Red water danced. Bullets smmed into a liquid shield. A haze of gunpowder filled the dark apartment. Sarah grabbed Alyssa’s hand and pulled her backwards. A man in bck, his body twisted into a half-man half-lizard form, nded where she had just been standing. The floor rippled like a wave. The hardwood splintered apart and a hole opened up to the apartment below.

  “I can’t believe you!” Sarah screamed, pointing her finger in condemnation.

  “It wasn’t my fault!” Alyssa yelled back.

  “How is it not your fault?” Sarah ducked underneath a sword. Her hair, beholden to the ws of inertia, followed too slowly and about three inches were cut. Her right leg snapped up in a fast kick, her knee acting as a fulcrum, and she knocked her assaint to the floor where he bounced away coughing blood.

  “It was an accident!” Alyssa snapped her fingers and a vortex of water formed; a thin stream of scattered droplets swished in a radial flower formation with Alyssa at the center.

  “You cut the building.” Sarah’s small stature allowed her to crawl between the legs of an attacker. Her enemy tried to punch her but couldn’t afford the risk. Instead, he opted to block the water droplets barreling towards his neck.

  “Don’t act like it was intentional!”

  “Wasn’t it?”

  “No!”

  “Don’t lie. You totally just wanted to show off!”

  The two women were arguing because, a few moments earlier, they realized that the water tank that provided for the sprinkler system was no longer there. It had fallen alongside a rge chunk of the top floors after Alyssa’s earlier slicing spell. They had lost their backup pn.

  Sarah flipped forward onto her hands, barely dodging a stomp aimed at her legs. She wanted to return fire but had to unch herself to the side instead to avoid a ball of blue light. She cartwheeled to her feet and stood back-to-back with Alyssa.

  “If only you could be useful,” said Alyssa as she formed a wall of water to block an incoming fireball.

  “Don’t you lecture me!” Sarah turned around and yelled.

  “Tch, do you think I won't just because you ask?” Alyssa turned around and sneered.

  They stared into each other’s eyes. Then, without warning, they kissed. A sphere of water climbed around them. Their mana circuits linked. Magic flowed like a mighty river between them. Portal, who couldn’t do much with it, transferred her remaining magical energy to her wife.

  “Useful enough?” Said Sarah with a smirk as she pulled her head away. Her doe eyes trembled.

  “Yeah.” Alyssa nodded with a goofy smile. She cupped Sarah’s cheek with her right hand. The water sphere around them turned a darker shade of blue, almost to the point of being purple, and it started to expand. Five men in bck put their hands on the expanding bubble but couldn’t stop it—they were knocked away like bowling pins, scattering across the floor.

  “Are you using a big one?”

  “Shut up and watch.” Alyssa raised her hands overhead. The sphere of water around her started to spin faster. A second yer of water formed, spinning in the opposite direction. A pair of gentle blue wings wrapped around Sarah.

  “Watch, she says while covering my head so I can’t see shi—.” Sarah’s words were cut off because Alyssa kissed her again.

  “You’re so much cuter when you can’t yap.”

  “Wh-wha-whaa~” Sarah’s face turned tomato red. “Just shut up and kill these bastards!”

  The two spinning spheres of water overpped. The opposite currents struck with such force that the air around them ionized. Electric arcs crackled, lighting the room up in brief fshes of light.

  “The spear of the storm.” Alyssa cast her spell with a short mnemonic. Thunder roared.

  Anatoly felt a throbbing pain in the back of his skull. He coughed and opened his eyes.

  “I lost,” he said with a serious expression on his face. He turned his head to meet Scale’s eyes. “So why am I still alive?”

  “Because you haven’t yet crossed the wall.” Scale’s answer was cryptic. Anatoly couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “The world needs you.” Scale stood up. “That’s why I healed you.” She turned her head towards the city. She stood stock still. A silence filled the air.

  “Are you a fool?” He sat up and crossed his legs.

  “I mean, you’re the one who knocked himself out trying to fight me.”

  “Cyka blyat.”

  “Anyways, you should run off now. I want to watch the show…” Scale’s head snapped towards Anatoly. “Actually, you have a mission. Go get popcorn.”

  “Wh—”

  “Loser says what.”

  “What?”

  “Ahahahahaha!” Scale ughed and pointed at the very confused Russian man. She stood up and stretched. “Nevermind. It looks like the fight is ending.”

  “Are you able to see the battle from here?”

  “Ah.” Scale looked at Anatoly with a mischievous grin. “The fight ended and I didn’t even have popcorn to enjoy it with. Lazy errand boys should be punished.”

  “I’m not your errand bo—” He never finished his sentence. Anatoly’s head was smashed into the ground at mach 9. The rest of him remained outside of the dirt. Only his neck and head were buried. A powerful white light kept him alive. This was his first death. How many more were waiting for him depended entirely on his attitude going forward.

  Caroline stumbled. Blood poured from every part of her body. A bck light glowed beneath her skin. Her eyes pierced through the broken subspace. She climbed back to her feet and coughed up a wad of bloody phlegm.

  “I can’t stop now.” She looked back at the broken seals that littered her trodden path and shivered. She raised her right hand and caressed a floating screen made of magic. On it, the [System] dispyed a ticking timer. Then she looked down at her own body, specifically at the three remaining mana seals that kept her bound to this pure white Gate. Her fist trembled. She howled at the empty sky.

  Her ability allowed her to see the spokes of the wheel. That was why she could see the timer. She trusted this in her heart. There were four truths she knew: time was a circle, history always repeats, the protagonists climb the tower, and the vilins try to stop them.

  Caroline knew her role. She ughed and dragged her tired body forward across the white desert.

  Scale walked into her house. She dragged something vaguely human-shaped behind her.

  “Kill me,” said the vague human-shaped thing.

  “I’ve always wanted a pet. Are you already housebroken?” Scale ughed and flipped on the lights only to freeze upon seeing two bloody phantoms in her living room. “Ah.”

  “Don’t let us interrupt you,” said Alyssa.

  “Yeah. I didn’t know you were into this kind of stuff!” Sarah chimed in with sparkling eyes.

  “How did you two get here first—Wait. That’s a stupid question. What are you two doing here? Shit, that’s also a stupid question.” Scale sighed. Once the Gate closed the building would return to reality and Sarah’s ability would work again. It made sense they could be here so fast. The only questionable thing was how Sarah managed to do it when she was so dangerously low on mana. As for why the pair were here—

  “My pce is pretty fucked up. You know that better than anyone. We need a pce to stay for a few days. We’re sleeping here.” Alyssa wasn’t asking.

  “Scale, my pretty sister-in-w~” Sarah stepped forward. She was smiling but she wasn’t smiling at the same time. The devil was hidden in that grin. “Tell me, why have you dragged the world’s strongest man to your house?”

  “Ah,” Scale shook her head. “I intend to turn him into a proper s—ckey. He’s going to be the world’s best errand boy.”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little dangerous to keep him alive?” Sarah pressed.

  “Nah.” Scale waved her hand dismissively. “Trust me, I’m really good at raising pets.”

  “You killed every single goldfish you ever had growing up,” said Alyssa, choosing the best time to enter the conversation.

  “Nonsense!” Scale crossed her arms. “I only ever had one goldfish and I never killed him.”

  “Remember that one time how Mr Wheat swam upside down after you shook his bowl too hard, but when you came home from school he was back to normal? My mom repced him.”

  “Martha did that?”

  “She didn’t want to see you sad.”

  “Fuck. She really was too good for dad—OH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT DAD!”

  Meanwhile, in the middle of a colpsing apartment building in the middle of Response City, a group of first responders surrounded a translucent barrier and scratched their heads. Inside the barrier a silent man had gone stark raving mad. He moved his mouth as if to yell but nothing could be heard. He looked very, very angry.