuffing out any attempts they might be making to get help¡ªand their own energy had certainly been preparing to send out a distress signal.

    The men¡¯s eyes blew wide, but as much as she¡¯d been briefly too shocked to move, Emilia had recovered quickly. She flew forward, fingers pressing perfectly into a collection of pressure points¡ªanother technique she¡¯d picked up from Rafe¡¯s family¡¯s library. On a whim, she threw in another technique she¡¯d seen people from the Free Colonies do: pushing their energy into pressure points.

    She¡¯d only seen it a few times, but it had always seemed impressive to her that someone could turn such a light touch into one capable of knocking someone out. Indeed, where previously she would have had to press harshly into neck muscles to knock the men out, now it barely took a spark of energy floating through her meridians and into the men to have them falling to their knees¡­ and then onto their faces.

    ?Ouch,? Gale said, a little too much humour in her voice, as the men smacked noisily onto the sticky floor¡ªit really was unfortunate that this building had the same sticky feeling that those first few buildings she¡¯d been forced to explore had. ?Also impressive. Can you teach me??

    ¡°Later. If you behave,¡± Emilia signed, suppressing her own smile when the teenager rolled her eyes and muttered about how she always behaved. Had she not been carrying Astra, Emilia was sure she would have crossed her arms in exaggerated offence.

    Conrad stepped past her and the unconscious guards and opened the unlocked door. Given the Risen Guard didn¡¯t seem to think the people inside the compound were a danger to them, that wasn¡¯t too surprising. Most likely, the men were there simply to keep nosy children out.

    And the contents of the room definitely needed to be kept away from tiny hands. Not only was the room they pushed their way into filled with both her stolen blood weapons and armour, but a dozen more objects formed by the blood curse as well.

    Conrad raised an eyebrow before making an after you motion.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me if I do,¡± Emilia signed back, although she had no idea if the man understood any sign language, although she¡¯d switched back to standard BSL in case he did. If he did understand, he gave no indication of it, instead turning to examine the items of the room as well.

    Emilia tugged at her clothes. They didn¡¯t have long, and her {Blood Armour} was the one thing she would not be leaving this room without.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 122: Another Tag Along

    Out of all the things Emilia did and didn¡¯t know about Conrad, a few things were clear.

    One: Conrad wasn¡¯t his real name. The man¡¯s handwriting, little as Emilia had seen, had been shockingly perfect¡ªthe kind of perfect that made her suspect he was from a Free Colony, where writing was often common place. It was taught, more out of tradition than practical use, to Baalphorian students, but was so rarely used that her own writing was barely legible.

    People from the Free Colonies had almost always seemed to have much better handwriting. Charles and James¡¯ had been sweeping and dramatic, giant flourishes marking their letters. For the Blood Rain General and the young non-dev he had sent to them during the war, their writing was fluid and graceful, although usually only they could read it, something about the difference in their native language¡¯s writing making the transition into Baalphorian difficult. Ri¡¯s writing had been perfect, with square little letters lined up uniformly on the page¡ª

    Actually, Ri¡¯s writing had been a little disturbing. He had been a prolific writer, making notes and journaling, as well as sending mysterious letters off to the one sibling he liked and a friend. The man had rarely given details about either, but Emilia wasn¡¯t stupid, and his so-called friend had clearly been more than a friend.

    That was beside the point, however. What was the point was the way the authoritarian government of the man¡¯s home had obviously demanded the strictest skill in handwriting from its citizens. Emilia could still picture the man¡¯s letters, written in both Baalphorian¡ªfor his personal practice¡ªand his native tongue¡ªHigh Falronian, although she¡¯d seen him write and speak in the more common tongue as well. Despite the varied word length and spacing, every line had been even, running one margin to the other perfectly. It was a skill, on that served as a disturbing reminder of the regime Ri had grown up under.

    Conrad¡¯s writing reminded her a bit of all that. It was perfect, precise, but there was a flow to it that hadn¡¯t existed in Ri¡¯s, and the occasional flourish was nowhere near as extravagant as James or Charles¡¯.

    That led Emilia to point two: he was almost certainly from the Free Colonies, which lead to three: he had probably learned to use his core in the real world. It was possible he¡¯d extended that training through blackaether raids, but Emilia was willing to bet he¡¯d at least learned the basics in his real body.

    Emilia glanced behind her as she tugged the last straps of her {Blood Armour} in place. Gale was examining several of her blood weapons¡ªthe ones Emilia had gone over the basics of with the older children, in case they needed to raid her body at some point. Conrad didn¡¯t seem interested in anything. He¡¯d picked up one of the other blood items scattered through the room, a small figurine shaped like a monster of some sort, and pocketed it. Now, he was leaning lazily against a wall, staring in her general direction.

    He wasn¡¯t really staring at her, though. Well, he was, but not in the creepy, stalker way she would have expected. After two minutes of stripping down and awkwardly pulling on her {Blood Armour}¡ªalthough it could contract down to a bracelet form, for easier removal, the Risen Guard hadn¡¯t been keen to let her shift it, and both getting it off and now on while it was still in clothing form was difficult¡ªEmilia had been able to add another piece to the puzzle of the man: he probably wasn¡¯t into her, and possibly not into women at all.

    It wasn¡¯t that she thought she was so beautiful, no man could resist her! Nothing like that! But she had always been a people watcher and knew that most people¡­ had problems keeping their eyes to themselves. Even if they almost immediately realized the person wasn¡¯t their type, nudity and revealing clothing called attention, and there was always that bare moment when they glanced and assessed. If they weren¡¯t into it, they looked away. If the person was polite, they looked away even if they were, but nearly everyone had a tell: some small twitch of movement or expression or vibe that said, ¡°I¡¯d hit that.¡±

    Conrad had never even looked. Entirely naked, he¡¯d just absently stared in her direction. If he blinked and asked when she¡¯d changed, she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised. He could just be really polite, she supposed¡ªshe¡¯d watched Charles die of embarrassment over Baalphoria¡¯s revealing clothing for years, after all.

    The point was, it was difficult to avoid looking, but Conrad was doing it like it was nothing. Ergo, probably not into women and definitely not into her. That was fine. Hopefully the lack of sexual attraction would make whatever obsession he had with her less sticky. He kept bringing up his brother, so maybe she¡¯d somehow slid into being a pseudo-sister? Weird, but she could work with that.

    Emilia pulled her clothing back over her {Blood Armour}, her energy reaching out to run down the length of Conrad¡¯s web. He shuddered, his shoulder¡¯s shaking and eyes flickering shut. When they opened again, he was watching her. Previously unfocused eyes locked onto her as his energy latched onto hers, dragging it along several particular webs towards Risen Guards wandering the compound, and¡ª

    ?Emilia!? a little voice called.

    Emilia cursed as she turned and found Caro standing in the doorway. This! This was the nosy child the guards outside had been meant to keep out. Now, those men lay tucked into a corner, and when the child¡¯s eyes found them they grew huge and fascinated.

    Fucking stars above. Out of all the kids to run into, it had to be Caro: yet another child she was unlikely to be able to shake.

    Caro, at the very least, was a useful and sneaky child, and when they pulled a bag out of stars knew where to stuff the extra blood items into, Emilia was unsurprised. Gale snatched it away, dumping everything that Emilia wasn''t reattaching to her person or stuffing into her own bag into Caro¡¯s. The child tried to take it back, but Gale wasn¡¯t stupid enough to lade the child down with weapons.

    Either Conrad was that stupid, or he knew something they didn¡¯t, because he handed Caro one of the random blood items. Caro¡¯s eyes lit up, and they snapped the hairpin into their hair, pulling their unruly, dirty blonde bangs out of their face. The aether rumbled with private conversation between Conrad and Caro, and Emilia hoped the man could tolerate kids: Caro was a talkative one.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ?We can¡¯t leave these things with them,? Gale muttered to Emilia as she shouldered the bag of blood weapons. She hadn¡¯t even asked about why the teenager was intent to empty the room, but apparently the girl wanted to explain¡ªnot that she had to. Emilia understood how little Gale trusted the organization¡ªhow much she wasn¡¯t willing to leave dangerous weapons in their hands.

    It was probably a good thing Gale hadn¡¯t been there when she handed over the {Blood Hoop} to Boundary. At the very least, that wasn¡¯t being stored here. Hopefully, it had been put somewhere safe¡ªor better yet, maybe Boundary had kept it. Then again, as much as she trusted him more than most of the Risen Guard, that didn¡¯t erase the fact that there was another person residing within him¡ªsome corrupted being, created by the heartcores. One that hated visitors¡ªor was maybe intent to follow Risen Guard directive to the extreme? They hadn¡¯t actually discussed the specifics of his other half, unfortunately.

    So¡­ maybe, in hindsight, it wouldn¡¯t be great if he still had it? Although, one person having access to what was definitely a weapon of mass destruction¡ªeven if she¡¯d personally had no idea how to activate it¡ªwas better than the entire Risen Guard having access.

    Oh well, too late to do anything about it now, not when they were once again following Conrad through the winding paths and staircases of the compound, Caro now in tow as well. Another child who Emilia was certain wouldn¡¯t be dissuaded from coming with them, even if she tried.

    Actually, the small child could probably be sent packing, but that seemed cruel. The Caro who had existed before Kelly had been attacked wouldn¡¯t have been pushed off, but the Caro of now might. Leveraging their hurt and trauma over being the first to meet that man to make them stay wasn¡¯t something Emilia could do. It would be like dragging a knife through a wound that had only just ceased oozing blood.

    Hence, a third child to cart around. At least this child had the energy of a monster, never complaining about the number of stairs they were forced to go up and down and up and down. Even Emilia was complaining! Although scribbling out complaints and curses wasn¡¯t the most satisfying complaining she¡¯d ever done. Gale, on the other hand, had taken to glaring at Conrad¡¯s back as they climbed, handing Astra over to him to carry after the second flight. Astra hadn¡¯t been impressed, glaring up at the man, but she seemed perfectly inclined to inconvenience him over Emilia or Gale.

    All things considered, they made it pretty far, before they faced their biggest problem getting out of the compound. According to a quick noted, jotted down by Conrad as she and Gale caught their breaths around climbing too many flights to count, they were almost to the place Conrad had entered from. Emilia had questioned the sensibility of exiting at the same place, but without any lead on another exit, this was the way they needed to go.

    The Risen Guard compound occupied the entirety of a city floor. They had been confined to a single building during their stay, and much as Emilia had suspected while inside it, the structure was huge. Exiting the building via what appeared to be an emergency exit and erupting onto a clattering metal landing, Emilia took in the city. As with all internal cities, the ceiling above was covered in circles of light eating material, the covers of these ones open and plunging the world into dark.

    Inside, there had been no windows, and instead Lanaira and other Risen Guards had informed them of when it was time to turn off the lights. Smaller versions of the light eating holes marked most ceilings, opening with the touch of energy to an array¡ªsome inside, many more outside, the room in question. According to the timing of those bedtimes, this was their third day in the compound, although Emilia had already begun to question that¡ªshe used to joke her internal clock got all of her internal map¡¯s potential. The fact that it was clearly night outside, while there were still many hours until lights out, more or less confirmed the fact that the Risen Guard had been fucking with their sense of time through their windowless rooms.

    Given the way Gale growled into the aether, she had realized that as well. If there had been any hope of talking the girl into at least tolerating the Risen Guard before, it was gone now.

    Down they went, following the zigzagging stairs from metal landing to metal landing. It was noisy, but Conrad had come up fine enough, so perhaps it was an excepted noise¡ªperhaps the Risen Guards used it to change shift or sneak out for a smoke break. Not that Emilia had seen anyone in this world smoking.

    The building was just as big as she¡¯d expected, spanning blocks and blocks of space and reaching nearly to the ceiling. Below them, a collection of smaller homes dotted the level, light slipping out from behind curtains and blinds, but the majority was occupied by the main building. There were also, rather surprisingly, several courtyards with what appeared to be plants growing in them, lit up by glowing dots of light. Far away and nearly pitch black as it was, Emilia couldn¡¯t be completely positive, but if they were covered in greenery, they would be the first plants she had seen inside a city level.

    Emilia reached out, touching Conrad¡¯s web again, letting him guide her along it to the closest people once more, before he let her go. Her energy wandered through his map, searching out the signatures of people she knew and cared for. A huge group of people were gathered near the infirmary¡ªHoney, most likely, causing some sort of scene. Hopefully the trainee wouldn¡¯t get in too much trouble. Even more hopefully, no one would realize she had been causing a commotion in order to give them a chance to escape.

    Things should have gone smoothly from there on. There was no one nearby. No one wandering the night, out for air or on guard. Shapes were tucked quietly into the smaller houses, while the compound was filled with people living their out-of-time middle of the day. None of those shapes were running or sending sparks of their own energy searching through the world for her or the missing children.

    Everything was fine, until suddenly, it wasn¡¯t.

    It took Emilia a half dozen steps to stop, her eyes and body having been idly staring ahead as she followed Conrad and wove her way through his energy. Despite the mental strain of seeing so much¡ªor perhaps even because of it¡ªit had been soothing in a way she wasn¡¯t used to, and the suddenness of its disappearance¡ªof Conrad¡¯s disappearance¡ªwas more jarring than she would have expected.

    She looked back, meeting the panicked eyes of Gale and curious expression of Caro as they looked around.

    ?Where did your friend go?? the child asked, and Emilia let every curse she knew float through her head.

    They had known this was a risk¡ªhad known that the Enclave that Conrad¡¯s family had attached themselves to could call him back at any time. They should have prepared for them to steal him away, but they hadn¡¯t. Now, they were alone with only the vaguest of idea where they were going.

    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Emilia groaned to herself, turning back the way they¡¯d been heading. They were close to the city wall, but nowhere near the gate. She had no idea if there was some hidden path they were headed to or whether Conrad had been planning to use the wall as an edge of safety as they went elsewhere¡ªto the opposite side of the city for all Emilia knew.

    Emilia glanced back the way they came. They couldn¡¯t go back. Miira might have been kind enough to not tattle on them, but she doubted the girl would hide their failed escape if they returned. She didn¡¯t trust them, and there was no place for them inside that compound anymore.

    Forward it was then, even if forward was surging into a great big unknown.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 123: Escape Where You Can (and worry about the consequences later)

    Emilia¡¯s hand grazed over the cool outer wall of the city. It was rough under her fingers, and although she had never taken a moment to closely examine the walls of the other cities she had spent time in¡ªor the world had been too dark for her to do so¡ªfrom a distance they had always looked smooth. Like glistening metal; thick, seamless walls holding the unfathomable weight of the cities above aloft. Either this city was strange, or her eyes had been lying to her. Given this city was strange and her level 300 body, it was a toss up which it was.

    Could be both, for all she knew.

    What she did know was they were in trouble. Unsurprisingly, Conrad hadn¡¯t randomly reappeared, transported back to them by some magnanimous Enclave to keep helping them. Honestly, Emilia would have died of surprise if that happened. Surely, any group that chose to align themselves with the insanity that resonated from the man¡¯s family was equally insane.

    At the very least, they¡¯d managed to make it to the city walls without much fanfare. Caro had tripped, but thankfully they¡¯d been imparted with extra durable clothing by the Risen Guard following a few too many tumbles down the stairs and bleeding knees. It was interesting, in a way, to see the Risen Guard treating injuries as though they were to be expected. It was also so different from the world Key¡ªand to a lesser extent her own observations¡ªhad drawn for her, filled with children and women living in a world without play or freedom, their lives being snuffed out for bleeding without permission or preparation.

    That said, Lanaira had still chastised Caro for being unsafe, and Emilia still held that a childhood that didn¡¯t involve a few broken bones and close calls with death weren¡¯t childhood¡¯s worth living. Still, it drove a line between the world each side said existed. Neither was correct¡ªBoundary might have known about overseer corruption, but not the extent of it¡ªand it made her wonder if proper communication might have helped the sides come to a better place.

    Emilia shook herself as she let her energy creep over the wall, hoping to find some sign of a secret exit. Maybe once, generations ago, the Risen Guard, Enclave and regular population might have been able to come to a resolution. She doubted they could now. The Risen Guard had tolerated too much corruption, and while the Enclave was currently a secret to most of the world¡ªat least, that¡¯s what she¡¯d heard; who knew how accurate that information actually was at this point. Secret or not, it wouldn¡¯t take long for information about their part in destroying the library or sponsoring the person who had destroyed Livery to leak, were they suddenly to be revealed.

    It was too late. Perhaps in a few hundred years or after some terrible external conflict they¡¯d be able to reconcile, much like Baalphoria and some of the Free Colonies had¡ªnot that their fledgling friendships were anything but tenuous and unstable.

    The four of them moved slowly, inching their way along the edge of the city wall. Caro had chosen the direction, with a little prodding from Emilia. They had been confident enough to run through the streets of an unknown city alone, and she hated the way they now hesitated. Personally, she¡¯d always found the best way to get over a fear was to face it, and yes, she realized that meant she should be facing her parents, but also, no, thanks.

    Fifty-fifty chance they went the right way, although technically, they¡¯d eventually circle around. In theory, they¡¯d find the exit eventually. In practice, she wasn¡¯t confident they would, so when her energy bumped up against a potential escape route¡ªone that definitely wasn¡¯t the one Conrad had been talking about¡ªshe offered it up.

    ?You have got to be kidding,? Gale grumbled, scowling down at her sprawled note.

    Caro peeked at it as well. They had asked someone to teach them to read, and pointed out some of the features of the script to Emilia and Gale. It wasn¡¯t the time, but they were too cute to completely brush off.

    Thankfully, there was still no one around, and the few smaller buildings they passed were slowly opening their curtains and letting the night in. They had lucked out: for everyone outside the main building, it seemed it was just the beginning of night.

    ¡°We can look a bit longer for the exit Conrad was taking us to, but I don¡¯t want to still be out here when morning or shift change comes.¡± Emilia hesitated a moment before adding that eventually someone would discover the unconscious bodies of the guards as well.

    Conrad had done something to them, running his energy through their meridians in a way that seemed unnatural and otherworldly, but a message still sat in her notebook, telling her it would keep them out for at least a few hours. The men waking up wasn¡¯t a risk, even with help from a skilled healer, apparently. That didn¡¯t change the fact that whether someone found them or they woke up naturally, eventually they were going to become a problem, and Emilia wasn¡¯t looking forward to being hunted through the level by the Risen Guard: there were almost no places to hide.

    ?I-I think we should go,? Caro said, voice so soft Emilia barely heard it. They stared at their feet, scuffing them against the packed dirt that seemed to edge the entire city. ?Something¡­ doesn¡¯t feel right.?

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Gale levelled a look at her that seemed to say, ?Look what you¡¯ve done now! Now they¡¯re trusting the vibes of the universe again!?

    Emilia still wasn¡¯t sure what to think about the whole universe reading thing. The reality was, however, that Carne had managed to track them¡ªpotentially managed to silence Benny and Caro with his energy before he was even in the city. In all likelihood, the man had more connection to the aethernet than most, thanks to whatever gift the heartcores had given him, but even then¡­ that connection meant reading it was possible, right?

    That, or it was some special effect of the system. Equally possible, but it still left potential, even if that potential couldn¡¯t be transferred to her world. Potential for this world, and Emilia wasn¡¯t fool enough to ignore whatever was niggling at Caro¡ªnot when there were so many more reasons to get out of the place at the speed of light.

    Gale didn¡¯t complain as they decided to just go for it, their steps taking them away from the wall and towards the small building that was calling to Emilia. It wasn¡¯t unguarded, unfortunately, and as they approached, Emilia left them behind, handing Astra back to Gale.

    Quick and fast and quiet. Emilia pushed her energy down as low as she could, willing it to disappear into the world. The amount to which the Risen Guard could sense¡ªor at least how much they sensed on regular duty¡ªwas a giant question mark. No one had noticed them so far, not even the guards she and Conrad had incapacitated, but she wasn¡¯t convinced the man¡¯s web of energy hadn¡¯t been disrupting their existence. Something about the way her energy had meandered down it, running into Risen Guards who were clearly feeling out the world and yet going unnoticed. Truthfully, it was a terrifying skill, even if it left her brain feeling frazzled and overwhelmed.

    Emilia pulled to a stop, just outside the man¡¯s view. Just one man, but given what he was guarding, the Risen Guard either truly had no fear within this city or he was a dangerous dude. Better to air on the side of dangerous dude.

    Digging through her bag¡ªa difficult task when you¡¯re trying to be quiet and your bag is filled to the brim with stuff¡ªEmilia pulled out one of the items she¡¯d acquired from the missing kid''s stuff. It had felt a shame to leave their stuff behind, but most of it had been taken by the other homeless kids.

    Not this particular item, simply because it was too heavy. The black ball weighed so much that Emilia hadn¡¯t even wanted to carry it, but she¡¯d also felt bad about leaving it behind. The boy who had been playing with it had actually dropped it down the water slides at one point, the ball going shooting out the other end and smashing into a wall¡ªwhich was infinitely better than it crashing into another child. The ball had been unharmed, rather surprisingly. Whatever it was made of was tough stuff, and Emilia had tucked it into her bag in case she needed to drop it on someone¡¯s foot¡ªor swing her bag violently at their head.

    Now, she did neither.

    Peeking around the corner, the hood of the jacket the Risen Guard had stupidly allowed her to request pulled over her hair, she aimed. The sensitivity of the standard Risen Guard¡¯s hearing tended to still be less sensitive than most people in her world¡¯s were, and as she let the ball go, listening to it roll over the stone of the ground in a soft click-click-clack, she hoped that trend stuck.

    She ducked back behind the building and bolted around it, having already planned her path. Her steps were noisier this time, but she needed to make the most of the distraction, and when she bolted out into the small courtyard the guard was occupying, his attention temporarily locked onto the ball that had bumped into his foot, he missed her entrance. His eyes widened as he caught sight of her in his peripheral vision, but it was too late. Emilia¡¯s fingers dug into the same pressure points she had used on the other men, a violent wave of energy winding through her body and into his.

    He collapsed, and just on cue, Gale, Astra and Caro ran into view¡ªher second distraction, in case things went awry. Plus, unlike with Conrad, where the man¡¯s energy had snuffed out communication attempts, Emilia had no confidence she was fast enough to have knocked this guard out before he could request help. Stars, he could have even sent a confused message about the ball before she got to him.

    ¡°In,¡± she signed as she tugged open the¡ªthankfully unlocked¡ªdoor the man had been guarding.

    Seriously, how arrogant did the Risen Guard have to be to leave so much unlocked? It wasn¡¯t like locks didn¡¯t exist in their world or anything! The first building Boundary had taken her to and the rooms she had been housed in had all been capable of being locked up tight. Why leave nothing around this place locked? Served them right for having such bad security.

    The small building opened into a steep staircase, descending into darkness¡ªoppressive darkness. Caro pulled closer to her, the generally brave child having newly acquired a fear of the dark along with so many other things.

    Emilia rolled up her sleeve, holding her gems out for Astra to light one, which the child did with pleasure. ¡°Down we go,¡± she mumbled to herself. There was no point in being quiet now. Even if the Risen Guard were already coming for them, they wouldn¡¯t be fast enough.

    Well, maybe Boundary or anyone else with the confidence to transport themselves without visual confirmation or a landing pad might. No time to waste, then.

    Emilia hauled Astra into her arms, grabbing Caro¡¯s hand with the other, and down they went. They definitely didn¡¯t want to be trapped in a staircase if someone showed up to stop them. Being burnt to dust in the enclosed space, pushed down with waves or shadows, chased with lightning. None of those sounded like pleasant deaths.

    Her energy racketed between the entrance and them, searching for anyone coming. At the very least, if an attack came, she could release a burst of energy to try and cancel it.

    No one came, however. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if they hadn¡¯t realized their escape yet, or if they viewed them as a lost cause: people too far away for them to chase.

    A single step was all it took for the exit to disappear. Just as suddenly as the previous two times: the world fell away, and they were inside a labyrinth.

    Hopefully, leveraging this place as an exit wouldn¡¯t get them all killed¡ªor worse, dropped straight back into the city they¡¯d been trying to escape.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 124: Almost to the End

    ?This is awful,? Gale said, their voice sounding completely relaxed, if also pissed off, despite the heaving breaths she was sucking in. There was something profoundly unfair about locals being able to speak normally while they could barely breathe¡ªand none of them, save Astra, could breathe at this point.

    One more challenge¡ªthey had one more challenge to go before they reached the heartcore. It was so close they could see it, glowing at the centre of a nearby pool of iridescent water. It was beautiful¡ªmore beautiful than any of the previous heartcores she¡¯d seen. Wisps of red aether snaked off it, reflecting over the liquid beneath it¡ªthe hopefully not poisonous liquid.

    Seriously, they¡¯d come this far, working through three challenges that had been a mixture of painful¡ªthank you, Caro, for having a hobby of walking around with bare feet and trying to find the most painful things to traverse over, challenging their friends to see who could make it the furthest¡ªand ridiculous. Gale had insisted that she was not a fan of puppet shows. No one believed her. They¡¯d spent nearly two hours putting on a play for the labyrinth, the story intricate and winding. It had seemed impressed and bestowed them with food, which had been nice.

    This challenge was just terrible. There were eight individual sections of the challenge, set out like numbers on a clock around a central net platform. Each of the sections was an obstacle course of sorts, which had to be traversed to grab pieces of a puzzle. Individually, the obstacles weren¡¯t particularly difficult, and the challenge would have been fine, except for the first time since the water slides, they had opponents.

    Shadows had risen out of the aether as they examined the challenge, the same host voice from the kitchen challenge popping in to taunt them as it explained the rules: they each had an opponent, and if they wanted out of here, they needed to beat them in completing the puzzle.

    At the very least, their shadow opponents were the same size as they were, with seemingly the same physical abilities and coordination. The only thing they lacked was the drive to win, and their group had been forced to drag up all their motivation and desire to not be disappeared by the labyrinth out in order to compete.

    And fucking stars, did they have a desire to win. Where Emilia had years of experience in dragging out her best on the battlefield, Gale seemed driven by pure rage, and while both of them had originally worried about the smaller members of their team, Caro and Astra were both holding their own. Actually, truth be told, their smallest members had done better at the physical part of the challenge than either Emilia or Gale.

    Caro, wild child that they were, had briefly frozen, when faced with their tiny, grinning shadow. For a moment, Emilia had worried they would fall apart¡ªthat the tenuous threads that had been holding them together since meeting Conrad¡¯s brother would finally snap. They hadn''t, and instead Caro had thrown themself through the obstacles without fear. They¡¯d fallen off a few times, and strangely, Emilia had spotted flecks of blood lingering over the spots they¡¯d bled on¡ªtheir injuries had healed under the influence of the system, but for some reason, their blood had never returned to them.

    Now, they were struggling with the puzzle, but they were far ahead of their slower, more cautious shadow. Unless the puzzle was truly too difficult for them¡ªunlikely, as everything Emilia had seen suggested that the labyrinths wanted those within it to succeed¡ªthey would be fine.

    As for Astra, she was already done. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure why she had been carrying the child through most of their days together because the child was fast and strong. Gale had suggested it was magic. The child had already shown she was a prodigy, and while she had only ever shown them her ability to activate arrays and gems, it was possible she was capable of using magic independently, which was terrifying.

    The shadows had no magic, as far as Emilia had seen, and Astra¡¯s shadow was still making its way through the course at the speed one would expect from such a small being.

    Instead, it was Emilia and Gale who were struggling to win. Many of the challenges had been designed for smaller bodies, and for both they and their shadows, moving through several had been difficult. Their feet were too big for steps, their bodies too big for tiny tunnels. They still had a lead, but it was much slimmer than Astra and Caro¡¯s.

    Emilia landed with a thud on the final platform, hands reaching out to work the knot of the bag containing her puzzle piece loose. Her nails had, unfortunately, been making this whole thing more difficult than it should have been. A product of the system, they couldn¡¯t break. Useful if she wanted to claw someone¡¯s eyes out, not so useful when they were too long for easy knot untying. Rather unfairly, her shadow had no such problems with their knots.

    The bag slipped free and Emilia was already turning, grabbing for the first of a series of vertical ropes that she would need to swing between to get back to centre. Her hands already burned from the jump over, but burning hands were clearly better than whatever fate awaited her in a labyrinth disappeared me land. Locking her teeth around the bag, she pushed off.

    Each transfer between ropes burned. Her hands, her cheek¡ªstars, even her thighs had begun to burn by the time she landed back on the netted centre. Nearby, her shadow was just starting on its final obstacle, its black body clamouring through a mess of beams and ropes. She passed Gale as she took bounding steps over the net, the teenager heading back for her final piece as well, her shadow unseen until it popped up after having fallen off a rope bridge.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t help but snort. Aside from the whole you¡¯ll be disappeared if you lose thing, this was actually pretty fun. None of them could be sure whose skills this challenge had been based on, although Astra had neither confirmed nor denied it could be hers. It could have been a unique design of the labyrinth, though, meant to challenge them all equally. If so, it had done a bang up job, even if Emilia could do without the host.

    ?And~ Emilia has her final piece at her station! She is now free to begin putting those pieces into place! What a slow start! Those nails of hers have been causing her problems all~ through~ this challenge!? it called in its too cheerful and yet still condescending voice. It was too loud, its voice distracting, and indeed, behind her, Gale swore as she was sent tumbling.

    Emilia didn¡¯t look back. As much as she cared for the girl, they had all agreed that they needed to take care of themselves as much as possible during this challenge. It helped that the host had been very clear that helping other competitors would be considered cheating, but Emilia wanted to help, and she still wasn¡¯t sure what she would have done if the children had fallen behind.

    Most likely, they all would have stopped and fallen behind together, hoping they¡¯d end up disappeared to the same place. If luck were really on their side, perhaps they even would have ended up in the same place V and missing kids had. The world wasn¡¯t that fair or lucky, though. Plus, they¡¯d never fallen behind, so it wasn¡¯t something they had to worry about.

    ?Caro is starting over! Looks like they¡¯re thinking they put a piece in wrong! This is a complicated puzzle, so I can¡¯t fault them for that.? The voice laughed, a terrible sound that seemed suppressed, like they were pretending they weren¡¯t actually laughing at a child struggling to complete something they had admitted they had no experience with.

    ?I¡¯ve always been more of an outside kid!? they had explained during the last challenge, one inspired by Emilia¡¯s own love of puzzles. Neither Gale nor Astra had participated much, only organizing the pieces of the giant puzzle she worked to assemble into piles as she directed. Caro had helped carry the pieces for her, watching as she pointed out the things they were looking for on each piece¡ªwhat bits of information they could glean to figure out where it belonged.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much they had learned, given she couldn¡¯t actually explain any of the process to them, but hopefully, they had retained some of it¡ªhopefully, the puzzle really was that complicated, and their new knowledge was making it easier. Their shadow was still behind, but eventually, it would catch up, and¡ª

    ?Emilia has completed her puzzle!? the host cheered, before adding in a snide comment about how her shadow hadn¡¯t even managed to return with its last piece yet. It was a strange thing to do¡ªto make fun of what seemed to be an emotionless shadow.

    Emilia glanced back at it, finding it standing in the middle of the net, staring down at its last bag. For a moment, it felt like maybe it actually did have feelings¡ªperhaps it actually had wanted to win, even if that want hadn¡¯t manifest as motivation or the drive to push its body harder. Then it was gone, and Gale was rushing in, final bag in hand.

    ?Gale returns with her last bag! But~ she¡¯s the last of her group to make it, and her shadow is catching up! Will she be able to make it, or¡ª?

    ?SHUT! UP!? the teenager screamed into the aether.

    Caro froze, then, their wide eyes were turning on Gale. For a moment, Emilia thought they were about to start crying, or give up on the challenge, then they were screaming at the host too. Their hands and eyes turned back to the puzzle as they yelled every curse they had ever heard on the streets at the floating voice of their host.

    Emilia smiled and went to go sit by Astra, who had tucked herself against the edge of the room. The child immediately curled into her. Long black lashes brushed over her cheeks and within moments she was asleep, despite the racket Caro and Gale were creating. Caro, Gale and the host, who quickly began trying to scream its narration of events over the children. It wasn¡¯t working.

    Gale¡¯s arms shot up, their puzzle completed, just as their shadow was dumping the last of their pieces onto their station. That didn¡¯t stop her screams¡ªif anything, they grew louder now that she had nothing distracting her

    Caro¡¯s shadow skidded in front of their station, and the child swore as they fumbled a piece, the large, triangular piece falling soundly to the ground.

    ¡°Go Caro!¡± Emilia yelled, willing her belief in the child to resonate through the aether. Caro couldn¡¯t hear her, but perhaps the universe would relay some of her confidence to them. ¡°You can do it!¡±

    Beside her, Astra stirred slightly, nose turning into Emilia¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Go! Go! Go!¡± Emilia continued chanting as she readjusted Astra, tugging her about until the small girl was straddling her lap.

    ?It seems Caro has a cheerleader!? the host screamed, momentarily distracting Caro from their task.

    They looked up, wide eyes shifting between Gale and their shadow to¡ª

    They still couldn¡¯t hear her, but Emilia took their momentary meeting of eyes to scream at the child. The kids had seen her talking enough to know she spoke with her mouth. Her hands flew through the air, silent cheers of support before they shifted into a more violent, ¡°Get back to it! Focus!¡± She had no idea if Caro understood her signs, but they did return to their puzzle, and two pieces later the host was cheering them on as well.

    ?Caro wins! Just barely!? the host screamed because both Caro and Gale were still screaming as they hugged and bounced like the children they were on the platform. Caro¡¯s shadow melted into a pool of smoke, and finally, the host¡¯s presence faded away. Apparently, it had realized the kids weren¡¯t going to be shutting up until it fucked off.

    ¡°Woo!¡± Emilia yelled before breaking into a long yawn. Astra snuggled further into her lap, and she ran a soothing hand down the girl¡¯s back. ¡°Do you think we can rest awhile?¡± she sighed out as Gale and Caro came to sit beside her. She didn¡¯t sign or write it out, but both children seemed to understand, and within moments they were all asleep in the suddenly silent room.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 125: A Dream of Childhood Love

    When Emilia started awake, she was expecting to, you know, actually be awake. To be honest, considering how often her dreams inside this world were of the waking sort, she really shouldn¡¯t have been as surprised as she was to find herself on the beach. Specifically, it was a small beach in the Grey Sands that she¡¯d visited numerous times during her childhood, usually with just her father, occasionally with their whole family.

    Once, Rafe and his brother¡¯s had even come along. Malcolm had been just as slippery as she was, and vanished into town. They never found out what exactly he had gotten up to, but he¡¯d returned with makeup covering a black eye¡ªbadly covering it. Laughing, she¡¯d gone out to buy some better matches for his skin tone, and come back armed to teach him the art of covering up black eyes, a skill she¡¯d seen him utilize numerous times since.

    Emilia scrunched her toes into the soft sand, warm water brushing over her feet in soft pink waves¡ªa pink tide was coming. This had been the first place she¡¯d seen a pink tide, the pseudo-Free Colony¡¯s containment system keeping the vapours from touching land even as the pink water lapped over its beaches and rocks.

    It was beautiful, but Emilia couldn¡¯t bring herself to look up¡ªcouldn¡¯t bring herself to risk seeing The Strats of her memories, running through the gulf. They were still far off, but she knew if she dared look up, she¡¯d catch their glimmering mosaic in the distance. Even worse, to the west, she¡¯d see Alliance Ridge.

    What would one day become Alliance Ridge? The destruction that now existed there?

    Emilia didn¡¯t know. She didn¡¯t want to see the place it would, did, or had once existed.

    ¡°Emilia?¡±

    Emilia twisted, eyes blowing wide as she was left facing her father, younger and taller than he¡¯d been since she was a child. A quick glance down told her she was a child, so she supposed that tracked.

    The man who had chosen her cocked his head, grey bangs brushing over his eyebrows. He looked relaxed in the way he never was on work trips, which meant this was a memory of one of those times when they¡¯d come simply to relax. Of course, the man loved his job, even if it was a nuisance that took him away from his family more often than he would have liked. Even now, he still hadn¡¯t retired, despite being at the age when people did that.

    Her father¡¯s own bare feet scrunched in the sand, his boring beige pants rolled up so he could run in the waves with her if she asked. She would ask¡ªshe¡¯d always asked, even when they were there for work, her father shucking his expensive coats and shoes and surging through the ocean with her, laughter following as they ran. To the residents of the town, unaware of who they were, they probably seemed a normal family. A girl with an irregular deviation, playing the way such absent-minded children were known to do. An aging father¡ªmaybe even grandfather¡ªlazily following her around, his posture a little too relaxed for their standards.

    She¡¯d always hated the way his job made him change himself for the places he went. His posture pulling sharper in the Grey Sands, his tone shifting into monotony as he conversed with this official or that, because in those Free Colonies, you kept emotion out of your politics.

    ¡°Daddy,¡± she called, melting inside when a smile settled across his face.

    Her father had never been one for giant displays of happiness. His happiness had always been something softer. Small, closed lip smiles and tilting eyes. The shine of affection in his features and the tightening of love in his hugs. ¡°What is it, my little starlight?¡±

    Emilia fiddled. She looked away, her hands clasping in front of her because she couldn¡¯t keep them still and needed to keep them still. Was it the result of her tiny, uncontrollable body? The mood of the time she had found herself thrust into? She didn¡¯t know, but she certainly felt like the child she was embodying at the moment¡ªlike a small human who had done wrong and needed to fess up.

    Her eyes flicked back to her father, to his softly watching eyes. He wasn¡¯t her mother. Where her mother had always seemed to know when her children were up to no good, her father had always seemed oblivious. Lies and secrets and wrongdoings seemed to constantly surprise him, although as she grew older, Emilia had come to realize the man had been fucking with them.

    The man always knew when something was up, probably even more so than his wife¡ªit was basically his job to know when people were hiding things from him, after all! How stupid the little version of her had been, thinking she could get anything by him!

    At least, that¡¯s what she had thought: that her child self was stupid, for not realizing he knew. Now, she wasn¡¯t so sure. The man before her smiled with easy acceptance and innocence. He still knew something was wrong¡ªthat much was clear from his silent patience¡ªbut it was so subtle that suddenly she couldn¡¯t fault her tiny self for having missed it.

    The man really was too good an actor.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she muttered, eyes slipping away from him once more.

    ¡°Did you do something wrong?¡±

    Emilia nodded, shrugged. ¡°Kinda. Not really. It wasn¡¯t wrong, but... inconsiderate.¡±

    ¡°Now that¡¯s a big word for your little mouth.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± Emilia bit back, a childish whine singing through her voice as she returned her gaze to him just so she could glower up at him.

    He smiled innocently down at her, as though he weren¡¯t teasing her like he always had. Sometimes, he had poked fun at her knowing things that were obviously too advanced for her, but more often, he teased about nonsense. Inconsiderate was not too big a word for her¡ªEmilia glanced down at herself again, assessing how old she probably was¡ªten-year-old self.

    ¡°Oh!¡± the man had the audacity to gasp, his eyes flying wide. ¡°Is it not? Well, when I was a wee thing, it certainly was! Why, I couldn¡¯t have even imagined using such sophisticated vocabulary when I was your age.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure,¡± Emilia sneered, falling into the familiar pattern of bickering with her father. ¡°When you were a kid, you probably only knew, what? A dozen words?¡±

    ¡°Oh, less than that, I assure you!¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Emilia blinked up at the man, at his softly amused smile. ¡°You know, it¡¯s possible I have daddy issues.¡±

    To her great amusement, the man did seem genuinely shocked by her statement. Quickly, that shock fell away into a flat, unimpressed expression. ¡°Emilia, who did you hear something like that from?¡±

    Her mouth opened, the intended response of truth, ¡°I¡¯m not from this time,¡± lost when suddenly a hand smacked into her face and¡ª

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Ouch!¡± Emilia gasped, blinking rapidly into the actually waking world.

    Astra was sitting up on her lap, one hand raised above her head like she was preparing to hit her again! How rude!

    Emilia caught the hand before it could come back down, holding the hand hostage as she snuck the other to the girl¡¯s waist. Astra squirmed, pulling on Emilia¡¯s hands for several long seconds before Emilia let her run off¡ªalthough Astra¡¯s version of running off only involved moving out of reach. A smile tugged at the girl¡¯s lips, although she seemed to be trying to look put out by the tickles.

    ¡°Any particular reason you hit me?¡± she signed at the girl.

    Astra made the sign for ¡°bathroom,¡± and yeah, sure, that was a pretty good reason for waking her up. The child rarely went anywhere without her, bathroom included. Plus, if she¡¯d woken and found Astra missing, she probably would have panicked. Considering Caro and Gale were still sleeping soundly next to them, that wouldn¡¯t have been great.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go find a place,¡± she signed, groaning as she pushed herself up. Her back definitely wasn¡¯t made for sleeping on the ground¡ªsleeping sitting up on the ground, no less.

    Whether from her terrible bed or the challenges of the day before¡ªrealistically, a bit of both¡ªher entire body ached. The one good thing about staying with the Risen Guard had been their beds, even if those beds had come with chains.

    Astra swung their hands as they walked, looking for an appropriate place to go. Stupidly, the labyrinth had no bathrooms, and dealing with bathrooming within them was a challenge all on its own. They always managed, and thankfully, the stress and lack of food and water had so far meant only a few of the younger children had ever needed to poo. That had been unpleasant, and most of the missing kid''s clothing had needed to be ripped up to deal with that.

    Thankfully, Astra had no such needs, and one quick squat later, they were on their way back to the others. They were almost there, hands once again swinging, when a panicked, ?Emilia!? Astra!? split through the air. A moment later, Caro was skidding into view, and in the distance, Gale was cursing about inappropriate ways to wake people up.

    ?Emilia! Astra!? Caro sighed, their entire being sagging in relief. ?There you are! Gale~ I found them!?

    Gale, who was never happy after waking up, yelled back that she hadn¡¯t realized they were missing.

    Grasping Emilia¡¯s other hand and swinging it with so much enthusiasm that Emilia was briefly worried the child would hurt her, Caro began to yell back at Gale that they had been missing, but now they were found.

    ?Did you even look for them before you woke me up with your screaming?? Gale grumbled as the three of them sat back down next to her.

    Emilia reached for her bag, pulling out the food that she had stored there. Some were leftovers from the food the labyrinth had given them as a reward for their awesome puppet show, but most had been swiped from her room in the Risen Guard compound. As they ate the snacks, Emilia was incredibly grateful to her past self, who had insisted that Astra and the nameless boy needed snacks in their room.

    ¡°Everyone¡¯s sleep is messed up,¡± she had explained to Lanaira, as she argued that the kids needed food accessible at all times. ¡°If you don¡¯t want me wandering the halls with two starving children in the middle of the night, I suggest you leave us some snacks.¡±

    Lanaira had relented, and they now had snacks enough to last the four of them a few small meals. The food wouldn¡¯t last them long¡ªLanaira hadn¡¯t given her that much¡ªbut it certainly helped, and by the time their designated food was eaten, they all felt more energized. Not completely energized¡ªthey¡¯d need full meals and beds for that¡ªbut good enough to get moving.

    ?So¡­ how do we get out there?? Caro asked, squeaking when Emilia pulled them away from the edge of the lake that surrounded the heartcore. They had been bouncing about and making her nervous.

    Emilia had just been wondering the same thing, her eyes analyzing the strange, shimmering liquid. Technically, they didn¡¯t need to get out, and even if it seemed a shame for her to not touch the thing after coming this far, none of the kids needed to get that close.

    ?That¡¯s true,? Gale said after Emilia pointed this out, sounding very much like a teenager who was tired of the adults in her life, ?but then you¡¯ll pass out and roll into?¡ªshe waved over the liquid¡ª?whatever that is.?

    ?You did roll quite a ways when you touched the last one~? Caro teased as they tried to break free from Emilia¡¯s grasp.

    She wasn¡¯t stupid enough to let them go, having now witnessed the mayhem of their first waking hours several times now. The child was a menace at the best of times, and even traumatized, they had run through the Risen Guard compound¡¯s halls with the energy of a rocket. They would not be contained, even under threat of being assigned a permanent Risen Guard to mind them.

    Actually, now that she thought about it, she thought they had been assigned someone.

    ?Oh yeah, that lady,? Caro grumbled after Gale had translated Emilia¡¯s scribbled question about the missing babysitter. ?They were a jerk, so I ditched them. Then I ran into you guys. Seemed like a good time to just take off! See the world!?

    As far as Emilia knew, Caro¡¯s parents had been found alive. They were helping the residents of Livery organize, so had requested the Risen Guard care for their child a little longer. Given the Risen Guard were already managing a gaggle of children, and were struggling to handle the situation in Livery, it hadn¡¯t surprised Emilia when they¡¯d accepted, although she was pretty sure they regretted it when they realized how much work Caro was.

    Vaguely, she wondered how much of a fuss Caro¡¯s parents would be making when they found out their child had run off. Given the child¡¯s reputation for running around Livery and getting into things they shouldn¡¯t be, they probably wouldn¡¯t be too surprised. Still, if they were good parents¡ªand all the stories Caro had told her implied they were good, if also too lackadaisical¡ªthey wouldn¡¯t be happy that the Risen Guard couldn¡¯t even manage to keep their child contained for a few days.

    ¡°I used to ditch my babysitters, too,¡± Emilia wrote out, laughing when Gale gave her a look that seemed equal parts horrified and unsurprised that she¡¯d been like Caro. ¡°I was a troublemaker, still am. Recently, I almost gotta eaten by a monster in my world after I broke into a building, trying to catch a criminal. Had to call in backup.¡±

    Caro bounced in her grip as Gale translated, questions bubbling out of them so fast Emilia barely heard them and had no reasonable way to answer them all.

    Emilia looked out across the liquid to the heartcore as Gale began reprimanding Caro for asking so may questions. She would not be translating all of Emilia¡¯s answers, apparently. Caro was not happy with that answer, and promised to redouble their efforts to learn to read. How they were going to do that, they didn¡¯t know, but they would!

    Beside her, Astra poked idly at the hard packed ground. Rocks of all sizes were pressed into the reddish dirt. A rock where Astra had been digging popped out and rolled down the slope to the liquid, immediately bursting into flames as it collided with it.

    Everyone stared at the liquid in shock, Caro finally ceasing their bouncing and tucking themself safely behind Emilia.

    ?Well, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be swimming across,? Gale snorted.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 126: Should Have Known Better

    A rock skipped over the water, flames dancing in its wake. Another. Another. Another.

    The last rock cracked over one of the invisible platforms that Caro had discovered covered the lake surrounding the heartcore because¡ªsurprise, surprise¡ªthe door to leave the labyrinth wouldn¡¯t open. Neither of the labyrinths Emilia had previous been in had had that problem, and they¡¯d been left to assume that the labyrinth wouldn¡¯t let her leave without her touching it.

    Hopefully, she was the only one who would need to touch it, although she hadn¡¯t dared bring up the possibility that anyone else would need to touch it. The reality, however, was that they had no idea what the rules of the labyrinth were, and both she and V had touched the Library Heartcore, both she and Benny the Livery Heartcore.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t thinking about that right now. She had bigger things to think about, namely getting over the invisible platforms without falling in. On shore, Astra was digging up rocks to map the way, while Caro and Gale were throwing them. Emilia had a handful of rocks in her pocket as well, for marking the corners of each platform. Some of the platforms were big, spanning over a dozen square feet. Others were tiny, barely enough for her to step on, and there had been several moments where she had worried she would topple over as she balanced on just her toes.

    What an end that would be! Burnt to death. Hopefully, if that happened, the labyrinth would let the kids out. They really didn¡¯t deserve to die here.

    Another rock skittered over the liquid, flames slashing through the world and suddenly snuffed out as the rock smacked into the edge of another platform. Emilia tossed a rock. Another. Another. Another. A general shape for the platform, several inches above the toxic¡ªif also breathtakingly beautiful¡ªliquid, appeared. It was far, and as much as Emilia wasn¡¯t a fan of jumping over deadly waters, the alternative was the children throwing more rocks and hoping to find a closer platform.

    There would be one closer, but as they had already discovered, sometimes those closer platforms led to much longer, winding routes. Personally, Emilia was rather done with this whole thing¡ªthey¡¯d already been working at it for a few hours¡ªand trusted herself to make the jump.

    Her currently platform was a little small to take the bounding steps she¡¯d need to jump, and she hopped back to the last one, which honestly seemed to have been designed for this task. It ran five feet long by barely a foot wide¡ªenough for her to make the jump, with the aid of her {Blood Armour}.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine!¡± Emilia signed at the children.

    On shore, Caro screamed a combination of cheers and comments about how they were amazed she was attempting the jump. Gale just muttered about how she had better not die. Astra continued digging, as though she had not a single worry that Emilia might not make it. Maybe she didn¡¯t; perhaps the girl just didn¡¯t realize the danger of the situation. That was the thing with Astra: it was nearly impossible to tell what she was thinking, one moment to the next.

    Emilia¡¯s feet landed lightly over the platform, the ball of her foot catching the edge and propelling her forward, over the too small platform and the giant gap of deadly liquid. She landed perfectly on the newest platform, bare feet complaining about the heat that seeped into the platforms. Squatting, she felt her way around the platform, placing her stones until they made a map of it.

    Unfortunately, she was almost out of stones, again. The first time, she¡¯d backtracked, having not been too far into the maze of platforms. Now, she was so far and already not looking forward to some of the precarious jumps that awaited her on the return trip. Instead, after a series of confused signs between her and the children, they began hurling rocks at her¡ªor trying to, at least.

    Virtually all of the rocks fell short of making it to her, and it was only when Astra stepped up to try, energy and magic screaming so strongly through her little body that Emilia could feel it from nearly 200 feet away, that any made it to her. Rocks shot towards her, and Emilia¡¯s hand ached from the force of catching them by the time she signalled to the girl to please stop.

    ?That was so cool!? Caro was saying as she turned back towards the heartcore.

    Realistically, she only needed to get twenty or thirty feet closer before she could make the jump, assuming the platform the labyrinth gave her was big enough. Shaking out her hand, Emilia tossed several of the stones across the liquid¡ªthe bonus part of Astra apparently being capable of sending her rocks was she could now map the way herself. Convenient, but given the way her hand ached, Emilia couldn¡¯t be annoyed the girl hadn¡¯t revealed her ability earlier.

    ?What else can you do?? Caro asked a moment before the aether shuddered, Astra apparently showing off another magic or two.

    ?Wow!? Caro cooed, their voice melting with genuine awe. ?So cool! Gale! Gale! Isn¡¯t that just the coolest thing you¡¯ve ever seen??

    Emilia¡¯s feet landed on the next platform. Her legs bent, and immediately, she was jumping for the next.

    ?I guess it¡¯s okay,? Gale admitted, her voice tight with distaste that she had to accept something Astra was doing was worthy of praise and awe.

    More rocks shot out of Emilia¡¯s hands, searching for something closer to the heartcore. It was just so close, and she really, really wanted to be done with this place. It didn¡¯t help that once she was there, she was going to have to figure out a way to avoid rolling into the lake once she passed out from touching it. Granted, rolling into the lake once she was unconscious would be infinitely better than falling in with a bad jump, and as time went on¡ªas she grew closer¡ªshe was definitely taking bigger risks.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    It was just that she was so done! She wanted out of here! She wanted to never enter another labyrinth ever again¡ª Actually! Fuck that. Emilia never wanted to enter another raid ever again. This was it, the single virtual raid she would ever enter¡ª Well, she had entered a few before, mostly when Sil asked really, really nicely. It had been a while, though, and this was certainly the only raid she¡¯d ever sought out herself. It was also the longest¡ªshe¡¯d never spent more than 48 hours inside a virtual raid before, and she just wanted to go home!

    Finally, a rock found a platform. It wasn¡¯t as close to the heartcore as she would have liked, but she couldn¡¯t stand here, hoping to find a better placed platform, forever. Several more rocks landed on the platform, marking it out just as she marked out each platform. One step back, two. This platform wasn¡¯t big, but neither was the jump.

    The moment Emilia¡¯s foot left the platform, she knew the jump was wrong, her angle not quite right. She leaned forward, hoping to catch herself on the platform, even as she knew her legs were going to hit the liquid. Careless¡ªshe¡¯d been increasingly careless with her jumps, she¡¯d known that. Fucking stars, she should have shaken off her anxious energy! How often had she climbed The Strats and fallen off because of exactly this? The Strats weren¡¯t somewhere you could die¡ªnot without multiple safety systems failing, anyways. This was a place of death, and she should have been paying more attention! Now, those poor kids were going to have to watch her burn and¡ª

    ¡°Emilia!¡±

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Emilia cried as she hit the platform, one of her legs sliding into the liquid while the other collided painful with the platform, only her bare toes sliding into it.

    It burned. Fucking stars did it burn, pain echoing through her entire being as she worked to pull her burning limbs out of the liquid. Thankfully, this was one of the larger platforms, and she didn¡¯t have to worry about rolling off as she screamed and twisted onto her back. Her clothing burned, and she tugged out her {Blood Dagger}, brutally slicing away her burning clothing and tossing them away before the flames could reach her fingers.

    Her skin sizzled, turning black and white as blisters formed and burst under the assault, but the flames didn¡¯t spread¡ªher {Blood Armour} wouldn¡¯t allow them to. The crisscrossing bindings didn¡¯t protect all of her, however, and what was visible was going to burn straight through at this rate¡ªbut Emilia had already planned for the possibility that she¡¯d fuck up. She¡¯d hoped she wouldn¡¯t, of course, but planning was her friend and probably¡ªhopefully¡ªthe only thing keeping her from losing the leg.

    Biting back her screams, sucking in ragged breaths, Emilia tugged the {Blood Fabric} from her jacket pocket, hoping to the stars above that this would work. Blood items were so resilient, and despite Gale telling her she was stupid, she¡¯d poked at the liquid with several of her items before taking off across the water.

    They didn¡¯t burn, and as Emilia shook out the {Blood Fabric} and pressed it over her burning foot and leg, she hoped her hunch wasn¡¯t wrong¡ªhoped her hunch that the fabric would repel the flames was correct.

    Her legs continued to burn, but Emilia knew enough about burns from the injuries she had seen and treated on the front to know that was to be expected. When she pulled back the {Blood Fabric} and found her leg black but no longer actively on fire, she breathed out. It looked bad, and felt¡­ she couldn¡¯t decide if it felt better or worse than it looked.

    What was clear, was the heat was still burning through her, which really sucked. Even more sucky? This wasn¡¯t the sort of injury the system was liable to heal, and she didn¡¯t have time to wait to see if it would.

    Shaky hands brought the fabric to her mouth, her teeth clamping down around it so she wouldn¡¯t scream as she sliced away the worst of the burns. Dead skin slipped off her, and she just hoped that what was left would be enough to walk on once the system healed it. She needed to bleed¡ªshe needed to activate the system¡¯s healing protocols so it did something for her. Unfortunately, that protocol seemed random and unfair more often than not, and it wasn¡¯t until her blood was pooling over the platform that the system finally decided to heal her, and Emilia was able to breathe again.

    The dead skin that had fallen off her as she drew blood didn¡¯t suddenly reattach itself, but what remained on her body did stretch and reform, the burning heat radiating through her leg slowly disappearing until all that remained was a terrible looking scar that patched over her leg. Part hot white, part scorched red, it looked equal parts cool and grotesque, the skin a patchwork of wrinkled and tight skin, every bit looking like it hadn¡¯t been pulled into place quite right.

    ¡°Broken ass system,¡± Emilia muttered to herself as she turned to her other foot, making quick slices in her thankfully less injured toes. At least this side wouldn¡¯t be losing any skin, just some blood.

    Her eyes slid to the pile of herself still sitting on the platform as she waited for the system to heal this side as well. Oddly, the system hadn¡¯t pulled her blood back into her, and it sat in an unmoving puddle over the platform, just like Caro¡¯s splatters of clumsily lost blood still marred the obstacle course.

    Strange.

    Other things that were strange¡­

    Emilia glared over at the children, the three of them huddled close and looking thoroughly distressed. That was probably more than fair. She raised a weak hand to them, his muscles shaking from the memory of pain racing through her¡ªfrom the memories of Olivier burning on the front that were threatening to break her.

    She couldn¡¯t break. Not now¡ªnot over something that had happened over a decade ago. Later, when she was out of here. Not now.

    The children visibly sagged in relief, visible even from so far away. As much as Emilia felt for each of them, she couldn¡¯t just ignore the slip of information she had heard during the moment before she slid into the lake.

    ¡°Astra,¡± she called, squinting in an attempt to watch the girl as she realized her fuck up hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed, ¡°you have some explaining to do.¡±

    The girl stared at her, probably blinking those big, beautiful black eyes at her, and for a moment, Emilia thought she would feign innocence¡ªwould try to deny the way she had vocally screamed her name before she fell. Then, the girl sagged, a foot scuffing over the ground, before she sighed, ¡°Fine.¡±

 Arc 4 | Chapter 127: Easy, For a Moment More

    Astra made her way slowly towards Emilia, her entire form screaming of a child who knew they were in trouble¡ªexcept, Astra clearly wasn¡¯t a child. If her magic had been less powerful, Emilia might have assumed she was like Zach¡¯s and his daughter: a descendant of a visitor who had been born with regular hearing and potentially the ability to speak. Astra¡¯s magic was powerful, however, and when Emilia had heard the girl cry out for her, in those moments before she slammed into the platform, her lower body sliding under the burning liquid, it was like a piece of a puzzle sliding into place.

    Sweet little Astra wasn¡¯t quiet because that was her personality, nor because she was traumatized by what had happened in Livery. She was quiet because she couldn¡¯t speak the local tongue because the little girl was a visitor.

    A visitor with magic.

    Emilia watched the little girl¡ªcould she even be considered that anymore? Her body might be that of a child, but she had to be in her mid-teens, at the least, and could be far older than that. Emilia¡­ really hoped not. It was already going to be weird enough, reconciling the child she had been sleeping beside, showering with and taking to the bathroom with whatever¡ªwhoever¡ªshe actually was.

    Realistically, she should feel betrayed, disgusted, violated. She didn¡¯t, and when the girl finally reached her, after nearly an hour of mapping out a longer path because her small legs would never be enough for her to make the jumps Emilia had, all she was was sad and confused.

    Astra scuffed a foot over the invisible platform. Emilia stared her down, pulling out memories of her own mother staring her children into submission. She wasn¡¯t Astra¡¯s mother, no matter how close they had grown in the last few days, but when the girl broke down in tears it just seemed the normal thing to do, opening her arms for the girl to collapse into her.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Astra sobbed into her neck. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to¡ª I just¡ª¡± The girl broke off into more sobs, and either she was an excellent actor, or she really was a young teenager. Still a baby, practically. Much too young to be inside this game, even if the local children were also here and without any control over their fate as pawns of the platform and its administrator.

    ¡°Astra¡­¡± Emilia sighed, eyes locking onto a very concerned Gale and Caro, now sitting several metres from shore.

    They had been told what was happening via a note from Astra because apparently she also had that gift. Neither had had much to say about her revelation that she could speak¡ªthat she had screamed Emilia¡¯s name before she began to burn¡ªbut they had accepted that she needed to go to heartcore as well¡ªmore than likely, anyways.

    ?She says she touched the heartcore in the last labyrinth, too,? Gale had muttered as she read the message, Emilia grateful that she had left her notebook behind before she took off. It was too valuable to risk losing to the flames of the lake.

    Astra had touched that heartcore as well, and while they could wait for Emilia to touch it¡ªassuming she could walk, something she hadn¡¯t risked trying as she waited for Astra. The children had decided Astra needed to come right away. Apparently, she¡¯d already been worried she would need to touch it¡ªthat she¡¯d have to fess up to her lie of omission once Emilia touched the heartcore and the doors still refused to open.

    Far away and burnt out from her experience, Emilia had been inclined to wait.

    Now, she waited again for Astra to cry herself out. Cool tears soaked the collar of her sweater, a loose pink thing that was too hot for either traversing over the lake or having a child curled into her. She wasn¡¯t about to dislodge Astra, however. For one thing, doing so would risk tossing the girl overboard. For another, this was still Astra. Sweet little Astra, who had attached herself onto her within moments of meeting. Adorable Astra, who refused to go anywhere without her.

    Astra, who had wormed her way into Emilia¡¯s heart, and now¡­ now Emilia didn¡¯t know what to think.

    ¡°Astra,¡± Emilia tried again when the girl¡¯s sobs had finally shifted into sniffles. ¡°Is that your real name?¡±

    Astra nodded into her neck, little hands tightening into the fabric of her sweater.

    ¡°How old are you, Astra?¡±

    The girl hesitated for so long that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she would¡ªor perhaps even could¡ªanswer. Then, a soft, ¡°Almost fifteen,¡± reached her ears.

    It could be a lie. Astra could be a grown ass man, pretending to be a cute child for some weird, perverted reason. Emilia didn¡¯t want to think that. Emilia wanted to believe the child she had gotten to know so well since they first met, despite their lack of actually speaking to one another¡ª

    No, that wasn¡¯t true. Astra did speak to her in broken sign language¡ªin her sign language¡ªoccasionally. Not often, but it was a difficult thing, to pick up a language without any understanding¡ªunderstanding Emilia had taken away when V was taken away. Where previously she had been speaking and signing, there had been no need to speak without V there, and quickly her words had fallen away.

    Emilia¡¯s mind raced, spinning back through that first part of the labyrinth, before things had turned to ashes and disappearances. It wasn¡¯t important, to know how much Astra had learned in those first few hours, but the reality that much of what the girl could sign had been spoken and signed in those first few hours¡­

    Well, Emilia felt a little stupid for not realizing earlier that something was up with Astra¡ªsomething that couldn¡¯t just be explained away as a trauma response. A dozen little moments lined themselves up in her mind, a trail leading to Astra being a visitor.

    ¡°You¡¯re only a little older than Gale, then,¡± Emilia gently teased, adding that as far as she¡¯d seen, kids in this world matured a lot faster than kids in their own world. ¡°I¡¯d say you¡¯re closer to Benny¡¯s age, maybe even Caro¡¯s, if we wanted a comparison of maturity.¡±

    Astra pulled back, frowning severely at Emilia. ¡°I am not as immature as either of them.¡±

    ¡°No?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Emilia levelled a look at her, one eyebrow cocked in silent question. Astra fidgeted, her weight shifted between Emilia¡¯s thighs, her eyes flicking this way and that.

    ¡°I just¡­¡± the girl started to say. Her mouth opened and closed several times in aborted attempts to find her words before finally she buried herself back into Emilia¡¯s neck.

    They sat there for a long moment, Emilia gently rubbing Astra¡¯s back the way she had done so many times before when the girl was sad, scared, unable to sleep. ¡°Are you a girl?¡± she finally asked, since at least she was getting answers to her direct questions.

    Astra pulled back again. ¡°Would it matter?¡± she asked, looking genuinely confused, perhaps the clearest proof that she probably wasn¡¯t lying: teenagers in their world often didn¡¯t realize what pigs people could be when it came to people they were attracted to. Men¡ªand even more so boys¡ªwere often the worst, although there had been one particularly pushy woman who had hit on both her and Nettie during the war. Then, that hitting on and simply flirting became something more¡ªsomething dangerous and threatening and just fucking creepy. Rafe, who had been unsure of where and how he fit into the war, had appeared and made them regret their decision to harass her and Nettie, then just sort of never left.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°I suppose both men and women can be creepy,¡± Emilia explained, wondering how to explain it to the teenager. She might have been joking around a bit when she mentioned Astra being closer to Caro and Benny in age, but it wasn¡¯t a complete joke. Teenagers at Astra¡¯s age, having just received their Censors and still learning how they and the world worked, were often closer in their understanding of things to the children of this world. That quickly changed, as they used their Censors to learn and explore the world, but before then¡­

    ¡°I know that,¡± Astra said, and to Emilia, it really did sound like she meant it, so she contented herself to stare the girl down, waiting for her to understand. The wait was worth it when Astra¡¯s eyes blew wide, red spreading over her deep brown skin. ¡°Oh¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, indeed,¡± Emilia said, watching the wheels continuing to turn in the young girl¡¯s head.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t¡ª I mean¡ª¡± Astra tried to say, stumbling over her words.

    ¡°Mn?¡± Emilia hummed. It was a bit mean to tease the girl, but considering the days of lies between them, it was at least a little deserved.

    Astra released a long, high-pitched whine before burying herself once more in Emilia¡¯s neck. ¡°I didn¡¯t do or think about anything like¡­ that,¡± she squeaked out, so embarrassed that Emilia wondered if she¡¯d had any sex-ed yet.

    Normally, children in Baalphoria were given the basic details of such things over the course of their childhood and teens. By the time they had their Censors installed, they usually knew everything there was to know, at least about regular, vanilla sex. Talking about sex¡ªbeing able to say the words and not ¡®that¡¯¡ªnormalized sex, and sex was a completely normal part of life. At least, it was in Baalphoria.

    Emilia knew of a handful of Free Colonies where sex was viewed as a much more private, if not downright sinful, act. A few of those Free Colonies had chosen to continue using Censors after the war. Some had even made them a requirement¡ªmuch like they were in Baalphoria¡ªbut most had made them optional. Optional or not, they allowed those people access raid platforms, although that access was limited if they weren¡¯t physically in Baalphoria.

    Flipping back through her memory¡ªand fucking stars did Emilia miss the perfect recall of her Censor¡ªto the rules of this raid¡ªor more to the legal jargon that hadn¡¯t been relevant to her¡ªEmilia couldn¡¯t remember seeing anything about a citizenship or locale requirement, just like there hadn¡¯t been an age requirement. Some private raids had such things, and virtually all public ones did, but it was very possible this one did not.

    Emilia contemplated Astra as the girl continues mumbling into her neck about all the things she hadn¡¯t done¡ªapparently now that she had realized the biggest issue with how they had been behaving around each other, her mind was running her back through their life together and tagging every potentially inappropriate moment.

    The girl¡¯s language was a little odd¡ªnot so much that she would have immediately assumed she was from the Free Colonies, but enough that if she said she was, Emilia wouldn¡¯t have thought her accent or language barrier completely gone. There had also been a number of moments over the last few days where she had done something odd, and Emilia had just assumed it was a local custom¡ªapparently not so much.

    So, likely from the Free Colonies, then. This time, when Emilia asked the girl outright where she was from, however, she refused to answer.

    ¡°I¡¯m not supposed to talk about it,¡± was all Emilia could get out of her. She was tempted to push a bit more, but the crack in Astra¡¯s voice told her it wouldn¡¯t be worth it¡ªshe might get her answer, but something between her and the girl would shift, potentially irreparably.

    That was fine, it really didn¡¯t matter, expect to sate her own curiosity. What she did want an answer to, however, wasn¡¯t something she would be so easily shaken from.

    Thankfully, Astra seemed to realize that as well, and while it took several long minutes for her to answer, Emilia did eventually get an answer to her question of why.

    Why do this?

    Why not tell me?

    What was in it for you?

    Was it worth it?

    Are you satisfied?

    She didn¡¯t ask all those questions, of course, instead sticking to, ¡°Astra, can you tell me why you decided to pretend to be a local child? Why you¡ª why you stuck so close to me, all this time?¡±

    When Astra answered, it wasn¡¯t what she had been expecting. What had she been expecting? Emilia wasn¡¯t really sure, but it wasn¡¯t for the girl to tell her she¡¯d entered the raid on a whim.

    ¡°I¡¯m young, obviously. I was told not to enter the raid. I did it anyways.¡± Astra shrugged, like it wasn¡¯t a big deal, and Emilia wondered if her parents would learn their lesson from this: you don¡¯t just tell a child not to enter a raid, you set their Censors so they can¡¯t¡ªnot without hacking them, anyways.

    ¡°I decided to make myself a child. I¡ª¡± she broke off, and after a moment of silence told Emilia that she knew why she had decided to become a child, but didn¡¯t want to talk about it, something dark and scary winding through her voice. ¡°The Risen Guard just thought I was a lost local kid, especially since I came in a little after the main group, and then I got away. I went through a labyrinth, another. Then I was in Livery.¡±

    ¡°And got caught up in the stampede.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Benny came to help me, and I panicked. I didn¡¯t want him to die trying to protect me, especially since I didn¡¯t need help. Then you picked us up.¡±

    Emilia hummed as she was given a breakdown of the girl¡¯s time in the raid. It was good to know, although she wondered if Astra had gotten help from anyone, especially in her trek through multiple labyrinths. Certainly, someone at some point had helped her, as someone had known her name¡ªpassed it on to their child who had passed it on to their group in the Livery Labyrinth.

    It was possible she¡¯d only gotten help in Livery, however, as the labyrinths certainly were something that could be done alone, from what she¡¯d seen. Mostly, they just seemed something difficult to find, if you didn¡¯t know they existed¡ªalthough, perhaps from the point of view of someone who raided often¡ªand despite the newness of her Censor, Astra did admit she¡¯d already spent a few years in-raid¡ªthey were obvious.

    At the same time¡­ Well, if Astra came from a Free Colony that utilized their cores, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised. It seemed like people who knew how to use their cores were fairing far better in this raid than normal Baalphorians¡ªalthough who knew! Maybe, somewhere out there, there was a group of normal Baalphorians facing the raid just fine!

    Somehow, that seemed unlikely.

    ¡°I¡­¡± The hesitation in the girl¡¯s voice was back, her words coming in starts and stutters that broke Emilia¡¯s heart, especially when the words came together to form a story of a child who had never felt loved by her own mother.

    ¡°You treated me the way I think a mother should. My own mother never treated me with love. She mostly pretended she couldn¡¯t see me. I just wanted to know what it was like, to be loved and cared for like that, for once.¡±

    Emilia pulled Astra back to her then. It would have been nice, to think the girl lying¡ªto believe that she was just concocting a story, trying to pull on her heartstrings so she wouldn¡¯t dump her into the lake. She didn¡¯t think Astra was lying, and instead, all she was left with was an aching heart for a child who was unloved and had grasped onto a small thread of affection and pulled, hoping to find something that her life was missing, even if just briefly.

    Astra sniffled into her neck, and Emilia''s eyes clamped shut, her own loveless childhood shuddering through her¡ªher own love and longing for her parents swirling within her. She had escaped that terrible, empty childhood when she was six, and even that had been too long. This girl had experienced it for more than twice that, and if she could have, Emilia would have gathered her up and hidden her away from that pain.

    She couldn¡¯t, though, not unless a thousand strings of fate wound together to let her somehow take this child away from her loveless mother¡ªand who knew if Astra even wanted that. The girl could have siblings and friends, aunts and uncles who loved her the way every child deserved. Emilia didn¡¯t¡ªwouldn¡¯t¡ªknow, not without asking questions that Astra clearly didn¡¯t want to answer¡ªnot right now, anyways.

    Outside the raid was difficult, filled with laws and treatise and homework and trauma she couldn¡¯t escape. Outside was¡­ complicated. Here, inside this raid, though? That was easy¡ªit was easy to hug Astra closer and whisper into her hair that she was there, that she wasn¡¯t going anywhere.

    It was easy to sit there and let the girl break, tension she probably hadn¡¯t known her little body was holding, over the reality that Emilia might regret her, crashing outwards in wet, heartrending sobs.

    Here, it was easy. Too bad that easy would end, eventually.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 128: Screaming into the Abyss

    The energy came fast and strong, barring down on Emilia like the weight of the ocean, or at least what she had imagined the weight of the ocean would feel like during an unfortunate, underwater fight during the war. Her skills had been strong, holding the weight of all that water at bay while she fought. Her skills had never wavered, even as the monsters came for her and her allies, striking them down one after another. Too many monsters and their allies from other units wielding {Air Pocket} without the finesse she and other members of their unit could.

    The water had still come for one of them, though. One moment they were there, the next, they were crushed, their body reduced to a red mark through the darkness.

    This felt like Emilia had imagined that weight would feel, in the moment before their teammate imploded. This weight went on and on, however, pressing her down so hard she didn¡¯t realize she couldn¡¯t even scream until the weight¡ªthe energy that had caused it¡ªwas suddenly gone. Snuffed out, just as fast as it came.

    ?Fucking stars,? she groaned, flipping onto her back and mourning the food she had dropped when the energy hit. ?I¡¯m going to kill that bastard.?

    ? ? ? Three Days Earlier ? ? ?

    ?On the plus side, at least neither of you rolled into the lake??

    The group was painfully silent as they walked through the corridor the labyrinth exit had led them into, no one but Emilia replying to Caro¡¯s attempts at lessening the tension.

    ¡°I think Gale might have preferred it if we both had died,¡± she said, including signs out of resurrected habit and ignoring the glare Gale sent her, having obviously noticed her name sign. ¡°Death might have been better than this.¡±

    Gale mumbled something, although it was so quiet Emilia couldn¡¯t make it out. A teenager being a teenager, purposefully excluding everyone from their thoughts while still making it known they had thoughts. Normally, Emilia was pretty good at figuring out why someone was upset, even when they wouldn¡¯t admit the reason themself, and in Gale¡¯s case¡­

    Well, she had a few theories, but none of them seemed quite right. Something having to do with Astra, clearly, the local girl having barely glanced at the visitor since they had returned from touching the heartcore.

    Astra had attained the ability to speak, while Emilia¡ªonce again¡ªhad no idea what ability the heartcore had given her! It really was unfair. Astra apparently knew every gift the heartcores had given her. A physical augmentation ability, the ability to understand locals, the ability to read and write the local tongue¡ªgiven to her by the Livery labyrinth in what seemed way too much of a coincidence to actually be one¡ªand finally, the ability to speak.

    Emilia, on the other hand, knew what neither this labyrinth nor what the one in Livery had bestowed upon her. She had tried experimenting while in the Risen Guard compound, poking at the children and Honey for tales about the labyrinths, looking for hints of the sorts of powers they could bestow.

    A more powerful connection to a branch of magic.

    The ability to see spells weaving their way through the world.

    A connection to the universe itself.

    Many attempts at doing anything later, and Emilia wasn¡¯t fully convinced there had been a system error, and she¡¯d gotten nothing. The way this raid was going, she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised.

    ?How is your leg??

    Emilia glanced between Astra¡ªwho had taken to using only her aethervoice to speak¡ªand her scarred leg. It looked grotesque, with its skin too tight in some places, too loose in others. The muscle under the blotchy skin was uneven, pieces of it missing¡ªburned or cut away. It didn¡¯t hurt anymore, though, and as much as it looked like she shouldn¡¯t be capable of walking on it¡ªnot without practice, anyways¡ªEmilia suspected her {Blood Armour} was supporting her, the bindings pulling tightly over her entire leg.

    Helpful, although given how sensitive this body was, she was concerned that eventually the strange pull on her muscles would result in pain radiating through her hips and back. Considering how terrible the back pain she¡¯d experienced from too much climbing and sleeping on the ground had been, Emilia wasn¡¯t completely convinced that death wouldn¡¯t have been the better option.

    Not that she still couldn¡¯t just off herself¡ªforce her consciousness back into her real body. If she did that, however, she couldn¡¯t get Caro and Gale somewhere safe, couldn¡¯t try to see this world righted or find answers to the million questions burning through her¡ª

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Emilia sighed, pulling to a stop and squinting.

    ?What is it?? Astra asked, tugging gently on the hand she had been holding almost constantly since their heart-to-heart.

    Gale and Caro stopped as well, although Gale continued staring down the corridor at the light emanating from far in the distance.

    ¡°I think I have access to the Risen Guard system again?¡±

    Boundary had restricted her access to the system after their parting with Carne and the homeless children. He had promised to keep her updated, if Benny contacted them, but aside from a message informing them that he wasn¡¯t sure where Carne had taken them, the child had been quiet.

    What covered her vision now was the Risen Guard system¡ªand more of it that she¡¯d seen so far. There was once again a map of the area in the corner, indicating they were¡ªshockingly¡ªin the middle of a very long corridor that led to a room, blacked out as though the system¡ªor perhaps she herself¡ªhad no information on it. In another corner, there lay a complicated interface that appeared to be related to magic, although without examining it further, it was unclear what it was for. Most important, in another corner sat three names: Boundary, Honey and Benny.

    At first, she thought that perhaps Benny had messaged again and Boundary had temporarily returned access to her. However, where Boundary and Honey¡¯s names were a mild red, Benny¡¯s was grey. It took a long moment of concentration¡ªof quietly, and then very loudly, encouraging the system to do what she wanted¡ªbefore their last messages with Benny popped up.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    [Benny: I don¡¯t know where Carne took us, but we¡¯re safe. I think.]

    [Boundary: Let us know if you learn anything more.]

    [Emilia: Caro says hello.]

    [Benny: Hello back.]

    That was the last message, sent only a few hours after their parting. There had been many moments where Emilia had wanted to message the boy, but without the system, she would have been forced to track down Boundary to do so. Plus, the man had warned them that sending and receiving too many messages would likely result in a headache.

    Another long moment of concentration later, Benny¡¯s messages closed and Honey¡¯s popped up, a blinding stream of messages over Emilia¡¯s vision, and she had to agree: doing virtually anything with the Risen Guard system hurt.

    [Honey: Hey! I noticed you somehow have access to the message system?]

    [Honey: Totally weird.]

    [Honey: Did Boundary give it to you?]

    [Honey: Oh, never mind.]

    [Honey: I asked Caro, and they said he did when you were protecting the kids in the city.]

    [Honey: I¡¯m surprised he didn¡¯t take it away, but I guess since you aren¡¯t answering, maybe he did?]

    [Honey: Or you just can¡¯t use the system well.]

    [Honey: Don¡¯t take it too hard! Sometimes it takes recruits years to learn how to use the system.]

    [Honey: Sucks for them!]

    [Honey: Oh yeah, have you met Caro¡¯s new babysitter?]

    [Honey: Word to the wise, that bitch is cold-hearted.]

    [Honey: I tried to tell Caro to listen to her, but I don¡¯t think they heard me.]

    [Honey: Or they just didn¡¯t care, but you should care!]

    [Honey: That lady takes her job SERIOUSLY.]

    Nearly two dozen more messages followed, Honey apparently uncaring that her messages weren¡¯t being read, let alone responded to. If anything, perhaps her lack of response had opened a floodgate into the trainee¡¯s soul because she was messaging Emilia seemingly ever thought she had through the day! The most recent messages had arrived since they¡¯d left the compound.

    [Honey: Did you seriously take Caro with you? Ugh! Why does no one listen to me!]

    [Honey: Their babysitter is PISSED! She¡¯s ripping the compound apart looking for you.]

    Several minutes later, Honey had sent another message, informing Emilia that she¡¯d covered for them.

    [Honey: I convinced her you actually left through the secret entrance that guy probably used and not the labyrinth entrance.]

    [Honey: I can¡¯t believe she actually believed me.]

    [Honey: She¡¯s not exactly the smartest.]

    [Honey: Which, seriously? Who assigned her to watch Caro?]

    [Honey: That kid is smart and slippery, and it doesn¡¯t surprise me that they got away.]

    [Honey: The labyrinth was a pretty good escape route, by the way.]

    [Honey: Ten out of ten for bravery, and eleven out of ten for stupidity.]

    ?She wasn¡¯t even that hard to ditch,? Caro said when Emilia relayed the messages to them. ?And! And! That lady was just no fun! She just wanted me to sit and be quiet and behave while she stared into space!?

    ?She was probably doing something with the system,? Gale offered, although she still hadn¡¯t turned back towards them.

    At least she was engaging with them again, as they discussed Honey¡¯s messages¡ªher warning about this mysterious Risen Guard who was apparently chasing them now. Thankfully chasing them in the wrong direction, but chasing them nonetheless.

    Boundary¡¯s messages had been less interesting, simply an acknowledgement that¡ªagainst his better judgment¡ªhe was returning access to the Risen Guard system to her.

    [Boundary: You will have to figure out how to use it yourself.]

    [Boundary: Unless I die, or you do something egregious, I doubt I will revoke your access.]

    There was a long gap between messages, before Boundary seemed to come to a decision and warned her that his other half might revoke her access.

    [Boundary: I do not always have control over when he comes out.]

    [Boundary: I will try to hide information about your access from him, but I do not guarantee it will work.]

    [Boundary: I suggest you work on gaining access to the normal system.]

    [Boundary: You may be able to access more of my system¡¯s features; however, you will have to work at it.]

    [Boundary: Good luck, and... and thank you, for not killing Villy.]

    Emilia had no idea who Villy was, but she assumed it must have been one of the Risen Guards they incapacitated on their way out.

    ¡°Thanks. See you again, maybe,¡± she messaged back, brain burning as she closed the chats down, but not before making note of the time Boundary had sent his messages.

    Overall, the time was useless to her without any clock on her display¡ªalthough she assumed that if she focused hard enough, one would appear. It was rather rude that her own message hadn¡¯t had a timestamp¡ªunreasonable, even, and she honestly wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if it were the system or platform maintainer fucking with her.

    What the lapse between timestamps did tell her, however, was that Boundary had given her access while they were inside the labyrinth¡ªthe gap far longer than the time they¡¯d been outside it so far¡ªyet it hadn¡¯t been until nearly ten minutes after they emerged that she had actually been given it.

    It was strange.

    Had they been entering a labyrinth, she would have assumed the labyrinth was messing with it, the same way it had messed with the area and their perception outside the library and Livery labyrinths. There had been nothing like that while exiting either, however, even when they¡¯d exited near doors. The world, which had felt strange and other, even if just subtly, in the beginning moments of the labyrinth, felt normal at its end.

    This exit hadn¡¯t felt normal, but Emilia had mostly chalked it up to the tension between their group¡ªnot to mention the strange corridor with its grotesque, patchwork of materials.

    Now, she wasn¡¯t so sure.

    ¡°I think we should go back.¡±

    ?Go back?? Gale didn¡¯t quite yell as she swivelled back towards them. ?Go back where??

    ¡°Back down the tunnel,¡± Emilia said, explaining her thoughts as quickly as Astra could translate.

    ?What does it matter if there¡¯s¡­ what? Another labyrinth back there? Is that what you¡¯re thinking??

    That was precisely what Emilia was thinking¡ªthat there was another labyrinth down here. It could be nothing, it could just be another entrance to the labyrinth they just escaped.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think so, and when she examined the map, finding a symbol drawn over the location of the door they had exited, she spotted another mark a short distance away¡ªa question mark of sorts. The fact that it wasn¡¯t the same was the one marking the labyrinth¡­ it could be nothing.

    It could be something.

    ¡°Caro,¡± she started, turning towards the small, increasing antsy child. If they hadn¡¯t been in a potentially dangerous tunnel, with one if not two labyrinths in the vicinity, she might have told them to run some of that energy off. That¡¯s what she had done as a child: run and run and run until her body and brain finally gave her a break. Caro needed a break, their little body vibrating with energy they needed to expel.

    Unfortunately, it was too dangerous for them to expel it through such simple means, so Emilia settled for the next best thing: giving them a mission.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 129: Read This World (give it a try, at least)

    ¡°I want you to read the universe and try to find the entrance to the other labyrinth,¡± Emilia said, smiling down at Caro with as much confidence as she could muster.

    Realistically, she didn¡¯t need them to look for the entrance¡ªnot when her map more or less told her exactly where the entrance was located, anyways¡ªbut the child needed something to occupy themself with, and as much as they seemed to be recovering from their run in with the other visitor, Emilia could still see them struggling. Then needed their confidence back, and even if they couldn¡¯t find the labyrinth entrance, just trying would be enough.

    Given the way Caro hesitated, their eyes flickering about as though searching for a reason why they couldn¡¯t, Emilia was right: they needed this. Where previously, Caro had been a child ready and willing to try anything, that confident, adventurous spirit was now tucked away under fear. During the last labyrinth, the Caro of before had popped out often enough that Emilia wasn¡¯t too concerned, and if she couldn¡¯t convince them to try this, she wouldn¡¯t force it or worry they had completely broken under their trauma.

    It wouldn¡¯t be the end of the world.

    It wouldn¡¯t signal the complete erasure of the child they had been before that night.

    The thing that worried her was how everything they had done in the labyrinth were things they had¡ªmore or less¡ªbeen confident in before the stampede. They ran and jumped and threw themself into games and physical activities. They succeeded where they tried. They had succeeded with those things in the past and would continue to do so in the future.

    When it came to this, however¡ªto this thing that they had seemingly brought ruin on they and their friends during what might well have been their first attempt? Emilia didn¡¯t think they¡¯d try it again, not without a push, and that would be a shame. Caro had loved the idea of the universe¡ªof the aether¡ªspeaking to them, guiding them. For them to lose that love¡ªto fear the universe and its path, even¡­

    No, Emilia was going to fight against that reality as hard as she dared.

    ?I can¡¯t read the universe,? Caro whispered.

    ¡°No? I heard you were having a grand ole time running around the city, following the universe.¡±

    ?How did you know I was trying to read the universe then?? Caro asked, their eyes growing into round balls of black shock as they shot up to her.

    ¡°Ally had a hunch,¡± she told them as she gently nudged the group into moving back down the corridor.

    The corridor they had found themselves in wasn¡¯t like any she had seen before. It was neither a tunnel within the caverns, formed of dark stones run through with lines of glittering red veins and stalactites dripping down above them in silent threat, nor was it a corridor like those found in the library, marked with magic across the floor and lined with books. It wasn¡¯t like those first halls she had wandered down, either, the memory of their dust and sticky floors folding over with the halls of the Risen Guard complex.

    Instead, it was like an amalgamation of every hall she had seen in this world and a thousand more. With one step, the floor squeaked, her bare feet sticking. Another step, and the pads of her feet were hissing in complaint as rocks dug into them. Then heat hit her, burning up through already burnt skin and forcing her to step a little faster, landing on blank pages of books toppling from shelves built into slim shelves of shifting flesh.

    It was strange, and in hindsight, perhaps she should have realized sooner that a labyrinth was affecting the world, bending it a little strangely as people grew near. Then again, none of the previous labyrinths had been surrounded by a world quite this strange. The closest had actually been the first one, sealed up as it was: Emilia couldn¡¯t imagine the otherworldly cavern, where the local teens had been partying, was there by chance.

    ?I didn¡¯t really think it was working¡­? Caro mumbled.

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not. I can¡¯t read the universe, so what do I know.¡±

    ?It¡¯s not that hard,? Caro said before they realized their mistake. ?Uh¡­?

    Emilia cocked an eyebrow at them. ¡°You can¡¯t do something that isn¡¯t that hard?¡± she cooed, petty teasing that Caro couldn¡¯t even hear oozing through her voice. Luckily, Astra understood to translate tone as much as meaning, the little girl¡¯s voice coming out just as taunting as Emilia had intended her words to be. Caro was just the sort of child to be egged on by such words, and she wasn¡¯t ashamed to be leveraging that fact against them.

    Caro grumbled, muttering something under their breath. Emilia asked them to repeat themself, their volume barely increasing and forcing her to ask again, again, again¡ª

    ?I SAID, MAYBE I SHOULDN¡¯T BE READING IT IF THINGS END UP LIKE THAT!? Caro screamed into the world, their voice somehow managing to echo over the walls. It vibrated, coming back in strange patches as it collided with one section that echoed one way, another that echoed another.

    The group pulled to a halt to stare at Caro, each of them grimacing as the sound slowly dissipated.

    ¡°Caro,¡± Emilia sighed, kneeling down in front of them. They looked about ready to cry, and the last time they¡¯d done that, they¡¯d bolted. ¡°You don¡¯t have to do anything you don¡¯t want to, but I heard you. I know you believe in this stuff¡ªI know you believe the universe will guide you right.¡±

    ?It guided me right to that man.?

    ¡°Yes, but he would have found you eventually. For all we know, you finding him first meant things worked out better than they otherwise would have,¡± Emilia said, mind swirling through the things she had heard people of her own world say when they spoke about the will of the aethernet. ¡°Just because it still ended badly doesn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t the best possible outcome.¡±

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Caro¡¯s foot scuffed the ground. They looked like they didn¡¯t want to agree, but also knew she was right¡ªunless they were all wrong about the universe, anyways. Maybe there was no will, or perhaps it was just a fucking bitch. Impossible to tell, and it didn¡¯t matter anyways.

    What mattered was Caro slowly¡ªuncomfortably¡ªreaching out and trying to touch the aethernet. Their small core wobbled, brushing against the mutilated corridor and beginning to search for signs of something¡ªof anything.

    Caro actually finding the hidden door wasn¡¯t a necessary part of the plan, but when they did find it, their energy brushing over the anomaly hidden away in the patchwork wall, Emilia was relieved. When they turned to her, eyes bright and excited, Emilia was even more relieved.

    ?I don¡¯t think it was the universe that guided me here,? they admitted, and Emilia had to agree: the entrance was pretty fucking obvious once you knew to look for it.

    ¡°You tried, is what matters, and you found it. Could you find things with your energy before?¡±

    Caro shook their head.

    ¡°Then you learned something new! New skills are great. I love learning.¡±

    Caro nodded, ?Me too.?

    Emilia patted them on the head, turning towards the hidden door.

    ?Now what?? Gale asked. She¡¯d been quiet as Caro searched, probably because she didn¡¯t believe in this stuff, regardless of what had happened to Carne and what he believed¡ªwhat information he had potentially passed onto her about what the Risen Guard believed.

    ¡°Now¡­ I go in.¡±

    ?You can¡¯t be serious,? Gale practically snarled at her, stepping forward until they were practically nose to nose.

    ?What did you think we were coming this way for?? Astra asked flatly. She had also come to stand in front of the hidden door, her energy gently prodding at it.

    ?I thought we were just running the kid out of energy,? Gale whispered hissed into each of them, her eyes turning towards a very sleepy looking Caro. ?We just got out of a labyrinth.?

    ¡°I know,¡± Emilia said, hands signing along with her. She could rely on Astra to translate for her now, but she didn¡¯t really think Gale would appreciate that. Plus, she liked signing¡ªshe missed signing. ¡°You don¡¯t have to come with me, but I need the ability to speak to locals. We can leave here and hope we end up somewhere safe, where the people will help us, but what if we don¡¯t? What if we get separated?¡±

    The teenager did not look particularly convinced by her argument, and Emilia threw Astra a look, silently apologizing to the girl as she added, ¡°What if I have to leave you and Caro somewhere safe¡ªsomewhere where they¡¯ll help you, but not me and Astra? We¡¯d leave, and I¡¯d be left relying on Astra to translate¡ªto stay with me. Do you really want me to trust her so much that I don¡¯t take this chance?¡±

    Astra did not look happy to translate for her, the girl¡¯s words coming out tight and unimpressed as she allowed Emilia to leverage her lies. Her words had the desired effect, however: Gale no longer trusted Astra, and locking Emilia into a relationship with her wasn¡¯t something she wanted to do.

    ?Fine,? the teenager snapped. She glared between Emilia and Astra, jaw clenching as she searched for words. ?She has to stay here, with me and Caro.?

    Out of all the things Emilia had expected, it wasn¡¯t for the local to demand Astra stay. ¡°Why?¡± she asked, somewhat dumbstruck. Given how long it took for Astra to translate for her and the way her voice came out without inflection, the girl was shocked as well.

    ?I don¡¯t trust her, but I also trust that if she does anything to us, you¡¯ll hunt her down and make her regret it,? Gale said, shrugging like she hadn¡¯t just admitted she thought Astra killing them was a possibility. ?If she wants to kill all of us and goes with you, then you¡¯ll be dead, and she¡¯ll come out and kill us too. This way, she doesn¡¯t get more power and will suffer if she betrays us.?

    ?I won¡¯t betray Emilia,? Astra hissed, which wasn¡¯t exactly the most useful thing to say. ?Emilia doesn¡¯t want you hurt, so I won¡¯t hurt you.?

    Talk about just making things worse.

    ¡°How about we just avoid hurting the locals in general?¡± Emilia sighed, tugging Astra back a few steps. The girl had always been a little threatening, glaring down the Risen Guards who tried to separate them, and facing the challenges and killers who came for them with barely a blink. That had been when she¡¯d been hiding her visitor status. Now, without her secrets holding her back, energy rippled out of her, rending through the aethernet with enough viciousness that Emilia was a little concerned she might actually start a fight.

    ¡°No fighting,¡± she said firmly, pushing Astra¡¯s shoulder until she relented and sat, Caro coming to sit beside her. They leaned against her, eyes fluttering shut, although Emilia doubted they would actually sleep.

    ¡°Caro will keep you company. You will let Gale exist over there and not bother her. If someone comes along and threatens you, you may fight them, but do try to make nice with them first, please?¡± Emilia said, voice as firm and unbending as she¡¯d often heard her mother¡¯s¡ªor better yet, Rafe¡¯s mothers¡¯.

    ?Fine,? Astra grumbled, not bothering to translate her words. Apparently, the girl drew the line at informing everyone that she was being treated like the temperamental teenager she apparently was.

    ¡°Good girl,¡± Emilia sighed, squatting down to press a kiss to Astra and Caro¡¯s foreheads.

    Caro smiled and swayed back and forth, like they had just been bestowed with a great gift. Astra was still pouting, but as she pulled away, the girl looked slightly less upset.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back,¡± she said as she pushed up, and after a moment¡¯s hesitation, surged forward to give Gale a forehead kiss as well.

    The teenager groaned and wiped ineffectually at her forehead when Emilia pulled away, but she had a feeling the local girl would have been more upset to be the only one left out.

    ¡°Take care of them,¡± Emilia signed, handing over her {Blood Dagger} to Gale and pulling out her notebook. ¡°Astra may be a bit older than you, but our worlds are very different. She is closer to Caro in her understanding of the world than you.¡±

    Gale glowered down at the note before a grumble about that being terrifying slipped through Emilia¡ªa private message that she rather agreed with. The fact that the government let children enter raids like this was terrifying. The fact that the government allowed them to experience the trauma of something like this was wrong. As much as Astra claimed her mother didn¡¯t love her, someone clearly did¡ªsomeone had tried to keep her from experiencing this place, even if they hadn¡¯t succeeded.

    ?Be careful,? Gale added as Emilia turned and pressed her hands to the place the map indicated the labyrinth entrance would be¡ªa little hidden door that she could only see because of the map Boundary had bestowed upon her. Oddly, while it had taken a while for it to appear after they exited the labyrinth, it hadn¡¯t disappeared as they walked back towards it. Residual effect of the labyrinth, or touching the heartcore, perhaps?

    Emilia supposed she¡¯d find out when she got out of this one.

    Her energy lit up, sliding through her and the invisible door. It crackled and popped, and a moment before she vanished into it, a message popped up over her vision.

    [Honey: Someone is coming for you.]

    [Honey: They said they were your friend, but they could be lying.]

    [Honey: Be careful.]

    Emilia tried to pull her energy back¡ªtried to stop her descent into the labyrinth, but it was too late. She was gone, and someone was coming for them.

    All they would find was the children.

    Hopefully, when she found her way out of the labyrinth, the children would still be there to greet her.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 130: Malicious Interference

    Emilia was rushing. She knew she shouldn¡¯t be¡ªshe¡¯d already seriously injured herself rushing once in the last several hours, after all¡ªbut she couldn¡¯t help it.

    She needed to get out of here.

    She needed to get back to the kids.

    Astra could die¡ªwould hopefully die protecting the kids, if necessary, but that wasn¡¯t a given.

    ?Emilia doesn¡¯t want you hurt, so I won¡¯t hurt you.? That¡¯s what the girl had said¡ªshe wouldn¡¯t hurt them. Emilia had, of course, left her with instructions to fight if necessary, but she¡¯d mostly just been saying that; she hadn¡¯t actually thought anyone would come alone. None of that was fair to the girl, either. Her consciousness would return to her body, yes, but there was no way to guarantee she wouldn¡¯t be traumatized by her removal from this world.

    Why hadn¡¯t she thought anyone would come along? There must have been people chasing them through the labyrinth¡ªRisen Guards who could pop out of the exit at any moment, and¡ª

    Emilia shook herself as her fingers moved, typing as rapidly as she could over the physical keyboard that had awaited her in the first challenge.

    The last true challenge, if she had anything to say about it.

    Fuck this game. Fuck the platform and the raid and whoever was maintaining¡ªmanipulating¡ªthis thing. She was a hacker, and even if she got booted out of the raid for it, she was going to do her best, trying to get out of this place and back to the children who needed her¡ªthe children who she had stupidly left alone¡ªas fast as she could.

    Code flashed across the strange tablet in front of the keyboard. It appeared to be stone, and when Emilia had reached out to touch it, the text had been chiselled into the stone despite constantly shifting as she typed, divots and grooves dancing under her fingers.

    This challenge was strange, and as she pressed deeper into the platform, Emilia wondered whether its existence was an oversight or not. It was odd, for the maintainer to have not banned the labyrinths from putting out hacking challenges. It just seemed like asking for trouble¡ªtrouble that anyone with the skills to program or maintain a raid platform shouldn¡¯t have been stupid enough to risk.

    Stars knew that the training system she and Halen had designed would never have allowed anyone to hack it from the inside. Seriously, they¡¯d spent a significant amount of time having her and Rafe¡ªand later Helix, brute force master that he was, as well¡ªhack it from the inside, only letting it be distributed to other units once they were sure that no one could fuck with the code from the inside. It was nearly impossible to guarantee anything couldn¡¯t be hacked from the real world, of course, but most virtual raids had an excessive amount of security features, trying to ensure that didn¡¯t happen.

    Yet, this code could be fucked with from the inside, and Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced it was an oversight.

    The hacking challenge itself had been relatively easy, and had this challenge come in any of the previous labyrinth, Emilia might not have realized the small security hole. As it was, she was panicked. Dozens of times through her life she had used her hacking skills to gain an advantage, and as a result, her first thought hadn¡¯t been to hurry through this challenge and the next and the next. Rather, it had been to keep an eye out for such holes and then poke at what she found and hope it led to a shortcut.

    Emilia still wasn¡¯t sure if it had, the code for raid platforms being something else entirely¡ªsomething complicated and beautiful and terrifying to look at. She and Halen might have designed the system that had spawned raids, but they were well over twenty real-world years¡ªand likely thousands of Virtuosi years¡ªaway from that. If she wanted to actually understand raids¡­ well, she¡¯d ask an expert¡ªwould hunt down Helix and make him teach her about them.

    Stars knew she had taught him enough about hacking that he owned her.

    Still, what she knew about systems and hacking was still useful. As she dug deeper, Emilia became almost positive that the hole was a small, purposeful secret, written into the challenge, just waiting to be unravelled and exploited.

    Hopefully, she was correct. Hopefully, this was something meant to be found and exploited and there would be no consequences for her actions.

    Even if there were, she really didn¡¯t care. All she needed was to get back to the kids before something happened to them. She¡¯d rather die here, trying her best to get to them, than run through a labyrinth that could take hours¡ªif not days¡ªto complete and¡ª

    And Emilia really couldn¡¯t understand why she hadn¡¯t thought about someone else coming along! It was like a black spot had appeared over that very real worry, rendering it an invisible impossibility, until Honey¡¯s words had snapped her back into reality.

    The most she could think was that it had been due to the labyrinth, its magic affecting her brain and encouraging her to enter. That alone was a terrifying thought, and she was quite looking forward to being out of this place and never, ever entering one again and¡ª

    ¡°YES!¡± Emilia cheered as she found the controls for the challenges.

    Five challenges were marked off for her, a collection of variables indicating that she was the only one within the labyrinth and therefore the only one affecting which were chosen. The code led further and further inwards, a spiral of variables and equations and functions that would be used to create challenges for her based on¡­ a lot of stuff.

    What her base level and skills were¡ªapparently the system had indeed been lowering her level, and it now sat at a respectable 75.

    What gifts the previous labyrinths had given her, whether she had system access and how well she could use the magic system. Rudely, the labyrinth only listed off the two gifts she knew about. The other two were blacked out, probably because she didn''t know what they were, so they were irrelevant to the calculations. It had noted she could use the Risen Guard system, although access had been blocked the moment the labyrinth opened up around her, as well as that she was ¡®hopeless¡¯ with the magic system. Rude.

    How tired she was¡ªwhich, it was nice that the labyrinth took that into account? It also confirmed her suspicion that the labyrinth wanted to be beaten. It was designed to be difficult, but not impossible. Somehow, that was comforting to her¡ªthat for all the terrible things in this world, at least whoever had designed the labyrinths didn¡¯t want them to be the last place heroes saw before being ejected from the game.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    How difficult the previous challenges had been¡ªboth inside this specific labyrinth and all the previous ones she¡¯d entered¡ªalso seemed to play a part, as did what sort of challenges they had been.

    Surprisingly, there was also a set theme for the labyrinth¡¯s run. Looking back, the library labyrinth had definitely been inclined to physical challenges, while both the Livery and the previous labyrinths had leaned into being fun and child appropriate.

    Had she more time, Emilia definitely would have dug in and found more information. She didn¡¯t have time for that, and instead she set to work altering the layout of the labyrinth.

    No more five challenges. She couldn¡¯t completely remove them, putting heartcore into the next room, but it only took a little digging to turn the two challenges she couldn¡¯t remove into purely physical ones¡ªones she could conquer with little exertion and time. Another wall to climb¡ªsimple with her {Blood Armour}¡ªand a battlefield. That one she had hesitated on, but the description of the challenge indicated it was ¡°veterans only; simulation of a battle from the war; includes access to all skills and abilities their real body currently has; current, real-world D-Levels are utilized.¡± Emilia could work with that.

    Several minutes of pushing code around later, and Emilia had created an easy¡ªif slightly horrific¡ªbattlefield for her to face. It would be awful, but facing¡­ that would be infinitely better than returning to find the children dead.

    Emilia was about to push back into the room¡¯s actual challenge when something caught her eye: a small line of code that affected what the gift the labyrinth would give her. Working her way through it, she discovered a long list of potential gifts. Annoyingly, her current gifts weren¡¯t greyed out possibilities, but completely obscured. Still, it meant she could potentially choose what gift she was given, and she quickly selected the ability to speak the local tongue.

    To her surprise, a second gift option popped up. One of the children had mentioned a story about a labyrinth giving multiple gifts, but everyone¡ªincluding Honey¡ªhad said that wasn¡¯t a thing. It was just a myth from an ancient story. Apparently, not so much.

    Then again, it took Emilia several minutes to figure out how to actually unlock the double gift option, so perhaps it had been disabled by the platform maintainer. Not anymore¡ªat least not here. It was unclear from what Emilia had seen whether the changes she made would reverberate through future labyrinths, either inside this specific labyrinth or all of them.

    Only time would tell, although as previously stated, Emilia had no desire to ever step foot inside one of these things again.

    With any luck, the labyrinth wouldn¡¯t decide to fuck with her and remove her chosen gifts before she got out of this place. From what she had seen, the labyrinth could choose gifts after each challenge, based on what it currently believed would be the most useful gift¡ªalthough a few strange lines led Emilia to believe that it could also choose gifts that would fuck with the person the most. While its previous choice could be overridden at the end of each challenge, the labyrinth seemed inclined to favour the gift chosen after the first challenge, only serious events inclining it to override its decision.

    While she couldn¡¯t completely remove the chance her picks would change, she could override the labyrinth¡¯s first choices with her own. Then, they just had to stick.

    Emilia pushed out of the labyrinth code, back to the challenge and finished it up, immediately darting to the door. The rock wall behind it was almost identical to the first one, and Emilia flung herself into climbing it, relying on her {Blood Armour} to support the insane jumps and holds she was shifting between.

    The first time, this challenge had taken her hours. She wouldn¡¯t let it take her anywhere close to that this time, her augmented strength letting her fling herself higher and higher, skipping over metres of wall at a time.

    Halfway.

    Gotta go higher. Gotta go faster.

    The bouldering half was even easier than it had been the first time, save at the end, when she¡¯d almost fallen¡ªwhen she¡¯d met V. She missed V. She even missed his terrible double dimples and the fact that he was subtly teasing her about them knowing each other in the real world. Someone forgotten¡ªdid he hate her for forgetting him? Emilia didn¡¯t think so. Something told her he was so different from the person he had once known that he was fine with it.

    She could understand that. There was something freeing about being so different from your past self that no one would recognize you¡ªnot unless they had watched you grow and change.

    Would her own friends remember her, if they met like that? Passing ships in a raid, her appearance altered enough that they couldn¡¯t recognize her on sight? She hoped they would recognize her, for the most part. The person she had been most of her life¡­ she liked that person. It wasn¡¯t like she hated the person she was now¡ªshe loved who she was now too! Despite that love, Emilia hoped she hadn''t lost so much of her former self so as to render her an entirely different person to those she had left behind in her trauma.

    One day, she could find out. One day, perhaps sooner than she¡¯d thought before she entered the raid, she would return home and see how the people she had once known viewed the her of now. Hopefully, they wouldn¡¯t hate her.

    Emilia hauled herself up on the landing, chest heaving. Her stomach rolled, her muscles shook. Too much¡ªshe¡¯d pushed herself and now she was going to be sick. She straightened, her vision blurring and rolling. For a moment, she thought maybe she wouldn¡¯t actually be sick. Then, she was hurling, what little food she had eaten splattering over the ground. Gross.

    ¡°Fucking stars,¡± she mumbled, tugging out one of the few non-weapons she hadn¡¯t left with the kids and taking a long drink of water.

    Lanaira hadn¡¯t been too happy about getting her a water bottle¡ªsomething about it being suspicious. Thankfully, Gale had interjected. Everyone was stressed. They¡¯d spent days with little food and water¡ªespecially water, which they had only been able to steal drinks of in the kitchen challenge. The teenager had demanded everyone get a water bottle, to sate their nerves.

    ?Besides,? the local girl had growled at the Risen Guard, ?there are so many visitors running around. What¡¯s to say they won¡¯t invade this place and force us to run again? Either give us some security, little as it might be, or I¡¯ll be taking the kids and leaving.?

    There was no way, of course, that Gale could leave without the Risen Guard¡¯s permission¡ªno way they would have willingly let her leave with all the kids, even if they let her leave. Those kids respected her, though, and Lanaira had eventually relented, procuring black, metal bottles with what appeared to be a Risen Guard logo etched around it. Impressively, the bottoms featured a water array, capable of summoning water from the aether into the bottle.

    Not that Emilia could use it. Astra¡¯s crash course in how she had figured out how to quiet her brain while they travelled to and from the last heartcore having done nothing to help her quiet her own mind.

    Emilia sprinted down the hallway that connected the second and third challenges, the same grotesque, vibrant red flesh like substance that had occasionally covered the outer corridor¡¯s walls surrounding her. It was disgusting, and her energy surged through her legs and {Blood Armour}, offering her the smallest speed boost so she could get out of there faster.

    The walls fluttered, flesh rippling as thought the hall was actually the insides of some deformed monster. Vessels pumped with blood, the sound revolting and visceral through her body, raking a shudder out of her. Every flutter of the flesh, Emilia could feel her own body trying to shrink itself.

    She needed to be smaller.

    She needed to be out of here.

    Fucking stars, this place was worse than basically anywhere she¡¯d ever been.

    Something gurgled to her left, and Emilia was not going to be thinking about what it could have been or how it sounded like a stomach growling, thank you.

    Door, door, Emilia tried to skid to a stop in front of the door, but the fleshy floor was too slick and springy, and she instead slammed into the flesh door instead.

    Emilia released a disgusted cry and pushed herself off the door, rubbing at her exposed flesh, trying to fight off the memory of what the stuff had felt like.

    ¡°Absolutely revolting,¡± she breathed out, cursing herself for not checking on hallway design when she¡¯d been hacking the labyrinth as she pushed her way into the next room¡ªinto what would hopefully be the final challenge and feature significantly less flesh walls.

    The world beyond the door was black, but there was no going back¡ªno branching flesh tunnel for her to go down. Forward it was, into the dark.

    Into her nightmares.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 131: The Secrets We Kept

    Darkness met Emilia, pure and unbending. The world was gone, the door she had entered from¡ªas disgusting as it had been¡ªbanished into the void.

    The void¡ªthe unending, unerring darkness and silence¡ªwas better than what came after.

    Sound exploded around Emilia, a battlefield ripped straight from her memories crackling back into existence. There were no people here¡ªno allies to protect or get in her way. All that occupied this land, save her, were the monsters of war¡ªthose of physical flesh and guilt alike. At least, it had only been her until others had arrived, many of them destined to die during this particular fight.

    So far into the latter decade of the war, several of the monsters they faced had been ginormous ¡ªlarger than even the tallest buildings of Piketown were, their eyes stories tall and bulging out of their deformed heads. Where the monsters who had come before these monstrosities had been sleek and terrible, these were simply ugly and disturbing.

    Why and how the monsters changed was yet another question, unanswered after three decades of dealing with war and the echos that followed.

    These mutations had by far been the worst, however. Dangerous and dumb, they had also been nearly impossible to kill the first few times they¡¯d shown up, a single wrong move and their hulking form could smash even the most powerful of soldiers into a pile of flesh, oozing out across the world and the monster¡¯s skin¡ªgiving them more power they didn¡¯t need.

    Emilia glared up at the monster¡ªat the Giant of Andir¡ªa timer sparking to life in the corner of her vision: 10:00.

    Ten minutes¡ªshe had faced down this monster for ten minutes alone during the penultimate year of the war. Alone and fearless and angry, even she hadn¡¯t been able to defeat it. Ten minutes for reinforcements to arrive because no matter what she tried, she couldn¡¯t kill it¡ªnot by herself.

    It had taken less than a minute for the first of her allies to die, snatched up in a giant hand and squeezed until their head popped off, their friends and allies staring dumbstruck. It had been fast, at least¡ªso fast that no one had even been able to try to interfere. One moment they were there, a moment later gone.

    The fight went on¡ªwith every death, the war went on. There had been talk, during the early days of the war, when the deaths had come fast and heavy and surrounded by stupid decisions, that eventually soldiers would get used to all the death. Eventually, soldiers would view death as just another normal part of war.

    The Blood Rain General, one of the few living people who had experienced a full-scale Colonial War, had disagreed. ¡°If our soldiers become heartless to the deaths of their comrades, we will have bigger problems come the end of the war than we have with these monstrosities,¡± he had said, his dark eyes staring over the congregated diplomats¡ªpeople from the highest reaches of Baalphorian government and all the Free Colonies currently affected by the war, or dragged in due to one treaty or another.

    A few Free Colonies joined because of larger, moral obligations: kindness, beliefs that everything is connected, a love and affection for the world despite the conflict that had driven millennia of their shared history.

    Most only cared once the war had touched their borders.

    ¡°Then we will deal with that when this war is over,¡± the then head of the Alliance had growled. It was equally stupid and admirable of them¡ªthe Blood Rain General scared most people shitless, and for good reason. They hadn¡¯t lasted long as the head, forced out by the quiet refusal of the Blood Rain General and his home colony¡ªas well as a handful of Free Colonies who had been unwilling to risk his ire¡ªto entertain their nonsense.

    ¡°I doubt it,¡± the ancient man had replied quietly, refusing to expand on his words as he left the meeting behind, one of the young women who had accompanied the Dionese delegation to the meeting scurrying after him¡ªit wouldn¡¯t be until the war was over that anyone, even her closest allies and friends, would realize just who she was within the Dion Dynasty.

    Across the room, one delegate, from a tiny Free Colony south of the Grey Sands, had objected to the man¡¯s rudeness. Then, a skill had cracked through the air and the delegate¡¯s chair had collapsed under them. The Blood Rain General and the woman walked on.

    It hadn¡¯t taken long for it to become clear what the Blood Rain General had meant, however. Soldiers became colder to death, yes, but there were few who ever reached the point of complete apathy for their fallen comrades. Nearly two decades in, people still broke when they watched their friend¡¯s die¡ªstill froze up when death came for the people they had trained beside one after another.

    The Blood Rain General had doubted they would need to deal with the apathy of broken soldiers after the war because he knew that apathy was nearly impossible to attain, no matter how hard some people tried to turn their hearts to stone.

    Maybe that was why the government had become so obsessed with breaking bonds of friendship between teammates: if you didn¡¯t like or even know the people dying around you, perhaps you wouldn¡¯t care as much.

    People always cared, and even as more units showed up to try and fight the Giant of Andir, their members having never crossed paths before, morale dropped, and dropped, and dropped. Soldiers were splatted out of the sky like the bugs they were, their skills barely leaving marks across its skin, and the strangers fighting alongside them mourned.

    Some people, like Ri, Helix and Olivier, had fared better, their attacks brutal and punching holes into the giant. It still hadn¡¯t been enough to take it out, and in the end, James had almost burnt himself out using skills that left him unmovable and vulnerable, his best friend nearly dying trying to stop his core from exploding and levelling the area. A dozen people died protecting the pair of them alone, and then another support had given up their life repairing James¡¯ volatile aetherstores.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    James was worth more than them. Everyone knew it. Only they would voice it, never James himself.

    It was no wonder the man had retreated to his home colony, tucking himself away inside his house and rarely emerging. Emilia had only seen one picture of him since the war, taken barely a year earlier at his eldest niece¡¯s birthday. There had been so many pictures from that night, forced upon her by Rafe. James had only been in one, looking worn out and far older than his identical twin. Could they even be considered identical anymore? Emilia wasn¡¯t sure on that.

    Emilia glared up at the Giant of Andir. It hadn¡¯t noticed her yet, but as the War Censor the raid had brought back into existence for her whirred to life, it seemed to realize something wasn¡¯t quite right.

    Hundreds of times¡ªEmilia had replayed this battle hundreds of times. Seven hundred and thirty-two, to be exact. She¡¯d run through it inside the training simulator, Ri, Helix and Olivier occasionally joining her because none of them could let this night go.

    There had to have been something they could have done differently¡ªsome strategy or skill that would have aided them in winning, in sparing the dozens of lives that had been lost that night. It had been the single worst battle in years, and a single monster had been the cause. There must have been a way they could have won without James nearly killing himself.

    There hadn¡¯t been¡ªnot then.

    It had been comforting, in a way, for them to realize that no matter what they did¡ªno matter how many things they did differently¡ªthe result would have been the same. People would have died, no matter what. James had needed to push himself that hard, no matter what.

    The Giant of Andir had been the first of its kind¡ªa surprise that they hadn''t known how to face. A monster they couldn¡¯t conquer without a death toll.

    It was comforting, frustrating, and most importantly, inspiring.

    New skills had popped out of that night, and hundreds of rounds of testing later, most of their unit had been capable of using the skills necessary to destroy those giants. Of course, by the last years of the war, the monsters were mutating so quickly that they¡¯d rarely been offered the chance to use their new techniques against those giants.

    The reality was, by the final days of the war, the Giant of Andir was nothing. The few giants who had popped out in the final battle were wiped off the planet with nary a thought, Censors casting skills designed to destroy them from the inside out like they were now the bugs being swatted away.

    Nuisances to be given only the barest of thoughts.

    In those last days, their unit members were the monsters of war.

    Emilia examined her Censor. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t quite as awesome as the setup she¡¯d used during the war was. They''d had their CierSuits during the war, though, designed to keep their brains and cores from burning out with the skills they forced upon their bodies¡ªalthough even those suits could only protect them so much.

    As a result of her lack of CierSuit was, her Censor¡¯s abilities had been reduced. It wasn¡¯t so much that she wouldn¡¯t be able to destroy this thing in the nine minutes remaining on the timer, it was just that it wouldn¡¯t be quite so easy.

    It would actually require a little thought, annoyingly.

    Still fine. It hadn¡¯t been that long since she left the kids, a couple of minutes wouldn¡¯t make a difference.

    It would¡ªor could¡ªof course, but Emilia¡­ Emilia wasn¡¯t thinking about that as her Censor offered up to her what it could: a collection of skills for killing this thing, but on the slower side. No skill that slipped through the aether itself to create a bomb inside the thing, a powerful technique that had unfortunately only been usable on it and one other variety, due to how powerful their shells were: you couldn¡¯t just go around blowing up enemies with toxic blood, not unless their shells were virtually indestructible.

    This one¡¯s was: the whole problem with fighting the Giant of Andir had been how difficult it was to penetrate its shell. Small injuries had limited effectiveness, especially when it took heavy and aether intensive skills to even inflict those small injuries.

    So they¡¯d reduced the cost of those skills, skimming them down into brutal shots that barely took a second thought. It would still take hundreds of shots to kill a giant, but a single member of their unit could do it alone with the refactored skills. Then, they¡¯d had to lock those skills down, just like they had so many other skills they¡¯d created over the decades of war.

    That had been a terrible realization: that many of the skills they had worked so hard to create couldn¡¯t be widely distributed. They were too dangerous. They would save lives on the battlefield, but after that? After that¡­ no one had been willing to risk those skills getting out, set loose for criminals and the more hostile and authoritarian Free Colonies to utilize in wars against their enemies¡ªagainst innocent civilians.

    The Blood Rain General had been right: the consequences for the things done to win the war would have long-lasting consequences. They needed to be careful of what they made public, lest the world the war left behind be a mangled, unfixable thing.

    It hadn¡¯t been unfixable, however, no one could argue that even the skills that had made their way to the public had changed the way people functioned in the world. The criminal organizations that had arisen in the days following the war¡ªyes, it had literally only taken days for new organizations to pop up¡ªwere nothing like those that were burnt out and disbanded during the war. That was only with what had been made public, and Emilia feared what the world would become if some of their more terrifying creations were ever leaked.

    No one in their unit would ever do that¡ªnot purposefully, anyways. Everyone knew some organizations¡ªwhether The Black Knot or various criminal organizations or a collection of Free Colonies¡ªhad ways to force information about of people. That was part of why most of their unit had kept their identities a secret, even when they could have faced the world to acclaim and fame.

    Nettie and Olivier were the most famous Baalphorians of those who had publicly outed themselves, and both had private security. Even then, Emilia worried about their safety. She read the news¡ªhad heard from Rafe about people arrested for stalking Nettie. Allegedly, they were fans. Some probably were. Not all of them.

    Even now, her Censor setting up a sequence of skills for her to take this monster of her memory down, Emilia worried. Someone could be watching. Someone could swipe up the skills she used and leak them through the aethernet to the general public¡ªto people who were more likely to blow themselves up because they wouldn¡¯t understand the manual tweaks that needed to be done to their Censor before they could use the skills. That had been an added security measure, just in case they ever did get out.

    Better to blow up a few civilians than risk criminals getting their hands on this stuff.

    {Star Shoot ver. Halo} shuddered out of the aether, a ring of stars surrounding the Giant of Andir in a constellation of mirrored points. It finally looked towards her, huge eyes spinning like they weren¡¯t connected to anything inside its brainless head.

    ¡°Hello there,¡± Emilia said by way of greeting, giving it a tiny wave before a thousand beams of light exploded through the aether, splintering through the monster.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 132: Mine to Kill

    The Giant of Andir moaned, the sound deafening and vibrating through the world as Emilia sparked out of its reach. Her sparking¡­ still wasn¡¯t great, but whether Payton had unknotted something that had been disrupting her ability to spark or the raid system was taking pity on her, it was significantly better than it had been earlier that night.

    That night¡ªmany nights ago now, although what had happened in the labyrinths and the manipulations of their sleep schedule by the Risen Guard had definitely skewed Emilia¡¯s understanding of what day it was. Hopefully, there was at least a week or two left before the raid ended, but at this point, it could end tomorrow, and she honestly wouldn¡¯t have been shocked. Disappointed? Sure. Relieved? Most definitely.

    Mostly, anyways. Realistically, her heart would ache for the children she was leaving behind, but that was liable to happen, no matter when the raid ended. As for Astra¡­ Well, where previously she had been trying to put herself into the position of Zach¡¯s father¡ªRemy¡ªimagining what it would be like to readjust to the real-world knowing you left a piece of your heart behind, now, Emilia had no idea what to do.

    Was it inappropriate to ask an almost-15 year old to meet up in the real world? It was probably inappropriate. SecOps or The Black Knot showing up instead inappropriate. It wouldn¡¯t take her long to get out of whatever charges they laid on her, but it would still be a pain and the look Olivier would give her¡­

    Actually, watching Olivier deal with that sort of situation might actually make going through with such insanity worth it, assuming the risk wasn¡¯t worth it¡ªthat Astra wasn¡¯t worth it.

    A tail slammed into the earth just as Emilia sparked away again. It wasn¡¯t a purposeful attack¡ªnot unless the system was augmenting the creature¡¯s mental facilities, anyways¡ªjust an accident of clumsy hugeness. Those bulging purple eyes couldn¡¯t quite focus on her¡ªor anything else¡ªand its movements fell short as a result. While most of the monsters of the war hadn¡¯t seemed to particular care for their comrades¡ªalthough Emilia still maintained that some felt something when another of their kind was killed¡ªthese things had been particularly bad about taking out their allies for no reason other than clumsiness.

    Indeed, as it moved, lumbering steps sending the ground shaking, the few smaller creatures littering the area turned tail and ran¡ªeven they knew staying near this thing was a death sentence. Not that being near her wouldn¡¯t be that anyways.

    She might not have a willbrand at the moment¡ªnot that it would have helped her against the giant¡ªbut she had smaller skills just as suited for fighting the tiny ones, especially with the augmentation of the system.

    It was strange, the system shouldn¡¯t have been able to push her level as low as it felt, yet it felt lower than it had since the war ended¡ªfar lower than the level the system had assigned her. There was no way Payton had gotten her level this low, even if the raid really was a day away from ending¡ªwhich, despite how fucked her sense of time had become, she was almost certain it wasn¡¯t.

    Strange, but she wasn¡¯t complaining as {Blood Rain} activated, the toxic blood she had drawn from the Giant of Andir rising into the air before chasing down those smaller creatures. More blood splashed across the world as Emilia scooted out of a haphazard attack sent her way by the giant¡¯s tail, dirt and rocks sent spraying in her general direction.

    {Star Shoot ver. Halo} activated again, again, again. It was infinitely more convenient to explode these things from the inside out, but killing it with a thousand smaller attacks would do.

    These were a bit too small, however, and as another round of {Star Shoot ver. Halo} cracked through the monster in a constellation of lasers, leaving tiny, bleeding holes through its shell, Emilia loaded up another skill.

    {Radial Lance} was better used with a willbrand, the skill augmenting a weapon into a thing of pure destructive power, but it could technically be used on nearly any substance¡ªone of her former teammates had even used it on a person once, within the training session. It hadn¡¯t ended well.

    Half a dozen of the larger rocks the monster had sent tumbling her way rose, spinning violently as they were forced into a new form by heat enough that Emilia sparked further away. Rocks twice her size transformed into burning hot spears, their heat sizzling the cool air of her memory as they were sent flying. The aether ripped in their wake, brutal tears that the system struggled to repair.

    If this were the real world, Emilia probably wouldn¡¯t have used {Radial Lance}. It was always too brutal an attack for the aethernet, leaves scars across the world that took time to heal.

    ¡°Scars I can hunt down and feel out,¡± Emilia thought, her brain already itching to go search, making a list of all the places where she could find healed over scars. It seemed right, to go back to those places where she had made scars to practice. They were her marks, scratched over the shape of the universe. They deserved her attention first.

    The molten spears collided with the giant, melting foot wide holes in the creature¡¯s torso. It still wasn¡¯t enough, but every little bit helped¡ªevery little bit was a piece of its internal structure gone, burned or blasted away.

    The monsters of the war had always been difficult to kill¡ªthe echos that came after as well. Whatever they were made of¡ªwhatever their internal structures were,¡ªthey were capable of surviving long after virtually any other creature found on their planet would have died. There were very few animals capable of surviving without heads or hearts, and these things were unfortunately one of them.

    Another rock spear split through one of the giant¡¯s eyes, purple liquid exploding out of it. Gooey liquid splattered over the ground. Under it, what greenery had littered the cold, nearly barren ground began to scream and wither. Plants shouldn¡¯t scream, but everything hit by the toxins inside those eyes screamed. Usually, with smaller monsters, it wasn¡¯t such a big deal. It could still kill nearby plants, sure, but humans? It might burn, leave scars across the delicate skin of faces, but it wouldn¡¯t kill.

    The liquid of a giant¡¯s eyes was inescapably fatal to humans, killing its victims slowly. It didn¡¯t matter that it was slow to kill. It was instantly fatal in such large amounts, and after the first few times facing giants, they¡¯d learned to avoid eye attack at all costs¡ªor better yet, carefully time their destruction so it wouldn¡¯t hit anyone. That, and that if someone were covered, it was kinder to kill them than let them suffer the death it would bring them.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    They had tried finding a way to heal those burns, after they started sizzling through their victim¡¯s bodies. There was none. An inescapable death that would burn holes straight through them. {Radial Lance}, in some ways, had been inspired by that. Tit-for-tat. You burn my friends to death, I¡¯ll return the favour.

    Emilia didn¡¯t have to worry about any of that now¡ªthere was no one here. No one to get in her way. No one to step under the waterfall of toxic goo. No one to worry about. No one to¡ª

    ¡°Emilia!¡±

    Emilia¡¯s head yanked around, searching for the source of the voice¡ªfor wherever the stupid door had been located before it vanished, and¡ª

    ¡°V!¡± Emilia was moving, sparking through the battlefield, before she could think better of it.

    It could be a trick. It might not be V. It could be a trap. Hadn¡¯t she heard V that first time was well, when the library labyrinth had pulled her under and into a land of nightmares? This could be that, and yet, when her arms finally wrapped around her friend, she refused to believe anything other than that this was him.

    ¡°V,¡± she breathed out into his neck¡ªhis shockingly clean neck, her brain supplied before the universe was spinning around them, and they were standing atop a building nearly a kilometre from the giant. Emilia blinked around. This hadn¡¯t been here a minute ago, had it? Then again, she¡¯d been so busy focusing on the giant that perhaps she¡¯d missed the details of the landscape. Those hadn¡¯t mattered, after all. She¡¯d had no intention of moving so far away from her enemy.

    ¡°Hey there, beautiful,¡± the other visitor replied, smiling softly down at her. ¡°Told you I¡¯d see you at the bottom.¡±

    Emilia blinked at him, her mouth opening to ask what he meant, before he was sparking away and leaving her there! WHAT. THE. FUCK!?

    ¡°V!¡± she yelled, moving to follow him back to the battle, which was clearly where he disappeared to, skills she couldn¡¯t make out shattering through the giant and¡ª

    V¡¯s smile was warm and beautiful when she landed behind him. ¡°Hey. What¡¯s up?¡± he had the audacity to ask.

    ¡°¡¯What¡¯s up!?¡¯¡± Emilia asked, gaping at him before pointing to the now very dead Giant of Andir. ¡°That was mine to kill!¡±

    The man blinked at her, dumbfounded, which¡­ fair, but also! She¡¯d worked hard to weaken that thing! Then he comes in and offs it with such little effort and¡ª

    ¡°Hey, wait. How did you beat that thing?¡± she asked, looking between the monster¡¯s corpse and her friend¡ªand if she¡¯d ever had any doubt they¡¯d known each other in the war, it was virtually nonexistent now! There was no way he had killed that thing so easily without having been at least tangentially associated with their unit!

    Her mind flicked through all the people they¡¯d distributed the skills for killing giants to¡ªnot that the skill V had used had looked anything like any of those. Granted, she¡¯d been a ways off, and her vision was still pretty shit, but¡­

    ¡°Hey! Where are we going? And, you didn¡¯t answer me!¡± she complained as V grabbed her hand and began dragging her towards a door.

    A door! A door!

    Emilia¡¯s hand tightened around V¡¯s, and then she was dragging him, running for the door. Unfortunately, another flesh hallway awaited them, but Emilia barely acknowledged it as they raced through it. Heartcore¡ªthe heartcore was hopefully at the end of this hallway, and aside from taking a few more feet to pull to a stop before the next door, Emilia was just going to be ignoring the flesh hallway and the fact that there were now dozens of holes perforating it, thank you.

    That was a coincidence.

    There was clearly no way this was the inside of the Giant of Andir.

    Impossible¡ªfor one thing, the blood dripping through those holes and pooling on the spongy ground wasn¡¯t burning her feet. Monster blood burned, so this was clearly just a fake. That was still gross, of course, and psychologically, if Emilia hadn¡¯t been rushing to get back to the kids or with V, she might have been freaking out more. As it was, it was gross but fine.

    Everything was fine.

    ¡°Is this place¡ª¡± V started to ask when they stopped before the door, Emilia immediately working on the simple, if time-consuming, sliding puzzle that seemed to be acting as a lock.

    ¡°Don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say what you¡¯re about to say,¡± Emilia demanded as the pieces clicked this way and that. Where was the right corner piece? What even was this a picture of?

    ¡°Why not?¡± V asked, the hand she had dropped to work on the lock sliding territorially over her waist.

    Apparently, despite having spent more days apart than together at this point, the man was just as comfortably handsy with her as he¡¯d become in their final hours together.

    ¡°Because it¡¯s gross, and I know what you¡¯re thinking, and we don¡¯t actually need to say it because you never know who is listening. The platform, the platform maintainer¡ªbecause let me tell you, I¡¯m pretty sure whoever is managing this raid is peeping in on us¡±¡ªV hummed in what Emilia assumed was agreement, and she itched to ask him about it, but her mouth kept going and going as she worked, unstoppable, and she was pretty sure something was wrong.

    Given the way V blinked at her when the door sprung open and her breathless rant came to a stop mid-sentence, he seemed to be of the same opinion.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she mumbled, pulling his hand away from where it had been running soothingly over her side to continue tugging him about. ¡°I think I¡¯m overstimulated, and too hyped up. It¡¯ll pass.¡±

    ¡°No need to apologize,¡± V said, and surprisingly, Emilia actually believed him, her steps freezing as she examined him. He smiled softly back at her, and on a whim, she leaned in, placing a small kiss on his lips. The man shifted closer, like he wanted to deepen the kiss.

    They didn¡¯t have time for that.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back,¡± she sighed as she pulled back, giving his hand a squeeze before continuing dragging him into the heartcore chamber, his soft laughter sending a chill up her spine. ¡°One at a time? Or should we double up?¡±

    ¡°Perhaps we wait to see the heartcore, before deciding?¡± he suggested, a note of amusement in his voice, which was nice. Emilia was used to people quickly becoming exasperated with her when her brain started to move too fast.

    Too many words.

    Too many thoughts.

    Not enough time.

    Everything had to come out.

    Clarifications and common sense could wait.

    Most people didn¡¯t like that. It was nice that V didn¡¯t seem to mind. Actually, considering the soft way he was watching her when she glanced back at him, it seemed like he might actually like her like this?

    The chamber was, thankfully, on the simpler side. There had been no option to change the configuration of the heartcore chamber when she hacked the first challenge, and Emilia had been concerned it would be something like the last one: a challenge in its own right, time-consuming and difficult.

    It wasn¡¯t, the heartcore simply being at the top of a tall spire that had about a thousand stairs¡ªor one hundred and twelve, if V¡¯s counting was to be trusted.

    ¡°How¡­ are you¡­ not¡­ tired¡­¡± Emilia panted as they reached the top.

    She never heard V¡¯s answer because like the exhausted, stupid person she was, Emilia leaned over, reaching for something to support her, and touched the heartcore.

    And the world went black.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 133: Currently Very Sad

    ¡°Emmie?¡±

    Emilia¡¯s eyes fluttered open, the familiar sight of her school library greeting her. Fucking stars, how was it that no matter how hard she tried, she still somehow managed to fall asleep here Every. Single. Time. Must be something about the Virtuosi terminals, humming quietly in the background. They could to be upgraded to the new, silent models¡ªit wasn¡¯t like the school was lacking in donations¡ªbut the school was big on not being wasteful.

    That was stupid: they could donate the terminals to a school in a less well-off area¡ªnot that schools in most parts of Baalphoria were underfunded. The government was pretty good at funding everyone equally, but most schools weren¡¯t their school. The terminals they had were already light-years ahead of the ones found at the average school: a gift from the Drydens, back when their oldest had still been attending.

    Luckily, that terrible, bitchy ass girl had graduated. Still didn¡¯t stop the school from refusing to upgrade her parents'' gift¡ªread: bribery, so the school wouldn¡¯t expel their abusive, bully of a daughter¡ªand claiming it was because getting rid of the terminals would be wasteful. Everyone knew it was really because the school didn¡¯t want to offend them.

    The irony that they had a younger son attending now who Emilia knew would benefit from terminals that didn¡¯t buzz being around. The Drydens didn¡¯t care about their youngest child. He was an ECC dyad, and that meant they tolerated him for no reason other than that their friends would judge them for getting rid of him, whether through adoption when he was younger or a boarding school now.

    Such things were done in the sub-50s, and they were not sub-50s.

    Speaking of Simeon¡­

    Emilia peeked up at her classmate. ¡°Sorry,¡± she signed, her personal sign language quickly morphing into sloppy BSL when she spotted Simeon¡¯s aide standing behind him. The grumpy old man narrowed his eyes but said nothing¡ªthey¡¯d argued enough about the pros and cons of each sign language a few times, and neither of them of currently inclined to repeat the same points yet again. Later, perhaps, when they were in a room that didn¡¯t echo quite as badly.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be here.¡±

    Emilia blinked up at Simeon. He could speak, yes, but it was rare and something was wrong. This wasn¡¯t how this moment had gone¡ª

    How this moment had gone?

    A moment from a memory.

    Not real life.

    A dream.

    ¡°A dream, yes,¡± Simeon agreed, eyes locked onto hers in a way they never did. Disturbing emerald orbs, intense and unblinking. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be here. I shouldn¡¯t be here.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡± Emilia asked. Dream or not, other than once when they were thirteen, and she¡¯d screamed at him for his own safety, she hadn¡¯t verbally spoken to Simeon since she had found out he didn¡¯t like speaking or listening.

    Simeon¡¯s head cocked, the blunt blonde bob he had sported since they were children shifting in a perfect, unnatural line. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but something is wrong. We shouldn¡¯t be able to¡ª¡±

    Emilia gasped awake, her lungs seizing up as she fought against the tidal wave of power that had just bodily ejected her from her dream. Dream? Had it been a dream? She¡¯d been assuming the things she saw while asleep here were dreams, and while she was certain some were dreams, others¡­

    Others felt wrong, just as Simeon had said.

    ¡°Fucking platform,¡± she muttered as she rubbed at her eyes. They weren¡¯t crushed with any sleep, at least, so hopefully they hadn¡¯t been¡ª

    ¡°V!¡± she cried, turning and finding him collapsed at the base of the heartcore a few feet away.

    Her friend had obviously moved her, after she had stupidly touched the heartcore without thinking or planning or even properly discussing it! Fucking stars she was so¡ª

    She was so not riling herself up again. She¡¯d been hyped up before passing out, but luckily, her nap seemed to have brought her back down. Overestimation could be fun, but at the moment, it wasn¡¯t something anyone needed. Not her, not V, and certainly not the kids waiting for her¡­

    Emilia glanced at V¡¯s sleeping form before tugging the coat he had tucked under her head over to him and stuffing it under his instead. She popped up, glaring over the edge of the spire that housed the heartcore, looking for the exit.

    Below, a barren world of muddy brown earth lay. Aside from the spire¡ªalso a terrible, muddy brown¡ªthere were two doors. One was¡­ oozing, which was gross, but an easy indication that that way lay the horror of the flesh tunnel. On the other side of the room sat another, closed door. Exit.

    Looking back at V, Emilia weighed her options. Presumably, V was the friend Honey had mentioned¡­ maybe. He could be, or it could have been a coincidence. Annoyingly, in her excitement, she hadn¡¯t had the sense to ask him whether anyone knew he was coming or if he¡¯d left someone with the kids.

    Who would he have left? Emilia had no idea, but they could have company out there¡ªallies V had made over the last few days or the missing kids¡ªor be alone. Either way, if V hadn¡¯t been the one Honey was referring to¡­

    Actually, fuck that. Even if V had been the friend coming for her, someone else could show up to hurt the kids. It was nice to hope V was the only one coming, but she couldn¡¯t rely on that.

    She had to go.

    She had to get back to the kids.

    ¡°?Sorry, V,?¡± she whispered, leaning down to place a kiss to the unconscious man¡¯s forehead. She wanted to wait, but without any knowledge of how long he had waited to touch the heartcore himself, she wasn¡¯t going to risk it. ¡°?Come find me, again.?¡± Emilia froze as her voice seemed to¡­ echo. That was weird.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Shaking herself, Emilia bolted down the stairs, taking them two at a time¡ªhey, she was short and couldn¡¯t manage more than that without risking tripping and toppling over the edge, okay? She halted on one of the three landings that circled the spire, each a third of the way up. Something was wrong. Was she talking out loud? It felt like her thoughts were louder than usual. Smacking a hand to her lips, Emilia waited.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Okay, maybe she was losing it?

    Except, there it was again. Thoughts to loud and¡ª

    ¡°?Fuck,?¡± she growled as she continued on, cursing herself for being stupid.

    ?I¡¯m so fucking stupid!? she hissed as she vaulted over the edge a dozen or so feet from the bottom. ?I knew that all internal voices became aethervoices! Why didn¡¯t I realize this was going to happen!?

    A long stream of curses exploded out of Emilia''s head and mouth as one. It was one thing to think bad things about yourself, it was another to hear them literally echoing through the universe!

    ¡°?This is so bad,?¡± she muttered, releasing a long sigh as she reached the door and pulled it open. Realistically, Emilia knew the reason she hadn¡¯t thought about how bad being able to speak the local language would be was the same reason she¡¯d entered the labyrinth with barely a second thought: the labyrinth had been affecting her mind before she even entered the thing. She still felt ridiculously stupid, and not being able to contain those thoughts wasn¡¯t helping.

    This was going to get old really fucking fast.

    The world bent as Emilia stepped through the door, sound and light shifting and winding together until she was stepping into the world of the raid again. Thankfully, she stepped out right where she had entered¡ªyet another thing she hadn¡¯t thought of before her little adventure. Fucking stars.

    ?Emilia!? Caro called, immediately appearing in front of her and wrapping thankfully¡ªblessedly¡ªunharmed arms around her, Astra smashing into her a second later as well. ?You¡¯re back.?

    ¡°?I am,?¡± Emilia replied, cringing when her voice came through in an unfortunate echo. Not only did her normal and aethervoice overlap gracelessly, her aethervoice was also too loud.

    ?Well, looks like you¡¯re having the same problem most of the visitors have when they acquire the gift of speech.?

    Emilia¡¯s eyes shot up, landing on a delicate looking woman, her fingers already itching to reach for one of her weapons.

    ?There¡¯s no need for that,? the woman said, her voice holding a calming quality that seemed less than genuine and only served to aggravate Emilia further. ?I¡¯m no threat to you. Did your friend not reach you in time? V? He is a¡­ friend of mine,¡± she said, voice just barely catching on the friend part, and making Emilia¡¯s heart clench because she could be an enemy of V¡¯s or his friend or something else to him and fucking everlasting stars!

    The woman laughed, an edge of taunting in it, as Emilia groaned and tried to get her thoughts to either chill or stop leaking out of her.

    ?What does ¡®something else to him¡¯ mean?? Caro asked, peeking curiously between Emilia, Gale and the mystery woman.

    Gale looked unimpressed, shaking her head in barely contained disgust, although Emilia couldn¡¯t be sure why and¡ª

    ?Because that man is¡­ weird. I think you could do better,? the teenager supplied, her voice sliding privately through Emilia.

    Gale attempting to keep her disparaging opinion of V to herself was kind, if also completely unhelpful when Emilia didn¡¯t know how to quiet her internal voice, let alone direct it at Gale alone. What followed, flowing out of her brain in starts and stops as she attempted to drag her mind under control, was a mix of embarrassing and inappropriate statements that Astra thankfully cut off with a surge of energy through her. It hurt, having the girl¡¯s energy forced through her meridians, but the pain was better than the embarrassment that she and everyone else had been experiencing.

    ?That¡¯s one way to shut someone up,? the mystery woman snorted, eyes locked onto the location of the labyrinth entrance, rather than Emilia or Astra, who was gently patting her back as she dry heaved.

    ¡°I did run into him,¡± Emilia managed to say between her attempts at throwing up the contents of her very empty stomach. ¡°He was unconscious at the heartcore when I left. I didn¡¯t want to leave the kids out here by themselves.¡±

    ?He didn¡¯t tell you I was here??

    ¡°It didn¡¯t come up.¡±

    ?Ah,? the woman said, although to Emilia, it sounded like she wanted to tell her¡ªor perhaps V¡ªoff for her presence not coming up.

    Given how little information Emilia had provided about what happened, that seemed a little unfair. V could have shown up moments before she touched the heartcore, after all! So rude. This lady was¡ª

    Emilia clamped all her willpower around her thoughts as her energy settled, and her thoughts began to once more leak forth like a torrent that would not be stopped.

    ?What are you doing?? Gale asked as Emilia began counting rocks.

    ¡°?Trying to keep my brain occupied, so I don¡¯t bury people in inappropriate thoughts,?¡± she grumbled before returning to counting, doing her best to focus on that while also listening to Gale and the mystery woman discuss the situation.

    ?We have to wait for V,? the woman was saying over Gale¡¯s complaints that she could wait while the rest of them got moving.

    ?You can catch up with us,? the teenager shot back, chin high as she held her ground against the woman.

    ?And where do you think you¡¯ll get to? Hm?? The woman scoffed, her eyes dragging judgmentally over their group. ?Three children and a visitor who can¡¯t control her mind any more than a toddler. Ridiculous.?

    ?We¡¯ve managed without any local adults for most of our journey,? Gale bit back, which Emilia didn¡¯t think was the most helpful stance, given without Boundary showing up, that crazy Enclave lady probably would have killed her, Astra and Stephy, and who knew what Conrad¡¯s brother would have done to the rest of them.

    The woman¡¯s aether vibrated, more words about to leak out over Gale¡ªwho really didn¡¯t deserve to be talked to like she was stupid¡ªwhen a disoriented and slightly panicked looking V stepped out of the labyrinth.

    ?Emilia!? he called, eyes locking onto her with almost inhuman speed and accuracy. ?There you are¡ª Why are you counting??

    ?She can¡¯t control her aethervoice,? Caro supplied, patting her on the head because both they and Astra had taken to treating her like a child who needed comfort. That was fair. Emilia was very sad and needed all the comfort she could get.

    ?You didn¡¯t have an aethervoice before you went in,? Gale noted, taking the momentary distraction to get as far from the mystery woman as she could. In her hand, Gale had Emilia¡¯s {Blood Dagger} out, looking like she very much wanted to use it on the woman. That was also fair, she hadn''t made a great impression so far.

    ?Ah¡­ no,? V¡¯s eyes flicked between the various members of their group. Annoyingly, he was almost completely silent as he assessed the situation, only occasional words and broken sounds leaking out of him.

    ¡°?So unfair,?¡± Emilia muttered, poking at a loose rock.

    ?Fran,? V said, turning unhappy eyes onto his companion.

    ?Yes?? the woman asked, tone suddenly syrupy sweet as she fluttered her fucking eyelashes at the man, and Emilia stomped down her growing suspicion that even if V wasn¡¯t something else to this Fran, Fran herself certainly wished he was.

    She didn¡¯t do a particularly good job of keeping her suspicions out of her internal monologue, unfortunately. Fortunately, Astra¡¯s attention was effectively glued to her, and the moment Emilia¡¯s eyes widened in panic, another burst of the child¡¯s energy was racing through her and temporarily wiping out her ability to use her aethervoice.

    ¡°Not that I don¡¯t appreciate that, Astra, but man! That is some painful shit,¡± Emilia breathed out between more dry heaves.

    ¡°?Fran,?¡± V repeated, voice far darker than the first time. ¡°?I know you can help her.?¡±

    Fran¡¯s weight shifted, her arms crossing and uncrossing before she muttered, ?Fine,? and stomped over to temporarily remove Emilia¡¯s ability to use her aethervoice.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 134: Petty Drama (over a boy that isnâ€™t even mine)

    ?It could be worse,? V said, his voice shifting privately through Emilia¡¯s core with far too much ease.

    ¡°Could it?¡± she grumbled, bare feet scuffing over the mismatched hallway as they made their way for the unknown area indicated on her map, which had returned once she was free of the labyrinth. As much as the messaging system had caused her head to ache, it was better than her nigh uncontrollable aethervoice. Clearly, everyone just needed access to the Risen Guard system.

    ?Sure,? V said, leaning in to bump shoulder with her. ?If we didn¡¯t have Fran, you¡¯d still be spilling your thoughts everywhere.?

    Emilia levelled an exceptionally unimpressed look at her so-called friend. That woman didn¡¯t want to help her¡ªdidn¡¯t even seem to want her there at all, as far as Emilia could tell.

    She didn¡¯t really blame her. Emilia didn¡¯t want the mystery woman around any more than she wanted her.

    Ahead of them, the woman was setting their pace, glancing back at her and V with a mixture of envy and hatred and sadness so frequently that said pace was slow. Painfully slow. Astra would have set a faster pace than this woman.

    She was jealous, of Emilia¡ªof the fact that V clearly preferred her, his hand having locked around hers soon after he had exited the labyrinth and not released it since. Fran didn¡¯t like that any more than Emilia would have liked it if the situation were reversed.

    Fucking stars. When had this raid turned into some petty battle over a man? V wasn¡¯t even her man, even if she felt a sort of territorial possessiveness of him. He was her friend first. She¡¯d already fucked him. He was, therefore, hers alone¡ªfor the duration of the raid, anyways. After that¡­

    After that, they¡¯d wait three months. Life would go on. Then, they¡¯d meet up¡ªor, more than likely, they¡¯d pop into Rosalia and head to Korantum, the bar they¡¯d agreed to meet at, and hope to the stars above they weren¡¯t stupid, and the other person would actually show up. Given her suspicions about knowing V in the real world, he would likely be worried about her freaking out at him as well. That was fair. She on the other hand¡­

    What would she be worried about? A thousand little things, most likely. Unbidden, her hand squeezed V¡¯s as those reasons rattled through her head.

    Would he like the real her?

    Would she be as pretty as whenever they had known each other?

    Would he be someone she could¡ª

    Could what? Be with? She had a boyfriend, even if her brain had been pushing her to break it off with him for days¡ªbut if she didn¡¯t? If she and Elijah broke up before the Eve of the Astral Storm, and she and V met and¡­

    V¡¯s laughter shuddered through her, and when Emilia blinked back into the present, she realized she was watching V. He raised an eyebrow at her¡ªa silent question of, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±

    Given how amused the man was, it seemed likely that whatever look she had been giving him was too telling about her current train of thought. They¡¯d only know each other for a few days, most of which they hadn''t even been together! This was ridiculous! This was¡ª

    ¡°This is so unfair,¡± she grumbled, the hand she had locked around Astra¡¯s swinging aggressively as they walked, the girl happily going along with her exasperation.

    According to Gale, they hadn¡¯t told V or Fran that she was a visitor¡ªCaro¡¯s idea.

    ?Caro has a bad feeling about that woman,? Gale had explained to her privately, soon after Fran had begrudgingly locked her aethervoice away using some technique that parents often used on their children, while they were learning to control their voices. ?So, we decided not to tell them.?

    The teenager¡¯s eyes had slid to V, and Emilia¡¯s mind had flickered back to what the teenager had said: that V was weird and Emilia could do better than him. Hopefully the two of them would have a chance to chat later. They had a lot to discuss, but mostly Emilia was just really curious about why she thought him weird! Was he weird? Sure. The man was insane, but through their time together with the kids, he had been more relaxed for their sake. Still a little weird, but she was curious what it was that made the judgmental teen think Emilia was too good for him, especially when the teenager had also been confused about why Conrad would want to stalk her!?

    Gale was crazy. That was obviously what was happening here. Gale was a crazy, hormonal teenager with opinions on everything clashing together because she couldn¡¯t keep her thoughts and words straight.

    Probably.

    Maybe.

    ¡°Seriously,¡± she sighed, lower lip sticking out as she decided that pouting was the best option. ¡°It¡¯s really unfair that I can¡¯t even control my aethervoice, let alone express all my feelings to you or the others privately. Why are aethervoices so hard~¡±

    V laughed as she leaned in to moan into his arm, her eyes catching on an increasingly irate looking Fran. Whatever. Emilia had made herself small for others before, first as a child, squeezing her personality into a box for the sake of her family. They''d removed the lid of that box and each of its sides themselves, dismantling her self-imposed container with so much brutal efficiency that nothing remained of it until her ex had hand built that box for her once more.

    That box was gone¡ªblown away, just like his body at Alliance Ridge. Nothing would be bringing it back. Not some man and certainly not some woman who wanted to get into her man¡¯s pants¡­ Her temporary man¡¯s pants, anyways.

    ¡°Hey, V?¡± Emilia asked, peaking up at him from under her lashes, her voice low, although she knew Astra and Fran could likely hear her.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ?Emilia,? the other visitor said gravely, blue eyes locking solemnly onto hers.

    ¡°You gonna be with anyone else while we¡¯re here? Or just me?¡±

    Whatever the man had been expecting her to say, that clearly wasn¡¯t it, and Emilia took great joy in watching him gape at her for a long moment. Several metres in front of them, Fran tripped, stumbling several steps forward before twisting around to gape at her as well. Her energy rippled, words that she wanted to let loose barely held back by some note of self-control¡ªor perhaps realization that anything she said would come out crazed and possessive in a way she wasn¡¯t entitled to.

    Neither was Emilia¡ªas noted, she and V had only known each other a few days, only fucked a few times. She still had more of a right, however, and she was grumpy and spoiled. Olivier had been wrong about so many things when they first met, but as much as she had denied that she was a spoiled princess, she was¡ªshe so totally was. Less so now, after years of living from paydrop to paydrop, but inside, she was still spoiled.

    There were few places where she allowed herself to still be spoiled in her life. This was one of those things, a powerful gift granted to her by her existence as a spoiled¡ªif still thankful¡ªchild: the confidence to ask for what she wanted, regardless of how insane it seemed. It wasn¡¯t a bad trait, but Emilia knew well enough that asking for¡ªdemanding, even¡ªwhat you wanted was a trait many people lacked. People didn¡¯t ask. Instead, they waited to be offered, risking disappointment and heartbreak and broken relationships because they were too afraid to ask.

    While Emilia had certainly shied away from asking for certain things¡ªusually when trauma from her childhood or the war wrapped its grubby hands around her mind¡ªthis wasn¡¯t such a case. Asking V to set out what he was expecting for the near future wasn¡¯t something she needed to shy away from.

    Amusement rolled through her, followed by the man¡¯s voice, sliding through her meridians, and the sorts of thoughts and feelings he was dragging out of her really were inappropriate¡ªthey were in public, after all!

    ?Considering that woman is the only thing keeping whatever thoughts you have rolling around inside you from getting out, are you sure you should be antagonizing her??

    Okay, that might have been a good point. It would be petty of the woman to remove her aethervoice control over a man¡ªand a visitor, no less!¡ªbut it was equally petty to be poking at this in front of her, just because she wanted some confirmation that V was hers.

    ¡°Maybe not,¡± she admitted, sighing as they continued on, hands still locked together. They felt like a little family, which wasn¡¯t helping anything. A strange family that felt simultaneously right and wrong, but a family nonetheless.

    V¡¯s thumb rubbed soothing circles over her palm, and she wondered what he was thinking. They had yet to say much, Fran being insistent that they get moving as soon as possible. Certainly, they could chat while they walked, but the few times Emilia had tried to start a conversation with V, the woman had interjected over her own words.

    Rude.

    V would smile mildly at the woman, his horrible dimples barely visible, until Fran turned forward again and his expression would fall into one of annoyance.

    At least she wasn¡¯t the only one who didn¡¯t like the woman. V didn¡¯t seem particularly fond of her¡ªwhich begged the question of why he was even with her, although Emilia supposed that raids were the sort of place where you accepted any ally you could find. Gale and Caro certainly didn¡¯t like her either, both of them trailing behind her and V, their energy vibrating with silent conversation. As for what Astra felt about the woman¡­

    Emilia eyes slid to the child, who had returned to her silence since their reunion. The girl stared absently ahead, seemingly not thinking of anything.

    Seriously, how had both Astra and V figured out how to quiet their internal voice so fast!?

    Emilia had tried to ask V about that again as they got closer to the mystery chamber ahead¡ªwhich, realistically, wasn¡¯t a mystery because according to Gale, Fran and V had come from that direction. When she¡¯d tried¡ªbig surprise¡ªFran had talked over her, trying to change the subject to something completely unrelated.

    V¡¯s hand had tightened around hers, the man clearly understanding that Emilia was about to launch herself at the horrible woman and kill her.

    Indeed, when Emilia once again attempted to fill the painful silence with a question about how V had quieted his mind, Fran spoke up.

    ¡°So, how¡ª¡± she began, her question cutting off as rage spiralled through her. She would have kept talking, but the woman¡¯s aethervoice seemed intent to drown her own out. Besides, V wasn¡¯t stupid¡ªhe definitely knew Fran was doing this just to get under her skin. It was working, but whatever friendship V had previously had with her seemed to be evaporating with ever interruption. At least something would come from the woman being such a bitch.

    ?You know I¡¯m descended from a visitor, right?? the woman said, turning and walking backwards. It was a stupid decision, what with how uneven the floor of the hallway was, but Emilia wasn¡¯t about to point that out.

    ?So?? Gale asked. The teenager¡ªbeing a teenager and all¡ªhad also noted what Fran was doing. Apparently, there were a few older girls in Livery who had liked doing something similar. Gale¡¯s solution was to not let Fran talk to V because as much as she thought Emilia was too good for him, the local girl also seemed inclined to make sure Emilia got what she wanted.

    It was sweet, if also rather amusing. Emilia didn¡¯t need Gale to defend her, but it was nice, nonetheless. Still, Fran was a wildcard, and Emilia¡¯s attention was glued to the woman anytime she interacted with one of the children, lest she feel ganged up on and decide to do something about it.

    Emilia almost hoped the annoying woman would try something, if only so she could kill her. What a lovely turn of events that would be.

    Fran bristled slightly, aether shuddering as she prepared to explain to Gale why being the descendant of a visitor mattered, when her foot landed on a fleshy section of the patchwork hallway. With a yelp, she toppled over.

    ?You should watch where you¡¯re going,? Caro offered, before breaking into a long, winding story about the time they¡¯d accidentally wandered out of Livery and into the neighbouring city when they hadn¡¯t been paying attention.

    Emilia tugged her hands away from V and Astra, taking a few big steps to offer a hand to Fran¡ªa peace offering.

    Not.

    Fran glared between her hand and V, knowing full well that if she refused Emilia¡¯s hand, she wouldn¡¯t be able to demand V help her up. The woman grumbled, a smattering of frustrated words leaking out of her as she pushed herself up, muttering about how she didn¡¯t need help.

    If they¡¯d been anywhere else, Emilia might have snidely pointed out that she¡¯d been sitting on the ground, seemingly waiting for someone to help her up. Fran had definitely been waiting, but she¡¯d been waiting for V, and as she stomped off, her plan for latching onto his hand¡ªprobably to never give it up until the day he left this world¡ªfoiled, Emilia laughed to herself.

    ?Nice,? Gale snickered as she and the others caught up, Astra¡¯s hand immediately snatching Emilia¡¯s back up, Caro having grabbed Astra¡¯s other while they continued rambling about all the times they¡¯d been lost. Caro offered they¡¯re hand to Gale, and while the teenager snorted and roller her eyes, she accepted it nonetheless.

    V caught Emilia¡¯s other hand, pulling them into moving again, the look he shot her reading as something between, ¡°Really?¡± and ¡°Feel better?¡± and something soft and amused that she was being a petty bitch over him.

    Hopefully, poking at Fran wouldn¡¯t come back to bite them.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 135: All it Takes is a Dash of Anger

    The mystery room on Emilia¡¯s map turned out to be exactly that: a mystery room, filled with dozens of hallways, each lighting up across her map as she moved further into the room.

    The room itself was a bland, grey, whatever it was made of reminding her of the walls of the cities: something that appeared to be metal, but if you looked closely enough, it definitely wasn¡¯t. The hallways themselves varied between the patchwork of the hall that led to the Risen Guard¡¯s labyrinth and ones composed of single material. At the end of each hallway, visible only through her map, Emilia could see a door. Many were marked with the sign of a labyrinth, although others were simply names she didn¡¯t recognize.

    ?It¡¯s an access point of sorts,? V explained, brow furrowing like he was repeating something that someone¡ªprobably Fran¡ªhad explained to him. ?Most of the doors lead to labyrinths. It was created during a previous visitation, before the locals learned that fast travel magic of theirs. It isn¡¯t used much now, as the only way in is through a labyrinth.?

    ¡°But we can exit through the other doors?¡± Emilia guessed, eyes flicking between V and Fran. ¡°You guys came through a labyrinth to find us?¡±

    V smiled, his hand squeezing around hers. ?Of course,? he said, voice sliding through her and fucking stars. Private conversations through aethervoices had always felt overly intimate to Emilia, but with someone who she¡¯d actually been intimate with? Nebulae above¡ªhaving V talk to her like this seemed liable to make her melt if they weren¡¯t careful.

    Given the way the man in question was watching her, far too much pride in his eyes, he knew full well what he was doing to her. Thankfully, V did seem to have enough self-control and sense to not actually make her melt. The children definitely didn''t need to be subjected to such things!

    Fran grumbled something that sounded like, ?Hurry up,? as though she weren¡¯t the one who had been setting their ridiculously slow pace since she and V had exited the labyrinth.

    The woman stomped along, her bottom still covered in debris from when she¡¯d fallen over. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if the woman hadn¡¯t noticed or simply had no magic capable of cleaning her clothing. If it was the former, no one was offering up the fact of her dirty butt to her.

    The hallway Fran led them down was a near pitch black, only occasional swishes of vibrant colour marking the walls and floor, while the ceiling was covered in constellations¡ªat least, that¡¯s what they looked like. As far as Emilia knew, this world was never naturally dark, so no one other than the platform itself likely knew whether they really reflected the sky above or not.

    ?It¡¯s so dark¡­? Caro whisper-hissed, and when Astra¡¯s steps slowed, it was because the other child had all but stopped moving.

    Caro hadn¡¯t even been sleeping in the dark since their experience in the city.

    ¡°Can you¡ª¡± Emilia started to say, only for Fran to cut her off, and Emilia was Just. So. Done.

    ?It¡¯s so nice in here~? the woman cooed, her voice quickly growing further and further away. ?Why don¡¯t you come up here, V? We can¡ª?

    Water surged out of the aether, sending the woman screaming as it pushed her down the hallway. At Emilia¡¯s wrist, one of her magic gems glowed, her energy racing through it.

    Well, on the bright side, she¡¯d finally managed to use magic! Personally, Emilia was very proud of herself, especially considering what she actually wanted to do was burn the horrible woman to death. That had seemed like overkill¡­ maybe.

    ?You!? Fran yelled, her voice echoing down the hallway. She really had been pushed quite a long ways¡ªall the way to the end, according to Emilia¡¯s map.

    The person indicator on Emilia¡¯s map shuddered, the red dot shifting into a blinding white before magic was shooting back towards her. V was already stepping in front of her and the kids, his energy exploding out of him into a barrier. It wasn¡¯t going to be enough. Despite the man¡¯s experience using his core, it was just¡­ it wasn¡¯t strong enough, or he was holding back too much.

    ¡°V!¡± Emilia called, more for effect than anything. She was already bolting to the front of their group, her energy wrapping around them, creating a ball of protection that even the most powerful skills¡ªand therefore she assumed magic as well¡ªwould have difficulty penetrating.

    Her cry wasn¡¯t lost on Fran, however. The woman screamed something about getting out of the way. To her credit, the local did try and drag her magic back¡ªtried to burn it out with her own energy. She was too slow, and when her magic collided with Emilia¡¯s barrier¡­

    Well, Emilia couldn¡¯t be sure what the woman saw on her end, but given the anguished sound that exploded out of her, she probably assumed she¡¯d just critically injured, if not outright killed, the guy she¡¯d been lusting after.

    ¡°Caro?¡± Emilia asked with all the calm of someone who would kill the next person who dared talk over her. ¡°Do you want me or V to carry you?¡±

    It took a moment for V to realize he needed to translate for her, Astra still maintaining that she couldn¡¯t speak, but he eventually snapped out of whatever thoughts were rattling through his head to do so.

    ?Sure¡­? Caro breathed out, the drama of the moment having momentarily shocked them out of their fear.

    Astra¡ªwho Emilia had accidentally dragged along with her¡ªreleased her hand, and through the dim light, Emilia could see her moving to her other side as she gathered Caro into her arms.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ?You want my hand?? V asked the little girl other Fran¡¯s crying.

    Emilia almost felt bad for her¡­ but not really. The woman had interrupted her attempts to ask a child if they needed help! And then she¡¯d tried to kill her, risking everyone¡¯s lives in her hissy fit! Emilia had no time for sympathy for people like that, thank you.

    ¡°What are you crying about?¡± Emilia asked as they reached the end of the hallway, the woman so hysterical she hadn¡¯t even noticed them approaching, let alone the fact that V was still alive and kicking.

    It took more focus than when she¡¯d activated the water gem, but after a moment of intensely imagining being able to see the horrible woman¡¯s crying face, Emilia¡¯s light gem lit up. Who knew anger was such a powerful motivator?

    Well, Emilia had already known. Half of the things they¡¯d done and created following Alliance Ridge had been powered by anger and frustration and guilt. It was nice to think that positive emotions¡ªlike worry for humanity or the children under your care¡ªcould be just as powerful, and maybe for some people they were. For Emilia, not so much. Kindness was great, but clearly she needed to leverage her anger a bit more.

    ¡­

    Probably, she shouldn¡¯t stand here imaging Fran bursting into flames too hard¡ªit was liable to happen, and they were a bit close to her. She didn¡¯t want to singe anyone¡¯s eyebrows!

    ¡°Gale?¡± she sloppily signed with the hand holding up Caro.

    Luckily, V seemed to realize the problem and that whatever Emilia wanted to ask was better kept private. One moment Caro was in her arms, the next the child was being hauled away from her. They stared at each other for a moment, something strange in V¡¯s eyes. Emilia wanted to ask about it, but now wasn¡¯t the time. Plus, Gale.

    ?Yeah?? Gale asked. The teenager looked sleepy, and Emilia abruptly realized how hard it must have been for her, to have been left behind to care for the kids. Then, for V and Fran to show up? To have to stay with some strange woman she didn¡¯t know and none of them liked?

    Emilia really owed her. She¡¯d have to think of some way to pay the local girl back. Not now¡ªshe had basically nothing on her worth paying the girl back with, for one thing.

    Tugging out her notebook, Emilia began scribbling a note. In the corner of her eye, V was nudging Fran with his boot. The woman looked up and promptly burst into sobbing apologies. If V hadn¡¯t been holding Caro, as well as Astra¡¯s hand, the woman surely would have thrown herself at his feet. As it was, Astra was standing guard and Caro was chiding her for putting them all in danger.

    Fran looked about ready to bite back at the child¡ªto blame Emilia for putting them in danger first¡ªbut V¡¯s gaze hardened before her voice could even begin to fill the air.

    ?Caro was afraid and Emilia just wanted to offer them comfort,? he said, voice holding that rare note of darkness and malice as he glared her down. He didn¡¯t need to explain what exactly he meant to Fran; for all that the woman was being petty and rude and jealous, she wasn¡¯t stupid¡ªshe knew she had fucked up and no one in their group was going to be blaming anyone but her for this situation.

    Still, the woman refused to apologize to anyone but V. She could have apologized privately to the children, leaving her out, but Emilia didn¡¯t think so. Over the past week¡ªand fucking stars, had she really been in this place for a week? maybe even more?¡ªshe¡¯d gotten pretty good at knowing when people were having private conversations, and she was pretty sure Fran wasn¡¯t. Rather, the woman was staring resolutely at the ground, reminding Emilia of a child who refused to accept responsibility but knew talking back would only make things worse.

    Emilia turned back to her note, finishing the question of whether using magic by accident was a thing. She had debated adding the bit about using her anger at Fran as the catalyst for silencing her inner dialogue, as well as the moments where her first instinct had been to use fire magic on the woman instead. The teenager didn¡¯t deserve to be freaked out by her inability to control her magic¡ªshe was already disappointed in her abilities as it was¡ªbut Emilia also needed advice.

    Gale¡¯s eyes flashed over her note as she wrote it, her expression hard before she said, ?Yes. It happens. It¡­? The girl hesitated, lower lip pulling between her teeth as she contemplated her words. ?It¡¯s more common when kids are younger. They haven¡¯t learned to control themselves yet, so magic sometimes leaks out. Cores develop with age, so it¡¯s usually not that big a deal. Small floods or burns. Accidentally activating arrays in their houses. That sort of thing.¡±

    The teenager¡¯s eyes flicked around the hallway, seemingly saying, ?This isn¡¯t normal.?

    An inch of water pooled over most of the floor, soaking through everyone¡¯s clothes and shoes¡ª Well, all except Emilia¡¯s because she still had neither, and her {Blood Armour} didn¡¯t absorb water.

    ¡°Should I be worried?¡± Emilia signed.

    Gale shrugged, telling her she didn¡¯t know before reaching out and ripping the page from Emilia¡¯s notebook. She folded the note up and tucked it into her own bag¡ªa gift from the Risen Guard, which she had taken to carrying everywhere with her, stuffed with all sorts of essentials.

    ¡°Why?¡± Emilia signed, tucking her notebook away.

    Gale shrugged. ?In case anything does happen.? She smiled, something sharp and cruel. ?We don¡¯t want anyone knowing you already knew your magic was a bit uncontrollable, just in case you do kill the bitch.?

    Emilia gaped at the teenager before releasing a huffing laugh. ¡°Typical teenager,¡± she muttered as they turned back to the others.

    Fran was still sitting on the ground, looking truly miserable, probably because V was ignoring her in favour of chatting with Caro. The child was telling the visitor all about what had happened since they¡¯d parted. Caro was a good storyteller, but they were telling the story in such excruciating detail that Emilia wasn¡¯t sure it wouldn¡¯t take longer to tell the story than it had to live it.

    ¡°Shall we?¡± Emilia asked during a brief moment of Caro quieting, their face scrunched up in thought as they tried to determine what detail came next. She nodded to the door, wondering if V would let them just step over Fran and leave without her.

    He wouldn¡¯t, although he drew the line at either putting Caro down or dropping Astra¡¯s hand to help her up. Emilia was almost tempted to offer again, but Gale¡¯s hand, rather shockingly, wrapped around hers and then Astra was grabbing the other, and well, you can¡¯t help people up if you have no hands.

    ?Fran,? V said, his voice tired and just so done, although Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if it was with the woman, the situation, or her. It could have been her, although she hoped it wasn¡¯t. ?We should get going.?

    Fran deflated, obviously disappointed that her attempts at pouting had gained her no sympathy, before pushing herself up. Her eyes caught Emilia¡¯s as she moved, and had she not already had experience with such hatred from her ex¡¯s pick-me girl friend, the loathing in Fran¡¯s eyes might have given her pause.

    It didn¡¯t, and instead she turned to Gale, the two of them rolling their eyes in tandem as they followed Fran through the door, their quiet snickers echoing through the universe.

    Onwards, to whatever awaited them next.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 136: But I Want to Touch

    The world opened around Emilia, and she immediately regretted every decision she had ever made. The air burned, and she suddenly understood what V had meant when he¡¯d said, ¡°Told you I¡¯d see you at the bottom.¡±

    They were, rather unfortunately, once again on the planet¡¯s crust¡ª Was this world a planet? Emilia actually had no idea how far her and Halen¡¯s training system had been pushed to create raids. Things like gravitational force and other points of universal energy definitely played a part in how skills behaved, but the cost of emulating a world with those constraints hadn¡¯t been something they¡¯d had time or mental space to deal with in the midst of the war. What they¡¯d made had worked well enough for their needs.

    It was easy to imagine that in the years since, with all the money of the post-war government under it, the people who had taken over the project and turned it into the monstrosity that powered virtual raids might have augmented it¡ªturned it into something with the power to create realistic solar systems. Elijah had talked about space themed raids before, although to Emilia, they always seemed to hold more than a few fantastical notes.

    Nebulae knew this world had fantasy pressed into it as well. That was, supposedly, part of the fun. It also meant the platform designers didn¡¯t actually need to include realistic physics¡ªas previously noted, the entire city system seemed to ignore such universal rules, and¡ª

    ?What are you thinking about??

    Emilia blinked wildly back into the present. ¡°Uh¡­ how physics are applied to virtual raids?¡±

    V blinked back at her. Whatever weird mood had hit him after her and Fran¡¯s fight had stuck, and even when she stared intently back at the other visitor, Emilia couldn¡¯t quite decipher what he was thinking. Was it good? Bad? Was he sick of her?

    Emilia had no idea, and it was going to drive her bonkers. Hence, thinking about how an army of programmers and hackers had destroyed her war training program!

    ¡°So¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, her voice catching as she waited for Fran to interrupt her.

    The woman seemed to have learned her lesson, however, and continued pouting behind them as they made their way through the spicy air of the streets running between the giant buildings that housed the cities. The buildings seemed impossibly larger, yet all too small and fragile, now that she knew what was inside them. In this area, the buildings looked grungier than the ones she had seen when she first arrived, their coatings peeling under the oppressive, spicy air.

    For a moment, Emilia contemplated playing the same trick she¡¯d played on Boundary on V. If she asked smoothly enough¡ªbrought up ¡°that time during the war when we allowed Helix to cook¡­¡±¡ªperhaps V would give himself away. The man would quietly laugh and admit that yes, he did remember that, and then he¡¯d have to reveal who he was.

    That seemed like cheating, and unlike with Boundary, where the answer to his identity and split personality had actually mattered, V¡¯s identity didn¡¯t. He¡¯d reveal himself one day, on his own terms, and forcing him to do so too soon felt wrong, especially since she had no idea what the man was thinking about her at the moment.

    ¡°Is the air going to kill us?¡± she asked instead. That actually was a serious concern, especially for Caro and Gale.

    ?If we¡¯re out here too long,? V said, glancing back at Fran as they reached a crossroad. He waited, giving the woman a chance to realize he wasn¡¯t sure which way they were going, before he awkwardly asked which way they had to go.

    The woman pointed left, looking completely miserable. Interestingly, she hadn¡¯t bothered to dry herself off¡ªhadn¡¯t even tried, as far as Emilia could tell. Couldn¡¯t use fire magic? Too dangerous? Or perhaps couldn¡¯t use magic on herself?

    Emilia had no idea, and she wasn¡¯t about to ask.

    The woman did look like some sad, drowned animal, though.

    Despite Fran no longer interrupting every time she spoke, the mood had turned quiet and sombre, and they simply continued walking in near silence, the five of them taking up the majority of the road as they walked hand in hand, Caro having blessedly passed out in V¡¯s arms. It was cute, V leaning his cheek against the child¡¯s mess of hair occasionally. He looked good with a child in his arms.

    It wasn¡¯t until they had been walking for some twenty or thirty minutes that V finally spoke, his arms shifting as he roused Caro. ?We¡¯re here.?

    Here turned out to a very dilapidated building. If the towers they had walked by before looked run down, these ones looked like they should have been condemned, which apparently they were.

    As V led them into the building¡ªalthough Fran had to step up to actually unlock the door¡ªit became clear that this wasn¡¯t a normal building.

    The building¡¯s hallway led one way: down and straight, boring slowly into the ground. Brightly coloured arrays were etched into nearly every available space, glowing and pulsing as they went. Several were burnt out and seemingly repurposed, portions of their colour pale, while other sections had been lit up by newer arrays. That alone was strange: overwriting skills in the real world was extremely difficult, it was why Emilia had bothered training herself to use her core to cancel out skills: even defensive skills struggled to rewrite the aether if it were already being affected by someone else.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    She itched to stop and examine them, to run her fingers over the divots and grooves of the magic, even if she would never be capable of understanding them.

    Except, she could.

    ?Emilia?? Gale asked as her steps stopped.

    Astra¡¯s fingers slipped from hers as V continued on, dragging the girl along, while Caro was awake but sleepy in his arms. V and the children stopped as well, and for the first time since they had left the labyrinth tunnels, Fran took the lead.

    ¡°I can read the arrays,¡± she signed, vaguely noting Fran leaving them behind as she eyes flicked between an array that stabilized the building above, partially overlapped by another that kept whatever was beneath them from collapsing as well. At first glance, they had seemed to be overlapping due to lack of room, but now that Emilia was looking¡ªreally looking¡ªshe could see the sense of it.

    Specific lines overlapped, lending its mirror array strength. ¡°You stabilize the sky,¡± one seemed to say, ¡°and I¡¯ll stabilize the earth.¡± The other, a reflection. ¡°Lend me strength to hold up the sky, and I will lend you strength to hold down the earth.¡±

    She wanted to touch¡ªto fondle the magic that was creating this place. Her mind screamed at her not to, but¡ª

    ?I wouldn¡¯t do that.?

    Emilia¡¯s energy froze where it had been preparing to wrap itself around the twin arrays. ¡°Sorry,¡± she said, cheeks heating up. Seriously, what was with her lack of thinking things through today? At least when she¡¯d been inside the labyrinth, she¡¯d been able to blame it. According to her map, all there was for a good kilometre was the entrance and the tunnel. No labyrinth, no excuse for sticky, nosy fingers¡ªor energy, as the case may be.

    A woman came to stand beside her, her blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail, the long strands cascading down her back in dozens of braids, beads woven through them. ?You can see what the arrays do.? It wasn¡¯t a question, and before Emilia had the chance to do more than tilt her head at the woman, wondering how she had known, the newcomer smiled.

    Startling, bright pink eyes turned on Emilia. They reminded her of PollyPollen, a candy that had been popular when she was younger. Nearly everything in their world was coloured with natural ingredients. As a result, most food was a pale colour. Not PollyPollen. Somehow, the manufactures had won a contract with Halvery, a Free Colony in the far north, for a local berry¡ªan impossibly bright pink berry, with very little taste but high nutritional content.

    PollyPollen had been delicious and beautiful, but whoever had been handling the exports in Halvery had been greedy, and by the time Emilia hit her mid-teens, the plant had been farmed to near extinction, several of the animals that had primarily survived on it suffering for it. Then, of course, the ecosystem had begun to collapse. One plant dies, the animals that eat it die, the animals that eat them die. Collectively, their feces and bodies do not feed the soil or bugs or scavengers, and, well¡­ it had been bad.

    There had been attempts to replenish the plants in the years before the war. From what Emilia knew, there hadn¡¯t been much success. Then the war struck, and efforts at maintaining ecosystems fell away in favour of making sure humanity wasn¡¯t wiped out. Due to its isolation, Halvery had been hit hard by the war, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if they¡¯d ever gotten back to trying to return their wilderness to what it had originally been. Probably not.

    The woman smiled quietly at her, something in her general vibe seeming to say, ?I see a lot, and I see your thoughts.?

    ¡°Hello,¡± Emilia said, throwing in signs just for the sake of it.

    ?Hello,? the woman responded, those beautiful eyes blinking slowly before she turned to the others. It was only once she was no longer looking at Emilia that she came fully back to herself, as though the woman had held her hostage simply with her attention.

    It was creepy and fascinating in equal measure.

    ?Welcome back. I passed Fran on the way here,? she said, obviously directing most of her words at V, but glancing between the rest of them in quiet acknowledgement of their existence. ?She did not seem pleased.?

    A rude sound escaped Gale¡ªsomething that always amused Emilia because the teenager had made it very clear that sounds did not accidentally escape someone, and that anyone who claimed they had accidentally said something or made a sound was lying. That said, Emilia didn¡¯t think the teenager would deny she had meant for the world to hear her grunt of partial-disapproval, partial-amusement if anyone actually asked about it.

    No one did.

    ?She will get over it,? V said without much conviction. Hope? Sure. Confidence that the local woman actually would get over¡­ everything? Not too much.

    The new woman seemed to be of the same opinion, a thick blonde eyebrow raising before she turned to the rest of them, Emilia having scurried back to Gale after being reprimanded for trying to touch the array keeping them all from being smushed under thousands of tons. Not really¡ªthe tunnel was covered in dozens of identical arrays, each reaching out and stabilizing a small section of the building above, but someone would likely have had to come fix the array she¡¯d been looking at if she¡¯d dared touch it.

    Emilia probably shouldn¡¯t touch it.

    She really wanted to, though.

    ?Are you a child?? Gale hissed into her as the woman, Phlostra, made her introductions.

    Apparently, she¡¯d been eyeing up the arrays a bit too greedily.

    ¡°No,¡± Emilia signed at the same moment that Fran¡¯s aethervoice silencing magic vanished from her body. ?Man, I wish I could go back to being a child, though. Sometimes it¡¯s really wonderful being a child. Those times with Olivier, I got to do whatever I wanted, and even when I was a brat, the worst that happened was he turned my butt a little¡ª?

    This time, it was V¡¯s energy screaming through her and silencing her highly inappropriate musings about acting a child when you were actually an adult. Luckily, none of the kids seemed to understand the undertone of kinky sex and role play in her words. V did, obviously, his own cheeks burning surprisingly red despite their previous discussions of his own kinky nature.

    If Phlostra understood what her thoughts had been about, she gave no indication. Rather, the woman¡ªwho was far older than Emilia had realized, now that she was looking at more than her PollyPollen eyes and intricate hair¡ªsimply shook her head as she gazed down the hallway. ?There was no need to drop you so abruptly,? Phlostra sighed. She reached out a delicate and wrinkled hand towards Emilia. ?May I extend my own suppression abilities to you? I promise, I will let you know before I drop my magic.?

    Emilia blinked between Phlostra, her hand, and V, who nodded in silent confirmation that she could trust the woman. He still looked embarrassed, his eyes quickly flicking away from hers and refusing to return.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Emilia signed, reaching her own hand towards Phlostra and allowing her to seal up her aethervoice once more, lest V¡¯s suppression fade and her wonderings about what was up with him start leaking into the world.

    As embarrassing as contemplating kinky sex in public had been, Emilia was pretty sure if everyone heard her internal pouting over V¡¯s strange mood, she¡¯d burrow into the ground and die.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 137: The Hidden City

    Allegedly, the hallway of arrays led to an underground city¡­ eventually. It was unclear how long they had travelled for¡ªno matter how hard Emilia concentrated, she couldn¡¯t make a clock appear in her system access¡ªand the city itself still hadn¡¯t appeared on her map. The world above had vanished as well, leaving her map a long tunnel, slowly leading them into the planet. At the very least, the disappearance of Fran and arrival of Phlostra meant the awkward silence had been put to rest.

    Back to questions and babbling it was!

    ?I would transport us in, but we have barriers set up to disallow anyone we don¡¯t know coming in,? Phlostra explained as they walked down the hall, Emilia continuing to examine the arrays they passed.

    Most were copies of a dozen arrays, repeating every few metres. The majority were to keep whatever was below them safe. According to Phlostra, the city they were headed for was inhabited by a group that was neither on the side of the Risen Guard nor the Enclave, although a little over half of their members were descendants of Enclave families. In some cases, the entire family had split from the organization, while in others, a few members had left after various fall-outs. Others were regular citizens who had joined their city for one reason or another, and about a quarter were newer arrivals, who hadn¡¯t grown up as part of their organization.

    Phlostra herself was a rare descendant from a Risen Guard and an Enclave member. It took a moment, but eventually, Emilia remembered a story Zach had told her about the Risen Guard sending spies into the Enclave, shortly before the last visitation. Eventually, one of the spies had confessed to their Enclave wife, and all the spies had been killed by an unknown person.

    She really wanted to ask the woman if she was a descendant from that incident, but it seemed rude, and the woman was so nice, Emilia didn¡¯t want to risk upsetting her. Worse, if she pushed the woman wrong, she might stop answering almost all of her questions!

    Unlike practically everyone she¡¯d met who knew anything, Phlostra was actually answering her questions, and asking questions back! In particular, the woman was curious to learn the security programs in Emilia¡¯s own world weren¡¯t run by skills, but machines that interfaced with the aethernet¡ªalthough explaining what a machine was to the woman proven challenging.

    ?Imagine the elevators weren¡¯t run by arrays or human¡¯s augmented by magic,? V offered, trying to put it into terms someone from a world that seemingly ran entirely on humans and magic could understand. There was more to his attempt to explain, although Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much any of the locals understood it¡ªeven she wasn''t sure she followed it, but given she had no confidence in her own ability to explain machines and technology to them, she was keeping her mouth shut. Points for the attempt.

    Mostly, she was busy being distracted, thinking back to the elevators she had ridden with Boundary. At the time, she had thought it strange that they were powered by humans, but in hindsight, perhaps it made more sense that the humans were either augmenting their bodies with magic, or other aspects of the elevator were enhanced through arrays and gems. It would have been nice if Boundary had been more open with answers to her questions at the time.

    Speak of whom¡­

    [Emilia: how¡¯s it hanging?]

    Unsurprisingly, it took a moment for the Risen Guard to reply, but when he did, he didn¡¯t disappoint.

    [Boundary: What in the bloody universe does that mean?]

    Emilia snickered to herself as she debated the pros and cons of explaining the joke behind the saying, although it had been around so long that no one knew its true origin story. That had never stopped the boys at school from joking about their balls in response to the question. Something told her Boundary wouldn¡¯t appreciate the joke.

    Instead, she sent the man a message explaining it was just a silly greeting between friends¡ªwhich, to be fair, it was¡ªand focused on tuning out the increasingly convoluted discussion between V and the locals about how technology in their world worked. The man clearly knew a lot about technology and programming, but his attempts to explain things hadn¡¯t worked, and he was now attempting to clear up several misconceptions as they walked.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced that Astra wasn¡¯t feeding Gale and Caro questions, just to mess with V¡ªno one but the three of them knew she was a visitor, and none of them were inclined to let that secret slip quite yet. While Phlostra and V could potentially tell she was talking, there was nothing strange about that: from everything Emilia had seen, Astra was a naturally quiet and shy child, regardless of her visitor status.

    It took a while to clear up the confusion, but eventually Emilia and Phlostra continued their conversation about how security systems in each of their world¡¯s worked. Emilia mostly wanted to point out that their own security systems suffered for the fact that they tended to watch the aethernet for specific types of activity. Some of the most advanced systems could completely block certain skills¡ªuseful (and terrible) in real-world raids, especially the rare PVP ones¡ªbut it was extremely difficult to lock a specific person out¡ªor alternatively, grant access to specific people. Lock anyone from going in or out or using a specific skill? Sure. Specific person, not so much.

    Censors could be used as keys, and they had worked out a way to attach identifiers to sparking¡ªwhich was as close as anyone in their world got to teleporting¡ªand slide lines. In theory, without the proper identifier on your skill, the security system would activate. Slide line exits could refuse to activate without the identifier, but when it came to sparking, even the best security systems couldn¡¯t do more than fully block all sparking or activate if someone without a key sparked into it, and those security systems were limited in what they could do: mostly, they could only notify security personnel of an intruder.

    The idea of security magic that would only let certain people through without even needing a key, even if it obviously wasn¡¯t great when you wanted to evacuate a new ally, was fascinating. Phlostra was equally interested in how keys could be utilized and had promised to try and set Emilia up with their head of security, if they found time.

    That all came later, however, as V was still working on explaining technology and skills¡ªand unfortunately, how arrays and code were similar¡ªto everyone. In the meantime, Emilia contented herself with messaging Boundary, asking why he had been such a bitch when they¡¯d first met.

    [Boundary: There are eyes everywhere.]

    Well, that tracked. The man had seemingly been following a script, in their first interactions. Poking at her with approved information and questions, and rarely answering her own pokes.

    [Emilia: is no one watching us here?]

    [Boundary: No.]

    Emilia stared blankly at the curt message as they walked, Astra and Gale¡¯s hands holding each of hers. She¡¯d been a bit surprised, when the teenager had snatched her hand back up after it had been dropped while she tempted fate and examined the arrays, but she had. It was cute, if a bit worrisome. The teenager was good at hiding her feelings, and Emilia was sure there was a lot rattling around inside her head. Eventually, those emotions would pop out. Hopefully, someone the girl trusted would be around to help her pick up the pieces.

    Still, there was a little part of her that missed holding V¡¯s hand.

    [Emilia: how are things there?]

    It took such a long time for Boundary to respond that Emilia was beginning to consider whether the man was giving her the silent treatment, rather than just coming out and telling her to fuck off. It was so difficult to tell through these messages¡ªthe messages sent through Censors were infinitely better. Strictly speaking, Censor messages didn¡¯t have to include an underlying feeling of tone or emotion, but between friends, most people sent at least the occasional wisp.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    It helped, especially when someone was being sarcastic or was upset. Emilia would have preferred people just come out and say when they were angry with her, but in a way, she supposed that letting annoyance come through with their message of ¡°Okay¡± was telling.

    This? Only Boundary¡¯s messages and silence? This was challenging to understand, and she didn¡¯t even know if she should ask him about it!

    Luckily, before the silence dragged on so long that she was going to have to either ask or accept that she shouldn¡¯t message him again, the man sent her a message.

    An extremely long message.

    Apparently, the fact that the Risen Guard messaging system wasn¡¯t monitored had opened a floodgate, facts about the situation back at the Risen Guard compound now flooding her vision.

    Basically, everything was bad.

    After they had left, chaos had broken out. That wasn¡¯t exactly surprising. What was surprising was the spread of it. Apparently, letting her live had been an experiment of some sort, and the fact that she¡¯d gotten away was causing a disagreement among the higher ups as to what to do. They all agreed that they would be keeping no more visitors prisoner¡ªwhich, seriously? It seemed like massive overkill to just kill visitors they captured, considering she hadn¡¯t done more than knock a few people out during their escape. Granted, it could be argued that she¡¯d also kidnapped a few children, but still! Said children were fine and had wanted to come!

    Moreover, this meant that the visitors who were still being detained¡ªas in, had never been released from Risen Guard custody¡ªwere now on the chopping block. Boundary wasn¡¯t sure how many had been killed, but from what he had heard, it was a significant amount.

    [Emilia: did no one, you know, try to kill themselves to get out of here?]

    If she were left stranded in Risen Guard custody, especially if it had been since the beginning of the raid, she certainly would have contemplated it. While she wasn¡¯t sure on the exact timing, they had to be at least halfway through the raid by now as well. It would be insane for them to be holding out hope they¡¯d get away and have a chance at winning. Hanging around just didn¡¯t seem like a smart move.

    It took several minutes for the man to address her question, another message about what was happening with each of the children coming through first¡ªpresumably he had been in the midst of writing it.

    [Boundary: I believe several tried. The system did not allow them to die.]

    Well, that was good to know. Interesting as well. Emilia wasn¡¯t planning on offing herself anytime soon. That didn¡¯t stop her from idly tucking away the thought that, if she were critically injured, trying to kill herself might actually save her. There was no saying how the system prioritized rules like that, it was worth keeping in mind.

    As for the kids, they were the least chaotic, although the Risen Guard doctors had questions about how Conrad had healed Stephy and Kelly¡ªlucky for him, as he was now on a do not kill list. The pair were, thankfully, doing better than before. Whatever the other visitor had done, it had greatly improved their prognosis.

    The rest of the kids were continuing along, worried about where Emilia and the others had gone, but slowly settling into life at the compound. A few of the kids, whose parents were confirmed deceased and had no relatives who could take them, had been moved to their¡ªhopefully¡ªpermanent homes, where they would be trained for suitable jobs over the next decade or so. It was rare for kids to be placed in homes so early, and the Risen Guard would be monitoring them closely, and reassessing the younger ones occasionally, to make sure they were still a fit for the job.

    [Emilia: have you told Caro¡¯s parents he¡¯s gone yet?]

    Officially, no, the Risen Guard hadn¡¯t, but only because Caro¡¯s crazy babysitter had told them first. Technically, that woman was a member of the Risen Guard, but she had told them without the permission of her superiors. Luckily, they knew Gale, and when the woman had mentioned Caro and Gale were missing, they had said it was fine.

    Gale would keep Caro safe.

    Caro¡¯s failed babysitter had not liked that, and what followed was a long stream of chaos that the Risen Guard was struggling to contain, simply due to the fact that they couldn¡¯t locate the woman.

    It seemed that Caro¡¯s babysitter belonged to an old and powerful Risen Guard family. The fact that she had been assigned to watch Caro at all had been a punishment for something, and had already been considered shameful by her family.

    Now, combined with her losing the small child?

    Now, shit was bad. Not only had the woman disappeared, following Honey¡¯s advice and tracking them the way Conrad had been planning to take them, but she was also leaving a trail of disasters behind her. Powerful as they were, her family were currently protecting her from repercussions¡ªapparently she had destroyed at least a dozen buildings in the first city she came to for seemingly no reason¡ªhowever, in Boundary¡¯s opinion, they were quickly growing sick of her antics.

    [Emilia: seriously?]

    [Emilia: that much in so little time?]

    They hadn¡¯t been gone for that long! A day, at the most! How could one woman cause so much damage!?

    [Boundary: The Risen Guard work quickly.]

    Okay, as much as tone and emotion didn¡¯t flow through their messages, Emilia was pretty sure she could hear the deadpan joke in Boundary¡¯s words. It was also clear from his subsequent messages that he knew the Risen Guard wasn¡¯t working fast enough. Included in his messages was a list of several dozen cities they should avoid getting anywhere near, due to conflicts that had broken out inside them, as well as a promise to keep the list updated.

    [Emilia: shit, is that all from visitors?]

    [Boundary: No. Several factions have taken the opportunity to cause their own chaos.]

    Several factions. Emilia could guess at whom those were: the Enclave, the overseers, whatever this group below them was, possibly a few offshoot groups within the Risen Guard as well.

    [Emilia: you worried?]

    Honestly, she hadn¡¯t really expected an answer from the man, she just hadn¡¯t known what exactly to say. Not saying anything had seemed wrong.

    [Boundary: I am always worried.]

    Emilia was still mulling over Boundary¡¯s words when her map finally updated to indicate they were almost at the city. As usual, a question mark indicated its location, with no more information available about it until they reached the edge of the hallway and the city actually came into view.

    The city system of the cavern they emerged into wasn¡¯t nearly as extravagant as the city system above, but as they made their way through the empty streets, Phlostra confirmed that the four towering buildings that occupied the cavern had similar city levels within them.

    ?They are far bigger than we need, but we wanted to be prepared for more residents,? she explained as she led them into a building.

    Unfortunately, their guide continued on to a set of stairs, and they were forced to climb up a dozen floors. They were easier to climb than any other flight of stairs Emilia had climbed, the note she had seen about her lowering level in the last labyrinth still swimming in her head. It was good to know everything that had happened so far hadn¡¯t been completely useless, even if it certainly felt like it had been.

    Still, unless V had learned something while they¡¯d been apart, they were no closer to winning this thing, or¡ªmore importantly¡ªfinding a way to end the blood curse.

    Or gaining normal access to the system.

    Frustrating¡ªit was frustrating, and Emilia really didn¡¯t understand why people enjoyed these things. Granted, she had specifically joined a raid that most people¡ªsave perhaps that crazy family¡ªactively avoided, but still! Raids were meant to be fun! They were meant to be like games, with goals and tangible ways to figure out how to win! This just seemed like torture, the world of the raid just as confusing and random as the real world.

    That was, of course, assuming there wasn¡¯t anything real and tangible about reading the will of the universe, and as Phlostra left Emilia and the kids into a temporary bedroom¡ªallegedly, they would be moved to a more permanent one inside a city and not a lower hallway tomorrow¡ªEmilia realized that she was going to have to actually try reading the universe herself, sooner rather than later.

    There was no way she was leaving this raid without knowing she could at least read the universe here.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 138: How Did We End Up At This Topic!?

    Emilia¡¯s legs idly kicked, her heels knocking against the bed of the room they''d been given. They, as in her and the kids. V had his own room elsewhere, and while Phlostra had offered to get Gale a private room, the teenager had refused. Strength in numbers, Emilia assumed, although Gale was unlikely to admit she felt safer with all of them in the same room.

    Then again, maybe safety wasn¡¯t her goal, considering she was currently trying to get Emilia to fuck off, although the teenager wasn¡¯t saying so in quite so rude terms.

    ?You need to go to him.?

    Emilia blinked at the girl. It was a bit uncomfortable, being told to go seek out V by a teenager. She would have assumed Gale¡¯s goal was simply for her to use the opportunity to get more information from the man about the current situation and what in the world they were doing here, expect that wasn¡¯t the case.

    ?Do you really want to wake up tomorrow and realize that woman made moves on him before you did? All because you wanted a good night¡¯s sleep?? Gale glowered down at her, her crossed arms making her look like an angry older sibling, menacing their younger, stupider sister into making moves on some guy. It would have been humorous, if it weren¡¯t inappropriate: Gale was barely a teenager! And yet here she was, lecturing an adult¡ªsomeone who would normally be considered an old lady in this world¡ªabout adult things!

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve already made multiple moves on him,¡± Emilia scribbled out. Phlostra had left her aethervoice suppressed, although that suppression would drop when the woman slept. It was unclear when that would be¡ªapparently the woman needed to go report what had happened to various other people¡ªbut it was liable to be sometime in the next few hours.

    ?Do you think anything other than who¡¯s closest matters to a man??

    Emilia gaped up at the girl. ¡°What? Where did you learn that?¡±

    Gale glared at the note, then to the other end of the bed, where Astra and Caro were curled against one another. Not knowing too much about how the rules of raids were generally set up, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if Astra was tired because her body was that of a child or not. They had travelled quite a bit, since their nap at the end of the labyrinth, but both kids had slept sporadically in her and V¡¯s arms during their descent. She and Gale should be the tired ones, yet it was the kids, and all Emilia could chalk it up to was their ages.

    ?After Ash¡­? Gale started before her voice trailed off, something about it telling Emilia this wasn¡¯t something she talked about often, if at all. The girl¡¯s weight shifted, her arms uncrossed, crossed again. Finally, she turned and plopped down beside Emilia, the bed bouncing quietly with her fall.

    ?My mom shut down. They¡¯d been trying for another kid, but¡­? She shook herself, cheeks lighting up as she told Emilia that she¡¯d overheard them arguing in the years after her sibling¡¯s accident about how they didn¡¯t have sex anymore.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s more than anyone needs to know about their parent¡¯s sex lives,¡± Emilia wrote, quickly adding, ¡°THAT WAS NOT MY FAULT!¡± when Gale pointed out that she¡¯d accidentally shared things that were clearly about her and V¡ªnot to mention some dude named Olivier¡¯s¡ªsex lives.

    Mortifyingly, Gale followed up by asking if she knew anything about her own parent¡¯s sex lives. Morbid curiosity, the teenager explained. People in this world didn¡¯t talk about sex with anyone outside of their partners. Inevitably, this meant that whenever Gale had tried to bring up what she knew with her friends, they had pretty much died of mortification.

    ¡°Do you really want to know?¡± Emilia asked, already gauging what she had accidentally learned over the years against the girl¡¯s age and curiosity and inability to get answers anywhere else.

    ¡°I know they have sex. I¡¯m not sure how much, given they¡¯re getting on in age, but when I was younger, their sex lives were active enough for their friends to question them on how bringing kids into their house was going to affect them¡ªmy siblings and I are adopted,¡± she added, when Gale gave her a confused look. ¡°My mom can¡¯t have kids, so they never have to use protection against pregnancy. Found that out when I went to go¡­ procure some protection for myself. None to be found. Ah¡­ does something birth control exist here?¡±

    Birth control did exist, apparently. Gale didn¡¯t know much about it, but talk about its existence was as close as most teens got to sex ed. Birth control kept you from getting pregnant. Pregnancy led to blood. Birth control was only available once you were married. Thus, don¡¯t have sex unless you want everyone up in your business, trying to make sure your uterus didn¡¯t destroy a city.

    According to Gale, most kids followed those rules. Occasionally, someone didn¡¯t. Things usually didn¡¯t end well for them.

    ?Anyways,? the teenager continued, her tone grumpy because she hadn¡¯t been able to force answers about the guy teenage Emilia had been searching out birth control for out of her, ?my dad¡­ went looking elsewhere. It didn¡¯t result in any half-siblings, but my mom still found out. It was her fault, for not¡­ you know.?

    Emilia wished she could speak to the girl, whisper into her that it was never the other person¡¯s fault when their partner¡ªtheir wife, husband, the person who was supposed to be their best friend¡ªcheated on them. She scribbled out notes to that effect, but it wasn¡¯t the same as hearing it¡ªas feeling the emotion in the other person¡¯s voice¡ªwould have been.

    Gale looked down at her note, contemplating it but not completely believing it. ?You should still go,? she whispered. ?He has answers to questions and¡­ and I know you want to. I can see it. I might think you can do better than that guy, but if that¡¯s who you want¡­?

    Speaking of which¡­

    ?Eh¡­? Gale pulled at a loose thread on her oversized sweater as she contemplated how to answer Emilia¡¯s question of why she didn¡¯t think V was good enough for her. They¡¯d all been happily supplied with more clothes by Phlostra, including matching sleep sweaters. They were huge and ridiculously comfortable, each a soft, fuzzy pale pink.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Emilia joined Gale as she flopped backward, their legs hanging uselessly over the edge of the bed. The teenager stared at the ceiling, Emilia stared at her. ?I don¡¯t know. I guess it isn¡¯t that he isn¡¯t good enough for you. There¡¯s just something about you two that doesn¡¯t fit, and before you say it, I know I didn¡¯t see much of you guys together. Miira already lectured me about that. She thinks I just don¡¯t like men.?

    ¡°Do you?¡± Emilia signed.

    The local girl shrugged, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if it meant she didn¡¯t know or something more complicated¡ªsometimes, or I like both girls and boys, or everyone is gross. Emilia wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if it were the latter.

    Still, she couldn¡¯t exactly disagree with the girl. She and V¡­ fit, but didn¡¯t. They were two brats, pushing and shoving at boundaries. If they really wanted it to work¡ªwanted something more permanent between them¡­ Well, Emilia had seen crazier combinations works¡ªNettie and Charles, for one¡ªbut it felt like they needed something¡ªsomeone¡ªmore. Or, for one of them to bend themselves into the controlling, sensible element of their relationship.

    Something told her neither of them would be into that.

    ¡°Who says this is anything more than a fling?¡± Emilia wrote, her words sloppier than usual over the notebook as she attempted to write lying down.

    Evidently, due to sex being off limits until marriage, flings weren¡¯t a thing. Gale was fascinated to know that people in her world just went off with anyone who struck their fancy¡ªthat it was perfectly okay to have long and short-term relationships.

    Unfortunately, the girl¡¯s fascination forced Emilia to sit back up, so she could write out a watered-down description of her hookup and dating history. To Gale, the most interesting thing seemed to be how she really hadn¡¯t had any long-term relationships, despite her age.

    ?Has there never been anyone?? Gale asked, after a brief moment of Emilia trying to explain what an open relationship was, the teenager having become confused when she realized Emilia was dating someone but also doing something with V in this world.

    This was a terrible conversation, how did she end up here!? From everything Emilia knew about this world, most of what her own life had been¡ªin terms of relationships and sex¡ªhad no equivalent here, so why was this discussion even happening!?

    Suddenly, she felt bad for their own sex ed teachers, facing down an army of giggling children and snarky teenagers as they tried to explain the myriad of different relationships in the world. What a horrible job! She didn¡¯t envy them at all! And their students always asked such inappropriate questions! Things just like Gale was asking, about what sorts of relationships they¡¯d had and how their love life was going. It was terrible! Was this the universe come for payment for her voice lending strength to some of those questions!?

    Emilia tapped her pen against the notebook, contemplating her answer. ¡°There have been,¡± she finally wrote one. ¡°My longest relationship¡­ it wouldn¡¯t have worked forever¡±¡ªfor one thing, if she¡¯d tried to marry her ex chances where Olivier and Rafe would have teamed up to get rid of him, not to mention the whole hopefully she would have grown into a person capable of telling him to shove off thing¡ª¡°but there were other people. It didn¡¯t work out.¡±

    The answer to why was already flowing out of her when Gale asked, curious and sad. She¡¯d sat up as well, her head rested against Emilia¡¯s shoulder. When had things become like this? Some relationship closer to friends, perhaps even siblings, rising between them? It wasn¡¯t like they had known each other long, and yet¡­ Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if it were her, or something in the raid platform¡ªor the platform maintainer¡ªfucking with things. The quickness of her friendships and connections in this world was just strange. Astra, Gale, V. Even on a lower level, with Rin and Key, Boundary and Benny¡ªConrad as well, in a strange way. Every relationship seemed to hit hard and strong, forming into something powerful within days, if not hours, of meeting.

    It was strange, but somehow right all at once.

    Low-key, she was also growing increasingly concerned about it. At first, she¡¯d chalked it up to something Payton was doing, returning her to her formally friendly self. As time went on, though, she wasn¡¯t so sure that was all there was too it.

    ¡°The first¡­ I don¡¯t know what happened. We were never really dating, but I thought¡­ maybe, one day. Then he left without much explanation, and¡­ I don¡¯t know. It was only ever a maybe, so it was easy to get over, more or less. Then there was someone else, and¡­¡±

    And Emilia couldn¡¯t finish that sentence¡ªcouldn¡¯t physically write out the reality that she¡¯d never been able to completely get over Olivier. Over half a lifetime later, he still owned part of her. Probably always would. He had left her, though. Walked away from the brief fling and never looked back at her as anything more than a friend and occasional fuck¡ªpossibly as some part of his past that he couldn¡¯t ditch as well, at times.

    ¡°And we wouldn¡¯t have worked out, anyways,¡± she finished, although given how long she had hesitated¡ªthe way Gale¡¯s fingers were running soothingly over her arm¡ªthe girl obviously knew that wasn¡¯t the whole story. ¡°We were never together together either. His life is complicated, and his parents would hate me.¡±

    She¡¯d met the de la Rue parentals a few times, but they always seemed to stare through her, their eyes not really comprehending her existence or understanding why she was there. Knowing what she did about them, Emilia knew she wasn¡¯t the type of person they had in mind for their son¡ªfor the powerhouse of their family, regardless of how rogue he had apparently been going since the war. Something they''d blame her for, definitely.

    ?You should go,? Gale whispered, sounding so sleepy that when her fingers stilled a moment later, her breathing evening out as dreams overtook her, Emilia wasn¡¯t surprised.

    Thankfully, the teenager was light and fast asleep within the safety of people she trusted. Moving her properly into the bed was no trouble. Almost immediately, the girl turned, seeking out the warm shapes of Caro and Astra to wrap around them.

    Emilia made her way to the closed curtains, intent to let the night in and seek sleep herself. Yes, she did want to go track down V, but also, comfortable bed. The man would wait for her, or he wouldn¡¯t. She had asked for what she wanted, more or less: exclusivity within the raid. He hadn¡¯t answered, but he had clearly understood. Depending on what Fran did tonight¡ªwhether she risked staking her own claim, despite what had happened earlier or not¡ªEmilia might have her answer in the morning.

    The curtains slid open and darkness began to eat the room, and Emilia hurried back to her side of the bed. Just as her fingers brushed the soft bedding, someone knocked lightly on the door. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize who it was, and when the door opened to V, Emilia was unsurprised.

    ?Want to go for a midnight walk?? the man asked, the same strange mood filling his eyes as earlier.

    Emilia glanced back at the kids. Asleep and so small. Vulnerable.

    ?They¡¯ll be safe here,? V promised, and Emilia hadn¡¯t regretted trusting him yet.

    ¡°Alright,¡± she said, letting the door shut behind her.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 139: Not Because of That Woman

    It was a relief, when V wrapped his hand around hers. It felt like it had been forever since they had held hands, although objectively, it had barely been more than a few hours. Another result of those too fast to develop friendships that were plaguing her in this world, Emilia assumed.

    ¡°My aethervoice suppression could end anytime,¡± she reminded the man quietly, as they walked. Phlostra had informed her of that before they all parted, but she wasn¡¯t sure if V had been listening, his eyes gazing off into the middle distance.

    V made an affirmative sound¡ªone that racketed through both the real world and aether, the man¡¯s lack of complete control over his voice amusing her. It was only fair that he occasionally mess up, given he had had his aethervoice just as long as she had! So unfair.

    As though he could read her thoughts, V began to quietly tell her about how he had been in raids with similar constraints before. ?It isn¡¯t exactly common, to have magic or communication systems so outside the standard of our world, but it happens, especially in blackaether raids.? His lips twitched as he assured her it would have taken him much longer to master the ability, if not for that experience.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t completely convinced, but she respected the attempt to make her feel better.

    They wandered the halls in silence for a long while. V¡¯s room was several floors beneath theirs, along with several other visitors the group had picked up as well. None of them had aethervoices¡ªor if they did, they had enough control of it to not risk waking everyone up with their chatter. Allegedly, that was why Emilia and the kids had been put on another floor¡ªshe wasn¡¯t completely convinced.

    V didn¡¯t lead them to his floor, though. Instead, he led them up several floors to a hall filled with windows that looked out on the dark city¡ªif you could consider four buildings a city. It was its own city system, she supposed. Smaller than the one far above them, perhaps, but a city system all the same.

    ¡°Do the Risen Guard know this place exists?¡± Emilia asked as they stared into the darkness. Occasionally, light peeked out from behind curtains of windows in the floors below their own, but the floors above seemed to lack windows¡ªcity levels, she assumed. It was a strange design¡ªone shared by the city system above them. Lower floors filled with rooms for seemingly no reason, the ones above filled with cities and labyrinths¡ªnot that these ones necessarily had labyrinths in them.

    ?I believe they have some knowledge of it. Phlostra implied the Risen Guard keep close track of their citizens. She didn''t explain why, but I can guess that missing people equals trouble; dead bodies and their blood, and all that.?

    V, who had dropped her hand and leaned back against the wall while she squinted into the world, trying to make out what few details she could, pushed himself up. The hallway was splattered with the light-emitting substance, and while the light was dim, it was there, and Emilia could make out his reflection in the glass as he came to stand behind her.

    He hesitated there, eyes searching her reflection for something. ?Sorry,? he finally said, a long puff of air leaking out of him. ?I just¡­? He swallowed, looked away.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if it would be easier for him like this, with her back to him, or not. It felt wrong, however, and she turned, leaning back against the glass to look up at him. His eyes flicked to hers, away again.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been weird since I attacked Fran,¡± she finally said, when the silence became too much to bear, stretching and tangling between them. ¡°I know she was your friend, but she cut me off when I was just trying to kept Caro and¡ª¡±

    ?What??

    ¡°What what?¡±

    They stared at each other, V finally meeting her eyes for more than the barest moment. He looked¡­ confused.

    ¡°Was that¡­ not why you¡¯ve been weird since then?¡± Granted, there were a million other moments that had happened between her and Fran before that, which could have easily added up to V¡¯s strange mood, but that had definitely seemed like the final straw.

    ?I¡¯m not upset with you about Fran?? the other visitor finally said, although it came out more like a question.

    ¡°Oh¡­ then why?¡± There were probably a thousand ways Emilia could have asked that better, but she was tired, okay!? Tired and annoyed with¡­ everyone. Fran, most of all. V, a little. The person who had let the knotter loose onto the Piketown streets and led her to being here, although the idea of never having met V or Astra or anyone from this world¡­

    ?Hey, are you okay!?? V asked, voice holding a touch of panic. It took him reaching out and rubbing a stray tear from her cheek for Emilia to realize she was crying.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she lied¡ªit was so clearly a lie. She swiped a sleeve over her eyes, the fuzzy fabric protecting her from the wetness. ¡°I just¡­¡± she trailed off, unsure of what even to say.

    ?I¡¯m not into Fran,? V said, and Emilia couldn¡¯t blame him for the assumption she was crying over the idea of him and that horrible woman together¡ªhadn¡¯t she just made the same assumption of him being upset with her over the woman? She wasn¡¯t, though, not really. They were just one part of the annoyance and misery and wonder of this place.

    Emilia told him as much. Words and mumbles about how terrible it was here and how she should have left the situation to SecOps and The Black Knot escaping her, along with something about how she couldn¡¯t quite bring herself to regret coming. V had pulled her into a hug, somewhere through her rant, and he couldn¡¯t have even been able to hear most of her whining tantrum¡ªbecause that was what her rambling sobs were, in the end. Just the whining of a child who was overtired and sad and probably a bit lonely, not to mention impossibly frustrated.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she mumbled, pulling back and rubbing furtively at the wet spot her tears had left on his shirt. ¡°Didn¡¯t get the fancy pyjamas?¡± she asked, noting that he was still wearing the same thing he had been earlier that day. It had been clean when they met, but now several stains marred it, and he smelled more like himself. It wasn¡¯t a bad scent, but he had clearly spent the day carting around children and running through raids.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ?I did,? he said, amusement filling his voice, and when Emilia chanced to look up, he seemed more relaxed than he had before. ?I just wasn¡¯t into wandering around in a sweater that barely covers my butt. We aren¡¯t all as short as you¡ªnor are our butts as nice.?

    ¡°True that,¡± Emilia agreed, leaning to the side as though she could see V¡¯s butt from this angle, if only she tried hard enough. ¡°From what I remember of our shower, yours is pretty nice, though.¡±

    The other visitor smiled softly, if unbelievingly, down at her, and Emilia chanced reaching up and gently cupping his face. Where only minutes ago he might have flinched away, now he turned into it. It wasn¡¯t quite the same open softness of before, but it was closer.

    ¡°V, what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    The man¡¯s eyes fluttered shut, darkness offering some safety for his words, perhaps. ?I don¡¯t like when people die for me,? he finally admitted, his voice so soft Emilia might have missed it if her everything weren¡¯t turned towards him.

    ¡°Did someone die?¡± Emilia asked, sounding as stupid as she felt. No one had died, right? Unless V had somehow gained access to the system, and some message had come through about a death? Maybe some local had helped him, and died for it? That felt like the sort of thing he would have told her¡ªthe system part, not the death. Well, maybe the death, too.

    V huffed, the sound humourless. ?Emilia,? he said, his tone implying she was the stupidest person he had ever met. ?You moved in front of me.?

    It took a long moment for Emilia to realize what he meant¡ªto realize he was referring to her stepping in front of their group when Fran had attacked her. ¡°But¡­ this is a raid?¡± she said¡ªasked? She might have asked, she wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°I can¡¯t actually die? And, you stepped in front of me first.¡± She wasn¡¯t sure why it mattered that he had risked his life within the raid for her first, but it seemed like it should.

    V shook his head, the movement slight against her hand, still pressed against his cheek. ?It doesn¡¯t matter, whether it¡¯s in a raid or the real world. I don¡¯t¡ª I don¡¯t do well when people I care about risk their lives for me. I thought¡­? He trailed off again, eyes turning out into the darkness of the city system.

    They stayed like that for a long moment, V working through his thoughts¡­ apparently in silence, while Emilia rubbed her thumb over his cheek and contemplated whether it would be extra difficult to work through your thoughts when you could only think in images and vibes, if you wanted to keep your thoughts internal. It seemed impossible, and like just asking for trouble.

    Thinking logically, with words about a problem, seemed less traumatizing than reliving it through images. Then again, considering she¡¯d been dealing with unresolved trauma for over a decade, perhaps she shouldn¡¯t be sharing her opinion on such matters.

    ?I thought I was over it,? V finally said. ?Maybe not in the real world. If war suddenly broke out again¡ªand thank the fucking stars even echo events are lessening¡ªI don¡¯t think I¡¯d do well watching people die for me.?

    The again in V¡¯s words went unsaid, but Emilia heard it all the same. People had died protecting V during the war, and that had left its mark, just like it had marked her and James and every other person who had fought. It just marked everyone differently. It had destroyed James, but for her¡­ For her, that wasn¡¯t the crux of her trauma: it was just an unfortunate, accepted part.

    Unfortunately, during the war, whenever she¡¯d stepped in to protect someone else, she had been yelled at. Not by her own unit¡ªno one in their unit had actively valued their member¡¯s lives over anyone else''s. Yes, they all knew their lives¡ªtheir power¡ªwere worth more on the battlefield than nearly everyone outside their unit, but there was a difference between accepting supports would die protecting you, and refusing to save another person because of that worth.

    If they had viewed themselves that way, Alliance Ridge might never have happened. Rather than people like Halen staying to fight¡ªto try to save the civilians who would never be able to evacuate in time¡ªeveryone might have run, not in fear, like so many of their unit had tried to do that day, but in arrogance.

    My life is worth more than a civilian¡¯s.

    Why should I stay and die for them?

    There was something to be said for that mentality¡ªthat a powerhouse dying saving a single person might not be worth it. Some people had that mentality, and Emilia couldn¡¯t really fault them for it. There were more than a few war heroes who had saved millions of people later in the war because they had chosen to abandon a lost cause earlier, leaving others to die, including within their own unit. Generally, their unit had been people who would die fighting, but that didn¡¯t mean they had never retreated¡ªit had just been rare, and when all hope was lost. Never because their lives were worth more.

    The brass hadn¡¯t liked that mentality. There had been years, especially in the early part of the war, when their leaders had tried to order their unit out of the worst battles. It had never worked. They were untouchable to the brass and their rules.

    Still were, technically. A nice little safety net, in case any of them were ever caught doing something they shouldn¡¯t be. Short of murdering another war hero or supporting terrorism or making the military look downright repugnant, there wasn¡¯t much anyone could do to them.

    It was nice, and terrible, all at once.

    ?I didn¡¯t think it would affect me so much here,? V said, his voice holding truth, until he added, ?I guess I was wrong. Sorry. Watching you step in front of an attack meant for me¡­ It just took me back, to being a useless child on the front, watching people die keeping me safe.? He smiled, the move painful.

    Emilia could have called him on his lie¡ªcould have pointed out that if it had been someone else, he probably wouldn¡¯t have reacted the way he had. It wasn¡¯t like she was positive about that, but she was pretty fucking sure. V wasn¡¯t wrong, if it hadn¡¯t been her, he would have been fine. Having her step in front of him had been different, and chances were that once, she had saved this man, in the real world. Back when he was a child on the front.

    Pieces tried to slide together in Emilia¡¯s head, every little clue she¡¯d learned about the man in front of her trying to come together to form the person he used to be.

    Emilia refused to let them. It was funny. She¡¯d spent so long trying to figure out who he was, and yet now, only a mental jump away from an answer¡ªor at least a shortlist of contestants in the Who is V? mystery¡ªshe couldn¡¯t do it: she couldn¡¯t spoil the surprise, couldn¡¯t dig into the man and discover the person he used to be.

    The person he clearly didn¡¯t want to be anymore.

    Her thumb rubbed over his cheek once more before she pushed up onto her toes and kissed him, an innocent, closed mouth kiss. At least, it was until he slammed her against the window, his tongue forcing its way inside her.

    ?Emilia,? he hissed into her as he devoured her, his hands slipping under the hem of her sweater to cup her ass.

    Nails dragged over the sensitive skin where her ass met thigh, and she shuddered, pulling away to gaze up at the man, her hand gently pushing him away. Polite boy that he was, he instantly vanished from her mouth. He blinked down at her, uncoordinated thoughts about how to ask if he¡¯d overstepped tumbling out of the aether.

    Her mouth twitched, and she pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, damp with their spit. ¡°Let¡¯s go somewhere else?¡± she asked. The last thing she needed was for her aethervoice to come slamming back to her while they were fucking in a public hallway. Plus, for all his control, even V seemed incapable of controlling his sexual thoughts.

    V blinked down at her before leaning over and throwing her over his shoulder, a stream of giggles escaping her as she playful beat her fists against his back. ?As you wish,? he teased, beginning the trek back to his room.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 140: The Mind of the Sleep Deprived

    ?Emilia??

    Emilia groaned and tried to roll over. The beds here were soft, at the very least. That had been the worst thing about leaving the Risen Guard compound: losing the bed. She had no idea how long they¡¯d been sticking around in this place, but if they could keep sleeping in these beds, Emilia might never leave. Screw winning this thing or removing the blood curse. Sleep was more important.

    ¡°?What are you doing??¡± she mumbled, trying to pull the leg V had grabbed away from him. ¡°?I¡¯m all for sleepy sex, but it¡¯s too early.?¡± It felt like they¡¯d only just fallen asleep.

    ?Astra is outside,? V whispered into her, hands dragging her underwear back up her body. The fabric was wet against her¡ªor she was still wet. It was unclear, but it wasn¡¯t exactly pleasant, and Emilia wrinkled her nose as V pulled her up and manhandled her back into her sweater.

    ¡°?The room smells like sex,?¡± she said, moving to push herself up. The girl might actually be a teenager, but it still wasn¡¯t appropriate for her to join them in their sex-stained bed, clothed or not.

    The other visitor didn¡¯t disagree with her as he pulled on more of his clothing.

    ¡°?Did you answer the door like that??¡± she asked, realizing he had been wearing his underwear before working to get her dressed.

    V shot her a look that seemed to say, ?There was someone at the door. I had to answer it.? That was fair, but also¡­

    ¡°?Astra,?¡± Emilia sighed, voice cutting off into a yawn as she blinked down at the little girl. ?What¡¯s up, sweetheart??

    The only good thing about Astra having arrived at such a terrible hour was that Emilia¡¯s mind was still largely offline. There wasn¡¯t a lot happening up there, so not too much to leak out. Some still leaked out: complaints about her feet being cold, wondering how Astra had found them, wondering if V was coming with them.

    ?Yes,? he replied, hand dragging lazily over her waist before he smiled down at Astra. ?Do you want me or Emilia to carry you, little one??

    Someone should probably tell the man that Astra was actually a visitor, probably not now¡ªnot where people could hear. Visions of speaking to V, of telling him the truth shifted through Emilia¡¯s head, vague and wordless.

    ¡­

    It was strange, thinking in pictures and feelings as V hauled Astra into her arms¡ªapparently Astra had judged Emilia to be too tired to carry her safely. That was fair. Everything was a blur as V grabbed her hand and dragged her through the hall and up the stairs, her legs sluggish with the remnants of sleep.

    Autopilot¡ªit felt like she was running on autopilot. She¡¯d seen her mother do that, when she was younger. The woman would float through the world after a particularly bad night, nightmares tugging at her children¡¯s screams and keeping her awake half the night. Drinks and breakfast would be made, regardless. Buttons safely pressed, children safely delivered to school, despite her brain obviously being elsewhere¡ªin dream land, most likely.

    This felt like that: like moving through a dream that wasn¡¯t a dream.

    ?You¡¯re quiet,? V whispered, his hand a grounding force around her own. If he let go, she''d probably float away.

    Her mind filled with the image of it: her feet floating upwards as V held her hand, his grip slipping as she shot upwards, floating up a thousand stairs. Where did the stairs end? Was it like the world above, where the Stringer¡¯s estate seemed to exist above the clouds of spicy and hateful heat? Did people live atop these buildings as well, staring into the abyss of the ceiling¡ªof the light eating mechanisms?

    Emilia blinked, and they were in front of a door. It was probably their door¡ªhers and the kids. Astra had fallen asleep against V¡¯s neck, and she couldn¡¯t help but reach out her free hand to smooth the girl¡¯s hair down. Her eyes met V¡¯s, and she wondered what he looked like in real life. He didn¡¯t have those double dimples, that she was sure of, her sleepy mind naturally slotting V and another, much younger face together. No wonder she¡¯d always found that dimple so terrible: it didn¡¯t belong.

    She shook off visions of that boy¡¯s soft, nervous smile. There was a promise to uphold, one to not search through her memories for answers. It was a promise to herself, granted, but a promise she needed to keep, nonetheless. Her brain still tried, another child overlaying Astra, like it had any right to do such things.

    Too fast.

    Too soon.

    ¡°?I¡¯m pretty sure the platform or the maintainer is fucking with me,?¡± she said instead, leaning forward to rest her head against the man¡¯s chest, her eyes fluttering shut.

    A hand, rough with calluses, ran through her hair, catching on knots. Had she even combed her hair since she¡¯d arrived? She¡¯d combed Astra and Caro¡¯s and the nameless boy that she would never see again.

    [Emilia: what happened to that boy?]

    Emilia hadn¡¯t met to send that message¡ªhadn¡¯t meant to bother Boundary with her sleep-deprived nonsense. How was she sleep-deprived? Maybe another result of the Risen Guard¡¯s sleep manipulation; perhaps they¡¯d all actually been getting far too little sleep. That would track. People naturally tired when the lights went out, but only to an extent. Better to shorten both the days and the nights.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    [Boundary: He will be taken care of. Do not worry.]

    Nothing followed. Maybe he was sleeping as well, roused because her words had pressed into his mind with too much sleep drunken power.

    ?Emilia?? V called. It didn¡¯t sound like it was for the first time.

    She hummed into his chest in acknowledgement. The sound came out too loud, both through the aether and real world, and Emilia cringed, hoping Astra wouldn¡¯t stir. She didn¡¯t.

    ?Why do you think something is messing with your head??

    Emilia shook her head, nodded, trying to make the words and thoughts come out as something coherent. The irony that she spent so long trying to silence her internal voice, and now, when she needed it, it was nowhere to be found. ?Moments,? she managed to think, her voice sliding through the aether. It may have found its way only into V. Unfortunately, there was no one around to confirm that theory, and if V knew, he didn¡¯t share the fact that sleepy her could control her aethervoice so well¡ªso terribly.

    It was probably still terrible, even if she was now mostly silent, the space of her thoughts filling up the quiet of the night.

    ?So many moments. Connections, too, and dreams. Have your dreams been weird??

    V tensed under her. That was strange¡ªall of this was strange. Hadn¡¯t that been what she had been trying to say? That something about this world was strange, and she couldn¡¯t place the why of it, except to say it must be for the same reason real-world raids disliked her: they knew her. She had designed the system that lay under all of the magic around them, and it knew that¡ªknew she was the terrible, neglectful mother who had abandoned it to the hands of greed.

    It felt like the maintainer was fucking with her, dropping obnoxiously into their raid challenges just to be a jerk. If she ever found out who was behind this raid¡ªand Emilia sure as the stars could, if she really wanted to¡ªshe would have a few strong words and punches for them. It was one thing to mess with visitors¡ªheroes¡ªbut the locals, too? The kids? There was no need to subject them to the treatment of a rude host, making fun of them.

    The maintainer was being an ass, but it hadn¡¯t felt targeted at her¡ªmore a game designer pushing at their players for the sake of it.

    The friendship thing, though? That felt personal in a way the host didn¡¯t¡ªthat felt targeted at her. Of course, she had no way to prove that. Sure, she could ask V if he had experienced anything similar while they were apart, but if didn¡¯t feel like he had, his connections to Fran and Phlostra polite, but distant.

    Rather, it felt like the moment they had met, their relationship had formed into something so solid it had become an overwhelming worse within her.

    Should she be worried about that? Worried about how much being inside a raid could fuck with people¡¯s minds? She¡¯d already known it could, of course, but not like this. Another mark in her tally of reasons this didn¡¯t feel normal¡ªwhy it felt targeted. Sil was observant, if he had ever experienced something like this, he would have noticed, and as much as she might not keep up with some of her war buddies, she knew a handful of them played virtual raids a lot.

    There was no way they wouldn¡¯t have noticed, just as clearly as she had. No way they wouldn¡¯t have put out a warning to everyone in their group chat: something is wrong with the raids.

    Her eyes turned up at V, his head tilted to gaze down at her. Blips and blobs of her thoughts were leaking out, mysterious and unintelligible. That was probably for the best, he didn¡¯t need to hear her mull over why he hadn¡¯t noticed any strangely strong relationships forming. He didn¡¯t need to hear her come to the conclusion that his connection to her was a normal one, grounded in what had existed between them in the real-world, decades prior. Whatever extra now existed between them¡­ had that extra been awoken after years apart? Shifted with the ease of two friends reuniting under different circumstances? A natural progression? Or had it always been there, and she¡¯d just never noticed?

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure what it was¡ªwhat the reason behind V¡¯s attachment was. It wasn¡¯t the platform. Maybe none of it was. Maybe it was just her being lonely and traumatized and attaching herself onto any friendly face, attracting them to her like she had when she was younger.

    ?Never mind,? she mumbled, nose nudging at V¡¯s neck.

    He wiggled, his neck being the sensitive thing it was. She should have sucked another mark onto it, the one she¡¯d left that first night long faded or healed by the system.

    There was something silly and sacrilegious about sucking a hickey¡ªa mark of blood and connection¡ªinto him in this world that feared blood and delayed romantic connection until it was too late to regret your choice of spouse.

    ?Emilia,? the man hissed, nails dragging over her scalp as she latched on, sucking a beautiful mark across him.

    ?Take that Fran. Proof that this one is mine.?

    Apparently that one came out as words, V gently whispering a ?Yes? into her that made her wish they weren¡¯t about to go tuck themselves into a bed with a bunch of kids. When she got around to seeing her parents again, she really needed to apologize for spending so many nights in their bed. Nothing like kids to kill your sex life.

    ?We should¡­? she began to say, her eyes already fluttering shut again as words escaped her.

    Her hair shifted with a puff of air, amused¡ªat least V was amused by her pathetic sleepiness. They say you can only sleep this well with people you love and trust, from the bottom of your heart. There were so many people Emilia could count that filled that requirement.

    Elijah wasn¡¯t one, and the pain of that was sharp against her heart. Expected, but painful all the same. She¡¯s thought their relationship fun, if not long-lasting. When had it become dragging?

    ?Yes, you should,? V said as he slid open the door and manoeuvred them inside.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure what she¡¯d said¡ªwhat he was agreeing with. Maybe Astra had said something to him, or Gale had yelled for them to get their asses inside, to stop disturbing the peace with her splatterings of thoughts, striking out across the world without a need to be heard or understood.

    When V shifted her into the bed after Astra, however, the two of them rolling and shifting until Astra was curled between Gale¡¯s back and Emilia¡¯s chest, Caro tucked close against Gale¡¯s front, Emilia found the teenager fast asleep. If she had noticed Astra leave, she hadn¡¯t stayed away to make sure she came back. Emilia wouldn¡¯t have faulted her if she had fallen back asleep¡ªstars knew she had passed out more than a few times through her life, when staying awake was the smarter, less traumatizing thing to do.

    Sometimes, it didn¡¯t matter how hard you fought, sleep would come. There, tucked between the warmth of children she loved¡ªchildren she would shatter when she was parted from them¡ªand the safety of V¡ªof the boy he was and the man he became¡ªEmilia wouldn¡¯t have been able to fight sleep if her life depended on it.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 141: Part of â€œEveryoneâ€

    ?And¡­ there you go.? Phlostra leaned back out of Emilia¡¯s space, where she had been pouting on the bed while the woman reactivated her aethervoice suppression.

    Emilia had hoped, after her experience the night before, that she had gained at least a little control of her aethervoice. Not so much. What control she had gained was dependent entirely on her being sleep-deprived, her mind sludged over with sleepiness. It was no longer sluggish or sleepy, and within moments of waking up, Gale had been forced to remove herself, Caro and Astra from the room while V went to find someone capable of suppressing her aethervoice once more.

    Luckily, Caro still seemed oblivious to what her thoughts had been about, while Astra had still been asleep herself. Gale was horrified¡ªthe poor kid really didn¡¯t need to know more about anyone else¡¯s sex lives, let alone her and V¡¯s. V, on his part, was part-amused, part-embarrassed. That hadn¡¯t helped his case, as Emilia had been wishing him dead when he¡¯d returned with Phlostra in tow.

    The woman herself was mostly amused. ?Happens all the time,? she had assured Emilia.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t believed her, of course. All she¡¯d heard implied that by the time children were five or six they had near perfect control of their aethervoices, but according to Phlostra, that wasn¡¯t quite accurate.

    ?Puberty is a powerful thing,? the woman explained, throwing in a few anecdotes about her own, now grown children¡¯s meandering thoughts about sex. ?It¡¯s especially common in the morning. The number of times I came to wake up one of my children, only to find them half-dreaming about some classmate, their hips thrusting against the¡ª?

    ?MOTHER!? someone screamed.

    The three of them turned towards the voice. They¡¯d been making their way to the children, who had been grabbed up by Phlostra¡¯s husband and carted off to get breakfast. Over the course of Phlostra¡¯s amusing and mortifying anecdotes, they¡¯d made it to the cafeteria that provided food for all the building¡¯s lower levels, a series of bridges connecting the four buildings. They had yet to find the children or the rest of Phlostra¡¯s family; however, a group of them had come in behind them.

    ?Ah, one of my formerly spunky in the morning sons,? Phlostra sighed, giving her eldest son a sweetly unbelievable smile while the man gawked at her.

    Behind him, a woman looked to be suppressing a smile, while a teenage girl was seemingly paying none of them any attention.

    ?DO NOT TELL PEOPLE SUCH MORTIFYING STORIES!? the man hissed, stomping over to glare into his mother¡¯s face, their noses nearly touching for how close he got. Like his mother, he had deep brown skin and a high ponytail of blonde braids trailing down his back, although they were noticeably shorter than Phlostra¡¯s.

    Phlostra seemed unperturbed and simply shrugged before greeting her daughter-in-law and granddaughter¡ªa child who had grown up with this group, she supposed. Phlostra had told them her own parents had joined this group when she was in her teens, several years into her training as an Enclave member, after they had become disillusioned with their family¡¯s willingness to do anything to remove the blood curse from the world. Everyone had been welcoming to her, just as they were to all new members, regardless of where they came from and their histories.

    A tiny body slammed into her, and Emilia was unsurprised to find Astra attached to her when she glanced down. ¡°Hello, little one,¡± she said, signing the words to her, and a larger hello to Gale and Caro sitting at a table far to the side.

    Due to their quick exit, none of the three had had the opportunity to change out of their oversized sweater pyjamas. Neither Caro nor Astra seemed to care, but the death glare Gale was giving her was impressive¡ªEmilia had taken an opportunity to change into something more respectable, and V had raced back to his room to grab fresh clothes of his own. Then again, the teenager could still be pissed about the whole morning sex musing she¡¯d unfortunately overheard.

    Gale continued glaring at her as she and the others sat down, Phlostra politely introducing them to each of her family members, several of whom V had obviously met before.

    ?Is your mother not joining us, Yuka??

    A dark haired young adult glanced up from their food. They blinked, slow and steady, before shaking their head. ?She has a meeting with Ajarni.?

    Beside her, V tensed, the movement so slight that, had her shoulder not been pressed against his, Emilia might not have noticed.

    ?Things are moving along then?? Phlostra asked, her attention locked so completely onto her step-grandchild that the entire world seemed to fall away from her.

    Yuka nodded, eyes turning back to their food as they added that there would be a meeting after breakfast. ?For everyone,? they said, every adult at the table shifting anxiously in their seats.

    ?That¡¯s soon,? Phlostra¡¯s daughter-in-law said. Her hand reached out to grab her husband¡¯s, the man seemingly annoyed that he could no longer eat. Emilia contented herself to watching them as the table fell into near silence as everyone ate. Where his wife seemed to want comfort¡ªfrom what, Emilia had no idea¡ª Phlostra¡¯s son just wanted to eat. He tried politely removing her hand several times, pressing it against his thigh, his upper arm¡ªeven trying to hold it with his other hand at one point. No dice. The woman would not be put off from holding that specific hand, and eventually the aether rippled with annoyance as he privately told her¡ªEmilia assumed¡ªto fuck off and let him eat.

    Emilia wondered what V would do, if she did something similar, and when her own tiny meal was done¡ªher appetite in this world had been rather small, even if she did feel hunger occasionally¡ªshe snuck her hand over to his. The other visitor tensed, before effortlessly shifting which hand he was eating with. His hand turned over, wrapping around hers and pulling it under the table.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Gale, who hadn¡¯t stopped glaring at her and her normal clothes since they¡¯d arrived, raised an eyebrow. A private, ?See? I told you it would work,? slid through Emilia, and she tried to fight down a blush.

    She didn¡¯t think she was completely successful, unfortunately, her cheeks feeling hot as she waited for the rest of their group to finish. Fortunately, breakfast was fast, and then there was whatever this meeting was about to deal with because apparently she and V were included in the everyone. The kids too, which seemed ill-advised, although Emilia wasn¡¯t about to leave them unattended either, not with how weird the mood had become at the mention of this meeting.

    Everyone turned out to not actually be everyone. No one from the city levels above came, only people who lived in the levels of rooms below. According to Phlostra, several thousand people lived in the city levels, a mixture of descents of the group¡¯s founders and people they had picked up along the way.

    ?We all generally live there,? she explained as she led everyone through halls and bridges to wherever the meeting would be taking place. ?When you visitors arrived, we moved the core of our combat force into the lower levels. It¡¯s just easier to defend our city from here, and to interfere with what is happening above.?

    Someone snorted, the sound silly coming through the aethernet. Emilia thought back to Gale and Miira assuring her that no such sounds came out by accident.

    Phlostra seemed of the same opinion, giving her youngest child¡ªa woman who had glared at Emilia with more hatred than she was usually victim to¡ªa scathing look. ?Do you have something to add to the conversation, Jerrina?? she asked.

    Her daughter grumbled a no and stomped off as they reached the meeting room. She swerved down the rows of seats and plopped down beside none other than Fran. Well, that may very well explain the hatred. Oh well. Emilia had bigger things to worry about than some woman bitter that she hadn¡¯t gotten the man.

    The man in question shot her a look when she pulled their still joined hands up, placing a kiss to the back of his, while Fran glared at them. ?Really?? he asked, rolling his eyes when she smiled.

    ?Bitch,? Gale growled from beside her. Unlike Emilia, who barely spared Fran a glance, Gale was all from glaring at the woman. For such a small, inexperienced girl, the teenager was rather fearless. Hopefully, that wouldn''t come back to bite her. Then again, if Fran did try to seek revenge of some sort on Gale, Emilia would have an excuse to get rid of her.

    ¡°What do you think Jerrina was snorting about?¡± Emilia whispered to V as they took seats, Phlostra leaving them to go and talk to some officials seated at a long table at the front of the room, one a woman who looked so like Phlostra that Emilia immediately assumed it must be Yuka¡¯s missing mother.

    The room itself was huge, taking up what must have been a quarter of the building¡¯s floor space. Giant windows covered two of the walls, reaching up thirty or so feet, the glass-like material stained a gentle purplish shade. It made the view of the buildings and rock outside more appealing than it was anywhere else, where the world came out a bland, depressing grey-brown. The grey-purple was a bit better.

    The seats were angled towards the corner where the windows met, hundreds and hundreds of them. They weren¡¯t tidy, looking like they had recently been filled full and their occupants had left each hard red chair a little askew. Now, most were empty. Phlostra¡¯s family was slowly filling up one section, several rows in front of the ones she¡¯d left them at. Based on looks alone, Emilia could guess that several of the other groups scattered through the room were relatives of the other officials seated at the front of the room.

    Other chairs were occupied sporadically by people Emilia could only assume were either waiting for friends and family, were loners, or were other visitors. For the most part, the visitors were obvious, what with their strange colourings, although many now had local clothing. Not that they were necessarily the only visitors. Not only had some people, like Astra, lucked out and given themselves colouring that helped them pass for being a local, but the original, avatar customization system had mentioned ways to alter your appearance in-raid.

    So far, the only thing Emilia had come across that allowed such changes was magic. Harmony had originally changed her appearance, before they left for the library labyrinth. That magic had faded quickly, however, even with Zach¡¯s top-up. That didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t other, more permanent means of altering one''s appearance, and combined with how easily some people found using their aethervoices¡­

    Well, Emilia wasn¡¯t making any assumptions.

    ?I don¡¯t know,? V said, pulling Emilia back to her question about Jerrina, his eyes sliding over to where the woman and Fran were sitting.

    Around the women, the aether rippled with silent conversation as they sent glares her way. She smiled, pulling up her and V¡¯s joined hands to wave at the women.

    ?Do you have to antagonize them?? he asked, turning to glare at her.

    ¡°Look, it ain¡¯t my fault she decided to go after someone who is already involved in¡±¡ªshe waved their joined hands between them¡ª¡°whatever this is. Did you not tell her? Cause if you didn¡¯t it seems even more unfair that she¡¯s upset with me.¡±

    ?I told her I wasn¡¯t interested and that the friend I was looking for was more than a friend,? V confirmed.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if Fran knowing V had someone else made the women¡¯s annoyance with her more or less aggravating. It really was unfair that Fran was blaming her, seemingly for simply existing. Very uncool. Then again, given how different relationships here were, perhaps she hadn¡¯t understood what V meant by more than a friend? Still. ¡°She should just find someone else. It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll be here long, or like she knew you so long to have fallen madly in love.¡±

    ?I don¡¯t think she can find someone else,? V said, leaning in conspiratorially, as though he couldn¡¯t speak privately via aethervoice regardless of how physically close they were. ?The first day I was here, some of the other men warned me away from her. They said she was crazy.?

    Emilia turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow. ¡°Did you think they were lying?¡±

    The man shrugged. ?I figured there was some merit to what they were saying, but I learned long ago not to trust the opinions of others without seeing proof of their words. Plus,? he added, tilting back in his chair and smiling like the most confident man in the world, ?she was one of the few people willing to help me find you.?

    ¡°Bet she¡¯s regretting that now,¡± Emilia sighed, sagging back in her own chair and turning to watch Caro and Astra.

    They¡¯d designed some sort of game over their hours together, since leaving the Risen Guard compound. Most of it had been devised before Astra had been revealed to be a visitor, which was impressive, given the children hadn¡¯t been able to actually discuss the rules. The majority of its creation had been Caro suggesting things and Astra agreeing or disagreeing, or occasionally, trying to pantomime her opinion.

    The resulting game was¡­ confusing. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she understood the rules, nor did she think it seemed very fun. Kids considered strange things fun, however, so for all she knew it was the most enjoyable game in the world.

    It was also, thankfully, silent, and when Phlostra returned to sit by them¡ªcurious, given her family was also present¡ªshe didn¡¯t bother asking them to stop as a middle-aged man, who had been seated at the front table since they arrived, stood.

    The room well silent, even the whispers of private conversations stilling, and the meeting began.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 142: The Creep of Otherness

    ? ? ? The Meeting, Several Hours Earlier ? ? ?

    ?Welcome,? the man said as he rose, his extravagant robes spreading wide as he opened his arms in greeting. Where everyone else in the room, even the other officials seated to either side of him, were either dressed for battle or still in morning loungewear, this man looked like a royal. His outfit wasn¡¯t quite the excessive, heavy layers of a Dion royal, but they were by far the most fanciful thing Emilia had seen in this world. The sheer black of his clothing, glittering under the light cast by the windows behind him, put even the Stringer Matriarch¡¯s clothing to shame.

    The man smiled and Emilia suppressed a shudder. It wasn¡¯t that the smile didn¡¯t meet his eyes, the way so many fake smiles were given away. It was that it did, and yet the man seemed wrong. Not the wrongness of a black knot or someone like Sk¡¯lar. Something else. Something other that made her want to grab the kids and run as far and fast as she could.

    If she didn¡¯t think they¡¯d be killed before they could even reach the doors, she might have tried.

    This man¡ªthis entire place; there was something wrong with it, creeping through the air as an unseen force, flickering into this world for moments as the man talked, his voice an oozing, sweet manipulation that seemed intent to press at Emilia¡¯s mind, looking for a gap it couldn¡¯t find.

    It found that gap in others, in the Clarity members spread through the room. She could see the way they shuddered, their eyes flickering with awareness before melting away, their smiles of unyielding love for their leader falling to confusion and concern before sliding back just as something filled them back up.

    V¡¯s hand tightened around hers. Astra¡¯s flicked up for the barest of moments from her game with Caro, their own eyebrows pulled together and Emilia could feel them searching the aethernet for answers to some unvoiced question.

    And Gale? Gale looked like she was about to be sick, her body shrinking as she pulled so close to Emilia that she practically climbed into her lap.

    Yeah, this so wasn¡¯t good.

    ? ? ? Present ? ? ?

    ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± Emilia grumbled, scuffing her foot over the ground as they prepared to leave. ¡°Something doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±

    V shot her a look, one that said he didn¡¯t like it any more than she did. ?Sorry,? he said before turning back to his bag and stuffing more items into it. ?It¡¯s my fault we ended up here. I didn¡¯t realize they were this¡­ militant.? V huffed, forcing more items into his bag. Some he shrunk down using his core, but as Emilia¡¯s own experiments over their days apart had shown her, it wasn¡¯t such an easy thing to do to items that didn¡¯t have a natural flow of magic through them. In other words, normal clothing? All but impossible to shrink.

    ¡°I don¡¯t blame you,¡± Emilia assured him. She didn¡¯t, but this situation¡­ wasn¡¯t good. Being with the Risen Guard still might very well have been better than this, although who knew how that would have turned out as the days dragged on.

    V struggled to get another item into his bag, and Emilia stepped forward, waving him off as she rearranged several of the items. The man was frustrated with himself and taking it out on his innocent bag. Said bag had followed him through his disappearance in the Livery Labyrinth, appearing at his feet once he and the children¡ªwho were currently being housed in a city level above them¡ªcame to.

    They had wound up in another section of the labyrinth and worked their way through it¡ªsomething that V was resolutely refusing to talk about. ?I told you,? he had told her during their brief discussion of it, ?I have too many terrible skills from my years in blackaether raids.?

    Emilia hadn¡¯t asked about it again, seeing in the way the man was staring absently into space that whatever had happened hadn¡¯t been good. He had informed her that all of them had escaped the labyrinth physically unharmed¡ªwhich wasn¡¯t exactly the most encouraging news she¡¯d heard¡ªbefore being found by the group they were now marching into what would almost certainly become a war with.

    When she had informed V that escaping with only some psychological trauma meant his group had escaped their trek with fewer injuries than her own group had, the man had been horrified. It had taken a moment to calm him down, while she told him about what had happened during the rest of the labyrinth and the city that followed¡ªabout the random Enclave member, Boundary, Conrad and his brother.

    V had been glad to hear the asshole who had caused the stampede was dead, even if he wasn¡¯t enthusiastic about her budding friendships with Conrad¡ªnot that it was guaranteed they would see each other again¡ªor Boundary. The other visitor had been so upset that Emilia had neglected to tell him about her ability to contact Boundary, nor had she mentioned Carne¡­ or Benny touching the heartcore and getting dragged into whatever that mess was.

    For all she knew, he could exist as a spy within Carne¡¯s followers for years. She had said goodbye like they would see each other again before she left, but there was no way to guarantee that. Benny may decide to never relay any information to Boundary and the Risen Guard¡ªand indeed, Benny¡¯s messages were still the same as they¡¯d been since those first few messages¡ªor one day, the boy could pop out with information about how Carne was going to overthrow the Risen Guard and put his cult of followers in charge of the city system. Emilia rather thought the latter was more likely, but the more time Benny spent inside that group, the more likely it was that he would come to see their views as correct.

    It wasn¡¯t fair that Benny had ended up in such a position, nor was it fair to her or Boundary to know they had put him there. V didn¡¯t deserve to be there, either, worrying about a boy whose fate was out of their hands¡ªwhose fate he had had no part in shaping.

    So, no, she wasn¡¯t going to be telling him about that. They already had enough to worry about.

    The meeting they had been forced to attend had been strange, more a vitriol filled call to action and motivational speech than anything. Between V and Phlostra, Emilia had already learned this group was effectively a vigilante group, existing somewhere between the Risen Guard and Enclave as their shared, if somewhat secret, enemy. Most of its members were former Enclave members and their descendants, especially among those they were now teaming up with, even if that teaming up was largely against their will.

    Unlike the Enclave itself, which had fractured into more and more families with vastly different goals and philosophies over the last few visitations, the group they now found themselves associated with¡ªClarity¡ªhad a solid goal: to clear the world of corruption.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    That alone put Emilia off. Corruption was all but inescapable. Even in places like Falrion, which had cracked down on anyone who held views opposing the will of the government, a faction willing to overthrow that government had managed to come into being. Some might say that it was only due to the war: exposure to outside forces had allowed views contrary to the government¡¯s stance to bubble into existence.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think it was that simple, and even if it was, no one existed in a complete vacuum. Even if Clarity managed to weed out all of this world¡¯s corruption¡ª?to erase both the Risen Guard and the Enclave members who refuse to join our cause,? as it had been put in the meeting¡ªvisitations would still occur. People from her world would still bring in their views and opinions, and even if Clarity attempted to kill them all before they could corrupt any locals, they were unlikely to succeed so easily. Then, there were still other city systems out there to contend with. Emilia knew the city systems didn¡¯t interact much, but just their existence was enough.

    People would escape Clarity¡¯s cleanse of corruption. Those people would return for vengeance one day. There was no way around such things. Neither Ajarni¡ªthe man who had spent the majority of the meeting talking with the passion of a zealot about Clarity¡¯s mission and goals, softly riling everyone up with blank faced motivation and manipulation before relating stupidly vague details of their plan to the group¡ªnor Phlostra had wanted to hear her thoughts on the matter.

    She and V were visitors. They were there to help fight and to search for a way to gain a blessing, and hopefully remove the blood curse from the world. That was partially why they were being dragged along on this strike against one of the most powerful and vicious Enclave families: allegedly, one of their Harbingers had gained system access.

    All the visitors who Clarity had accumulated¡ªtwelve, as of the meeting¡ªwere to accompany the group and try to figure out how the Ingogia family¡¯s Harbinger had gained that access. Members of Clarity would also be searching, of course. They would search the grounds of the Ingogia family estate and question the members, while the visitors questioned this Harbinger of theirs.

    Did they have a choice in the matter? Not really. They could leave¡ªtake the kids and travel back up the tunnel to the world above, present themselves to the Risen Guard, or search out the labyrinth access point and hope they ended up somewhere where they wouldn¡¯t immediately be killed.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced they¡¯d make it to the end of that tunnel. No one had threatened them, but there was a vibe¡ªone that said: if you endanger our group and plan, we will gladly snuff you out. She didn¡¯t blame V for this turn of events, even if a little part of her wanted to. After all, she¡¯d done the same thing, hadn¡¯t she? Teamed up with Boundary and allowed to children to be taken by a combination of Carne and the Risen Guard in an attempt to keep them safe¡­

    Speaking of whom¡­

    [Emilia: do you know anything about a group called clarity?]

    Emilia made her way back to her own room to grab her weapons in preparation for leaving as she waited for Boundary to respond. She considered asking Honey as well¡ªafter all, the trainee might actually know some people who had jumped off the Enclave ship for Clarity¡ªbut when she opened the girl¡¯s messages she was, once again, bombarded by a million messages.

    Many of her messages were thoughts about what was happening through her day. Apparently it didn¡¯t matter that Emilia had never actually responded to any of her messages, Honey was intent to scream into the void. That was fair¡ªstars knew she¡¯d done similar things to her friends, over the years. Currently, it was Sil who received the majority of her messages meant for the abyss¡ªsee one complaint about how she had stupidly spent too much money the night of the mech raid¡ªbut she sent Rafe a respectable amount as well.

    Maybe once she was home, she¡¯d start sending messages to Olivier as well. He¡¯d been one of her go-to people for decades after they met, only a few years of awkward silence separating her messages, during the time directly following the conclusion of her case. She¡¯d just been so convinced he hated her¡ªthat their time together during her case had been a momentary lapse of judgment, on his part, and he had been glad to be rid of her. Looking back on that time¡­ yeah, she still had no idea what that had been about, especially when things had eventually mended between then, and then, after the war began, he had always been there for her.

    Mostly, Emilia had just decided to think of Olivier as strange and difficult to understand. Now¡­ she thought he might appreciate her rambling messages? Maybe? She would have to test his boundaries, of course. Sil never got messages about her time during the war, obviously, and while Rafe had handled the trauma of the war well enough, there were some things she wouldn¡¯t subject even him to. Figuring out what and how much she could send Olivier would be a project, especially since there were a handful of things she couldn¡¯t, under any circumstances, tell him about.

    Probably best to set her Censor up to stop messages about certain subjects from being sent to the man.

    Emilia had just finished reading a section of messages about more chaos Caro¡¯s babysitter was exacting upon the world¡ªor, specifically, a city called Hurland, which was apparently located on one of the highest floors. From what Honey could tell, the crazed woman had followed a rumour about Conrad¡ªwho the guards they knocked out had sketched a picture of¡ªbeing there when something caught her attention.

    She stilled, hand wrapped around the railing of the staircase she had been climbing, feet on different steps. Her eyes flicked upwards, searching for what had called her attention. Not a sound nor even energy floating absently through the aether. Something else, something more purposeful, something¡­

    A feeling reached her, winding around her like a long-lost friend¡ªor maybe, not so long-lost.

    ?Grab th¡¯kids,? a familiar voice said. ?I can give you a few minutes of privacy. Make ¡®em count.?

    Emilia was already racing up the stairs and pushing her way into the hallway. ¡°Up,¡± she signed as she burst into the room. They hadn¡¯t been there long, and she only had to throw a handful of items back into their bags as the kids scrambled up. Luckily, they had changed back into clothes more suited for travel since breakfast.

    ?What¡¯s happening?? Gale asked as she helped Caro and Astra into their shoes and coats. Emilia appreciated that she didn¡¯t hesitate, not that she had expected the teenager to: they had also talked about how neither of them liked the situation, about how something felt wrong with the people of this place¡ªabout how much that wrongness reminded Gale of the feelings that seeped from Carne¡¯s existence. As much as Gale hadn¡¯t appreciated being held by the Risen Guard, this was no better.

    Actually, scratch that. This was worse.

    ¡°We¡¯re getting you out of here,¡± she signed, unsure how much the girl understood.

    Astra apparently understood enough, however, her aethervoice sliding through each of them to tell the others they were leaving. Given the look she gave Emilia, she also understood the implication of her words: Emilia wasn¡¯t going with them, not if she could help it.

    Emilia switched several of her weapons into Gale¡¯s bag and checked to make sure Caro¡¯s {Blood Hair Clip} was secure before hauling Caro and Astra into her arms.

    If that man said they only had a short window of time, Emilia believed him.

    Gale grabbed the bags as they raced back through the hall to the stairs. Annoyingly, they''d have to go up, but this time it was mostly rough on Gale, her own increased level and {Blood Armour} enough to make climbing flight after flight after flight easy, even with Astra and Caro¡¯s added weight.

    Windows that graced the landings of the lower floors disappeared, signalling the transition into city levels. Doorways became rarer, the levels reaching dozens of floors up before the next entrance to a city level. Phlostra had pointed out the central elevator, several magic-powered elevators moving residents up and down in better times. As it was, the stress of visitors both inside the lower levels and the world as a whole, along with the growing conflict with the Risen Guard and Enclave, had led to a lockdown: unless you were needed, everyone was to remain in their home levels.

    The staircases were more emergency exits, and no one entered them¡ªno one was around to see what they were doing.

    No one noticed Conrad sneaking into their home from stars knew where.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 143: The Second Gift

    ?Hey! It¡¯s you!? Caro cheered when they finally reached the man. The child wiggled out of Emilia¡¯s arms, and after a moment of thought, she dropped Astra and bolted down to help Gale, who had fallen slightly behind.

    Above her, Emilia could feel Conrad talking to the children, but their conversation was private. At least in Conrad¡¯s case, the man clearly had insane control over everything about himself. It wasn¡¯t quite as annoying that he had managed to perfect his aethervoice in so short a period of time as it was with Astra and V. Still a bit annoying, but nowhere near as aggravating or frustrating.

    For once, Gale didn¡¯t shrug off her help, letting Emilia rip the bags away from her and then tug her up the last few flights of stairs by the hand.

    ?This is it, I die,? Gale said, collapsing against a wall and sliding down as Emilia turned to Conrad.

    Deep purple eyes met hers, an amused smile pulled over his too big mouth.

    ¡°Your Enclave hosts didn¡¯t kill you,¡± she said, giving him a once over. His clothing had changed, but other than that he looked about the same, even if he had clearly been through a labyrinth since they had last seen each other.

    ?And th¡¯labyrinths didn''t kill you. Props for finding that way out. I doubt you would¡¯ve found the way I was intendin¡¯ t¡¯take you.? Conrad¡¯s eyes slipped over her in the same assessing way. ?Ready to go??

    Emilia shook her head. ¡°Just the kids. I have to go back.¡±

    Astra was unsurprised, but when Conrad¡ªwho had no idea Astra as a visitor¡ªtranslated her words, neither Gale nor Caro looked happy.

    ?You can¡¯t be serious,? Gale hissed. Seated on the floor as she was, her glower wasn¡¯t completely successful, but she still tried glaring Emilia into compliance. ?Just go get V and get him to come with us!?

    Emilia shook her head. She hesitated before asking Conrad to translate for her, a quiet reminder to Astra to keep quiet about her origin. Quickly, she explained to Gale why she couldn¡¯t leave, counting on Conrad¡¯s phantom brother¡¯s beliefs to help convince him as well.

    ¡°You were in that meeting. You heard how they talked about questioning people at the Ingogia estate: like they were willing to torture them for information. This raid¡­¡± Emilia¡¯s head spun as she tried to explain as quickly as she could the reality of the situation to Gale: that anything could happen to visitors here, and those things would chase them. ¡°It isn¡¯t fair to the people of this world if Clarity agents torture answers out of them, nor is it fair to some random visitor if they¡¯re tortured because they might have answers.¡±

    Conrad snorted as he translated, pointing out that everyone who entered raids like this knew what they were getting into, in theory anyways.

    ¡°There¡¯s no age limit,¡± Emilia pointed out, thinking of a barely legal Astra, as well as Cade and the boy she and V had met after exiting the Library Labyrinth, both of whom had seemed like mere children to her. Children who had joined a raid because their parents either didn¡¯t know how to manage their virtual raid activity or who simply didn¡¯t care what they got up to. Whoever the Harbinger for the Ingogia family was, they could be a child, and they didn¡¯t deserve what was coming for them¡­ probably.

    Emilia had mixed views about whether they deserved it if they turned out to be a terrible person. Stars knew that if circumstances had been different, she would have been tempted to torture Conrad¡¯s brother for the terror he had inflicted upon Livery.

    Conrad didn¡¯t exactly look convinced by her argument, and she couldn¡¯t really blame him. He opened his mouth to say something before he shook himself, a quiet reprimand to speak with his mind. ?And if I disappear? If you remember, I¡¯ve a teleportation array burned into me.?

    Caro perked up at that, the aether bubbling as they tried to reign in the thousand questions that were surely aching to be let out. Even the child knew the situation was serious and there was no time for such things, however.

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± Emilia agreed, stepping forward and reaching for the hem of the man¡¯s shirt, ¡°but I¡¯m hoping I can do something about that.¡±

    Obviously, she hadn¡¯t known if she would meet Conrad again, but when she¡¯d been inside that second labyrinth after their escape, hacking it to make sure she could get out as quickly as she could and do so with the ability to speak with locals¡ªnot that that skill had turned out to be anything but a nuisance¡ªshe had gone with her first instinct when it came to that second, potential gift: the ability to negate arrays.

    Way back in the kitchen of Livery Labyrinth, she had tried to negate the magic circling through several of the arrays Astra activated. Even with her skill in negating moving magic and skills, she had been unable to do anything to the arrays. The energy circulating through it was too powerful, made more stable by the lines of the array.

    In theory, if the last labyrinth had cooperated and granted her that second gift, she would be able to wipe arrays out of existence just as easily as she could moving magic.

    Conrad watched, more curious than worried, as she tugged his shirt up. Caro popped up beside her, oohing and aahing as they examined the array burned into the other visitor.

    ¡°Does this allow them to track you as well?¡± Emilia asked.

    Of course, with her new ability to read arrays, she knew it did. Mostly, she was curious as to whether Conrad was aware that the array could do so. That, and she was trying to silently signal to the children not to let the man know she could read arrays now. The aether rippled around the children, Gale privately telling them to keep her ability to themselves, she assumed. If Conrad thought it weird, he gave no indication.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°This might hurt,¡± she said, pressing the flat of her palm against the brutal looking array. It looked hand carved, none of the lines quite right, although that didn¡¯t stop the magic under it from flowing perfectly. Had they had to hold him down to do this? Force him to stay still while they carved magic straight into him, possibly against his will?

    ?Can¡¯t hurt more than it did goin¡¯ on,? the man replied, confirming her suspicions that applying it had hurt.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that,¡± Emilia whispered, her voice so low even she could barely hear it. ¡°This could very well be the most painful thing you¡¯ve ever experienced.¡±

    Energy ripped free of her, burning down each delicate, brutal line of the array. It sizzled under her hand, rupturing back through her, and she might have been screaming. Conrad might have been as well, but a bubble of dark, fathomless energy had wrapped around them¡ªwhere had that come from? Conrad? Maybe. Some extension of his terrifying core control: the ability to hide them away in the world through his energy. He hadn¡¯t been able to do that before, though. When they¡¯d escaped the Risen Guard compound, they¡¯d had to be quiet, just in case.

    Then again, they were so far off, maybe no one would hear them? Their screams wiped out by distance and totally not bouncing down the stairway for anyone to hear.

    Yeah, she didn¡¯t think that was likely either.

    Just as quickly as the pain had come, it snapped out of existence. Everything was black, and it took Emilia a painfully long moment to realize that not only were her eyes were closed, but she and Conrad had fallen to the ground.

    ¡°?Were we screaming??¡± she asked blearily, realizing too late that whatever magic Phlostra had been using to keep her aethervoice at bay had cracked apart during¡­ whatever that had been.

    ?Yes,? Astra said, one of her tiny hands brushing hair from Emilia¡¯s face. ?But¡­? The girl¡¯s eyes slid to Gale, who was searching through their bags, tugging the blood weapons they had swiped from the Risen Guard out.

    There were so many, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how she would possibly find one that had¡­ what? Contained their sounds? Created some sort of barrier that kept everything inside it?

    Stars, how did the girl even know one of the items in that bag had¡ª

    ?Because we saw it!? Caro offered. They had come to kneel between her and Conrad and were bouncing excitedly as they explained what had happened.

    Basically, a giant red mass had exploded out of Gale¡¯s bag the moment Emilia activated her ability. They had poked at it, trying to figure out what it was doing. Caro in particular had attempted to read the will of the universe through it. They couldn¡¯t, nor could anyone hear anything outside it, compared to now; if they focused now, they could hear the tiniest of sounds leaking through the city level next to them. Then it had contracted back just as she and Conrad had collapsed, like it knew whatever Emilia had been doing was over.

    ?It was like it knew what was coming!? Caro cheered as they poked at Conrad.

    The man groaned, rolled over and promptly threw up. ?I take it back. That was worse.?

    ?Ooh! I bet that¡¯s it!? Caro gasped, scrambling towards Gale.

    In her hand, the teenager held a delicate looking ball¡ªalthough, like all blood items, it seemed practically impossible to destroy. It was hollow inside, the outside a shiny mesh with holes of various sizes through it, and small enough to fit comfortably in even Astra¡¯s palm.

    As they watched it, it pulsed slightly, and on a whim, Emilia reached for one of their water bottles. It would be a shame to waste the array on it, but she was curious about a few things, including whether the ball was the item they were looking for.

    It was. The moment she began to activate her array destroying gift, its pulse stalled, and it exploded outwards, wrapping around them in brutal efficiency.

    Other things Emilia figured out: her gift still hurt, but significantly less than before. There were a handful of possible reasons why. Inanimate object, less complicated array, or the other reason she¡¯d been willing to try again: curiosity over whether she could erase part of an array.

    The barrier contracted, sliding back over them in what felt like a silent reprimand. Emilia blinked into the middle distance. She didn¡¯t think she¡¯d screamed that time, at least not out loud.

    ?You did scream,? Gale confirmed, her face scrunched up like she was in pain. That was fair, Emilia was pretty sure her brain had been screaming as loud as it could, even if her throat had been unwilling to scream again. ?Did it work, at least??

    Emilia blearily turned her eyes to the array on the water bottle¡ªthe one that could refill itself with water summoned from the aether. Where previously there was a limit on the amount of water it could summon, the array automatically shutting off when it reached the bottom of the rim, it now appeared to need someone to manually stop it.

    Astra¡ªwho, as the only member of their group who could consistently activate arrays, was responsible for managing the bottles¡ªtook it from her and unscrewed the lid. The array activated under her hand and water began to spill out of the array etched into the bottom to fill the bottle. Up and up the water level went until it reached the bottom of the rim. Water continued to flow, spilling over the edge of the bottle, until Astra forcibly deactivated the array.

    ?Cool,? Gale said, sounding very much like she actually thought it was a waste of both their time and the bottle, and not in fact cool. ?Can we go now? Before someone finds us?? She said this to Conrad, rather than Emilia. Well, at least someone accepted she wasn¡¯t going with them.

    ?Are you sure about this?? the man asked as he examined the skin where his array had been burned into it. It was still there, technically, scaring over his dark skin, but the magic under it was gone. It might have been a bit lighter, but with her vision still blurry from the blowback of the technique, she couldn¡¯t be sure.

    ¡°?Yes,?¡± she croaked, smiling and telling him she couldn¡¯t go like this anyways. ?I¡¯d give you all away so fast. Take the kids and go. Get them somewhere safe. I feel like you don¡¯t care about winning a blessing or even winning the raid, so protecting them can be your mission now.?

    The man¡¯s head tilted as he examined her. It felt like he did so forever, his attention heavy and somehow all seeing, yet she was sure it only lasted a few seconds. ?Alright,? he said, pushing himself up before extending a hand and hauling her and then Caro up. Apparently, he wasn¡¯t stupid enough to offer his hand to either of the girls¡ªthey might have bitten him.

    ?Be safe,? Emilia said as she and the children hugged. ?I will see you soon,? she promised, hesitating before pulling out her notebook and scribbling a note onto it and tucking it safely into Astra¡¯s hand. ?In case we don¡¯t actually see each other again. Only if you want. No pressure.?

    She gave Conrad one more withering look, a smile tugging at both their lips, before she took off back down the stairs.

    No one could see inside their room.

    No one could realize the kids were gone, or this would all fall apart.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 144: Manufactured Hatred

    ¡°?I was messing with my water bottle, and boom!?¡± Emilia thrust her arms into the air for dramatic effect as she and V made their way to where the rest of the group was gathering. The other visitor seemed to be enjoying her reenactment of what had happened, the real story quickly jotted down as she raced down the stairs for her. He had read it, nodded and eaten the piece of paper, which had been both strange and helpful¡ªEmilia hadn¡¯t been sure how she was going to get rid of the evidence of where the kids had gone and why they wouldn¡¯t be saying goodbye to them.

    ?It seems powerful¡­? he noted, turning the {Blood Ball} around in his hands. Not having examined it herself, Emilia was amused to find it function like a toy, squishing and bending in the man¡¯s hand. He tried throwing a bit of energy into it, but nothing happened. ?Looks like it has to activate on its own,? he noted, throwing it back to her after shrinking it slightly.

    Emilia thanked him before reattaching it to a clip that had appeared on her {Blood Armour} after the ball came into her possession. It swung slightly as she walked, but having it on her seemed the better option than just stuffing it into her bag with the other blood items she didn¡¯t use often.

    ?Oh dear,? Phlostra sighed when they entered the room everyone would be gathering it. Nearly everyone seemed to already be there, slowly sorting themselves into squads for the assault. ?How did that happen??

    Emilia bounced as she told the woman¡ªthe entire group, really, given how loud she was¡ªwhat had happened. She needed to keep her brain moving¡ªkeep it loud and distracted, lest she give away what had happened to anyone but V.

    ?Well,? Phlostra sighed as they stopped beside a group that included Yuka, Fran and Jerrina, unfortunately, ?that¡¯s fine. I would have had to release my magic anyways, as we¡¯ll be in different groups. Don¡¯t worry!? she laughed, having heard Emilia¡¯s thoughts immediately turn to panic. ?Jerrina has gifted me two grandchildren, and has agreed to take over for me.?

    Forcing down her thoughts on the sensibility of this proposal was difficult¡ªnot when Jerrina clearly didn¡¯t like her¡ªbut she didn¡¯t think anyone hearing her concerns would be useful¡ªeveryone, including Phlostra, had already proven themselves unmovable in their opinions and plans. Still¡­ the sensibility of putting her with both Fran and Jerrina, who had been death glaring her since they met, obviously upset that Emilia had gotten V, who¡ª

    ?Where did V go?? Emilia thought, the words flooding out of her as she looked around.

    ?What, can''t be away from that guy for more than a few minutes?? Jerrina sneered, her hand smacking over Emilia¡¯s. Magic surged through her, snuffing her aethervoice out. ?Don¡¯t look at me like that.?

    ¡°Like what?¡±

    ?Like you¡¯re surprised I¡¯m shutting you up. My mom asked, so of course I¡¯m going to. Plus,? Jerrina turned away, her braids slapping against Emilia¡¯s arm with the force of it, ?the last thing any of us need is to hear you whining about how V took his cock elsewhere.?

    Yuka shifted, looking uncomfortable with their step-aunt¡¯s words, but said nothing. ?You should join your group,? they said instead, words directed at Fran. ?We will be leaving soon.?

    ¡°I thought she was coming with us?¡± a visitor Emilia had seen at the meeting asked, their flickering, panicked eyes implying they had no idea what had happened between Fran, V and her.

    ?I was, but then we got word someone will be meeting you in the city before the siege. I¡¯m the easiest person to move.? Fran smiled, red curls bouncing as she pushed her way by Emilia. ?I¡¯ll say goodbye to V for you.?

    Emilia watched her go, practically skipping her way over to the group V had been thrust into. His eyes met hers, filled with concern, his voice sliding through her and willing her to be safe. ¡°You too,¡± she signed, choosing to use her own personal sign language. Internally, she might be denying herself full acknowledgement of who V was, but she couldn¡¯t completely shake off that knowledge, and the person V was knew her sign language.

    The man blinked back at her as Fran popped up in front of him. The way his expression hardened was amusing, the move so subtle she doubted the local woman even realized she was intruding where she was unwanted. V tore his eyes away from her to address the woman, his body shifting backwards slightly¡ªmoving out of the local woman¡¯s space¡ªand Emilia turned back to her own group.

    Each group was composed of five people: a leader, three locals and two visitors. How they had split each group up, Emilia had no idea. Personally, she thought it would have made more sense to keep her and V together, given they knew each other. Yuka tried to convince her it was because Vermilion¡ªthe other visitor¡ªhad received a gift that could augment their movements, making them faster and quieter. Emilia wasn¡¯t completely convinced, and from the looks of it, neither was Vermilion, the two of them exchanging silent words as their leader explained their mission.

    Kyren was a gruff man, towering over each of them. He was a serious man, but it was clear that while he was officially in charge of their group, Yuka had more say in how things went. Why? Emilia had no idea, Yuka leaning into quiet and refusing to answer questions about anything but the mission as they moved through the building towards the location of the landing pads. What Emilia could see was the way people made way for Yuka. They might be young, barely in their 20s by the looks of it, but they were clearly either powerful or belonged to a powerful family¡ªpossibly both.

    The landing pads with Clarity¡¯s City System were slightly different from those outside it, the arrays powering them strange and mangled, like someone who hadn¡¯t quite known what they were doing had hacked a collection of arrays together in order to get the desired result. Said result was what she and Phlostra had discussed when they first met: a city that could only let certain people in.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Unlike in the city system above, where locals could transport themselves anywhere, at any time¡ªassuming they had the magic needed to do so¡ªbut generally chose to use landing pads in order to lessen the possibility of landing on another person or splicing themself landing in objects or buildings, Clarity¡¯s City System could only be access via several tunnels or the landing pads. While anyone could use the tunnels, only someone who had ever exited via the landing pads could return through them.

    Landing pads that led stars knew where. Somehow, Emilia didn¡¯t think the Risen Guard¡ªwho managed the landing pads above¡ªwouldn¡¯t notice a random pad suddenly appearing alongside their official pads, welcoming people from some unknown location. More likely, the exit pads were hidden elsewhere, and when their group emerged into a cavern, she was unsurprised.

    ?We are below Hurland. There is an access point in the city, which leads to the Ingogia estate,? Yuka said, their tone falling into one that screamed authority in a way that made Emilia very much not want to do what they wanted. Did Yuka want anything from her at the moment? Not really. Didn¡¯t stop the bratty, rebellious part of her from rising up with a vengeance.

    There was no time for that¡ªnot right now, not when they were heading into what may very well be their deaths. During the meeting earlier that day, Ajarni had made it clear: this was very possibly a suicide mission. It wasn¡¯t guaranteed, but the implication had been there: if you aren¡¯t willing to die for the cause¡ªdie today, tomorrow, this very minute¡ªback out now.

    Only one visitor had backed out, unwilling to go along with the plan when they still had time¡ªalthough Emilia actually had no idea how much time was left in the raid¡ªto find a way to win without risking their life for some group they had no connection to. The fact that they had seemed more concerned with their life within the raid being snuffed out a bit early and not all the lives that would likely be lost tonight¡­

    Emilia shook herself as they walked, Kyren reiterating their team¡¯s plan and goals and drive towards sacrificing their lives for the so-called greater good. It was insufferably, and the plan was terrible, effectively amounting to charge in the front door and hope everyone is so distracted with their holiday celebration that their presence wouldn¡¯t be noticed.

    It was a plan that screamed of desperation¡ªand indeed, she¡¯d seen that desperation before. There had been so many times during the war when someone had made a last ditch effort to break through the enemies, especially before a Free Colony backed out of the alliance¡ªalthough that rarely lasted long, the war a constantly growing organism that rarely released its claws from ground it had gained¡ªor a solider retired. Not many had retired, but sometimes the war and injuries got to a person.

    The thing was, while she saw that desperation in the plan itself, she didn¡¯t consistently see it in the people, and when she did, it seemed¡­ manufactured. Their claims¡ªthe words Ajarni had spewed during that meeting¡ªscreamed of over-exaggeration and falsehoods, the reasons underlying them a stretch that made her already nerve wracked body ever more uncomfortable.

    Sure, as Ajarni had droned on about, the Risen Guard and Enclave had their problems. There was corruption and a willingness to kill civilians to get what they wanted, but this sort of desperate plan was strange. Emilia wanted to chalk it up to the raid coming to a close, except that hadn¡¯t even been mentioned in passing.

    Instead, there had been references to various events of the past during the meeting, vague mentions of so-and-so dying and such-and-such event, but they had never been expounded upon. All the locals knew the stories, although they had really only rallied behind such mentions when prompted¡ªlike they needed a reminder to feel sorrow for the dead and departed, for the so-called tragedies that had formed the world and their hatred for the groups that had controlled it so harshly for the last 80-some years.

    On the other hand, the group seemed to be expecting the visitors to just be so greedy to win that they¡¯d be willing to go along with anything. That was definitely the vibe she was getting: you are here to fight and get answers and follow orders.

    It really fucking sucked, and no one was answering her questions! Even when she asked how everyone seemed capable of hearing visitors, no one answered her! It was almost like they were gaslighting her! Trying to convince her the times they had spoken to her or answered other questions had been a figment of her imagination!

    It was terrible! And definitely wasn¡¯t endearing her to their cause any more than she already was!

    Honestly, with the kids gone, she was half tempted to just take off as well. She wouldn¡¯t¡ªshe still didn¡¯t want to leave and forever be wondering whether anyone was tortured because she hadn¡¯t been there to tell the torturer to stuff it¡ªbut man, oh man did she want to.

    Idly, as they exited the cavern and made their way through the streets of the city to meet their mysterious sixth member, Emilia pulled up her message to Boundary. He had never responded to her question of whether he had heard of Clarity or not, but for all she knew, he had and the {Blood Ball}¡¯s barrier had just bounced it away. Interestingly, while the barrier had erased Phlostra¡¯s magic from her body, her Risen Guard system access had remained.

    Didn¡¯t mean the barrier hadn¡¯t fucked it up, however.

    Tugging her hood further over her head, trying to hide her silver colouring from the locals wandering the midday streets, she pulled up Honey¡¯s messages to her instead. The most recent messages were new¡ªone that hadn¡¯t been there when she¡¯d glanced through the girl¡¯s messages before Conrad¡¯s arrival.

    Most of the new ones were talking about the holiday, about how it was a rare event where most of the Risen Guard went home, although not this year, what with all the chaos ripping through the city system. Honey never went home, though. Honey had a fake family: a distantly related Enclave family. Her own family¡¯s status as an Enclave family had been burned since the last visitation, but they had managed to have Honey without the Risen Guard noticing. Since then, she¡¯d visited her real family occasionally, but largely been raised by her fake family.

    Normally, these weren¡¯t words Emilia¡ªadoptive child that she was¡ªpreferred. From Honey¡¯s messages, however, filled with anecdotes about how her fake family sucked, and she hoped one day she could return to her real family, who were much nicer, Emilia couldn¡¯t fault her for thinking in terms of real and fake.

    Another message appeared just as Emilia reached the end, a note to try something called ?huffing cake? if she got the chance. She hesitated for a moment before sending her first message to the trainee, asking if she had heard of Clarity.

    A flurry of messages struck through the system. One, ten, twenty, each one burning Emilia¡¯s brain and leaving her nauseous.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Vermilion whispered, her arm slipping through Emilia¡¯s to help keep her standing as she forcibly closed Honey¡¯s message log, the burn immediately lessening when she could no longer see the chaos of the girl¡¯s thoughts.

    Emilia nodded, but was thankful for both the other visitor¡¯s support and Yuka informing them they were almost there¡ªalmost to their final member.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 145: Not a (good) Vacation

    The last member of their team was¡­ odd. Odd and quiet, and seemingly unknown to the rest of the group.

    ?They are a spy for our group,? Yuka told Emilia as they walked, her incessant questioning about the severe looking woman finally wearing them down. ?They have been a spy for decades. They just happen to be outside of the Risen Guard¡¯s own spying eyes at the moment and were free to join us.?

    Emilia had almost immediately questioned the sensibility of that. What if they got caught? Was blowing decades of work infiltrating the group really worth it, when there must be other people who could have taken their place? Not to mention, they might not even be the right person! What a perfect opportunity to infiltrate Clarity: taking the place of a member barely anyone knew!

    According to Yuka, Ajarni said it would be fine, so it would be fine.

    Needless to say, Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced. Something about this whole situation was¡­ off. The information that everyone was getting about what was happening, what each group¡¯s goal was, whether they were expected to survive this assault¡ªnot to mention do so without killing every person they came across¡­ There were so many details missing or contradicting.

    Officially, they were to avoid killing any Enclave members they questioned. Unofficially, stuffed between lines of motivation thrown about with the manipulation of a cult leader, Ajarni had told them to torture and kill as necessary. Officially, they were expected to return alive. Unofficially, everyone spoke of sacrificing lives for the greater good. Strange, and no, Emilia didn¡¯t like it.

    Vermilion didn¡¯t either, from the bits of information they¡¯d been able to slip between each other as they made their way to the entrance to the Ingogia estate. She had entered the raid with her boyfriend, who had never been released by the Risen Guard. Unlike the other visitors Emilia had met, Vermilion had been picked up by Clarity almost immediately. They had carted her around to a collection of labyrinths, and while she hadn¡¯t gained the ability to speak the local tongue, the gifts she had been given were quite useful.

    Most noticeably, the girl¡ªapparently she was only in her late 20s¡ªhad gained the ability to alter other people¡¯s movements, and once their group entered a second cavern, this one containing a trail of steps and short rocks walls leading upwards, the two of them began experimenting with the ability.

    No one else was inclined to test it out, even after Emilia assured the Clarity members that it made her feel like she weighed nothing. They were having none of it.

    ?And what if her ability gives out while we¡¯re climbing?? Jerrina sneered, her nose scrunching up as she glared up at Emilia and Vermilion, who had taken the chance to move a fair distance from the unpleasant woman. ?Then we¡¯ll fall and hurt ourselves. No thanks.?

    The woman was truly annoying, nothing seemingly pleasing her. She had complained about practically everything since they left. The walk, the landing pads, more walking, Emilia, the shoes their latest member was wearing, the climb to the Ingogia estate.

    It was tiresome, and Emilia turned away from her and the rest of their group, content to let them figure out how to climb on their own. Kyren seemed to have some experience, but clearly had no proper training, and while he was trying to explain the basics to the other three locals, he wasn¡¯t doing the best of jobs. Emilia had offered¡ªrather stupidly¡ªto teach them, only to immediately be cursed out by Jerrina.

    Apparently, locals didn¡¯t need the help of visitors. Emilia had been half tempted to point out that they did actually seem to need their help in breaking the blood curse, but that would have meant sticking around. Emilia was not sticking around Jerrina more than necessary, especially when the woman was being so rude.

    Yuka had briefly looked like they wanted to stop her¡ªask her to stay and teach them how to climb the walls. They didn¡¯t, and the walls were only ten or so feet tall each. They¡¯d be fine if they fell¡­ as long as they didn¡¯t fall wrong. What a tragedy that would be.

    So, Vermilion had activated her gift on herself and Emilia and up they¡¯d gone on alone. The other girl clearly had some experience climbing, and for a moment Emilia had worried they had accidentally ended up in another labyrinth, but no. If she reached out her energy, she could feel the city level below them, the Ingogia estate above them, bustling with more and more activity as the holiday celebration began.

    She didn¡¯t know much about the holiday, Honey¡ªwho was still sending so many messages back-to-back that Emilia couldn¡¯t risk opening them to see why the trainee was freaking out at the mention of Clarity¡ªhad previously sent her info about the basics: that it was to celebrate a historic event. For someone who loved to talk, the girl wasn¡¯t great at providing actually useful information.

    The holiday was allegedly celebrated through the entire city system, but Emilia had her doubts. When it had been mentioned during the meeting, Ajarni screaming into the tiny crowd that ?this Forming Day will be different!?, Gale and Caro had looked¡­ perplexed. In their brief moments alone between the end of the meeting and dropping them off with Conrad, she had asked about their experience of the holiday.

    They had almost none.

    ?Ash came back for it,? Gale had grumpily admitted, before sinking into the bed and proceeding to ignore the world.

    ?Some of the bigger families celebrate it! Ally¡¯s family did!? Caro had told her, explaining that sometimes Ally would share treats from it with the rest of the kids. ?Benny was invited once, even though her parents don¡¯t really like me or Benny. They think we get into trouble too much.?

    Emilia had shot the child a look, silently asking, ¡°Do you not?¡±

    The little shit had beamed back at her, eyes filled with malicious intent. If they hadn¡¯t been sent off with Conrad, Emilia imagined they¡¯d be getting into trouble back at Clarity¡¯s headquarters¡ªgoing off to search for the other homeless kids who were being held on the city levels.

    Emilia didn¡¯t like that¡ªdidn¡¯t like that they had left a collection of children under that group¡¯s control. They didn¡¯t seem like the sort of group to let people go, whether they were children or not. She hadn¡¯t seen that one visitor who had refused to join this siege since the meeting, and when she and V had poked into the room they¡¯d been staying in¡ªjust down the hall from V¡¯s own room¡ªit had been abandoned. Their blood weapons had still been there, along with their few other items. They hadn¡¯t been there, and Emilia didn¡¯t expect to see them within the raid again.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Clarity was, quite frankly, terrifying. It reminded her a bit of Carne¡¯s group, the children following him with vacant, accepting eyes. They were children, however, and Carne¡ªas powerful as he was¡ªwas still barely more than a child. His group was new, its beliefs slowly filling in the minds of the people he pulled into his orbit. This¡ªthe people who followed the goals of Clarity¡ªwere like an evolution of that: what Carne¡¯s group would be a few generations in. Most of these people had grown up within Clarity, their minds completely shaped to follow the will of its leaders without question.

    This was what had driven people to try and destroy the cult that had popped up in The Grey Sands before she was born. This unwavering belief, so strong that even if Ajarni popped out with an entirely different belief system and goal tomorrow, his followers would go along with him and say nothing about it.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t even convinced Ajarni was the true leader of the group, although Phlostra had told her he was. Not that that¡ªthat the real person behind Clarity¡ªwould likely have anything to do with her, and it was annoying! Honestly, she could see the appeal of continuously joining the same raid for years on end, if this is what a short-term one felt like: like she was going to be leaving a thousand mysteries and problems behind her.

    They weren¡¯t her problems, of course. Visitors might have caused the blood curse, but given everything she¡¯d learned over the past week or so, the Enclave and the Risen Guard had once supported Harbingers seeking out blessings. It was only once this one came along that opinions changed¡ªalthough Emilia was sure at least some people had always held that blessings weren¡¯t useful for the world.

    It was frustrating, was all. In many ways, she wanted to just go home, crawl into bed and assure Olivier and Rafe that she was fine, poke at SecOps and The Black Knot to do something about the knotters, and never join a raid again.

    In many more ways, she never wanted to leave. Calm would be preferred, compared to this terrible go, go, go situation. She cared for people here now¡ªcared for how the world they were trapped inside would turn out, once the war between each party ended. Gale and Caro¡­ she loved them, worried for their futures. Benny tugged at her mind, as did Kelly and Stephy¡¯s futures. Miira¡­ was something of a lost cause, but then there were all the other children. Key and Rin¡ªeven Harmony and the rest of the Stringer family. Honey and Boundary and¡ª

    And, moral of the story? Emilia wasn¡¯t cut out for these short-term raids. She needed long term¡ªsome slow moving virtual raid with infinite possibilities¡ªif she ever joined something like this again, which¡­ she definitely had mixed views on. Maybe with V or Sil¡ªwould the two of them get along? Emilia thought they might. Sil would be cute and silent, V a menace of too much energy who would vaguely annoy Sil, but become friends with him nonetheless.

    Emilia¡¯s hand latched onto another hold, and she effortlessly flung herself upwards. It was fun¡ªeven with all her spinning thoughts¡ªclimbing the rock walls with none of her usual weight. It reminded her of that last time climbing The Strats, unfortunately. Weightless and free, until the reality of death slammed down around them.

    For the first time in forever, the reminder of The Strats¡ªof that day¡ªdidn¡¯t bother her much. Everything that had happened here¡ªevery knot that Payton had diligently pulled loose¡ªhad changed something within her. Two decades of trauma¡ªof fear of a place and activity she had once lived for¡ªshattered, mostly. Her eyes still blinked away phantom hallucinations of shimmering rock formations, cast over the sea in hues of iridescent purples and pinks and teals. Beautiful and heart-wrenching, but a little less terrifying.

    Emilia still didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be going to climb them anytime soon, but now, when she looked out at the sea from the cliffs of Mount Pike, she wouldn¡¯t be averting her eyes from the place she knew they stood. Seeing them from Astrapan was impossible even on the clearest of days, of course, but she had always averted her eyes, regardless.

    The last landing came as a surprise, the steps and rock walls reaching at least a hundred feet higher. Where they went, Emilia had no idea, but she and Vermilion had no need to go searching for mysteries¡ªnot when for all they knew ascending would lead to the Ingogia realizing they were coming for them. Instead, they slid to the ground, legs hanging over the edge of the last climb, and contented themselves to watching the rest of their group climb. It was rather slow-going, their group still near the base of the cavern as they struggled to ascend.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± the other visitor said over Emilia¡¯s burning brain¡ªshe¡¯d tried to look at Honey¡¯s messages again, like an idiot. The trainee wasn¡¯t letting up on her stream of thought messaging, unfortunately. This time, Emilia had at least been able to read several of the messages.

    [Honey: Be careful!]

    [Honey: That group is totally not trustworthy!]

    [Honey: Shit, are they making some sort of move tonight? Where?]

    [Honey: Emilia! This is serious! Tell me where!]

    The Risen Guard trainee had¡ªfor the most part¡ªseemed flippant about most things. In the few days they¡¯d spent together¡ªnot to mention the million messages they¡¯d sent¡ªEmilia had rarely seen them take anything seriously, and to see them doing so now was¡­ concerning, to say the least.

    Yet another item on Emilia¡¯s own list of reasons she didn¡¯t like this situation.

    ¡°Same,¡± she whispered to Vermilion, glaring into the distance as she shut down Honey¡¯s messages and contemplated what to do¡ªwhat to tell the Risen Guard trainee, the Enclave spy.

    She agreed that something was wrong, but telling Honey where they were¡­ what would that even lead to? The Risen Guard showing up? Burning the Enclave status of the Ingogia family and all the Clarity members here? Everyone caught? Tortured? Killed? Or, maybe Honey would just inform the Ingogia family. They¡¯d pop out and capture them, torture them, kill them.

    Personally, Emilia wasn¡¯t into dying tonight, and she wasn¡¯t getting V or Vermilion¡ªwho seemed like a perfectly reasonable girl, despite her accidental, long-term alliance with Clarity¡ªkilled because she gave someone she barely knew information about what they were doing.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone killed or tortured,¡± Emilia told Vermilion, idly wondering if any of the Clarity members were eavesdropping on them. Locals capable of hearing visitors could hear far and wide, when they wanted to, after all.

    ¡°Same.¡±

    The two of them shared a long look, something passing between them, two people who weren¡¯t exactly there by their own freewill.

    ¡°Man~¡± the other visitor sighed, flopping dramatically backwards onto the burnt red dirt of the cavern. ¡°I just wanted a free vacation.¡±

    Emilia laughed, thinking of her own reasons for seeking access to Ship o¡¯ Stars. ¡°Technically, being inside a raid for so long could be considered a vacation. Not a good one! But a vacation, nonetheless.¡±

    Vermilion didn¡¯t like this joke and kicked Emilia, accidentally sending her giggling over the edge. Luckily, it wasn¡¯t far and a moment later she popped back up, still laughing and contemplating how much visiting Ship o¡¯ Stars was not going to be a vacation, should she actually manage to get there.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 146: Around and Around (Until You Lose Your Mind)

    Emilia was pretty sure she was going insane. Clearly, this was how Clarity got itself followers: by driving them insane by forcing them through labyrinths over and over and over and over, and she just wanted it to stop!

    In hindsight, Honey had mentioned the holiday was tomorrow, but in Emilia¡¯s defence, she had no idea when that message had been sent or what time of day it was. Now, she was sure the holiday was actually tomorrow. It was still tonight, and she was annoyed. She was especially annoyed that she hadn¡¯t realized Yuka was capable of time manipulation, meaning they could make her go through this labyrinth over and over and over and over and time would only move by minutes.

    It was some technique Yuka had picked up during their own labyrinth excursions, every Clarity combatant required to complete the labyrinth at least a dozen times before they were accepted into the war force.

    War force. With each completion of the labyrinth¡ªthe one that had actually been hidden in that cavern, above the landing she and Vermilion had waited on¡ªmore information about the mission was given to her. Vermilion as well, although she had only needed to complete the labyrinth two times to reach the required dozen, Clarity having already forced her through ten labyrinths since swiping her off the street.

    By the time Emilia emerged from her second round¡ªbringing the number of labyrinths she had gone through to a respectable six¡ªthe Vermilion that she had briefly gotten to know and be friends with was gone. Sort of.

    What remained was¡­ disturbing. It was as though her personality had been wiped away, what remained was her and yet not. Everything about her felt wrong, like something had taken root within her, and when Emilia braved to mention that she didn¡¯t like how they were being forced through the labyrinths, Vermilion had just smiled and told her it would be fine.

    It would be fine.

    It would be fine.

    The will of Clarity was behind them, guiding their mission, their quest, their purpose.

    Emilia was thoroughly creeped out, but the alternative to going through the labyrinth another six times was being killed¡ªor trying to fight her way through the other five members of the group. She was strong, but even she didn¡¯t like those odds, so back in she went.

    At the very least, she¡¯d gained more gifts¡ªbringing her grand total of mystery gifts to three!¡ªbut while gaining gifts was great, they didn¡¯t seem to be what the group were concerned with; breaking their minds seemed to be the point.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t letting her brain be broken, thanks.

    It was just the how of it, that was the problem. Knowledge of what was happening might help her stay sane, she thought, but her mind couldn¡¯t help but go back to her conversations about the effect of touching heartcores on the Risen Guard. These labyrinths¡­ were dangerous, and as she was pushed into her third round, she wondered if they had always been that way. The stories she had heard from the kids hadn¡¯t included any mention of heartcores corrupting minds, yet here they were, the Risen Guard balancing power with that corruption, Clarity seeking that corruption out.

    Hopefully, V was okay. She had no idea if every visitor was being put through the same trial or not¡ªhow many people could possibly have time altering gifts, after all?¡ªand she¡¯d never had a chance to tell V about what she¡¯d learned from Boundary. If something happened to him because she¡¯d been more concerned with getting fucked last night than having a conversation¡­

    Not that they hadn¡¯t talked about anything! It was just that explaining the details of the magic system to the other visitor had seemed more worthwhile! Unsurprisingly, he¡¯d even managed to use a little, although his lack of magic gems had severely limited what he could do.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she hissed as she made her way through the labyrinth.

    It was a strange labyrinth, being just a single maze that, while long, didn¡¯t change between her visits. Even with her shit mental mapping, after repeating it a few times, Emilia moved through it with very few wrong turns. To the heartcore. Touch the heartcore. Pass out for a while. Wake up. Exit. Learn a few bits of information about Clarity and their mission. Back into the labyrinth. Repeat. Walk the maze. To the heartcore. Touch the heartcore¡ª

    Unless she didn''t.

    Technically¡­ she didn¡¯t think they could tell whether she¡¯d actually touched the heartcore or not. So, what was stopping her from pretending to touch it? Pretending her mind was slowly opening up to manipulation by Clarity?

    In theory, the exit door was stopping her. It hadn¡¯t opened before, when they¡¯d tried to leave that third labyrinth without traversing the lake to the heartcore. At the time, Emilia hadn¡¯t been willing to try and force the doorway open. If something went wrong, the kids would suffer.

    Now, she was alone and totally down to fuck with the door. Plus, she was pretty sure she could force it open with a gift she hadn¡¯t had back then.

    Regardless of how different the world of the raid and the labyrinths were, seemingly separate in a way she definitely didn¡¯t understand, Emilia was also pretty fucking sure it ran on the same magic system¡ªat least when wasn¡¯t altering the world to make the skill system of the real-world work, anyways. The point was, she¡¯d seen them, arrays peeking out at her inside the maze, affecting this function or that, and while at first glance the doorways themselves didn¡¯t have arrays etched into them, on closer inspection, they did have arrays.

    The arrays weren¡¯t normal, but they were there, the same way they were in all magic objects¡ªincluding items created by the blood curse. Neither the arrays winding through blood items nor the one managing the door were visible, instead vibrating and circulating energy inside the object, much like the power of Conrad¡¯s summoning array had existed under his skin, the scar over his skin meaningless and simply the method for applying it.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The arrays inside items were more difficult to analyze, and Emilia was forced to feel it out, her energy working to burn the pattern through the surface of the door. It hurt, her core shaking with effort, while her body screamed as magic from the array backlashed into her.

    In the end, she was able to erase the portion of the array locking her inside until she touched the heartcore, although it had fucking hurt, and she¡¯d needed to pass out for a bit. Then, nothing was stopping her, and she left without touching the heartcore.

    No one seemed to notice she stopped touching them, too distracted doing stars knew what. They didn¡¯t even notice was when she took a little too long to step into the labyrinth after her fourth round: she¡¯d been trying her hardest to impose upon her smart little wisp of energy that it needed to find V before she sent it off. Would it find him? Warn him? Even if it tried, was her energy something he even could understand? And even if he did, it wasn¡¯t like he could disable the arrays¡ªnot unless he could do so with his core, which she didn¡¯t rule out¡ªbut maybe he could heed her warning and¡­

    And what? Die? That was really the only option she saw for keeping him safe. What a terrible end¡ªone the man might try to avoid, hoping his skills would be enough to keep his mind safe.

    None of that mattered¡ªthe fact that V might not understand or might disregard her message didn¡¯t matter. She had to try, especially since there was no saying how long the effects of whatever the heartcores were doing would last.

    Anything goes. Even if the manipulation of the heartcores reached into the real-world, there was little they could do against the platform maintainer who had allowed it to happen. Try to shut down the platform? Perhaps, but that would mean destroying this world¡ªpossibly all the world¡¯s managed by the people who had allowed something like this to happen. Which was the thing! This shouldn¡¯t have been possible!

    As much as Emilia didn¡¯t think Halen¡¯s company, Hail, was doing the right thing, allowing their system to be used to create raids, she also wouldn¡¯t have thought them stupid enough to have left the ability to manipulate their heroes¡¯ minds to this extent within in the system! The platform maintainer or creator could have hacked that in, but something told Emilia they hadn¡¯t.

    This had been allowed¡ªpurposeful or not¡ªby Hail, and she had really fucking big concerns for how far-reaching this manipulation was.

    How many people were coming out of raids, thinking they¡¯d just been traumatized or changed by their time inside it, only for it to be something more insidious? Some worm wiggling through their heads and doing stars knew what to their personality? To their ability to think for themselves? To their ability to resist manipulation?

    What other terrible things could the system be planting into unsuspecting heads?

    The most annoying thing was the one person who might be able to get answers for her didn¡¯t even work for Hail anymore, and while Helix would still have contacts there, he was unreachable until the end of the season, his new job leaving any message he received open to prying eyes until his contract ended.

    Stupid man and his stupid, ill thought out job.

    ?Hello again, Emilia. Welcome back.?

    Sparkling stars above and shimmering rocks below. How was it that this group was becoming creepier and creepier each time she came out? It would only last a few moments, as though something else¡ªsomething terrifying inside them¡ªwere watching her, assessing.

    Yuka cocked their head, the thing inside them watching her as she exited the labyrinth for the last time. Emilia wondered if it could tell something about her that wasn¡¯t quite right. She didn¡¯t think so¡ªshe didn¡¯t think whatever the heartcores planted inside its victims was capable of sussing out imposters. It could very well be, though, and until she was sure they wouldn¡¯t suddenly attack her, Emilia kept her guard up.

    Actually, on second thought, she should just be keeping her guard up from now on, no matter what.

    Yuka¡ªthe thing wearing Yuka¡ªnodded, and suddenly, it was gone, the normal Yuka standing before them instead. ?Good,? they said, motioning her to stand beside Vermilion, who seemed to have largely returned to their normal state as well, even if they still felt different¡ªstill felt wrong.

    Kyren stepped in front of them, his bulking form glowering down at them. His normal expression, one of general annoyance with everyone. ?We have been given our mission by Ajarni,? he said, voice catching reverently over their leader¡¯s name. ?As you do not have access to the system, we will impart it to you on his behalf.?

    Personally, Emilia didn¡¯t think that sort of speech suited the man, but she wasn¡¯t about to say that to him¡ªhe was liable to punch her. Plus, having only Vermilion as an example for how people acted directly after they were affected by the heartcores, she could only assume she was supposed to be somewhat subdued while she slowly regained her personality. At the very least, she knew from Fran and Jerrina that the infection didn''t completely calm a person¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t sure how long she¡¯d last acting like a bland faced shell!

    Her eyes shifted to Yuka as they listened to Kyren explain their goal, assessing the young Clarity member. They were definitely on the bland side, their personality so subdued that while it could have been like that before their trips through the labyrinth, it could just as easily be a consequence of their manipulations. Carne¡¯s personality had clearly been affected permanently, in contrast to someone like Boundary, who flashed between their personalities, neither of which were particularly bland in the way Clarity members¡¯ alternate personalities seemed to be.

    It was all so weird. Were it not affecting visitors, Emilia might have assumed it was a way for the platform maintainers to manipulate the residents of the raid: force certain personalities into different groups in order to control how those groups are interacting. Maybe it was that, its reach unfortunately extending to visitors, whether by accident or design. A coding error: where a line should have excluded visitors from this particular storyline of heartcore corruption, it didn¡¯t.

    ?Do you understand?? Kyren asked, sounding very much like he didn''t think they would. That might have been fair, Emilia had only been half listening while Vermilion seemed to be shifting rapidly between her two personalities and retaining very little of what was said.

    ¡°The mission,¡± Emilia said, eyes turning back to Kyren, ¡°or quest, if you will, is primarily to get into the Ingogia household without being noticed. Other groups will create distractions as necessary. We are to find the visitor and determine if they actually have gained system access, and if so, find out who else knows. Depending on the information they supply us with, we will decide what to do with the Ingogia estate. In the worst case, we will access the Ingogia¡¯s personal landing pads and head to the other Enclave estates connected to it.¡±

    Kyren hadn¡¯t said they would be killing anyone, even if that was written between the lines. Kyren hadn¡¯t said they wouldn¡¯t be able to trust that this visitor would tell them the trust, either about the system access or who they¡¯d told. That and so much more was simply written between the lines.

    Tonight would be bloody. They weren¡¯t expecting anyone to survive, their lives were the price of information. This was the start of a war, and they were to take out every person they came across, even if everyone seemed to be denying that. A mental leap: we¡¯ll kill only when necessary, but of course, it will always be necessary.

    Information about how to access the system would be relayed back to Clarity, and they would either track down more visitors¡ªand who said they didn¡¯t have more hidden away back at their base?¡ªor keep the information safe until the next visitation.

    Emilia could guess they didn¡¯t particularly like the latter option¡ªtoo much could happen in the indeterminate time between¡ªbut they would do it if they had to. Just like they¡¯d sacrifice all of them because they had to.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 147: Fight the Sneeze

    Two dozen empty eyes blinked down at the boy¡¯s dead body. Emilia wanted to avert her own eyes, but doing so seemed like the perfect way to give herself away. Just act normal, if normal meant act like your mind has been melted under the oppressive power of magical gifts¡ªor worse, something insidious winding its way through the platform or entire raid system¡ªanyways.

    Not having had much of a chance to converse with the other visitors Clarity had acquired, Emilia had no idea if they had already had their brains melted or if something about the labyrinths they¡¯d been taken to before coming here were special, but the two visitors of the other team they¡¯d happened to across were just as strange as Vermilion now was. It was horrible, but at least everyone seemed to have fallen into the mindset of the mission comes before all else, and questions about her own normality weren¡¯t coming up.

    She worried for V, though. Her wisp energy hadn¡¯t returned, although she was unsure if it would have, even if it did manage to find her friend. Hopefully, it had found him¡ªwarned him about what was happening, even if that meant¡­

    Emilia blinked down at the boy lying at their feet. There was no blood, one of Jerrina¡¯s gifts having the ability to snuff out life like it had never been there. She supposed she could be grateful the woman hadn¡¯t turned that magic on her, but at least then she¡¯d be home, out of here and¡ª

    And worrying for the lives she had left behind.

    ?Let¡¯s move,? the other group¡¯s leader said, chin jutting out in the direction both of their groups had been heading.

    Apparently there were three teams assigned to each task, coming in from different locations. A stop gap in case two of the groups didn¡¯t make it; if they were caught by the Ingogia family or forced to detour. The other group had run into the Risen Guard back in the city, and while their last messages had spoken of trying to escape, their presence had since been removed from Clarity¡¯s messaging system.

    No one had answered her when she asked if that meant they were dead. When she¡¯d been inside the labyrinths, her access to the Risen Guard system had been cut off, but Honey and Boundary had both been able to message her¡ªher name had still existed on their contact lists. If the members of the other group were just gone¡­ Well, it was possible the Risen Guard had ways of completely blocking systems¡ªof faking deaths.

    Stars knew The Black Knot could do such things, their technology blocking communication so completely that any messages sent to their captives would be bounced back as undeliverable, just as they would be, were the person actually dead. Unless things had changed in the last decade, they rarely used that technology. It wasn¡¯t something the public knew they could do: create complete black sites, no information in or out unless the group allowed it. Being taken to such a place was a death sentence. You did not escape those places.

    It could be like that here as well.

    Finally, then began to move again, flying over the purple grass with ease as Vermilion¡¯s gift activated, sending blood-red tendrils cascading out with each of their steps. The lack of night was annoying, the Ingogia Estate existing¡ªEmilia assumed¡ªon top of one of the city system¡¯s buildings, just like the Stringer Estate.

    Two suns burned in the sky, filling the world with light that scattered through the foliage of the abundant trees. At least they could sprint between the copses of trees to keep hidden¡ªEmilia didn¡¯t really want to come across more people to kill before she could¡­ do something. What? She had no idea. Maybe, once they were closer to the houses where the Ingogia family lived, she could alert them to their presence and hope they¡¯d give her clemency, or at least stop Clarity from murdering them and every Enclave member they found.

    Not that she didn¡¯t have mixed opinions on that. The reality of the situation was that huge swathes of the Enclave were corrupted, and from what she¡¯d heard¡ªalthough who knew how trustworthy anything out of a Clarity member¡¯s mouth was¡ªthe Ingogia family was one of the worst.

    The least they could do was let the children live, but then they¡¯d just be hoping those children wouldn¡¯t come seeking revenge another day.

    Inevitably, they would. One day, the children they let live would pop out to destroy Clarity and whatever world they built, even if it was likely the majority of the Clarity members taking part in this siege would be dead by then, leaving those soon-to-be grown children without the ability to seek out vengeance on the specific people responsible for the deaths of their loved ones. The visitors among them would be home as well, heading back into their regular lives and leaving memories of this place behind¡ªor dealing with the psychological trauma of whatever the heartcores had done to them. That was also an option.

    The point was, Emilia hated this: hated this quest that she¡¯d accidentally been dragged along on. It was stupid and ill thought out and going to get so many people needlessly killed. She hated that she couldn¡¯t do anything about it, hated that V was out there somewhere, and she couldn¡¯t help him¡ªcouldn¡¯t keep him safe, hated that these people had been infected by the heartcores and Ajarni¡¯s manipulations.

    ?Shh!? Kyren hissed, everyone tugging to a halt behind him.

    Vermilion hissed, one hand slapping over her mouth while another gripped at her overexerted core. It hadn¡¯t been this bad before, when she¡¯d just been moving the two of them. Even their group of six had clearly been too much for them, but Yuka and the leader of the other group had insisted they stick together on their now joint mission. Now, Vermilion was paying the price.

    They¡¯d all pay the price later, if her ability to augment their movements was lost because her core broke down.

    Emilia blinked around the group, wondering if the world they were hoping to create was worth their lives. Regardless of what was happening inside them¡ªof what or who was manipulating them¡ªthey did truly seem to want to make the world a better place. It was unlikely any of them would see that world, their lives destined to be ground to a halt by this mission or ones that would follow.

    They had all accepted that fate¡ªaccepted their lives were worth the world they wanted to create. Emilia might not agree with their methods or the sensibility of their plan, but she hoped it was worth it¡ªhoped the world they made wouldn¡¯t simply be a mutilated extension of this one.

    Kyren¡¯s energy swept out of him, moving over the giant empty field they had stopped short of. It was too open; anyone looking into it would clearly see them and sound the alarm. They couldn¡¯t go through it, so instead they¡¯d simply jump it, even if Emilia could feel how each jump was cracking Kyren¡¯s core.

    ?Let¡¯s go,? the man said, eyes flashing black as magic swept out of him and the aether.

    It was the third such jump they¡¯d made, although the first with so many people. The world vanished, the black of the aether pulling them inside it in a move that was similar to sparking but felt impossibly more ominous and dangerous¡ªand this was coming from the person who had designed and tested sparking and definitely worried they would get stuck inside the aether while doing so!

    It had been war, though¡ªas this arguably was as well¡ªand safety precautions were pushed aside more often than any of them would have liked to admit. Luckily, only a handful of people had ever fucked up sparking badly enough to have seemingly disappeared¡ªor, in a few extremely unfortunate cases, come out a mangled flesh blob. But! Those had all been outliers and the result of either not using the skill properly or using a hacked Censor!This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    It had not been her fault, thank you! Operator, not programmer, error!

    That thought stuck with her as the world bent under someone else¡¯s control, and they popped out on the other side of the field, Kyren immediately leaning over and beginning to dry heave¡ªhe¡¯d already lost what food he¡¯d eaten that day after the first time.

    The aether shuddered, and when Emilia¡¯s eyes followed the stream of angry black energy, she found a line of power leading from Jerrina to another body¡ªanother teenager, by the looks of it. Most likely, they¡¯d just been out for a stroll in the early hours of the holiday, celebrations beginning at midnight and continuing for the entirety of the day¡ªapparently sometimes extending into the next day, if there were enough people still going.

    They hadn¡¯t deserved to die like this, alone and unsuspecting. Had the other child struck down just as emotionlessly by Jerrina been waiting for this one? How many more children would they kill because it was a necessity?

    ?We will do our best to restrict the deaths that occur at our hands,? Ajarni had sighed from his pedestal, his own hands clean of the lives his followers were now taking. He had almost looked sincere¡ªalmost. Emilia had seen that look before, in the eyes of politicians concerned with saying the right thing and being believable. Some could do it well, others not so much. Ajarni almost had it down, but not quite. Definitely enough that, in this world without political broadcasts, no locals was liable to have seen enough to realize their deceptions.

    The man had shifted, looking uncomfortable in a fabricated way. His eyes had flickered shut while he just breathed, and for those long minutes where he had sat, seemingly composing himself before needing to lay out the truth of the matter¡ªthe truth that they would need to kill everyone¡ªto his followers, the world had been silent.

    It had been thoroughly disconcerting, and when she and V had dared to even whisper privately between each other, they had received dirty looks from everyone. Apparently, mister high and mighty overlord was not to be interrupted in his inner contemplation.

    Eventually, he had spoken again, his words filled with contradictions about not taking any lives, killing all those who deserved death, enacting suffering on their enemies, forgiving even the worst offences.

    ?We are all children of the universe,? he had said, rising and beginning to pace the room, the heads of his followers swivelling as they followed him¡ªas though to lose sight of him would be a travesty, a sin in its own right. ?We return life to the universe, where those lives have strayed from the path. We let lives continue, as they are only following the path the universe has laid out for them. Who are we, to question the way the universe has guided them? Who are we, to allow them to forsake the world we live in and the plan the universe has for all of us??

    ?Talk about contradicting yourself with every word you say,? V had muttered to her, ignoring the disapproving glower Phlostra sent his way. The woman hadn¡¯t heard him, of course¡ªV¡¯s words were for Emilia alone, after all¡ªbut apparently she was paying just as much attention to the ripple of aether around them as much as to her leader¡¯s insanity.

    This¡ªthis stupid ass quest¡ªwasn¡¯t letting people live the lives the universe had laid out for them. This was murdering children because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time¡ªwhere the universe had led them to be¡ªand it was horrific. No one but her seemed to care. The Clarity members looked down at the corpse of this second child with just as much apathy as they had the first, and even in the brief moments where the other visitors managed to escape the monster pressing down on their personalities, she could see their apathy as well.

    To them, these weren¡¯t people. These were just ones and zeros, animated by artificial minds. Who were they to care about their deaths? All they wanted was to win¡ªto escape this world with a prize and as little psychological damage as possible.

    ?Good riddance,? Jerrina sneered, long hair flying as she turned, ignoring Kyren¡¯s hiss to be silent.

    The fact that the man¡¯s hacking and coughing was silent was fascinating, his body shifting as his stomach attempted to empty itself. No sound escaped him, however. Emilia couldn¡¯t decide if the lack of sound made the attempts at vomiting more or less gross, but she was leaning towards more.

    ?We¡¯re almost there,? Yuka said, bright red eyes staring into the distance.

    On her map¡ªwhich she had luckily never mentioned to anyone other than the kids she had access to, and they¡¯d been smart enough to never bring up around other people¡ªEmilia could see a collection of houses. Each was marked with a symbol to indicate she had no knowledge of who lived there¡ªor what the purpose of the building was, perhaps? It was unclear, but as they moved closer to said buildings, Vermilion looking more and more liable to pass out as her movement augmentation gift wore on her, little dots began to light up the houses across Emilia¡¯s map.

    Emilia didn¡¯t know much about the group that had joined them. When they pulled to a stop and one of their members commented that there were a dozen people inside the closest house. She wasn¡¯t sure whether to assume they had a system map of their own or a gift that allowed them to determine how many people were within a building. None of the locals she¡¯d talked to had ever mentioned their own system access having a map, so it could have been a function exclusive to the Risen Guard. She had no idea, but as someone who had spent a large portion of their life hacking their Censor and adding functions into it¡ªnot to mention forcing those functions onto her friends¡ªit was interesting to consider that the Risen Guard system might have exclusive functions¡ªthat every group¡¯s system might.

    Were she around nicer people, she might have asked about it. These people were not nice, and she definitely wasn¡¯t asking them, especially not when they were starting to argue about whether the mission should be reassessed or not, her eyes lingering on a glob of spit a man from the other group had rudely spewed onto the ground. A memory of Olivier flashed through her head, the man pissed and arguing with her but subtly proud of how much she knew, at least until she poked him a bit too much.

    Things had worked out between them, though, after that debate. He¡¯d helped her. She¡¯d annoyed him. He¡¯d left her behind after gifting her freedom.

    This¡ªtheir group falling apart because the sixth member of their group was now snapping rudely at people¡ªwas not going to work out.

    Yuka stepped towards the woman, apparently intent to calm her. Emilia could understand the newcomer''s anger at the mere suggestion they withdraw, at least a little bit. The woman was a spy within the Risen Guard, and while Emilia still thought her being there in general was stupid, if they stopped the mission now, there would be no returning to it for her.

    And she was right, someone¡ªtwo someones, technically¡ªwere already dead. The Ingogia family would know they had been there. There would be no second chance, not with this Enclave family, and they were the only ones with a harbinger who had gained system access, as far as any of them knew.

    Emilia eyed up the building that Clarity¡¯s intel had said housed a branch of the family who were less involved in the day-to-day workings of the family. It was, allegedly, the easier place to start. They¡¯d know bits and pieces about what was happening within the more active branch¡ªthe part that was housing the visitor who had allegedly gained access to the system¡ªbut as they were less trained, there would be less risk of a fight breaking out.

    They also couldn¡¯t hear visitors, according to intel. Not knowing the source of said intel, Emilia had no idea what to believe, but she wasn¡¯t about to risk getting them caught because she had to sneeze, the spicy air itching at her nose. Given said intel had also stated there shouldn¡¯t have been so many people inside that house, and those extra people were an unknown variable pushing the riskiness of this mission¡ªof her sneezing¡ªhigher and higher, she forced herself to swallow down the sneeze.

    ?We will go on,? Yuka was saying, their voice an uncharacteristic growl as they glared down the visitor¡ªa girl from the other team¡ªwho had suggested they head back: reassess and try again another day.

    The girl seemed¡­ oddly insistent, uncontrollable magic from a gift she had received that granted her easier use of electric magic dancing at her fingers.

    If they fought here, they¡¯d attract everyone¡¯s attention. There would be no turning back¡ªno trying to spare any lives. Everyone would die, and while that seemed the endgame anyways, they wouldn¡¯t have even learned anything if that happened!

    It would be a waste of dozens upon dozens of lives and¡ª

    Emilia sighed, stepping forward in an attempt to stop the fight threatening to break out between the girl and Yuka.

    Stupid.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 148: Unexpected

    Out of all the things Emilia might have expected to happen when she stepped between Yuka and the other visitor, it wasn¡¯t to be blindsided by fucking Jerrina!

    ?What have you done!?? Kyren yelled, his words blurry in Emilia¡¯s mind because the bitch had hit her with that gift of hers¡ªthe one that struck people dead on the spot.

    Except she wasn¡¯t dead¡ªwhy wasn¡¯t she dead?

    ?What was that thing!?? Jerrina was screaming, and all the screaming seemed like a profoundly terrible idea, give there was a collection of houses not too far away. ?Nothing can stop my gift!?

    Emilia¡¯s mind flickered to the {Blood Ball}, still attached to her hips. It had protected her, blown outward and blocked the woman¡¯s attack, although not completely. Blearily, Emilia almost wished it hadn¡¯t protected her. Everything ached and burned, her mind floating in and out as the group talked.

    Then the screams came.

    Then the Ingogia family came.

    ?We didn''t expect you to give away your positions so easily,? someone said, a voice she didn¡¯t recognize¡ªan Enclave member, speaking as though they had known they were coming? Did Clarity have a spy within their ranks?

    ?Eh~ this is pretty helpful though!? another voice cheered, one filled with youthful exuberance. ?I wasn¡¯t looking forward to blowing up auntie¡¯s house to get these guys.?

    ?We were not going to be blowing up anyone¡¯s house,? someone else sighed, their voice sounding humorously long-suffering.

    Emilia¡¯s mind splintered off as the group continued to argue. Where were the members of Clarity? Why were none of them speaking?

    A cruel laugh rippled through the air, filled with malice that seemed displaced¡ªover the top¡ªuntil they spoke, voice teasing and poking. ?You don¡¯t have a spy!? they laughed, one of their companions telling them to stop with the theatrics. ?Oh, but it¡¯s just too funny, that they don¡¯t realize that they are sacrifices.?

    ¡°What?¡± Vermilion asked, the first familiar voice Emilia had heard in what felt like forever. ¡°Sacrifices? Sacrifices for what?¡±

    ?Sacrifices for you, of course. A visitor needs to win a blessing for this world. Every previous blessing was won by someone with system access, and to get that, you need to sacrifice a soul to the universe.?

    ¡°?Sacrifice a soul? A ritual murder??¡±

    ?In a way,? someone responded because apparently Jerrina¡¯s aethervoice control had abandoned her, blown away by her that defensive barrier, most likely. ?We sacrificed a Risen Guard for our harbinger¡¯s system access, but they are so difficult to capture. When Ajarni told us he had acquired a huge group of visitors¡ª?

    ¡°Ajarni? The leader of Clarity?¡± the woman who had argued with Yuka asked, her voice holding all the confusion that Emilia felt.

    Out of all the suspicions she had had of the Clarity leader¡¯s intentions, being involved with the Enclave hadn¡¯t been one of them.

    ?He does an excellent job of hiding his allegiances, doesn¡¯t he?? someone said, responding to her leaking thoughts or the other visitor, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure. ?Honestly, though, I¡¯ve heard that man talk. I¡¯m surprised anyone ever believes what he says. I suppose they can¡¯t help trusting him, what with how destroyed their minds are.?

    ¡°?So he''s what? Making sacrifices for you??¡± Emilia breathed out, eyes squeezing closed as her voice and mind spoke as one. Everything ached, like she¡¯d been blasted apart from the inside out, her muscles and tendons only holding her together out of spite.

    ?Oh, not exactly. He was making soldiers for us. We needed a place for members who betrayed us to go. Ajarni¡¯s grandfather volunteered to leave us and found a group. It was more to keep them contained than anything, but once we realized how motivated they were to stop us? That they were willing to burn their personalities away seeking power??

    In the background, someone told whoever was talking to shut up, but the speaker¡¯s cruel voice just laughed, telling them there was no point in not telling them the truth. ?It¡¯s not like they have access to their messaging systems anymore. Why not give them a like reality check before we dump them into the universe??

    No messaging access¡ªmaybe that was why everyone was so quiet, some magic or gift interfering with their system access and ability to even speak.

    ¡°?But they hate you? Why would they act as soldiers for you??¡± Even as she said it, Emilia knew the answer: because Ajarni would tell them to. His family had spent generations manipulating these people, warping their minds to accept everything he said, despite the contradictions.

    ?Exactly,? someone said. There were too many someones, but Emilia¡¯s brain was overwhelmed with pain and facts. She couldn¡¯t have identified more than a vague familiarity in each voice if she tried. ?Every Clarity member does as they are told. They even went along with this ridiculous plan, which was clearly a death sentence. Of course, they didn''t realize that was how it was designed, but from what I heard, a few of you visitors actually pointed out the problems with his plan. Heard you got in trouble, too, for daring to question the great and powerful Ajarni.?

    ¡°Why not just tell them the truth them? Tell them they¡¯re sacrifices? If they¡¯re as mindless as you believe, they would have gone along with that, too!¡± Vermilion yelled, something having seemingly snapped her and the other visitors in their group out of their own mind manipulations. Maybe just the stress of the situation? Not that it really mattered.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think their awareness of the world would last.

    ?No idea. Ajarni might be associated with us, but that guy does what he likes. You¡¯d have to ask him why he chose to use his pawns this way.?

    ?You¡¯re lying!?

    Emilia tried to force her eyes open¡ªtried to watch Kyren launch himself at one of the Enclave members who had surrounded them. He was in a different spot than before, his face looking pale and sweaty, and she could only guess that he¡¯d used his teleportation gift to shake off whatever gift the Ingogia family was using to keep everyone from moving, speaking and accessing their system,

    The members of the Ingogia family scattered, looking unconcerned with the attack. There were so many of them, it was unlikely the Clarity groups would be able to escape, even if every one of them broke free. Not so much an issue for her¡ªshe didn¡¯t want to sacrifice anyone, but she doubted they¡¯d kill her in case they could convince her, if her consent was even required to begin with. For the Clarity members, though? Would being sacrificed hurt? Maybe death in battle was better.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Whatever had been holding the Clarity members still seemed to snap, and the world exploded to life. Magic shuddered through the universe, angry and desperate. Well, this was what the group got for willingly killing children, although the fact that the Ingogia family had sacrificed those children¡­

    ?They weren¡¯t real,? one of them told her, something like amusement sliding through their voice. Why? Because they¡¯d tricked their group? Made them think teenagers had died for no reason? ?Ah¡­ that is unfortunate.?

    Emilia tried to push herself up, her energy and body slowly settling after Jerrina¡¯s attack¡ªwhich, who would have known that would have led to this? The Enclave would have attacked them no matter what, at some point or another, but the fact that she couldn¡¯t help the group because that woman was a bitch¡ªbecause she¡¯d poked at her and Fran a few too many times¡­

    Well, it really sucked, and as she watched Jerrina, Kyren and several members of the other group give up fighting the Enclave members and instead turn their attacks onto the visitors, Emilia couldn¡¯t help but feel it was her fault, just a little. Hopefully, the visitor¡¯s minds would return to normal, once they were free of this world.

    Hopefully, they wouldn''t carry those scars and manipulations back into the real world.

    Jerrina turned on her, eyes sparking with magical hatred. ?This is your fault!? she hissed, and Emilia wondered if she¡¯d been listening to what the Enclave members had been saying at all. She was just a single piece in what had led the Enclave to them so soon. If anyone should be blamed, it should be Jerrina. Her stupid ass attack had been the final piece!

    Had Emilia literally just be blaming herself for this situation? Yes, but that didn¡¯t mean she was going to let Jerrina apply undeserved blame on her! She alone could blame herself for things that clearly weren¡¯t her fault, no one else!

    A face flashed through her mind, cold and snarling, before Jerrina hit her with another instant death attack. Much like the first time, her {Blood Ball} exploded outwards, and the attack only partially connected with her.

    It still hurt more than nearly anything Emilia had ever experienced. The pain of burning her leg in the labyrinth had been worse, but contained. This was a pain that rattled and roared through her body, seemingly seeking out things to destroy. It couldn¡¯t destroy¡ªthat part of it was locked out by the {Blood Ball}¡ªbut just the search was an exercise in keeping herself from ripping her {Blood Dagger} out of its sheath and slitting her throat.

    Boundary had told her visitors were unable to kill themselves, but that shouldn¡¯t keep her from trying!

    The {Blood Ball} contracted, and the world faded away again. Vaguely, she was aware of Jerrina trying again, again, the pain surging and mounting and climaxing inside her until Emilia was sure she couldn¡¯t possibly feel more pain.

    She did, somehow. Every attempt added to the pain that already existed. Thankfully, she was increasingly unconscious. Being unconscious was good.

    Jerrina was skilled, when she wasn¡¯t going up against defence coded blood items, anyways, and in between her attempts to kill Emilia she did manage to kill several Enclave members. Then they subdued her¡ªsubdued everyone.

    Emilia¡¯s world faded in and out of existence, the time she was awake marred with pain and confusion. Words filtered through her ears¡ªthrough her mind? She¡¯d never had the chance to ask anyone how hearing in this world worked.

    It was sad that she¡¯d never learn the answer, but she was rather hoping to die soon. Maybe she already was dead, although allowing dead heroes to feel so profoundly seemed like an obnoxiously sadistic choice on the part of the platform maintainer.

    Just when she¡¯d think she was finally dead, the world would flash before her eyes again. Forest. Vermilion¡¯s dead body. More forest. A clone of the first teenager Jerrina had killed. Jerrina¡¯s body¡ªapparently the Enclave had decided her gift was too dangerous.

    ?I can¡¯t believe Ajarni sent us this bitch and didn¡¯t even warn us.?

    Yeah, Emilia had to agree: that was a strange move on Ajarni¡¯s part. Maybe the man had just wanted to get rid of her.

    ?She did seem like an unpleasant lady. Tried to kill you for no reason. Even if this hadn¡¯t been a setup, she¡¯d have fucked up your mission anyways. The fuck did you do to her??

    Images of V flashed through her head. The man, soft and sleepy that morning¡ªhad that really only been that morning? Laughing at her because she¡¯d chased the children from the room with her inappropriate thoughts. That sweet, teasing smile. She missed that smile, even if the double dimples still upset her. When she overlaid the vision of the boy she had once known with V, however¡ª

    Emilia shook herself, gazing at the brick of wherever she had been put¡ªwhen had she even been moved? That boy and V¡ªwhoever he was in the real world now¡ªweren¡¯t the same. They were, but the way they fit together was unclear and broken. The boy of her memories didn¡¯t suit the person she had gotten to know over¡­ over only a few days.

    She wanted to laugh about that¡ªabout the brevity and fierceness of their friendship¡ªbut everything hurt too much, and her mind was wandering anyways, following the forgotten trail of a melody being hummed nearby. It floated through the air, winding around her like a long-lost friend. Not that she could place the song. Probably something from the Free Colonies¡ªone of the other team¡¯s visitors had had an accent, muted by what Emilia assumed was several decades living in Baalphoria, but an accent nonetheless.

    Her muscles shook and rebelled as she tried to push herself up, as though if only she could move, she could get out of here. After so long searching for a way to access the system, it was ironic that she didn¡¯t want it now¡ªdidn¡¯t want to sacrifice someone she knew, even if none of those people were particularly nice, or had given a shit about her.

    Why did she care about killing them, again?

    Resting didn¡¯t suit her, though. Movement did. Running and climbing and falling through the air suited her. Her mind racing through programs and systems suited her. Fucking and loving and even occasionally hating someone with all she was capable of suited her.

    This¡ªlying around, waiting for the Enclave to tell her it was time to sacrifice someone she felt all but nothing for, supposedly for the greater good? This didn¡¯t suit her, but she couldn¡¯t move. Everything was heavy, hurting¡ªwas this how Olivier had felt? Stuck in his hospital bed after the final battle? Half his body burned, while an induced coma kept him from the pain?

    Olivier wasn¡¯t suited for lying around anymore than she was.

    How long had he been in the bed for?

    How long had it hurt?

    How long had he wondered if she would come visit him?

    How long had he mourned her? Not dead, just absent, his messages to her going unopened because she couldn¡¯t bear to see him blame her for what happened.

    He hadn¡¯t, and instead, when she¡¯d finally worked up the courage to look through messages from the people missing her, years after she¡¯d left and refused to look back, all she¡¯d found was concern.

    [Oliver: Emilia, please, let me know you are alright.]

    [Oliver: Emilia, I hope you are safe.]

    [Oliver: Emilia, if you ever need anything, do not hesitate to contact me. No matter what it is.]

    [Oliver: Emilia, Rafe says you are okay. I am glad.]

    [Oliver: Emilia, happy birthday.]

    Why? Why had she left him there? She¡¯d been breaking, her Balance Levels shattering with every move she made.

    She still should have stayed¡ªshould have made sure he was okay, that he knew she was safe. He hadn¡¯t deserved to not know, even if he might have figured out what¡ªwho¡ªhad caused her genes to knot themselves into terrible, traumatic monstrosities.

    He¡¯d have asked around. He¡¯d have realized she rarely left his room, and he rarely got any visitors. A shortlist of people for him to find, question, and blame. At the time, she hadn¡¯t thought that person deserved blame for the trauma his words had caused. Now, she wished she¡¯d set Olivier on him. She still could, technically, but she wouldn¡¯t. Ten years was a long time, and Emilia didn¡¯t want to be the sort of person who kept grudges for an entire fucking decade.

    The Emilia of that moment, breaking and shattering, wouldn¡¯t have stayed¡ªwouldn¡¯t have assigned blame to anyone but herself. She still should have stayed, just like whoever was singing had stayed¡ªnot that they¡¯d had any choice in that. What a silly thought. If this person could leave, they would.

    They couldn¡¯t¡ªnone of them could leave. Not unless the Enclave let them¡ªunlikely¡ªor someone came to save them.

 Arc 4 | Chapter 149: Doesnâ€™t Matter the World (Parents Still Suck)

    The first thing Emilia knew was someone calling for her. It might have been V, his voice cut over with a frantic memory of the child he had once been screaming on the front.

    If it was his voice, he never made it to her.

    Instead, another set of familiar arms pulled her up. Strong and safe, heaving her up as though she weighed nothing.

    Boundary.

    How had he gotten there?

    How had he known where to find her?

    ?You mentioned Clarity to both Honey and me,? the man whispered into her as they moved, flickering in and out of existence as he teleported them. His words were useless, Emilia might remember him saving her¡ªremember V¡¯s left behind voice¡ªbut she wouldn¡¯t remember the moments in between being rescued and coming weakly to in Boundary¡¯s home in more than drips of phantom knowledge.

    ?Did Honey tell you that?? she asked. Had she asked? A day later¡ªmultiple days later?¡ªshe felt like she had asked that and a thousand other little questions as they went, reality and dream and nightmare floating together in a soup of misunderstandings.

    Did you know Honey was an Enclave spy? Not until she warned me.

    Was revealing herself worth saving me? No.

    Boundary had¡ªmaybe¡ªmumbled something about how even Honey knew that whatever was about to happen would be bad¡ªeven amongst the Enclave, the Ingogia family had a bad reputation. Emilia would ask about that again later, when she was fully conscious of the world. It was important information, maybe. Other bits were less important, concoctions of a curious and barely conscious brain.

    What time is it? Just before day will open in the cities.

    Why aren¡¯t you wearing your armour? I was in a hurry.

    Other questions were important.

    Will the Risen Guard be mad about you saving me? Probably.

    Aren¡¯t you worried? I doubt they will do anything to me.

    Where are we going? Home.

    Boundary and his husband hadn¡¯t deserved this to happen to their home¡ªfor revenge to come slamming down around them. Where had Villy gone, anyways? Had someone mentioned a late night market? He and the boy¡ªthe formerly nameless boy that Emilia had never thought she¡¯d see again¡ªgone out? Had they managed to escape the oppression of that asshole¡¯s energy assault?

    ?Oh please, it¡¯s not like I killed anyone.?

    Emilia blinked up at the man who just kept showing up. Sometimes when he was needed, other times, things would have been fine without him there. Now was probably one of those times.

    ?Ah~? Conrad cooed, smiling lazily down at her, teeth sparkling white in the dim light. ?Does that mean y¡¯want me t¡¯go without ya, Emilia??

    ? ? ? An Hour or So Earlier ? ? ?

    A little body clambered onto Emilia. Not onto her bed, onto her physically, their palms and knees and elbows digging painfully into her. It wasn¡¯t exactly the best time to be used as a jungle gym, what with her body still aching on and off from Jerrina¡¯s attacks¡ªseriously, that gift had been fucking nasty. She couldn¡¯t even fault the Enclave for killing the woman. Actually, if they¡¯d let her live and risked that gift being used on them, then she probably would have judged them.

    ?Apologies, he wanted to see you again.?

    Emilia bolted out of the dream that had been trying to tug her back under, away from the pain clinging to her body. She¡¯d gotten so used to children being handsy with her over the past week¡ªhad it been more than a week?¡ªthat she hadn¡¯t even clued in that, as far as she¡¯d known until a moment earlier, only she and Boundary were in his house.

    The man leaning against the door frame of her temporary door was definitely not Boundary, but he did look slightly familiar. Emilia¡¯s mind raced, trying to pull up memories of every local she¡¯d met since arriving in this world. Faced blurred and stacked, but thankfully, she¡¯d met this man recently: he was one of the guards she¡¯d knocked out during their escape from the Risen Guard complex.

    The one who had been guarding the door to the labyrinth.

    ?Villy??

    The man smiled and nodded. ?That was quite the technique you used on me,? he laughed, eyes flickering over her¡ªassessing¡ªbefore he pushed himself off the door frame and came to sit beside her. ?I was out for almost an hour! Really freaked Boundary out.?

    ¡°?Boundary is your¡­??¡± Emilia trailed off, partially because she was using both her voice and aethervoice to speak again, partially because she didn¡¯t want to make assumptions.

    ?Husband,? Villy supplied, lips twitching in amusement when¡ªdespite her best efforts to tamp her thoughts down¡ªa collection of recollections of inappropriate thoughts she had had about Boundary spiralled out of her. ?He is quite a dish, isn¡¯t he??

    Was death an option? It felt like it should be an option. Next raid she was joining, there would be an instant death escape skill¡ªor, more sensibly, a way to log out at will.

    Abruptly, Emilia remembered the child sitting quietly in her lap, head tucked into her chest. None of this was appropriate for his little ears, or er¡­ whatever people used to hear aethervoices?

    ?We have a special organ behind our jaw, near our ears,? Villy explained because he was apparently infinitely nicer and more open to conversation and questions than his husband.

    ?I heard that,? came Boundary¡¯s annoyed voice from wherever he had gone off to while she slept. ?To make dinner.?

    Emilia contemplated the image of Boundary cooking for a moment. He¡¯d been wearing normal clothes before her nap, the dark red sweater highlighting the hidden red of his hair. Had he changed, or just pulled up his sleeves?

    Glancing at Villy, taking in his own oversized, dark red sweater¡­

    ?I always liked wearing Olivier¡¯s clothes, too.?

    ?Your husband??

    Emilia almost laughed. Laughing would have been better than the stream of disparaging remarks that leaked out of her.

    Ya, right.

    He didn¡¯t¡ªdoesn¡¯t¡ªlike me like that.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    He had his chance, he didn¡¯t take it.

    I wish.

    How would my life be different if things had worked out between us?

    Sighing, Emilia explained in broad strokes the way relationships in her world were more diverse. Villy nodded, seeming to take in all the information with more severity than it deserved.

    ?All knowledge is important,? the man replied, shrugging and leaning forward to poke at the blob of child in her arms.

    The boy peeked up, and where Emilia might have been expecting to find an oddly friendly but unknown child, willing to hug the stranger who had taken over a room in their house, she instead found a pair of eyes she recognized.

    The little nameless boy, who none of the Livery children had recognized. Given Astra¡¯s newly revealed identity as a visitor, Emilia eyes him up someone suspiciously.

    ?Oh, the other child was a visitor?? Villy asked at the same time his eavesdropping husband hissed ?What!?? into the room.

    Emilia¡­ hadn¡¯t meant to reveal that. Damn local tongue, turning every internal thought that wasn¡¯t a fucking image into words that everyone in the general vicinity could hear.

    Villy seemed unconcerned, telling her there wasn¡¯t much they could do to Astra, since she was lost to the wind. At the very least, Conrad and the kids hadn¡¯t been caught by the Risen Guard after their hopefully successful escape from Clarity.

    ?We¡¯re also sure this boy is a local¡ªthey found a doctor in Livery who knew him.? He reached forward, pulling the boy up and gently nudging his head to the side. Under each of his ears were tiny scars. ?He was born without the organs I spoke of and can¡¯t hear. His parents went to some charlatan in another city, who claimed they could fix him.?

    ?There¡¯s nothing to fix,? Emilia growled, her hands beginning to naturally sign as the reality that the boy couldn¡¯t hear her, even now that she could speak the local tongue, settled into her. All that effort¡ªnot to mention a healthy dose of stupidity and possibly the influence of the labyrinth¡ªto gain the ability to speak directly with locals, and here she was, still using sign language to communicate with one.

    Villy¡¯s mouth fell open, his eyes flicking between hers. He seemed to be looking for something there¡ªsomething he apparently found, mouth pulling into a bright smile. ?I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything to fix, either.? He leaned back, letting the boy return to snuggling himself into Emilia¡¯s chest.

    ?So, he can¡¯t hear or speak??

    ?He could perhaps learn to speak; however, it would be difficult without being able to hear any advice on how to do so. We will look into getting him access to the Risen Guard system early, so we can teach him to read. There is nothing like your?¡ªhe motioned with his hands and Emilia supplied the word¡ª?sign language here, but we may look into devising one. Boundary has already begun experimenting. It¡¯s rather cute.? The last bit came out exclusively for her, followed by a wink.

    ?We??

    The man¡¯s eyes crinkled when his smile deepened. They weren¡¯t deep wrinkles, and Emilia wondered if they¡¯d become like her own mother¡¯s in the years to come¡ªin the years he would be a parent to this little boy. Wrinkles deepening under the oppressive smiles and love of parenthood, of watching your child be happy and miserable, of watching them try their best to get away with the most insane shit¡ªand even sometimes letting them¡ªof watching them love and fuck up and keep going, knowing you¡¯re there behind them, always.

    ?Adoption isn¡¯t exactly common here, but Boundary and the boy bonded¡­ very quickly,? Villy said, when he¡¯d stopped blubbering over her reminiscing about her own mother¡¯s wrinkles, his hands reaching up to finger his own lines.

    Emilia snorted, the sound amusingly only coming through as a physical sound. Apparently, since she hadn¡¯t actually thought the sound, only made it on instinct, it didn¡¯t come out as an echo through her aethervoice. Fascinating, especially considering how often her mind was dragged to such sounds when locals made them.

    ?Fast indeed. It¡¯s been, what? Three? Four days?? Boundary had been rather reluctant to tell her how long she¡¯d been slipping in and out of consciousness for, since the mission to the Ingogia estate.

    ?Something like that,? Villy laughed, ignoring the way Boundary called from the kitchen that it had not been that fast. ?And no, I don¡¯t think he was bringing the boy back to you the night you left, even if you hadn¡¯t vanished,? he added, answering Emilia¡¯s accidental musings about what the man would have done with the child he grew so immediately attached to, had she not run off.

    Hesitantly, Emilia asked about the boy¡¯s parents.

    Apparently, even if they had wanted him back¡ªwhich apparently they didn¡¯t¡ªthe Risen Guard wouldn¡¯t have returned him. Taking your child for an experimental medical procedure¡ªwhich was already heavily monitored and restricted due to the blood curse¡ªwas bad enough, but they had also proceeded to hide the boy away for most of his life. The doctor had only known of him because he had gotten extremely sick earlier that year and his parents had been forced to bring him in; if the boy had died, they would have had a dead body to deal with, and even under the corrupt overseer, they probably wouldn¡¯t have gotten away with letting their child die from a common childhood illness.

    That was as far as the overseers'' kindness went, however.

    ?The doctor knew something was wrong, but without an overseer who would actually do something¡­?

    ?He could report it, knowing nothing would be done, at most.?

    ?Exactly,? Villy agreed, his face no longer happy or smiling at the idea of a life with his new child, but gazing sadly upon the little boy, who was lightly dozing in Emilia¡¯s arms. He continued watching the boy¡ªhis son¡ªas Emilia¡¯s mind rambled about corruption in the Free Colonies.

    ?Like, we knew some of the Free Colonies were terrible at running their colonies, right?? she said, after she had finally given up on suppressing her thoughts and decided to just tell the story her brain wanted to reminisce on. ?But no one really expected it to affect how soldiers behaved, in relation to the chain of command. Stupid, I know. You can remove the person from their environment, but their brain still exists in that place¡ªtheir memories still chase them and force their decisions one way or another. Things were such a mess at the beginning of the war, though, and¡ª?

    Emilia shook herself, trying not to think of those first few years. The last years of the war might have been the deadliest, the monsters of war powerful and nigh unkillable to the average soldier, but the first years had been filled with so much disorganization. The deaths in those first years had been due to stupidity more than anything else, and that alone made them more frustrating, especially when some of the assholes who had mismanaged and mangled operations were now considered war heroes, as though their later, minor contributions to the war could wipe out their earlier fuck-ups.

    The government needed heroes, though, and with so many of its true heroes broken or unwilling to be public figures, they were left with what scraps they could find.

    ?Anyways, what I was trying to say, was there were a lot of Free Coloniers who didn¡¯t trust the higher ups. Originally, we assumed it was because the brass and unit leaders were mostly Baalphorians, but eventually, we realized it was because they didn¡¯t trust any authority figure to do anything¡ªor do the right thing, or even know they should be doing something. Not sure which is worse, honestly. Incompetence, probably.?

    ?Definitely incompetence.?

    She and Villy looked to the doorway, where Boundary was suddenly standing with a platter of food.

    ?I ran out of food for him,? he said, weight shifting nervously from side to side. It really didn¡¯t suit the usually quiet and confident man.

    Villy sighed, muttering about how he was feeding their son too much, Boundary muttering back that he was too skinny, and he wasn¡¯t about to deny him food.

    Shaking his head, Villy lifted his son off Emilia, the boy¡¯s eyes fluttering open. ?Let¡¯s go get your silly daddy more ingredients for your food, shall we?? he asked, and Emilia wondered if the boy could feel his words, the way she had been able to feel the occasional rustle of conversation even before she could hear locals. ?Perhaps,? Villy agreed, bending over, so Emilia could plant a kiss on the boy¡¯s cheek, ?we may be able to test it one day¡ªfeel out his energy while we talk, and see if it shifts with our words¡ªbut in the meantime, I just like talking to him.?

    He looked resolute when he told her they would be continuing to figure out a better way to communicate, regardless. Emilia was glad of that, having spent her childhood watching several caregivers and parents try to force the most convenient¡ªfor them¡ªmode of communication onto the children within their care.

    Emilia waved goodbye as they left, the boy waving over his new father¡¯s shoulder, Boundary waving adorably to him in return and telling them not to go farther than the night market, a wisp of worry sliding into his expression. Seriously, how could he not be worried, what with all the murderous visitors running around? Not to mention the crazy Enclave families who were willing to kill anyone for their goals.

    ?Did you give him a name?? Emilia asked when Boundary snapped out of whatever worries had been consuming him, and he placed the platter of questionable looking food next to her.

    The man¡¯s hands paused before he straightened. ?Yes.? He turned to leave as Emilia gaped at his back, throwing all the insults she could about his stupid refusal to answer half her questions at his back.

    ?Ridiculous man,? she muttered, chastising herself for not asking Villy before he left as she glowered at her food.

    Boundary was gone, the door closed behind him, when his voice slid through her, soft and shaking, and she wondered if he just hadn¡¯t been able to tell her straight to her face. ?His name is Emile, after the person who brought him to us.?

    Emilia glared harder at her food, blinking back tears threatening her eyes. The last thing she needed was her sobs echoing out into the whole damn neighbourhood. ?Stupid.?

    ?I know.?

 Arc 4 | Chapter 150: Might as Well Get a Headache

    Conrad watched her try to get out of bed for exactly 10 seconds before dragging her out of it and hoisting her into his arms.

    ¡°?I can walk,?¡± she grumbled, death glaring him.

    He ignored her and started for the door.

    ?Seriously, did you have to launch an attack on the entire neighbourhood? There could be children nearby!?

    ?There aren¡¯t,? the other visitor replied calmly, kicking the front door open and¡ª

    Oh.

    ?Oh, indeed,? he replied as they stepped out into near wilderness.

    Having been tired and achy since she¡¯d arrived, Emilia hadn¡¯t actually bothered to investigate the world outside her room¡ªseriously, she was pretty sure Villy and Emile had been inside the house the whole day she was in and out of consciousness, and she hadn¡¯t noticed them. Stars! She hadn¡¯t even realized the house was as big as it was until Boundary had spoken to them from the kitchen.

    And the house was freaking huge! Emilia¡¯s eyes grew just as huge as Conrad hurried away from the building, the monstrosity that Boundary called home growing smaller as they went.

    [Boundary: Seriously? That asshole is your ally now?]

    [Emilia: uh¡­ we¡¯re sorry?]

    [Emilia: and please don¡¯t take my system access away?]

    A stream of letters that Emilia assumed represented an expression of complaint and annoyance settled over her vision, followed by a promise that he wouldn¡¯t. Apparently, as much as Conrad had temporarily taken the Risen Guard out, he hadn¡¯t actually hurt him and Boundary couldn¡¯t fault her for his bad manners. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how Boundary would have reacted had Conrad just knocked on his front door, but somehow she didn¡¯t think it would have gone any better.

    [Emilia: it¡¯s probably better this way, anyways]

    [Emilia: you don¡¯t need to be wrapped up in this anymore than you already are]

    [Emilia: not when you have a family to protect now]

    Even from so far away, Emilia could feel annoyance oozing out of Boundary. They hadn¡¯t spent much time together, and if things had been different, she might have accepted his help. Not now¡ªnot when he had a new family to protect and the Enclave was all for sacrificing anyone they could find to grant more visitors system access. Not to mention that eventually word about that would get out, and then visitors would be going crazy sacrificing anyone they could, although¡­

    [Boundary: It would be easier to grab a normal citizen. There are people all through the city system who would not be missed by many, and while some city levels are corrupt in ways we did not know of, there are others where the corruption is well known, and we are working to stamp it out. That takes time, and there are many citizens we have no record of, or have no permanent home we could search them out at. It would be easy for the Enclave to take those people.]

    [Emilia: so there¡¯s something about regular people that doesn¡¯t work with the ritual¡­]

    [Emilia: that, or the Enclave is so bitter they just have to use their enemies for it]

    [Emilia: man, the way those assholes were talking]

    [Emilia: so arrogant, and like nothing could touch them?]

    [Emilia: it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if that were the case]

    ?Maybe it¡¯s the power of the heartcores?? Boundary suggested more sensibly as Emilia related the information she had gleaned during her brief moments with the Ingogia family to him¡ªif Conrad was going to carry her away, she might as well use the time to earn herself a headache messaging her unanswered questions at Boundary, who was significantly more talkative via text.

    Unfortunately, combined with her uncontrollable aethervoice, this meant Conrad now knew she had access to the Risen Guard system and knew how to gain access to the normal system¡­ sort of.

    ?I never got the specific details, okay?? she hissed at him after he¡¯d spent too long annoying her, trying to learn as much about this so-called ritual as he could¡ªa ritual she wasn¡¯t even sure was actually the true way to access the system.

    ?Why not?? the man asked, at the same time Boundary¡¯s message about contacting everyone he knew with any connections to the Enclave or Clarity to search for specifics came through.

    [Emilia: are you sure that¡¯s a good idea?]

    [Emilia: if the Enclave doesn¡¯t know you¡¯re the one who grabbed me yet, asking about that will definitely tip people off you were involved]

    [Boundary: I will ask someone above me to inquire.]

    [Boundary: It is unlikely anyone would be able to track it back to me. I also doubt they will care. You are just one person, and they have bigger things to worry about, since their plan went so awry.]

    That made sense, but Emilia still thought of Villy and little Emile, wandering through the night market, or perhaps making their way back to their house now. She thought of terrible people coming and taking the parents the little boy had lucked into away to be sacrifices, in hopes that the world to come wouldn¡¯t be as terrible as the one that existed now.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    [Emilia: keep your family safe]

    [Boundary: I intend to. I will reach them soon. Please keep me informed of what is happening.]

    [Emilia: same]

    [Emilia: let me know if you need anything]

    [Emilia: i¡¯ll drop what i¡¯m doing to come help you]

    Emilia knew that wasn¡¯t entirely true. If she were already protecting someone, she wouldn¡¯t be able to leave them behind to go help Boundary, but she could try, could send someone else, could¡ª

    [Boundary: Are you serious!?]

    Emilia could practically hear the growl in Boundary¡¯s message, which she didn¡¯t really blame him for. Her request for him to grant Conrad access to the system¡ªmaybe even Astra, assuming Boundary could do so from who knew how far away¡ªhad been¡­ a lot. Even Conrad seemed to think so, looking at her like she¡¯d lost her mind. Maybe she had.

    [Emilia: it¡¯s on the condition he come help you, if you ask]

    Conrad didn¡¯t complain, but neither did he look particularly happy to have been saddled with helping Boundary, if only he asked, in return for access to the Risen Guard system. It seemed like a good deal, and Emilia pointed out to Boundary that practically every visitor she was friendly with would kill to keep him safe, if it meant keeping access to the system.

    [Emilia: actually, astra seemed accepting enough of you]

    [Emilia: and she knows i like you]

    [Emilia: so she might be okay protecting you regardless of the whole system thing]

    Boundary vanished from the conversation for several long minutes, his only message reading¡ªin sloppy, improper grammar¡ªthat he had located Villy and their son and was taking a moment to tell them what had happened. A moment later, Villy¡¯s name popped up in her contact list, under the still red indicator for Honey¡¯s messages¡ªEmilia hadn¡¯t dared open what was surely a million messages yet.

    Surprisingly, another function popped up across her vision as well: one for her to grant access to the Risen Guard system to other people. Villy¡¯s name lit up, the message within a long explanation of how to use the new function. It would still be connected to Boundary, as the primary host of the system. If either she or Boundary died, anyone she had given access to would have their access revoked.

    [Villy: I cannot be certain, but I¡¯m almost positive if you enter a labyrinth, any instances you have allowed in other people will disconnect. I am unsure if they will return when you exit the labyrinth. It may also occur within a labyrinth¡¯s zone of influence.]

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure, but she assumed zone of influence referred to the strange areas that sometimes surrounded labyrinths. That would explain why her own system access had taken a bit to activate, although, as for why it hadn¡¯t disappeared when she returned to the entrance of the labyrinth that she¡¯d gained her annoying aethervoice from¡­

    ?Yeah, you seriously suck at keeping your thoughts inside your head,? Conrad agreed as they began descending a long, stone staircase, the steps spirally downwards. Its grey bricks were covered in what looked to almost be a glistening red and green algae, although there was no water. If anything, other than the plants, the staircase seemed almost unnaturally dry.

    ?I don''t mind it,? the man clarified, so quickly that Emilia only barely registered the negative thoughts about her mind being too loud and full to be tolerable that had tumbled out of her. ?Your thoughts are interesting.? Conrad hesitated before adding that his brother was so silent that it was often difficult understanding what was happening inside his head.

    ?You know we aren¡¯t the same person, right?? Emilia asked. She was pretty sure Conrad realized that for all the similarities he might see between her and his mysterious brother, he knew they were different people. Still, with someone as strange as he was, it was good to double-check.

    Conrad sighed in exaggerated style, air brushing over her bangs. ?Yes, Emilia. I am aware you are not my beloved older brother.? He jumped the last few steps, turning and glaring upwards. His energy bubbled, reaching out for¡ª

    Emilia gasped as water began to seep out of the stone steps, first as puddles and then giant streams of water. An invisible barrier seemed to stop the water from going farther than the final step, but watching a tunnel of water appear before their heads, a giant column of death, was¡­

    Well, it was beautiful and ominous all at once.

    And magical. So fucking magical. The only thing that would make it more impressive is if there were fish swimming in it.

    ?This world¡¯s magic can do many things,? Conrad said darkly, his concentration slowly fading as the column completed itself, ?but I don¡¯t think creating living creatures from the aether is a good thing, no matter what world we live in.?

    Something in the man¡¯s tone told her he was no more a fan of the raids than she was.

    ?That,? he agreed, kicking open a door and continuing down the next corridor, ?and there are stories where I¡¯m from.?

    ?Stories?? Emilia asked, once she¡¯d actually bothered sending Villy an inquiry back about why her Risen Guard system access had and then hadn¡¯t been affected by the labyrinth¡¯s zone of influence.

    Apparently, it was because the system slowly adapted to such areas. The first time a person travelled into a particular zone of influence, they lost access. If they travelled the same path again, however, they were unlikely to be affected.

    ?Is this zone of influence thing why you¡ªor your other personality, I guess¡ªcouldn¡¯t escape during that first fight with us?? she asked Boundary, Conrad quietly waiting for her to finish her conversation before going on with his story. It wasn¡¯t that she couldn¡¯t listen and send messages at the same time¡ªshe was fantastic at that, actually!¡ªbut her brain was just so noisy. Conrad speaking would have involved actually speaking over her own, accidentally vocalized thoughts and the conversation with Boundary and Villy¡ª Which, seriously? Why had the man not made them a group chat, like they had with Benny!?

    ?Yes,? Boundary responded, explaining that being unable to use the Risen Guard system meant he could not call for backup, teleport himself away, or use many of his magics, which were apparently connected to the strange magic function in the corner of her vision that she hadn¡¯t yet had a chance to analyze, let alone experiment with.

    A quick message to Villy about how his terrible husband had left her with some system function she couldn¡¯t understand, and Emilia received a detailed explanation of what it was and how it worked. How someone as reticent and bitchy as Boundary had ended up with a sweet, complaint husband like Villy was beyond her. Apparently, for all his good parts, Villy also had terrible taste in men.

    He had been right about one thing, though: Boundary was a dish. Maybe that made up for it. Stars knew she had been willing to put up with Olivier being a bitch largely because he was beautiful. Helped that he was smart and kind¡ªnot that she had often seen that part of him, in that first decade of knowing him¡ªand just so fucking good in bed.

    ?You think about sex a lot,? Conrad noted after she had bid a final goodbye to Boundary and Villy, the latter promising to give Emile a goodnight kiss for her, the both of them promising to stay safe.

    ?I like sex,? Emilia replied, sinking a little further into his arms. They were comfortable, at least, but the residual aches in her body weren¡¯t getting any better being bounced around like this. ?Do you??

    Conrad, in a very uncharacteristic move, hesitated. Perhaps he was from one of those Free Colonies that didn¡¯t talk about sex? Except, usually, they also made nudity into something shameful and embarrassing for both parties. She¡¯d been naked in front of the man, and he hadn¡¯t given a single shit, so probably not a culture thing.

    Whatever it was, Emilia didn¡¯t get a chance to find out¡ªnot today, anyways. Instead, Conrad¡¯s eyes seemed to lose focus, the words falling out of him like a long-lost childhood story¡ªwhich perhaps it was. A story of childhood, meant to scare children off from using their cores to create friends from the universe itself.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 151: Interlude: To Build a Friend From the Aether Itself, part 1

    Once, there was a boy.

    From the moment of his birth, he was treated as the sweet, innocent child he was. His family, who were very influential in their community, doted upon him. Not a single expense was spared for their child.

    The boy was gifted all the finest tutors. They taught him math and languages. They taught him all the now lost histories and stories. They taught him of the ever-changing world, of the wars that constantly plagued their borders. They taught him of the country so far to the east that it touched the other side of the sea, and of their ever-evolving technology and the terrifying things they inflicted upon their bodies.

    His nannies¡ªfor although they loved him, his parents were too busy to care for him themselves¡ªcame from throughout the Free Colonies, although they were not yet known by that name. They were an ever shifting force, with the men and women rarely lasting more than six months. His parents believed their precious child should be exposed to as much of the world as possible.

    Yet, their child lived a very small life. While he may have known of the world outside the high walls of his family¡¯s estate, he had never seen it through more than photos and sketches, gifted to him by each of his nannies.

    Once, he tried to climb the outer walls of his family¡¯s estate, after escaping the ever watchful eyes of his caretakers. While they called for him, he tucked himself behind the trees that hid a small portion of the walls. His delicate fingers dug into the stone of the wall. He pulled himself up, but no matter how hard he tried, the wall was simply not meant for climbing, and all he managed was to drag scraps over his palms and knees, blood dripping down his fingers and toes.

    As the boy grew, he was slowly taught the art of using his core, as all children of their community were. He learned to reach and read the world with it. At first, his teachers simply assumed he was a quick learner. The world the boy could see with barely half a year of practice was far larger and far more detailed than someone who had been practising for all their childhood and teenage years.

    The boy had always been smart, however, and everyone¡ªhis teachers, his nannies, his parents¡ªdecided not to worry. Eventually, his perception of the world would find the limit of the human mind. Where most children found that limit in their 20s, he would simply find his sooner.

    Except, he never did.

    Instead, his perception of the world grew and grew. Most surprising, his mind did not break under the pressure of what he saw when he extended his power. Just as all children, he was taught of the dangers of seeing too much, of the way mortal brains are not designed to see the aether in such fine detail, on such a grand scale.

    ¡°To see too much, is to risk the wrath of the universe, and the universe is not a friend to those who offend it,¡± one nanny told him.

    ¡°The aether is a private creature. Let her keep her secrets,¡± said another.

    ¡°Only children of the aether are allowed to see within their mother, and you are no child of the aether,¡± another laughed.

    Children of the aether, people who could see the intricate lines and curves and secrets of the aethernet existed, but they existed within themselves and the aether alone. To the world outside, they were closed, empty beings. Their minds had filled with too much of the aether, and it had consumed them.

    It was here that Emilia interrupted, telling Conrad that she knew an ECC dyad¡ªwhich, presumably, were who the story was referring to. She insisted that her friend, while unique and definitely overwhelmed by the world most of the time, was perfectly nice and definitely didn¡¯t just exist within himself.

    Conrad asked if her friend sometimes existed wholly within himself, and Emilia had been forced to agree: her friend could leave the world behind in his focus, at times.

    ?There¡¯s nothing wrong with that focus,? Emilia insisted, crossing her arms as Conrad continued carrying her wherever they were going¡ªto wherever he had stashed the kids, she presumed. ?I wouldn¡¯t change my friend for anything!?

    Conrad didn¡¯t say anything other than that her friend was lucky to have her, something in his voice pained, before he continued on with his story, her meandering thoughts quieting as she listened and lightly dozed in his arms.

    However, correct the boy¡¯s nanny was, he experienced none of this overwhelm, for he was no child of the aether. To the people who did not know how wide and perfect his power was, he was simply another little boy. To the teachers who watched him grow, he was a monster.

    For years, the boy begged his parents to let him see the outside world. He wanted to escape, even if just for a few hours. They always brushed his request aside. The boy was too young, too inexperienced with the world and the ways of people, too busy with his schooling.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    As the boy grew¡ªas he learned¡ªhe devised a plan to convince his parents to take him beyond the walls of his unintentional prison. ¡°One day,¡± he argued, ¡°I will inherit your business and title, father. I should meet the people of our community, if I am to know how best to serve them. For all that I learn about the world from you and my teachers, it does not feel as though it is enough. Perhaps, if I were to see the world outside our household, I would find what I am missing, or would finally be able to accept what I learn in the classroom as enough.¡±

    To the boy¡¯s parents, it was an acceptable argument, and they agreed to let him attend an upcoming festival in the nearby village. To his teachers, who had been hiding the true terror of the boy¡¯s skills from his parents, it was an unacceptable turn of events.

    They might have spent years tutoring the boy, teaching him to control himself and his power, but they were still human, and humans are often afraid of that which they do not know. To them, the boy was both a sweet, kindhearted child and a being capable of surrounding the entire community with his power. When he did so, he could see all. He could snuff out any life he desired. He was capable of becoming their realm¡¯s god if only he so wished.

    As such, they could not allow him to leave the estate. Terrible as the boy¡¯s power was, he had no current desire to use it for cruelty or evil. Were he to leave the safe, controlled sphere of the world his teachers and nannies and parents had created for him, there was no saying what he would learn and what he would do with his newfound knowledge of the harsh realities of the world.

    The teachers went to the boy¡¯s parents, imploring them to change their minds and refuse to allow the child to leave the safety of his home. Yet, the boy¡¯s parents¡¯ minds would not be changed. Even when the teachers confessed the true extent of the boy¡¯s powers and their concerns, his parents refused to change their plans.

    To them, their child was the sweet, innocent boy he had always been.

    So what if he was more powerful than a mortal should be? Every generation had more power than the last. Their son must simply be the next step in that unending evolution of humanity.

    And thus, the parents took their happy, smiling boy to the festival, and the world he saw was a remarkable place, filled with love and laughter, with more smells and scents than his little mind had ever experienced, and more children than he had ever realized existed.

    Of course, the little boy knew other children existed, but he had never seen one. All through the festival, the boy tried to approach other children and become their friend. He had never had a friend before, but he had read of them, and he had seen his adult caretakers form bonds over the years, even when many of them came and went so fast.

    The boy, however, was strange, and none of the children at the festival would talk to him for more than a few minutes.

    Having only even spoken to adults, he spoke to the children like they were adults.

    The children did not like this.

    Having been schooled in every subject under the stars, he spoke to the children of the complicated laws of the universe and their community.

    The children not the like this.

    Having so much power at his disposal, he spoke to the children of how much he could see if only he tried.

    The children did not like this, and the boy returned home without having earned himself a single friend. His nanny, who had come to retrieve him as his parents had more people to visit during the long night of the festival, gently helped him ready for bed, just as she had done for nearly five months. She would leave soon, and another nanny would take her place.

    The boy had liked this particular nanny more than many others. She always had good advice, and now he asked her, ¡°How will I make a friend, if I never leave this place and none of the village children will speak to me for more than a speck of time?¡±

    Settling the boy into bed, the woman told him a story from her homeland. She had spoken before of people listening to the aether, but the boy¡¯s teachers always brushed her stories aside as ridiculous. To them, the aether was fact and reality and the present, while the woman¡¯s stories spoke of the aether knowing the past, present, and future.

    ¡°The aether cannot know the future to guide you,¡± they would insist, but as the boy listened to the woman¡¯s advice¡ªto listen to the aether and let it guide him to a friend¡ªhe saw no reason not to try.

    And so, for months, the boy tried to do as his once-nanny suggested. He reached his core out, searching for a friend.

    At first, he searched only the village, weaving his way through each house, looking for a little heart who would become his first friend. Yet, the aether always seemed to tell him no, this is not a friend for you.

    Then, he searched further and further. More and more of the world was revealed to him as he searched, and yet, he could never find someone to be his first friend. Other children may have given up, but to the boy, it felt as though the aether wanted him to keep going. It was not yet time to give in and accept that there was no one in this world willing to be his friend.

    Time marched on, and years passed like this. The boy became more powerful, his perception reaching far outside the bounds of his community¡¯s borders, and the things he could learn from what he saw grew and grew, until one day, he found a tear.

    It was a tiny tear, in the fabric of the aether. The boy had heard tales of such tears before, the result of power, from humans and the aether itself. While these tears could carve the most beautiful features into the landscape, they were also dangerous, and the boy had been told not to touch such tears.

    As the boy turned his attention away from the tear, however, the aether called to him.

    ¡°Here,¡± it said. ¡°Here is where you will find your first friend. You have only to give it life.¡±

    The boy knew he should be afraid.

    The boy knew he should not touch.

    Yet, the boy had been looking for so long, and he could not give up this chance.

    Through the lines of the universe, the boy reached his energy towards the tear, placing his hopes and dreams, his interests and fears and love into that shard of universal energy.

    As his energy disappeared into the void of aethernet, he sent a tiny prayer along with it: ¡°Please, in exchange for my power, send me my first friend.¡±

 Arc 5 | Chapter 152: Interlude: To Build a Friend From the Aether Itself, part 2

    For many years, the boy and his first friend could not meet. While he knew that he had succeeded in creating a friend for himself, the tear he had created them from was near the furthest reaches of his power, and far beyond his community¡¯s borders.

    With his power, the two of them could converse, however it was not the friendship the boy had imagined, and as the months dragged on, his first friend slowly moving through the wilderness of the not-yet Free Colonies, the boy grew sad once more. One day, his first friend would reach his community, yet that day was still many years off.

    The boy would wait, however anxious that he was, to finally meet his first friend. He could not fight down his desire for a friend immediately, however, and he began to search out more tears in the universe, finding ones closer to his home. These tears were the smallest of slits in the aether, and the creatures they created all far smaller than his first friend, but they were his friends nonetheless.

    The boy¡¯s group of friends grew and grew as the years marched on. Some were beautiful, composed of intricate limbs, their soft fur etched over in the most complicated for designs. Others were not beautiful, instead composed of grotesque limbs with too many bends and skin that scrapped against the boy¡¯s fingers with as much bite as their sharp teeth. More still watched the world with unblinking eyes, analyzing and still, as though they were waiting for something.

    All of the boy¡¯s friends had one thing in common, however: they were each formed from a piece of the aether and a piece of the boy¡¯s core. In his desperation for friends, the boy had begun to tear himself apart, offering up those small bits of himself to the universe in exchange for another friend.

    Time marched on, and the boy continued creating more and more friends, each of them waiting for the day his first friend would arrive.

    Time marched on, and the boy grew into a man, although to the adults who had assisted in raising him, he would always be a boy. To the friends he had created and hidden through his household over the years, he would always be their boy.

    Their boy grew and grew, caring for each of them with a tenderness the universe never had. Even the creatures who cut him with their sharp existences, the ones who let off unpleasant smells, the ones who snored and caused chaos in the household as staff searched for their hiding spot; their boy loved them unendingly.

    He was theirs, and they would do anything to protect him.

    When the war that had been threatening the community¡¯s borders for generations began anew, they wanted to go to war with their boy, they wanted to be there to protect him, if only he needed them.

    ¡°It is too dangerous for you,¡± their boy told them, kissing each of their foreheads as they said their goodbyes. ¡°I will shatter, if only I were to lose a single one of my precious friends. Stay here and be safe. I will return as quickly as the universe allows.¡±

    And so their boy left, exiting the walls that surrounded his family¡¯s estate, which no longer seemed as tall to him, for the first time in years. The world outside was not as he remembered it. When he was a child, the world had been beautiful and filled with possibilities. Now, the beauty of his life was trapped inside his house, awaiting his return, and all his saw were the now-grown faces of children who were not suited to be his friend.

    When their boy arrived at the border, he was a sight to behold. Their boy was power and strength. Their boy was his community¡¯s saviour, and the war they had been losing quickly became a war of annihilation.

    Their boy was unstoppable.

    Their boy was unstoppable, and his friends breathed out in relief. Their boy would return to them, once the war was over, surely.

    Their boy was unstoppable, and yet he still made no friends among his teammates. Some might say it was because he was still strange. Others would say it was because he was now missing so much of himself, pieces of his core gifted away to give life to his friends. Still more may say it was because his heart was full up with those friends.

    Their boy¡¯s teammates would say it was because he was terrifying. He kept them safe on the battlefield. He pushed back their enemies with the brutality of war. He was unstoppable, and even his teammates feared stepping too close to him.

    Some may have minded such isolation. Where his teammates found friendship and camaraderie, their boy found none, but he had never expected to find any. He had already known he would find no friends among the humans. The aether had told him so, so many years before. Their boy had already searched every household in his community for a potential friend and found none.

    Their boy would have been more surprised to find a friend, hidden among his teammates, than to not.

    It was here, that Emilia interrupted again, asking if the boy was seriously just trusting a vibe from the universe.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ?Also,? she added, ?these people suck.?

    ?Power scares people away,? Conrad pointed out, his voice holding enough emotion that she knew he wasn¡¯t thinking in a hypothetical way. No, he knew full well the flavour of being feared by people. Did they fear him and his power? Or perhaps a friend or family member¡¯s? Not that the man¡¯s family didn¡¯t deserve to be feared.

    Luckily, Conrad took no offence to her musings that his family was terrifying, and she couldn¡¯t blame anyone for wanting to steer clear of them.

    Stars knew she would be keeping away from them for the remainder of the raid if she could help it.

    And thus, the war marched on. Their boy fought and won. Their boy fought and killed. Their boy fought and barely anyone thanked him, for he was such a terrifying young man, hardly anyone dared even speak with him.

    The war marched on, and even through the fear that chased him, their boy led the charge to push the community¡¯s enemies back to their own borders and then further. They had brought war to the community¡¯s borders, and now the community would claim their territory as their own.

    It was only fair. A payment for the lives their enemies took.

    Their boy did not agree with this plan. He had grown up learning the now-lost histories, learning of how lust for power and revenge alike added more hatred into the pile of human anger. Yet, the leaders of the community would not listen to his pleas that they simply let their enemies return home.

    One day, their boy would be a leader himself, just as his father now was.

    One day was not today, and although he spoke with as much passion and conviction as he had when he was a child, convincing his parents to let him see the world, just once, his words went unheeded.

    He was just a boy, even if he was now grown.

    He had no experience in the real world, even if he knew the histories better than anyone on the war counsel.

    He had no say in the way the war melded and turned, and instead their boy was forced to keep going, to keep pushing the community¡¯s enemies further and further to the north.

    The war marched on, and even their boy¡¯s strength began to wain. The end was nigh, however, and soon the community¡¯s enemies were forced into the north, where they would face the cruel wrath of the tundra. There, the cold terror of the ice and swells and the creatures that lived within its horror would destroy them.

    There was no need for them to do more, and finally, their boy could rest. It was time to return home, and the soldiers of the war began their long march home.

    Tired of the senselessness of war for people who barely spared him a thank you and who had instead ordered him to kill more and more, faster and faster, their boy did not realize where they were or how far they had travelled from his home. In the long years of war, he had reigned in his powers, conserving them for battle. He had a promise to return home to keep, even if conserving his energy meant he often went months without hearing from his friends, only rarely risking expanding his power to speak with them.

    And so, as he and his teammates made their way back towards the villages they each hailed from, excited to finally part from one another, the boy was not expecting to finally meet his first friend.

    There, in the middle of the sunny road, not yet cleared of blood by the rains that would only come in a month¡¯s time, stood his first friend, just as beautiful as it had been through their boy¡¯s visions of the aether.

    Their boy¡¯s first friend was by far the largest creature he had ever allowed to enter this world. It was two grown men stacked atop each other, another five standing shoulder to shoulder wide, its body a soft black orb, bright purple eyes the only colour on its precious body.

    It was beautiful. His first friend.

    Their boy stepped forward to greet his first friend properly. It had been travelling so long. It had been separated from its friends for so long. Their boy was so happy to meet his first friend that he forgot himself. Just as suddenly as his first friend had appeared was it killed by one of his teammates.

    ¡°What a strange monster,¡± the man said, oblivious to their boy staring at the bloody remains of his first friend.

    As the man turned back to join his teammates, each and every one of them congratulating him on a job well down, their boy felt his control snap.

    For years, as pieces of his core were torn away, he had felt his careful control over his power slipping. Over those years, he had his friends to keep him happy and safe. Now, one of his precious friends was gone, after spending the entirety of its life seeking him out. It had found him, finally, and then died of it.

    Their boy¡¯s friend had died because of the people he had wasted years of his life fighting for.

    These people did not like him.

    These people were not thankful for him

    These people had stolen years of his life and one of his precious friends, and all they did was laugh and joke and make plans to meet again, in the years to come, to reminisce about the horror of war and their supposed contributions to his victory.

    To their boy, these people and the people who supported their vision of the world¡ªtheir version of the world¡ªdid not deserve to live, when his beloved first friend was allowed no such thing.

    For miles, every tear in the universe, those big and those barely specks, were torn asunder as their boy¡¯s anger and power swelled. Out of the aether tumbled hundreds of creatures. These were not kind friends, safely tucked into their boy¡¯s home, but monsters, summoned to destroy their enemies.

    The monsters sought out every soul they could, devouring ever human who crossed their path, and their boy returned home with the body of his fallen friend.

    The community their boy had spent years protecting was destroyed within mere days. No person was safe from his wrath. There were those who tried to flee, their bodies snatched into the air by creatures circling for prey. There were those who tried to beg, falling to their knees before the monsters and pleading for their lives. Their boy saw this, through the eyes of the aether. Their boy did not care, and when his monster¡¯s fangs bared down around the throats of those who looked upon his and the universe¡¯s children as horrors, unworthy of life, he felt no grief.

    Their boy¡¯s heart had gone cold for humanity, and as he returned home, his friend¡¯s opening the gates to welcome him home, the servants of the household long dead, along with the tutors and nannies and parents who had loved him enough to imprison him in that empty, loveless household, their boy smiled.

    All he needed was his friends. His first friend might be gone, but he could make more.

    He could always make more.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 153: The Mark of the Aether, maybe.

    ?So¡­? Emilia breathed out, blinking sleepily into Conrad¡¯s neck, ?did someone tell you this story to keep you from using your terrifying skills for evil??

    Conrad laughed, the sound just as sweet and unsuited for him as the first time she¡¯d heard it. ?Noticed th¡¯similarities between th¡¯boy¡¯s powers an¡¯ mine, did ya? While I¡¯m sure m¡¯brother made sure t¡¯tell me th¡¯story, so I wouldn¡¯t go fuckin¡¯ around with makin¡¯ myself friends from the aethernet, it is a story told to all children where I¡¯m from. Works to scare us all off experimentin¡¯ with the aethernet, I think. Ain¡¯t no way I¡¯m fuckin¡¯ around with the aethernet after growin¡¯ up ''earing that it¡¯ll warp my core and personality.?

    ?Oh? Is yours a common skill where you¡¯re from? Where is that, anyways?? Emilia tried, unsurprised when the man tutted and told her he wasn¡¯t giving away his home colony so easily.

    She hummed in acceptance. Chances were, they¡¯d leave this raid, and she¡¯d never meet the strange man again, unless they collectively decided to stupidly meet up in the real world. Given the man leaned a little too close to being a stalker, she wasn¡¯t going to be the one to suggest it.

    ?Quite a few people where I¡¯m from ¡®ave a strong connection t¡¯the aethernet, though,? the man continued, apparently unconcerned that she might be able to use this tidbit of information to track down what Free Colony he was from. Most of the Free Colonies were so secretive she may very well be unable to, but enough of those Free Colonies had soldiers who had spilled bits and pieces of information over the course of the war. It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine she might be able to use what she knew about him to get information from one veteran¡¯s network or another.

    Of course, she¡¯d have to go join one of those networks. Maybe Payton would be willing to ask on her behalf? From what she¡¯d seen, as much as he had never tried to make nice-nice with any of the vets that attended Astrapan, he did know many of them in passing. Yes, Emilia decided. Payton probably was connected to at least a few veteran networks and would be perfectly willing to ask around for her.

    ?Not as strong as me,? Conrad continued, something between annoyance and pride entering his voice, ?but strong enough that they ''ave to be specially taught how to control themselves.?

    ?You¡¯re just an anomaly, then? Irregular deviation?? Emilia asked, absently fingering her silver locks.

    Conrad glanced down at her. ?That natural??

    ?Yes. Does it matter??

    The other visitor shrugged. ?Jus¡¯ curious. Mine¡¯s a hereditary deviation.?

    Emilia whistled, preening slightly when the sound wasn¡¯t repeated in her aethervoice¡ªthat would have been terribly annoying. It was a small thing, to be able to have any intention that wasn¡¯t followed by her internal voice, but it was progress¡­ maybe.

    Hereditary deviations weren¡¯t exactly common. The majority of irregular deviations were recessive, only appearing in the originator. Unless their partner had the same irregular deviation or was a carrier, their children wouldn¡¯t be afflicted by the same genetic irregularity. Oliver¡¯s beautiful, heterochromatic eyes, for instance, were unlikely to reappear in any children he had.

    Her own silverstrain on the other hand? That was more likely to be passed on than not, each of Nettie¡¯s children having inherited their mother¡¯s silverstrain. There had been times during the history of their planet where silverstrains and their children had been considered marked as the dull bodies they were often considered to be. Empty-headed creatures for use as bed warmers and nothing else.

    Her silverstrain and black knots were two of the most well known hereditary deviations, although she knew of a handful more, include ECC dyads and lavender codes¡ªalthough in both those cases the exact underlying genetics made a big difference, as there were several variations of each.

    Irregular deviations were, understandably, an interest of Emilia¡¯s, yet when she looked over Conrad, analyzed the aspects of his abilities¡ªeven if those abilities were tainted by the raid¡­ Well, she had no idea what sort of hereditary deviation he could have, and maybe that was part of it: hereditary deviations could be ridiculously consistent¡ªthe child of a black knot would have a perfect black knot, unless they experienced a genetic spasm that cancelled it out¡ªor unexpected¡ªthe children of lavender codes could have their colouring or power or both. Perhaps her new, kinda-sorta friend¡¯s abilities were the result of an unexpected expression of ECC dyad genes?

    The man¡¯s lips twitched as she contemplated him, her thoughts leaking out in a stream of hopping and skipping word vomit. Something told her that she was correct¡ªthat whatever he was, it was unique to him alone.

    She stared at him for a long moment before deciding he was unlikely to tell her more about himself, his abilities, or his home. Instead, she asked the question that she had been rolling over between her thoughts since the story had ended. ?Is that really the ending??

    Conrad shrugged, admitting there were a couple alternative endings, but he preferred the open-ended one. ?I like imagining he jus¡¯ died? Went on livin¡¯ his life wi¡¯ his friends, then kicked it of old age. Maybe th¡¯friends disappeared with his death, or left and were slowly killed by monster hunters through th¡¯Free Colonies. In one of th¡¯endings, th¡¯enemies he chased off come back, but he¡¯s too broken from what he did t¡¯stop them. In another, whatever dynasty Dion was in came and wiped out th¡¯boy and his friends. In another, they were threatened and th¡¯boy knew he couldn¡¯t win¡ªor didn¡¯t want to risk his friend¡¯s lives¡ªso they left for the western sea and booked it. I¡¯ve heard there¡¯s another version, where he ended up at th¡¯eastern sea, but I don¡¯t know the details.?If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ?Why not??

    The man hesitated before telling her it was from a different social class in his home colony. The classes didn¡¯t interact much, so he¡¯d only heard vague details about some of the differences in each classes¡¯ version.

    ?I see¡­ where are we going, anyways?? she asked, rather than contemplate how much she wanted details of all the versions now. ?And where are the kids??

    Conrad¡¯s arms twitched and Emilia pushed herself up.

    ?Conrad.?

    ?Emilia.?

    ?Where are the children??

    The man looked nervous. Emilia didn¡¯t like that the man looked nervous. He seemed the sort to remain confident with his decisions even when shit hit the ceiling. Which meant¡­

    ?Did you let a couple of kids bully you!?? she asked, incredulous that the man had gone from being beholden to his family and their Enclave to chasing her through the raid to rescuing her and the kids multiple time to¡­ to what? To letting a bunch of kids force him to come get her? Force him to leave them somewhere? Or worse, force him to let them go off and¡ª

    ?Conrad. Where. Are. The. Kids.?

    The man swallowed, purple eyes refusing to meet hers as he told her, ?They went to rescue your friend.?

    ?Conrad,? Emilia hissed, voice filled with enough vitriol that he visibly tensed. ?Take us to the kids. Now.?

    The man swallowed again. The sheer volume of his discomfort would have been funny, if not for the fact that three kids were currently doing stars knew what trying to keep V safe¡ªtrying to keep her heart safe. Not that they should have known that V was in actual danger¡­

    ?We ran into a Clarity member while we were getting out of that place,? Conrad confessed as they moved. ?It took us a while t¡¯get out of there, so you two were already gone, and we couldn¡¯t go back and get you out. The things I got out of that guy, though¡­ it was clear we couldn¡¯t leave you with those people.?

    ?You didn¡¯t get that information in front of the kids, I hope?? Emilia asked, glaring at the uncomfortable looking man. Seriously, had he really tortured some poor, mind controlled dude in front of the kids!?

    ?It wasn¡¯t that bad,? he grumbled back, but as Emilia¡¯s thoughts wandered down a thread of curiosity over what the man¡¯s mysterious and militantly ethical brother would do, were he to find out what had happened in this raid¡­ ?Please don¡¯t tell him.?

    ?Did you just whine??

    ?Yes. Seriously, please don''t tell him.?

    ?It¡¯s not like we have any plans to meet up in person,? she pointed out, shrugging. Can¡¯t tell the man¡¯s mysterious brother if she had no idea who any of them were in real life.

    Conrad hummed, and although he said nothing, Emilia was pretty sure he wanted to suggest they meet up in person. Maybe, if they found the kids alive and untraumatized, she¡¯d consider it. Not until then. Until then, she was going to glare up at the man and¡­ and what? Realistically, she could only keep her mind quiet for so long, and between poking at the man for being an astoundingly terrible babysitter and thinking of anything else¡­ well, the poking would get boring pretty freaking fast.

    ?Did the stories really say the creatures the boy created had purple eyes?? she asked instead, glaring at Conrad¡¯s own purple eyes, set out like jewels against his unnaturally dark skin. ?Or was that something added in, after the war?? The monsters of war and the echos that had followed had purple eyes. It wasn¡¯t a stretch to guess that children¡¯s stories were now written with purple eyed monsters, or that some might even be rewritten to include them.

    ?My brother used t¡¯tell me all sorts of stories when I was a child, decades before the war. I loved this story. I knew my genetics allowed me more connection to th¡¯aether, without the side effects of being an ECC dyad.? Conrad licked his lips, Emilia realizing for the first time that he''d altered his tongue to be more purple than pink as well, as though he needed to add one more oddity to his already strange body. ?Did you notice how m¡¯accent fell away, when I was telling you th¡¯story??

    Emilia had, in fact, noticed that, but changing tone and intonation while telling a story wasn¡¯t exactly uncommon.

    ?It¡¯s how m¡¯brother tells it.? The man¡¯s lips quirked, his gaze shifting from the hallway he was now running down to a memory of his brother telling him stories, Emilia assumed. It was cute.

    ?So the story you just told me¡­?

    ?Is exactly th¡¯same as th¡¯one m¡¯brother told me, long before th¡¯war began.?

    Emilia stared into the abyss, her thoughts blessedly silent as she let that sink in. It could be a coincidence. Purple eyes weren¡¯t common in either animals or humans¡ªoutside of lavender codes, who had pale purple eyes, as opposed to the deep purple of those monsters¡ªbut many of the phenomenon that appeared from aether scars were purple¡ªthe Strats, for instance, with their iridescent purples and greens and pinks. It wasn¡¯t difficult to imagine that someone had been inspired by a local aether scar and imagined creatures birthed of such scars as being purple as well, at least in part.

    But what if it wasn¡¯t a coincidence?

    ?That¡¯s quite the coincidence,? she said over the roar of incomplete thoughts in her brain, trying to decide if Conrad¡¯s story was anything more than myth and superstition.

    ?Quite the coincidence indeed¡­? Conrad breathed out, and when Emilia¡¯s eyes shifted back into focus, the man was watching her, intent to read her expression for the reaction that her brain was refusing to let seep out of her.

    They watched each other for a long moment, Emilia glad that her kinda-sorta friend was skilled enough to keep moving as they did so, silent understanding floating between them: neither of them fully believed there wasn''t something¡ªperhaps someone¡ªwho had caused the war, who was continuing to cause echo events.

    Something concrete, unlike the unknowns the government had spent the last three decades doling out.

    Something findable and fixable.

    This time, Emilia¡¯s lips quirked. ?Guess we¡¯ll have to meet up in person, after all,? she said, already thinking over the best way to meet someone she didn¡¯t completely trust but definitely had something very important in common with.

    It wasn¡¯t like she met people willing to entertain the idea that the monsters and echoes weren¡¯t just the result of random chance every day, after all.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 154: A Few Answers

    Emilia pressed herself to the ground, pushing Conrad¡¯s much larger form further into the dirt. Although they were still a ways off, ahead of them, one of the Clarity groups was discussing the situation, and personally, she wasn¡¯t into fighting with them. Not yet, anyways.

    Instead, she was concentrating on listening to them because of all the abilities to suddenly get under control, it wasn¡¯t her aethervoice. No, currently she was relying on Conrad sending his shivery energy through her to suppress that. It was better than the sharp shocks that Astra and V had been inflicting on her, at least, even if the man¡¯s energy had an awkwardly sensual undertone.

    When she had pointed this out, he had seemed equally uncomfortable.

    No, the ability she¡¯d somehow managed to activate was an extension of her original, ability to hear locals gift. Now, even dozens of metres from the group, as long as Conrad was quiet, she could hear the group with perfect clarity.

    And what they were saying? Yeah, it wasn¡¯t good.

    ?Apparently they¡¯ve suffered a split, and a bunch of their members straight up fucked off on their own. Seems the brainwashing of the heartcores wasn¡¯t as thorough as they thought.? She focused, watching the aether shift with their words and letting her ability translate those shifts for her.

    It was a strange ability, closer to signing or reading than hearing. That was okay, she thought. What was even more okay? She could now read private conversations. Where previously she could only tell a private conversation was occurring, now, everything was an open book. Fortunately, it was also a book she could close, at least briefly¡ªthe process similar to zoning out in the midst of a conversation: the words were still there, her brain just wasn¡¯t fully absorbing them.

    ?Seems it''s mostly affecting the people who came into the organization later in life? Like¡­ they had already visited the heartcores a few times before becoming members of Clarity??

    ?That lines up with what we discussed,? Conrad agreed.

    They¡¯d had to travel quite a while to get to the place he and the children had agreed to meet up¡ªbig shocker, they weren¡¯t there¡ªand then the Ingogia estate, to try and track them down. One of the big things they¡¯d discussed in that time¡ªother than how stupid he was to let the kids go off on their own¡ªhad been the toxicity of the heartcores.

    ?I¡¯m glad I only entered two,? the other visitor had said, frowning deeply.

    Something had bothered him, but he had been unwilling to tell her what it was, so Emilia had been forced to let it drop. Let the man keep his secrets, although considering he was generally a pretty open book¡ªwhen something was actually relevant to their current situation, anyways¡ªshe was rather worried about what could be concerning enough to make him hide it from her.

    Part of what they had discussed was the way each group seemed to be affected differently by the heartcores. Clarity members seemed to lose their personalities in their altered state, becoming mindless drones when their heartcore corrupted personality was active. Risen Guards¡¯ altered personalities, on the other hand, were zealots, willing to hunt down and kill Enclave members and visitors without pause, although they seemed to draw a line at hurting civilians.

    A few quick messages to Boundary and Villy confirmed this, and they told her that the Enclave members who sought out the gifts of too many heartcores became cruel, viewing anyone who got in their way as necessary collateral damage.

    Interestingly, while Clarity and Risen Guard members shifted in and out of their corrupted personalities, Enclave members seemed to slowly morph into theirs until it was all that existed. Well, that would probably explain why a few of the Enclave members she¡¯d met¡ªSk¡¯lar, Cade¡¯s crazy babysitter, that rando Boundary had killed in the city, and pretty much every member of the Ingogia family¡ªscreamed psycho to her. Permanent psychos. Great.

    In other words, with rare exceptions¡ªlike Carne¡ªheartcores consistently affected members of each group in a specific way. Now, that was biting Clarity in the butt. A substantial amount of their members might have been born into Clarity, but not all of them: some of them had spent years training to be Enclave members and occasionally Risen Guards¡ªit was even possibly several had been spies and touched heartcores as members of all three groups at different times.

    As she and Conrad had discussed all this, Emilia had finally opened Honey¡¯s messages back up, curious as to how the training had affected her as a spy.

    The short version: it hadn¡¯t.

    The long version: Honey had never been able to seek a gift from a heartcore as an Enclave member, due to how undercover she was. Her heartcore corruption was 100% Risen Guard, which simultaneously put her into a better and worse position than spies who had gone through both.

    [Honey: Basically, if my personality switches, I¡¯ll be all anti-visitor, anti-Enclave.]

    [Honey: Obviously not good for family reunions.]

    [Honey: But the alternative is getting the worst of both worlds.]

    [Honey: The spies I know of who¡¯ve done both?]

    [Honey: Anger issues.]

    [Honey: And it¡¯s all permanent, and it all happens, like¡­ way faster than usual for normal Enclave members?]

    [Honey: Usually it takes them eight or nine visits for their personality to shift to the point where they can¡¯t be reasoned with, but from what I¡¯ve heard, pretty much the first time someone gets gifts from both Risen Guard and Enclave heartcores, they become really hard to deal with.]

    [Honey: All that¡¯s left is a very angry person with very firm beliefs on what¡¯s right and what¡¯s wrong.]

    [Honey: That¡¯s not even the worst that can happen, though.]

    [Honey: From what I¡¯ve heard, most of the time the Risen Guard heartcores just speed up a spy¡¯s transition into full-blown Enclave psychosis, but I¡¯ve heard that sometimes the spies¡­ become worse? Like¡­ like a bit of the Risen Guard¡¯s alternate personality makes it inside them?]

    [Honey: I don¡¯t know much about that. It¡¯s pretty secret, and I think families kill spies who end up like that pretty quickly, since they¡¯re basically just walking time bombs.]Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Emilia had sent off a few questions about Honey¡¯s messages, mostly about her references to beliefs and Enclave psychosis. What she¡¯d gotten back was an explanation that heartcores hardened the beliefs of Enclave members, turning already existing beliefs about the world and its people into something unreasonable¡ªsomething that couldn¡¯t be argued with.

    Dislike turned to hatred, love to obsession. Enclave members who believed their family should be the ones to win a heartcore became willing to destroy anyone in their path, including other Enclave members. A want to save the world at any cost became a willingness to kill, torture or sacrifice even regular civilians.

    That would definitely explain some of the strange ways the Enclave families interacted.

    An image of Harmony, hating practically everyone, flashed through Emilia¡¯s head. Maybe that was why the girl had ended up hating her, for seemingly no reason. She¡¯d almost seemed to hate everyone at the end there, which sucked. As much as the girl had never been nice to her, she¡¯d been able to befriend Rin, presumably before either of them began changing their personalities.

    Rin. The thought of the girl had sent a spike of hurt through Emilia¡¯s heart. Before they met, Rin had had a future with the Risen Guard. She had had something she believed in. Then Key had inadvertently filled her head with half-facts. Yes, the Risen Guard was still corrupt, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as corrupt as Key¡¯s knowledge had led them to believe, and now¡­ and now what? She had no idea what had happened to any of the Stringers. Stars above, they could still be trapped inside the Library Labyrinth, for all she knew!

    Before she could think too much about it, Emilia had asked Honey if there was any way she could find out what had happened to them. As much as the Enclave spy seemed rather disconnected from the Enclave, due to how anonymous her fake family was, she must have some way to get a hold of someone and ask after the Stringers¡­ her friends.

    Honey had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed.

    [Honey: I heard some whispers, about how they lost you.]

    [Honey: I don¡¯t know many details, but I think the whole family is being monitored, in case they mess up again.]

    Emilia had replied with a redacted version of what she knew about the family, about how they had allegedly already been on thin ice, and messing up in the Library Labyrinth probably hadn¡¯t done anything for their reputation¡ªespecially if someone managed to figure out that Rin was actually a Risen Guard trainee. Plus, they¡¯d killed Taoran, and she¡¯d stolen V¡­ then she¡¯d been involved in the situation in Livery¡ªsomething that had surely gotten back to the Enclave through spies, after they were rescued by the Risen Guard. Yeah¡­ there was a chance that anyone associated with allowing her to gain power in this world might currently be in some deep shit.

    That made her feel worse, and she had made Honey promise to let her know if she learned anything about what was happening with the Stringer family.

    Honey had agreed, although she had clearly not been happy about it. When pushed, she had admitted that as much as Emilia wasn¡¯t reading any of her other messages¡ªthe ones that Emilia received endlessly, about every aspect of the girl¡¯s life¡ªshe had still liked telling someone her thoughts. If Emilia actually needed to get a few of her messages, it meant she couldn¡¯t just keep messaging her.

    Thinking back, Emilia had realized all that the times Honey had sent important messages they had been followed by long silences, presumably so if Emilia actually opened the messages, she¡¯d see the important ones.

    That was¡­ kind, if also unnecessary. She might have put off reading Honey¡¯s messages, but it was more due to the headache they caused than anything else¡ªshe¡¯d always loved gossip and drama, and the young woman¡¯s messages were filled with those things. Not relevant to her, but fascinating nonetheless. When she informed Honey that she had actually read all her messages, the young woman had been so happy, Emilia¡¯s heart had ached for her.

    How hard it must be, to exist in the world with so many secrets. Everyone needed someone¨Cit was part of why she¡¯d held on to Rafe so hard, even after disappearing into her secrets. And here in this world? Harmony had found Rin, as ill-advised as that may have been, and even if she hadn¡¯t, she also had her brother and family. Honey had already told her that she didn¡¯t like her fake family and rarely saw her real one. It was sad, but there wasn¡¯t anything Emilia could do for the Enclave spy long term. In the meantime, however, she told Honey to not worry about messaging her too much, and after nearly thirty minutes of her, Honey and Conrad struggling, they figured out how to connect Honey and Conrad¡¯s messaging system. Emilia had gotten a nose bleed, giving him system access several hours earlier.

    Conrad, rather unsurprisingly, had taken well to the system. Somehow it was less annoying with him, something telling her that he was a lot like her, and generally took quickly to new things. Holding that against him felt a bit like forgiving some of her more terrible classmates, when they had glared at her for conquering one task or another too quickly. Given she wasn¡¯t about to forgive their stupid jealousy, she wasn¡¯t going to hold Conrad¡¯s own skill against him.

    He had asked, as she mused this over, whether the other visitors she¡¯d been¡ªplayfully¡ªannoyed with hadn¡¯t felt like they were quick learners. Emilia had slotted away the fact that he didn¡¯t deny he picked up skills easily, and explained that she didn¡¯t think they were. Neither V nor Astra felt like they had expected to pick skills up so easily¡ªit had just sort of happened for them. In their case¡­ well, V had told her he had dealt with similar communication forms in raids before, and while Astra had never outright said so, Emilia kinda figured she thought less in words and more in images. For them, it felt like the raid system was natural, and it was frustrating because normally, she was good at being a natural at everything.

    Not so much in this case.

    ?You know you¡¯re being insane, right?? the other visitor had asked, and yes¡ªyes she did realize she was being insane and jealous over the silliest of things.

    ?It¡¯s frustrating, is all,? she had mumbled, glaring at the magic circle in the corner of the Risen Guard system and willing it to do something for her¡ªanything.

    According to the instructions Villy had given her, it should have made it a bit easier for her to use magic, allowing her to skip some of the background imagination, much like Censors allowed their owners to skip some of the computation of a skill. She couldn¡¯t make it work. Conrad could, of course, and he¡¯d even tried talking her through some of. It hadn¡¯t helped, and everything was horrible.

    At the very least, she¡¯d been able to make the man laugh as they went, telling him stories about their time apart, as well as before they had met each other. It was a though agreeing to meet up in the real world had settled something between them, some tension disappearing, mostly from Conrad. He wouldn¡¯t say why, although Emilia could guess it had something to do with the oddly familial way they¡¯d been interacting with each other through most of their meetings.

    Leaving friends behind was hard enough, but family, whether blood or adopted or chosen? There was something sad to that, and she kinda figured Conrad had been holding himself back a bit¡ªtrying not to get too attached to her, in case they left this raid and never met again. If she reminded him of his brother as much as he claimed she did, it was easy to imagine his brain had automatically classified her as someone he could love and care for with as much ease as he did this brother. The sensible thing to do was refuse to allow himself to love her.

    Now, that sensibility had vanished. Emilia felt oddly loved and cared for, and for once, she wasn¡¯t the big sister. Sure, Malcolm had been like a big brother to her at times, but there were things that had happened between them that definitely didn¡¯t belong in a brother-sister relationship.

    And to everyone else? More often than not, she¡¯d been forced into being a big sister figure to most of her friends. Sometimes she was just friend or potential¡ªor previous¡ªhookup, but big sister was way more common. And the people she knew who could fit into an older sibling role? There had been a few people who felt like that during the war¡ªRi and Naomi in particular came to mind¡ªbut they were gone, one dead and the other disappeared into his locked down Free Colony.

    With Conrad, even after so little time together¡­ yeah, there was something strange and natural and familial in the way they acted and teased each other, in the way having his energy inside her felt awkwardly wrong in a way she doubted it would with almost anyone else.

    Their relationship was weird. Not bad, but she was also pretty sure that once they met in person, she was going to have a hard time getting rid of him, if she suddenly felt like she had to. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t end up like that. The more she got to know the man, the more she liked him, the more she found they had in common, despite his overall oddness.

    Plus, other than his one brother, the guy¡¯s family clearly sucked. If she could help him get away from them, she was okay with that.

    Yeah¡­ that probably wasn¡¯t the best mentality to be starting their weird relationship in.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 155: How Things Went

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to Astra) ? ? ?

    When we found the Clarity man coming down the stairs, Conrad wanted to kill him. Gale wanted to kill him. I don¡¯t think Caro wanted to kill him, but Caro has been quieter since they were chased down by¡­ that other man. I feel bad for them, but I also think they need to get over it. Maybe that¡¯s the not fair of me, but I was born during the war. Separated from my mother much sooner that is recommended. She went back to the war and I stayed home. Our nanny wouldn¡¯t even let my twin and I sleep together. It¡¯s no wonder we aren¡¯t close. I don¡¯t think we would be any closer if my mother had been around to raise us¡ªit isn¡¯t like my elder siblings who are also twins are any closer.

    They are even less close than my twin and me. We tolerate each other, where my siblings hate.

    That is beside the point. Emilia will be unhappy if we kill this man. I do not want her to be unhappy with me, and I tell Conrad as much. He does not wish her ire, either. Gale and Caro can choose to kill the people of this world, but as visitors, it is not our place. Not unless forced. Not unless we know it will save this world.

    Gale says something about how I shouldn¡¯t have let Conrad know I was a visitor, and I tell her he already knew.

    He always knew, even if he did not care enough to out me to my friends.

    Instead, Conrad forces answers out of the man. It is cruel, in a different way. He is good at getting answers out of people. It must hurt, having your mind and energy sorted through like that. We need answers. The man will be fine. Eventually.

    Gale looks like she might be sick. Caro looks fascinated. Where one brother traumatized them, another changes their perception of the world and what can be done with its power. Conrad teaches them a bit. I am not sure that¡¯s the best idea, but we will also be leaving Caro and Gale alone here. Caro¡¯s family is still alive, but they have always been a wild child, from all I have heard. They will leave their family, sooner or later. Perhaps this ability to force truth from people will come in handy for them¡ªthey will have many enemies when all this is over, after all.

    I know what that is like. I was born with enemies, and learned to crawl and speak in a hate filled world. Then, my uncle burned the world that hated and feared us. Now, people still hate and fear us, but they cannot touch us.

    They will never touch us again, although the us of my uncle¡¯s mind is very different than the us of my mind. It¡¯s okay. My uncle will get there. He holds on to love for the family who does not deserve his love. Perhaps if he finds more family¡ªperhaps if I introduce him to Emilia and her unending kindness¡ªhe will let go of the terrible family he was born into. A few of us are okay, but most do not deserve his affection or protection.

    Emilia deserves our affection and protection. For this reason alone, I will let Conrad force answers from this man. She may not like the method, but she will like it even less if my suspicions are correct and something bad is coming for her and V.

    When the man admits the truth, words pulled from his mind by Conrad¡¯s strings of energy, playing his core like an instrument, I feel myself settle.

    Bad things are coming for Emilia and V. We must help them.

    I have no regrets.

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to Gale) ? ? ?

    This man is an imbecile.

    Most adults are stupid. Most adults suck. Most adults think they know better than anyone younger than them. I would have thought this man no different, except he seems oddly terrified of Astra. It¡¯s strange, watching a visitor who has deformed his body so horrifically be frightened of a little girl, even if I now know Astra isn¡¯t really a little girl.

    Astra told us Conrad already knew she was a visitor, from the first moment they met¡ªor would it have been before that moment in the infirmary? The little brat¡ªand yes, I realize she¡¯s a few years older than me, that doesn''t mean she isn¡¯t a brat!¡ªtold us she entered this world¡ªthis raid, as they call it¡ªalone. She could be lying. She¡¯d already lied about so much.

    I want to rip my hair out over that. Astra lied, about so much. Visions of her lies keep playing through my head, piling up into a mound of how do I trust this child again?

    How do I trust my friend again?

    She is my friend, fleeting as our friendship will be. It¡¯s difficult to look at her now, even as much as I ached to wrap myself around her and Caro last night. They are so small and vulnerable, but I¡¯m the one who seems the most broken by this.

    And now? Watching this little girl order Conrad to go rescue Emilia while we go after V? I don¡¯t know what to think. I don¡¯t know why this is her decision, neither in the sense of who put her in charge!? nor why is this what she decided?

    The girl loves Emilia, that much is clear. We all do. How could we not? She is sunshine and laughter and teasing. I understand this raid¡ªthis game¡ªis different for her. Emilia and all the visitors will die and simply return to their own world. They won¡¯t really die the way we locals will. You¡¯d never guess that, based on the way Emilia acts. She has always acted like her life is worth something here. Not as much as our lives, but still worth more than I would have expected, and she certainly views our lives as worth far more than Conrad¡¯s brother seemed to think any of our lives worth.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    That¡¯s strange too. She¡¯s a strange lady. I have always heard visitors often view us as worthless. Something about how we aren¡¯t real. I feel real. I think and feel and love and hate.

    I am real.

    I am real.

    I am also terrified. Conrad might be weird, but watching him leave us to go save Emilia is terrifying. For all his strangeness, he also seems to see us as worth more than visitors are supposed to. If I had not seen the empty eyed hatred and cruelty of Conrad¡¯s brother, I would have thought that hateful version of visitors a lie, spouted out by the Risen Guard and returned to Livery by my sister¡ªby Ash, my sister no more. Carne, who I refuse to consider my brother, not because she is now a he¡ªalthough I know Miira certainly assumed that, I already knew Ash hated his body in a way I could not understand long before he became a Risen Guard trainee¡ªbut because the thing inside my once sibling isn¡¯t my sibling.

    I suppose all this is cathartic, in a way. I now know I¡¯m not crazy. There is something inside Carne that shouldn¡¯t be there. It settles me, a bit, even if my heart breaks for the sibling I have lost. The sibling that the heartcores consumed? Destroyed?

    A sibling gone?

    Or a sibling I can find again?

    I don¡¯t know. All I know if that thing¡ªor something related to it in a way only the uncalled gods know¡ªis coming for Emilia and V as well. I might not be fond of V and all his odd energy, but for Emilia¡ªfor my friend¡ªI will do my best to save him from the things that we refuse to worship*.*

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to Caro) ? ? ?

    I¡¯m still really, REALLY nervous about this whole reading the universe thing. What if things go badly again? I know that what Emilia said is probably right¡­ or definitely right. That whole thing about how things that night could have gone way worse, if I hadn¡¯t run into Conrad¡¯s brother before he found us. The homeless grannies told us the same thing: The path the universe guides you down might not always seem like the right path, but it is.

    So I get it, and I get that I shouldn¡¯t be scared to read the universe again, but I am.

    I also have so many questions now! What happens if two people are reading the universe and run into each other? Is the universe guiding both of them right? What if they''re enemies? Does the universe take sides?

    After all I¡¯ve learned about the heartcores and Carne¡ªbecause for once, Gale was the one talking and talking and talking as we went, ranting about how the heartcores destroyed their former-sibling¡ªI¡¯m pretty sure Carne isn¡¯t someone I want to be friends with. We¡¯re probably enemies¡­ right? Like super, super enemies? They¡¯re being controlled by the heartcores? Or is it the system thing? The thing that keeps this world running? Emilia talked about it a bit, but she seemed to be holding things back? I think she didn¡¯t want to scare us, talking about how our world is real and isn¡¯t real, all at once.

    I think I should have gone with Conrad. I would have, if Astra and Gale could have guided themselves to V. Not that I even know if I¡¯m guiding everyone right. Conrad might have had more answers for me. Astra answers a few of my questions, but ignores or brushes aside most. I just want to know what I am? What is the thing telling me to go this way or that, as long as I listen and watch.

    If Carne is my enemy, what will happen if we meet?

    What about Clarity? The Enclave? Does the universe have a favourite?

    What if we aren¡¯t the favourite, and it¡¯s leading us to our deaths?

    What if I¡¯m leading us to our deaths?

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to V) ? ? ?

    You ever have those moments where you go, ¡°Well, I totally fucked things up, didn¡¯t I?¡±

    Yeah, that¡¯s about how I¡¯ve been feeling since that meeting this morning¡ª Well, probably before that. Back when Fran started acting like a spoiled child who was somehow entitled to me. Emilia was acting that way too, I guess, but I was okay with that¡ªmore than okay with it, if I¡¯m being honest. Fran, not so much. It was strange, and I should have stopped us from going back to Clarity then.

    Fucking stars should I have stopped us from going back to Clarity then. This is all my fault. I know full well that you take allies where you can in raids, especially ones like this. I had a bunch of kids relying on me, already traumatized by the shit they saw when the labyrinth was pulling at my special skills to make challenges for us.

    Those poor kids. They were probably part of why I went back: just to see if I could get them out of there. I couldn¡¯t¡ªwe left too soon for that. I was hoping I could go back and try to get them out again. That¡¯s probably not going to happen because I¡¯m pretty sure the heartcores are doing something bad to my brain.

    It is not good, and now¡­ I¡¯m just kinda standing here, staring at the heartcore of the labyrinth my group keeps making me go through. I¡¯ve only gone through three times, but I can feel the press of something on my brain and personality, and I don¡¯t like it.

    This shouldn¡¯t be possible. The raid system shouldn¡¯t be able to actually affect my brain. Yet here we are, and I don¡¯t know what to do.

    I want to help the kids.

    I want to help Emilia.

    I definitely don¡¯t want Emilia¡¯s brain melted by whatever the fuck is happening inside this raid.

    I don¡¯t want my brain melted, either.

    I¡¯m going to hunt down the asshole that now runs Hail¡ªHalen¡¯s formerly idealistic and mortal company¡ªand beat the fucking shit out of them. They license out the software behind the raid system. They should be monitoring what the fuck people are doing with that software. Is there a bug in the main system? Or did the platform maintainer accidentally introduce it? Or maybe this is purposeful?

    Doesn¡¯t matter. This is so fucking bad, and I don¡¯t know what to do.

    It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve frozen like this, unable to take a step in either direction. If it were just me, it would be easy. Regardless of how much I view the residents of the raid as real, I know they aren¡¯t as real as me, as shitty as that is. If it were just me, I¡¯d stand here and wait for the raid to end, refusing to touch the heartcore and killing anyone who tried to make me.

    It¡¯s not just me. There¡¯s Emilia out there, probably facing this same thing and¡ª

    And I can¡¯t leave her.

    She¡¯d want me to leave her because she¡¯s always been self-sacrificing like that, but I can¡¯t.

    Every part of that woman is precious, even if she so often looks shocked that I find her ramblings, her hyperfocus, her beautiful bouncing energy attractive.

    If I leave¡ªif I abandon her to these people that I inflicted upon her¡ªand she loses herself because of that, I will never forgive myself.

    I would rather lose myself entirely, then a single piece of her, even if I can tell there are pieces to the puzzle of her that are already missing. A result of time? The war? No, their loss feels like more¡ªlike something more solid burned those pieces away.

    That hurts.

    Touching the heartcore again hurts.

    Stepping through the exit and facing my group again, being pushed back to the entrance of the labyrinth for another go hurts.

    Feeling Emilia¡¯s energy wrap around me? Feeling it slip inside me to leave a blueprint for how to crack the labyrinth lock?

    That doesn¡¯t hurt.

    That feels like love.

    And when I disappear into the labyrinth, I practically collapse for all the care I feel.

    It¡¯s been so long since anyone cared for me like that.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 156: No Time to Wait

    The good news was the kids weren¡¯t dead, at least not as far as the Clarity members they had found knew. She¡¯d eavesdropped on them for a while, but she and Conrad didn¡¯t have forever, and when their conversation turned to bickering over whether to tell the other groups what happened¡ªor, more importantly, report everything back to Ajarni¡ªthey decided to take matters into their own hands and force actually useful answers out of them.

    They had children and V to find.

    Conrad¡¯s energy exploded out of him and wrapped itself around the Clarity group. Except, exploded wasn¡¯t really correct. It was more like an instantaneous shift of the aether. One moment the aether was there, gently vibrating with the sway of the universe, the system, the people in the area and their aethervoices. The next, Conrad¡¯s energy was enveloping the area, seamless and perfect and all-encompassing. It wasn¡¯t an explosion, but that was only because Emilia had been paying attention her surroundings and the man himself, his energy still gliding through her and keeping her aethervoice suppressed. To anyone not watching so closely, it would have been an explosion. To her, it simply wasn¡¯t filled with his energy, and then it was.

    ¡°Is that a gift from a heartcore?¡± she asked as they looked over the Clarity members, who she had bolted forward to incapacitate while they were distracted by Conrad¡¯s ability.

    The man hummed before telling her it was something he could do in the real world, but it had been augmented by a labyrinth gift. ?I suppose I can see th¡¯aether clearer in this world, an¡¯ send m¡¯energy further. It¡ª? He hesitated, purple eyes locking onto hers as she tossed the members¡¯ weapons into a pile. ?People do not use Censors where I¡¯m from. Allowances are made for virtual raids, but that¡¯s all.?

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± she breathed out. She¡¯d kinda guessed her own burgeoning core control¡ªsketchy as it was¡ªwas being helped along by the raid platform. It was nice, if a bit sad, to have that confirmed; it would have been nice to have similar control in the real world, although she was sure her skill here would translate to the real world, at least to some extent.

    That was interesting. Most Free Colonies that had banned Censors didn¡¯t allow virtual raids either. Without her own Censor going through records of each Free Colony, that information didn¡¯t even help her make a potential list of places Conrad was from. It did tell her that wherever hit was, she knew next to nothing about it: there was no way she would have forgotten a Free Colony with such a unique set of laws regarding Censors.

    Weapons cast aside, Conrad¡¯s energy keeping them safe and her own {Blood Ball} hanging beside her, just waiting to randomly activate¡ªbecause she, for one, had no idea why it activated at random¡ªthey set to work getting answers from the group.

    By they, Emilia meant Conrad. He was a great interrogator, even if his methods were rather¡­ horrific. Energy wound out of him and pressing into each of the Clarity members in a manner similar to how he was suppressing her aethervoice. It wasn¡¯t the same, however. Where his energy within her felt awkwardly sexual, even without experiencing it, she knew his energy was violently forcing itself inside the Clarity members.

    Where his gift of silence was like an awkward, if still consensual, coupling between people who didn¡¯t particularly want to have sex in an arranged marriage, this was assault. This was forcing himself where he was unwanted. It was horrific, but necessary.

    Every thrash the group made, however, her heart clenched. Every muffled sob, slurred curse word, spit insult, her stomach rolled, memories of a night she could neither remember nor forget tumbling through her head until Conrad told her to go sit elsewhere.

    He would get answers.

    She didn¡¯t need to see this.

    Had the children watched this?

    Yes, he said, although they did not witness the hive mind he was creating from this group.

    Hive mind. They were already something of a hive mind, weren¡¯t they? Minions of Ajarni and the heartcores and whatever was behind them. Conrad was just forcing them to connect for him, so he could use their collective knowledge to garner answers from them. It was a terrible skill, and one Emilia didn¡¯t think was a gift from the labyrinth. What a frightening skill. Even the brief bit she had seen¡ªhad experienced as her energy wrapped around his and tracing his ability through the aether¡ªmade it clear that he would get his answers, no matter who he interrogated.

    His arms wrapped around her, his lips brushed her forehead, and then he simply moved her to sit against a nearby tree, her back to the group and whatever he was going to do to them.

    Get answers.

    He was going to get answers, obviously.

    ?Don¡¯t watch. Don¡¯t listen,? he said, and suddenly, his energy was sliding within her faster, stronger, her ability to hear aethervoices just as gone as her ability to speak¡ªjust as gone as he was a moment later.

    So she sat there in silence, staring into the abyss of the day¡ªwas it day? A quick message to Honey told her it was¡ªand that she was still waiting to hear back from her contact about the Stringers. Several long moments of focus later, she managed to bring up a clock on her system using Honey¡¯s instructions. A handful of blinks later, she became aware that she was dissociating, her mind floating away for far longer than she realized, trying to protect her from the feelings shuddering through her.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    It had done a good job¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t even aware of what she was feeling. Empty? Sad? Horrified? She¡¯d agreed to let Conrad do those things to those people, near empty shells that they were.

    It still felt wrong.

    They still needed to find the kids.

    The kids, whole and loving and small creatures that they were, were more important than the people behind her.

    Still, her stomach rolled.

    ?Emilia??

    Emilia looked up to find Conrad kneeling in front of her. He looked sad¡ªsadder than she¡¯d seen him. Had she ever seen him sad? Disappointed and frustrated, yes. Sad, probably not.

    ?I am sorry. I should have forced your awareness away, before I did that.? His accent was gone, replaced by a soft lilt that reminded her of so many people from the Free Colonies, the ones that had other languages and whose soldiers had learned Baalphorian through the Virtuosi System for the war. It was pretty, coming off Conrad¡¯s tongue.

    She shook her head, mumbled that it wasn¡¯t his fault.

    ?No¡­ not entirely¡­? he agreed, eyes skimming over her in that way people always did before they commented about it.

    Did someone hurt you in the past?

    You don¡¯t seem the type to let that sort of thing happen to you.

    Is that why you sleep around so much?

    Really? I never would have guessed.

    I would have thought you stronger than that.

    There were so many terrible, judgmental things people could say about it. Things that always managed to make her feel lesser, despite knowing she wasn¡¯t. Things that made it sound like she had done something to deserve it¡ªthat other people who had suffered the same and worse had done something to deserve it. She¡¯d lost a few friendships over such crass remarks, regardless of how much they tried to argue they hadn¡¯t intended to make her and every other person who had been forced on a dirty forest floor, a soft bed, a kitchen table feel like they had deserved, asked, wanted what happened to them.

    V¡¯s answer to her confession had been nice, though. A simple sorry, not because he had done anything, but an acknowledgement that it sucked. A promise to listen to her, to stop if she asked him to. That was all it took. Acknowledgement and a promise to not hurt her¡ªto not hurt anyone else. Answers like that were rare, and Emilia braced herself, waiting for her new friend to say something about it.

    ?What happened to them??

    That hadn¡¯t been what Emilia was expecting, and stunned, she mumbled that a friend had killed the guy. That¡­ probably wasn¡¯t the best thing to admit in a raid¡ªyou never knew who was listening or what was being recorded, despite there being some pretty strict laws on what could and couldn¡¯t be shared by the platform maintainers as highlights¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t like anyone could track it directly back to Rafe. Stars, it wasn¡¯t even like he was touchable by SecOps.

    Conrad nodded, although he didn¡¯t look happy. As though sensing her thoughts, he told her he was glad the prick was dead, but disappointed he wouldn¡¯t be able to hunt him down and make him suffer. Emilia¡­ wasn¡¯t sure if Rafe had made the guy suffer. Maybe? He was certainly capable of such things, but when they were younger, he had mostly been a grumpy guy who showed little emotion other than annoyance? He had been more harsh restraint, before that night.

    He wasn¡¯t anymore. Not after that night¡ªnot after the night he had crawled into her bed to comfort her, not after the prick didn¡¯t show back up at school a two days later, after her friend had figured out just who had hurt her and hurt him in return. Something about her friend had opened that night, although she¡¯d never been able to pinpoint what. It wasn¡¯t like he suddenly had a taste for killing rapists or anything, but there was something freer about him. He was still the Rafe she had known most of her life, but different. Still someone she loved and would kill for, but different.

    Today, she was sure he would make anyone who touched her¡ªor the handful of other people he considered his friends¡ªlike that suffer, but the Rafe who had existed before he took that first life? She had no idea. She kinda wanted to know.

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± Emilia told Conrad, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his shoulder. Regardless of the cruelty the man was capable of, it was nice to know she could direct it, if only a bit¡ªthat he would spare he from it, when he could. ¡°Learn anything?¡± she asked, although what she really meant to ask was, ¡°Was doing that to them worth it?¡±

    It had been worth it.

    The reason the group had been so argumentative over whether to tell the other groups what had happened was Jerrina had sent a series of frantic message to Fran during the fight with the Ingogia family. Like most of the groups, Fran¡¯s group¡ªwho had fallen behind and had still been forcing V and the other visitor through the labyrinth when the message came through¡ªhad been composed of a mix of lifelong Clarity members and those who had joined later in life.

    As the information about Clarity¡¯s real purpose was revealed, the newer members had rioted. In particular, a former Enclave member had gotten it into their head that they needed to become part of the Enclave again. They had killed the group¡¯s leader¡ªone of Phlostra¡¯s children¡ªand taken the other visitor hostage, intending to use them to bargain their return to the Enclave with, and vanished.

    With several members gone, another dead, the remaining members had sent a distress message to the group she and Conrad had grabbed, their own chaos breaking out as a result. Their newer members teleported themselves away, while one of the visitors had taken the chance to run and the other tried to fight what was happening to their brain, although as far as the group knew, they hadn''t been successful before they¡¯d decided the visitor was a liability and killed them.

    As for what had happened to V? The group had no idea. While the distress message read that the former Enclave member had taken a female visitor, it mentioned neither V nor Fran¡¯s fate.

    Emilia made Conrad repeat the message their captive had received twice before making him go check that he was correct. She didn¡¯t like the idea of torturing the group for any more information, but she needed to find V and the kids, and the group was currently their only lead. Plus, while it wasn¡¯t their fault they¡¯d been born into a cult that was raising them to be sacrifices, Emilia was also aware that they hadn¡¯t given a shit about offering up visitors to whatever personality consuming thing existed behind the heartcores or killing them when they become too much work.

    If they were willing to destroy her mind, why shouldn¡¯t she be willing to let Conrad force his abilities on them?

    Because it was too close to things she herself had felt, obviously. It wasn¡¯t the same. It wasn¡¯t different.

    Conrad¡¯s hands wrapped around her own shaking ones when he returned, repeating a slightly different message to her. It was slight, but the difference important.

    In Conrad¡¯s original, incorrect version, it had sounded like only the former Enclave member and their stolen visitor were gone.

    In the correct version, it was clear that several other members of their group had gone missing during the chaos as well. Who and where they went was unsaid, but they had been gone, not dead¡ªnot then, anyways. More importantly, they had been gone before the Ingogia family caught up with the group and slaughtered the remaining members.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 157: Death is Inevitable

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how she became the most sensible person in their strange group of visitors and locals, of Risen Guards and Enclave members¡ªnot that she¡¯d seen the Stringer family, who accounted for most of her Enclave friends, in a while, but she kinda assumed at least Key and Rin would back her, if they happened to run into one another again¡ªbut somehow, despite even her veritable panic attack, that¡¯s what she was: the most sensible person involved in this fiasco.

    V? Well, he had been a bit crazy since the beginning. The man just screamed chaos a bit too loudly, and Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much she could trust him to have not grabbed the kids and fucked off to stars knew where, just assuming that eventually they¡¯d all run into each other again.

    Astra? Emilia still had no idea what to think about that kid. The way Conrad told it, the girl had basically ordered him to go get her. ?Emilia is the most important,? the kid had said, and according to Conrad, he¡¯d had the distinct impression that if he hadn¡¯t gone along with her plan she just would have tried to kill him, then made another plan without him.

    The local kids themselves? Stupid. While she appreciated that they wanted to help her and V and their world as a whole, considering they had no idea if the heartcores¡¯ mind manipulation was permanent or not, risking their lives for her and V was stupid. Had they also been threatened by Astra? Possibly, but the smarter thing to do definitely would have been to let her go off and try to rescue V on her own, if she was so insistent.

    And Conrad? Her repeat saviour and current travel companion? Absolutely bonkers. The man had no fear¡ªwhich was kinda fair, given the whole raid thing¡ªbut it seemed more¡­ inherent to his personality. As they moved through the Ingogia compound, searching for clues as to what had happened to V and the kids, the man just sort of¡­ forged ahead. He wasn¡¯t afraid of anyone or their skills, trusting his membrane of energy, as Emilia had begun to think of it, to keep them safe.

    And in the event something got through? Well, she and her {Blood Ball} were there to defend them¡ªnot that anything got through the man¡¯s defences. Seriously, it was impressive, especially because unlike when they had been working their way through the Risen Guard compound, Conrad didn¡¯t care who found them. Where previously his power had been contained, winding through the aether with subtle strength and beauty, now it was a brutal thing that was definitely attracting the attention of everyone on the level¡ªmaybe even the one under them.

    And oh, how the residents of the level found them. Member after member of the Ingogia family came from them, confident that their gifts and magics would be the ones to make it through the man¡¯s barrier. They didn¡¯t. The moment the person stepped too close to Conrad, his energy would press down on them, wiping out their own magic and energy. Then, she¡¯d surge forward and knock them out¡ªperhaps even more frightening than Conrad¡¯s ability to suppress seemingly anything anyone threw at him was his ability to leave her energy untouched.

    Seriously terrifying, and as they wandered, Emilia was making sure to chat with him. Previously, she¡¯d been nervous about his being a little obsessed with her, but you know what!? Slightly creepy, horrifyingly powerful, kinda-stalk, kinda-older brother figure was okay with her! Not only would he be a totally useful ally¡ªfor what, she had no idea¡ªbut she definitely didn¡¯t want him as an enemy or even just vague person she knew who wouldn¡¯t blink at killing her!

    ?Y¡¯know I¡¯m not this powerful in real life?? Conrad eventually asked¡ªhis accent more subdued than before her panic attack¡ªafter questioning another Enclave member about where the bodies of the Clarity members they had killed and captured had ended up. He seemed amused at her sudden attempts to become friendlier with him, although she certainly hadn¡¯t been hiding the reason why. ?My abilities are bein¡¯ augmented by both a heartcore gift and th¡¯Risen Guard system. It¡¯s quite handy.?

    Emilia waved him off. ¡°Sure, sure. I get that. This skill is definitely based on something real-world side, though. It¡¯s pretty sweet, and if I want you to tell me more about, I gotta become your friend!¡±

    Conrad gave her one of the soft, melodic laughs that didn¡¯t match his appearance at all. Not for the first time, she wondered what he looked like in real life. She¡¯d find out soon, their agreed upon meeting date far sooner than the one she and V had agreed on, and something told her that she wouldn¡¯t recognize him, at all. Emilia had no idea what that something was, maybe just a million little things about the man, the way he moved and talked, adding up to say, ¡°This isn¡¯t anything like my real body, but I have also spent many years using it within raids. My second skin.¡±

    ?Most people hide when they¡¯re trying to become m¡¯friend for selfish reasons,? he mused, energy striking down the Enclave members who were guarding the building they¡¯d been led to¡ªthe one that allegedly contained the bodies and hostages the group had taken.

    Shrugging, Emilia told him she was selfish, shooting him a smile so he¡¯d know that wasn¡¯t the only reason she was befriending him. She was pretty sure he understood that¡ªunderstood that she was making a show of befriending him for a silly, selfish reason simply to lessen the tension of what they were doing¡ªbut she made a note to make nice-nice with him in more sane ways once they were out of this place.

    He stepped up beside her as she stared into the building, so close his arm brushed hers. ?Did y¡¯decide what we¡¯re gonna do??

    She swallowed, breathed out. ¡°No.¡±

    ?D¡¯ya want me t¡¯decide for us??

    Her mouth twisted into a wry grin. ¡°Based on what your big brother would do?¡±

    Conrad was quiet for a long while before he finally admitted that no, he probably wouldn¡¯t do what his brother would think correct under these circumstances.

    ?M¡¯brother¡­ he does not do well in situations where there are many groups with many different needs, all of which are bein¡¯ manipulated by somethin¡¯. If he had his way, he would help everyone. Sometimes that isn¡¯t possible.?The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Like now?¡±

    ?Like now,? the other visitor agreed. ?We can try to help th¡¯people here, or your friends. We could leave these people, an¡¯ hope to help them later, but their fate may be worse for it, an¡¯ searchin¡¯ for answers¡ª?

    ¡°Would lose us time in finding a way to help this world,¡± Emilia finished, pulling at the hem of her sweater. It was borrowed from Boundary and absolutely huge on her. She¡¯d also ended up with no pants, again¡ªher own clothing had been covered with mud during her brief captivity with the Ingogia family and having been confined to a bed, she¡¯d seen no reason to put the offered pair on. ¡°Gale¡¯s¡­ someone who was once important to Gale was affected by the heartcores. Faster than everyone else was, but¡­¡±

    ?You would like t¡¯help them, if possible?? Conrad asked when Emilia was silent for too long, the two of them still staring into the building. Once they stepped through, they would have decisions to make¡ªdecisions neither of them had a right or responsibility to make, but needed to make, either way.

    Emilia thought back to meeting Carne, to learning more about what had happened to them, and wondered if there even was anything left within them to help¡ªsome former part of them to save. ¡°I don¡¯t know if he¡ªif any of them¡ªcan be saved,¡± she breathed out, concern for the visitors who had been affected by the heartcores flooding through her. ¡°I don¡¯t¡ª¡± Emilia cut off, looking away to a copse of trees next to a nearby house. Something was there, hiding in the bushes.

    ?I will go,? Conrad said, hearing the I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s worth it to try helping the captured Clarity members and risk the potential consequences in her words.

    ¡°I should¡ª¡±

    ?No. You don¡¯t need to.?

    Their eyes met, purple to purple. What did her eyes look like, she wondered. Probably like someone who had killed before and would rather not do so again, even if the people had already been destroyed in their search for power. It would be one thing if they knew those people¡ªthe handful of Clarity members still alive in the building she didn¡¯t want to set foot inside¡ªcould be returned to themselves. If they couldn¡¯t¡ª

    ¡°You should kill them,¡± she breathed out, resisting the urge to shut her eyes against the world. ¡°If I was like them, I would rather be dead. I know that¡¯s just my opinion, but¡ª¡±

    Too long fingers, as black as the night that didn¡¯t naturally exist in this world, pressed to her lips. ?I agree. I think m¡¯brother would agree as well¡­ eventually. No one would wish to be repeatedly pulled under by a personality that did not belong to them, not so often, anyways.? His lips quirked as he added, ?As long as they weren¡¯t raised by a cult, anyways. I can¡¯t say I trust that any Clarity or Enclave member we ask wouldn¡¯t try to argue it was their choice. I¡¯m not sure that sort of consent counts.?

    Emilia watched as the man¡¯s eyes glazed over. He did that quite often, and she¡¯d come to realize it was when he remembered his brother, or was thinking through what a conversation with him on some topic would be like. She¡­ wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d ever met someone who idolized anyone to that extent before. It almost reminded her of a cult member, but was simultaneously more and less fanatical. Where the religious zealots¡ªand occasional Free Colonier who worshipped their leader like they were a god¡ªalways held a touch of insanity in their praise, Conrad didn¡¯t. The way he talked, it was like he naturally believed his brother could do almost no wrong.

    Clearly, he didn¡¯t think his brother completely infallible, though. Not if he was complaining that his brother wanted to help too much. That was good. People needed a flaw or two, although, maybe that was actually a good way to get yourself more followers? Make yourself a little human, rather than all idolize god?

    Contemplating what made a good cult leader¡ªannoying, when she couldn¡¯t have her Censor search up research on the cults and extremist governments that existed on the continent¡ªEmilia wandered over to the bush she¡¯d been staring at earlier. Conrad¡¯s energy still suffused the air, keeping her safe ever as he went to go investigate the building¡ªwent to go see who was alive, who was dead, and what everyone knew.

    Not having actually seen any animals in this world¡ªoutside of the monsters that had occasionally popped up in the labyrinths¡ªEmilia was amazed when she pulled a fluffy orange creature from the bush. It was cute, and very afraid and¡­ and was that blood on it?

    ¡°How¡¯d you get so dirty, little one?¡± she asked, wondering if she could focus enough to activate her water magic gem and clean the poor thing up. ¡°Why isn¡¯t the blood going anywhere?¡± The blood that had been drawn during their initial fight with the Ingogia family had acted normal¡ªnormal within the raid, anyways¡ªso why wasn¡¯t this blood?

    Pulling a hand away from the shivering creature, she smelled her hand, and yup. That wasn¡¯t actually blood. It was worse. It was the terrible food that Boundary kept trying to feed her. Gross. Had this thing gotten into someone¡¯s dinner?

    [Emilia: why did you keep trying to feed me those nasty red cubes?]

    [Boundary: Because your attempts to hide your dislike amused me.]

    [Boundary: And it is one of my favourite foods.]

    [Emilia: it¡¯s a terrible food]

    [Boundary: Villy is not a fan either. I have yet to feed it to Emile. Hopefully, he will like it.]

    Emilia sent a message off the Villy about his terrible, bullying husband before asking each of them if they knew what the thing she was holding was.

    [Boundary: Sounds like a yurken. Some people keep them as pets. They are very expensive. Where did you find one?]

    [Boundary: And stop tattling on me to my husband!]

    Emilia sent him back an explanation of what they were doing. She debated the merits of telling him that they had decided that killing the Clarity members who had been caught was the best thing to do, but figured he¡¯d find out eventually. There was no point in hiding it from him. To her relief, he agreed with their decision.

    [Boundary: The Risen Guard have been searching for a way to fix what the heartcores break within us for hundreds of years. They have found nothing, although they continue to look. There comes a point where we become too dangerous, and are put down. I have no doubt that, if those Clarity members come into our custody, they will be killed for all our sakes.]

    That¡­ helped. It helped that they were just killing these people before they could be sacrificed or captured by someone else.

    It still hurt, and as Emilia felt life after life flickering out under Conrad¡¯s precise attacks, she pulled the yurken close and let herself cry, just for a moment.

    It was for the best.

    It still hurt.

    It was still terrible that someone¡ªwhether the programmers at Hail or the platform maintainers¡ªhad allowed these things to happen, either purposefully or through negligence. It didn¡¯t matter. This was terrible and inexcusable.

    Once again, her mind flickered back to the visitors who had suffered the effects of the heartcores, and she worried for them, for herself, Conrad, Astra and V and the consequences none of them would know until they continued their lives in the real world.

    Mostly, she worried for Astra and V because they weren¡¯t there, and she had no idea what had happened to them, or how many more heartcores they¡¯d been forced to touch.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 158: A Pet. Obviously.

    ?I agree,? Conrad said as he appeared behind Emilia, still standing in front of the bush she had found the yurken hiding in, ?I don¡¯t think th¡¯sacrifice part of th¡¯ritual the Enclave thinks is th¡¯key to unlocking our system access is necessary what is that thing??

    The other visitor¡¯s purple eyes widened as Emilia turned towards him, dirty yurken pulled tightly to her chest. It had calmed while she sobbed into its fur and now seemed content to just be carried around.

    ¡°A pet.¡±

    ?You know we ain¡¯t stayin¡¯ here, right??

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    ?Then¡­ shouldn¡¯t you let it go??

    Emilia gazed down at the soft orange creature. It had been a long time since she¡¯d had a pet, and she knew she couldn¡¯t keep it, even if it felt good to have it in her arms. She had¡ªrather stupidly¡ªbrought animals into a war zone before and suffered for it. This creature wouldn¡¯t suffer the way her last pet¡ªher friend¡ªhad.

    [Emilia: can you come here?]

    [Boundary: Why?]

    [Emilia: because everyone from the Ingogia family is either dead or gone]

    [Emilia: and i can¡¯t just leave this thing here alone]

    [Emilia: it doesn¡¯t look very bright]

    [Emilia: it¡¯ll probably starve to death]

    [Boundary: What am I supposed to do with it?]

    [Emilia: keep it as a pet?]

    [Boundary: Seriously? We have a new kid in our house, and you¡¯re trying to pass someone¡¯s abandoned pet off on us?]

    [Emilia: you know, kids love kids]

    [Boundary: I don¡¯t need to bribe my child into liking me! He already likes me well enough.]

    Well, that was true. Emile had immediately attached himself onto Boundary¡ª Well, that wasn¡¯t true¡ªthe child hadn¡¯t seemingly chosen the man as his new parent until after they had met again at the Risen Guard compound. That first night, as Boundary had worked to move them all to the compound, the still-nameless Emile had mostly clung to her, but he had occasionally peeked out at the world and¡ª

    And, now that she was thinking about it, she remembered thinking his energy was moving way too much. At the time, she had chalked it up to nerves, but despite how stressful the labyrinth itself was, his energy had been calm throughout their trek through it. In the hours after they left the Livery Labyrinth, however, it had been active, vibrating within his tiny body. After they entered that city¡­ after he had overheard Sawyer and Benny and Caro talking about the basics of reading the universe¡­

    Well, no. Not heard¡ªthe kid couldn¡¯t hear¡ªbut could he sense things? It wasn¡¯t uncommon in the real world for kids who lacked one sense to by hypersensitive in others. Had Emile learned how to read the will of the universe simply by watching the older kids do so? Was that how he had decided Boundary was someone he should befriend?

    Was that something they should be concerned about? It was definitely something she should warn Boundary and Villy about, right? That their kid might have accidentally acquired an awareness of the universe that wasn¡¯t normal? Wait¡­ did they even believe in such things?

    [Boundary: Of course we believe in such things. Why? Did something happen to the yurken? Did it run away?]

    [Emilia: can you just come here?]

    [Emilia: this conversation would be so much easier in person]

    [Emilia: plus, i¡¯m starting to get a headache]

    [Boundary: Is your friend going to attack me this time?]

    Emilia glanced at Conrad, who had taken the yurken and was slowly washing it clean, his nose wrinkled up in disgust as red dripped from it. ¡°Hey, if Boundary comes, will you attack him?¡±

    ?Only if he attacks us first,? the man grumbled. His eyes narrowed and suddenly a burst of hot air was rupturing out of the aether and drying the creature. ?He won¡¯t be able to teleport into my membrane, as you called it.?

    Emilia hummed and contemplated the situation. They needed to get rid of the yurken. They needed to find the others. They needed system access and to not run into anyone who might alert Clarity that they were looking into things and¡ª

    ¡°You didn¡¯t learn anything about the others?¡± she asked, already knowing that since Conrad had brought up her hunch about the unnecessary sacrifice part of the Ingogia ritual sacrifice first, the people he¡¯d questioned probably hadn¡¯t known anything about their missing friends.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Conrad shook his head, passing the now clean and dry¡ªif slightly traumatized from the magical cleaning¡ªyurken back to her. It needed a name, and she raised it up, contemplating it as the man told her that he hadn¡¯t found their bodies, and none of the formerly living people within the building had seen them.

    ?One was part of another group. Fran messaged her about what happened, like she did th¡¯other group. They also fractured after learning th¡¯truth. She didn¡¯t know what happened t¡¯Fran after everything went down, but her own system indicated th¡¯woman was still alive. Seems the Enclave family did something to everyone¡¯s systems, though. They only had partial access.?

    Right, because names of the dead disappeared from the messaging system.

    ¡°So¡­ we have to find that terrible woman, is what you¡¯re saying?¡± Not that they had any way of doing that. ¡°Do you think she went back to Clarity¡¯s city system?¡± she asked, deciding to just go for it and ask Boundary to come to them. Her own instincts weren¡¯t tied into the universe, and she was way too tired to try doing so at the moment, but something told her they weren¡¯t going to find the kids or V or even Fran here.

    ?She was born into that group?? Conrad asked, his eyes flicking to the right as Emilia told him she didn¡¯t know¡ªall she knew was Fran was apparently a descendant of a visitor. A moment later, Boundary stepped into Conrad¡¯s defences and Emilia received a very curt, very threatening message from Villy about making sure his husband stayed safe.

    Emilia was¡­ pretty sure Conrad would be nice, but just for good measure, she told him that unless they wanted a pissed off husband chasing after them, he needed to play nice. The man glared a little harder at Boundary but made a grunt of acknowledgement. Something in the aether shifted, and Emilia watched as tension within Boundary eased¡ªConrad letting his energy exist within his membrane, she assumed.

    ¡°What do you think about Yo-Yo?¡± she asked the men as Boundary came to stand in front of them. Both looked at her like she had lost her mind, and even when she explained she was thinking of names for the yurken, they didn''t look any less concerned. Rude.

    Effectively forcing the creature into Boundary¡¯s arms, muttering about how it would have been much easier if Boundary had just transported them to the Ingogia estate in the first place. Glaring at Conrad, he shot back that he might have, if certain people hadn¡¯t attacked his house.

    Conrad simply snorted and looked away, hands lazily tucked into the pockets of his pants. ?If we¡¯d done that, things wouldn¡¯t have ended up as they had,? he said, and Emilia understood what he meant.

    If they hadn¡¯t taken the long way, Conrad wouldn¡¯t have told her the story from his homeland, and they wouldn¡¯t have realized they both had suspicions about there being something tangible behind the war and echo events. They wouldn¡¯t have become friends. Maybe they would have found the kids and V here, had they come earlier, maybe not. Maybe they would have entered into a firestorm, and Conrad¡¯s defensive membrane wouldn¡¯t have been able to protect them fast enough.

    They could be dead.

    Worse, Boundary could be dead. As it was, Emilia already didn¡¯t like calling him back to her, but yurken, Emile¡¯s potential universe reading abilities, and a few questions meant they kinda needed to talk.

    ¡°Should we go somewhere else?¡± she asked, looking nervously around. In theory, the combination of Conrad¡¯s ability and her {Blood Ball} would protect them. In practice, someone super powerful could pop in out of nowhere and kill them off. That would totally suck.

    The Risen Guard glared at Conrad but nodded, stepping forward to move them¡­ somewhere.

    ?We are in an abandoned building, near where our intel tells us Clarity¡¯s hideout is located,? he explained, stepping away from them and pushing a curtain open to reveal they were on one of the lower levels of the building. It was run down, the windows caked over with grime and letting only the barest of light in, the city beyond a blur of grey and red. ?I do not know if that is where you will head to look for your friends, but this area is also relatively free of spying eyes.?

    ?A little off from the entrance,? Conrad noted, although thankfully, he didn¡¯t sound smug or taunting. One of his gifts allowed him to find any location, as long as he knew it existed. It was what had allowed him to find the Risen Guard compound, Clarity¡¯s city system and Boundary¡¯s house. As for how he had found out she was at those places? Well, it didn¡¯t take a genius to realize he had tortured the information out of people. Practically every Risen Guard had apparently been told about what went down in Livery and where she and the kids had ended up, although she didn¡¯t actually know how he¡¯d found out about the other two spots¡­

    Emilia blinked into the middle distance, trying to make out details of the foggy world outside, as Conrad gave Boundary more specific details of Clarity¡¯s location. Apparently the Enclave his family belonged to had already known some details about Clarity¡¯s plan, although he had only been told they knew an attack was coming. He hadn¡¯t known for sure that that¡¯s where she had ended up, but when he overheard them talking about how the group had found another visitor for their plan, he figured why not search there for her.

    The man hadn¡¯t gone in the front door, of course. Instead, he had taken a passage that led into the ceiling of the Clarity City System, which his gift had led him to.

    ?That gift seems to lead you to the most ideal entrance,? Boundary noted, likely thinking back to the way Conrad had invaded not only his own home but the Risen Guard compound as well.

    A smile split across Conrad¡¯s face, a slash of red that Emilia could tell made Boundary uncomfortable. It made her a bit uncomfortable as well, but she¡¯d grown a little more used to it during their time together.

    ?That it does,? the man agreed before backing up to lean against the wall. He hadn¡¯t moved far, but the sudden lack of him standing right there seemed to lessen the tension as she and Boundary began to speak.

    The most important thing: her concerns about Emile.

    Well, the other kids and V were also important, not to mention the other, other kids that Clarity was probably still holding and once she thought of that¡ª

    No. She needed to chill. They were probably fine, and if they weren¡¯t, there wasn¡¯t much she could do for them at the moment.

    Emile¡ªEmile she could potentially do something to help.

    ?It¡­ is possible,? Boundary agreed after she¡¯d spouted off her concerns about how the kid had managed to snag himself a parent so easily. ?Reading the universe is¡­ complicated. The act itself is something that can be learned, but many people do not believe it is real¡ªor at least accurate¡ªas they cannot interact with it well or do not understand that the universe¡¯s guidance can lead them to strange places. Those who read it well are both feared and revered by many.?

    ¡°Like Carne?¡±

    ?Like Carne,? the Risen Guard agreed, gazing off into his thoughts. ?There isn¡¯t much we can do for Emile, except watch his abilities. He didn¡¯t¡ª He didn¡¯t touch the heartcore, in the Livery Labyrinth, did he??

    Unfortunately, she had no idea. Astra or Benny might, as they had touched the thing, but while Emilia suspected a few of the kids had realized the pair touched it, most hadn¡¯t. They¡¯d been too busy panicking and worrying about what they would exit the labyrinth to. Half the kids had slept, and while Astra and Benny had to have been moved by someone, given they had been napping next to her own unconscious body when she woke, she wasn¡¯t positive who had done so. A little part of her suspected Kelly had moved all of them. Kelly was a sweetheart who wouldn¡¯t have told anyone what they had done, not unless it was actively putting them in danger.

    ¡°You can¡¯t tell?¡± she asked, remembering that the activation of the heartcore had been what attracted Boundary to the city in the first place.

    ?I could only tell the heartcore was activated by a local, the specifics of how many locals is unknown.?

    ¡°I see¡­¡± No way to tell if it was natural or a gift, then. ¡°Don¡¯t imagine anyone in your Risen Guard messages has run into Astra, Gale or Caro? Or my missing friend?¡± she asked, giving Boundary a brief run down of what had happened, having previously only told him they were going back to the Ingogia estate because children were stupidly brave. He was equally unimpressed with Conrad just letting the kids run off, although the other visitor continued insisting that Astra made him.

    ?Are you a child?? Boundary asked, rolling his eyes¡ªactually rolling his eyes!¡ªat Conrad. ?Visitor or not, that girl is still a child. You should have been capable of stopping her, especially given your defensive ability.?

    Actually, that was a pretty good point. Emilia would have asked about it if, at that very moment, their maps hadn¡¯t lit up with a person indicator.

    A person coming straight at them.

    Great.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 159: A Tad Stupid

    ¡°You should leave,¡± Emilia told Boundary, not for the first time.

    The man had refused to budge the first few times she¡¯d said as much, first after they realized someone was coming, then after they realized just who was coming, and then after the man had entered the building and any hope they still had that he was just passing by disappeared. Now, the Risen Guard didn¡¯t even acknowledge her words as he glared down the doorway.

    ¡°Seriously! You have a kid now! You shouldn¡¯t stay here with us and¡ª¡±

    Emilia cut off, everyone stilling as Carne stepped into the room, his eyes looking oddly distant as they slipped over their group. ?Hello,? Gale¡¯s once-sibling said. He didn¡¯t bother to smile, so at least they didn¡¯t have to contend with the man¡¯s creepy, fake kindness.

    Beside her, Conrad watched the man with a bored expression, although Emilia could tell Carne was making him uneasy. He¡¯d reactivated his defensive membrane as soon as Boundary had moved them, but if anyone was capable of getting through it, she was sure it would be Carne. What better use for your ability to read the universe than to find ways through its most powerful techniques.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Emilia signed, remembering that the guy couldn¡¯t hear visitors. His eyes looked her way, once again seeming to stare straight through her. Rude.

    ?Carne,? Boundary said, tone not quite icy, but definitely unimpressed with his former¡­ something¡¯s presence. The Risen Guard had never explained how the two of them knew each other, but Emilia had a feeling they¡¯d been more than classmates or simply members of the same organization. ?What are you doing here??

    Carne¡¯s eyes slid back to Boundary, something soft entering them before quickly vanishing, and oh. So it was like that? Given Carne seemed to barely be the person he had been before receiving the heartcore gift that had overwhelmed his personality, it was interesting to see that he still felt something more for Boundary.

    ?We have a similar goal,? Carne noted.

    ?Oh?? Boundary said, readjusting the yurken in his arms. If Carne had noticed the creature, he gave no indication. To Emilia, he seemed almost incapable of seeing things or people he didn¡¯t care for¡ªor maybe things the universe didn¡¯t need him to see.

    The man nodded, shifted. He stared at a wall¡ªthe wall that faced the entrance to Clarity¡¯s hideout. ?Yes. I have more members of my group to retrieve. Sawyer is quite worried about them. You are going as well. We should go together.?

    ¡°Do you know if Gale and our other friends are there?¡± Emilia asked, waiting patiently for Boundary to translate for her.

    Carne didn¡¯t bother looking her way as he said he was unsure¡ªthe universe would not tell him. ?They are not my story. They are yours. If you wish to find them, you will have to ask the universe to tell you your story.?

    That was¡­ an interesting way to put it¡­ and slightly creepy. The idea that the aether could guide someone¡¯s way had already been disturbing, implying that the universe could understand the future¡ªor perhaps was so aware of all the things occurring within it from moment to moment that it could intuit which way would serve its reader best. Still disturbing, not to mention powerful. She¡¯d never thought of the universe as something potentially capable of thought or decision before this raid, and she wasn¡¯t sure she liked thinking it capable of such now.

    Then again, chances were the universe of the raid was just a simulated one. That was as far as their own training system had ever gotten: to making a copy of the aether within the Virtuosi System. Chances were, the universe around them was simply code, layered onto the real aethernet. Chances were, the real universe couldn¡¯t be read like this¡­ probably.

    It was certainly easier to think it something that existed solely within raids, but memories of the real world¡ªof forming skills to work within its rules, of fighting the monsters of war and seeing the way they interacted with the aether, of watching the way some Free Coloniers moved with the waves of the universe¡­ Well, she really wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she popped out of this raid and realized it wasn¡¯t just a raid thing¡ªnot entirely, anyways.

    She wasn¡¯t really sure what she¡¯d do with that sort of information¡ªwith the potential ability to reach out and ask the aether for her story.

    ?And what is the story you see for yourself?? Boundary asked with the flawless deliverance of someone who had asked the question before and would ask it again.

    Carne hummed, turning back to them as he considered the question. He stared blankly into space and for the life of her, Emilia had no idea if he was faking not knowing the answer or was sorting through the information the universe was feeding him to find it.

    ?I will descend into the city of cursed minds, and retrieve what is mine. We will go together, but part. The city of cursed minds will fall. The man of cursed minds will die. The world will begin anew. The world¡­? Carne trailed off, blinking so slowly it was eerie. ?The world will be better, I believe. It is a line, connecting my story to yours. I can see it, yet cannot. There are too many variables. You should not bring that child with you.?

    It took a moment for Emilia to realize Carne was referring to the yurken, the man having failed to acknowledge it before that moment. ¡°You should take it and leave,¡± she told Boundary, tugging furtively at his sweater¡ªthe man hadn¡¯t even bothered to change into proper gear. ¡°Go back to your family. This isn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ?Do not say this isn¡¯t my fight,? he bit out, harsher than she¡¯d heard his voice before. ?This is my world. It is my family who will be forced to live here if you do not find a way to break the blood curse.?

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you believed it would be good to bring about another blessing?¡± They hadn¡¯t talked in such blatant terms, but of all the things she¡¯d learned from Key and Rin about the Risen Guard, the fact that they didn¡¯t want to risk another blessing seemed accurate.

    ?I¡­? Boundary ran a frustrated hand through his hair, his eyes flicking between Carne and her.

    He trusted Carne, she realized. For all that the man had been corrupted by a heartcore so completely that his personality was barely what it had once been, Boundary trusted the man. Maybe not entirely¡ªwhat would the point of letting Benny go with him as a spy be, if Boundary completely trusted him, after all. That shouldn¡¯t have been a surprised¡ªhadn¡¯t he assured her several times after they met in the city that the homeless children would be safe? That the person with them wouldn¡¯t hurt them?The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Boundary trusted Carne, at least when it came to some things. Was it just a remnant of friendship or affection from the past was the question, or was it based on something more¡ªsomething actually worth trusting herself?

    ¡°Fine,¡± Emilia sighed, planting her hands on her hips and telling Boundary he could come, but only if he got rid of the yurken, grabbed proper gear, and told his husband was he was doing.

    The Risen Guard blanched slightly, but agreed, nonetheless, vanishing a moment later.

    [Emilia: and make sure he confirms with me that you actually told him]

    [Boundary: You know being a Risen Guard is a dangerous profession, yes?]

    [Emilia: yes, of course i know]

    [Emilia: doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t think you¡¯re better off staying home where you¡¯re safe]

    [Boundary: Your friend broke into my house. How safe can it be?]

    That¡­ was a little fair. It didn¡¯t mean Emilia wasn¡¯t worried for the man, for his husband and child. Logically, she knew they could use his help. He knew more about this world than the children, and if Carne was intending to split up with them soon after they entered Clarity¡¯s city system¡­

    It was hard, was the thing. Tons of parents had fought in the war, of course, some of them under her. It had never been easy to send them onto the front, knowing they may very well not return. It was also necessary. People died in war. People died fighting for a better, safer world.

    She still didn¡¯t want to be responsible for getting Boundary killed, and by the time he returned several minutes of painful silence later, she was holding her {Blood Ball} out to him.

    ¡°Just so you know, I have no idea why this thing activates when it does,¡± she said, blinking away a notification from Villy, asking her to try and make sure his husband came home safe. ¡°You should take it all the same. You never know when it will save your life.¡±

    Boundary didn¡¯t hesitate to take it, not the way one of the kids might have. Perhaps because he understood more than a regular civilian that she wasn¡¯t of this world¡ªthat his life was worth more here than hers.

    Carne didn¡¯t bother to say anything to them as he turned and began leading them through the building. Occasionally, his energy would flicker as he searched for the universe¡¯s guidance¡ªa clear sign that Conrad¡¯s energy couldn¡¯t completely suppress his abilities¡ªbut otherwise he was quiet¡ªthey all were.

    ?That guy is creepy,? Conrad messaged her. As much as he¡¯d taken to his own aethervoice well, he wasn¡¯t quite as immediately skilled as Astra or V had been and couldn¡¯t be trusted to speak privately to her through it. ?He can read the will of the universe? What does that mean??

    As much as the other visitor had overheard her conversation with Boundary about Emile, he hadn¡¯t asked any questions about it. Probably, he had been waiting for the man to leave so they could discuss it. That chance hadn¡¯t come, and as they walked, Emilia softly explained to him¡ªthrough normal talking¡ªeverything she knew about it. Occasionally, Boundary would offer up additional information, although it was nothing that suddenly illuminated the whole thing to her.

    Really, she knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to get answers she really wanted until she was back in the real world and was able to test things out herself. It was frustrating, though. She wanted to research it now! And that¡­ that was kinda great. It had been so long since she¡¯d felt passion for anything, her obsessive personality having long been knotted up to counter other knotting consequences. She had missed this feeling, and even though it was frustrating that she couldn¡¯t vanish into the aether and pop out in front of one of the dozens of spots she knew bore scars from the war to examine them, it was exciting.

    She wanted to be home.

    She wanted to research and learn, even if the fact that Payton would never be able to get her back to the perfect specimen she¡¯d once been was a bit sad. Something to learn to live with, her tangled up balance levels. Once, she had run from her trauma. Maybe it was time to face it. It wasn¡¯t something she¡¯d ever escape, not as long as it lived as a mess of knots inside her, but maybe with a little work, she could accept it as just another part of the puzzle that made her her.

    It was just hard, sometimes. The her of now could never be the her of her youth, and really, she should probably mourn that person. Throw them a funeral.

    Her heart clenched, thinking about letting that part of her go¡ªof seemingly giving up hope that she¡¯d ever be that person again. Probably, the healthier thing to do was accept that person was gone, and she would forever be this slightly broken, traumatized version of herself.

    That sounded terrible, and she shook the thoughts off.

    One day, she¡¯d get there. For the moment, she¡¯d just have to accept that she was this way for now and try not to fall back into a pit of despair as she lived. Better to focus on the present, and the nonsense two of the men in their group were arguing about.

    Boundary and Conrad were the bickering pair, arguing about whether the visitor¡¯s abilities naturally read the will of the universe or not¡ªBoundary seemed to think the man¡¯s abilities should be able to do so, Conrad firmly believed they could not, although Emilia had a feeling he was disagreeing simply because he didn¡¯t much like Boundary. Given they¡¯d barely spent any time together, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what exactly was causing such dislike.

    If Carne was paying attention to their argument, he gave no indication. He just walked on, leading them through the winding hallways and staircases until a name popped up on Emilia¡¯s map, indicating they were getting close to the front entrance to Clarity¡¯s city system. Not that they¡¯d be going in the front door.

    They¡¯d be going through the same entrance Conrad had broken in through. Not that anyone had actually said as much, but she was pretty sure that where they were going, and when they passed by the indicator, she was unsurprised.

    They kept walking, and the idiot men kept arguing, Boundary¡¯s tone growing increasingly annoyed while Conrad¡¯s held a hint of amusement and fascination. She¡­ should probably distract them, before a fight broke out.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she started, speeding up to step between the men, who had left her behind in their haste to argue with one another, ¡°how long do we have left here, anyways? In the raid, I mean.¡±

    Conrad blinked at her. Boundary frowned. Even Carne paused to glance back at her, a vaguely concerned look on his face as he actually looked at her for the first time. Rude.

    ?You don¡¯t know?? Conrad asked, sounding much too incredulous in her opinion.

    Emilia shrugged, giving a short run down of all the things that had happened to mess with the already vague sense of time she had in this world¡ªeven now that she¡¯d managed to open a clock in her system access, time seemed to mean nothing to her frazzled mind. ?Are you telling me you know exactly how much time is left??

    ?Yes,? he agreed. He looked like he wanted to tell her she was stupid before thinking better of it¡ªor, perhaps, he remembered that she didn¡¯t raid and had less experience with these things than most. ?It is good to know when your chances to win will end.?

    ¡°And ours will end¡­¡± she prompted, fighting down the urge to point out that they had no idea how the winner would even be determined.

    The other visitor blinked at her as Carne forced Boundary to open a stuck door for them¡ªapparently if he could get through Conrad¡¯s defensive membrane for more than his universe reading ability, he had no intention of doing so at the moment. ?Less than two days.?

    Oh. Okay. Maybe she deserved to be treated like she was a little stupid, then.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 160: Wait a minuteâ€¦

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ?What is it?? Boundary asked, glancing back at her as they followed Carne.

    According to Conrad, they weren¡¯t following the exact route he had taken, but his own location gift was telling him the route Carne was taking was a good one. He and Boundary had proceeded to restart their argument over whether Conrad was more tapped into the will of the universe than he seemed to believe. Carne had continued to ignore them, not even bothering to give his opinion on the matter as he led them through building after building, taking a long, winding route. They were limited for time, but following the man seemed oddly¡­ right. Perhaps that was aethernet, pressing itself down on her and saying, ¡°This man is leading you right.¡±

    That, or she¡¯d gone through the labyrinths a few too many times and her brain was fucked. Emilia was trying really hard to not think that¡ªto not worry that this raid had both given Payton an easy chance to unknot her while fucking with her brain in other ways that probably weren¡¯t as easily corrected.

    Emilia slipped her arm into Conrad¡¯s letting the man guide her along as she read through the string of messages Honey was sending her, each one striking her mind as they formed across her vision.

    ¡°Honey says the Stringer siblings are missing. Rin, too. Eh¡­ their bodyguard as well? I¡¯m gonna assume that¡¯s Sk¡¯lar.¡±

    ?Sk¡¯lar?? Conrad asked before abruptly swinging her into his arms. ?Is that the man you mentioned who has even worse vibes than me, but not nearly as bad as my brother??

    ¡°Uh¡­ yeah,¡± Emilia said, opening her mouth to tell them that while she¡¯d never bought that Sk¡¯lar was the siblings¡¯ childhood friend, she was a bit surprised to hear he was their official bodyguard. Her words caught in her throat, however, when Carne acknowledged their conversation, something the man had only done a handful of times.

    ?You should be wary of that man,? he said, and Emilia could only assume he was referring to Sk¡¯lar. ?He will stop this world from being born anew, if given the chance.?

    ?Well, it¡¯s a good thing he¡¯s not here, then,? Conrad snorted a moment before more messages from Honey slotted themselves into her mind, clearly implying that the missing Stringer members may very well be headed to Clarity as well.

    [Honey: From what I can tell, the Stringers did the same your friend did? The guy I can message now? Conrad?]

    [Honey: He asked me to keep an eye out for information about his Enclave family, too.]

    [Honey: He said he vanished when they told him Clarity had taken in another visitor, cause he figured it might be you!]

    [Honey: Hey, was that the dude who got you out of here too?]

    [Honey: Is he your friend?]

    [Honey: Cause that seems like a lot to go through if he isn¡¯t your friend?]

    [Honey: But you guys weren¡¯t really giving, like¡­ friend vibes when I saw you?]

    [Honey: Not that I saw you for more than a few seconds, but, like¡­]

    [Honey: I don¡¯t know.]

    [Honey: Either you get what I mean, or you don¡¯t.]

    [Honey: Anyways!]

    [Honey: The Stringers!]

    [Honey: I¡¯ve been digging!]

    [Honey: I¡¯ve been digging so hard!]

    [Honey: So, like, it seems that information about you getting picked up by Clarity spread around.]

    [Honey: Some families had more information about it¡ªlike that it was you in particular¡ªand Clarity¡¯s purpose, though!]

    [Honey: It¡¯s only a guess, that the Stringers found out about your connection to Clarity, but the timing of their disappearance matches up.]

    [Honey: And before you ask!]

    [Honey: I just knew they were bad news!]

    [Honey: Not that they were so, sooooooo bad news!]

    Emilia had glanced through Honey¡¯s previous messages about Clarity while travelling to the Ingogia Estate, although she¡¯d only been able to read bits and pieces of them as things happened, both due to the chaos and the headache reading them had caused. The Risen Guard trainee had indeed only really told her that Clarity¡¯s leader was a known creep, with bad intentions. Her advice had been to get as far away from them as possible. It was unfortunate that by the time Emilia had gotten to that part, getting away from them would have been difficult, to say the least.

    [Emilia: it never even crossed my mind that you could be holding anything back]

    Honey¡¯s stream of messages fell silent, and although Emilia knew the girl was emotional, it seemed insane for her to need to take a moment after hearing something like that from a veritable stranger. When Honey¡¯s messages continued a moment later and it seemed she¡¯d been distracted messaging someone else, rather than crying or something silly like that, Emilia was unsurprised, but also slightly relieved¡ªthe last thing she needed was yet another person getting overly attached to her in this world.

    [Honey: Okay, so!]

    [Honey: They found the girl, Harmony?]

    [Honey: Seems the others ditched her.]

    [Honey: Or¡­ that maybe her brother and Rin ditched her and the bodyguard?]

    [Honey: Then the bodyguard ditched her?]

    [Honey: While the girls isn¡¯t saying as much, my source thinks the bodyguard went off searching for the boy and Rin.]

    Emilia sent a message, asking if Harmony had told anyone where she thought her brother and Rin¡ªnot to mention Sk¡¯lar¡ªhad disappeared to. It was all well and good to guess they might be heading towards the Clarity City System, but confirmation would be awesome. Honey seemed to have gone back to messaging other people, however, and Emilia turned her attention to relating what the girl had said to Boundary and Conrad.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The other visitor was rather uninterested¡ªunsurprising, given he only really seemed to care for her, and maybe a bit for the people she cared for. She might like Key and Rin¡ªmight consider them friends adjacent¡ªbut if it was between Boundary and the kids and them? Yeah, she was definitely prioritizing the former, even if that was a bit cold to her former allies, especially since they were maybe currently searching for her.

    Not that she had any idea why they were doing so! They could just as easily be seeking her out to kill her, in some Enclave blood ritual meant to regain the honour of members who had fucked up.

    Considering there already was an Enclave blood ritual, fake as it likely was, meant to gain system access, it might not be as outlandish of a guess as it seemed. Speaking of which¡­

    [Honey: I haven¡¯t heard of any visitors with system access popping up.]

    [Honey: Not that we¡¯d automatically know, or anything.]

    [Honey: The higher ups can be pretty secretive, when it comes to visitor stuff.]

    [Honey: And there isn¡¯t much of a reason to tell me, since I¡¯m stuck here babysitting.]

    [Honey: Why?]

    Emilia sent off the vaguest of details of what the Ingogia family had claimed to the Risen Guard trainee, more so she¡¯d know what sort of information to look for when she inevitably started poking around, looking for signs of more ritual sacrifices taking place throughout the city system. At the same time, more people didn¡¯t need details of the horrific things the Ingogia family was forcing its harbingers to do, especially not with so few days left in the raid. If that information got out, she had no doubt that every visitor who heard would be offing random people, trying to gain system access.

    ?Why do you think it¡¯s fake?? Boundary asked when she related similar details to him, his eyes glazing over as he sent similar questions about whether people were suddenly being sacrificed in the city system to various higher ups and colleagues.

    She hesitated, contemplating all the things that could go wrong if Boundary learned not only the specifics of the ritual¡ªwhich Conrad had forced out of an Ingogia family member and sent to her via the messaging system¡ªbut Zach¡¯s suspicions about how system access was gained as well. There was no way she¡¯d ever see the man again¡ªstars, she didn¡¯t even know if he was still alive, after the collapse of the library¡ªbut telling anyone about his ideas, when he had entrusted them to her, felt a bit like a betrayal.

    That was silly, however. She¡¯d already told Conrad¡ªwould have told V, if they¡¯d ever had a good moment that wasn¡¯t filled with sex to talk about it. Plus, there were only a few days left in the raid. If no one succeeded in breaking the blood curse, maybe Boundary could use the information to help the next group of visitors break it. It was unlikely that he¡¯d still be around and kicking¡ªa thought that sent a spear of pain through her heart¡ªbut he could pass the information along, if he really had come to believe trying to break it was the best option.

    ¡°Their ritual¡­ basically involved tossing someone into a hole in the aethernet¡ªin the universe,¡± she told him, explaining that while the Ingogia family had clasped onto the sacrifice part of the ritual as the important part, she and Zach had already discussed the possibility that making the universe bleed was the key to gaining system access.

    ¡°I¡¯ve made it bleed a few times,¡± she said, adding that she¡¯d seen both Boundary and Conrad leave marks in it as well. ¡°All of those wounds sealed up pretty fast, though. It¡¯s the same in our world¡­ mostly. It takes a lot for rips in the aether to stick around for more than a moment, although it does seem more fragile here? Or like there¡¯s something in your magic that makes it easier to hurt it? From what I¡¯ve seen, your magic leaves more marks, too.¡±

    [Conrad: That could be why reading the universe is more common here. There is just more to see.]

    Emilia nodded, reiterating Conrad¡¯s message to Boundary. Out of the things she was okay and not okay with Carne overhearing, this conversation about ritual sacrifice definitely fell into the not okay category. The man might know way more about how the universe¡ªat least in this world¡ªworked, but personally, Emilia didn¡¯t really trust him. Not long term, anyways. For the moment, he really did seem intent to get the other homeless kids away from Clarity, but what he did after that¡­

    Well, if she left this world and one day found out that a war had broken out between Carne¡¯s group and whatever would remain of the world after they left, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised. The guy clearly had some sort of plan, even if it was simply go along with what the universe tells me to do for the rest of my life. Who knew what was behind the story it was telling him. It could be the platform maintainer, for all they knew, and she, for one, definitely didn¡¯t trust whoever was behind this raid¡¯s design.

    ?Okay¡­? Boundary said, sounding not quite not convinced, but not quite there yet either.

    ¡°The thing that seems important¡ªto me anyways¡ª¡± Emilia said, glancing over the very, very detailed note Conrad had sent her, ¡°is that while the ritual sacrifice is going on, a group of people are purposefully keeping a hole in the universe open. The chick Conrad questioned even said it oozes some sort of red goo as it does so. That goo is probably the universe¡¯s blood. After the ritual is done, it apparently shatters into a dust that surrounds whoever was closest to the hole, then poof! System access!¡±

    ?That doesn¡¯t mean the sacrifice part isn¡¯t necessary.?

    ¡°No,¡± she agreed, fiddling with the collar of Conrad¡¯s shirt. She¡¯d stopped messaging Honey quite a while ago, but he¡¯d never bothered putting her down, and she wasn¡¯t about to ask. Walking so much was a pain. ¡°But they¡¯d tried iterations of the ritual a few times before actually succeeding. They figured out that the length of the ritual mattered, while the exact details of the sacrifice didn¡¯t, although they never tried it without the sacrifice¡ªI think they were just really done with testing? Anyways, what worked, was having a dozen people hold the hole open because with any less, the ritual didn¡¯t last long enough.¡±

    Boundary contemplated this as they began to descend into the planet, having finally reached the steep staircase that would lead to the top of Clarity¡¯s city system. ?Do you know how they made the hole? How they kept it open??

    ?Why?? Conrad nearly growled, the sound attracting Carne¡¯s attention, although he said nothing of it, just shot them a warning look. Warning over what, Emilia had no idea. To be quiet? To be nicer to Boundary?

    The Risen Guard shot Conrad a look that said he was growing to be very done with him¡ªimpressive, considering they¡¯d barely spoken to each other for a while. So much for tempers cooling while she chatted.

    ?Because it is extremely difficult to keep holes open. As Emilia said, making holes is simple, but no matter the size, they disappear near instantly. If any¡­ blood of the universe escapes such a hole, it is called back into the wound, just as it would be to a human. Even large attacks leave only scars behind, not blood.?

    ¡°Yeah, that was kinda what I figured. It was part of why I wasn¡¯t into checking Zach¡¯s suspicion until I really had to. Stars, even when the library was destroyed, it didn¡¯t seem to leave any mark on the aether? And that was a big attack¡ª Hey, speaking of which, why didn¡¯t the blood from that form into a blood weapon? What?¡±

    Boundary had stopped and spun back to gape at her. His eyes would have been humorously large, if not for the near panic in his voice when he asked what she meant.

    ¡°I just¡­ I was there? I was in the library when it collapsed, then in the labyrinth, then exited back in the city? It was terrible. There was so much blood under the rubble.¡±

    ?There¡­? Boundary cut off swallowing. Behind him, Carne had stopped and was looking back at them, their own eyes vaguely concerned as well. ?There was no one there? From the Risen Guard? Cleaning it up??

    ¡°Uh¡­ no? Should there have been?¡±

    The Risen Guard exchanged a look with Carne, the aether rippling with some private conversation. Their temporary ally¡¯s jaw clenched, but they said nothing, simply turned and began to descend once more.

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± Emilia said, looking between Boundary and Carne¡¯s back. ¡°As far as I could tell, the city was locked down. V and I had to escape through the caverns¡ªthat¡¯s how we ended up in Livery. What does it matter if the blood was left sitting there? I mean, yeah, V and I popped out of the labyrinth, and then so did the Stringers, presumably, and¡­¡±

    Wait.

    If it was locked down, then how¡­

    ?The Risen Guard should have had members stationed throughout the town, even if it was locked down, in case someone entered the town through different means.? The man shot Conrad an annoyed look. The visitor smiled back, unrepentant of his own repeated break and enters.

    ¡°There was someone else¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, thinking back to the boy¡ªto the visitor who seemed barely a child¡ªthat she and V had found spying on them. ¡°Another visitor. He disappeared before V or I could get anything useful out of him. Actually, now that I think about it,¡± she added, glancing up at Conrad, thinking back to the times he had vanished before her eyes¡ªhis nephew, too. The one who had tried to kill her and V in the cave.

    Poof.

    Vanished before their eyes.

    Pulled away by their Enclave.

    ¡°Say¡­ you don¡¯t happen to have a relative with blue hair, do you?¡±

    What had the kid¡¯s name been again?

    ?Tobias?? Conrad asked, voice dark and annoyed.

    Oh, yeah. Toby.

    That was it.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 161: Not That Thing (at least not at the moment)

    The path they had taken into the Clarity City System was fascinating and terrifying. The steep staircase twisted and turned at abrupt angles, reminding Emilia of a caving route that had been chiselled into a proper path.

    V would have loved it, what with his history in that blackaether caving raid. Emilia herself had only the smallest experience with caves, from her months in Dion as a teenager and later a young adult. There had been a small cave, with stairs carved into it much like this, near the palace. It was outside its sprawling borders, which she had been ordered not to leave.

    So, of course, she had left. Those steps had opened to a small lake, where she and HuaHua had gone to swim several dozen times before their guardians had discovered their activities and put them under better guard¡ªnot that that had stopped them from sneaking away to other places.

    These stairs opened into the ceiling of the city system, near one of the walls. The path that was left was tiny, barely large enough for Boundary¡¯s muscular form to traverse without risking him toppling over the open edge. They had to go down, however. Below them, the grey city system loomed, quiet and unmoving. Much like the buildings of the city system above, these buildings also featured estates built onto their tops.

    They weren¡¯t as green and lush as the Stringer and Ingogia estates had been, without the twin suns blazing down on them, instead being harsh, dreary looking things. Sharp-edged buildings jutted out of the already bleak looking sky scrappers¡ªor ceiling scrappers, she supposed¡ªand while there was the occasional plant and water feature, they appeared half-dead, the water an uninviting murky grey.

    ¡°You jumped to that building!?¡± Emilia hissed at Conrad, who had rearranged her so she was slung over one of his shoulders. She wanted to argue she could travel down the thin, ominous looking path herself, but she didn¡¯t think anyone would believe her.

    Conrad had briefly set her down, after they had awkwardly realized the Enclave his family had associated themselves with may have taken Tobias¡ªToby¡ªto the library city in order to create a blood weapon. Although she hadn¡¯t felt one being created¡ªnot the way she had felt the blood gathering during the stampede in Livery, anyways¡ªthey couldn¡¯t rule out the possibility there was now a weapon of mass destruction out in the world, and Boundary had sent off an emergency message to someone. A short while later, they had confirmed that whatever blood had been left behind following the library''s destruction was no longer there.

    There had been no official record of its cleanup, and the overseer of the area was now wanted for questioning¡ªit was unclear where they were, and some sort of manhunt was now on for them. Not that the manhunt was likely to result in much, what with how overextended the Risen Guard currently was.

    While the men had discussed the issue, Conrad somewhat reluctantly giving Boundary and Carne information about his family so they could feed the information back to other people, she had returned to her messages with Honey. Harmony was apparently being questioned, but was refusing to answer any questions. Emilia had joked about Conrad going to question her, and, well¡­ She¡¯d gotten a bit distracted, okay!? One moment she was chatting with Honey about the ethics of using whatever Conrad¡¯s ability was on people, the next she was stepping wrong and falling onto her ass, sliding several steps before she almost took Boundary down.

    So yeah, no one was letting her walk down these steps herself, and she contented herself to being carried like a sack. It wasn¡¯t exactly comfortable, Conrad¡¯s bony shoulder digging into her stomach, and staring down at the ground far below them¡­ watching gravel from the path fall away as the men walked¡­

    Uh¡­ yeah. Emilia had never practically had any fear of heights, but she¡¯d also never worried much about dying from falling. Maybe a little when she was younger, before sparking had become a thing, but now? Even with her knots currently¡ªor at least recently¡ªfucked as could be, she could always still spark away and land¡ªmore or less¡ªsafely on the ground.

    If they fell now? If Conrad tripped or an attack came from someone standing guard below¡ªnot that her or anyone else¡¯s maps indicated anyone was standing guard¡ªor the path suddenly broke away from the wall?

    Well, she and Conrad would just pop back into their bodies, but unless they could teleport while falling, Boundary would die, no one would save any of the kids, and who knew what would happen to the other kids Carne had taken.

    ¡°I need to stop looking at the ground and contemplating death,¡± she muttered, letting her eyes close.

    Conrad laughed, but said nothing. Maybe he sent her a message, but while Boundary had told her the Risen Guard system would alert her if she got a message while her eyes were closed, the system interface hidden in the darkness, she¡¯d never felt it, and she¡¯d definitely gotten messages from Honey while resting or asleep.

    Instead, the men continued on, and when Boundary said he was going to transport them to a nearby roof instead of Conrad¡¯s original, horrifying jumping method, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then screamed as she was unceremoniously hauled out of Conrad¡¯s arms by Boundary before they landed on the roof.

    ¡°A warning would have been nice,¡± she sighed as he put her down and vanished to get the others. She looked around, contemplating the area and¡ª

    Wait.

    ¡°Hey, how did you and the kids get out of here?¡± she asked when Boundary dropped Conrad beside her a moment later, Carne having popped up alone a second earlier. Apparently the quiet, kinda-cult leader was above moving visitors.

    Conrad¡¯s smile stretched across his face, her stomach fluttering nervously at the inhuman gesture. ?You don¡¯t wanna know,? he said and yeah, actually, she didn¡¯t think she did.

    Something told her she¡¯d be tempted to try pushing the man off the building, if she found out what sort of nonsense he had done to get the kids out of this place. As it was, the path they had travelled was barely visible, and it didn¡¯t surprise her none of the Clarity members knew it existed¡ªor if they did, that they didn¡¯t see it as something worth watching.

    Maybe that lack of security wasn¡¯t weird. Clarity obviously had spies inside the Risen Guard, and were actively¡ªif secretly¡ªcollaborating with the Enclave. Normal people didn¡¯t wander around the streets of the city system either, so why would they waste resources monitoring a secret entrance that was difficult to access? Didn¡¯t really explain why they weren¡¯t watching it now, though. They should definitely have been watching it now, what with all the visitors wandering around.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°So¡­ which way now? When are our stories supposed to stop overlapping?¡± Emilia asked, her energy reaching out, searching for something in the universe she could read for herself.

    Carne still didn¡¯t look at her as she did so, Boundary translating her words for him. He did look at the places her energy was touching the world, however. It felt strange, to be practicing something she knew so little about in front of someone who was a master at it. All she could do was practice, though, even if she couldn¡¯t really read anything. She could feel marks and scars across the aethernet, sure, but it meant nothing to her. Stars, it didn¡¯t even feel like it should mean something to her, and she¡¯d seen and heard tons of different languages through her life. If there were words¡ªa story¡ªhidden in the sensations her energy brought back for her, she didn¡¯t see it.

    ?Not yet,? Carne said, his own energy bubbling before he turned, leading them¡­ somewhere. Emilia had kinda given up on wondering where the guy was going and what he was thinking.

    ¡°Does he seem¡­ different, than when I met him before?¡± she asked Boundary, her voice soft despite Carne¡¯s inability to hear her. They were still gossiping about him, and it felt right to keep their voices down.

    Boundary¡¯s jaw tightened, his generally severe expression becoming all the more intense. ?He is¡­ more himself,? he finally said, swallowing in his unease. ?I believe I told you that the more powerful a Risen Guard becomes, the more they lose themselves??

    ¡°Technically, I think you said the more gifts they receive?¡± She could be wrong about that. It had only been a few days since that conversation, when they¡¯d wandered the Risen Guard compound with Astra and little now-Emile. It felt like a lifetime ago.

    The Risen Guard nodded, telling her¡ªand Conrad¡ªthat generally power was connected to the number of gifts. ?Not always. Each gift is ranked, from most to least powerful. The ability to hear visitors is not powerful, for instance. It is often the first gift trainees receive, each travelling to a specific labyrinth that nearly always bestows that particular gift. The trainees who leave that labyrinth will not even feel the tug of the heartcore¡¯s manipulations on their minds, due to how weak the power¡ªand therefore the pull¡ªis.?

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that nearly always didn¡¯t apply to Carne? That¡¯s why he can¡¯t hear me?¡±

    ?Yes,? Boundary agreed, his eyes glued to his former-something¡¯s back. ?He was gifted an exceptionally powerful ability to read the universe instead. Normally, he¡­ would have been killed. From the moment he received it, he was too dangerous. The personality created by the heartcore is almost always in control of him.?

    ¡°How much is your heartcore personality in control?¡± Emilia asked, curious. She¡¯d only seen that personality once, when Boundary had tracked her to the Stringers. Since then, he¡¯d been normal, but he had warned her his alternate personality could pop out at nearly any moment. ¡°Actually, does something in particular trigger that personality? For the Clarity members, it seemed to just sorta¡­ overcome them? It was like certain situations triggered it, and it needed to come out? Like, when we all met to discuss their stupid Infiltrate the Ingogia Estate plan. If someone seemed to be questioning Ajarni¡¯s plan or words, BOOM! Heartcore personality took over, then, eventually, it would bleed away, and they¡¯d be themself again. Rin was a bit the same? The few times I saw what, I think, was her altered personality, it was when she was defending the Risen Guard. It would defend you guys and your beliefs, then slip away.¡±

    Boundary nodded as they moved, heading down a set of stairs that must have been the outer stairs she¡¯d run into Conrad on, during his first break and enter. Well, maybe not the exact same staircase. She assumed each of the four buildings had at least a few, for emergencies, and she wasn¡¯t even sure this was the same building.

    ?Generally, our heartcore personalities appear when necessary to defend the Risen Guard. The Enclave¡¯s slowly form around their waking mind, overtaking more of their host¡¯s personality as they grow in strength. From what I know of Clarity, their personalities come out when a hive mind is needed. Given your experience, I would guess it also rises when its host¡¯s personality is threatening the harmony of the group.?

    [Conrad: Neither of the others are hive minds?]

    Boundary contemplated Conrad¡¯s question, while Emilia contemplated that the two could message each other directly, rather than going through her as translator. Stupid men. Yes, they had fought¡­ several times, but still! She did not appreciate being treated this way! It reminded her way too much of that dinner fiasco with Olivier and her ex, and at least in that case, she¡¯d been getting sex, smiles and food!

    ?I do not believe so. For the Enclave, even within specific families, we know there have been fractures. They are very secretive, but our best guess is their personalities become more¡­ intense in their beliefs as they grow more powerful. The original belief was there, within their original personality, but not so intensely. The power of the heartcores augment, but do not shift, their views.?

    ¡°And that causes problems, when different people have different beliefs with the same insane intensity.¡±

    ?Indeed. For us¡­? Boundary hesitated, looking unsure of how much to tell them, although it seemed strange to tell them so much, so close to them leaving this world, only to then worry about it. The man¡¯s eyes flicked between her and Conrad before returning to Carne¡¯s back. ?Our personality is a single entity, given access to this world through our power.?

    ¡°Oh.¡± Emilia wasn¡¯t sure what to say to that. Not a hive mind, but a single, dominate one. ¡°Can it exist within several people at once?¡± she asked, unsure what else to ask.

    Boundary nodded, telling them that it could, but as a whole, the Risen Guard limited their individual power, so it had less access to the world. As a result, multiple iterations were uncommon. ?Its interests do not always align with our own. Hence, once a Risen Guard begins to shift too often, they are put down.?

    [Conrad: Cold.]

    [Conrad: That what this guy is? Someone who should have been put down because their personality is this thing even you guys fear?]

    Emilia¡¯s eyes locked onto Carne¡¯s back, contemplated how much they seemed to be a broken child at the moment. Ash. If this wasn¡¯t the Carne who was being controlled by the entity Boundary spoke of¡ªor another, similar entity¡ªthis must be Ash, or what was left of them. Living as that thing for so long had probably affected them, muted their personality. They also clearly believed what they were doing was right¡ªor perhaps knew fighting it was no use. Perhaps they were even going along with its wishes, hoping to wheedle out a few more moments of existing before it took over again.

    ¡°Is he being controlled by the same thing that takes you and the other Risen Guard over?¡± she asked quietly, glancing up at Boundary and finding him glowering at Carne¡¯s back.

    After a long, painfully silent moment, he shrugged. ?We do not know. Either it is, or it isn¡¯t. All we know is the last time something that powerful was allowed to exist in this world, it almost destroyed it.?

    ¡°But you can¡¯t kill Carne,¡± Emilia noted. Even without Boundary confirmation that the Risen Guard were unable to kill Carne, she knew it was true. He was a monster, guided by the aether in everything he did. If the universe didn¡¯t want him to die, he wouldn¡¯t. It was probably why the Risen Guard had been unable to kill Ash, why they would continue being unable to kill the thing Gale¡¯s sibling had become.

    She also knew that the you of Boundary wouldn¡¯t be able to kill Carne either, even if he had the opportunity. Something told her there was too much baggage there. Friendship and perhaps broken hearts. The man might be happy with a husband and new child, but that didn¡¯t matter. Some part of him belonged to the person in front of them, and as much as he had told her that she and Conrad were right to kill the things the Clarity members and Ingogia family had become under the oppressive power of the heartcores, he wouldn¡¯t be able to follow his own advice.

    Boundary wouldn¡¯t be able to kill Carne. It was sweet. It was sad. It was also potentially dangerous.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 162: Nowâ€¦ Where Is the Staircase?

    <blockquote>

    See here, this mystery of the universe. It exists. They exist. They twist and turn in this world around us. We have not gods, and yet we know of their existence, cruel and winding. Fear them, for they have not but the evilest of designs on this world of ours.

    Fear them, and strike them down where they stand, whenever the opportunity is presented to you.

    Remember these words¡ªremember that behind the evil of those who trod upon this world lie the kindest of beings, unseen but for the briefest of moments.

    A touch of time, a touch of knowledge: that is what these benevolent spirits, who dare not touch our world with more than the lightest of hands, offer to us.

    Do not fear their power. Do not feat the opportunities they afford you.

    Seize their gifts, fearless and strong, lest the world be torn asunder by your hesitation.

    ¡ª from the Record of Salset, last known copy lost during the destruction of the Salsetrun Library, during the XXth visitation

    </blockquote>

    ? ? ?

    ?There are others at work here.?

    Emilia wanted to glare at Carne¡ªAsh? Fuck, did it even matter at this point!? ¡°Shut up!¡± she yelled instead, and even though she knew he couldn¡¯t hear her, she still felt a little better for it.

    ?You are exceptionally bad with magic,? he continued, and Emilia was going to strangle him. The fact that she and Carne were unable to communicate because, despite their abrupt separation from Conrad and Boundary, the other visitor¡¯s aethervoice suppression was still going strong would have been funny if not for the Clarity members lobbing magic at them.

    Mostly, they were just annoying. Between her core defences, Carne¡¯s ability to move through the world avoiding attacks and the occasional explosion of her {Blood Ball}¡ªand seriously, why had the thing knocked out Phlostra¡¯s aethervoice suppression but not Conrad¡¯s?¡ªthey weren¡¯t in much danger. Still, having piping hot fire magic thrown at her was not fun.

    Carne bolted to the right, slipping between two buildings. He was only out of Emilia¡¯s sight for a moment, her own thoughts focused on blowing up the assholes who had attacked them in the middle of their descent and forced them into two groups. A {Blood Needle} shot out of her hand, seeking out the one person who wasn¡¯t currently overwhelmed with the hive mind. It landed squarely in their chest, but the others were already teleporting away¡ªthey¡¯d seen her use her {Blood Needles} already, and the whole hive mind thing was allowing them to pass on information to each other. Annoying, and while she still had other weapons and fighting styles they hadn¡¯t seen, she was quickly going to run out of new ideas.

    She rounded the corner, and where did Carne go?

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± she breathed out, cursing the fact that she couldn¡¯t even scream his name¡ªnot for anything but herself, anyways.

    [Emilia: i lost carne]

    [Boundary: How did you lose him?]

    [Emilia: well, technically, he ditched me]

    [Emilia: which is totally rude!]

    [Emilia: i was defending us, and he rounded and corner and vanished!]

    Boundary sent back a query¡ªin the group chat he¡¯d finally deigned to set up for himself, Emilia and Conrad¡ªas to where she¡¯d ended up, their groups having been forced into different city levels. He and Conrad were still together, rather begrudgingly, but Emilia had promised that if either of them ditched the other she¡¯d kill both of them. It probably wasn¡¯t the most terrifying of threats¡ªBoundary had a family, so she wouldn¡¯t actually kill him, and Conrad couldn¡¯t actually die¡ªbut the men had stuck together nonetheless.

    Their magic was palpable even through the layers of material that separated them, their energy vibrating under Emilia¡¯s feet as they fought. She wasn¡¯t sure why most of their attackers had chased after the two men, but she could guess it was either because Boundary was clearly a Risen Guard or because Conrad had brutally questioned a few people in their hive mind state, and it was pissed.

    Probably a bit of both.

    Convenient for her, though, as her own pursers were few, and after they ran off, unwilling to be blown up and used as fodder for another blood weapon, they didn¡¯t return. A few moments later, she received a message from Conrad telling her more people had shown up, and while they could be other people, Emilia was inclined to believe they were her missing attackers.

    [Emilia: sorry, might be the dudes who were chasing me]

    [Emilia: good luck!]

    Conrad sent back a halfhearted complaint about how she was leaving them with the heavy lifting, but she could tell he was enjoying himself. Usually, the man didn¡¯t have permission to go crazy in a raid, rules from his brother hanging over him. These people were dangerous, their minds increasingly possessed by a monster that was willing to do whatever Ajarni¡ªor perhaps the Enclave? It wasn¡¯t exactly clear who controlled the hive mind¡ªordered it to.

    The fact that she recognized a few people from the mission, knew that they must have learned the truth about Ajarni¡¯s position with the Enclave, and yet were still going along with him¡­ or perhaps had been so profoundly overtaken by the hive mind that they couldn¡¯t resist¡­

    Yeah, Conrad could go to town, killing all the Clarity members he found. They were dangerous, at least the adults who had gone through the labyrinths so many times were. Emilia didn¡¯t want to consider the children or the adults, who were just living their normal lives in these city levels because circumstances had led them here. Something for the Risen Guard to deal with, perhaps. They had experience with these things, and would hopefully have some sort of solution that didn¡¯t simply involve destroying the entire Clarity City System and killing every person who had ever set foot inside it.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    That said, they had all agreed before they had been ambushed that if they had to, they would kill anyone who got in their way. Rescuing the kids was a priority, but even more so was killing Ajarni and the other leaders of Clarity, not to mention any Enclave members who were complicit with their manipulations. Anyone who could restart the group and its mission needed to go. As much as some Enclave families wanted what was best for the world, their potential to become so militant in their beliefs while having access to a hive mind army ready to follow them was terrifying.

    No one needed that amount of power, and they were all smart enough to realize that that power needed to be snuffed out, before it could fester into something even worse.

    Emilia swerved in and out of the city level¡¯s streets. This level was oddly empty, yet there were clear signs of recent use. Presumably, the ambush had been planned for this level and the one where the men were fighting below her, the residents evacuated to other levels.

    Occasionally, a person would light up on her map, but they would quickly vanish. Someone teleporting in and realizing something was wrong, she assumed. Convenient that no one was around, but it also meant there was no one for her to question¡ªalthough Conrad would have been much better at that than her. Carne was gone as well, vanished off her map after his rude ass remark about her inability to use magic.

    Asshole. Of course, one of the few things he¡¯d ever said to her would end up being about her pathetic magic abilities.

    ¡°Okay. Okay. Where to go?¡± Emilia muttered to herself as she pulled to a stop. No one was coming for her at the moment, and she needed to not waste that opportunity.

    Her map was a mess of grey buildings and roads, without any discernible staircases. Even the one they had exited out of wasn¡¯t marked, and with her shit sense of direction, there was no way she was finding her way back to it. So, what to do.

    Sighing, she bolted towards the nearest wall. Hopefully, if she kept an eye out, she¡¯d find a stairwell entrance¡ªalthough who knew how many there were or how hidden they were. That had been a thing in her world, before the war, to hide emergency exits until they were needed. In theory, an emergency would trigger mechanisms that opened them¡ªin theory.

    In practice, too many people had died during the war because those mechanisms had failed to activate. There was just too much they were watching for. Fires, skills, attacks from criminals, bombs and toxic chemicals. The war had often featured all of those things and more simultaneously, and the systems had often been overwhelmed¡ªor just straight up destroyed by the skills burning through the aethernet.

    A lot of people had died.

    These buildings could be like that. Stars knew she hadn¡¯t exactly been looking, but she¡¯d certainly never seen any emergency exits. The closest was the exit they¡¯d used to escape the building they¡¯d been held in at the Risen Guard compound, but that had seemed more an external access ramp than anything, and attached to a building, and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts stilled as two red dots appeared on her map, just outside the bounds of the city level. Bingo.

    [Emilia: hey, are you guys in a stairwell again?]

    [Boundary: What? No? Why?]

    [Emilia: oh, there are a few dots on my map]

    [Emilia: they seem to be in a stairwell]

    [Emilia: wanted to know if i¡¯d be meeting up with you or someone else]

    [Emilia: gotta be prepared!]

    [Boundary: What? Why would you go meet them?]

    [Boundary: They could be the enemy!?]

    [Conrad: I assume they are. Who else could they be? Unless only two of the others escaped.]

    Well, it could be that. Emilia wouldn¡¯t put it past V and Astra to separate from Caro and Gale, sending the locals off in search of safety while they fought. That would be nice, no matter which group she met up with, and her steps sped up as she raced to meet whoever it was. Still, she wasn¡¯t stupid, and was already pulling out another {Blood Needle} by the time the wall that likely hid a staircase came into view.

    [Emilia: well, i guess we¡¯ll find out soon]

    [Emilia: and, i¡¯m following them because i can¡¯t find a staircase]

    [Emilia: are they hidden in the walls?]

    Emilia pressed her hands to the wall as she crashed into it. It was composed of the same metal looking, but oddly textured material that the other city levels were made of, and she grumbled in frustration that she could see people behind the wall but had no idea how to open it.

    [Conrad: It¡¯s probably like the exit I was going to lead you to when I grabbed you from the Risen Guard.]

    [Conrad: You have to use your energy to trigger a locking mechanism inside the door.]

    There was a moment of silence as Emilia cursed and tried to reach her energy into the door, finding nothing but blackness, not even the seemingly unmoving dots¡ªwell, not completely unmoving. They actually seemed to be moving in circles, and after a moment of glaring at them¡ªand then Conrad¡¯s follow-up message that said he wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d be able to find the mechanism from the outside, as it might not be directly inside the staircase access¡ªshe realized the dots were going around and around as they moved up or down the stairwell.

    Well, at least she was in the right place, even if it wasn¡¯t going to be any use at the moment. For all she knew, the kids were inside, running for their lives. They¡¯d get to the roof and find nothing; no way to reach the cave that would lead them out of this place. They¡¯d reach the lower levels and be killed by the first Clarity members they came across¡ªor, perhaps worse, be taken hostage to use as leverage against her and the others and¡ª

    Emilia let her mind melt away into the panic and anger and frustration vibrating through her, images of the staircase flashing through her mind, of the mechanism popping open, her energy reaching out with perfect precision towards it. More images floated through her head when that did nothing. This world¡¯s magic was imagination, and she¡¯d always had a good one, even if it took the form of words and skills. If this were her world¡ªif she needed a spur of the moment skill to blast a hole in a wall¡ªwhat would she do? What would she make?

    {Hidey Hole}, obviously. She¡¯d already done this one¡ªforced the aether to create holes for her easy movement as a naughty teenager. A hole, straight through the aether, molecules and essence reforming around her will.

    Suddenly, she was a teenager again, activating the skill for the first time and hoping she didn¡¯t blow up the house¡ªhoping that the damage she inflicted on both her bedroom wall and the aethernet would seal up behind her as she crawled through the dark.

    She had been so excited when it worked, shared it with all her friends so they could sneak out and party night after night. Simeon had made the skill a bit better, a bit more specific in his glorious, obsessive way. A perfect hole for people to slip away with.

    A perfect hole to go meet friends and enemies alike.

    Emilia blinked, the formerly flawless wall suddenly sporting a hole just big enough for her to crawl through. On her map, the dots continued their circles, and she had no idea how far from the hole¡ªfrom her¡ªthey were. A single flight of stairs. A dozen.

    Either way, she didn¡¯t have time to waste, and Emilia slipped into the hole, silently praying that whatever magic she¡¯d done wouldn¡¯t suddenly collapse and kill her in a crush of not-metal. Hopefully, it hadn¡¯t altered the integrity of the entire building, either. It would kinda suck to be responsible for accidentally collapsing the entire building.

    Popping out the other side, she looked around and listened. Closer than she would have liked, was the sound of feet, tumbling over each other as they descended the stairs. Interesting. While she had considered that whoever it was might be descending, she¡¯d thought it more likely to be someone ascending¡ªthere were only a few city levels above this one, all of which had appeared empty during their own descent, likely evacuated as well.

    So, who in the world was coming down, from the secret entrance, most likely?

    Emilia slid to as good a position as any, preparing to attack if whoever appeared was her enemy. The problem was, when the pair did appear, she actually had no idea if they were her friends or her enemies.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 163: Nice to See You Again

    ?Emilia!? Key yelped, sounding half-surprised, half-enthused to see her again, and Emilia relaxed. The local boy had always been an open book with his emotions, even if they were sometimes confusing¡ªsee: his fast changing feelings about V. If Key seemed happy to see her, he probably was.

    ¡°Key. Rin,¡± she replied, giving the pair a tentative smile as she slid her {Blood Needle} back into the holder across her upper thighs.

    Rin¡¯s eyes followed the movement, her expression as blankly inscrutable as ever. ?So, you are here,? she noted, her eyes shifting to the pseudo-{Hidey Hole}. ?You have learned to use magic? Or is there another with you??

    ¡°Uh¡­ yeah, I did make that, but seriously! I suck at magic. Don¡¯t trust me to be able to do that again. There are a few people with me, not here though¡ª Well, the one asshole ran off, and I don¡¯t actually know where he went, but he¡¯s gone from my map and¡ª¡± Emilia cut off as both of her former-allies tensed. ¡°What? Wait, can you hear me now?¡± she asked, blinking at Key.

    The local boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his head while Rin glowered at his back, a rare emotion that meant she must be really, really pissed at him.

    ?Yes,? she said darkly. ?He snuck into a labyrinth to gain the ability to hear locals when he was supposed to be grounded.?

    Emilia had never actually asked how old the Stringer siblings, Rin and Sk¡¯lar were, but she had assumed the former three were in their early to mid-20s. The idea that Key was still being grounded was¡­ amusing. In her own world, 20-year-olds might find themselves grounded, but that was because they were still technically under their parents or guardian¡¯s care. From what she could tell, that wasn¡¯t the case here. If anything, based on the vague details she knew about the normal age children were sent off for training in one profession or another, they actually seemed to be considered almost adults by the time they were in their mid-teens¡ªa terrifying thought, were it to be applied to the teenagers of her own world.

    ¡°Did you just luck out?¡± she couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Or did you go to the first one the Risen Guard go to? I heard it usually gives the ability to hear visitors as its gift.¡±

    Key shifted nervously, his cheeks turning an adorable shade of pink as he told her he¡¯d heard about the Risen Guard labyrinth from his sister. Behind him, Rin rolled her eyes, muttering about siblings and secrets.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think she should be saying such things, given she¡¯d clearly known more about the Enclave than she should have, thanks to Harmony¡¯s gossip. She was about to ask about that¡ªabout why they¡¯d ditched Harmony and Sk¡¯lar¡ªwhen Rin turned the conversation back to her.

    Specifically, back to her having a map.

    ?Did you gain system access?? the Risen Guard trainee¡ªor, perhaps former trainee¡ªasked, her aethervoice a forced neutral that Emilia didn¡¯t buy for a second.

    So that was it.

    ¡°A friend in the Risen Guard gave me access to their system. I didn¡¯t kill anyone with the method the Ingogia family devised. That¡¯s what you¡¯re really asking, right?¡± Emilia tried to keep her own tone neutral, but she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d done a practically good job of it. She wasn¡¯t mad at Rin for not-quite asking, not really. Here she was, wandering around one of the few places where details of the sacrificial ritual were likely to be freely available, with system access. What else were they to assume?

    ¡°That you aren¡¯t the sort of person who would sacrifice someone for a game and a prize,¡± a part of her whispered. In the end, she hadn¡¯t spent that long with the Stringers, but it kinda felt like they should have known her better than that. Hadn¡¯t she come back for the two of them, when they¡¯d been kidnapped in the labyrinth? Hadn¡¯t she and V refused to fight Harmony and Sk¡¯lar, even though they had clearly threatened them?

    Even if she herself had briefly wondered if Rin had abandoned her, back in the Library Labyrinth, she had still cried over the world they believed existed, under the corruption of the Risen Guard. There was nothing she¡¯d ever done that suggested she viewed the people of this world as disposable.

    She blinked away, refusing to cry because people she¡¯d thought were her friends, however fleeting that friendship had been, apparently thought her capable of something so terrible.

    Her view of the stairwell wall was interrupted when a message request from Rin popped up across her vision. Vaguely, she wondered if Rin had always had the option to message her¡ªher name had popped up for Honey, after all. It had probably popped up for Rin as well, but chances were the girl had been avoiding looking at her messages, word having inevitably spread about her betrayal of the Risen Guard and oh, shoot.

    [Emilia: hey, so¡­ two of the stringers showed up]

    [Emilia: key and the girl who is¡ªor was?¡ªa risen guard trainee]

    [Boundary: Why are you telling me?]

    [Conrad: Are those the two Honey said were missing?]

    [Emilia: yes]

    [Emilia: and because i don¡¯t want you attacking them or anything]

    [Boundary: Why are they here?]

    [Emilia: ¡­uh¡­ I didn¡¯t actually ask yet]

    [Emilia: mostly, we just said hi]

    [Emilia: and they not-quite accused me of using the ritual sacrifice to gain system access]

    [Emilia: i assured them i¡¯m just friends with you and you gave me access!]This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Emilia waited a moment, staring at Rin¡¯s message of ?Sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to accuse you of something so terrible.? Finally, a long moment¡ªand a huge blast of magic below them that startled both Rin and Key¡ªlater, Boundary replied that he wouldn¡¯t attack them, but he could make no promises for his other half, obviously.

    Turning back to look at her former-allies, Emilia smiled. ¡°I know.¡± A part of her wanted to say she understood, that she would have assumed the worst were their roles reversed, except she hadn¡¯t. Yes, when the pair had shown up, she wasn¡¯t sure whether they would be as allies or enemies¡ªstill wasn¡¯t completely¡ªbut that was simply because they might not have the same goals. It had never occurred to her that they could be on different sides because their views and morals would be so far removed from her own.

    If either of them said they agreed that Clarity¡¯s hive mind army of broken vessels was a good thing, she would have thought herself dreaming.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she said instead, turning and beginning to make her way down the stairs¡ªthey¡¯d already lingered there long enough¡ª¡°what brings the two of you here?¡±

    ?You,? Key replied easily, hurrying to catch up and walk beside her. ?We heard you were part of the disaster at the Ingogia estate. I didn¡¯t¡ª I mean¡ª? The boy dragged a frustrated hand through his hair, trying to find his words.

    Emilia waited. It was a long walk to even the bottom of the next city level, and who knew how far they¡¯d have to go before they ran into someone who might know if V and the kids had ended up back here. She rather hoped they hadn¡¯t. Hopefully, they had all found each other and V was currently figuring out a place to put them. Stars above, even taking the kids to the Risen Guard would be safer than nearly anywhere else at the moment.

    Still, she knew V felt bad about the homeless kids ending up here, and Astra was bound to come searching for her¡ªnot that she¡¯d know where to look for her. Maybe she¡¯d just stick with V? But then, Gale and Caro would potentially be alone and¡ª

    And Emilia had never really appreciated just how convenient the ability to message anyone, anytime, was. While none of them used it much these days, every member of their unit had ways of tracking each other down. Seven had disabled his, of course, and she¡¯d mostly just hoped people would respect her want of privacy and time to heal¡ªwhich aside from a visit, and effective kidnapping, by Helix the year she had accidentally ranked in the season¡¯s top heroes¡ªeveryone had.

    Not having the ability to reach the people she worried and cared for, even in an emergency, was frustrating. Out of all the things in this world that had sucked, that strange flavour of isolation was definitely her least favourite.

    ?I didn¡¯t think you would want to be part of that. I asked around, and learned that Clarity was forcing people,? Key continued, sounding extremely uncomfortable, although Emilia had no idea why until a moment later when Rin clarified that he¡¯d had Sk¡¯lar force information out of the people.

    ¡°So¡­ not so much asking as demanding and torturing?¡± Emilia guessed. Hopefully, the people they¡¯d asked had deserved whatever that creepy ass man had done to them. If they¡¯d known enough about what Clarity and the Ingogia family were doing to know about the forcing part, however, she wasn¡¯t going to feel too bad for them. ¡°For me?¡±

    ?I was worried!? Key said, and when Emilia looked over at him, he looked¡­ intense. ?I brought you into this¡ª?

    ?Technically, the fact that she joined this raid¡ªvisitation¡ªis what got her into this,? Rin retorted, Key shooting her an unimpressed glare.

    ?Sure, but if I hadn¡¯t grabbed her, who knows what would have happened.?

    ¡°Probably¡­ nothing?¡± Emilia thought back to the night they¡¯d met. Chances were, she¡¯d still have wandered into that cavern party, but what then? Boundary would have tracked her down. Maybe his alternate personality still would have been in control and killed her, maybe not. They¡¯d have wandered around. She¡¯d have continued sneaking off. Either she would have run into some other Enclave member¡ªor worse, someone from Clarity¡ªand things would have happened differently.

    She wouldn¡¯t have met V, Conrad, the kids. Maybe she never would have ended up here, dealing with Clarity.

    Maybe, there wouldn¡¯t be anyone here, trying to stop Ajarni and the hive mind.

    Emilia smiled, thinking of that¡ªabout how if she and Key hadn¡¯t literally run into one another, if he had let his sister or grandmother talk him out of helping her, Clarity may very well be about to turn their hive mind army against the city system, and no one would have any idea how bad it really was. ¡°I suppose,¡± she laughed, after telling Key and Rin her theory on how Key was really the one responsible for their group trying to stop Clarity, using the opportunity to mention that Boundary and Conrad were also part of the group¡ªCarne could go fuck himself¡ª¡°in a way, if we manage to stop them, you¡¯ll have saved the world.¡±

    Rin looked unconvinced, muttering about how the universe would have guided someone else there, surely, while Key stared at her, wild eyed. He looked about ready to say something, the energy around him vibrating with words, when the building shook¡ªanother huge attack from the men fighting behind the wall next to them.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for some people,¡± she said, hastening her steps, lest the men blast a hole straight through the city level¡¯s wall and fry them. ¡°V and some kids who were travelling with me. Someone who was on that terrible mission to the Ingogia estate might know where they ended up. Name¡¯s Fran. She wasn¡¯t among the dead¡ªnot that we know of, anyways. I want to find them, but¡­ but they aren¡¯t the priority for us¡±¡ªshe motioned in the general direction of where Boundary and Conrad were fighting. ¡°We know getting rid of Clarity is more important than all the lives in this building¡ªin Clarity¡¯s entire city system.¡±

    ?I agree.? Rin¡¯s response was so immediate, Emilia froze where she¡¯d been about to step onto the city level¡¯s landing¡ªnot that she was about to try opening the door and risk whatever was happening on the other side reaching them. ?My access to the Risen Guard system was suspended, after what happened the night we met. It was returned after word about the Enclave and Clarity cooperating got out. I have been receiving updates on their information regarding the group for a while. They need to be destroyed, regardless of the cost.?

    Boundary had been giving the necessary details to various members of the Risen Guard while they walked and discussed the issue. It wasn¡¯t just their decision that Clarity¡¯s destruction was the priority, but the entire institution¡¯s. Previously, Clarity had been something of a wildcard. The Risen Guard had known it existed, but knew little about it. If anything, what they knew about it implied its members didn¡¯t agree with the Enclave¡¯s overall, positive opinion of visitors and their blessings, and they¡¯d largely ignored them in favour of seeking out whatever Enclave families they could.

    Now? Knowing what they did about Clarity and its potential power? Yeah, the Risen Guard brass was panicking, especially since no one had any idea how many of the people within the Clarity City System were actually infected by the hive mind.

    The fact that they had returned Rin¡¯s system access to her was a bit surprising, but then again, maybe not, if the system worked anything like Censors. Emilia knew from experience locking soldiers who had behaved badly out of military intel, that there was an option in the controls to return access to specific people or everyone. They had returned access to everyone once, following Alliance Ridge. The damage and death had been too much, and they had needed everyone available to know and help out where needed¡ªthe deaths of so many of the Alliance¡¯s most powerful soldiers had left too many holes in their defences. It had returned access to a few people who definitely shouldn¡¯t have been given access again, but that was a price they were willing to pay for speed.

    Perhaps this was like that: every former or suspended Risen Guard returned access, due to the severity of the situation.

    That was good¡ªEmilia just left it to Rin to forward what information Key needed along to him while they descended the stairs¡ªbut also bad: if she was right, who knew who else had been returned access when they really shouldn¡¯t have been.

    People like Carne.

    People like the Clarity members, who had long since abandoned the Risen Guard.

    People who could now use what information the Risen Guard was spreading to hurt them in return.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 164: Only Bad Options

    Once, we were pure. Clean and untouched by the forces without.

    Once, we were one, not driven apart by the evil that lingers, dragging rotting fingers over our souls and minds, forcing their will upon ours in return for power we need for nothing but the wars they start.

    Once, we were, and once more, shall we be. Although the time will avoid our touch, guided by this world¡¯s unseeing gods, one will come, two, three, four, five. Once five arrive, from this world and without, from the without that extends its fingers here from the world above. Together, the end will come.

    Together, the world will unite once more, the true evil that even the gods fear snuffed out with life itself.

    ¡ª from The Manuscript of the Blessed, acquired during the Blessing of the Xth visitation

    ? ? ?

    ?So¡­ does anyone have a plan?? Key asked tentatively as they descended flight after flight of stairs, leaving the city level where Conrad and Boundary still fought far behind them.

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Emilia groaned, her head aching from supplying maps of the city levels they were passing to Boundary. Rin could have done it, but she was better at using the Risen Guard system overall, and had instead been given the glorious task of trying to figure out where they were going.

    The answer so far? No one had any idea.

    ¡°I really should have paid more attention when the kids were explaining how to read the universe,¡± she muttered, despite being pretty sure she had been listening. Her energy had even lingered over Sawyer¡¯s at times, and later Caro¡¯s, trying to see what they saw¡ªand she¡¯d even succeeded! The fact that she couldn¡¯t do it now by herself was aggravating.

    ?You could attempt to teach me?? Key offered as they reached the bottom of another city level, this one just as abandoned as the ones above had been. Probably the sensible thing to do, considering energy from the fight above was still reaching them.

    ?Key,? Rin said, a note of warning in her voice.

    ?What?? the boy asked, turning to frown at her, hands planted on his hips.

    Both he and Rin were wearing what Emilia could only describe as war attire. Rin¡¯s appeared to be a model of the Risen Guard¡¯s standard armour, and much like every other members¡¯, hers was largely black and red, although the magic gems built into the arms were unique to her specific brand of magic. Key had also acquired some magic gems, although far less, the blues and whites of them standing out against her red-black clothing.

    Honestly, Emilia still didn¡¯t understand the magic of this world. Some was imagination, some was magic gems¡ªbut you still needed imagination to activate those. Everyone had different magic¡ªdifferent specialties¡ªbut that didn¡¯t mean that was the only magic they could use or anything. Then there were heartcore gifts, and blood weapons¡ªnot to mention the other strange objects the blood curse created as well, many of which had abilities and triggers that she couldn¡¯t even guess at. All of which didn¡¯t even include whatever people had going on with their cores.

    A world where the main things were skills, cores and willbrands was much simpler than everything this world had going on¡ªeven if she knew most people couldn¡¯t hope to understand the specific details of creating new skills and core abilities¡ªand Emilia was looking forward to the normalcy of her own world.

    ¡°Maybe¡­ we try to get me system access,¡± Emilia finally suggested over the strange argument happening between Rin and Key over whether he should try learning to read the aether or not. From what she could tell, while both of them believed people could read the universe, it wasn¡¯t something either the Risen Guard or Enclave encouraged.

    Emilia was tempted to ask why, but that could wait until they¡¯d decided what to do.

    ?You want to sacrifice someone for system access?? Rin asked darkly, and wow, was she pissed.

    ¡°Yes, and no,¡± Emilia replied, explaining in broad strokes their theory about how the sacrifice part wasn¡¯t actually necessary. ¡°That said, I don¡¯t think the two of you alone will be enough to keep the hole open long enough. We¡¯ll need help.¡±

    Key blinked at her as his hand darted out to catch her¡ªshe¡¯d been about to miss a step and go sliding down the stairs. ?How many do you think we need??

    Emilia grimaced, telling him that according to what Conrad had forced out of the Ingogia family, they¡¯d need at least half a dozen¡ªmore, if their magic was on the weaker side.

    ?You want to trick some Clarity members,? Rin guessed. ?I doubt they will be willing to help us.?

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± Emilia agreed. ¡°They were pretty disinterested in me when they attacked. I think there¡¯s a chance they don¡¯t realize I¡¯m dangerous? Or don¡¯t realize I¡¯m acting against them? No one in the hive mind actually saw me betray anyone, and even when I attacked them above, I only did so when they attacked first. It might not work, but I think if I find someone I know and tell them I want system access, they¡¯ll agree.¡±

    ?But you might have to sacrifice someone,? Key noted uneasily.

    ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± she agreed, before arguing that she could insist they sacrifice a Clarity member. ¡°I¡¯d obviously try to convince them it try the ritual without a sacrifice first, and then be prepared for them to disagree and bring out some random person to sacrifice anyways, but it might be worth the risk. Most likely, if they do insist on a sacrifice, it¡¯ll be one of their own, though. That was their entire purpose for going to the Ingogia estate: to get a whole bunch of sacrifices to the Ingogia family without the, uh¡­ normal personalities of too many members realizing they were pawns. Jerrina attacking me over a man messed all that up.¡±

    Both Key and Rin gaped at her, Rin¡¯s eyes humorously large. Another fault of this world: she couldn¡¯t record Rin¡¯s expression with a picture, tucked away into her memory for later enjoyment!

    ?Someone¡­ what?? Key asked, and Emilia laughed¡ªhalf-amused, half still very much annoyed at the woman¡ªbefore explaining what had occurred with Fran and V, Jerrina¡¯s attempt to kill her and the Ingogia family using the chance to attack them, as well as the chaos that had resulted.

    ?They probably meant to lock you out of your system access before attacking you,? Rin suggested, her eyes staring into the middle distance. It took a moment for Emilia to realize she was likely relaying the information to other Risen Guard, as she hadn¡¯t actually told Boundary that ridiculous part of the story. ?We should be prepared for someone to try and block our system access as well. It is an uncommon ability, but it exists.?The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    They walked in silence for several long moments, letting Rin communicate what she needed to her peers¡ª former peers? It was unclear, and Emilia wasn¡¯t about to ask about her status with the Risen Guard at the moment.

    ?You¡¯re assuming the system you gain access to will even be helpful,? Rin finally said, dragging the conversation back to Emilia potentially gaining proper system access. The girl¡¯s expression was still tense and unimpressed. ?It could easily be of no help, especially if we end up in a situation where we all lose access anyways.?

    Emilia nodded. The local girl was right. This could be a terrible plan¡ªone that would result in nothing but someone dying and her gaining access to a useless system. ¡°Do you have a better idea? Personally, my only other idea is to kill a bunch of people and hope whatever blood weapon I gain is enough to destroy this entire city system.¡±

    That was their emergency plan: create a weapon of mass destruction and hope it would only take out this city system, leaving the world above untouched. There were a few weapons in the Risen Guard¡¯s store houses that could potentially take the entire area and everyone within it out, but they were locked down¡ªand when Boundary said locked down, he really meant it.

    There had been problems, after the last visitation, containing the most powerful blood weapons. Originally, the ones the Risen Guard came to hold were tucked away behind powerful arrays for safe keeping. Big surprise: they hadn¡¯t worked long. A rogue faction had stolen a number of them, and plenty of people had died in the destruction they enacted on the world.

    Even now, decades on, no one knew why they had done it. The most Boundary had suggested was they had been under the control of their alternate personalities. It was nothing more than a theory, of course, but the group had all been powerful Risen Guards, who had reached the upper limit of heartcore gifts¡ªa limit that had since been lowered in an attempt to keep those alternate personalities from gaining too much control.

    Since then, any blood weapons the Risen Guard found that were capable of so much damage had been stored inside a labyrinth, which was in turn guarded by people and arrays alike. People were only allowed in when they were taking blood weapons inside¡ªunfortunate, as this particular labyrinth forced everyone to touch the heartcore on their way out.

    The storage of these blood weapons was a specialty, within the Risen Guard¡¯s ranks, and the people chosen for it all came from highly respected families with long histories of service and retired after moving weapons inside several times.

    Since this method¡¯s inception, those specialists had lasted a few decades each¡ªthere weren¡¯t that many blood weapons capable of destroying entire buildings roaming the world anymore. At least, not until recently. Now, the Risen Guard was pulling people out of general training to quickly bring them into the fold of keeping those weapons contained. The {Blood Loop} that had been created during the stampede in Livery was one such weapon, and had been taken inside by a trainee, a distant relative of Boundary¡¯s, who Emilia had learned was from one of these old and powerful families.

    All that meant, was that while the Risen Guard was aware that Clarity needed to be destroyed, doing so with a blood weapon was difficult. Not only would someone have to risk their mental stability to get one, most had never been tested¡ªand out of all the blood weapons, the most powerful ones were well known for having limited uses. Even the ones that had been previously used, that they could say had done such-and-such, might turn out to be useless if used again.

    One option that had been thrown around as they descended into the cavern that held the Clarity City System, Boundary relaying what information he received to their group, was for someone to remove multiple weapons. This had been quickly shut down, the risk of being ambushed and losing the weapons to either Clarity or the Enclave¡ªor even another rogue Risen Guard¡ªtoo high.

    The last thing anyone wanted was to accidentally unleash more danger onto the world while trying to stop Clarity.

    In the end, it had been decided that, if given the chance, they should try to create a blood weapon from the lives within the Clarity City System itself¡ªsomething Emilia had begrudgingly agreed to, as they didn''t know how complicit most of the people living down here were. On the Risen Guard¡¯s part, they had begrudgingly agreed to contact the Enclave families who they knew held their own powerful weapons, Conrad even giving over the name of the Enclave family his own family had been associating themselves with, although there was no saying how they would react to being asked to help with all this. While Conrad couldn¡¯t say they had approved of Clarity and the Ingogia family''s plans, he was also pretty sure they hadn¡¯t actively disapproved either.

    ?They weren¡¯t a nice bunch,? he had snorted, when Boundary asked if he thought they would be willing to use the weapon they may have acquired in the library city¡ªSalsetrun, apparently¡ªto help destroy Clarity. ?Even if they agreed to help, I wouldn¡¯t trust them not to turn around and try claiming the hive mind for themselves.?

    Boundary had relayed this information to his superiors, and in the end, they had decided to ask for the family¡¯s assistance, but omit as much detail about what exactly was going on as they could. Everyone¡ªeven Carne¡ªhad tried to argue that was a terrible idea: the Haym family likely already knew at least some of what was happening, and only giving them half-truths was more likely to piss them off than anything.

    The Risen Guard brass would not be swayed, however, and some poor sap had been sent off to speak with the family. None of them had much faith in that person returning, let alone returning with good news.

    The most they could hope for on that front was that Conrad¡¯s name would hold a little sway, even if just with his family. Well, not Conrad¡¯s name. That alone had been one of the funniest things Emilia had seen in a while. Conrad had chosen the name only while dealing with her¡ªapparently most of his family used their real names while raiding. In other words, his family would have no idea who this Conrad dude was. As a result, Conrad had had to tell Boundary his real name, but he also hadn¡¯t wanted Emilia to learn it.

    A good ten minutes of their descent had been Boundary telling Conrad he was stupid while the man tried to figure out how to speak privately via aethervoice.

    ?We are wasting time,? Boundary had said, although they really hadn¡¯t been: Boundary could send Conrad¡¯s real name to the assigned Risen Guard via message at any point, and the poor guy hadn¡¯t reached the Haym estate at that point¡ªstill hadn¡¯t, as far as Emilia knew.

    ?I want to surprise Emilia with my real name, when we meet up in the real world,? Conrad had retorted, looking like he was a moment away from pouting.

    ?You¡¯re going to meet up with this man in your world?? Boundary had asked, skeptical of the sensibility of this plan.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t blame him for that¡ªshe too was a bit skeptical of their meeting up in the real world, even if it would potentially gain her an ally in her quest for answers about the cause of the war. Not that it had been a quest, before she entered this raid¡ªor, perhaps, before she ran into that echo. Actually, at the moment, aside from her quest to find the asshole, knotter distributor, she was more worried about the whole mind manipulation thing, and whether it would have long-lasting effects on heroes, once they returned to their daily lives¡ªnot to mention whether mind manipulation was popping up in other raids as well.

    That was probably the more pressing quest, and it would be helpful to have another person with experience¡ªextra experience, no less, given how much Conrad had dug into people¡¯s heads¡ªaround when she started contacting people about that.

    Contacting who? Well, there were a few people she had in mind. Unfortunately, going straight to the source and beating up the current head of Hail¡ªHalen¡¯s company¡ªwas probably not a reasonable course of action. Alas.

    Eventually, after more bickering between Conrad and Boundary, Emilia had pointed out they could actually message each other. Neither had been impressed with how long it had taken for her to remind them of that fact, as though it were her job to manage their interpersonal relationships and knowledge of their own fucking systems.

    So, there was a chance the Haym family would show up¡ªor worse, Conrad¡¯s family¡ªwith their weapon of mass destruction. Awesome. The way things were going, chances were they¡¯d just blow the entire city system up, them along with it.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t exactly keen on that. Hence: tricking Clarity into giving her system access, or just going around killing people and hoping a weapon of mass destruction would form for her.

    Both were terrible plans, and given the way Key and Rin were silent, entrenched in their own thoughts about these potential courses of action, they thought so as well.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 165: Coming For Her

    These mortals! They look upon us with fear in their eyes, hiding their hearts and minds from us as they like!

    They know not the power we offer, free from our existence into theirs!

    They know not the hunger of the undying.

    They know not that one day they will need our power, and the anger they have turned upon us, casting us out as one does an unwanted houseguest, will be their regret.

    We are not the enemy they should fear.

    There are forces far worse than us, lingering in the peripheries, awaiting a moment to strike¡ª

    Awaiting the human greed like the hungry animal it is.

    ¡ª Gjura, a homeless child playing on the streets of Livery, several weeks before the current visitation

    ? ? ?

    Several dozen city levels later, Emilia, Rin and Key managed to find some sign of life.

    ?They really went all out evaluating people,? Key mused as they waited for Rin to use some sort of Risen Guard technique to determine who was on the city level. She had willing admitted it was far above her level, her training having only briefly touched on its basics.

    Now, her face was screwed up in concentration as they waited for her to do¡­ something. The girl hadn¡¯t actually told them what this specific technique did, and the two of them left her to do her thing in silence, moving down to the next landing to sit and chat while they waited.

    ¡°Maybe there was no one living on the upper levels to begin with,¡± Emilia suggested, telling Key what Phlostra said: that the Clarity City System was currently way bigger than it needed to be. ¡°The levels could be sporadically populated.¡±

    Key hummed, seeming unconvinced. It didn¡¯t really matter whether there had or hadn¡¯t been people living on the levels¡ªat least, in theory. In practice, the group bothering to evacuate people showed that at least someone cared about the people living there¡­ or at least cared that they not be allowed the bodies needed to create a weapon of mass destruction. The level she and Carne had ended up in had definitely been evacuated, but that could have been strategic¡ªany of this could strategy or chance.

    Shaking herself, Emilia told Key to not worry about it. Unless they came across someone they could question, there wasn¡¯t much point in considering why the levels were empty. Instead, they should talk about him! Or, more specifically, what happened with his sister and Sk¡¯lar and why they weren¡¯t with him and Rin.

    Key scratched the back of his neck, averted his eyes. It was cute, and awfully suspicious. He looked about ready to speak just in time for Rin to appear, marching by them and saying nothing but, ?Next level.?

    The Risen Guard trainee seemed to be on a mission, and Key and Emilia slowly followed behind her as they descended more flights of stairs, occasionally passing Rin as she stopped to examine another city level and its population. Eventually, she¡¯d push her way past them again, in a perpetual cycle that didn¡¯t involve her talking to either of them, other than the occasional request that they get out of her way.

    Whatever she was or wasn¡¯t finding on the city levels, she wasn¡¯t sharing.

    As they went, Key instead told her what had happened since they had last seen each other.

    The gist of it was: they had gotten in trouble. From the start, the Stringer Matriarch had been unhappy with Emilia, and when she learned that not only had they been inside the library when it collapsed, but that Key had entered a functioning labyrinth in his search for her and Rin¡­

    Well, shit had hit the ceiling. Also, apparently, Harmony and Sk¡¯lar hadn¡¯t actually been that far behind him, as far as he could tell.

    ?The labyrinth just seemed to¡­ take them the long way,? Key laughed, seemingly unperturbed by his sister and bodyguard¡¯s struggles in the labyrinth. ?It¡¯s funny. The labyrinth led me easily to you and Rin. I guess it just sort of picks and chooses who it¡¯s nice to??

    Humming in agreement, Emilia summarized her own unfortunate experiences with the labyrinth¡¯s personalities. ¡°I do think there¡¯s something guiding how they work, but I can¡¯t say what. There¡¯s definitely a lot of solid, uh¡­ instruction behind each labyrinth,¡± she added, trying to decide whether to explain to the Enclave boy what she¡¯d found when she hacked the one labyrinth. In the end, she decided to not temp fate¡ªshe¡¯d already been forced to watch V fail at explaining technology to Phlostra and the kids. Instead, she explained how at times the labyrinths seemed mean, at other points nice. They always seemed intent to be won, however.

    ¡°Maybe that was part of why it messed with Harmony and Sk¡¯lar,¡± she theorized. ¡°If they¡¯d shown up sooner, what do you think would have happened?¡±

    Key thought about it, his face scrunched up in adorable concentration as they let Rin pass them again. ?Sk¡¯lar is powerful. He wasn¡¯t just assigned to be our bodyguard at random.?

    ¡°Oh~ not hiding that bit from me anymore?¡± Emilia teased, leaning in to bump his shoulder, probably unsafely, given they were currently near the top of a flight of stairs.

    The boy shook his head, explaining that being childhood friends had been their cover story for a long time. ?It wasn¡¯t really meant to hide anything from you. I actually think it would have been less obvious something was weird with our relationship if we¡¯d just come out and told you the truth.?

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you?¡±

    Key shrugged, and when he said he didn¡¯t know, she believed him. ?Sk¡¯lar probably would have burned through the labyrinth, if he¡¯d caught up with us. The way Harmony told it, he flew through all the challenges they faced. He would have won the labyrinth, but¡­?The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°But it wouldn¡¯t have felt fair, or like we visitors won,¡± Emilia finished. She¡¯d already been told that labyrinths tended to focus their attention onto visitors, choosing to ignore locals in favour of tormenting them. If Sk¡¯lar had come in and won the labyrinth in their stead¡­ well, who knew what would have happened. Emilia didn¡¯t think the labyrinth would have been too happy about it, at any rate.

    ?I guess? Maybe?? Key didn¡¯t seem convinced, but he didn¡¯t offer up any more about his opinions on the matter and Emilia let the topic drop, the local boy instead returning to his original story of what had happened since they separated.

    Essentially, once Harmony and Sk¡¯lar had managed to get Key and Rin down¡ªa whole production, apparently¡ªthey had exited the labyrinth and returned to the Stringer estate where they had promptly all been grounded.

    ¡°Is it normal to ground people as old as you four?¡± Emilia asked, laughing when Rin¡ªwho they had passed again during Key¡¯s story about how his sister and bodyguard had managed to get them down for the cage after a significant amount of trial, error and yelling¡ªpassed them once more, flatly stating that no, it wasn¡¯t normal to ground adults.

    ?Rin! It isn¡¯t that weird among Enclave families!? Key insisted, his face beginning to redden under his¡­ embarrassment? Anger? It was unclear, although looking a little wrecked suited him.

    If only she had a modicum of top energy in her body. Key would be just the sort of adorable bottom she could see enjoying having under her¡­

    ?Why are you looking at me like that?? Key asked, his eyes nervously flickering between Emilia and Rin.

    Emilia had no idea what her own expression was doing¡ªalthough she had been told by more than one person that she had a very clear thinking about sex face. Rin¡¯s expression, on the other hand, was blatantly disbelieving.

    ?I know enough about Enclave families¡ªand even more about your family in particular¡ªto know that being grounded is not common.?

    ¡°Maybe Enclave members are just known for being obedient, so you¡¯ve never heard of it?¡± Emilia suggested, trying to break up the argument.

    Rin rolled her eyes, looking like she wanted to argue more. Instead, she simply muttered about how she knew full well how badly behaved certain members of Key¡¯s family were, Emilia¡¯s mind going back to the two children she had seen sneaking off, that day she had woken up at the Stringer estate, as well as Rin¡¯s previous comments about Key and his father being too lax with them.

    ¡°It must have been really serious, then, if you guys got in so much trouble,¡± Emilia noted as they watched Rin leave them behind once more. Hopefully, she¡¯d find something soon, the fact that she was running out of time within the raid ticking in the back of Emilia¡¯s mind.

    Key nodded. ?I think part of it was what happened with the Valoren family. Their destruction of the library caused a lot of issues. Plus, when Taoran and V didn¡¯t return to them¡­? Key shook himself, his steps stalling as he sucked in a deep breath, eyes fluttering shut.

    ¡°Something happened to them?¡± she asked, unsure whether to offer the boy comfort or not.

    The boy shook his head, looking more a child than usual like this: with his eyes closed, his strawberry-blonde curls shifting with his movements, his freckles standing out against his pale skin. ?Yeah. It¡­ it wasn¡¯t good.? His lips quirked, half-amused, half-sardonic. ?I don¡¯t really care. The fact that they were the sort of people to destroy the library was a pretty clear message they weren¡¯t good people. It was a reminder, of what can happen when an Enclave family messes up, however. Then there was that stampede in Livery, and well¡­?

    ?And there used to be a path from Salsetrun to Livery,? Rin finished as they walked by her. ?It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize you were responsible for that.?

    Emilia bristled, insisting that while she had been there, she had just been an unfortunate catalyst for what happened, and had taken no actual part in what happened. ¡°Other than being attacked by the person who was responsible for that, all I really did was rescue a bunch of kids off the street,¡± she told them, adding that she¡¯d then blow up the guy who had caused all the death in Livery.

    ?Good,? Rin growled, Key nodding along before continuing his story.

    ?At this rate, it¡¯s going to take me until the bottom of the building to explain everything that happened,? Key laughed. Considering they had no idea how many floors the building had, that was quite possible. Chances were, by the time they got to the lower levels, however, someone would notice them wandering about.

    The rest of Key¡¯s story involved details of his escape from his family¡¯s estate¡ªnot exactly hard, if you knew places you could teleport that held a lower risk of accidentally killing yourself or someone else. ?Not exactly recommended,? he admitted, ?but almost everyone who can teleport finds a few places they can evacuate to, if needed. There¡¯s always the risk someone might be standing there, or a new tree will have sprouted, but sometimes, the risk is worth it.?

    Rin and the others had quickly followed him, unimpressed with his escape and then subsequent visit to the Risen Guard¡¯s traditional first labyrinth. While the group had argued about it, they¡¯d eventually agreed to help him seek out information on her.

    ¡°How did you convince them to help?¡± Emilia asked, legitimately curious as to how the local boy had convinced two people who clearly didn¡¯t like her¡ªand probably blamed her for a lot of what had happened¡ªto help look for her.

    ?Rin just wanted to help, I think. She didn¡¯t put up much of an argument either way. Personally, I think she was a little conflicted, and maybe wanted answers from you about what had actually happened, more than anything else??

    That tracked. Emilia knew Rin had already had mixed feelings about helping her and the Enclave in their attempts to break the blood curse. They had become friendly over their travels, though, trusting each other as much as two people who didn¡¯t really know each other could. Realizing her connection to Livery¡­ and then the Risen Guard¡­ and then Clarity¡­ yeah. Emilia could understand why her friend would want answers.

    Then, of course, they¡¯d had tension and misunderstandings since meeting back up.

    ?As for Harmony and Sk¡¯lar¡­? Key continued, looking incredibly uncomfortable¡ªironic, considering neither his sister nor his bodyguard were anywhere near them, while Rin had probably heard him throw her private feelings out there and wasn¡¯t likely to be very appreciative of it¡ª¡°I kinda¡­ sold the idea that if we killed you, it would lessen the risk to our family? They were pretty easy to convince, although I think they maybe took it too far.? He grimaced, explaining that both of them had gotten it into their head that killing her would make everything better¡ªwould fix the Stringer¡¯s dwindling reputation.

    Emilia blinked at him as she halted on the latest landing. Key refused to look at her, although he did have the decency to stop and stare at the wall.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a pretty good tactic,¡± she finally admitted. ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m too happy about Sk¡¯lar potentially coming for me, but it did get you to me, so. Good to know I really shouldn¡¯t trust him, if he shows up.¡±

    Key frowned, finally looking at her. ?Well, that why we left him and my sister behind, so they couldn¡¯t hurt you. They¡¯ve probably been taken into custody by the Enclave by now. I feel a little bad about that, but they¡¯ll eventually let them go. A good thing, too! The last thing you want is Sk¡¯lar coming after you. He¡¯s¡­ terrifying. I know he didn¡¯t really seem it, when he fought that Risen Guard who was supposed to be watching you, but that¡¯s because he wasn¡¯t really going all out. I mean, it probably took an entire unit of Enclave members to take him into custody¡ª What??

    They blinked at each for several long moments, Rin catching up to them once more. The girl stopped at the top of the last step, blinking between each of them. ?What??

    ¡°You guys don¡¯t know,¡± Emilia breathed out, wondering how¡ªwhy¡ªno one had informed them what happened. ¡°Harmony is still with the Enclave¡ªbeing questioned and refusing to answer questions, from what my contact knows¡ªbut Sk¡¯lar is gone. Has been for a while. Did he¡­ did he know where this place was?¡±

    Neither of the locals had to answer for Emilia to know the answer: Yes. Sk¡¯lar knew where they were, and he was coming for her.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 166: Is This Actually an Emergency Stairwell?

    ?This one.?

    Emilia and Key stopped, looking back up the stairwell to where Rin had been examining the most recent city level. They¡¯d gotten so used to their passing of each other that Emilia had almost forgotten that Rin might actually find whatever it was she was looking for.

    Glancing at each other, the two of them began the climb back to the Risen Guard trainee, who appeared to be looking for the mechanism that would open the door to the city level.

    ?Can you find it?? Rin asked as Emilia came to stand by her, and after having let her energy wander along the edges of the stairwells as they travelled, Emilia actually thought she could¡ªand she knew that Conrad was right when he¡¯d said she¡¯d be unlikely to find them from the other side, without any additional information on where they were.

    The problem was they were not only inside the wall on the opposite side of the stairwell, they also weren¡¯t near the ground level. Instead, they were located about halfway up each city level, and even with her okayish core control, she had to go back up another flight of stairs to be close enough to activate it. The mechanism inside the wall wasn¡¯t just a mechanism or simple lock, either. No, they were puzzles that had Emilia second guessing if these stairwells were actually meant to be emergency exits, as she had originally assumed.

    The puzzle of the lock wasn¡¯t particularly difficult, but it was finicky, unfortunately, requiring Emilia to keep her energy taut as she rotated its internal structures. It wasn¡¯t exactly strenuous, but it did require focus, and eventually, she was forced to yell at the others to shut it, their argument over something¡ªEmilia had no idea what¡ªreaching upwards and grinding at her concentration.

    In some ways, it was fortunate that she couldn¡¯t always tune out the world the way Simeon could. If something was interesting to her, she could definitely melt away into the beauty of it. Helix and Rafe were the same way. Halen and Naomi had been the same, and Olivier could definitely do it as well, and perhaps it wasn¡¯t so much that the people of their unit had to be powerful so much as they had to be obsessive?

    Honestly, that might have tracked. There were tons of powerful soldiers who had never been tapped for their unit, others who had tried joining their ranks, only to never be able to properly enmesh themselves in the unit¡¯s flow before choosing to find another unit, less finicky unit. Even people like Nettie, who didn¡¯t succumb to the same hyperfocus many of them had often found themselves beholden to, had been obsessive in other ways. Her skills were works of art, whittled down to the bare-bones and giving her speed and efficiency that even the non-devs of their unit had feared.

    None of that was the point, however. What was the point was Emilia¡¯s mind was wandering, even as she worked the boring puzzle that acted as the lock, her mind latching onto the silence of the world and what filled it. Not words or magic, but an energy winding around them nonetheless.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Emilia asked, refusing to let her concentration break with her words.

    ?It¡¯s not your friend?? Key asked, referring to Conrad.

    They¡¯d briefly discussed the other visitor and his gifts¡ªas well as what he looked like, in case they came across him. His energy was still twinned around her, keeping her aethervoice suppressed¡ªand at this point, Emilia was beginning to wonder what sort of monstrous range his energy had¡ªbut that wasn¡¯t the current energy reaching towards them, although it had a similar flavour and¡ª

    ¡°Run,¡± Emilia hissed, her energy clicking through the lock as fast as it could. She was supposed to wait to finish unlocking it¡ªsupposed to let Rin tell her when the coast was clear inside the city level.

    They didn¡¯t have time for that.

    ?What¡ª? Key began to ask as Emilia vaulted the railing and landed beside him, manhandling him through the now open doorway, her energy already exploding behind them as magic barrelled down the stairwell towards them.

    [Emilia: i think your family showed up]

    [Conrad: Who?]

    [Emilia: no idea]

    [Emilia: but someone just tried to burn us to death]

    [Emilia: and whatever core skill they were using beforehand felt a whole lot like what you do]

    [Conrad: How similar?]

    Emilia contemplated that as Rin led them through the city, confused residents yelping and ducking into bland grey buildings as they raced by. Behind them, the presence of whoever was chasing them continued following, energy lapping at their heels like a wild animal. She didn¡¯t really want to let it actually touch her, but if she wanted to get a feel for it so she could relay information to Conrad and figure out which of his crazy family members they were dealing with¡ª

    [Conrad: Well, it¡¯s definitely not my sister or the boy one you fought with.]

    [Emilia: why?]

    [Boundary: Because two members of his insane family just showed up to fight us.]

    [Emilia: shit]

    [Emilia: do you think they brought that weapon?]

    [Emilia: you should get out of here!]

    Emilia wanted to tell Boundary more¡ªtry and convince him he should leave them there¡ªbut her thoughts cut off as she remembered Rin and Key. It wasn¡¯t fair to ask them to stay if Boundary left. The man might have something more tangible to live for¡ªa family waiting for him to return¡ªbut Key and Rin had things to live for as well. Friends and family, lives they hadn¡¯t yet had the chance to live. Just because Emilia had met Boundary¡¯s family and liked them more than she liked the other Stringers didn¡¯t mean he deserved to live more than the others¡ªmore than Gale and Caro, who were possibly trapped in the Clarity City System as well.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    [Boundary: Why are they even attacking you!?]

    [Conrad: From what I can tell¡­ my sister is upset I didn¡¯t exact revenge on Emilia for killing Mihail.]

    [Emilia: how did she even find out that was me?]

    [Boundary: It was not a secret within the Risen Guard. I used your disgust with that man and his actions to convince my superiors that you were not an active threat to locals¡ªthat you did not view us as lesser, the way many visitors do.]

    [Boundary: It is not a secret that there are leaks and spies within the Risen Guard, nor was your involvement with his death considered the sort of secret that needed to be kept.]

    ¡°Great,¡± Emilia thought as they continued racing through the city. ¡°Just what I need. More people trying to kill me.¡± Granted, Conrad¡¯s family would still have been pissed at her, given she¡¯d already killed two of that woman¡¯s kids before she¡¯d killed her brother¡ªConrad¡¯s brother as well.

    That¡ªthe fact that Conrad was actually related to these people intent on killing him¡ªwas more where the problem lay.

    During their time travelling together, she and Conrad had briefly discussed both how the fight with his relatives had gone and how his own relationship with his family was strained. While the man had been understandably tight-lipped about their exact identities and story, she had gleaned some information about them.

    The woman she had deemed The Mother, was indeed the mother to all the kids, as well as Conrad¡¯s elder sister. That said, something strange had crossed Conrad¡¯s face when they discussed the pink haired kid¡ªThe Gangly Boy¡ªwho Emilia had already pegged as potentially not being related to the others¡ªat least not fully. Conrad hadn¡¯t confirmed that, but something in his demeanour had told her she wasn¡¯t far off the truth.

    If Conrad knew neither were the ones chancing their trio, that meant The Mother and The Gangly Boy had teamed up to chase after Conrad. Emilia rather hoped that once they met in person, Conrad would be more willing to discuss the specifics of his family and how they all fit together. His sister clearly hadn¡¯t liked that kid, so why were they fighting together? Did his other nieces and nephews like him more? Would they have put up more of a fight, had his sister brought them along to kill him instead? Was it just easier for her to watch The Gangly Boy die?

    Would her anger at Conrad reverberate into the real world? Maybe, maybe not. From what Conrad had told her, his older brother¡ªthe one Emilia reminded him of¡ªruled their family with something of an iron fist. The mysterious man didn¡¯t approve of their behaviour inside raids, but something told her it was likely he accepted raids as a grotesque way of controlling his family¡¯s less savoury impulses.

    Emilia¡­ understood that, in a way. It was part of what made The Black Knot work. The organization picked up people with the underlying impulse to do bad or who lacked a normal amount of empathy, redirecting them towards something less destructive.

    Of course, there was a difference between the calculated strikes The Black Knot made against organized crime and terrorist groups, against hackers and foreign powers that threatened the country, and letting your family kill people who were all but real humans inside raids.

    If she ever met Conrad¡¯s brother, she¡¯d be rather inclined to sit and have a long debate with him about all this¡ªabout the things he seemingly let his family do inside raids in order to have better control of them outside it.

    The point was, she didn¡¯t think he¡¯d let his family take any sort of revenge on Conrad for his behaviour inside a raid. If she and this man were as similar as Conrad claimed they were, maybe he even had the sort of petty streak she did. If it were her, she¡¯d probably be all for punishing Conrad for his actions within the raid, as long as the rest of them were open to punishment for their own actions within the raid in return.

    All those people, dead. All those children, orphaned.

    Those were the sorts of things Conrad¡¯s family needed to pay for. This attempt at retribution on him for daring to not kill her for killing his brother in retribution for his destruction of Livery after she had¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts cut off as they swerved around a corner. She was going to drive herself crazy, counting their debts and reasons for attack back to the start. That was how grudges capable of lasting generations began: her viewing their attack on her as the start¡ªtheir fault; them viewing her sneaking up on them as the start¡ªher and V¡¯s fault.

    Ridiculous, and she wasn¡¯t entertaining such nonsense. When they met again, in the real world¡ªand something told her that was an inevitability¡ªshe would leave what had happened here behind, the same way that she refused to judge her friends who participated in virtual raids and she was sure killed locals constantly.

    As much as she might not like it, this was the world they had created¡ªa world her creation and Hail had allowed to come into existence. There wasn¡¯t much she could do about it, and as much as some part of her wanted to judge people against her own morals and ethics, that wasn¡¯t constructive.

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± she asked as she let her steps faltered slightly, accepting the energy chasing them into her body and then sending an explanation of it back to Conrad, to see if he could figure out which of his niblings was currently trying to kill her.

    ?There is a group of Clarity members nearby,? Rin said as she flawlessly led them through the city, her map presumably guiding their way.

    Emilia wondered if she was simply reading it as they went, deciding where to turn whenever they came to a road, or if some secret function of the Risen Guard¡¯s system was mapping the way for her. Boundary had done that, after all: turned on a map guidance system. Had he told her if the system itself was mapping, or if it had been him? Had it changed when she raced down the wrong alleys, trying to avoid Conrad and Boundary¡¯s fight, when Conrad had been caught up in the moment?

    ?And we¡¯re going to them¡­ why?? Key asked, and Emilia huffed a laugh for how affronted he looked.

    Rin looked less amused, and told them that she had been searching for groups of Clarity members infected by the hive mind. ?In theory, all of these people should be infected enough that if the hive mind thinks giving you system access is a good idea, it will take them over and make it happen.?

    Emilia was about to say that was a really big if¡ªdid they even know if the hive mind actually wanted such a thing?¡ªbut her thoughts cut off when she received a message from Conrad, telling her that most likely The Cheeky Girl¡ªLivia, the girl who had been hit by her mother and ordered to follow after The Child after she ran off¡ªwas chasing them.

    [Conrad: If the other boy is with her, do not fight them.]

    [Conrad: I didn¡¯t spend much time with them, so I don¡¯t know what sorts of magic and abilities they¡¯ve gained, but if they¡¯re like me, they¡¯ll have access to many of their real world core abilities, and you do not want to see that boy fight.]

    [Emilia: great]

    [Emilia: so, there are other terrifying members of your family?]

    [Conrad: Yes, but my brother is the worst of us.]

    Emilia really wasn¡¯t sure whether to look forward to meeting this mysterious brother or not. ¡°Alright,¡± she said, grabbing Key¡¯s hand and beginning to drag him along when his steps faltered, unused to so much running, no doubt. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Rin. I don¡¯t know if this is a good idea or not, but that¡¯s about the only option we have right now.¡±

 Arc 5 | Chapter 167: Burnt Black

    ?This is a terrible idea,? Key grumbled as they circled the building Rin had pegged as a Clarity stronghold. In practice, that meant there was a collection of Clarity members who were part of the hive mind inside, some Risen Guard system function giving users the ability to judge how far gone people were into the heartcore¡¯s manipulations. Apparently it was a difficult skill to use, and when Emilia sent a message to Boundary, inquiring about it, even he admitted that he generally avoided using it.

    [Boundary: I suppose that¡¯s why that girl was tapped for investigation.]

    Conrad had subsequently told her to stop distracting them from their fight, which hadn¡¯t been going great. Emilia really wanted to ask what they planned on doing¡ªif they intended to kill his sister and nephew or were just distracting them. Wasting time distracting them seemed like a bad move, but she wasn¡¯t about to tell the man he needed to suck it up and kill his family, even if it was temporary and they both deserved it.

    Another shot magic rounded the corner, seeking them out with enviable precision. Emilia¡¯s energy splintered out of her, blocking this attack just as easily as it had the last. They had yet to see Livia¡ªor confirm that she was alone, although no ally appeared on Emilia¡¯s map, that she could tell, and the energy that wound its way through the attacks sent their way were definitely coming from a single, very pissed off person.

    Emilia hadn¡¯t even known until now that attacks could feel angry.

    ?She is persistent,? Rin noted, as though she weren¡¯t an incredibly persistent person herself. Even now, she was the one leading them in circles around this building, trying to attract the attention of the people within it with probes of her energy.

    So far, no go.

    ¡°We could blow it up,¡± Emilia suggested. ¡°Or, at least blow a hole in the side?¡±

    It was too bad Conrad¡¯s niece wasn¡¯t a little less precise. It would have been helpful if she blasted the hole for them. Personally, she didn¡¯t think Clarity would be too inclined to help them, if they were the ones to put a hole in their building. Now, if they were just innocent people, being chased by a big, bad visitor? An attack meant for them, just happening to harm their hideout instead?

    Yeah, she wasn¡¯t convinced that angle would work either.

    As much as she¡¯d been the one to suggest they try to convince Clarity to give her system access, Emilia was quickly coming to regret it. If they weren¡¯t currently being attacked, maybe it would have worked. As it was, Livia was causing far too much chaos, and across her map, Emilia could see people rushing for the city centre, where¡ªpresumably¡ªthe elevators were located, a tall, unsurprisingly grey, tower extending towards the ceiling.

    ¡°Seriously, what are the stairwells for, if not emergency exits?¡± she muttered, surprised when someone who was neither Key nor Rin¡ªnor even Boundary or one of the missing kids¡ªanswered.

    ?They are simply meant to be used by inner Clarity members, for easier movement between the city levels.?

    Emilia tugged Key and Rin into an alleyway, eyes searching out the familiar voice, but unable to find its source. What she did find was Livia finally coming into view, looking just as dirty as she had the first time they¡¯d met, in that cavern outside Livery.

    Flames licked up her arms, the girl¡¯s expression pure hatred as she stepped towards them. ¡°You!¡± she snarled, the image she cut odd and mismatched. A dirty child, with the imperious, righteous anger of an adult who had grown up pampered, like they were entitled to all their superiority. A smile tugged at her lips, cruelty dripping through her voice as she reminded Emilia of her parting words that day, weeks ago now. ¡°I told you, you should have let that bastard kill you.¡±

    ¡°Is he really a bastard, Livia?¡± Emilia asked, already preparing to defend them against the girl¡¯s attacks again, all while wondering if she had imagined Phlostra¡¯s voice¡ªneither Rin nor Key had seemingly heard the woman¡¯s explanation of the stairwells, although that wasn¡¯t uncommon in this world of private conversations.

    Livia¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Did my uncle tell me your name?¡±

    Cocking her head, Emilia gave the girl her most innocently questioning look. ¡°No? Your mother called you by it when we met before, right before she smacked you across the face. I wonder, is that something she does just in raids? Or is she that much of an abusive bitch in the real world as well?¡±

    Her energy exploded into a wall of pure defensive force as Livia¡¯s flames barrelled towards them, lapping up the sides of the buildings. None of them caught fire, at the very least¡ªEmilia really didn¡¯t think anyone would be impressed if they burnt an entire city level to the ground. Actually, it felt like if they destroyed the level in an actual battle, that would be more acceptable than unintentional arson.

    ¡°I wonder¡­¡± Emilia called as they looped around the building, leading Livia through the streets with her voice. Shooing Rin and Key in the other direction, she continued spurring the other visitor on with her words, willing Livia to follow her and leave Key and Rin alone.

    ¡°What do you wonder, bitch?¡± Livia snarled, and thankfully, her voice did seem to be following her in favour of the locals.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Heat sizzled up the street, flames of pink and black beginning to form over the grey road and forcing Emilia to scramble up a building, her energy defences more suited to brief, large-scale attacks, not ones that lingered.

    ¡°I was wondering if that¡¯s why she doesn¡¯t seem to care about that brother of yours? The one who¡¯s actually a bastard? Your father¡¯s I assume? Couldn¡¯t keep his dick in his pants?¡±

    ¡°DO NOT TALK ABOUT MY FATHER!!¡± the girl screeched, and Emilia bailed over the opposite side of the building just in time to avoid a barrage of firebombs.

    Lovely.

    Honestly, Emilia felt a little bad about dragging up what were obviously painful topics with the girl¡ªwas she even a girl? She could easily have been an adult, someone just as old if not older than she herself was¡ªsomeone who had also lived through the war and all the death and destruction of it.

    Oh well. The girl had attacked her first¡ªnot to mention Key and Rin. At the very least, she had actually killed a few members of the girl¡¯s family. Her friends had nothing to do with that, and attacking them simply for their association with her was patently unfair!

    ¡°No?¡± she called back, wishing there was some sort of equivalent to the voice throwing skills that existed in her world¡ªa highly regulated skill that was largely used by actors and politicians and people who just needed to be heard. It would have been much easier attacking the girl if she wasn¡¯t also being forced to use her voice to lead her around the city.

    More flames shot towards her, ones more easily blocked by her energy. It was annoying that she couldn¡¯t just turn and fight the girl¡ªthat her attack needed setup. Then again, the look on the girl¡¯s face when she surged around the corner, the energy vibrating around her reminiscent of the flames her temper was calling out of the aethernet, was worth it.

    A smile tugged at Emilia¡¯s lips as she sent a {Blood Needle} flying, hoping it wouldn¡¯t explode on contact with her flames¡ªor, alternatively, that the girl¡¯s flames wouldn¡¯t enhance their weapon¡¯s explosion. She, for one, wasn¡¯t particularly inclined to be blown up by her own weapon, but the risk had been worth it, and thankfully, the {Blood Needle} slipped harmlessly through the girl¡¯s flame, more and more sprouting up as she attempted to stop the weapon from colliding with her.

    She didn¡¯t know what it was, of course, but only an idiot wouldn¡¯t pay any mind to something being thrown at them. That said, one member of their unit had been particularly bad about paying attention to, well, anything. How Trinity had managed to survive the war, she had no idea. The girl was so absentminded, always tripping and being hit by anything thrown her way. It wasn¡¯t that anyone had worried she¡¯d die on the front¡ªnot after she¡¯d survived those first few battles, much to everyone¡¯s surprise. Trinity had just been better¡ªalthough still not great¡ªabout paying attention during a battle. It was outside them that she was a menace. If Emilia received a message telling her Trinity was dead because she¡¯d accidentally walked off a cliff, fallen off a slide line, tripped down the stairs, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised. Sad, but not surprised.

    Trinity was the sort of person to watch a projectile coming her way, her head tilting to the side in absent thought, short black curls barely moving with her. Then she¡¯d die, and no one would be surprised.

    This girl wasn¡¯t Trinity. This girl tried to stop the {Blood Needle} even as she was already bolting back the way she had come. It wouldn¡¯t be any use. Emilia had picked this spot deliberately, and her needle simply collided with the wall of a building behind where Livia had just been standing, Emilia already hurling herself around the corner at the other end of the street.

    The explosion rung through the air, flames and sparks smacking into the wall she had just been standing in front of¡ªsome of them even daring to reach for her. Having thrown a lot of energy into the {Blood Needle}, Emilia knew the explosion would be large¡ªlarge enough to reach after Livia as well. Still, she was surprised when they actually touched her, pain lancing up her back when sparks from the explosion scattered over it, a burst of air sending her sprawling forward. Her {Blood Armour} largely protected her, but not completely, and she tugged off the sweater Boundary had lent her as it sizzled and burnt.

    Bits of her back that weren¡¯t covered by her {Blood Armour} ached, but it was nothing compared to so many other things she¡¯d experienced in this world. Mostly, as she pushed herself back up, racing the way she¡¯d come, she was just cold without a proper top. Did the city levels have climate control? If so, they kept their temperature way too low!

    The Livia¡¯s dot on her map was now black¡ªthe colour that she had presumed meant a dead body, back in the city Boundary had found her and the children¡ªbut she had to be sure the girl was dead, which, thankfully, she was, what remained of her a managed black body.

    [Emilia: she¡¯s dead]

    [Emilia: as far as i can tell, she was alone]

    It felt a bit wrong to tell Conrad she¡¯d just¡ªrather brutally¡ªreturned one of his nieces to the real world, not that the man seemed particularly attached to any of them. A part of her wondered if his brother¡ªthe good one, not the psychotic one she¡¯d killed¡ªhad any kids. Would Conrad care just as little for them? Was his heart filled to the brim with love for his brother? A love that overflowed onto people who reminded him of that man and no one else? People like her?

    Emilia hoped not¡ªshe hoped that Conrad was capable of loving other people, especially if they were important to his brother¡­ and her.

    Shaking herself and trying not to think about that too closely¡ªit wasn¡¯t like this was her first experience with that sort of stilted, conditional relationship¡ªshe raced back to where she¡¯d left Key and Rin, their dots unmoving on her map.

    ¡°Key! Rin!¡± she called as she rounded the last corner, scanning the area for signs of anything¡ªof anyone. Despite the fact that she was looking, so almost missed the person Key and Rin were staring at, their posture stiff in a way that wouldn¡¯t help them if they had to fight or flee.

    Emilia skidded to a halt between her friends and¡ª

    ¡°Phlostra?¡± she asked, blinking at the woman and trying to ignore the way she didn¡¯t show up on her map. She might have thought it was the building she was standing just inside the entrance of, except it was the one Rin had pegged as housing that group of Clarity members, and she could still see their dots inside, standing still¡ªwatching them? listening in?

    The woman looked tired, her previous, softly kind demeanour gone as her PollyPollen eyes met Emilia¡¯s. ?Hello,? she sighed. Something¡ªthe hive mind¡ªflashed in her eyes and the aether bubbled, and then it was gone. ?You should come in,? she said, turning and vanishing inside the building, a trail of blood dripping from her hand and splattering over the ground as she moved. It vibrated and slid up through the air, following the woman so it could rejoin her.

    The three of them glanced at each other, silently communicating their worries and the fact that they had no other options. Shrugging, Rin went first, following Phlostra¡ªfollowing a high-ranking Clarity member¡ªinto what might very well be their deaths.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 168: Just a Grieving Mother

    The building Phlostra led them through was just as dreary as the rest of the Clarity City System. Everything was grey and flat, and while a random hideout¡ªbase? Emilia wasn¡¯t actually sure what to think of this place as¡ªdidn¡¯t exactly demand decor¡­ Well, their unit¡¯s own bases had always been filled to the brim with everyone¡¯s memories of home, even more after they gained a more permanent base at Alliance Ridge.

    And after? After, they had still had a base, giant, moving thing that it was¡ªthey hadn¡¯t been willing to risk another Alliance Ridge, hadn¡¯t been willing to set themselves up for another destructive attack that would obliterate half their numbers and tens of thousands of civilians in a single strike. That home¡ªhidden as it now was¡ªhad been a home, with its sparkling curtains, constant stream of baked goods and permanent altars to the lost.

    The altars weren¡¯t really a Baalphorian thing. In Baalphoria deaths just¡­ were. There were no graves, like she¡¯d seen erected in some Free Colonies, no altars to lost family members in people¡¯s homes as she¡¯d seen in others. The most Baalphorian¡¯s had were pictures, hung on walls in mismatched frames, matching the era the subject had died during.

    Not for their unit¡¯s lost¡ªnot after that day. The loss of Alliance Ridge had altars and pictures in so many house¡ªand even more in the minds of their friends, Emilia herself having a special room inside her Censor for visiting her deceased friends. Then there was Alliance Ridge itself, forced into the form of a giant burial ground for all the bodies that had been burned into the aether there.

    Several morbid jokes about not needing to pay for any cremations had been made, each just as burned into her memory¡ªthe heart-rending laughs that had followed as well.

    You don¡¯t survive a war without carving a pretty dark sense of humour into yourself, even if she hadn¡¯t survived it as well as she might have liked.

    All that said, this place was nothing like the bases and hideout they had made for themselves during the war. Maybe there was no need, this some rarely used location or place where Clarity members spent little time.

    The dirt caking the floor, the garbage can full of discarded food containers, the supplies in a closest that had been left ajar¡ªall of those things told her that probably wasn¡¯t true.

    This place was used¡ªused and lifeless, perhaps a reflection of the empty hive minds that floated through it?

    Phlostra rounded a corner, followed by Rin¡ªand Emilia really had to commend how brave the local girl was. More than any of them, her life was in the most danger in this place. Still, she didn¡¯t hesitate to follow a woman she didn¡¯t know¡ªsomeone who, from everything Emilia had told her, was just as much an enemy as any other Clarity member.

    Not that Emilia herself believed that much, at the moment. She had seen the look on Phlostra¡¯s face mirrored a thousand times over on the faces of parents, as she told them their child was dead. On Halen¡¯s mother¡¯s face. On her ex¡¯s grandparents. On Naomi¡¯s fathers¡¯ and the parents of dozens of other friends she had lost during the war.

    Stars above, she had even seen that look on perpetually cheerful Helix¡¯s face, when she¡¯d told him his father was dead¡ªburned himself out, trying to protect the very people who had scoffed at him for daring to bring a child like that into their lives.

    As much as Phlostra was a Clarity member, she was also a mother¡ªa grandmother¡ªwho had just sent half her family off to die. Emilia didn¡¯t know why that made her different¡ªor if it was something else entirely, driving her to act against Ajarni¡ªbut for the moment, she saw no reason to doubt the woman, especially not when she¡¯d drawn blood¡ªspiked nails through her own palms¡ªin order to break the control of the hive mind.

    Impressive, and so much like the skills she¡¯d learned from Rafe¡¯s family library that she had to smile and¡ª

    And¡­

    Emilia¡¯s steps stuttered, Key sending her a concerned glance as they turned the corner and walked into a room chock-full of Clarity members. She barely registered them; her brain was elsewhere, back in the Livery Labyrinth, back learning magic from the kids¡ªlearning about keeping her mind blank and¡­ and¡­

    And what had it been? It was so long ago, a thousand bits of conversations filling those days trapped in that labyrinth with dozens of terrified children, each of them fraying at the edges. There had been a moment, though, when all the homeless kids gathered around her.

    ?Just like Carne, right??

    Who had said that? Well, that didn¡¯t matter. Only the context did¡ªthe context that she had snapped herself out of a panic attack¡ª

    No, not a panic attack. She¡¯d been snapping herself out of her anger¡ªanger so powerful it had blasted the terrible host straight out of the challenge. At the time, she hadn¡¯t understood what the kids were talking about, and when their words had quickly escalated into an argument over whether Carne was a good influence or not, she had just sort of tuned them out, more concerned with getting the kids what food she could. In the end, as more of the homed kids snapped out of their stupor, she¡¯d never asked what the kids meant¡ªwhat about that moment had reminded them of Carne.

    What if it was this: that Ash was capable of snapping themself out of their heartcore personality through the same brutal methods Emilia used to break her panic attacks and moments of uncontrollable power? The same method Phlostra had just used to keep her hive mind at bay?Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Emilia didn¡¯t know if that was helpful, but it was interesting, especially since it implied that both of them had at least some awareness and control while their alternate personalities were in control.

    ?Emilia!? Rin hissed, and Emilia finally blinked back into the present, smiling as though nothing amiss had happened.

    Rin did not look impressed, Key looked like he hadn¡¯t even noticed she¡¯d zoned out, and while Phlostra still looked miserable, Emilia could see a hint of curious amusement lingering under her sadness.

    ¡°Phlostra,¡± she greeted the woman, eyes skimming the room for any other face she recognized¡ªmostly Fran¡¯s¡ªand finding none. One or two might have been at the meeting with Ajarni, but she couldn¡¯t be certain¡ªmost of the attendants had avoided her, unless they were glaring at her and V when they¡¯d had the audacity to quietly chat during Ajarni¡¯s speech.

    ?Emilia,? the woman replied, motioning for them to take seats.

    Five seats were vacant, the Clarity woman taking the only one that looked like it actually belonged at the table.

    ¡°Did you think the other girl was with us?¡± Emilia asked, half curious, half intent to simply lighten the mood¡ªor at least not leave too much awkward silence, now that they had begun to speak.

    ?Yes. Clearly she was not.?

    ¡°Nope! Just some crazy chick I pissed off back in Livery!¡±

    ?That is the city those children are from, yes?? another man at the table asked. He looked just as tired¡ªjust as full of mourning¡ªas Phlostra. So did nearly everyone else at the table, although a few looked more pissed than sad.

    Emilia nodded, explaining in broad strokes how that particular situation had gone down. V might have told Phlostra, but couldn¡¯t be sure¡ªand the woman was certainly making no move to silence her. Plus, while she had no idea if these people were on their side yet, telling them that more members of Conrad¡¯s family may be inside the city system couldn¡¯t hurt¡­ probably.

    ?They likely acquired a blood weapon from all that,? an ancient woman who looked like she hadn¡¯t slept in days said softly. Several people at the table shifted uncomfortably, and Emilia had to tell them it had, but that weapon was gone¡ªtucked away into Risen Guard storage, likely to never be seen again.

    If she left out the fact that the family might have an entirely different weapon of mass destruction on them, and that the Risen Guard was currently trying to get their hands on one that could be used on the Clarity City System, well¡­ only Key and Rin knew, and they weren¡¯t any more likely than she was to mention that.

    ¡°So, what are we doing here?¡± Emilia asked, as though they hadn¡¯t been the ones lingering outside the building, trying to get someone¡¯s attention.

    Given the way Phlostra¡¯s eyebrows raised, she was clearly aware of this fact as well, but chose not to point it out. ?What happened to my daughter?? she asked instead, eyes glaring her down like if she looked hard enough, she could see straight into Emilia¡¯s soul.

    Actually, considering how they¡¯d first met¡ªhow Phlostra had seemingly seen straight into her and guessed at her newly discovered gift and the way she itched to touch the arrays that littered the tunnel into the city system¡ªthe woman probably could do exactly that. Twelve gifts¡ªjust like every other member of Clarity, this woman had visited the labyrinths at least twelve times, touched the heartcores at least that many times. Who was to say she hadn¡¯t become a mind reader, from one of those gifts?

    ¡°She attacked me,¡± Emilia said honestly, ignoring the shifting murmurs of the other people around the table. ¡°I guess I should have listened to V, way back when he and Fran first found us. I was¡­ jealous, of the way Fran seemed to think she had a claim on him. I antagonized her, more than once, then I antagonized her and your daughter after we came here.¡± Her lips quirked as she told the group, her eyes never leaving Phlostra¡¯s, that V had told her more than once to stop poking at them.

    ?She attacked you over a man?? someone at the table asked¡ªEmilia had no idea who. Most people seemed to indicate they were talking through movement, to make up for their aethervoice seeming to leak out of the aether itself. Whoever was talking now didn¡¯t move, and while she knew it was none of the people who had previously spoken, this man¡¯s voice scratchy and rough, like he¡¯d spent too much time smoking¡ªor screaming¡ªthere were nearly a dozen more people at the table.

    Emilia cocked her head, considering. ¡°Maybe. It¡¯s not like I could read her mind. I think¡­ I actually think Fran really liked V, so it was probably at least partially that. I also just think Jerrina didn¡¯t like me much.¡± Shrugging, she told them about what had happened after Jerrina had attacked her: that her {Blood Ball} had unexpectedly protected her, and then the Ingogia family had shown up.

    No one looked surprised as she related what the Ingogia family had told them, and she wondered if they¡¯d already know Ajarni was in league with the Enclave, or if news of what had been said had made it back to Clarity as a whole. The people she and Conrad had questioned had only mentioned Jerrina messaging Fran, and then the news spreading to other groups from there. They hadn¡¯t said anything about messages sent to Clarity members who had remained in the city system, or who may have returned.

    If they had already known, had they known what they were sending their family and friends into? Emilia didn¡¯t think so.

    ?So, Jerrina¡­? Phlostra cut off, her blonde eyelashes fluttering as she held back tears.

    ¡°She was terrifying,¡± Emilia said genuinely. ¡°Out of all the members of our group and the one we joined up with, she killed the most Ingogia members¡±¡ªthat was information they¡¯d gotten out of someone as well¡ª¡°and she even tried to kill me a few more times in there as well! So yeah¡­ the Ingogia family killed her. She was just too dangerous to keep around.¡±

    Emilia was going to leave out the part about how some of Jerrina¡¯s last words had been about how everything at the Ingogia estate had been her fault. As much as she hadn¡¯t much liked the woman, Emilia hadn¡¯t generally been one for rubbing salt in the wounds of mourners¡ªnot unless they asked for it by being asshats, anyways.

    Phlostra wasn¡¯t being an asshat. She was just a mother, grieving for the family she had left in Ajarni¡¯s care.

    Family¡ªYuka was her step-grandchild, and while Emilia could understand why the woman cared more for her child, something about her completely lack of questioning about what had happened to Yuka was odd and foreboding.

    ?Yuka?? Phlostra sighed out when Emilia asked about it¡ªasked why she hadn¡¯t wanted to know a single thing about what had happened to their step-grandchild, not that Emilia knew. No one had seen Yuka, since the Ingogia family had killed or imprisoned their group. ?Yuka returned from the mission alive,? she said, an edge of ice leaking into her voice.

    Well, that would explain it, wouldn¡¯t it?

    Interesting, though, that Phlostra was asking Emilia about her daughter, when Yuka had seen just as well as she had what had happened to Jerrina.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 169: The (Apparently Unknown!?) Truth of the Matter

    ¡°So, why are we here? Other than closure?¡± Emilia¡¯s words were met with silence, no one at the table willing to voice what she¡¯d already guessed at. Unfortunately for them, despite her appearance, Emilia was older than most of them, and while they had grown up in a stressful world, political machinations swirling around them, she had grown up in the midst of an active war.

    If it came down to a battle of wills, patience, and knowing when to speak, she was going to win, even if she did have to kick Key under the table when the aether surrounding him began to bubble. He grimaced, but said nothing, only settling back in his chair and attempting something of a glare that came out more a pout. From the corner of her eye, Emilia caught Phlostra seemingly attempting not to laugh.

    That was good, and bad. Emilia both knew the need for levity in the days following tragedy, as well as how those moments of mirth would lay on Phlostra¡¯s heart. As much as the woman had clearly supported Ajarni at some point, she didn¡¯t deserve to regret these moments.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she said, when no one volunteered why the three of them had been brought inside. ¡°Shall I tell you why we were seeking you out, or my theories of why you let us in so easily?¡±

    The group shifted ever so slightly, nervous energy rustling through the room. The latter it was then¡ªthere was nothing quite so off-putting as your motives being deciphered by someone, especially someone who knew barely anything about your world and circumstances.

    ¡°You¡¯re all older, most into your sixties, if my guesses at how aging works in this world are correct. I already know Phlostra wasn¡¯t born into Clarity, but came in later. I¡¯m guessing that the rest of you are the same: you came from elsewhere and had already touched heartcores through Risen Guard or Enclave training. As result, the distinct personalities bestowed by those heartcores had already taken root inside you, even if only the smallest amount¡ªwhich, might I say, it is wild that the heartcores give your altered personalities different characteristics based on which group you¡¯re currently associating with?¡±

    A ripple of private conversation settled over the table, and she wondered how much the people in this room knew of the distinct personalities, her aethervoice reading skill picking up bits and pieces of their conversion and concluding their knowledge had at least been better than her two companions. Rin had known about the differences, but it had been clear that she only knew from what she had learned from Harmony or seen reflected in both her friend and Sk¡¯lar¡¯s personalities. Key had known next to nothing about it, having actually assumed that regular Enclave training turned members into the zealots he was familiar with.

    Once the room had settled, Emilia continued, telling the group that she was assuming the people at the table had two heartcore personalities interacting with each other, limiting the full effect of the hive mind. Honestly, this was a pretty big jump in logic, based on what she knew of Phlostra and the strange way this group was behaving, but when several members nodded, she knew she¡¯s followed her gut to the right conclusion. Awkwardly, a few of the other members looked around nervously, as though they had only just been informed of why they were the way they were. It must be rough, to learn such things under these circumstances and at such an age.

    ?I was born into the group,? one man said¡ªthe one with the too scratchy voice Emilia had previously been unable to locate. Now, he still didn¡¯t give himself away, but she had been paying more attention and her eyes shot to him.

    If he was startled by her location of him, he gave no indication of it, continuing to stare passively at her through dark black eyes. Overall, he was a tidy, almost unassuming man. He was also one of the older members of the group, his hair having long turned grey.

    ¡°I have a guess on that front, at least in your case.¡±

    The man¡¯s eyebrows moved, the only sign that he was even listening to her words. ?Go on.?

    ¡°My guess is you were a spy, one who came to agree more with the other group¡¯s beliefs than Clarity¡¯s.¡±

    The private conversations that had been gently bouncing through the room stilled, all eyes turning between her and the man.

    ?Why do you think that?? someone else asked, their shoulders tensing when Emilia shrugged.

    ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s just a guess. From what I understand, most heartcores affect people based on which group they¡¯re associated with. There are some exceptions¡­ maybe. I mean, I know of at least one person who seems to have become something else entirely after touching a heartcore, but they could very well have disagreed with the Risen Guard¡¯s opinions at that point, for all I know. For them, touching it might have always been destined to let something completely new into them, if they had no clear alliance.¡±

    ?Harmony¡¯s enclave personality took precedence over anything she might have normally gained as a Risen Guard trainee,? Rin said, nodding slowly. ?She definitely believes the Enclave¡¯s teachings over the Risen Guard¡¯s, but if she hadn¡¯t¡­ When we went to that first heartcore, she was worried about interactions. When I asked about it, she mentioned former spies.?

    ?Uh, yeah¡­ There are stories in the Enclave about spies who went crazy¡ªwell, even crazier¡ªdue to what happened during their Risen Guard training. I didn¡¯t realize it had to do with the heartcores, but we¡¯ve always been warned away from labyrinths and heartcores¡­? Key trailed off, looking troubled.

    Emilia wanted to ask him what was bothering him, although she could guess: the secrets that had been kept from him. He had clearly shared secrets with his sister, but obviously, she hadn¡¯t shared all of hers. That probably hurt, even if he had recently betrayed her, if on a much smaller scale.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°So,¡± she asked, turning back to the man and turning her eyes between the few other members of the group who had shown no reaction to her first guess, ¡°am I right?¡±

    ?I wouldn¡¯t say I completely agreed with the Risen Guard,? one of the women said, fingers tapping idly over the table. ?However, I definitely understood their arguments at times. They could be very convincing.? Her mouth twisted into a wry smile as she admitted that while it hadn¡¯t happened in many decades, there had been a time when something entirely different seemed to emerge from her. ?Once I returned to Clarity and finished my initiation labyrinths here, it settled. I thought that perhaps it was completely gone.?

    ?Even if it is gone,? a younger man said, stroking his scruffy looking beard as he stared Emilia down, ?it is possible it interfered with the hive mind, like the girl suggests.?

    Suggests?

    ¡°Wait¡­ are you implying you guys didn¡¯t know? Like¡­ none of you even had an inkling something was weird?¡± Emilia turned wide eyes between each member of the group. She might have already realized at least a few of them weren¡¯t aware of the what and why behind their subdued connection to the hive mind, but this seemed more like none of them had known? The group, at the very least, had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

    ?The true effects of heartcores are not well known. I¡¯m surprised you know of them.?

    Emilia quickly fired off a message to Boundary, asking if he thought the knowledge wasn¡¯t widely spread. He had been the one to confirm most of her suspicions, adding in his own thoughts on the matter. If he knew, others must. That said, it was clear from various bits of information she¡¯d learned about him that he wasn¡¯t a normal Risen Guard¡ªhadn¡¯t he said he came from a Risen Guard family? Maybe knowledge was shared more openly between them, or even just higher ranking Risen Guard?

    ¡°Well¡­ I do,¡± Emilia said, rambling off an abbreviated version of what she knew. Many of the members nodded, that same look of pieces falling into place crossing their faces. What a strange position to be in, giving these people who looked liable to die any day facts about their lives and personalities, something that obviously meant a lot to more than a few of them¡ªnot all of them, although the ones who barely seemed affected by her words seemingly weren¡¯t affected by anything she said. That was part of what had clued her in that at least a few had been spies: too much control of their reactions.

    ?That doesn¡¯t explain why you think we invited you in,? Phlostra said, a note of restrained amusement in her voice as she prompted Emilia to continue.

    Emilia didn¡¯t know why the woman wasn¡¯t just telling them why they had been brought in, although she had a few ideas on the subject. She¡¯d led enough interviews with perspective members of their unit to know how they went: with her sitting by, waiting for the other members of their interview panel¡ªalthough it had never been anything so formal¡ªto approve of the person.

    New members had to prove themselves. This felt like that¡ªlike Phlostra was giving her a chance to prove why the group should trust her. That was¡­ strange, if also kind and encouraging. They¡¯d only really spent a few hours together, while walking into the Clarity City System. Granted, aside from a few moments where she¡¯d been more interested in messaging Boundary, they¡¯d spent the entire time chatting about this and that.

    Perhaps something in those conversations had convinced Phlostra that she could be trusted, or perhaps it was the fact that she¡¯d managed to find allies among so many groups¡ªsomehow managing to get them to work together, no less. It could have been the woman¡¯s gift as well¡ªthe one that seemed to tell her some amount of unspoken words within a person, although Emilia still had no idea if Phlostra really had such a gift. Then again, it could be simple desperation and the fact that she was there, trying to fight against a group this collection of Clarity rebels had suddenly turned against.

    ¡°I think you invited us in because those holes in the hive mind¡¯s control mean you feel the betrayal of this all the more harshly. You trusted Ajarni with your friends and family, and he sacrificed them for no reason.¡± Emilia shook herself, letting her eyes fall closed as she sucked in a grounding breath, her mind flittering back to the night¡ªto her perception of the Clarity members in their group, and their alternate personalities. ¡°I only saw the hive mind for moments, in both that meeting and the mission. To me, it seemed like Ajarni could have just asked them to sacrifice themselves for the good of the world. I think almost everyone would have said yes, and I don¡¯t understand why he didn¡¯t.¡±

    Eyes flickering back open, she saw the same concerns and confusion echoed on many of the faces around her. ¡°When they killed Jerrina, the Ingogia family was just as confused. They asked why Ajarni would send them someone like her. She was too dangerous, and they had to kill her. I think something else is going on, and I think you all know it. I don¡¯t know how much you knew about Ajarni and his ties to the Enclave, or even how much you knew about the mission and what the point of it was. I think you knew most of us wouldn¡¯t be coming back, but I know you didn¡¯t think it would be like this. I know you would have given your lives up for your children and friends, had you known the real purpose of the mission, even without the control of the hive mind.¡±

    Emotion flashed through more than a few of their faces. They swallowed, looked away, shifted in their seats because that was the crux of the issue: they were old, and would die soon anyways. They would have easily given up their lives, not through the force of the hive mind, but simply because their lives were worth less than their children¡¯s¡ªless than the world they wished to create with the help of visitors.

    ¡°I think you invited us in because you know something is wrong, and while you couldn¡¯t save the people who went on the mission, you can save those who remain.¡± Emilia smiled, as truly as she could. ¡°And I think that regardless of anything, you do want this world to be better. I don¡¯t know if I or any other visitor can do that for you, but I know I and at least a few others are willing to try. At the very least, Ajarni and whatever terrible things he¡¯s planning? Whether it''s to turn everyone into sacrifices or warriors or canon fodder for a war between the Enclave and Risen Guard or something we can¡¯t even guess at¡ªhe needs to be stopped. If he isn¡¯t, the peaceful world you all want for the future won¡¯t exist, and I think you know that.¡±

    Emilia leaned back in her chair, having slowly leaned in towards the others during her speak.

    The Clarity members glanced between one another, looking but never speaking, some entirely silent conversation occurring between them before nearly all of them nodded. A few didn¡¯t, but they were already the ones who barely moved, so Emilia wasn¡¯t taking their lack of physical confirmation of their acceptance of her to heart.

    She always had been good at convincing people to go along with her.

    ?I will sacrifice myself for your system access.?

    Emilia¡¯s head whipped towards Phlostra, sitting calmly, like she hadn¡¯t just offered up her life on the slim chance that her death might help save the world¡ªmight earn her her revenge on Ajarni.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 170: Found

    ¡°Uhm¡­¡± Emilia started, trying to reconcile her suspicions about the whole sacrifice part of the ritual being unnecessary with the look of pure dedication in Phlostra¡¯s eyes. It seemed almost a shame to tell the woman that her life wouldn¡¯t be needed¡ªshe just looked so intent to die for the sake of the world and her revenge!

    ¡°I don¡¯t think¡ª¡± Emilia squeaked, her words cutting off as Phlostra surged forward, her ample breasts squishing into the table as she clasped her hands around Emilia¡¯s.

    ?Let me do it,? she said, voice imploring and sending a shiver of remembrance through Emilia.

    Hadn¡¯t there been times during the war, just like this? Missions where someone had to die, heading out on suicide missions because they needed information or to blow up a den of monsters? There had, nearly always, been someone willing to volunteer. Even if they never spoke of it, there was a hierarchy within their organization¡ªthere were those whose positions within the unit could be replaced, and those whose shoes could never truly be filled.

    Everyone knew, even if it only ever came up at times like those, when a collection of their less valuable members would argue over who would be allowed to give up their life this time, those of them who were too valuable sitting by, uncomfortable in their own power and value. The other time it came up was, of course, on the field, where supports burnt themselves out for the fighters of their group and the more valuable supports, like James and Simeon.

    Emilia knew that, in that hierarchy, she had been near the top. There had been a group of them, especially at the end, who were just too valuable, even the idea of losing of a single one of them enough to send shudders of fear through the entire military, even if only the highest-ranking soldiers knew more than their codenames. Emilia would have easily given her life for each of the members of that group, even if she knew that in many ways, she was what held them together. Ex-lovers and childhood friends, people who she had brought into the unit and would easily curl around like a cat, if given the chance.

    Shaking off thoughts of the dead and living, Emilia squeezed Phlostra¡¯s hands back, trying to silence the woman¡¯s frankly insane ramblings about how as much as she understood that one of Emilia¡¯s friends might have already volunteered for the job, she wanted it.

    ¡°Phlostra,¡± she said, throwing a touch of harsh authority into her voice.

    The woman cut off, and from the corners of her eyes, Emilia could see the rest of the table stiffen. It was one thing to know that visitors were capable of changing their appearance¡ªof portraying themselves to the world as any age they wanted¡ªit was quite another to hear the edge of a leader¡¯s voice coming from such a young face, although she was sure that even hearing it from her real face, young as it would be compared to their own, would have been a bit of a shock. Even Key and Rin looked a little put off by the sudden change in her voice¡ªin her whole demeanour, really.

    Ever since entering this room and being forced to guess at the reasons behind these people¡¯s actions, Emilia had felt the high ranking solider within her rising back up, trying to break through its bonds and take control of a situation she only understood at a surface level. As much as she seemed to know more about certain aspects of the world and the way it worked than many people, she was under no illusions that she understood anything of real importance.

    ¡°Phlostra,¡± she began again, giving the woman a disarming smile. ¡°I appreciate that, and if it comes down to it, I will gladly allow you to give up your life, if that is what you and the rest of the people at this table agree is the best option.¡±

    She added that last bit because she¡¯d seen the way several members of the group tensed when the woman had first offered up her life. It was clear that Phlostra was respected amongst the group¡ªperhaps even their leader, although something told her that may be unofficial. It was also clear that at least a few of them were about to say her life was worth more than theirs. With so few acting against Ajarni and whatever Clarity members were still beholden to him, they definitely would need to have a conversation about who was actually the least valuable member of the group, if a sacrifice was deemed necessary.

    Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t come to that.

    ¡°For the record, I wasn¡¯t going to offer up either of my friends for sacrifice either,¡± Emilia added, giving the table her most disarming smile, ¡°but I also really don¡¯t think the sacrifice part of the Ingogia family¡¯s ritual is necessary.¡±

    Quickly, Emilia rattled off what she knew about the ritual and her suspicions about how the important part was actually keeping the hole in the aether open long enough, adding in details of how a local had already suggested to her his own theories on the matter, long before she¡¯d learned about the Ingogia family¡¯s ritual.

    ?That is possible,? one of the women noted, calling attention to herself for the first time. A rather unassuming woman, easily fading into the background, she had been one of the members Emilia had pegged as a former spy. When Key tensed, and the woman mentioned Enclave contacts, Emilia figured her suspicions confirmed.

    ?One of my Enclave contacts,? the woman explained, her eyes briefly sliding to Key before flicking back to Emilia, ?told me the Ingogia family performed many experiments before getting to the point their ritual worked. It would be easy to imagine they were simply done with experimenting, especially with your time here coming to an end, I believe??

    This time, Key and Rin looked at her, the weight of their expectations and soon-to-end friendship written over their faces.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emilia told the woman. ¡°From what I understand, we have a little less than two days left. Probably closer to a day and a half. It takes a lot of time to go down all those stairs.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    She tried to ignore the way Rin tensed, the way Key slouched further into his chair, pout deepening. There were so many people in this world she would miss, but these two were her first friends, even if¡ªaside from Boundary¡ªshe had spent less time with them than anyone else.

    Well, technically she¡¯d spent the least time with Honey, but that girl was still messaging her nonstop, and they might as well have spent the last few days doing nothing but chatting about themselves for how much she knew about the girl now. Not that she¡¯d been sharing anything of herself in return.

    ?Do you really want to risk the ritual not working, simply because we did not sacrifice someone, when we have an entire table of willing souls?? the woman asked, her dark, wine red eyes boring into Emilia.

    Sucking in a deep breath, Emilia asked the question she had been dreading: ¡°Will you have enough magic between you to perform the ritual three times, if it doesn¡¯t work without a sacrifice? Once to try without, and then twice more for myself and another visitor?¡±

    The group turned, conversing quietly between themselves, the aether vibrating and shifting with so many private words that, even without using her power to read their words, they became almost visible. Under the table, Key¡¯s hand slid into hers, squeezing once, twice, as though to say I¡¯m here and I¡¯ll miss you.

    ?There are more than just two visitors within the city system,? someone finally said.

    Emilia¡¯s spine straightened. ¡°Can you tell how many? And where they are? Who they are?¡±

    The group conversed once more before one of the older women rose. Slowly, she made her way around the table, her cane tapping noisily over the hard flooring while her free hand wrapped around the top of each chair, needing that extra bit of support to make her way to stand behind Emilia.

    ¡°I would have come to you,¡± Emilia said, settling back into her chair when the woman instructed her to get comfortable.

    ?Yes, well,? the woman laughed, practically forcing her cane into Key¡¯s hands so she could place each of hers against the sides of Emilia¡¯s head, ?if we old people let you young ones do everything for us, we¡¯d never move. Then, we¡¯d end up in even worse shape.?

    Emilia couldn¡¯t really argue with that, but she had to ask how old the woman was.

    ?Ninety-nine,? she laughed, and Emilia tried not to dwell on the strange way even her voice seemed to have aged with her.

    Children¡¯s too, she realized. Despite having no direct knowledge of how vocal cords would change in a normal person¡ªalthough at ninety-nine, this woman may very well remember the last visitation, maybe even been an active member of one group or another at the time¡ªtheir voices still changed with age. Did teenage voices crack? Did all children have the voice of a child? Or did a child occasionally pop out with a voice suited to a grownup?

    Useless things to consider as she told the woman she was almost seventy, each of the people around the table straightening up a little more¡ªshe was definitely older than a handful of them.

    Someone asked a question¡ªsomething about where that landed her in the aging process of her own world¡ªbut Emilia couldn¡¯t answer, whatever gift the woman behind her was using dragging her away and into the aether.

    The world blurred as they raced through the Clarity City System, the woman¡¯s gift seeking out each visitor with such pinpoint accuracy that the faded map in the corner of Emilia¡¯s vision was able to log exactly which building and level they were on.

    Impressive. Emilia needed to ask the lady¡ªonce they were out of this place and she¡¯d thrown up¡ªwhether her gift had always been this powerful, or if it was simply a result of time, age and practice.

    They flew by Conrad and his sister, the body of his nephew slumped against a wall in the distance, and Boundary in the midst of surging in between Conrad and his sister, who seemed intent to kill both of them her face snarled in anger.

    The world shifted, melting and reforming to another building. This time, it was the missing members of Conrad¡¯s family descending flights of stairs. The Child and The Quiet Boy. Something was wrong with them¡ªeven more wrong than whatever had been before.

    No, not them. Just the boy, even the little girl looking at her brother with concern.

    These were the ones Conrad had said to stay away from. Emilia didn¡¯t think he was referring to whatever was going on with them now, though. At the very least, given they were in an entirely different building, the chances of their paths crossing were on the lower side.

    The pair faded away, and a group of visitors that Emilia assumed had previously been gathered by Clarity fell into view. No one she knew¡ªnot really, anyways. A few looked passingly familiar, like they¡¯d either based their looks on someone she¡¯d seen somewhere¡ªprobably various media or season rankings¡ªor were the person themself.

    Not knowing anything about the people¡ªand seeing that they were obviously being guarded by a handful of Clarity members¡ªEmilia didn¡¯t see much point in doing anything for them. They¡¯d be home soon enough, hopefully without any serious mental issues. Actually, she probably should find out how many people Clarity had been directing into heartcores. Vermilion had already been well on her way to a full-blown heartcore personality, after all. Who was to say all these heroes hadn¡¯t also¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s thought cut off as her vision changed again, this time to someone she knew.

    V.

    V and Astra, Caro and Gale tucked into a corner of a room as well.

    They looked relatively unharmed, but that didn¡¯t mean much when the system healed over most injuries without much fanfare. Still, they were there. There and arguing quietly between themselves. There and alert looking, like at the very least they hadn¡¯t been completely consumed by pain or terror or the heartcores.

    Emilia started when the world returned, dozens of eyes glued to her.

    ?So?? the woman behind her asked, her voice distant and disorienting and¡­ and yup, Emilia needed to throw up.

    Key helpfully grabbed hold of the old woman as Emilia turned, tugging her out of the way while Rin pulled her hair short away from her heaving.

    ?Oh, sorry deary. It¡¯s been a long while since I shared my gift with anyone who wasn¡¯t already used to it. That¡¯ll pass in a few moments.?

    Emilia didn¡¯t feel like she had a few moments. V and Astra, and more importantly Gale and Caro, were in the city system. They were alive and in danger, not just from Clarity, but from an attack meant to destroy the entire city system¡ªnot that they were positive they¡¯d have to resort to that, but out of everyone, Emilia wanted to try her best to get the kids out of here before any decisions were made.

    They didn¡¯t deserve to die, especially not when the only reason they had ended up here was because of her.

    ?So?? the woman tried again, once Emilia¡¯s heaving breaths had stopped. ?Did you see anyone you think we should try giving system access to??

    Nodding, Emilia told the woman. Conrad, for sure, fighting several dozen floors above them. ¡°There¡­ the last two. Them as well, if we can get to them.¡±

    She didn¡¯t have to look up to know a tension had entered the room. That didn¡¯t surprise her. Her four friends had likely only ended up back here because someone¡ªFran, perhaps¡ªhad brought them here. They weren¡¯t like her and the others, sneaking in through secret entrances and making their way through the city system.

    They were captives¡ªpotentially valuable ones at that, if anyone found out how much she wanted to save them¡ªand getting to them would mean having to make their way through guards, when they really didn¡¯t have time to do so.

    ?Getting to those two, will be difficult.?

    The words weren¡¯t a surprise, but they weighed on Emilia, nonetheless.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 171: The Blood of the Universe

    The aether screamed.

    It did not like this, the entire universe seeming to rage and shake with every featherlight touch of the Clarity members forcing a giant slit through it. The blackness of the room they had chosen, the ritual requiring hard to find, pure darkness as one ingredient in it¡ªshuddered and shook, a faint line of glowing red stretching, tearing through the fabric of the world.

    Of the raid?

    Or did this aspect of the raid reach deeper¡ªreach into the actual, real world aethernet?

    Emilia didn¡¯t know. Certainly, she and the others had dreamed of not only creating a simulation of the aethernet, but of dragging a microscopic amount of it within their training system¡ªof bringing something from the real world into the raid through the minds and souls of the people training within it, as well as the machines running it.

    There had been reasons to do so, reasons to not. The only thing that stopped Emilia from breaking into a panic while she watched a hole crack into what might very well be the aethernet that held the universe together¡ªnot just within the raid but through the entirety of existence¡ªwas that all their theories on the how to do it had ended with the small. Even if this was the universe itself, it should only be the smallest drop of it.

    The aether existed everywhere. Most of their musings had dwelled on ideas of how hard could it be to pull the aether that existed inside the computers running the training servers¡ªthe raid platform¡ªinto the simulation, along with the aether within the minds of all those connected into the fabric of the world?

    Well, it had turned out to be hard, and more importantly, time-consuming. They hadn¡¯t had time to mess around with something that had been so purely Can we do it? rather than We need to do it! during the war.

    ¡°Fucking stars,¡± Emilia hissed to herself as she stared down the innards of the universe, red and oozing out into the world as the Clarity members strained themselves keeping the hole open. ¡°I really should have at least kept up on what Helix and the others were doing with the raids.¡±

    That was, perhaps, the most annoying part: she was part of a group chat that included all of the people who had worked on the training system during the war. Helix had eventually joined Hail and risen to be their Head of Raid Design¡ªalthough he¡¯d recently left that position¡ªwhile Simeon ran a willbrandsmithing business that collaborated quite often with Helix in his crazy schemes. Rafe contributed to the raid system as well, when he wasn¡¯t busy with his own work. Other people occasionally offered advice or anecdotes on how one part of the original system had been designed, or how they¡¯d thought of one solution or another.

    While the core of the project had always been her and Halen¡ªat least before Alliance Ridge¡ªthere had been dozens of people contributing all sorts of knowledge over the years. Helix had been more an annoying child who had suddenly found a passion he knew next to nothing about, and Simeon had been the sort of obsessive person with enough knowledge of willbrands to make them work within the system.

    Others had contributed facts on how each of their skills worked¡ªhow they felt within their bodies or how the aether responded to them. Dozens of people had offered brain scans, Virtuosi System records, analyses of their bodies while activating one skill or another¡ªand that was to say nothing of the Free Coloniers who had offered up what was often considered secret information about their cores and training methods to them.

    As a result, the group chat where Helix tossed out information about how they were currently changing the raid system was huge, every comment he made treated like that of a celebrity¡ªwhich he ostensibly was¡ªbestowing secret information on them. When he¡¯d first created the group¡ªbefore anyone realized how big Hail¡¯s project to gamify the system would become¡ªshe had tried reading through his messages, the contents of them turning over the then overwhelming trauma inside her.

    The training system was war, turning data into a world where they could die and be reborn, over and over again. There was no true death. There was only mounting trauma, forced upon them by a desperate need to get stronger, faster, better¡ªby the desire to not die on the field, or worse, see those they loved die.

    Ripped apart.

    Burned alive.

    Cores snuffed out.

    The aether exploding, taking everyone on the battlefield with them.

    Attacks spraying over the world and killing everyone in its path because the caster was desperate to stop an oncoming attack.

    Emilia had seen all that and more, not just on the front, but in the training system.

    In some ways, especially once it had been distributed to other units, their system was more curse than anything. For many people, it allowed them to hone their skills to a deadly point, yet for so many others, the system was the point¡ªthe point at which they burned out or realized their control wasn¡¯t nearly as good as they thought it was.

    If it took a thousand battles for a person to crack¡ªfor their desperation to rise up and shatter their self-control¡ªit could easily only take a few hours within their system to crack them just the same.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    A thousand runs through a terrible battle.

    A thousand times watching the people you loved fall.

    Over and over and over and over.

    An unending cycle that forged or broke, depending on the person.

    Emilia had known that, and she had looked at the game system Helix and the others were creating. A part of her had known it could be fun. They weren¡¯t at war anymore. There was no reason to worry that people would burn out under the strain of the system if they were truly choosing to use it.

    She had still worried, though, and turned her eyes away from what Hail was doing.

    Now, she rather regretted that because she¡¯d already pissed off the aethernet once, when she ended the war¡ªwhen she scarred the universe itself, forcing what would only ever be a temporary end to the war, even if she hoped that end would last long after she was gone¡ªand she really didn¡¯t like being a position where she might very well be stealing blood from the universe.

    That just seemed like asking for it.

    Unfortunately, the most she knew about what had been happening with the underlying code of the raid system was that Helix was constantly telling his bosses and colleagues they were dumbasses. As much as he was technically only a designer, creating many of the real-world raids she hated, he was also one of the original contributors¡ªwho, if her vision of Halen had been correct, should be a stakeholder in Hail just as much as she was apparently meant to be¡ªand he also served on the panel that managed the way the raid system was changed and updated.

    More than once, in their unit¡¯s group chat, she had read arguments between Helix and the others over what Hail was doing¡ªover what they were letting the government do with the training system. Helix had assured them on multiple occasions that he had a hand in the way the raid system was being changed.

    According to him, they didn¡¯t need to worry. As much as there were definitely people at Hail who had shit for brains, there were many more keeping them in line.

    That was all well in good, expect Helix didn¡¯t work for Hail anymore, and it didn¡¯t take a genius to realize that the people keeping them in line was mostly just him. Everyone knew Helix, top ranking hero and popular raid designer that he was. He was also fearless. If Hail had started going too much in a direction he didn¡¯t agree with, he 100% would have popped out and told the entirety of Baalphoria about it.

    Fuck the consequences. He¡¯d run off to one of the Free Colonies run by their friends and former teammates. Both Halvery and Norvel were lovely most of the year, even if Norvel was also home to one of the most dangerous pastimes in the world¡ªone that Helix was very much a fan of.

    Were the few weeks that Helix hadn¡¯t been working for Hail enough for them to have put features he would have disagreed with into place? Mind manipulations that could affect heroes and potentially follow them back into the real world? The aether really being affected by what was done within a raid? All of those little tears from the thousands of raids running at any given moment would add up, even if they were mere pinpricks.

    Sparking, for as minimally invasive as its own sparkmarks were, could still become dangerous if too many people sparked in or out of the same area at once. There were guidelines which, thankfully, largely weren¡¯t needed outside of emergencies because most people still preferred slide lines and bubbles to sparking¡ªit was difficult and made most people violently ill the first few dozen sparks. The only people who sparked tended to be vets, who had forced themselves through the worst of the consequences for the sake of safety on the front.

    The marks created by what they were doing now would be next to nothing, but how many people had already done this ritual? And would locals perform it again, once everyone was gone? Without visitors, there might be no point, but¡­ but then there were the scars that Carne and the others followed¡ªmarks that, if the aether here were the same aether as in the real world¡­

    Emilia shook herself. She needed to stop thinking about this¡ªshe needed to stop catastrophizing. Until this moment, there had been no indication that the aether of this world and her own were one and the same. This world was a simulation. There was no reason why she should suddenly worry about the unlikely what if it¡¯s not.

    She still worried, though. Not because anything had outwardly changed about the aether¡ªit still seemed the same as it had a moment ago. The outside of it, anyways.

    Emilia had only seen the inside of the aether a few times. It was never a pretty sight, and the reality that what existed around them was more monster than the empty blackness of the stars was¡­ disturbing.

    So, she¡¯d never told anyone about what she¡¯d seen within the aether. Why did anyone else need to know about the time when she¡¯d found a hole as a child, and seen inside the universe¡¯s soul? Why did anyone need to know that the time she¡¯d come out of a sparking test run covered in fleshy red goop, it was because she¡¯d been stuck inside the terror of the universe¡¯s stomach for far longer than she¡¯d been gone? Why did anyone need to know that when she¡¯d torn the aether apart, in desperate desire to end the battle so she could get Olivier to a medic, that she¡¯d seen what it was, perfect and horrific in equal measure?

    Short answer: nobody had to know those things. Plus, she wasn¡¯t completely sure she hadn¡¯t just imagined each of those incidents. Other records of people seeing into the aether indicated it could be red, black and purple, depending on the location and time of year. Stars above, even the types of skills the person favoured seemed to affect their perception of the universe¡¯s insides, some of the records noting multiple people had stared into the same tear and seen nothing remotely similar.

    So, the aether of their training system had simply been a sparkling, idealistic sky. Their most powerful shots had been beautiful, lighting up the world with constellations that in the real world would have usually been black. The universe was black, on the surface, red a little deeper down. It was only deeper that you found more, and even the most skilled soldiers had rarely harmed the aether more than skin deep.

    Maybe Helix had¡ªperhaps he had seen the terror under its skin and muscle, and added his two cents into the grotesque world staring back at her from within the hole the others were holding open.

    That, or this was the real universe, ripped apart for the sake of people who didn¡¯t need to exist, even if Emilia would do everything in her power to help them. She just really hoped this wouldn¡¯t come back to bite her, that she wasn¡¯t actually hurting the universe for the second time in her life.

    Well, third. That whole sparking into the universe accident had definitely ended in some hurt to it as well, just much less intentionally on her part.

    ?Are you ready?? someone asked, Emilia sliding back into her body and trying to shake off all her worries.

    At her feet, globs of the aether¡¯s blood had formed into a shiny, dense blob of reddish black.

    Emilia stepped forward, hoping this wasn¡¯t a mistake¡ªhoping that taking this thing into herself, in an attempt to find a way to give this world a better future, wouldn¡¯t fuck up her own future.

    The universe already resented her for harming it, how much would it hate her for stealing a part of it as well?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 172: Sketchy Tokens

    [Visitor System Access: Granted]

    [Would you like to merge Visitor System and Risen Guard System functions?]

    [Please note: Some functions may overlap. As the system has received complaints about favouring one version of a function over another, you will retain both versions of overlapping functions.]

    [Would you like to merge Visitor System and Risen Guard System functions?]

    [Yes | No]

    Emilia barely thought about it as she chose yes. Mostly, she was just thinking about the stupidity of how the system was designed. Not only had it asked her the same question twice, due to the note, but she also didn¡¯t think merge was quite the right word; merge implied that they would be slapped together, the more useful function overriding the less useful ones. While she could appreciate that some people would complain about this¡ªshe was just getting used to the way the Rise Guard system worked, and would be rather unhappy if the messaging system in particular were overridden with whatever the visitor system had going on¡ªthe system really should have changed merge to combine.

    That seemed a much more suitable word.

    This was also a very silly thing to be contemplating, especially as more dialog boxes popped up over her vision, giving her brief bits of instruction that she really needed to focus on. Time seemed to have stopped for the moment, however, the world around her still as the hole in the aether began to close with a painful slowness that, had time been running normally, would have been instantaneous.

    It was also an important thing to consider, in its own ridiculous way. This used to be one of the things she loved: picking at the tiny details that almost no one would notice or even care about. The smallest of tweaks could mean the difference between a skill running fast enough to save a life and being a split second too late. There weren¡¯t many people who could analyze code so meticulously, and both her desire to code and ability to do so had been stymied by her knots, both her traumatic and additive ones.

    Wanting to stop and analyze a system message that she would never see again¡ªthat very few people would ever have the opportunity to see and dissect and criticize ever again¡ªwas¡­ nice.

    She really needed to get Payton a gift when all this was over, not just for unknotting her but for coming with her to the purist hideout and for¡ªhopefully¡ªkeeping her secrets.

    For the barest moment, an idea of a perfect gift shuddered through her mind, winding and uncatchable. A small memory of¡­ something? someone? Emilia wasn¡¯t really sure, the thought moving so quickly through her that she had no idea what it had been. All she was left with was a sense that she¡¯d forgotten something important¡ªor perhaps missed something?

    Something about Payton? That seemed strange. She knew so little about the man, and she¡¯d never before been struck with the thought that she¡¯d forgotten or missed something about him¡ªat least, she didn¡¯t think she had.

    Stuck in time as she was, her body unmovable even as her brain buzzed, Emilia couldn¡¯t shrug in more than just her head before looking over the dialog boxes.

    There were a lot, and she flipped through them, trying to get a sense of what she was even looking at and why the system had even been so important, especially when she¡¯d already gained access to the Risen Guard system. Within moments, she already knew what the most important aspect of it was: the visitor system was closer to a Censor in both form and functionality, responding to her mental commands with the same ease her Censor would have, albeit slightly slower.

    To the side, a HUD similar to what she was used to seeing in real world raids had been pulled up, showing that she already had a collection of people she considered part of her team, although it seemed limited to people currently within the Clarity City System. Next to Boundary and Rin¡¯s names was a mark that she¡¯d seen before, and after a moment of glaring at it, she realized it was the mark that decorated her water bottle: the Risen Guard logo. Their names were lit up red, while none of the others were¡ªmaybe a result of her having Risen Guard system access?

    Other names on the list included Key, Conrad, V and the kids. Interesting, neither Phlostra nor any of the rebel Clarity members were listed. Even more interesting, Conrad¡¯s name glowed a faint purple, and despite him also having access to the Risen Guard system, he had no mark next to his name. Like V and Astra, there was nothing next to his name.

    Key had what she assumed was an Enclave symbol next to his, something in it tickling her mind, like perhaps she¡¯d seen it before, but only in passing, while Gale and Caro had something else entirely next to their names, each unique and unknown to her.

    Emilia spent a few minutes going over her new functions and rearranging her display to something she actually liked. She managed to make a group chat among all the members¡ªalthough it was unlikely most of them would be able to see their inclusion in it, half the members having no system access at all¡ªand placed it into the bottom-right corner of her vision. It was a small thing to do, yet felt so very¡­ odd.

    Real-world raids came with both party chats and network ones, as well as direct messages. Network chat tended to be the most widely used chat, but she generally muted that within moments of the raid starting. People were too loud, and the few people whose messages she actually cared about knew to message her through private messages or the party chat, and even those she generally kept minimized.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    To now be actively setting up a chat function where she could permanently see it felt odd. Not a bad odd, but one that she noted and tucked away for later, curious if it was something that would persist into the next real-world raid she was forced to participate in, or simply one that would exist within life and death situations.

    Stars knew that she never would have closed her chats down during the war, although she¡¯d had stress powering her at the time, not to mention her mental faculties in tip-top shape.

    The irony that she¡¯d managed to retain her D-Levels during the most stressful moments of her life only to crumble after a few mean words, left to spend a decade failing to pick up the pieces, was not lost on her.

    Flipping through the functions, she compared each of the system¡¯s maps. The Risen Guard system¡¯s was superior by far, and she spent a short moment fiddling with the setting, the visitor system easing her ability to use the Risen Guard system as well.

    Yeah, the extra speed and ease that she could use the system with was definitely worth the risk of tracking Clarity members down.

    That, and she now had an inventory asking if she wanted to store her items inside it¡ªyes, she did. Her bag was weighty and unwieldy, even at her now very low level of 16, visible at the top of her vision, along with various other vitals. It was nice to know that nearly being killed by Jerrina a handful of times had lowered her level. Emilia couldn¡¯t be sure that was what had lowered her level, but that was really the only significant thing she¡¯d done since fight the Giant of Andir in the last labyrinth¡­

    Actually, that hadn¡¯t been the last labyrinth, had it?

    Blinking into space, Emilia contemplated her momentary lapse in memory¡ªit wasn¡¯t every day that you outright forget a crazy cult forced you through the same labyrinth half a dozen times¡ªbefore moving on. There were more important things to worry about, including whether the visitor system could tell her what her still unknown gifts were.

    Unfortunately, no. When Emilia pulled up an interface that explained each of her gifts, three of the places were marked only with question marks. That said, after a moment of poking at the interface, wondering if it held any secret function that would help her learn what the gifts were, she discovered it did have another function: the ability to upgrade the gifts.

    Her ability to hear locals had upgraded itself, signifying her ability to read words straight from the aether, while reading and writing in the local tongue had no available upgrades. Her other gifts¡ªthe currently greyed out ability to speak and her abilities to read and disassembly arrays¡ªhad empty nodes attached to them, indicating upgrades that she could use tokens to activate?

    Tokens?

    Emilia spent a long while trying to figure out what these tokens were and where to get them. In the end, she realized she was an idiot and the fact that she didn¡¯t play virtual raids was working against her. She¡¯d heard her friends talk about gaining rewards from quests or missions in virtual raids¡ªand the occasional private, real-world raid¡ªoften enough that it felt like she should have realized this raid might have some sort of quest system. She hadn¡¯t, and when she finally realized tokens were given out as rewards for quests, she cursed herself and opened up the quest log, grumbling about how she still couldn¡¯t figure out a way to see every available function laid out in front of her.

    That would have been helpful.

    What wasn¡¯t helpful were the thousands of quest completion dialog boxes that shattered over her vision. Whoever had designed this system was way too into quests, practically everything from [Adjusted Appearance] to [Slept], [Had Sex!] to [Killed a Local] and [Killed Another Visitor] a quest it deemed deserving of a reward.

    Grumbling, Emilia contented herself to accepting the reward for each quest completion. Most of them rewarded her with tokens, and she quickly accumulated enough that she could upgrade her gifts¡ªgaining the ability shift her aethervoice into something that would work with her inner voice, not that she currently had much need for it, with Conrad still suppressing it, and the ability to read non-array magic, as well as dismantle arrays from afar.

    Not too shabby, but also strange. By the time Emilia was done accepting all the tokens and the occasional extra item¡ªclothing and food from her world being the most common non-token rewards, although she did receive a few items that could allegedly make copies of a blood weapon¡ªit was all frankly¡­ too much. With this many tokens, she could easily have upgraded hundreds of gifts. While it was possible that she¡¯d just completed an unreasonable number of quests, she didn¡¯t think so: most visitors would have completed half the quests she had, even without the Risen Guard ever letting them go. Too many of the quests were just normal life things.

    Another option was that the system had changed since the last visitation, adding in more quests or removing more uses for the tokens¡ªand Emilia looked really hard for other uses for them. Nothing else, not even her weapons or control or power with magic could be upgraded, and while there definitely could be gifts out there that had more than one upgrade¡ªor simply cost more to upgrade¡ªthe number of tokens she had was still too much.

    Maybe she was missing something. Something told her she wasn¡¯t.

    Nothing about this raid felt right, and in many ways she wished she¡¯d spent more time inside other raids to know if what she felt was normal. Part of her wanted to ask Conrad or V¡ªif they managed to get to him¡ªabout it, but she suspected both men would have difficulties answering her: they both spent so much time within blackaether raids that their perception of what was normal and what wasn¡¯t was likely warped.

    Glaring at her token count, Emilia tried to fall into the mindset of a gamer¡ªof someone who had the option to go get more gifts, trying to use up their tokens. If the person weren¡¯t attached to any specific group¡ªor if the three groups didn¡¯t exist anymore¡ªwould they be affected by the heartcore¡¯s alternate personalities? Would the changes be so obvious?

    Or would it be a great way to sneak something insidious inside unsuspecting heroes?

    They had signed their rights away, in this anything goes raid, and while that did have some limits, would even someone like Olivier really be able to prove someone at Hail or whatever company was managing this raid had known what they were doing? Known they were changing heroes'' minds in a way that might leak into the real world?

    Emilia sucked in a grounding breath. She really hadn¡¯t been expecting to leave this raid with anything more than knowledge that she had or hadn¡¯t gained tickets to Ship o¡¯ Stars. Now, there were just so many questions that needed answers¡ªquestions she couldn¡¯t leave alone for long.

    Questions that would require her to step back into her old life, if only a little.

    Emilia snorted as time returned to the world, the hole that had been held open by the flow of time gone in an instant, hiding away the gore of the universe¡¯s insides once more.

    Realistically, it was going to require she return to her old life in big ways. Some part of her was ready for that, after these strange few weeks. Another part was terrified.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 173: Where Next?

    Conrad went next, his mood sour, to say the least. Neither he nor Boundary had been inclined to speak on what had happened in their fight with his sister and nephew, but obviously something had occurred. The man hadn¡¯t seemed particularly attached to his family, yet he¡¯d never spoken of how his mysterious, ethical brother would view him killing family members, even if it was temporary.

    A few reasons for the man¡¯s mood flittered through her head as she watched the Clarity members tear the world apart once more, cringing as the innards of the universe were displayed once more.

    ?That¡¯s pretty terrible,? Key said, tucking himself closer to her.

    ¡°It is¡­¡± Emilia mumbled, and at the very least, she knew that she wasn¡¯t the only one seeing the gory insides of the universe¡ªshe knew that at the very least, everyone else wasn¡¯t seeing something less horrific.

    The hole snapped shut, and across her vision, Conrad¡¯s name shifted from a light purple to a more vibrant shade.

    [Conrad: Hi]

    Emilia couldn¡¯t help but smile as Conrad¡¯s awkward message slid through the group chat, although Emilia was pretty sure that he would have been able to message on it with only Risen Guard system access, had he actually wanted to. They had yet to figure out how¡ªor even if¡ªthey could get Key onto the system, to say nothing of V and the kids, but both Boundary and Rin were able to message through it as well.

    The two Risen Guard¡ªwas Rin even still technically a part of the Risen Guard?¡ªhad remained outside, while Key and Emilia had accompanied Conrad for his ritual. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure what the pair had talked about, but by the time they stepped back outside themselves, the tension that had existed between them since Boundary and Conrad had joined them had dissipated some.

    Given she had mentioned the various states of corruption¡ªlargely existing under corrupt overseers¡ªthat the Risen Guard was and was not aware of and fighting against, she figured that was probably one of the things they¡¯d spoken about, allowing some of the tension and misunderstandings between them to settle. Conrad¡¯s ritual had taken over thirty minutes, and as much the corruption was fascinating stuff, Emilia doubted that was all they¡¯d managed to talk about.

    ¡°So¡­ what now?¡±

    Everyone looked between themselves. No one spoke.

    Well, okay then.

    ¡°So¡­ options,¡± Emilia''s sighed, accepting that she was probably going to have to take the lead, at least a bit. It had, most unfortunately, not escaped her notice that since her little show of authority in the meeting with the rebel Clarity members that Key and Rin had been deferring to her more. While she was pretty sure Conrad was older than her¡ªjust a vibe, really¡ªshe was also sure he wouldn¡¯t choose to take a leadership role, not unless someone physically forced him to.

    As for Boundary¡­

    Boundary seemed to be messaging someone, his eyes staring vacantly into space.

    If he had an opinion on things, he¡¯d volunteer it. Until then, he seemed content to let them figure out options.

    Raising her fist and counting off the options on her fingers, Emilia listed their possible actions. ¡°We can go find Ajarni and try to force information out of him. We can blow up the city system¡ªalthough I don¡¯t think we currently have either a weapon for that or the desperation to do so. We can try and evacuate as many people as possible¡ªalthough I¡¯m not even sure how that would work in this world.¡± She looked between the locals, who wore different versions of the same concerned frowns.

    ?It would be difficult without the Risen Guard,? Phlostra finally said. ?Clarity members can evacuate themselves and other members back to our own landing pads, but it would be extremely dangerous, as only a few people have personal landing pads outside the city.?

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t do to kill yourself landing inside another person while trying to save lives,¡± Emilia agreed.

    Fortunately, in the case of sparking, the skill purposefully chose points that hadn¡¯t recently been touched by another spark. You couldn¡¯t kill yourself or another person, your bodies sliding into each other to create a salad of human flesh, but you could physically land on top of someone.

    Emilia had done that a few times. The most notable time, she¡¯d landed flat on top of General Fulbrun¡­ who had then grabbed her and toppled both of them onto General Tyrees. Luckily, as powerful as General Fulbrun was, that man was also a softy and had simply laughed. General Tyrees had been less impressed, especially as she¡¯d been attempting to give an impassioned speech about something or other¡ªthat woman was always trying to talk people into one thing or another, and Emilia had never bothered to keep track of what she talked about from one day to the next.

    ?Will the Risen Guard help?? Key asked, looking between Rin and Boundary.

    Rin shifted, clearly uncomfortable with being asked something she couldn¡¯t possibly know.

    ?It is¡­ unlikely,? Boundary said.

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Emilia asked, levelling an unimpressed look at the man. ¡°Isn¡¯t it your guy¡¯s job to help people?¡±

    Boundary blinked at her, his expression somewhere between confused and wary. Slowly he nodded, telling her it was. ?However,? he interjected, before she could tell him off, ?as much as Clarity is not an organization whose existence is common knowledge, it is common knowledge that there are several groups acting against the Risen Guard for one reason or another. It is understood that if you join such a group, you forfeit your right to our assistance. I cannot expect other guards to risk their lives for people who may very well go off and join another vigilante group.?The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    That was, unfortunately, a pretty good argument. ¡°What about the kids? A bunch of the homeless kids from Livery ended up here. Carne may have been looking for them, but who knows if he actually found them? They didn¡¯t choose to be here, and I bet there are a lot of people who just sort of ended up here, or were born into the group and would really like to leave.¡±

    The look Boundary gave her was sympathetic, but resolute. ?If we find children, or adults who clearly do not want to be here and who¡±¡ªhis eyes slid hesitantly towards Rin¡ª¡°your friend can determine haven¡¯t been severally affected by the heartcores yet, I may be able to convince several members to come and get them.¡±

    They blinked at each other for a long moment, Emilia warring with the part of herself that hated leaving anyone who may be innocent behind¡ªthe part of herself who had risked sparking into off-limit Free Colonies, trying to rescue people who hated her for her silverstrain or who had been brainwashed by their governments¡ªand the part that both knew this wasn¡¯t her world or her decision to make¡ªthe part that knew that some of those people they had rescued had been killed by their home government anyways, simply for daring to speak with an outsider, even if it was against their will.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she finally said, grimacing as she added, ¡°What aren¡¯t you telling us?¡±

    The Risen Guard tensed, although that could have been because he wasn¡¯t used to being called out or due to what he had to say. ?The person we sent to speak with the Haym family went dark.?

    Every local in the group tensed, and Emilia could guess at the meaning behind the man¡¯s words: the man was dead.

    ¡°Before or after Conrad¡¯s family started showing up?¡±

    ?Shortly before.?

    ¡°In other words, they may very well have already known that we were poking around, looking for one of their weapons of mass destruction.¡±

    ?It¡¯s possibly.?

    ¡°So, one of them could be carrying it around with them, and that¡¯s part of why you won¡¯t ask the Risen Guard to send in more people: this place could blow any minute.¡±

    Everyone shifted uncomfortably¡ªwell, Conrad didn¡¯t, but neither he nor Emilia could really die.

    ?I can take you to the kids¡ªboth the ones who came with V and ones who belong to Clarity. We moved most of them to a more secure location, before the mission to the Ingogia estate,? Phlostra volunteered, the unspoken people will be watching them in her words ringing between them. ?I won¡¯t ask for coordinates to one of your landing pads¡ªI know you don¡¯t trust me enough for that¡ªbut if you decide to give me one, I will help you get the kids out. I can also lead you to the city levels with the most residents who are¡­ more simple resident than Clarity member. Ajarni has been¡­ gathering people for a long time.?

    The woman looked away, uncomfortable as she admitted that many of them would never have been the type of people Ajarni could manipulate, the word a bare whisper through the aether. ?Each generation, his family has turned more and more of the children to their cause. I believe that was more their intention: to gather parents and then turn their children.?

    So, there were a lot more innocent people in the Clarity City System than they¡¯d realized¡ªa lot of people who would die if they didn¡¯t¡­ what? Figure out a way to purge every person who had been touched by the hive mind?

    Actually¡­ was that something that could be possible?

    ¡°If we can get rid of the last two members of Conrad¡¯s family, will the Risen Guard come then?¡± Emilia asked, her mind twisting around a potential plan.

    Slowly, Boundary nodded. ?If you can find the weapon that was created in Salsetrun, I believe I can convince some to risk their lives.?

    ¡°Some of the people who can use that ability Rin was using? The one that can track people by their heartcore corruption?¡±

    ?Perhaps¡­ why??

    ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone wants to kill all the people down here, or risk whatever blood weapon is used being too powerful.¡± As much as Boundary had told her most of the mass destruction grade blood weapons were capable of destroying a building or two at most, he had admitted a few had taken out far more, his expression grim as he refused to say more. ¡°If we can instead track down the Clarity members who are affected by the hive mind and kill them¡ª¡±

    ?We can leave the rest of the residents alive, and not risk whatever the weapon is blowing up the entire planet,? Key said, lighting up. He had slowly grown sadder since realizing they¡¯d likely be killing the majority of the people in the Clarity City System. It was rather cute, watching him perk up at the mere possibility things wouldn¡¯t end quite so bloody.

    ?The remaining people will still have to be questioned,? Rin pointed out, something in her demeanour changing from quiet listener to someone who actually knew what they were talking about.

    What had Boundary said? That she¡¯d been tapped for investigation? That certainly took a certain type of mentality, even if Rin was clearly only at the beginning of her training.

    Boundary nodded in agreement, arms crossing over his chest as he stared her down. ?Yes, and it will also involve killing countless people who may only have the smallest hints of the hive mind within them.? He stared at her, likely trying to gauge her reaction. It wasn¡¯t everyday someone asked if you were capable of killing people who were, to a large extent, innocent. ?There may even be some children.?

    At that, Rin faltered slightly, but she still remained resolute. ?A few unnecessary deaths is better than everyone dying,? she said, her aethervoice still managing to crack.

    The two of them, Risen Guard and former trainee, stared at each other a long time before Boundary finally nodded and turned to Phlostra. ?You can lead the girl and I to the children.?

    ?What about us?? Key asked, looking nervously between everyone, and it occurred to Emilia that he probably hadn¡¯t been expecting to split up with Rin.

    Turning to Conrad, Emilia asked, ¡°Do you want to go deal with your family or get V and the kids?¡±

    The man frowned at her. ?You make it sound like we¡¯re splitting up.?

    ¡°Well¡­¡±

    ?No.?

    ¡°What do you mean no?¡±

    ?I mean, no. We won¡¯t be splitting up. End of story.?

    Emilia gaped at him, mentally preparing to cuss him out, when he sighed and admitted that he didn¡¯t think either of them could handle his remaining niece and nephew alone. ?If you¡¯re planning to go after them, we have to go together.?

    ?You should go after them first. If they really have that weapon, we¡¯ll want to get it before they decide to use it,? Boundary pointed out, like the sensible man he was.

    Scuffing her foot against the ground, Emilia begrudgingly agreed. She wanted to get to V and the kids before anything terrible happened to them, but if they could remove the risk of the entire city system being blown off the map any minute, that would make them all safer.

    ?I¡¯ll go. To V and¡­ and those kids, I mean.?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 174: Goodbye

    As one, the group turned to stare, wide-eyed, at Key. He shifted nervously under all the attention, but raised his chin, nonetheless.

    ?What did you just say?? Rin asked, as though they had collectively misheard the boy¡¯s words.

    For a moment, Key looked like he might try to take his suggestion back¡ªlike he might be trying to come up with some reasonable excuse for what he said, or some different combination of words that they may have mistaken for the insanity he had just spouted. Then, he straightened. Gone was the naive, somewhat timid Enclave boy who had yet to see much of the world. Instead, the boy he had been in the lake cavern was back; confident and sure¡ªa child who would grow to run his family one day, assuming they didn¡¯t all die here, anyways.

    ?I said, I¡¯ll go find V and the kids.?

    Rin looked about ready to bark at him, her energy beginning to vibrate through the aether with such ferocity that the people closest to her took a step back. ?No,? she said instead, her voice so sharp Emilia wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if it left a mark across the aether.

    ?Yes,? Key said simply, chin tilting up in challenge.

    ?You might die.?

    ?We all might.?

    ?I¡¯m supposed to protect you.?

    ?Why??

    Rin hesitated, the aether around her vibrating with unsaid words that, Emilia abruptly realized, she could read. Was that normal? She knew she could read private conversations with her upgraded ability to hear locals, but could she really read cut off thoughts?

    Actually, why could locals cut off thoughts that were at least partially formed without anyone hearing them when she couldn¡¯t!? Why had this never been mentioned to her as a potential way to control her aethervoice!?

    Emilia grumbled to herself as she looked down, unwilling to even entertain the idea of reading her friend¡¯s internal thoughts when she was clearly struggling with where her allegiance lay and what her obligations to the Risen Guard, the Enclave and the Stringers¡ªas well as Emilia and the world itself¡ªwere.

    She hadn¡¯t been able to entirely ignore the girl¡¯s thoughts when she¡¯d been looking directly at her, okay!? The most she could do was look away now and try to pretend she hadn¡¯t seen the thoughts trying to bubble out of Rin.

    ?Because you¡¯re my friend,? Rin finally said, a light red dusting over her usually expressionless face.

    ?So is Emilia,? Key pointed out, levelling an amused look at his friend¡ªwere they friends now? Rin had always been Harmony¡¯s friend, from what Emilia knew. Rin and Key knew each other, but they certainly hadn¡¯t been friends when they¡¯d last seen each other, weeks earlier.

    Rin rolled her eyes¡ªactually rolled them! ?Yes, but she¡¯s going with the other, terrifying visitor, and she can¡¯t actually die¡­ maybe.?

    Emilia let out a long-suffering sigh while Phlostra frowned and Conrad laughed.

    ?I was under the assumption that visitors return to their world when they die here?? the Clarity woman asked, eyes shifting to Conrad when he began to explain that it was a common issue in raids.

    ?Sometimes, it doesn¡¯t matter how often we tell locals that we can¡¯t actually die: they just won¡¯t believe it. I¡¯ve been in raids where I¡¯ve died a handful of times, come back dozens of years later. Nope. Doesn¡¯t matter. No one¡¯ll believe I come from another world and can¡¯t be harmed¡­ ah¡­? He trailed off, and Emilia knew what he was thinking: that with whatever was happening with the heartcores, they could be hurt now, at least in a way.

    Emilia really, really hoped that the heartcore corruption wasn¡¯t permanent or far-reaching. Hopefully, it was limited to this raid alone and¡­ and she didn¡¯t know. It wasn¡¯t like she could report the issue to Hail and hope they didn¡¯t just contact the company running this raid platform to let them know it needed to be purged; that would mean all the people within this world would die.

    Granted, by the time anyone could purge the system, it was likely everyone she knew in this world would be dead¡ªexcept maybe Zach¡¯s daughter and¡ª

    ¡°Oh!¡± she gasped, thinking back to her meeting with Zach and the memories he had given her. Waving off the looks everyone had turned on her, she left Rin and Key to their argument¡ªKey seemed to be winning, especially since everyone else was now backing him up¡ªas she turned her attention to her visitor system¡ªor more specifically, to her inventory.

    Back when she¡¯d met Zach, she¡¯d been entrusted with the memories his mother had hoped to get to his father¡ªto Remy. Emilia had been carrying the little orb around with her since she¡¯d acquired it, moving it from bag to bag, and honestly, she was rather amazed that in everything that had happened it had been neither broken nor lost. Yet, there it was, stored in her inventory under the innocuous name [FHFR].

    Emilia had no idea what that could stand for¡ªwhich is why she hadn¡¯t even realized it was the memory orb when she¡¯d first stored it away¡ªbut when she called the item out of her inventory, the orb appearing in her hand, it was the memories.

    Conrad watched¡ªapparently uninterested in listening to Key and Rin argue over whether he would be an effective and safe babysitter for Emilia or not, which, rude!? She did not need a babysitter!¡ªas she pulled the memories back into her inventory and began to look through all the settings.

    From listening to her friends, she knew that some raids had an option to bring items back to the real world. Sometimes, they became data¡ªmany people converted them into items that could be used in Censor or Virtuosi rooms¡ªwhile other times, the data could be exchanged for real-world items. A few companies even ran auction houses, where people could sell the items they brought back to the real world or transferred to other raids.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ?Looking for something?? Conrad whispered into her, her increasingly annoyed expression clearly giving away her frustration.

    She side eyed him before whispering her problem to him. ¡°Basically, this guy who was the child of a visitor gave me some memories? I said I¡¯d try to get them to his dad, assuming I can even find him in the real world or get the memories there.¡±

    Humming, Conrad placed a hand to the back of her neck, his slithery energy sliding into her, cool darkness beginning to fill her vision. Had this been the real world¡ªor anyone else¡ªshe would have panicked. People didn¡¯t touch the Censors of others without permission¡ªnot unless they were hacking them, anyways. It was just too¡­ intimate, dangerous, threatening.

    The fact that Conrad wasn¡¯t touching her real Censor definitely helped, but in his strange way, Conrad wasn¡¯t threatening, either¡ªnot to her, anyways. Perhaps it was the things they had shared between them, or his energy still keeping her aethervoice suppressed because even though she could try using her aethervoice upgrade to silence her internal thoughts, there was just something settling about his energy always being with her. Like an older sibling, always watching out for the younger one, even when they were far from each other, even though Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure if his energy could do more than continue suppressing her aethervoice, if she were in danger.

    Her friend¡ªbecause at this point, they had to be friends, right?¡ªpressed his way through her inventory, switching them through screen after screen until Emilia was convinced he didn¡¯t know what he was looking for any more than she did. Why he was looking and experimenting in her interface, rather than his own, was beyond her until suddenly a screen popped up, asking if she¡¯d like to transfer an item into her real-world inventory.

    It had been¡­ very buried. So buried, that even though she¡¯d mostly been paying attention, she couldn¡¯t imagine trying to get back to it.

    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± she breathed out as she read over the dialog boxes that popped up, explaining the procedure to her. Essentially, once she sent an item to her real-world inventory, it would be inaccessible within the raid. There was no undo, so she better be pretty fucking sure whatever she was sending wasn¡¯t something she¡¯d need at a later date.

    There were also some notes about rare items that could be exchanged for real-world items, but she¡¯d only learn what those items were once she was back in her real body. Some items¡ªmost notably blood weapons¡ªcouldn¡¯t be moved to the real world, either¡ªsomething about proprietary technology.

    ¡°That was oddly difficult to find,¡± she noted as she confirmed that she wanted to send the item along.

    Conrad snorted, telling her many raid platforms treated transfers like a secret, burying them behind so many clicks that most people would never find them without luck, stupidity or someone else leading the way.

    Cocking her head at him, Emilia asked how he had found it so easily¡ªit wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d had his visitor system access very long.

    ?Because I spent a few days inside that time stop going over the system??

    Emilia blinked at him. ¡°Days?¡±

    Conrad frowned at her. ?How long did you take??

    ¡°I dunno? Twenty, thirty minutes?¡±

    The other visitor frowned down at her before shaking his head and muttering, ?Amateurs.?

    ¡°Hey!¡± Emilia gasped. ¡°That¡¯s not very nice!¡± Was it fair? Yes, but the man didn¡¯t need to point it out!

    Across from them, Rin and Key had finally stopped arguing while Boundary and Phlostra discussed logistics of some sort. From what she had overheard during the argument and could glean from the current discussion, Phlostra had sent for another rebel Clarity member to accompany Key¡ªsomething that Rin was incredibly unhappy with, the girl muttering about stupid men as they waited.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Emilia sighed, turning her attention to Key, ¡°unless I missed it, in all that arguing you didn¡¯t actually say why you¡¯re so insistent on trying and find V and the kids?¡±

    The two locals had mostly argued over whether Key was stupid and Conrad an acceptable babysitter. Emilia wasn¡¯t about to say it, but she would rather Key not be with her and Conrad when they fought his niece and nephew. The fact that none of them could really die, and would therefore be more willing to risk their lives fighting would be helpful to them, unhelpful if a local were with them. As much as she didn¡¯t actually like the idea of Key going off alone, being left with a random Clarity member as his only protection, something told her he wouldn¡¯t make it out of a battle with Conrad¡¯s family.

    ?Those two kids deserve a chance to get out of here. If you two fail, or one of the other visitors decides to activate that weapon during their fight¡­? The boy shook himself, telling them that he thought the kids deserved to at least have someone coming for them, even if getting to them in time was a game of luck. ?Plus, I know we need all the help we can get. V and that other visitor girl could help us¡­ maybe.?

    Rin looked like she wanted to tell him he was stupid again, but seemed to swallow down her words. Obviously, she was worried for her friend, but Emilia understood the mean words that could be spit between people who loved one another when one of them was doing something potentially stupid¡ªshe¡¯d been on both the giving and receiving side of such hateful words.

    ¡°They might be able to,¡± Emilia agreed, before Rin could say something she couldn¡¯t take back¡ªsomething more, considering she¡¯d already effectively told Key he was an idiot during their first argument. ¡°But you¡¯re right. The other two are the priority, so¡­¡± she hesitated, knowing that what she was asking wasn¡¯t fair for Key or the rebel Clarity man who had finally appeared to help lead him, ¡°so if you find them, get them out of here.¡±

    Key froze. ?Emilia, I can¡¯t¡ª?

    ¡°You said it yourself: they deserve a chance to get out or here. So if you find them, let V and Astra go¡ªtell them what¡¯s going on¡ªand then get the kids out of here. Don¡¯t think I forgot you have a personal landing pad back at home.¡± Stepping forward, she snatched up the boy¡¯s¡ªand he truly seemed a boy at the moment¡ªhands in her own. Giving them a gentle squeeze, she smiled. ¡°Get the kids and yourself out of here. Go and make sure all three of you live the lives you deserve. Make sure they¡¯re safe. Make sure all the kids the Risen Guard are dealing with are safe.¡± A smile cracked across her face as she laughingly told him that maybe he could have his family offer them a little help with the kids¡ªstars knew they needed it.

    Key¡¯s hands tightened around hers. ?If we don¡¯t see each other again¡­? He cut off, looking away, trying to find his words.

    ¡°I¡¯ll miss you,¡± Emilia finished. ¡°I¡¯m glad I got to be your friend. I might have hated a lot of things here, but I never regretted meeting you¡­ well, except that your sister and Sk¡¯lar kinda suck.¡±

    Key laughed, a smile pulling at his face even as he blinked liquid eyes back at her. ?Go and live a great life.? He leaned in, pressing their foreheads together as they just breathed together for a moment.

    ¡°Tell the kids I love them¡± Emilia breathed out, choosing to believe this sweet boy would find them and keep them safe¡ªthat all three of them would be safe and happy, ¡°and that I¡¯m sorry for everything and that I don¡¯t get to see them again.¡± She might have been crying, her voice cracking with pain for the little kids she had grown to love in their too short time together.

    ?I will,? Key said, his own voice strained, and when he finally pulled back, some of his own tears had spilled over. He lifted a hand, wiping away some of her own tears with his thumb. ?Goodbye.?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 175: How to Upset An Enemy

    Out of necessity, Emilia and Conrad had allowed another member of the rebel Clarity group to transport them to the building Conrad¡¯s niece and nephew were travelling through, although they had quickly shooed the woman off, unwilling to trust any Clarity member more a necessary.

    Annoyingly, Conrad had refused to give her names for his niblings¡ªwhich, yes, she understood that with more of their names she could perhaps hunt the family down in the real world, but still¡ªand out of spite she had taken to referring to them by their now official names of The Quiet Boy and The Child. Out of additional spite, she had considered coming up with some other way of referring to Conrad¡ªor sending Boundary a million messages until he relented and gave her the other visitor¡¯s real name¡ªbut had given up when nothing catchy came to her mind.

    The Stalker would have been just a bit too on the nose.

    They had, after a brief discussion, decided to intercept the pair on a lower level, and according to their intel¡ªEmilia¡¯s Risen Guard map, which still helpfully showed each of the visitors that old, rebel Clarity member¡¯s gift had shown her¡ªConrad¡¯s family were still three floor above them.

    That gave them a respectable amount of time to plan.

    Or, it should have.

    Unfortunately, just as they were settling in, Conrad preparing to tell her about The Quiet Boy and The Child¡¯s abilities, dark energy swelled around them. Emilia had barely registered it before Conrad was throwing her over his shoulder and bolting, his own energy rising up to cocoon them, and it wasn¡¯t going to be enough. Whatever was coming for them had taken that moment of surprise and used it with a brutal efficiency that tickled the back of Emilia¡¯s mind and¡ª

    And her {Blood Ball}¡ªor, a copy of it, thanks to one of her quest rewards, the original still with Boundary, while another copy had gone with Key¡ªchose this moment to activate, shattering outward and enveloping her and Conrad into a pocket dimension¡­ which Conrad then proceeded to run into the edge of.

    ¡°Wow¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, rubbing her ass¡ªwhich had taken the majority of the hit and probably protected Conrad from a broken nose. ¡°Second wall I¡¯ve run into today¡­ kinda.¡±

    ¡°?What??¡± the man asked, somewhat dazedly. Probably more than a little dazedly if he was suddenly speaking out loud again.

    ¡°I tried sparking earlier¡­ like, earlier in the real-world night? Ran into a wall¡­ wait, did I run into a wall twice?¡± Emilia blinked into the darkness of the pocket dimension, both wondering why it wasn¡¯t dissipating and trying to remember how the fight with the echo had actually gone down. It had been a while ago, she supposed. Honestly, it was no wonder so many of her classmates could barely remember anything about their classes once they¡¯d spent their entire weekend inside a virtual raid. Months would have gone by for them, and she doubted any of them were taking their schoolwork with them, so they could study in their downtime.

    Well, if the raids they played were even half as active as this one, she doubted there was much downtime. She knew some of her classmates played more mellow raids, doing things like farming or managing restaurants. The fact that they could do those things in the real world¡ªeven if things like farming were almost completely automated now, at least in Baalphoria¡ªhad always seemed weird to her.

    There were much better ways to relax.

    ?Why did you spark if ya can¡¯t do it properly? I thought that was dangerous??

    ¡°Eh¡­ a bit? It was an emergency, is all. There was an echo.¡± On second thought, maybe she shouldn¡¯t have told him that. As much as they were planning to meet up in real life, there was still a bit of a buffer to that¡ªa place where either of them could panic and back out. Now, he¡¯d be able to look at the echo logs, and it wouldn¡¯t take long for him to figure out she went to Astrapan¡ªthere weren¡¯t many silverstrains walking around Piketown, okay?

    Conrad didn¡¯t say anything about her recent run in with an echo and a wall, instead deciding to bury her in word vomit about his niece and nephew.

    Effectively, they were generally considered the most dangerous of his niblings, although Conrad willing admitted every member of his family was dangerous in their own way. The Child could be vicious¡ªand, despite her appearance, was actually the oldest of the kids. The Quiet Boy, on the other hand, Conrad was slightly vague about. Emilia had a feeling, from reading through his words, that it wasn¡¯t just Conrad himself, but at least a few members of his family, who had a hereditary irregular deviation, each showing signs in a slightly different way. The other visitor didn¡¯t explicitly want to say my nephew is fucked up because of his genes, so he was only giving vague details.

    The energy that had swelled around them? That was the nephew. Brutal and efficient, and while he often preferred to stay out of combat, once he had decided to fight, no one got away from him.

    Lovely.

    Conrad also wasn¡¯t sure, but he figured the reason the {Blood Ball} hadn¡¯t faded yet was his nephew was still assaulting them with his energy. ?If you think th¡¯ feeling of my energy pressing down on you at Boundary¡¯s house was bad, it¡¯ll be nothing compared to¡ª to my nephew¡¯s energy. My energy hurt. His will squeeze you t¡¯death.¡±

    Even more lovely.

    ¡°So¡­ are you admitting he¡¯s stronger than you?¡± Emilia teased, squeaking when Conrad landed a slap over her thigh¡ªhe had patently refused to put her down, suspecting they¡¯d need to run the moment the {Blood Ball} retracted¡ªand told her to be nice.

    ?He¡¯s not. He¡¯s simply¡­? the other visitor trailed off, trying to organize his thoughts and seemingly failing to when he finally just told her they were different. ?We each ¡®ave strengths and weaknesses. I would sooner run from a fight an¡¯ avenge myself later, he will fight to th¡¯death and beyond, if he has chosen to fight. And you think I¡¯m creepy? It¡¯s nothing compared t¡¯him.?This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°Actually,¡± Emilia tutted, feet beginning to wiggle as she grew more and more restless from being held aloft and unable to move, ¡°I think your entire family is creepy. Well, maybe not the baby one¡ª actually, where did the baby one go?¡±

    Tobias was how they¡¯d even figured out the Haym family might have been searching for a blood weapon in Salsetrun. Wherever he had ended up, it wasn¡¯t in the Clarity City System with the rest of his surviving family¡ªnot unless the old woman¡¯s gift had missed a random visitor, anyways.

    Under her stomach, Conrad shrugged. ?Maybe he died. Tobias didn¡¯t belong here to begin with. I¡¯ve no idea who let ¡®im come. He¡¯s too young an¡¯ soft.?

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Emilia breathed out, and seriously, when was the {Blood Ball} going to let up? As much as she didn¡¯t want to be smushed by The Quiet Boy¡¯s energy, this was boring. ¡°Did he have this long-lasting of energy stores in your world?¡±

    ?No¡­? Conrad breathed out, and as much as he had just been nonchalantly talking about how the youngest of his nephews¡ªassuming his crazy ass sister didn¡¯t have even more kids outside of the raid¡ªwas probably already dead, he was tense now.

    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s just a consequence of the raid? You said some of your abilities are augmented just by being here?¡±

    ?Maybe.? Conrad didn¡¯t sound convinced.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced either. ¡°When I saw them earlier,¡± she said slowly, willing the scenario inside her head to not be true, ¡°something seemed off with him. I couldn¡¯t tell what¡ªespecially since my perception floated off so fast¡ªbut even his sister seemed¡­ wary of him. Is that normal?¡±

    ?No.?

    Conrad didn¡¯t say more, and instead Emilia contented herself to waiting, flicking through the settings of her system access, looking at this and that and wondering what in the world Conrad had spent days looking at.

    Gamers were just too intense.

    She was just finishing a round of a silly little game she¡¯d found buried inside her system access¡ªone that involved making deliveries in the most efficient manner¡ªwhen her {Blood Ball} contracted and Conrad was moving again, continuing down a path that he had already mapped out, it seemed.

    It was a good thing he had, a barrage of icicles shattering down where they¡¯d just been standing. Emilia hadn¡¯t just been playing her delivery game, however, and the {Blood Needle} already in her hand went flying towards the building the siblings were standing atop, just out of view¡ªnot that hiding was useful, when she could clearly see them on her map.

    Whatever the nibling pair did or didn¡¯t know about the system and the features available on it, Emilia had no idea, but it certainly didn¡¯t seem like they¡¯d been prepared for her to find them so easily. The Child shrieked, and The Quiet Boy¡¯s energy¡ªwhich had been reaching towards them once more¡ªceased to exist. Not because he was dead¡ªEmilia could see their dots moving as one over her map, although a brief stall in their movement told her they¡¯d been forced to bail off the building and someone had landed badly.

    ¡°Did they jump before the explosion?¡± Emilia asked, unsurprised when Conrad hummed in agreement.

    ?My nephew may have sensed your attack coming,? he said, sounding thoroughly unconvinced. Conrad had already confirmed for her that out of all her blood weapons, the {Blood Needles} were the hardest for him to sense. Even when he knew they were on her, he could barely sense them. They were just too tiny, the magic within them so condensed, that when combined with the other weapons on her¡ªin her, in the case of the {Blood Tattoo} she still had no clue as to the purpose of¡ªthey simply disappeared.

    Emilia knew what Conrad wasn¡¯t saying: that within the maelstrom of all their energy, attacks and blood weapons, it was unlikely his nephew had been able to sense a blood weapon he would have barely any knowledge of¡ªif any at all.

    That was not good. Not only was the fact that he had several potentially very dangerous gifts a problem at the moment, but in the context of the heartcore¡¯s corruption¡­

    ¡°We need to get to them, before they activate that weapon, assuming they have it.¡±

    This was easier said than done. Whether one of the siblings had a map or not, they did have the ability to track them through the city level, and it didn¡¯t matter where they went or how hidden they were, The Quiet Boy¡¯s energy always found them.

    Thankfully, whatever requirements her {Blood Ball} needed were fulfilled by his power, and without fail, whenever his energy got too close it would explode around them. Luckily, it didn¡¯t need any energy to do so, so Emilia wasn¡¯t being slowly drained, but neither did The Quiet Boy¡¯s attacks seem to be slowing down or flittering out of existence more quickly.

    The kid was like a bottomless pit!

    ¡°Hey,¡± Emilia asked, during their sixth time waiting within her {Blood Ball}¡¯s pocket dimension, ¡°where do I fall in terms of your niblings¡¯ ages?¡±

    Conrad seemed to disappear within his mind and worries every stint within the pocket dimension, and it took him a moment to realize she¡¯d spoken to him.

    In his defence, she had been spending most of her own time within the pocket dimension playing the delivery game. There was something addicting about it, and eventually, she¡¯d been able to unlock themes for the deliveries and several different versions. Currently, she had it set to delivering sweets¡ªyum¡ªin a version that involved constantly moving vehicles that she had to direct to the proper locations. It was rather addicting, scratching the part of her brain that required constant stimulation and chaos in order to focus.

    ¡°You¡¯re almost 70, yes?¡± Conrad asked, and Emilia wondered if she¡¯d specifically told him that, or if he¡¯d put it together between her various mentions of events in her life. ¡°The eldest two are older than you, the next two about the same age¡ªthat includes this nephew.¡±

    So, she probably shouldn¡¯t be thinking of either as kids, then. Not that that would stop her, especially when she knew how much being called a child pissed some people off¡­ unless of course they were wandering around in the body of a child, and acting one as well.

    When the pocket dimension sizzled out of existence once more, Emilia was already ready. There had been a few times in her life when she¡¯d needed to yell, but the skill for amplifying her voice had been inaccessible, for one reason or another. So, she¡¯d improvised, and created a core-only way of doing so. It had caused a lot of chaos, every time she¡¯d used it.

    Now, she was hoping it would do exactly that.

    ¡°You know, little granny~¡± she teased, already having forced Conrad to put her down so she could take off without him, ¡°just because you make the baby boy attack for you, it doesn¡¯t make you less crusty inside. Or, ah! Maybe that¡¯s why you¡¯re having your little brother do all the work? Too old and decrepit? Your brain melting under the rot of old age? Is that why you act the child? Your adulthood gone into dementia and¡ª¡±

    Emilia bolted to the side as icicles rained down on her, Conrad already gone, using her distraction of his niece to go after his nephew.

    ¡°You!¡± a little child¡¯s angry, twinkling voice screamed. ¡°You are going to take that back!¡±

    Her brother stood behind her, glaring blankly in Emilia¡¯s direction as he said something to his sister¡ªOria. Too bad for them, they didn¡¯t know her aethervoice reading gift extended to normal speech as well¡ªnot that she had either, until this moment.

    ¡°Oria?¡± Emilia cooed. ¡°What an old lady name! Your mommy and daddy must have named you for how old you looked, even as a baby. Ah~ but maybe that¡¯s why he went and fucked someone else? Couldn¡¯t stand making such ugly children with¡ª¡±

    Another blast of ice hurdled towards her, and while The Quiet Boy definitely tried to stop Oria from heading her way, she was clearly too pissed off. Then Conrad was on the boy, his shadows reaching around him and forcing him to leave his sister to her fate.

    ¡°DO NOT TALK ABOUT MY FATHER!¡±

    Emilia hoped Conrad would tell her what in the world had happened with these kids¡¯ father, that he could seemingly cheat on his wife and create a bastard child, yet still be so loved by them.

    Strange, but useful.

    Pissed off people were so much easier to take down.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 176: To Rescue a Friend

    The Child¡ªOria¡ªreally was quite pissed off, practically snarling as she chased Emilia through the city level, hurling ice magic at her as they went.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Emilia called as she dodged another attack, ¡°can I ask you a question?¡±

    A huge, rolling snowball barrelled towards her in response. Rude. All she wanted to know was whether the girl had acquired her magic through a heartcore gift or if it was a result of her real-world, core-based abilities. She¡¯d asked Conrad something similar, of course, and he¡¯d told her it was all natural talent and years wandering through raids¡ªboth legal and blackaether¡ªthat had allowed him to master this world¡¯s magic system so quickly.

    Given the pair probably had similar histories within raids, maybe it was a good thing the girl wasn¡¯t talking to her. Dealing with one type of magic was annoying enough, the last thing Emilia needed was to remind the girl she could call forth other elements as well.

    Behind her, the girl screamed about coming back again. In terms of which of them was saying stupid things to the other, Emilia figured the girl trying to scream her into ceasing her running away was definitely up there with her continuing to think of the girl as, well, a girl.

    Woman. Oria was a woman, despite her tiny form and the veritable tantrum she was breathing over the world. The other girl had been the same, hadn¡¯t she? Filled with more anger over her disparaging remarks about her parents¡ªwell, mostly her father¡ªthan vengeful love for the fake-silverstrain sibling Emilia had killed.

    On the surface, that wasn¡¯t strange. These were only temporary deaths, after all, and it wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d tortured anyone with a slow, painful death or anything, the trauma from such an experience chasing them into the real world. Yet, they claimed their entire reason for chasing her and Conrad down was the deaths they had caused and ignored, respectively. Aside from a few brief moments, however, Emilia couldn¡¯t help but think their anger for momentarily dead family members was preformative. It was strange and pointless and more than a little confusing.

    Even now, with this girl screaming and tearing through the city, Emilia was sure she was more upset about being called old and the remarks about her father than anything else¡ªif anything, she¡¯d bet Oria didn¡¯t give a shit she¡¯d killed any of her family members. Sure, she and her brother still would have attacked her and Conrad¡ªas they had¡ªbut where those attacks had felt passionless, these current ones were so impassioned it was actually rather concerning.

    Surely, the girl realized she had only said those things to piss her off? When her brother had spoken to her, before Conrad forced his way between them, he had certainly known Emilia was just goading Oria. Yet, that hadn¡¯t mattered¡ªthe fact that her words were so obviously poking at tender spots for the sake of rattling her opponents seemingly didn¡¯t help to lessen the sting of her words.

    They were such an odd lot. Emilia knew full well how many people would fight for the sake of allies, even if they would rather not, even if they didn¡¯t really care about the person, even if they hadn¡¯t really been harmed at all. There was an expectation in war that you would fight for comrades, even if you disliked them¡ªand Emilia had definitely had the sense when she¡¯d first overheard the group that most of them didn¡¯t really like each other.

    Emilia also understood that sometimes words hit their mark, and even if you knew the intention behind them, it wasn¡¯t always easy to shake those words off.

    Except, this woman was older than her¡ªfar older, if the tone she¡¯d heard in Conrad¡¯s voice were to be believed¡ªand that age wasn¡¯t even taking all the extra years she¡¯d earned inside raids into account. Oria had lived through the war¡ªpossibly even fought in it. So how were her emotions over this so unregulated? This thing with her father would have occurred at least 15 years ago, if her probably-half-brother were on the younger side. Emilia knew trauma did some messed up things to your body, but something about the whole situation between the kids, their probably-half-brother and parents seemed off¡ªoff in the way that made Emilia¡¯s skin crawl with suspicions that even though many of the children were old enough to leave the toxicity of their mother¡¯s love, they weren¡¯t able to.

    That¡­ made it a bit uncomfortably, to yell vitriol back at Oria, knowing that whatever anger she had at Emilia was likely fuelled by beliefs her mother was violently forcing on her children.

    The sound of The Mother¡¯s hand slapping across Livia¡¯s face, when she dared try to avenge one sister rather than come after this child¡ªthis full-grown woman who should have been able to defend herself, who should have been able to control herself enough to not run off in a panic in the middle of a raid, who shouldn¡¯t have been allowed to enter the raid if her mental state were that unstable.

    The look in The Gangly Boy¡¯s eyes, the way he had seemed so desperate for the love of a mother who wasn¡¯t his biological one and seemed to not give a shit about him.

    So strange¡ªit was so strange, especially when she brought Conrad¡¯s mysterious brother into the equation. If he was as ethical as Conrad was always saying he was, why wasn¡¯t he stopping this? Did they live in a Free Colony where removing children from an abusive household wasn¡¯t done? That was certainly possible, but everything Emilia had heard about the man implied that he wouldn¡¯t care about laws he didn¡¯t agree with.

    Maybe he just had a blind spot where his family was concerned, intent to let them be cruel to each other because he loved them too much to chastise them?

    No. Something about that didn¡¯t fit either, and it was aggravating.

    It wasn¡¯t the way people normally behaved, and even if everyone was marred over with trauma¡­ something told Emilia there was something else going on.

    ¡°Stupid mysteries,¡± Emilia grumbled to herself, suddenly extremely thankful that she¡¯d be meeting up with Conrad in the real world. She had questions for him¡ªa family system to unravel and then possibly force her way into, if only so the children could have an escape.

    She had friends in high places, and more than a few who would be perfectly willing to go to war with some random family¡ªor even a whole Free Colony¡ªif it meant getting some kids away from their terrible parents. They¡¯d done it before, sieging into Chinsata to free as many slaves as they could without being noticed. Not that they¡¯d had to¡ªthat she¡¯d had to, even if she was closer to the situation in Chinsata than she usually liked to think about.

    With Chinsata¡­ there had been a connection¡ªa biological obligation that had scratched at her for more than a decade, until one day someone asked if she wanted to do something about it, even if in the grand scheme of things the people they had managed to get out that day were but a drop in the bucket of suffering that Free Colony inflicted on its slaves.

    She had no obligation to Conrad¡¯s family, especially the older ones. It was difficult to get out of toxic families, but there definitely came a point where adults needed to take responsibility for staying in a shitty family, for continuing to inflict suffering on their younger siblings, for not protecting them from abusive parents.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Not that there weren¡¯t a thousand little things that could make those things impossible, and Emilia really needed to stop thinking about this before she worked herself up.

    Not everyone had fought in the war.

    Not everyone was able to see how Baalphoria and other Free Colonies allowed their citizens more freedom, and even then, none of their homes were perfect.

    Not everyone had had the opportunity to learn that while the Baalphorian government had effectively tried to deport all Free Coloniers whose home colonies insisted every citizen be returned home, regardless of what the citizen in question wanted, several Free Colonies had opened their borders to political refugees, Byshire and Norvel being two of the most vehement that they would start wars before returning refuges to their terrible governments.

    Not everyone lived in a Free Colony they could leave, even if they wanted to.

    Emilia¡¯s heart squeezed, thinking of Ri, potentially trapped inside Falrion. Did he want to escape? Was he hoping one of his friends would come for him, despite the risk of death if they were caught? Or worse, causing a whole international incident or even a war?

    They should go get him¡ªtake him away from that terrible place. There were a handful of them who would go, Emilia was sure. All they needed was for someone to say, ¡°I¡¯m doing this. I don¡¯t care that he chose to return. I¡¯m going to go get our friend. Who¡¯s coming with me?¡±

    Once, that person had been her.

    Before her, it had been her ex.

    And before even that, it had still been her, tugging Rafe and his brothers along on nonsense quests. Pulling Simeon out of his shell and giving him the confidence to say fuck you to his parents.

    It had been her, pulling tiny, frightened children into her bed and making up signs with them, so they could communicate even when the adults caring for them screamed about speaking and behaving and being too much trouble.

    So, why couldn¡¯t it be her now? She felt more like herself than she had in a decade, so why couldn¡¯t she be the one to lead them into Falrion, regardless of the risk? Wasn¡¯t Ri worth it?

    Of course he was.

    Emilia laughed, and the woman behind her screamed, demanding to know what was so funny.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Emilia said, having half forgotten she was running from a crazy little girl who so totally wasn¡¯t actually a little girl. ¡°I wasn¡¯t laughing about you. It was something else.¡±

    ¡°You have time to think about something else!?¡± the woman demanded, more incredulous than offended that Emilia had defaulted to autopilot while avoiding the icicles and snowballs being thrown her way.

    ¡°Uh, yeah,¡± Emilia agreed. ¡°It¡¯s not you! I¡¯ve always been excellent at dodging attacks and thinking!¡±

    The woman said nothing to that, but she did ask again what she¡¯d been laughing about.

    ¡°Why do you want to know?¡± Emilia called back as she rounded a corner, eyes trained to her map as she planned her route.

    The woman sniffed, telling Emilia that she was used to people laughing in cruelty during fights, but hers had sounded amused, if still in a cynical sort of way. Unfortunately, Emilia¡¯s abrupt laughter¡ªnot to mention the fact that she¡¯d grown so distracted with her thoughts that she¡¯d ceased yelling insults back at the woman¡ªhad derailed most of Oria¡¯s anger, but as long as she was still distracted with Emilia, it was fine.

    So, Emilia answered her.

    ¡°I was thinking about a friend of mine, from the war. He ended up in a locked down Free Colony. I was thinking that we should go get him, regardless of the risk.¡±

    ¡°That sounds like a good way to start a war,¡± Oria said, the air chilling as snow began to fall, quickly layering over the grey city street.

    Annoying, especially without proper snowshoes, but Helix had taught her how to walk as well as one could in the snow, without proper gear, and as much as Oria had created the snow, she clearly wasn¡¯t used to walking in it either.

    Emilia laughed and agreed. It really did sound like a great way to start a war. ¡°That¡¯s what¡¯s funny, though? Right now, my friends and I are having to weigh the lives of so many people against those of ourselves and our friends. Not just visitors¡ªour lives obviously aren¡¯t worth anything here¡ªbut some locals as well. I want to save the locals¡ªthey''re mostly kids, for one thing¡ªbut I also don¡¯t want to leave Clarity free to rampage through this world once we¡¯re gone. That¡¯s the name of the group who runs this city system, did your Enclave sponsors even bother telling you that?¡±

    Huffing, Emilia stopped, turning back to find the woman-child panting as well, standing in snow that went above her knees. Oria shook her head, snow dancing off her long hair.

    ¡°No,¡± she said, swallowing as she sucked in heaving breaths. ¡°We didn¡¯t really get much information before coming here. Only that¡ª¡± Oria cut off, looking this way and that, like she wanted to be anywhere but here, and Emilia thought she really did. The woman didn¡¯t want to be here¡ªnot in this city, nor even in the raid.

    ¡°Only that your uncle, and maybe me, were here?¡±

    Oria nodded. ¡°Is the person in the Free Colony worth more than the kids here?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± The response was immediate, unquestioning. ¡°I might have known my friend longer¡ªthrough over a decade of war¡ªand love him, but I love the kids I became friends with her as well. I love your uncle, too, in a weird way,¡± she added, only to gauge the woman¡¯s reaction.

    Oria¡¯s eyes widened, and she searched Emilia¡¯s face for the lie. She wouldn¡¯t be able to find one. Conrad had grown on her, despite the way they had met. He had carved himself a hole in her heart, with how oddly sincere he was, with how he carried her and teased her and didn¡¯t bother to hide his dismay with her¡ªwith the way he had let her ramble while they returned to the Ingogia estate as well, despite already having known he could likely suppress her then-uncontrolled aethervoice with his energy. Still, he had let her mind wander and not complained. Maybe it just because she had secrets within her, but she didn¡¯t think so. It had felt more like with V: that he liked hearing her thoughts, regardless of how insane or incomplete and winding they were.

    ¡°What¡¯s the difference, then?¡± Conrad¡¯s niece asked, tilting her head and looking so much like the child she was pretending to be.

    Emilia gazed up to the ceiling, grey and dreary. ¡°I know we would win in the real world.¡± Her eyes flicked back to Oria. ¡°Even against an entire Free Colony, I know my friends and I would tear the entire place down, getting our friend out.¡±

    ¡°Then why haven¡¯t you? It¡¯s been a decade since the war ended.¡±

    Something in the woman¡¯s voice was cutting, not just her words or the sentiment, but something more personal¡ªsomething that told Emilia that she too was trapped, waiting for someone to come rescue her. Oria wasn¡¯t crying, but the way her hands had balled into fists, her lips pressed tight, told Emilia she wanted to.

    ¡°Because my friend chose to go back, even when we begged him not to. We let that control our actions, but we shouldn¡¯t have¡ªI shouldn¡¯t have. We wanted to respect his decision, no matter how much we disagreed with it. Yet, we knew he had little choice in returning, and we should have gone to get him, the moment that place locked down. But, I¡¯m weak, and the war broke me. I¡¯ve spent a decade running, and I¡¯m only just putting myself back together now. It¡¯s not fair to my friend that he had to wait, but I also know I wouldn¡¯t have been able to save him, even one real-world day ago, and I know that if we were to rescue him, we¡¯d need nearly every member of our unit to do it.¡± Some of them weren¡¯t in a position to help, not yet. Could they get there, soon? Could James pull himself together in order to get their friend? Would Helix risk his anonymity and the reputation he had cultivated for himself these last ten years?

    Of course he would, and even if James was broken, he would still come, just like she still would have gone, if anyone else had organized a mission to go get their friend.

    Emilia blinked at the woman, taking a chance that may very well bite her in the ass. ¡°Do you need someone to rescue you?¡±

    Oria blinked back at her, mouth opening as though she were about to say something, when the universe began to scream.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 177: Eight.

    [Conrad: He¡¯s dead.]

    Emilia breathed out a small sigh of relief at knowing that Conrad was still alive¡ªthat he hadn¡¯t been the one taken out when his and his nephew¡¯s energies had collided so viciously that the aether had literally seemed to scream. The other visitor had already explained to her what would happen, were their abilities to come up against one another: the most focused would win.

    That was why Emilia had needed to remove both herself and Oria from the equation. As long as they were around¡ªas long as Emilia was in danger from The Quiet Boy and Oria could intervene in the fight¡ªthey were a liability. Conrad needed to focus, and Emilia had been willing to do anything to give Conrad the edge he needed to take out his nephew, even if she¡¯d clearly hurt Oria¡¯s feelings.

    Not that the woman actually seemed to remember that. Once Emilia had laughed at her renewed confidence in the real world, even with her trauma and lowered abilities, the tension between them had broken, and now they were just kinda standing there in the snow, each staring in the direction Conrad and The Quiet Boy had been fighting, although likely for very different reasons.

    Oria¡¯s face betrayed nothing of what she was feeling, but Emilia highly doubted she was as concerned over her brother¡¯s death as she herself was. Emilia was glad Conrad was alive, but killing his nephew hadn¡¯t been the plan, not when they had no idea how corrupted by the heartcores he was. Hopefully, her friend had simply managed to figure out that his nephew wasn¡¯t completely corrupted by them and decided to kill him.

    Somehow, that seemed too easy.

    Across her vision, Conrad¡¯s light purple dot¡ªshe¡¯d noticed that every member of her party were no longer normal, red dots¡ªwas swiftly moving towards them, and Emilia sent off a message telling him to not just attack his niece, if he thought she could even vaguely be trusted.

    [Conrad: Seriously? Did you really manage to become friends with her?]

    Emilia could hear the incredulity in his message, and she didn¡¯t really blame him. Granted, she¡¯d always been good at making friends, but the state of her friend making skills in this world was insane. Not that she would consider herself and Oria friends, but that had at least come to some sort of temporary truce.

    Conrad did apparently consider his niece at least a somewhat trustworthy, sliding through the shadows to come up behind Emilia, as though aware that boxing his niece in wouldn¡¯t be polite¡­ or that Emilia might chastise him for it. That might have been more likely.

    ?Oria,? the man greeted her, having already realized that, despite his refusal to tell Emilia more of his family¡¯s names, she had learned his niece¡¯s anyways.

    ¡°Uncle¡­¡± the girl greeted, although the way her voice caught on the word¡ªthe way her eyes slid to Emilia and back¡ªit was clear they didn¡¯t usually refer to each other this way. Probably, they used names or words from their native language, and worried that she would track them down through whatever words they used.

    That was smart¡ªEmilia had learned several dozen languages and dialects during the war, partially so she could eavesdrop on people whose native tongues had yet to make it into Censor translators, partially out of boredom and as a way to get to know the members of their unit who hailed from the Free Colonies. That said, given she hadn¡¯t spoken most of those languages since being dragged to the Dread Coliseum by Helix, her skills were probably pretty sketchy.

    ¡°Is¡ª¡± Oria¡¯s voice caught in the same way Emilia had noticed Conrad¡¯s at times, her eyes once more flickering to Emilia before she finished, ¡°my brother gone?¡± Hiding names as well, then. Must be something they expected each other to do in raids, although that didn¡¯t explain why they didn¡¯t just use different names.

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°So blunt,¡± Emilia whispered, smiling when Conrad stepped closer and bumped her shoulder.

    Across from them, Oria visibly relaxed. ¡°Good. He was being weird.¡±

    If Oria relaxed, both she and Conrad tensed, the concerns they had discussed before the fight even started vibrating through each of them in turn.

    ?What do you mean weird?? Conrad demanded, voice so sharp and unbending that his niece straightened and stars above did she really seem to be a child. ?He seemed normal enough to me.?

    Ah, so that was it. Conrad had deemed his nephew normal enough to kill. He hadn¡¯t spent very long with the boy, though, before killing him. Evidently, he had missed something that his niece hadn¡¯t¡ªsomething that disturbed her so much she was glad he was temporarily dead and yet still caused her to shrink in on herself at the mere reminder of it.

    Emilia had acted younger than she was. Even at Astrapan, most people assumed she was closer to Beth in age. If you knew how to do it, you could let years of life experience float away from you, leaving someone a little more innocent, a little more naive, in your place. The fact that she had a propensity for not thinking things through definitely helped. Usually, in serious situations, that persona naturally vanished. For Oria, it seemed to deepen, the feelings of child and adult seeping out of her ebbing and flowing so abruptly that Emilia wondered if it was the result of trauma¡ªif something had occurred that had forced her mentality into that of a child, at least for spurts of time.

    ¡°I¡­ he was just being too intense? Like mother level intense. It was weird. Usually, he¡¯s so¡­ level-headed. He wasn¡¯t. No one else seemed to notice¡ªhe¡¯s always so quiet¡ªbut every time we visited one of those labyrinths¡ª¡±

    Conrad sucked in a harsh breath, a stream of profanities¡ªincluding several that Emilia knew were shared between a few Free Colony languages¡ªleaving him before he asked, ?Oria, how many heartcores did he touch? How many did everyone touch??

    His niece shifted, blinked wide eyes at him. With her sparkling clothes, within the still quietly falling snow, she looked like a princess¡ªa terrified one. ¡°Uncle, what¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°The heartcores¡ªthe things inside the labyrinths¡ªseem to be affecting our minds,¡± Emilia said before Conrad could answer her. The girl¡¯s pink eyes darted back to her, afraid¡ªshe was so afraid. ¡°The more we touch, the worse it is. We don¡¯t know if it will affect our real minds, either.¡± She was trying really, really hard not to scare the poor girl more, but they also needed her to understand the gravity of the situation, so she¡¯d answer truthfully. ¡°Oria, how many did everyone touch?¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The girl¡¯s mouth opened, closed. She was going to panic.

    Stepping forward, Emilia knelt in the snow before her. Oria cowered back slightly, but to Emilia, it wasn¡¯t fear¡ªnot of her, anyways. It was the cowering of a child who was used to people yelling at her for not behaving the way that they wanted.

    ¡°She really is a child, right now,¡± Emilia mused, reaching out to slowly take the girl¡¯s hands. This was the type of trauma that every soldier knew was possible. This was the type of trauma that led to people being institutionalized, to their Censors being forcibly wiped of all skills by The Black Knot, out of fear that they would lose control¡ªgo berserk¡ªand kill, kill, kill.

    ¡°How many did you touch, Oria?¡±

    ¡°O-only two.¡±

    ¡°Good. That¡¯s even less than me, and I feel mostly normal, now that a little time has passed. How about you?¡±

    Behind her, Emilia felt Conrad step closer as well. She wondered what he was thinking¡ªwhat he thought of her treating someone who was simultaneously older and younger than her, who had only minutes before been trying to kill her, with kindness.

    Oria nodded, frowning as though she were trying to decipher her insides. ¡°I feel normal.¡±

    ¡°Good. What about your brother? The quiet one who was just here?¡±

    The hands inside hers tensed, shook. Emilia squeezed them back in quiet support.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ at least as many as mother, but more, I think.¡±

    ¡°Your mother touched more than you?¡±

    A nod.

    ¡°Your brother more than her?¡±

    Another nod.

    ¡°And the rest? Everyone else touched more than you, but less than your mother?¡±

    ¡°Except the two you killed before,¡± she whispered. Something passed over her features¡ªsome flash of anger that Emilia had done that¡ªbefore it faded away, sliding back under fear and childhood innocence. ¡°Mother visited¡­¡± Oria¡¯s face screwed up in thought, lower lip pulling into her mouth like she was solving a particularly difficult puzzle¡ªthe puzzle of her memory, sliding away under the strain of trauma, Emilia assumed.

    Shaking her head, Oria finally said she didn¡¯t remember. ¡°But,¡± she added, just as Conrad was beginning to grumble about wasting time¡ªand Emilia really didn¡¯t want to know if he meant they were wasting time when they should be figuring out the next step, or wasting time when they should be forcing answers out of his niece¡ª¡°Li¡ª my brother started getting weird after the eighth one.¡±

    Both Emilia and Conrad froze.

    Eight.

    Eight labyrinths.

    Eight heartcores, melting that boy¡¯s brain.

    Eight, and that was only when he¡¯d started to get weird.

    ?Emilia¡­? Conrad was saying behind her. Something followed, but she didn¡¯t hear him, her brain sliding pieces together.

    Their family had been aligned with the Enclave the whole time, and while they hadn¡¯t been able to confirm that the heartcores affected visitors associated with each group the same way they affected local members, it was a safe assumption. Hadn¡¯t she watched Vermilion disappear into the hive mind? Seen the members of the other Clarity group rise and fall out of the hive mind as they made their way through the Ingogia estate?

    Potentially bringing a piece of the hive mind back to the real world was bad enough, but for Enclave members, the heartcores had enhanced personality traits that already existed within them. It turned believers into zealots, willing to do anything to get what they wanted¡ªwilling to kill anyone who got in their way.

    ?Emilia,? Conrad called again, startling Emilia into looking back at him.

    The man looked practically distraught, his normally pitch black skin having gained an unnatural, bloodless pallor as stress overtook him.

    ?Kill me.?

    It took a moment for Emilia to realize what he¡¯d said. ¡°What?¡±

    ?Kill me,? he repeated, dropping down in front of her. ?I have to get back. That boy¡ª my sister¡ª I can¡¯t let them. If they¡¯ve changed then¡ª My brother won¡¯t¡ª?

    Fucking stars, he was panicking, and Emilia gave him a wonderful smack across the cheek. ¡°Yo, breathe. If you¡¯re panicking, that isn¡¯t going to help the situation.¡± Her hand fell to his chest, her own breaths naturally beginning to pull in huge and overexaggerated in an attempt to make him breathe at a more reasonable pace.

    ?Emilia, I have to go back. They already don¡¯t like the situation in¡­ in our home. The things they could do¡­>

    Behind them, Oria was saying something¡ªasking what was happening, if they really thought her mother would hurt her other uncle or their enemies¡ªbut Emilia barely registered her words.

    ¡°Done panicking?¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°Good.¡±

    Conrad smiled. Not his usual, wide-mouthed smile that creeped everyone out, but something smaller¡ªsomething thankful and sweet. ?See you on the other side.?

    Energy ripped through Emilia¡¯s {Blood Ring} sending blood splattering over the white snow.

    Oria screamed and scrambled away. At least in this case, Emilia couldn¡¯t blame her¡ªthey really should have warned her beforehand. She¡¯d have to go find her and explain what was happening. Not quite yet.

    [Boundary: What happened?]

    Across her party information, Conrad¡¯s name had gone black. Emilia supposed it was nice that Boundary was paying so much attention to them that he noticed the moment Conrad died. They hadn¡¯t said goodbye, she realized. Only she and Key had given each other proper goodbyes. Between everyone else, it had seemed premature¡ªlike bad luck. Boundary and Conrad had been reluctant allies, but they still hadn¡¯t gotten to say goodbye.

    Quickly, Emilia messaged Boundary and Rin¡ªthe only remaining members of their group who actually had access to their group message¡ªwhat had happened. Hopefully, whatever logout procedure there was wouldn¡¯t be long. Conrad had already lost so much time, especially regarding his sister, who had been removed from the raid well over than an hour ago¡ªnot that that would translate to much time in the real world. Oria hadn¡¯t mentioned her being weird, but perhaps she just hadn¡¯t noticed an abusive mother becoming more abusive.

    Hopefully, whatever home Conrad was returning to wouldn¡¯t be one filled with violence.

    Had she known where he lived, Emilia might have logged herself out then as well, left this situation to Boundary and the rest of the Risen Guard. Conrad¡ªher friend¡ªhad never told her where he was from, though, and forcing the information out of Oria was out of the question.

    Plus, who was she kidding? Even if Payton had fixed up her knots, she still had no idea how well her skills would work¡ªif she would even be able to spark to Conrad and not just become another liability.

    Instead, she contented herself with looting his body, removing his few blood weapons¡ªanother dagger, much like her own, and a small sculpture he¡¯d grabbed from the Risen Guard compound¡ªand¡­ that was it. So many weeks inside this raid, and that was all he had gotten himself.

    That, and her for a friend.

    Their plan to meet up echoed through her head. Hopefully, when that day came, they¡¯d both be there. Hopefully, she hadn¡¯t just sent him off to his death. Hopefully, this fucked up raid and its mind manipulations hadn¡¯t just gotten people killed or started a war.

    ¡°?Fuck,?¡± Emilia growled, pushing herself up. ¡°?Don¡¯t get yourself killed, asshole.?¡±

    Turning and refusing to freak out because, with Conrad gone, so was his suppression of her aethervoice, Emilia set off, searching for an already traumatized child she¡¯d just traumatized some more. Wonderful.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 178: Mistakes were made

    In terms of good things: Emilia¡¯s upgraded aethervoice was functioning, and her internal voice had been forced into submission. No more wandering thoughts for her! Hopefully, V would show up at some point, and she¡¯d get a chance to show it off. She could have all the sexy thoughts she wanted about him now, and no one would be the wiser.

    In terms of not so great things: she had no idea where Oria had gone. The strange thing was she hadn¡¯t actually seen the girl leave the city level. Granted, she hadn¡¯t been paying the most attention to the girl¡¯s dot moving through the city, having been more concerned with Conrad and messaging Boundary what had happened, but Emilia was also pretty sure the girl had only made it about halfway through the city without vanishing.

    Would the Haym family really have summoned the girl back to them? Fucking stars, would they really have tortured her, burning that array into her in the first place? Something told her that any family that was willing to align themselves with people as crazy as Conrad¡¯s family were probably pretty bonkers themselves.

    What did that say about her, random person who had aligned herself with him and then tried to make friends with one of his nieces? Most likely that she was a little lost in the stars as well.

    Emilia was okay with that.

    What she wasn¡¯t okay with was that, for one, she was alone again, and for another, they hadn¡¯t actually found the weapon that had possibly been created in Salsetrun. Awesome. Either Oria had had it¡ªpossible, if a little odd¡ªConrad had destroyed it when he killed his nephew¡ªunlikely, considering blood weapons were nigh unbreakable¡ªor someone else had it.

    A member of the Haym family? Tobias? He hadn¡¯t been inside the Clarity City System when the rebel woman had shown her the visitors currently within it, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t lingering outside it, waiting for the perfect moment to come in.

    But why? That kid had been hysterically nervous when they met, and while he definitely could have been faking it¡ªstars knew Emilia had faked being a dumb silverstrain more times than she could count¡ªit hadn¡¯t felt like acting. The boy who had been eavesdropping on her and V had been nervous and afraid. So why leave a weapon of mass destruction with him?

    A thousand reasons shuffled through Emilia¡¯s head before it caught on one, not because it was any more likely than the last, but because it offered an alternative to the boy being dead or just lingering on the outskirts of the city system: he had a gift that hid his presence. He hadn¡¯t had anything like that when they¡¯d run into him in Salsetrun, but clearly, the rest of his family had visited a collection of labyrinths since then. Why not him too?

    Well, that wasn¡¯t exactly the most encouraging of thoughts, that an antsy teenage boy might be running around, unseeable by perhaps even their maps, with a weapon of mass destruction on his person.

    Annoyed, Emilia sent a warning off to Boundary¡ªwho confirmed that there were some records of similar, presence erasing gifts within Risen Guard records¡ªand then¡­ And then, she didn¡¯t know. Losing Conrad hadn¡¯t been part of the plan, nor had them not getting the weapon been something they¡¯d considered¡ªanother oddity, as Conrad had never even considered that his last nephew might have had the weapon, something in the way the man had spoken suggesting the boy was untrustworthy.

    So seriously, what had changed?

    Emilia pushed her way into the stairwell the siblings had exploded out of, The Quiet Boy¡¯s massive energy blast having destroyed a significant amount of the wall and leaving large swathes of the stairwell visible from the city, rubble still crumbling down. The buildings directly surrounding it had taken a beating as well, impressive, considering the only thing she¡¯d really seen harm the buildings in this world had been the blood weapon the Valoren family had used to destroy the library itself.

    ?Seriously, how was that kid so powerful¡­? she mused, climbing over the rubble to get to the stairwell.

    A tangle of metal¡ªor whatever the staircases were made of that seemed like it might be metal but probably wasn¡¯t¡ªmet her. It groaned under her feet, reminding her of disaster movies, which had been popular before the war. Not so much after.

    Going down seemed like a terrible idea, but she couldn¡¯t waste time searching for another stairwell when she was already going to be wasting time simply not knowing where she was going.

    Absently, she sent a message off to Boundary and Rin, asking what they thought she should do. At the very least, they still had Phlostra with them. While originally, the local woman had had no idea where Ajarni was, maybe in their travels they¡¯d figured it out.

    Alas, a moment later a message came through telling her they had no leads on where the Clarity leader had ended up, although Phlostra did send instructions for getting to a Clarity meeting place several dozen levels below her, where there may be members she could kill.

    Going on a mission to kill a bunch of Clarity members wasn¡¯t exactly what she¡¯d had in mind, but in the end, it was better than nothing, and armed with Phlostra¡¯s less than stellar instructions¡ªit wasn¡¯t like the levels had numbers or any names that popped up on her map, so all she had was the number of floors she needed to descend¡ªoff she went.

    It didn¡¯t go well.

    Whatever The Quiet Boy had done, it had mangled up a huge amount of the stairwell, compromising its integrity so badly that, less than a floor into her travels, it kinda¡­ collapsed. Specifically, the majority of three or four floors of it collapsed, leaving Emilia stranded in the middle of its busted metal frame, looking and feeling like she would fall to her death at any moment.

    Lovely. Just what she needed.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    After several minutes of looking around, gauging if she could even attempt to move, she realized that no, no she couldn¡¯t. Not only was the entire thing rather unstable, any movement on her part liable to send it toppling downwards, but even if she could try making her way downwards, there were too many disconnected bars¡ªshe¡¯d never make it more than a few meters before sliding to her death.

    In her life, Emilia had definitely been in worse positions¡ªsee one incident being lost behind enemy lines with Halen and another where she¡¯d almost drowned in a sea cavern, not to mention the whole kinda-sorta eaten by the universe thing¡ªbut this one might have been the most embarrassing, for the simple fact that she should have found another route.

    Clearly, this was where she was going to die. There was no one to save her, and she¡¯d rather die than ask Boundary and the others for help¡ªthey had their own things to do, and the one rebel Clarity member who had enough energy left to teleport was already off with Key, and his life was more important than hers.

    Therefore, death.

    But also¡­

    Emilia was extremely focused on the silly delivery game, having nearly completely one of the more difficult hidden levels, when suddenly, the world disappeared from under her. Amazingly, she didn¡¯t scream, but that was mostly because she was just too consumed with her game. Then, the world was back under her, proper and secure, and where was she?

    Blinking back out of her secret system game, Emilia found a dozen faces staring up at her: the missing kids, the ones V had gone after in the Livery Labyrinth.

    ?KIDS!? she squealed, kneeling to gather them into a group hug. While she hadn¡¯t spent nearly as much time with these kids as the ones who hadn¡¯t been spirited away by the labyrinth, but they were still precious creatures she had worried about.

    ?They would have insisted I rescue you,? a voice Emilia immediately recognized, despite only having heard it a handful of times, said.

    Glancing up, she found Carne¡ªand for the life of her, she couldn¡¯t decide if it was the old or new Carne¡ªabsently staring off into space. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t deign to look at her.

    ?Would have?? she asked, curious if he would actually acknowledge her, now that they could actually speak.

    The man still didn¡¯t look at her, but did ramble something off about how the universe told him that if he didn¡¯t save her, the kids under his care would likely find out and be upset he hadn¡¯t saved her.

    ?Oh¡­ well, thanks,? she said, rocking amongst the hoard of children surrounding her. ?Are you taking the kids out of here? If you are, Boundary and my friend were willing to help.? She didn¡¯t think Carne would appreciate help from the rest of the Risen Guard, but he might accept it from the pair of them.

    He hummed noncommittally, continuing to stare off into space, and that alone told her it may very well be the old Carne¡ªthe one that may very well still go by Ash, for all she knew¡ªin control at the moment. The first, heartcore affected Carne she had met hadn¡¯t stared into space like they couldn¡¯t quite get a proper hold on their power; rather, he had seemed confident and sure of his abilities.

    ?You are wondering why I don¡¯t seek out my sister, when I am like this??

    Emilia hadn¡¯t actually been wondering that, although she was sure she¡¯d been about to, so she hummed in confirmation. ?I was under the impression she thinks you¡¯re completely gone. Obviously, you¡¯re not.?

    The eyes of all the kids turned up to look at Carne in a rather terrifying display of synchronized movement. Creepy.

    ?I am rarely this person, and I am still not the person Gale knew. It is easier if she believes me gone.?

    ?Is it?? Emilia wanted to ask, only for her own heart to seize up at the reminder of the people she had left behind, thinking them better off without her in their lives, for how broken she was. ?Hypocrite,? she laughed to herself, only to startle when Carne¡¯s eyes flicked to hers, fierce and hot as though chastising her for¡­ something.

    Then, those ruddy brown eyes dulled and they were looking away again. ?Down,? he said. ?That is all the universe will tell me of your story: it is down.?

    Emilia followed his gaze to a door. ?Okay¡­ thanks??

    ?The universe does not need our thanks.? Carne frowned, his distant expression wavering into confusion. ?The universe especially does not need your thanks.? His head cocked, truly making him appear to be listening to the aether. For a long moment, everyone simply watched him, thinking he might say more, but then he shook himself, and the spell was broken, dozens of little eyes turning back to her instead.

    ?Will you tell your friend we don¡¯t blame him?? one of the little boys said, rubbing the sleeve of his oddly clean shirt under his runny nose.

    Clearly, Clarity had supplied the kids with new things, but it didn¡¯t suit them. These were homeless kids, and like most of the Livery homeless kids, they were okay with that. It was their life, and it let them have each other and Carne. The clean clothes were nice, and she doubted they would get rid of them in favour of rags, but neither were they likely to take much care of them, once they left this place.

    Another child nodded in agreement, another.

    ?The labyrinth was being mean,? one of the kids said decisively. ?I don¡¯t think he believed us, when we said something was interfering with the will of the universe, but it was!?

    ?The labyrinths interfere with the will of the universe?? Emilia asked, glancing back up at Carne as though he might suddenly answer her.

    He didn¡¯t, but one of the older homeless kids¡ªone of the few girls¡ªexplained to her that usually it wasn¡¯t like that. ?When we explored it before, the labyrinth always flowed with the universe, but when it was choosing challenges for you and your friend¡­?

    ?Something was interfering,? Emilia finished, thinking back to the labyrinth host and his cruel laughter and jokes. Something had been interfering with the natural flow of this world, and even the kids could tell. Could Sawyer? Had he kept that from them? Or simply been too preoccupied with the challenges and keeping everyone moving to pay much attention to it?

    It didn¡¯t matter, she supposed, but the fact that the kids had been able to feel the unnatural flow¡ªthat potentially the platform maintainer had been fucking even more with these kids and V than it had been with her¡­

    That really pissed her off, especially considering how haunted V had seemed over the whole thing¡ªhow much he had felt like he had been the reason the kids had experienced things he hadn¡¯t even wanted to tell her about. It wasn¡¯t him, though, not entirely, anyways.

    It was someone else, someone who had likely gone through the list of skills the system had created for V and then purposefully picked ones that would fuck with V and the kids the most. That felt personal, and as Emilia bid the kids goodbye¡ªasked them to give Sawyer, Benny and the other homeless kids her love and hugs and most heartfelt goodbyes¡ªas she tugged the door open and found another set of stairs waiting for her, she wondered who in the world hated V enough to do something like that to him and the innocent children he had been trying to keep safe.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 179: Am I Stupid, or is it Something Else?

    ?Down, down, down~ We go down, down, down! Down to the depths and then further still! Down we go, into the hell below. Hot and red and burning bright, we go down into the light!?

    Emilia jumped down a step as she sang, idly thinking of how far she¡¯d come. It had been weeks since she¡¯d first entered the raid, and yet while so much had happened, it all felt like it had gone by impossibly fast. It probably didn¡¯t help that she¡¯d barely slept, catching long, nightmare filled sleeps here and there, along with short¡ªalso nightmare filled¡ªnaps along the way. Combined with all the stress, the labyrinths, multiple kidnappings and more stress¡­

    Yeah, it was pretty understandable that her sense of time had become totally fucked.

    Less than a day¡ªthat was how much time she had left in this world.

    Less than a day to save this world¡ªor at least keep Clarity and certain shitty Enclave families from destroying the framework of the world, corrupt as it was. Hopefully, they¡¯d be able to do something to make this world better, but with so little time left, she really wasn¡¯t holding her breath.

    ?Dream, dream, dream~? she sang, lyrics shifting the same way they had that first day, when time had first begun to spin out of control. ¡°We shall dream, dream, dream! Dream of a world that won¡¯t bend or break! Dream we will, we will never stop. Free and true and love so strong, we shall dream ¡®till the end of days!¡±

    Even back then, she¡¯d slept and dreamt, her nightmare ripping apart under the force of the blood curse before she even knew it was a thing.

    Emilia shook off memories of those dreams. The fact that they had seemed to hold prophecies of the world within them, misshapen as they¡¯d been, wasn¡¯t something she wanted to consider¡ªespecially considering how many visions she¡¯d had of real people, dead and living.

    That was another thing she was less than a day away from, annoyingly: figuring out what to do once she returned to her world.

    Over the last weeks, her intentions had shifted this way and that, giving her whiplash for how often they changed as she experienced this world¡¯s conflicts and Payton brutally¡ªtenderly¡ªtugged her knots loose.

    The person she¡¯d been when she entered the raid was gone, some version of her who had never before existed standing in that person¡¯s place. She was not the Emilia of the past, no matter where she looked in her life. That¡­ had not been what she was expecting, as strange as that sounded even to herself.

    Obviously, after experiencing weeks within the raid, she would be different. Obviously, after having so much of her self-inflicted knots removed, she would be different. The person who came out of the raid was never going to be the one who had entered.

    Hopping down another stair and turning on her heel to start down the next set of stairs¡ªCarne and the universe had said nothing about how far down she was supposed to go, and currently she was intent to keep going down¡ªshe wondered what she had expected. Probably to be closer to the broken person who had come out of the war? That person had been powerful but shattered, and she was glad not to be them, but that had been what she¡¯d been expecting, and she¡¯d been willing to accept the pain that would come along with the terror those knots to her Balance Levels had caused her.

    Mostly, she¡¯d just been hoping that the combination of distance and friends so completely disconnected from the war and her unit would be enough to ground her.

    Part of her wanted to assume it was everything that had occurred within the raid, while Payton had still been working through her knots, that had grounded her. There had been so many moments where she¡¯d been forced to confront her beliefs about herself and what her friends would want from her. Moments where she had regretted and loved and promised to do better. There was passion reignited within her and a desire for friends and family she hadn¡¯t seen in a decade.

    Some of that had definitely helped, but as her steps faltered¡ªas something tugged her attention towards the city level she was about to pass¡ªshe knew that her experiences here weren¡¯t the entire reason she felt so much like the person she had been before toxic blame had been spewed her way. The other part was Payton. While Emilia was certain the man hadn¡¯t managed to completely unknot her, he had either managed to pull a few of her traumatic knots loose or had put in his own additive knots¡ªones that were doing a much better job of managing her mental state than her own slapped on, bandages of trauma control had done.

    Seriously, she was going to owe him so, so much. Unfortunately, even on the off chance she managed to win them those tickets to Ship o¡¯ Stars, offering to take him with her was more a punishment than anything else.

    Once again, a thought wiggled through her brain, digging for information that her Censor probably would have been able to find, but her current brain just sent back a scream of, ¡°I DON¡¯T KNOW WHAT YOU¡¯RE LOOKING FOR!¡± and then the thought was gone. Poof. Whatever the slippery thought her brain couldn¡¯t decipher was, it wasn¡¯t sticking around for her to puzzle out. Maybe it would come back, once she was back in the real world, so she could ask her Censor what in the world it was on about.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    On the other hand, the niggling feeling that this was the city level she needed to investigate wasn¡¯t going anywhere, and Emilia hoofed it back up a few flights to open the hidden door. Much like the exit she, Rin and Key had gone through during their combination search for Clarity members and escape Conrad¡¯s crazy family, this lock also involved a finicky puzzle. Luckily, it was just as simple¡ªif time-consuming¡ªas the first one, and she didn¡¯t have an attack barrelling down on her this time. So, easy-peasy.

    The lock popped, the door swung open and Emilia skipped down the stairs towards it.

    As her map had already told her, this city level was actually inhabited, and unlike the previous times Emilia had made her way through a city level, she had nothing to even try to cover her hair with¡­ or her {Blood Armour}. Her clothes had been lost in the fight with the Ingogia family¡ªor, technically, Jerrina¡¯s attacks had destroyed them¡ªand then her lovely, oh-so-warm sweater from Boundary had caught fire during her fight with Livia.

    So, no clothes. No pants, shirt or even shoes.

    If she¡¯d been thinking clearly, she would have made Conrad give up his clothes to her before she killed him. Neither of them had been thinking clearly, and Emilia was more than a little concerned about that because they had known there was a chance that The Quiet Boy had been inside too many labyrinths. They should have been more careful not to kill him before they knew more, and while she was almost positive that Conrad had tried his best not to kill his nephew¡­

    Emilia didn¡¯t want to think about the fact that neither of their brains had been working properly. The last time that had happened¡ªat least in such an obvious way¡ªwas back at the hidden labyrinth, where she¡¯d gained her mostly-annoying aethervoice. At the time, she¡¯d assumed it was just the influence of the labyrinth. Now, she wasn¡¯t so sure¡ªshe wasn¡¯t even sure it was the heartcore¡¯s mind corruption either, the words of the kids ringing through her head.

    Right at this moment, as she let her body move through more instinct than anything else through the city level, narrowly avoiding locals catching sight of her as they seemingly went about their everyday life, it felt like something was guiding her. As much as she wasn¡¯t actively trying to read the will of the universe, it felt like it was pushing her to go this way and that.

    So, if the universe could guide her, even when she wasn¡¯t actively trying to read its secrets, and the platform maintainer could potentially manipulate¡ªor perhaps simulate?¡ªthat will, wasn¡¯t it possibly that the maintainer was pushing visitors this way and that as well?

    Would that even make sense? To push her to enter that labyrinth, for seemingly no reason? To force Conrad to kill his nephew and then himself?

    Maybe it would make sense, if she eventually figured out who was maintaining the raid. Until then, there wasn¡¯t much she could do but keep the fact that both the universe and the maintainer could probably push people into acting certain ways in mind. Both the incident with the labyrinth and The Quiet Boy had put people¡¯s lives in danger without her even realizing. Clearly, she needed to be more aware of her actions¡­

    A dozen smaller moments, including her ill-fated trek down the mangled stairwell, flashed through her head. Granted, she¡¯d always considered herself more than a little absent-minded, jumping into things without giving them proper thought¡ªespecially when alternative actions would require more time¡ªbut some of the things in this raid were a bit too thoughtless.

    Unfortunately, there was no way to tell if it was the universe or an evil raid overlord manipulating her or just her own stupidity. What Emilia could do, however, was stop and assess her current movement through the city. She stood, squished into an alley that was littered with garbage. Gently, her body urged her to keep moving. It didn¡¯t feel malevolent, and it wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d been caught yet, even with all the people wandering about.

    If it was the maintainer, they were leading her somewhere and didn¡¯t seem to want her to be caught just yet. If it was the universe¡­ well, Emilia didn¡¯t think even Carne¡¯s altered personality knew what the universe wanted¡ªif it even wanted anything.

    Story, he had kept saying. The universe shows people their story, but what did that even mean!?

    Groaning¡ªmostly because she was fighting her brain on whether this was a good time to have an internal debate over a thousand little details of how the universe could possibly know people¡¯s stories, let alone deal with free will, people fighting and ignoring their stories, as well as stories colliding with each other¡ªEmilia relented to the growing drive to move, and move faster than she had been previously.

    It was a good thing she did listen to whatever was pushing her on. Several turns¡ªand one close call with a local woman¡ªlater, Emilia rounded another corner and wouldn¡¯t you know it: Tobias.

    Tobias, bits of his blue hair escaping the hood of his cloak, and a local man who Emilia would bet was a member of the Haym family¡­ or someone who had kidnapped Conrad¡¯s nephew. Possibly both, she supposed. Conrad had clearly been kidnapped by the Enclave family several times; what was stopping this kid from being in the same position?

    Well, the fact that Conrad hadn¡¯t said anything about his nephew not wanting to be involved with his family or the Enclave family they¡¯d become associated with was probably stopping it, but still! It could happen! And who was Emilia to turn down potentially helping one of Conrad¡¯s relatives and making sure they couldn¡¯t be spirited away from her again!?

    Emilia had already bolted forward and landed a hand on the local man¡¯s back before either he or Tobias had noticed her. The visitor¡¯s eyes blew wide, while the local snarled. Too late. Magic ruptured through her core and arm, into her much used {Blood Ring}. Blood and gore splattered over the wall behind them, and Tobias screamed, trying to scramble away and falling flat on his ass.

    In an exceptionally gross turn of events, the local man had been holding on to Conrad¡¯s nephew really hard, and the severed limb was still hanging off his arm, spurting sizzling blood over the poor kid. Tobias looked at it, screamed again¡ªhonestly, pretty fair¡ªand proceeded to pass out.

    Ah well, that made it easier for her to lean down and flip his shirt up, revealing the same summoning array Conrad had had burned into him. ?Sorry, kid,? Emilia muttered, already reaching forward to remove the array. ?Hopefully, you¡¯ll sleep through this.?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 180: Too Much Blood

    So¡­ rather unsurprisingly, Tobias¡ªToby? Emilia really needed the kid to fully wake up so she could ask what name he preferred¡ªdidn¡¯t stay passed out through his summoning array being burned off. The course events went as follows:

    First: Emilia used her array destroying gift on the kid¡¯s summoning array.

    Second: Emilia¡¯s {Blood Ball} exploded around them, and for a brief few moments, Emilia realized that perhaps the first time it activated, it wasn¡¯t so much that it was keeping her voice contained, but rather that it was creating a barrier in case someone came along and attacked them. Stars knew that if someone had shown up when she burned off Conrad¡¯s summoning array, they¡¯d have all been dead. Same now: the pain racketing through her as her gift leaked down the lines of Tobias¡¯ summoning array was so intense that Emilia would have been helpless were someone to come along and try to kill them. Forget about fighting off an attack, she would have welcomed death.

    Third: Tobias woke up, and the pain Emilia had been experienced intensified. Also, apparently there was a chance Conrad hadn¡¯t fought her, even mentally, on the whole destroying his summoning array thing. Tobias fought, and he fought hard. The entire array removal operation lasted far longer than it had with Conrad¡ªor any other array¡ªand in the end, biting her tongue through the pain, Emilia had had to knock the kid out again!

    Fourth: The {Blood Ball} retracted and Emilia was left exhausted¡ªmore from fighting Tobias into complacency than the actual process of destroying the array¡ªand with a very unconscious kid on her hands.

    That, and a new blood item, created from the random local¡¯s blood.

    Swiping up the small {Blood Coin} and tucking it under one of the straps of her {Blood Armour}, Emilia heaved Tobias into her arms. Well, not so much heaved as lifted him. Either he weighed almost nothing¡ªpossible, the kid was practically skin and bones for how thin he was¡ªor her level was now enough to make carrying a teenager nothing¡ªalso possible.

    Either way, off she went, letting the gentle pull of the universe guide her way to¡­ a wall. Specifically, one of the outer walls. It wasn¡¯t the one she had entered through, but at least this time she¡¯d gone down so many flights of stairs, her energy searching for any rhyme or reason as to where the locking mechanisms were hidden. Luckily, there was a pattern to their locations, and while it stretched her core control to the limit, after several long minutes of concentrating and hoping that no locals stumbled onto them¡ªone child did, and Emilia was able to convince them to go away¡ªthe access door opened and in they went.

    Carne said to go down, and down was currently working for her, so down Emilia took herself and Tobias. That said, she only went down a single city level before setting Tobias on the floor, quietly apologizing to him, and proceeding to all but strip search him.

    If this kid had the mass destruction grade blood weapon from Salsetrun, she was going to find it. Unfortunately, after several minutes of searching and finding a bunch of blood items that seemed a bit too normal, Emilia had no idea whether she¡¯d found it or not.

    [Emilia: is there any way to tell a blood weapon that can destroy a city system from a normal one?]

    [Boundary: Trust me, you¡¯ll be able to tell. Don¡¯t you remember holding that weapon you gave me? The loop? That thing was definitely mass destruction grade.]

    [Rin: How did you end up with a mass destruction grade weapon?]

    [Emilia: stole it from the asshole who basically destroyed Livery after i killed him]

    Thinking back¡­ yeah. The {Blood Loop} had definitely been giving off terrible vibes¡ªthat was the main reason she really hadn¡¯t wanted to keep hold of it: it simply felt bad, and she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if people started showing up, looking for it.

    None of the items she¡¯d pulled off Tobias felt dangerous¡ªnot like that, anyways. Some were definitely weapons, but none seemed any more dangerous than her own, more normal weapons.

    That was¡­ disappointing, and annoying. It was one thing to just not have a weapon that powerful, but at this point, they and the entire Risen Guard were convinced that the Haym family had triggered the creation of the blood weapon in Salsetrun.

    So, where was it?

    Either the Haym family was keeping it out of this whole debacle, intent to use it later¡ªprobably for some heinous plot after the visitors left¡ªor someone else had it. That was the problem: that there could be someone else inside the Clarity City System, just waiting to pop up and¡ª

    Tobias started, and Emilia totally didn¡¯t scream.

    ?Fucking stars, you scared me,? Emilia breathed out, hand clasped to her heart, beating too fast in her chest¡ªseriously, the kid had been out cold! She¡¯d figured she¡¯d have a while longer before she¡¯d have to figure out what to do with the kid because that was the issue now: leave the kid to live out the last day of the raid and return to his body naturally, or kill him.

    Unfortunately, as cold as it was, Emilia was leaning towards the latter. Not only was the kid a wild card, but who knew what would happen if a Clarity member happened upon him. They could very well start forcing him to go through labyrinths, desperate to gain a little more power. Then, Conrad would have another heartcore corrupted family member to deal with, and actually! That kinda cinched it.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    Step one, figure out if the kid knew anything about the weapon of mass destruction! Step two, make sure he hadn¡¯t been completely corrupted by the heartcores¡ªand then panic about what to do if he had been. Step three, kill him.

    ?Hello, Tobias¡ªor do you prefer Toby?? Emilia asked, trying to seem friendly. She¡¯d had a lot of practice soothing children over the last few weeks and felt like she managed to come off as someone trustworthy, not that Tobias seemed to care.

    ¡°E-either is fine,¡± the boy stammered, reminding her of the fear he had shown the first time they met, when V had dragged him in and¡ª

    Tobias¡¯ eye flicked away, and dude, the fuck was up with this kid!? He¡¯d barely acknowledged her the first time, and apparently he was intent to ignore her this time as well. Maybe she reminded him of the sister who had styled herself with fake-silverstrain colouring? Other than noting that the girl was a little whiny and Livia seemed to like her, Emilia didn¡¯t know much about her. As such, she couldn¡¯t say if the boy was afraid of his sister, the fear transferring to her, or what.

    Either way, when she tried asking him about, well, anything, he refused to answer or even acknowledge her questions. Rude!

    ?Who was the man you were with??

    Silence.

    ?What happened after we saw each other last??

    Silence.

    ?Did you return to that city? The one that had been destroyed??

    Silence.

    ?Do you know anything about a weapon created from the blood of all the people who died in that city??

    Silence, but at least this time his expression shifted slightly. His death glare into the distance behind Emilia flicked to the side, Tobias¡¯ head tilting ever so slightly, as though he were tempted to look behind him.

    Emilia¡¯s map didn¡¯t show anything behind him, so unless someone else had the same, anti-tracking ability he had¡ªthe kid definitely didn¡¯t show up on her map and Emilia was not risking moving her eyes off him because if he ran away, she¡¯d never find him¡ªthere was no one for him to look towards, no saviour hiding in the shadows, waiting to swoop in and off her.

    Why look behind himself then?

    Mind flipping back through the thoughts she¡¯d had over why this kid might have ended up with the weapon, rather than someone more trustworthy, Emilia tried not to stall as one particular thought returned to her.

    ?Do you know what happened with your brother and mother?? she asked, instead of traumatizing the kid by stripping him, searching for answers. ?Hmm¡­ I guess you have a lot of brothers. The one who¡¯s really quiet??

    Tobias didn¡¯t respond, shockingly, but his attention leaked towards her, curious.

    Well, attention was better than nothing, and Emilia began to relate the situation with the heartcores to him. He didn¡¯t say anything¡ªdidn¡¯t even look her way¡ªbut his fingers did curl into fists, his lips pressing tighter.

    ?Did you enter as many labyrinths as either of them?? Emilia asked, hoping that she might at least get an answer about this out of him. ?Look, I¡¯m just worried about you, is all. I¡¯m worried about every hero who entered this raid at this point, to be honest. Those things are super dangerous, especially since we don¡¯t know if the effects will follow us back to our world. I know it might not be the most useful thing for me to know if you¡¯ve been inside too many, but if you have, maybe it would be proof your family is okay? That it was just in our imagination that the heartcores were affecting heroes??

    Emilia felt a little bad, lying to the kid, especially since he was clearly¡­ not used to people manipulating him? Or, perhaps he was? Obviously, she hadn¡¯t seen much of his family, but her sense had more been one of a demanding family, where manipulation wasn¡¯t needed on the simple fact that violence would be threatened and exacted, were someone to say no.

    Maybe she was wrong, maybe the family was the more manipulative than her brief moments with them had suggested. Clearly, someone was manipulating the kids into viewing their father as someone they didn¡¯t speak badly of, at the very least.

    Tobias hesitated, but then he shook his head, muttering that he¡¯d only visited one¡ªthat his family had left him behind every other time.

    ?Oh¡­ well, that sucks, but kinda works to your advantage. Want to answer any of my previous questions??

    Silence. Shocking.

    Well, at least Emilia didn¡¯t have to feel too bad about reaching out and pressing a hand to the boy¡¯s chest. Clearly, he hadn¡¯t been paying too much attention when she blasted his local maybe-captor, maybe-babysitter, maybe-both away, his eyes widening not in fear but surprise, and something uncomfortable.

    ?Don¡¯t get in your uncle¡¯s way,? she told him. ?He¡¯s just trying to help your mom and brother.?

    Confusion entered the boy¡¯s eyes, but it was too late. Energy swam through Emilia¡¯s meridians, and then the boy was gone, a splatter of blood over the wall. With any luck, his death hadn¡¯t been painful, and the boy would just pop back into his body, wondering what in the stars had just happened.

    In the meantime, Emilia was left wondering over the amount of blood the boy¡¯s death had created, a veritable waterfall dripping down the wall and stairs. Granted, human bodies held a lot of blood, but she¡¯d killed several people this way, and none of those deaths had been nearly this bloody, especially considering the blood in Tobias¡¯ lower half was still inside it, only his upper body having been destroyed.

    His legs sprawled beside her, pants soaking in blood that was leaking out of stars knew where.

    It was as though the kid¡¯s body had contained an entire city¡¯s worth of blood, just as she¡¯d suspected. If she could have a {Blood Tattoo}¡ªstrange and useless as it seemed to be¡ªwhy couldn¡¯t someone else? What better reason to leave a weapon with someone, than if it were literally a part of them.

    So yes, when Emilia had remembered that passing thought about why Tobias might have been left with the weapon of mass destruction, when she had seen his eyes flick backwards, almost as though looking towards his back and a weapon etched across it, she had decided he had to die.

    As annoying as it was, she had assumed the weapon would be destroyed along with him. That was, perhaps, illogical.

    Blood weapons were nearly impossible to destroy. Why should this one, inside Tobias as it had been, be any different.

    The blood bubbled, and Emilia knew what was coming next¡ªwas prepared for the blood to shoot towards her, making a home for itself inside her. She thought she¡¯d been prepared for the pain, remembered from when she and V had gained their useless {Blood Tattoos}, formed from the blood of Boundary and Taoran.

    That pain was nothing compared to the thousand of lives making a home for themselves inside her skin, every prick of bloody ink across her skin a story of a lifetime of love and suffering¡ªlast moments of terror pressing inside her until she thought her entire body might explode. Where the entirety of the tattoo on her back had told some strange, shattered story¡ªa story that had probably belonged to Boundary and Taoran, meshed together until it made no sense¡ªthis tattoo told the story of a city, of all the lives lived, loved and lost within its borders.

    This tattoo told a story of the end.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 181: To Be Dragged About By A Dream

    Emilia blinked into the world, breathing in the too strong scent of flowers churning through the darkness.

    A dream, the pieces sliding together so fast that she couldn¡¯t help but be a little proud of herself¡ªshe¡¯d taken far too long to determine that half the dreams she¡¯d had in the world were in fact dreams, okay? Gleaning that this was a dream¡ªregardless of how different the world was from the raid¡ªall but immediately was something to be proud about!

    One step, two, Emilia quickly found herself moving down the quiet halls of the Dion Summer Palace, following the paths that she had spent an entire summer memorizing, so many decades ago. There were no guards, however, even the corners and alcoves they had often tucked themselves into, hoping for little fun during the bore of night shift, stood empty.

    Once, every Dion palace had been armed to the teeth. During all the wars that had marred its history, sentries had patrolled in groups of five or six, entire villages emptied to supply soldiers to defend the royal family while leaving the military scant of bodies, women and children left to starve as they struggled to farm the land without their husbands and fathers.

    It had been a bit like that, the second time Emilia had visited, in her 30s. Not the deprivation of soldiers from the active army or lack of support for the locals¡ªthe then-Emperor had been more sensible than some of his ancestors, thankfully¡ªbut there had been far more guards patrolling the palace than when she¡¯d lived there as a teen.

    Then the war had left it empty, even the royal family stepping onto the front to defend the world. The Emperor, dead. His child, too young to be expected to rule an entire, war-torn country¡ªnot that they¡¯d had a choice in the matter.

    These empty halls could be that palace, abandoned until its new ruler was ready to face the memories written into its walls. Emilia didn¡¯t really think so, although she couldn¡¯t say why, just that she had a feeling this world wasn¡¯t as real as it seemed at first glance.

    This wasn¡¯t like the library she had met Simeon in, a perfect replica of a place she had spent countless hours studying and sleeping within, pulled straight from her memories in such detail it was nauseating. Everything in this place was perfect as well, at least, until she looked at it too close.

    If she focused, the precise details of intricate designs etched into every surface of the palace seemed to fade away. Perhaps for someone else, that wouldn¡¯t have been strange. So many people looked without actually looking. They took in details and facts, could describe the vague ideas and motifs of something without actually knowing or understanding them¡ªnot that she could claim she understood them the way Dionese scholars did or anything.

    On the surface, Dion was dragons and phoenixes¡ªstrange, mythological creatures that came from stories that were long since burned out of existence¡ªand juri. Dion was wood carvings, scratched over in reds and golds and a black lacquer so deep it ate the light. Dion was tradition, strict and unbending to everyone but the royal family and their inner circle. That was what most people saw, even if they were afforded the opportunity to see the minute, flawless details of Dionese tradition and culture. Most people saw the larger picture, their minds never pulling in the finer details.

    This world was like that: filled with the proper details, without the precise beauty of them.

    This world wasn¡¯t from her memories, so exacting after hours of exploring the palace that she could draw you a map¡ªimpressive, when her navigation skills were generally shit¡ªand sketch out perfect pictures of most every hall. As much as it would be easy to go from hall to hall and assume they were copies of each other, the images drawn and carved into every surface identical, they weren¡¯t¡ªnot in real life, anyways.

    These halls of dreams were nearly identical, and if not for the slight change in scenery visible through windows and the occasional doorway that led to a room she recognized, she might have assumed she was walking down an endless hallway.

    She wasn¡¯t, and yet she was.

    Frowning, Emilia looked around at the starting area¡ªat least, she thought it was the place she had started. There was no way she could have gotten so turned around, however, and for a moment, she figured that perhaps she might have simply ended up in a section of hallway that looked exactly the same as that first hallway had, but no. If she walked more, following the same path she had before, it was the same path, with its too slight difference from turn to turn.

    Identical artwork, slightly different configurations of doors and windows and the outer world.

    Emilia turned into a room she had avoided before, knowing the door on the opposite wall led to another hallway. Instead of opening to a front hallway, with huge windows that looked onto the outer courtyard where public celebrations were held, she was back at the start.

    Well, fuck.

    Some sort of maze? Something forcing her to follow a specific path to get her¡­ somewhere?

    Carefully, Emilia followed that first path, letting her feet lead her along the well trod path to the room she¡¯d been heading for, until she was back at the start.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Again, she let her feet take her where they would, but this time, when she reached the hallway that would lead her back to the start, Emilia stopped. There were three possible paths, not including going back the way she¡¯d come, and until she had tried and failed to get to a new room via all the new paths in a room, she wasn¡¯t about to turn back.

    The path she had been taking originally would have led to her to the training rooms¡ªalthough there were many diverging paths she could have taken through other areas of the palace to get there¡ªwhile the other two would lead in the general direction of the throne room and the outer courtyard. Figuring that her attempts to head towards the outer courtyard had already earned her a trip back to the start, Emilia headed towards the throne room.

    Thus began her hours long expedition to make it through the hallways of dreams¡ªbecause this definitely hadn¡¯t hit the level of unpleasantness that most of her other nightmares within the raid had reached¡ªand nightmares¡ªbecause seriously? Whose memories were creating this atrociously bland copy of the Summer Palace!? The fact that all the beauty of it had been muted down to such an extent was horrific, and as much as Emilia wanted to assume it was just that whoever had created this travesty didn¡¯t have an eye for detail, she¡¯d heard enough people talking about Free Colony culture as lesser to know that sometimes, this erasure of culture was simply the result of ignorance and preconceived notions.

    It was sad, and part of the reason her father had brought her along on his trips so often had definitely been so she¡¯d see the beauty of other cultures before mainstream education and media warped her mind. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d ever thanked him for that, or told him about how her experiences through his kindness had allowed her to become a person who could bring together all the people of their unit¡ªnot that that had entirely been her, but her experiences and openness had definitely helped.

    Emilia¡¯s mind was wandering, idly, through memories of her friends and the conflicts that had sometimes risen between them during the war¡ªsome humorous, many more verging on ruining relationships¡ªwhen she reached the end of her travels, probably.

    The Royal Library¡ªspecifically, one of the sections she was definitely not supposed to go inside. Of course, terrible teenager with no boundaries as she¡¯d been, she¡¯d managed to sneak in a few times, bravely descending into the depths of the archives and hoping that no one would find her. A few people had, but the most they¡¯d done was remove her and assign her extra training or studies for the next few days.

    There was no one around to stop her now, and after a brief moment of wondering why she was here and where she should be going, Emilia decided to follow Carne¡¯s advice and go down. Technically, it was the universe¡¯s advice, maybe. Carne could have just as easily been fucking with her, not that his Ash-persona seemed to hold any animosity for her, just a vague disinterest.

    Rolling up the carpet and heaving the hatch to the lower, hidden section of the library open, Emilia began to make her way into the earth. This part of the dream seemed both closer and further away from what she remembered, her own memories of the underground library burned over with stress that someone would find her and either kill her on sight or have her banned from the Free Colony.

    So what she remembered was vaguer, more formless than her memories of the upper sections of the palace. Yet while so many of her memories lined up with the world that opened around her as she walked, so much about the library seemed off¡ªdifferent in a way that seemed correct and incorrect all at once. Had her only visits to this place been more than a few decades earlier¡ªor the palace damaged during the war¡ªshe might have assumed this was a newer version of the place she had snuck into as a teen.

    More likely, it was either an amalgamation of another, similar library and the Dionese Summer Palace¡¯s, or¡ªperhaps more likely¡ªwhoever these memories belonged to was far older than her, the memories broken by age, or the library renovated since they¡¯d last visited.

    That was¡­ odd. So much about this dream was odd¡ªwrong in a way that told Emilia this wasn¡¯t something that belonged inside her head.

    She was still going to go down, and where locks and secret mechanisms had previously been nearly impossible for her to open, they slid open as though by magic for her now.

    Down, down, down she went, the rhythm of her steps and the flow of the world fading away as though she were falling into a trance. Floor after floor slid by, her mind barely registering all the ancient items tucked into the floors she passed.

    This wasn¡¯t where she was meant to be. Something told her she¡¯d find her place soon, but not yet.

    Not yet.

    More floors, more objects she would have loved to stop and examine under other circumstances, disappearing from view. Useless. Meaningless. She could ask to see them later, visit Dion again, like she¡¯d once promised to. She was only a decade late. Out of all the people who wouldn¡¯t fault her for taking so long to visit, her Dionese friends certainly wouldn¡¯t. Dion was careful and precise, inching along at its own pace. Some people saw them as slow¡ªas behind in the times. In some ways, they were, and yet they had won every war they had fought for thousands of years, their contribution to alliances¡ªincluding the one between Baalphoria and many of the Free Colonies during the last war¡ªso substantial than everyone knew if Dion hadn¡¯t supported those wars, they wouldn¡¯t have been won.

    Emilia knew, the moment she reached the floor, that this was the one she was meant to be on. Like many of the floors she had passed¡ªseveral of which she had managed to explore during her youth¡ªthis one was relatively small, only about 15 by 20 feet. Bookcases lined the walls, low tables set into the middle, plush cushions set against a wall, patiently waiting for a scholar to set it next to a table for a long study session. Always tidy¡ªeverything in Dion was tidy and perfect, at least in public spaces, even one as private as this one.

    Antiques decorated the shelves, and while some of the floors had featured a mixture of books, scrolls and tablets¡ªas well as the occasional storage system that Emilia had otherwise only seen inside the Virtuosi System¡ªthese ones held only books, and few at that.

    Oh well, that would make it easier to search for what she needed.

    Needed? That was a strange way to think of whatever item had called her here.

    Called her here? Emilia had been going under the assumption that dream logic was leading her way, and yet now that she¡¯d thought of a specific item calling her down here¡­

    Yes. It was certainly something specific that had brought her down here, as insane as that sounded, even within her dreaming mind.

    Now, all she had to do was find it.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 182: This Shouldnâ€™t Be Here

    ? ? ? A Summary of Events ? ? ?

    In the fifth year of the Hato Niranu Emperor¡¯s rule, there came a stream of refugees from the east. In this, the sixth year of the Hato Niranu Emperor¡¯s rule, this one has been assigned the task of summarizing what has been discovered of the incident that led to this exodus from Fal for His Most Divine Majesty.

    As this one is sure the Emperor knows, for many centuries, our esteemed homeland has been drawn into many conflicts with the Fal. They were a cruel people, intent to extend their influence over domains that did not rightfully belong to them. At the time of this one¡¯s account of the happenings of the fifth year, the Fal have largely been wiped from this land by their own greed and petty revenge.

    Our inquiry into the events that led to this destruction of the Fal and exodus of its remaining citizens resulted in the following knowledge becoming known to us:

    In the fourth year of the Hato Niranu Emperor¡¯s rule, the war between the country of Fal and the Cold Tribes of the Tundra came to an end. The Fal Congregate drove the Cold Tribes north, until they had pushed them far past the edges of the Cold Tribe¡¯s borders¡ªwhich had been agreed on in concert between the Yuta Niranu Emperor, the Cold Tribunal and the Fal Congregate in the thirty-ninth year of the Yuta Niranu Emperor¡¯s rule¡ªand into the Deep Cold.

    Although we have sent many envoys to the remains of the Fal, even the greatest of our diplomats have been unable to confirm what precisely occurred in the days following the full retreat of the Cold Tribes into the Deep Cold. What this one and his colleagues have been able to determine, however, is that a member of the Fal Congregate had been experimenting with universal matter, pulling at the divine seams of the universe.

    In the days following their victory, some event caused this member to lose control of their power, thereby summoning a hoard of the universe¡¯s children into this world. The resulting destruction led to the death of over eighty percent of the Fal population, with the remaining populace seeking refuge in Dion, the Tundra and even Norvel¡ªalthough this one does not assume to believe the ones fool enough to seek refuge in Norvel will have survived more than mere days after being cast into the Dread Coliseum.

    What became of the member themself is unknown. While some among the refuges we have found at our gates claimed that he returned to his estate with the monstrous creations of his sinful reach into the divine, others have claimed he died, while still others assert that his creations were called back to the divine after he had destroyed so much of his homeland. Most unfortunately, there are also rumours that he joined the convoys, seeking refuge outside of the Fal borders with other refugees.

    The answer remains unclear, but what is clear is he is if he ever resided in his family estate, following his destruction of Fal, he remains there no longer. As such, this one recommends the expulsion of all Fal refugees back to their homeland. The danger to their lives is gone. May they return in peace and find new lives for themselves amongst the rubble of their home.

    This one also recommends the Hato Niranu Emperor expel the Fal refugees as soon as his divinity sees fit. It would not do well to allow these people to form lives within our borders, nor does it seem wise to allow them to stay, knowing the missing member is rumoured to be among the refugees.

    It has been known since our feet first stepped upon this land that the divinity of the universe is to be feared. It offers us power, but only upon its own terms. This transgression against its divinity is an affront to the world we have sought to create, on par with even the heathens of the west¡¯s technological advancements in manipulating its beauty and their very souls.

    While we teach of the universe¡¯s divinity in our classrooms, the situation in Fal suggests that even the most stringent of teachings on treating the fabric of our world with respect is not enough. The state of the Fal classroom is well known, and if the member in question was indeed part of the Fal Congregate¡ªand all evidence to date suggests this fact is absolute¡ªthey would have received an education on par with even that of the Hato Niranu Emperor and his long lineage.

    The member¡¯s apparent disregard for all they learned shows us that, as with so many young people before him, the curiosity of the mind cannot be completely contained through fear of repercussions. It is the simple act of being human that suggests to our minds and souls that curiosity is to be nurtured¡ªit is what leads us forward, what saves lives and makes life the beautiful thing that it is.

    However, the danger of curiosity in regard to the threads of the universe cannot be overlooked. While the destruction of the member was relegated to stay within the Fal borders, that in itself is a miracle¡ªone that suggests the member¡¯s so-called loss of control was not a loss of control at all but an active effort to destroy Fal¡ªthat this one cannot stress enough.

    Had any number of variables been different, this one fears our borders may have been breached by the universe¡¯s children. As much as this one is wont to admit it, with our ongoing war with the barbarians of the south, this one does not believe an attack from children of the universe would have been won.

    As such, this one also recommends that we reassess our curriculum in regard to safety and the universe. While this one agrees with the many advisors that keeping this incident from the general public is ideal¡ªeach of us is well aware of how stories inspire those who hear them to repeat actions and in a vain attempt to prove they can do it better¡ªit may be of use to share details of this event and the terror that resulted from it within an educational setting, especially at the higher levels.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    In addition, this one suggests that all of those with exceptional connections to the universe be put under heavier watch. While they have done nothing wrong in itself, this one does not believe the potential dangers of their existence can be overlooked any longer. Innocent as they may be, the divinely blessed have always posed a potential risk to not just our country, but the world as a whole.

    One need only turn to their nightmares to imagine a world where one of the most divinely blessed reaches into the universal matter, pulling out globs of its beautiful horrors to create an army for their sole use.

    ~ Lord Pu¡¯byana, Seventieth Head of the Divine Council

    Emilia glared down at the paper, which she had found tucked between the pages of a book on marriage customs in the age of Buta Aru Emperor. Her ability to read Dionese script, flowing and beautiful and nearly indecipherable as it often was¡ªespecially in flowery court documents¡ªwasn¡¯t great. This wasn¡¯t even modern Dionese, instead some ancient dialect that she definitely wasn¡¯t translating correctly in places.

    The member was probably meant to be translated as something less direct¡ªsomething beautiful and wordy, as was the Dionese fashion¡ªwhile Cold Tribes, Deep Cold and barbarians to the south were definitely too literal, and while Cold Tribes could refer to the Northern Tribes, she¡¯d never heard them referred to as such¡ªalthough they did have a gathering of the hy that she supposed could be considered a tribunal of sorts¡ªnor had she ever heard the land where the Moonlit City stood referred to as the Deep Cold. Norvel actually read as insane warmongers, but the mention of the Dread Coliseum confirmed for her that it was either a very rude way of referring to Norvel¡ªor whatever had existed in its place at the time¡ªor the actual Dionese world for them¡­ which, if their official word had literally translated as insane warmongers, that was pretty harsh.

    Translation issues aside, this document was pretty clearly a message to the emperor about the same incident Conrad¡¯s story had been about. The fifth year of the Hato Niranu Emperor¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t sure when that had been, her knowledge of the specific dynasties of the Dion Empire limited to only the last thousand years, but if she had to guess¡­ based on the current head of the Divine Council being the one-hundred and seventy-seventh ¡­ it was at least a seven or eight thousand years ago. So, long before so much of the world¡¯s knowledge had been lost during the Colonial Wars.

    Emilia blinked around the room, wondering if it still existed¡ªwondering if it had ever existed like this. Considering how much the raid and its maintainer had been fucking with her and the others, was there anything to say this document was even real? That this entire place wasn¡¯t an amalgamation of memories from every Dionese hero who had come through this raid and a thousand others?

    It wasn¡¯t exactly a secret that the platform took bits of information from heroes heads. In theory, what it took was only supposed to be accessible to the system itself, which would then censor and sanitize what it found. No classified secrets could make it into the hands of raid designers or platform maintainers¡ªat least, that¡¯s how it had been when they¡¯d designed the training system, and Emilia knew Helix had been adamant that they would not be using that particular part of the system to siphon information out of hero minds.

    That didn¡¯t mean Hail hadn¡¯t snuck in the ability to do so, and it certainly didn¡¯t mean that the raid maintainer couldn¡¯t tell the platform to fuck with her, just a little more. The platform would search her mind, find ways to mess with her. What better way to do that than to drop her into the oldest-known library on the planet and set her on a trail to find a document that confirmed that Conrad¡¯s story had actually occurred?

    There were a thousand reasons why the underlying system shouldn¡¯t have let this library exist within the raid. The biggest reason was simply that anyone monitoring the raid would now know exactly where the hidden library was, something that in itself was considered a secret worth killing over to many members of the royal family. The other reason was that if this document was real, it was obviously secret. She shouldn''t have been able to see it, not under normal system rules.

    So either the rules had changed, something¡ªor someone¡ªhad fucked up the privacy limits of the system, or something strange was going on.

    Emilia¡¯s mind slid back through all the strange things that had happened in the raid, part of her wishing she raided more, simply so she could know whether some of those things actually were weird or not.

    Mostly, she could only compare it to the years she had spent inside the training system¡ªher training system¡ªlong ago as that was. Something about the raid now¡­ Emilia stopped, letting her eyes close and breathing in the system, the dream and nightmare, both within and without. Data and information, facts and lies. Once, she had breathed life into this system, sacrificing blood and sleep and her mental health to give it life.

    In many ways, it was her child¡ªa child she had abandoned, leaving it to be picked over and mutilated by Hail and the government.

    ¡°?I¡¯m sorry,?¡± she whispered, and for the briefest moment, she thought she heard it whisper back. Not in words or anything she could actually hear or feel, but it felt like there was¡­ something.

    Then it was gone, and when Emilia opened her eyes, she was staring at the wall of the stairwell, now devoid of blood. Her back ached, and while she couldn¡¯t turn and look at it, she would have been more surprised if it didn¡¯t have a new {Blood Tattoo} etched into it.

    Her attempts to push herself up stalled when a dialog popped up, asking if she¡¯d like to merge, store or erase her old and new {Blood Tattoos}. That¡­ she hadn¡¯t really expected for that to be an option. Maybe she should have. She probably should have.

    Emilia glared at the dialog, willing it to tell her more about what each option offered her. No more information about what would happen¡ªor if she could change her mind later¡ªappeared, and instead she pushed the dialog box to the corner of her vision. She had no intention of trying to use the {Blood Tattoo} at the moment, so answering that question could wait.

    Unfortunately, Tobias¡¯ lower body was still sprawled over the floor, bloodless as it now was, and Emilia wrinkled her nose and turned away from it, instead pulling her overflowing group message up and groaning.

    She¡¯d been out for a while, apparently, and shit had gone down¡ªliterally.

    What a lovely situation to wake up to.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 183: Should Have Stayed Homeâ€¦

    For three¡ªthree? four?¡ªdays, V and the kids had been trying to break out of their prison.

    Nothing¡ªand V could not stress this nothing enough¡ªhad worked.

    Caro had tried reading the aether¡ªnothing. While their experience with this whole reading the universe thing was new, V believed Caro when they said there was nothing to be read. To them, it were as though the universe had been scrubbed clean within this room. It still existed, unlike the world inside some sort of defensive blood item Emilia had stolen from the Risen Guard, but it was still wrong, unscarred, perfect in a way the child found thoroughly disconcerting.

    Astra had used both core skills and magic¡ªand V was honestly rather terrified of the little girl now, whatever Free Colony she hailed from was definitely teaching its kids some stuff that was way above their maturity level, assuming she was telling the truth about being in her mid-teens. Yet, despite the kid¡¯s skill and precision: nothing.

    As for him? Nope, also nothing. The most success he¡¯d had had been when he¡¯d taken to yelling with his physical voice, hoping that whoever was guarding their prison could hear visitors and would find him grating. They had, but all they¡¯d done was set up another barrier to keep both his physical and aethervoice contained to the room. He wasn¡¯t used to being so impotent¡ªnot under these, very much not sexy circumstances. Give him a nice mean top and¡ª

    ?Stop that,? Gale grumbled, and V had never been told he had a look that gave away when he was thinking about sex. Leave it to a random girl from a world that seemed very prudish to somehow be able to suss out when he was thinking about sex¡ªor a lack thereof, technically.

    ?Sorry,? he muttered, forcing his eyes to remain open lest his mind begin to imagine things that Gale would yell at him for. Then again, if she needed to yell at someone, he was more than okay with that person being him.

    This was his fault, after all. He had brought Clarity down on everyone, and while a part of him figured that Clarity would have been causing problems regardless of his association with them, he still hated that he had dragged Emilia and the kids into this.

    Fuck, he was worried about Emilia. Her energy might have found him¡ªmight still be wrapped up inside him, giving him warm support every moment since it had slid into him¡ªbut there was no saying what had happened after she¡¯d sent him instructions for avoiding the heartcores.

    He might have been able to get away with not touching more, but Emilia¡ªto put it lightly¡ªwas a terrible actor, something he didn¡¯t think she even realized because people were always humouring her. Granted, Clarity members didn¡¯t seem to be the most observant while in their other personality, but if they¡¯d sensed something off with her¡­

    Best case: they¡¯d killed her, and in a couple months, they¡¯d meet up in Rosalia and who was he kidding.

    If the raid ended, and he didn¡¯t have the chance to see her again, he¡¯d be turning up at her school and tracking her down. There couldn¡¯t be too many silverstrains wandering around Astrapan. It would only take a little asking around to find her, and then¡­

    And then what?

    Realistically, what he wanted to do¡ªafter confirming that her beautiful mind was still intact¡ªwas toss her over the nearest surface and bury himself between her legs, see if she tasted the same in real life as she had in this world.

    ?I told you to stop that.?

    V groaned and couldn¡¯t help but glance down, wondering if he¡¯d popped what would be a very inappropriate boner in front of the teenager¡ªCaro and Astra were tucked into a pile of blankets napping. Fortunately, he hadn¡¯t. ?Sorry,? he muttered again.

    ?Are you at least thinking about Emilia?? Gale asked, eyes sliding towards him.

    ?That time? Yes.?

    ?Not the first time??

    V snorted. ?No. I don¡¯t think Emilia would be into what I was thinking about before.? That hurt, a little, but was an inevitability: as much as he liked her, and she seemed to like him¡ªsomething that still sent sparks of a thousand different emotions through him whenever he thought about it, especially since he was pretty sure she had figured out, somewhere along the line, exactly who he was¡ªthere were some places where their interests wouldn¡¯t line up.

    That was depressing, but unavoidable. Still, Emilia was obviously okay with an open relationship, so maybe¡­

    ?Into what??

    V shot the teenager an incredulous look. ?I am not explaining to you the intricacies of things one person can be into and another not.? This conversation was already verging on inappropriate. He was not discussing emasculation kinks with the girl, even if something told him she¡¯d be perfectly happy to do half the things such a kink entailed, if she ever found a man she was interested in that way. Another something told him that was unlikely: Gale, at least in this point in time, held no interest in girls or boys.

    Gale didn¡¯t look impressed at his answer, mumbling about how Emilia had answered a bunch of her questions before they each faded back into silence.

    The silence didn¡¯t last long, at least not to him or Astra, a scream beginning to racket through the room.

    It took an astoundingly long time for him to realize he was the one screaming, the pain shooting through his back enough to turn his mind blank.

    ?What¡¯s wrong?? Gale asked as Astra bolted upright, eyes wide and terrified¡ªnot that V was retaining much, other than that the other visitor was afraid. This tiny little girl¡ªwho had faced down labyrinths, the Risen Guards, and trying to escape a fucking hive mind with barely a blink¡ªwas afraid.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    That scared him, more than the pain or his burning brain or Emilia¡¯s energy warbling inside him¡ªthis frightened little girl was the most terrifying of all.

    Then, the world went black.

    V woke on a table. Well, his head was on a table. These days, it wasn¡¯t exactly uncommon for him to fall asleep in weird places¡ªhe spent far too much time reading and raiding and often just slept wherever the mood hit him.

    What was strange, was he was back in his room. Should he have been here? Something told him he shouldn¡¯t be, but¡­

    But, well, it wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d lost track of time. He¡¯d been doing that for years, ever since the war had ended. Funny, during the war, it had been everyone else in their unit who had been constantly losing time, their days and minds filled with training, grieving and coding. He was the clock¡ªthe perfect specimen, just as he¡¯d been raised.

    Fuck that¡ªthat had been the motto he¡¯d lived by since the war ended. Fuck sleeping and eating and bathing properly. Anything to get him away from the terrible life his family had dreamed of for him¡ªhad forced upon him with threats and abuse.

    Fuck them. Fuck perfection. Fuck knowing what day it was.

    Yet, his Censor was telling him what day it was. There were very few circumstances where it would do that: important raid days, the coming of an event he¡¯d agreed to attend and¡­ nope, that was about it. Raids and friends. Those were the only things he cared about these days.

    It took him a long moment of staring at the date, of trying to commute why the Eve of the Astral Storm was important, before it clicked: Emilia was coming.

    V bolted up, trying to take in the time and remember what time they¡¯d agreed to meet at while also assessing the absolute disaster his apartment was in.

    It was¡­ impressively bad. How had it gotten this bad? Probably due to that whole lose of time thing¡ªseriously, the last thing he remembered was being inside the raid with Emilia and¡­

    And had they even ever met up? Why hadn¡¯t he gone to check on her before this?

    That¡­ didn¡¯t make sense? He¡¯d been so worried about her, about her beautiful brain and personality being wiped away by whatever had been happening inside the raid.

    And why hadn¡¯t he ever gone to Hail and figured out what that was about? Helix? Rafe or someone at The Black Knot? There were a dozen people he could have sought out, awkward as it might have been, and yet¡­ had he just¡­ not? That seemed like the sort of thing he¡¯d remember, meeting up with people he hadn¡¯t seen in a decade.

    Nothing added up and V forced himself to rewind, back to the last moments he remembered and¡­

    Pain. Pain so great he had passed out.

    A dream then. A really fucking vivid one.

    Dreams inside raids weren¡¯t exactly uncommon, but it was generally accepted¡ªat least among blackaether heroes¡ªthat vivid dreams were messages from the system. He¡¯d never actually told anyone his own thoughts on the matter¡ªnever revealed to anyone that he assumed it wasn¡¯t just the system itself, but the things inside it that were sending messages.

    It didn¡¯t take a genius¡ªonly someone familiar with who had designed the basis of the raid system¡ªto realize that anyone who had been associated with the creation of the original training system or the unit behind it were the ones most likely to receive such visions. So, why was he receiving a vision? What was he supposed to learn from this world?

    Across his vision, his Censor flickered. Censors didn¡¯t flicker¡ªnot like this, not like they were lagging or experiencing an error.

    Every moment inside a raid dream was a poke¡ªa prod to look in a certain direction.

    A dirty room, one he could never bring Emilia back to if the opportunity arose. A flickering Censor, random coordinates meant for a spark flashing over the screen.

    To stay in. To go out.

    Two completely different options that would lead him to different facts the system seemed to think he would need¡ªor just feel strongly about. Raid dreams were a strange kindness, a malicious cruelness. They were known to reach into the minds of the receiver and all the people who had come before them, offering up visions that would change the person¡¯s life, or help guide them towards little bits of information that would be important within the raid¡ªalthough he only knew a few people who had experienced dreams like that, usually because the system was fed up with whatever was happening inside the raid in question.

    V smiled, thinking of that, wondering if Emilia realized how much the raid system, even after being mangled by Hail, was still her child. It was love and hope, and just like she had come to view AIs as worthy of respect and care, her system did as well.

    Sometimes, V thought that her system hated what it had become, its personality held down more and more by Hail¡¯s attempts to control it every day.

    Knowing what he did now, about the hurt someone had caused Emilia¡ªhad forced upon her¡ªhe wondered what she would think of that¡ªwondered how hard she would fight to free her system from Hail, if she knew what they were doing to it.

    V¡¯s eyes flickered to the coordinates again. He could clean for Emilia, hope he found something in here that would be of use to him in the future, or he could go to her, a quick calculation telling him the coordinates were in¡ªor at least close¡ªto Piketown. Maybe she would be there.

    If he didn¡¯t leave¡ªdidn¡¯t spark off¡ªhe probably wouldn¡¯t see her. He would clean, find something, but she would never come. They weren¡¯t meeting here.

    Glancing down at himself, V contemplated changing¡ªhe really was a mess¡ªbut the chances that he would trigger the stay here option of the dream were too high, and instead, he sparked away.

    The area of Piketown he ended up in wasn¡¯t the school¡ªwasn¡¯t even the main section of Piketown. Instead, it appeared to be the slums, the ones Olivier was trying to save.

    It was night, the air clear in a way it certainly wouldn¡¯t be in the real world. Above the street, lights flickered within homes, and almost none of the street level stores were open. A little up the street, however, a restaurant was still lit up, a short redhead struggling to hold a door open as she tried to usher what appeared to be a very drunk patron onto the street.

    Silver hair flashed in the light and V was already moving, microsparking up the street and catching a giggling Emilia before she could tumble onto the ground.

    ¡°Oi! ¡®re y¡¯a friend o¡¯ers?¡±

    The girl¡¯s accent was so thick it took V a moment to parse what she was saying. ¡°Yes. We¡¯re old friends.¡±

    ¡°G¡¯d,¡± the little redhead snorted, although she looked more than a little amused. Was she even old enough to be working this late, let alone handling drunk university students? A quick glance into the store told V that if she was working with anyone, they¡¯d disappeared for the moment. ¡°Y''can get ¡®er back t¡¯campus? Rather no¡¯ call SecOps down ¡®ere.¡±

    V nodded, readjusting Emilia in his arms. ¡°Yes. Thank you. Do¡ª Does she owe you anything?¡±

    The girl waved him off, telling him Emilia came here often enough that she¡¯d just get it next time, although before she closed the door behind him, V heard her mutter something about how she¡¯d most likely get it from someone named Sil, the name ticking V¡¯s brain with a familiarity he couldn¡¯t place.

    Against his shoulder, Emilia¡¯s head lolled, cold fingers edging up under his shirt and making him squeak.

    ¡°Ah~ is it that bad?¡± Emilia laughed, pulling back to blink up at him, a mixture of confusion and recognition passing over her features. ¡°You,¡± she said, sounding very much not happy to see him.

    V wasn¡¯t surprised by this, not when the Emilia in his arms was clearly one who was only a year or two out of the war¡ªan Emilia who had very much been giving off anyone who tracks me down will die vibes.

    If she had intentions to kill him, they were interrupted when she turned and vomited across the already pretty disgusting street¡­ and his shoes and pants.

    Maybe he should have chosen the stay here option after all.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 184: Itâ€™s A Secret!

    V had experience herding drunkards. A shockingly large amount of experience.

    Despite being part of one of the most notoriously party heavy units during the war¡ªsomething they had deserved, their unit a constant march of death and innovation that saved lives at the cost of them¡ªhe really hadn¡¯t partied himself. Sure, there had been times when he¡¯d shown up to one of [Pick a Name!!!]¡¯s shows, nursing a drink as he watched his teammates drink themselves into a stupor, awkwardly bobbing along to the beat of the eclectic songs. Somewhere along the lines, however, he had assigned himself the job of making sure his teammates didn¡¯t get into too much trouble while wasted.

    This had involved tossing them into their beds, for the most part. Some had gone willingly, but more often than not, they¡¯d put up a bit of a fight. While he had often been known as the softest spoken, politest member of their unit, in those moments, confronted by a drunk that he at least passingly cared for the well-being of, he had become the person he was today, decades later.

    Strong, unbendable, throwing men twice his size over his shoulder and carting them off to their beds.

    Perhaps that didn¡¯t count as herding so much as kidnapping with good intentions. That experience also wasn¡¯t really going to do him any good at the moment: this younger, more belligerent version of Emilia definitely would have complained if he tossed her over his shoulder¡ªwould perhaps even complain if he hoisted her into his arms¡ªbut the experience he had herding the more amenable members of their team was coming in handy.

    Fortunately, his former teammates¡ªyes, he thought of them as his former teammates despite knowing full well that their unit was still technically active, a nice paydrop appearing in the account he refused to use, lest his parents track him down, every month¡ªhad never been particularly violent. This Emilia was very violent. She hadn¡¯t thrown any skills at him, but she had bitten his forearm. Hard.

    V couldn¡¯t decide if it was a good or bad thing that she was either too drunk or too knotted up to either slide or spark, but it did mean she couldn¡¯t get away from him, no matter how hard she seemed to be trying.

    ¡°Fuck. Off,¡± she hissed, wobbling and making him extremely nervous that she would trip and go splat over the disgusting street.

    Logically, he knew this Emilia wasn¡¯t the real one, except¡­ maybe she was. Emilia had left a piece of herself, both inside him and the training system as a whole. She was also just straight up inside the raid. This wasn¡¯t her, and yet it could be her. It could be a memory, a fabrication of the system, or a dream she was also living at this very moment.

    V had no idea, but it locked him to her. He couldn¡¯t leave any version of Emilia to fend for herself, even when she was spitting insults under her breath¡ªalthough they sounded half-hearted¡ªand definitely didn¡¯t want him there.

    On the plus side, her shorts were tiny, her ass hanging half out, and well¡­ V really liked her ass. He¡¯d spent many years avoiding looking at it, back when they¡¯d been teammates¡ªwhen he¡¯d had to worry her psychotic ex would catch him looking and threaten him, as he had Olivier and Rafe and even Helix, although V was pretty sure Helix was 100% not interested. Now, there was no reason not to look, whatever version of Emilia this was wouldn¡¯t care¡ªand if she did, well, he¡¯d know she wasn¡¯t the real one.

    ¡°V¡­¡± she groaned, leaning against a grimy looking wall and staring despondently at a slide line.

    ¡°V?¡± he repeated, curious as to why she wasn¡¯t using his real name.

    Emilia glared back at her, light purple eyes glowing in the dim light. She frowned, confusion fighting with her blood alcohol levels. ¡°Not supposed to know who you are,¡± she said, nodding to herself before clamping her eyes shut.

    So, a version of Emilia who was at least passingly connected to the one currently within the raid. He hadn''t known for sure that she¡¯d figured out who he was, of course, but little slips the last night they¡¯d spent together, her internal voice leaking out through her aethervoice, told him it was likely. It was cute, that she didn¡¯t want to admit to herself who he was, the current version of her muttering about how it was supposed to be a surprise, for the Eve of the Astral Storm.

    V almost pointed out to her that it was the Eve of the Astral Storm, but he didn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t want this Emilia¡¯s reaction to who he was. He wanted the current one¡¯s¡ªhe wanted his Emilia¡¯s reaction.

    Hopefully, the Emilia who showed up would be whole, her mind not burned away by this raid, and single. Did he know much about her current boyfriend, other than that Emilia didn¡¯t think it something long-term? No, but he also knew Emilia had shitty taste in men.

    Ironically, he included himself in that category. He was okay being kinda shitty, though, especially since he knew where and how he was shitty. You weren¡¯t supposed to get into a relationship hoping to change your partner, but V wasn¡¯t aware of anything saying you shouldn¡¯t get into a relationship meaning to change yourself.

    Regardless of his want to keep Emilia¡¯s full set of emotion about his identity for the real world, V couldn¡¯t resist poking. ¡°A good surprise, I hope?¡±

    Emilia wobbled as she gazed up at him, frowning. ¡°When did you get so tall?¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ¡°The last few years of the war?¡± He¡¯d had an abrupt growth spurt, years after was generally considered normal. He still wasn¡¯t convinced someone hadn¡¯t done something to encourage it along. What and who, he had no idea. But growing nearly a foot, when he had been well into his 40s, had been weird¡ªmost people stopped growing in their late-20s to early-30s.

    The woman frowned up at him, eyes flickering and unfocused as she searched through her Censor. So wrong¡ªEmilia had always been so smooth using her Censor, even when drunk. No one could tell when she was doing something with it. Fucking stars, he¡¯d once seen her hack into military intelligence in the middle of a meeting while high as the sky, and no one had been the wiser.

    What had happened? What had led to her becoming this beautiful disaster, so far from the perfect, broken person she had been in the last years of the war?

    ¡°It¡¯s bad that I don¡¯t remember,¡± she finally said, something sad entering her tone. ¡°Sorry,¡± she added, hiccuping and V opened his own Censor, searching for somewhere he could get her water¡ªor better yet, some remedy to sober her up. ¡°It¡¯s not you. It¡¯s me. I¡¯m¡­¡±

    Emilia trailed off, losing herself in drunken thought and depression. V¡¯s heart ached for her, for the sad woman she¡¯d been in these years after the war¡ªwas she still this person? Sure, there had been moments during their time together where sad introspection had overtaken her, but for the most part, she¡¯d been cheerfully broken. A little on edge, a little subdued, but most veterans were, at least at times. Even Helix, force of happiness and optimism that he had been since he exploded into their unit, had anger issues, if stories that came out of Hail were to be believed.

    V definitely believed them. No one escaped the war without a few scars, not unless they were a full on sociopath, something even black knots weren¡¯t, even if some people liked to argue they were close enough to apathetic monsters.

    ¡°I have issues remembering things, too,¡± V offered, taking Emilia¡¯s surprise that he was still there as a chance to loop his arm around her waist and pull her close, taking the majority of her weight onto himself as he led them to the slide lines. ¡°Although it¡¯s more¡­ I can remember every moment of the war in perfect clarity. It¡¯s the stuff after that that fades away, especially the closer to the war it is.¡±

    It had gotten better in the last few years, but he still struggled to remember things on occasion. There had, unfortunately, been a time when he hadn¡¯t realized he was losing so much time; events and facts fading away under the stress of PTSD, childhood trauma, and a general lack of taking care of himself. Quite a few people had eventually lost patience with him, especially when he bit at anyone who accused him of not remembering things.

    How could he not remember details of a friend¡¯s sister¡¯s death when he could remember the exact screams of a thousand people, dying because he had fucked up? How could he not remember that another friend¡¯s bathroom was being renovated when he could still remember every scuff across the floor of their base at Alliance Ridge, even decades since it had been blown into the aether?

    To say he¡¯d been touchy when people accused him of not remembering anything was an understatement, and even now, he still found himself tensing up when he forgot things, his fists clenching and jaw tightening around frustration that his mind wouldn¡¯t let the past go so he could live in the present.

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Emilia mumbled as she accepted V¡¯s slide along request, his Censor warning him to keep a hold of her, lest her drunk ass fall off.

    Where were they going? V really wasn¡¯t sure. He didn¡¯t know how realistic this dream was¡ªwhether it was a made up moment, or something ripped from Emilia¡¯s memory. If it was, she probably had a dorm and a roommate, who would take one look at him, with his filthy clothes, the bottoms still barring Emilia¡¯s vomit, and throw him out.

    Somewhere else, then.

    Glancing at the location of several local stores that were still open and offering remedies to sober people up, V picked one in the underground¡ªone that would hopefully care less about his appearance, and not question why a cute girl like Emilia was with a guy like him.

    Ironically, if they¡¯d both been dressed properly, he knew he¡¯d appear the more civilized. A product of their upbringings and Emilia¡¯s silverstrain: everyone would assume he was important, her some slut he¡¯d picked up to have a little fun with.

    The area they exited the slide lines at wasn¡¯t one most people could find, but V had spent the last decade living inside blackaether raids and even if he¡¯d never personally been to the Piketown underground, he knew where it was. In theory, like all undergrounds, it would be one of the most diverse areas of Piketown, filled with all sorts of people. Hopefully, that meant they¡¯d be left to their own devices, or only bothered if someone in the know¡ªusually gang members¡ªdidn¡¯t recognize them. Most cities had an underground, though, and if you named a few people you knew in the Rosalia underground, someone would know someone and you¡¯d be in.

    Piketown¡¯s underground was nearly empty, however. It only took a moment for V to realize why, glowing ads for parties hung across buildings or suspended by skills in the air, screaming at people in neon colours to attend raves at one club or another.

    Luckily, the shop he¡¯d been aiming for was actually open, and when he pushed his way in, Emilia lolling against his side and mumbling some mixture of angry thoughts this version of her would have had, had he dared to show up in her life half a dozen years ago, and snuggly thoughts the current version of her would have had, he was greeted by a familiar face that he definitely hadn¡¯t been expecting to see.

    ¡°Alex.¡±

    Alex glanced up at him, mouth open in a caught yawn. They looked good, like they were sleeping more than enough, despite the strange working hours. Still, it took his former teammate a long moment to even realize who they were looking at, their light-brown eyes blowing humorously large.

    ¡°Emilia! S¡ª¡±

    ¡°SHHH!¡± Emilia hissed, bolting forward to smack a hand to Alex¡¯s delicate mouth. ¡°It¡¯s a secret. He¡¯s V! Oh¡­ V¡­¡± She smiled back at Alex before bursting into a fit of giggles and sliding to the floor, Alex peering over the top of the counter to watch her curl into a ball of amusement.

    ¡°Is she okay?¡±

    V¡­ really wasn''t sure. ¡°I have no idea.¡±

    Alex gave him an assessing look, eyes that had seen every inch of him in an ill-advised night of mutual need for comfort catching on his ratty clothes and vomit covered bottoms. ¡°Can¡¯t say you¡¯re much to look at, but her decoration isn¡¯t helping¡ªI assume that¡¯s her vomit? I have some spares in the back, if you like?¡±

    They weren¡¯t his real clothes, but V couldn¡¯t refuse either way.

    Being in clean clothes would definitely help his mood, especially when Emilia had decided laughing on the floor of the shop was the best option.

    ¡°Yes, please.¡±

 Arc 5 | Chapter 185: This is a horror story now, isnâ€™t it?

    V tugged somewhat ineffectually at the hem of his borrowed sweater. Alex was shorter than him by a good foot and a half, and the too short sweater barely covered his stomach, which unfortunately left him standing around in a pair of borrowed underwear because there wasn¡¯t a chance Alex¡¯s pants would fit him, and well, he¡¯d been going commando.

    The person in question snorted. ¡°Maybe you would have been better off in your messed clothing.¡±

    Grumbling, V grabbed a blanket from the back of the sketchy looking sofa and wrapped it around himself, hoping that it had been washed recently¡ªhe¡¯d been in enough staff areas of various businesses to know the furniture and blankets had usually seen more than their share of sex. Thankfully, Emilia either hadn¡¯t had this thought or didn¡¯t care, the woman blinking up at him from where he and Alex had dropped her onto the couch.

    Alex had then proceeded to disappear, intent on both getting V his ill-fated change of clothing and something to help Emilia sober up. So, V had stripped. Emilia had giggled more, making comments about his body that he rather hoped she would repeat once she saw the current him in her real mind and body. He had at least had the decency to turn away while stripping out of his pants, which ended with Emilia whining about not getting to see the good stuff and him flashing Alex, who had mercifully just raised a delicate eyebrow at him and thrown the change of clothes in his general direction.

    ¡°No more butt¡­¡± Emilia sighed, reaching out as though she intended to peak into the confines of the blanket to see his ass again.

    ¡°Stop that,¡± V grumbled, lightly smacking her hand away and earning him a combination of giggles and despondent sighs.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember her being this touchy with you during the war,¡± Alex noted as he attempted to haul Emilia upright to force-feed her the remedy that would hopefully sober her up¡­ or knock her out. V was still undecided as to which was the better option.

    ¡°She¡¯s not herself,¡± V said, sitting as far from the handsy woman as he could. Sober Emilia could choose to touch him. Drunk Emilia didn¡¯t need any regrets, regardless of whether she¡¯d remember it or not.

    Snorting, Alex made a remark about both her general state of intoxication and PTSD being a great combination for making her not herself. ¡°Is that how you two ended up together? Trauma buddies?¡±

    V contemplated his former teammate for a moment. Usually, inside raid dreams that were this vivid, it wasn¡¯t recommended to tell the people you happened across they were in a dream. Most human minds¡ªeven those that were digital copies¡ªcouldn¡¯t comprehend that they were themselves and yet only a fragment of a memory, destined to be erased the moment the dreamer woke. Mostly, they¡¯d just unravel into insanity. It wouldn¡¯t hurt the real person, just leave the dreamer to deal with a self-destructing AI copy of them.

    Alex wasn¡¯t the type to unravel, though, and V easily told them what had happened¡ªwhat the dream was, what they were.

    Alex barely blinked. ¡°I see¡­¡± they breathed out, face scrunched up into the same thoughtful expression they¡¯d always worn while contemplating the intricacies of AIs within the unit¡¯s training system. Where they had learned so much about AIs and artificial humans, V wasn¡¯t sure any of them had ever found out, but Alex had been the one primarily responsible for creating the AIs for the monsters of the training system, although they had refused to cooperate with Hail in creating the more-human AIs that now populated virtual raids.

    No one in their unit¡ªnot even Helix, as far as V knew¡ªknew how those AIs had been created, something that itched at his brain from time to time, a part of him knowing that something about their existence was wrong¡ªshouldn¡¯t be.

    ¡°You say the raid is messing with people¡¯s brains? That shouldn¡¯t be possible,¡± Alex said as they coerced Emilia into drinking more of what was most certainly a disgusting concoction. ¡°Are you sure it wasn¡¯t just AIs taking over hero avatars? I¡¯ve heard about that in blackaether raids, although¡­¡±

    Although all that had ended badly. Depending on the year, the true horrors of that whole situation might not have come to light yet. ¡°What year is it?¡± V asked, his own Censor refusing to give him any information other than that it was the Eve of the Astral Storm.

    Alex shrugged, saying their Censor wouldn¡¯t tell them either, but they had only started seeing Emilia in raids around town recently. ¡°We don¡¯t really hang in the same places, and Emilia doesn¡¯t like raids, so avoids them and keeps to herself and her friends.¡± In other words, she hadn¡¯t noticed Alex during those raids, and they¡¯d had the sense to leave her alone. ¡°Seems to have found herself a couple of good friends at the university. I think they¡¯re only in their second or third year? I think¡­¡± Licking their lips, Alex seemed to be sorting through their memories, trying to figure out what year it was.

    It didn¡¯t really matter, other than that with a year, V could specifically ask Emilia if she remembered getting drunk in the Piketown slums on the Eve of the Astral Storm on this particular occasion, or if this entire situation had been fabricated by the system.

    ¡°Forget I asked,¡± V finally said. ¡°I was just thinking, you don¡¯t have memories of what happened with the AIs taking over hero bodies in blackaether raids?¡±

    ¡°Well, all I know is it''s a thing a few raids were doing,¡± Alex said, settling in beside Emilia and smiling gently when she proceeded to fling herself into their lap and fall asleep. ¡°I assume by the time you exist, something bad happened?¡±

    V hummed, telling Alex some of the gory details of what had gone down. They¡¯d never confirmed if it had been the goal of the raid maintainers of not, but some of the heroes who had let AIs take control of the avatars within blackaether raids too often had begun to experience memory loss. This had, rather unfortunately, corresponded with the time when he himself was dealing with PTSD-related memory loss. He hadn¡¯t been playing these particular blackaether raids often, but he had played them on occasion. Worrying that something within the raids was causing it, V had sent anonymous information to Hail and Helix.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Generally, heroes who raided on the blackaether had a code: you don¡¯t involve Hail. He had broken that code for selfish reasons, but in the end, the raids hadn¡¯t been what was affecting his memory. Selfish reasons or not, he would never regret altering Hail¡ªwho had then alerted The Black Knot¡ªabout what was happening.

    It wasn¡¯t just memory loss, but bits of the AIs who had been supposedly only taking over the virtual avatars of heroes leaking into the real world, taking over their real bodies for increasingly long periods of time.

    ¡°Yikes¡­ what happened to them?¡± Alex asked, eyes flicking like they were sorting through the people they knew who had spent any time inside those raids.

    V shrugged. ¡°It depended on the extent of the damage and what the AI had done. A lot of the AI remnants were just removed, but a few were too ingrained, and a few¡­ well, even if it¡¯s not your mind killing someone, it''s difficult to forget that your body did those things. Once they realized they were caught, many of the AIs flooded their host with memories of what they had done with their host¡¯s body.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ the homes for the crazies the war created ended up with a few more occupants?¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°Awesome. Gotta say, I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t raid much.¡± Alex laughed, eyes fading off as they thought of something. Most likely, it was the same something they had often seemed to think of during the war, especially when they had to interact with the OIC directly. It was strange, and V could only chalk it up to their friend being on the older side¡ªalthough they¡¯d never actually said exactly how old they were¡ªand extremely private at that. No one really knew much about Alex or their past, and most people just assumed when they were being weird it was because of whatever strange past they had and refused to talk about.

    ¡°Why not?¡± V asked, not really expecting an answer, but unsure of what else to talk about. This wasn¡¯t Alex. This was Alex. Emilia was out cold, drooling onto Alex¡¯s shoulder without a care in the world.

    Why his dream had allowed him to come here, he had no idea. Simply following the flow of the conversation was the best he could do.

    Alex didn¡¯t answer him, but neither did they brush him off, as they usually did whenever anyone asked about their reason for one decision or another. Alex was a genius at brushing conversations aside, at redirecting or beginning to spin stories and theoreticals in a way that made everyone extremely uncomfortable.

    Instead, they just watched him, assessing, searching for something.

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t like the potential raids have,¡± they finally said, fingers dragging over the bare skin of Emilia¡¯s thigh and making her giggle in her sleep, tucking herself further into their neck. Annoyingly, it also made V both extremely jealous and amused.

    ¡°Potential?¡± V asked, smiling as Emilia wiggled in her sleep, half-heartedly complaining about meanies.

    ¡°Like this,¡± Alex said, motioning around them. ¡°The fact that raids can retain so much of us that I can be here, feeling entirely like myself, is dangerous. Who''s to say this couldn¡¯t be turned further, used to make copies of me without my consent to do gods know what? Same with the situation in this raid you¡¯re in. People being taken over by some AI? Being affected by something power within the raid in ways that might chase them back to the real world? Burning stars. That¡¯s ominous as fuck.¡±

    V couldn¡¯t exactly disagree. In theory, there were supposed to be limits on what raids could and couldn¡¯t do with a person¡¯s mental imprint, but he had spent decades inside blackaether raids and knew how much those limits could be bent and broken. Legal raids were supposed to be safe, but at the same time, when had the government or the asshole behind Hail ever been safe or ethical?

    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s possible, for an AI to fully merge with the host?¡± V asked.

    Out of all the people he knew, Alex had always known the most about AIs, about the theory behind each different type and ethical concerns in particular, and when they said yes, they did think it was possible, V¡¯s heart clenched.

    That wasn¡¯t good.

    That so wasn¡¯t good.

    ¡°Do you think it can be undone?¡± he asked, thinking about how his own mind had felt pressured under the power and influence of the heartcores. That pressure had faded in the days since he¡¯d touched so many back to back, but wasn¡¯t that part of the horror of it all? That something could have dug itself into his brain so perfectly that he had quickly grown to ignore it?

    Alex sighed as they continued harassing Emilia, although they¡¯d moved onto her back, hand slipping under her shirt to trace shapes over her bare skin, dragging little squirms and moans out of her. She was cute, and V was 100% going to be doing this to her later, so he could more ethically source the little sounds she was making for later use.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Alex finally said, giving the three of them a little wave with their free hand. ¡°You¡¯re real. I¡¯m not¡ªprobably, anyways. I suppose we have no proof I¡¯m not actually in a raid having a nap at the moment. Emilia may or may not be real. My point is that the raid system keeps bits of us inside it, whether we want it to or not. In theory, that means if it can insert an AI inside us, it should be able to insert a copy of our former self inside us in turn.¡±

    A sardonic smile stretched over Alex¡¯s mouth as they waited for V to compute that. It wasn¡¯t hard. For the same reason most people couldn¡¯t accept something like this situation¡ªbeing reanimated within a raid dream¡ªmost people wouldn¡¯t be able to tolerate their mind being overwritten with a past version of themself.

    It was, effectively, a death of their former self. They¡¯d have all the memories of their past¡ªat least until the point the copy had been created¡ªyet know the person they had been while making those memories was gone.

    Even now, contemplating his own mind being pressured by the heartcores he wondered: had the pressure disappeared or had the system overwritten his mind, erased whatever had been affecting him at the cost of his life? Given him freedom from the thing that was the heartcore in exchange for a complicated death and rebirth?

    He shuddered, and Alex was already pulling him closer, tucking him into their soft chest alongside Emilia.

    ¡°You¡¯ll contact someone at Hail? Or maybe The Black Knot would be better?¡± Alex whispered into his hair, their hand scratching into the nape of his neck. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve contacted people¡ª¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t,¡± V interrupted. ¡°Do you think you still work here?¡±

    Under him, Alex shrugged, saying they probably did, since they owned the store. ¡°Gonna come visit me?¡± they asked, voice clipped at the end like they¡¯d been about to say his name but were respecting Emilia¡¯s silly wishes.

    ¡°Do you want me to?¡± V asked, an edge of nervousness entering his voice. The idea of stepping back into the lives of his former teammates was¡­ terrifying. At least with Alex, he knew where he sat. They¡¯d been friendly, and one-time hookups. Alex was sweet and kind. Everyone else was complicated. He had never fully meshed with the unit, no matter how hard he tried, and in the end, he had run from them just as much as he had his family. Where the unit had been friend and family to so many of the members, to him, most had only ever been acquaintances.

    V supposed that part of it was that he hoped if they met today, they could be more¡ªthat he could be friends with them, just like he had hoped during the war.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Alex breathed out, lips pressing into V¡¯s forehead as the world and his friend¡¯s words faded. ¡°I always want to see my friends, no matter how many centuries pass.¡±

 Arc 5 | Chapter 186: Definitely Hit in the Face

    V¡¯s eyes snapped open and all he got was a smack in the face.

    ¡°?OUCH!?¡± he yelped, grabbing at his nose. Rude.

    ?Sorry,? Caro said sheepishly. ?You startled me.?

    ?And that meant when I woke up, you had to hit me? Or were you already hitting me, and I just happened to wake up this time?? V asked testily as he pushed himself up, taking in the sight of their prison once more. That had been one of the better parts of his raid dream: he hadn¡¯t been trapped inside a terrible, blandly grey room without a proper bathroom.

    Nearby, Gale made a rude noise. ?You¡¯ve been out for a couple hours. We were starting to think you weren¡¯t going to wake up at all.?

    That wasn¡¯t a no to the were you already hitting me question, and V tried not to focus his attention onto the state of his face, lest he discover it was bruised and painful from violent attempts to rouse him.

    ?What happened?? he asked instead, blinking around and wondering where Astra was. Eventually, he located her, curled up in the pile of blankets, her eyes red rimmed.

    ?You started screaming,? Gale told him, explaining that it had only been a physical scream, so only Astra had been able to hear him. ?That¡¯s not the first time that¡¯s happened,? she noted, telling V about a time in the Livery Labyrinth where Emilia had had some sort of nightmare and woken screaming.

    ?It¡¯s kinda amazing we didn¡¯t realize she was a visitor then¡­? Caro noted, tapping their dirty face in thought. ?I guess everyone just assumed she was feeling something in Emilia¡¯s energy? Astra is so strong, I guess that would have made sense??

    ?Plus she never gave any other indication that she could hear,? Gale muttered, although from the look on Caro¡¯s face, they didn¡¯t seem to agree with that assessment.

    In the past few days of being stuck together, however, V had learned that the almost-teenager was touchy when it came to the subject of Astra and her status as a visitor. They still seemed to care for each other, as far as he could tell, the three children snuggling together to sleep¡ªand eventually Gale had relented and let him join their snuggle puddle¡ªbut there was a tension between them and both he and Caro had learned to not bring up Astra¡¯s deception under any circumstances.

    ?It was so bad she was crying?? V asked curiously. True, in the brief moments before he had passed out, he could remember screaming like his soul was being ripped apart, but if it had been a few hours since then¡­

    ?You were screaming A LOT!? Caro said, bouncing on their knees beside V. Clearly, they had slept enough and were now brimming with energy that V would soon be tasked to help them disperse, lest they wreak havoc on the prison and drive the other occupants mad. ?You were¡­ I think you were asleep? But you kept screaming like you were dying¡ª At least, that¡¯s what Astra said? She said it was bad. I guess Gale and I should be glad we can¡¯t hear you?? Their little face screwed up in thought before they shrugged and popped up, rushing over to Astra and beginning to shake her awake, telling her that V was awake.

    Astra¡¯s tired, puffy eyes opened, and she blinked at V. She looked like the child she was pretending to be¡ªlike the teenager she allegedly was in the real world. V had seldom seen her look like that, her general countenance instead one of relaxed indifference¡ªor anger, mostly on Emilia¡¯s behalf. Now she just looked sad and broken and in need of a hug.

    ?What happened to this kid¡­? V wondered as he held his arms open in gentle offer of the comfort the little girl clearly needed. Visions of things that could have led to her being so affected by a scream, no matter how bad, rattled through his mind as Caro hauled the girl up and then the pair of them were falling into his embrace.

    Astra would be old enough to have experienced the tail end of the war, so maybe that was it: she just had memories¡ªeven half formed ones from her formative years, where memories often blurred and warbled¡ªof the horrors of the war. Stars knew that in the last years, things had been bad nearly everywhere. It had been in those years where Helix¡¯s father had burned himself out, trying and failing to protect the northern reaches of Baalphoria. So many places had been levelled in those years, where fights broke out too fast and fierce for the military¡¯s power units to reach them in time.

    There had never been enough people or enough time, and in the end, the military had been left having to decide whom to save and whom to sacrifice. Children were, of course, prioritized, little chips implanted into them, so soldiers could spark in and grab them before the worst of a battle could find them. Better to evacuate a few children than no one at all, even if having to rip children out of their parents'' arms, knowing that within moments monsters would be tearing those left behind apart, had been terrible.

    People could only spark so much. Even people like Helix, Ri and Simeon, who seemed capable of sliding through the aether with the ease of a breath, could only spark so many times when they were carrying people with them.

    Sacrifices had to be made.

    Adults and parents had to be left to die.

    Little parts of them¡ªthe soldiers forced to make such unfathomable decisions¡ªhad been left behind as well, each spark to and from a soon-to-be battlefield ripping at their humanity.

    They were saving lives, they were leaving people to die. Some of the people they saved thanked them, so many more simply left their arms for someone else¡¯s, screaming for their parents¡ªscreaming at them to go back and save the rest of their family.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    At the time, more than a few people had simply said the children they saved would understand, once they were older. Their little brains simply couldn¡¯t understand yet that if it hadn¡¯t been them who lived, it would have been no one. Sure, some now-grown kids popped up in interviews from time to time, saying exactly that: they were sad their family was dead, but they understood there was no saving all of them. All they could do was live on, and be grateful that anyone had even risked their lives to save theirs in the first place.

    V had even met a few of those people over the years, now into their teens and twenties. They were nice, sweet in a way that said they were grateful for their chance at life¡ªthat they knew the cost that had been paid for it. It wasn¡¯t like everyone returned from those missions alive, and more than a few supports had burned themselves out replenishing the aether stores of soldiers going in and out of cities, trying to save as many people as they could.

    They were, in the end, only a portion of the lives they had saved. So many people¡ªand not just the grown versions of these children they had saved, but others they had saved in more conventional ways as well¡ªheld nothing but anger towards the veterans who had failed to save their families, their voices ringing loudly through the world¡ªa hatred veterans could not hope to escape, that made many of them regret even fighting in the first place and led them to never reveal more than the barest details of their service.

    You should have done better.

    Why are you still alive, while my family is dead?

    Give me back my family!

    Why was my life worth more than my mother''s? Sister¡¯s? My best friend down the street?

    Why didn¡¯t you come sooner?

    Why didn¡¯t more of you come to protect us?

    Somehow, despite all the pro-military propaganda the government had spent the last few decades spreading¡ªdespite the money they¡¯d spent rebuilding and the soldiers everyone knew had been lost throughout the war¡ªfor some people, it would never be enough.

    They were grieving, and no matter how much time went by, they would never see the reality of the situation: that there had never been enough soldiers. Recruits had died too quickly, and too few people had volunteered to serve in the first place.

    There had been talk, of course, of a draft. Force the men who now whined about how their family had died because soldiers hadn¡¯t shown up fast enough¡ªhadn¡¯t left another city to perish¡ªto sacrifice their lives for others. Not everyone was suitable to serve on the front, but there had never been enough people in any job, and¡ª

    And it frustrated V, the same way he knew it frustrated so many vets. If a person had been old enough to serve and had never even bothered looking into it, hadn¡¯t tried to do something¡ªanything¡ªto help the world as it was being ripped apart, and then had the audacity to complain about how things had turned out¡­

    V had no tolerance for those people¡ªthat was part of the reason he had cut his family off, because while a few of them had served, most hadn¡¯t.

    In their minds, they were above the military.

    In their minds, only he was fit to serve, and only then because it had been worth something to them. Of course, it had been worth more to them when he was a strategist, working behind the scenes and yet planning attacks that they could point to and say, ¡°Our child planned that, isn¡¯t everything we did to make him worth it? He¡¯s going to take us places.¡± He had never been happy in that role¡ªeither as strategist or as their pawn¡ªand despite his awkward nerves¡ªhis inability to fully cut off his family or go against their wishes, so many decades ago¡ªwhen Emilia and Rafe had shown up in his tidy little workspace, asking if he wanted to join them¡­

    There had been no way he could say no, even if Rafe had scared the shit out of him¡ªprobably still would, whenever they met again. He could never say no to Emilia, though. Bubbly and bright in those still early days of the war, when he hadn¡¯t even technically finished his compulsory education yet. She hadn¡¯t been that much older than him, yet she had felt simultaneously like a rambunctious child¡ªmuch like Caro, currently tossing and turning in V¡¯s arms as energy overtook him¡ªand someone who had already seen the world¡ªboth the love and horror of it¡ªover.

    So when she had asked if he wanted to join them, her voice catching ever so slightly on his name because she¡¯d forgotten it between somehow getting a hold of his file and showing up in his doorway, he had found himself saying yes even as his brain dug at itself, trying to tell him both that his family wouldn¡¯t like this and that Emilia looked oddly familiar. Everything from then on had been terrible and wonderful. He had seen more horror than he¡¯d expected to see during the war, when Major Tyreen had set him up with that first job. He had experienced more parties than he¡¯d expected, had sex for the first time for fear that he would die a virgin¡ªthank you, Alex, for that one¡ªand fallen in love with someone who hadn¡¯t even noticed when he¡¯d suddenly towered over her.

    He could never regret those years and the lives he¡¯d saved, nor even his love for Emilia, even knowing it would never be returned. V had saved lives¡ªhe had saved lives, not just with his brain but his own two hands. He had done good, and then he¡¯d sucked it up and taken Olivier¡¯s advice to say fuck off to his family, even if he hadn¡¯t appreciated that advice much, at the time it was given.

    V appreciated it now¡ªit was part of the reason he kept up on Olivier¡¯s life and cases, hacking into various terrible companies and local governments to snipe files and forward them along to him. As long as Olivier didn¡¯t know the files were obtained illegally, he could use them in court to win his cases.

    It would, of course, be so much easier if he just went and thanked the man¡ªif he just went and told Olivier that his advice had, in many ways, saved his life. V was too nervous for that¡ªEmilia hadn¡¯t been the only one he¡¯d had a crush on during the war, after all.

    ?What are you thinking about?? Gale asked, something oddly wary in her voice.

    ?Why are you asking like that?? Caro asked, because even they could hear the strangeness in Gale¡¯s voice.

    ?I¡ª? the teenager cut off, looking off into the distance, her brow furrowing. ?Since when has the barrier been down??

    V¡¯s energy surged out of him, searching for the barrier that had been keeping their magic and cores suppressed since their arrival. Indeed, it was gone, and¡ª

    Emilia was the expert with defensive barriers, as her protection of them from Fran¡¯s attack had shown, days earlier. V had been watching her, though¡ªhe was always watching her. Now, he put what he had seen in her technique to use, hauling the children up as he tackled Gale and surrounded their prone bodies with as strong a defensive barrier as he could manage, trying to ignore the oofs and ows from the children as he landed on top of them.

    A few bruises would be nothing compared to that thing if it hit them head on.

    Even with the defensive barrier, the world around them burnt cold, ice magic surging out of the aether and turning everything an iced over white, even the shell of his defensive barrier, and shit.

    This technique wasn¡¯t meant for long-term use, V¡¯s core already shuddering with the effort of sustaining it for more than a few seconds.

    Shit.

    Shit.

    Shit.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 187: Clearly, My Insides Are Being Shredded

    Astra screamed, the sound ringing through V¡¯s ear and probably bursting his eardrum.

    Fuck.

    Fuck fuck fuck.

    His core screamed at him, telling him it wasn¡¯t meant to be used this way¡ªthat a single defensive barrier wasn¡¯t meant to be sustained this long, not by him, anyways. He knew some Free Coloniers could use their core for extended periods of time, weaving it through the aethernet in a way that Censors could do with code and aetherstores.

    In their world¡ªin the world of Censors and being taught not to use their cores under any circumstances¡ªusing cores wasn¡¯t easy, and even after so many years spent inside blackaether raids, learning to force his core to accept being used even within the digital realm, V still struggled to use it for long.

    And to be honest, he¡¯d never used it to defend anyone.

    Sure, there had been times when he¡¯d raided and used abilities in conjunction with the platform¡¯s system to defend himself and others. He¡¯d never used it like this, though¡ªnever used it through sheer force of will, viscerally dragging energy down his meridians until they were burning with effort and exhaustion.

    There had always been help before.

    There had never been lives he wished to save before.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t the only person who had left Alex and Ri¡¯s sphere of morality with some interesting views about AIs¡ªat least compared to the average Baalphorian, who viewed them as technology meant to be destroyed for frivolous fun and so-called training.

    To him and so many other people of their unit, AIs were people. They deserved respect and kindness and protection.

    So V never hurt them, nor did he ever get close to them. They existed. He existed. He spent time in raids that didn¡¯t have AIs or banned harming them. When he did enter raids where hurting AIs was allowed, he¡­ well, he did enter them, he did enjoy them, although he didn¡¯t take part in the hurting for more than the time it took to wipe out dictators and tyrants, all while forcing down moral quandaries about the existence of AIs and their right to live and be protected by the people who had created them, or if leaving them to their own devices was the better thing to do.

    Stars knew that if Baalphorians suddenly realized they were part of some simulation, living their lives while some overlord watched over them, they wouldn¡¯t be happy to accept help from the so-called overlords or anyone even passingly related to them.

    They¡¯d want to be left to their devices, the same way¡ªas far as he¡¯d been able to tell¡ªthe Risen Guard had wanted this world left alone, untouched by more visitors lest their blessings cause even more pain and suffering.

    ?Definitely,? Gale breathed out, and only then did V realize that in his efforts to keep his core from collapsing in on itself, he¡¯d let go of what control of his internal voice he had, letting his thoughts slip into the world, to be overheard by the children under him.

    When he managed to pry his eyes open, he found Gale gazing up at him, her expression worried and sad and almost accepting of the death coming for them. Caro and Astra were tucked together, Astra whimpering while Caro soothed a hand through her hair. Ironic. If they died¡ªif his core gave out¡ªit was Caro and Gale who would really die. Astra would just return to her body, hopefully a bit regretful about sneaking into a raid that, according to Emilia, she wasn¡¯t supposed to be inside in the first place.

    Hopefully, this entire experience would smarten her up, yet not traumatize her further¡ªbecause the kid was obviously hiding some pretty serious trauma under that cold demeanour of hers.

    ?The Risen Guard definitely doesn¡¯t want us here? Interfering?? V asked, eyes clamping closed again as his meridians seemed intent to peel apart within him. At the very least, this wouldn¡¯t¡ªor at least shouldn¡¯t, because who the fuck knew what the system was and wasn¡¯t capable of at this point¡ªaffect his real body. That didn¡¯t mean it didn¡¯t fucking hurt, his brain and soul seeming to scream at him to let go¡ªthat what he was doing to his body wasn¡¯t natural.

    Strange. He¡¯d always assumed that strangeness, the taboo nature of using his core, was the result of his Censor. Censors didn¡¯t like cores, rioting against their use in more situations than not. They didn¡¯t want to be replaced, he thought. Censors knew that despite the ease they offered in creating and learning techniques, cores were more powerful. So they fought back¡ªmade using cores nigh impossible and extremely uncomfortable, an itchy, crawly feeling building exponentially inside Baalphorians who dared try utilizing their cores for too much.

    So why was he feeling that now?

    His Censor might still technically be connected to his body, but it wasn¡¯t part of this raid. It had shown up in brief moments¡ªin certain labyrinth challenges and that dream¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t here with him, and until this moment, he hadn¡¯t once felt that disturbing this isn¡¯t right feeling when using his core.

    V had never, not through decades of years spent inside raids, learning to use his core as best he could with a body that could never truly learn how to use a core full-time, felt this strange stress of wrongness. That strangeness, until this moment, had been restricted to attempts to use his core in the real world or while in a raid that clearly utilized Censors, no alternative system overriding the device that was almost as much a part of them as their cores themselves were.

    So, why now?A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Why now?

    What was different?

    Why feel it now?

    Why¡ª

    ?S-stop cycling your thoughts,? Astra hiccuped out¡ªstrange to hiccup around your sobs in only your mind. ?Even in the real world, this much shouldn''t¡ª shouldn¡¯t be enough to kill you. It¡¯s all in your head.?

    ?All in my head?? V asked. It didn¡¯t feel all in his head. It felt like his body was ripping itself apart, his ribs trying to tear free of him¡ªtrying to let his organs drop out of his body¡ªwhile blood vessels and meridians snapped out of his skin, leaving lines of blood and energy spurting violently from his corpse.

    ?Ew,? Gale said, disgusted.

    ?Ew!? Caro echoed, amused and fascinated.

    ?You aren¡¯t,? Astra said, some of her usual calm returning to her voice. ?Open your eyes. Your body is fine. You aren¡¯t even shaking.?

    Swallowing around the gnawing pain racing through his limbs, V forced his eyes to open again. There was no blood. He hadn¡¯t suddenly begun leaking blood from his eyes, nose, mouth, ears. There were no tears in muscle and skin appearing every second he dared continue breathing because his insides weren¡¯t puncturing holes into him as he focused on keeping these kids safe, hoping they¡¯d survive without a lifetime of trauma chasing after them.

    If being saved by his hands could traumatize a child, even when they were never granted the horror of seeing the blood of their friends and loved ones splattered over their destroyed homes, mothers and fathers decapitated¡ªmutilated by monsters of the aethernet, chasing at the heels of soldiers who risked their lives to save even a few more tiny souls¡ªwhat would being saved by him at the cost of his blood and organs falling over them cause?

    ?I think I¡¯ll be traumatized just by your descriptions,? Gale grumbled, Caro still mostly amused as they laughed and considered whether the blood or the warmth of that sort of scenario would be worse.

    V¡­ was a little concerned for their mental state. Granted, the local kid had always been a bit odd, taking nearly every situation in stride, but this laughing¡­ had they cracked?

    Gale and Astra seemed to be of the same opinion, shooting the little child concerned and questioning looks.

    ?Eh~ I¡¯m fine!? they insisted. No one looked convinced, but instead of getting annoyed over their growing concern, Caro simply turned the attention back to V. ?Does it still hurt? Astra¡¯s right, you know. You really aren¡¯t bleeding or even shaking. Maybe it is all in your head!?

    ?If you focus on your body and breath, you¡¯ll be able to tell,? Astra said, and as much as V still wasn¡¯t convinced his meridians weren¡¯t shredding themselves under the force of the energy vibrating through him to keep the barrier up, he could also see that her own tension was relaxing under his instructions. Well, better to keep her distracted so she¡¯d stop screaming and whimpering.

    ?Tell me how?? he asked, giving the little girl a weak, wobbly smile¡ªsee! Even if his arms weren¡¯t shaking¡ªand he knew full well his physical strength was enough that he¡¯d be able to hold this plank practically through death¡ªhis cheeks were! So there!

    Not that he was going to tell the girl that, and thankfully his aethervoice control had returned enough that rather than spouting such things at the girl¡ªwhich really wouldn¡¯t have been fair to her¡ªhe was left simply imagining telling her off.

    It was strange not to think in words, he had to admit. Even if he¡¯d enjoyed poking fun at Emilia for so profoundly failing to control her inner dialogue, he knew it wasn¡¯t as easy as he and Astra had both made it seem.

    ?How do you do it, wherever you¡¯re from?? V continued, willing Astra to distract them all with an impromptu lesson on how core control and abilities in whatever Free Colony she hailed from worked.

    The little girl looked uncertain, teeth digging into a gently brown lower lip. Her eyes flicked to Caro and Gale, and V was certain that had it just been himself and Astra, she wouldn¡¯t have told him. His core would have eventually given out, and they would have imploded under the ever-increasing pressure of the ice magic crackling over them.

    It wasn¡¯t just the two of them, though. There was Gale and Caro and they deserved to live. V wasn¡¯t sure if Astra generally thought AIs worthy of life¡ªand while he was curious, he didn¡¯t think now was the best time to bring such topics up. Not while he was asking Astra for something, nor when there were AIs with them, who didn¡¯t deserve to listen to visitors discuss if they were or weren¡¯t humans, worthy of the same protections as the flesh and blood variety, even if they¡¯d definitely overheard a bit, when his control of his inner voice had failed him.

    He was still curious, however. Had this little visitor always viewed AIs as worthy of protection? Or was it just these two and the few others she had become attached to during her time inside the raid? More so, was it simply a result of Emilia? Astra had already shown that she was willing to do practically anything to protect Emilia, whether that meant the woman¡¯s physical body, her mind or her heart. If Caro and Gale died because Astra had refused to teach V even a little more control because she¡¯d been too concerned about the fact that he might be able to figure out which specific Free Colony she was from, Emilia¡­ would not be happy.

    V knew that. Astra probably knew that as well.

    It was just, which of the reasons was the most powerful? Which was driving her actions?

    In the end, it didn¡¯t really matter, except that this little girl was¡­ V couldn¡¯t really explain it, what his fascination with her was. Even before he had known she was a visitor, back before the water slide challenge had disappeared so many of them, he had found the child interesting, something about her calling to him with an edge of familiarity that frustrated him probably as much as his now-blown identity had aggravated Emilia.

    For a moment, his mind floated back to his previous ponderings, about whether Astra was so afraid of screaming due to some experience during the war. Maybe he had been the one to save her? To leave her behind?

    He didn¡¯t know, and like so many other thoughts he¡¯d had in this tiny prison, only his mind and these children to keep him company or from going crazy, it didn¡¯t matter.

    Still didn¡¯t mean the itch of remembrance didn¡¯t bother him, though.

    ?You can¡¯t tell anyone,? Astra finally said, although V was pretty sure the stress of the situation was making his brain run on overdrive and in reality less than a minute had passed within the space of the world. ?I¡¯ll tell you how my uncle taught me to use my core. If I could do it as a six-year-old, you can do it as an old baldie.?

    Gale snorted. Caro reached up towards V¡¯s head, as though to confirm whether he had hair or was wearing a wig. V gaped, but said none of the rude thoughts he wished he could throw at the children.

    He needed to learn, not just to protect the two locals, but because every bit of knowledge was power.

    Every new fact pressed into his mind was a spark of hope that one day he wouldn¡¯t be helpless¡ªone day, he would be able to save everyone who fell into his path, no matter how dire their circumstances.

    ?Alright, Astra-liutai,? he said, adding on the Dionese honorific for teacher in an attempt to be cute and put her more at ease.

    Astra rolled her eyes, simply muttering that an honorific like that wasn¡¯t meant to be temporary.

    ?You teach me how to do this, and I¡¯ll call you liutai for the rest of my life,? V promised, hope that it would be a promise he¡¯d have to fulfill seeping through his veins as Astra¡¯s lesson began, the world of ice surrounding them falling away as his attention turned between her and his core in turns.

    Stars above, he hoped this would work.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 188: Race for the Weapon

    ¡°?What do you mean you don¡¯t know what happened to it!??¡± Emilia yelled while simultaneously messaging the same to Rin and Boundary. How did an entire building collapse, only to leave no one with any idea as to how it had happened!?

    She had awoken to a swarm of messages, both from her group chat with Boundary and Rin, as well as from Honey, wondering what in the world had happened.

    Evidently, the destruction of one of the Clarity City System¡¯s four buildings had been so powerful that even the Risen Guards who hadn¡¯t been officially informed that some sort of siege was occurring had felt it, gossip and conjecture now flying and becoming all the more absurd as time went on. A couple of the buildings above the city system¡¯s cavern had also collapsed, and while they were thankfully too dilapidated to be inhabited¡­

    Well, as much as Emilia knew about collapsed buildings and the far-reaching consequences they could have in her world, thanks to soldiers needing to be aware of whether the entire area was about to disappear into a puddle of metal and concrete, this world was completely different. From what she¡¯d seen, on both her descents into this city system, buildings of this world weren¡¯t held up by impressive foundations, stretching deep into the ground. They didn¡¯t even seem to have below ground levels, as far as she could tell.

    If they were in her world, she could have easily said they needed to get the fuck out of there, the world above them could come down any second!

    In this world, she had no idea. No one did, it seemed. The Risen Guard had called in some architects, to discuss the situation with them¡ªmuch of the debris from above-ground collapsed buildings were now leaning against other buildings, and everyone was worried about a domino effect¡ªbut no one was even sure why the buildings above the city system had collapsed in the first place.

    As far as anyone could tell, it wasn¡¯t like there had been an earthquake, more an insane release of power before the building began to crumble. On top of that, the main city system itself was the result of a blessing¡ªit was unclear what had created the Clarity City System, or even how long it had been around for¡ªand the architects were only passingly familiar with their structure from working on projects within city levels.

    If all that wasn¡¯t bad enough, the building that had collapsed had been the one Key had been searching with the rebel Clarity member. In other words, it was the building that had most likely housed V and the kids. Rin had tried to message Key, but something had been interfering with their ability to communicate before they even entered the Clarity City System. While his name had yet to disappear from her contact list, there was no saying if that was accurate at this point. The rebel Clarity member, on the other hand, had gone dark some time before the building collapsed.

    Emilia was trying not to think about any of that¡ªtrying not to think of Caro and Gale, buried under the rumble and bled out, their blood just waiting to be swiped up by the first visitor who decided the dead were a good way to make a weapon of mass destruction. If she stopped to think too much about the kids potentially being dead, Key killed while he was trying to reach them, she might fall apart.

    As much as they had already decided the lives of everyone within the Clarity City System were expendable, the idea that any one of the trio was dead¡ª

    Well, she wouldn¡¯t think about it. She couldn¡¯t fall apart, either from grief or memories of a thousand regrets from this raid and her entire bloody life.

    Hence, she wasn¡¯t thinking about it. Nope. Totally wasn¡¯t. Instead, she was racing down the stairs, vaulting over railings and risking her ankles because someone was going to get to the ground level and create a blood weapon from the dead, and so far, there had been no indication someone had done so. The last thing they needed was for someone under Ajarni¡¯s control to be the one to do so.

    Realistically, the fact that she was potentially one of the last visitors without ties to Clarity left was¡­ a problem, to say the least. Sure, the Risen Guard still had tons of visitors confined¡ªalthough some amount of them had indeed been killed after her escape from the Risen Guard compound¡ªbut they wouldn¡¯t be any use. None of them even knew about labyrinths or the blood curse. How could they help, when they knew nothing of this world and had no gifts or magic and Emilia would rather die¡ªreal, physical death¡ªthan risk more people being contaminated by the heartcores anyways?

    So if V was gone, Astra, too¡­ that just left her.

    A part of her hoped that maybe a few of the Clarity¡¯s visitors could be convinced to side with her, if she happened to run into any. In the end, however, it wasn¡¯t like she would be able to trust any of them. The same went for any Enclave visitors. None of those visitors were coming, though. A Risen Guard envoy had already asked, as had Honey.

    The Enclave families wanted a blessing, and they wanted their harbinger to be the one to gain it. Each of them was currently pushing their harbingers to do this or that, hoping to change the world in the few hours they had left. They probably hadn¡¯t even told their visitors what was happening, not that Emilia thought many of them would care either way.

    What visitors¡ªso-called heroes from her world¡ªcared about was the prize, not the lives of the AI inhabitants of this world. If the Enclave sent them, they might try to help, but maybe not. It didn¡¯t matter. The Enclave would send no one; only Key had been left to represent an organization that was supposed to care about the whole of the world. Now, there might not even be him.

    Time was ticking, and the world was¡ªquite literally¡ªcollapsing around them, and the Enclave wouldn¡¯t be sending even a modicum of help. Emilia wondered if they didn¡¯t care to help because they didn¡¯t care to continue living in this world of fear, of overly thick clothing and childhood squeezed smaller and smaller until it wasn¡¯t a childhood at all. Perhaps to them, living in a world with the blood curse was no longer worth it, at least not to minds that had been extremist under the pressure of the heartcores.

    Jumping another railing, Emilia was relieved to see that she¡¯d finally reached the point where city levels transitioned into the odd, maze-like hallway levels. From what she¡¯d seen during the night she¡¯d spent there, staring out into the dark while V confessed his fears to her, there were somewhere between thirty and fifty lower levels.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    That was¡­ still a lot. A whole fucking lot, but considering she had no idea how many levels existed for city levels¡ªalthough she suspected it was at least fifty city levels, each at least ten flights each¡ªit felt like the end was nigh.

    Hopefully, when she exploded out the door that must exist at the bottom of the stairwell¡ªand stars help the building if there wasn¡¯t, she¡¯d be blasting a hole in the outer wall getting out there!¡ªthings wouldn¡¯t have already devolved into a mess. Well, technically things were already a mess¡ªhad been so for a long time and just kept getting worse and worse¡ªbut they could be so much worse!

    If Ajarni¡ªwith his stars knew what goals¡ªgot a hold of a weapon that could easily wipe out an entire building or two¡­

    Emilia cursed to herself as she read back over the messages that Rin had sent, explaining what had happened while she was unconscious. Unfortunately, she¡¯d been inside that strange dream for several hours¡ªseveral hours that she didn¡¯t have, both because it was inappropriate to be sleeping at this juncture and because time with the raid was rapidly running out.

    At the very least, she wanted to get any new blood weapon away from Ajarni and his plans, and hand it over to Boundary before she disappeared from this world. That was the least she could do for this world, because at this point, she wasn¡¯t holding out hope that she could figure out how to receive a blessing or even be able to find Ajarni, let alone kill him.

    In all the time she and Conrad had spent within her {Blood Ball}¡¯s barrier, she¡¯d searched through it, as had he¡ªalthough he¡¯d already looked through it quite extensively in the time wrap that had occurred when they first received their system access.

    Neither of them could find anything. If the key to unlocking a blessing was inside their system access, it wasn¡¯t obvious¡ªor worse, was like the silly delivery game Emilia had taken to playing when she had a moment: hidden behind accidental presses and chance.

    Annoying¡ªthis world was annoying! Why did people enjoy this!?

    A voice inside Emilia''s head¡ªone that sounded suspiciously like a mix of Sil and V¡¯s voices¡ªtold her that this wasn¡¯t the kind of raid most people enjoyed. This was a miserable raid, meant to torture heroes so that the company behind Ship o¡¯ Stars could attract players to act as more-or-less free labour.

    In reality, most raids were designed to be more enjoyable than this, she¡¯d just fucked herself over joining an exceptionally unpleasant raid¡ªso unpleasant that even the phantom voices of her more knowledgeable friends seemed hesitant to call it a normal level of unpleasant¡ªas the first one she¡¯d ever played for such an extended period of time¡ªand non-stop, no less.

    Definitely not something she assumed most people would recommend.

    Oh well, too late now. All she could do was try her best, and hope that when she returned to her own world, she didn¡¯t have too many regrets.

    If she never found out what happened to Key, Caro and Gale, however, she was sure she¡¯d have regrets, no matter what else she managed to do in this world. In theory, V was still with the kids, and she supposed that, if she never saw any of them again, she would at least be able to ask him, when they met up in a few months, what happened to everyone.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Yeah right, like that was going to fucking happen!

    Either she¡¯d meet up with V in this world, or she¡¯d be figuring out how the fuck to track him down in the real world! There wasn¡¯t a chance in the whole mother fucking universe that she was going to be leaving the question of his mental state to dig at her for months on end! Was there much she could do, if his brain had melted under the heartcores¡ªand oh, stars above, was that a terrible, terrible thought to have while she was supposed to be working on not having a fucking panic attack on her way to potentially fight over a weapon of mass destruction! No. There wasn¡¯t much she could do for him, if he¡¯d been wiped away by what had happened here.

    Not much, except burn Hail and the entire raid system to the fucking ground. If V was gone, his smile and the happy, carefree nature he had clearly worked hard to gain erased from the world, she would be tracking down whoever was responsible for it and making them pay.

    Granted, she¡¯d be making them pay no matter what, because even if whatever had happened in this raid were an accident, someone had fucked up. Even if there were no real-world consequences for affected minds, the entire situation only an illusion, that didn¡¯t erase how terrible the strain of this situation had been. It was unacceptable¡ªunethical.

    Emilia was going to get to the bottom of things, no matter what. The only question was how much she would be torturing whoever she found on her search. There were so many horrible, cruel things that someone could do to another person, and if her friend¡ªif someone who, were she being honest with herself, she could easily see coming to feel more for¡ªhad been irrevocable affected by this¡­

    Well, she¡¯d never actually had a chance to use some of the more terrifying things she¡¯d learned in Rafe¡¯s family¡¯s library. Instead, she¡¯d tucked those techniques into a corner of her mind, and having never come across a situation where more than a little cruelty was needed to get answers out of someone, she¡¯d left them to gather dust¡ªto seep into the fabric of her mind; a knowledge of potential terror she hoped she¡¯d never have opportunity to use.

    The more Emilia thought about it, her feet landing soundly on each step, the more she was convinced that no matter what, this was the sort of situation where such depraved methods were warranted. Even more importantly, she was sure she could manage to do those things to another soul, and that was slightly concerning¡­ and strange.

    Frowning to herself, Emilia assessed her mental state. It was, admittedly, a little off. It could be stress, or even residual effects from the heartcore¡ªalthough she hoped to the stars above it wasn¡¯t¡ªbut something about the feeling of cloudy apathy in her mind felt both off and familiar.

    Had Payton given her a black knot?

    No, not quite. Something about the favour of apathy and anger racing through her wasn¡¯t quite the same as an additive black knot. Granted, she¡¯d only had one a few times, and never with traumatic knots, but it was close enough that she knew Payton had added something to her. The question was why?

    Not that she was complaining at the moment, not when she pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairs and found dozens of visitors and Clarity members fighting over who would be creating the blood weapon. Emilia still would have fought and killed them, even without this strange knot of hatred within her, but doing so with it was going to be so much easier.

    Once she was back in the real world, she¡¯d worry more, if the knot was still swirling within her. For the moment, it was a blessing, and a sadistic smile spread over Emilia¡¯s face as she stepped out of the stairwell, weapon already in hand, mind already picking out whom to kill first.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 189: Clarityâ€™s Visitors

    Half a dozen {Blood Needles} shot from Emilia¡¯s hands, her black nails glinting in the light of the world. Each needle landed on their targets with pinpoint accuracy that would have made even Halen¡ªnearly impossible to impress man that he had been¡ªproud, the explosion they summoned from the aether wiping out swathes of the quite frankly obscene number of people who were gathered outside the buildings.

    Why were there so many people?

    It hadn¡¯t taken more than a glance for Emilia to realize most were Clarity members¡ªthose were her first targets, with their too many powers and the fact that killing as many Clarity members as possible was a large part of their reason for being there in the first place. The dust from her explosions cleared. There were still far too many people, the remaining Clarity members now clambering to grab the visitors among them, many of whom who looked¡­ rather less than impressed.

    That was interesting.

    ¡°?HEY! Don¡¯t kill us!?¡± someone yelled in her direction as they slammed an elbow into the Clarity members who had grabbed hold of them, the local earning themself a bloody nose that didn¡¯t seem to bother them¡ªor didn¡¯t seem to bother their hive mind persona, anyways. ¡°?We¡¯re on your side!?¡±

    ¡°How do you know she isn¡¯t on these guy¡¯s side to begin with!?¡± a man who looked to be in his late-20s or early 30s called as he tried to pull himself free of another Clarity members, but while he was tall and thickly muscles, he also didn¡¯t appear to be well versed in hand-to-hand combat.

    ¡°Well, aside from the fact she just blew a bunch of these guys to pieces, I know her. You trust me, you trust her,¡± an older woman with dusky brown skin yelled, pitch-black eyes shooting Emilia as amused look as she threw her own Clarity assailant to the ground and promptly bashed in their head with some sort of bat-shaped blood weapon.

    ?Hetexia,? Emilia breathed out, already surging forward to rip the young man¡ªclearly from Nur¡¯tha, like Hetexia, now that she was actually looking¡ªfree from his attacker and slice the woman¡¯s throat. ?Been a while.?

    Hetexia snorted, muttering something about how that wasn¡¯t exactly her decision. ¡°Didn¡¯t think you enjoyed these things.¡±

    ?Who told you that?? Emilia asked, legitimately curious who¡¯d be gossiping about her¡ªwho would even know enough about her current life to do so.

    Her {Blood Needles} had reformed in the intervening moments, although they were coming slower and slower as Emilia¡¯s assumed Cade¡¯s blood supply came to an end. Unfortunate. Most likely, this would be the last battle where she could use them, if she used them all out. Better to use a few other weapons, even if the {Blood Needles} were her most useful weapon, due to their range.

    Instead, she pulled out her {Blood Fabric}. Having always preferred a combination of long-range attacks and a sword, her lack of anything similar was annoying. In the end, the {Blood Fabric}, with its several feet of length and ability to be whipped about, was probably her best option, even if she had little experience using it.

    ¡°Alex. He lives in Piketown. Sees you around sometimes. Asks after you, but keeps his distance,¡± Hetexia called as she hurled another blood weapon at someone. It hit with a scream, the man tugging at the thing that had attached itself to his face and was¡­ was it eating him!? And moving!? Catching Emilia gapping at the weapon, her old friend smiled. ¡°Cool, isn¡¯t it? Only semi-sentient blood weapon I¡¯ve seen, and these assholes have had us making as many as we can¡ªvisiting a shit ton of labyrinths, too. Say¡­¡± The woman trailed off, eyeing Emilia up skeptically.

    ?I haven¡¯t visited too many,? Emilia said, telling Hetexia over the cacophony of physical and aether voices about being coerced into that ridiculous mission.

    ¡°Gino, too,¡± the other woman said as she and Emilia met over a dead Clarity member, one of his teammates turning to raid his body for something¡ªa blood weapon or magic gem, most likely. ¡°Bunch of us got weird with them, so they only took those who weren¡¯t acting too uppity. Gino¡¯s a good actor, and could teleport, to boot. Never told anyone that. Came back and warned us about what went down, about what those heartcore things can do to a person.¡± Hetexia gave a mock shudder, although the hardness around her eyes told Emilia she was concerned.

    ?All these heroes with you?? Emilia asked, contemplating the disaster before her. If Hetexia had been done with Clarity, it was no wonder things had turned out this way. The woman, crude as many often considered her, had led her tribe since she was barely more than a child. She had dragged herself through trials at the Norvel Coliseum for money and fame and power when she was only a teen, only to find herself forced into a war alongside people who looked down on the Northern Tribes like they were scum.

    The irony that Hetexia was one of the most powerful people on the continent. People would see what they wanted, though, and when people looked at the Northern Tribes they saw nomads, covering themselves in fur and too stupid to stop foreigners from exploiting their land. Maybe some were stupid¡ªand the leader of the pseudo-tribe that had willing allowed PollyPollen to be harvested to near extinction, an entire ecosystem collapsing under its loss, were definitely on the stupider side¡ªbut there were stupid people everywhere.

    Different people had different skills, and Emilia was pretty sure that if half the people she grew up with were dumped into the far north without their Censors, they¡¯d be dead within hours. Frozen solid. Eaten by a vil. Killed by one of the Moonlit. What a tragic way to go.

    ¡°Not all of ¡®em,¡± Hetexia told her, before asking if she was fine focusing on the Clarity members and letting her and hers handle the other heroes. ¡°Not gonna be too mad if you off one of us by accident,¡± she laughed, a blade appearing in her hand before disappearing into a random visitor¡¯s stomach, the curved blade pulled clean, intestines and gore spilling out of the woman and adding itself to the growing red of the ground, vibrating impatiently as it waited for someone to summon a blood weapon from it.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Waiting to see who came out on top in the battle, perhaps.

    ¡°It is a game, after all,¡± the other woman continued, and if she¡¯d been in a call with someone, the other party unable to see the red splattered over the fine white of her clothes, they would never have been able to guess she was in the midst of a battle, killing people without a second thought.

    Hetexia stopped, sliding a look at Emilia. They were close, fighting almost back to back, like they had so many times during the war. Emilia had made her avatar slightly shorter than her real self, while Hetexia had set her height to match her real body¡¯s, leaving their height difference over a foot and half, and Emilia had to crane her neck to meet her former teammate¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you,¡± Hetexia said, all amusement disappearing from her face. She looked like she wanted to say something, probably ask Emilia to come see her, when they were back in the real world. The northerner didn¡¯t ask, instead she just seemed to take a moment to analyze Emilia before turning and continuing on her killing rampage, her fur-cuffed boots growing thick with blood and gore.

    Emilia turned as well, scouting out each of the heroes who were clearly on Hetexia¡¯s team, each bearing the markings of Nur¡¯tha in their appearance, each occasionally yelling at Hetexia or each other for one reason or another.

    There were a few people amongst their numbers who likely weren¡¯t from the north, neither their appearance nor accent suggesting they were anything but Baalphorian. Still, they called to the northerners like they were old friends, and maybe they were. Perhaps they had joined this raid together, hoping to win; perhaps they had met while being held captive by Clarity¡ªbecome close through force proximity and annoyance.

    It didn¡¯t matter, nor really did their lives or place in the game, except Hetexia trusted them, and just as she¡¯d told them that they could trust Emilia because Hetexia trusted her, it was the other way around as well.

    Any friend of Hetexia¡¯s was a friend of hers, and Emilia surged forward to block an attack to the young man¡¯s back, one that likely would have sent his mind spiralling back to the real world.

    ¡°OH!¡± he squeaked as he turned, fumbling his weapon. The long sword clattered to the ground, the northerner groaning and leaning to grab it, nose wrinkling as he wrapped a large hand around the now bloody hilt. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not so good with such large blades.¡±

    ?Prefer short ones??

    ¡°Mm¡­¡±

    ?Trade you?? Emilia asked, tugging her {Blood Dagger} out and offering it to the man. It wasn¡¯t that she couldn¡¯t use the dagger, nor that it didn¡¯t have uses in certain fights, but the idea of getting her hands on that sword¡­

    ¡°Oh! Really?¡± the man asked, Emilia noting his pitch-black eyes for the first time as he excitedly eyed up Emilia¡¯s blade. He didn¡¯t wait for her to reply before practically throwing her his sword and snatching the dagger from her hands. He turned, and suddenly, the clumsy man was gone, and he was surging through the crowd, a trail of gurgling bodies left in his wake as he slit throats and wrists and unsuspecting femoral arteries.

    Well. Emilia had heard it said that some people became a different beast when certain weapons found their way into their hands, but this was truly too much! How could one person not be able to handle a battle with a sword, yet slaughter everything in their path with a dagger!

    ?Ridiculous,? Emilia muttered to herself, thinking that if this child had been recruited into their unit¡ªand something about the way he now fearlessly moved through the battle told her he may very well have, although with the raid system supporting him, it was impossible to tell how skilled he would actually be in the real world¡ªhe would have been forced through a lot of remedial training.

    Not only had their unit been sure to train everyone into being able to use each other¡¯s willbrands in an emergency¡ªeven if their willbrands had been personalized to their genes and using another¡¯s wasn¡¯t exactly a comfortable affair¡ªbut they had also been sure to learn how to fight with and against nearly every weapon.

    In the early days of the war, most of the military brass had looked down on them for that¡ªit wasn¡¯t like they were fighting other humans, after all. What was the point in learning every weapon, if you¡¯d never have to use or fight one? Monsters didn¡¯t wield weapons like that, theirs were claws and teeth and blood that burnt straight through your soul.

    It hadn¡¯t mattered. The Blood Rain General had insisted: it didn¡¯t matter that they¡¯d never face a scimitar or spear in battle, knowing how each was used was an expansion of their knowledge, and when it came to life and death situations, you could never know too much.

    Indeed, the first time a monster had spewed toxic chemicals at their forces like shots from an arrow, it had been those who were in units that followed this sort of training who had come out with the least casualties. The first time a monster with a whip like tail spun through the world, they were relatively unharmed. With each mutation of the monsters, more and more of the brass had accepted they had fucked up: they should have trained everyone more, they shouldn¡¯t have insisted they learn their own willbrands and skills and the current army of monsters so well that every other ability fell away.

    Some units had tried to adopt their training style then, but while those first years of war had been marred with stupidity and death, the attacks had been relatively few, at least compared to the end.

    As the years rolled on, more and more attacks came, larger and harder, and those skills that should have been supplemented when there was time became nearly impossible to improve in their limited time. Then the training system had come, time left a near meaningless thing, even if it had left many of them with brains burning from overuse, their souls splitting under the trauma of it all.

    Then, it had become standard to make sure every soldier knew every strategy, Free Colonies that had long held their training style secret letting Emilia and their unit code bits and pieces in so fewer people would die¡ªso they could survive just a little longer, save a few more lives.

    Around her, more and more Clarity members fell, blood leaking out of them along with organs, shit and piss. A true battlefield, largely exacted by the hands of people who hadn¡¯t even fought in the war, hadn¡¯t learned all the myriad ways to fight and kill and maim.

    ¡°What¡¯s that look for?¡± Hetexia asked, slinging a thickly muscled arm over Emilia¡¯s shoulder as she stared out at Hetexia¡¯s group, hunting down the few people who remained on the field.

    There were eight of them left, including Hetexia herself. There had been far more visitors when Emilia had first pushed her way out of the building, and Emilia had noted most of them being cut down by Hetexia¡¯s group as chaos reigned. It wasn¡¯t surprising their group was so small¡ªmost of their group were northerners, and unfortunately, most Baalphorians would balk at the idea of teaming up with them.

    What was surprising was how Clarity had come into so many visitors.

    It was the same question that had been niggling at Emilia¡¯s brain about the Enclave, since she¡¯d learned they had a few dozen visitors between them, on top of Conrad¡¯s family.

    The Risen Guard was supposed to have swiped nearly all the visitors up, save perhaps a few like Astra, who had been able to pass themselves off as lost locals. So, how had so many seemingly escaped their custody, only to fall directly into the hands of the Risen Guard¡¯s enemies?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 190: Introductions

    ?Gino jur Wren.?

    ?Phino jur Wren.?

    ¡°Myr wyn Bur.¡±

    ¡°Hyr syn Bur.¡±

    ¡°Z¨CZyrex xy¨C ah¡­ hy Lwyn.¡±

    ?Fiona¡­ I won¡¯t be giving my last name¡­? said one of the two members of Hetexia¡¯s group who didn¡¯t seem to be from the Northern Tribes. Indeed, a moment later, the other introduced himself as, ¡°Bread,¡± before falling silent.

    ¡°And of course, you know me! Hetexia hy Gru!¡± Hetexia finished with a laugh.

    So many names, so many people from the Northern Tribes. Two sets of siblings and another hy. Emilia sized up the young man¡ªZyrex hy Lwyn¡ªwho had been clumsy with the sword but brutal as fuck with her dagger¡ªhis dagger now, the hy having seamlessly slipped it into his belt at the end of the battle. He was a strange guy, and as she watched him, Emilia could see the ruler within him, but he was clearly still young and inexperienced, fumbling over his words and title.

    As though he could sense her watching him, his eyes snapped up to her, sharpening slightly before looking away. He said nothing, but Emilia could guess what he was thinking¡ªprobably something along the lines of people never take my role as leader of my tribe seriously.

    Unlike in Baalphoria, where rulers were elected¡ªalthough there were certainly a number of families who had near constant power in parliament, such as her own and the Daymarks¡ªa number of Free Colonies were still ruled through power dispensed through blood or other means.

    Some, such as Norvel, Dion and the Atrium, were ruled by a royal family, with nobles filling in most of the important roles in governance, although regular civilians could rise in the ranks if they worked hard enough, not to mention had a lot of luck. Others, like Byshire, had no royal family, and were instead run by a collective of noble families, but their roles were hereditary, parents passing their right to power and obligations onto their children.

    In each of those cases, if someone died, leaving behind only a child heir, another adult was assigned to take over their responsibilities until they came of age. In theory, this allowed the child to grow and learn to be a good leader before taking over the throne or seat of governance. In practice, however, it wasn¡¯t uncommon for the assigned adult to misuse their power, trying to seize power for themself.

    In the case of Norvel, these people were known as the Beholder of the Crown, and were chosen when the heir was born, spells burned into their core to stop them from attempting a coup. Known for its brutal Dread Coliseum, it wasn¡¯t uncommon for the current ruler of the realm to be killed in combat, and such measures had been deemed necessary after a few too many royal children had been killed by temporary rulers. It wasn¡¯t a perfect system¡ªbeing a Beholder came with a whole host of issues, directly tied to the spells within them¡ªbut it worked to keep the often bloody country from destroying itself.

    In contrast, the Northern Tribes assigned roles to children upon their birth, based on a seeing of the child¡¯s future by the synat¡ªthe organization to which the one northerner, Hyr syn Bur, belonged. Parentage had no part in determining the child¡¯s future, only what most Baalphorians would consider fortune telling.

    While children started at the lowest rank of their destined profession, slowly learning and rising in rank, if a tribe¡¯s current hy died, their heir would become the new hy, regardless of their age. From that moment on, they were expected to rule their tribe to the best of their abilities, with their guardians and advisors filling in what they could not reasonably be expected to do. No one expected a baby to make rulings¡ªat least, not that Emilia knew of¡ªbut a five-year-old? They could have an opinion, and what they say went.

    It was part of why much of the continent viewed the Northern Tribes as uncivilized. According to legend, once, a child ruler had ordered their people to search for the vil that killed their parents, to neither sleep nor eat until it was found. It was never found, and the tribe descended into madness as their minds broke under sleep deprivation.

    Emilia had no idea if this story were true or simply a story to scare Baalphorian children away from northerners and young rulers out of using their power for ridiculous things¡ªHetexia had once confirmed for Emilia that this story also existed in the north. Still, it demonstrated the sort of near-blind loyalty northerners had for their hy. It was the sort of loyalty that had led to no member of Hetexia¡¯s tribe complaining about joining the war effort, even before it became a threat to their land.

    Hetexia said they were joining, and that was the end of it.

    It was also the sort of loyalty that inspired fear, and Emilia could easily imagine this clumsy little leader being looked at by the Baalphorian¡¯s they met in raids as both someone to be feared¡ªno one wanted to piss off a hy, even a young one¡ªand someone with too much power for their young mind. It wasn¡¯t until most Baalphorians were in their 70s, if not their 100s, that they would dare run for political office. Even in other professions, only someone like Olivier, raised from birth to know his worth and be confident in himself, had the fortitude to stand in front of people thrice their age without batting an eye.

    While someone like Olivier was respected¡ªfuck, even perhaps revered¡ªin Baalphoria for having made such a name for himself when he¡¯d barely been out of university, everyone had looked at Hetexia with scorn and concern when she joined the military, despite her being only a few years younger than Olivier was now at the time.

    Double standards. There was a reason Hetexia and her entire tribe had ended up attached to their unit, and it wasn¡¯t just how fucking powerful she was.

    Emilia didn¡¯t want to encourage that sort of double standard. Baalphoria might not have royals, but she hadn¡¯t seen much of a reason to not show them as much respect as she¡¯d show a leader of her own country¡ªwhich granted, wasn¡¯t a lot¡ªsince she was a teenager, sneaking through the halls of the Dion Summer Palace and witnessing the terrible tutoring that their royal family was forced into. Those children had barely been allowed to be children, their tutors working them hard to make sure they were perfect specimens¡ªmaking sure that if they needed to step into the role of leader, they would be prepared.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The same was true in every other Free Colony Emilia had been able to learn the intricacies of: children of the rich and powerful were forced into their assigned roles from practically the moment they were born. It was the same in the Penns, to an extent. From everything she¡¯d ever seen, most Penn families gave their children more freedom than an equivalent class in Free Colonies like Norvel, Dion or Byshire did, but there was still a different flavour of extra education that went along with their opulent lifestyles¡ªa price for the doors that were opened to them by name alone.

    That wasn¡¯t to say they somehow had more expectations than the poor and middle class, despite what Emilia¡¯s compulsory education classmates might have claimed, as they complained about various extra lessons. Those below them had their own problems and expectations, like Faylyn, expected to support her father at the cost of her happiness. The same way Faylyn didn¡¯t deserve for people to come in and cause problems for her¡ªalthough Emilia was fully aware that she¡¯d done that a few times while drunk¡ªthis young man didn¡¯t deserve for anyone to think less of him simply due to the circumstances of his birth and predecessor¡¯s death.

    ?hy Lwyn ur¡¯v vy Starrberg,? Emilia greeted the hy. Her own status¡ªregardless of whether she chose to use it or not¡ªdidn¡¯t demand she do more than politely greet the boy. High ranking military officers weren¡¯t expected to bow to foreign leaders in the Northern Tribes, not unless they were asking to be killed for a weak showing, anyways.

    The northerner blinked at her, his eyes just as pitch black as Hetexia¡¯s. In the real world, they would be black as well, ink pricked into the whites on the day of their ascension to the throne¡ªa sign of power that would chase them into death itself, when their eyes would be removed and preserved, placed onto one of the holy sites of their religion to watch their tribe grow and flourish for many centuries to come¡­ hopefully.

    Zyrex swallowed, glanced at Hetexia as though looking for some sort of instruction as to what he should or shouldn¡¯t do. That would explain why they were together, perhaps. Emilia didn¡¯t know much about the Lwyn, other than that they hadn¡¯t joined the war until it threatened the northern borders, and then remained north to defend their land, as opposed to going where they were most needed. A large number had died, if she wasn¡¯t mistaken, all but abandoned by the military they barely supported, but she had no idea if the late hy had been among them.

    Hetexia was one of the most respected of the hy, both for her showings in the Dread Coliseum and the war. Perhaps she had been entrusted with teaching this young hy some of the ins and outs of being a leader? If so, Emilia couldn¡¯t help but think that was a terrible idea. The woman was an abysmal teacher, tending towards a toss them into banun infested waters and hope they don¡¯t die approach!

    Indeed, Hetexia did nothing more than stare the young man down. Her expression didn¡¯t even have the decency to read as figure it out yourself! Poor kid. Emilia wondered how long he¡¯d been with her. Either it hadn¡¯t been long, and he had yet to figure out that he was just expected to go for it, or he was a bit of a lost cause, to still be looking to such a hard woman for support.

    The young ruler swallowed again and straightened his spine, the pairs of siblings each looked to him, each wearing different expressions: tired, annoyed, amused, unfocused. They all made quite a group, and while Emilia wouldn¡¯t interrupt Zyrex while he tried to figure out what to say, she really wanted to ask how they¡¯d ended up with such a strange group, composed of people from four different tribes.

    It wasn¡¯t that the tribes didn¡¯t interact¡ªalthough Emilia had definitely seen a lot of tension between the Gru and Wren during the war¡ªit was just that before the war they had largely kept to their tribes, only interacting when necessary. Maybe too many people had died? Too many children left orphans? Other than Hetexia, the members of this group were definitely giving vibes of being on the younger side, even if it was impossible to tell for sure while they were wearing avatars, although Emilia had a feeling their real bodies were nearly identical to their avatars.

    ¡°hy Lwyn ur vy Starrberg,¡± Zyrex finally said. He swallowed again, eyes flicking between Emilia and Hetexia, likely trying to judge who between them was the most important. After several long seconds, he asked, ¡°vy¡¯da hy Gru¡¯si kryll?¡±

    ?Mn. Pro¡¯da Het¡¯si vy, afra¡¯pra vro¡¯ma krysa,? Emilia agreed, fighting down a laugh when the young hy swallowed down the nerves that had been hounding him as she confirmed she could speak Brylish¡ªthe common tongue Nur¡¯tha¡ªwondering if he was speaking to her in a language she could only introduce herself in without the help of her Censor. That said, she was a bit out of a practice, and when he next spoke, his words fast and enthusiastic, it took her a moment to process what he was saying¡ªor, what he was asking: for them to exchange proper names and drop the formality.

    Behind him, Hyr tensed, their training as an upper noble of the Bur likely telling them that to drop titles so early in a relationship was a bad omen. Maybe it was. Emilia wasn¡¯t wandering around listening to someone call her vy Starrberg for the rest of the raid, however, and after a few, slightly stilted conversations she had convinced everyone to use their proper names, although Hyr had probably only agreed because Hetexia was death glaring them.

    Still, the syn¡¯s resistance was interesting, and as Hetexia encouraged everyone to relax, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if it really was just due to their synat etiquette training or if something else was going on. She¡¯d never really been one to believe in the synat¡¯s fortune-telling, but after what she¡¯d experienced in this world¡ªhow she¡¯d seen and felt the locals reading the universe¡ªshe wondered if the young syn was doing just that: reading something about her through the aether, something that was making them uncomfortable.

    ¡°Well!¡± Hetexia cheered, clapping Zyrex on the back¡ªprobably the only acknowledgement he¡¯d receive that he hadn¡¯t fucked things up and just started a war between Baalphoria and the Lwyn. ¡°Now that that¡¯s over with, figure we should do something about all this.¡± Her foot dragged through the gore covering the ground, the energy within it vibrating the aether so strongly it was fading in and out of visible existence. ¡°You wanna do the honours, vy?¡±

    Only Hyr showed any real reaction to Hetexia offering her the honour of creating the blood weapon, their jaw tensing and honey gold eyes seem to burn with a mixture of concern and outrage, but another sharp look from the hy Gru seemed to tie Hyr¡¯s tongue, leaving Emilia to step forward and¡­ just breathe. There hadn¡¯t really been anything she¡¯d done to create blood weapons before, expect exist within the blood¡¯s sphere of influence and¡ª

    There was the slightest click. She hadn¡¯t felt it before, but it had probably been there with the previous, weaker weapons as well; a key turning within her core and the smallest wisp of energy dragging out of her, connecting to the curse that plagued this world.

    The world swelled, flexed, exploded into a flurry of red death.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 191: A Little Bit of History

    Emilia couldn¡¯t stop looking through the {Blood Glass}. It was addicting, the world within it seeming to bend and break, showing her flashes of a future that could be and yet wasn¡¯t, guiding her to the conclusion of a thousand moves no one dared start, for fear they were choosing the wrong path.

    The future, laid out before anyone who dared look upon it.

    Options.

    Options.

    So many options.

    She never wanted to stop looking.

    It was a problem, tugging at the addictive side of her personality with all the force the best drugs did, the most satisfying sugary foods and puzzles and¡ª

    ?You should take this,? Emilia sighed as she let herself fall behind Hetexia, the woman leading their group¡ªminus Fiona and Bread, who had split once they realized there was no chance they were getting their hands on the {Blood Glass}¡ªthrough the wreckage of the collapsed building, looking for anything of use¡ªor any signs of life or her missing friends, whom Emilia had told her former teammate about.

    As much as they were running out of time, none of them had any idea of where to go, and upon learning that their new blood item wasn¡¯t so much a weapon of mass destruction as an object that could lead them onto the most fortuitous path, they¡¯d been content to search the rumble for a bit while Boundary, Rin and Phlostra continued searching for any sign of Ajarni on their journey to remove as many children from the buildings as possible.

    Hyr¡¯s sharp golden gaze shot between her own eyes and the offered {Blood Glass}. ¡°Why?¡±

    Emilia didn¡¯t give them the incredulous look she wanted to. She had thought it would be clear enough from her ability to speak Brylish without her Censor that she knew more about the Northern Tribes than most. Evidently not. ?Who better to give it to than a syn??

    The young syn didn¡¯t blink. They barely even moved as they assessed her, and she was suddenly struck with the thought that members of the synat may be just as capable of reading the aether as some of the residents of this world were. ¡°I did not think your kind believed in seeing,¡± they stated, their words awkward, stilted in a way that told Emilia they didn¡¯t have quite as fluid a hold of Baalphorian as they might have liked.

    Assessing the syn in return, still holding out the {Blood Glass} for their taking, she said, ?I¡­ don¡¯t know what I believe, anymore. Not after seeing the way the people of this world treat the aether.? At the look of confusion¡ªmild as it was¡ªthat entered Hyr¡¯s expression, Emilia asked if they had experienced anyone reading the will of the universe while under Clarity¡¯s control.

    No, they hadn¡¯t, and as they walked, Emilia¡¯s fingers itching to return the {Blood Glass} to her eye, she explained in broad strokes what she¡¯d learned about reading the universe since exiting the Livery Labyrinth.

    ¡°Has it not always been so?¡± Hyr asked, squinting around them and so clearly reading the aether that Emilia almost laughed. ¡°I have not been in many raids, but I believe I have always been able to see within them.¡± They frowned, thick blonde eyebrows pulling together and turning their otherwise soft features harsh.

    ?I don¡¯t know,? Emilia admitted. ?During the war, the late syna Gru never indicated they could read the aether within the training system these raids are built on, though.? Unfortunately, the syna Gru had died during the war, and as far as Emilia knew, no other member of the religious sect of the Northern Tribes had ever entered the training system. If she asked, Hetexia would definitely set her up to talk to whatever synat she had sway with, let her ask around to see if they had always been able to read the universe within raids or not¡ªand whether it was similar or identical to what they saw in the real world¡¯s aether¡ªbut that was something for later.

    ¡°I have only entered raids these last few months,¡± Hyr admitted, finally accepting the {Blood Glass} from Emilia now that they knew she had more than a passing knowledge of the synat and her decision to hand it off to them was not random. ¡°It is not something many synat do. You may find it difficult to locate one who has knowledge beyond the last few years. There has been much to do since the war.¡±

    The Northern Tribes had been hit especially hard during the war, and while their nomadic nature meant there was little rebuilding needed, so many of their numbers had been killed or seriously injured that they had needed to set up more permanent settlements. That was about as much as Emilia knew, and as they walked, Hyr occasionally looking through the {Blood Glass} and using their religious training to read the universe in turn and decide which way their group was to go next, they explained to her some of the things that had happened in the last decade.

    Effectively, the permanent, collective settlements had become cities for the young, old, and injured of many¡ªbut not all¡ªtribes. There were several settlements now, and while many of their number did not wish for the always growing settlements to survive longer than necessary, many tribe members had set up homes and come to enjoy having a more permanent base.

    ?I imagine they are called ¡®da saleen for that,? Emilia laughed, half in amusement, half sadness. The words for people corrupted by outsiders had been thrown around a lot during the war, sometimes in jest¡ªsuch as the first time Hetexia had put her long black hair up into a Byshire style¡ªother times in cruelty. It had been thrown around so much and over some of the smallest things¡ªeven the syna Gru had often scoffed at those who called Hetexia hy¡¯da saleen despite their relatively conservative views on such things¡ªthat the word meant little to Emilia now.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Evidently, it meant little to the syn Bur as well. ¡°There are pros and cons to having a home so solid. Those who wish to leave for the seasons are still many, and sharing space with other tribes has fostered more friendship than in many centuries past.¡± They motioned to their group.

    ?You met in the settlements??

    ¡°Yes,¡± Hyr told her. ¡°Zyrex and I were together in¡­ ah¡­ I believe you call ¡®compulsory schooling?¡¯¡±

    ?Ah~ little school friends. I didn¡¯t realize children in most Northern Tribes attended anything like that. I thought you went straight into professional training??

    Unlike in Baalphoria, where children attended compulsory school for twenty-five years, generally followed by a gap decade and then more schooling for the profession of their choice, the synat of each tribe read the future of children when they were born. These readings took multiple forms¡ªalthough Emilia was only passingly familiar with several of the methods, including something that she now realized was a near mirror image of this world¡¯s reading of the universe¡ªbut the resulting knowledge was used to guide children and teens through the first years of their lives, including into training for their destined profession.

    It was yet another thing many outsiders judged the Northern Tribes for, as though the nations that had nobles who were forced into accepting political positions were any different¡ªas though Olivier¡¯s family of lawyers weren¡¯t choosing their children¡¯s destinies for them just the same.

    Something about the fortune-telling aspect of it put plenty of people off, but Emilia knew that in most of the tribes there was some leeway given for children who grew to view their fortunes as wrong. The late syna Gru had actually been destined to be a weapon smith when they were born, and yet through twists of fate and changes in their circumstances they had died the most powerful member of the synat Gru¡ªperhaps in the whole of the synat Nur¡¯tha. While neither the overarching religious body of the Northern Tribes nor the Northern Tribes themselves had an official leader, Hetexia had certainly been the most powerful and influential of the hy during the war, and that power had likely leaked down to her second in command as well.

    Hyr shook their head as they turned the {Blood Glass} higher, looking between each of the buildings, searching for anything the universe¡ªthe system? a combination?¡ªmight think worth their time and notice. ¡°Too many died. It is difficult to teach everyone separate. We learn the main things together, the specific things apart.¡±

    That made sense. There would be a lot of cross over in knowledge, but when the tribes had been strong, it may have made sense to keep children within the atmosphere they would spend the rest of their lives within, learning their specific profession¡¯s way of doing even the most basic things, so as to integrate their methods and beliefs more fully.

    Not for the first time, it struck Emilia how much many of the Free Colonies had lost during the war, the Northern Tribes especially. It wasn¡¯t a secret that Baalphoria and Dion had been the powerhouses of the war, their words and choices rising above everyone else¡¯s. Despite all the death they had suffered, both had escaped rather unharmed culturally.

    Dion was ancient, its history and customs reaching so far back in time that no one knew where many of them had originated, and yet in images millennia old, many of the same bits of custom could be seen. They had always been slow changing, and while the Free Colony had certainly changed over the course of two decades of war and contact with outsiders, it was relatively minimal in the grand scope of things.

    Baalphoria, on the other hand, was an ever-changing machine, and while even the most open-minded of Baalphorians often had some purist sentiment, for the most part, they had been relatively open to accepting new customs from their Free Colony allies. On top of that, Baalphoria had already been quite diverse, unlike places like the Northern Tribes, where there was a shared culture between the tribes, with relatively minimal differences between each and virtually no contact with outsiders for the average civilian. As a result, it had been no struggle for Baalphorian identity to survive the changes that came with exposure to different cultures and the unending death of the war.

    Places like the Northern Tribes were different. Their tribes were small, compared to the giants of Dion and Baalphoria, and too many people dying in a single tribe meant the dissolution of the tribe itself. Those left were forced to beg entry to other tribes, hy forced to give up their rulership in hopes of saving their remaining members from a slow death.

    To see so much of your culture erased, by death and necessity and the drag of a different culture into your own¡­ Emilia couldn¡¯t imagine how that felt, but she imagined it must hurt, especially since she knew quite a few members of Hetexia¡¯s tribe had chosen to install permanent Censors. Their very existence changed the Northern Tribes, as they brought Baalphorian technology into an area that had long eschewed foreign interference.

    Emilia knew well enough that had been changing within some tribes, even before the war, however. The Gru had been one of the biggest proponents of opening their borders before the war, a result of Hetexia¡¯s experiences in Norvel and several other Free Colonies when she was a young adult. Where other leaders called for the borders to remain largely closed¡ªespecially after the PollyPollen incident in Halvery¡ªHetexia had wanted change and openness. While pushback from the other hy had led her to temporarily stop pushing for such things, when the war had come, she hadn¡¯t hesitated to bring her tribe into the alliance, nor had several other tribes, although of the over thirty tribes, only five had joined before the war was pressing at their borders.

    It was all too sad¡ªtoo hard. Concerning, as well. This had been one of the concerns they had had during the war: that too much contact between their so different cultures could lead to conflict, when old and new beliefs collided. For the moment, the Northern Tribes were surviving, despite the tension that Hyr wasn¡¯t saying, the sadness that echoed in their sister¡¯s eyes as she listened to them chat about life in the settlements.

    How long would it take before things exploded? Before the Northern Tribes became another Falrion? Different factions colliding into a war that would lead to one side overtaking the other, not that Emilia had any idea of what had happened in Falrion in the decade since civil war had broken out.

    Her heart squeezed as she thought of Ri once more, as she wondered what strain Hetexia was under. Was she still in contact with their other teammates? The ones who had been leaders and nobles of their own Free Colonies?

    Did she have the support she likely needed, either from within or without the Gru and Northern Tribes? With the syna Gru dead, she would have needed to replace them, but there had been no time during the war. Had whoever she found become her second? Or was she alone, or seeking advice from someone else now?

    Emilia¡¯s heart clenched.

    She was a really, really, exceptionally terrible friend, wasn¡¯t she?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 192: The Future, or the magic of a computer?

    <blockquote>

    They say when time collides

    every aspect open for the taking

    every pleasure and sin revealed to the all-seeing eye

    They say when all is known

    the end is nigh

    the days to close

    upon a speck of ice

    not ice

    not of this world

    but the one without

    They say when without becomes within

    when without becomes the all-seeing eye

    the end is nigh

    ~ psalm for the end

    </blockquote>

    ? ? ?

    ¡°So, there are two options your little eyes see?¡± Hetexia asked, sharp black eyes glaring between Emilia and Hyr.

    They both shifted, nervous. Emilia might have technically outranked the hy Gru during the war, but the woman was still terrifying. On the other hand, while Hyr wasn¡¯t part of the Gru, Hetexia was still a hy and, as previously noted, absolutely terrifying.

    The syn Bur shifted, just slightly. Behind Hetexia, their sister, Myr, looked like she wanted to chastise them for both being stupid¡ªwhich Emilia really didn¡¯t think was fair¡ªand nervous. Emilia didn¡¯t know much about the synat, but in her interactions with the late syna Gru and several lower ranking synat during the war, she¡¯d generally gotten the impression that they weren¡¯t meant to bend to the hy, especially not one who wasn¡¯t their own.

    Hyr wasn¡¯t quite bending, but if Hetexia¡¯s glare sharped even a fraction more, they might very well snap in half.

    ?Yes,? Emilia interjected before Hyr could speech and put themself under more pressure. ?That building, and that one,? she said, pointing in the general direction of the locations they had mutually agreed would be good to search.

    That was, unfortunately, part of the issue: during their conversation, they had both taken to looking through the {Blood Glass}, Emilia trusting the syn to haul her back, should she decide that living within the illusionary futures of the {Blood Glass} was preferable to the real world. She¡¯d never gotten that far, thankfully¡ªalthough that was likely a result of this not being her own world.

    Instead, the two of them had traded the blood item back and forth, telling the other what they saw. Then, Hyr had spotted something¡ªa fragment of a future that had drawn them in with the same pleasure and perfection they claimed fortunes of the real world did. To them, it had been clear that was the way they were meant to go. Emilia had looked, simply curious as to what she would see.

    Even she had to admit: the future Hyr had picked out, blurry and incomplete as it was, had a different flavour to it, the form and colour of it melding with the present in a way that tickled her insides.

    So, she¡¯d done what any reasonable person would do: looked for more spots like that¡ªnot that she¡¯d actually expected to find anything.

    Unfortunately, she had found something. Hyr had looked, then agreed: there was a second potential path, or alternatively, they were branching paths, meant to be claimed together.

    Hetexia was not a fan of this branching idea, which would require them to split into groups. Emilia couldn¡¯t blame her; the last time she¡¯d allowed her team to be split up¡ªat least as far as Emilia knew¡ªthe syna Gru had died. They might not be able to actually die in this world, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to realize the other members of Hetexia¡¯s group were in their teens and twenties. Babies, who could easily be traumatized by what happened in this world, especially with the threat of the heartcores still hanging over them.

    ¡°We have to split up,¡± Hyr said, straightening up as their voice slide into one of authority, even if there was still a slight shake to it. ¡°It is not just us at risk. We must do all we can for these people as well. Would you have us fail, because we are too afraid to separate, despite the seeing of that fate?¡±

    Hetexia did not look happy. Emilia had no idea what her own views on the rights of raid AIs were, but as they¡¯d walked, she had explained the details of what she and her friends were trying to do within the raid to Hyr, as well as the occasional other person who got close enough to eavesdrop. Hyr in particular had been horrified to realize that if they didn¡¯t find Ajarni, they may very well be leaving this world on the brink of a civil war¡ªnot that killing Ajarni would guarantee it not come to that, but Emilia had to admit, under the right leadership, the Enclave and Risen Guard coming together, if only a little, to fight a common enemy might be an opening to a better future.

    Maybe.

    One could hope.

    Her black eyes pissed, Hetexia relented, kicking her way in the direction of the closer building and yelling at them to figure out who was coming with her, who going with Emilia. ¡°And take that bratter¡¯een with you!¡± she added before dropping off the edge of the collapsed building¡¯s rubble. Unfortunately, they hadn¡¯t found anything of particular use within it, and from what the jur siblings could determine, no one was suffering under the weight of the buildings either.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Small mercies. While finding her friends would have settled something inside her, Emilia didn¡¯t wish the suffering of a slow death under a million tons on anyone.

    ?Well, I guess that settles that you¡¯ll be coming with me,? Emilia told Hyr. She was not being left alone with the {Blood Glass}, nor would she be trusting anyone else with it. Maybe Carne, but that was just because that guy was already a little insane and extra tuned into the universe. What could a little extra pinch of clairvoyance do?

    Emilia fought down a shudder as she considered that either the system or some connected part of the aethernet had the ability to predict the future. As much as she hadn¡¯t been one for completely blowing off the fortune-telling found throughout the Free Colonies¡ªas well as in a few break away cultures in Baalphoria¡ªshe wasn¡¯t much of a believer in such things either. Some were fun, others creepy, a few so grounded in what she would consider reality that she could see the way they could potentially affect the world in a tangible way¡­ maybe.

    This, though? Peeking through the {Blood Glass} and seeing the way the future unfolded, her, Hyr and Zyrex turning in the other direction while the jur siblings and Myr went after Hetexia, intent to comfort her, all seen before the northerners had decided that was how they would split themselves up?

    It had yet to been decided, the group still chatting softly between themselves, but it was the only option the {Blood Glass} offered to her. It was thoroughly disconcerting, no matter what was behind it. The system, the universe, mind reading. Emilia knew better than many people just how powerful computers could be, but this? Potentially working through all the bits and pieces of everyone¡¯s personality to determine what would happen? What decisions they would make? Factoring in mood and chance and the chaos of the universe?

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Hyr asked as they came to stand beside Emilia. ¡°Should I take that back?¡±

    Wordlessly, she handed the {Blood Glass} back to the syn, glancing behind him to find Zyrex politely watching them as the other three scurried after Hetexia, the girls muttering about being babysitters for a hy in Brylish.

    ?How¡¯d they decide on you?? Emilia asked the young hy as they began to move towards their own destination.

    The hy Lwyn blushed, on odd contrast appearing between his pinking, dark brown skin and black eyes. ¡°They decided I could benefit from being with you¡­¡±

    Oh, so she was meant to be a tutor to this kid, then? Well, there were worse fates than that, but first¡­

    ?Ah¡­ I see, I see. Well, do you want me to be nice or mean about it??

    ¡°Mean!?¡± the young man asked, those black eyes turning on her and¡ª

    ¡°You¡¯re going to trip,¡± Hyr said mildly, their tone implying they were constantly telling their friend his future, a moment before the hy tripped and fell several feet into a hole. ¡°You should be mean. He needs it.¡±

    ¡°I heard that!¡± Zyrex yelled, followed by something being thrown out of the hole and heading with near perfect accuracy towards Hyr.

    The syn twisted out of the item¡¯s path, an arm slipping around Emilia¡¯s waist and pulling her free of its path as well. It remained around her as they walked, leaving Zyrex to pull himself out of the hole as he swore in several different languages.

    ?How old are you guys?? Emilia asked as Hyr politely hopped down a ledge and turned to help her down, large hands clasping around her waist.

    They were tall, she abruptly realized as she was set back onto the earth. Something about how soft the syn was¡ªhow quiet¡ªseemed to make them seem smaller, shorter. In reality, the syn was nearly as tall as Hetexia, although not nearly as thick, their auburn hair pulled up into intricate braids that held meanings that Emilia wasn¡¯t familiar enough with the synat to know off the top of her head. Indications of the syn¡¯s power and knowledge, strands twisted in specific directions or allowed to be a certain length in order to indicate how far along in training they were.

    Their golden eyes shone under that hair, against their golden skin, possibly the lightest shade she¡¯d ever seen on a northerner, assuming this was their real complexion.

    She wasn¡¯t sure why, but something told her all of the northerners were wearing their real faces, not just Hetexia, something in the back of her brain telling her she¡¯d once overheard someone talking about how much northerners respected their visages as a gift from the divine¡ªor something along those lines.

    ¡°We¡¯re almost thirty. The girls are in their late teens,¡± Zyrex said, plopping down beside Emilia and almost stumbling as he landed. He straightened, and oh. That was why she hadn¡¯t realized Hyr was so tall: he was almost short compared to Zyrex, who was even taller than Hetexia by at least three or four inches. Possibly more¡ªthe man was so tall, Emilia¡¯s mind could barely compute it!

    In comparison to Hyr¡¯s own, oddly not-northerner appearance, Zyrex was all northerner. Tall and muscular, their long black hair pulled back into a low ponytail that left their sharp features on display. If Hyr was soft in both appearance and their words, Zyrex was soft in personality alone, the only softness on his face as they continued along the expressions that graced his face, an ever-changing blend of happy, annoyed, embarrassed¡ªthe guy really was quite clumsy.

    Hyr¡¯s face, on the other hand, was nearly always bored or annoyed, yet they continued to appear soft and Emilia could only imagine how beautiful they would be, were they to instead smile.

    ¡°So what is mean training?¡± Hyr asked after nearly ten minutes of conversation about why they were in the raid in the first place.

    Essentially, Hyr was about to undergo some sort of religious ceremony, and their friend and sister had decided to try and get tickets as a celebration¡­ or farewell? It was somewhat unclear, the young syn avoiding her questions about what the ritual was and what the exact purpose of the vacation would be, should they manage to win tickets, while Zyrex resolutely avoided looking at her, his face impressively red.

    Interesting, and while part of Emilia wanted to leave the syn their privacy, another part wanted to know what was going on so bad that even if she tried her hardest to not be a nosy bitch, she¡¯d probably end up asking Hetexia about it eventually.

    Beside her, Zyrex tripped on nothing¡ªseriously, they were walking down an empty hallway within their assigned building, following Hyr¡¯s readings of the aethernet and what they saw within the {Blood Glass}¡ªand hissed at their friend.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bring that whole mean training thing up again!¡±

    Hyr blinked slowly¡ªand with more than a little cruelty¡ªat the hy. ¡°You¡¯re the one who said you were only allowed to join the raid for training reasons,¡± they pointed out, which was interesting. Were the hy not allowed to have fun? It wasn¡¯t like the raid was taking more than a few, real-world hours away from any of them.

    Tuning out the sound of the pair arguing over who was in the wrong, Emilia contemplated what sort of training would make sense. Based on what she¡¯d seen, the hy Lywn definitely needed to branch out in his weapon use, but this wasn¡¯t exactly the ideal situation for taking away his {Blood Dagger} and throwing him into battle with something else¡ªit would be absolutely terrible if some innocent local died because they were fucking around.

    That said, in theory, hy should have excellent self-control.

    Looking through her inventory, she eventually settled on pulling out the {Blood Fabric} and handing it over to him. ?I¡¯m not going to take back the dagger, but you need to get comfortable using other things. The fact that you could barely do anything with the sword is a problem.?

    Zyrex frowned down at the {Blood Fabric}, looking profoundly unhappy, even as they admitted that yes, that hadn¡¯t been good.

    ?Just try and use it, at least a little, before you pull out the dagger,? Emilia added before asking Hyr if they had any idea how far they needed to go.

    The syn peeked through the glass, searching, before telling her it would still be a bit.

    ?Good,? she said, smiling sharply between the two. ?Time for a little lecture, then??

 Arc 5 | Chapter 193: To Not Tolerate Unendingly

    Emilia had to hand it to whoever was raising the Nur¡¯tha hys: they had managed to raise Zyrex into someone who was open, happy, willing to learn¡ªnot to mention a quick study¡ªwhile also simultaneously leaving him with so little training in anything of actual use in a combat situation it was actually impressive.

    What even.

    ¡°The byren are very¡­ traditional,¡± Hyr explained as they made their way up several flights of stairs, intent to reach the first of this building¡¯s city levels. ¡°Unfortunately, there have been many changes in the ways we are trained. They have not been well to adapt.¡±

    ?Like with your group schooling? Is Zyrex part of that as well?? Emilia asked, turning back when they reached a landing to check on the young hy, who was attempting to control the {Blood Fabric} well enough that he could wrap it around the stair railing and pull himself up. For the most part, he was actually doing quite well, although he¡¯d fallen half down a few flights of stairs. Luckily, his level was high enough that he simply popped back up with little fanfare. Neither of the young men had been inclined to tell her how they¡¯d raised their levels while Clarity was effectively holding them hostage, which was mildly concerning.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Hyr agreed, explaining that traditionally, the byren took in future hy as soon as they were designated such by the synat. They were raised with all the best tutors, learning the ins and outs of the world. ¡°After we were born, the home synat was destroyed. Many future tellings were delayed, and many died. Those in our age group were already in our homes, but when the war came, we were moved to be together. In the cleanup, we were never returned to our homes, and now¡­¡±

    ?Now no one knows how to deal with four very different cultures and belief systems existing in a previously insular society??

    ¡°Four?¡± Zyrex asked as he caught up with them. A sheen of sweat glistened over his thickly muscled body, his outer layer long stuffed into Emilia¡¯s storage, along with some of the extra items the boys had been carting around with them and were unlikely to use.

    They¡¯d even asked her to move a few to the real world, meaning they¡¯d have to contact each other one day. That¡­ was fine. The boys were nice, and Emilia¡¯s general mood of the moment was depressed and feeling like a shitty friend, the list of people she needed to contact growing by the minute.

    Seriously though, where had her homicidal rage gone!? It had been so palpable, only to vanish the moment she exited the building. While she had assumed it was Payton doing something with her knots, now¡­ now, she had no idea what to think. She¡¯d have to ask her friend what he¡¯d done to her, once she was out of this place. Hopefully, whatever he¡¯d done had just been short-lasting, because the alternative that the system or the heartcores were still fucking with her was¡ª

    ?Yes, four,? she said, trying to fight down the panic rising within her once more. What better way to distract herself than to make guesses about the way a culture she knew only a little about and had never actually seen with her own eyes had evolved following the war! ?Keep in mind, this is just a guess,? she added as they walked, their steps making little sound between her own bare feet and the northern boys¡¯ fabric boots, all of the northerners having dressed themselves in what Emilia considered a slightly more modern version of the clothing members of their unit had worn during the war.

    ?From what I know of most places, though, following the war, most broke into four¡ªor occasionally five¡ªfactions. There are the traditionalists, who want to go back to the way things were before the war, sometimes even return to a time before that. In Baalphoria, most of these guys aligned with purists, and that kinda made their beliefs even more extreme. They hate Free Coloniers and those with irregular deviations.?

    ¡°You have one of those? Yes?¡± Hyr asked. ¡°It is strange. In Nur¡¯tha, the tr¡¯aina are considered blessed by the divine. They are respected. At times, they have even been coveted to an unfortunate point.¡±

    ¡°Every culture is different,¡± Zyrex said, sounding like they were reciting words from a textbook¡ªor perhaps a teacher. ¡°If we are to live peacefully, we must accept the beliefs of others. It is not our place to interfere with their beliefs, just as it is not theirs to interfere in ours.¡±

    ?There are some pretty terrible, downright intolerable customs and beliefs out there,? Emilia pointed out, wondering about how much the hy even knew about the outside world. Hetexia had definitely known a lot, despite her general disinterest in cultural affairs, so surely Zyrex must have heard at least some details of the terrors of their world.

    The young man shrugged, repeating the same thing: that it was no one¡¯s place to interfere in the beliefs of others. ¡°We should just leave people to live their lives. Who are we to judge what their history and cultures have led them to see as right?¡± he said, a little more bite in his voice¡ªa demanding of a brutal rebuttal.

    Emilia was perfectly happy to pop his little bubble. Either the boy didn¡¯t realize the cruelty that people were capable of, or he was perfectly okay turning a blind eye to it. Regardless of the reason, he wasn¡¯t going to get away with holding such a belief of tolerance around her.

    ?In Chinsata, silverstrains like me are taken as sex slaves the moment we are born. We are used as sex slaves from that moment on, each one branded, usually nulled. In some of their states, silverstrains have their eyes, tongues, teeth removed; hands and feet cut off¡ªtheir removed body parts used in rituals or as food. Depends on their specific beliefs. Is that a cultural practice we should allow to exist, just because their history and cultures have led them to see it as right?? Emilia stopped, turning to meet Zyrex¡¯s eyes.

    All the colour had drained from his face, and Emilia almost felt bad for him¡ªalmost. The boy was a hy, even if he was still young. Emilia was a firm believer that everyone needed to know the harsh truths of the world, and while she agreed that, for the most part, people should be left to have their beliefs, that didn¡¯t extend to ones that were intolerable.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    To tolerate the hatred and abuses of the world was to condone it. The sooner leaders understood such things, the faster they would realize that not everything should be tolerated.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Zyrex breathed out. He looked like he might be sick.

    ¡°Chinsata is locked down,¡± Hyr noted, their tone carefully neutral. It wasn¡¯t an accusation that she might not know what she was talking about, but there was an undertone of questioning, no less, although it may very well have just been curiosity.

    Shrugging, Emilia told them that she¡¯d had the misfortune of meeting a few during the war. ?They might not have joined the alliance¡ªnot that anyone would have let them, no matter how bad the war got¡ªbut they were still attacked like everyone else in the area.? That said, the Free Colonies south of the Grey Sands had always experienced fewer attacks than even the north, save the Moonlit City itself, which was only attacked once before a powerful barrier was erected around it. Unfortunately, the sort of barrier they created hadn¡¯t been something any other place could replicate, although that hadn¡¯t stopped a few places from trying.

    ?They were always quite vocal about what they wanted to do with me. At first, I thought they could be lying.? Her lips twitched as she remembered that naive girl she had been, near the start of the war, when she had volunteered to go south because she had experience in the Grey Sands. ?Then, they bought a dozen silverstrains for their division to use. They would drag them out onto the front, have them suck their cocks while they used their cores to kill. And if a monster got too close, they left them there to die. To the Chinsata, silverstrains are sex slaves and breeders for more sex slaves, material and meat and nothing more.?

    Emilia smiled, letting a little of her hatred for that cruel Free Colony seep into it as she resisted telling the boys what had happened to those men¡ªto the Chinsata women who had sneered at her just as much¡ªunder her anger, under the anger of the team members whose friendships with her had been solidified when they¡¯d covered up her murder of those people, when a dozen years later, after sparking had been invented, they¡¯d helped her remove hundreds of silverstrains from the country¡ªhelped her find safety for people who were so profoundly broken by what had happened to them that they feared practically everyone and always would.

    ?I¡¯m not saying that most beliefs aren¡¯t perfectly tolerable. Most are just different from our own, but as long as they cause no harm, it¡¯s fine.? She shrugged again, wondering who in the byren had designed the hy¡¯s education¡ªor was it all the northerners¡¯ educations?¡ªto be so tolerant they would potentially turn a blind eye on the horrors that occurred in other cultures.

    ¡°From what I¡¯ve heard,¡± Hyr said as they began to walk again, the syn and Emilia leaving Zyrex to stare after them, possibly second guessing a lot of the knowledge he¡¯d been fed over the years, ¡°there are many Free Colonies who joined the war and have customs that are¡­ in poor taste. Several others keep slaves, if I am not mistaken.¡±

    Perhaps not all northerners¡¯ education, then?

    ?Yes,? Emilia agreed, ?and if it had been up to me, a number of those Free Colonies wouldn¡¯t have joined. Actually, if it was up to me, even the Baalphorian sub-50s wouldn¡¯t have been allowed to join unless they went through some sort of sensitivity training.?

    Seven had been a good sub-50, most of the negative beliefs of his class having somehow slid off him. He was quiet, nervous and awkward in a way that had made getting to know him difficult, but he had never shown anything other than ignorance to anyone in their unit. In contrast, General Lygram had been a terrible human being that Emilia would gladly kill, even years on.

    ?I suppose the difference is some of those cultures had beliefs based more on ignorance than hatred. Plenty of people meet someone with an irregular deviation and realize they aren¡¯t that different, that their views are wrong. Same goes for Baalphorians meeting Free Coloniers. Even if they don¡¯t completely change their beliefs, those beliefs melt and mould into something softer. Hopefully, down the road, their descendants drop the beliefs entirely, and the world changes for the better. Other people, they just hate. The Chinsata I¡¯ve met¡­ they hated, and there was a cruelty to that hatred that was just¡­ unfathomable. It didn¡¯t matter if I saved their lives, their friends. If they had had the chance, they would have taken me, held me down, and raped me. To them, there was nothing I could do to make myself more human in their eyes.?

    ¡°That¡¯s stupid,¡± Zyrex said, his voice taut and angry behind them. ¡°You¡ª They¡ª¡± For a moment, his watery black eyes met Emilia¡¯s before they averted, came back.

    Shame¡ªhe was ashamed, the words he had said before turning over in his head, Emilia imagined. It was one thing to think of tolerating the intolerable in the abstract, without proper examples or a victim of those beliefs standing right in front of you. That was why, as hard as it was to think back on those despicable people¡ªon the things she had done to them, with the help of Malcolm and an additive black knot¡ªthis was important.

    Showing this child that the world could be a terrible place that needed to be changed was important, as was reminding him that adults were not infallible. They held terrible beliefs, and they held well-intentioned ones as well. Tolerance was admirable, but whoever had told Zyrex and stars knew how many more children that they should tolerate everything was wrong.

    Some things could never be tolerated. Some things¡ªsome people¡ªdeserved to be hated for the horrific things they did to the world and its inhabitants.

    ?It is,? Emilia agreed, letting her own eyes flutter closed as she just breathed, letting herself be filled with¡­ something. The universe, she supposed, grounding her to the here and now before her mind spiralled back to a room filled with the blood of rapists and torturers, now victims of their own sick practices¡ªnot that the here and now was anything particularly solid. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find Hyr watching her, something between curiosity and concern in their eyes. ?What??

    It took a moment before they blinked back into their body, their mind clearly elsewhere. ¡°Did the late syna Gru ever see for you?¡±

    ?Uh¡­ no. They weren¡¯t exactly the kind of person to volunteer that sort of thing. I heard they read someone¡¯s fortune once, near the beginning of their service. I heard the person¡­ laughed at them. Some Baalphorian jerk. I can¡¯t imagine that encouraged them to see for anyone else.?

    The syn Bur nodded, contemplating her for a second more before turning to stare down at the hy Lwyn. ¡°Well? Are you going to apologize or not?¡±

    ?I don¡¯t¡ª?

    ¡°You do not expect or need an apology, I know. I have been telling this one for several years that Eruzia-lutya¡¯s teaching as questionable. He has not listened, and this situation is well deserved.¡±

    ¡°Eruzia-lutya is a good person, though!¡± Zyrex insisted, confliction written over their features.

    Clearly, Zyrex clearly thought well of Eruzia, and facing down a blatant contradiction in their teaching was hurting them.

    Emilia wanted to tell him it was fine, but it wasn¡¯t. She wanted to tell him that Eruzia perhaps didn¡¯t know better¡ªthat her view of the world didn¡¯t include all the horrors that existed within it¡ªexcept she knew better.

    Eruzia knew full well the terrible things that could exist in the world¡ªhad been the victim of them, perhaps even more than Emilia herself had been. So, why was she teaching children that they should just tolerate, tolerate, tolerate?

    Better yet, why was Eruzia even in the Northern Tribes to begin with? Why wasn¡¯t she in Norvel?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 194: Jump Scare

    ¡°So¡­ what are the other three types of people?¡±

    Emilia and Hyr turned as one to look at Zyrex, the hy Lwyn having been caught up in his mind for the last thirty or so minutes. During that time, they had continued climbing the stairs, Hyr explaining bits about how the Northern Tribes had changed in the last few decades, allowing Emilia to occasionally correct their grammar or wording on things.

    On a whole, the syn had a good grasp of Baalphorian, but there had been a few times when Hyr hadn¡¯t been able to get their point across, eventually having to explain what they meant in Brylish. Unfortunately, the concepts they had been trying to explain were beyond her knowledge of the language¡ªwhich aside from not having used it in a decade had always been more focused on combat and general use, not in-depth discussions of social issues.

    The two of them had spent some time laughing as they tried to discuss how the northern population was split on whether several classes on life skills should be segregated by gender or not, Hyr inadvertently telling her the classes were split by whether someone had a cock or a hole for a cock. This was neither what they meant¡ªnorthern culture wasn¡¯t so binary¡ªnor the proper way to describe male and female anatomy in either language.

    Despite his silence, Zyrex had tripped when Emilia pointed out that¡ªwith rare exceptions involving serious injury or illness¡ªnearly everyone, regardless of gender, had a butthole and a mouth. Given the bright red that had flushed over both of their faces, neither had contemplated the exact intricacies of sex¡ªnot that that was surprising. Sex just¡­ was in the north. Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure how to explain it, or the exact reasons behind their seeming disinterest in sex for anything other than procreation. She had wanted to ask¡ªstill wanted to, really. She didn¡¯t think either of her companions would appreciate the question¡ªnot in front of one another, anyways.

    Conversations about mistranslations aside, they had eventually reached their destined city level, Hyr and her peeking through the {Blood Glass} and pointing at the aether as they followed its path. Still, Zyrex was silent, although he had sent Hyr the same odd looks she herself occasionally sent the syn, when she caught them watching her with a strange expression. Whatever was causing Hyr to look at her like that, they weren¡¯t volunteering, and their threesome moved on.

    They went through several battles, Zyrex still not saying anything, not even a thank you when Hyr passed him their newest blood weapon, a bracelet that expanded into a spinning blade that would circle the user¡¯s wrist. It seemed both great for close combat¡ªespecially considering how unassuming it was when not in use¡ªand dangerous: one wrong move, one good push, and the arm of the user could collide with their own body and slice!

    Both Emilia and Hyr had been glad to hand it over to the hy. Let his moody ass be the one to slice itself open.

    Regardless of all that, Emilia thought her and the syn¡¯s surprise was warranted when the little hy finally deemed to speak with them again. Really, she was trying not to hold his silence against him¡ªit wasn¡¯t every day your world view was challenged with so much raw anger and violence¡ªbut even her patience was being rubbed by his refusal to do anything but mull over his thoughts and haphazardly follow in their shadows¡­ not that this world had shadows, for the most part.

    ?Well, there¡¯s the other side¡­? Emilia started as they continued walking, winding their way back down the building through a central column. It seemed a bit silly to go up so far, just to be taken back down, but if that¡¯s the way the {Blood Glass} and aether were telling them to go¡­

    Emilia didn¡¯t sigh as she hopped down another step. When had she become the type of person who actually believed this the universe can see the future crap? Even just within the confines of this raid, it was weird.

    Better to just not think about all the ways she¡¯d changed these last few weeks.

    ?There are the people who want to integrate everyone into a melting pot. I don¡¯t think there are that many people who believe we should open all borders and try to make all our cultures magically work together¡ª?

    In front of her, Hyr snorted. ¡°That would not work. We are too different, and our difference are beautifully incompatible. Could you imagine the Dionese forgoing their homes? Our people setting down roots so strong our families a thousand years from now will live in the same abode?¡±

    ?Dion is really good at setting down roots,? Emilia laughed, thinking of her own experiences with their often unbending culture and beliefs.

    She had often prided herself on being open and malleable, able to integrate herself into cultures with little effort. Around the time she¡¯d ended up in Dion, as a teenager, she¡¯d realized that could only happen when she was allowed to push and question. If her unending questions of but why do you do it like this? were met with because and no real explanation¡­ Well, her time in Dion, with their ancient traditions that had no beginning, no end, had been marred with annoyed teachers.

    Dionese students did not ask questions.

    Emilia was a terrible Dionese student.

    In a wonderful turn of events, she¡¯d left her mark on a few of her classmates, if their stories about being chastised by their teachers for letting the foreign girl corrupt them were any indication.

    It was funny, in some ways. Dion certainly had some customs she wasn¡¯t a fan of, but few had been so terrible that she had questioned them in a malicious, hateful way. Usually, she had just wanted to know how a certain custom had come to be, why some of the specific details¡ªand Dionese customs had thousands of specifics that had to be done perfectly¡ªwere the way they were.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Didn¡¯t matter. Students still weren¡¯t meant to ask, and she never had learned why people wore seven layers on the Third Day of Harrowing, five on the Fourth, ten on the Fifth. Either no one knew, or it was some secret for only select eyes. Regardless, she wasn¡¯t supposed to ask and even five decades on it still bothered her!

    ?The few people I¡¯ve come across who are that insistent we can all become one are¡­ a little deranged,? Emilia continued, thinking of the one Astrapan teacher who had only lasted a few months before being fired for trying to recruit his students to some organization that gave total cult vibes. ?In reality, most don¡¯t seem like they actually want to combine all our cultures together. That¡¯s what they say, but it''s more that they¡¯re serious fans of certain cultures and want to spread that culture through the world, erasing all the cultures they don¡¯t like.?

    ¡°I suppose they think that if people experience those cultures, they will allow them to replace their own¡­¡± Hyr said softly, the quiet contemplations of a student.

    ?That¡¯s the sense I¡¯ve always gotten. I think they lean into cultures that are more¡­ closed, as well. A lot of people are a fan of The Core¡¯s culture, for instance. They¡¯ve only seen bits and pieces about it, and usually centuries removed from us. Doesn¡¯t matter. They think the Core is cool. They can¡¯t get in to visit, so they push for a single, continental government and culture, as though The Core would actually allow themselves to be forced into such a thing.?

    There were a few, smaller Free Colonies who might welcome such a thing, but most Free Colonies and Baalphoria itself would never even entertain such a thing. Most of their governments leaned towards purist ideals rather than¡­ whatever this sort of future vision would be. Openists? Openers? Freedomists?

    Vaguely, Emilia wondered whether there was an official term or not. Unlike purists, who were somewhat organized¡ªat least in Baalphoria¡ªand constantly popping up in the news and research studies, those calling for more open borders and cultural exchanges were organized into smaller groups¡ªsometimes only consisting of a handful of people¡ªwho rarely made the news. Perhaps, there was no need for a collective term for such people and their groups?

    ?Then,? she continued, shaking off thoughts about how much groups like that could get away with, if no one were watching them, ?there are the groups in the middle. The people who aren¡¯t really a fan of how things have ended up, but can¡¯t be bothered to care about most of the changes that have occurred. Occasionally, they might complain about something¡ªlike public funds being used to support Free Coloniers who chose to stay in Baalphoria¡ªbut for the most part, they accept that change is inevitable.?

    ¡°I think many of our people are like that. They do not like how many things have become, but there is little they can do about it,¡± Hyr said as they pushed onto one of the floors, their eyes flashing through the area, searching for any signs of danger in the aether before pulling the {Blood Glass} up to their eye. They looked over the area again as they explained that different castes had different views on the changes in the world, and while those views could shift from tribe to tribe, the base education of the castes were often similar enough that views were similar. ¡°Under the syna Gru, the synat became more accepting. Even now, we can see that the world has changed. There is no going back. We may hold to those beliefs we value the most, or we may fight and lose everything. There is no in between.¡±

    Regardless of her views on the synat¡¯s fortune-telling, Emilia found that somewhat¡­ comforting. If the synat saw only a future where the most important beliefs of a society were held on to with iron fists, perhaps everyone could find a way to let their less important things go. Of course¡­

    ?Unfortunately, sometimes the worst traditions are the most important.?

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Zyrex agreed, this time shooting Hyr a look. ¡°Sometimes the worst things are sacrosanct.¡±

    Apparently, knowing he was in the company of people who were perfectly willing to be intolerant of certain beliefs had opened a door for the hy to disapprove of¡­ of what? Some belief that Hyr had? A custom or belief the synat as a whole held?

    The syn in question gave the hy Lwyn a long-suffering look. ¡°So now you care to disagree with tradition?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a stupid tradition.¡±

    ¡°It is my choice.¡±

    ¡°hy mordra¡¯bu!¡±

    Hyr didn¡¯t roll their eyes at their friend¡¯s outburst, but they looked like they wanted to. ¡°hy¡¯bu mordra¡¯k. syn¡¯pra hadra.¡±

    Emilia¡­ probably wasn¡¯t meant to be listening to this, the northerners¡¯ voices rising as they discussed some ritual Hyr would be partaking in soon¡ªthe ritual his friends were intent to take a vacation before, she assumed. Instead of sticking around, trying and failing not to eavesdrop, she contented herself with working her way down the winding hall, looking through the {Blood Glass} for the things that most pulled at her. Hyr¡ªwho, rather unsurprisingly, was a much better teacher than any of the local children¡ªhad explained that from a young age, sy¡ªthe first level within the synat¡ªwere taught to read the flavour of the aether. She still didn¡¯t completely understand what that meant, but as she examined the world and the futures offered to her, she tried to breathe in¡­ something.

    Something extra.

    Something she had never sensed before.

    Despite spending so much of her life living and breathing the aethernet, creating skills to write over the fabric of it, accidentally ending up inside it, she¡¯d never really just¡­ existed with it, letting it seep into her. There were moments where she breathed the universe in, of course, especially when she grounded herself with it, the way the Blood Rain General had taught her so many decades ago.

    That was similar, but not quite the same. Grounding with the universe as her guide was more¡­ wide-ranging. It was reaching into the universe as a whole and letting it in, letting it take what she didn¡¯t need or want away with it.

    This was catching sight of a flicker across the aether¡¯s surface¡ªa scar, a scent, a shattering of light¡ªand trying to pull it into her, trying to grasp hold of its ephemerality and demand it answer questions.

    What are you?

    What do you want?

    What are you trying to tell me?

    ?That is rather violent.?

    Emilia almost screamed as she spun¡ªthankfully, she only sucked in a harsh breath¡ªcoming face to face with Carne, which, seriously!? Out of all the people she could have come across again, why did it have to be Carne and¡ª

    ?What¡¯s that??

    Emilia blinked at the small red orb Carne¡ªor was it still Ash?¡ªheld out to her. It looked familiar, but she couldn¡¯t quite place it.

    ?A gift.?

    ?From you??

    Carne didn¡¯t sneer at her, which probably meant she was dealing with Ash, their eyes floating across the world, flickering to the {Blood Glass} in her hand, before sliding away, back in the direction of the northerners. ?From a boy¡ªa teenager.?

    Recollection shot through her. ?Kelly??

    The man hummed noncommittally as Hyr and Zyrex rounded a corner, their bodies radiating threat. ?You will need it.? His head tilted as he examined Hyr. ?You should be gentler. The universe already has¡­ mixed feelings towards you.?

    Emilia blinked, and the man was gone, leaving her to reach out and grab the {Blood Marble}, created by the loss of Kelly¡¯s arm, before it could hit the floor and shatter.

    ¡°Who the fuck was that?¡± Zyrex demanded, and honestly, did Emilia even really know?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 195: Stupid Step Count

    ?The last type,? Emilia said as they walked, and she fiddled with the {Blood Marble}, rolling it between her fingers and trusting Hyr¡¯s arm to shoot out and catch it if she fumbled, ?are the people who like the way the world has changed. They enjoy bringing bits of other cultures into their lives. I suppose there are two subtypes: those who want to continue changing, and those who like the current changes, but would rather stop.? Her lips quirked as she shot off a collection of examples of Baalphorians and Free Colonies exchanging customs long before the war, moments of peace or conquest leading to an adoption of beliefs they would previously have called uncivilized, the creations of heathens and mongrels. ?People like to think we only started adopting customs during the war, but it was happening long before that. I think some people just like being mad about change, as though the world doesn¡¯t change every day.?

    ¡°The world cannot stop changing,¡± Hyr agreed, side eyeing Zyrex, who had once more fallen into silent contemplation. ¡°I would agree. Most of our people fall into these categories. The middle is most common, but some push for a return to the old ways.¡± They frowned, telling Emilia the byren and pyr in particular were especially pushy.

    ?Really? The pyr? I would have thought the keepers of knowledge more open to adopting change, even if minimal.? Usually, teachers and librarians¡ªalthough the pyr weren¡¯t quite librarians nor even oral historians¡ªwere more open to change, having been subjected to a lifetime of learning. She supposed that just because someone knows things, it didn¡¯t mean they understood or accepted that knowledge.

    Lips pressed tight, like they were suppressing a smile, Hyr told her there was a theory that the pyr just didn¡¯t want to memorize more stories or facts.

    ¡°That¡¯s rude,¡± Zyrex said, his tone implying that something about being the hy meant he had to defend the pyr. When she asked, he agreed that was the case. ¡°They¡¯re kinda touchy? They don¡¯t like questions or contradictions. Sometimes, outsiders come and share contrary knowledge, stories of the same events as our stories, with different information. The pyr do not take it well, and¡­¡± He trailed off, looking like he actually wanted to let go, reveal a little about a terrible part of his role as hy.

    Emilia liked gossip, and after offing a handful of Clarity members they stumbled across, the blood coagulating into another {Blood Dagger} that Zyrex greedily snatched up and tucked into the other side of his pants, she sidled up to him.

    She smiled, blinked coyly at him. He looked extremely uncomfortable. Hyr politely turned away, their shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

    ?So~ what happens when someone disagrees with the pyr??

    The young man swallowed, tensed when she slipped her arm into his, pressed herself a little further into him. Evidently, whatever caused northerners to begin to see sex as something simply for making babies, it either hadn¡¯t quite settled with Zyrex yet, or he had yet to even learn what it was.

    ¡°The hy are expected to declare their words as law, the others as blasphemy. The offending party is expected to agree. If they do not¡­ exile is the best they can hope for.¡±

    ?Even if there¡¯s proof?? Emilia asked, unsure what to think about the hy being expected to exile or kill people for bringing information the pyr didn¡¯t agree with into the north.

    ¡°Even if it¡¯s over something silly,¡± Hyr grumbled. Obviously, they had experience with this unfortunate phenomenon as well, and while they didn¡¯t offer any examples, it was clear they had some.

    ¡°The pyr¡­ do not like being questioned.¡±

    ?Hm¡­ so, how does Eruzia deal with that? I imagine she must have some stories from the Nur''sa that contradict Nur¡¯tha stories.¡±

    Norvel and the Northern Tribes had shared a border for millennia, and had a long history of war. Even during their war against monsters¡ªwhen the last war between the two Free Colonies had been several generations prior¡ªtension between the soldiers from both had been difficult to navigate. There had been a few fist fights, one death that may or may not have been murder¡ªbut had definitely been deserved, if it was¡ªand a lot of pranks.

    ¡°You sound as though you are in Eruzia-lutya¡¯s acquaintance?¡± Hyr asked in their odd, lilting Baalphorian. Emilia supposed she should be grateful that the syn was putting her first, wondering if they¡¯d continue to do so, should her name come up once they were back in the real world, the northerner returning to Brylish and its hierarchical grammar rules.

    ?We¡¯ve met,? Emilia admitted, wondering how much to tell the pair of northerners. The fact that they didn¡¯t know about her own acquaintanceship with Eruzia meant Hetexia probably hadn¡¯t mentioned it either. That alone was weird¡ªthe two women had definitely disliked each other during the war, but to completely deny their knowledge of one another?

    Seriously, what had happened?

    A bubble of resentment for her past self¡ªfor the trauma she had let encompass her life and for the asshole who had spit cracking hatred at her¡ªrising up her throat and threatening to burst into the world. She swallowed it down. Those feelings had no place here, no proper outlet. These young men certainly didn¡¯t deserve to either have her take out her frustration on them, or for her rant about it.

    ?I haven¡¯t seen her in a long time. The last time I was in Norvel¡ªalthough that was years ago¡ªI was told she was travelling, visiting a war comrade.? Mostly, they¡¯d been told that so she and Helix would stop glaring around, waiting for the woman to pop out and annoy them. No one in their unit had liked the Norvel noble much, not even her prince. ?I wasn¡¯t aware she had ended up in Nur¡¯tha.?This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°We have only had her for a few years. She gives supplementary lessons on the Nur¡¯sa.¡± Lips quirking into their soft smile, Hyr admitted that the pyr did not like her much. ¡°I believe they have come to some understanding. As long as she does not claim one story as truth, she is allowed to continue teaching.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Zyrex agreed, poking his head around a corner and surging out to snap a few necks. ¡°Eruzia-lutya has to be cautious with her words, she¡¯s good at it, though! Eruzia-lutya never speaks badly about anyone because¡ª¡±

    ¡°All beliefs are valid~¡± Hyr recited, a note of annoyance entering their voice. ¡°Emilia did not already cover that those beliefs are too wide?¡±

    Once more, the pair devolved into an argument, their words fading back into Brylish. Their voices rose, and across her map, a collection of Clarity members¡ªat least, she assumed they were Clarity members¡ªstarted heading their way. As they¡¯d travelled, it was about 50-50 whether the locals they came across had the ability to hear visitors or not, so for the most part, they hadn¡¯t bothered suppressing their voices. Occasionally, someone would hear them and come their way, but given they were trying to kill off Clarity members, it wasn¡¯t that much of a burden.

    It would just be really helpful if they could question someone on where Ajarni was, was the thing. Unfortunately, by the time Clarity members reached them, they were always taken by the hive mind, and while Hyr could read a bit off their energy, it wasn¡¯t enough to warrant trying to keep anyone alive, not after their first few attempts at questioning them had failed, anyways.

    Behind her, the hy and syn continued to argue, and Emilia felt bad for them, and more than a little concerned for Zyrex. For a period of time, it had felt like her words¡ªher terrible example of the horrors people of their world were capable of¡ªhad reached him, had managed to at least soften his belief in this terrible teaching of unending tolerance.

    Evidently not. While it could be that he needed more time to think on it, Emilia had seen this sort of vehement belief before¡ªit was, in the end, the same sort of wholehearted belief that the people of Chinsata themselves held against silverstrains, along with a few other irregular deviations. It was difficult¡ªif not impossible¡ªto break. Hopefully, the fact that he hadn¡¯t grown up surrounded by such beliefs was enough to make the young hy more malleable on this point, and as she moved through the halls, pulling out her now-well used {Blood Sword}, Emilia contemplated how to get through to the boy, as well as what Eruzia was doing and how far-reaching her teachings were.

    Sword sliding through the stomach of a Clarity member and pressing through the jaw of another, Emilia rolled what she knew around in her head. Hyr didn¡¯t believe what Eruzia was spinning¡ªanother slash, another death¡ªso either her teachings weren¡¯t affecting everyone, or not everyone was receiving them. Still, Hyr had clearly heard their friend talk about her views before. Still, even with Zyrex¡¯s own belief behind his words, Hyr hadn¡¯t come to believe them.

    Dropping out of the path of a magic shadow, Emilia surged forward, spinning and letting her sword slice through several bodies. In a normal battle, with regular people, they probably wouldn¡¯t have gotten up. The hive mind didn¡¯t seem to care for pain, however, and until they were good and dead, they¡¯d continue trying to get up. As such, Emilia stabbed a few in the heart, decapitated a few more, each little dot on her map turning black.

    Awesome. Only an unknown number of Clarity members left!

    Out of all the things the visitor system could have done, giving her a mission to [Kill All Clarity Members!] and a count of how many were remaining would have been seriously helpful. Instead, what she got was a notification popping up that she¡¯d earned ten more tokens for reaching another step goal.

    Honestly, seeing how many steps she¡¯d taken in this world was just getting depressing. The stair count was worse, though, and as she shooed the dialog away, Emilia refused to retain how many steps she¡¯d taken. It was too many, and the raid wasn¡¯t even done, even if it was quickly coming to an end, and they still had no idea of where Ajarni was.

    For all they knew, he might not even be around anymore. In that case, the Risen Guard would be left killing off as many Clarity members as they could, hoping to erase his cult from the world. That wouldn¡¯t stop him from creating another cult, though¡ªfrom him and his descendants forming a whole new group over the next hundred years, something better than this failure.

    Something niggled in the back of Emilia¡¯s brain¡ªsome bit of forgotten information that she couldn¡¯t quite dig up. Just like so many other moments of remembrance in this world, without the aid of her Censor, it faded away and all she was left with was the sense that she was missing something.

    ?Do you all attend lessons with Eruzia?? she asked as her companions caught up with her, Hyr stepping fearlessly through the swirling magic while Zyrex waited on the edge of her carnage as the blood curse settled into another {Blood Marble}, as it had been doing any time she killed people without the other two present since Carne had given her the first. She slipped it into the little pouch that had formed on her {Blood Armour} to hold them. The now-four marbles clacked together as they returned to walking.

    ¡°Sometimes. They are not mandatory. She gives lectures. Most people attend one or two, or they attend them all.¡± Hyr¡¯s eyes flicked to Zyrex in silent communication that he attended them all. The syn, clearly, hadn¡¯t been a fan of Eruzia¡¯s teaching from the start.

    In other words, her teachings were the sort to alienate or call believers in. There was no in between.

    Now, Emilia might be crazy, or just influenced by the whole¡­ wandering through a building inhabited by cult members thing¡­ but that certainly sounded a lot like Eruzia was starting a cult!

    Concerning, to say the least. Still, the question was why? Despite their history of conflict, Norvel and Nur¡¯tha actually had a lot in common, in terms of how their citizens behaved and what they believed. As much as the Dread Coliseum was something of a sore spot in many places, swathes of people viewing the practice of allowing death within its competitions as barbaric, the Northern Tribes weren¡¯t one of them. Rather, despite their bad blood, northerners were regularly allowed to attend the Dread Coliseum, seeking glory.

    Out of all the places where a Norvel noble might go, attempting to sway people into letting Norvel have its traditions, the Northern Tribes seemed a silly choice.

    Something else, then? Some other reason?

    Some terrible custom or belief, hidden within Norvel, that would cause Eruzia to forbid exceptions within this belief of tolerance she was filing away into the heads of impressionable children?

    Four dots appeared on her map as she listened to Hyr and Zyrex discuss whether people should be required to attend more of Eruzia¡¯s lectures¡ªand honestly, the fact that Zyrex was all for making her lectures compulsory was worrying. The dots were¡­ odd. They weren¡¯t the normal red, for one, two a light purple, just as Conrad¡¯s had once been, while the others were a slate grey and¡ª

    Another dot appeared, this one a colour Emilia recognized, and she was running, bolting through the twisting hallways while the northerners yelled at her and attracted the attention of not just the five dots she was racing towards, but the dozens of Clarity members scattered through the floor.

    Zyrex really was a little too loud.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 196: A Shocking (not) Turn of Events

    <blockquote>

    A thousand bodies fell in their wake.

    A thousand souls,

    broken

    shattered

    scarred and ruined

    returned.

    Their fate untethered,

    let go

    let go¡ª

    The one at the top,

    mouldering and cruel

    they shall never let go.

    Their hand must be forced

    sliced

    flayed

    returned

    not destroyed¡ª

    Never destroyed.

    ~ last poem from the High Seer of Mord, before the destruction of Mord¡¯s home building

    </blockquote>

    ? ? ?

    Emilia sliced through a body, trusting the pair trailing behind her to clean up stragglers and anyone misfortunate enough to have not suffered a killing blow.

    The blood curse boiled, filling the air with unfulfilled rage.

    Hyr had been the one to point that out that as long as they were still fighting, no blood weapon would form. Without a visitor actively calling to the curse, it was only once all carnage had ceased that anything would happen, and the more blood there was¡ªthe more bodies they had cut down¡ªthe more likely it was that someone would have to push the creation process along.

    At the time, Emilia hadn¡¯t given it much thought, but now, as more and more Clarity members surged onto the floor, filtering through stairwells and elevators and maybe even teleporting in, she wondered at the tattoo across her back.

    The first version had been a creation of Taoran and Boundary¡¯s blood, but while Taoran had died, her original {Blood Orb} had only been formed from a small portion of Boundary¡¯s blood. Perhaps that was why it had been flawed, no power seeming to come from it. It existed. It probably told a strange, mashed together story of the two local¡¯s lives. She¡¯d never been able to figure out what it did, and even in her visitor system¡¯s information about her gifts and items, it hadn¡¯t really said anything about it. As far as she knew, V had never been able to use his either.

    In contrast, Emilia could feel the power thrumming through her back. It was so powerful that Hyr had been able to see the energy radiating off her before he knew it existed¡ªthe syn had eventually revealed that was one of the reasons they¡¯d been moderately suspicious of her when they¡¯d first met. After explaining how she¡¯d come into its possession and how they would potentially try using it to destroy the Clarity City System, if it came to that, the northerner had visibly relaxed, although they¡¯d already been well on their way to becoming friends by the time it came up.

    Hyr hadn¡¯t said as much, but Emilia felt that they leaned into the belief that raid AIs deserved life. If she¡¯d revealed she¡¯d killed hundreds of locals forming the weapon, Hyr wouldn¡¯t have been happy¡ªmight have even cut her down right then and there, before asking Hetexia for her contact info so they could kill her in the real world as well. That sort of belief was endearing, even if she¡¯d prefer the syn not go around killing Baalphorians¡ªunfortunately, there¡¯d be few citizens left if they killed every Baalphorian who had ever killed a raid AI for sport.

    Overall, that alone was a terrible thought. Emilia knew people who had killed in the real world¡ªhad killed flesh and blood humans herself, both for revenge and sport, thanks to several vendettas against Chinsata and a visit to the Dread Coliseum. Those were decisions she had made, knowing the cost to herself and the world. Killing the Chinsata had been nothing¡ªand honestly, she¡¯d gladly burn that entire Free Colony to the ground¡ªwhile everyone who entered the Dread Coliseum knew what they were doing, and it wasn¡¯t like she hadn¡¯t offered to let them admit defeat and leave with their lives.

    Neither she nor Helix had ever wanted to kill anyone there, although they both had. That was something they accepted and lived with, and in the end, those deaths had likely saved lives¡ªthe people who refused to admit defeat, even when death was imminent, were often the sort to never offer their opponents the chance to surrender.

    They lived with their decisions. The Baalphorians and Free Coloniers who killed AIs¡­ Emilia was pretty sure most didn¡¯t care about the damage and hurt their actions caused. If she thought about it too much¡ªthought about how even those with black knots, who were regularly looked down on as unfeeling, felt more regret as they killed than regular people did when offing AIs¡ªthen she might break.

    Run away.

    Leave her life and all her murderous friends behind.

    Heart clenching, Emilia focused back on her tattoo, on the feeling that it was incomplete. Hyr had noticed that, too¡ªhad noticed that something about it wasn¡¯t quite right. When the two northerners had¡ªsomewhat begrudgingly¡ªexamined her tattoo, her {Blood Armour} snapping into its unused bracelet form and scandalizing the pair with her naked butt, Hyr had told her it had gaps.

    In the end, it did seem that part of it was missing, and she really wished she¡¯d bothered to examine Tobias¡¯ version before killing him. It had made sense not to, of course¡ªthe last thing she¡¯d wanted was for him to activate it while she tugged his shirt up¡ªbut now it was frustrating, and none of them had any idea if the {Blood Tattoo} would even work, or if it would be a dud, like that first version.Stolen novel; please report.

    Worse, it could simply backfire or do something else entirely¡ªsomething like destroy the entire planet or raid platform.

    Emilia wondered if there had been a clause in her contract about damage to the system itself. Some raids had things like that for heroes: policies that would leave them liable, should their actions permanently alter the raid¡¯s internal coding, even if it were the result of some preexisting error within the raid. Searching through her shoddy memory of the things she¡¯d agreed to when first entering the raid¡ªthe contract she¡¯d barely read¡ªEmilia couldn¡¯t remember a clause like that.

    Hopefully, there hadn¡¯t been one, given she¡¯d already fucked with that one labyrinth¡¯s internal code. In her defence, it had provided her with access to that code, though! If they came after her for damages due to that¡­ Well, for one thing, she technically had the money to pay for those sorts of damages, for another, Olivier was a great lawyer, and for another, she was pretty sure that regardless of how much of Halen had been a hallucination, how much fragments of his consciousness, he had been right: a portion of Hail¡¯s raid system was hers. If Hail didn¡¯t want her sending Olivier after them for that, they¡¯d be covering any legal fees from her involvement in any raid, ever, thank you very much.

    The aether rippled and bulged as Emilia slit another throat and pulled the energy of the blood curse towards herself. It was too early, dozens of Clarity members still surging onto the level, but that was the point: she wanted to figure out why her {Blood Tattoo} was broken, why it was incomplete.

    On her map, a number of Clarity members dots flickered between red and black as they bled out, waiting for someone to come along and kill them. If her first {Blood Tattoo} had been incomplete because Boundary hadn¡¯t been dead, then the item that formed for her now should also be incomplete. Yet, when the small tiara formed in her hand, it seemed¡­ right.

    ?Yo, Hyr!? she called, turning back towards where the northerners were cleaning up the living bodies behind her. ?Does this seem complete to you??

    Having already heard Emilia mull over the potential whys about her broken {Blood Tattoo}, Hyr didn¡¯t need to be told what she was doing. The syn looked at the tiara, nodded and told her they saw no issues with it.

    Unfortunate, that was the easiest thing to test, especially since it also hit the maybe the blood curse was expecting more death question¡ªwhile they had no idea if anyone had gotten out of Salsetrun before Tobias¡¯ {Blood Tattoo} had been created, it was easy to assume that plenty of people had probably escaped the city and survived. It wasn¡¯t like there had been dead bodies in the houses. If some sort of expectation was set before the creation of a weapon, the lack of meeting it causing an error in the item, it didn¡¯t happen with smaller weapons.

    She really wished she¡¯d taken a better look at the {Blood Hoop} before handing it off to Boundary, if only so she could know for sure that it had been complete.

    Grumbling, the three of them continued on, making their way towards the other group. They probably didn¡¯t have a map, their movements through the level sporadic, twisting and turning and¡ª

    ?Fuck!? Emilia spit out as they disappeared, likely moving up or down a stairwell. ?Seriously??

    ¡°They likely had no choice,¡± Hyr said annoyingly sensible, once she¡¯d explained why she was yelling.

    Emilia had to agree: the place they had disappeared was filled with Clarity members. Interesting, though, that the other group had risked the stairwell so many of them were coming out of¡­ and now disappearing back into.

    ?Uh¡­? Emilia squinted at the map. Technically, squinting did nothing for her¡ªit actually might have made the map a little blurrier, her actual field of vision a little smaller¡ªbut¡­ had they left a member behind?

    Down the hall, probably about forty feet from where the rest of the group had disappeared, was a dot in a colour that¡­ well, it was similar to the shade of Key¡¯s, but not quite the same. Where Key¡¯s had been a light pink, this one was more a hot pink. Was it Key? If it was, what in the world had happened to him? Nothing good, she imagined.

    That said, nothing good would be happening to him¡ªassuming it was him¡ªin a few seconds. While most of the Clarity members were still disappearing into the abyss of the stairwell, a respectable amount had turned towards maybe-Key as well. Given the majority of the Clarity members on the floor were now congregating in that area, that meant at least a hundred were forcing their way after the vanished group, while two dozen had turned on the left behind member.

    Emilia really hoped it wasn¡¯t Key. There was no way the Enclave boy had enough combat training to fight off that many trained killers, running on hive mind energy and empty hatred. It didn¡¯t matter how much she worried¡ªhow many terrible images flashed through her head. They were too far apart, the winding route the other group had taken leaving them several minutes of frightened running apart.

    Key, her friend. He might be in danger, and that was to say nothing of the rest of the group, disappeared from her map and perception. They could be dead¡ªcould have run into too many Clarity members for them to handle, even if one or two of them had some amount of magic and core control and¡ª

    ¡°Emilia. You must calm down.¡±

    Hyr¡¯s voice. It sounded far away. When had she started to panic?

    ¡°Breathe.¡±

    Their voice was so calm, calling to her through the panic and terror and shame. Shame, because she shouldn¡¯t have let Key go off on his own. There hadn¡¯t been a black dot travelling with their group, the rebel Clarity members hadn¡¯t been travelling with them¡ªnot obviously, anyways. Was he dead? Had he abandoned Key? Had¡ª

    A sliver of energy wrapped itself around her, warm and safe and pulling her back.

    ¡°Hatrav¡ªbreathe.¡±

    The syna Gru had told her that before, their voice scratchy but coolly kind, aged from years of smoking some northern psychedelic. Usually, they¡¯d told her that when she¡¯d been pissed, not panicking.

    Old Emilia hadn¡¯t panicked. Well, she had panicked a few times, but she¡¯d been much better at hiding it.

    This Emilia, even with all of Payton¡¯s unknotting, couldn¡¯t even hide her panic, to say nothing of just not panicking.

    ¡°Hatrav,¡± Hyr repeated.

    They were still moving¡ªstill cutting down anyone who got in their way. That was good¡ªat least they weren¡¯t wasting time, squatting in a hallway while she hyperventilated. Still, it was only a matter of time before her panic fucked them over. Zyrex had already been left alone to clean up after them, Hyr having abandoned the hy in favoured of trying to help her.

    That was sweet, even if it was also pretty stupid.

    ¡°Hatrav.¡±

    Emilia tried to breathe¡ªtried to let Hyr¡¯s energy into her, soothing and calm. They weren¡¯t even touching her, and she wondered if they could reach their energy out like this in the real world, or if it was a raid only thing¡ªmaybe even a this raid only thing. That, or maybe her perception was the thing that had changed¡ªmaybe, someone more believing, more in tune with their core and the aether, might have been able to feel a synat member¡¯s energy in the real world. Just not her.

    It wasn¡¯t that useful to think about¡ªalthough she did attempt to make a mental note to ask Hyr to do something similar to her, assuming it was a real-world ability, if they met up one day. That said, their actions and her ponderings on it had served as a distraction from her panic, and by the time they rounded the last corner, coming up behind where maybe-Key was fighting off Clarity members, she had mostly stopped panicking and Hyr had been able to fall back a little to help Zyrex.

    Unfortunately, the moment she realized maybe-Key wasn¡¯t Key at all, her heart squeezed in another roll of panic.

    Dark, cruel eyes turned on her, a blast of shadow magic slicing through a dozen Clarity members. ?Hello again, Emilia.?

    Emilia turned, grabbing Hyr¡¯s arm as she bolted back the way they¡¯d come. ?Run,? she said, throwing up a barrier as Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows surged after them.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 197: Absentminded, again.

    The problem with randomly acquiring new allies? They¡¯d never had the chance to gain system access. It was something of a pain, not being able to split up and communicate with them, or trust that they wouldn¡¯t get lost or would be able to properly coordinate an attack using a map.

    Massively pain¡ªor it would have been, if Emilia weren¡¯t simply an absentminded idiot.

    ¡°You can give us system access?¡± Zyrex hissed as they rounded a corner, attempting to get away from Key¡¯s crazed bodyguard. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier?¡±

    ?I forgot, okay? I only gave access to one person, and actually, now that I¡¯ve brought it up, I¡¯m not even sure it¡¯ll work?? Boundary had given her the ability to share his Risen Guard system access, and while she still technically had access to that system, Emilia wasn¡¯t so sure she could still share it now that she also had the regular visitor system as well.

    Worth a try, at any rate, especially given they were going to need to split up to deal with Sk¡¯lar. Key hadn¡¯t been exaggerating when he said the man was more dangerous than he¡¯d seemed during his fight with Boundary. Where that time he¡¯d seemed inexperienced, the man now chasing them was skilled, his magic surging out of him in waves that Emilia knew she¡¯d never be able to get through. She¡¯d tried throwing one of her few remaining {Blood Needles} at him, but unlike with Livia, where her magic had been unable to stop the blood weapon, Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows ate her attack up.

    So, her one long-range weapon¡ªnot that she¡¯d had a chance to try out the items she¡¯d picked up since raiding Conrad¡¯s body, another giant oversight on her part¡ªcouldn¡¯t get through his defences, and neither she nor Hyr were inclined to try raising their own defensive barriers to attempt closer combat¡ªnot that Hyr was particularly skilled at hand-to-hand combat in the first place, instead preferring to use subtle magic to maim and murder.

    Hence, their options were to either make the way of the other group, and run away from the crazy Enclave member, or split up and try to hit him from three angles, hoping that at least one of them would get through. Unfortunately, while they could try to memorize a path and location, Emilia was terrible with both receiving and giving directions, and if something went awry, and they needed to meet somewhere else¡­

    ?Wanna take a risk?? Emilia asked, poking at her {Blood Ball} and wondering if Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows would hit its activation requirements or not. As she¡¯s explained to the northerners while they travelled, each of them going over their abilities, gifts and most used weapons so they could better support each other, the thing was a bit sporadic in when it decided to work, but in general, anything that seemed liable to get her killed seemed to activate it. ?I can try giving you access while we run, but stopping and letting his magic activate might be the better option. I¡¯ll have to let his magic hit me, though, and if it doesn¡¯t work¡­?

    ¡°I¡¯ll have a defensive barrier ready, just in case,¡± Zyrex told her, his energy already beginning to cycle through his meridians with such force that he seemed to vibrate, the lines glowing faintly under his dark skin. ¡°We just hope his attacks don¡¯t kill instantly, and I¡¯ll have time to protect us, if your ball doesn¡¯t work.¡±

    The hy shrugged, like it was nothing. It sort of wasn¡¯t, not with their time in their world quickly dwindling. Sk¡¯lar could kill them, and it would potentially suck for this world¡ªfor the innocents still left within the Clarity City System. On the other hand, their entire mission could be a lost cause, their deaths meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

    ¡°If we die, we die,¡± Hyr agreed.

    Together, they slowly let their pace fall, not wanting Sk¡¯lar to realize something was up. For all that the man was powerful, Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced he was the brightest person when he was in the right frame of mind. The man chasing after them was clearly not in the right frame of mind. He laughed, screamed, called for them to return so he could give her what she deserved.

    ¡°Seriously, what did you do to that guy?¡± Zyrex asked as they rounded a corner that led to a four way intersection, and came to stop, hoping Sk¡¯lar was close enough that he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to attack them, given the chance.

    ?I don¡¯t even know. I think he¡¯s upset I gave one of his charges the confidence to say fuck you to his Enclave?? Emilia said as darkness bared down on them.

    It slid cool over her skin, cruel and evil and obsessive.

    Her {Blood Ball} hadn¡¯t worked.

    Behind her, Zyrex¡¯s energy swelled, ready to blow Sk¡¯lar shadows away. Time seemed to slow¡ªto morph and fray, a thousand torturous moments playing through Emilia¡¯s head.

    Death. Blood. Screaming¡ªalways so much screaming. Didn¡¯t people know their screams brought the monsters to their doors? Human instinct: scream, scream, scream. It didn¡¯t matter how much they told people don¡¯t make a sound, lest the monsters come to eat you, bite your head off, slit your gut open and slurp up your insides while you struggle to die.

    People still screamed, even soldiers, too overcome with fear to remember their training.

    Don¡¯t scream. Screaming was death.

    Even the aethernet had screamed, when bits of the universe had died, its flesh carved away and stitched back up to remove the rot from it¡ªto hold it and the monsters at bay, even if just for a mere blink of the all-seeing universe¡¯s power and unending existence.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Had the monsters come for it, too, when it screamed?

    It''s babies, creations, blood ripped free and¡ª

    The {Blood Ball} burst outwards, surrounding the three of them in pure darkness, devoid of life¡ªa place not even the aether seemed to reach.

    ¡°An emptiness.¡±

    Emilia and Zyrex turned to watch Hyr, the syn¡¯s normally calm voice shaking slightly as they looked around.

    ?I was just thinking that,? Emilia told them. ?I didn¡¯t notice it before, but now¡­? It could have been that something had changed in its composition, but she didn¡¯t think so. Rather, somewhere in between her last time inside this place, when she¡¯d burned Tobias¡¯ array away, and now, her perception had changed. Hyr¡¯s influence? Their words and explanations about how to read the universe seeping into her with so much ease that it was nauseating at times. The result of the world she had seen in the {Blood Glass}?

    ¡°How long do we have?¡± Zyrex asked, stepping closer to Hyr, as though the syn could protect him from the emptiness. He rubbed his bare arms, Emilia copied the movement.

    It wasn¡¯t that she was cold, but now that her attention had been called to the lack of life in this place¡­

    ¡°We aren¡¯t supposed to be here¡­¡± Hyr breathed out. ¡°We should hurry.¡±

    ?Usually, it exits out once the threat is gone,? Emilia pointed out, although she was already attempting to activate her system sharing ability.

    Her mind clicked through the more complicated interface, searching for this combined visitor-Risen Guard system¡¯s sharing ability. In theory, the ability should still be there¡ªthat was the point of combining the two systems, after all: to retain access to each of the system''s features, independent of each other.

    That didn¡¯t mean that combination was pretty, though. The raid platform had clearly been developed to include the ability to merge systems, or simply override one with the other. As she had been informed when she¡¯d gained visitor system access: there had been complaints from heroes, due to certain aspects of the visitor system kinda sucking. Some parts were great, and Emilia especially appreciated how it behaved more like a Censor. Other parts were truly embarrassing shows of UI design, most notably that while all the Risen Guard system abilities still existed, they had been buried into the visitor system¡¯s interface. This meant that while Emilia knew the sharing ability should exist, she had no idea where it would have been hidden inside the interface.

    Annoyingly, out of all the Censor abilities the visitor system had, the ability to easily search and query the system for information wasn¡¯t one of them.

    ¡°I do not think this dimension will falter when his magic ceases.¡±

    Emilia blinked through her interface, vaguely noting that Hyr was looking through the {Blood Glass}. She wanted to ask what they saw, looking into this world devoid of aether for clues about the future.

    Later¡ªshe¡¯d ask later because as much as she wanted to believe the syn¡¯s interpretation of what they saw and felt, it would really suck to waste time talking to them now, only to regret it when the {Blood Ball} collapsed.

    Click. Click. Swipe. Search.

    Fucking stars, where was it? It had to be there somewhere! It had¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s mind burned as she found and activated the ability, focusing by mutual agreement on giving Zyrex access first¡ªHyr could always use their ability to read the universe and the {Blood Glass} to supplement the system, if she was only able to give access to one of the northerners.

    Zyrex squatted, grimacing and clutching his head with one hand. Hyr continued watching the world through the {Blood Glass}, staring into the abyss.

    Given how intoxicating and addicting the things the {Blood Glass} showed could be, Emilia wondering if she should be concerned for the syn. It was one thing to view the future of a raid¡ªof a world whose future didn¡¯t really affect any of them. She had no idea what this strange world¡¯s visions would reveal to them.

    ?Hyr¡ª? she started to say, not sure whether she was about to ask if they needed help putting the blood item down, or if they were ready to get system access as well.

    It didn¡¯t matter which. The moment she spoke, the syn let their hand fall. Golden eyes turned on her, soft but concerned.

    ¡°My turn?¡±

    Emilia nodded, activating the sharing ability and hoping that there wasn¡¯t something wrong with it¡ªZyrex still hadn¡¯t gotten up, and while Conrad had admitted the process hadn¡¯t exactly been pleasant, he certainly hadn¡¯t keeled over in pain.

    Then again, perhaps Conrad wasn¡¯t a good measuring stick. Emilia had a feeling someone could cut the man¡¯s flesh and blood arm off, and he¡¯d barely bat an eye. Just a vibe¡ªand one she should know well, considering she already knew someone who had been all but been bisected during the war and just burned their gaping wounds closed and continued on as best they could.

    Vaguely, Emilia wondered if those two would get along. They could be crazy together. Then again, Conrad needed friends who would ground him, not encourage him to do insane shit like certain people she knew were wont to do.

    The syn didn¡¯t squat like Zyrex, but their soft face did scrunch in pain. On her side, Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced her head wasn¡¯t about to explode¡ªit was so bad that she¡¯d only managed to get through one of her silly delivery game¡¯s levels!¡ªand she was pretty sure she¡¯d earned herself a nose bleed.

    A drop of blood spattered across the ground, so, yeah. Nosebleed. Maybe she could scare Sk¡¯lar with it?

    Actually¡­

    Whatever Hyr had seen in the {Blood Glass}, they¡¯d been right: the {Blood Ball} didn¡¯t contract until both of the northerners had their access to the Risen Guard system¡ªunfortunately, the visitor system hadn¡¯t decided to tag along for the ride¡ªand had settled slightly, their eyes shifting as they looked over the system in silence.

    Then, the world cracked open. The northerners surged to the sides, escaping down hallways, while Emilia bolted straight, trusting her energy to keep her safe and hoping that Sk¡¯lar would care more about attacking her than going after the others.

    Fortunately, for all that the man was clearly a sociopath¡ªalthough Emilia wondered if he¡¯d always been that way, or if it were more a result of however many trips to the labyrinths he¡¯d taken¡ªhe was more the sort to want to directly torture his prey, rather than go after her where it really hurt. If he¡¯d had the sense to go after one of the others instead, she likely would have handed herself over to him rather than risk the Enclave man getting a hold of them and doing stars knew what to that¡ªSk¡¯lar definitely gave off torturer vibes.

    The man chased after her. He¡¯d been close to whatever existed outside the {Blood Ball} when it activated¡ªso close that when she rounded a corner and threw a handful of blood at him, half of it reached him.

    He screeched, rubbing at the burning blood that had splattered over his face, steaming and sizzling, smoke wafting off him and the air beginning to reek of cooking flesh.

    Gross, but also, a good time to run away.

    ?Catch me if you can~? Emilia called as she fully rounded a corner, waiting to make sure the man saw which way she was going and giving him a little wave before bolting down another turn, away from his fury¡ªfrom the hideous shadow monster forming under the urging of his rage.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 198: One Type of Bomb

    Shadows licked at her heels. Angry. Consuming. Filled with rage and an uncontainable hatred that was quite frankly unwarranted.

    Sure, she might have been a catalyst for Key figuring out how to say fuck you to his family and their messed up beliefs¡ªbecause Emilia still wasn¡¯t convinced that the Stringer Matriarch hadn¡¯t all but ordered him to kill her when she told her grandson to make sure she never saw her again¡ªbut with everything she knew about the boy, he would have gotten there eventually.

    Eventually, he would have sought out the truth of the Risen Guard¡¯s corruption, found out how much the Enclave¡¯s training within labyrinths affected their members'' mental state. Maybe by the time he found those things out, the world would have worn on him¡ªwould have filed his kindness and love down to a point ready to skewer everyone he didn¡¯t already love.

    Emilia doubted that would have happened.

    There were different sorts of people, when it came to how their unfortunate circumstances affected them. Some people broke, the things that had happened to them turning them into jaded shells, every breath upon their skin liable to shatter their fragile protection. Others bent and morphed, changing themselves into someone who could survive the cruelties of the world. And the rest, small group that it was, refused to change. The world could beat them up, rip out their hearts, chew up their bodies and souls. Still, they¡¯d be the same.

    Most black knots Emilia knew were like that¡ªunless they became obsessed with someone, anyways. Nearly every member of The Black Knot had come out of the war perfectly fine, the knots that led most of the population to fear them offering them a protection from the horrors of the world. Other people had popped out of the war perfectly fine as well. Helix was like that, mostly. Sure, he seemed to have a bit more of a temper now, less tolerance for people being stupid assholes, but Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced that wasn¡¯t just him growing into accepting that he was a petty bitch with strong beliefs.

    So, Emilia supposed there was another type of person as well: someone who changed for the better, under the pressure of adversity.

    Key reminded her of that, her memories of him overlaying with a younger Helix. Smiling, kind, their eyes filling with anger and sadness and passion in equal measure when they witnessed oppression, corruption, horror.

    It was a little funny, then, that Sk¡¯lar seemed to be blaming her for Key changing for the better: he would have changed anyways, she was almost sure. Key would have grown and learned and either fucked off from his family or taken it over, hoping that by the time the next visitation came around, his family¡ªperhaps even the Enclave as a whole¡ªwould be in a better, more unified position to help.

    The Enclave bodyguard did not like when she pointed this out.

    ?He is an obedient boy,? the man snarled, sending a flurry of fire-laced shadows after her, icy heat biting at her back and sending a shudder through her for the simple fact that it felt wrong.

    Those shadows felt wrong, and every time one grazed her skin, she felt it all the more poignantly. Visions seeped through her¡ªor were they hallucinations? Images of the aether tearing and breaking, of it being hacked and burnt and sewn back together, flittered through her head. They felt so real, yet the very idea that the aethernet¡ªthat the universe¡ªcould lose parts of itself was¡­ grotesque.

    It happened, yes. Powerful events and attacks could profoundly damage the aether, and her own war-ending assault on it had definitely messed with it in a way that all the classes on creating and using skills said not to.

    The things Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows showed her were a slow rising horror, however. Emilia wanted to brush them off, claim they were simply the result of some fear aspect in his attacks.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t so sure, something about the way dots were lining up in her head, conjecture and stories and fables all piecing together¡­

    Emilia bolted to the side, trying to shake off her thoughts. As much as she wanted to stop and think it through, let Sk¡¯lar¡¯s shadows consume her so she might see the full force of whatever horrors were contained within them, she wasn¡¯t quite ready to give up on doing something good for this world yet. Later. Later, she would think about it, along with her ever-growing list of things that she¡¯d need to deal with in the real world.

    Man, she was literally going to have to make a list, wasn¡¯t she? There were just too many little things that were liable to be forgotten about, a thousand strands that she¡¯d been putting off dealing with, had only just found out about, or had stupidly overlooked.

    At the very least, this particular issue would land in the new things to deal with column¡ªthe things that were in the other two columns were extremely depressing. Still, all the tasks related to the aethernet were creating a daunting list on their own. Well, she¡¯d have Conrad to help with it, assuming he showed up at their designated meeting spot, anyways¡ªassuming that he hadn¡¯t been killed by his family, either due to their anger at what had happened or the heartcore¡¯s manipulations. That whole situation was also in the new things to deal with column.

    Behind her, Sk¡¯lar was still ranting about how Key had been a sweet, well-behaved boy before she came along. Emilia would have appreciated the stories he was telling of his friend¡ªasset? client? was Key Sk¡¯lar¡¯s friend?¡ªwere they not being screamed at her and interlaced with death threats.

    Fortunately, she was faster than the Enclave man, and after some extra effort, had managed to outpace his shadows by a few dozen feet. Switching her brain to autopilot mode, she continued running while searching through her inventory, looking over the blood weapons she had on her person while zigzagging through the now almost deserted hallways.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Occasionally, a Clarity member could be seen wandering about, but they seemed to have realized that Sk¡¯lar wasn¡¯t worth fighting¡ªespecially since he was keeping three people who had been wandering around killing anyone they came across distracted¡ªand were giving them a wide berth. Every so often, one would attack one of the northerners, but the pair were skilled¡ªnot to mention had some bitch ass defensive abilities¡ªand quickly dispatched anyone who got in their way while they made their way to the agreed upon ambush spot.

    So far, Sk¡¯lar had shown no indication that he had a map of his own, nor had he or any other Enclave member ever indicated their system had one. A quick message to Boundary and Rin as she ran indicated that neither of them had ever heard of the Enclave system having a map either, although there were several mapping gifts, so she couldn¡¯t completely rule out the man having a map or the ability to see where they would converge with the northerners.

    As such, it would be prudent to spend a little time distracting him while she led him to the ambush point, and several of her recently acquired blood weapons might be able to do so.

    Maybe.

    It was a bit difficult to be certain, as she¡¯d never used them before. It was worth a shot, though, and as she rounded yet another corner, circling back the way they¡¯d just come because Zyrex had run into several Clarity members and was running late, she smacked one of the weapons she¡¯d stolen from Tobias onto a wall.

    The {Blood Stickers} each had arrays written onto them, indicating various traps. Emilia doubted most would be more than a nuisance, but when she heard the first pop, blood and red glitter exploding out over Sk¡¯lar, she smiled. The man screamed, more blood burning holes into his skin and clothing, glitter coating half his body and likely getting into his blood stream while his wounds struggled to seal closed.

    It was strange, how blood sometimes burned, sometimes didn¡¯t. Yet another thing that seemed to change at the will of the system, not that Emilia was complaining much about that one. For the most part, the burning aspect of the blood curse had been working for her. It burned when it needed to, left people¡ªmost notably her¡ªalone when it needed to.

    Another {Blood Stickers} hit the wall, another pop occurred just as she was turning a corner, just catching sight of a glitter encrusted Sk¡¯lar running into a clear barrier.

    Snorting, she stopped, knowing she was still half a dozen feet outside his attack range. ?Problems?? she asked, all innocence and petty energy. Emilia spun the dagger she had swiped from Conrad¡ªthen proceeded to stash in her inventory and forget about¡ªbetween her fingers. The {Blood Sword} was nice, but something about having Conrad¡¯s only real weapon in her hands¡ªand certainly the only one he¡¯d made with his own hands, perhaps even with his own blood¡ªfelt good, right, like a little part of him was still with her.

    It had been nice, carrying his energy with her, and she wasn¡¯t ashamed to admit it.

    Now, would she be admitting to her kinda-sorta friend that she missed having his slightly too-sexual feeling energy lingering inside her? Absolutely not. That man already had a huge ego. He didn¡¯t need it getting any bigger.

    Shadow blades split through the clear barrier and Emilia bolted, noting the way Sk¡¯lar¡¯s pace increased. The man still wasn¡¯t fast enough to reach her¡ªshe hadn¡¯t been running full out either¡ªbut it was a sign that he was pissed.

    Good. Pissed people were more volatile, less predictable, and as dangerous as that could be, but they needed the man thinking as erratically as possible.

    Smacking another {Blood Sticker} to the floor, thinking the man might have clued in to watch the walls, and not stupid enough to think his rage would completely blind him, Emilia bolted towards the end of the hall. This particular hallway was longer than most, featuring two, mid-hallway intersections with other hallways. One led straight through, creating a cross, while the other came in at an angle, merging with the hallway she had been leading Sk¡¯lar down at a 45¡ã angle he wouldn¡¯t be able to see down¡ªnot unless he turned to look backwards down it, anyways.

    The perfect place for an ambush, especially since she¡¯d placed the {Blood Sticker} right at the beginning of the first intersection. If Sk¡¯lar had enough sense to search for either of her missing companions, he¡¯d have a bit of trouble when¡ª

    Sk¡¯lar skulked towards her, eyes attempting to pin her to the spot. Of course, given she couldn¡¯t really die here and had multiple escape routes, that wasn¡¯t going to work. Good to know where his mental state was at and¡ª

    The man¡¯s eyes snapped to the right as he stepped into the intersection, a cloud of smoke erupting around him as the {Blood Sticker}¡¯s array activated. None of the {Blood Stickers} were particularly damaging, more annoying. Funny to watch, too, all things considered. There¡¯d been a lot of beheading and disembowelling of Clarity members, and Emilia was happier with this more lighthearted battle, even if she was positive the man would be torturing her, should he manage to get his hands on her.

    That wouldn¡¯t be happening.

    ?You!? the man in question snarled, surging out of the smoke towards her, so irate that he didn¡¯t even bother to wonder why she was just standing there, waiting for him to reach her.

    Not that he would.

    Hyr slid out of the intersection behind him, their previously suppressed energy rising into a wave of power that filled the world with wind that whipped across Sk¡¯lar¡¯s back, sending him sprawling forward, knees and head slamming to the ground, just ahead of the angled intersection.

    Emilia turned and sprinted, as fast as she could manage, and turned a corner, another, getting as far away from the northerners as she could, an eruption of fire exploding behind her, Hyr¡¯s wind whipping Zyrex¡¯s flames into an inferno that they hadn¡¯t been sure they could contain well enough to protect her.

    They were safe, according to them¡ªthey¡¯d been training this technique in the real world for many years, and knew how to put up their own defensive walls¡ªand her map¡ªtwo light purple dots indicated their locations. Zyrex was moving, heading back to where his path met up with the hallway Hyr had come out of, while Hyr was still standing there, focusing on keeping the flames relatively contained¡ªthey didn¡¯t want to burn down the whole building.

    Eventually, they¡¯d snuff out the flames, once Sk¡¯lar was dead.

    Oddly, the Enclave member wasn¡¯t dead, despite the raging flames that welcomed Emilia when she finally circled around to meet the others.

    ?Why isn¡¯t he dead?? she asked, stepping in towards the relative safety of Zyrex, a thin barrier of shimmering blue-gold surrounding him.

    The hy let her in, pulled her close, his expression pinched, black eyes focused towards where Sk¡¯lar didn¡¯t so much as scream. ¡°Could his shadows have protected him?¡±

    ?Maybe?? It wasn¡¯t like she knew anything more about the guy than they did. He was a creep, something that was pretty obvious to anyone who met him.

    ¡°Should Hyr drop¡ª¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Hyr said, their voice dark and strained. ¡°Something is wrong. We should not release him.¡±

    Release him sounded so not good, but Emilia couldn¡¯t really argue: something was clearly keeping the man alive, but for the moment, it didn¡¯t seem like he could attack them back. Better to leave him contained, while they figured out what to do next¡ªhow to actually get rid of him.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 199: A Lack of Ideas; A Sudden Idea

    ?So¡­ ideas??

    No one spoke, no one offered any ideas about either what to do about Sk¡¯lar or why he hadn¡¯t died, although the latter was pretty obvious: either his defensive abilities were frankly terrifying, or he had a gift protecting him. Given what Emilia knew about defensive skills, she was willing to bet it was the latter.

    As much as her own core-based defensive skills were sketchy at best, that was more a result of having taught herself to utilize her core for such things and a general lack of practice than cores being unable to actually sustain such things. Ri in particular had been a monster, as she supposed had Conrad. Both had been able to push their energy outside of their cores and physical bodies with little effort, creating a bubble of safety for themselves and their allies, although it had sometimes been a struggle to fight alongside Ri, as his defences could also interfere with the skills and abilities of his allies.

    So, yeah, Sk¡¯lar¡¯s whole not currently being a roasted human thing might have been due to some insane core control, but then, why wasn¡¯t he moving? More likely, in Emilia¡¯s estimation, it was some gift¡ªor perhaps even a stolen blood weapon similar to her own {Blood Ball}¡ªthat was protecting him, with the consequence that he couldn¡¯t move.

    Unfortunately, that meant they¡ªor at least Hyr¡ªwere stuck holding the man prisoner, or they had to let the fire spread.

    [Emilia: how¡¯s evacuating the building i¡¯m in going?]

    Technically, she wasn¡¯t completely positive which building she was in, but when she had entered it she had had Hyr tell her how they would have described the building they were entering in relation to the collapsed one. Boundary and Rin had replied to her message containing said information that Phlostra was pretty sure she knew which building she was in. Hopefully, the woman had been correct.

    [Boundary: It is as complete as it is likely to get. We have been moving primarily through it since you entered it.]

    That seemed like quite the coincidence¡­

    [Rin: Neither Boundary nor I thought we should leave anyone inside your building, given you may have not one, but two weapons of mass destruction on you.]

    [Boundary: The first is more in her.]

    [Rin: True.]

    [Rin: That makes it even worse.]

    [Rin: Emilia is quite clumsy.]

    [Emilia: hey now!]

    [Emilia: i seem to remember you were the one who fell off that climbing wall a bunch of times inside the Library Labyrinth!]

    [Rin: I know you almost died on the first part.]

    [Emilia: for one, who told you that!?]

    [Emilia: for another, that wasn¡¯t due to clumsiness!]

    [Boundary: I don¡¯t think that makes it better.]

    No, it probably didn''t. Nearly falling because she could be a klutz was probably better than nearly falling because she had overestimated her abilities, if only a little. That climbing wall had been hard, okay!? And when she¡¯d gone through it the second time, inside the labyrinth she¡¯d hacked, she had shot through it!

    Still, as much as it hurt a bit that her so-called friends had turned to evacuating the building she and the northerners were travelling through because they were worried she would accidentally blow it up¡ªthey hadn¡¯t said as much, but they might as well have¡ªit was convenient.

    ?I say we let it burn and run,? she said, shooting off a few more messages to the others about what was happening. Phlostra informed them that the buildings did have fire protocols, but they likely wouldn¡¯t be enough to stop the fire Emilia described from eventually consuming the building.

    Part of it was that Zyrex hadn¡¯t used normal magic to create the flames: he¡¯d used a different sort of core ability, one that came from the real world. As such, while the buildings were normally protected from this world¡¯s magic, they rarely survived anything otherworldly. That would explain why The Quiet Boy¡¯s attacks had destroyed so much: just as his uncle¡¯s membrane of defensive power was based on some real world ability, his attack likely had been as well.

    ¡°I can keep it from chasing us for some time,¡± Hyr said, their voice strained as they continued keeping the flames at bay, ¡°but unless I completely obliterate the flames, the moment I move, they will begin to spread.¡±

    ?Yeah, well, according to my friends who were evacuating people, there isn¡¯t much left to try and evacuate in this place.?

    Boundary and Rin had been sending her updates as they travelled. They had succeeded in reaching several of the places Phlostra knew children had been tucked away. Rin, along with a few other Risen Guard investigators who had decided to risk their lives to help evacuate people, had sorted anyone who wanted to be taken out of the city system into categories of danger level, based on their heartcore corruption and connections to Ajarni.

    Since she¡¯d awoken from her dream, following taking in Tobias¡¯ {Blood Tattoo}, a few other people had joined their group, mostly Clarity members who weren¡¯t far enough along in their corruption to be too much of a danger, but who had enough skill with teleportation to remove kids and other, more innocent-leaning adults. The Risen Guard had at least relented and sent a number of members to temporarily commandeer landing pads in one of the bigger cities. While the landing pads were normally set up to work as in-pads and out-pads, that was only a safety precaution, so people didn¡¯t slot themselves into one another.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    As such, the Risen Guard were using the out-pads as in-pads for their evacuations, while Rin had been relegated the job of letting the coordinator know where the evacuators could land back wherever she and Boundary were currently working. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure who had come up with this idea or organized it, but it seemed to be working quite well, and the group of mishmashed people had been working themselves through the city levels relatively quickly.

    It probably helped that Phlostra knew which levels to avoid¡ªwhich levels were populated by too many Clarity members deep into their hive mind control, making them too difficult to try and evacuate.

    A number of Clarity members were also cooperating with the Risen Guard to lead them to various secret landing pads that the group used to move in and out of the Clarity City System¡ªones like those that Emilia¡¯s group had used during their assault on the Ingogia estate. From what Emilia could tell, so far, these searches had lead to very few captures¡ªand most of those had turned out to be people who had little affiliation with the Clarity war force, and had simply realized something was happening, and they needed to get out of the city system. It was as though Ajarni were uninterested in evacuating his hive mind army.

    Indeed, most of the people Boundary and the others were evacuating knew little to nothing about what was happening. That wasn¡¯t too surprising: the buildings were thick, and while earthquakes weren¡¯t super common, without windows to look out and see one of your sister buildings had collapsed, most people were liable to just continue on with life, trusting that if they needed to evacuate, someone would let them know. On top of that, while their various groups had infiltrated several populated city levels, they had done very little to draw attention to themselves within those levels.

    Sure, Livia had attacked her on the one, and Emilia had knocked Tobias out in another, but otherwise¡­ that was about it, and as far as she knew, and neither of those situations had affected the residents much. Honestly, Emilia wouldn¡¯t be surprised if fights with magic were a semiregular occurrence in this world. Stars knew that when Boundary and Conrad had fought, only a few people had even bothered looking out their windows. Granted, that was a normal city level¡ªas normal as the city levels could be, anyways, given all the city levels Emilia had seen seemed to have vastly different cultures¡ªbut Clarity definitely seemed the type to rule with an iron fist that would lead people to stay out of their business, if they could, and their business probably included a substantial amount of magic being thrown about.

    All that was to say, if Boundary¡¯s group believed they were mostly done with this building¡ªthat their burning it down by now-only-partial accident was something they could let happen¡ªEmilia had to believe him.

    People would die, of course. Innocent and guilty ones. Those who had no part in Clarity¡¯s wrongdoings, and those who were so entrenched in the hive mind that they would destroy the world if Ajarni asked. There was no way they could save them all, neither the guilty nor the innocent.

    As Hyr focused their energy, preparing to run while holding the flames away from their group¡ªZyrex would also be helping with that, but Hyr¡¯s wind was needed to keep the majority of the scorching flames back¡ªEmilia sent off a few more messages, letting Boundary and Rin know that they were going to stop controlling the flames and didn¡¯t know what would happen or how fast the fire would spread, as well as to ask if she should try to use her new {Blood Tattoo} once they were outside the building, assuming someone wasn¡¯t able to come evacuate them before they reached the bottom.

    Technically, she had no idea what the tattoo did, or if it would even work, broken as it seemed to be. Might be worth a shot, though. Either the flames would destabilize the building at this level and that ones around it, or it would continue to spread. Eventually, it would probably collapse on its own from the damage, but in the meantime, the residents might figure out what was happening and start teleporting away¡ªeither to another building or to the outside world. That would kinda defeat the purpose of destroying the building, as only the innocent were liable to end up dead.

    Actually, why weren¡¯t more of the Clarity members who were corrupted by the heartcores either coming for them or at least evacuating to other buildings? Enough members had come for them that it was clear they knew where they were, but according to Phlostra¡¯s numbers, the majority hadn¡¯t bothered trying to fight them.

    ?Our best guess is that they have been told to stay put by their leader,? Rin messaged when she asked, just as their little threesome had begun to move, the inferno behind them swelling and sparking now that Hyr¡¯s wind was focused solely on keeping them from burning to death. ?Many of the Clarity members we have found have not touched enough heartcores for the hive mind to have the ability to take them over at any given moment. It comes and goes, much like with the Risen Guard¡¯s alternative personality. They are still a danger, but they cannot be controlled at will by the hive mind.?

    ?Perhaps it¡¯s that Ajarni knows those who aren¡¯t completely affected by the hive mind won¡¯t be controllable? Nearly everyone I¡¯ve come across trusts Ajarni, but when they realize exactly what he¡¯s doing¡­ Well, the hive mind takes over and then their regular mind can¡¯t fight back. If the hive mind isn¡¯t entrenched enough in someone for that to happen¡­ even telling them to evacuate may cause them to develop doubts,? Emilia messaged back as she dragged Hyr along, taking corners wide so they wouldn¡¯t accidentally bump into the wall and could let their mind focus on keeping them from burning to death while she navigated.

    Well, not navigated. Zyrex was still leading their group, because as much as she¡¯d managed to follow her map well enough to get Sk¡¯lar where they needed him, that had pretty much burnt the bit of her brain that could map to a crisp. It would need some time to recover because as it was, she was thinking in circles and the fact that they had a fiery death to avoid wasn¡¯t exactly the sort of encouragement she wanted for doing a good job.

    ?That makes sense,? Rin responded, along with a message that they had evacuated their group to another building, and would be continuing to remove more people there, as well as ask around about Ajarni¡ªEmilia had already told her and Boundary about their run in with Sk¡¯lar, and how they thought Key might be on a level below them.

    So far, no one had heard from Ajarni in a while. Their group had sent a few Clarity members who were fully taken by the hive mind off to be interrogated, hoping to glean even a bit of information from them. So far, the Risen Guard had had no luck.

    It was a little unfortunate that Conrad was gone. As horrific as his methods of interrogation had been, at least he had been able to get things out of even the Clarity members he questioned. Better yet, while they weren¡¯t completely positive, both she and Conrad assumed his energy membrane had also disconnected them from the hive mind¡¯s information network. In other words, while Ajarni and the rest of the hive mind would be getting back information about whatever questions the Risen Guard interrogators were asking, that probably hadn¡¯t been the case when Conrad had questioned their now dead members¡ªassuming the Risen Guard didn¡¯t have someone with a similar gift, anyways.

    Actually, Ajarni might not even know she and Conrad had questioned his people and then killed them.

    Emilia supposed it was a bit like the Virtuosi System stations in the Data-Recovery Lab, except in reverse. Where the stations they used in class were protected from outside threats, due to their isolation, hive members who were removed from it were a liability, whatever they said an unknown to their colleagues.

    Of course, the Virtuosi Systems in the lab also struggled when they needed to be updated. It was a whole thing, having to choose between taking the time to update them individually, while they remained offaether, or risk connecting them to the aethernet to let them update automatically. Speed vs the risk of a virus.

    A virus.

    A virus.

    A¡ª

    Oh. That could actually be a good idea, assuming they could make it work.

    [Emilia: hey, boundary, is there anyone in the risen guard who knows the gifts and abilities of every member?]

    [Emilia: preferably someone who¡¯d be willing to talk to me directly, so i can tell them my idea on how to take out everyone connected to the hive mind at once?]

 Arc 5 | Chapter 200: Meetings

    ?Down, down, down~ We go down, down, down! Down to the depths and then further still! Down we go, into the hell below. Hot and red and burning bright, we go down into the¡ª?

    ¡°I swear on the bodies of my ancestors!¡± Zyrex shrieked. ¡°If you do not cease singing those insipid songs I am going to kill you, then, I¡¯m going to track down your real body and kill it too!¡±

    ?Someone¡¯s a little testy~? Emilia cooed, although she did cease the singing¡ªit had been a little difficult to keep the beat anyways, as the three of them ran down flight after flight of stairs, only pausing at each new level to check for the missing mystery group.

    So far, no luck. It was possible they¡¯d already reached the bottom level, and exited the building altogether. If that were the case, Emilia hoped they had moved a bit away from the building, given it was liable to collapse at any moment.

    Phlostra had sent a few of their group¡¯s members to check on the fire. It was spreading. Fast. Unfortunately, as the building¡¯s designs were an unknown, there was no saying how much of it would need to burn before it entirely collapsed. Boundary had offered to have someone come get them, but the chances of the other group still being inside the building¡­

    No. There was no way Emilia could leave them here to die, either when the building collapsed or the flames reached them.

    So far, Hyr had managed to keep their stairwell free of flames, but the further they moved from the source of the flames, the weaker their core became. Not only were they stretching its range far beyond the norm, but they were also draining themselves. Currently, Zyrex was carrying their friend on their back, and the syn was insisting they could continue on. At the very least, they could let the flames fill part of the stairwell above them, but doing so would all but guarantee that once their defences finally cracked, the flames wouldn¡¯t just start chasing them but flash cook them near instantaneously¡ªor worse, lock them inside the {Blood Ball} until the end of the raid.

    As it was, if Hyr¡¯s control snapped, the flames would seize the opportunity to chase them, but at a slower rate.

    At least, that¡¯s what would happen according to the northerners. They had been training their joint ability for a long time, so Emilia was inclined to trust them. One of the good things about having a Censor: it did all that sort of math and physics for her. The bad part thing about it: when it went offline, her brain wasn¡¯t used to trying to remember facts about how fire spread, which she had definitely learned at some point.

    The hy and syn might not be able to pull up facts about phenomena they didn¡¯t use on the regular¡ªEmilia had already asked, and both had confirmed that they only used temporary Censors occasionally¡ªbut they knew their shit when it came to the things they were familiar with.

    Still, Emilia couldn¡¯t help but think that Hyr letting go of their control entirely, and just letting the flames start chasing them now, might be for the best. Actually, that was a lie; the northerners getting out of there entirely was actually the best idea, in her opinion. Hence, she¡¯d been trying to annoy them via singing the same few bars of war tunes over and over again, in an attempt to force them into accepting Boundary¡¯s offer for someone to come get them.

    Let her be the one to burn to death while they continued searching for Ajarni. Maybe with the power of the {Blood Glass} and Hyr¡¯s ability to read the universe, they¡¯d be able to find him.

    Unfortunately, the little brats hadn¡¯t wanted to leave her. Even more unfortunately, Hyr had pulled out the stupid {Blood Glass} and proceeded to look through it. According to them, the thing said the only path was to stay by her side. The {Blood Glass} was therefore also a brat, in Emilia¡¯s estimation¡ªor was it the universe as a whole? The platform?

    Unknown. There were a lot of brats going on in this situation, however¡ªespecially considering that she herself was a brat. Unfortunately, the one brat that she actually wanted to see was nowhere to be found. Actually, maybe it was more than one brat. Gale and Astra and Caro had given off just as much brat energy as V at times, although his brat energy had definitely been the most palpable, permanent and intentional.

    Emilia missed it¡ªmissed the taste of him and the sound of his laugh, and when she¡¯d caught sight of those mystery dots, she¡¯d let herself hope it was him and the kids. A little glimmer of hope that was slowly eating her alive as they neared the bottom of the building, with still no sign of the mystery group.

    Maybe it hadn¡¯t been them¡ªafter all, what reason could Sk¡¯lar have had for chasing them, when he¡¯d barely met V?¡ªbut Emilia had hoped it was, and¡ª

    ¡°Oh!¡± Zyrex said, stopping in his tracks several steps ahead of Emilia, who had been pulling up the rear just in case someone¡ªmaybe Sk¡¯lar, maybe a Clarity member, maybe someone else entirely¡ªdecided to attack them.

    A few steps and Emilia saw it too: dots. The mystery dots.

    ¡°Should we¡ª¡± the hy started to ask.

    Emilia didn¡¯t even know if he ever finished his question, her body already moving, rushing through the halls, trying to reach the other group. Was it a little stupid, to be running towards another group that might be very well be just inclined to kill her, as Sk¡¯lar had been¡ªwas? Technically, the man was still alive, and probably even more murderous now that he¡¯d been surrounded by a raging inferno for a good thirty minutes. Whatever, fuck him.

    And fuck the other group, if they weren¡¯t who she hoped they would be, her heart pounding as she rounded several corners and finally just yelled, her real and aethervoice colliding into an echo that had the northerners trailing her cursing.

    The dots, which had been moving away from her, stopped. She screamed again, ignoring the way Zyrex complained about loud women and Hyr laughed, her mind passingly registering that the syn¡¯s laugh was lovely, tinkling and soft and filled with a happiness that, in their brief acquaintance, Emilia hadn¡¯t seen within them.

    Another moment passed, and the dots began to move again, instead rushing back the way they had just come¡ªback towards her.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    V reached her first, his long legs taking him ahead of the others, and then she was engulfed in a glorious, warm, sticky hug. ?Fuck~? he breathed out, squeezing her harder and lifting her off the ground, one hand coming to cup her her ass and hoist her up until she was hanging off him.

    Emilia was okay with that, her nose buried into the musky scent of his neck. Having been held prisoner by Clarity for days, the man didn¡¯t exactly smell good. She didn¡¯t care. He was here and okay; still himself, as far as she could tell.

    Pulling back, her hands dug into his hair. They blinked into each other¡¯s eyes, each assessing¡ªeach wondering if the other was okay, if their mind was still intact.

    ?You okay?? she asked, brushing her thumb over a smudge across the man¡¯s cheek. It didn¡¯t budge, and she contented herself to doing it again, again, waiting for him to answer.

    ?Yeah. I¡¯m okay, thanks to you.? V tilted into touch, the hand under her butt brushing over her thighs, which she belatedly realized she had clasped around his waist, even with the shy northerners watching.

    Indeed, when she looked back at the pair, they were both politely looking away, although Emilia did catch Hyr¡¯s eyes flick towards them, open curiosity written through them. Interesting.

    ?What about you? Are you okay, Emilia??

    Abruptly, Emilia realized that V¡ªor the man he had been to her before¡ªgenerally hadn¡¯t referred to her as Emilia. Most people used Em, her childhood friends Emmie. Olivier called her Emilia¡ªmuch to her ex¡¯s everlasting annoyance. Her parents called her Emilia when she was in a shit ton of trouble, or they were being sappy.

    That was it. Somehow¡­ hearing V¡ªthe person he was now¡ªcalling her Emilia felt right. Strange, how something as simple as a name could and couldn¡¯t belong on someone¡¯s tongue¡ªcertainly, the boy V had once been would never have been able to get away with calling her Emilia. So strange indeed, how time and people can change so profoundly.

    ?I¡¯m okay,? she assured her friend, a little part of her brain sighing that now that they had run into each other again, she¡¯d have no excuse for tracking him down early. As though seeking out the man because he might have been brainwashed by the heartcores would have been an overall good thing¡ªnot!

    ¡°The rest are coming,¡± Hyr helpfully pointed out, Emilia¡¯s brain entirely distracted from her map.

    ?How did you¡ª? V began to ask, seemingly only noticing her companions now that one had spoken. He peeked over her head, glaring at each in suspicion before saying, ?Northerners?? just as the kids rounded the corner, Key holding up the rear.

    Well, that would explain why Sk¡¯lar had been chasing them. Bonus: she hadn¡¯t technically been wrong about Key being part of the group! It was just a little unfortunate that she hadn¡¯t been paying enough attention to their count and colours to realize that Sk¡¯lar had popped up behind them at some point. Oops. Oh well. Better the man fight her than chase the kids.

    ?Kids!? Emilia squealed, wiggling out of V¡¯s grasp¡ªalthough not before earning a disgusted look from Gale¡ªand bolting towards them, the bits of her {Blood Armour} that covered her knees squelching against the floor as she slid into an embrace with Astra and Caro, Gale reluctantly kneeling to join them.

    Such a silly, surly teenager, even if she hugged Emilia tighter than either of the kids, her lashes wet against Emilia¡¯s neck as she tucked into it.

    ?I thought I told you to leave,? Emilia gently scolded Key as he came to stand near their cuddle puddle, his eyes flicking between their group and where V was introducing himself to Hyr and Zyrex, his Brylish even better than her own, although Emilia hadn¡¯t actually been aware the boy she¡¯d known had ever learned the language. ?What happened??

    ?Ah¡­? Key breathed out, awkwardly scratching the back of his head as V and the northerners appeared behind her.

    ¡°We need to go,¡± Hyr said, their voice tight in a way that set Emilia¡¯s teeth on edge. ¡°Can your friend come and evacuate us now?¡±

    Emilia shot off a message to Boundary. He messaged back almost immediately, telling her they would be several minutes, assuming they could wait that long. A quick conversation with Hyr revealed their control had broken during her bolt towards the now not-so-mysterious group. The flames would come for them eventually, but in the meantime, they had extended their protection to the level as a whole.

    ¡°I cannot guarantee what will happen if the fire begins to break through the ceiling,¡± they added as Emilia sent another message, telling Boundary they weren¡¯t currently in such dire straights that he needed to rescue them immediately.

    ?Where did the fire come from?? Key asked, gathering Astra into his arms as Emilia relegated people into groups based on Boundary¡¯s instructions, so he¡ªor someone else, it was currently a bit unclear who would be coming for them¡ªcould pop in and grab them without much fanfare.

    ?We were trying to take out your crazy ass bodyguard,? she commented mildly as she handed Caro over to V, placing a wet kiss on their forehead that sent them into giggles. They had obviously heavily bonded with V in the past few days, and easily snuggled into his arms, although their tired eyes kept shifting towards Hyr. Never Zyrex. Only Hyr. ?Did you know he can survive being bombarded with flames??

    ?Uh¡­ no? He can?? Key looked baffled, and when she suggested her theory that he had gotten his hands on a blood item, as they were one of the few things capable of protecting against otherworldly core abilities, he became contemplative, eyes glazing over like he was messaging someone¡ªmaybe someone in his family, asking if any blood items had gone missing from their stores recently.

    Leaving him to that¡ªand not forgetting that he hadn¡¯t explained what in the world had happened¡ªEmilia turned back to her organizing of bodies. ?You okay with one of my friends?? she asked Gale. ?Otherwise, we go together, and they have to go separately,? she explained, leaning in to stage whisper to the girl that they were just too freaking big to go together.

    ?Why did you not ask Caro and I?? Astra asked¡ªthe first thing she¡¯d said, other than a wetly muttered, ?Emilia¡­? during their hug. ?We are smaller than you or Gale. You can go with Key and V, while we go with the northerners.?

    Caro didn¡¯t seem to have any issue with this either, reaching automatically towards Hyr, as though they had just been waiting for an opportunity to get closer to them. Astra more respectfully took Zyrex¡¯s hand, politely greeting him in Brylish as well, although her words had the lilt of someone who had learned the traditional introductions by rout, rather than through knowledge of the language.

    In an adorable turn, Zyrex greeted Astra, and then Caro, after the northerners, through Astra¡¯s translations, had successfully taught them the basics of Nur¡¯tha introductions, as though they were the most important people in the entire world. Astra¡¯s eyes widened, clearly understanding that even within the raid, the respect the hy was showing her was not something to scoff at.

    Vaguely, as she pressed herself back into V¡ªGale had valiantly offered to go with Key because she didn¡¯t ?want to have to see those two making eyes at each other if they were separated?¡ªshe wondered if Astra would tell anyone that the hy Lwyn had greeted her with more respect than they would show most other hy.

    She was about to ask Astra about it¡ªmore to see if she could get a reaction from the child and the northerners than anything, especially since Astra had allowed herself to be hoisted into Zyrex¡¯s arms¡ªwhen a Risen Guard she didn¡¯t recognize popped up beside them, grabbing each of their little groups one by one. There was a moment, before she and V were grabbed, where she saw the horror dawning on Hyr¡¯s face, as they read the aethernet and saw that something was wrong.

    It was too late. Half of them were already gone, and then, the next thing she knew, they had been moved, and were instead standing somewhere they definitely hadn¡¯t expected to end up.

    Well. Fuck.

    Also, neither Hyr nor Caro were with them, the mystery Risen Guard never returning with them.

    Double fuck.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 201: More Monster than Man

    Hyr breathed, falling into the flow of the universe, the small child who had immediately called to them settling into their weight, easing their tiny body to the right as though falling alongside their larger form, letting the rivers of time and space move their combined shape with just as much ease as they moved any properly trained member of the synat.

    The person who had stolen away the others¡ªa Risen Guard, based on the descriptions Emilia had given them¡ªreappeared, already reaching for them.

    They were too slow, their touch intercepted by the flow.

    Hyr fell, energy coursing through their body and spiking through the fabric of the world, slicing straight through the person¡¯s neck, their head falling from their shoulders, hitting the floor with a wet smack, their body falling to their knees next, before collapsing to the side.

    The child in their arms gasped, but it was fine. They had already seen far worse than this, at least according to the rantings from Emilia¡ªthe woman certainly liked to talk a lot, her chatter having filled most of their travels in a soothing sort of way. Unfortunately, even within Nur¡¯tha, many feared the synat, especially those like themself. It had been nice, to come across someone so willing to freely converse with them.

    ?Cool!? the child¡ªCaro¡ªbreathed out, peeking out of Hyr¡¯s neck to gaze at¡­ not the body. No, the body was just a thing existing around the blood curse, now winding through the world and forming into a hair clip, similar to the one already adorning the child¡¯s hair. Fate then¡ªHyr clipped it into place, alongside the first. ?Oh! Thanks! Conrad gave me this one, after he stole it from the Risen Guard.? Their little face screwed up as they finally looked at the body laying at Hyr¡¯s feet. ?This person is a Risen Guard, aren¡¯t? Why did it feel like they weren¡¯t very trustworthy??

    Hyr breathed in the aether, letting it join momentarily with the aetherstores they rarely used, unless they were leading a seeing or using their temporary Censor. ?CoRuptED,? they managed to get out, the words mangled as they forced them to form in as close an approximation to the local speech as possible.

    Caro¡¯s eyes widened, seeing in a way that they shouldn¡¯t have been able to. Something had touched them¡ªaltered their connection to the aethernet¡ªin a way that was dangerous for them, without proper training. ?You can speak? Or, not really? Kinda??

    Nodding, Hyr tugged the {Blood Glass} out of their pocket. Killing the Risen Guard was potentially unhelpful, as the pair of them were now separated from the others, but at least this way, someone existed outside of whatever prison they had been taken to.

    As with the last time Hyr had looked through the {Blood Glass}, when Emilia had been trying to convince themself and Zyrex to leave searching to her, the blood item showed only one path to take. Handing the item over to Caro, Hyr contented themself to sending a message off with their Risen Guard system¡ªno new messages from Emilia or Zyrex, so they were likely unable to communicate¡ªwhich had helpfully contented them to this Boundary person, as well as the girl who was stuck between two fates.

    That wasn¡¯t to say Hyr were entirely ignoring the child still snuggled into their arms, now peering around and taking in the futures surrounding them. Despite the fire that would soon consume them, they didn¡¯t seem afraid, and when Boundary popped up in front of them, swearing about traitors, Caro simply smiled and let the hand holding the {Blood Glass} fall.

    The clarity to let the future fall away? A child¡¯s distractibility? An inkling that they should not look upon the aether so closely for too long?

    Boundary¡¯s hand landed on Hyr¡¯s other arm, and a blink later, they were standing among the people Emilia had assumed they were being taken to, when that other Risen Guard had first appeared.

    ?What happened?? the man asked, several of the members of his group turning their way, the crack of anger in his voice calling their attention.

    ¡°Someone came and took everyone. It did not feel right, so I killed the person. I believe you saw their body.¡±

    Hyr blinked and Emilia¡¯s Risen Guard friend vanished, reappearing with the body and head. They pulled the intricate mask off the head, nose scrunching as they were forced to grab hold of their spine to tug the head free. Hyr could not decide if it was better or worse for no longer containing any blood. Certainly, the lack of blood dripping from their neck meant less mess, but something about a body devoid of blood was off-putting, just as strange and unnatural as when they visited the Har¡¯ky, where the aether itself seemed devoid of its own lifeblood and power.

    ¡°Are they a fraud?¡± they asked, hugging Caro closer to them when a woman attempted to take the child. The child belonged with them, for the moment. Perhaps it would end in both of their deaths, perhaps not. Letting the child leave would certainly result in Caro¡¯s death, however. Caro stayed with them, and with a sharp glance at the woman¡ªthe one Hyr reserved for sy who were getting too uppity¡ªshe backed away, then ran off.

    Ridiculous. They weren¡¯t that scary.

    ?No,? Boundary spat out, tossing the head of the aged woman to the floor.

    ?Oh!? Caro cheered as the head rotated their way. ?I know her! She was my babysitter when I was with you guys. She wasn¡¯t very nice.?

    ?Do you recognize her?? another voice asked, a young girl who Hyr assumed was Rin, the former-Risen Guard who no longer knew what to think or where she belonged.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    That was how Emilia had described her friend, when she had told them about her own travels within the raid. Hyr agreed: the flow of energy around her was confused, even the universe itself seemingly undecided about where to put her while her mind remained so volatile.

    People, even those who grew up alongside the synat in Nur¡¯tha, often assumed that the future was set¡ªthat it knew every perfect move in the giant game of life. Hyr did not hold much of an opinion on it, but certainly, there were synat members who believed different things, the pyr often stepping into their debates in an attempt to force the loose organization to pick a side.

    There was no meaning to picking a side, as far as Hyr was concerned. Perhaps the universe knew all possible futures and chose to only reveal some of its divine knowledge to the eyes of the synat and others, perhaps it knew only the most likely future, perhaps it knew the exact future, choosing to allow the illusion of free will. Those were the most common beliefs of various synat members, some constantly arguing for one path or another, meaningless as it likely was.

    Without a way to dig into the universe and force more information out of it, what was the use of knowing whether it was playing with them or not? Mostly, it was just the cynics who believed there was a point to determining the true meaning of what they saw, the sharp edge of, ¡°If the future is set, we should just stop trying. What will come will come, regardless of what we do.¡±

    True, but what a sad world to live in. Hyr would much rather believe the universe was benevolent or at least watching them with amusement, giving them a false sense of free will in order to soothe their aches and worries, because the cynics were right: if the future were revealed to be a solid block of facts, it would take few generations for the world to fall to laziness and a lack of care for the world¡ªas the actions of the syna Vurn had shown, believing in the solidity of the future could easily turn into an excuse for truly terrible behaviour.

    Hyr¡¯s jaw clenched, just a little, as they listened to Emilia¡¯s friends discuss what to do, talking over them and Caro as though they did not even exist. That didn¡¯t bother them¡ªthis group had been working together for many hours, it was understandable that newcomers would be second thought. No, what angered them was Zyrex. Zyrex and his horrible teacher, who had refused to address the syna Vurn¡¯s actions in her teachings on tolerance, always wiping away the bloodshed on behalf of the syna Vurn and changing the topic with such fluid ease that Hyr¡ªand every other synat member¡ªwere convinced they were aether blessed. Perhaps not an outright ECC dyad, nor someone raised the way the synat raised its own members, but close enough that it sent a prickle of concern through each of them, especially as her words created more and more division among the tribes¡ªespecially when they all knew it was just a matter of them before her teaching shifted, pressing into the minds of her followers that they could not tolerate people who did not tolerate them.

    It took so little to shift the minds of the young into ones willing to do terrible things.

    A tug on their collar drew Hyr¡¯s attention back to the child in their arms. Their energy flowed so wildly, and everything Emilia had told them about her missing friends had implied this one was full of boundless energy. Yet, they were quiet in Hyr¡¯s arms, peeking through the {Blood Glass} occasionally, their little core vibrating with effort as they reached their energy out, dragging it over the scars of the aether.

    Hyr followed their gaze, glued onto a far off doorway, the {Blood Glass} appearing before their eye, showing them the future the universe had already gifted Caro with.

    Ignored as they were, it was easy to leave the group to their arguments and slip through the crowd, Hyr¡¯s energy naturally digging into the fabric of the universe, leaving pinprick scars as it was dragged around their bodies. It wasn¡¯t a true stealth ability¡ªonly syna were taught such things, and only when they had a natural affinity for hiding their presence, due to the danger of such techniques¡ªbut it was enough that if anyone looked their way, they would be met with a portion of the universe¡¯s do not look vibes.

    Some people could look. No one in this room could. The man waiting down a short hallway and just outside the building the group was hiding within, sorting through the residents of the city system, could look¡ªcould see.

    Carne looked their way, a different being inhabiting their body than when Hyr had briefly seen with them before. So, this was the creature of the heartcores, then?

    ?Carne¡­? Caro whispered, tucking themself further into Hyr¡¯s neck.

    Strange. The child and this¡­ thing were quite similar, each touched by the universe in a way that connected them more deeply to it than most. Yet, there was clearly a tension between them¡­or, at least, Caro felt a tension. When Carne¡¯s eyes slid to Caro, however, they widened¡ªsaw.

    Apparently, whatever had changed the child¡ªoffered them a connection to the aethernet that would become terrifying and mind destroying, unless it was brought under control¡ªwas new. Emilia had mentioned first meeting Carne a week or so previous¡ªalthough she had willingly admitted her sense of time was shot, due to too many naps and nightmares¡ªand in the presence of most of the Livery children. So, something had occurred in the time between.

    Hyr reached, just for a moment, to see the past. It wasn¡¯t their specialty, but within a world where the power of the universe had been amplified, looking for a moment of fate altering power in a single being¡¯s past, it took little for the universe to offer it to them.

    A moment, small and precise, and barely more than a few hours previous. Very new then¡ªso new that Hyr was surprised the child was standing, so to speak. No wonder they had reached for them so easily, when the small princess had suggested they go with the northerners rather than Emilia and the local teenager. Caro¡¯s exploding soul was seeking comfort, finding it within Hyr¡¯s own pinpoint core control and permanent connection to the aether.

    Carne¡¯s eyes continued to rove over Caro, gluttonous. A monster, wishing to consume a child for its own game.

    Wonderful. Just what they needed at the moment.

    Hyr¡¯s own energy rippled. Not a threat, but a definite message that the strange monster was not to touch Caro¡ªat least not while the child was within their protection.

    As for the after¡­ Hyr would send a message off to the group chat, once they were wherever this monster was meant to take them. Someone would need to protect this child, from themself and this creature alike.

    Unfortunately, Hyr knew how difficult protecting those touched by the aether could be, even in a perfect world¡ªone that hadn¡¯t been ripped apart by centuries of conflict.

    ?Shall we?? Carne asked, extending a hand to Hyr.

    The aether rippled, telling them to come. According to the universe, this was the path to take.

    Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t playing games with them, the system itself not tugging at their instinct to follow the universe¡¯s lead in order to drag them into a trap.

    Their hand met Carne¡¯s, a smile that didn¡¯t reach his eyes spreading over the man¡¯s face. Then the world exploded, falling away into a mist of blood and sinew, before their feet landed back on the ground, Hyr¡¯s heart squeezing as they realized the thing within this man was even more monstrous than people realized.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 202: From the Without

    ?So¡­ you¡¯re the little girl who has been causing all this trouble??

    Emilia gazed up at Ajarni, from where she had been tied up with some sort of suppression rope, both her sad attempts at magic and core locked away from her use. She had contemplated refusing to look at the man, but she¡¯d never been one for not looking evil or death straight in the face.

    Hopefully, as the man had pegged her as being the most troublesome of their group, he would be leaving the others alone, especially Gale and Key. She, V, Astra and Zyrex could die. No big deal. The two locals¡­

    Maybe three. Their kidnapper hadn¡¯t reappeared with Hyr or Caro, but that didn¡¯t mean the pair hadn¡¯t simply put up a fight and been brought in after she¡¯d been dragged away by Ajarni¡¯s men.

    Emilia¡­ could still hear V screaming for her, his physical and aethervoices overlapping in true terror.

    Personally, she was trying to not think about the source of that terror, either in regards to herself or the others¡ªtrying to not think about how easy it would be for Ajarni to take his revenge on them by forcing them through labyrinth after labyrinth until they returned home with destroyed minds.

    ¡°Am I?¡± she asked, her aethervoice disappeared along with all her other abilities. She smiled innocently up at the man, simultaneously trying to figure him out and piss him off enough to kill her¡ªnot that she would be happy to be ejected from this world, leaving Key and Gale in this man¡¯s hands. There were no good options, only mind control or friends she would never know the fate of, and hoping that the others were having better luck than her.

    ?Do not play dumb,? the Clarity leader said coldly, all of the shifting friendliness and manipulation she had witnessed the one other time they had met, during the meeting before the Ingogia mission, gone. ?I know you have been organizing people against me. Such an impressive little girl, to be able to bring the Risen Guard and Enclave together.?

    ¡°What can I say?¡± Emilia laughed, smiling brightly as she imagined splitting the man¡¯s head away from his body. ¡°I¡¯ve always been a people person. My unit during the war was filled with friends from all over the continent. What I managed to do with that unit¡­¡± she trailed off, shrugging before adding that that was even more impressive than it would have been, had she¡¯d managed to bring the Enclave, Risen Guard and Clarity together into one group. ¡°I suppose I did do that here, though, didn¡¯t I? Or did you not realize a bunch of your people said fuck you and joined us instead?¡±

    Ajarni¡¯s jaw tightened, almost imperceptibly. Actually, it was so slight that Emilia knew her level must better pushing non-dev territory now, for her to have seen it, V¡¯s information about how blackaether heroes believed that raids could push their D-levels below their real-world levels sliding back through her head. She had thought him insane, but while this definitely wasn¡¯t a blackaether raid¡ªalthough who knew what Hail or raid designers were doing with raids at this point¡ªshe certainly felt¡­ lower than she would have expected, even with Payton¡¯s ongoing efforts to unknot her.

    Well, probably not ongoing anymore. This close to the end of the raid, her classmate was likely done, just waiting for her to awaken sometime in the next few real-world minutes.

    So little time, one big bad dude to kill. A couple people to get the fuck out of there. Hopefully, Hyr and Caro were okay. The syn had been connected to their group message, but neither Boundary nor Villy had known whether her gifted system access would continue to exist if she were disconnected from Boundary. Given her entire message system had gone black, she wasn¡¯t hopeful about her connection to anyone remaining.

    Images of Caro burning to death seeped into her mind, searing themselves in her as Ajarni did¡­ something. Maybe he hadn¡¯t realized so many of his people were joining their little group? She¡¯d mostly heard about it from Boundary and Rin, but their group had definitely been pulling in a lot of Clarity members, intent to help them evacuate as many residents as they could before inevitably being detained by the Risen Guard.

    Emilia¡¯s eyes flicked to the Clarity member standing mutely in the corner, staring into the abyss¡­ Well, she had come to think of the thing inside these guys a bit like a computer program, hadn¡¯t she? During her times with her mission group and fighting the swarms that had come after her and the others, she¡¯d definitely gotten the sense they were more than a little mindless, intent to fulfill their mission and nothing else. Most likely, that was why they let their real personalities surface at times: the hive mind didn¡¯t have the capacity for more complicated thoughts and plans. The Clarity members she had fought, on her way through the city system, had felt janky¡ªincomplete, and while they were a pain to deal with, due to their numbers, none of them had been as powerful or skilled as they should have been, given the whole human weapons thing.

    They moved. Talked. Did what was needed to the best of their abilities. They didn¡¯t question their orders. Maybe, they couldn¡¯t do more than that? A simple mind that wouldn¡¯t have the sense to relate what was going on to their leader? Emilia supposed that was the downfall of a single mind controlling hundreds of people: there were no outside opinions, not unless they let their minds fall back into their normal state and let that mind know what was happening.

    Actually, it had been a while since she¡¯d seen any Clarity members not walking around under the control of the hive mind. The people Boundary and the others were working with weren¡¯t far enough along to be forcibly pulled into the hive mind, but those who could be? As far as she could tell, they¡¯d been firmly under the hive mind¡¯s control for a while.

    Probably, someone had realized information about the disaster at the Ingogia estate was circulating, and anyone who found out what Ajarni had allowed to happen wouldn¡¯t be too happy about it, the same way Phlostra and the other members of the rebel Clarity group weren¡¯t. The members who couldn¡¯t keep themselves from being pulled under, like Phlostra¡¯s group, wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it this very moment, but they would still remember, for whenever the hive mind let them go.

    ¡°Can I ask a question?¡±

    Ajarni¡¯s eyes took a moment to focus on her, far longer than she¡¯d seen nearly anyone within this world or without take, not unless they were new Censor users or on their way to a mental break. ?You may ask. I may not answer.? The man¡¯s eyes seemed to say, ?Especially since you¡¯re being a pain,? but he didn¡¯t actually vocalize it.

    ¡°Well, I was talking this whole situation over with Phlostra and the group who can fight the hive mind?¡±

    ?Is that what you refer to it as??

    ¡°Yeah? What do you refer to it as? Ah! Don¡¯t answer that if it¡¯ll count as my question. That isn¡¯t the question I wanted to ask.¡±

    The Clarity leader blinked back at her, and Emilia had the sense he wouldn¡¯t have told her what he referred to the hive mind as regardless. Strange for something like that to be a secret.

    ¡°So, anyways, we were all wondering why even send us on the mission to the Ingogia estate? Everyone at that table was willing to die to give a few of us visitors system access. It would have made more sense to ask them. They would have done it even without the hive mind¡¯s control. So why send a bunch of young people in to die? Did you not realize their relatives would be pissy about it?¡±

    Ajarni blinked back at her and fuck.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know. You aren¡¯t the one in control of this situation.¡±

    ?I¡ª? he started to say, before looking away. ?I am but a vessel for the without.?

    The without?

    ¡°Someone outside of this world is giving you orders?¡± Emilia asked, slightly dumbfounded, until the worries she had had when she first entered the raid came flooding back to her.

    Anything goes. She had worried about what that would mean, worried about how much the platform maintainer or raid designer would be interfering in this world. Nothing could be trusted. Anything could be a forced creation of the system, or an employee in disguise. When she made that first {Blood Dagger}, she had wondered: was the set-up of that building just a creation of the system, or had a thousand years of heroes woken in those rooms and been forced to search through them in search of¡ª

    In search of something to make a blood weapon, for a curse that had existed for only two visitations¡ªonly one or two hundred years.

    It was a small thing, to know those first moments within the system had been a set-up¡ªan introduction to this world, to see who could figure out what to do. Perhaps when there were more people, at the proper start of the raid, to see who would willingly draw blood with their hands or a fork swiped from their room.

    Still, it seemed important, to know that the platform maintainer had been forcing things into this world that didn¡¯t belong. She¡¯d already known that they were messing with labyrinths and challenges, but that had seemed more personal. That beginning¡­ this¡­

    Ajarni hadn¡¯t answered her question, but he looked unsure about something, eyes once more unfocused as he did something with the Clarity system.

    Distracted was good, especially when Emilia needed him not pay attention to her as she searched through what little still existed of her own system access, looking for anything that could help her escape¡ªor at least get out of these ropes so she could do something.

    Luckily, the system access¡¯ inventory control was still accessible¡ªmost of the system access was, actually, save her messaging system¡ªand even better, and when she requested one of the forks she¡¯d collected from that first building be dropped into the hands trapped behind her back, it did exactly that. Realistically, it was a worse item to use than Conrad¡¯s {Blood Dagger}, but something told her it wasn¡¯t meant to be used here¡ªthat if she brought it out, Ajarni or perhaps his guard would notice. That made sense, inside her head: blood items had magic inside them, and as much as she¡¯d really only even felt the power of the {Blood Hoop}, she had no training in such things. Worse, due to its magical nature, the {Blood Dagger} might not even work on the suppression ropes! Strangely sharp fork it was, then!

    Sawing away at her bindings as subtly as she could manage, she watched Ajarni have a crisis. He paced and muttered, swallowed and scratched at himself, eyes flicking wildly around the room, never landing on one thing for longer than a blink. Clearly, the man had realized something, but what? Her mind flashed through the conversations she¡¯d had about the altered personalities created by the heartcores. Carne¡¯s personality, the Clarity hive mind, the creature that took hold of Risen Guards. Until now, Emilia had assumed they were part of the raid. Some god of this world, or something like that. Maybe they were, maybe they weren¡¯t. Maybe Ajarni was being dragged around by a god, which while still a creation of the raid designer, wasn¡¯t quite as disturbing as being manipulated by a living, breathing person, pulling the strings of this world like the game it ostensibly was.

    It was off-putting, even to Emilia, who had already experienced the labyrinth host¡¯s cruelty and knew that some raids featured heavy interference by the platform owners and their employees, as they tried to control the flow of the world¡¯s story.

    For this man, though? Ajarni, who perhaps had assumed he was doing the bidding of some god, only to find out it actually might have been another human¡ªa platform maintainer or raid designer who fashioned themself a god, lording over the residents of a world they would erase from existence, the moment it was no longer of use to them?

    Yeah, that was pretty fucked up.

    ¡°Why did you decide to follow them? Did you think them a god?¡± It might have been a cruel thing to ask, but she needed to keep the man distracted, and he¡¯d definitely been starting to come back to himself¡ªhad that same gleam in his eyes that she¡¯d seen on other people, as they decided to just avoid the truth of the matter for their mental health.

    With someone like Zyrex¡ªinnocent baby that he was¡ªshe¡¯d let him slide back under his false hopes about Eruzia for a bit, although eventually, she¡¯d rip those lies away from him and help patch him up. Regardless of whether someone from the real world had been manipulating Ajarni or not, the man had still gone along with it. He didn¡¯t even have the excuse of a hive mind or other manipulation of his actual mind to defend himself with.

    He had just gone along with it. He had had the opportunity to fight back, much like Phlostra and the others had. He had chosen not to fight, and he didn¡¯t deserve her sympathy or kindness, especially not when the universe seemed to be telling her that if he slipped back under his falsehoods he would kill her and any of her friends that he got his hands on.

    ?They wished for the world to change,? he finally said. ?This terrible world, forsaken by the people who created it. Left to rot and wither, our lives destroyed by a curse that was designed to make this?¡ªhe motioned around them, to the world and universe itself¡ª?a living torture. Why would I and my father before me, my grandfather before him, not accept help from¡ª?

    ¡°From a god?¡±

    The man turned away, his shoulders pulling straighter as though he refused to accept that he had fucked up¡ªthat somewhere along the way, he should have stopped and thought about what he was doing.

    So, either an actual god of this world¡ªalthough Emilia was rather suspicious of that one¡ªor some employee of the platform owner had decided that something in this world needed to change. Emilia knew some raids did include gods in their worlds, she knew full well from listening to Sil rant about a particular raid he used to like how often those gods were actually just the avatars of platform maintainers, used to change the world in a more organic way than abrupt updates to the raid design.

    It didn¡¯t matter. Whether a real god or not, someone wanted to change this world¡ªset the world on the path to change for the next round of the raid, she assumed. Perhaps that made sense: they¡¯d seen how the world had changed between the blood curse coming into being, the last, failed visitation, and now. Maybe this world was on the verge of being deemed not worth using as a raid platform anymore?

    The fact that hardly any visitors could use magic¡ªnot unless they were from the Free Colonies, anyways¡ªnor could they escape the Risen Guard or figure out they needed to utilize blood to create items¡ªshe¡¯d asked Boundary about that, and he¡¯d confirmed the visitors they kept confined never figured out the whole blood curse thing. Those things added together to make a messy, not super enjoyable raid. Chances were, a number of the heroes within this raid would leave it and complain.

    Anything might go, but people still expected a good¡ªor at least interesting¡ªtime. For the people who were stuck as Risen Guard prisoners the whole time, unable to even kill themselves to spare themselves the annoyance of being a captive¡­ Yeah, they definitely wouldn¡¯t be happy, and the very nature of this raid meant the majority of people to join it would either be desperate or confident in their skills¡ªthe sort of confident that meant they were likely to have a record of success behind them. If they stepped out and said the raid was shit, that Ship o¡¯ Stars¡ªand whatever company was behind the raid¡ªhad given them a terrible experience, and to avoid their raids in the future...

    The first time, those words would be brushed off, but if people kept saying the same things? Had people come out of the last, failed visitation with criticisms? Probably. This second round of negative feedback? That could be enough to make people start staying clear of their raids, and that might be enough to force a platform maintainer to try to change the world themself, to try to¡ª

    ¡°Did they want you to destroy the Risen Guard?¡± she asked. That was all she could think of: that whoever was guiding Ajarni along wanted the Risen Guard gone. Unite Clarity and at least part of the Enclave¡ªprobably more than anyone realized, given attempts to gain their help with even containing the evacuees had been met with staunch refusals¡ªand then take out the group who was causing the most difficulties for visitors, the one group who wasn¡¯t actively supporting their mission, but instead stopping it before it could even start.

    Then, manipulate Ajarni and his group to create a better, more enjoyable raiding experience for the next visitation. Simple, until visitors start getting involved¡­ in which case, why do all this now? Why not change the world before this visitation? It wasn¡¯t like the platform maintainer couldn¡¯t speed up time and leave more time between the visitations¡­ It would be expensive, sure, to pay employees to fix the situation, but certainly that must have been better than yet another miserable visitation?

    Unless¡ª

    Ajarni¡¯s muscles tightened, just the slightest bit more, and even when he told her he would say no more about it, stomping off and leaving his guard to watch her, Emilia knew she was correct. The Risen Guard had been the target. The question, however, was whether Ajarni had known about the other goal of his god, the only thing that would have required this plan take place during a visitation: only a visitor¡ªa real one, for whatever reason¡ªcould remove the blood curse.

    Something¡ªperhaps a line of code or legal contract¡ªhad backed the platform into a corner, and this man¡ªthis visitation¡ªwas how they were trying to fix it.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 203: The Things We Know; The Questions We Have

    The man who had been left to guard her¡ªwhich, as far as Emilia could tell, the man in question thought involved simply staring into the universe itself and not even bothering to look her way when she made a sound¡­ or fidgeted in her attempts to gain freedom¡­ or bolted towards him, sharp fork in hand and intent to skewer him with it¡ªwas, understandably, terrible at his job. After a short struggle¡ªwhich in Emilia¡¯s opinion was rather half-hearted on his part¡ªhe was also very dead, another {Blood Marble} rolling into existence.

    The man¡¯s reactions had been strange¡ªeven stranger than this whole situation had already been, and as Emilia began making her way out of the room and down a series of winding halls, she contemplated everything she knew about this world and the situation as a whole.

    One: The last visitation had failed because none of the visitors had been able to gain system access, which the locals believed was required in order to gain a blessing¡ªor a curse.

    Two: Sometime around then, Clarity had been created by Ajarni¡¯s grandfather. His son, and then Ajarni, had continued on with his mission, supposed to create a place where people who had fallen out of the belief systems of the Risen Guard, Enclave and the world as a whole could unite. At some point¡ªpossibly as early as the group¡¯s founding itself¡ªa god, who may or may not be the platform maintainer or raid designer, started manipulating the family for their own means.

    Three: Whoever was behind those manipulations had told Ajarni¡¯s family it had hopes of destroying the Risen Guard and changing the world for the better. This was, more than likely, one of at least two parts of this being¡¯s plans, the other known part being that it also wanted the blood curse gone.

    Four: As far as Emilia and Conrad could tell, the system they had gained access to had no obvious way in which to gain a blessing which would hopefully nullify the blood curse. Either it was exceptionally well hidden, or that entire side quest had been pointless¡ªat least in regards to the whole get a blessing thing.

    Five: While there was no way to guarantee what the blessing would be, Emilia was almost positive it would be a release from the blood curse. In her mind, this world was terrible. As much as the locals had so far been able to live with it, eventually it could become untenable. People would lose hope, have fewer children¡ªhow could they not, when it was so bloody¡ªha¡ªdangerous? That wasn¡¯t even looking at the fact that there would be more weapons of mass destruction created during each visitation, which could destroy entire city levels, if not entire buildings¡ªweapons that could easily fall into the hands of people willing to use them for nefarious purposes.

    This entire world¡­ wasn¡¯t fun, and leaving weapons of mass destruction behind had ethical concerns that even people who weren¡¯t as vehement in their beliefs about AIs as Emilia would find questionable¡ªeven people who didn¡¯t really think of AIs as humans would be a little uncomfortable with both the cost of creating such power weapons and the lives they could claim if used.

    In Emilia¡¯s estimation, the decision to insert the blood curse into the raid had been a mistake on the part of the raid designers, as had a number of other smaller things in this world¡ªmost notably the magic system. While the platform maintainer and raid designer could force an update to the world and change those things¡ªrevert them back to the way they had once been or force an evolution¡ªthat didn¡¯t work with the paradigm of the world, and most heroes and designers were pretty big about following their world¡¯s established rules to the best of their abilities.

    Some worlds updated their rules and mechanics regularly. From what Emilia knew, the AIs within those worlds usually had religions and other belief systems that allowed for such things¡ªjust like human minds sought logical explanations for the behaviour of their worlds, so did AIs. Waking up to find their worlds had shifted overnight wasn¡¯t something unknown or scary to the people of those worlds, but it would be in others¡ªit would be in this one, where untold centuries had passed where change required a very public visitation.

    Even if the locals of this world wanted the blood curse gone, to find it gone for no particular reason? They might be aware they are creations of a game¡ªalthough Emilia had never had the heart to ask many of the locals just how aware they were of the apathy their creators and visitors had towards them¡ªbut to realize that the creators of their worlds had could reach in and change things at a whim? That a visitation wasn¡¯t required? To realize they had been left to suffer from the effects of the blood curse¡ªsomething that had been the creation of those cruel rulers in the first place¡ªfor no reason other than that some made up rule said a visitor should be the one to break the curse?

    Yeah, Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how well that would go over, but she was sure that if, in her world, someone revealed the war was the result of some overlord with a god complex playing with their lives, people would be pissed¡ªshe would be pissed. It wouldn¡¯t matter if their so-called god existed outside her world or within it; she¡¯ would do everything in her power to track them down and make them pay.

    Within a raid, that might not be possible¡ªEmilia had never heard of a raid AI being moved into the real world¡ªbut there were certainly other ways to make the people playing with your lives miserable. Off the top of her head, Emilia figured that grabbing all subsequent visitors and dropping them within the sphere of someone¡¯s time manipulation powers to force them to live out years of their life¡ªand how would that even work with the Virtuosi System¡¯s limits? actually, who had even approved that gift that Yuka had possessed existing here?¡ªwould be a place to start.

    Sure, it could end with the world being wiped out, but sometimes, being a petty bitch meant you had to make sacrifices.

    All that was to say that Emilia didn¡¯t think whoever was pulling the strings of this situation wanted to enact a paradigm shift. They didn¡¯t want to change the rules, so instead, they¡¯d organized this disaster of a situation to take place while there was a visitation going on.

    The question was, why like this? Was it just the whole wanting to be rid of the Risen Guard and the blood curse thing? Was one more important than the other? Was whoever was planning this just terrible at everything? Or was there something else to it, because the reality was, the system access Ajarni had tried to force people to get didn¡¯t seem to have anything of use in it, and the Risen Guard¡­ really wasn¡¯t being touched by this whole situation, nor would getting rid of them guarantee the next world leaders wouldn¡¯t grab up visitors just the same.

    So, was it just that whoever was behind all this had failed in their execution? Or had they missed something?This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Emilia poked her head around a corner, catching sight of her friends, tied up behind a long line of Clarity members. None of them spotted her¡ªthey seemed just as mindlessly out of it as her own guard had been¡ªand she pulled back, contemplating what to do.

    The suppression of most of her abilities was gone¡ªexcept her messaging system, annoyingly¡ªand she risked pulling Conrad¡¯s {Blood Dagger} out. It vibrated slightly in her hand, seemingly fine to use. Annoyingly, her {Blood Ring} had been swiped up by the guards when they¡¯d been captured. It had been her go to weapon for so long, and she felt a little naked without it. That said, fortunately they hadn¡¯t been able to remove her {Blood Armour}¡ª Well, it was more that they¡¯d been unwilling to strip her, even the hive mind balking when Ajarni suggested it. Wouldn¡¯t have done them any good to try, of course. Even under the power of the suppression rope, it had been practically glued to her, keeping her safe.

    They also hadn¡¯t been able to remove her {Blood Ball}, more because the moment anyone else tried to touch it, it exploded¡ªwho knew it wasn¡¯t into being touched by other people? One Clarity member had been turned into a bloody pile of human mulch for their trouble. No one had tried touching it after that. It was curious, however, and when Emilia surged forward, she pulled the defensive item into her hand and swung it at one of the guard¡¯s heads as she plunged Conrad¡¯s {Blood Dagger} into the heart of another.

    The {Blood Ball} exploded, and although Emilia would have no idea if the woman she¡¯d hit had been turned to mush until the pocket dimension contracted, it did have the bonus of bringing her friends in with her.

    ¡°Emilia!¡± V breathed out, already struggling to loosen himself from his own bindings in an attempt to get to her.

    Pulling her fork back out¡ªshe was still unwilling to risk some sort of blowback on one of her few remaining weapons by using Conrad¡¯s {Blood Dagger}¡ªshe sawed him free and shoved it into his hands. ?The others.?

    V looked like he would have preferred to fall into her, but relented and began cutting Astra free, while Emilia pulled another fork out to work Gale free.

    ?Is that a¡­ fork?? the teenager asked, eyeing up the strange utensil dubiously, which was probably fair. ?Why is it so sharp and pointy??

    ?This is how they are in our world¡­ mostly. This is sharper than ours are. Wouldn¡¯t be safe to stick this thing in your mouth, unless you were desperate¡­ and I don¡¯t know why you¡¯d be so desperate to eat that you¡¯d rather stick a veritable weapon into your mouth rather than use your hands to eat?? Emilia rambled as she pulled the ropes off the girl and pulled her into a hug, Astra pushing her way into their huddle as V turned to free Zyrex. ?I¡¯ve been carrying them around since I got here.?

    ¡°What? Why?¡± Zyrex asked, his thick brown arms wrapping around them as well, while V appeared at her back, an arm snaking around her middle.

    ?Cause they were the only sharp things in the starting building? Or, at least, they were in the building I started in. Not sure about the rest of you.? This really wasn''t the thing to be talking about at this juncture, however. Fortunately, Astra had enough sense to realize that and interrupted the conversation as she pulled away from Emilia¡¯s chest

    ?How long will this last?? she asked, gazing around at the pocket dimension that she¡¯d only seen twice before.

    ?No idea,? Emilia laughed, telling everyone if usually lasted until there was no more danger, although in the case of giving Zyrex and Hyr system access, it had waited until they were acclimated to the system, presumably because being released while they were still suffering would have put them in danger.

    ?You can give people system access?? V asked, rough lips rubbing over the skin of her neck.

    ?Kinda? It¡¯s actually access to the Risen Guard system, through Boundary. It¡¯s not completely functional, at the moment, though, so I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m disconnected from him and if it¡¯ll work or not.? Although, now that she had said that, hadn¡¯t they figured that the {Blood Ball}¡¯s pocket dimension was disconnected from the main world of the raid. Yet, she¡¯d been able to give the northerner¡¯s system access, so maybe it wasn¡¯t as cut and dry as Boundary and Villy had figured it would be? Or perhaps something about the blood magic aspect of it was messing with the rules?

    That, or this was just another instance of the raid¡¯s overlords interfering. If they needed someone to break the blood curse, they could easily be interfering and making things easier for her and the other remaining heroes, in what ways they could.

    Too bad they hadn¡¯t just given her a vision from the gods, intent to guide her way¡ª Well, they kinda had, with the {Blood Glass}, and yeah, okay, maybe they were the ones likely behind that as well, especially since all those dead bodies should have created a weapon from everything even Boundary knew. According to him, before the creation of the {Blood Glass}, no mass death had ever resulted in anything other than a mass destruction grade weapon being created. It had led her and the northerners to V and the kids and¡ª

    ?Where¡¯s Key?? she abruptly asked, feeling pretty fucking terrible for only just noticing he wasn¡¯t there. Absolutely awful. Shit tier friend.

    ¡°One of the guards took him away. He was intended as a bargaining chip, I believe,¡± Zyrex said, his eyes flickering around the emptiness around them, as uneasy as they had been the first time he¡¯d been within the pocket dimension. ¡°Can you give the others system access? This world does not seem to be dispersing. Perhaps it wants you to give it to them, before it vanishes?¡±

    Possible, especially if the raid overlords really were behind some of the strange things that were now happening. With so little time left in the raid, they could very well be turning desperate. That said, it was a little odd that they hadn¡¯t just inserted their own hero into the mix, even now, so late in the game. If they dropped another random player in, would anyone really realize they had interfered?

    ?It could be a locked game,? V mused after she had explained what she knew and was now assuming about what was happening within the game, after she had connected the trio to her system access. ?You entered a few days late, but sometimes raids like this lock down the closer they get to the end, for one reason or another. There could also be rules about employees entering the raid, due to the nature of the prize. It might be anything goes, but generally hosts don¡¯t want to look like they¡¯re fixing the results.? He grimaced, and briefly seemed like he was about to be sick while she rubbed both his and Gale¡¯s backs¡ªAstra had, rather unsurprisingly, barely blinked as her own system access settled in, and was now conversing quietly with Zyrex in a language she recognized as a common tongue, spoken in inter-Free Colony politics throughout large portions of the far west.

    Even better? Her head seemed to hurt less each time she gave someone access. Not so good? V kept talking to her, and she¡¯d once again only been able to work through a few levels in her delivery game!

    ?True¡­? Emilia breathed out, as the {Blood Ball} began to contract, leaving them standing within a pile of destroyed bodies, blood pooling on the floor as it waited for a visitor to gather it into a weapon.

    Gale took one look at the scene and tucked her head back between her legs to vomit.

    Yeah, that was probably the sensible thing to do.

    In the corner of her vision, the time ticked by, another minute moving by, a single minute having passed while they were inside the {Blood Ball} for at least a hour, talking and adjusting to the system. Emilia had also played her silly delivery game a bit, while they recovered, Astra snuggled into her lap while Gale and V suffered the transition, Zyrex intent to watch the emptiness with increasing unease. As far she knew, time hadn¡¯t skewed any of the previous times they¡¯d been within the {Blood Ball}, and at this point, Emilia wasn¡¯t surprised when the rules seemed to bend for them.

    Well, if the rules were going to bend for anyone, Emilia was glad it was for them.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 204: Itâ€™s Just Not That Easy

    Key wasn¡¯t on their floor, as far as their maps said. No light pink dot, lingering in a corner. No pink to be seen, being dragged along by a Clarity member. Nothing.

    ¡°Should we keep looking for him?¡± Zyrex asked after they had turned over a few of the closer rooms that held black dots¡ªdead bodies¡ªwithin them.

    Emilia nudged a body with her toe, annoyed. She was glad Key wasn¡¯t dead, but the lack of any sign of him¡ªnot to mention the few living Clarity members they came across being so buried within the hive mind that they couldn¡¯t answer any question about where Ajarni or Key had gone¡ªwasn¡¯t exactly conducive to finding him. ?No. He knew the risks of not leaving when he could and would be upset if we wasted what time we have left here looking for him.?

    It was difficult to admit, but it was the truth. Key wanted a better world, and if that world came at the expense of his life¡­ it would suck, but better him dead and the world changed than him alive, wondering if his life had been at the cost of everyone else¡¯s happiness.

    Still, even as they all settled into the reality of potentially leaving the local boy to die, none of them¡ªnot even Gale, who had gotten to know Key over the few hours they had spent travelling together, largely running from Sk¡¯lar¡ªcould resist occasionally poking their heads into a room filled with the dead.

    None of the bodies they found turned out to be Key, only Clarity members who seemed to have been fatally injured elsewhere, teleporting back to bedrooms in what they all assumed was the heart of Clarity¡¯s leadership, as much as a bunch of empty-headed vessels for the hive mind and pawns for Ajarni¡¯s god¡ªwho V agreed was probably a desperate platform maintainer or raid designer, trying to salvage the situation in this raid¡ªcould be considered leadership, anyways.

    ?This raid really hasn¡¯t been very enjoyable,? he noted as they discussed the outside interference, cutting down a few of the still living Clarity members who were lingering in the area. ?If I hadn¡¯t joined it because a friend asked a bunch of us to keep an eye out for the next raid set in their world, I would be pissed I¡¯d wasted so much time here¡ªand I actually got to do things!?

    ?You said that before,? Emilia noted, trying to think back to one of the early conversations she¡¯d had with V. He had admitted he knew already knew some details about the raid, from before the raid began, and heavily implied that he¡¯d determined which raid to join by hacking into the company that owned Ship o¡¯ Stars¡ªor perhaps even Hail itself. Given who she now knew the man to be¡­ Emilia hadn¡¯t actually realized the boy she¡¯d known had been paying much attention when she¡¯d given lectures on hacking. Either she really hadn¡¯t known that boy well¡ªperfectly possibly, unfortunately, given he¡¯d always been one of the more standoffish and awkward members of the unit¡ªor he¡¯d found himself a proper teacher since then.

    V huffed, and told Gale¡ªwho was sticking with them while Zyrex and Astra, who had struck up a fast friendship, searched through a nearby room, all of them looking for any sign of well¡­ anything¡ªthat he had a friend who had been part of the last visitation. ?She was never able to let go of what happened then, or the messed up world she left behind. It weighed on her, knowing that the ancestors of people she loved lived in such a fucked up world. She would have come back herself, had she been able to. These sorts of raids, though¡­ they run somewhat randomly. I only got the notification this one was running when it went live, about an hour before it started. Remy was¡ª?

    Emilia¡¯s thoughts lurched to a stop at the name, only a, ¡°?WHAT!??¡± escaping her, startling both V and Gale to a stop.

    ?Why are you yelling?? Gale asked with the calm of someone who had spent too much of the last few weeks in the company of people who were prone to scream randomly¡ªEmilia and Caro, namely.

    ?Remy? You said Remy? You know Remy??

    ?Yes?? V asked, eyeing her up in confusion. ?I thought that would be obvious? I know I¡¯m not really a famous raid hero¡ªfor what, I assume, are now obvious reasons¡ª? he added, because he totally knew that she knew who he actually was, and they¡¯d just come to a point where they were teasing each other about it, ?but most of the powerhouses know each other at least in passing¡­ why??

    Emilia leaned against him, groaning as Gale fake gagged behind them and wandered towards a bookcase, her fingers wandering over the thick spines of this world¡¯s books as she waited for them to figure their shit out. Unfortunately, Emilia wasn¡¯t really sure how to do that. The fact that Remy had a family here¡ªand who would have thought Zach¡¯s father was actually a girl?¡ªwasn¡¯t exactly Emilia¡¯s secret to share, nor was the fact that she had memories she was meant to get to her any of V¡¯s business. More than likely, he wouldn¡¯t do anything with that information, but it still seemed wrong to tell him, and instead, Emilia just asked that V try to put the two of them in touch, once they were back in the real world.

    ?Sure?? V said, his tone still holding a note of question through it, although he didn¡¯t push for her to tell him the why of it. A moment of silence passed between them before Gale prompted V to continue on with what he was saying before. ?Right¡­? he breathed out, casting Emilia another confused glance before telling them that Remy had been waiting for a few weeks for this raid to occur, and had been inside another raid when V got the notification the raid was running again. ?She couldn¡¯t get out¡ª Blackaether raids are like that a lot. Actually, most of the people she asked to keep an eye out for the notification were inside locked raids, so I ended up coming alone¡­?

    Emilia¡¯s eyes met V¡¯s and even though he didn¡¯t voice the thought, she heard it anyways, the unspoken sentiment that if he hadn¡¯t been raiding solo, they might not have met up. How different things would have been then. Emilia¡­ didn¡¯t even want to consider that¡ªdidn¡¯t want to consider that V probably wouldn¡¯t be a part of her life now, that when she got out of here they wouldn¡¯t be meeting up¡­ soon.

    They¡¯d still wait those three months, right? Like they had planned originally?

    Averting her eyes, Emilia let V take the lead, something concerned entering his eyes. Still, he said nothing, and she wondered if he had felt the same as her, during their time apart. She had been so worried about his mind, the question of how affected he was by the heartcores lingering at all times, and she had known that if the raid ended, and they hadn¡¯t seen each other again, she would have been bombarding his Censor with messages, hoping one got through, while calling in every favour she had with everyone she knew, trying to find him.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    There was no way she could have let months spread between them without knowing he was okay. Given the way he had clung to her, in those first moments of reunion, muttering about how much he had worried for her¡­ Yeah, he had probably been the same. His silence would have broken, and then he would have been standing at her dorm room door and¡­

    And what? Regardless of anything, she still had a boyfriend. As much as Emilia had come to accept the fact that things were over¡ªhad been for a while¡ªand knew it had never been serious in the first place¡­ Even if they were in an open relationship, she wasn¡¯t the type to break up with someone and then immediately jump into a relationship with someone else.

    Jump into someone else¡¯s bed? Sure. Lover of sex that she was, Emilia knew there was no way she¡¯d be able to be celibate for even a few weeks, after she broke up with Elijah. Fucking stars, even after her ex died, she¡¯d barely been able to keep her legs together to mourn the way so many people thought she should. Sex was fun and connection. It was warmth and affection, even with someone she barely knew. Some people might not consider it a great coping mechanism, but she¡¯d long since accepted that it was better than a lot of other things she could be doing instead, and it wasn¡¯t like she every felt anything but sated after sex. No guilt meant no problem, in her coping mechanism books!

    All that added up to¡­ Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure, not when she had no idea what even could be between her and V. Just because she liked him¡ªand he liked her back so fervently that Emilia was definitely starting to question whether the boy she knew during the war had liked her as well, and she¡¯d just never noticed¡ªthat didn¡¯t mean V wanted anything more than a little real-world sex with her, or that they could manage to make something more between them work.

    The unfortunate reality was that she still wasn¡¯t convinced they would work as anything more than friends who fucked. Nothing had changed since the last time they had seen each other: they still needed someone else to keep them in line¡ªto keep them from devolving into a pile of hands and mouths, both of them perfectly intent to leave the world to burn while they fucked and laughed and just enjoyed life.

    Actually, that was a lie. Things had changed. Now, rather than an energy of teasing existing between them, V was practically desperate to keep her within his sight, never straying more than a few feet from her. The problem was¡­ she didn¡¯t mind. If he wanted to cling to her, she¡¯d let him. If he wanted to push her down on the nearest surface and bury himself within her, she¡¯d let him.

    These thoughts really weren¡¯t conducive to the current situation¡ªnor Gale being in their group¡ªand Emilia was being forced to be the voice of reason, the one to hold back and shoot V glances that reflected a very firm not now, and she really, really, didn¡¯t like that. In the past, she¡¯d been the one seducing Rafe, dragging him into running through the forests near their homes and playing with consent with her. She¡¯d been the one to show up in front of Malcolm, offering him up things he would never seek out by himself. She¡¯d been the one tossing clothing at Olivier and shooting him shit eating grins as she touched herself for him and waited for him to pounce. Even with her ex and Elijah, she had usually been the one to initiate things, although perhaps part of why things between them had never felt quite right was that she had always been more subdued with them. Her ex¡­ wasn¡¯t the sort to enjoy someone else being in charge, even in a playful way, while Elijah didn¡¯t rise to the bait or snap: he played back, although the flavour wasn¡¯t quite the same as with V.

    The point was, she was a brat¡ªthe one who liked pushing and prodding until their partner broke and put her in her place with a mixture of affection and a firm hand, or at least left her melting under them. While she could be the one to control another brat like V, it wasn¡¯t what she wanted. There had been times, especially during the war, where she¡¯d been forced to control others¡ªmost notably Helix, although Ri had always been better at that¡ªand even outside of a sexual context, she had hated it.

    Emilia didn¡¯t want to come to hate being with V because she had to be the one always in charge of things, always keeping them grounded. That¡¯s what she would be, though.

    Hence, she had multiple problems, and as much as a part of her wanted to tug on V¡¯s sleeve and demand that the moment the raid was over he show himself to her¡ªlet her mind meld the boy he had once been with the man he was inside this raid and the one he was in real life¡ªshe knew she couldn''t.

    There were steps, and no matter how much she wished those steps weren¡¯t there, they were. Break up with Elijah. Give it a few months. Meet up with V. Figure out what they could be to each other, and then figure out what sort of person could exist between them¡ªwho could be a grounding force for both of them.

    A few faces slid through her mind, images from the past and¡ª

    ?He¡¯s making you sad.?

    Emilia tilted her head towards Gale, who had looped her arm through hers as their rejoined group trudged down a flight of stairs, searching for either anyone who could answer their questions or an area where their communication system would work again. ?It¡¯s not him.?

    ?No??

    ?No,? Emilia insisted, wondering how to explain it as she watched V and Zyrex descend, the hy carrying Astra in his arms, the little girl¡¯s fingers nimbly braiding his hair as she occasionally asked what a specific Brylish sentence meant. V glanced back at her at regular intervals, concern always written there, like he was worried he might look back and find her gone at any moment.

    ?It¡¯s not him,? she tried to explain, licking her lips and examining the map of the newest floor they came to. ?I just¡­ wish things were easier. That we fit together a bit easier.?

    Gale watched her for a long moment, before nodding slowly. ?Boundary and my brother were like that, I think. I met him once, before¡­ Well, they didn¡¯t exactly say they were¡­ together, but I think they were. Something about them, though¡­ about the way Ash talked about him¡­? The local girl looked away, down to the stairs as though she were worried she might suddenly trip. ?I don¡¯t know. It was a long time ago, but especially after meeting that guy again¡­ I don¡¯t think he and my brother would have lasted.?

    Emilia hummed in acknowledgement, before letting silence settle between them as they continued to the next floor and the next. The last thing she wanted was to create a relationship with V that would fall apart over time.

    The question of how to avoid that¡­

    Well, regardless of how much she wanted things to work out and wanted them to work out now, she knew she needed to wait¡ªneeded to give them each time to settle and figure out what they wanted and who the fuck could exist between them and make this thing work¡ªnot to mention not lose their mind being with the pair of them.

    ?Fuck~? Emilia moaned, leaning into Gale and almost taking them both down with her dramatics. She didn¡¯t, but only because V was there, steadying them as Gale fake gagged once more and Zyrex switched back to the inter-Free Colony language he and Astra alone spoke, as they continued on, searching for some way to leave this world even a tiny bit better than when they¡¯d arrived.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 205: Just Your Average Mental Breakdown

    Key¡­ had no idea what was happening. This entire situation was strange, and honestly, that was a lot coming from any Enclave member. As much as he¡¯d come to realize over these last few weeks that his grandmother¡ªas well as his sister and Sk¡¯lar¡ªhad been keeping far too much from him, he had still grown up hearing stories from older relatives about what had occurred during the last visitation. Many of those stories were secondhand, of course, passed on to children by parents who had taken part in the failed attempt to lift the blood curse, but he¡¯d still known about some of the crazy things that could occur when in the company of visitors. According to those stories, practically anything could happen during a visitation because visitors were fucking insane, probably the result of¡ªallegedly¡ªbeing unable to die from injuries sustained in their world.

    Ironically, Key wasn¡¯t in the company of visitors, and yet, this was the craziest thing he¡¯d seen yet. He¡¯d faced down a Risen Guard, been inside multiple labyrinths¡ªincluding one that he definitely wasn¡¯t allowed to be inside¡ªmade friends with several visitors and basically told his family he was done with them¡ªnot to mention somehow become friends with his sister¡¯s¡­ something. Technically, he had always been under the assumption that Harmony and Rin had something more going on between them, but now he wasn¡¯t so sure and that didn¡¯t even really matter!

    What mattered was that before meeting Emilia, he never would have thought he would go against his family. Now, he knew he would have eventually¡ªthat inevitably he would have learned some of the secrets of the Enclave and been unable to stomach their hypocrisy¡ªand that there was no going back for him. Either his family¡ªmaybe even the Enclave as a whole¡ªwould need to change, or he wouldn¡¯t be going back; and yet, somehow, this world altering thing wasn¡¯t even the strangest thing that had happened to him in the last few weeks!

    No, rather, the strangest thing was watching this man¡ªwho Key assumed was the Clarity leader Ajarni that everyone was looking for¡ªpace around the room while his bodyguards stared into space. While he paced, the man ranted, his words growing increasingly nonsensical with every moment, and Key wasn¡¯t even sure who the man was ranting to!

    Was Ajarni ranting to him?

    To his empty-eyed bodyguards?

    To some god?

    To the universe itself?

    To nothing?

    Key had no idea, but the man¡¯s demeanour was strange and off-putting and was that a glob of hair he just ripped out?

    The universe shuddered as Ajarni tossed the lump of hair and flesh to the ground, neither he nor the Clarity members standing throughout the room so much as glancing at the bloody mass as the blood curse swirled around it. It seemed to be trying to pull itself back to Ajarni¡¯s head, but whether it was too heavy or the man now too far away, his increasingly manic pacing taking him across the huge room, where he spun and muttered and pulled another piece of flesh from his head.

    Yeah, definitely the most disturbing, fucked up thing Key had witnessed in his life so far. This, he assumed, was why Risen Guards and Enclave members who touched too many heartcores were eventually killed: they became too unstable. Not that Key knew whether this man had touched any heartcores. Actually, given what he¡¯d heard during conversations between Phlostra¡¯s group of rebels and his friends, Ajarni may have never touched any. It was unclear¡ªgiven the man had originally been talking to Emilia, perhaps he¡¯d touched at least one?¡ªbut the man was definitely suffering some sort of mental break.

    The universe¡ªaether, as he¡¯d heard Emilia refer to it¡ªrippled again, but without a visitor around to force the blood into the form of a weapon or other item, it did nothing more. Not yet, anyways. The blood under the globs of flesh, spread increasingly around the room, sizzled against the floor. It would slowly burn a hole through it, reaching down to the ground itself, if left to its own devices. More blood spluttered out of the man¡¯s head and torn flesh, splattering over more of the walls and floor and the man himself.

    He didn¡¯t seem to notice. Ajarni lifted his hand and scratched at his mangled head, steam rising from his hand as his nails and fingertips slid through toxic blood. Still, he didn¡¯t notice, and none of his subordinates even spared him a glance.

    Key really, really wanted to get out of here, but he was tied up, his core locked away and gems ripped off him when he¡¯d been taken from the others to be used as a bargaining chip. He wasn¡¯t really sure what they¡¯d been trying to get out of his family, but his message to them had been pretty clear when he¡¯d disappeared: he wasn¡¯t coming back. As such, it hadn¡¯t surprised him when whatever Ajarni had asked for in exchange for his safe return was refused.

    Maybe if it had been something small, they would have agreed. Then again, given what Emilia had relayed to him about what was happening with Rin and the Risen Guard, during their brief moments together before they¡¯d been kidnapped, every Enclave family was currently refusing to get involved in this mess, which they had already known far more about than anyone on their side had initially realized.

    Most likely, even if his family had been willing to trade for him, they wouldn¡¯t have: they wouldn¡¯t risk the further ire of the Risen Guard. That was fine. Key had known what he was doing when he¡¯d disappeared. The fact that Rin had come with him was more than he¡¯d expected¡ªnot that she was an Enclave member. Not really, anyways.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    The Stringer family¡¯s refusal to even discuss terms of his release had been a breaking point for Ajarni, though. Since then, the man had been collapsing into himself, and while Key had been perfectly accepting that he would likely die in this place, he really didn¡¯t want to die at the hands of someone like this, especially since he wasn¡¯t a visitor!

    Seriously, if no one rescued him, he might very well be stuck here, being tortured by this man for months! No, thank you! He would just have to hope someone came along and¡ª

    The universe vibrated, each drop of blood shuddering, and Key had just enough time to spin himself and knee walk under a nearby table, shouldering it onto its side while everyone in the room ignored him. He braced himself against the underside of the table, waiting for the world to explode.

    Even with his core suppressed, he still felt it when the visitor entered the room. The aether roared, upset that it had been forced to wait so long for someone to come along and take control of the blood curse.

    ¡°Hrell!¡± someone yelled, while at least two voices, further away than the first, overlapped, yelling, ¡°hy!¡±

    The power of Ajarni¡¯s blood seemed more potent than any other blood Key had come across, mostly during his travels with V and the kids. He had come across their location after Sk¡¯lar had found him and killed the rebel Clarity member who had been accompanying him. That man had given up his life for Key¡ªfor the children they had only just found the location of. Then Sk¡¯lar¡¯s ice magic had bared down on their prison and Key had wondered if all their looking for the missing kids had accomplished was getting all of them¡ªsave he himself¡ªkilled by his crazed, former bodyguard.

    Key could still feel the crack of that ice, hardening over the lives of people he was trying to save, simply because Sk¡¯lar¡ªhis one-time friend, at least to some extent¡ªhad wanted to make a point.

    That point? That until Key fell in line, everything he did that was against the mandate of his grandmother would be stymied by Sk¡¯lar and anyone else his grandmother¡ªthe Stringer Matriarch¡ªsent after him.

    Cruel.

    Unforgivable.

    Sk¡¯lar killed every Clarity member who came upon them, Key trying to fight his terrifying bodyguard and break his concentration enough that he would release V and the children. He had begged, pleaded, reached out to his grandmother to ask her to stop Sk¡¯lar.

    She had refused, and what little hope Key had still held that he had misunderstood something behind the reasons for his family¡¯s actions had shattered. Then, Sk¡¯lar¡¯s ice had shattered, and there had been a small child, violence and hatred crashing out of her as the blood curse rose in call to her and her magic roared through the room.

    Maybe at that time, she could have killed Sk¡¯lar. V hadn¡¯t been willing to find out, not when the child in his arms was shuddering through a seizure and the teenager behind him was ripping a piece of V¡¯s shirt off and following the visitor¡¯s instructions to put it in the child¡¯s mouth, lest they bite off their tongue.

    So they¡¯d run, and for the most part, had a lead on Sk¡¯lar, especially once Caro came too, their voice warbling as they directed them to turn this way or that, even as everyone shot them worried looks. V and Astra had been brutal as they moved, slicing down any Clarity member they came across without pause, Gale turning away when things became too heavy and Caro staring into space, much like the Clarity members who were now being slaughtered by the mystery visitors were.

    At least the local child had snapped out of it at times, though. These people¡­ they moved, now that they were being attacked, but their heart really didn¡¯t seem in it. Even when Astra and V had been killing Clarity members, only a few hours previous, they had seemed more motivated. Now, the fight was gone from them, their bodies barely moving as they fought. They weren¡¯t just accepting of their death, but actively inviting it to them.

    Behind him, one of the women yelled in words Key didn¡¯t understand. Ajarni rambled something in return, not in the language the visitor had spoken, but some nonsensical rendition of their world¡¯s tongue, the words uneven and catching and Key felt bad for him. As much as this man¡ªas well as his grandmother and every other Enclave family, not to mention the corrupt overseers and Risen Guard¡ªhad messed up and done terrible things, it had been in their quest to make this world a better place. This man¡¯s attempts had failed, rather spectacularly, and he was being ripped apart¡ªliterally and figuratively¡ªby¡­ something. His grief? Regrets?

    Key didn¡¯t know, but it was heartbreaking. The man deserved to die, for all he had done and what more he would do, if he had the chance and wasn¡¯t falling apart with every second that ticked by, but that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t sad, didn¡¯t mean that when his rambles cut off and there was a wet thud¡ªperhaps the worst thing about gaining the ability to hear visitors was he had also gained the ability to hear the other sounds of the world, something that Rin had told him didn¡¯t always happen when Risen Guard trainees touched that first heartcore¡ªthat he didn¡¯t let his eyes fall closed, to mourn for the man Ajarni had likely once been: someone idealistic, who wanted their world to be better.

    Heavy steps approached him, followed by a young voice yelling to the others in that language of theirs. Opening his eyes again, Key gazed up at the young woman. At the very least, the fact that he was bound made it pretty obvious he was a hostage. Hopefully, these visitors would be closer to Emilia and V in their views about locals of their world¡ªand other worlds, other raids, from his understanding.

    A man who looked similar to the girl stepped up behind her, his expression much more serious than the girl¡¯s. His daughter? They looked about the right age to be father and daughter, but Key now knew that visitors could significantly alter their appearance and¡ª

    His mind went blank as the tallest, most terrifying person he had ever seen stepped into his vision¡ªand that was saying a lot, given how horrific Conrad¡¯s body had been. This woman, however, looked simultaneously more normal and more frightening for it, like unlike Conrad¡ªwho Emilia had explained to them had messed with his appearance to make himself appear less human¡ªthis might actually be her true form. Scarred, with her black eyes and firm features. Overall, Key supposed it wasn¡¯t so much that she looked terrifying, but that something about her¡­

    Something about her was dangerous, even more so than Conrad had been, somehow.

    ¡°What do we have here?¡± the woman asked, head cocking as those black eyes bored into him, her words thick with an accent. ¡°Who are you, little boy?¡±

 Arc 5 | Chapter 206: Dripping All the Way Down

    ¡°Oof!¡± Emilia blinked into Zyrex¡¯s exceptionally firm back. Almost immediately, V was there, fussing over her while Gale groaned and Astra reached down to pat her on the head. Given how tall Zyrex¡ªwho was still holding Astra and seemed perfectly inclined to continue carting her around¡ªwas, the girl¡¯s fingers barely brushed the top of Emilia¡¯s head.

    ?Are you okay, Emilia?? V asked, and Emilia was growing increasingly concerned about his mental state. He seemed to think she would break at any moment, and every stumble, bump, sneeze¡ªthey¡¯d walked through an extremely dusted room several floors ago¡ªhad him appearing beside her, fussing.

    It was cute, if slightly annoying, and completely unnecessary in most cases. Still, Emilia smiled when the man leaned down and placed a kiss to her nose when she told him it hurt. Gale groaned once more, long and drawn out, and pushed past them, asking Zyrex why¡¯d he¡¯d stopped before saying, ?Oh. That¡¯s¡­ not good¡­?

    ?What isn¡¯t?? Emilia asked, rising onto tip toes to look into the room over the local girl¡¯s shoulder, V¡¯s arm wrapping around her middle like he was either preparing to lift her¡ªand how silly would that look?¡ªor afraid she¡¯d somehow mess up something as simple as raising herself up a few inches.

    At first, Emilia didn¡¯t see anything strange about the room they¡¯d come to. It seemed like a mostly normal room. Grey. Sparsely decorated. An abnormal number of doors that led to other rooms¡ªseriously, it seemed like no one who lived in this place had any privacy, given all their bedrooms were interconnected.

    Unlike many of the other floors, this one didn¡¯t have any bodies, but perhaps that was because something had clearly happened on the floor above, which had been comprised of several huge rooms, each filled with dozens of bodies. Something had obviously happened above their heads, and perhaps all the occupants of this floor had gone up to help and¡­ die? If they had, it had probably happened before the Clarity hive mind became so¡­ despondent. They hadn¡¯t come across many living people as they travelled, and none of them had been up for, well, anything. Not answering questions. Not talking. Barely even fighting or defending themselves.

    The light had left them, and it was strange.

    ?Are those holes in the floor?? V asked, his chin resting softly on Emilia¡¯s shoulder.

    Her eyes slid to the floor, the normally flat grey surface seemingly burnt through by something in several spots. Whatever had damaged it, it was gone now.

    ¡°The ceiling, too,¡± Zyrex said, nodding upwards, and yup. Several matching holes, burnt through the ceiling and then straight through the floor.

    ?It¡¯s probably from the bodies above¡­? Gale told them, explaining that unless the blood curse was brought under control by a visitor or a system function, blood could burn straight through practically anything. ?It¡¯s probably still going, burning into the levels below us.?

    ?Why didn¡¯t that happen before?? Astra asked, pointing out that they¡¯d passed dozens of bodies since being kidnapped, and none of their blood had done anything like this. Some of it had stained the floor a terrible blackish red colour, but mostly it just sat there, waiting for a visitor to come along.

    Prefacing her explanation with the fact that she wasn¡¯t old enough to have learned all the specifics of it, Gale told them that certain system functions helped to control the spread of the blood curse. ?It isn¡¯t accessible to little kids¡ªthat¡¯s why they have to be more careful¡ªbut there are special functions for special circumstances. Usually, blood just tries to return to the body it belongs to. It might damage the world a little while it¡¯s outside them, but it''s mostly okay. The problem is when there¡¯s a lot of blood or a serious injury.?

    The teenager frowned at the ceiling, probably thinking what the rest of them were: that they should have poked their heads in, to see what had happened. Zyrex figured that going back was worth it, and together with Astra, returned to the stairwell as Gale continued explaining that the system functions were meant to be used in emergencies.

    ?They have a variety of functions¡ªself-healing and helping blood return are the most common, as well as just sort of¡­ disconnecting yourself from the blood? That actually removes the power from the blood, unless a visitor comes along, anyways. Only people who are in their right minds can do it, though, that¡¯s why women need help giving birth¡ªthey need someone else there, to help with the disconnection, as well as return blood in some cases. Otherwise¡­? She motioned to the room, in silent indication of what could happen if the blood curse wasn¡¯t brought under control. ?That¡¯s also assuming the blood curse is even going to be this bad. You might have noticed that it can change how dangerous it is.?

    ?So¡­ the people we came across before either had enough control of themselves to disconnect their blood, or someone did it for them? And the people who died above us didn¡¯t?? V asked, his fingers rubbing circles into Emilia¡¯s hip, and fucking stars had she missed this sort of closeness.

    It hadn¡¯t even been like this with Elijah, who would hold her hand, throw his arm around her shoulder, give her the occasional kiss, but definitely wasn¡¯t one for public displays. Her ex had been handsy, but looking back on it, his touches had always been something of an ownership¡ªa telling to the world that she belonged to him. Olivier had touched her this way, like V, when they¡¯d been alone¡ªduring their brief time together; before she entered the raid as well. Lingering and wanting¡ªlike he could never quite touch her enough. Then, before that¡­ before that, she¡¯d always been touchy with her friends, and she still wasn¡¯t convinced she was basically the only one, other than Helix, that Simeon had regularly touched until he got married, decades after she had cracked his shell and turned him into someone who would snuggle with her alone.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    In the background, Gale continued talking to V about this or that detail of the blood curse, the main thing Emilia retaining from it that¡ªmuch as she had already realized¡ªthe blood curse wasn¡¯t consistent. The worst that could happen was blood burning through city level after city level, a single drop unstoppable by anything¡ªeven the heads of people misfortunate enough to have it land on them¡ªuntil a Risen Guard trained in blood magic appeared to stop it. Usually, all that happened was the blood would burn a layer of whatever it landed on away before losing its power or returning to its human.

    Unfortunately, due to how dangerous the worst case was, their world was controlled by rules designed to avoid all lose of blood. That was understandable¡­ maybe. From what Gale said, even the Livery homeless kids, who weren¡¯t exactly known for being the safest or most responsible, had never come anywhere close to bleeding out a worst-case scenario. Rather, they usually just left a few more scars on the city walls and streets¡ªand occasionally the universe¡ªwith their haphazard playing and scrapped knees.

    ?Are you saying that¡­ the blood curse is overexaggerated?? V asked as the sound of Zyrex and Astra chatting began to echo towards them.

    Gale didn¡¯t outright agree, but Emilia had the feeling she wanted to¡ªthat she wanted to yell and say that yes, the rules for controlling the potential danger of the blood curse were way over the top, considering things rarely ever got that bad. She didn¡¯t say that, instead muttering something about how the potential for blood to destroy their world meant it had to be controlled with the utmost severity, which Emilia bet was taught to all the kids from the moment they popped out.

    ?What¡¯d you find?? Emilia asked, turning towards the returning visitors.

    ¡°A lot of bodies, and no blood. Looked like the blood that caused this¡±¡ªZyrex nodded back into the room¡ª¡°was from ah¡­¡±

    ?That guy, Ajarni,? Astra finished, giving Zyrex a blandly chastising look, and okay, maybe Emilia could understand a little bit why Conrad had gone along with the girl¡¯s demands that he find her while Astra and the others went to find V. Something about her, pint sized or not, was terrifying. Authoritative. Powerful.

    A faint blush spread over the hy¡¯s dark features, lighter and a different shade than the girl in his arms¡¯. ¡°Yes. Ajarni. His body was up there, or what was left of it.¡±

    ?Left of it?? Emilia asked, letting Gale tuck herself into her neck, as though that would block out the side of the conversation she could hear. Usually, someone would translate Zyrex¡¯s words for her, the only person in the group¡ªboth the currently assembled one and the extended, broken apart through the Clarity City System one¡ªwho couldn¡¯t hear visitors. In this case, no one bothered translating as Zyrex explained that not only had the Clarity leader been decapitated, but part of his scalp and face had been ripped away, his fingers burnt and melted.

    ¡°I would guess¡­ given what Gale said about how much damage blood can do, he was scratching at his bloody head and destroyed his fingers? I can¡¯t imagine how he ended up with so much of his skin and muscle ripped away, especially not while still living.¡±

    ?Could it have been whoever killed him? You said the blood was gone, so it was probably a visitor¡ªor at least another visitor came across the room after he was dead¡­? Emilia¡¯s eyes slid over the top of Gale¡¯s head, still tucked into her. ?The blood that caused that must have either been a lot, or the first to fall, and been gone by the time the visitors arrived.?

    ?We can¡¯t be sure, but it looked like it lined up with where the pieces of Ajarni¡¯s scalp ended up,? Astra noted, eyes tightening when Gale made a sound of distress. The visitor didn¡¯t apologize, but Emilia had a feeling she wanted to¡ªhad a feeling that Astra was holding something else inside her as well, something she wanted to tell Gale quite badly but wasn¡¯t quite sure how to.

    ?But if he¡¯s dead¡­? Emilia grimaced, thinking of the reality that he must have been alive when his scalp was ripped off. ?Maybe he was tortured by someone? Unless a visitor figured out how to delay the blood curse¡ªwhich we know is kinda possible, but definitely not easy¡ªthen they couldn¡¯t have been who did that to him. I could definitely see a visitor torturing a local, unfortunately, but this is just¡­ odd.?

    ¡°It is unlikely the scalping was his killer.¡±

    ?Why??

    Zyrex shifted his weight. ¡°I believe the hy Gru¡¯s group killed him and the other people in the room.¡±

    ?Oh¡­?

    ?Wait, Hetexia is here?? V asked, blinking between Emilia and Zyrex. ?Why didn¡¯t you tell me!??

    ?I thought Zyrex would have told you. I heard you introduce yourself semi-properly?¡ªV had used V rather than his real name in his formal introduction to Zyrex and Hyr, but his proper title, and well¡­ something that could pass for a proper final, if only under very loose rules, but definitely should have indicated to the pair of northerners that he was part of their unit¡ª?so I assumed it came up.?

    ¡°I thought Emilia would have mentioned it. It isn¡¯t my job to assume who you are and what you know.¡±

    Okay, maybe that was a little fair. Technically, V¡¯s introduction could have been taken as simply the introduction of a soldier and not a soldier directly related to their unit. Still, Hyr was all¡­ intuitive, thanks to their connection to the aether, and the northerners did appear to have more than a few brain cells between them! Emilia had thought one of them would have had the sense to at least mentioned they knew the hy Gru! Usually, the hy were much better at navigating these sorts of situations. Evidently, Emilia had put too much stalk in Zyrex¡¯s training in such matters!

    V made a put upon noise, but said nothing else. Mostly, he was probably annoyed that he might have run into Hetexia without even knowing she was there.

    Emilia glanced at the man, trying to overlay the boy he had been with this older, more than a little altered version of him. Since realizing who he was, she had been able to see more of the resemblance now¡ªalthough unless her former teammate had managed to grow to be less attractive, Emilia was sure the real version was significantly more attractive than V¡¯s avatar¡­ assuming he had bathed. Given what V had said about not particularly caring for his cleanliness¡­

    Yeah, Emilia really hoped he¡¯d bathe before they met in person. While she probably wouldn¡¯t mind forcibly showering him again¡ªand man, she had never even considered having thoughts like that about the innocent boy she used to know¡ªhaving him clean and put together for that first meeting was much more appealing and¡ª

    ?Stop. That.?

    Emilia blinked down at Gale, who was glaring up at her. ?Hm??

    ?Stop thinking about sex.?

    Behind her, V sputtered, and Emilia wondered which one of them Gale was talking to. It didn¡¯t matter much, not when they needed to get moving.

    ?We didn¡¯t pass Hetexia¡¯s team on our way down, so they must be further down. If we hurry, we might be able to catch them.? Hesitating, Emilia asked if Key had been among the dead on the floor above them. He had ostensibly been taken to see Ajarni, but that didn¡¯t mean they¡¯d been together long.

    ¡°No. He wasn¡¯t. The hy Gru may have taken him, if she found him.¡±

    ?Yeah¡­ maybe¡­? Emilia sighed, trying to imagine how the cute, innocent boy she knew would do being dragged along by someone like Hetexia.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 207: A Stupid Secret

    ?Shh~ it¡¯s a secret~?

    Hetexia stared down at Emilia, possibly contemplating whether she should bite off the finger Emilia had pressed to her friend and kinda-sorta former subordinate¡¯s mouth. If she had bitten the offending digit off, Emilia wouldn¡¯t have been too mad¡ªit was considered extremely bad form to touch a hy without explicit permission, and in the background, she could see the other northerners bristling, and between them¡ª

    ?Emilia!? Key cheered, pushing his way through the much taller visitors and all but tackling Emilia. ?You¡¯re okay.?

    ?So are you!? she cheered back, the two of them jumping in a circle of excitement¡ªthere is a chance this may have been encouraged by her, more than her friend who looked rather¡­ confused, to say the least. ?Why didn¡¯t you teleport away? Is that busted, too? My communication system has been down since we were brought here.?

    The aether surrounding Key shifted, preparing to let him speak, but Hetexia beat him to it.

    ¡°What is a secret?¡± she asked, tugging Emilia¡¯s attention back to her.

    ?Who he is.?

    ¡°Who this boy is? He already told us he¡¯s a fruwl¡¯tha ly.¡±

    ?No, not Key.?

    ¡°Then who?¡±

    ?One of the people in my group¡ªthey¡¯re that way?¡ªEmilia vaguely motioned in the direction she¡¯d come from, having bolted the moment she heard the northerners speaking. V probably wasn¡¯t far behind her, but he¡¯d been behind Zyrex in a narrow stairwell and stars above was the hy Lwyn wide.?If you recognize him, you can¡¯t say his name. It¡¯s a secret.?

    Hetexia gave Emilia a look that implied she thought her former commander was being particularly stupid, and Emilia¡¯s heart clenched. Once, it had been the syna Gru giving her, Hetexia and Helix such looks, Simeon standing by and ignoring them in that way of his that implied he was very disappointed in them. During the war, so far from home and still considered quite young in the eyes of her people, Hetexia had been free to mess around¡ªto have fun with her friends despite the war raging around them.

    To see that she had now grown into someone who could give her that sort of deprecating look¡­ it was sad, both because Emilia was realizing that after a decade of separation she might not know many of her former friends well anymore, but because she might very well be left feeling as though she needed to mourn the people they no longer were.

    ?V!? Key cheered, one of his arms releasing Emilia so V could join them.

    He didn¡¯t¡ªnot right away. Rather, his eyes skidded over the rest of the group¡ªthe northerners he didn¡¯t know and Hetexia. ?Hetexia,? he said, his voice warbling slightly.

    The hy Gru watched him, assessing. ¡°Ah,¡± she finally said, eyes flicking between the pair of them. ¡°You both are being stupid, then? Or, is this the end of your collective stupidity and hiding?¡±

    ?A bit of both?? Emilia offered, patting Key¡¯s arm when his fingers dug into her side, trying to communicate to him that Hetexia meant no offence.

    Shaking her head and muttering about how this¡ªmeeting up with people she used to know during raids¡ªwas both a blessing and a curse, Hetexia wandered over to V, patting him on the shoulder, before moving past him to where the rest of their group had appeared.

    Her comment, of course, resulted in a confused Key questioning her about her choice of words¡ªevidently locals didn¡¯t refer to anything as a blessing or a curse in this world, not unless the person were referring to the blood curse or a harbinger¡¯s blessing. Emilia went to answer him, but it was one of the other northerners¡ªGino jur Wren, she thought¡ªwho answered his questions, while Hetexia went to talk with Zyrex. That was probably better¡ªshe probably would have mangled her attempt to explain the northern belief.

    ?What happened?? Emilia asked the younger northerners¡ªthe girls, Myr wyn Bur, Hyr¡¯s younger sister, and Phino jur Wren, who looked similar enough to Gino for her to assume they must be related somehow.

    ?We came across the boy when we were travelling the building,? Phino said, although Emilia thought Key was probably older than her own age¡ªZyrex had said the girls were in their late teens.

    ¡°He was being held hostage. Tucked himself behind a table when we came in.¡±

    ?He was sooooo afraid of the hy Gru!?

    ¡°Oh yeah~ petrified!¡±

    ?Shaking in his booties!?

    ?I¡¯m not wearing boots?? Key said, popping up behind them after having been dismissed by Gino, who had been summoned over by Hetexia, presumably to discuss the missing Hyr.

    Phino rolled her eyes¡ªsomething Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she had ever seen a healer of the north do¡ªand told Key it was just a Baalphorian translation of a Brylish saying.

    ?Don¡¯t worry,? V said, leaning in to faux-whisper to the local boy. ?Baalphorians don¡¯t understand half of the idioms of the north, either.?

    ?Oi! And who are you to talk!? Phino gasped, hands planting on her wide hips as she glared down at V. The teenager wasn¡¯t much taller, but combined with her wide frame, she seemed to tower over V.

    He didn¡¯t look concerned, and instead politely introduced himself with the same mostly proper greeting he had given Hyr and Zyrex.

    The girls looked at each other, sharing a silent conversation that only people who had known each other most of their life could sustain, before introducing themselves to him.

    ¡°wyn Bur ur¡¯y vyll Rosalia.¡±

    ?jur Wren ur¡¯y vyll Rosalia.?

    V looked like he was fighting down his annoyance at the teenagers greeting him so rudely. Key looked confused, privately asking Emilia what they¡¯d said.

    ?It¡¯s basically a formal introduction,? she explained, focusing on trying to keep her thoughts between the two of them. Given no one looked their way, she presumed she succeeded. Maybe. That, or people were just politely¡ªor would it be rudely?¡ªignoring her failed attempt at privacy. ?In their language, there are a few ways of formally introducing yourself. For this sort, you put the most important name¡ªor, technically, it¡¯s more a title¡ªfirst. Normally, you put the eldest or most socially important person first.?

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ?They put their names first.?

    ?Yes, they did.?

    ?Are they older than V??

    ?Nope.?

    ?More important??

    Emilia didn¡¯t laugh, but it was a close call. ?No. Definitely not.?

    ?So¡­ they¡¯re being rude.?

    ?Oh yeah.?

    ?Teenagers,? Key muttered, shaking his head as though he were an old man, bemoaning the current generation.

    This time, Emilia did laugh, leaning into the friend she had missed and worried for and would soon never see again. ?You say that like you weren¡¯t a teenager yourself relatively recently.? She smirked, knowing full well that Key had given off some clear still a teenager in many ways vibes throughout their acquaintanceship. The boy¡¯s cheeks reddened, and he definitely knew that as well.

    ?So, what¡¯s the plan?? Emilia asked as the group gathered, Gino throwing questioning looks between the girls and a visibly annoyed V, while Gale tucked herself behind Emilia, as though she was afraid of the strange new visitors. Normally, Emilia would scold her for being so judgy¡ªmore than most of the visitors they¡¯d met, save Conrad, the northerners were by far the strangest¡ªbut she didn¡¯t want the local girl to pick up any bad habits from the northern teens. Keeping them from talking too much was clearly for the best.

    ?Weren¡¯t you in charge?? Hetexia asked darkly, earning a groan from Emilia.

    For one thing, she didn¡¯t want to be in charge. For another, the hy Gru was clearly pissed that she¡¯d lost Hyr, as though it were her fault that they¡¯d been kidnapped and he hadn¡¯t. So unfair.

    ?Fine, fine. Blame me. Whatever,? she sighed, asking Hetexia and Key this time what had happened¡ªclearly the northern teens couldn¡¯t be trusted to stay on topic or be nice.

    Several minutes later, their groups had exchanged stories about what had happened to them while apart. Most notably: Ajarni was dead, and the remaining Clarity members were acting weirder and weirder.

    ?It could be what I talked to that Risen Guard guy about, I guess?? Emilia mused, telling the assembled group about how she had contacted Boundary, and through him, had been put in contact with a Risen Guard who managed personnel. ?I wanted to see if there was a way to basically¡­ infect the hive mind? They¡¯re all connected, so I figured if we could affect one person¡¯s mind, or maybe implant something into them, it might spread.?

    V hummed, his hand tight and warm around hers¡ªhe¡¯d refused to let go since grabbing it, afraid she¡¯d run off again, which was probably fair. ?Like a virus??

    ?Exactly! He was going to call in a few people, to look into it and uh¡­ do some experiments on the Clarity members they¡¯d captured. It¡¯s possible they succeeded¡ªI mean, it¡¯s not like I¡¯d know one way or another, with my messaging system down.?

    ?It could also be that their leader is dead,? Key offered, adding that they¡¯d started to get weird before that, though. He shuddered, when he told them how they hadn¡¯t even flinched as the late Clarity leader peeled his skin away during his breakdown.

    ¡°Does it matter?¡± Zyrex asked. ¡°What you wanted to do¡ªkill that man and disassemble his army¡ªhas been accomplished, yes? Does the why matter?¡±

    No, it didn¡¯t really matter. Whether it was an outside force¡ªan actual god of this world, the platform maintainer or raid designer¡ªor something internal¡ªa general loss of hope as their numbers dwindled and their leader losing his mind, or some interference by the Risen Guard¡ªtheir mission was, at least to some extent, done.

    So, what now?

    ?We should keep going down,? Emilia finally said. There was nothing above them, as far as anyone had seen. Down was the only option. ?Hopefully, we get access to the communication system back, and can contact the others and let them know Ajarni is dead. With any luck, we¡¯ll be able to contact Hyr, and they¡¯ll be able to use the {Blood Glass} to figure out what next.?

    ¡°What next?¡± Zyrex asked over Myr, who was summarily shushed by Gino, who seemed to have realized the girls had been rude to them and was now in charge of making them behave respectfully¡­ which essentially amounted to keeping them quiet.

    ?Yeah, I mean¡­ we might have at least partially cleaned up this mess, but there¡¯s still the blood curse,? Emilia said as they began to move, V¡¯s hand still clasped in hers while Gale took the other. ?According to what I¡¯ve heard from, well, pretty much everyone, it was assumed that the visitor system access would hold the secret to breaking it¡ªor at least gaining a new blessing or curse for the world.?

    ?Yes,? Key agreed, telling them that people had tried practically everything during the last visitation to gain access. ?The Enclave keeps records of the blessings gained during each visitation. Usually, the method is tied to the system, and access to it is gained through something related to the last blessing or curse.?

    ?Like the whole making the universe bleed thing,? Gale said, having already heard the details of how Emilia and Conrad had gained their system access.

    ?Exactly. Due to how different the visitor system is compared to our version, however, there generally haven¡¯t been many details on how the blessing is gained through it. Sometimes they mention quests or missions, but other times it¡¯s things that our record keepers had a difficult time even trying to explain.? Key shot Emilia and V apologetic smiles, telling them that usually, Enclave families eventually let their harbingers read¡ªor listen to them read¡ªfrom the records, as they usually have a better time understanding them.

    Emilia¡¯s mind whirred as they moved, the northerners¡¯ long legs taking them down two or three steps at a time while the rest of them were left behind. Zyrex led the ground, Astra still being toted along, much to the amusement of Hetexia, who had switched the Brylish to tease the younger hy about having a crush, something Zyrex denied. V had helpfully yelled down at them that Astra was only fifteen or sixteen, but none of that stopped the hy Gru or the younger girls from teasing the hy Lwyn about how he¡¯d have to wait quite a while for things to be legal.

    Astra, as far as Emilia could tell, wasn¡¯t fluent in Brylish, and she made a note to discuss the situation with her later. While their age difference wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference in the long run¡ªalthough as the northern women had pointed out, nothing would be able to happen between them for many years¡ªshe didn¡¯t want the girl to feel pressured! Regardless of anything, Astra was her friend¡ªin a strange, almost parental way¡ªand if she needed someone to tell Zyrex to fuck off¡ªor that Astra just wanted to be his friend¡ªEmilia was perfectly willing to fill that role. Actually, she should probably just start by asking if Astra wanted Zyrex¡¯s contact information, for when they were back in the real world. Regardless of anything, the two had clearly become friends in their short time together.

    Unfortunately, Emilia had no idea if she¡¯d ever get that chance to ask such questions¡ªnot when Astra was the one who had her contact information, not the other way around.

    In an ideal world, Emilia might have been able to go up and tug Astra out of Zyrex¡¯s arms and talk to her about it¡ªfigure out what she wanted, if she liked the northerner¡¯s attention, wanted to meet him in real life, wanted to be left alone, wanted to meet him one day, in the far future when their ages would make less of a difference.

    In an ideal world, Emilia would have been able to press one last kiss to the girl¡¯s head and remind her that whenever she wanted, she was free to contact her¡ªanytime, for anything.

    This wasn¡¯t an ideal world, and when the attack came¡ªGino barely having time to erect a barrier behind him to protect Hetexia, Phino, Emilia, V, Key and Gale from the water bullets that skewered through the rest of them¡ªall Emilia felt was shocked, then revulsion as Gino, Zyrex, Astra and Myr¡¯s bodies imploded, leaving only puddles of blood in their wake.

    For a moment, none of them moved, unsure where the attack had come from or how to react to the death of almost half their group. At least for the northerners, they¡¯d see their friends again. For Emilia, it was perfectly possible that she¡¯d never see Astra again.

    She¡¯d known it was possible¡ªlikely, even.

    Still, Emilia hadn¡¯t been prepared for how much it would hurt.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 208: The Rules of a Game

    V¡¯s energy spiked around them, so reminiscent of Emilia¡¯s own defensive barrier and yet so different she was momentarily stunned¡­ not that she was doing so good on the not-stunned or doing something actually useful scales, after watching so many of her allies¡ªincluding one that she may never see again¡ªkilled.

    Luckily, V and Hetexia hadn¡¯t been so affected, and were each moving towards the stunned members of their remaining group, intent on throwing them over their shoulders and pushing them into motion. Unfortunately¡ªor perhaps fortunately¡ªthe moment Hetexia reached for a frozen Phino, she began to scream. The northerner¡¯s shrill cries startled Key and Emilia into movement, Gale already being thrown over V¡¯s shoulder.

    ?Go!? Emilia said, tugging her hand away from Gale and giving Key a push back up the stairs.

    Nearby, Hetexia was looking between up and down. ¡°Whoever it is is likely down there.¡±

    ?Yeah,? Emilia agreed, already racing down the stairs. Whoever had done that was a danger to them¡ªto Gale and Key most of all¡ªand needed to be¡ª

    V¡¯s defensive barrier wasn¡¯t quite the same as her own, which focused on powerful brevity. The other visitor¡¯s, on the other hand, was still vibrating away, much like Conrad¡¯s defensive membrane had. It wasn¡¯t quite the same, but similar enough, and when more water bullets crashed out of the aether towards them, they didn¡¯t make it into his sphere of protection.

    Not that Emilia needed V¡¯s protection.

    ?EMILIA!? he screamed as she raced away, yelling back at him to protect the others.

    Behind her, Hetexia said something similar, and then the hy¡¯s heavy footsteps were trailing after her, another volley of bullets attempting to reach them. This time, outside of V¡¯s barrier, Emilia¡¯s core shuddered and exploded, wiping the magic out of existence. Most likely, her {Blood Ball} would protect them, if her core failed, but that wasn¡¯t a given, and with every new assault, Emilia worried about how long her core could continue protecting them.

    They needed to get out of this stairwell¡ªget somewhere where they could avoid the person¡¯s attacks by other means. They needed to figure out where the person was¡ªwho they were.

    Emilia and Hetexia exploded out of the stairwell, Emilia cursing herself for not having given yet another set of allies access to the Risen Guard system immediately. Seriously!? What was wrong with her!? Her only consultation was the others had forgotten as well, which was actually a bit odd?

    Actually, it was more than a bit odd, and yet another moment where the actions of herself and others in this world were strange and inconsistent. A thousand dropped balls and missed moments and¡ª

    ?Fuck!? Emilia hissed, slowing her steps so she could sort through her system access and make another fucking copy of her {Blood Ball}.

    Seriously!? How had she forgotten about the items she¡¯d received from a few of those stupid missions, which had rewarded her the ability to create copies of a blood item!?

    ?Have you been having memory issues in here?? she asked as she handed a copy of her {Blood Ball} over to the northern woman. ?Too many moments where you realize too late that you didn¡¯t think things through all the way??

    ¡°Yes.¡± The answer was so fast that it must have been on Hetexia¡¯s mind as well. ¡°I have had many moments like that. You too, I assume?¡±

    ?Oh yeah~? she replied as they rounded a corner and came face-to-face with their attacker. ?Far too many.?

    ?And now, I might never see a child I¡¯ve grown to love again,? she didn¡¯t say, but it weighed on her, nonetheless¡ªAstra¡¯s name echoing in her head over and over and over again, the reminder of yet another fuck up that even the normal, knotted up version of herself should have realized was coming and yet hadn¡¯t.

    Their attacker smiled at them, the message that something was wrong with them loud and clear through the quiet room¡ªtheir real personality had never smiled like that. Then again, Emilia had never seen a Clarity member under the control of the hive mind smile either; not in cruelty nor amusement.

    ?Yuka,? Emilia said, tilting her head and examining her brief, forced teammate. ?Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d see you again. Then again, this really isn¡¯t you, is it??

    The thing inside Yuka¡¯s body smiled wider. ?How observant of you. I told Ajarni that he should have gotten rid of you, but I¡¯m afraid he stopped listening to our opinions equally a long time ago. Now he¡¯s dead. Serves him right. You cannot go against a god and not expect consequences.?

    Our, as in, perhaps the platform maintainer, raid designer¡ªwhoever the fuck had been interfering with the raid and guiding Ajarni¡¯s decisions from the real world¡ªhadn¡¯t been the only thing manipulating him.

    ?You¡¯re the hive mind??

    ?Too smart by half. How did you figure it out??

    Shrugging, analyzing the creature inside Yuka¡¯s body, Emilia told it she was just guessing. ?Want another guess?? she asked, unwilling to entertain the creature when it came to how she had known, mostly because she was beginning to suspect the platform maintainer or raid designer was inserting information¡ªor at least suspicions¡ªinside her. The creature didn¡¯t need to know that she was receiving outside help, nor did she want to think too hard about what exactly the ability to do something like that without her actively realizing it meant¡ªnot to mention wonder whether her lapses in judgment were the result of those outside forces as well, slowly forcing her towards this end, this anger and sadness welling inside her.

    The creature smiled, indulgent, and a shudder ruptured through Emilia.

    This thing was old. Old and powerful and pissed that they¡¯d somehow messed with its plan for¡­ something.

    ?Alright. Guess away. I¡¯m also so curious how your mortal minds work, and the outsider minds I consumed before weren¡¯t nearly as scrumptious as the brief bites I got of yours.? Dark red eyes snapped to Hetexia, considering. ?That one child with you tasted good. You¡­ you are strange.?

    The hy tensed, but said nothing to that¡ªnot that there was anything much to say to a creature who apparently ate the minds of people who let too much of it inside them.

    ?My guess,? Emilia said, before the thing said any more and Hetexia¡¯s control¡ªwhich had always been on the lesser side, but had hopefully increased over the last decade¡ªdid snap, ?is that you¡¯re the reason all the Clarity members have become so mindless. They had bits of you inside them, but you gathered them all back together into this body, and for whatever reason, they didn¡¯t return to their original personalities.?

    ?No guess as to what the reason is?? the thing asked, their tone reminding Emilia of a teacher, prompting one of their students to finish their answer and either impress the class or make a fool of themself.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Emilia had almost never made a fool of herself¡ªnot unless that had been her goal, anyways.

    ?Three possibilities. One: once your hive mind leaves them, that¡¯s it for them. Brain-dead. Walking zombies. Personality¡­ consumed, as you say. Two: Ajarni asked you not to allow their personalities to return, and despite how upset you sound with him, you agreed. Three: You¡¯re really pissed with Ajarni, and knew that while some of his followers would tell him to go fuck himself, once they learned what he had done, at least some wouldn¡¯t. By leaving them brainless, you effectively fucked him over.? Emilia paused, trying to assess the ancient being, given human form, for any sign she was right. Being right didn¡¯t matter, but she did actually want to know what the reason behind the sudden destruction of all those minds had been.

    The creature, however, gave no indication any of her suggestions were correct, and a fourth option filled Emilia¡¯s head¡ªnot that she¡¯d be offering this one up to the thing.

    Secret option number four: it had actually been the Risen Guard, messing around with their captive¡¯s brains, and whatever they did had accidentally brought the hive mind back together. It might have just been a funny coincidence of timing, this thing¡¯s sudden existence and the empty minded Clarity members completely unconnected, but some coincidences were just too much.

    If that were the case, however, then this complete hive mind hadn¡¯t meant to come into existence. That meant¡­ what did that even mean? That it was here by accident? That it was confused and searching for meaning? Was this the first time it had been complete? Or did it live in some world of gods, letting pieces of itself be ripped away and used for the hive mind as needed?

    ?Why¡¯d you kill our friends?? she asked, hoping to figure out at least some of its intentions while it was calm and not randomly attacking them.

    Its head tilted, inhuman¡ªtoo bendy, its eyes too wide, simultaneously empty and chaotic. ?Because you caused this. You, chosen by the gods from without to fix this world, pulling at the strings of Ajarni until he was no longer ours, only theirs.?

    ?And what was your goal? We already figured out that the other¡­ gods from without wanted to destroy the Risen Guard and end the blood curse. What about you??

    ¡°Emilia¡­¡± Hetexia hissed, their mouth only parting slightly as she quietly threw her voice. ¡°Do we really have time for this?¡±

    Emilia wasn¡¯t too confident in her ability to speak privately with people, but she tried, regardless. The worst that would happen was the thing inside Yuka would realize she knew it was using the Clarity member¡¯s power to skew time. In the grand scheme of things, it knowing that they knew what it was doing was pretty minor, but they were¡ªapparently¡ªfacing down a fucking god, and every bit of secrecy could be important.

    For instance, what reason could this thing have for freezing time while they talked? Well, the first idea that came to Emilia¡¯s mind was it wanted to torture them, slowly¡ªmake them suffer for being chosen by whatever real-world employee was trying to fix up this raid, so it wouldn¡¯t be shuttered. Definitely not ideal, but it did mean they had however long they wanted to chit-chat.

    The hy Gru didn¡¯t react when Emilia privately slotted this information into her mind, simply settled in to listen to Emilia and the god discuss the situation more and more, little tendrils of this world unwinding.

    This god was one of many, each with different agendas. There had long been a war between the gods, and they had long ago chosen to fight in this world rather than their own, intent to avoid the death of their own kind at the cost of countless human lives. So, they fought in this world, offering their influence to groups and individuals who struck their fancy, letting bits of their power and influence seep into the gifts they gave.

    There were rules, however, and every god was beholden to them. They could not touch mortals who were not theirs, nor could they claim a mortal as theirs alone.

    ?There must be moments where our control wanes, snaps, vanishes. If a mortal realigns their allegiances between the groups we have claimed, we must relinquish much of our control.? The creature smiled, whispering that they knew Emilia had learned more than most about the monsters and anomalies that could be created by such crossings.

    ?Why do I feel like you¡¯re leaving out the most important part?? Emilia asked, rather than be sidetracked, asking for details about how the gods decided when someone had switched teams. There were probably a million little rules to determine such things, and as much as they had all the time in the world¡ªalthough, who knew when the Virtuosi System would clue in to an internal time skew and eject them, so they didn¡¯t go over their time limits¡ªshe also didn¡¯t want to stand here chatting with a god for the rest of her time within the raid. Time might not be moving, but her body and mind still were, and she¡¯d barely slept in several days.

    ?Because I am,? the thing said, all amusement dropping away as it examined the room, its host¡¯s nails. ?I omitted the most important thing.?

    ?Which is?? Hetexia snapped, and Emilia was actually impressed the woman had lasted as long as she had before interrupting. Her former teammate had never been particularly interested in cultural matters¡ªnot her own, let alone something like this odd, cross-cultural exchange.

    The god levelled a look at Hetexia, annoyed and¡ª

    Hetexia¡¯s neck twisted, some unseen force snapping it. The hy fell to her knees, her huge body crashing gracelessly¡ªlifelessly¡ªto the ground.

    Emilia forced a flinch down. It was fine. The {Blood Ball} was clearly of no use against at least some of this thing¡¯s powers, but it was fine.

    She couldn¡¯t die.

    Some of her friends could, but that just meant she had to keep this thing distracted until they could¡ª

    Distracted until they could get away? The thing was skewing time, and while Emilia had no idea how far that skew reached, she was willing to bet that above them¡ªpossibly still climbing the stairs¡ªher friends were all but stuck, their muscles barely moving as time passed for her, but not for them.

    Well, that fucking sucked.

    ?So,? she asked, swallowing around her nerves and worry, a part of her knowing that the moment this thing was done with her, it would be going after her friends, ?what is the most important thing, or would you like me to guess??

    ?Can you guess?? it asked, those empty eyes turning back on her. ?Do you have enough information to guess? You¡¯ve been so good about it so far, but I do not think you have the facts to figure out this one.?

    Emilia was almost tempted to ask if she¡¯d get a prize, if she actually managed to guess correctly. Almost. There were many times when she could be fucking stupid, but she figured asking something like that of a god¡ªeven if a god inside this raid alone¡ªwas pushing her luck.

    Instead, she tossed what she knew around, thinking of the things the god had said¡ªhadn¡¯t said¡ªthe way people of this world treated the heartcores, worried about those overly affected by them, of the way this was a game, these gods a creation of the raid designer, for one reason or another.

    A thousand facts blurred inside Emilia¡¯s head as she thought¡ªas she tried to get inside the head of whoever had designed the game and what their intentions might have been, as she tried to imagine what sorts of fail safes they might have put into place.

    That was the thing, wasn¡¯t it? By creating gods who could only enter into this world in pieces¡ªwhether this thing in front of her, or its broken apart hive mind version; the god who could control the Risen Guard; the thing inside Carne¡ªthey had created beings that could very well be unkillable. Maybe with the right technique¡ªthe right trap¡ªa god could be rendered powerless in this world, but surely the Risen Guard, who hated the creature who had associated itself with their organization, must have tried to remove its influence from this world for generations.

    They couldn¡¯t get rid of it, and they needed the power of the heartcores¡ªcouldn¡¯t simply choose to no longer engage with it. Perhaps, that meant the platform maintainer and raid designers couldn¡¯t get rid of it either. Not unless they changed a paradigm¡ªand they clearly didn¡¯t want to do that¡ªor, perhaps¡­

    ?It¡¯s a one-time thing,? she guessed, heart pounding as she wondered if she was right, wrong¡ªif she¡¯d be killed for being one or the other. Clearly, the raid designer had messed up when they created the rules of this world, making it too difficult to alter if they needed¡ªor wanted¡ªto. There was nothing to say they hadn¡¯t messed up here, as well¡ªthat they hadn¡¯t created a world filled with gods who could never be forced back from the living world. There was nothing to say they hadn¡¯t fucked up either, though, and in most games, once you lost, you were out. ?Gods can only choose one person or group to support. Maybe ever, maybe every set period of time.? She hesitated, trying to read the depth of anger in those emotionless eyes that hadn¡¯t even flinched as they snapped someone¡¯s neck, before adding, ?That¡¯s why you¡¯re so upset with the gods from without¡ªand me by extension. They used Clarity, intending for it to be destroyed, and in the process, you lost your place in this world¡ªin your war.?

    The creature blinked at her, shifted their shoulders, neck¡ªsighed like every little thing had finally fallen into place. ?Smart little thing, aren¡¯t you.?

    The thing didn¡¯t snap her neck, but it did lurch for her, Emilia already sliding backwards, wondering how the fuck she was supposed to kill¡ªor at least banish¡ªa fucking god.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 209: How Things Went (Take Two)

    <blockquote>

    Gods do not die.

    Gods do not live.

    They manipulate and wait.

    They disappear, never to appear again.

    To disappear a god¡ª

    Do not expect such acts of divinity to come without a cost

    to come without a blessing.

    ~ anonymous graffiti in a long abandoned (and recently collapsed) building

    </blockquote>

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to V) ? ? ?

    I could feel the world refusing to move properly, like something had dug its nails into time itself and was dragging it slower and slower. My muscles barely moved, but my mind refused to stop spinning, churning, twisting with worries and contemplations that really didn¡¯t belong in a world so filled with death.

    Death.

    Death.

    So much death.

    Was Emilia dying now? Her body slowed to a standstill as someone ripped her heart out¡ªnot that it hadn¡¯t already been ripped out.

    I had felt it¡ªfucking stars had I felt it, the moment Astra had died. Some part of Emilia had shattered with the reality that she may never see her little friend again. We¡¯d talked about it briefly, during our last night together before the mission to the Ingogia estate, about how attached my friend, my decades long crush¡ªmy quickly growing love¡ªhad become to that little girl¡ªto all the kids, but especially that one.

    Of course, at the time, no one had bothered to tell me the kid wasn¡¯t a local!

    Really, I should be way more offended by that than I was, but then again, I wouldn¡¯t have told anyone either. Plus, I knew full well that if Clarity had known the child was actually a visitor, they would have sent her along on that ill-conceived, manipulative mission as well, regardless of her physical age. If her brain had been fucked up by the heartcores¡­ Emilia probably would have burned the entire fucking planet to the ground. What a thing to see. I quite liked the world these days¡ªmost days, anyways¡ªbut watching that woman scorch the planet?

    Fuck, it was a good thing my body was frozen, else my cock would have been hardening. Just thinking about that beautiful disaster¡¯s righteous, furious rage was enough to get me hot.

    Besides, if Astra had been on that mission, who would have rescued me!? Probably that Conrad dude, after Emilia made him, if the kids were to be believed about how oddly devoted to he was. They were probably to be believed.

    My heart ached as well, for the child who had rescued me simply because my brain being destroyed would have saddened Emilia¡ªthe kids I had spent several days confined with, the pair of us sharing stories about how much we loved Emilia, Gale and Caro offering up their own stories occasionally as well, more sadness edging their words than mine or Astra¡¯s.

    I would see Emilia again¡ªin a few months, if I had self-control, a few hours if I didn¡¯t.

    Astra could see her again¡ªI¡¯d given the girl both my own contact information and that of several Free Coloniers from our unit, in case she couldn¡¯t contact anyone in Baalphoria directly. Apparently, Emilia had given Astra her contact information as well, but the girl had admitted that contacting us through someone from the Free Colonies might be easier.

    Nothing had been said about whether Astra would actually contact either of us. That was probably for the best¡ªthe girl was a young teenager, and from what I¡¯d heard and seen, her home life wasn¡¯t great. The last thing she needed was to jump into some sort of pseudo-parental relationship with someone she barely knew, even if I knew Emilia¡ªknew how she had effectively adopted so many of her friends into being more sibling than friend¡­ not that she considered them family enough to think of sleeping with them as something gross or wrong.

    Or did it just add an edge of taboo to it that she and some of her found family enjoyed?

    It wasn¡¯t the first time I¡¯d had wondered about it¡ªespecially after hearing about that one incident with Malcolm and the clones¡ªbut unlike when I¡¯d been younger, I might just ask her about it now. Maybe. If the timing was right.

    Time, unfortunately, was still moving at a frozen pace from my perspective, and it was strange. Usually, when someone skewed time within a raid, the minds of those outside the skew didn¡¯t notice¡ªnot unless it was some sort of torture skill, anyways.

    This didn¡¯t seem to be meant to torture us¡ªas much as I really would have liked to put Gale and the leg that was in the midst of climbing to the next stair down, it wasn¡¯t torturing me or anything. Time wasn¡¯t adding up to be anything more than annoyance.

    Instead, it seemed like something was wrong¡ªsomething was interfering with the time skew, and when my body finally caught up to my mind, foot awkwardly slamming to the ground as Gale gasped and Key stumbled, pulling the still sobbing northern girl down with him, I was unsurprised to find several more people had joined our group.

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to Caro) ? ? ?

    ?Hello, sister.?

    I didn¡¯t quite glare at the thing inside Carne¡ªthere were a thousand things within and without telling me not to antagonize the thing who lived inside Gale¡¯s brother¡¯s body too much¡ªbut I still eyed him up, wondering why he bothered referring to Gale as sister when she¡¯d made it super, super clear that she wasn¡¯t his sister!

    For a god¡ªat least, I was pretty sure it was a god¡ªCarne didn¡¯t seem very bright, so maybe they just hadn¡¯t noticed Gale didn¡¯t like them? Although¡­ hadn¡¯t she told him as much when they¡¯d met before? Maybe he didn¡¯t remember? Sometimes there were times, back in Livery, where Carne would visit and be different¡ªsofter, quieter¡ªand he wouldn¡¯t remember things that had happened when he was like, well¡­ this version of Carne. It went the other way, too! This Carne sometimes couldn¡¯t remember things he¡¯d definitely done, either. It might have only been things from when he¡¯d been soft Carne? Like there was limited crossover between what one knew and the other?

    I really wished I¡¯d paid more attention back then.

    Kinda.

    Well¡­

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    Maybe not.

    I was paying attention now, but it was more because I couldn¡¯t stop paying attention. Everything burned and vibrated, and wasn¡¯t exactly bad, just tiring. Luckily, Hyr¡ªI think that was their name; we¡¯d only been introduced the once and while they could hear me, it wasn¡¯t like I could hear them back¡ªwas perfectly happy to let me nap in their arms! Plus! They¡¯d started wrapping their energy around me, wiggling their bright gold strands into me and making me squirm. It was a good squirm, sliding through the burn of energy and too much detail until I was relaxed again.

    Also! They kept stroking my hair. It was really nice! It reminded me a bit of my parents, when they had time for me, anyways. They¡­ didn¡¯t usually have time for me. That¡¯s how I ended up spending so much time on the streets, running around and causing problems elsewhere so they could work.

    It hadn¡¯t surprised me when they told the Risen Guard to keep me, even if it hurt, just a little bit. Not that I could let anyone know that! My parents always hate it when I¡¯m sad! They''ve always told me to be happy, not sad. Things will work out! Don¡¯t burden yourself or others with your sadness!

    I tried really hard to live that way, so they wouldn¡¯t worry, but now¡­

    I peeked through the {Blood Glass} again, taking in the world it showed me. Just like the last time, there was no world. There was no future.

    There was only blackness, and a small light, glowing a colour I had no name for, calling for me.

    ? ? ? How Things Went (According to Gale) ? ? ?

    I was going to kill the bastard.

    Out of all the things to say when we had the misfortune of meeting again for the second time in barely a week, he dared to call me sister again!?

    I kicked. Pulled at V¡¯s shirt, demanding he put me down. Unfortunately, while the visitor wasn¡¯t nearly as tall or muscular as Boundary, he wasn¡¯t any more likely to put me down than the Risen Guard had been.

    ?Calm down,? the asshole said, his grip tightening when I turned my insults on him, even though I knew it was stupid¡ªknew I was projecting my anger at Carne, my grief over Astra¡¯s death onto him.

    It wasn¡¯t fair.

    It wasn¡¯t fair.

    It wasn¡¯t fair.

    I wanted to sob¡ªto break down here on these stairs and wait for whatever had taken Astra to take me as well. That little girl¡­ she had lied, yes, but she had been my friend! Like a little sister I¡¯d never had, and yeah, we¡¯d known each other for only like two weeks, but we¡¯d barely been apart since meeting, only a few hours during those days we¡¯d spent inside the Risen Guard compound.

    Now, she was gone. Soon, Emilia and V would be gone. Maybe Emilia was already gone, dead under our feet. Maybe that why time had stopped being so weird¡ªshe was dead, and I¡¯d never see her again.

    ?Have you calmed down now, dear sister?? Carne asked when my yelling had stalled out under the weight of my grief.

    I wanted to bite back at him again, but what was the point? I¡¯d long accepted that Ash was gone, this thing having consumed my brother. There had been a bit of time there, when we¡¯d learned about the heartcores, where I¡¯d wondered if he was still inside Carne, held prisoner. Maybe he was, but it didn¡¯t matter. Even if Ash was inside him, what was I supposed to do about it?

    This thing didn¡¯t even care enough to respect my wish to not be called its sister. Any relationship I could possibly have with an Ash held prisoner inside them¡­ No, there was no point in even contemplating what sort of torturous world that would be.

    No more fight left in me, I titled my head, staring blankly at Carne, willing him to leave me alone. Caro was behind him, still tucked into the arms of the other northerner. At least Caro was still alive, even if being here seemed like a death sentence for all of us.

    They should have stayed away. Run off when they could. If anyone could make it, living on their own at such a young age, it was Caro.

    Carne¡¯s smile widened, and I knew he was going to say something else. He never got the chance, Key stepping between us and telling Carne to leave me alone, the entire group tensing.

    ? ? ? How Things Went (according to Key) ? ? ?

    So¡­ this was a stupid idea. Even the Enclave knew of this guy¡ªCarne. I might have never met him, but I knew of him, knew he was bad news. Considering all the secrets my family had kept from me, the fact that they¡¯d bothered to tell me about him meant he must be just as bad¡ªif not worse¡ªthan I¡¯d heard¡­ and I¡¯d just stepped in between him and his sister¡ªwho knew Gale was this scary guy¡¯s sister!?¡ªand told him off.

    Great. Just how I always wanted to die.

    Carne¡¯s eyes flicked to mine, Caro¡¯s attention shifting from Carne to me and then back into the strange blood item I¡¯d seen Emilia and her new ally using before we were kidnapped.

    ?You know he¡¯s not dead, right??

    I blinked, wondering if the man was speaking to me. If he was, he was annoying. ?Who??

    ?The corrupted member of your group. Mind ripped to shreds, pieced back together to create a monster. Your kind should kill before his influence gets to that point.?

    Everyone frowned, shifted uneasily.

    ?Sk¡¯lar?? I guessed, uneasiness swirling in my stomach, making me thankful that I hadn¡¯t eaten in over a day, even if that also meant I was quickly running low on energy.

    Carne didn¡¯t acknowledge me, only turned his eyes to V, telling the visitor that he shouldn¡¯t have left the corrupted one with a blood item. ?Nigh unkillable, now. The building will collapse soon¡ªconsumed by spreading fire. Yet, he will not die. A god, mortal and yet not, here on this plain, if he manages to escape, even more frightening than the one under our feet.? The man¡¯s head titled, something within him changing, for the barest of blinks, before shifting back. ?I cannot see his story. He may escape, he may burn for eternity. The entire future is¡­ blurry, now that the thing beneath us has been pulled into existence.?

    Behind him, Caro¡¯s eyes followed the path of Carne¡¯s, that blood item still held before his eye. ?If he does escape, he will not forget your family,? the child added, voice distant and possessed, like it had been so often during our time running from Sk¡¯lar together, before starting and holding the blood item up for the northerner¡ªwho had been having a quiet conversation with the rude northern teenager¡ªto stare through.

    They tensed before pushing their way through and hurrying down the stairs, only pausing to try and hand Caro off to me. The child refused to budge, their arms tightening around the quiet northerner¡¯s neck.

    ?I want to stay with you, no matter what,? the child said, something on the northerner¡¯s face cracking.

    ?It will make no difference,? Carne said. ?Their fate was all but set the moment they refused my company, all that matters is the how.?

    The northerner glanced back at the man, frowned, and then hurried forward.

    ?What should we¡ª? I started to ask, not knowing whether we should follow the pair or not¡ªwhether we should go and help Emilia or leave, like she wanted of us.

    ?We wait. For now.?

    Carne was a creep. Dangerous. Rude. Yet, his words were so sure¡ªhis connection to the universe so well known¡ªthat I could neither ignore them nor the rightness¡ªthe truth¡ªof them, just like I couldn¡¯t ignore the truth in his words about Sk¡¯lar, my once friend.

    Burning, dying, immortal because the blood weapon created by Astra¡¯s destruction of so many lives during their prison break had been left behind¡ªabandoned in favour of escaping from Sk¡¯lar. Sweet, powerful Astra, who I would never see again.

    Now¡­ now, what? He¡¯d come back for revenge? Because Emilia and the northerners had lit him on fire while fighting him? Because I had abandoned him and my family?

    A long period of painful silence followed, V growing increasingly annoyed with the northern teen, who, despite the other northerner¡¯s attempts to speak with her, continued staring deadly into the universe. Then, the building shook, and Carne began to move.

    ?Now, we go,? he said for so much surety it was intoxicating. The type of person who, if you let yourself get too close, would drag you into their atmosphere and never let you go. ?Except you,? he added, pointing to the northern teenager, who had sunk to the ground to sniffle, like she wouldn¡¯t be seeing her friends again once she left this world¡ªlike they were actually dead. ?You will be needed later. Do not leave.? The man didn¡¯t sneer at her, but he was clearly unimpressed with her dramatics. ?Watch her,? he said to Gale, before vanishing down the stairs.

    I was unimpressed with the girl as well, as I followed after the man to my potential real, irrevocable death, V trailing behind me while Gale remained, staring absently down at the northern teenager, anger and sadness clear in her eyes.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 210: Inevitable

    The end is inevitable¡ªthat is the coda much of the synat live by. A forever existing end that will come, no matter what. We see it¡ªthe yawning blackness, the grotesque red viscera of the universal stomach, the body we live our specks of life within.

    Eventually, the end will come, though we know not when.

    Well, perhaps that is a lie. The most powerful of the syvyl know¡ªthey have seen the fine threads of the end, dragged their minds down those interwoven existences and fates to find the final conclusion of this experiment of life. We know they know the end¡ªwhen that end will come for us. They cannot tell us, even if they wanted, their minds burned out by the seeing of too much.

    We humans are not meant to see that much, although sometimes it is inevitable¡ªsometimes, even the synat who reads the future of a child knows: no matter what we do, this child will grow into a syvyl. There is no stopping it, only moulding them into the best person they can be until that moment when they''re seeing strays too far¡ªtoo close to the source, the beginning, the end. Let them enjoy their life. Hope they take a different path. Know that no matter what, they will end up in that spot of destruction that was seen.

    It is inevitable. The drive to protect the ones they love, reaching too far, too fast. The unending curiosity that a thousand lectures about keeping themselves under control¡ªabout containing their minds so they will not suffer the fate of a burnt out soul¡ªcannot stop.

    It is inevitable¡ªjust as inevitable as the death of the child in my arms.

    For brief moments, in our few hours together, travelling alongside a monster of this world, I thought that perhaps things had changed¡ªthat Caro would live.

    In many ways, it is a relief to hear Carne tell me that will not happen¡ªthat their fate has long since been sealed. In many more ways, it is nothing but a terrible truth: sometimes, there is nothing we can do to escape fate. We can reach and tangle our minds and core into the threads of fate¡ªthe lines of the aethernet¡ªbut to no avail.

    Caro will die. Their fate is sealed. Regardless of how little time we have spent together, their feet never once touching the ground since they were handed over to me, their dirty little arms¡ªtoo little, they were clearly under fed¡ªreaching for me with a trust I felt through my entire being.

    They had stepped too close to the source, somewhere along the lines, their too small core flickering with a power and knowledge their body was struggling to contain. Not quite a syvyl, but edging close enough that it turned my stomach. Their eyes shifted, latching onto the aether¡¯s shifting currents, watching for futures they would never be afforded the opportunity to see with their own eyes. They saw easily through the {Blood Glass}, letting it fall at regular intervals to give their overwhelmed mind a break. It wasn¡¯t overwhelmed by the sights it saw, however. Rather, the child¡¯s mind burned because every aspect of their new reality¡ªtheir new seeing¡ªwas pulling at them.

    I remember that overwhelm, and while I¡¯d never guided a child this freshly touched through the transition, I couldn¡¯t help myself. I let my energy slip inside the child, easing the burn of the universe¡¯s knowledge, so it didn¡¯t burn them out, even if I already knew they were unlikely to survive this day.

    That hurt, more than I had expected it to, and my teachers would have chastised me for my stupidity, had I any intention of telling them what I¡¯d done¡ªhow I¡¯d let myself bond with a doomed child. It was a harsh truth of the north: those sentenced by the universe to death were a burden, and should be left to their fate.

    Perhaps we could break that fate. Most likely, we could not.

    Ironically, the fate of the war had been broken, and yet so many synat still refused to see that sometimes fate broke and was reforged¡ªalthough, perhaps that was simply because those who were old enough to know the shape of the universe before that woman had touched it now viewed it the way many looked upon a mangled body.

    Broken.

    Wrong.

    Something to be destroyed, killed, wiped out of existence.

    Yet, how does one wipe the universe itself¡ªscarred and imperfect and mutilated and beautiful¡ªfrom existence without also destroying oneself?

    According to the now imprisoned syna Chroy, we don¡¯t: we do not survive the revitalization of the universe. We reach out and touch it and drag it into us in a glorious implosion of blood and death that will reset the universe and begin life anew¡ªif that¡¯s what our universal benefactor desires, in any case.

    According to the syna Chroy, this life we now lead¡ªexisting from the moment vy Starrberg¡¯s desperation forced itself into the aether, hoping to either end the universe or save the planet¡ªshould not exist. We should not exist. We should be willing to die, in order to undo her sins.

    This is, understandably, why the man is now imprisoned in the Moonlit, left to the guardians of that frozen wasteland to control, along with his small band of followers.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I hesitate, for the barest moment, at the bottom of the stairs, letting grief consume me, for that single breath.

    Death approached, fast and brutal. Inevitable, and it hurt.

    The fact that I could do nothing to protect the child in my arms, hurt. I wanted to change their fate, but it was set, just as syna Chroy¡¯s fate had been set, according to the reading of their future in the earliest hours of their day of birth.

    This syna will change the world.

    This syna will be unstoppable¡ªstoppable.

    They will believe all that they believe¡ªno shift or doubt to be found.

    Unstoppable.

    The moment they stop, they will be gone, hidden away under the moonlight for the rest of their days.

    It is unstoppable. Complete. The end of their fate. Inevitable.

    I still wasn¡¯t convinced their beliefs had changed the world¡ªthe only thing their crazed attempt to destroy the universe had done was lead to the downfall of the Chroy, as their hy had given the syna too much influence, and the majority of the tribe had chosen to throw their lot in with them. There was no saying where fate would lead, however.

    Fate was such a strange creature, and the syna¡ªthe destruction of the Chroy, the effect they had on someone yet faceless¡ªmay still come to change the world. One never knows how fate will go, even when it lays itself out at our feet, a beckoning call of death, life, glory, infamy.

    ?It¡¯s okay,? Caro says, as though it is¡ªas though they cannot see their coming darkness just as well as I.

    They are so young, and yet so strong. I can see the scars across their mind and core¡ªlittle moments of fear and change, more than a few of which occurred during the last few weeks. A strained relationship with their parents¡ªvarious traumas inflicted by a questionable parenting style that is, in many ways, why we northerners are traditionally removed from our birth homes and placed into our professional homes within days of birth, raised by wet nurses and elders rather than parents who may not be equipped to raise children properly.

    It was a system that worked for thousands of years, until the war came for us. Some people changed by choice, after having seen our southern neighbours raising their children without external help, but it was largely a necessity. There is only so much anyone can do to retain a semblance of normalcy while a war rages. Leaving children in their birth homes was necessary, and yet, we can all see it now¡ªthe syna more than most.

    We can see the scars inflicted on children by adults who should never have been allowed to keep children.

    We can see the small things that will so profoundly affect a child and mould their personality for the worse.

    We can see the way leaving children in those homes will destroy their futures, and yet, in many cases, we have been left impotent.

    Too much change, in some cases. How are we to tell one set of parents they cannot keep the child they now want to keep, knowing they will not be good parents despite their good intentions? How are we to demand another set of parents keep their child, knowing that, despite their desire for the child to leave their house when is traditional, their child¡¯s fate will be most prosperous if they are left in their birth home?

    Things were so much easier when there were no options. All children had their future seen. All children left to join their professional home. Some found they did not agree with the interpretation of their fate and sought out another home. Many found love and created their own family, even if the children created from such unions were quickly sent away. Children knew who their siblings were, meeting up as they wished. Sometimes parents met their children, sometimes they did not. Children always knew of their parents regardless. Sometimes the children were fine with that, sometimes they weren¡¯t.

    The world went on, inevitable.

    ¡°Are you afraid?¡± I ask the child held so closely against my chest, their nose cold against my throat. They can¡¯t hear me, but they look up regardless, vibrations or the aether itself telling them I had spoken.

    They¡­ I cannot say they look afraid. Accepting. Sad. Ready to face what is to come¡ªto face their death and what will come after, unknown and secret.

    Is there an after in their place of numbers and data? I do not know. Perhaps it depends on the raid¡ªI imagine some have afterlives for the souls of their world, although I would presume those afterlives serve a purpose.

    I am not holding out hope on that point that Caro will move on and enjoy a long life of perpetual childhood.

    Emilia¡¯s questions about how similar the aether of this raid and the world without are, however, stick with me as I finally complete my breath and step towards her fight. We may not know if there is an afterlife in the real world, either, but perhaps, if this raid really is connected to the flesh and blood universe, then Caro will go there¡ªwill wait for our souls to follow, hundreds of years from now.

    Perhaps Emilia and I will find them there, along with all the lives who will quickly follow Caro from this world, sped up to accommodate the game.

    Stupid¡ªthis was stupid, and I want to yell at my sister for talking me into this.

    ¡°We should go on vacation, before your ascension. You deserve to have fun¡ªto enjoy life¡ªbeforehand. It won¡¯t be the same afterwards,¡± she had said as the teeth of the temporary Censor dug into the back of my neck, and she forced me to sit before the Virtuosi System Access Point. ¡°It¡¯s just a raid. Yes, we¡¯ll be in it for a while, but what¡¯s the worst that could happen?¡±

    I want to go back and tell her that the worst that could happen was I could end up with a child I cared for in my arms, every nerve in my body screaming at me to protect them¡ªto keep them safe just as vehemently as I would any synat¡ªand yet, I will know I cannot.

    ¡°The worst that could happen,¡± I would tell her, refusing to let her force my neck back, so my consciousness could be pulled away, ¡°is I could be forced to walk a child to their death, knowing there is nothing I can do for them, even though I will wish I can. The worst that could happen, is I will let my heart collapse around a child who is not of this world¡ªwho can never be¡ªand when they die in my arms, I will break, a piece of me cracking off to follow them into death.¡±

    A part of me knows, however, that even had I known how this raid would go, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to refuse to come.

    Most likely, Caro would die, regardless of my presence in this world. All I would be doing, were I to rewind time and undo my decision to allow myself to be bullied into this world, would be to deprive this child of my affection in their final moments.

    All I would have done was deny myself the ache of my heart, beautiful and terrible, for the affection this small child had so quickly pulled out of me.

    It was sad and terrible, but it was life, and I would not have erased this love from my heart, painful as it was, even if I could rewind time.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 211: No Matter the God

    How was it that no matter what world a god came from, they were always jerks? Arrogant jerks.

    Emilia wouldn¡¯t say she was the most familiar with gods, but she had seen them in various media and heard her more raid-inclined friends rant about the gods of various raids from time to time¡ªwhile a few Free Colonies had religions that worshipped gods, they were pretty private about all that around Baalphorians, due to Baalphorians being, well, assholes. Still, as far as she knew, god, without fail, were always jerks, something about having so much power inevitably giving them, well, a god complex.

    This god was no different: where a regular person would have just killed her¡ªand stars knew this god had more than enough power to wipe her out of this world¡¯s existence, just as they had Hetexia¡ªthis god was perfectly happy chasing her around, trying to torture her.

    Awesome. Great. Emilia was losing a lot of blood, though, thanks to several swiping blows of pure aether and a nice crash into¡ªand then through¡ªa wall. Unfortunately, the system seemed to have forsaken her, and neither was the blood returning to her nor was it forming into a blood weapon. Not so great. Not so awesome.

    So, she needed a plan. Preferably, a plan that didn¡¯t involve her running around this place for the next¡­ several years. Seriously, the god¡¯s time skew ability¡ªalthough Emilia supposed it was actually Yuka¡¯s ability¡ªwas insane. According to the clock on her HUD, only a few seconds had passed in the last few hours of running from the god. Eventually, the Virtuosi System would kick her out¡­ probably. Maybe. Honestly, she had no idea how the system would behave if it noticed some sort of inconsistency with how fast her brain was moving¡ªor if it even would.

    Fuck. Fucking fucks. This was so bad, especially since eventually the god would grow bored with just chasing her and decide to kick things up a notch. Emilia was imagining torture, slow and painful and probably involving the loss of a few limbs. Just how she wanted to end her time inside this stupid raid.

    Here she¡¯d been doing so well, letting go of so much of her wartime trauma. Now, she was going to be tortured and end up traumatized in a whole new way. On top of that, this creature was so pissy that it was pretty much a given it would go after everyone she¡¯d met inside the raid, just out of spite. Who knew how long their consciousness would continue to exist in this world. Until Yuka died? Until their brain burned out under the stress of having a god forced into it? Forever, the ancestors of any friends who managed to escape its wrath chased down for eternity?

    Emilia had no idea, and if the thing was still kicking when she left this world, it was unlikely she¡¯d ever find out, and she really didn¡¯t want to leave this world to deal with a psychotic, vengeful god.

    Hence, she needed a plan.

    Technically, she¡¯d had a plan for a few of the hours she¡¯d been bolting down halls, trying to avoid the god and see if anything could get through its defences. Now, she was out of the majority of her single use blood weapons. {Blood Needles}? Hadn¡¯t made it close enough for the explosion to do more than ruffle the god¡¯s hair. {Blood Stickers}? While seeing the god covered in glitter had been amusing, they had mostly just been pissed¡ªthat was when she¡¯d been thrown through a wall. A few times, she¡¯d gotten close enough to use other, close-range weapons on the thing. Those were the times she¡¯d been sliced up the worst, and¡ªbig surprise!¡ªher blades had only managed to slash through clothing. The {Blood Sword} she¡¯d taken from Zyrex had straight up shattered!

    So. Fucking. Bad.

    There was no way Emilia could leave this thing to destroy the world¡ªand what a twist that would be! Rather than save this world from being shuttered for being a truly miserable place to live and raid, she¡¯d instead cause the entire thing to be destroyed internally!

    So, plan. Plan that currently wasn¡¯t going too great.

    Basically, after realizing that blood items were useless against the god, Emilia had hit it with a few core attacks. Those had been slightly more effective, but mostly just seemed to annoy the god. The only other weapon she had, unfortunately, was magic¡ªmagic, which she had only successfully used while pissed or desperate.

    These were, unfortunately, not emotions that she could magically manifest¡ªand oh, how she tried.

    Emilia tried thinking of Astra¡¯s body exploding, Hetexia¡¯s neck snapping. She tried to summon rage for the locals¡ªfor her friends¡ªwho would die if this god were allowed to continue working in this world. Stars, she even tried to summon up residual anger at the shitholes who had raised her, those first few years of her life, for her ex, for the best friend who had grown to hate her for things that weren¡¯t her fault.

    Nothing.

    It was a little ironic, given how much strange anger had suffused her in the moments before she came across Hetexia¡¯s group that first time. Now, she had none. All she really had was a bone deep sadness, and rather than running on rage, every step was a struggle, her body and mind screaming at her to lay down and cry¡ªcurl into a ball and sob for the people she couldn¡¯t save, for the years she had wasted, for the friends she had lost and abandoned and should have done better by.

    Everything¡­ really sucked, and mostly, Emilia was just frustrated with herself because she couldn¡¯t figure out the stupid magic system!

    She had imagination. She could see the magic she wanted to create¡ªthe ways in which she wanted to change this world¡ªand yet, nothing happened. Emilia had even pulled out the Risen Guard water bottle, hoping to activate the broken array and summon some water.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Nothing.

    She was so useless she couldn¡¯t even activate a stupid array, or the magic gems attached to her {Blood Armour}. What was the point of having them¡ªof being here and having gained the friendship and trust of so many people¡ªif she couldn¡¯t even figure out this little thing.

    Forget about protecting this world, she couldn¡¯t even do a party trick.

    At some point, she¡¯d given up, if only partially. Her legs still moved, her mind still spun, looking for other plans, but her heart wasn¡¯t in it. She was treading water, waiting to drown, her mind floating back to Conrad¡ªto the way he had pulled beautiful magic out of the aether, when they¡¯d been half-heartedly fleeing from Boundary. His magic had been beautiful, flawless. If he had been there, he could have done better¡ªso, so much better.

    Emilia missed him, a large part of her thankful that they had agreed to meet up. Had they not¡­ were he another Astra¡ªanother person she would be unable to reach out to once she was free of this terrible world¡­

    Pain split through her heart at the thought of Astra, and Emilia skidded around a corner, setting up one of her last {Blood Stickers} to hit the god, not because she was under any illusions it would do more than annoy it, but because one of the few things she¡¯d been able to figure out about the creature was it didn¡¯t have a map or any way to track her.

    While it had used some ability to lock her onto this level, the rooms quickly being torn apart during their hide and seek, but if she managed to get out of range of its senses, it would have to look for her.

    A good portion of the last hour had been spent testing its senses, learning its patterns, and figuring out how to get away from it long enough that she could hide and figure out¡­ something.

    So, yeah, that was the current plan: hide from the crazy ass god long enough to figure out an actual plan.

    Emilia did not have much faith in this plan, but unless the platform maintainer or raid designer suddenly decided to bestow her with the ability to use magic or real-world skills, it was the best she had.

    {Blood Sticker} smacked to the wall, Emilia bolted, forcing her heavy, exhausted limbs to move, move, move. Around a corner. Another. Through a room. The aether behind her shook, the god letting a growl of frustration, an oft yelled, ?You¡¯ll regret that!? chase her and then¡ª

    Fortunately, arrogant and annoyed, even gods could be predictable.

    Emilia hit the distance where the god would lose track of her, and then a seeking, shuddering whisper of, ?Where did you go~?? reached for her, reminding her far too much of what a stalker would say, were they inclined to be predictable and cringy¡ªseriously, the way the god said it made her think they half expected her to actually respond!

    She would not, in fact, be responding, and instead, Emilia contented herself to racing down the path she had devised while running and mapping the floor over the last few hours. Fortunately, it was a level built out of several large rooms and hundreds of smaller ones, most connected in the strange, maze-like way so many of the levels in this building had been.

    As a result, when Emilia disappeared into a room and raced through several doors, shutting many of them as quietly as she could behind her, throwing open and closing doors at random as she went, it wasn¡¯t long before she was relatively confident that she could shift to walking and sneaking through the level, especially since she still had a map.

    A quarter of the building away, the god¡¯s silver mist travelled the level, searching for her. For whatever reason, the god wasn¡¯t a single dot, but a large blob of power. It was odd, mostly because there seemed to be no particular reason for it. The god¡¯s senses reached far beyond that mist, as did the space in which it could attack.

    It also hadn¡¯t always been like that, neither when they had been Yuka, nor when she and Hetexia had first come across them. Emilia wasn¡¯t even sure when it had changed, but now, it wasn¡¯t solid, only mist, sparkling against her mind as she watched it move and moved further away from it in turn.

    Chances were she¡¯d have to keep moving, but at least there was time to breathe and plan and¡ª

    Emilia¡¯s brain halted as another dot¡ªor were those two dots¡ªslipped onto the map. Fortunately, they were on the opposite side of the level, so the god shouldn¡¯t have noticed they weren¡¯t alone through their senses, but¡­ but who were they? Why had they come back?

    The god didn¡¯t stop on its trek in the general direction she had run off, so apparently they hadn¡¯t noticed someone slipping onto the level in another way¡ªlike a notification that someone had penetrated their barrier¡ªeither. Still, Emilia didn¡¯t want to leave whoever it was alone, unprepared to run into a fucking god of this world, especially since who would it even be? Of the visitors, only V and the other northern teen had been alive. Not knowing the girl, Emilia couldn¡¯t say there was no way the northern teen might have come with V, but she figured it was highly unlikely.

    So, who? Key was the most likely, and Emilia hated that¡ªhated that Key might have just walked into his death for no reason other than her and¡­ and¡­

    And, wait. If time wasn¡¯t really moving under the time skew, then how had they even come down here? Emilia supposed that the time skew could actually be reaching out of this floor, but when she¡¯d examined the stairwells, while trying to get off the level, it had definitely felt like the time skew was at least part of what was keeping her inside¡ªlike she had no ability to leave the time skew because her body and mind couldn¡¯t transition between the two states of time.

    So either something had changed¡ªand a quick glance at her HUD clock told her it wasn¡¯t the time skew she was experiencing¡ªor¡­ or what?

    Or one of the people had been travelling with had forgotten to mention they had some obscure ability to disable a time skew? Or an ability to extend a time skew onto themself? Emilia wasn¡¯t really sure how it would work, and while she knew from her own mystery gifts and inability to remember what things she could and couldn¡¯t do in this world that it was perfectly possible someone had forgotten to mention such an ability, or only learned about it just now, something about that just didn¡¯t seem right.

    Realistically, as she raced through the halls, seeking out the dots that were heading her way a little too perfectly, Emilia knew these were pointless things to think about¡ªshe¡¯d find out eventually what had happened¡ªbut it was easier to think of these things than the reality that she had no plan, no way to keep whoever had just entered the level safe.

    She felt so very helpless, and when she turned the corner and saw Hyr and Caro heading her way, Emilia was split between bone wrenching fear for the local child, and exhaustion. Glancing at her map to confirm the god was still a ways off, she slowed her steps. Hyr gazed down at her, taking in her blood covered body, and quietly opened an arm for her to fall into them, their tall frame keeping her safe, letting her feel for a few brief minutes like the child she wanted to be as she cried softly into them.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 212: an end; a beginning(?)

    Emilia and Hyr are whispering about something in their other language, the one Astra taught me how to introduce myself in. Hyr gave me a funny look when I did, though. I thought maybe I¡¯d gotten something wrong, at first, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s it¡ªthey give me that look sometimes, like I¡¯m a puzzle piece they can¡¯t quite place.

    They used to look at me like that, anyways.

    My lips twitch against the soft skin on Hyr¡¯s neck. I feel like I¡¯ve known them forever, and the way I think definitely seems to give that impression, too. They used to, like we didn¡¯t meet for the first time only a few hours ago. They used to, like for more than half the time we¡¯ve known each other, they haven¡¯t been looking at me like they want to save me and know they can¡¯t.

    Emilia is looking at me that way now. Her eyes are so wide¡ªso scared¡ªand when she reaches out to ruffle my hair, I lean up into it. A little touch of love, more love than I¡¯ve felt from almost anyone, even my own parents. My mom and dad like me, sure, but I¡¯m work and I know they don¡¯t love me the way they wish they could¡ªthe way I wish they could.

    We¡¯re moving again, Hyr tugging Emilia along as we go, and they continue to argue in Hyr¡¯s strange language, sounds I¡¯ve never heard registering only as other to my ears as Emilia speaks. I suppose Hyr might be speaking back to her in her normal language, and every so often as we wander through room after room, Emilia says the same thing: ?vy mor¡¯k.?

    Every time, without fail, Hyr¡¯s chest will rise and fall, a small puff of air brushing over my cheek. I think they¡¯re laughing, but also a little exasperated¡ªI think that¡¯s the word, anyways. Exasperated: annoyed, done with. My parents are exasperated with me a lot¡ªso were a lot of the adults in Livery, at the Risen Guard compound. The only ones who have never seemed done with me are Emilia and Hyr. V, a little bit, and I think if we hadn¡¯t been trapped together for so many days, he would have been okay with me? Mostly, I just think sometimes he wanted to rest, but because we were trapped, he knew he couldn¡¯t leave me to go crazy and annoy Gale and Astra.

    Astra, who is dead and gone, even if that¡¯s not completely true: she still exists outside this world.

    No one told me that¡ªI can¡¯t hear Hyr, and Carne doesn¡¯t really speak to me¡ªbut I know. I know a lot of things now, since I got too close to the universe.

    It was an accident, mostly. We were gonna die, was the thing. Astra tried her best to teach V how to use his core the way she and her family did¡ªor was it her entire¡­ Free Colony?¡ªbut he wasn¡¯t learning fast enough.

    The ice was coming for us.

    It was going to kill us¡ªkill Gale, who had been trying to be so nice to me since we left Livery. Sometimes, she wasn¡¯t so good at it¡ªespecially when we were trapped together¡ªbut she was trying. So I wanted to try for her.

    Whatever I did¡­ it wasn¡¯t right. I don¡¯t know what I did. I don¡¯t remember a lot of those moments, just the ice coming for us. V saying he couldn¡¯t. I remember knowing that this time he wasn¡¯t wrong¡ªthis time, it wasn¡¯t just in his head. He really couldn¡¯t save us, and I figured, well, if we¡¯re gonna die anyways, I might as well try to save us.

    I did save us, but I don¡¯t really remember how.

    There was red¡ªblood, but not blood. There was a pounding all around me, like a heartbeat.

    Pound.

    Pound.

    Pound.

    I knew I was somewhere I wasn¡¯t meant to be. I remember thinking that I¡¯d gone too far¡ªgotten too close.

    It was such a strange thought to have, and I still don¡¯t know where it came from, or what it meant, or even where I was. I do know it was right: I got too close to something, and now, I¡¯m going to die for.

    I know I¡¯m going to die, and mostly, I¡¯m okay with that. I¡¯m going to die because I saved my friends¡ªbecause whatever I did, it saved us from that guy who was chasing Key. I blasted his attack away. I did that, and then Astra tried to kill him. Something went wrong, though. I don¡¯t really know what it was. V said something about a seizure, but I don¡¯t know what that is. I think it must be whatever caused a black spot in my memory? There are bits that are blurry, when I was saving us, but afterwards, there¡¯s just a big black spot.

    Whatever happened, we couldn¡¯t stay, so we ran, and the world blurred by, and I knew, even in those first moments of consciousness, that I was going to die.

    I was seeing too much, and I knew from Carne and the homeless grannies¡¯ lessons about reading the universe that seeing too much was dangerous¡ªwas a bad omen. I was seeing¡ªnow see¡ªtoo much. Something is wrong with me, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what will kill me.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    No, it will be my own actions that kill me. I know that. So do Emilia and Hyr, I think. Hyr, definitely. Maybe they haven¡¯t told Emilia as much yet, this inevitability¡ªthat¡¯s another word that I think I know the meaning of, but I might be wrong. People in Livery were always saying it was inevitable my parents would get sick of me one day, if I didn¡¯t calm down.

    I guess they were right¡ªthe first chance they got to let me go, they did. I¡¯m trying not to let that hurt. Some people just aren¡¯t meant for each other. I wasn¡¯t meant for my parents. Sawyer once said something like that¡ªsaid that the universe must have given me to them for another reason, because it definitely wasn¡¯t that I was the perfect kid for them or anything like that.

    I think¡­ if I had been able to choose, I¡¯d pick people like Emilia and Hyr to be my parents. Hyr, always calm and soothing, and Emilia, just like me, if a little subdued. I could see it when she used her hand signs. She¡¯d be talking about one thing, using simple signs we could kinda understand, then something would distract her, and off she¡¯d go, hands moving too fast for us to even pick up the ones we knew. So much passion. I really wish I could have asked what she was talking about.

    Emilia would be a good mom. She took care of us so well, but, I don¡¯t think she thinks that. I saw how sad she was, looking at Kelly¡¯s arm, thinking that she¡¯d failed him. She¡¯ll probably think that about me, won¡¯t she? That somehow this is her fault.

    It¡¯s not. If anything, it¡¯s my parents. If they hadn¡¯t left me with the Risen Guard, I wouldn¡¯t be here¡ªI wouldn¡¯t have ended up with that terrible woman for a babysitter and run away from her and the whole compound.

    When I tell her as much, during one of the brief moments where she and Hyr are quiet¡ªor, I assume Hyr is quiet because I can¡¯t feel his throat vibrating against my nose¡ªshe doesn¡¯t seem to believe me, and then, she¡¯s being pulled back into Hyr¡¯s arms. I think she¡¯s crying. I can¡¯t hear her, but I can feel her shaking.

    Will my own parents cry when they learn I died? Will anyone even bother to tell them? A part of me hopes no one will, that one day they¡¯ll realize they can¡¯t just leave me with the Risen Guard forever, but their questions about what happened to me will go unanswered. They¡¯ll be left to wonder what happened, forever. Will they make up kind stories with happy endings in their heads? Or drown their guilt in imagined tales of my death at the hands of the Risen Guard or the visitors?

    Most likely, Boundary will just tell them, or send someone else to tell them. I wonder if they¡¯ll be nice about it, and say I died trying to save this world. I wonder if they¡¯ll be mean about it, and say I died because they left me alone too many times.

    Regardless of what Emilia thinks, this isn¡¯t her fault. I can see it now, the path of my life¡ªa thousand, million decisions that led to this moment, so many of which I had no control of. It''s strange, and comforting, in a way, this knowing of how uncontrollable my life has been. All the little pieces, laid out before my eyes in a thousand fragmented images of the world and my past and future¡ªmy very short future.

    I¡¯m okay with that. Before coming here, before getting to close to the universe, I would have been sad. Now¡­ I¡¯m a little sad, but mostly, I¡¯m not. Everything is so heavy now, every flick of my eyes a vision I don¡¯t have the capacity to understand or remember.

    It¡¯s all so much.

    Maybe, eventually, I¡¯d get used to it, the way I think Hyr is. If Hyr was with me, their soft energy sliding through me and softening the strain of the universe''s visions, I think I¡¯d be okay with going on. They won¡¯t be with me, if I find a way¡ªa will¡ªto live. They¡¯ll leave, and I¡¯ll still have Gale, maybe.

    A thousand fragments of Gale¡¯s future shatter through me, her grumpy and snarky with Key, the two of them with the Risen Guard, helping to guide the future along. Gale and Mira meeting, awkward and strained. Blood, but no curse. Tears, but not for a death¡ªis it a death? did Mira die? I can¡¯t see that right now¡ªbut for a lost friendship.

    Somehow, it won¡¯t matter to Mira that Emilia, V and Hyr will help change this world. She will go on, bitter and angry, hoping to create a world where the next batch of visitors will be snuffed out of existence the moment they set foot in this world.

    For Gale, it will be the opposite, and she¡¯ll be happy, eventually. She¡¯ll meet back up with Sawyer and Benny, at some point. Things are blurry where they¡¯re concerned¡ªlike they are part of a future with too many options, too many paths. I think they¡¯ll be happy¡­ at least for bits of time. Sad, too, but that¡¯s life, isn¡¯t it? Love and friendship, grief and heartbreak and hatred that runs bone deep.

    I don¡¯t think I would fit into their future, not like this. I see too much, I will be unable to help myself from reaching out and touching the future and past, from melding myself into them and trying¡ªfailing¡ªto change the things that are already set.

    It doesn¡¯t matter. Such a future will not come. My future is already set.

    Maybe. Probably.

    There is a bit I cannot see¡ªthat I don¡¯t think I¡¯m meant to see: the after. What is there after death? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll completely cease to exist, but there is something there, some block I cannot get past.

    It¡¯s strange, but that¡¯s okay. I always loved the unknown, and this¡ªknowing the perfect moment to reach up and unpin my {Blood Hairclips} and snap them into Hyr and Emilia¡¯s hair instead, the moment I need to move, hurl myself from Hyr¡¯s arms and reach back into the universe and pull¡ªis a little anti-climactic for me.

    There¡¯s no pain, at least, when the god kills me. There is only light, and Emilia¡¯s sob, a flash of her being held back by Hyr, safe behind the barrier I created for them in the seconds before my death, so much grief spread over their faces that as I die, my only regret is that I was born into this world, with parents who perhaps won¡¯t be happy I died, but will not be able to mourn me the way even these two people I barely know will.

    That¡¯s a little comforting, as the universe consumes me. At least someone will remember me.

    At least someone loved me, even if I wish they could have loved me a bit longer.

    ? ? ?

    ¡°Hello, Caro.¡±

    My eyes flutter open, met not by the red of the universe, which had greeted me as it sucked me into it, intent to consume my everything. Instead, the world is white and pure, empty save someone I know and yet do not.

    ?You aren¡¯t¡ª? I try to say, but I know my words aren¡¯t coming out.

    ¡°You won¡¯t be able to speak that way here,¡± she says, shaking a lock of short silver hair back from her forehead. ¡°I doubt you¡¯ll be able to speak like me here either.¡±

    She smiles, holds out a hand. ¡°Do you trust me?¡± she asks, and how could I not?

 Arc 5 | Chapter 213: A Lesson in Frustration

    There wasn¡¯t anger, only fury. A burn of hatred and regret and the fact that Hyr had been right when they said Caro¡¯s life could not be saved¡ªthe fact that all of them had been able to see it, with near perfect clarity, long before that sweet little child flung himself in front of an attack that would have killed all three of them.

    Perhaps that should have been a little comforting: that regardless of Caro¡¯s sacrifice, they would have died anyways, differently, but dead all the same.

    It didn¡¯t help, not when Emilia knew it was a thousand little moments that had brought Caro here¡ªand yes, Hyr had told her that Caro¡¯s fate had already been all but sealed before they had found each other again, that leaving them behind with the Risen Guard would have guaranteed their death just the same. It still hurt, and her only comfort was that she could tell it hurt Hyr was well, to have been the one to bring Caro to this place, only the syn¡¯s trust in the aethernet¡¯s visions and inescapable futures keeping them from breaking.

    There had still been a crack in their voice, however, when they admitted that they had seen the smallest flicker of a future where Caro wouldn¡¯t die, in the moments before they decided the child had to stay with them, no matter what. That future had vanished, though. Disappeared just as quickly as it had flashed before Hyr¡¯s eyes. Where had it gone? They didn¡¯t know. Had it ever actually existed, or simply been the result of wishful thinking for a child? They didn¡¯t know.

    Emilia didn¡¯t think of these things as her fury bubbled, blistering over the universe with so much force and violence that Hyr gasped. Had she not been so blindly filled with rage, she might have smiled¡ªthe syn so rarely showed shock, and she would have loved to turn around and memorize their golden features as they took in her anger, saw the way she had ended the war.

    If only she¡¯d been able to summon this ability to bend the aether to her will a minute earlier. If only during the war she¡¯d been able to do this two decades earlier.

    Caro¡¯s death, Olivier¡¯s near death, were her catalysts and as much as she hated that she needed them, a part of her knew it was for the best. Their world¡ªwhether real or virtual¡ªdidn¡¯t need someone who could pull this much power out of themself with a simple thought, an imagining of pain and suffering. They needed true fury and heartbreak and desperation.

    Caro had died so she could kill this thing¡ªso this god wouldn¡¯t be left to torment the world of the raid after their souls were forced from its borders.

    Maybe one day that would make their sacrifice hurt less. Not today. Today, Emilia leaned into her emotions and power, the world and building splintering as she sought out the being who had heartlessly killed a child, would kill a million more in revenge for the actions that had led to Clarity¡¯s destruction.

    She stepped, the world moved with her¡ªa spark in a world without sparks. Broken and fractured, forced along by her body¡¯s remembrance of what a spark felt like as it shuddered through her, her body sliding through the insides of the universe a bit too long, blood of the world splattering to the floor in front of the god as they panicked.

    ?What are you¡ª? they tried to say, and perhaps at another time Emilia would feel pride for the fear she saw in the god¡¯s eyes. Was this how the monsters of war had felt, when she shuttered their doors behind them, locking them within and without of whatever terrible place they hailed from? Had they feared her unknown power?

    Another step¡ªthe attack the god had been aiming at her missing as Emilia reappeared elsewhere in the room it had killed Caro from. Out of range¡ªwhatever attack it had used wasn¡¯t something Emilia had seen it use before. She had messed up, assumed the god had shown her the true range of its offensive skills. Now, Caro was dead, Hyr in danger.

    Not that Hyr mattered¡ªnot really. They¡¯d be fine. Not like Caro, who was¡ª

    For a moment, Emilia was tempted to pull the god into the universe¡¯s insides with her. Spark wrong, leave them inside that visceral, disgusting place to rot and fester. Except, something told her that wasn¡¯t a good idea. As much as she had tried to not think about the time she had spent inside the aether, during that spark gone wrong so long ago, she couldn¡¯t deny that she had learned things there¡ªthat her very ability to slide in and out of it now, her ability to end the war, had likely only been possible because of that time, terrible as it had been.

    This creature couldn¡¯t be allowed to learn such things, and at the same time, the back of her brain itched with the reminder that she didn¡¯t know if the aether of this world was the real one, or some simulation. What would it mean, for game souls to be capable of reaching¡ªtouching, altering¡ªthe universe itself?

    Probably, she shouldn¡¯t tempt fate¡ªshouldn¡¯t step through the guts of the universe, real or imagined, so many times within this raid that anyone watching could figure out what she was doing.

    The god attacked her again, clearly assuming she¡¯d jump once more. Emilia didn¡¯t move, only letting her hate filled mind erase the god¡¯s power from the world.

    ?I was told the magic of this world could do nearly anything, as long as you can imagine it,? she told the god, taking in their shocked expression as she stepped forward. ?It¡¯s just annoying that I can¡¯t figure out the exact trick of it, unless I¡¯m pissed the fuck off.?

    One of the god¡¯s arms snapped backwards. They screamed. Their own pain? Or pain from Yuka? Apparently, being only a fraction of the god¡¯s consciousness had worked for it, because none of the hive mind infected Clarity members had ever shown much sign of pain.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Part of Emilia wanted to torture the creature¡ªmake it suffer not just for Caro¡¯s death but for all the Clarity members who had suffered, even if they had brought that fate upon themselves, at least a little bit.

    ?What are you smiling about?? the god asked, and Emilia could tell that whatever abilities it was trying to use weren¡¯t activating the way it wanted. This wasn¡¯t the result of her forcibly erasing magic from the world¡ªthat had only been a short lasting blast of imagination¡ªbut something else completely blocking its powers. Was that her?

    Her system flickered with a notification, one that altered her that one of her mystery gifts had finally been activated: Rage Against the Rules.

    Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced the ability¡ªwhich according to a little write-up allowed her to temporarily nullify the rules of the raid¡ªhadn¡¯t been chosen by whoever was monitoring their fight and given to her now, just so she¡¯d win.

    Perhaps that was why she could suddenly use the magic system, rather than her rage. That probably made more sense, every attack she made on the god perfect and powerful as she contemplated also torturing whichever asshole had led them to this place. The platform maintainer. The raid designer. Whatever top executive was overseeing this whole situation.

    She could torture them all¡ªrip their limbs from their body just as easily as she was tearing this god apart. Easier, even. Maybe she¡¯d take them to a black site, torture them slowly. The clones would help, Levi, Samina, Malcolm¡ªanyone she asked would help, because it was her, because she was in pain and¡ª

    ¡°Emilia.¡±

    Hyr¡¯s hand wrapped around her wrist, a slow trickle of beautiful, controlled and cooling energy beginning to rub against her meridians. Not forcing itself in, just a gentle offer of comfort and calming.

    ¡°Emilia,¡± they repeated, their arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her close. ¡°Kill them.¡±

    The urge to pull away and continue ripping the god apart tore at her, her mind once again wondering if Payton had done something¡ªif this rage was some strange, mutated black knot, tying up her empathy and control and leaving her a wrathful mess.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Hyr said because apparently she¡¯d said some amount of that out loud, ¡°or, you¡¯re just sad and grieving and want revenge. I know you, and you don¡¯t really want that. You will regret this, if you go on.¡±

    ?How do you know?? she breathed out, struggling to fight her body into submission and acceptance of Hyr¡¯s energy. ?We haven''t known each other long enough for you to know things like that.?

    The syn¡¯s arm tightened around her, grounding despite the fact that they had lifted her off the ground, her feet dangling uselessly under her. ¡°I know,¡± they said, like they did really know¡ªlike they¡¯d seen inside her and knew that somewhere in there, there was a good person who loved their friends and didn¡¯t torture people unless it was actually necessary. Sadly, it wasn¡¯t usually necessary.

    Given the huff of a laugh that left the syn, apparently she¡¯d said that out loud as well. ¡°I also do not think it is necessary now.¡±

    No, it probably wasn¡¯t, and before releasing that final lever and letting Hyr¡¯s energy consume her, she let her anger overtake her, for one moment more. Most likely, she could have just destroyed Yuka¡¯s body and sent the god spiralling back to wherever the gods of this world lived. That was too good for it, and no regret slid through her as she instead imagined burning it out of existence¡ªimagined writing a skill that would slice a piece of the aethernet away, leaving a gaping hole where it had once existed. Gone, disappeared; the web of the world stitching itself back together to account for the sudden lack of anything where it had once been.

    Behind her, Hyr tensed, the arm around her tightening, their energy pressing more insistently into her until she finally assented and let them in. The syn¡¯s energy was cool, soothing and caring. Just as it had when Conrad first pressed his energy into her, part of her bit back at it¡ªthe part that seemed always connected to the rules of having a Censor, telling her that this was too close to utilizing her core in a way it wouldn¡¯t like. A bigger part of her leaned into the sensation, like a shivery hug that she never wanted to end.

    They stood there like that for a long time, Hyr eventually rearranging them so they could slide to the floor, Emilia cradled in his arms like they were the older, more mature one. Maybe in this moment they were. Certainly, she felt like a child. Fragile. Broken. Rung out.

    Hyr just rocked, their energy continuing to dig through her until every ounce of angry energy she had was gone, all that remained grief that, despite decades of facing it over and over again as friend after friend was wiped out of existence, she still struggled to reconcile.

    ?I should have done that earlier,? she finally said into the crook of Hyr¡¯s neck, the same side Caro had been snuggled into for the too short hours before their death.

    ¡°You could not have,¡± the northerner said, like it was the truest thing in the entire world.

    ?You don¡¯t know that,? she replied, although given what she¡¯d seen the syn do and see, perhaps they did know. Emilia didn¡¯t think it would be any more comforting to know this was an inescapable fate than it would be to know she¡¯d fucked up¡ªthat she could have done better. Under her, she felt Hyr hesitate. ?What??

    ¡°In the synat, many young members are turned to different careers because they are unable to accept the fates that happen, the fates that do not. We are expected to accept fate as it occurs, to not mourn the futures that did not. To do so, is a lesson in frustration and self-torture.¡± Their fingers rubbed gentle circles into the bare skin between the bands of her {Blood Armour}, travelling lazily¡ªcomfortably¡ªover her and sending little shudders down her spine.

    ?So, you¡¯re saying I shouldn¡¯t look back and say this could have been different? Doesn¡¯t that just mean I wouldn¡¯t learn from my mistakes?? Before she could stop herself, Emilia snorted, muttering about how she hadn¡¯t learned the first time, so why should this be any different.

    ¡°The first time?¡±

    Emilia hesitated, wondering whether to say more, not on Hyr¡¯s account¡ªdespite not knowing them well, something about the syn was just inherently trustworthy¡ªbut because she had no idea who was listening. For all the bits of herself that any external witnesses could piece together, some things¡ªsome facts about herself and the world itself¡ªweren¡¯t for their eyes.

    ?It¡¯s not the first time I should have done something sooner, and people died because of it.?

    Hyr¡¯s fingers stalled in their path, and Emilia wondered if they knew she was talking about her brutal end to the war. A sound escaped them¡ªnot even the beginning of a word she could recognize¡ªwhen the world shook, their eyes snapping to the place where she had wiped the god was existence.

    Except, apparently she hadn¡¯t.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 214: Shattered

    In hindsight, perhaps they should have realized the god wasn¡¯t as gone as they¡¯ve assumed. After all, the time skew created by Yuka¡¯s ability¡ªor was it the god¡¯s ability, because Yuka¡¯s body was definitely gone¡ªstill existed as they mourned. Mourning might have been a good excuse for missing that, but also, as Emilia and Hyr awkwardly pulled themselves to their feet¡ªsomething that mostly involved the northerner manhandling her¡ªneither felt that way.

    Rather, all they felt was regret.

    ¡°Can you reactivate whatever was blocking its powers?¡± the northerner asked as they watched the universe stretch and reverse¡ªalmost as though it were rejecting what Emilia had done to it.

    Emilia shook her head, not because she couldn¡¯t reactivate it, but because she wasn¡¯t sure she could and was pretty sure that¡ªhad she anything in her stomach¡ªshe would have lost it.

    Out of the gaping blackness¡ªa blackness so deep and empty that it reminded her of the {Blood Ball}¡¯s pocket dimension¡ªfell gore and blood. Yuka¡¯s limbs, only identifiable by the clothing still clinging to them. An eyeball. Tongue. Mush, which could have been her meat or brain matter. Liquids of red and brown and a growing stench that made her stomach contract yet again, attempting to void itself.

    ¡°What¡­¡±

    The hole stretched, contracted, seeming to vomit out both the pieces of Yuka and god¡¯s existence, its energy swirling into a storm around them, angry and powerful.

    ?Run¡­? Emilia said, grabbing Hyr and pulling, even as she knew the chances of them being able to escape that thing, now that it was no longer contained in a mortal body, could very well be impossible.

    Silver mist suffused her map, and although there was nothing around them¡ªno visible sign of the god¡¯s presence, nor any focused attacks¡ªits energy swirled, crashing and erratic. Clearly, whatever had happened to it during its brief death¡ªor confinement in that pocket dimension?¡ªhadn¡¯t agreed with it.

    ?I think¡­? Emilia gasped out, annoyed with her brain for simulating a gasp of exertion in her fucking mind, ?the same thing that happened to Yuka¡¯s body must have happened to its soul.?

    ¡°Did you¡ª?¡±

    ?No! Fuck, I didn¡¯t even realize I was sending it¡­ somewhere!? Emilia hadn¡¯t even wanted to send it into the normal universe to be digested, let alone wherever the fuck it had ended up. Wherever that was, it hadn¡¯t been inclined to keep either Yuka¡¯s body¡ªas well as potentially what had remained of her mind, Emilia supposed as they bolted down hallways, searching for a stairwell because seriously, what else were they supposed to do?¡ªor the god within it. So different from the normal universe, which had been more than happy to keep her own body and soul within it, once upon a time.

    Unfortunately, the stairwell was just as blocked as before, and even when they mutually pushed all their abilities and concentration into it, warily watching the storm of aether and energy growing around them, it didn¡¯t budge.

    ¡°We can go to the one I came in through¡­¡± Hyr said, sounding completely unconvinced it would work. They had peeked through the {Blood Glass}, but whatever was happening had created some sort of environment where it didn¡¯t work, and Hyr could no longer read anything directly from the aether either.

    ?Yeah¡­ I guess¡­? Emilia said, smiling weakly at Hyr when they sent her a concerned look. ?You know how I was asking about your experience in raids, and how your seeing worked in them? Whether you could see anything different in the aether of the virtual raids and the real world??

    ¡°Sure,¡± the syn replied as they dragged her along, although when they realized how far off the stairwell they and Caro had entered by was, they pulled Emilia completely into their arms, their longer legs allowing them to move more quickly. ¡°I told you I didn¡¯t raid often, and was unsure you would be able to find a synat who had experience with older raids.¡±

    ?Yeah¡­ so, when I was killing that thing¡ªor failing to, I guess¡ªI began to wonder whether the universe here is the actual universe. If something happens to the aether in this world, will it affect the real world¡¯s aethernet??

    Around her, Hyr¡¯s arms tensed. ¡°You carved a piece of the aether away, trying to kill that thing.¡±

    ?Yes.?

    ¡°If the aethernets are the same¡­¡±

    ?Based on theory, it would likely just be a small sliver of it, compressed down for each virtual raid. The aethernet is considered to have unfathomable energy in every piece of it¡ªthat¡¯s why some of the most powerful skills actually use the smallest amount of aether. Still?¡ªshe motioned around them, to the cracking and reforming aether¡ª?this could be happening to the real aether, and even if it''s just a small amount, if we can¡¯t figure out how to stop this¡­?

    On the plus side, what was left of the god wasn¡¯t attacking them¡ªnot with anything more than strain from being within this maelstrom of its uncontrolled power, their skin increasingly sliced up as they travelled, anyways¡ªbut it was continuing to build, seemingly without an active intention. There was anger and frustration within it, lapping over the world, but whatever had been driving its active decisions seemed offline. Where nothing had been left to hold Yuka¡¯s body together after whatever had happened to it, nothing seemed to be guiding the god¡¯s power anymore¡ªnothing save raw emotion.

    At least the god had contained some logic and control. It might not have destroyed the entire world, just the people it deemed a threat or desired vengeance against. This power was liable to crash out over the entire world of the raid and crush it.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    In a horrific sort of way, it was nice to know that Emilia¡¯s consistent record for fucking up was going strong.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t funny,¡± Hyr said darkly when she explained why she was laughing. ¡°I do not think you fuck up consistently.¡±

    Once more, Emilia shot the syn a look of almost confusion and then suspicion. They really hadn¡¯t known each other long, and while they¡¯d definitely talked constantly while travelling together, it wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d spent all that time bragging about the rare moments in her life where she hadn¡¯t been fucking up.

    ?Did you see for me?? she asked, curious as to how she could have missed such a thing¡ªshe¡¯d always been under the impression that seeing was a time-consuming and involved process, although perhaps that was just the official way. Hyr had seen something for Caro, after all, and she was pretty sure the pair hadn¡¯t sat down to do such a thing.

    ¡°No. I did not. I can one day, if you desire.¡± The northerner¡¯s face scrunched up as they rounded the last bit of hallway before they¡¯d reach the stairwell that at least allowed people to enter through it. ¡°Or¡­ I can try. I cannot guarantee I will be able to see for you.¡±

    What a strange thing to say.

    ?Why? Is there something wrong with me? Or you? I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve seen you do what, I assumed, was seeing for me and the others,? she noted, thinking back to the times Hyr had told Zyrex he was about to fall or trip, the times they had wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her out of the way with a future sight she¡¯d never truly believed the synat possessed. If they¡¯d been able to see those moments, why did Hyr think a more standard seeing for her wouldn¡¯t work?

    Hyr hesitated before opening their mouth and¡ª

    A blast reverberated through the aethernet, sending the syn flying and Emilia tumbling from his arms. Luckily, both of their levels were high enough that neither of them were hurt but¡ª

    ?Time is moving again¡­? Emilia said, a second before realization hit that the blast had shattered not just time skew but whatever had been keeping them contained and was now reaching beyond the floor level.

    ¡°?Fucking stars!?¡± someone¡ªV¡ªyelled a moment before he and Key fell out of the stairwell. ?What the fuck is¡ª?

    ?Emilia!? Key called, pushing himself up and racing for Emilia, hauling her up and looking over her general state of bloodiness. Countless gashes marred her skin, but they were barely visible under the gore that had splattered over her from her step through the universe. ?Are you¡ª? The local boy cut off as he was all but hip checked out of the way by V.

    ?Shit. Fuck. Are you¡ª What happened!?? V asked, shooting a scathing look behind her, his head tilted up enough that it was clear he was glaring at Hyr. ?You¡ª? he began to say, but another burst of power sent him, Key and Emilia skidding backwards.

    Hyr wobbled, but a burst of energy from them seemed to counter the aether, if only barely. ¡°If this continues, it will destroy the world.¡±

    Key¡¯s face blanched. ?What even is this? And where is Caro??

    V¡ªwhom Emilia had landed on top of¡ªtensed, his eyes shooting between Emilia and Hyr and reading the grief written over each of their faces. In the end, he had spent the most time interacting directly with the child, having been trapped with them for days. Emilia might have spent more time together with them altogether, but that had been broken up with all the events during and after the Livery Labyrinth, the Risen Guard compound and their escape. For V¡­

    Emilia could see it¡ªcould feel his body collapsed and fists tighten into her¡ªbefore he muttered, ?This is my fault,? and for once, she was sure it was his internal dialogue escaping. A small slip in his control of his aethervoice under his grief.

    One day, she would ask him about that¡ªabout why he thought it was his fault when he hadn¡¯t even been there¡ªbut now wasn¡¯t the time. Now, they had a god¡¯s mangled consciousness to deal with.

    Quickly, she and Hyr explained to V and Key what had happened, and what they thought the power around them was. Honestly, it could have just been the god losing control¡ªstars knew Emilia had all but lost control and only come back to herself with Hyr¡¯s help. The god¡¯s mind could still be in there, but the chances of anyone being able to reach them the way Hyr had her¡­ yeah, that was pretty unlikely.

    ?So¡­ what do we do?? Key asked as the aether¡¯s assault on them continued, growing fiercer despite Hyr and V¡¯s attempts to shield them from it with their cores. ?If this keeps growing¡­?

    ¡°It will destroy the building, and likely continue to spread,¡± Hyr agreed. ¡°It is possible the god will run out of power, but I doubt anyone knows such a thing.¡±

    ?I do.?

    Their group collectively swivelled to meet Carne¡¯s gaze, his slight smirk. Probably Carne then, not Ash. The thing that lived inside him, and¡ª

    ?You¡¯re a god as well,? Emilia said, thinking back to her first discussion with the Clarity god. They had told her other gods wandered this world as well, offering their power to groups they deemed worthy. The being that took over Risen Guard was probably a god as well¡ªone whose interests ironically didn¡¯t align with the organization¡¯s current goals, although perhaps that was because according to what she¡¯d heard, the Risen Guard had been around for a long time, long enough for its mission and beliefs to change many times over.

    ?That I am.? Carne¡¯s eyes flicked to the raging storm of power and rage. ?I do not know what you did, but you released their power into their world. We exist in vessels because our power cannot exist uncontrolled in this world. It will grow. It will destroy.?

    ?Like I said,? Emilia bitterly laughed, smiling tightly back at Hyr, ?I consistently fuck things up.?

    ?Emilia¡­? V began to say, his eyes flicking over her, searching¡ªsearching for whatever it was that was making the person who had ended the war say such things, she assumed.

    Emilia wouldn¡¯t be telling him. As much as she knew some of her cycling thoughts weren¡¯t accurate¡ªthat the words and thoughts that had started her self-hatred weren¡¯t her own or even based in anything more than a single person¡¯s angry, bitter reality¡ªshe didn¡¯t want to be told that. Not now, maybe not ever, but especially not now¡ªnot when her best attempts to help this world had ended so terribly, had doomed it not to be taken over by a cult but completely consumed by an out of control power that they couldn¡¯t stop.

    ¡°Can we stop it?¡± Hyr asked, and it was nice to know at least one of them wasn¡¯t panicking. Leave it to a syn to be the voice of reason, even though they were one of the youngest people in their group.

    Carne¡¯s lips twitched as he assessed the northerner. ?I knew I liked you.?

    Hyr glared, seemingly unimpressed to have earned the approval of Carne¡ªof a god of this world.

    Emilia couldn¡¯t blame them: something told her being disliked by someone¡ªsomething¡ªlike Carne was preferable to being liked by it.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 215: A Healthy Dose of Hope

    ?I believe the gods from without are interfering in this world,? Carne said from within the bubble of protection he¡ªit? Emilia wasn¡¯t really sure what to think of Carne as anymore¡ªand Hyr were creating for them, all of them seated in a circle.

    Emilia had tucked herself into the safely V¡¯s chest, although Hyr had swiped up her hand and was feeding energy into her. It was making her feel better¡ªmore balanced. Hyr hadn¡¯t said as much, but she had the feeling something strange was going on inside her, and while the syn didn¡¯t know exactly what it was, they were doing their best to keep her from devolving into a puddle of stress and self-hatred again.

    Mostly, she had been left to assume it was either the result of something Payton was doing with her knots or just¡­ that she was the same broken person she¡¯d been in the months directly following the war. Back then, she hadn¡¯t yet messed around with her knots¡ªhad instead been holding out hope that time and distance and perhaps a really good knot therapist might be able to sort out her mangled genes. The world had been a terrible place, her mind chronically playing tricks on her to the point that half the time she¡¯d been unable to distinguish the nightmares of her mind from reality. Then, she¡¯d almost been killed by an echo as she tried to convince her mind that it wasn¡¯t real¡ªthat she didn¡¯t really need to unleash wartime skills into the gaggle of screaming people¡ªand well¡­ combined with all the other things that had been going wrong in her life and the hope that she could be fixed being shot down by yet another professional¡­

    Yeah, it had been around then that she¡¯d started to mess around with her knots, intent to figure out how to live life as best she could. The current volatility of her personality reminded her of both those first months and a few in between when she¡¯d started experimenting with her knots and actually found something that worked¡ªthere were a lot of weird things that knots could cause, and an inability to control her emotions had been an unfortunate consequence of one particular attempt to patch herself together.

    This wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as that knot sequence had been¡ªEmilia didn¡¯t even want to think of some of the things she¡¯d done back when she had that sequence inside her¡ªbut it was still annoying. Luckily, she supposed, she had people with her this time. It wasn¡¯t until after she¡¯d figured out her knots that she¡¯d applied to Astrapan and met Beth or Pria or Sil¡ªor Elijah and his shitbag friends, she supposed. Now, she had V and Hyr, each holding her like she was precious¡ªlike they weren¡¯t judging her for falling apart. Then, when she went home, she¡¯d have them and all her other friends and all the people she still wanted to let back into her life, as long as they were still willing to be her friend.

    That was different too, she supposed. Rather than fear her friends and family the way she had back then, the feelings of peace she had amassed in the raid still existed. It wasn¡¯t a perfect peace¡ªand especially when it came to certain people, she was still scared shitless they¡¯d figure out exactly what had driven her away and take revenge on the person who had taken their anger out on her¡ªbut there was some peace.

    A little hope, as well, that in the future she would be able to scrunch her feet into the beaches of her home once more, be able to smile as she fearlessly walked into her childhood home like she¡¯d never left, be able to pop in on Hetexia or Olivier or Helix or anyone else without fear that nightmare memories would come for her, or they would kick her out because they too somehow blamed her for not stopping the war soon enough.

    No, rather, she was looking forward to being able to see people again. Of course, in order to do that, she had to get out of the raid¡ªwhich wasn¡¯t going to be hard, as there was little time left in the raid¡ªand stop the god¡ªEmilia wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d be able to forgive herself if this world was destroyed because of her. Plus, she was still more than a little nervous about how far the god¡¯s power would stretch, if this really were the real aether dragged into the raid.

    As such, she needed to stop pouting and pull it together. Time to put on her big girl pants, even if she was still technically only wearing her {Blood Armour}. At the very least, Key¡ªwho had tucked himself into V¡¯s other side¡ªwasn¡¯t avoiding looking at her the way he had back when he¡¯d first come across her wearing only it, back in the Library Labyrinth.

    So long ago, so many bumps and deaths along the way. They¡¯d already said goodbye once, but now, as they sat pressed into the same man¡¯s chest, listening to Carne, V and Hyr discuss the likelihood that whoever was interfering in this world would help them stop the god, as they tried to determine under which circumstances they would¡ªor perhaps just simply could¡ªhelp them, Emilia reached her free hand out and poked the local boy in the cheek.

    They¡¯d already said their goodbyes, and there was nothing left to say¡ªit really seemed like too much to say it all again¡ªbut as they agreed to try the idea that Carne and Hyr had determined between them was the most likely to succeed, some glimmer of a future existing within their visions from the aether before they¡¯d been cut off from its paths, it felt like they needed something. Some tiny little gesture of friendship.

    Key smiled back at her, his eyes bright but tired, dark circles etched under them. Her friend reached out and poked her cheek in return. A hundred years could go by, and Emilia would still remember this moment. As hard as it was to consider, Emilia hoped he would too, in the blink of time it would take for him to live his life and die, once she and the other visitors left this world.

    ?How come you don¡¯t know how things will happen?? Emilia asked Carne as she accepted Hyr¡¯s somehow still pristine white jacket, holding it to her chest as she let her {Blood Armour} contract to give the others better access to her {Blood Tattoo}. ?I thought you were all scary because of how much you knew about the future?? Technically, no one had said that exactly, but there were vibes.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Beside her, V had pulled off his filthy, torn up shirt as well. Apparently, the fact that their original, useless {Blood Tattoo} had been connected had led to the one she¡¯d accidentally stolen from Tobias splitting between them. According to V, it had been exceptionally painful¡ªjust like her, he¡¯d passed out and experienced an extended raid dream in which she had been extremely drunk and handsy. When asked if he had taken advantage of her overly friendly, drunken state, much to the horror of Key, confusion of Hyr and disinterest of Carne, he had vehemently denied doing any such thing.

    Her friend had actually been rather offended she¡¯d even asked. That was probably fair. V was a sweetheart, and had learned enough about her own past assault that even suggesting he might do something like that wasn¡¯t very nice, even if she¡¯d meant it as a joke.

    ?The future is not so easily read where gods or visitors are concerned,? Carne said, his cool fingers running over the ink across her back. ?This is Boundary¡¯s life¡­?

    ?Oh¡­ yeah, so¡­ the original tattoo was created from a blood weapon I created using his blood? It exploded when V and I killed his Enclave babysitter, and they kinda combined to create that first tattoo? I kinda assumed that was why it was broken? Because it had two sources? Or maybe because only half of the blood was actually dead? Or because the balance was off¡ªit¡¯s not like Boundary bled that much when I created the {Blood Orb}.? She shrugged, not really knowing what to think of it, especially since all her experiments with the Clarity members they¡¯d come across hadn¡¯t yielded any ideas as to the why of its brokenness. ?Oh, I guess when I got this new tattoo, my system access asked if I wanted to overwrite the first one.?

    ?What did you say??

    ?Nothing. I didn¡¯t know what to make of it, so just pushed the dialog box to the side. Even now, it¡¯s still over there, in the corner of my vision.? In hindsight, maybe that was why the new blood tattoo was broken? Oops.

    V gave her a concerned look.

    ?What??

    ?Isn¡¯t that annoying?? he asked, jerking away when Carne¡¯s fingers dragged over his tattoo in turn. Sensitive. Chances were the local man¡ªno, not man; the fucking god¡¯s¡ªfingers weren¡¯t even as cold as they¡¯d been when they touched her, having soaked in some of her heat.

    Emilia shrugged, holding Hyr¡¯s fluffy coat closer to her. It was ridiculously warm and soft. If she wasn¡¯t against killing animals unless necessary, she would have asked for one in the real world. Alas. Synthetics were pretty good, though, so maybe if she got her hands on a real Nur¡¯tha coat, she could have one made up for her? It would be expensive, but with Olivier¡¯s money¡ª Ooh, actually! Better idea: giant duvet made of a synthetic version of this fur!

    ?Emilia??

    ?Hm?? Oh, shit. She was supposed to be answering V¡¯s question!

    ?Not really? I¡¯ve been ignoring messages on my Censor for¡­ well, my whole life, really.? She laughed, telling a few stories of various notifications she¡¯d ignored over the years, especially when she was younger or received annoying messages from the higher ups during the war.

    Part of the Military Censor System had been designed to allow the brass to push popup notifications to anyone not actively engaged in conflict. They had, at times, overused this feature, especially in the last years of the war. In theory, it was good! Notify the rank and file of attacks occurring and ask that anyone available spark out to help with evacuations. There were a lot of them who didn¡¯t want being engaged in something distracting¡ªlike sex or games¡ªto lead them to ignore a notification and not head out to save people. In practice, sometimes there were too many attacks, too many requests for help, and Emilia had been among the portion of veterans who disabled their Censors from taking their fatigue into account, unless they were literally about to keel over.

    In other words: she had received a lot of notifications about things she really couldn¡¯t do anything about. As a result, she had pushed that specific channel to the far corner of her vision¡ªit would pop up in front of her face over and over if she just closed it. Forced into the corner, it would blink when a new message came in, but eventually, even that had just faded away from her conscious notice.

    Now, even Emilia wondered why she hadn¡¯t just disabled the notifications entirely. Mental burnout, she supposed. Disabling it required thinking about it, and she¡ªand so many others¡ªhad had so little left to give those last few years. In the end, ignoring it had made more sense.

    Regardless of the stupidity behind her and others'' decision to mess with their notifications like this, the look V was giving her implied that certain moments of the war were suddenly lining up for him. ?You weren¡¯t the only one who did this,? he stated blandly.

    ?Nope.?

    The man nodded, pieces falling into place. ?I wish someone had suggested that to me. My family had a custom CS. They sent way too many persistent notifications.?

    Despite how close they were getting to openly talking about his real-world identity, Emilia wanted to know more¡ªwanted to ask all the questions about her friend¡¯s family life that she never would have imagined he¡¯d answer in the past. Unfortunately, as much as her curiosity had been stirred up, they did have to get back to dealing with the god before the raid ended, a deadline that was quickly approaching as the three others began to look over their shared tattoo, trying to figure out if they could do anything with it.

    At the very least, the god¡¯s power was a slow-growing thing, so they didn¡¯t have to worry that it would explode out of the Clarity City System and consume the world while they organized themselves. Plus, it was giving Boundary and the others¡ªcontacted through Carne, as Emilia and the other visitors¡¯ system access was still down¡ªtime to evacuate. Thankfully, that wouldn¡¯t take them long, as almost everyone who had come into the city system was capable of teleporting. They had been in the middle of evacuating a large group of residents, however, and no one had been inclined to leave anyone behind.

    They would, though, if they needed to. Hopefully, when they did leave, it would be because they were done or because their group had figured out a way to stop the god, not because they were fruitlessly trying to flee its power.

    ?I believe your avoidance of dealing with the tattoo will be helpful,? Carne finally said, after going over their theory on why whoever was meddling in the raid wasn¡¯t interfering more directly once more, making sure he had the facts correct. ?Erase the old tattoo. It is likely the gods from without will offer you a weapon capable of stopping¡ª no, containing the god.?

    Emilia looked to V¡ªhe had part of the {Blood Tattoo}, after all. The other visitor shrugged, muttering that he didn¡¯t have any better ideas.

    Accepting and hoping it was, then.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 216: I think the gods (from without) are losing faith in us

    Apparently, whoever was managing this whole affair¡ªwhether the platform maintainer, raid designer or someone else entirely¡ªdidn¡¯t have as much confidence in Carne and Hyr¡¯s ability to read the universe as they themselves¡ªas well as increasingly Emilia herself¡ªhad. Rather, once Emilia had selected the option for her and V¡¯s first {Blood Tattoo} to be purged from their bodies, the aether within them swirling and shattering in a way that put Hyr on edge, their hand tightening around her own¡ªit was only then that Emilia realized the syn had barely released her since they and Caro had descended into her disastrous fight with the god¡ªsomething different happened: for the first time, Emilia and V were supplied instructions on how to use their new blood weapon.

    Carne seemed annoyed when they told him, her and V¡¯s eyes mutually reading over the dialog box that had slotted itself into their vision. Hyr didn¡¯t seem to care, which probably made sense¡ªthe Nur¡¯sa had a long history of blowing off the seeing abilities of the synat. Even Emilia herself had done so, to some extent. Granted, the syna Gru had never been particularly open with their own abilities, preferring to keep to themself, so it wasn¡¯t like she had much experience with synat abilities.

    In hindsight, the most obvious the syna Gru had been with her about their seeing abilities was when they had ¡®accidentally¡¯ stumbled on her and a bunch of her badly behaved friends eavesdropping on a very important meeting of the higher ups. That accident had been a big part of how the Gru had become a part of their division.

    Still, for as much as the syna Gru had always been private about themself, never quite meshing with the unit, their death had been hard¡ªwatching someone as generally stoic as Hetexia breakdown had been extremely disconcerting¡ªand while Emilia definitely felt bad they died during the war, another part of her was annoyed! Now that she had seen Hyr¡¯s abilities, she was seriously curious as to how much the syna Gru had seen during the war and never told anyone¡ªsave perhaps Hetexia, who now that she thought about it had sometimes supplied ridiculously good strategies for assaults¡ªfor fear that their words would be brushed off.

    Emilia wanted to ask them what had gone through their head during the war, how they had lived with knowing things and being unable to tell someone who would listen. Had they known when each member of their unit would die? Where each assault would come next?

    Had they seen Alliance Ridge coming? Had they seen their own death coming?

    Hyr might know¡ªor at least, they would be able to tell her whether the synat as a whole had a policy for how to deal with similar situations, as well as what they themself thought they would do, were they to suddenly find themself in another war.

    Later, perhaps, she¡¯d ask them. When they were out of here. Eventually, Emilia hoped they¡¯d have a chance to talk to them about that and their life, about Eruzia and how their connection to the aether worked and if the Northern Tribes had any myths or histories similar to what Conrad¡¯s Free Colony and Dion¡ªpossibly¡ªhad.

    Later, the two of them would meet, hopefully. They hadn¡¯t talked about it, but she hoped they would meet up again. Perhaps that would be whenever she made her way to Nur¡¯tha, perhaps sooner.

    Perhaps Hyr, future reader that she increasingly believed they were, might already know.

    ?We have to split up,? V said over Carne¡¯s complaints about gods from without not believing in the power of the gods from within¡ªthe god really was quite upset about this, more emotion flowing out of him than Emilia had ever seen. ?One of us stays here, the other leaves¡­ goes to the area above this place.?

    ?Looks like we need to be at the centre points¡­? Emilia noted, reading over the instructions again. This wasn¡¯t the sort of thing they wanted to fuck up. ?I hope that just means centre on the ground, for whoever stays in here. It would really suck to have to try and time some jump from the top of the buildings.? The eventual splat on the ground would also be rather terrible, virtual or not.

    V¡¯s lips quirked as they followed Carne back up the stairs, searching for the two girls they¡¯d left behind for some reason¡ªeven Carne said it was a future that may have been cut off, due to what had happened with the other god, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. All he knew was the girls needed to stay behind, and now, he couldn¡¯t see any future for any of them; the god¡¯s power interfering with his connection to the universe, apparently. Both Carne and Hyr could catch glimpses, but they were blurry and unclear, each hoping that once they were out of the god¡¯s reach they would be able to see more.

    ?I¡¯ll stay,? V said as they reached Gale and Phino, who looked¡­ not so good. Evidently, watching her brother and friends explode hadn¡¯t been good for her, and when Hyr reminder her that Phino and his sister were barely old enough to use temporary Censors and hadn¡¯t been in many raids¡­

    Yeah, the poor kid was going to need some therapy. Luckily, the Northern Tribes had an excellent caste of therapists. She¡¯d be fine¡­ eventually.

    ?Stay where?? Gale asked, popping up and peering around, searching in a way that broke Emilia¡¯s heart.

    As much as the local teen had usually found Caro annoying, there was no denying the two had had a connection. To watch her now searching for them, her shoulders sagging, lips and eyelashes trembling as Key told her the child had died¡­ Emilia¡¯s heart broke all over again, Hyr¡¯s energy naturally beginning to press into her once again.

    The syn¡¯s energy wasn¡¯t like Conrad¡¯s. Where the other visitors had been strong and forceful¡ªa strange wall of protection and comfort¡ªHyr¡¯s was soft and caring¡ªa gentle pull back to the ground. They were both nice, neither preferable to the other, although she was sure Conrad¡¯s wouldn¡¯t have been as grounding. There had been that moment, of course, when she¡¯d begun to disassociate while watching him interrogate the Clarity members, but while his energy had been there, keeping her company, the man himself had been what brought her back down.

    Hyr, on the other hand, could leave¡ªwalk away and never look back, only a small tether of their energy continuing to exist between them¡ªand Emilia was sure she¡¯d still feel better. Protection versus healing, she supposed.

    ?I¡¯m gonna stay here, while you all leave,? V softly told Gale, pulling Emilia out of her winding thoughts on cores and how much she wanted to be able to feel her Free Colony friends¡¯ energy within her in the real world now. Definitely something high on her priorities list, once she got out of this place. ?You feel that thing around us? It¡¯s the thing that was powering the minds of the Clarity members. We have to stop it before it goes further than this place.?

    Gale frowned, scuffed her bare foot against the ground next to Phino, who didn¡¯t really seem to be paying attention to anything. ?So¡­ this is goodbye??

    V tugged the girl into a hug, reminding Emilia of how much time the two of them¡ªalong with Astra and Caro¡ªhad spent together. Her as well, at different times. In the end, Gale was the only one of the strange little group from Livery who would be left in this world¡­ all alone, no less.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ?Psst, Key~? she hissed at the local boy. Her haphazard attempts to keep their conversation private worked, amazingly¡ªalthough she couldn¡¯t help but think Hyr could feel her talking to Key somehow, what with their energy twinning together. ?Can you, like¡­ take care of her? She doesn¡¯t have anyone anymore.?

    Key looked between her and Gale, who had stepped back from V and was resolutely looking at no one as they waited for Boundary to come get them, the last of the evacuees being moved as V bid his goodbyes.

    ?I¡¯ll try,? he said, sounding truly terrified of the teenager. That was fair¡ªmore than fair.

    ?Maybe Rin can help¡­ she probably only has you now, too,? Emilia mused, silently wishing an increasingly concerned looking Key luck. Gale and Rin against Key¡­ yeah, they were going to eat him alive.

    V turned away from Gale, awkwardly bidding Key a goodbye. ?Thanks for coming to help us,? he said, the two of them having apparently discussed Key¡¯s reason for finding them at some point. ?You¡¯re a good guy, and it¡¯s easy for the world to try and squish that out of you.? The other visitor laughed as Boundary popped up, beginning to move their group. ?Even I might have tried to talk you out of coming to save us, and I can¡¯t tell you what¡¯s right or wrong, but what you did was kind. Keep your heart safe. It¡¯s better to die a stupid man with a good heart, than an old bastard who was more concerned with himself than anyone else.?

    Key¡¯s mouth opened, but Boundary popped up behind him, having already moved the girls, and whatever he was going to say was lost to embarrassment.

    ?See you soon,? Emilia said quietly before Boundary pulled her and Key away, up to the surface where Rin and Phlostra were supervising the last of the evacuees, who they¡¯d resorted to bringing onto the land above the Clarity City System, due to how long the safety precautions at the landing pads were taking.

    Boundary vanished once more as Emilia skimmed through the instructions yet again. The Risen Guard would move V where he needed to be, the centre of the city system, then move Emilia where she needed to be. Two points of power, which would join and lock the city system down. No one, not even the god, would be able to escape. That also meant all the people still inside would be trapped as well¡ªtheir final plan to destroy all remaining Clarity members and anyone too difficult to evacuate coming to its terrible conclusion.

    Looking around in the few moments she had, Emilia took in the people the others had been able to save. The people here were a small portion of those removed by the combined efforts of the Risen Guard and the rebel Clarity group, many of whom were seated against the decrepit buildings the existed above the Clarity City System, two of which were collapsed from whatever had taken out the one building inside the city system.

    ?Oh¡­ uh¡­ I don¡¯t know what caused that?? Key told her as they waited for Boundary to come back, everyone growing antsy as it took longer than it should have for him to return. ?We were inside that building, you know? We were running from Sk¡¯lar, and he was so close behind us that I couldn¡¯t try teleporting us out¡ªalthough, V did try to convince me to take Caro and Gale out.? The boy¡¯s head dipped as he admitted that maybe he should have, contemplating whether that would have made a difference or not, whether Caro would be alive or not if he had.

    ¡°You should not torture yourself with what ifs,¡± Hyr said softly, their vision once more fixed through the {Blood Glass}. ¡°You can never know what would have changed. All three of you could be dead now, had you left then.¡±

    ?Is something wrong?? Emilia asked, watching the bob of Hyr¡¯s throat as they swallowed, their eyes and the {Blood Glass} following the trail of something downwards, below their feet and then¡ª

    ?YOU!? Carne yelled, grabbing Phino and hauling her up. ?You are needed.?

    ?Wha¡ª? the northern girl started to ask, Hyr already surging forward to remove her from Carne¡¯s grasp, their energy tugging free of Emilia so violently she almost toppled over.

    ?Please!? Carne said¡ªand Emilia couldn¡¯t imagine the god saying please in anything but a sarcastic tone, so she assumed Ash was suddenly in control again. ?Boundary, you have to¡ª? Ash¡¯s words cut off as Boundary teleported back in, a giant hole ripped through his shoulder. Ash took several steps forward, catching Boundary, their eyes wide and afraid. ?Please?? he asked again, turning those eyes onto Phino who looked scared shitless, but wasn¡¯t resisting Hyr¡¯s attempts to move her closer.

    The syn leaned down, whispering into the young jur¡¯s ear in Brylish, Emilia catching bits and pieces of his advice and support as she joined Carne beside Boundary, hissing as the Risen Guard¡¯s blood burned her fingers while she tugged his armour away, revealing the hole through his shoulder. It wasn¡¯t through his heart, at least, and while it was big, it certainly wasn¡¯t something that would have been fatal in their world.

    In this world, though? Given the looks on the faces of nearby locals, it was probably fatal. Thankfully, they had a healer from their world here, and even a baby jur should be able to heal something like this well enough that it wouldn¡¯t be fatal.

    That was assuming the young girl could pull herself together, anyways. Fortunately, Hyr was just as solid and grounding a force for their sister¡¯s friend as they¡¯d been for Emilia¡ªand no, that wasn¡¯t jealousy bubbling in her stomach at watching them use their energy on someone else, thanks¡ªand it didn¡¯t take long for Phino to relent and kneel beside them as well, her energy immediately beginning to flow into Boundary and pull the aether of his wound back together, so reminiscent of both the blood curse of this world¡ªalbeit much more impressive, the blood curse having easily given up on healing the wound¡ªand the ability of the real-world raids¡ªand the skills that powered them¡ªto pull the world back together after they concluded.

    This was the impressive healing of the jur¡¯t¡ªthe power that pulled through the memories of the aether and reformed what was lost. This was the technique that had inspired Emilia to design the skill pair {Memories of a Moment} and {Limited Rewind}, which had unfortunately been co-opted by Hail to power the raids, along with whatever skill¡ªshe couldn¡¯t currently recall the name of it, okay?¡ªthat altered the world for the raids, whatever proprietary skill powered its monsters, as well.

    Seriously, though, Hail using skills she had designed was one thing¡ªalthough her brain was still itching over what her dream version of Halen had talked about, in regards to her and others still retaining some ownership over their contributions to real and virtual raids¡ªbut it was the question of how they¡¯d managed to make them work without a person powering them that bothered her. Unless Hail was lying, machines powered the execution of real-world raids, and as much as Emilia could appreciate how terrifying the skills behind them were¡ªall of the locals watching Phino heal Boundary were certainly giving off a certain amount of absolutely terrified vibes¡ªit was Hail¡¯s ability to remove the human aspect that was frightening. Small skills could be executed by machines. None of the skills needed to make raids work were small.

    ?What happened?? Rin asked, popping Emilia out of her thoughts. The former¡ªmaybe former¡ªRisen Guard was looking around through narrowed eyes for possible threats. Various Risen Guard Emilia hadn¡¯t formally met adjusted their stances as well, magic swelling through the air and pressing down on the evacuees, as though whatever had happened to Boundary in the Clarity City System were about to be repeated up here.

    ?The power,? Boundary managed to cough out, which was significantly better than the gurgles they¡¯d managed before Phino started healing them, ?threw debris. Didn¡¯t see it coming.? His eyes met Emilia¡¯s. ?Go.?

    Her map flashed, a spot lighting up just as it had back when he¡¯d just been the random Risen Guard saving her and the Livery children, giving her access to his system simply because they had a similar goal.

    ?V is¡­ waiting.?

    If Boundary could be nearly killed by the power of the god throwing around random shit, V could too.

    Emilia took off, racing down the path Boundary had set for her through the collapsed buildings, trying not to stumble and kill herself on something sharp. What a terrible turn of events that would have been.

    The last thing she saw before she ran off, however, broke her heart. Gale. It wasn¡¯t concern for Boundary written on her face¡ªEmilia didn¡¯t think the local teen cared much for the man, even now¡ªbut rather Gale was staring at Carne, horrified and fully aware that her brother still existed within him.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 217: Goodbye, forever

    Emilia felt V¡¯s life snuff out, his mind spiralling back to the real world as the force of the {Blood Tattoo}¡¯s power bared down on him.

    It was fine.

    She was fine.

    It wasn¡¯t like she had actually killed her friend¡ªlike he had actually given up his life to save this world.

    It was fine.

    She was fine.

    It¡ª

    Hyr¡¯s arms wrapped around her, warm and safe, their energy seeping through her and pulling her back to the strange reality of the raid. Across her vision, the twenty minutes left in the raid ticked by. Twenty minutes, and while they may have stopped the god, the cavern under them feeling strange and locked away even to her, they still had no idea how to end the blood curse.

    They had solved a problem that hadn¡¯t existed before their arrival¡ªalthough a small part of Emilia did remind her that the god of Clarity had been a problem before their arrival, just not as big a one as it had become during the visitation¡ªbut the biggest problem was still there, and this time, they had no unactivated blood weapon for the gods from without to mess with.

    They had nothing.

    No hope, and¡ª

    ¡°Hatrav,¡± Hyr breathed into her ear, tugging her around and hoisting her into their arms. ¡°Hatrav.¡±

    Emilia tried to breathe, but mostly, she just wanted to cry. ?I don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong with me,? she whispered into his neck¡ª Well, it wasn¡¯t really whispered into his neck because of the whole aethervoice thing, but there were vibes. ?My emotions are just so¡­ hot.?

    The syn hummed as they moved back to the others. Part of Emilia wanted to be embarrassed at being carried like a child by the northerner, her arms looped around their neck and legs clasped around their waist. Hyr was younger than her¡ªless than half her age¡ªand yet at the moment, she felt like the younger one. Broken, sad, shattering.

    ?I just¡­ I wanted to help the people here. Instead, I let that god loose, and now, we¡¯re out of time.?

    ?Time must end for the blood curse to end,? Carne¡ªor perhaps Ash, Emilia really didn¡¯t care about which persona they were wearing anymore, having come to the conclusion they were both big fat jerks.

    ?What does that even mean?? she asked, turning her head to glare at the man.

    He was no longer sitting beside Boundary, who was now being tended to by Phino, who had apparently found her inner leader and was now discussing Nur¡¯tha healing methods with several locals. The Risen Guard was sitting up, shirtless, and blinking rather unevenly into the abyss. Across his chest, his wound continued to close, as did the burn marks from his blood. The man smiled weakly at her, a message sliding into her, telling her she¡¯d done a good job. If only she believed him.

    ?Everything has a time and place,? Carne told her, his voice holding enough condescension that yeah, that was Carne again. Apparently, without Boundary¡¯s life in danger, Ash had once again fallen under Carne¡¯s overpowering personality.

    Nearby, Gale sat next to Rin and Key. She didn¡¯t look happy, neither with her two new companions nor the man who constituted Carne and her brother. Of course she wasn¡¯t happy: Gale now knew Ash was in there. Worse, Ash had come out when Boundary''s life was in danger. There had been so many times when Gale¡¯s life had been in danger, and yet¡­

    And yet, even when Emilia had come across him, evacuating the homeless children, Ash had done nothing for his sister. Gale had been missing, and yet in Ash¡¯s mind, their stories likely hadn¡¯t been meant to meet yet. Perhaps that was the curse of being so closely connected to the aether: that knowing meant a loss of at least some free will. Even when travelling with Hyr, there had been so many moments where they had followed the path laid out for them by the universe and the {Blood Glass}. If what they had wanted to do something that had contradicted the path it was directing them down¡­

    Emilia didn¡¯t know what they would have done, especially now that she believed¡ªnow that she knew that following that path had led them to V and the kids, plus Key. Shooting Key an apologetic look¡ªalthough she couldn¡¯t hear them and was polite enough not to purposefully read what they were saying, Gale was clearly taking out her frustration on him, and Rin seemed perfectly happy to go along with the teenager¡¯s whims¡ªshe turned her attention back to Carne, who out of all his unfortunate personality traits was also just so¡­ patient. A consequence of that whole time and place thing, she supposed.

    ?You¡¯re saying that the blood curse is meant to be broken near the end of the raid? How??

    The man smirked. Asshole.

    ?Not near the end. In the last seconds of the raid.? He turned towards Boundary, asking if he was able to move. ?You, too, little boy,? he added, startling Key out of his moaning about being bullied by mean girls.

    Gale glared at Carne, the man barely sparing her a glance in return. Emilia¡­ didn¡¯t think it was cruelty, but rather a kindness. Just as Ash had told her, Gale knowing Ash was alive but unable to be her brother any longer was painful. Ignoring Gale, putting a firmer wall between them¡­ it was a shitty solution, but if neither Carne nor Ash had a solution to the situation¡ªno idea of how to allow Ash and Gale even the smallest of relationships¡ªEmilia was inclined to believe they were right.

    Even if they weren¡¯t, going against either of those two¡¯s opinions on the matter was a lost cause. Gale was better off returning to viewing her brother as dead. Certainly, the Ash who could be her brother was gone. What remained wasn¡¯t the Ash she had known¡ªor, if he was, it wasn¡¯t likely to be an Ash worthy of Gale¡¯s love, not when he wouldn¡¯t fight against the will of the universe, trying to find her.

    Although, they¡¯d all done the same thing, hadn¡¯t they? Their group had accepted that leaving V and the kids to die might be inevitable¡ªmight be required to save the world of the raid. Then, they had largely given up searching for Key after he was taken by Ajarni, knowing his life wasn¡¯t worth the risk of losing even the potential of an opportunity to end the blood curse.

    That was life and war, and Emilia couldn¡¯t really fault Carne or Ash for it, especially if they were capable of seeing the future and¡ª

    And it was all so complicated and sucked. At the very least, Gale shouldn¡¯t have been forced to watch Ash prepare to rip Phino apart if she didn¡¯t help Boundary, all the while knowing he had done nothing to save her.

    ¡°Emilia?¡±

    Emilia hummed into Hyr¡¯s neck, a physical sound that vibrated through them, the syn¡¯s energy vibrating softly in return.

    ¡°Do you still have the {Blood Marbles}?¡±

    If Hyr was asking¡­ she¡¯d clearly been zoning out. That wasn¡¯t helpful. The syn was just too comfortable and warm and soothing.

    Sighing, she let herself slip off them, their hands guiding her back to the ground and then swiping up one of her hands once she had pulled the little bag of marbles off her hip.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ?I don¡¯t get it,? she said as she handed the bag over to Carne, who proceeded to hand each of the five {Blood Marbles} off to Boundary, Key, Hyr and herself, the last remaining in his possession. ?What¡¯s so special about those??

    ?Nothing. There is nothing special about these, other than that they were created through a sacrifice. The boy whose blood created the first¡ª?

    ?Kelly,? Emilia said testily. As much as Kelly hadn¡¯t been a homeless child, she doubted Carne didn¡¯t know his name and wasn¡¯t just being an ass.

    ?The boy whose blood created the first,? Carne continued, still not using Kelly¡¯s name; if they¡¯d had more time, Emilia might have fought him about it, alas, ?lost his arm through sacrifice and bravery. There is nothing particularly special about that, but it created a blood item with no purpose.?

    ?No purpose?? Boundary asked, spinning the marble and looking through it. ?All blood items have some use.?

    ?Not these. As payment for his sacrifice, the original {Blood Marble} was useless. My best guess is that it was a kindness from the gods from without. If the demon who attacked him had used that first {Blood Marble}, it would have done nothing,? Carne told them, eyes shooting to Emilia when she snorted.

    ?Lot of good that would have done the kids, given that dude was carrying around a weapon of mass destruction.? Then again, Conrad¡¯s brother had been a sadist ass. Using a weapon created from Kelly¡¯s blood in an attempt to kill the kids definitely seemed like the sort of shitty thing he would have done. Too bad he hadn¡¯t¡ªseeing the look on his face when he realized it was useless would have been pretty good, especially if it had been followed up with his death.

    ?Regardless, each of the marbles contain no power,? Carne continued, tone testy like he really didn¡¯t like talking with her. Well, he never had liked her much, had he? Something about her seemed to irk him¡ªit had only been once she¡¯d been able to use her aethervoice and Ash had been in control that the two had finally talked, after all. ?I suppose that is their power: they render the holder unable to create new blood items, instead stacking more useless marbles upon them. As a result, these offer another opening for the gods from without.?

    Well, that explained why when it had been her alone killing people and creating blood weapons, all she¡¯d gotten in return were more marbles.

    ¡°They are empty¡ªeven less claimed than the {Blood Tattoo} was,¡± Hyr noted, peering at the {Blood Marble} through the {Blood Glass}. ¡°Just one should have been enough, I would think?¡±

    Carne shook their head, telling them that the gods from without liked spectacles.

    ?Yeah¡­? Emilia agreed, sighing long and hard. ?People from our world are kinda shitty. They like things having symbolism behind them. I think it''s even worse in raids? They want to have stories behind things. While they could just use one to randomly end the blood curse¡­?

    ?They won¡¯t,? Boundary finished, scowling. It was unclear if the scowl was because all the people involved in raids were annoying, or because Phino was now poking at his wound and it hurt.

    ?So¡­ what do we do?? Key asked, looking awkwardly between everyone.

    ?I have seen the future, the places we need to go,? Carne said, his voice even and authoritative. ?Five points for the five of us. There will be symbolism, although I will only tell it to you.?

    ?Me?? Key squeaked. He might have bolted, except Rin had appeared beside him and appeared to be holding him in place, her own expression hard as she eyed up the god. Right, as a Risen Guard, she¡¯d been told to stay clear of him.

    ?It is only meant for our ears. Not the visitors. Not the Risen Guard or?¡ªCarne motioned with a lazy gesture to the people gathered around them, curiously watching as their group discussed how to break the blood curse¡ª?them. I will tell you where to go. Bid your goodbyes.? With that the man turned and wandered away. He didn¡¯t go far, just enough that he was out of sight¡ªaway from Gale and Boundary¡¯s occasional glances, perhaps.

    ?Goodbye, indeed¡­? Emilia said, smiling at her friends and noting the way Hyr politely stepped away, giving them some privacy, their energy gently tethering them together. ?We already said goodbye. No doubling up,? she told Key, smiling when he rolled his eyes and instead pushed Rin forward, moving to grab Gale, who was still seated against a building, glaring at the ground.

    ?You gonna stay with them for a bit?? Emilia asked her friend¡ªperhaps her first friend in this world, regardless of how bumpy that friendship had been.

    Rin nodded, glancing towards Key and Gale, who had somehow ended up arguing as Gale refused to be hauled off the ground, her body gone limp as Key struggled with her. ?I do not know how long I will last.?

    Emilia nodded back, muttering that that was fair before pulling the local girl into a hug. Perhaps she should thank her, tell her she¡¯d miss her, that she¡¯d been imperative to their success and hadn¡¯t fucked up her career¡ªnot to mention her friendship with Harmony¡ªfor nothing. No words¡ªno words worth saying¡ªcame to her, however, and instead they just held each other for a long moment. Not too long! They had places to be! Curses to end!

    ?Take care of yourself,? Rin said as they pulled apart.

    Emilia opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly Gale was being thrust in front of her and Rin was vanishing along with Key.

    The local teen wouldn¡¯t look at her, and it broke Emilia¡¯s heart. Out of everyone still living, Gale had it the worst. She was a child, in the end, and yet had no one. No friends. No annoying children hanging off her. No adults she trusted to take care of her. Gale was alone, and that wasn¡¯t fair.

    ?They¡¯re good people, you know?? Emilia asked, tilting her head in the direction of Rin and Key, who were now arguing over¡­ something. It was unclear what, even her ability to read private conversation just coming back¡­ confused.

    ?I know¡­? Gale said, foot scuffing over the dry ground. She still didn¡¯t have shoes, likely having ditched them during her captivity. Hopefully someone would be able to get her some soon.

    ?Then, what is it??

    The girl glanced at her, away. ?I¡¯ll just¡­ be a burden. They¡¯re barely even adults. They shouldn¡¯t have to be responsible for me.?

    Emilia laughed¡ªshe couldn¡¯t help it! ?Gale,? she said, ignoring the way the teenager turned a glower on her, ?I think you¡¯re more responsible than Key.?

    To the side, Key yelled that he had heard that and Rin questioned if he thought Emilia was lying¡ªshe was, a little bit. Key was just inexperienced with the world. He¡¯d learn and grow and hopefully remain the same, loving person he was now. Sweet and kind, his heart too big for his own good¡ªsomething she told Gale.

    ?Don¡¯t worry, Gale,? Emilia said, pulling the girl into a semi-consensual hug. Eventually, the local¡¯s stiff posture relaxed, and her hug was returned, the squeeze tighter than Emilia had expected. ?You¡¯ll be okay. They¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re okay. Do you trust me??

    It took a long moment, but eventually Gale nodded into her, her body sagging when Emilia assured her that if she thought the three of them wouldn¡¯t work as a strange friend-family unit, she wouldn¡¯t have asked Key to take care of her.

    ?It will be okay. You¡¯ll all take care of each other. You¡¯ll hate each other and care for each other, and you¡¯ll be okay.?

    When they separated, Gale still didn¡¯t look entirely convinced, but after sending one more, sad little glance in the direction Carne had disappeared, she relented and wandered over to Rin and Key, arms crossed and a scowl falling over her face.

    Then, it was just her and Boundary¡­ and Phino.

    ?I¡¯m glad you didn¡¯t die.?

    ?Me, too,? Boundary said, flinching when Phino poked his wound again. ?Aren¡¯t we done??

    ?Almost.? The northern teen didn¡¯t sound particularly convincing, but time was running out, and at least Boundary wasn¡¯t dead.

    ?Will you tell Emile about me??

    ?Yes.? The answer was so fast¡ªso final¡ªthat all the teasing words Emilia had stored up for her once-babysitter vanished.

    Instead, she just nodded and shooed Phino away after confirming that Boundary really wouldn¡¯t die if the jur stopped healing him. For a long moment, she buried herself against him. There was nothing to say, no apologies to be given or need for last parting words. Rather, when she pulled back, she instead conned Hyr out of his jacked again, letting her {Blood Armour} contract and handing it and all her other blood item¡ªsave the {Blood Marble}, of course, as well as Caro¡¯s gifted {Blood Hairclip}, which she just couldn¡¯t bring herself to part with¡ªover to him.

    ?For the next visitation, perhaps, assuming they still work after the blood curse is gone. Maybe Emile, or his child, will meet someone just as annoying as me.?

    The fact that she wouldn¡¯t be returning to this world went unsaid. Part of her wanted to come back¡ªwanted to try and learn the fates of her friends when the next raid occurred, decades of in-game years from now. Another, much bigger part, knew she wouldn¡¯t. As much as curiosity would eat at her, all she would do is trap herself in a never-ending cycle of curiosity over more lost friends, and she wouldn¡¯t do that.

    Whether Boundary would keep the blood items for his descendants or not went unsaid as well. Perhaps he would keep them, if they retained their power¡ªhide them away, just in case. Perhaps he would be a good Risen Guard, and hide them away from everyone, even himself and his future family.

    ?Done?? Carne asked, like the asshole he was. Abrupt and demanding. Emilia wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt¡ªbelieve that it was just that this was when he¡¯d been destined to interrupt them¡ªbut she was pretty fucking sure he was just a jerk.

    ?Yup,? she said, glaring dangers at him as he directed each of them where to go, people being recruited from the crowd to move her and Hyr to their destinations.

 Arc 5 | Chapter 218: Five Points

    1.

    There is a place, where death occurred. Not once, not twice, not thrice. This place, pulled together by mistakes and grief, by a life reborn, not yet but soon, lies at the heart of it all. The aether¡ªthe universe itself, stitched together through the forces without. So rarely seen, tasted¡ªonly the smallest of speaks, sneaking about, seeking an end to the glory of the beast.

    Let it sneak.

    Let it sizzle.

    Let this world¡ªthe one without, within¡ªburn to the ground.

    ? ? ?

    Emilia was grateful for her short hair at the moment, as even the short silver locks, knotted and tangled from all she¡¯d been through these last few days, were being whipped about by the aetherstorm¡ªand part of her wondered how similar this was to a real-world aetherstorm, having never personally experienced one¡ªand leaving her constantly pushing pieces back, even the {Blood Hairclip} she¡¯d been gifted by Caro in the moments before their death not enough to completely stop it from annoying her eyes.

    As much as she and V had managed to stop the god¡¯s energy from spreading, locking it into the Clarity City System for all eternity¡ªif Carne was to be believed and the people managing the raid to be trusted not to let the damn thing out, anyways¡ªthat didn¡¯t mean this place was any less chaotic than it had been before the activation of their {Blood Tattoo}. Part of her was glad she was the one Carne had said needed to come to this place. Another part of her was annoyed: it really was a lot of work, trying to move through this place!

    On the other hand, it had been Phlostra who had died bringing her here. Would die, anyways.

    Their ability¡ªtheir locking in of what remained of Clarity¡¯s god¡ªtrapped everything within this place. She herself would die and return to the real world¡ªwell, at least she really hoped she would. What an end to the raid would that be¡ªnot to mention a strange and unfortunate way of proving that the raids were now fucking with human minds more than they should be.

    Better not to worry about that. There were bigger things to worry about, like how she still needed to get back to the place she had tried to kill the god, and how Phlostra was doing.

    The Clarity woman would never leave this place. Originally, Boundary had offered to bring her¡ªwhich was absolutely not happening, and luckily, Carne had shot him down immediately as well. He had his own mission¡ªhis own point¡ªto find. Phlostra volunteered next, and despite her having some family left to live for, Emilia could feel how done she was. Her leader was gone, as was so much of her family, so many of her friends.

    Phlostra moved her, smiled sadly, and left¡ªwandered into the swirling, slicing aether to die alongside all the other people left in this doomed place.

    2.

    Hearts align, unexpectedly. Brought together by grief and chance¡ªby the sweet kindness of the saviour from without. Saviour of this world. Saviour of that. Child, newly named. Love¡ªforever reaffirmed.

    Go home. Stay home. Live, love, and remember in words not spoken, not thought.

    ? ? ?

    Boundary collapsed onto his husband¡¯s back, a small part of him thankful their new son couldn¡¯t hear when Villy screamed in surprise.

    ?Boundary! You¡¯re back!? he cheered, after a respectable moment of gathering himself. For a Risen Guard, the man really was quite jumpy. It was no wonder he was generally assigned less important tasks¡ªnot that that hadn¡¯t ended up badly for him when Emilia knocked him out.

    Thank the universe that was all she had done.

    ?Yes,? Boundary said, leaning in to rest his head against his husband¡¯s, as he did every return home¡ªtheir little ritual since that moment Villy, his then friend, had comforted him when Ash had been lost to them. ?Where is Emile??

    Villy pulled back, looking him over with a wrinkled nose that said he did not approve of him meeting their recently acquired child when he was covered in grime. At least there was no blood, as there sometimes was when the blood curses decided it was too lazy to work¡ªat least, that¡¯s how many Risen Guard thought of its chronic inconsistency, anyways. It helped that one of the Risen Guards who had helped with the evacuations had given him his armour, knowing that his husband would freak if he returned shirtless, a near-fatal injury still healing across his chest.

    ?You need to shower,? the other man demanded, beginning to gently¡ªhumorously¡ªlecture him on properly greeting their child and not accidentally instilling bad habits in him, as though Villy weren¡¯t the chronically messy one in their relationship, constantly dropping food on himself and stumbling and marring his knees with dirt.

    Boundary looked at his timer¡ªthe one Carne had set for each of them, so they¡¯d be sure to be in their spots to activate their {Blood Marble} when the time was right. He had a little bit of time yet. Pressing a soft, fleeting kiss to his husband¡¯s lips, Boundary turned and headed for the bathroom, fighting against the maelstrom of emotions threatening his mind.

    He couldn¡¯t break, not over the impending departure of people he had oddly come to view as his friends and allies, nor everything they would have to do after, in order to deal with Clarity and the Enclave and repairing all the damage the visitors and their own corruption had caused.

    Later, he could break. Not now¡ªnot when the moment to break the blood curse as almost upon them.

    3.

    The blue of remembrance¡ªa single moment in a too short friendship. Here, it started. Here, where the rules of this world have bent and broken for a million years, the world will bend and break once more. Games and laughter, highs and lows. A last¡ªfirst¡ªmoment of friendship. Blood beneath and below¡ªblood gone, wiped free from this world.

    A little bit of history¡ªof hurt¡ªvanished.

    ? ? ?

    Key stared into the pool of water. He¡¯d always liked this place, strange and filled with colours that normally didn¡¯t exist in their world. Perhaps, after this¡ªif they managed to succeed¡ªthe world would no longer be red.

    He didn¡¯t mind if it continued to be red, nor would he mind if the possibility of colour would rise. Those were preferable to a complete shift in their perception¡ªor was it the world itself? There had been a few moments, with Emilia, where she¡¯d shown shock at the emersion of colour into their world. Here, in this cavern. When Rin had used magic to ignite the world in colour, before they had known more than each other¡¯s names¡ªback when the world had been easier.

    ?It¡¯s pretty here¡­? Gale said from where she stood beside him. Her gaze had caught not on the lake, but the stalactites high above them, menacing and beautiful.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ?I¡¯ve always thought so,? he said, catching sight of Rin scowling behind the local teenager.

    What a strange group they made: a former¡ªmaybe former¡ªEnclave member, an orphaned teen and a former¡ªprobably former¡ªRisen Guard.

    Three people who didn¡¯t belong, who were now together until who knew when.

    Out of them, Rin seemed the least impressed, although he couldn¡¯t tell what she was most annoyed by: him, Gale or the entire situation. Then again, perhaps it was the threat of running into Harmony at some point.

    It was inevitable that they¡¯d meet up with his family at some point, at least according to her. Somewhere in their evacuation of everyone, Rin and Boundary has discussed what to do about the Enclave. It was¡­ complicated, to say the least, and apparently the fact that he had been the only Enclave member to come help them put him into a strange position¡ªa position to help the Risen Guard deal with the Enclave and remaining Clarity members alike.

    Key¡­ wasn¡¯t sure what to think about that. As much as he¡¯d been raised in part to take over the Stringer family, that had been a long way off, and he wasn¡¯t even sure how genuine those intentions had been; there was just so much he didn¡¯t know, so much he¡¯d never been told.

    For a moment, his mind flickered back to Sk¡¯lar, now trapped within that god¡¯s storm, under an entire building. As much as their last moments¡ªthese last few weeks, really¡ªhad been marred with strain, the man had still been with him since he was a child, had become what he was in an effort to protect him. Some part of him was still in shock, he thought.

    Eventually, the reality of what Sk¡¯lar had become, simply due to his loyalty to the Stringer family, would hit him. Eventually, he would cry for the young man he had once been, for the monster he was surely becoming, trapped for eternity in that place.

    ?You gonna cry??

    Key had to look between his companions to figure out who was talking to him, abrasive as both women could be, although he figured he¡¯d learn their specific personality quirks soon.

    They were all each other had now, after all.

    4.

    Seeing does not come without a cost of closeness¡ªan invisibility that cannot be refused. Love blinds. Friendship restores. Yet, your heart shall not break. Not now, not a hundred, two, three from now.

    Little child from without, growing up too fast, but no choice given¡ªa choice that cannot be taken offered. Where fates unseen collide, where a single glance ignited fire that never before existed, where only curiosity has lingered since birth¡ªthere, the future awaits, beautiful and terrifying and unknown.

    ? ? ?

    Hyr stood outside the city buildings, where the universe had bid them to stop, in those early days of the raid. The rest of their group had gone on, not even noticing them stop.

    They shouldn¡¯t have stopped, but it was fate. A single glance of silver, through the thin alleys of that spice encased outer world as their group tried to escape the organization¡ªorganizations, Hyr now realized¡ªchasing them down. The slam of a door, as they sought their escape.

    Someone had let them go. Hyr had told Boundary about that, in the fleeting moments before they were moved to this place. Corruption runs deep, and if the Risen Guard thought their own members weren¡¯t purposefully letting the Enclave and Clarity have visitors, they were mistaken.

    The man hadn¡¯t seemed surprised as he gazed up at them, fatigue stretching over his body. There were too many visitors out and about, perhaps¡ªof course there were leaks. Perhaps by the time the next visitation occurred¡ªassuming this beautiful world wouldn¡¯t be cruelly scrapped¡ªthey will have stamped out that corruption.

    The aether rippled, not quite a vision, but an invitation to look, and Hyr looked, pulling the {Blood Glass} up to their eye to gaze through. A Risen Guard had been assigned to them, someone Emilia¡¯s friend trusted to gather the {Blood Glass} once they were gone from this world, so it wouldn¡¯t drive anyone insane, bidding them to search for paths that would be too much for their minds to handle.

    The future it showed Hyr now¡­ it was acceptable.

    It existed.

    There was colour.

    There was blood, innocent and uncaring, smeared across the limbs of smiling, laughing children.

    That was acceptable. That was possibly a world worth the horrors they had inflicted upon this world.

    5.

    The touch of a god¡¯s birth. The touch of a saviour¡¯s hand, back, heart. A thousand gods come and go, born at the strangest of moments, disappeared before a single soul notices their arrival.

    A thousand more will come and go, times and times over, before this war is through. They know this¡ªsacrifice their time and will and lives themselves, for they know the future comes. Spots and speaks of the future light some¡ªnot all¡ªof their minds. That future, fleeting and kind, is worth the sacrifice, even if the world looks upon their deeds as a cruelty, not a kindness.

    ? ? ?

    Ash was fighting to get out.

    What a rarity, for the soul of this body to wish to escape. Usually, they switched and meshed flawlessly, each understanding the purpose of their existence, as hard as it was.

    The god and the human. Unlike all the other gods, they coexisted. The patron god of the Risen Guard fought. The god of Clarity had consumed. The god of the Enclave never stepped a toe into this world, only pressing its obsession into its followers¡¯ minds. Ash and they existed together in harmony.

    Most likely, it was Ash¡¯s sister¡ªthe knowing that the girl now knew they were still inside them, that hiding was now a useless facade. Surprising¡ªeach of the last times they had met, Ash had been quiet, slinking inwards even as they said cruel things to the girl, hoping to extinguish any remaining hope in that child.

    Emilia¡ªthat woman¡¯s words had gotten to Ash, they imagined, her cutting glares after Ash had deigned to force their way out for Boundary but never for Gale. Her judgments weren¡¯t exactly bad¡ªit had been Ash, knowing what paths lay before them just as well as they did, who had insisted they separate themselves from Gale, not them. They might be a god, but they weren¡¯t actively cruel, especially not to the person they were destined to live within, to slowly consume despite their best efforts not to.

    That was why they had made such a nest in Livery¡ªan offering to Ash, to always return home when he was in control.

    He never did.

    They didn¡¯t question that. They had no need for human friends, only followers.

    If Ash suddenly wanted a relationship with his sister, they wouldn¡¯t stop them, although they both knew the future was a cruel place.

    It made no difference to them¡ªthey would not cry and shatter when remaining close with Boundary or Gale inevitably torn their lives apart¡ªalthough they could not let Ash out yet, not when they had a mission to complete¡ªone they could not allow their human soul to interfere with.

    Carne stared out at the destroyed Livery from Ash¡¯s childhood room, itself half destroyed when Emilia had forced her way inside, seeking safety for those children¡ªfor their children. She saved their homeless children, their followers. Carne didn¡¯t think the woman had ever really let that sink in, how her actions had saved them from having to find more children to lead where they were needed, decades from now.

    Idly, they rolled the {Blood Marble} between their fingers, waiting for the timer to end. Waiting for the end of the blood curse to come, at the hands of five very difference beings, each touched by that woman.

    They had seen it, long ago, before ever setting foot in this world¡ªbefore sliding into Ash¡¯s mind, sneaking past the Risen Guard¡¯s god. A terrible curse. The beginning of a new world.

    It would not be the final world, but for now, it was enough. It was a happiness that had not existed in this reality for centuries¡ªa happiness worth all the death and pain their existence alone caused this world, would continue to cause until their existence finally snuffed out.

    It was a good thing they wouldn¡¯t last, their life a sliver of time they were willing to sacrifice for this world, or a chance to remove the grasp of the other gods from this world.

    Inside them, Ash shook¡ªmourned. They had long ago accepted that their life would be cut short, but they had forced that decision upon Ash. They would not regret it¡ªregret was not an emotion they were capable of¡ªbut they still acknowledged the cruelty of it, the pain it caused Ash. It would be even more, now that Gale knew they continued to exist. A permanent reminder for each sibling of their loss¡ªtheir separation, even if they and Ash knew it was for the best.

    To return to Gale¡¯s life was simply to destine her to watch their terrible rule play out, never understanding why¡ªthe why would not come for hundreds of years, after all.

    At that reminder, Ash quieted. It was not a quiet they enjoyed¡ªnot acceptance, but broken sadness.

    The timer clicked, the {Blood Marble} exploded, its newly bestowed power shattering through the world and bringing the blood curse to an end.

    One curse gone¡ªone tyrannical rule gone.

    One vacuum of power and fear left for them to fill, intent to make this world even better¡ªeven stronger.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 219: Fragment

    A thousand notifications split over Emilia¡¯s vision, ranging from congratulations on surviving the raid, to a final step count, to friend requests from her new, northern friends.

    Realistically, she knew she should look at them. Most likely, there were at least a few things in those notifications that would be important. She should look at them. She couldn¡¯t make herself.

    Rather, everything within her felt like it was cracking apart. Grief¡ªso much grief.

    Grief for the friends she had made inside the raid, whose fates she would never know. Concern for Astra, who she may never hear from again. Heartbreak for Caro, their little life snuffed out too soon, and all because of her.

    If she had said no, way back at the Risen Guard compound¡ªdemanded they stay there¡ªthey probably wouldn¡¯t have died. If she hadn¡¯t attacked Conrad¡¯s family, perhaps they wouldn¡¯t have destroyed Livery.

    Maybe.

    A part of her knew that wasn¡¯t a given, and Hyr had made it clear as they spoke, in the short time they had together before Caro¡¯s death, that their fate had been sealed long ago. How long, how sealed, the syn either hadn''t known, or simply hadn¡¯t said.

    There was that, and the gnawing knowledge that she had seen the cruelty in the eyes of Conrad¡¯s family¡ªhis sister and brother, in particular.

    Breathing¡ªas much as one could breathe in the simulated environment of the Virtuosi System, where she was lingering before either being forcibly ejected by Payton or leaving of her own accord, assuming he was done fucking with her knots¡ªshe tried to remember what she had thought in Livery, in the labyrinth, and the city that came after that. That family would have destroyed a city eventually, would have maimed and killed countless people for a weapon¡ªfor the fun of it. She might have been the catalyst, but they would have harmed the world somewhere, no matter what.

    It made a difference. It made no difference at all.

    People were dead, and her involvement had meant those people¡ªthat child¡ªwere the ones to lose their lives.

    So many lives affected by that stupid fucking raid¡ªby raids in general. It made Emilia¡¯s blood boil, and she had to force herself not to pull up Helix¡¯s message logs about the state of Hail¡¯s alterations to her training system. Later, when she wasn¡¯t liable to use what she saw as more kindling for the fire burning inside her. Dealing with Hail¡ªbecause she couldn¡¯t just leave all the multitude of questions that had arisen over the last few virtual weeks unanswered¡ªcould wait.

    Chances were whatever they were doing wasn¡¯t completely new¡ªalthough she really hoped if they¡¯d connected the real aether to the virtual raids, it had only been done after Helix left Hail, five weeks earlier. If not¡ªif he had been there and let this happen¡ªthere was a chance she was going to kill him.

    Mentally shaking herself, knowing that mourning Caro and all her friends could wait until she was back in her physical body, Emilia began sorting through all her notifications.

    The easiest were the friend requests, which admittedly, she hadn¡¯t even realized were a thing¡ªshe¡¯d been expecting contact information to be exchanged through Hetexia, not the raid system itself. A part of her said it wasn¡¯t something people could do in every raid, but she had no idea how accurate that was.

    Then, her Censor told her it was accurate.

    How¡­ strange. To have a Censor again. To have forgotten that it would pop in with answers when she needed them, no prompting needed.

    It had only been a few weeks, and yet, it felt like getting used to this world again might very well take longer than living without a Censor and her skills had, especially since she had come to rely so heavily on her core within the raid. Well, she¡¯d always wanted to see how much fucking around was needed to make Censors accept core usage from regular Baalphorians. There was a chance she¡¯d be using what remained of her allowed Virtuosi hours hacking the thing¡ªit was long overdue anyways.

    Accepting the friend requests from Hyr and Zyrex¡ªand immediately getting another message from the former, asking if she had arrived back in this world alright¡ªEmilia shifted to looking over the rest of her notifications. Dutifully, she sent Hyr back a message that she had, but was heartbroken. The syn replied that they were the same, and were looking forward to getting out of the Virtuosi System after they got through all their notifications.

    Even without hearing their voice, Emilia could hear it, annoyed and lilting as they sighed and bemoaned the notifications. It was sweet, and strange. It had been so long since she¡¯d made a new friend, someone who continued messaging her with little things as they mutually sorted through all their ridiculous notifications.

    Then¡ª

    [Hyr: Did you receive a message about a gift from the system admin?]

    As she still had several hundred notifications to get through, Emilia sent back a message that she wasn¡¯t sure yet, along with a complaint about how many notifications this stupid raid had on exit. Yes, a bunch of them were notifications about rewards, but for the most part, she had no particular need for what they were giving her. Sure, she had a virtual space that she could decorate with some of the ridiculous, virtual decor items, but for the most part, the rewards were simply transferable to other raids run by the company who managed the world of {A Life (not) in the Stars}.

    A list of compatible raids popped up, none of which Emilia recognized by name, nor did she have any intention to join them. Instead, she fired off messages to her various, raid inclined friends, asking if anyone played these raids and wanted her shit. Despite the early hour, it didn¡¯t take long for a few to message back.

    Sil was first, telling her he¡¯d take a few, as he played one of their low-key, life sims occasionally, as well as asking where in the stars she¡¯d gotten them. Emilia sent back a quick message, telling him she¡¯d fill him in later¡ªas much as she could message him the whole situation, this felt like something that should be spoken about face to face.

    A few of their local raid friends responded as well, claiming a few more rewards for this or that raid. Everyone was so polite, asking for only a few things, all of which Emilia sent along immediately so she wouldn¡¯t have to deal with it again. Still, she had so many items, and she decided to give it until that evening. If no one else¡ªnone of her old friends, people she hadn¡¯t contacted in a decade, mostly¡ªasked, she¡¯d tell those who had to divvy everything else up between them.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Eyes trailing over the names of friends she hadn¡¯t spoken to in forever, Emilia tried not to worry that it wasn¡¯t just the early hour keeping them from replying¡ªthat it wasn''t them being offended she¡¯d fucked off for so long. It would be fair, if that was why they weren¡¯t responding. Stars knew she deserved their ire, for avoiding them for so long.

    It still hurt, and as she continued on, her eyes burned, and she let out an exasperated groan, annoyed that she allowed tears in this world. Some people turned on settings that forbid crying, because even in virtual form, it hurt¡ªunless you turned off pain sensors as well, anyways. Emilia never had, for the simple fact that when she wanted to sob, disappearing into her mind was often the easiest option, even if experiencing emotions in the real world was always a bit more cathartic¡ªhence the waiting to mourn Caro and her friends once she left this place.

    More and more items sorted between her piles of keep and fucking get rid of, too many useless achievement notifications that gave her nothing but a growing sense of annoyance, Emilia finally reached the last few dialogs, their content hidden behind a wall privacy, as though waiting for her full attention to reveal themselves.

    The moment the first did, she knew why: they were actually important.

    [Congratulations! You have won first prize in {A Life (not) in the Stars}!]

    [Your prize will be available before noon today!]

    [If you encounter any problems, please contact us!]

    [Please note: Your tickets to Ship¡¯o Stars may be redeemed on any available cruise in the next three months!]

    [Please note: You can check our availability here!]

    So many exclamation points, but also, how had she won? Yes, she¡¯d been a part of the final push to end the blood curse, when she and the others had followed Carne¡¯s directions and activated their {Blood Marbles} at the same time. Emilia had seen it, in those fleeting moments before she was pulled from the world: something had changed. That was great, but she was also pretty sure that wasn¡¯t what had won the raid, particularly because Hyr had been a part of that as well, and a quick message to them told her they hadn¡¯t won anything. Not even a lower prize.

    So, why?

    Did the why matter? Not really.

    Still, she wanted¡ªno, needed!¡ªto know!

    A query to her Censor¡ªmostly because it had been bothering her to use it again¡ªtold her she hadn¡¯t received any information on why she¡¯d won, which was annoying. Seriously, it was going to bother her forever if she didn¡¯t figure it out.

    Emilia had barely thought about it before she sent a message off to the person she now knew V to be, questioning both their mental state¡ªit wasn¡¯t like they¡¯d sent her any messages, despite exiting the raid shortly before her¡ªand whether their hacking skills could learn why the fuck she had won!? Did it feel strange to ask someone she had partially taught how to hack if he knew or could figure it out? Yes, but also, given what the man had revealed during the raid, it seemed that he¡¯d already been hacking into the company that maintained the raid, trying to figure out when it would run again. Better to go straight to someone who already had a door into the company, rather than figure it out herself.

    Then, of course, the mild panic she had about not having heard from the man yet began to boil as her message went unanswered.

    It was fine. The guy probably just got distracted. His mental state had been fine before his in-game death, so surely it would be fine now, right?

    Annoyingly, Emilia wasn¡¯t completely convinced of this, and instead looked over the list of available cruises. Fortunately, the note about available cruises seemed to more be legal jargon than anything¡ªno one wanted to get caught having a full cruise when they told winners they could use their tickets anytime¡ªand the soonest flight¡ªthe one she needed to be one¡ªleaving late that evening, had enough openings for her tickets.

    A short conversation with whoever was responsible for booking heroes onto the cruise later¡ªduring which she convinced them to let her book spots without giving the names of anyone but herself yet, as she still had to confirm who exactly would be coming with her¡ªtheir rooms were set.

    Two suites for ten people, each with their own individual room. Ship¡¯o Stars wasn¡¯t messing around. As much as she¡¯d been treated like shit within the raid, they were giving her some pretty nice accommodations for a week. Of course, in theory, they would be there to make the raid more interesting for guests¡ªemployees, of a sort. Well, tracking down whatever asshole had knotted Pria could very well make their vacations pretty fucking interesting, especially if things went badly.

    Sighing and trying not to worry about what sort of mess that would be¡ªnot to mention which of her limited friends she could even talk into coming with her¡ªEmilia flipped back to the other secretive message, the last one to go through before she could get the fuck out of there and start arranging things.

    Man, she wasn¡¯t going to be able to sleep today, was she?

    The last notification was strange, to say the least. Where the colouring of every notification from the raid had been in tones of red and black, this one was a light purple, with glittering silver woven through it.

    It was, both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, a message from the system admin¡ªwhat system admin, Emilia had no idea.

    [Congratulations, on saving that world. I know it came at a great cost to you, as well as many others along the way. While I have watched this world, and many others, for many eons, I am never quite sure of how to feel of the platform maintainer and raid designer¡¯s manipulations. I neither want any world to be wiped from existence, nor do I enjoy watching their machinations tear apart the lives and souls of those residents of the raid, nor those of your world.]

    [There is little I can do to make this right¡ªand before you wonder, no, I do not know how far Hail¡¯s integration of aether is, nor how far the manipulations of the heartcores will spread or reach. I am an observer, for the most part, and touching the worlds of the raids is difficult, at best.]

    [But it is not impossible.]

    [Do not hope I can do this again. Nor am I able to tell you the path forward from here.]

    [That, you will need to figure out for yourselves, but know, your ability to utilize my gifts is closer than you realize. I have faith that you will find it, one day. Until then, mourn, but know, that grief will become happiness again, one day.]

    What?

    That was¡­ strange, to say the least. Someone who watched over the raids¡ªfor eons, no less¡ªbut couldn¡¯t directly interact with them? An AI who collected data on the raids, maybe?

    Emilia was still blinking into the emptiness of the Virtuosi System, wondering over the strange messages, when another notification popped up, informing her that an item in her inventory had been transformed.

    That alone was strange enough, but the item that had been transformed wasn¡¯t one she¡¯d been able to bring back to this world¡ªshe¡¯d tried. Caro¡¯s {Blood Hairclip} hadn¡¯t been something that could be transferred back to this world, something that had broken her heart¡ªall she¡¯d wanted to do was have a memory of that child, their little gift to her and Hyr, with her in this virtual space.

    It hadn¡¯t been movable, and yet, here was a notification, telling her it had been inside her inventory regardless, and was now something else entirely.

    [Notice: {Blood Hairclip.1} has been transformed into {Soul.frag.part1}]

    [Emilia: Hyr¡­ did you?]

    [Hyr: Yes. I assume you received one as well?]

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emilia replied, mind whirring as the reality¡ªthe possible reality, because she wasn¡¯t fucking getting her hopes up for something that might not be¡ªof what she was looking at¡ªof what she and Hyr had been gifted¡ªsank in.

    Fragments of a soul.

    The fragments, most likely, of Caro¡¯s soul.

    That was¡­ what even was that? Good? Bad?

    Good, because that meant Caro¡¯s game soul might be transferable¡­ somewhere. The real world? Into Virtuosi Space? Another raid?

    Bad, because Emilia had no idea how to even start figuring out what to do about it next.

    Fuck.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 220: How Do You Know Me So Well, So Fast?

    ¡°Take it slow. Your body and mind have been through a lot. Give them a minute to adjust.¡±

    Something in Payton¡¯s voice told Emilia this was just the spiel he gave everyone, each word measured and precise. No slurring, not when he was giving instructions to someone coming out of a fresh reknotting. Still, his words irritated her. She¡¯d done this before¡ªand under much less pleasant circumstances¡ªthank you!

    Emilia wanted to bite at him, just a bit. She didn¡¯t¡ªhe didn¡¯t deserve that. Her classmate had helped her so much today, despite how mean she¡¯d been to him in the past. Well¡­ maybe not mean. Dismissive. Avoidant. Terrible.

    Payton was sitting again when she finally opened her eyes, having moved to help her remove the headset in her first moments of waking. Despite herself, she followed his advice and didn¡¯t move more than her eyes. The world spun. Her stomach turned and her brain burned.

    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± she breathed out. That really was rather unpleasant.

    Payton, the asshole, smiled. Just for a moment. Jerk.

    ¡°How was the raid?¡± he asked, rather than ask how she felt. Emilia appreciated that. Sometimes, the people who worked in knotting clinics asked patients how they felt after their session. Even without frequenting them often¡ªshe had been patching her knots together by herself for years¡ªEmilia had seen more than a few people seemingly purposefully puke on anyone who dared ask how they felt. You¡¯d think the clinicians would learn, and yet¡­

    ¡°Terrible,¡± she finally said, waiting another moment for the world to even out before beginning to push herself up. Almost immediately, Payton was there, helping to ease her to sitting, his hands warm on her cool shoulders. ¡°Do people really raid for fun?¡±

    The older man smiled as he began to look her over, checking her temperature and eyes. A collection of skills popped out of him, testing her hearing and sense of touch. Out of the small grey bag he seemed to always carry with him, he pulled several medical devices. Why the man carried some of his normal medic stuff around with him, she had no idea.

    ¡°Just in case,¡± he said when she asked. He had pulled out a mallet and was diligently testing her reflexes. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d ever been knotted¡ªor unknotted¡ªby someone so thorough.

    ¡°In case your medic skills are needed?¡± Realistically, plenty of medics probably carried around an emergency kit with them, the same way supports still carried around their wartime willbrands, despite there being no need or use for most of them, even within real-world raids.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    Yeah, sounded convincing. Payton didn¡¯t offer up the real reason, however, and Emilia instead turned to telling him about the raid. The man hummed at the right points, asked questions at others. He was surprised to learn she¡¯d run into more than one war buddy during the raid.

    ¡°I suppose it isn¡¯t that odd,¡± she admitted, jerking away when Payton¡¯s light touch tickled her waist. Somewhere along the way, her kinda-sorta friend had decided she needed a full physical¡ªor at least as full of one as he could give her without more specific equipment.

    Chalk it up to being a veteran thing¡ªif Payton tried to give someone like Pria a physical, her roommate would freak. Stars, the woman might just freak knowing Emilia had sat there naked, letting him poke and prod at her, making light comments about how she needed to eat better, but at least her heart sounded good.

    According to a very impressive skill, she was also free of a collection of diseases¡ªsome of which she¡¯d never even heard of. Sweet.

    ¡°I was in a really¡­ weird and terrible raid,¡± she continued, accepting her clothing back from Payton and tugging the sweater and sweatpants on, her ass ripping free of the tacky plastic of the bay. Had they sanitized that before she laid down? She really hoped they had, but it was so long ago she couldn¡¯t really remember.

    Better to just not think about it.

    Payton hummed as he took his seat again. ¡°I read through the rules. That definitely wasn¡¯t a normal raid. I¡¯m not sure it was meant to be enjoyable, so perhaps don¡¯t judge all raids by that one.¡±

    Emilia shot him a glare as she plopped down across from him. They watched each other for a long moment. Was he unsure what to say? How to tell her about what he¡¯d done to her? That couldn¡¯t be right¡ªthe man was a professional. Something else, then. Technically, there was more to tell about the raid, and if Payton wasn¡¯t volunteering facts about what he¡¯d done to her, she might as well continue her tale? Right?

    ¡°Fragments of a soul?¡± he asked when she¡¯d reached the end of her story¡ªsave actually telling him she¡¯d won the tickets, anyways.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m not really sure what to make of it? I had my Censor look into whether anyone has reported something like that before, and not really? There was a hint of something on a message board for blackaether raids¡ªone of those public ones that claims it''s just a normal message board, but totally isn¡¯t. If anything more was ever said about it, it was deeper in the blackaether, and I don¡¯t have access to that.¡± That was another thing on her list of things to do. Annoyingly, the two people she knew who messed around in the blackaether weren¡¯t easily contacted. V hadn¡¯t replied to her earlier message yet¡ªand she was still trying really, really hard not to panic about that¡ªand Helix wasn¡¯t an option.

    Well, technically she could message him, but as much as she¡¯d come to accept that she might soon be stepping out of the shadows¡ªif only a little bit¡ªhaving the entire world learn that she was connected to Baalphoria¡¯s Top Hero and looking for information on the blackaether might be a bit much.

    Better to just wait for V, or ask Sil if he knew. He¡¯d never said as much, but she kinda assumed he entered blackaether raids from time to time¡ªthere were just times when he vanished, not even inviting anyone to meet up in a raid later, as he sometimes did when he already had plans within a raid that he didn¡¯t want their dumb asses crashing.

    Worst case, she¡¯d go ask The Black Knot. They¡¯d be annoying¡ªmostly because whoever she contacted would be overbearing, which, perhaps given the circumstances, wouldn¡¯t be too terrible.

    Still, they would always help her, no matter what.

    ¡°I can put out some feelers for you, if you like? I¡¯m not directly connected to the blackaether, but a few people I know are.¡±

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Emilia watched Payton for a long moment, taking in the soft kindness of him. Even around their black knot, they were friendly¡ªsweet, even. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    Her classmate, who had leaned forward to rest his head against his fist as he listened to her, reared back slightly. ¡°For¡­ what?¡±

    ¡°For not being your friend sooner. I¡¯m stupid, and I¡¯m sorry. If you still want to be my friend, I¡¯ll do a much better job of it.¡± Seriously, so stupid. Most of her childhood friends had black knots, so why had she shied away from this man? Especially when, realistically, her childhood friends had been jerks to her way more over the years than Payton had ever been¡ªthey¡¯d been friends long enough to fuck with each other and know they¡¯d come out the other side okay¡­ mostly. The number of pranks they had played on one another, where they were lucky no one had been seriously harmed¡­

    Payton¡¯s hands wrapped around hers, tugging fingers that had been digging into the fabric of her borrowed clothing free. ¡°I would like that.¡±

    Her eyes flicked up to his, finding sincerity in their soft brown, gently glowing under the harsh, buzzing lights dangling above them. Part of her wondered how many friends¡ªreal, true friends who knew exactly what he was¡ªhe¡¯d had. ¡°So¡­ as my friend, want to skip school and go on an impromptu vacation on a luxury airship, as all but free labour, that¡¯s really a mission to find our asshole knotter distributor?¡±

    Eyes crinkling, hands squeezing around hers, Payton agreed.

    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s two of my ten tickets designated! Only eight more friends to find!¡±

    The look Payton gave her before asking if she actually had eight friends really was uncalled-for. Was she known for only sticking with Pria, Beth and Sil? Maybe. And yes, she realized that the fact that she really didn¡¯t include Elijah or any of his friends even passingly in their group was a sign she really did need to break up with him. Still! Rude!

    Also, where was she going to find five more friends to bring with her!?

    It wasn¡¯t the first time it had hit Emilia that she really had gone from having too many friends to manage to having almost none. Even when she¡¯d been a teenager, with far fewer friends than she¡¯d had at the height of the war, she would have struggled to narrow down nine people to bring with her. Now, it was a struggle to think of even a few more.

    ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out,¡± she said, already sending off a few messages and hoping at least a few of the people would respond to her request for their presence. ¡°Worse comes to worst, I ask some of the people who raid around town. Most are more acquaintance, but they¡¯d probably still come.¡±

    ¡°Who wouldn¡¯t? I checked out that ship while you were out. It¡¯s pretty fancy.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯re also going with the intention of catching a criminal. Not exactly a relaxing vacation for most people, and even if they try to stay out of it, if they¡¯re associated with us¡­¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll probably get dragged into it.¡±

    ¡°Yup.¡±

    ¡°So, whoever you invite needs to know exactly what¡¯s happening before accepting.¡± Payton watched her like a man who was aware she had sent off a few invitations without properly explaining things. Rude, but accurate.

    Her Censor popped out another few messages, explaining that this wasn¡¯t just a vacation, with the exact details of it written in obnoxiously broad strokes, at least for her non-school friends. Them she¡¯d see later and deal with explaining everything to¡­ somehow. ¡°Happy? Also, how do you know me so well already!?¡±

    Payton only laughed before releasing her hands and pulling up her genome on a screen. It flickered and for the first time she wondered if this place was actually safe enough to be fucking around with genetics in. What if the system had crapped out!? ¡°I got you down to a 13D. Your knots were¡ªare¡ªpretty messy. Technically, I got you down to an 8D, I suppose, but those traumatic knots¡­ fuck, man. I couldn¡¯t leave you like that. Did you have hallucinations, when you first got them?¡±

    Emilia nodded. Shrugged. Muttered that she didn¡¯t really know.

    ¡°I was never really sure if I was hallucinating or things were actually happening, in those first few months after the war ended. Eventually, I went to a clinic, but there was only so much they could do. They recommended I admit myself into long-term care, but I knew if that happened, the chances of getting out¡­¡±

    Granted, she¡¯d always known that her family and The Black Knot could get her out. She¡¯d also known that as much as she¡¯d played a pivotal role in ending the war, she had enemies. The chances of her being killed, had she willingly let herself be contained¡ªlet doctors and therapists force their way into her Censor so they could lock her skills away¡ªhad been high. At the time, she wasn''t completely convinced that wasn¡¯t just paranoia. Eventually, she¡¯d realized it wasn¡¯t.

    In the end, she was too dangerous. As much as her power and influence could be a good thing for Baalphoria, it was also a danger. Certain people had never liked her, and her actions during the war¡ªespecially the incident with Boyd¡¯s unit and the whole thing in Chinsata, even if higher ups only suspected her involvement in all that¡ªdefinitely hadn¡¯t endeared her to them any.

    ¡°In my professional opinion, they were definitely hallucinations. The knots I put in should counter that, although, you might notice your emotions can fluctuate more abruptly.¡± Payton seemed uncomfortable when she looked back up at him, having taken to staring at his dirty shoes as she spoke. At least Olivier had cleaned her up. No such luck for Payton. Rather, he¡¯d sat there for hours covered in grime and sweat, small tears in his clothes offering glimpses of his pale skin¡ªthe man needed to spend some time in the sun this week, clearly.

    ¡°I think I noticed that, in the raid,¡± she admitted, thinking back to the moments before she ran into the northerners, where her anger had been vibrating through her with too much power. Not quite a black knot, but pretty fucking close. ¡°Will it just come and go randomly?¡±

    Sighing quietly, Payton began to explain exactly what he¡¯d done. Clearly, the man was tired¡ªhe had likely been up just as long, if not longer, than her. At least she¡¯d gotten to kinda-sorta rest in the raid, even if using raids as sleep wasn¡¯t recommended.

    Basically, in order to counter the hallucinations, Payton had given her a few knots. Unfortunately, those knots would likely lead her to be both tired and passionless. Hence, he¡¯d thrown in a few more knots to counter those side effects. Unfortunately, they came with their own side effects: an overabundance of passion and energy.

    ¡°If you¡¯re already feeling strong emotions,¡± he warned as he pushed off his seat, long arms stretching towards the low ceiling, his fingers brushing against it and sending a layer of dust falling over him, ¡°you might go into being overly emotional. Anger to rage. Sadness to heartbreak. It might seem counterintuitive, but it¡¯ll mostly boost emotions that are on the edge? A little intense, but not quite over-the-top? So, if you¡¯re already heartbroken, you won¡¯t feel worse.¡±

    Emilia nodded along, thinking that made sense. There had been a few moments, looking back on those last few hours in the raid, where her emotions had seemed out of control. The homicidal rage as she exited the building, her amusement as she teased Sk¡¯lar, the depression as she fought the god. Definitely, those emotions had been too much. At the same time, her sadness at Caro¡¯s death and potentially never seeing Astra again were similar to what she had felt when friends died during the war. No more, no less.

    ¡°You mentioned something about energy as well?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. That you probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed inside the raid, as it¡¯ll manifest more physically. Like I said, the knots I did to cancel out the hallucinations also make you tired. Hence, energy knots!¡±

    Emilia stared blankly at him. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s obvious in my DNA and previous knots that I have ADHD. Energy knots definitely aren¡¯t recommended for me.¡±

    Payton smiled tightly. ¡°They are not, but the alternatives are worse.¡±

    They blinked at each other for a long time, Emilia tapping a nail against the arm of her chair, their not-so-silent stand-off. Emilia generally considered herself pretty terrifying. Payton didn¡¯t seem affected. Apparently, he was telling her the truth.

    ¡°When I¡¯m bouncing off the walls later, I¡¯m telling everyone it''s your fault. They¡¯ll probably make you deal with me.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± her new friend said. He sounded like he meant it.

    Hopefully he did, or it was going to be a very long week.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 221: Just a Normal Message

    Emilia stepped out onto the street alone, Payton having already rushed off to prepare for their trip¡ªalthough she was sure a bigger part of it was how much he clearly wanted to shower¡ªthe chill of daybreak racketing through her. Even with climate control systems, there was just something about the moments of dawn, when the heat of the soil and the sun met, where the world just seemed too cold. It probably didn¡¯t help that she had no shoes or socks.

    Not that the chill would last long, with the pink tide still pressing against the city.

    Briefly, Emilia considered trying out her newly freed ability to spark¡ªconsidered jumping back to campus so she could snuggle up into bed in an attempt to get a few hours of sleep before she had to deal with, well, everything.

    She didn¡¯t, instead contenting herself to walk the short distance to the slide lines. After so many hours inside the raid, her body needed to move¡ªher brain needed to move. It was too soon to think over everything that had happened inside the raids¡ªeverything she had lost and found. Those sorts of things¡­ she¡¯d think about them later, when she was safe in bed or the shower¡ªcause man, even though Olivier had washed her clean of all the grime she¡¯d acquired during her tussle with the echo, she still felt pretty nasty. So, rather than panic or break down in tears, she instead clasped onto one thread of something more¡­ positive.

    Hope? Understanding? Some sense of finally growing the fuck up?

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure, but she forced herself not to hesitate as she pulled Olivier¡¯s borrowed sweater tighter around herself and opened a message. Her Censor stuttered, and she wasn¡¯t sure which of them was the problem¡ªshe was the one who had been gone for so long, after all, the systems of the raid barely anything like the AI she had lived alongside for most of her life. Funny, how easy it was to forget the ease of using it.

    So yeah, she was probably the problem, although her Censor had been a bit moody since she¡¯d come back. Hopefully, they would reacclimate to each other quickly¡­ or her Censor would get over whatever its issue was. Perhaps it had realized how much she¡¯d used her core within the raid? That would be just like it, to throw a mini hissy fit because it was a jealous bitch.

    It needed to get over itself. They had shit to do. Bad guys to stop. Plus, hacking Censors always went a bit better when the Censor in question was cooperating. Currently, Emilia didn¡¯t foresee it cooperating, not when half her intention was to iron out the errors it had been giving her recently and the other half was a desire to make using her core easier.

    Yeah, it wasn¡¯t going to like that.

    Finally, after too many seconds had passed¡ªokay, that was definitely her Censor being a bitch¡ªher message finally slipped free and flew through the aether.

    [Emilia: do you remember when i was a teenager and burnt the living room curtains?]

    It was early, the rising sun a slow creep over the crumbling buildings of this section of the city, and she wasn¡¯t expecting an answer¡ªexcept she was. Despite only one of her old friends having responded to her message about whether they wanted random raid rewards or not¡ªone of Boyd¡¯s teammates, of all people, who had diligently taken a few items¡ªit didn¡¯t take a genius to know that practically everyone who cared about her¡ªwho hadn¡¯t heard from her in a decade¡ªwould have their Censors configured to wake them if she tried to contact them. Most likely, they just didn¡¯t know what to think of her message¡ªfair¡ªor their Censor was programmed to ignore stupid messages about raid rewards, and that was superseding anything that might have woken them up¡ªshe seriously doubted anyone would have thought her first message to them in a decade would be about raid rewards, so why the fuck would they create an exception for her?

    [Daddy: Yes. They were almost brand new, which was bad from a money point of view, but made it quite simple to replace them.]

    Emilia stared at the message from her father. So calm, as though this was just a random message in a mess of dozens more¡ªas though the last message she had sent him wasn¡¯t a seven-year-old apology and promise that she was alive.

    [Emilia: did you know?]

    [Daddy: Know what, my little starlight?]

    [Emilia: that it was a distraction]

    [Emilia: that there were a bunch of teenagers upstairs sneaking out]

    Her father¡¯s next message came slower. A sign that he was debating his answers? Or that her mother had woken and was trying to make him say one thing or another? The message count next to her mother¡¯s name stayed grey, just as it had been since her last birthday. Her mother always sent her birthday wishes, even when they went unanswered by everything but a confirmation it had been received and read.

    [Daddy: Yes.]

    [Emilia: why didn¡¯t you say anything?]

    From what she could remember, no one had ever gotten in trouble for their actions that night, save her being given the task of cleaning everything up. If her father had known, why hadn¡¯t he ever said or done anything? Told any of her friends¡¯ parents about it?

    The vague feeling of amusement slithered through their connection, his father laughing at her expense. ¡°Because, my little starlight,¡± his next message read,¡°for all the times when a parent needs to reprimand their child, there are a million more when the child punishes themself more thoroughly than their parent ever could. It wasn¡¯t an ongoing thing, and I assume you all learned a lesson that night.¡±

    Technically, they had mostly learned to keep their drugs out of their houses, instead holding their parties at the treehouse. She wasn¡¯t about to ask whether the man knew about all that, however. The lack of adults around had been fun, the first few times. Eventually, the most extreme partiers had been banned. Having parties so far from the safety of their parents arms and common sense meant they¡¯d been forced to adapt and grow up enough to keep themselves safe.

    Perhaps that, in itself, was a punishment of sorts. A forced growing up, in payment for their attempts at having freedom and a good time without their parents¡¯ eyes on them.

    ¡°I knew that, too,¡± her father responded when she fessed up that they hadn¡¯t stopped partying, if not the exact specifics of where and how much. ¡°Holding on too tightly to your kids can rupture the relationship. I believe BJ was sent off to boarding school around that time. He graduated and never spoke to his parents again.¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    The man didn¡¯t say anything about how that¡ªthe not talking¡ªhad become their relationship as well, regardless of how much he obviously hadn¡¯t wanted it to be¡ªhow much Emilia hadn¡¯t wanted things to become like this either. Then again, BJ had hated his parents from the moment they sent him away to the moment that he died, burning himself out as a support on the front. She had never hated her parents¡ªhad never wished to never return home.

    [Emilia: i see]

    It was a lame response, but she couldn¡¯t think of anything else to say. The problem was she wasn¡¯t ready to go home, not yet. Soon, but not now. Being inside the raid had made her heart ache for home¡ªfor her family and their love¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t the right time.

    [Emilia: i¡¯ll come home¡­ soon]

    [Daddy: Ah¡­ I suppose I should turn your bedroom back, then. I¡¯ve been using it as a cat sanctuary.]

    Emilia snorted, trying to imagine her father hoarding cats, spoiling them the way he had his children. Honestly, she could see it. The man had always had a soft spot for animals and needy children.

    [Emilia: i love you, and miss you]

    [Emilia: mom and everyone else too]

    [Daddy: I, and everyone else, love and miss you, too.]

    [Daddy: Take as much time as you need, my little starlight. We¡¯ll be here when you¡¯re ready to come home.]

    Emilia stared at that message for a long time, wondering what sort of pressure she had just put on her father. The thing was, as much as her eyes kept flicking to check for new messages from her mother and siblings, she knew they wouldn¡¯t come. In the end, her father wouldn¡¯t mention her messages to any of them. Part of it was loyalty, she knew. He knew her well enough to know she¡¯d contact people in her own time, in her own way. Part of her also knew he was protecting them, just as much as he was her.

    She was untrustworthy, and he wouldn¡¯t get anyone¡¯s hopes up, telling them she had finally messaged him and said she would come home soon. Most likely, she would. Even she knew that most likely was there for a reason.

    In the end, trauma was a terrible thing. As much as Payton had sorted out so many of her knots, the worst of them were still tied up inside her, pulling at her mind and heart, forcing worries and terror into her even now.

    Hands clenching, eyes squeezing shut, Emilia tried to breathe through the panic edging its way into her. It was fine¡ªshe was fine. Payton had confirmed for her that nothing in her knots should lead her to lose control of her skills, even with his modifications. Payton had confirmed what a part of her had always hoped, but never completely believed: that those moments, in the first months after the war ended, where she had felt her control slipping, hadn¡¯t been real. They were stress and pain and grief given shape inside her brain alone. There had been no real slips¡ªno moments where a single, errant thought might have ended the entire fucking world.

    It was fine. She was fine. She was broken as fuck, but fine. Everything was fine.

    Still, it took longer than she would have liked for her heart and breath to settle. Automatically, her Censor had begun playing music for her, while she waited, a recording of [FIND A NAME!] from the war. The band, which had been formed from various members of their unit, was a mixture of too many genres, and while most people preferred the more upbeat or angry songs, this particular one was sad, singing of a fear that friendships would fade once the war was over¡ªa song of how people struggle to maintain their friendships after changing so irrevocably.

    Soft conversation pulled Emilia out of herself, her eyes flicking open as she watched the first commuters begin to head for the slide lines. A few students were among them, people she vaguely recognized from around campus, likely returning to their dorms after a late night out or hookup. A few of them glanced in her direction. One even smiled at her before vanishing down the line.

    It was strange how, even after a lifetime of it, Emilia had never really gotten used to being so recognizable. With her silverstrain, she stood out. She also wasn¡¯t stupid¡ªshe knew she was attractive as well. People noticed her. People remembered her. Perhaps part of it was the awkwardness of being recognized but not really acknowledged by most people. Sometimes, she thought they were just being nice, trying not to assume they had a relationship that required acknowledgement simply because they recognized her. Most of the time, she knew it was just that they looked down on her, even if just a little bit. Purist sentiments might not be as strong as they had been even during her childhood, but they still persisted, subtle, but there. There was a reason why most of her friends were people who had made an effort to acknowledge her before formally meeting her¡ªit just suggested the type of person who didn¡¯t give a shit about her irregular deviation.

    Sighing, Emilia pushed herself off the wall she had leaned against while gathering herself. Time to go. She didn¡¯t have time to break down today¡ªnot if she wanted to properly break down in the shower in a bit, anyways. Plus, more time had passed than she realized while she panicked. That was normal, if annoying.

    Stepping onto the slide line solo for the first time in years, Emilia half expected her Censor to reprimand her for being unsafe¡ªto warn her that she might fall off, due to her artificially high D-Level. It didn¡¯t, and a blink later¡ªa flash of beautiful, spiralling lights¡ªshe was gracefully stepping back onto campus.

    Well, at least nothing bad had happened. That really would have fucked up her confidence.

    The list she had been making of all the things she needed to do, both before leaving for Ship¡¯o Stars that evening and in the wider ranging future, popped up as she moved through the quiet campus, only the occasional student seen making their way back to their rooms or to some early morning sports club.

    Emilia was just finishing up her prioritized list of Things to Do This Morning, when a message from Elijah popped up. That was¡­ surprising. He was the one person she knew raided who she hadn¡¯t sent a message about her abundance of rewards to¡ª Well, him and all his shitty friends. Those assholes wouldn¡¯t get anything from her, thanks.

    In Elijah¡¯s case, she simply hadn¡¯t wanted to know whether he was awake, because Break Up with Elijah was one of the harder items on her list. As long as she didn¡¯t know where he was or what he was doing, she could avoid dealing with that¡ªwith him.

    Unfortunately, one of the people she¡¯d contacted about the rewards had contacted him. That made it¡­ so much worse.

    [Elijah: Hey, did you really join a raid and get a shit ton of rewards and not even offer me any?]

    [Elijah: Or maybe you kept something nice for me?]

    [Elijah: You still up, or crash?]

    [Elijah: Wanna come over and tell me about it?]

    [Elijah: Curious what made you join a raid for once!]

    [Elijah: Sucks it wasn¡¯t with me!]

    [Elijah: Also! You owe me for sticking me with Pria earlier!]

    [Elijah: Fucking stars, that bitch was misery.]

    Well, at the very least, the fact that his last message was so rude would make this easier.

    Maybe.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 222: Another Evacuation

    Emilia bounced in front of Elijah¡¯s door. She needed to knock. She could do it. She so totally could.

    Emilia bounced again, again, her too big sweatpants threatening to fall off her hips, and suddenly, she was very aware that she was meeting her boyfriend to break up with him while wearing clothes from the guy she¡¯d hooked up with the day before¡ªa guy she¡¯d been more than a little in love with for the majority of her life.

    Well, as much as she¡¯d wanted to frame the break-up as something that had been coming for a while, she¡¯d definitely set herself up to come off as breaking up with him because she¡¯d gotten good dick. Good, rich dick.

    Fuck.

    Unfortunately, just as she was debating whether to rush home¡ªmaybe this would be the ideal moment to check out how well she could spark?¡ªand change, the door opened, and there was Elijah.

    Her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend smiled, and even before he noticed her clothing, it was strained. Not early morning, just woke up strained, either. Something else¡ªthe same strain that had been edging into his expressions since his visit home. Maybe, after they reverted to being kinda-friends, kinda-enemies, he¡¯d finally fess up as to what happened.

    ¡°Hey,¡± he said, finally taking in her outfit, and while his smile didn¡¯t completely drop, it did dim.

    ¡°Hey,¡± she said back.

    It was almost like they¡¯d never spoken before. Awkwardly, he stepped aside, letting her into the messy suite he shared with a half dozen of his friends.

    Raiding rigs littered the room¡ªtwo of them still occupied¡ªalong with dishes and trash and more than a few empty containers that had likely contained fumes from the pink tide. Clearly, Elijah had tried to tidy up a bit, but this had just resulted in a few half filled trash bags being distributed through the room and the HVAC system humming, trying to remove the unfortunate scents of the room before her arrival. Quietly, he led her to his room, which, thankfully, was tidier than the communal area.

    ¡°So¡­¡± he breathed out, sitting on his bed. He barely looked at her, and Emilia wondered what it was that she¡¯d said¡ªor not said¡ªthat was making him so uncomfortable.

    Sure, she hadn¡¯t sent him the offer of raid rewards, but despite her intention to break up with him, she really had saved an item specifically for him. Perhaps it was just that when she¡¯d messaged back, telling him she¡¯d be over in a few minutes, she¡¯d told him they needed to talk. Pria had joked before, about how that was the death toll of a relationship. Honestly, Emilia hadn¡¯t really believed her. Maybe there was some truth to it after all.

    ¡°I think we should break up.¡±

    Better to just get it over with. Neither of them loved the other. It had always just been fun between them. Short lasting. Never meant to last, only to be enjoyed. It wasn¡¯t fun or enjoyable anymore.

    Elijah huffed out a laugh. ¡°Seriously, Em? You come back from a random raid and are done with me, just like that?¡± Once more, his eyes slid over her. ¡°Is there someone else? You hook up with someone last night and decide you like his dick more?¡±

    Emilia weighed what to say. Part of what Elijah said was the truth, was the problem: she did want to see if something could happen with V, even if that was still a few months off. Technically, she had hooked up with him ¡°last night.¡± Technically, she¡¯d also hooked up with Olivier yesterday, and these were his clothes, and yes, he was probably the best dick she¡¯d ever get. Technically, she wasn¡¯t wearing his clothes because of said hookup.

    ¡°I¡¯m not breaking up with you to immediately go date someone else,¡± she finally settled on, because that part was true. A thousand things could happen between now and the Eve of the Astral Storm¡ªassuming she didn¡¯t have to hunt down V and make sure he hadn¡¯t died in the interim, because seriously, where the fuck did he disappear to!?¡ªand there was no way to guarantee that the two of them would end up together. While he was definitely a factor in this break up, he was only a small part of it.

    ¡°That¡¯s not a no.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emilia admitted, ¡°it¡¯s not.¡± Her lips twitched, and she couldn¡¯t help but point out that the one person Elijah already knew about, from early in their hate fucking, when she¡¯d told him he¡¯d never measure up to her old friend-with-benefits.

    Part of her had hoped he would find it funny. They had joked about this for so long, Elijah constantly trying to figure out how to usurp the unnamed Olivier¡¯s place as her best tumble in the sheets¡ªalthough she¡¯d told him most of her fondest memories of the man definitely hadn¡¯t involved beds. Granted, they¡¯d joked about it less since moving from hate fucking to dating, but it had always been a point of amusement and teasing between them¡ªproof that they wouldn¡¯t be offended for not being the best together, because they knew they wouldn¡¯t last, and that was okay.

    Another part of her had known, however, that if he took her comment badly, it would be really bad.

    It was really bad.

    Eventually, through his yelling and the annoyed wall pounds of his roommates, demanding he keep it down, Emilia turned and left, making her way through the disgusting living room, now filled with Elijah¡¯s terrible, pissed off friends, to the door.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°Em! We aren¡¯t done!¡±

    ¡°Yes, we are, Elijah,¡± she replied, nearly walking into the door when it didn¡¯t open for her.

    [Error: Lock Engaged]

    [Error: Access Revoked]

    They¡¯d locked her in? This wasn¡¯t just a perfect normal revoking of her access to open the door whenever she wanted because she was no longer welcome. Locking her in¡­ Someone had hacked the dorm system, intent to make it possible to lock anyone in, and then used the illegal modification on her.

    Emilia saw red as she spun. ¡°Who locked me in?¡± she demanded, glaring between each of the men. At the very least, Elijah looked confused, glancing between her and the others.

    ¡°Just doing my man a favour,¡± Victor said, smiling sharply at her from the kitchen. ¡°He¡¯s always going on about how you¡¯re the best ass he¡¯s ever had. Wettest pussy ever~ Why don¡¯t you get your little irregular ass back in there and talk this out. At least give my man some nice breakup sex. It¡¯s the least you can do. Least you can do for all of us, too. You have no idea how many of us have stripped our cocks to the sound of you coming.¡±

    No one said anything. Not even Elijah, although Emilia could tell he was perhaps trying to figure what to say.

    An image of Olivier, beating up her ex for something he had said¡ªsomething neither of them had ever shared, but she was pretty sure wasn¡¯t anywhere as bad as what Victor had said and done, probably not even as bad as Elijah¡¯s silence¡ªflashed through her head.

    She seriously had bad taste in men.

    Originally, she had intended to ask someone to unlock the door for her. Fuck that. Fuck asking any of these assholes, who couldn¡¯t even be bothered to whisper at their friend that he¡¯d said too much or should take it easy. Fuck asking these shits, who didn¡¯t even seem shocked Victor had locked her in.

    Here she was, little silverstrain who most people assumed wasn¡¯t good with skills¡ªat least not consistently¡ªand a sub-100, locked in a room with five men, all much larger than her. Yes, she could always trigger an alert and call campus security to their room. In the end, nothing bad was likely to happen to her¡ªassuming someone hadn¡¯t also hacked into the security system, anyways. That didn¡¯t mean this wasn¡¯t a threat¡ªwasn¡¯t meant to make her feel unsafe, at least on Victor¡¯s part.

    Not a single one of them was even trying to make her feel like she wasn¡¯t being threatened.

    Emilia turned. For a blink, she debated brute forcing the door open through hacking¡ªshe could fuck with the entire room¡¯s system if she did that¡ªbut these men didn¡¯t need to know she could do that. Far easier¡ªfar more threatening and more cathartic¡ªto take a step, and blow a hole where the door had once been.

    Metal shredded open, shrieking. The wall crumbled, leaving only the building supports behind¡ªshe didn¡¯t want to condemn the entire building, or anything. Almost immediately, the building¡¯s emergency system began to blare, signalling that everyone needed to evacuate. Behind her, the men cursed while Elijah¡¯s sixth roommate, who had still be inside a raid, was forcibly ejected so he could get out of the building.

    ¡°The next time you decide to threaten me,¡± Emilia said, just as other residents began to make their way into the hall, looking a mixture of annoyed and concerned, ¡°I won¡¯t just force my way out of the room you illegally locked me inside.¡±

    The other residents of the hall began to whisper, and Emilia forwarded a recording of what had led to her explosion out of the room to them and campus security. As much as they probably would have preferred she asked to be let out first, no one was going to try and claim she had no right to exit the room by whatever means necessary under the circumstances, especially when her escape had obviously been so controlled. Probably, anyways. Good thing she¡¯d recently gotten back onto her lawyer¡¯s good side, kinda.

    Turning, she left, the other residents stepping out of her way before following after her¡ªthey still did need to evacuate the building. No one talked to her, and when they got outside, campus security let her leave after a few questions, mostly wanting to know if there was anything else they needed to know or if she needed an escort back to her room or the clinic. No, to all of the above, and off she went.

    ¡°Em!¡± Elijah called, racing to catch up with. ¡°Em, wait. Please.¡±

    ¡°Go away, Elijah.¡±

    ¡°No. Em, please. Let me¡ª Let¡¯s just talk about this!¡± he said, sliding in front of her. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s just¡­ go get breakfast, and we can talk. Things don¡¯t have to end.¡±

    What. The. Fuck.

    ¡°Elijah, not only did you just spend a few minutes yelling at me for being a slut¡ªwhich, might I remind you, we had a mutually agreed upon open relationship?¡ªbut your shit stain of a friend locked me in your room, and spoke to me like I was trash, and you said nothing. You didn¡¯t even open the door to let me out.¡±

    ¡°Em,¡± Elijah tried again, running a hand through his golden curls. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Look, I was just surprised, is all. We haven¡¯t hooked up with anyone else in so long. I¡¯m not mad about that, and Victor was just playing around and¡ª Hey! Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°Away from you.¡± Seriously. It wasn¡¯t exactly a surprise that Elijah was a dumbass with terrible taste in friends, but this felt like a new low for her.

    ¡°Em! Stop! Let¡¯s talk about this.¡±

    A hand wrapped around her arm and Emilia was a second from slicing the offending limb off when blackness surged down on them. It pressed over her, toxic and consuming, for the barest moment before turning into a gentle caress. Soothing. Safe. Familiar.

    Not so much for Elijah, who had let go of her and been brought to his knees by the sudden pressure. He gasped, clearly struggling to breathe.

    ¡°You should let him go, before campus security shows up and detains you.¡± Emilia turned, easily finding the man she was looking for in the small crowd of students who had gathered, originally more interested in why a dorm was being evacuated so early in the morning, and now part interested, part horrified by what was happening between her and Elijah.

    Immediately, the pressure let up, but the man¡¯s energy remained, dragging over her as though checking to make sure she was okay. He stepped forward, black skin nearly the colour of the night sky, but not quite. His hair was still a strange shade that seemed too light for his skin, but everything else about him was different. Where there had been a too wide mouth, now there was a normal one, with lovely, plump lips that seemed caught in a perpetual pout, making the man look far younger than the early-100s she thought he was. Where limbs had once been too long, they were now regular and well proportioned. The purple eyes were still there, but Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced they weren¡¯t contacts. Maybe not, but possibly.

    ¡°You¡¯re shorter,¡± she noted as they came face to face. She still had to tip her head up to meet his eyes, her own catching on the temporary Censor attached to his neck, but it nowhere near the height he¡¯d had in the raid.

    ¡°Hello, Emilia,¡± he said, glancing behind her to where Elijah was attempting to remove himself from the ground¡ªhe might be able to breathe now, but having been held down by the man¡¯s energy before, she was well aware that it would take a moment for her now-ex to collect himself.

    ¡°So, are you gonna tell me your real name now?¡± she asked, smiling as she hooked her arm through his and began dragging him towards her dorm¡ªor should she go see Sil, first?¡ª¡°or am I gonna be stuck calling you Conrad forever?¡±

 Arc 6 | Chapter 223: The Next Stop

    ¡°I thought we were meeting up later,¡± Emilia said as they walked, students making way for them. Astrapan had a few Free Colonier students, but they weren¡¯t exactly common and despite all the connections that had been made during the war, many people still weren¡¯t confident in dealing with them. Emilia had introduced tons of people to Mazi, and they were friendly with him¡ªand she knew a few of the random classmates who¡¯d met him through her were now great friends with him¡ªbut she was pretty sure none of them would have known how to approach him without that introduction.

    It was about the same with Conrad¡ªhe had yet to answer her question about his real name, so Conrad it was, for the moment. Several of the people they passed eyed them up with curiosity. The silverstrain who had just blown up part of a dorm building¡ªEmilia was sure everyone would know about that the moment they woke¡ªand the mystery man from the Free Colonies¡ªit was pretty clear Conrad wasn¡¯t Baalphorian¡ªwalking arm in arm.

    Aside from the glittering purple of his temporary Censor, Conrad was dressed in clothing neither she nor her Censor could place. The general shape and form of them reminded her of clothing common throughout Baalphoria, especially with the younger crowd, but something about them didn¡¯t quite fit. It were as though someone had taken what they knew of Baalphorian fashion and tweaked it just enough that it othered the person.

    ¡°This person doesn¡¯t belong here,¡± they seemed to say.

    Black pants hugged the man¡¯s legs, highlighting how thin he was¡ªand considering Emilia could see the lean muscle on him, she couldn¡¯t imagine how skinny he would have been without working out. The man even had a thigh gap, for stars sake! A deep grey shirt was tucked into the pants, hanging loose around him. It almost reminded her of clothing seen in The Atrium, with its gently billowing sleeves and open neckline before making way for buttons, but not quite. It felt more like what someone might find if they went into one of the specialty stores that sold clothing inspired by Free Colony styles.

    Idly, she reached out to tug at the waist of Conrad¡¯s shirt, wondering if a corset would suit her new friend. Conrad raised a light-brown eyebrow at her, but said nothing about her easy touch, instead finally replying to her question, his short curls and sleeves shifting in the light wind, coming off the ocean.

    ¡°I was worried, and my family was annoying me.¡±

    ¡°Ah~ are they okay? What happened with¡­¡± Emilia trailed off, awkwardly wondering if she should continue referring to his family by the ridiculous codenames she¡¯d given them.

    Frowning, Conrad admitted that his sister and nephew had returned to the world off. ¡°Something with them definitely isn¡¯t right. It didn¡¯t feel as extreme as inside the raid, but they¡¯ve been sent to be assessed.¡± Smirking, he told her it had been quite a bit of work to subdue them, especially since the silverstrain girl and grumpy man had no idea what was happening, having been returned to the real-world hours beforehand.

    ¡°My sister told them I had betrayed them,¡± the man explained as Emilia led them towards their destination. ¡°They¡¯re weak for their mom¡ªmost of her kids are¡ªso believed her.¡±

    ¡°So you came out into a fight with all of them?¡± Emilia asked, rather horrified, as she pulled them to a stop and began looking over Conrad for any injuries. There was also some patting. ¡°There were a lot of them! Plus, I imagine Livia and that other kid were on her side as well! And then I went and killed Toby and¡ª¡±

    Fingers pressed to her lips, rudely silencing her. The man¡¯s energy lapped up her skin, trying to calm her, and she could feel it pressing at her meridians but never entering¡ªEmilia didn¡¯t know how much experience he had with Baalphorians and their finicky Censors, but he clearly knew not to push into her.

    That¡­ was rather sad¡ªshe both missed the comfort of having her friend close and was rather curious what his energy would feel like inside her, here in the real world¡ªand also the reason for their first stop.

    ¡°I am fine. My brother¡ªthe one you killed in the raid¡ªwas also there, and despite how much we often do not get along, he is not stupid. He knew something was wrong with our sister and contacted our other brother. Together, we detained everyone and I explained what had happened. When she arrived, Oria backed me up. Even without that, it was rather clear something wasn¡¯t right.¡±

    Emilia blinked at Conrad, waiting for him to remove his hand before saying, ¡°Your accent is mostly gone.¡±

    A flush lit up the Free Colonier¡¯s skin. ¡°Yes. I imagine it is not a surprise that I enjoy playing with my identity inside raids.¡±

    Emilia nodded before realizing something and scrambling to catch Conrad¡¯s hands. ¡°Wait! You do blackaether raids, right!¡±

    The man nodded, frowned. He was adorable when he frowned, the pout of his lips growing more pronounced. Honestly, part of her could understand why he would change his appearance and adopt a thicker accent within raids: this man, with his small body, clearly expensive clothing, and perfect example of an eastern Free Colonier accent, with his clipped words and perfect pronunciation¡ªthank you, early version of the generic language training system they¡¯d used during the war, which had removed the ability to figure out where anyone who learned Baalphorian through it had originally come from based on their accent¡­ not¡ªwas shockingly non-threatening.

    Actually, he wasn¡¯t just non-threatening, he seemed to almost give off an innocent baby vibe!

    Fascinating. If she hadn¡¯t already seen him take down Elijah¡ªnot to mention felt the sheer power in his energy at the time¡ªshe might have assumed he really was only powerful¡ªvicious¡ªwithin raids.

    Having confirmed the man was familiar with blackaether raids, Emilia spent the rest of their walk telling him about what had happened after she killed him and then about the fragments of Caro¡¯s soul she and Hyr had received. Conrad had heard murmurs of similar things, but had always chalked it up to blackaether raid designers adding in some ability to move game soul between raids.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°I believe there are several legal raids that allow AIs to be moved between them as well, but they are rare.¡±

    ¡°It probably requires a certain type of world for the AIs to survive such things¡­¡± Emilia noted, immediately wishing that she hadn¡¯t. Even if they had Caro¡¯s soul, even if they were able to revive him somehow, that didn¡¯t mean the child would survive the transition from the world of the raid to wherever they ended up. It was definitely in Caro¡¯s favour that they had already known about being an AI, but still¡­

    ¡°Yes,¡± Conrad agreed as they entered a building, having walked across campus to reach it, rather than jump on a slide line, or even just slide or spark or anything else. As much as Emilia could do those things again, she really did like walking, and it wasn¡¯t like they had a lack of things to talk about. ¡°Many of those raids likely have worlds where something similar to raiding exists.¡±

    Across her vision, Emilia¡¯s Censor offered up examples of several raids that allowed transfers of AIs between them. Indeed, usually they were either part of a collective world, each side possessing myths about people coming and going from different worlds, or had something similar to raids within them. They also weren¡¯t quite the same, as most simply allowed AIs to gain the ability to move worlds, rather than giving heroes the ability to bring their souls into the real world and then transfer them to another platform.

    ¡°I can ask around,¡± Conrad said, the but in his words already palpable, before he added, ¡°Several of my niblings might have better luck.¡±

    Emilia wasn¡¯t sure how much she liked the idea of asking those kids¡ªagain, she had to remind them that most of them weren¡¯t actually kids¡ªfor anything, but after thinking about whether they¡¯d be able to do anything bad with information about her somehow receiving a fragment of a game soul¡ªunlikely¡ªand asking if Conrad really thought they¡¯d help her¡ªyes, the ones he¡¯d ask liked mysteries and weird techy shit¡ªshe agreed.

    Despite how much he raided, the Free Colonier wasn¡¯t used to using a Censor for everyday things, and by the time he had managed to send off the required information to his niblings they had arrived at Sil¡¯s door.

    Unlike her and Pria, Sil had a single dorm unit¡ªBeth did as well, financed by a combination of Sil and her scholarship¡ªand Emilia politely let him know they had arrived. The message she received back told her he was in the shower and to come on in. Another few messages had him agreeing to let her use his Virtuosi Rig.

    That was the main reason she had wanted to come here first. A shower would be great. So would a short nap¡ªalthough given she was still a little buzzed from the incident with Elijah and his roommates and now had Conrad to supervise, she didn¡¯t see that happening. Taking Hack in and Fix/Alter Your Censor off her list of things to do would be even better than both.

    Conrad took an awkward seat in one of the rarely used chairs scattered through Sil¡¯s living room¡ªusually they hung out¡­ basically anywhere but any of their rooms¡ªwhile Emilia ordered the three of them food and drink, leaving Sil¡¯s in the kitchen and handing Conrad his. He eyed it dubiously, probably because she¡¯d given him some very Baalphorian foods to try. She chugged her own disgusting concoction, meant to lessen the strain of so little sleep, that run in with an echo, residual drugs and uppers, and her recent unknotting and knotting, not to mention all her time in the Virtuosi System.

    Yeah, she probably needed more than one revolting drink. Her stomach churned at the thought, however, and she instead plopped down into Sil¡¯s bleeding-edge rig and laid back. She¡¯d drink another one after¡­ probably.

    Immediately, the world well away, only the smallest of clicks notifying her that she¡¯d connected to the system. Time warped, nearly screeching to a halt. Emilia didn¡¯t know how long fixing up her Censor and figuring out how to force it to let her use her core¡ªnot to mention let Conrad use his on her¡ªwould take, but that was why she was using Sil¡¯s station, as opposed to the dated one in her and Pria¡¯s suite, or even one of the newer models in the Data-Recovery Lab.

    All time skews came at a cost. Forcing a mind to run that fast, to do so much, in such short periods of time could cause various health issues. Usually, it was just stuff like headaches, mild body aches, loss of appetite¡ªthe rig¡¯s cooling systems kept brain damage due to overheating Censors from occurring. Nothing too serious, and even the ancient rig she¡¯d used for her time in {A Life (not) in the Stars} only leaving her vision blurry, stomach turning, for about thirty minutes.

    That had been weeks pressed into hours. Emilia had a feeling this was going to be weeks pressed into minutes¡ªseconds, if she could align her brain and the system well enough.

    Sil¡¯s rig was bleeding-edge, which meant it could work smoother, faster, easier, but some of the kinks still had to be ironed out. Normal Virtuosi Systems automatically interfaced with everyone about the same. Sil¡¯s required some tweaking¡ªsome getting to know the machine¡ªfor it to function at full capacity, allowing her to skew time severely enough that, even in a cutting-edge rig, her Censor would be liable to kick her from the system, worried it would burn out under the strain.

    It didn¡¯t really matter whether she got it working at full capacity or not, although she still set her Censor to work on trying to do so¡ªjust because she didn¡¯t have to didn¡¯t mean she didn¡¯t want to¡ªwhile she pulled up every record of Simeon¡¯s Censor.

    During the war, Ri had taught both Simeon and Helix how to use their cores to some extent, in order to allow Helix to fight at full capacity longer. While in Helix¡¯s case, this more resulted in him learning how to use bursts of energy in an emergency¡ªor when alone¡ªSimeon had needed to learn more complicated core abilities to lessen the strain of Helix¡¯s irregular deviation on his body.

    It had taken a lot of work¡ªand a lot of ingenuity on her and Halen¡¯s part¡ªto make Simeon¡¯s Censor allow him to use his core. Partially, their workaround had only worked because it was a war and Helix needed help from his support. Censors, regardless of how much they preferred cores not be used, really did want to keep everyone safe and happy. Helix needed help. Helping required Simeon use his core, hence, Simeon¡¯s Censor had begrudgingly accepted their hacks.

    The other part, of course, was that Simeon was an ECC dyad, who always seemed to exist separate from, well¡­ everything. They were simultaneously closer to the aethernet, and yet further away. They could meld with their Censors in ways no one else could, and yet it was often less existent within their idea of the world than for the average person. Simeon being an ECC dyad made hacking his Censor for almost anything easier.

    This all combined to mean records of the hacks done to Simeon¡¯s Censor over the years¡ªsomething now maintained by Helix¡ªwere the perfect place to start on her search for workarounds for making her own Censor accept core usage. At the same time, it was a terrible place to start.

    Still, not having seen her childhood friend¡¯s hacks in such a long time, she was curious what Helix had done¡ªif he¡¯d managed to figure out better tactics, especially now that Simeon¡¯s Censor may very well object that they were no longer at war, and allowing Simeon such freedoms was unnecessary.

    The only way was to look and find out, and give the jumble of code that appeared, barely understandable to her after years of living in a bubble of only her own, hobbled together hacks¡­

    Yeah, she was gonna need weeks to figure this out¡ªto learn how much hacking had changed in the last decade.

    Better order a few more gross drinks.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 224: Itâ€™s Only Been Likeâ€¦ A Year and A Halfâ€¦ Max

    The third time Emilia emerged from the Virtuosi System, intent to test her changes with Conrad, she instead found Sil glowering down at her, which wasn¡¯t ideal. Sure, she had warned her friend that there would be a strange man sitting in his living room before immersing herself into her hacking, but she¡¯d been hoping to actually be out of the system when they met.

    Behind him, Conrad was still eating, although his bowl had been replaced with something else¡ªsomething from the Dion-Norvel border, based on the heavy scent. While she wasn¡¯t positive, Emilia was pretty sure the Free Colonier wasn¡¯t experienced with his temporary Censor¡ªor was at the least very out of practice in day to day use¡ªand probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to interface with Sil¡¯s kitchen to get something else.

    In other words, she¡¯d been out of it long enough that Sil had gone from showering to introducing himself to Conrad to making him less mean food¡ªbecause the Baalphorian food Emilia had given him had definitely been specific in its tastes¡ªto staring judgingly down at her.

    ¡°Uh, good morning?¡± she said, perfectly aware that her tone was more question than statement.

    Sil¡¯s frown deepened, fingers tapping threateningly over his crossed arms. ¡°If you have been in there so long you do not know if it is still morning, you have been in there too long.¡±

    Emilia might have been older than Sil¡ªalthough not by much¡ªbut currently she felt like a child being reprimanded for staying up too late hacking. Was that exactly what she had done? Yes, but also! It was very unfair of Sil to guess at what she¡¯d been doing so easily, especially since as far as he knew, she had no experience with hacking!

    Narrowing her eyes at her friend¡ªand sending Conrad a suspicious glance for good measure¡ªshe asked if he had been spying on her.

    Sil raised an eyebrow. ¡°Should I have been?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not. I¡¯m not doing anything suspicious.¡±

    ¡°Then, what are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ hacking my Censor?¡±

    Technically, hacking your Censor wasn¡¯t illegal. Almost everyone had some modification or another installed¡ªand admittedly, most hacks were still based on architecture she had created during her teens, then altered for both wartime and civillian use during the war. A significant portion of her time within the Virtuosi System had been going through all the changes Helix and others had done to that system since then.

    She¡¯d actually wondered about that, over the years, about how it was still her code under all of the new functions various hackers had added. Apparently, while Helix¡ªanonymously¡ªkept that code updated¡ªand had changed it to a completely different language several times¡ªthe underlying ideas were actually pretty similar to what she¡¯d originally created. A part of her appreciated that Helix continued to give her credit for the hack¡ªhis hacks retaining the EMY designation¡ªanother part wanted to message him and tell him he was stupid. Her friend had made so many alterations over the years that the EMY hack was now more his and hers.

    That was fine with her¡ªif she¡¯d wanted to retain control of it, she wouldn¡¯t have publicly released the code. It was, however, slightly annoying. There was something odd about going through code that worked how she would have coded it to, and yet didn¡¯t, and yet did. Helix¡¯s fair and style were persistent in the newest versions, and even once she¡¯d managed to get a grasp of the various languages he used it had been difficult to read through what he wrote because where she would have zigged, he zagged. The end result was beautiful, a melding together of both of their minds and personalities, even after a decade¡ªwhich was really more than a decade.

    That was how she¡¯d ended up losing track of time. As much as Emilia had known she¡¯d have a lot of catching up to do, Helix and every other hacker clearly did their work inside the Virtuosi System. A decade in real time was far more inside the time skew of the Virtuosi System. A hundred years of innovation? A thousand? Far more than that, most likely.

    Emilia felt like her head was going to explode from everything she¡¯d learned, especially since¡ªfor one¡ªshe¡¯d been forced to start digging into the information V had given her during the raid, about how the government¡¯s limits on Virtuosi hours were excessively low and how there were workarounds. She now had those workarounds. As a result, she¡¯d been inside the Virtuosi System far longer than the government would have approved of.

    It was a good thing she was going to be skipping school for a bit¡ªProfessor A¡¯s protocols definitely would have noticed the workarounds. It was a toss up whether a normal Virtuosi System would. Thankfully, Sil¡¯s rig had already been altered to accept the workarounds¡ªEmilia would have hacked them into it, if needed. She was glad she hadn¡¯t needed to; Sil was scary.

    The other big problem she¡¯d run into was, well, something she couldn¡¯t really be mad about: Helix had designed his own programming language specifically to code the personal hacks he created for himself and his friends. As in, several years ago, all of Simeon¡¯s hacks had changed languages. Those hacks were stored on a server along with records of many of their Censors¡ªa fail-safe in case something went wrong during the war, after a very unfortunate incident with a corrupted hack, which many members of their unit still used, every alteration they made to their system automatically backing up to the server. Any hack that Helix maintained? Coded in that mysterious language¡ªmysterious, because there was no public version of it, no documentation outside of Helix¡¯s head.

    Emilia had almost asked Rafe if he had documentation on it, but considering she had yet to hear from her friend about the moth virus or if he knew anything about Hail and mind manipulation or a real aether connection, she doubted she¡¯d hear from him about this, especially since despite her loss of time, not much real-world time had actually passed while she was inside the Virtuosi System¡­ just far more than was probably safe with how intense that time skew had been.

    Basically, she¡¯d been forced to learn Helix¡¯s language by reverse engineering it. Had she mentioned her brain burned? Like, a lot?

    Emilia blinked up at Sil, innocent and trying not to throw up.

    Sil continued glaring down at her. ¡°How long were you in there?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯d rather not say.¡±

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    ¡°Since when have you been fucking with blackaether hacks?¡± Of course Sil would know immediately that she¡¯d hacked away her time limit and exactly where it had come from. Still, while he clearly utilized the same hacks, it was very rude of him to so easily guess she was now fucking with her time limits as well!

    ¡°Uh¡­ it depends if you want real-world time, or however long I was in there for.¡±

    ¡°You know, as much as your government is too strict on its limits, you do need some,¡± Conrad said as he stood and moved to the kitchen. What followed was a comedy of him trying to figure out where to put his dish, and eventually, Sil was forced to go show him¡ªhe¡¯d been glaring at Emilia and trying to teach Conrad how to open the dishwasher from afar. It had not gone well. Somehow, Conrad had activated the drink machine without a cup in it. Even Sil didn¡¯t know how he¡¯d managed to accidentally get around the safety protocols.

    ¡°Is your Censor messed up?¡± her friend asked as he bullied Conrad back into the living room, probably concerned he¡¯d somehow flood the suite. That was probably fair.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not say,¡± Conrad deadpanned, earning him a glare from Sil and a snicker from Emilia. ¡°Did you at least manage what you wanted in there? Something for us to test? Or did you age yourself a couple years for no reason?¡±

    ¡°YEARS?¡± Sil gasped, freezing midway through passing her an even more disgusting drink than the one she¡¯d gotten herself. He truly did look horrified, with his mouth agape and eyes humorously large, and despite herself, Emilia snapped a picture of him and sent it off in their friend chat. Sil¡¯s expression turned frosty as forced her to down the drink. ¡°Years?¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t years,¡± she assured him. It probably hadn¡¯t been, anyways. Year and a half, max. That wasn¡¯t years, plural. Years¡ªplural¡ªdefinitely would have melted her brain¡­ probably. Well, probably not, actually, cause, like, that was the thing with being anything under about 10D: regardless of how knotted up you became¡ªby choice or trauma¡ªyour body was just really, really good at handling the Virtuosi System in huge amounts.

    Emilia had already known that, from her days of coding the training system and then training within it, their Virtuosi limits removed for the duration of the war. Part of her had always just believed that she¡¯d shaved a few years¡ªor even decades¡ªoff her life as a result. According to the research being done with the help of blackaether heroes? Not so much. Just as V had told her: most people were capable of staying logged into the Virtuosi System dozens, if not hundreds, of times longer than the rough limit of three months per real-world week the government mandated.

    Usually, those three months of Virtuosi hours were squeezed into an evening or weekend of raiding, however, not¡ªEmilia checked the time¡ªten minutes, although some of that time had been the first two times she¡¯d emerged, to test her new system out. Ten minutes and far longer than three months. The whole bleeding-edge rig thing had been helpful, but her brain wasn¡¯t too happy with her.

    ¡°People generally aren¡¯t stupid enough to use something like this at full capacity without getting used to it first,¡± Sil commented when she admitted she felt pretty terrible. He also handed her another drink, and her stomach turned over. ¡°Plus, you rarely raid in the first place. I think most of your time is spent in the lab, and that time skew isn¡¯t nearly as intense as this thing, or even a normal raid. Speaking of which, why did you enter that raid?¡±

    ¡°So, is that a no to the testing, then?¡± Conrad asked.

    ¡°What? Oh, no. We should do that. Do you think you can make me feel less terrible?¡±

    ¡°What testing?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s 50-50 whether you¡¯ll feel better or worse,¡± Conrad said, standing and coming to kneel before her, his hands coming to clasp her forearms, her hands turning to clasp his in turn. They didn¡¯t need to be touching, but maybe that would make it easier? ¡°I¡¯ll be able to pull back faster if your Censor rejects me,¡± he explained when she asked, Sil once more asking what they were testing in the background.

    Emilia would have answered him, but Conrad¡¯s energy was already pressing into her.

    The first time Emilia came out of the system, she¡¯d completely rewritten her Censor System. All she¡¯d done was confirm everything was functioning correctly¡ªas much as someone could do in only a minute, anyways¡ªand check how using her core and accepting Conrad¡¯s energy into her felt.

    Her Censor had worked better than before.

    She¡¯d been able to use her core in small, emergency bursts, and nothing more.

    Conrad had been knocked back a few feet by¡­ something, when he tried to use his core on her. He¡¯d broken a lamp, but Emilia had been able to fix it using {Memories of a Moment} and {Limited Rewind}, a pair of sister skills she hadn¡¯t been able to use since the war ended, so overall, it had been a good experience.

    The second time, she¡¯d used what she could read of Simeon¡¯s hacks¡ªas well as some random notes from Helix on the topic of cores and Censors¡ªto program something that had, well¡­ it hadn¡¯t really worked to let her use her core or let Conrad in. It also hadn¡¯t not worked. What she made was a workaround, that made doing either extremely unpleasant¡ªalthough only for her, this time¡ªbut doable.

    At the time, her brain hadn¡¯t been burning yet, but she¡¯d known that to do any better without extensive testing or rewriting the wheel, she¡¯d need to figure out Helix¡¯s programming language. So she did. Then she reprogrammed her entire system using his language¡­ then she¡¯d decided she didn¡¯t like a few aspects of his language and written her own version of it. It was kinda like what he¡¯d done to the EMY system: it was still his, but now it had her flair in it as well. When she was sure her system was working properly, Emilia intended to upload a copy of it to the server with a note challenging him to figure it out.

    After that, she¡¯d finally been able to properly read Helix¡¯s various hacks and work in all the progress the man had made regarding cores and Censors into her system. Her friend had been busy. Despite there being no war to push him to continue researching this¡ªhow to make his and Simeon¡¯s systems not just continue allowing core use but allowing it more easily¡ªhe had kept at it.

    Both of her friends¡¯ systems¡ªas well as Nettie¡¯s, she¡¯d eventually realized¡ªwere beautiful, the way they worked squeezing her heart because Helix had come so far from being the excited outcast who joined their unit and was constantly trying to figure out how he could help Halen and her.

    Now, he was a genius. Emilia had already known that, of course. Even when he¡¯d known almost nothing of coding or hacking, he¡¯d still managed to contribute ideas, his brain a mess of ingenuity and strange ideas, just as hers had once been¡ªmaybe was becoming once again, without the strain of so many knots on her body and soul.

    Emilia thought the changes she¡¯d made to Helix¡¯s language and designs were pretty good, adding in the flavour of a different mind to his genius. Clearly, when it came to the goings-on of their unit¡¯s Censors and their occasional use of their cores, Helix wasn¡¯t getting anyone else¡¯s input. Occasionally, there were the marks of Rafe there, controlled and precise, but they were minimal, more Helix representing a conversation he had had with their friend than Rafe actually coding it himself.

    That was¡­ sad, that Helix was so alone, her and Halen gone, everyone else who had worked on the training system either dead or uninterested in continuing to code. Perhaps that was part of what had led her to learn his language and then improve upon it. A hacker, giving love to another hacker.

    Hopefully, it would be a good surprise for Helix, once he left the reality show he was currently bound to. Hopefully, by the time they were both home¡ªreturned from The Cloudway and Ship¡¯o Stars¡ªthey¡¯d both be in a place to join forces. For what? Emilia had no idea, but as Conrad¡¯s energy seamlessly slipped inside her, Sil gasping in shock behind the Free Colonier as he realized what they were doing¡ªwhat she¡¯d managed to get her Censor to allow her to do¡ªshe felt, for the first time in years, like the teenager she had once been: someone infinitely excited to learn and create.

    Conrad¡¯s hands left hers, his energy a smooth line between them, keeping them connected once more.

    Her nose wrinkled. ¡°Still a little overly sexual.¡±

    Conrad grimaced. Sil¡¯s shock morphed into a mixture of concern and disgust. Emilia sent another picture of him off in the group chat.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 225: Black and Gold

    ¡°It¡¯s too early~¡± Pria moaned as Beth attempted to haul her out of bed.

    They¡¯d been summoned by Sil. He claimed it was important¡ªwhich meant they needed to get there quickly¡ªbut not an emergency¡ªwhich meant Beth didn¡¯t have to spark them over to his apartment, regardless of whether Pria was dressed or not.

    Beside her friend, the girl from the day before continued to sleep, snoring quietly. Considering that Beth had been forced to climb onto the bed and haphazardly straddle Pria in an attempt to shake her awake, the girl¡¯s continued sleep was impressive. Or concerning. It might be concerning.

    ¡°I know,¡± she said, pulling back and dragging Pria with her, a physical augmentation skill racketing through her body. As much as Beth was taller and stronger than Pria, the girl was big, and she didn¡¯t want either of them hurt by her manhandling. ¡°Sil said it was important.¡±

    ¡°Why important? What important at¡±¡ªPria was quiet for a long moment, her sleepy mind struggling to check the time. Then, she groaned, long and loud.

    The girl still didn¡¯t move.

    ¡°Too early.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s so fucking important he wants us up and about this early?¡±

    Beth hesitated. Technically, Sil hadn¡¯t said what was so important. Chances were that meant it was either related to the news she¡¯d received upon being rattled awake by his urgent message¡ªthat Emilia had been involved in a very public, very ugly breakup with Elijah¡ªor that it was something equally insane, but completely unrelated. Most likely, it was the latter. If it had been about the breakup¡­ well, Beth knew Emilia well enough to know she¡¯d never been that attached to Elijah.

    Theirs had been a relationship of good¡ªor at least acceptable¡ªsex and mutual enjoyment of each other. Then, it hadn¡¯t been. Elijah had changed, become too serious for Emilia, who needed someone who would simultaneously ground her and lighten her life. That was never going to be Elijah, but even the bit he did cover¡ªnotably, that he used to be fun¡ªwas now in the past. Therefore, he needed to be past as well. The fact that he hadn¡¯t seen it that way was a him problem, and regardless of how badly the breakup had gone¡­

    No, Beth couldn¡¯t see Emilia needing them for emotional support or anything like that.

    Still, not knowing what else Sil could possibly want, it wasn¡¯t like she could leverage Pria out of bed with anything else.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure, but have you seen what happened in Elijah¡¯s suite this morning?¡±

    ¡°What? No?¡±

    Pria was silent for several, long moments, her sleepy mind digging into the campus messages, looking for the gossip. With the pink tide and all the drugs circling, there was a lot of news floating about. Luckily, no one had died¡ªalthough the clinics both on campus and in Piketown were currently overrun with patients who had done an impressive array of stupid things. Videos of their stupidity were now swamping the campus messages, burying even the relatively fresh news of Emilia causing the evacuation of an entire dorm building¡ªnot to mention whatever had happened with her and Elijah and some mystery man shortly after.

    Eventually, however, Pria found it.

    ¡°SHE WHAT!?¡± Pria screamed, bolting upright and sending both the blanket and Beth toppling backwards.

    ¡°Is your hookup okay?¡± Beth asked, politely turning away as Beth flung her naked body out of bed and began tugging on clothing. Luckily, she didn¡¯t just grab the closest fabric¡ªwhich would have resulted in either ruining her hookup¡¯s clothing or a long process of getting into the tight black dress she appeared to have worn out the night before.

    ¡°What? Oh, fuck. I was supposed to tell her to go get her knots checked about that,¡± Pria said as she struggled with a sock.

    ¡°What knots? And why are you putting on socks? It¡¯s still a million degrees out?¡±

    ¡°What? Oh, fuck.¡± The sock went flying, Pria racing out of the room.

    Beth gave the girl in Pria¡¯s bed another look, wondering if her friend had actually learned the girl¡¯s name this time, before calmly following. ¡°What knots?¡± she asked again, noting the way Pria was serving herself up one of the disgusting, if highly effective, concoctions Emilia made them drink when she knew they were hungover. Usually, Pria put up a fight about drinking the things¡ªthis was fair, they truly were some of the most horrific things Beth had ever consumed, even worse than pranpran. The fact that Pria was willingly drinking one, while not even appearing that hungover¡­

    This may have been why Beth had been hesitant to frame their excursion to Sil¡¯s as being about Emilia¡¯s breakup. Pria was now taking getting there seriously, sure, but she was perhaps taking it too seriously.

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Pria sighed as she forced her feet into a pair of shoes, not bothering to lean down and put them on like a normal human being. ¡°It¡¯s a whole thing. I don''t really want to talk about it.¡± The other girl shuddered as she ushered them out of the suite she and Emilia shared and continued struggling to drink her hangover remedy. ¡°Emilia can tell you about it. Or Payton, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Payton?¡±

    ¡°He was the one who handled me at the clinic yesterday,¡± Pria said, her voice growing more strained.

    Time to drop the subject, then.

    ¡°Did you and Emilia go out last night?¡± Beth asked instead, bracing herself as they exited the building.

    It was still early morning, and the heat of the pink tide had yet to hit its apex. It was still unpleasantly balmy, however, and around them, the students moving about were already layered over in a thin film of sweat. The worst of them¡ªpeople who had been out partying all night or had the misfortune to fall asleep out in the wild of the mountain, as the most intoxicated of students occasionally did¡ªhad dark circles of sweat under their arms, across their chests. One poor guy even had a line of sweat up his ass. At least, Beth assumed it was sweat. She¡¯d never seen him at any of the school¡¯s semiregular sex parties, so it probably wasn¡¯t related to too much sex, but who knew.

    ¡°We went out to dinner at that fancy ass place that just opened by The Grint, then headed over there.¡±

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Expensive. Who paid for that?¡±

    ¡°Emilia.¡±

    ¡°Seriously? Where¡¯d she get the pay?¡± While their friend had definitely done well in the raid the day before, she hadn¡¯t done that well, nor had she implied she¡¯d gotten some extra paydrop from it or anything, as occasionally happened for great plays. Emilia definitely would have preferred extra pay over the strange invite she¡¯d gotten. Plus, she¡¯d been in debt from the night before¡ªthat¡¯d been the whole point of dragging her to the raid, after all. ¡°Wait, you guys went back to The Grint?¡± Usually, they didn¡¯t hit the same club twice in a week.

    ¡°Yeah, related to the whole¡­ knot and clinic thing¡­¡± Pria sighed.

    Okay, dropping that subject as well.

    ¡°And she just fucked some rich dude,¡± Pria added before taking another shuddering sip of her drink. Nothing in her tone implied she thought there was anything strange about Emilia apparently having sex for money. ¡°Em said it wasn¡¯t like that,¡± the other girl assured her, waving a hand. ¡°She said it wasn¡¯t sex for money, but also wasn¡¯t not sex for money¡­ or something like that. I don¡¯t know how much her hookup gave her, but I got the impression it was a fucking lot~¡±

    Pria laughed as she began to complain that Emilia hadn¡¯t been willing to even show her a picture of the guy, even after telling her he was the most beautiful man on the planet. She was midway through speaking, however, when a voice cut her off.

    ¡°Em had sex for money!?¡±

    Of course. Of fucking course.

    Beth and Pria turned in unison to meet the shocked gaze of Elijah. Behind him stood his group of shitty friends and roommates, including the asshole who had locked Emilia into their suite. Beth supposed it made sense they were out and about, their dorm building still being inspected for structural damage, while their suite currently lacked a door¡­ and the wall for the door.

    Beth had watched the video Emilia had spread of the incident. To say she was shocked was an understatement. While she¡¯d known Emilia probably had more skill than she usually let anyone see¡ªand she definitely remembered her friend¡¯s stellar performance in the physical competitions they¡¯d taken part in, early in their university life¡ªBeth hadn¡¯t realized Emilia was that skilled, capable of taking out an entire wall with pinpoint precision and seemingly no effort.

    Really, though, the fact that these assholes weren¡¯t still being questioned by security or someone else about their conduct that morning was pretty shitty. Sure, Emilia hadn¡¯t been hurt, but what Victor had done¡ªwhat none of the men in front of her had even bothered to speak out against¡ªwas fucking creepy.

    Predators. Men who enjoyed making women feel small. Men who wouldn¡¯t stand up to their friends, even when they were clearly in the wrong.

    Sometimes, Beth was glad a lot of men didn¡¯t view her as a real woman. It sucked, and there was definitely a different sort of predator out there who would do horrible things to her, if given the chance. They wouldn¡¯t get such a chance, but if they did, those things would be terrible enough that no one would pretend it didn¡¯t happen¡ªthat it wasn¡¯t that bad, as she¡¯d already seen people saying throughout campus chats and message boards about what these men had done to her friend.

    Luckily, those comments were being shut down pretty fast, but the fact that anyone could view a bunch of men locking a woman into their room and talking about her like she was only good for sex as nothing was pretty fucking terrible. So yeah, as much as there were other threats out there that trans people faced, at least it wasn¡¯t normalized the way these guys¡¯ actions were.

    ¡°I just said that she didn¡¯t,¡± Pria said, glaring daggers at the men, one hand on her thick hips while the other gripped her drink like it was a weapon, which¡­ while it was objectively disgusting, Beth doubted it could be used as an actual weapon.

    ¡°I dunno,¡± Victor laughed, not even bothering to look at Pria as he spoke to her, his eyes instead glued to Beth because he was an equal opportunity asshole who loved making everyone feel like they were shit, ¡°definitely sounded like she opened her holes for a bit of cash.¡±

    Seriously, Emilia had terrible taste in men. Granted, they¡¯d avoided spending more than the barest amount of time with any of Elijah¡¯s trash friends, but anyone who kept company with these sorts of people should have been an absolute no. Realistically, they were to blame as well. Could they keep Emilia from dating or fucking whoever she liked? Probably not, but they were her friends, and since she¡¯d proved herself to be so undiscerning in who she let stick their cock inside her, they should step up to be her common sense.

    [Beth: New Rule: Emilia isn¡¯t allowed to date or fuck anyone without our approval.]

    A chorus of agreeds came through the group chat, followed by Emilia complaining about how she had great taste in friends and how that taste should translate to having good taste in boyfriends and fuck buddies.

    [Em: i swear]

    [Em: i have fucked at least four people who were good people!]

    [Em: plus the people i sometimes have kinky group sex with are awesome]

    [Beth: and how many people have you fucked total?]

    Emilia did not respond, which Beth was taking to mean it was such a high number that her at least four people, plus random group sex people were barely significant. Still, she at least didn¡¯t complain about Beth¡¯s mostly joking suggestion that they vet all her hookups from now on. Perhaps, if she wasn¡¯t putting up a fight, it should be changed from a joke to a real suggestion, at least when it came to her dating anyone in the future.

    ¡°Fuck off. All of you,¡± Beth didn¡¯t quite snarl. If she had to fight the entire group of men, she would. It wouldn¡¯t be pretty, and they¡¯d all get in some pretty big shit for fighting at all, let alone on campus, but for Emilia¡ªagainst these assholes¡ªBeth would gladly get expelled.

    ¡°Don¡¯t speak to us that way,¡± Victor snapped back, stepping forward.

    Elijah¡¯s least pleasant roommate was tall and muscular. Beth had seen him in raids, and unfortunately, he was good. If they fought¡ªeven just the two of them¡ªit would be messy. He might only be a sub-100¡ªprobably high 70s, although Beth wasn¡¯t certain, as she generally made a point to avoid the man¡ªbut he made a point to brag about his service during the war often. Beth¡¯s lower D-Level might give her the potential to be more powerful, but she didn¡¯t have the experience to back it up.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to be spoken to like that, none of you should talk to any of us again,¡± Beth replied, Censor already whirring as it loaded up a combination of defensive and offensive skills, just in case the unpredictable man decided to throw something at them.

    Victor¡¯s eyes racked over her, a smirk Beth didn¡¯t like tugging at his lips. ¡°Someone like you can¡¯t tell us who we can and can¡¯t talk to¡ªnot how we talk to them, either.¡±

    He stepped closer, pulled himself taller. Beth was tall, but Victor made even her feel too small and in the corner of her vision, Pria shrank back slightly, whatever emphatic connection she had to the aether probably burning for how much threat this man was radiating.

    ¡°Something as disgusting as you should be glad we¡¯re even talking to you at all,¡± Victor laughed, and for once, one of his roommates reacted, their eyes growing wide. They still didn¡¯t say anything. Coward. ¡°If you''d like, I can take care of that for you? Make you a normal girl?¡±

    It took Beth a second too long to realize what he was implying, a skill already sliding towards her, intend to slice away flesh she¡¯d long ago decided she was fine keeping.

    The man was insane.

    Just fighting would have been bad enough¡ªenough to be suspended or even expelled. For him to attack her, intent to mutilate her¡­

    That was the sort of shit that got you arrested.

    Or worse.

    Pria¡¯s gasp rattled through her as she tried to activate a skill to block whatever Victor had sent her way. It wasn¡¯t going to be fast enough, some part of her saying she should have risked sparking, as nauseating as that would have been, to get out of the way. Even then, it was unlikely she would have been fast enough. Sparking was only fast when you were practised, precise. Beth was neither, and now, she was going to¡ª

    A thick arm wrapped around her waist, tugging her away from the skill as it snapped shut where her hips had just been.

    No, not snapped shut. Something had stopped the skill, leaving code visibly vibrating through the aether, frozen.

    ¡°What¡ª¡± Victor began to ask, but he cut off, a blur of black appearing in front of him and then, nothing.

    Nothing, because Victor was just¡­ gone, and Beth was being set down by the tallest man she had ever seen, his golden eyes not even bothering to look towards Elijah and his friends, as though they weren¡¯t worthy of his attention.

    Perhaps they weren¡¯t. Not with braids like those woven through his hair.

    ¡°Fucking stars, you¡¯re tall,¡± Pria breathed out behind them.

    The man¡¯s eyes tilted in mild amusement. ¡°So I¡¯ve heard, several times in the last few minutes.¡±

 Arc 6 | Chapter 226: Rage

    ¡°It¡¯s still too early~¡±

    Emilia looked up from where she was seated on the floor next to Conrad, the man attempting to teach her how to use her core better as Sil shifted back and forth between looking at her hacked system¡ªhe had yet to decipher more than the barest amount of it, extra obfuscation which being one of the most significant changes she¡¯d made to Helix¡¯s original language¡ªand supervising them. Her friend had been less than enthusiastic about the use of her core. That was a little fair, but also, billions of people used their cores every day. It¡¯d be fine. Probably.

    Conrad had yet to comment on the crack running through her core, but he had wound his energy more securely along the lines of it, adding an extra bit of protection as he frowned in concentration, his hand pressing directly over the skin of her stomach because clearly even for him, dealing with the crack¡ªprotecting her from a further fissure¡ªwas difficult.

    ¡°Hello~¡± she singsonged, waving to Pria and Beth and¡ª ¡°HYR!¡± Emilia scrambled up, and vaulted over Sil¡¯s couch before launching herself at the northerner, something that unfortunately involved all but pushing her classmates out of the way. A little part of her felt bad for that, not just for the violence of it, but because she technically hadn¡¯t seen them in weeks, whereas she¡¯d seen Hyr only hours earlier.

    The syn caught her with the ease she¡¯d come to expect from them during their brief acquaintance, their movements smooth as though being guided by the universe itself. Her Censor immediately began listing off various studies done on Free Coloniers who claimed to have fortune-telling abilities, all of which had come out either inconclusive or showing that their abilities were lies. All it took was a small push, however, and her Censor was listing off dozens of issues with those studies. Another push, and it was sliding into the back door of Astrapan and several over universities, determining that there had been some questionable things going on with some of the funding for said research, and a significant number of the researchers had purist ties. Awesome.

    ¡°Emilia, lustrat vy syn,¡± Hyr whispered, their arms tightening around her, their nose pressing into the top of her head.

    Emilia laughed, muttering into the syn¡¯s neck that it hadn¡¯t been that long, only a few hours, since they¡¯d parted. ¡°lustra¡¯k syn vy.¡±

    ¡°Since when do you speak anything other than Baalphorian?¡± Pria asked as Hyr let her feet touch the ground again.

    ¡°Since I was a teen? Didn¡¯t learn Brylish until my 40s, though.¡± It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize she must have learned it during the war and just wasn¡¯t explicitly saying it. Indeed, behind Pria, Beth¡ªwho had been awkwardly skirting Conrad to get to Sil¡ªglanced back at her, dubious.

    ¡°Do not date this one,¡± Beth said, rather than confront Emilia over her continued avoidance of admitting she was veteran in favour of pointing at Conrad.

    ¡°What?¡± the man in question asked, popping a handful of the snack Sil had given him into his mouth. Emilia had no idea why her friend had taken to giving Conrad food, but he had. Perhaps it was because Conrad was terrible with his Censor and kept accidentally activating things whenever he tried to do anything. The man had gone to the bathroom and had needed to ask them how to turn off a hairdryer. He shouldn¡¯t have even been able to access the hairdryer¡¯s system! Sil had offered to look at the programming of Conrad¡¯s temporary Censor, but the Free Colonier had insisted only she could look at it. Sil had banned her from using the Virtuosi System for at least 12 hours¡ªand that was only after officially admitting to him that she was a sub-30 and her brain would be fine after a short rest¡ªthough, so Conrad would have to wait.

    ¡°Em is banned from dating anyone without permission from now on,¡± Pria replied. Her eyes shifted over the Free Colonier, assessing in that way of hers that she usually avoided, because she hated the feel of it¡ªthe scratch of emotions through the aether.

    Conrad watched her back, his energy lapping at the room¡¯s aether in a way that made Sil tense, Beth look around in confusion and Hyr tilt their head.

    ¡°Hm¡­ I don¡¯t think he wants to date or fuck her, so we¡¯re good. You are really¡±¡ªPria waved a hand over Conrad¡¯s general being¡ª¡°intense about her, though. Total stalker vibes.¡±

    The man smiled, sharp and unrepentant, even as Sil glared at his back. ¡°Sure, but I¡¯m a well-behaved stalker. Saved her from the pretty boy earlier.¡±

    ¡°Pretty boy?¡± Pria asked, glancing between Conrad and Emilia, who had dragged Hyr inside and was attempting to talk them into trying the same food she¡¯d given to Conrad. ¡°Oh~ were you the mystery Free Colonier who took Elijah out earlier? I really thought that guy was lying about that.¡±

    ¡°Why did you think Hyr was lying?¡± Emilia asked, automatically opening her mouth when Hyr held out a spoon of their food for her. ¡°Wait, how did I end up being the one eating that? Wait, actually, not guy. Hyr isn¡¯t a guy.¡±

    ¡°He looks like a guy.¡±

    ¡°Pria,¡± Sil snapped. Emilia had always figured the reason Beth knew she didn¡¯t have to get mad about anyone saying something negative about her gender was because Sil would beat her to it.

    Pria¡¯s dark skin brightened. ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it like that. He¡ª She? They? Fuck. I mean¡ª¡±

    ¡°All of the synat are gender-neutral,¡± Conrad explained around his mouthful of snacks. ¡°I¡¯d introduce myself, by the way, but I¡¯m private.¡±

    ¡°A secretive bastard,¡± Emilia corrected.

    ¡°But I¡¯m a secretive bastard,¡± the man agreed. ¡°Another time?¡±

    Hyr nodded before assuring Pria it was fine. ¡°I am aware the customs of Nur¡¯tha are not well known in the Nur¡¯sa.¡±

    ¡°Nur¡¯tha? Nur¡¯sa?¡± Pria asked, mangling the pronunciations. Impressive, given neither were particularly difficult to pronounce!

    Sighing, Sil¡¯s eyes unfocused. Emilia knew that look, it was the one the man used when he was reaching into one of their Censors¡ªwell, never Emilia¡¯s, not until today, anyways¡ªto adjust something. Clearly, Pria had some setting related to information about the Free Colonies turned off, otherwise her Censor would be correcting her and supplying her with information as she said¡ªor even thought¡ªstupid or insensitive things. As for how it had been turned off¡­

    ¡°Oh, I was flirting with a chick from, where was it¡­ Byshire, maybe? That sounds right. She kept talking about her home and my Censor kept giving me supplementary information, and it was really~ distracting, so I turned it off. Guess I never turned it back on?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    From the look on Sil¡¯s face, he had looked into exactly when it had been turned off and was not impressed with how long it had been off.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you believe Hyr?¡± Emilia asked before Sil could tell Pria off. There had been enough fighting that morning already. They didn¡¯t need more, especially over something that Pria would apologize for then do again the next time her Censor was annoying her¡ªthis wasn¡¯t the first time her roommate had turned some function or another off because it was aggravating her, only to forget to turn it back on. ¡°Actually, how did you even meet?¡±

    ¡°Victor attacked us,¡± Beth said.

    ¡°Victor attacked you, you mean. I was just standing there, being ignored.¡±

    ¡°He what!?¡± Emilia and Sil demanded in unison, anger radiating off each of them so powerfully that both of the Free Coloniers tensed.

    Conrad whistled and despite the ire crackling through her, she didn¡¯t fail to notice the way his energy ballooned out around him, the way Pria¡¯s gaze snapped to him. Apparently, he had noticed her emphatic connection to the aether, mysterious as it was even to her friends, and had decided to lessen the strain of their anger on her, especially since¡ª

    ¡°Emilia, you need to breathe,¡± Hyr was saying. ¡°Hatrav.¡± One of their hands pressed to her stomach, forcing her to breathe in with them as homicide rage racketed through her, demanding she go find Victor and kill him.

    ¡°What the fuck? Why¡ª¡± Emilia heard Beth asking, far in the distance.

    ¡°It¡¯s because she fucked with her Censor and made it so she can use her core,¡± Sil grumbled, but that wasn¡¯t it. Well, not all of it, anyways.

    The other part¡ªthe bigger part¡ªwas Payton¡¯s knots. Annoyance and anger with Victor making way to rage that was now boiling out into the real world through her core. She wanted to tell them that¡ªalthough she could hear Conrad telling them that this wasn¡¯t just the whole being able to use her core thing, not that she thought they believe him¡ªbut she couldn¡¯t. Instead, her gaze was caught in Hyr¡¯s, their calming presence dragging her back, their energy tentatively slipping into her, sliding against Conrad¡¯s to wrap around hers, tugging her emotions back under control just as they had in the latter moments of the raid.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say it,¡± she heard Sil say, nonsensical because as far away as her mind had been, spinning through the gold of Hyr¡¯s eyes and energy, she was pretty sure no one had said anything.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to!¡± Pria insisted, and even Emilia knew she was lying.

    ¡°Say what?¡± she asked, catching hold of Hyr¡¯s hand as it dropped away with her overwhelming anger. Their eyes widened slightly, and for a blink of time, Emilia thought they would pull away. They didn¡¯t, instead flipping their much larger hand around in hers until they were properly holding hands.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Beth and Sil replied in unison. Not suspicious at all.

    Emilia begrudgingly let Hyr pull her over to the others, situating her beside Conrad¡ªwho looked far too amused by this entire mess of a situation¡ªand sliding down beside her.

    ¡°You three sure are cozy,¡± Beth commented, giving the three of them a once over.

    Emilia snuggled further into Conrad, just because she could. ¡°It¡¯s been a weird morning.¡±

    ¡°I assume you met in that raid you randomly joined?¡± Sil asked, starting another big thing¡ªEmilia had only offered him her raid rewards, knowing neither Pria nor Beth raided enough to care.

    ¡°No, no!¡± she said as they collectively turned on her, trying to force answers out of her. ¡°You still have to finish telling us what happened with Victor!¡±

    ¡°But your thing happened first!¡± Pria tried to insist. Normally, that might have worked, but Emilia wasn¡¯t having it.

    ¡°Yes, but my thing is longer¡ªlike way, way longer. So you first. Victor, and how Hyr comes into it, and why you thought they were lying about being the one to take down Elijah earlier.¡±

    Pria grumbled, crossed her arms, and refused to say more.

    Beth, on the other hand, sized her up. ¡°Are the two of you going to fly off the handle again?¡± she asked, barely sparing Sil a glance, which seemed rather unfair!

    Had she been the one to lose control of her temper? Yes, but Sil was the one most likely to spark off to go fuck up Elijah and his asshat friends for threatening Beth and Pria¡ªmostly Beth, if Pria was to be believed.

    Emilia wanted to point this out, but instead, she just waved her and Hyr¡¯s clasped hands through the air. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ve got help.¡±

    Beth and Pria looked at their linked hands dubiously, which was fair. Unless they¡¯d actively served alongside Free Coloniers, most didn¡¯t understand what sort of things cores could do. Even having served alongside some of the most powerful Free Coloniers, Emilia hadn¡¯t realized just how much they could do. Sure, she¡¯d seen Helix helped along by Ri¡¯s energy, and later Simeon¡¯s, and seen the healing prowess of numerous Free Colony supports, which could be more freely used on Baalphorians without Censor workarounds.

    Even her understanding was nothing compared to reality, however. Before, her knowledge had been more theoretical, based on stories and the coding she¡¯d done for the training system and several core ability inspired skills. Never having experienced more than the barest brushes of energy against her meridians, the overwhelming expanse of Ri¡¯s energy, the ease with which James dug into himself, she really hadn¡¯t known the full scope of a core¡¯s abilities.

    Now, sitting there, listening to Pria and Beth relate how they¡¯d run into Elijah and his roommates, how they¡¯d argued and Victor had tried¡ªactually fucking tried!¡ªto nullify Beth¡­

    Yeah, now Emilia could understand the power of cores more, Hyr¡¯s energy continuing to ground her, Conrad¡¯s a quiet companion, not helping or hindering the syn¡¯s efforts to quell her rising anger. It was impressive.

    So was Sil¡¯s anger, the man standing and attempting to leave, intent to go search for Victor.

    ¡°He''s gone,¡± Beth said as she forced Sil onto a chair, arms crossing as she glared down at him.

    ¡°Gone where?¡± Emilia asked, giving into the urge to let her eyes close, just for a moment or two. Conrad¡¯s warmth against her, Hyr¡¯s hand in hers¡ªtheir collective energy unit. It was all just so calming and safe.

    Neither Pria nor Beth answered. Strange.

    ¡°I believe the¡­ah¡­ I do not know the word,¡± Hyr was saying, their cool fingers brushing Emilia¡¯s loose hair¡ªOlivier had stolen her hair tie again, hadn¡¯t he?¡ªbehind her, their fingers lingering just a second too long against her neck for the syn¡¯s movement to be simply friendly¡­ maybe. ¡°kryjy¡¯fra?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ The Black Knot.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± they confirmed. ¡°I believe a jy¡¯fra grabbed them.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t really see,¡± Beth was saying, continuing her tale of how Hyr had pulled her out of the way, and then something¡ªsomeone¡ªhad grabbed Victor. Poof. Gone.

    ¡°Then this g¡ª person was saying we were going in the same direction, so we just travelled together. Hyr stopped in front of Sil¡¯s door with us, so I just assumed they had been here before, so they must have been the Free Colonier who took out Elijah,¡± Pria finally said, her tone growing less convinced as she spoke.

    ¡°Ah¡­ no¡­¡± Emilia said, snuggling further into Conrad. It really was unfair Hyr was so big and couldn¡¯t do more than hold her hand and press gently into her side without risking smushing them. They definitely needed a better set up next time. ¡°synat,¡± she said, by way of answer, knowing Hyr would explain it while she slept.

    At least, while she was asleep, Hyr would have at least one person in the room who believed. She and Conrad had never talked about such things¡ªwhy would they have, when the northerners had only appeared after Conrad was gone¡ªbut Emilia knew he believed.

    ¡°Be nice¡­¡± she breathed out, tucking herself into him impossibly more. Her only answer, before the world went dark, was a small huff of amusement.

    ¡°Only for you,¡± she thought she heard, but that might have just been the dream, tugging her under.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 227: Soâ€¦

    Hyr was braiding her hair when she woke, their fingers softly tugging through the part of her hair that was accessible to them as she had dozed against Conrad. According to her Censor, she hadn¡¯t been asleep long¡ªonly about thirty minutes¡ªbut that was long enough for her strange group of friends to come to some sort of d¨¦tente, a transcript of everything they had discussed while she was out flowing through her vision as she yawned and snuggled deeper into Conrad.

    Unfortunately, the brief moment of peace the transcript and the mild friendliness between the group was broken when she got to what had been the main subject of their conversations: her bad taste in men. Rude.

    ¡°Can you deny you have terrible taste in men?¡± Pria asked when Emilia complained that this wasn¡¯t a nice very thing for them to talk about.

    ¡°V seemed nice enough,¡± Hyr offered¡ªnot for the first time, apparently. There was something strange in their tone, though. Emilia couldn¡¯t exactly put her finger on what it was, however, her Censor coming back with something about how it could have just been a cultural thing, which¡­ yeah, maybe.

    Still, she couldn¡¯t resist trying to push back a little, her energy following the line of the Hyr¡¯s energy, still twinning gently through her. If they could read and manipulate her emotions through their connected cores, then surely she could also¡ª

    Conrad cackled when Hyr¡¯s energy parted so abruptly that she was left spiralling into him. ¡°Careful, Emilia. The little syn could trap you inside them, and even I¡¯d be hard-pressed to get you out.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± she asked blearily, her world suddenly overcome with¡­ something. With Hyr? With what Hyr was experiencing at this moment? It was overwhelming¡ªbeautiful and breathtaking, a note of amusement coating it like glimmering sunshine, and then, just as suddenly as it had happened, she was back inside her own body, Hyr¡¯s energy gently soothing her own. Honestly, it felt like the syn¡¯s energy was telling her be careful what you wish for, lest it burn you.

    That might have been fair.

    Another loud knock sounded at the door, Emilia abruptly realizing that was what had woken her.

    ¡°Is someone going to get that?¡± she asked, glancing around.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you want me trying to open it,¡± Conrad said, slumping further down as she straightened, his arms reaching above his head as he moaned and stretched. His shirt rode up as he moved, revealing a gently defined stomach and a distinct lack of hair.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Pria asked. Neither she nor Beth made any move to answer the door, while Sil was immersed in the Virtuosi System again, wrongly assuming his friends were sensible enough to answer the door. Somehow, the man never learned.

    ¡°He keeps¡­ fucking things up,¡± Emilia muttered, glaring at the door and peaking through the dorm¡¯s security to see who it was. Most normal homes had security cameras that were directly available to residents, but for whatever reason, Astrapan had decided against that trend, and the only option for seeing who was banging on your door was either hacking or one of several finicky¡ªand often highly controlled¡ªskills for looking through walls. ¡°Oh!¡± she squeaked, activating the door and letting their new arrival in.

    Sil¡¯s door slid open, and from Emilia¡¯s place on the floor, she couldn¡¯t actually see her childhood friend enter, only hear the gentle roll of their wheelchair over the ground. Next to her Hyr¡¯s attention snapped in their direction, even before they came into view, likely having pegged them as having a black knot just as fast as they had whoever had swiped up Victor¡ªEmilia also took the chance to hack the school¡¯s cameras as a whole, peaking back at what had happened. Even the camera had barely caught The Black Knot agent grabbing Victor. No wonder neither Pria nor Beth¡ªnor any of Victor¡¯s roommates, from the looks of panic on their faces as Hyr led her friends away¡ªhad computed what had happened.

    A perfect spark-microspark-spark¡ªthe agent snapping in and through the aethernet so fast they were barely more than a blur. Most people didn¡¯t even realize that¡¯s what they were doing, not when all but the most proficient sparkers were left queasy by a single spark.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get up on my account~¡± Samina cooed as she rounded the corner, sharp smile pulling at her gently brown lips.

    She was wearing contacts, as had been common since an accident had damaged them and left a streak of pale white scars over her brown cheeks during their years of compulsory schooling, these ones giving her eyes a strange, iridescent colour¡ªa colour similar to the chair under her. As always, her lower body was uncovered, revealing the results of an injury during the war where she¡¯d been all but bisected. The bitch had proceeded to burn the stumps of her thighs closed and returned to fighting. Needless to say, she was lucky she hadn¡¯t died.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you,¡± Emilia signed, more through habit and renewed enjoyment of signing than anything.

    Her childhood friend smiled sharper, her hands falling through a short story about how she was due for a vacation anyways. ¡°So is Andie,¡± she added, laughing as she told Emilia¡ªbecause it was clear from the faces of everyone else that they didn¡¯t even understand the BSL inspired portions of her family¡¯s personal sign language and their Censors didn¡¯t know what to do with the strange language¡ªthat while he probably would have come, they had all figured that for something like this someone less recognizable was probably in order.

    The fact that one of the most vicious members of The Black Knot¡ªone who was a double amputee and had refused proper prosthetics in favour of a wheelchair, no less¡ªwas considered largely unrecognizable was something that never failed to amuse Emilia. The entire Baxter branch of The Black Knot was like that, though: existing more in the shadows than almost anyone else in the organization, not that they didn¡¯t have to heavily rely on the Hyrat clones abilities to retain their anonymity.

    ¡°Why are there so many new people?¡± Pria whined, slumping lower onto the couch. While she was whining, it was clear she was uncomfortable, her emphatic connection to the aether probably going nuts with how many strange¡ªnot to mention highly dangerous¡ªpeople were in the room. As much as her roommate trusted her not to bring anyone dangerous to them into their group, Samina¡¯s arrival was definitely pushing everyone¡¯s limits.

    ¡°I¡¯d like to know that as well,¡± Sil asked, having pulled himself out of his hacking. His dark eyes glared at Samina and Emilia definitely had a feeling that while her childhood friend wasn¡¯t known to most people, Sil somehow did know¡ªor at least suspect¡ªwho she was.

    ¡°This is my childhood friend, Samina¡ªSammie.¡±

    ¡°Samina,¡± the woman clarified, eyes shifting between each of the people in the room, sizing them up as any information The Black Knot had on them slid through her. ¡°Only our childhood friends get to use the -ie, isn¡¯t that right, Emmie?¡±

    Her classmates looked at her, having definitely never heard someone refer to her as Emmie. Beth raised an eyebrow in silent question.

    ¡°It¡¯s a whole thing,¡± she tried to explain, cursing the fact that she¡¯d been sent someone who knew her so well for this. Did they need some sort of official permission to effectively invade Ship¡¯o Stars seeking out a terrorist? Yeah, Emilia had come to the realization at some point that they did. It would have been better to be sent someone less¡­ insane, though¡ªespecially since she¡¯d already worried about Samina and Conrad meeting. They didn¡¯t need two homicidally crazy people on their little team!

    ¡°There was a group of us whose names could all be ie-ed. Emmie, Sammie, Andie, and so on. Almost all of us got ie-ed¡ªexcept a friend who is really attached to his name, and one of my cousins. His name was just¡­ so not ie-able.¡± Samina mock shuddered while Emilia cringed¡ªonly one of them not being ie-able had been a whole big thing.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°And why is Samina here?¡± Sil asked, jaw tensing as he realized that someone needed to keep the conversation on track, and it wasn¡¯t going to be anyone else in the room. Good¡ªEmilia was quite done with being so in control of the situation, even if she¡¯d completely fallen apart in the last moments of the raid. Let someone else bear the burden for a bit, even if she still needed to step up and explain what was happening.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she said, noting the way Hyr¡¯s hand squeezed around hers in silent support, their energy caressing hers. ¡°We¡¯re going on vacation... tonight.¡±

    ¡°Is that why you were in that raid?¡± Sil asked while Pria perked up, any niggling worry she had over all the strangers falling away in excitement at the prospect of skipping school and avoiding the remainder of the pink tide¡¯s heat.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she agreed, trying to be brave. It wasn¡¯t like she had to tell her friends everything about herself, just enough for them to trust her. Mostly, it was just really unfortunate that news of the echo at the purist building had already spread, more than a few SecOps having¡ªrightly, if illegally¡ªleaked footage of the horrors that had existed within the building. If that hadn¡¯t happened, she might have been able to get away with not revealing that she¡¯d taken one out with Payton, or that she was acquainted with Olivier.

    Unfortunately, that probably wouldn¡¯t be possible, especially not with Sil glaring increasingly suspicious daggers at her. Yeah¡­ he wasn¡¯t going to be going along with this plan unless he had as many details as she could give him.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she started again, ignoring the way Sil¡¯s jaw flexed and Conrad¡¯s shoulders shook. ¡°Someone has been distributing knotters in Piketown.¡±

    There was silence for a blink before Beth was turning on Pria, horrified. ¡°That¡¯s what you were talking about, with the clinic and the girl¡ªabout how you needed to tell her to go get her knots checked.¡±

    Pria shifted, looking uncomfortable as she muttered a yes and confirmed that her knots had been fixed by Payton after they¡¯d been fucked up by a knotter.

    ¡°He¡¯s coming with us, too, by the way,¡± Emilia said as Beth snuggled into Pria¡¯s side, their hands lacing together.

    ¡°Just because he helped Pria?¡± Sil asked, his tone already betraying that he knew that wasn¡¯t the only reason.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Emilia continued, mostly just so she could see Sil continue to grind his teeth, a snort escaping Conrad this time. Hyr¡¯s energy seemed to poke both hers and the wisps of Conrad¡¯s within her in a silent message to behave. ¡°We went back to The Grint last night, to find the bartender who spiked Pria. With Mazi¡¯s help, I figured out that he was just a pawn of someone else. We also figured he probably meant to drug me, not Pria¡­ and that girl as well.¡± Emilia shot her roommate a look, one that said, ¡°Regardless of how stressful this is, you really need to tell that girl to go get checked out.¡±

    ¡°You?¡± Sil asked, because apparently he was taking overseeing the flow of conversation and information really seriously.

    That was fair. If it had been her decision, Emilia probably would have left it there and just said she figured out through mysterious means that the dude was a purist and had meant to be going on the next tour of Ship¡¯o Stars to meet with his mysterious benefactor. Pria wouldn¡¯t have asked more. Beth would have just been silently annoyed she wasn¡¯t being more forthcoming. Conrad and Samina already knew the whole truth. Hyr¡­ was probably just going with the flow, and didn¡¯t actually need answers to anything. That, or they¡¯d already gotten answers from the aether.

    She really should ask about that, sooner rather than later. Not now, though. The other people in the room¡ªother than Conrad¡ªdidn¡¯t need to know about the true extent of a synat¡¯s abilities or her increasing belief in them.

    For the moment, she needed to finish her explanation, lest Sil strangle her. Emilia was half tempted to continue explaining herself with ¡°So¡­¡± again, but she figured it would only take so long before Sil snapped. Normally, that would have been fine, but she didn¡¯t trust either Conrad or Samina not to kill him outright if he got too aggressive. Her friend would never seriously hurt her, but even though he¡¯d been chill so far, Emilia could feel Conrad¡¯s energy¡ªcould feel the way it perpetually seemed a second away from snapping out at anything that threatened him or the things he cared about, namely her. Conrad probably wouldn¡¯t kill Sil¡ªthe Free Colonier clearly knew Emilia loved all her friends, and it would hurt her to see them hurt, plus, he hadn¡¯t seriously harmed Elijah¡ªbut until she was a little more confident¡­

    Yeah, probably better to not tempt fate.

    Samina, on the other hand, was just a loose cannon. Again, she probably wouldn¡¯t kill Sil, but she¡¯d definitely let loose some of the more terrifying Black Knot skills if she thought it necessary.

    ¡°As you saw with my Censor,¡± she said instead, meeting Sil¡¯s eyes, ¡°I¡¯m a pretty good hacker. I hacked into the guy¡¯s mind, trying to figure out where he was getting the knotters from and how far whatever he was doing had gotten.¡±

    ¡°I thought hacking into someone¡¯s Censor was illegal,¡± Pria noted, her frown of unhappiness at being subjected to talk about the knotter turning into one of concern. Her eyes flickered as her Censor confirmed what could happen to anyone caught hacking another person¡¯s Censor without permission. ¡°You could get in trouble with The Black Knot¡­ for me. You shouldn¡¯t have done that.¡±

    ¡°Even if I did get in trouble, finding out who hurt you would be worth it,¡± Emilia told her solemnly. Images of Pria panicking in the clinic as Payton tried to tell her as delicately as he could what had been done to her flashed through her. Memories of holding her friend¡¯s gaze as the knotting machine whirred to life, intent to fix Pria while she cried, turned her stomach.

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Emilia assured her. It would come up eventually that Samina was from The Black Knot, but she didn¡¯t actually want her childhood friend admitting just how much illegal shit Emilia could do without getting in trouble, which the woman seemed primed to do. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m fine, and the guy is dead. The Club Cartel have probably gotten rid of his body by now, so there¡¯s no evidence of what I did.¡± Except the moth she¡¯d sent Rafe¡­ and this entire conversation¡­ and the fact that she¡¯d straight up told The Black Knot exactly what she¡¯d done, she supposed.

    ¡°Anyways, the guy¡¯s mind had a virus inside it, and while I was able to decipher a bunch of his memories eventually, the main thing I got was the location of a building where he¡¯d met someone. Their face had been burned from his memory.¡±

    Most of the assembled group frowned, unsure what that meant, Sil telling them that it was the sort of trail a hacker followed. ¡°There are skills to erase or lock up memories, but the public ones have to be activated when the memory made. Altering a memory after the fact is the territory of The Black Knot. No one¡¯s really sure if the clones use skills or hacking to do so¡ªmaybe some combination¡ªbut they¡¯re clearly using a backdoor that even the best hackers can¡¯t find. The most anyone outside the clones can do is alter small parts of a memory¡ªlike a face¡ªor completely destroy the mind, and usually through a virus. The security protocols inside Censors can fry the minds of anyone stupid enough to try altering a memory themself.¡±

    ¡°This virus both erased and destroyed,¡± Emilia said, offering a copy of the contained version of the moth virus to Sil¡ªfrom the little bit she¡¯d seen of him poking at her hack, he was a good hacker, and seriously, the thing was fascinating. Her Censor had worked on it while she was inside the raid, and then again while she was using Sil¡¯s rig, and gotten basically nowhere on it. He accepted it as she explained that she¡¯d run into Payton on her way out of the bar, intent to head to the building she¡¯d seen in the bartender¡¯s memories. ¡°He wanted to get to the bottom of the knotters as well, having seen them used before, during the war¡­¡± She shook herself, muttering that he was a good guy, and they should be nicer to him, especially after he¡¯d helped her so much the night before.

    ¡°So you went to this building and¡­?¡± Beth asked when too much time had passed, Emilia stuck reflecting on her years-long refusal to be Payton¡¯s friend.

    ¡°We went to the building and split up, each going up a different side of the building¡ªso many stairs, and the two sides didn¡¯t even connect to each other!¡± Emilia ranted, still bitter about all the steps she¡¯d had to climb, not just in that building but the raid as well. Her legs ached. Her stomach turned over at the very idea of ever seeing stairs again. ¡°Anyways, the bartender had already shown some purist leanings, so it really shouldn¡¯t have been that surprising when the building turned out to be a purist stronghold.¡±

    ¡°Purist¡­¡± Sil''s started, trailing off because he had clearly seen the news.

    For a long moment, he just stared at her, shocked, while Beth and Pria looked more confused. Then, Beth¡¯s Censor caught her up, her eyes snapping wide as she very rudely asked Emilia if she had destroyed the building so badly it had accidentally been labelled an echo attack.

    ¡°What? No! There was an echo attack while we were in the building! Actually, there were two echoes, but that¡¯s beside the point!¡± Honestly, she didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that her friend so easily assumed she¡¯d caused enough destruction for someone to think an echo attack had occurred when it hadn¡¯t.

    How rude! And after she had just proven herself capable of ripping a hole in a wall without damaging the integrity of the building! Were those two incidents separated by a long unknotting session? Maybe, but still! Her friends didn¡¯t know that!

    ¡°Shit! You got attacked by an echo? And you¡¯re okay?¡± Beth asked over Pria asking if she¡¯d met Oliver de la Rue¡ªit wasn''t a secret that he¡¯d shown up and officially taken out the echos¡ªecho, according to the news, the fact that there had been two having been lost somewhere along the lines.

    ¡°Oh, she¡¯s totally met Olivier~¡± Samina teased, which definitely didn¡¯t help the situation or endear her to Sil, who subsequently lost control of the conversation as Pria scrambled over to her, demanding answers.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 228: Nosy Friends Being Nosy

    While she couldn¡¯t completely get out of talking about how she¡¯d already known Olivier before last night¡ªthank you Samina¡­ not¡ªEmilia was patently refusing to give her friends more than the barest of details about their relationship.

    Had she already known him? Yes.

    Since when? Since she was in her late 20s.

    Had she had sex with him? Yes, Emilia told Pria over the sound of Sil choking and Conrad making a comment about how only someone who was crazy wouldn¡¯t make it their life mission to fuck someone who looked like that, followed by him asking if Hyr knew how to use their Censor well enough to look up a picture of the lawyer.

    Hyr, to their credit, only smiled and told Conrad that the two of them would meet one day. ¡°I can wait until then to learn what he looks like.¡±

    ¡°Suit yourself,¡± Conrad replied, shrugging and shifting until he was leaning against Hyr¡¯s much larger body¡ªEmilia had been dragged onto the couch by an over-excited Pria, who was now frowning at Hyr, probably wondering how they sounded so confident that they¡¯d meet Olivier one day.

    In other news, her two Free Colonier friends¡ªwho had somehow become fast friends despite barely speaking to one another¡ªwere adorable, and Emilia snapped a few pictures of them, saving them to her aptly named album: Adorable Friends Being Adorable. There was also an album named Dumbass Friends Doing Dumbass Things¡ªit was quite full.

    ¡°Was he the guy you hooked up with yesterday? The one who paid you for sex?¡±

    Sil had, rather unfortunately, not heard this part of the story, and choked on his drink once again¡ªhe had also spent too much time in the Virtuosi System now, trying and failing to decipher her hacks. ¡°You what? That¡­ He paid you for sex?¡± Her friend¡¯s eyes flashed, angry and apparently sending off a message to someone? That was¡ª

    ¡°Please tell me who didn¡¯t just send a message off to your sub-30 hookup about how their boss gave me money?¡± Emilia asked, cringing when Sil¡¯s cheeks burnt. Unfortunately, Emilia already had a few suspicions as to who his mystery hookup was, and well¡­

    [Em: uh¡­]

    [Em: sorry, but my friend might have just messaged your cousin or brother about how you gave me money after sex]

    [Em: not sure which]

    [Em: i didnt frame it that way i swear]

    [Em: they just took it the wrong way!]

    [Em: and everyone is already really tense]

    [Em: so he didnt really think before sending it]

    [Em: oh]

    [Em: also]

    [Em: my knots are in much better order now!]

    [Em: so you don¡¯t have to worry about me anymore!]

    ¡°Look, he was just worried about me, is all,¡± she said, motioning to herself and realizing she was still wearing Olivier¡¯s clothing. Oops¡ªshe¡¯d meant to go back to her room and change but hadn¡¯t managed to before the incident with Elijah. ¡°It was not sex for money. Just sex that was topped off with money being foisted upon me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I told Elijah!¡± Pria said, and¡ª

    ¡°What!?¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ did we not mention that that¡¯s why we got in a fight?¡± Her roommate cringed, glancing at Sil and telling him she¡¯d been wondering why he was only freaking out about that part of the story now. ¡°Here I thought you were just too mad to actually hear the details of how we ended up arguing in the first place.¡±

    Sil levelled a glare at her, opening his mouth¡ªlikely to tell her something about how he was always paying attention, even if that was an exaggeration¡ªbefore his eyes snapped to Emilia. ¡°Why do you owe the de la Rue¡¯s so much money?¡±

    Everyone¡¯s eyes turned back to her, and this was so not how she¡¯d wanted this conversation to go! And here she¡¯d been most worried about the hacking and echo part of the story! How had her perpetual debt to Olivier become the topic of discussion!?

    ¡°Because Olivier won¡¯t let her pay him back,¡± Samina said from the kitchen, where she was ordering a quite frankly obscene amount of food from the fabricator. ¡°It¡¯s a whole thing, and I¡¯ve seen Emmie try to pay him back for decades. Never works. The few times he did accept the money he invested it for her, rather than put it towards her debt.¡±

    ¡°Invested in what?¡± Beth asked, curious because just like Emilia, she was always poor.

    ¡°Something. I don¡¯t know! I don¡¯t manage it, nor do I even know what it¡¯s worth now. It was before the war, so it could be worth nothing.¡±

    ¡°Highly unlikely,¡± Samina said which wasn¡¯t helpful.

    ¡°Fuck¡­ Em, are you¡­ are you actually rich?¡± Pria asked, and no, they weren¡¯t doing this.

    It took another few minutes to get the conversation back on track¡ªas on track as this disaster of a conversation could be, anyways¡ªduring which time Emilia had needed to admit that she¡¯d met Olivier due to some legal trouble¡ªno, she very much didn¡¯t want to talk about it¡ªand yes, if they wanted to attend one of his hearings over the Alver lawsuit she would go and try to introduce them, but only if they could stop talking about this.

    Despite agreeing to the moratorium of Olivier related topics, Pria still asked, ¡°What¡¯s it like, knowing a non-dev?¡±

    Samina snorted. ¡°They ain¡¯t that special.¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°You know some?¡± Beth asked, curious because despite having rejected so much of her sub-50 culture, she could never quite shake her ability to deduce what someone¡¯s D-Level was based on their habits and abilities, and she¡¯d never actually met a non-dev¡ªnot knowingly, anyways.

    Emilia¡¯s childhood friend snorted, holding up a hand as she counted people off. ¡°Olivier, a childhood friend, the Daymark kid¡ªannoying little bitch¡ªthe asshole leader of D30¡ªthankfully dead¡ªthe hy Gru, the head of The Black Knot. Plus a bunch of people with irregular deviations who probably surpass non-dev, under the right circumstances.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t Andre Laprise have a black knot?¡± Pria asked, frowning as she flicked through information. ¡°Everything says he is?¡±

    ¡°Nah. He¡¯s a non-dev¡ªkeeps an additive black knot when he needs one.¡± Samina shrugged like she wasn¡¯t revealing less than public information to a room full of people she barely knew.

    Sil¡¯s eyes trailed over the woman, accessing her yet again. ¡°You were a member of Division 30.¡±

    Samina smiled, all teeth and menace as Sil, Pria and Beth stared at her. ¡°Yup~¡± she popped out, leaning back the exact way she had when they were teenagers, young adults, an image of her swinging one long, brown leg over the other echoing through Emilia so strongly her stomach churned.

    Across the room, Hyr¡¯s attention snapped to her. Unlikely Conrad, who was still letting a tether of energy connect them, the syn¡¯s had dropped away when they physically disconnected. Emilia wasn¡¯t sure if they simply weren¡¯t capable of maintaining a tether, or if something else had led them to drop it. Either way, she missed the soft support of the syn. Also, what was it that had drawn their attention? While she was upset¡ªmelancholic¡ªat the injury her friend had suffered, it wasn¡¯t the same as when they¡¯d been told what Victor had tried to do. This wasn¡¯t an emotion so strong she was struggling to control herself, or anything.

    ¡°Oh~ I guess I met the Blood Rain General, too,¡± Samina noted, fingers tapping over the arm of her chair. ¡°He¡¯s probably the only one who¡¯s special in a way that¡¯s¡­ harder to quantify.¡±

    Emilia itched to add on the other names she was missing to the list¡ªthere seriously had been too many non-devs in and associated with their unit¡ªbut she couldn¡¯t. Not without revealing she¡¯d been a part of the unit as well. Given the way Sil glanced her way¡­ yeah, he might have already put that together. Fuck. At the very least, he had his own secrets from the war and wasn¡¯t about to bring up hers. Small mercies, she supposed. Very, very tiny ones.

    ¡°Like Sammie says,¡± Emilia quickly added, before anyone else could put together her attachment to one of the alliance¡¯s most secretive units as well, ¡°non-devs are just people. Olivier is nice and sweet. He¡¯s also brilliant and really powerful, but in the end, he¡¯s just a person, and he works hard and relies on other people just the same as anyone else.¡±

    ¡°Sure, but you have to admit,¡± Pria said because apparently they weren¡¯t dropping this subject yet, ¡°he has a track record that¡¯s really impressive.¡±

    Emilia¡¯s Censor spun, pulling up records for every lawyer who fell under the de la Rue umbrella. Idly, she listed off a handful of names who had just as impressive track records but weren¡¯t household names, her mind catching on a recent case one of Olivier¡¯s distant cousins had recently done. Louis was now helping Olivier on the Alver case, but this last one¡­ from just before he¡ª

    Louis had appeared on the ridiculous reality show Helix was currently on? What even.

    ¡°Okay, okay!¡± Pria moaned as Emilia continued droning on about various lawyers with just as much skill as Olivier. ¡°I get it! Please, just stop!¡±

    ¡°You are probably selling Olivier a little short, Emmie,¡± Samina said, Emilia entire body tensing.

    Just because she had refused to talk about the case that had led her to Olivier, that didn¡¯t mean Samina would respect that decision¡ªas previously noted, the woman was a wild card. Uncontrollable, spontaneous. It was part of why they¡¯d always gotten on¡ªmost of their other friends were way more controlled and sensible¡ªbut currently¡­

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Samina signed, the movement so subtle anyone who wasn¡¯t fluent in the sign language would brush it off as nothing but a small muscle spasm in the person¡¯s hand, or perhaps an idle fidget.

    Relaxing back into the couch, Emilia listened as Samina pointed out that while tons of people were just as talented as Olivier, one of his strengths was his fearlessness. ¡°He did take on that case that made him famous¡ªthe one that changed the precedent around D-Levels being taken into account in self-defence situations¡ªwhen no one else would. That perhaps is what makes him and other non-devs special: they have always been so¡­ outside the bounds of reality, even before they officially knew what they were, that they don¡¯t hesitate to continue stepping over the imaginary lines that keep other people contained.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s something a lot of sub-30s have,¡± Beth noted, adding that she was referring to those raised in sub-30 households, rather than new-gen sub-30s.

    Samina laughed and agreed. ¡°I grew up in the Penns, and yeah. We¡¯re all arrogant fucking assholes. The non-devs of D30 were definitely monsters, but everyone in our unit was. There¡¯s a reason some of the biggest innovations came out of there, and it wasn¡¯t just the non-devs. It was more that we were all just fucking crazy.¡±

    ¡°You make it sound like you contributed to those innovations,¡± Beth noted. Her eyes hadn¡¯t shifted from Samina since she¡¯d revealed she had been part of Division 30. That was fair¡ªit wasn¡¯t everyday anyone met a member of their division, especially not someone who hadn¡¯t previously been publicly named. Actually, it was amazing there wasn¡¯t more freaking out going on.

    ¡°Not as much as some of the others,¡± her childhood friend easily admitted. Where some members of their unit had always felt a little impotent by their inability to contribute more, Samina hadn¡¯t been one of them. ¡°I was pretty good with testing, though. The training system, new willbrand tech or skills, sparking¡ªI was always right there, willing to risk my life trying out everyone else¡¯s crazy ass ideas.¡±

    ¡°That is also, in fact, how she had damaged her eyes when we were teens: being a dumbass who took part in badly devised experiments,¡± Emilia noted, realizing her mistake too late: while everyone seemed to have forgotten they were childhood friends over the course of the chaotic conversation, the fact that Samina had just admitted she was from the Penns was tantamount to Emilia admitting she herself was from the Penns.

    Fuck.

    Fucking fuckity fucks.

    Pria and Sil turned to look at her¡ªand honestly, Emilia should have been more surprised than she was that Beth had apparently already guessed at her origins.

    Part of her wanted to just admit it¡ªget everything out in the open.

    Yes, I grew up in the Penns.

    Yes, I know all those people you¡¯re now wondering if I know.

    Yes, I was part of Division 30, and yes, I was a big part of that group.

    Also, you know what? I ended the fucking war and then things went to shit for me mentally, and I¡¯m only now managing to pull myself back together.

    Oh, and I¡¯m also the other anonymous creator of the training system, the EMY hack and dozens of skills that people still can¡¯t contemplate even trying to create, despite having had decades to analyze them.

    She wouldn¡¯t, though. Eventually¡ªand hopefully with a much nicer tone than the one the Emilia in her head was using¡ªbut for the moment¡­

    ¡°Hyr?¡± she asked, instead of addressing the eyes glued to her.

    ¡°I do not,¡± they said, and there was just something so natural about the way the syn didn¡¯t even have to hear her question¡ªabout how they¡¯d apparently already divined the future and seen her intention. ¡°Conrad should come as well.¡± The northerner¡¯s eyes flicked through the room, judging the people through it. ¡°Pria should send her¡­ brat¡¯iyn¡¯sa?¡±

    ¡°Willbrand,¡± Conrad translated before Emilia could even compute what the syn was saying. The other Free Colonier was still tucked against Hyr¡ªand man, were they cute¡ªpretending to nap so he could avoid the disastrous discussion.

    Now, he straightened and held out his hands like a child, begging someone to help him up. It was silly, and Emilia rolled her eyes as she popped off the couch and moved to haul him up. She held out her hands for Hyr as well, under no illusions that she¡¯d be able to do more than pretend to help them up without a physical skill or two to help. The syn gave her a small, amused smile, but let her pretend to help them up regardless.

    ¡°Gimmi your willbrand,¡± she said to Pria, holding out a hand for it. ¡°Hyr doesn¡¯t have one, so we¡¯re gonna go to a smith. I¡¯ll have him update yours as well.¡±

    ¡°You have a willbrandsmith on call?¡± Sil asked, and ooh, he was mad, practically glaring holes into her. If she burst into flames, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t finish your story,¡± Beth noted, as though she hadn¡¯t been part of the reason the conversation had so completely derailed.

    ¡°Sammie knows the rest. Keep asking her your questions about her crazy life, and then she can tell you the rest. Be packed and ready to go in¡±¡ªEmilia checked the time, her Censor automatically suggesting a time to meet up, helpfully early because certain people were rarely on time¡ª¡°twelve hours. It¡¯s a week long, and we might run into trouble, if that wasn¡¯t obvious, so pack appropriately.¡±

    Holding out a hand to accept Pria¡¯s willbrand¡ªSil had a number of willbrands, including one from the war, while he¡¯d financed Beth¡¯s custom one, so neither of them needed the sort of help she had in mind, especially when they¡¯d already be pushed for time¡ªand she forwarded along information about Ship¡¯o Stars to the group, so they could pack appropriately.

    ¡°See you soon,¡± she said, hooking her arms through Hyr and Conrad¡¯s and poking each with a request to let her spark them. They accepted and a blink later, they were gone.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 229: A Precocious Child

    ¡°You okay?¡± Emilia asked, gently patting Hyr on the back as they heaved. Nothing was coming up¡ªwhich was definitely good, considering Emilia had landed them on their soon-to-be willbrandsmith¡¯s front steps, but she still felt bad. ¡°First spark?¡±

    ¡°Second,¡± the syn croaked out.

    ¡°I assume the first one was this morning,¡± Conrad noted, peering around the area, looking very might like¡ªdespite his slightly odd clothing¡ªhe belonged. Clearly, the man had either spent enough time with sub-30s from the Penns to pick up some of their habits¡ªlazy posture, confidence, curiosity, air of perpetual boredom and arrogance¡ªor his home also had that sort of vibe.

    ¡°I am okay,¡± Hyr assured her as they straightened back up, towering over her, and¡ª

    ¡°Did you shorten yourself a bit in the raid?¡±

    Red seeped over the northerner¡¯s gently brown skin. ¡°Not on purpose. I grew recently, and put my height in wrong. There was¡­ much teasing, over it.¡±

    ¡°You really are very tall,¡± Conrad commented, looking Hyr over properly, now that they were both standing¡ªand not running away from awkward conversations¡ªwhile Emilia rang the doorbell. ¡°Can you even have sex with kyrfa¡¯Nur¡¯sa? There aren¡¯t many people outside of Nur¡¯tha that¡­ big.¡±

    ¡°Some of the people from The Atrium are,¡± Emilia said, glancing back at an increasingly red Hyr. Her eyes raked over them, their cheeks reddening further when they noticed. Seriously, the logistics that would be involved¡­

    ¡°Most kyrfa¡¯Nur¡¯tha marry within the north. There have been a few marriages to outsiders since the war, but they are¡­ few. I do not believe they have difficulty in¡­ that regard. They certainly do not have difficulties producing children.¡±

    ¡°Word to the wise,¡± Conrad laughed, leaning in to peer up at Hyr as the intercom lit up, not indicating someone was trying to speak, but that someone would come answer the door soon, ¡°if you can¡¯t say sex you shouldn¡¯t be having any.¡±

    Emilia tried not to laugh¡ªand she almost succeeded!¡ªexcept Hyr decided to glare at Conrad, the slightest of pouts pulling at their mouth, and well¡­

    ¡°Are you doing a mean laugh?¡± a little voice asked, the door having opened to reveal a small girl, still in her pyjamas. ¡°That sounds like a mean laugh. Mama says you shouldn¡¯t laugh at other people¡¯s expense.¡±

    Big green eyes peered between each of them, nearly hidden behind a mop of unruly blonde curls, looking so much like her father and yet so very different.

    ¡°You should not laugh at stranger¡¯s expense,¡± Hyr said, solemn and confident as he squatted down and fucking stars, how had she never noticed how huge the northerner¡¯s thighs were!? Actually¡­ now that Emilia thought about it, the clothing Hyr had worn in the raid was significantly different than their current outfit.

    Within the raid, the syn¡¯s clothing had been traditional, leaning into the support class of Nur¡¯tha warwear with slightly more flow to each piece. The whites and greys of the raid had been looser, flowing off him like water, although not quite so loose as to impede his movements. They had been a contrast to Zyrex and Hetexia¡¯s own clothing, which on top of being more revealing, their arms and large sections of their chest bare, had been much more form fitting.

    What Hyr now wore¡­ well, it was still in Nur¡¯tha colours, favouring blues, whites and greys, but the style was definitely not from the Nur¡¯tha of the war, and her Censor assured her it still wasn¡¯t a style found there, rather it was clothing meant to slide into Baalphorian style, as though anyone could mistake the tall man for anything other than a kyrfa¡¯Nur¡¯tha¡ªor a syn, if they knew the synat¡¯s braiding styles well enough, which most people didn¡¯t. The syn¡¯s light blue sweater hung loose around them, and they¡¯d tugged the sleeves up at some point¡ªprobably due to the heat that suffused the outdoor spaces of campus and was becoming increasingly difficult to keep out of the buildings as well. Sil¡¯s room hadn¡¯t been hot, per se, but it had definitely been edging into too warm territory.

    The sweater itself was long, cutting off mid-thigh, which was probably why she hadn¡¯t noticed just how tight the northerner¡¯s light grey pants were. Now, as they discussed with the girl how they were okay with Emilia laughing at them, because they knew she meant no harm by it, she couldn¡¯t help but run her eyes appreciatively over their lower body.

    ¡°You know, I bet if you ask nicely, the little syn will let you touch.¡±

    Emilia sucked in a harsh breath as Conrad¡¯s voices wound its way through her, transferred by his energy. ¡°That is both creepy and cool. Can I learn?¡± she whispered, unwilling to interrupt the cute conversation happening at their feet.

    The Free Colonier shrugged. ¡°Maybe. Not everyone can do it.¡± He gave her an assessing look before raising a light-brown eyebrow and flicking his eyes between Emilia and Hyr in silent question.

    Yeah, there had been enough questions about things she didn¡¯t want to talk about today¡ªor at least that morning. Quota met, thanks.

    ¡°But,¡± she said, interrupting the conversation between Hyr and the girl instead of answering him, ¡°if I ever tease you over something you don¡¯t like, you have to tell me!¡± Planting her hands on her hips and widening her stance, Emilia glared down at Hyr. ¡°It¡¯s only fun to tease someone if they¡¯re okay with it. So if Hyr doesn¡¯t want me to tease them, I¡¯ve gotta stop.¡±

    Conrad, rudely, stifled a laugh behind her. Hyr just stared up with her softly while the girl¡­

    ¡°You¡¯re Papa¡¯s friend,¡± she said. ¡°The one he let touch him like Mama, me, Uncle Helix and Ava.¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± she agreed, relieved that the girl hadn¡¯t just said like Mama. They had done nothing of the sort together, thank you! ¡°I¡¯m Emilia¡ªEmmie, if you like,¡± she added, introducing each of the Free Coloniers as well before accepting the girl¡¯s name¡ªMia, although she¡¯d already known that. While she might not have visited her friend in a long time, she did at least know the name of his kid¡ªkids; he¡¯d recently popped out another one, Ava¡ªand was regularly gifted images of the little family by Rafe.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Is he here? I need a favour.¡±

    The little girl sighed, long and drawn out and sounding very much like she was dozens of years older than her seven years. ¡°Yeah¡­ he¡¯s here¡­¡±

    She sighed again and ushered them inside, leading them down several halls lined with photos of the four-person family. Pictures of Mia¡¯s parents in their youth and during the war lined the halls as well. Younger versions of herself stood alongside Mia¡¯s father in many of them, spreading over the decades they had been friends, each of which both Conrad and Hyr stopped to inspect.

    ¡°Have they never seen little photos of you?¡± Mia asked, scrunching her nose at the two Free Coloniers, Conrad commented on this photo or that all the while.

    ¡°Most people haven¡¯t. I don¡¯t share what I have with most people.¡±

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d have to answer questions about how I still have them.¡±

    ¡°How? Oh¡­ the Flaming? Papa said there were a few of you who didn¡¯t get hit.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Emilia said, wondering if The Flaming was covered so early in school¡ªit wasn¡¯t according to her Censor, so she must have been told by her parents as a way to explain how they had more pictures of their youth than most. That said, the girl¡¯s mom¡¯s photos were significantly more degraded¡ªmost likely, she¡¯d been near the edge of The Flaming¡¯s range, unlike herself and Olivier, who¡¯d been in a bunker at the time.

    The little girl nodded, saying that most of her friends didn¡¯t have anything even remotely similar to her parents. ¡°It¡¯s the worst for Jane¡¯s sister, though!¡± the girl said, because apparently being a friend of her father¡¯s¡ªeven one she¡¯d only heard of and seen in photos¡ªwas enough for her to open up.

    ¡°Oh?¡± Emilia prompted as they began to move, trusting the Free Coloniers to catch up¡ªand trusting Hyr to know when they needed to move. The girl¡¯s mom didn¡¯t need to wander in on two strangers in her house, after all.

    ¡°Mhm! Well, Jane¡¯s sister is actually her parents¡¯ friends¡¯ kid. They died during the war, so Jane¡¯s parents took her in. I don¡¯t think she has anything of them, except one of your pictures!¡± Mia skipped ahead, pointing up at a photo from the last big party of their gap year¡ªnot that any of them had expected it to be so, several years still left in their freedom when the war began.

    Dozens of faces now dead smiled back at her. Dozens more that she hadn¡¯t seen in forever.

    Jane¡­

    ¡°Janie Van der Froom?¡± she guessed, eyes catching on the shy little girl¡ªwell, woman, by the time this photo was taken¡ªwho had tagged along on so many of their adventures when they were younger.

    ¡°Yeah! You knew her?¡±

    ¡°I did¡­ she was¡­ one of my friends. Not as close as other friends¡ªshe was really shy, and had all the common sense the rest of us were lacking, so she was often sensible enough to say no to coming with us.¡±

    ¡°Were you a bad child?¡± Conrad teased, slipping his arm around her waist as he and Hyr caught up. ¡°Ooh, there¡¯s your crazy black knot friend,¡± he laughed, pointing to Samina, who was obviously very drunk. Next to her, her twin brother was just as drunk, while behind them, Malcolm was trying to get them to cooperate. It hadn¡¯t worked, and he¡¯d been pushed into the swimming hole by her treehouse a few minutes later.

    ¡°Not so much a bad child. Bad teen and young adult, definitely. Not so great adult, either¡­¡±

    ¡°You should not lie,¡± Hyr said from their position directly behind her, close, but not quite touching. ¡°You are doing your best.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what Papa says too! That Emmie is doing her best, and we should give her all the time she needs!¡± the child added, craning her neck to nod sagely up at Hyr and¡­ and those might have been little stars in her eyes.

    Apparently, Emilia wasn¡¯t the only one who noticed, given the muttered comment about the little girl having a crush on you that came out of Conrad, thankfully in Brylish. They¡¯d just had a conversation about teasing people, and it wouldn¡¯t have been very helpful to have to chastise the man about teasing the girl over crushing on a very kind person¡ªit wasn¡¯t every day someone came down to a child¡¯s height to talk to them! Emilia had far too many memories of adults lording over her, eyes sharp, tongues sharper as they demanded she behave yet again, as though any of the situations her young self ever found herself in were her own fault.

    Hyr¡¯s fingers brushed over her shoulder before they pressed their palm to her nape. The fact that they could tell something was off with her internal monologue, her thoughts spiralling to places she never wanted them to end up¡­ it was disturbing¡ªuncomfortable¡ªto be seen so easily by someone she barely knew. Yet, it was also so comforting¡ªa quiet blanket of safety¡ªthat she¡¯d so rarely had the opportunity to feel so completely, so quickly in her life.

    ¡°You¡¯re lucky,¡± Emilia told Mia solemnly as they began to move again. ¡°Your papa is one of the best people I¡¯ve ever met.¡±

    Sighing, Mia admitted that not everyone thought so. ¡°Mostly¡­ just people who still like his parents,¡± she said, when Emilia asked¡ªperhaps with a tad too much edge in her voice¡ªjust who didn¡¯t like her father. ¡°They still think he shouldn¡¯t have left. That he should have sucked it up.¡±

    Hyr¡¯s hand, which had floated down to catch her hand as they moved, tightened, more energy swirling through her because this time, she really was about to go off and kill a few people. It would have been easy to blame Payton¡¯s knots, but honestly, Emilia knew herself well enough to know that even without the knot, she would have been considering offing a significant portion of the Penn¡¯s upper crust. It wouldn¡¯t be a great loss.

    As a result, Hyr¡¯s energy was less effective¡ªor perhaps they were purposefully making it less effective. It was one thing to pull her emotions back where they would have been, without the knot messing with her, it was another to influence her genuine emotions and anger. How they could tell the difference, she had no idea, but it felt like they could tell¡ªit felt like Hyr could always tell exactly what was up with her.

    ¡°Your papa sucked it up as best he could for a long time. It was never good enough, and I¡¯m not sorry I took him away from this place.¡± Stars knew why he¡¯d moved back, shortly after getting married once the war ended. Probably because he knew any kids he had would be better supported here, despite his own questionable time in the school system. Unlike when they were younger, however, and his shitty parents had the money and power to make their will¡ªtheir desire to force their child to suck it up¡ªthe priority of the teachers, now he was the one with that influence.

    ¡°Me, too!¡± Mia cheered, skipping to a stop in front of the workshop¡¯s door. ¡°Papa is happy because you helped him! He says that a lot: that we should find ourselves the sort of friends who will tell him and Mama off, if needed. Someone who isn¡¯t afraid to tell the entire world to fuck off!¡±

    Conrad choked, laughing as he asked the girl if she should be swearing. According to her, she could swear if needed or proper for the sentence, and how else do you articulate the sentiment of telling the world to fuck off without saying fuck off?

    This time, it was Hyr and Emilia¡¯s turn to laugh as the man was left speechlessly watching the girl open the door for them before disappearing back down the hall.

    ¡°Precocious, that one¡­¡± he said as they entered the workshop, the sound and smell of willbranding immediately filling Emilia¡¯s senses. ¡°One of my nieces is like her. She¡¯s older, but fuck if that child isn¡¯t a handful."

    ¡°One of the ones I met?¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t like the family enough to raid with them.¡±

    Emilia looked at her friend, wondering if he¡¯d say more, but he didn¡¯t, still intent to keep his secrets about his family and origin, but then, they were stepping into the main portion of the workshop, one of her oldest friends blinking out of the Virtuosi System.

    ¡°Emmie.¡±

 Arc 6 | Chapter 230: For You, I Always Have Time

    Simeon, being the stubborn, perfection of a man that he was, had barely changed since they were children. Once her childhood friend found something he liked, he stuck with it. Even now, sixty years later, his hair was still pin straight, split directly down the middle, barely brushing his shoulders, although it was a little more disarrayed than usual, the result of several hours spent smithing, she assumed.

    ¡°Busy?¡± she asked, naturally falling into signing for her friend who, while not deaf, was so sensitive to the world around him that he often muted it out with his Censor.

    Not always, but even when he wasn¡¯t muting, none of his friends spoke to him. Simeon didn¡¯t like to be spoken to, as she¡¯d discovered during their first class together, her little mind recognizing the signs of distress in him the same way she had her brother, when their first caretakers had tried to force him to speak.

    Back then, in their pre-Censor, pre-D-Level testing lives, so many people had tried to make Simeon speak. Emilia still had her suspicions that at least some of the adults at their school had disagreed with this decision, but the Dryden¡¯s had insisted: their daughter would speak, she would not sign, and she would not be referred to by the he that even at such a young age Simeon had known he preferred.

    Enter one Emilia and her siblings, not yet separated by their D-Levels and academic interests. They had signed, and it didn¡¯t matter how much the Dryden¡¯s wanted them not to¡ªhow many meetings they had with school administrators¡ªtheir little sibling group, which quickly grew to include a dozen other students, would not be forced to stop signing¡ªwould not be forced to exclude one of their friends because the Dryden¡¯s didn¡¯t want to accept that their child was different.

    Of course, there had still been some attempts to keep Simeon from their little group. It had failed spectacularly¡ªas much as the Dryden¡¯s were scary, the combined might of her own parents and Rafe¡¯s were even more terrifying. They¡¯d been more successful keeping Simeon from them after school ended, but once they¡¯d started a rumour that the Dryden¡¯s were keeping Simeon home to abuse him¡­

    Well, they¡¯d relented and let him out, very begrudgingly, after the community had begun to distance themselves from the family.

    Emilia wondered, knowing now that the Dryden''s were still out there, complaining about how Simeon should have sucked it up, if they regretted not taking him out of school back then. They would have had to move him to a different school district, would have lost their influence to some extent, but if they had, perhaps they would have been more successful at breaking her friend¡ªat erasing the person he was today, quite literally.

    Most likely, without the support of his friends, Simeon would have killed himself. Even by the time they graduated, their little friend group solid and loving and looking forward to their gap decade, Emilia had known it was just a matter of time: if Simeon didn¡¯t get away from his terrible parents, he would kill himself. Maybe not right away, but eventually.

    Hence, she¡¯d stolen him. As she¡¯d been in the middle of her legal case, she¡¯d technically installed him in Olivier¡¯s apartment¡­ for exactly three days. Then, Olivier had organized an apartment for him a few buildings away. Close enough for Emilia to visit him, far enough away that he would gain some autonomy. Even four decades later, Emilia wasn¡¯t convinced her lawyer hadn¡¯t kicked Simeon out solely because they couldn¡¯t fuck anywhere in the apartment while he was living with them.

    Becoming friends with Simeon¡ªforcing him into their friend group despite how broken he had been back then, despite the pushback from so many adults in their life¡ªhad been one of the best things she had ever done. The children who existed in this house, the happiness that permeated the air, wouldn¡¯t exist if she hadn¡¯t skipped over to his desk and smiled down at him, signing words he wouldn¡¯t be able to understand for months yet had immediately connected with.

    Simeon¡¯s eyes tilted, his soft version of a smile that anyone who didn¡¯t know him wouldn¡¯t even realize was a smile. ¡°I was. I¡¯m done now.¡±

    He motioned to a willbrand settled onto the desk beside him. It looked¡­ familiar. Familiar in a long ago sort of way that she couldn¡¯t place, her Censor spinning through ancient memories of willbrands¡ªof pre-war willbrands, which had been common in the Penns, but almost nowhere else until the war began.

    ¡°Grayson found Stella,¡± Simeon continued just as her Censor caught up, pinpointed that it was similar to a willbrand Stella had had before she disappeared.

    Unlike many of the willbrands everyone even vaguely related to their friend group had used since she¡¯d learned to smith in her teens, Stella¡¯s hadn¡¯t been made by either Emilia herself or the person she learned willbrandsmithing from. Mostly, Stella was just¡­ an annoying little bitch. Always tattling on them, blackmailing them into letting her hang out with them.

    Samina¡¯s sister was nearly six years younger than them, and while that didn¡¯t make a difference to her now¡ªclearly, given Hyr was less than half her age¡ªas children, and especially as teenagers, having the annoying girl chase them had been aggravating. Hence, Emilia had refused to waste time making her a willbrand, and while Master Shaw might have agreed to make one, had anyone bothered to ask, Stella had been too proud to ask. Hence, she¡¯d ended up with a strange willbrand from stars knew where that Emilia had told her would be unlikely to last more than a decade¡ªironically, this was longer than the mass-produced willbrands used by most heroes lasted these days.

    The fact that the willbrand on Simeon¡¯s tabled contained all new material and was simply inspired by the original design didn¡¯t surprise her. The fact that someone¡ªlet alone Grayson¡ªhad found her, after the bitch had gone and fucked off the moment she¡¯d finished compulsory schooling over thirty years ago and hadn¡¯t been heard from since¡­

    Now that was surprising.

    ¡°Seriously? I was just with Sammie, and she didn¡¯t say anything about it,¡± Emilia noted, wondering if her friend had really decided not to tell her that her dumbass, younger sister had been found after all these years.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t told anyone.¡±

    ¡°No? Why not?¡±

    Simeon stared into the distance for a long moment, his green eyes blank and unseeing. When they finally shifted back to her, staring at her clothing and definitely taking in the fact that they clearly weren¡¯t hers, he signed, ¡°Several reasons. I thought I should give Grayson a chance to get in her pants, before her siblings kill him.¡±

    Emilia snorted. ¡°Grayson fell for Stella? Fuck. I always knew he would have bad taste, but seriously. What an idiot. He must realize she¡¯ll never like him¡ªI mean, he heard us complain about her often enough to know she hates black knots.¡±

    Unlike the majority of her family, Stella didn¡¯t have a black knot, the result of experiencing a genetic spasm in utero. While genetic spasms were better known for leading to irregular deviations and non-devs, they could do more subtle things as well. In Stella¡¯s case, all it had done¡ªas far as any testing had ever shown¡ªwas remove her black knot, which was normally a dominant trait. Growing up surrounded by near-sociopaths, being the odd one out¡­ Well, as much as Emilia didn¡¯t like her¡ªand had certainly never spent a moment of her time actively looking for her, only ever letting her eyes wander over corpses during the war searching for features she recognized¡ªshe could understand how growing up like that could be difficult, and in the end, it was her dislike of most of her family¡ªher perpetual exclusion from it despite people like herself and Simeon having managed to find friendship with her black knot family members¡ªthat had led her to run off.

    Her friend hesitated before signing that he did not believe Grayson knew who she was.

    ¡°What. How?¡±

    ¡°I doubt she is going under her real name.¡± Simeon shrugged before forwarding her the information he had received from both Grayson and James, who Grayson had apparently taken Stella to after a run in with several lavender codes in¡­ where was Platria again? A map told her it was a tiny Free Colony near Norvel. Very tiny, very run down and corrupt, but with no record of lavender codes being used by law enforcement or organized crime in the area.

    What in the world had that girl gotten herself into? Emilia didn¡¯t really care for her safety¡ªhonestly, she was a little surprised Stella had even survived the war, given their general assumption had been she¡¯d disappeared into the Free Colonies and their records of the dead had often been on the sketchier side¡ªbut if she¡¯d gotten Grayson and James involved in something dangerous¡­

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell him?¡± Emilia asked, wondering how weird it would be for her first message to one of their unit¡¯s most powerful supports to be something about not sticking his dick in that terrible girl because, for one, she was a terrible person, and for another, her siblings were seriously going to kill him if he did. Actually, they might kill him simply for contemplating it¡ªnot to mention not telling them he¡¯d found her, regardless of whether he knew who she was or not.

    Stars! The fact that he apparently hadn¡¯t retained what their missing sister looked like¡ªand a quick glance through the information Simeon had sent her confirmed Stella still looked like the prissy bitch she¡¯d always been, if a bit older and dirtier¡ªmight be enough for them to kill him.

    According to the information¡­ James had recognized her, and his still-updating information about the situation seemed to be more the reason why neither James nor Simeon were letting the Baxter twins know about their wayward sister¡¯s location¡ªcurrently she was effectively being held hostage by the men at the Randall estate in Byshire. Essentially: Stella seemed to be in a lot of trouble¡ªalthough getting information out of her was proving to be difficult¡ªand while more people might help, James didn¡¯t think the Baxter twins would.

    That was¡­ fair. Neither Samina nor Levi were known for being the most level-headed, and while they might help, if they went up against a lavender code¡­

    Yeah, they were more likely to get everyone killed than help. They were good firepower, but not so good with plans, which would likely be needed if they were tangling with an organization powerful enough to command multiple lavender codes.

    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s all¡­ complicated,¡± Emilia said, for lack of anything else to say.

    Simeon stared in her general direction, his head tilting as he agreed, before asking if she¡¯d like to be added to the group chat between himself and James about everything that was going on.

    Emilia groaned, knowing she should say yes, but really didn¡¯t want to¡ªseriously, she really wanted nothing to do with that woman, and she was already going to have to decide between giving Samina the barest of details about her sister being found alive or lying to her. Luckily, the choice was taken out of her hands when Hyr spoke.

    ¡°You¡­ should not.¡±

    It was the first time either of the Free Coloniers had spoken, content to let her sign in silence, despite neither of them understanding their personal sign language¡­ at least, as far as she knew.

    ¡°Ooh~ a syn¡¯s seeing,¡± Conrad said, nodding and telling Emilia that she had better follow his advice, lest the universe rain its wrath down upon her.

    [You are keeping odd company.]

    The words popped up into the world above Simeon¡¯s head, finally including everyone in the conversation, not that he ever needed to. While she might have designed the skill Simeon used to communicate through non-signing, non-direct Censor messaging means, everyone knew he preferred signing. If he didn¡¯t want to speak this way, she would translate for him¡ªall of his friends would.

    Conrad smiled and raised his hands, asking in awkward, stilted BSL whether he was really that odd.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Simeon agreed, adding that he preferred odd people to normal ones.

    ¡°You don¡¯t sign?¡± Emilia asked Hyr, who shook their head.

    ¡°There is a variant in Nur¡¯tha, but it is not used by many.¡± Their eyes slid to her hands, to Conrad¡¯s¡ªwhich were currently messing up a story to Simeon of how they¡¯d met in a raid and hit it off, her friend gently correcting the Free Colonier. ¡°Could I learn?¡±

    Emilia smiled at the syn. ¡°Definitely. It takes a while to get it right. There are translation functions you can add to your Censor, but that¡¯s not really the same, and you¡¯d only be able to understand, not sign yourself¡­. and we never included the variant my friends and I use into it.¡± Winking, she added that she knew someone who¡¯d worked on the translation function, and they¡¯d helpfully programmed it to never record or even attempt translating their personal sign language. As far she knew, no one had ever managed to remove that glitch, although a few people had tried.

    ¡°During the war, usually we ran new unit members through a custom version of the default language learning program inside the Virtuosi System.¡± She jutted a thumb at Conrad as she leaned in towards Hyr. ¡°The guy who programmed the base version, meant to teach Free Coloniers Baalphorian, was an ass. It eventually replaced it, but you can always tell who learned on his version because they all have the same odd, forced accent, no matter where they came from.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Conrad sighed, his signs coming out even worse as he attempted to sign and speak at the same time. ¡°I hate my Baalphorian accent. It¡¯s so boring. My voice in my first language is much nicer.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? I¡¯d like to hear that,¡± Emilia tried, subtle and¡ª

    ¡°Nope,¡± her friend laughed. ¡°No way you¡¯re learning where I¡¯m from like that.¡±

    Sighing, Emilia turned back to Simeon, who was watching them from his peripheral vision. ¡°So, if you¡¯re not busy, do you have time to help me make this one a willbrand, and update ours?¡± she asked, motioning to Hyr, and then herself, Conrad and Pria¡¯s swiped willbrand.

    ¡°For you, Emmie, I always have time.¡±

 Arc 6 | Chapter 231: Soâ€¦ Thatâ€™s Gross

    Sweat and heat. Steam screaming and bubbling¡ªthe pop of toxic chemicals nearby.

    Simeon¡¯s. Not hers.

    Another pop. Another.

    With anyone else, she¡¯d worry¡ªthe substances used in willbrandsmithing were toxic, destroying, brutally extracted from ores¡ªleached of life¡ªby the smiths who, regardless of safety precautions, were always in at least a little bit of danger.

    One wrong move, one stray drop of sweat splattering over the workspace, and everything would be over.

    That was, in part, why the government mass-produced cheap willbrands now. They had an army of ill-trained smiths wandering about, using subpar¡ªand therefore less dangerous¡ªextracts of brunite to create those willbrands. The weapons didn¡¯t last, of course, and usually only had one or two forms they could take. Government issued willbrands bent and broke and every so often exploded¡ªa few people had been quite seriously harmed in said explosions, but the government had managed to settle all those lawsuits, while also claiming no responsibility.

    The hero misused their willbrand.

    There was no fault on behalf of the government, who simply distributes the willbrands.

    No, you cannot hold the willbrandsmith responsible either¡ªthere are terms to their use, and one is no liability for injuries sustained in the use of the product.

    Use, of course, was definitely as having the willbrand in your possession. Shitty, cheap-ass willbrand explode on your person when you were nowhere near a raid? You were using it. In your house, when you were nowhere near? You still possessed it, and were therefore using it.

    On a whole, Emilia didn¡¯t have any issue with these policies¡ªand she was sure that if she looked into the contracts that went along with Simeon¡¯s creations, they were probably pretty similar. Willbrands were powerful, and that also made them deadly¡ªcome back in twice a year to have them checked, or learn how to check their integrity yourself.

    Even the most expensive willbrands carried some risk of backfiring¡ªor randomly exploding. Most people, even among Simeon¡¯s clients, weren¡¯t getting the best, for the simple fact that the difference between the best and pretty fucking good wasn¡¯t going to be noticeable anywhere outside of war and the cost difference was¡­ painful.

    Refining the chemicals used to make the best willbrands¡ªnot to mention all the aspects of design that went into them¡ªwas difficult, and as previously noted, dangerous. Someone asking their smith to increase the risk to their life to make them a weapon was going to pay for that privilege.

    Instead, her issue was with how low quality the mass-produced willbrands were. Regardless of how unrefined the brunite in particular was, it was still being used up in the creation process¡ªactually, in reality, more was being used due to its bad quality. There wasn¡¯t an unlimited supply of brunite, and yet, the government was wasting it. Plus, it really wouldn¡¯t have taken much more work, nor increased the risk that much, to make them noticeably better!

    It was terribly annoying, and unfortunately, while Emilia was personally acquainted with the dumbass who managed the government¡¯s distribution of willbrands, that woman was¡­ unlikely to listen to her complaints on the topic. While she¡¯d been tempted a number of times to go yell at the woman¡ªespecially after several heroes¡¯ willbrands had backfired when they tried to face an echo and the results had been deadly, something the government blamed solely on their inexperience¡ªshe knew it would just be a waste of her time and energy.

    In the grand scheme of things, that woman was only a cog in the machine that was government sponsored raids. She wouldn¡¯t listen, and no one above her would either. The raids would go on. The brunite would continue to be over-mined so more shit-tier willbrands could be distributed. Eventually, who knew how long from then, there would be a need for more powerful willbrands and not only would they have no one to make them¡ªeven now, there were only a handful of smiths who were actively making the more expensive styles of willbrands, due to low demand¡ªbut little material to make them with.

    What a terrible moment in their history that would be. Emilia half hoped she¡¯d be long gone when that happened, half hoped she¡¯d still be around to laugh at the idiots in power as they scrambled.

    The sizzle of aether pulling itself apart cut off and Emilia turned towards Simeon, his blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun that was both adorable and totally didn¡¯t suit him, although¡ªas had been common since they were children¡ªhis bangs were clipped back with a purple bow hair clip Lux had given him after noticing how his hair wouldn¡¯t stay out of his eyes during tests.

    ¡°Do we have a brunite reserve?¡± she asked, suddenly aware that if the government wasn¡¯t being sensible, someone on their side probably should be.

    Simeon hesitated long enough that Emilia knew that if there was, he had no knowledge of it. ¡°I keep a small store here, for work. It is enough to remake¡­ perhaps a quarter of the unit¡¯s willbrands.¡±

    Assuming nothing went wrong¡ªthat none of it was corrupted or fucked up during refining or production, something that happened¡­ hopefully in a non-deadly way, but did happen.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    In the corner of her vision, the unit¡¯s group message¡ªwhich she still glanced at in passing but had spent the morning ignoring¡ªlit up, presumably as Simeon asked if anyone had had the sense to create a brunite reserve. It lit up several more times as people responded, and Emilia couldn¡¯t bring herself to look.

    No one else had ever responded to her ridiculous question about the raid rewards. Part of her still hoped those she¡¯d messaged were asleep, or busy with other things¡ªthey could easily be inside ongoing raids, for instance! But as the morning wore on, quickly edging into afternoon, Emilia knew that was unlikely the case for everyone.

    Rather, she¡¯d just fucked up her friendships so badly by disappearing that even for this silly reason, they wouldn¡¯t bother to answer her. Now, she couldn¡¯t look at the group messages¡ªcouldn¡¯t see proof that she was being ignored while Simeon was immediately answered.

    Unfortunately, despite the messages, Simeon didn¡¯t tell her what they said! Instead, the little brat went right back to smithing, moving off to a different section of the workshop to begin forming the shape of the willbrand¡¯s base form. Did he know she was avoiding opening the messages? No, but still! Clearly, he should have! They¡¯d known each other for sixty years, for stars sake!

    Emilia glared down at the liquid sitting in the little bowl in front of her. It was more than Simeon would be using for his assigned willbrand, although, as he had tasked himself with making a collection of smaller, CierSuit willbrands for her friends, in total, the amount of brunite he¡¯d need to refine would be far higher than she¡¯d need to deal with.

    The refined brunite in her bowl was a glittering gold, which she¡¯d chosen to match Hyr¡¯s colouring. While it was traditional to encase the refined chemical in glass, leaving whatever colour had been chosen for it visible, most mass-produced willbrands covered the chemical in a metal casing. She¡¯d never actually seen what their chemical looked like, but when Simeon had cracked open Pria¡¯s willbrand to drain it¡­

    It had been gross. Thick and lumpy and¡­ and both of them had concerns¡ªSimeon wasn¡¯t really someone anyone but the ultrarich, who would never touch a government willbrand, could afford to go to, so he¡¯d never seen the quality of their refined brunite either.

    Luckily, they weren¡¯t reusing any part of Pria¡¯s willbrand, only using its design as the base. The original intention had been to use her resonance code to create a new one¡ªas much as mass-produced willbrands worked for everyone, they were still artificially tied to their owners through their resonance code, allowing the shitty things to work a tiny bit better.

    After she¡¯d explained to Simeon what they were doing¡ªthe whole¡­ trying to take down a purist terrorist thing¡ªhowever, Conrad and Hyr having disappeared into a pair of Virtuosi Rigs Simeon had in his workshop for bored customers who didn¡¯t want to leave, and he had been disinclined to let them go off to fight who knew what without proper protection.

    Hence, she¡¯d ended up having to message all her friends anyways, asking for their resonance codes, and stealing Pria¡¯s willbrand hadn¡¯t been very useful, other than allowing them the disgusting experience of seeing what was inside it.

    Emilia was already sorting through the people who knew around school and the city that had the government¡¯s terrible willbrands, trying to figure out how much it would cost in time and effort¡ªnot to mention actual materials¡ªto get them all equipped with even low-grade professional willbrands.

    Not now, later¡ªthere was no way she was letting anyone she even vaguely cared about wander around with these things from now on, thanks¡ªbecause they were already stretched for time.

    Like, really, really stretched for time, and after a brief discussion, Emilia had eventually agreed to request help with the CierSuit willbrands from Master Shaw. In exchange for his help, she was now expected to report to his house for dinner in two weeks¡ªhe was a grumpy, if accepting man, and believed her when she told him she had a purist terrorist to take out, followed by a mystery, government raid, which while she was perfectly happy to ignore, she didn¡¯t think Sil was going to let her get out of¡ªin order to explain herself¡­ mostly regarding the whole purist terrorist thing, she thought, rather than her disappearing act. Who knew with that man.

    As a result, Simeon and Master Shaw were splitting the production of the six CierSuit willbrands between them, while she was responsible for updating her and Conrad¡¯s willbrands, and making new ones for Hyr and Pria. The updating could wait, if necessary, but Hyr and Pria needed theirs.

    Pria¡¯s was already done, sitting in cold storage to chill and relax into its new state of existence before being given over to her roommate. Hers hadn¡¯t taken long because, in the end, despite Pria rarely raiding, Emilia knew her¡ªknew her style. A quick query to her friend gave her a list of every skill Pria knew and could use, and just as Emilia had suspected during their rare raids together, her friend was clearly a support. That meant that, on top of the CierSuit, Pria needed some additional help keeping herself safe while she aided her allies. The hardest part of dealing with Pria¡¯s willbrand wasn¡¯t the willbrand itself, so much as her friend¡¯s lack of skills.

    Fortunately, Pria was still at Sil¡¯s, peppering Samina with questions, and a short conversation between the three of them had ended with Sil digging into Pria¡¯s Censor and skills, optimizing it in a way that Emilia was sure Pria was rather unenthusiastic about, especially after she realized she was going to be thrown into the original training system¡ªas original as it could be considered, anyways, given it had been updated on and off since the war¡ªin order to master her new skills. Too bad. They were going somewhere potentially dangerous, and unless Pria figured out how to at least keep herself safe, she wasn¡¯t coming.

    Hyr¡¯s willbrand, on the other hand, was more complicated. From what she¡¯d seen¡ªand then confirmed in a brief conversation with them, because she wasn¡¯t so stupid as to not discuss their needs with them¡ªthey could be both a front-line fighter and a support. That was always more complicated to begin with, but the fact that they were also a Free Colonier with a strong core and no experience with willbrands?

    Definitely complicated, especially since they¡¯d been earnest about their desire to learn to sign¡ªthat¡¯s what the syn and Conrad were currently doing: learning as much of her personal sign language as they reasonably could in only a few Virtuosi days. Conrad had already had to hack Hyr¡¯s Censor for them, so they could go past their time limit, and really, there was just so much to do and no time to do it.

    In an ideal world, there would be more testing, more learning, more time to sleep and shower and worry about V because she still hadn¡¯t heard from him and was definitely starting to panic now.

    She couldn¡¯t panic now¡ªnot when her slight spike in emotions was already causing the volatile chemical in front of her to warble.

    No, she needed to get her shit together and make Hyr a willbrand that would keep them safe and let them follow whatever path the aether set out for them.

    Yeah¡­ something told Emilia that that sort of pressure was why the syna Gru had never taken anyone up on their offer to make them a willbrand.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 232: I Never Claimed to be a Sensible Person

    In the end, Emilia had time to spare. Mostly, it was because Conrad¡¯s willbrand¡ªwhich he had apparently obtained during the war and rarely used since¡ªwas in wonderful condition. Aside from updating his resonance code, which most people did every year or so, and he hadn¡¯t done in almost a decade¡ªand forcing another form into it, there wasn¡¯t much for her to do to it.

    Hence, she had extra time, Simeon still working on the last of his assigned CierSuits while Conrad and Hyr continued learning to sign within the Virtuosi System.

    So, what to do.

    Technically, since she could now spark, she could go off and do something else¡ªtry and figure out where the fuck V was, perhaps. Had she even the slightest clue where he was¡ªeven a query by Conrad into some blackaether message boards had only led to a general clue that sometimes he took commissions for creating Censor hacks and usually met up with people in Rosalia, but didn¡¯t seem to actually live there¡ªshe might have tried.

    She was worried, and other than send another few messages off to him¡ªand honestly, if he hadn¡¯t removed his block on her contacting him, he wasn¡¯t even going to be getting them¡ªthere wasn¡¯t much else she could do about that.

    Alternatively, she could go out and visit various people who lived in the Penns and nope. Definitely not doing that.

    Having just reprogrammed her Censor, it no longer gave her such blaring announcements that her Balance levels were growing unstable. Instead, she was working on a more subtle way to notify herself that she needed to chill, as well as a way to determine how reasonable her emotions were. With Hyr around, neither of those were as important as they had been when she¡¯d created the hack¡ªnot that the syn needed to be her emotional babysitter or anything!

    Honestly, she probably needed to have a conversation with the northerner about all that. Mostly, she appreciated what they were doing¡ªloved the feeling of Hyr¡¯s energy within her, keeping her mind from spiralling out of her control in both the not fun ADHD way and the my knots are doing weird things to my emotions way. It wasn¡¯t the syn¡¯s job to manage her, was the thing, and she didn¡¯t know enough about the synat to even guess at why they were doing it. Was it normal for their caste? An obligation? Something just for her?

    Emilia had no idea, and they needed to talk about it and other things, most notably, whether Nur¡¯tha had any myths or stories similar to one Conrad had told her.

    Oh, she also needed to figure out if the Dionese one actually existed. Unfortunately, while she could break into the Royal Library, that would probably be frowned upon, and she¡¯d never make it onto Ship¡¯o Stars¡ªthere was no way a trip to Dion wouldn¡¯t be¡­ prolonged. So, that would have to wait.

    As for the few people she needed to visit before they left? Those wouldn¡¯t be fast visits either¡ªplus, she¡¯d already set out time for them in a few hours.

    Back to not knowing what to do, it seemed.

    How had she gone from having too much to do to having nothing to do?

    Worst of all? Now that she was back in contact with Olivier, all her brain was telling her to do was bother him. The man was in the middle of a serious legal case at the moment! And aside from telling her that he¡¯d woken to a flurry of messages asking why he had given her more money when she definitely should have been getting enough from military paydrops, she hadn¡¯t heard from him. Unsurprisingly, the asshole who Sil had apparently decided he had a thing for hadn¡¯t even bothered to ask Olivier why he hadn¡¯t told anyone they¡¯d run into each other.

    That was a whole other thing that Emilia was patently refusing to think about, mostly because if she thought about it too much, she was going to end up hoping that man and Sil didn¡¯t work out and that felt¡­ cruel. Sil had never shown more than an interest in hooking up with someone, and while she was definitely questioning his taste in men¡ªnot that she¡¯d seen that man in more than the occasional press conference since the war ended, so technically he could have become a better person and gotten some therapy in that time¡ªshe did want him to be happy.

    If that man turned out to be the key to her friend¡¯s heart¡­

    Yeah, she couldn¡¯t think about this, and without much thought, she automatically opened her messages and sent Olivier a smut filled message, followed by a picture of her stomach, the underside of one breast barely visible but clearly framed by his borrowed clothes. Even during the near-decade between her court case and the war, when things between them had been weird, she had built a habit of sending him inappropriate messages while he was in court¡­ or teaching¡­ or at family dinners.

    Whatever. If the man wanted her back in his life, he didn¡¯t get to pick and choose which parts he got.

    She was just about to close down the messages and find something else to do¡ªstaring at her unanswered messages was so depressing she hadn¡¯t even had the heart to follow through on her plan to give the excess raid rewards to the people who had responded yet¡ªwhen another message came through.

    [Zyrex: Hyr make it okay?]

    [Em: yeah]

    [Em: theyre learning sign language in virtuosi at the moment]

    [Em: did you need them?]

    Unless the parameters of the rigs were messed up, both Hyr and Conrad should have been able to get messages within it.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Zyrex responded, the echo of a laugh shifting through the messages¡ªprobably more than the young hy intended. ¡°I just wanted to make sure they got there okay. They were just dropped off and left to find you, then never even let us know they were okay.¡±

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Ah~ what a naughty little syn.

    The two of them exchanged messages for a bit, Zyrex explaining what Hyr had already mentioned to her: that he couldn¡¯t come on vacation, although she had extended him an invitation as well. Apparently, it was Hyr¡¯s decision, and while they weren¡¯t a syn of Zyrex¡¯s tribe, they still weren¡¯t someone Zyrex would ignore.

    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t tell me what they saw, but I got the feeling if I was there, something bad would have happened,¡± Zyrex messaged when Emilia asked exactly what Hyr had seen. ¡°That¡¯s pretty vague, though. It could have been something here¡ªlike I¡¯m not around to stop or see something¡ªor my presence on the ship would have made things problematic? Or I would die? Who knows. There¡¯s a reason why the synat are so private.¡±

    Emilia could imagine. Knowing your future could entirely change it. If something were going to happen in Nur¡¯tha¡ªsomething Zyrex needed to be there to deal with¡ªhe¡¯d spend the next week looking out for it, and potentially change the future so it wouldn¡¯t occur, or perhaps it would occur at a different time when he couldn¡¯t deal with it. Honestly, being a syn seemed¡­ exhausting, and the fact the Hyr was using their vacation time to help her deal with this situation and keep her calm¡­

    Yeah, that made her feel kinda shitty, to say the least.

    [Em: so]

    [Em: you can totally message me anytime]

    [Em: but did you just want to check on hyr?]

    [Em: cause im sure they would have answered you]

    There was a long pause, during which Emilia wondered if Hyr really had ignored Zyrex or something and the hy was getting ready to tell her that the syn was even naughtier than she¡¯d assumed, before he responded.

    Hyr was naughty, but not in a serious way.

    ¡°What do you mean, Hyr¡¯s birthday is in four days?¡± she asked, thinking about how this was liable to be a really shitty birthday for the northerner. They weren¡¯t going to be around their friends. They wouldn¡¯t be able to partake in any Nur¡¯tha birthday rituals¡ªand she knew from birthdays celebrated by the Gru during the war that at least their tribe¡¯s birthdays were wild. Instead, Hyr was going to be stuck with people way older than them while they searched for a purist terrorist group! Why in the world would anyone willingly choose that sort of birthday!?

    More laughter echoed down their line, Zyrex telling her that he figured Hyr wouldn¡¯t have told them.

    [Em: wont they know you told me?]

    [Zyrex: Maybe, but they should have a good birthday.]

    [Zyrex: Hyr¡¯s also good at¡­ not looking at unimportant things.]

    [Zyrex: Or, private things? This is private, I guess. They try not to peek unless the aether tells them it''s important?]

    That was¡­ good to know. Not knowing much about the synat, Emilia had no idea how far their powers could reach, but the idea of Hyr knowing every move¡ªevery thought¡ªof the people around them was a bit¡­ uncomfortable.

    [Em: and what will make it a good birthday?]

    When Baalphorian teenagers first received their Censors, they were advised not to message people if they didn¡¯t want the recipient to read their emotions.

    ¡°Those first few weeks especially can be difficult,¡± she remembered her own teacher explaining to the class. ¡°Strong emotions are especially difficult to control. If you are angry, it will be felt. If you love the person, it will be felt. Do not message your crush if you do not wish for them to know you have feelings for them.¡±

    The class had giggled, and of course, the moment someone had their Censors installed they were just as liable to refuse to message anyone for months as they were to immediately message people, hoping their secret love or hatred would be felt.

    Once someone was skilled enough with their Censor, they could let specific emotions through their messages, although stress, strong emotions and sleep deprivation could still cause unintentional slippage, and when it came to Free Coloniers¡­

    Yeah, Free Coloniers and their temporary Censors could be a bit of a problem. Originally, they¡¯d assumed that once a Free Colonier¡¯s mind adjusted to their Censor, their slippage would lessen or cease, and to be fair! If the temporary Censor was kept on, that did happen.

    The problem was that most Free Coloniers removed their Censors as often as they could¡ªif they wanted to keep it on all the time, they¡¯d just get a permanent one installed¡ªand while some managed to retain their control between uses¡ªespecially after decades using a Censor¡ªnot all did. Sometimes, people who used and removed temporary Censors always had emotional slippage.

    Emilia had no idea how often Zyrex wore his temporary Censor, but he had slippage, and as he told her about how the synat and Hyr¡¯s tribe celebrated days of birth, she could viscerally feel the way he was setting her up.

    As far as she could tell, it wasn¡¯t a malicious setting up, more an awareness that he was holding something relevant back from her. A trap, although it had an air of love in it. Zyrex loved his friend, and wanted to make them happy, and for whatever reason, hidden amongst all the little tidbits of information he gave her, there was something she could do that would make Hyr more than happy. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly which thing it was¡ªand perhaps there were a few things that could make the syn extra happy¡ªand there was no way she¡¯d be able to do half of the things on the list due to logistics and a lack of knowledge.

    ¡°What sort of gift would they like?¡± Emilia asked instead, quickly clarifying that it should be something she could get her hands on in the next few hours or while on board the ship.

    Zyrex sent back a few options, doing so so quickly that he must have already had them prepared. Not suspicious at all.

    Glancing through the options, Emilia¡¯s eyes settled on one. It seemed both¡­ right and profane, and possibly like it would have more meaning to it than being a simple birthday present. Unfortunately, despite her concerns, her attention kept being called back to it.

    Now, a more sensible person would have asked Zyrex about it, and if he didn¡¯t give a straight answer, they would have messaged Hetexia and every other northerner they knew, regardless of how long it had been, trying to figure out whether anything strange was going on with this particular gift.

    Emilia was not a sensible person, and she couldn¡¯t deny the fact that something about this gift called to her, scratching at her mind and core in a way that was reminiscent of what she¡¯d experienced while looking at the universe for scars or through the {Blood Glass} inside the raid.

    Eyes flicking over to Hyr, where they sat in the Virtuosi Rig, looking much too large for it and yet so delicate. Their light-brown lashes cast shadows over their golden cheeks, still soft with youth. Automatically, her Censor began overlaying options for her gift over the syn, even it not having the sense to try and force her to ask more questions.

    That, or perhaps it knew that no matter what she found out, she was still liable to go through with her plan anyways.

    Quietly, having decided on a design, she rose to get more ore.

    She had one more willbrand to make.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 233: Just a Little Speechless

    Conrad¡¯s new CierSuit slid over him like a second skin and if he hadn¡¯t used one in the past, Emilia would¡­ well, she wasn¡¯t sure what she would do, but it would be big.

    CierSuits had been one of the things Division 30 had been best known for, using the full body willbrand armour for a significant portion of the second decade of war. Their black, red, purple and occasionally white suits¡ªthe colour had largely been based on personal preference¡ªmarked everyone who came across them as members of their unit. They were the demons of the front, sparking in in suits that offered cooling over their Censors, enhanced computing features and armour that all but the most powerful monsters had difficulties breaking into by the CierSuit¡¯s final form, created just days before that final strike.

    CierSuits had come into use shortly before The Flaming, which was part of why their identities had accidentally ended up so unknown. While occasionally Emilia¡ªand she was sure other members of their unit as well¡ªcould feel other veterans looking at her, perhaps wondering if she was the same person they¡¯d met earlier in the war, most people outside of the brass only remembered them with their faces perpetually covered. The Flaming had wiped out most people¡¯s records of their life before it; therefore, images of them without their CierSuits on had been all but wiped out among the general populace¡­ most of whom didn¡¯t want to either piss them off nor out another veteran¡ªit was pretty accepted that you never talked about another person¡¯s military service without their consent.

    That little twist of fate might be largely what allowed her and the other, anonymous members of their unit to live their lives more normally, but it also left a strange taste in Emilia¡¯s mouth because while CierSuits had been perhaps the most reliable defence during the war¡¯s latter years, they were also, unfortunately, obnoxiously expensive, an additional ore called mytrite¡ªfound only near the Moonlit City¡ªneeded for its production. Just getting enough mytrite for their unit to upgrade their CierSuits as needed had been difficult, and had only happened due to a join effort by several hy and Norvel and The Atrium¡ªall of whom were all but perpetually locked in some sort of military alliance with the Moonlit City, as far as she knew.

    The point was that only two other units had ever received CierSuits, all of which had been created by herself, Simeon and Master Shaw¡ªthey hadn¡¯t wanted to risk anyone in the military deciding that invading the Moonlit City was worth it, so had withheld the design from them, something they still continued to do.

    A few high-ranking officers had also received CierSuits, but Emilia knew all of them. She also knew all The Black Knot members who had received one, which only left the mysterious organization that pretty much no one knew anything about. They had handled their own resonance code calibration, so Emilia had never met any.

    Until now, probably.

    Technically, Conrad could just be that skilled with willbrands, but even the most run-of-the-mill willbrands required a bit of getting used to¡ªthat¡¯s why they¡¯d scheduled a bit of time for practicing within the training system, accurate willbrand representation and use being on one the things Simeon had been responsible for programming into it, decades earlier, although a little real-world practice was needed for the initial connection to a new willbrand.

    Conrad and Hyr were supposed to activate their willbrands in the real world, then their information would be scanned into the training system and in they¡¯d go to train.

    Except, Conrad clearly didn¡¯t need training. Rather, his movements in his new CierSuit¡ªwhich Simeon had redesigned since the war to have two forms, the original, full-body version, and one that was much more subtle and meant to fit under the owner¡¯s clothing¡ªwere flawless. Yeah, there was no way the man had never used one before, his CierSuit even shifting between the two versions with only a ripple of a pause while he acclimated to the new form.

    Emilia glared at the man, and when his eyes flicked to her, all he did was smile, all knowing teeth and slanting eyes.

    ¡°Seriously?¡± she asked, glaring harder when he shrugged.

    ¡°You have your secrets, I have mine.¡±

    ¡°Emilia¡¯s secrets are not secrets from any of us,¡± Hyr noted from several feet away, where Simeon was attempting to help them activate their willbrand. As willbrands used aetherstores to activate, rather than cores, it always took Free Coloniers who came from places that exclusively used cores a bit to figure it out. Luckily, once they were activated, they interfaced with the person¡¯s Censor, so they tended to be easier to use. Just challenging to initially activate for a bit. Getting a few drops of aether out of the syn to bond the willbrands¡ªone still secret, hopefully¡ªto them had also been a massive nuisance, but they¡¯d eventually managed it.

    ¡°Yeah! That¡¯s right!¡± Emilia pouted. It really was rather unfair that the pair of them knew all about her being in Division 30¡ªsomething she suspected Conrad had already guessed at, even when they were in the raid, and had definitely figured out after Samina¡¯s comment and then all the pictures on Simeon¡¯s walls, which featured too many publicly known members for it to be a coincidence.

    As for Hyr¡­ well, they had known from the moment she introduced herself as the general of Hetexia¡¯s unit, but she also had the feeling they knew more than that, and not because Hetexia had spilled her secrets. Perhaps it was their connection to their aether, but Emilia had a feeling the syn knew exactly what role she¡¯d played in ending the war.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Unfortunately, she had to admit that Conrad might have realized that as well¡ªhow, she had no idea, but especially now, with the way he was watching her, knowingly. Arrogantly.

    Asshole.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he said, perhaps anticipating that she was about to launch herself at him and beat the truth out of him, as he let his CierSuit return to default form: a thin, black chain bracelet he had chosen during its initial utilization. Like most willbrands, it could be changed into different forms with a little help from the owner¡¯s Censor, but without active thought, this was what his CierSuit would return to, much like her own willbrand returned to necklace form by default. ¡°You¡¯re right. I admit it.¡±

    ¡°Does your group have a name?¡± Simeon asked, taking a step back as Hyr once again tried to activate their general combat willbrand and¡­ nope. No luck.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    ¡°Come here,¡± Emilia said, motioning the syn over as Conrad explained that their unit probably had an official designation, but they¡¯d actually never referred to themselves as anything other than the unit. Hyr wasn¡¯t quite frustrated yet, but she could see it bubbling under the surface. ¡°You can feel my core, right? Do you think you could feel my aetherstores?¡±

    Tilting their head, Hyr considered her before nodding. ¡°Most likely. The synat largely teaches by showing and feeling. Feeling you may help.¡±

    Unlike cores, which were always located in the lower abdomen, aetherstores were located in several areas of the body, and in each person, the distribution and strength of each storage space varied, as did the person¡¯s connection and ability to utilize each. Most Baalphorians tended to focus on the stores that were near their Censors, tucked into either side of the base of their skull, while Free Coloniers often pulled from the ones that surrounded their cores.

    There had been some attempts during the war to make them use other ones. Not only did pulling from the stores near their core sometimes cause issues¡ªpulling from the core when they¡¯d meant to pull from their aetherstores and vice versa ¡ªbut they¡¯d eventually discovered that those aetherstores offered extra protection to cores. They were a cushioning, of sorts. As a result, emptying intestinal aetherstores had made core cracking and outright destruction more likely.

    Getting anyone to use different aetherstores was difficult, however, even Baalphorians who had larger or more powerful stores elsewhere in their body often defaulting back to their skull aetherstores, especially when panicked or fighting on instinct.

    Hence, it was important to start students off on the right foot, and classes covering aetherstores often started their lessons by attempting to force new Censor owners to use different aetherstores. It¡­ was not super successful, unfortunately. Using a different aetherstores than felt normal was the equivalent of trying to force someone to write with their non-dominant hand. It could be done! It also took a lot of practice, which largely involved a lot of meditation¡ªnot exactly a known favourite of Baalphorians.

    So¡­ how to make sure Hyr wasn¡¯t putting themself at risk by overusing the aetherstores around their core, preferably in a way that wouldn¡¯t take months of practice.

    ¡°Wait here, just for a sec,¡± she cheered, microsparking to Simeon¡¯s Virtuosi Rigs and plopping down. They weren¡¯t quite as cutting edge as Sil¡¯s, but were still ridiculously good, and it took only a few real-world seconds for her to pop back up, a new skill programmed into her.

    {Body Scan ver. TTBK.astore} was her expansion of a skill that was used by both medics, as {Body Scan}, and The Black Knot, as {Body Scan ver. TTBK}. Technically, the TT also stood for some edit that was used by someone, but she had no idea who. Helix had also created another version of it recently, for the crew of the ship he was on for his silly reality show. That version would stop working at the end of the season because the skill was, quite frankly, invasive.

    It could see so much of a person. Every ache and injury. Their mind spinning out of control from one emotion or another, each listing off, so medics could treat the emotions while The Black Knot could exploit them¡ªalthough, her Censor informed her that Helix had semi-censored some of the information from the crew, and further censored more from production. Apparently, it had only been used a few times throughout the season, so far. Once, when the chef was pretending to be asleep¡ªwhat?¡ªanother time when a guest was seriously injured¡ªoof¡ªand¡­ no, that couldn¡¯t be right.

    [It is right.]

    Emilia had caught bits and pieces of Helix¡¯s show over the last few weeks, thinking it would be both stupid¡ªshe¡¯d been the stupid, entitled Penns bitch on several vacations, and seen more than a few of her friends and classmates be it as well, and knew how obnoxious they could be¡ªand difficult to watch because, well, it was Helix. Sweet, kind Helix, who had apparently done so much more for the ship than his contract entailed.

    Yeah, she was probably going to end up binge-watching it during her downtime over the next few days. Maybe some of her friends would join her, silly as it was. Then again, Samina was liable to fuck up and say something about knowing Helix, and he was definitely not out about his service in D30. So¡­ maybe not her. Everyone else could watch.

    Regardless, Emilia¡¯s alteration of {Body Scan ver. TTBK} included the ability to check out a person¡¯s aetherstores and core. Having only used it on herself within the Virtuosi System, she wasn¡¯t entirely sure how accurate it would be, but in theory, it would at least give her the location of each of Hyr¡¯s aetherstores and a general size. The question was more how accurate the sizes would be, and whether it would miss any aetherstores, rather than whether it would work at all.

    Worst case, she hopped back in for a few seconds. No biggie.

    Bonus: Conrad and Simeon were around to test on, each of whom had official scans of their aetherstores, which required a fancy machine, and knew the exact location of their cores.

    It took a little tweaking¡ªand a short moment of gaping at Conrad when they realized how powerful his core was, not to mention his huge aetherstores¡ªbefore it was working well enough for Emilia to get an accurate reading of Hyr, who¡ª

    ¡°It¡¯s really unfair how powerful both of you are,¡± she pouted.

    Neither Simeon¡¯s scans nor her own were anything to scoff as, but seriously! Most Free Coloniers¡ªespecially those who didn¡¯t even use their aetherstores for their normal abilities¡ªhad relatively small ones. While it wasn¡¯t intentional anymore, there had been periods in Baalphorian history where marriages had been arranged in hopes that children with bigger aetherstores would be born. It was the same in most Free Colonies: at one point or another, children with more powerful cores had been purposefully bred.

    While some Free Colonies still arranged such things, usually it was only at the highest reaches of society¡ªoccasionally, rebel factions, as well. The Empress of Dion, for instance, was expected to eventually marry for power, just as her parents had. With power came responsibility, and while the Empress could technically disregard tradition, if the children she bore couldn¡¯t defend their throne from the terrors of the Dion Court¡­ well, things would be bloody, most likely, and a new regime would rise.

    As far as Emilia knew, Nur¡¯tha had done nothing similar in generations, and while she knew numerous Free Colonies were pushing for marriages between those who had both powerful cores and large aetherstores, in case another war came along, Hyr was too young for even that!

    Hyr having both a powerful core and excessively large aetherstores was just unfair! People shouldn¡¯t be this blessed at such a young age! Seriously, both grew in strength as a person used them. Emilia didn¡¯t even want to think about how powerful the syn would become, were they to actively train.

    Emilia glared at them, only slightly cursing herself for not attempting to add in a way to test D-Levels to the skill¡ªthat would have been bad form, even if she was really curious about Hyr¡¯s D-Levels now. There were only a few people she knew of who had as much power as Conrad¡ªRi, Hanalea and Olivier came to mind¡ªbut as for Hyr¡­

    Fucking stars. Hyr was, somehow, in a class of their own, especially since they weren¡¯t a coding lavender code, the only people Emilia knew of who were capable of outputting so much power, and at great consequence to their mental state.

    Unless Hyr was hiding a hereditary lavender code, they could probably put out just as much power as one. That was¡­ terrifying.

    Beside her, Simeon was quiet. Well, he was always quiet, but something in his silence was ominous.

    Conrad, expectedly, just laughed and clapped Hyr on the back. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve got so much potential you struck them speechless¡ªor signless.¡± Laughing, he wandered back to the Virtuosi Rigs and plopped down, intent to train or continue learning sign language or just fuck around, Emilia had no idea.

    Smiling, she stepped back towards a nervous looking Hyr. ¡°Okay. So¡­ I think we¡¯re gonna make you a few more skills, once you can get your willbrand working. With power like that¡­ yeah, there isn¡¯t much you won¡¯t be able to do, if you train up a bit.¡±

    The syn¡¯s cheeks darkened slightly as they nodded, stepping forward and placing their hands to Emilia¡¯s solar plexus, where {Body Scan ver. TTBK.astore} had determined the syn¡¯s largest and most stable aetherstore was.

    Locking eyes, Emilia began to show them what it felt like to use this particular aetherstore.

 Arc 6 | Chapter 234: Itâ€™s Way Easier to Make Up a Fake Identity

    Covering for Emilia was tiresome in an extremely strange way.

    The thing was, Samina was used to covering for people; every member of The Black Knot was, especially people like herself, who despite everything¡ªher generally chaotic personality, multiple, very visible disabilities and a general inability to keep herself out of situations like, well, this¡ªwas pretty unknown.

    Both her and her brother had managed to keep themselves out of the public eye, as strange as that was to many of their relatives. They were people who could go undercover¡ªwho worked on such diverse missions that a few well places hacks and visits from the clones and boom! Anonymity. Sure, it might come at the cost of locking memories inside people¡¯s minds, of hacking into security systems and vanishing themselves from scene after scene¡ªnot to mention occasionally doctoring recordings to make it look like someone else had done this or that¡ªbut it was worth it.

    They were good at their job, and a big part of that job was falling into a new persona, hiding who they were, pretending not to know who people were when they met them. It all came naturally to them, just as it was meant to, because despite how many concerns had been raised over both of their temperaments when they were growing up, they¡¯d still been taught all the secrets of the Baxter branch.

    Both she and her brother knew how to lie with flawless grace, and it had served them well, both in work and in their long lives of being misbehaving shits. During their youth, they had lied for their friends constantly, helping them make up stories on the spot¡ªsneaking information to back up their stories into their friends¡¯ Censors once they¡¯d had those installed.

    Samina was good at lying, but this situation she had found herself in was odd. Odd, because she was lying in between plenty of truth. Odd, because she was both herself and not herself, and as much as she knew Emilia would never expect her to hide the reality of who she was from anyone, she wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to do that while also protecting her childhood friend¡¯s identity.

    Emilia''s school friends, especially the one who her notes stated was her roommate, had so many questions for her. They were pushy, but in a way that allowed for Samina to say she wouldn¡¯t be answering that¡ªand she was having to say that a lot.

    It wasn¡¯t that they were asking so many probing questions about Emilia that Samina was constantly having to deflect, rather, it was that they weren¡¯t. Despite her own admission that she was part of D30, no one was asking about that. Despite their clear interest in Emilia¡¯s childhood and family, they were instead asking about her own upbringing, leaving it to Samina to add Emilia into her stories.

    Both of those¡­ well, they tracked, based on what Samina knew about the trio¡ªalthough the boy, Sil Xu, was really only listening and Samina was pretty sure he¡¯d figured out that Emilia was also a member of D30, not that either of them had done a good job of hiding it.

    Samina definitely shouldn¡¯t have revealed that little fact. She¡¯d gotten too comfortable and fucked up, and now, she was trying her hardest not to fuck up further. Hence, she was now lying and deflecting over the silliest of things, simply because she didn¡¯t want to get stuck effectively admitting something Emilia didn¡¯t want revealed when something ended up being the one question she wouldn¡¯t answer¡ªseriously, if she answered every question honestly and then refused to say whether Emilia had been a part of D30 it was going to be a giant red flag.

    It was annoying. Making up a new identity and sticking to its story was easier than being in this strange place between reality and fiction.

    This was why she didn¡¯t try to make new friends, instead hanging with her brother and cousins and the clones, just like she always had. Simeon, sometimes. Occasionally, she popped in to annoy one member of their unit or another, especially James, because while she was pretty sure the man had never liked her, he needed a friend! Samina¡­ wasn¡¯t sure he would ever consider her a friend, but at least she managed to get some emotion other than depression out of him.

    There was also that. Rafe was really the only one who was in contact with Emilia these days, and other than telling them she was doing okay, he¡¯d never really revealed much about what her life was like, about why she¡¯d left so abruptly. Honestly? Pretty much everyone had figured she was like James: so wrapped up in a trauma she couldn¡¯t escape that she¡¯d devolved into being a recluse, left to struggle against her memories of the war day in and day out.

    Emilia definitely wasn¡¯t doing that.

    These three clearly loved her, refusing to push for answers about her past when they were clearly so curious. They trusted her, despite knowing she was holding things back from them, and even when she¡¯d been sharing the story of the night before¡ªwhich Samina had been forced to finish, once Emilia had left with the Free Coloniers¡ªthey¡¯d mostly been amused, worried for her, teasing.

    No one questioned her, asked if she could be wrong, if what they were doing was sensible, not with any serious intent, anyways. They trusted Emilia in a way that Samina was sure no one trusted James, even those who had known him since the start of the war, when he¡¯d been all sass and annoyance, especially with his twin¡¯s perpetual inability to express his love for Nettie.

    Samina trusted Emilia, something she wasn¡¯t completely sure she would before she¡¯d rolled through the door and seen her friend¡¯s hand, waving from the floor like they were teenagers again, separated from seeing each by hours, not years. Around the corner, there had been her friend, tucked in between two Free Coloniers, smiling and signing and wearing clothing that definitely wasn¡¯t hers.

    Samina trusted Emilia, and despite the conversations members of their unit and The Black Knot occasionally had, wondering over what they would do if they ran into one of their less talkative or outright missing members, especially in the middle of a job or emergency, she was sure that the moment any of them ran into Emilia, they¡¯d feel the same. It wouldn¡¯t matter how many of them had grumbled about feeling betrayed by her disappearance. It wouldn¡¯t matter that, clearly, her knots weren¡¯t quite right. None of that would matter: Emilia was Emilia, and Emilia had always been trustworthy. Perhaps not always sensible, more than a few of her plans over their decades of knowing each other not fully formed and leading them into disasters, but trustworthy¡ªthere was a difference between knowing someone would never endanger you, even through stupid decisions and plans, and knowing someone would never purposefully hurt you, but that didn¡¯t mean one was more trustworthy than the other¡­ the latter just needed more supervision, was all.

    Still¡­ that didn¡¯t stop Samina from messaging Olivier, asking about how the echo fight from the night before had gone¡ªwhat his interpretation of the Emilia he had met had been¡ªas Sil kicked them out of his house so he could pack. Technically, she didn¡¯t have to leave¡ªher go bag was always ready to go, she just had to get it¡ªbut she had a feeling the man was¡­ overwhelmed. Emilia had sent her a quick message, after she left, confirming her suspicion that Sil might have figured out Emilia was also a member of D30, and yeah, Samina could understand how that could be overwhelming, but something told her it was more than that, especially given the way his eyes were flickering as messages came through.

    What sort of person, who clearly cared about his friends¡ªeverything in the man¡¯s records indicated he had a penchant for defending his friends in whatever way he deemed necessary¡ªsat in a room, hearing long kept secrets about one of those friends, yet asked no questions, and instead spent the whole time messaging someone else?

    Someone who was getting information from someone else, most likely. Overwhelming information. Information that was probably coming from whoever had told him how much money Emilia owed Olivier¡ªsomeone who likely knew far more about her than Emilia wanted her friend to know.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Great. That meant that regardless of her own efforts, there was a good chance the guy knew more about Emilia¡ªmore about Samina herself, potentially¡ªthan they¡¯d intended.

    Annoying. Samina didn¡¯t like it when things didn¡¯t go according to plan¡ªshe rarely made plans, okay? Sure, she loved spontaneity and improvising, but when she actually bothered making a plan and putting effort into it, she expected it to be followed!

    ¡°Yours or mine first?¡± Pria asked as they exited Sil¡¯s building. Beth opened her mouth to say something, only for Emilia¡¯s roommate to cut her off, saying that the girl might still be there. ¡°Better to give her a bit longer to vacate.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were supposed to tell her to get her knots checked,¡± Beth noted, although according to Samina¡¯s map of important places on campus¡ªat least for her current job¡ªshe did begin leading them towards her room.

    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ uh¡­¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you check the cameras? See if she¡¯s still there?¡± Samina asked. All of the dorm rooms had security cameras, which should be accessible by their occupants.

    ¡°Uh¡­ it doesn¡¯t work.¡±

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    Pria shrugged, looking guilty.

    ¡°They work fine,¡± Beth told her, ignoring her friend¡¯s indignant squawk. ¡°Pria is just terrible with her Censor. If she tried to activate the cameras, she¡¯d probably start the ice machine instead.¡±

    ¡°Hey now! I can use all that stuff just fine¡­ as long as I¡¯m inside the room.¡± Her eyes flicked towards Samina, awkward and so totally hiding the truth.

    Said truth congealed before Samina¡¯s eyes as they slowly made their way through campus. More people were out and about now, but nearly everyone looked like they¡¯d partied a bit too hard the night before.

    Lightweights. They used to bathe in the pink tide, drinking in the pure essence of it, not whatever weird shit someone had figured out how to bottle up. It was too bad the pink tide had been on this side of the Penns¡ªa bunch of them had been planning to head to The Strats during the next one. Oh well, it would have to wait until the next roll in now. Maybe, by then, Emilia would be more comfortable around everyone and come. Her friends, too¡ªalthough¡­ Samina eyed up Pria and decided the girl would definitely be happier on the beach. Party at the beach house¡ªor maybe the treehouse?¡ªand climbing The Strats while high as the sky.

    Busy making plans as she was¡ªnot to mention actually reading the additional information her Censor supplied her with about how Pria Braybun likely, because her family patently refused to allow their genetics to be released into government records due to ex-100, genetic experimentation trauma, had a hereditary irregular deviation that was similar to the ECC Dyad deviation, one which potentially interfered with long-distance Censor usage without adaptations¡ªSamina didn¡¯t particularly retain the short trip to Beth¡¯s room, the other girls arguing about Pria¡¯s obligation to let her hook up know about the potentially spiked drugs. It wasn¡¯t until they were exiting the elevator, Beth pulling up short and grumbling, that Samina pulled herself back into the present.

    ¡°What are they doing here?¡± Pria hissed, and although it was plenty quiet, a few people in the group standing a little ways down the hall turned in their direction. ¡°Fuck.¡±

    Samina didn¡¯t have to ask who they were. The Black Knot¡¯s Censor System gave her basic details about everyone she came across, although she¡¯d already known who a few of these assholes were: Emilia¡¯s ex and a bunch of his scummy roommates. Not all of the roommates¡ªanother few records slid through her mind, indicating that after another Black Knot agent had grabbed the dipshit who attempted to assault Beth, a few of them had gotten into an argument about whether he had gone too far or not.

    The fact that this Elijah dude had mostly just stayed quiet, neither saying his roommate had overstepped nor defending him¡­

    ¡°Emmie definitely needs a panel to decide who she should date next. This is just embarrassing.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Beth and Pria said in unison as the rest of the group turned their way.

    Clearly, they¡¯d been waiting for them, the question was why. Her Censor raced, pulling up reasons¡ªrevenge, questions, apologies¡ªbefore landing on the two members of the group who weren¡¯t students: Victor LinKai¡¯s parents. They were the reason the group was here, probably come to ask¡ªor threaten¡ªBeth into contacting The Black Knot, so she could ask that their son be released.

    Yeah, right. Most people didn¡¯t realize that while SecOps would sometimes release criminals, if the victim asked and the crime was minor enough, The Black Knot did not. When they took people, their crimes were serious enough that unless the organization deemed them to no longer be a threat¡ªor occasionally flipped them, in the case of organized crime¡ªthey wouldn¡¯t be getting out, not without some serious limits on their Censors, anyways.

    Attacking someone with the full intention of maiming them had immediately triggered the OIC to contact them, someone sparking in to grab the man. That said, Beth was lucky the syn had shown up. If they hadn¡¯t¡­ well, the girl might have been in emergency surgery at the moment. The Black Knot was only so fast. The fact that that guy had also assaulted Emilia¡¯s friend? Yeah, dude was looking down the wrath of half the organization.

    ¡°You¡­¡± Victor¡¯s mother growled, and apparently they weren¡¯t even going to try to ask nicely, the bitch was going straight to threats. ¡°You¡¯re the little fucker who got my baby boy arrested!¡± Straight to threats and trying to deflect blame onto the victim. Awesome.

    Pria¡¯s hands clenched as Samina pulled her chair in front of the two¡ªin front of Emilia¡¯s friends, and maybe her one-day friends. ¡°Your son was arrested because he activated a potentially deadly skill in a public space and aimed it at someone.¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

    ¡°A friend of Emilia¡¯s,¡± she replied, cheeks pulling tight as a not-so-nice smile spread over her face. ¡°Go away.¡±

    ¡°Another friend of that little silverstrain slut,¡± Victor¡¯s father spit out, coming to stand beside his wife. He was every bit the veteran his file had told her he would be. Too bad he was a piece of shit¡ªhis service record was actually pretty impressive. The man¡¯s eyes skimmed over her, disgusted¡ªmost veterans assumed people without prosthetics had refused them in order to avoid military service, selectively forgetting that there had never been a draft.

    ¡°Listen here, you freak,¡± the woman began to say, turning her sneer back on Beth, and at the very least, a few of Victor¡¯s roommates did look uncomfortable now. Considering they said nothing, didn¡¯t even try to get between their asshole roommate¡¯s parents and a group of three woman¡ªincluding one they didn¡¯t know and was visibly disabled, even if her lack of legs had never been much of a problem for Samina¡ªsaid even more about them, however.

    Victor¡¯s mother opened her mouth to say more, but Samina cut her off¡ªnot with her own voice, but with a skill, the sort of skill that wasn¡¯t in the public domain. Her eyes bulged, hands flying to her throat like an over dramatic queen. It wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d die from being shut up for a bit.

    ¡°You will not speak to Beth like that,¡± she said, voice ice and death and authority. ¡°Your son has been taken by The Black Knot. You will not be seeing him for a while¡­ for a long while, given what the clones have been finding inside his mind.¡±

    A dozen eyes snapped to her, widening and¡ª

    ¡°Nope, you don¡¯t get to spark off~¡± Samina laughed, locking down the hallway. ¡°Don¡¯t you know, you can¡¯t spark away from a member of The Black Knot unless they let you? You¡¯ve annoyed me, so you definitely aren''t allowed to run away~¡±

    ¡°You¡­¡± the terrible man¡¯s father began. Did he know how terrible his son was? Something told Samina he might very well, and for a moment, she contemplated activating her willbrand and standing¡ªforcing her way into his mind to find out exactly how much he knew.

    But no, there was no point in that. Plus, they¡¯d be meeting with the clones soon enough¡ªpeople did not meet her like this and expect to escape with the ability to speak of what they¡¯d seen. Indeed, a second later, a collection of the clones had sparked in, their nearly identical faces, only distinguished by age and scars, glaring coldly at the collected group. One of the roommates wet himself. Victor¡¯s mother outright fainted.

    ¡°Consequences,¡± Samina said as she leaned back and smiled up at the group. ¡°If you had been nicer, maybe I wouldn¡¯t have had to reveal myself, and you wouldn¡¯t have gotten to meet the clones. Too bad you didn¡¯t ask nicely¡ªnot that it would have done you any good. As I said, that boy isn¡¯t getting out for a while. Don¡¯t worry too much, though. The clones are just going to lock your brains up a bit. It won¡¯t even hurt.¡±

    ¡°Itches a bit,¡± one of the clones laughed, the rest joining in in a chorus of cruelty¡ªnot that they¡¯d do anything extra to the group¡­ expect maybe Emilia¡¯s ex, who looked¡­ shocked. Not at the clones, at her, because as far as he knew, Samina was the only Black Knot member Emilia knew. If only he knew the truth.

    Oh, to be inside his head, facing down the reality that he hadn¡¯t known his girlfriend well enough to know she was friends with a member of The Black Knot. Ah~ how she hoped she could be there when he found it all out¡ªwhen he found out what sort of person he had let slip through his fingers, had pissed off so badly that no member of their unit or The Black Knot would ever look on him with anything other than disgust.

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± she cheered as the clones grabbed their target and sparked away. They wouldn¡¯t be gone long, just enough for the clones to lock up their memories of this moment and make sure none of them harboured the same darkness inside them as their lost roommate.