Every Second a Nightmare

Every Second a Nightmare

"INFERNO, WE DID IT!"

The expansive hallway seemed to stretch on forever, causing Haru's preemptive cheer to echo so loudly in my peripherals that I could've sworn my ears began to bleed. The group's resident megaphone was currently pulling her halberd out of a rather putrid insectoid with an audible crunch. Hawk's visible wincing only serving to justify my ire—her voice reverberated through the hall so audibly, rubble had begun to break away from the ceiling. I groaned, taking a step toward her. I disliked having to halt her excitement, but her racket was bound to become an actual safety hazard.

"Har—…"

"Inferno, look out!"

Hawk took a shot straight through my blind spot, his arrow making contact with the sickening body of a blueish-green arthropod. It toppled over instantly, its barbed legs kicking at something unseen. They protruded from its side like an arsenal of tentacles, slimy and frantic to boot. Its form fell somewhere in the uncanny valley—"rough jagged tentacles" had to be somewhere on the list of things I never wanted to see. I immediately pulled out my sword, running two fingers along its blade as I began to chant.

"Lord of Death and Cinders, grant my blade a divine sharpness! Magic Weapon!"

My sword began to glow with a radiant light, one luminous enough to completely coax the already well-lit hallway in a sublime brightness, yet somehow not so much so that it was blinding. I held it up at the hilt, plunging its divine sharpness straight into the creature's gut.

It spewed forth an ugly purple liquid—inhuman blood, likely acidic. Its legs twitched for a moment longer before falling still.

"See now why we don't celebrate after every kill?" I sighed, sliding my sword back into its sheath.

"S-Sorry," Haru pouted, striding over to the creature, "it's dead though, right?"

"Should be, although how it got here is beyond me."

Haru seemed a bit distraught; I suppose I was a bit too critical. I pat her head reassuringly, and she burst into one of her usual smiles. It was pretty cute, if I was being honest.

"Analyze Creature." Hawk stood over the body and held out his hands, a small magic circle appearing just beyond his palms.

Magic, as most intangible things, were summoned forth using words. However, Analyze Creature was far from being incorporeal—several data charts materialized in front of Hawk. These, naturally, were not visible to Haru or I. This was what they called an "ability", the possession or means to accomplish a specified task. The actual explanation was rather complex, but skilled use could provide a myriad of applications.

Including a detailed analysis of a creature's own abilities.

"What'd you find?"

"Seems it has the ability to go invisible—actually, to put it better, it can become unperceivable to creatures that primarily rely on sight. It's still tangible, and can be heard with close attentiveness."

I inspected the grotesque legs, which were lined with small spherical barbs.

"These probably help it stay quiet while moving. It'll be difficult to spot that way."

"Cure Wounds," as if in response to my statement, Hawk's body was bathed in a blue light, and his ears perked up underneath his hood for a moment.

At this show of ability, Haru pouted, her slightly-smaller frame leaning against the extensive shaft of her halberd.

"What's wrong?"

"I feel kind of useless…" She sulked, her cheeks puffing out slightly. It really was cute.

"You're our main source of damage, not useless," Hawk commented offhandedly, slinging his bow over his arm in order to pull out the rolled up map from his back pocket. As he did so, I pet Haru atop her head. She made a small sound of contentment, but it seemed she was still upset.

"The Dark One's entities have been growing more numerous," Hawk mused, taking another disgusted look at the arthropod creature.

"It seems every day his power strengthens…" Haru frowned.

"The King has a plan, though." I stretched out my neck, moving over to Hawk's side in an attempt to get a look at the map. It seemed we were still closer to the entrance of Azazan's Tomb than the end; several branching pathways were left unfinished, most likely due to the lack of human presence within the catacombs. It wasn't exactly a popular adventuring spot for two reasons: the small corridors, and the tricky enemies.

To be frank, it wasn't exactly worth traversing as adventurers—the rewards were seen as mostly moot, as the previous inhabitants of the tomb were a tribe of nomadic spiritualists who maintained a strong emphasis on a lack of personal belongings. In addition, the strength of the monsters was mostly due to their conniving teamwork and abilities such as Lesser Invisibility and Unknown Presence, rather than actual strength. In essence, it was more annoying than challenging.

The reason we were actually here, as you might expect, was not for any personal want. Instead, it was a guild mission. The King was requesting for small groups of adventurers to map the layout of the damp catacombs. There was no reason posted, but the pay was profitable enough to make up for the dire conditions.

"He may have a plan, but I can't see how investigating an old tomb is worth it." Hawk, the logical voice in the party, had racked his head for nearly an hour before calling the task useless. There was no record of any worthwhile artifacts or treasure from the ancient tribe of Azazan, and through Divination, most of the tomb's layout could be guessed with reasonable accuracy.

"Oracle's aren't perfect, there could be something they missed."

"If some such item existed within these walls, I doubt the ancient historians would've written off the Azazan so masterfully. They were nothing but a brief breeze in Halan's Archives."

Halan's Archives were a series of fifty tome-woven books that expanded upon the ancient history of Kagreth. Due to their impossibly long length and depth, they were seen as a premiere source of information for the past, originally catalogued by the ancient historians of the Ark Era.

"Maybe these Azazan people were just secretive," Haru offered.

"Possible, but for what purpose? What could they have been protecting?"

"Knowledge," I said.

"Hm."

Hawk immediately fell silent at my suggestion, almost as if he didn't consider a nomadic tribe of spiritualists could offer any new knowledge. While I was rather proud of myself for coming up with that, Sergius would undoubtedly had a more sound theory cooked up in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately for us, he was currently residing in Gadencia under the protection of the Holy Knight Order. It was no doubt a serious blow to the Adventurer's Guild, who had begun to treat his word as intellectual gospel.

Haru's brown, shoulder-length hair jostled back and forth as we continued down the hall. The front of her hair was swept toward the right, and her light-blue eyes reflected a sort of childlike wonder. Her skin was relatively pale, but compared to Hawk and I, it was darker, due in large part to the time she spent as a child at her father's farm. She was a country girl, and her skill with axes and halberds seemed to be a byproduct of her lumberjack work. While she was undoubtedly muscled, she still appeared rather frail on the outside, her arms lacking the toned definition of most physical laborers. As I looked her over, she gave me a flirtatious smile, causing me to blush and look away.

Hawk, on the other hand, was almost elf-like in appearance. Since his hood mostly covered his ears, it would be fairly easy to mistake him for a fey—his slightly angled face and eternal youth made him a dead ringer for one of the Blue Order. His hair was brown, but in that nearly black way that usually unveiled itself under harsh sunlight. It was also constantly out of order underneath his red hood. I severely doubt he ever did any maintenance to it. His outfit looked expensive, woven with fine red silk from the upper half of Sollabring. You may think that due to his luxurious garb, he was a noble—and you'd be right. However, he often threw common convention out the window, acting more a rugged adventurer than a smooth-talking politician.

My appearance, in comparison, was nothing memorable—simple adventurer chainmail over a leather jerkin and trousers. My hair was black and rather tousled, yet still more kempt than Hawk's. I was once told my face had the structure of someone belonging to noble lineage, but that's what every parent tells their child. In truth, I was rather plain looking for a F-Rank Adventurer.

At the moment, I led the party into the expanse of the catacombs. That was generally our formation: me in front, with Haru to either of my diagonals. Hawk stayed back, both because he was a ranged tactician, and also so he could spot potential threats using his various reconnaissance abilities.

"I hear something straight ahead; a monster, climbing around the sides of the hallway." Hawk slung his bow and knocked an arrow as I unsheathed my sword and began applying enchantments. Haru, to the contrary, merely heaved up her halberd and gripped its hilt. There wasn't much to prepare when it came to polearm-based combat; their incredible strength and range more than made up for any lack of enchantment or power.

Wish I had a spear right about now. At least with a spear, I probably wouldn't need to dry-clean my clothes three times over. The acidic blood was not only everywhere, but it was sticky as well. The worst combination, at least in my book.

I felt a slight shift in breeze, and Hawk let his arrow fly. It landed true, striking the invisible arachnid straight through the head. It fizzled into existence, and I slashed at it, flinging my body in a horizontal arc in order to make way for Haru. Purple blood poured my from incision, and Haru ran forward, her massive halberd picking up momentum as she swung it overhead.

"Seismic Cleave!" Haru's halberd flew down with a rush of air, the pure force of her attack nearly knocking me to the ground. Several waves rippled through the air as she brought certain death down upon the poor spider, slicing it in half with the greatest of ease. Its body was crushed toward the sides, and its legs were utterly pulverized. More purple blood flew up into the air, and Haru immediately jumped back in order to avoid stains. Even still, a few drops landed on her jerkin, causing her to groan in displeasure.

 "That's going to be a pain…"

"That's what you get for overkill," I chuckled, sliding my blade back into its sheath.

Hawk was quiet, as usual, slinging his bow back over his shoulder and inspecting the body of the arachnid creature.

"As I thought, Lesser Invisibility."

"Even without your warning, I probably would have felt it coming—these creatures lack any sort of finesse."

I sighed, taking a step back to lean against the walls of the tomb. The hallway was that small, barely three bodies across. If we were walking side-by-side, it would be a tight squeeze.

"There may be stronger enemies yet to come, though."

"In that case, I'll just smash ‘em!" Haru smiled, heaving her halberd back on her shoulder.

"I'll never understand how you manage to carry that massive thing…" I murmured.

At this rate, we should be reaching the halfway point. I kept my hand at the ready—if any stronger enemies were going to show up, now would be about the time. I took the lead once more, our group travelling at a decent walking pace.

"The light seems to be dimming…" Just as Hawk pointed out, the torches that lined the hall were growing short in number. From our position, it seemed that we would eventually reach a point without light at all.

"This is one of the unexplored paths, right? It would make sense if the torches fizzled out over time, but—…" We all nodded. The torches weren't simply going out—there was an obvious lack of them at all. From the beginning of the catacombs, a torch every few feet or so had grown to be a common occurrence. Now, however, the distance between torches had grown vast. Every couple of seconds we found ourselves veiled in a thin darkness.

"The design, it must be intentional, but why?"

"Perhaps they're storing something that needs to be kept dark."

"Or maybe the people who were buried here just didn't like light?"

That last sentence, of course, was Haru's suggestion. Although knowing the ancient civilizations, such a conclusion wasn't that far of a stretch.

The humidity began to lessen as a rush of wind hit our faces. We had just passed through a large doorway, and by the way the air grew still, the hallway had just opened up. Hawk held out his hands, a small pool of mana forming in his palms.

"Blessings above, grant us immunity passage within the depths of darkness. Light!"

Red lightning flickered briefly against his hand, and a small crimson orb of light emerged from his palm and began to illuminate the room. Hawk's natural mana was red, which showed in many of his Lux-based magicks. While it appeared crimson at times, it was more of a soft velvet when it rippled off his skin. Almost majestic, in a sense.

The red light bounced off the walls, and it became apparent we were in some sort of throne room—several statues lined the walls, each thrusting a blade directly into their pedestals. They were all wreathed in a ceremonial garb, and their eyes were made of quicksilver.

"Heitsumi—…" Hawk breathed.

Indeed, these statues were the perfect representation of the Heitsumi tribe, a now extremely small group of individuals with access to one of the Nine Eyes—the Silver Eyes. The ability to control metaphysical reality.

"Why is a Heitsumi shrine in the middle of a Azazan temple—..?" I began.

"A well-proposed question, Inferno Aelkertszen."

Immediately, we were prepared. My weapon flew into my hands like the dance of a wisp, and Haru's halberd was pressed to the ground. Hawk had knocked an arrow so quickly, his hand blurred through the action.

"Do not be so wary, adventurers. I am the Guardian of this place; the man known as Syonis."

Sitting atop a throne near the end of the grand hall was a man who defied explanation—he wore robes of purple, embroidered with silver emblems of various hieroglyphics. To me, there were unreadable, perhaps being remnants of a forgotten language. He wore a hood, and his face was covered with a ornate mask of a crow—its beak stretched outward, curving downwards in an aggressive arc.

"Syonis—…" Hawk frowned, not dropping his bow for a moment, "As in the Elv legend of the blood-stained tree?"

"The blood-stained tree—…" I repeated.

Syonis laughed, a cackle that seemed more monster than human.

"I suppose that's how the modern age remembers my deeds, although I would propose a different perspective."

"The vile killings of a demon beyond salvation; I must say, if you were taken out of context, then your enemies must have truly despised you." Hawk strengthened the grip against his bow, his eyes unwavering.

"It was divine providence that I commited my foul acts—a harbinger of god, sent to recollect the souls of the damned."

"Innocent souls cannot be damned—the bodies of children adorned that tree for three days and two nights. It was the most infamous crime of the Ark Era. It was said the two sinners of Enyren Themar prayed in their cells at night that Syonis the Crow would not get them."

"And answer their prayers I did—I took their souls only after they passed."

"I don't really understand but...you don't seem like the nicest fellow, Crow-man." Haru's lips spread in a thin line as she heaved her halberd off the ground, holding it in front of her.

"Nice is a subjective term. Don't they teach you that in school, lass?" Syonis held out his hands in mock surrender, making small strides down the expansive stairway to his throne.

"Take not another step, demon."

"Demon? I must admit, nobody has ever compared me to one of those despicable creatures before." Even as he said it, though, Syonis stopped walking, his hands dropping to his sides.

"Don't you want to know why the King sent you, though?"

"How do you know about our mission? And furthermore...how do you know my name?" I shouted, my blade still gripped tightly in my hands.

"Telepathy, my dear adventurer—a higher-level application of it. I can divine thoughts from a distance, a useful tool for one such as myself."

"An Oracle—..?" Hawk questioned.

"Not in the slightest. I am a Prophesizer, sent down from the Heavens to enact judgement on man."

"Then, before you answer why the King sent us here, how are you alive? And why are you resting in an Azazan catacomb?"

"My crimson-flavored friend, I think we already concluded that this is naught but a mere Azazan resting ground. This was originally a temple to worship the Heitsumi heroes; and as for why I am alive...well, lets just say the intense overwhelming malice allowed for my reincarnation, at least in spirit."

"Overwhelming malice—..?"

"This place is a nesting ground for miasma, and a cubicle for the darkest of essentia. All around us, the dichotomy between the physical laws and magical laws are nearly zero to a hundred. We are in a place free from the shackles of common logic and sense."

"If that were the case, you're implying we're standing on a place free from intellectual advancement...we wouldn't even be able to have such a conversation, if such an anomaly was occuring in this place."

"That is where you are wrong, crimson-blood. This domain is shaped by chaos—a place where the dead come back to life."

Hawk fell silent, his face showing the strains of intense concentration. He was trying to feel out the area—and failing to do so, by the looks of it.

"Your musings don't make sense," I said finally.

"Oh?" Syonis turned to me, his posture indicating that he was interested, "Please explain."

"By your logic, we exist in a place where magical laws dominate, yet we are still lodged firmly against the ground. If you were telling the truth, gravity would have been nullified long ago."

"Ah, but you human's definitions of magical laws are so primitive. In fact, your entire perception of worldly laws are outdated to the point of absurdity—answer me this, silver-blade. If that were true, why do your fired spells follow a common trajectory? Why do summoned boulders obey the laws of gravity?"

"That's because—…"

I faltered for an answer.

"That's because the magic is merely a catalyst to summon phenomena—the boulder, for instance, is not magic itself, but a physical object summoned through magic."

Thank you, Hawk.

"Yet, you claim this boulder to still be ‘magic'?"

"Magic, or a magick, is the use of mana to cause unrelated phenomena to manifest. That is a simple definition of magic."

"And would you call time a phenomena, or a law."

"It is both—a construct, and a worldly law."

"Yet you can manipulate a person's perception of both. Why is that?"

"Well—…"

Hawk frowned, his brow furrowing.

"There is much...we do not know about magic," he admitted.

"Indeed—as a being who has traversed the boundary of magic, many truths were made apparent to me."

"Traversing the boundary of magic, huh—..?"

None of us were particularly adept at magic. The least proficient of us, in fact, seemed to be getting very impatient.

"So...is this entire conversation just a way for you to flex on us?" Haru asked rudely.

"Ha ha, I suppose it seems like that. Very well."

Syonis whipped his hands downwards, several magic strands materializing from his fingertips. The amount of mana required to create visible tendrils was immense; essentially, one had to concentrate all of their mana into a single point. Mana, as a form of matter, was incredibly thin.

There would honestly be something beautiful about the temple we were in, if it wasn't so haunted.

It's the statues we saw earlier: their silver-eyes were almost suffocating. Ever since Syonis began activating his magic, they appeared to oppress the surrounding area, their lifeless bodies protruding a sickening emotion.

"Magnunuctha thats. T'ulftas naguth. Bathuna a tghurs ftiaftftas. Rannung."

[Maximize cast. Triplet magic. Become a swift bullet. Remming.]

With that, the battlefield erupted into chaos. Haru promptly ducked to the left, her body lurching forward as she threw her halberd down. A small aura of lightning pooled forth from the tip of the hilt, illuminating the room with a blue light.

"Conducting Spire!" Haru shouted, landing on the side of the halberd directly opposing Syonis. A bolt of lightning shot out from the tip, shattering through one of the forming bullets. Hawk had already begun running before Syonis finished his chant, and was now scaling the wall toward some rafters near the ceiling.

"Lesser Balance," he spoke, his ascension leveling out until he was running at full speed.

At that, the two pools of dark magic (also known as Tenebris) exploded outwards, launching two spiraling black bolts aimed precisely at my direction. What Syonis had applied to his magick was traditionally called a "Remming". The true danger of a Remming-enhanced magick lied in their penetrating power, but also their explosive capability, as they detonated on impact with any object. As Syonis didn't implicate any element, they would naturally burst forth with the raw power of darkness. Normally speaking, they would be impossible to block—the corrupting power of Tenebris-laced magick was said to cripple shields due to their corrupting property.

However, I was perfectly capable of disabling them.

"By Lathraxis's will, nullify and adapt! Elemental Weapon!"

My sword glew with a faint golden aura, the color of my mana. This was the defining feature of Ferrum magick: blade enchantment. I ran straight towards the spiraling bolts of Tenebris, swinging my sword in straight left-to-right, right-to-left arcs. As they were travelling rather slowly (a fairly poignant disadvantage of Tenebris magic), I saw no need to activate my Divination.

My blade hit true, dispelling both bolts as they made contact with my sword. Looking up, Syonis's form melded into the ground slightly before disappearing entirely, and I cursed. While I was dealing with the immediate threat, he must've used some sort of clone magick to confuse us.

"Behind you, Inferno!" Hawk's voice shot into my head via telepathy.

"My magic become a shield! Shield of Faith!"

Syonis was right behind me. The moment my golden shield materialized, he snapped, sending an array of shotgun-like blasts into my blind side. Naturally, it was constructed with Tenebris, and at such a close range, their corrupting ability might have ended the fight right there. However, Tenebris was extremely weak to defense magick, as their penetrating power was almost nonexistent—without Hawk's warning, it was quite possible I would've died.

I'll have to thank him later.

I attempted to slam my sword into Syonis's body, but he dematerialized again, appearing a little ways behind me.

"Seismic Cleave!" Haru launched into action, jumping into the air and bringing her halberd down with several pulses of air pushing her downward. The ground cracked underneath her, and a launch dust cloud emerged from the floor. It wouldn't be possible for Syonis to dematerialize in quick succession—he must've taken that attack head on.

Still, he emerged from the dust with only a few scratches visible on his body. More likely than not, he used some application of Tenebris to make his body less solid. It couldn't negate the pure raw power of Haru's attack, but it could at least prevent lethal damage.

"Tha Wu'ftg't a tsaga, ang I an ust Piallasaa'."

[The World's a stage, and I am its Puppeteer.]

Finally, Syonis activated his unique magick—Dark Puppeteer. The full extent of his mana strands came into view, their true length obscured by making the later ends of mana too thin to view with the naked eye. They were everywhere, spiraling into the air like a series of illuminated light-blue jump ropes. Without warning, they latched downwards, catching themselves against Haru and I. They wrapped around my feet and arms, preventing any form of movement. As for Haru, it seemed both of her legs were caught against the threads, and they were slowly pulling her back. She still had use of her hands, however, and was desperately swiping away at the strands. Dark Puppeteer was a finesse-attribute magick, though, and easily escaped even the length of her halberd.

An arrow passed straight through my back, immersing itself into the ground directly in front of me. I felt the strands immobilizing me slice in twain, and I immediately shot a thumbs up toward Hawk as I readjusted my blade. Spirit Arrows, a sort of special ammunition crafted using witchwood. It allowed the arrow to travel through most solid objects (apart from the ground or incredibly thick walls, which were too large to traverse with the limited amount of mana supplied by the user). They only affected magic-based physical phenomena, like elementals, or in this case, magic threads. Since their uses were incredibly niche, archers didn't normally carry many of them. Likely, this was one of a handful that Hawk brought along.

As an adventuring party, I was well aware of my party member's strengths, limitations, and arsenals. As such, I nodded my assent to Haru as I yelled at her to use her special ability.

"Haru, go!"

"On it! Bull Rush!" A thick green aura coated Haru's body, and she shot forward, far out-strengthening even the incredibly thick and "sticky" strands of mana. With the overwhelming brawn of a bull, she charged directly into Syonis' body, knocking him to the side. Even with the immense speed provided by her Ring of the Ram, Syonis could probably still evade the attack, which is why it was convenient that he was currently rooted to the ground.

Another specialty of Hawk, Snaring Root. Applied by hand-tailored arrows made of liferoot and activated with a mana-controlled detonation switch in the user's mind, they were unbelievably expensive, and as such Hawk only carried three on his person at any given time.

Unfortunately, Haru's angle was just off given her capture to the strands of magic, so she was unable to slam him against the walls of the temple. It was enough for me to complete our little combo, however, as I dashed straight into Syonis's path.

"Strength of my blade, pierce like the cry of a rapier's dance! Maximize Elemental Weapon!"

Consuming all my readily-available mana reserves, but not all the mana in my body, my sword became several flashes of light as I jabbed it repeatedly into Syonis's exposed back. My hand became a blur as the reflections of my blade became a wild dance, before I finally unleashed a torrent of wind that knocked Syonis back in the direction of Haru.

"Finish this! Hawk, Haru!"

Hawk activated the mine arrow he had lodged into the ground during my attack, launching Syonis's heavily-injured body into the air. Haru leaped forward with the strength of a goat's hind legs, spinning her halberd in a furious descent.

"Prepared Strike! Seismic Cleave!"

Her halberd crushed the ground and surrounding temple, causing several of the statues to break off their pedestals and begin sliding down. Prepared Strike increased the hitting power of her next ability to an unsettling degree—it was likely that Syonis's body had become nothing more than ash on the floor.

The dust dispersed from the ground, and then—…

"The World is my stage. But sometimes, it is fun to give the strings to another. Tell me Inferno, can you be the puppeteer?" Syonis voice rose to a crescendo, and the dust obscuring his form vanished. Haru was held in front of him, wrapped in his great magic threads. They were even thicker than before, nearly the width of a human finger. Her mouth was forced shut by his hand, and her skin was bleeding color—Life Drain, an ability which slowly sucked out the life of another.

A gun slid across the cobbled ground, landing directly under my feet. It was of Zyraitixian design—a plasma pistol, said to fire bullets at near-light speeds. Undodgeable in certain contexts, such as this.

"T-Trapped—…" Hawk's voice reverberated weakly in my head, and I sensed a great amount of magic coming from my peripherals. It seemed his threads had somehow reached the rafters...the strangest part was that I hadn't even heard Syonis utter a single phrase. Not one.

It was possible to cast magic without words, as was shown when Syonis caused a shotgun blast of Tenebris to activate with the snapping of his fingers. It was a simple trick—using muscle memory to invoke already-short chants to minimize time wasted. The chant was likely something short, like "my darkness, become shotgun", or something even shorter.

But it was not possible to cause the scene I was currently witnessing—it was like I just stepped out of reality and onto a horror scene.

Tell me Inferno, can you be the puppeteer?

Haru met my eyes, and I knew what to do. I picked up the gun, aiming it directly at Syonis's head. A clear shot would be instant, and he would have no time to dodge or harm her. It was a clear challenge: can you aim in this stressful situation? He was mocking me, offering to give up his incredible lead in order to watch me fret.

In actuality, I had grown used to witnessing myself or Haru being used as a ploy tactic. At first, I had wanted to keep our relationship a secret, but Haru changed my mind. Thankfully as well. The more our targets used each of us as a bargaining chip instead of killing us outright, the better. Even Hawk agreed to the idea, citing a famous general from the Age of Kingdoms.

"When an enemy attempts to ransom you instead of killing you, you have won the second fight."

However, it seemed Syonis had no interest in using her as a bargaining chip. No, that creature was amused. It was true; he didn't care for hostages in the slightest. After all, that creature likely had no idea who we were, apart from what he was able to divine from our minds. I stifled the hatred inside me and sighted down the small barrel of the plasma pistol. I drew the trigger, slowly and surely, right on the edge of firing. A single twitch was all I needed.

Suddenly, my vision grew golden. The power of Divination. The power of foresight. My unique ability. Time grinded to a halt, and I could watch the discrete particles of dust descending from the ceiling. With this, I could not miss.

So I fired.

In the second between seconds, an impossibility happened—Syonis moved. I witnessed it through my Divination, as if I were watching the individual frames of a movie. The trajectory of the bullet, a near-light speed mass of particles, was true. There was no mistake. As if defying the laws of physics themselves, Syonis jerked Haru's head to the side, and the bullet took her directly in the head.

There was no residue damage done from piercing—Syonis had held a hand directly behind her skull, as if he expected this outcome. There was a mana-forged plate against the front of his glove, made of an unknown material that stopped plasma from travelling. Syonis dropped Haru's body to the ground. It fell unceremoniously, her white eyes already far beyond the land of the living. I froze.

"The best performance a puppeteer can give," Syonis whispered, "cannot be repeated."

I shot him in the head.