“There’s only sand.” Hana squinted. “No sign of the other scout team.” Two teams entered the Tower simultaneously. It was a simple test to see if the teams ended up in the same location. “I’ve opened their stream. Right now it’s unclear if we’ve entered a parallel space or if we’re just in different parts of the desert.”

  Two members of the team pulled out communication devices but soon shook their heads. It was clear that communication between the teams wouldn’t work, but each team could still communicate with the outside world through the stream. In an odd game of telephone, a makeshift communication line could be established… If only Tomtom’s team hadn’t immediately been ambushed by an absurd number of snakes—they were a bit too preoccupied to communicate properly.

  Hana looked at the desert and her nose scrunched like it was trying to climb to her forehead. Her team team members secured their location and prepared for a fight. The rolling dunes stretched without end, interspersed with blocks of stone. The rgest stone bore the same inscription as the one on Tomtom’s video. Hana raised her hand and closed her fist.

  “Hold positions!” The viewers familiar with Hana thought it odd that she commanded an international scouting team at first, but soon other inconsistencies started to be highlighted in online spaces. During individual streams those odd moments were often brushed aside, but now thrust into a bigger spotlight than ever before they were dragged to the light. These crumbs of truth were pieced together and a narrative formed. The public realized that there was more to their ‘funny streamer’.

  Hana’s team waited. They kept their eyes on the sands. After fifteen minutes passed they realized the snakes weren’t coming. Hana nodded.

  “The inscription. There are rules to this space. ’Travel by night. Still by day.’ If we stay still while the sun is up then we won't be attacked by the snakes.”

  “So we just wait for night to fall?” asked one of the team members.

  “For now that’s our best option.” Hana pulled up the stream showing Heavy Tomtom’s team. She shared the screen. “We don’t even know if we’re in the same pce as them. From this point we should move forward assuming we’re not getting any reinforcements.”

  Heavy moved forward like a rolling mountain. Each step he took cleaved a path for others to follow. Blood stained the white cape billowing from his shoulders; it danced in the wind of his motion. Sanguine eyes followed his every move. The snake creatures were endless and varied—mutated specimens appeared as the bodies stacked.

  A massive Fletching Snake split the sand. It unhinged its jaw and circled behind the group, aiming to swallow the backline in one go.

  “No you don’t!” Heavy cried out. He stomped down and a twister of dust danced on impact. He pivoted and dashed. The team worked in unison, like a well-oiled machine. The tanks moved as one, retreating together to reform a new half-moon line.

  Heavy arrived in front of the beast and bashed the side of its skull with his shield, knocking it off course; it careened past the group before half-submerging into the desert sands again. The force of the impact took the wind from Heavy’s lungs and put him down to one knee. A brief shockwave lifted granules in an outward circle, forming concentric patterns on the ground.

  “Get ready, it’s coming for another run!” said Heavy as he stood again. He could see the snake’s shark-like prowling—its red eyes felt like sers. Heavy licked his teeth and tasted iron. This Giant Fletching was strong. “Definitely beyond B-rank.”

  The team regrouped into a standard formation. A circle of armored men held shields to protect the vulnerable members. Their elbows touched.

  “Here it comes!” Someone roared. Three men moved together and attacked the giant creature. One struck a hammer across its brow, the second stabbed between linking scales to draw blood, but it wasn’t enough. Fangs like sabers closed upon the slowest of the three; his blood curdling scream spiked the camera’s microphone, causing the audio to cut out.

  The scouting teams faced their first death. Those watching the stream could tell, intrinsically so, that it wouldn’t be the st.

  [The dragon and the shield are both inside the tower.]

  [This is your only chance.]

  [Follow the spokes. Rise against your fate. Kill the hero.]

  Caroline watched the empty sky while ying on her back. She ignored the frantic messages from her Consteltion. Her mind bubbled like sea foam. One seal remained. She picked at it with half her mind. The other half wandered. She followed the spokes to other lives. In one she was a dancer. In another she was a prince fighting for the throne. So many parallel versions of her overpped together that she started to lose track of which was her original self.

  “Will it work?” she asked no one and everyone. How much time had passed since she was locked away in this Gate? If she hadn’t stored a core in her eye, if Scale hadn’t left her head unbound, she would still be locked in pce, unmoving.

  “Heh,” she ughed. Her eyes closed and her mana spun. She envisioned the wheel and tried to see the spokes again, but she couldn’t see them anymore. They were gone. It was a bad omen. The final seal cracked. It sloughed off of her like necrotic flesh. Her hands cpped together. A tendril of bck mana tore through space.

  Caroline escaped her prison.

  Sarah tightened a brace around her right arm. Many artifacts and magical items dangled from her body—she looked like a human yard sale. She wore a serious expression on her mousey face.

  “Did you pack the rations?” asked Alyssa.

  “Yes,” said Sarah. She opened a portal and pulled the corner of a box from it. “Subspace storage instead of tunnel connections. We won't be cut off even if there are rooms that lock down space.”

  “No repeats of your pathetic performance, then?”

  “Ex-cuse me?”

  “Well, you can always just be my mana battery again.”

  “Oh?” Sarah raised her brow. Her tense expression melted into a smile.

  “If you two are done flirting, perhaps we should leave,” said Anatoly, cutting the mood.

  “Tch.” Alyssa sneered at him. “Why is st pce talking?”

  “Calm down, Alyssa. He’s right. We should head out. The team is waiting.” Sarah opened up a portal connecting the apartment to the Awakener’s Association top floor. The three stepped through it and reappeared halfway across the city. Ten S-rank awakeners were in the room waiting for them.

  “I do believe that everyone is here, now,” said the Chairman.

  “Tomtom’s team is being torn apart,” said a woman with a rge sword on her back.

  “One scouting team isn’t moving, the other is close to being eliminated. This is an embarrassment. Why are we streaming this live?”

  “We couldn’t get it to work with a dey. Streaming from Gates is very new tech. State of the art. The fact that we could get it to work in the tower at all is a miracle.”

  “Couldn’t we just set the broadcast to private? The citizens are going to panic at this rate.”

  “Another problem. The magic circuits were built with public streaming as the architecture. I can’t possibly hope to expin the mechanics behind it. Our techies have already worked one miracle. We can’t expect a second.” The chairman smiled but it didn’t touch his eyes. Bck circles stretched down his face.

  “So we’re fucked and the whole world gets to watch them die. Fun.”

  “It’ll be more fun when it’s us on the stream.”

  The prideful S-ranks exchanged barbed words, but it was clear that such verbal jousts weren’t in bad faith. Nerves were high.

  “Chairman,” Alyssa took the lead. All eyes turned to her. “When are we deploying?”

  “Hoh,” the Chairman sighed. He looked up at the people around the table. Being in a position of authority was a heavy responsibility at moments like this. He gnced at the nearby screen showing his best friend, Heavy Tomtom, in a slowly losing battle.

  “We deploy…” The Chairman’s hands were shaking. He closed his eyes briefly but then opened them again, conviction and despair shining in them with equal measure. “We deploy once both scout teams have died, to ensure we have as much information as possible.”

  The room went quiet. A pin drop could be heard. Everyone liked Heavy. He was a good man. He was a hero. And now he was a sacrifice.

  “I think waiting to see what happens with Hana’s group is the right move. If she succeeds in passing this section of the Tower we might keep deying our deployment until such a time as she fails.”

  The chairman made a hard choice. Rescue didn’t seem possible. They weren’t even sure if they could even meet the two scouting teams.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” said the sword-woman. She looked around the room with an odd expression. “But where is the Returnee?”

  [My name is Fire Wing! I am thirteen years old and specialize in high-powered fire magic. I like candy, hate vegetables, and…] The red dragon paused and looked at Scale. Despite his body being red in color his face noticeably blushed. [I like pretty dragon girls.] He wiped a trail of snot from his nose.

  Scale felt a pit in her stomach. She looked toward her mother with pleading eyes, but the stare she got in return forced her to stomach her grievances. Why had her mother brought a hatchling? It was embarrassing.

  [Fire Wing is exceptionally talented.] Olimaw’s magic spoke only to Scale. [He is young but among those present, excepting me and you, he has the best bloodline.]

  “Ah.” Scale sighed. Her wings shivered. She had her doubts before, but she was certain about it now. She felt nothing for any of the dragons present. Not even an inkling of attraction. She felt relief over that fact but a small part of her also felt wronged. She didn’t know herself well enough. She wasn’t sure if she didn’t like other dragons in general or if she just didn’t like these dragons.

  [I’m next!] A blue dragon with purple patterns running in floating lines across her body jumped up and down in her seat.. [My name is Electric Violet! I’m 97 years old and I like…]

  Scale was starting to regret her choice. She had to endure all of this to avoid fighting with her mother… She was starting to wonder if it was really worth it.

  Harper felt her blood go cold. She watched the screen with tears in her eyes. She looked down at the mana chains binding her and struggled against them again. She roared and struggled, trying to break free.

  Her father had bound her using an expensive artifact before he left to join the scouting team. Now all Harper could do was watch her father, her greatest hero, fight against impossible odds. She screamed and pulled and struggled. Her wrists rubbed raw. Her head smashed the floorboards until blood rimmed her face. She could hear her mother’s sobs two rooms away.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Her heart burned like fire. The mana chains that bound her were rated for an A-rank awakener. They were something someone like Harper shouldn’t have been able to hurt… But this time, when she pulled with all her might, small cracks started to form.