“It was 2012 and the world was coming to an end. Scientists had monitored the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates and discovered that they started to shift, but not in the way that most would imagine. Instead of shifting entire continents towards one another, the plates were slowly sinking into the Earth.

The water levels rose or, to be more precise, the land moved to go underneath the ocean's’ surface. Ninety percent of the world started to panic when news got out and they started to think about ways to avoid death.

Casualties started to rise as Humanity started to fall. Then, as a last, desperate act, the governments of three countries opened up their secret projects to the populace. The entire world came together and voted on who would live and go Humanity’s last efforts of survival.

This project was known as Project ARC, or Atmospheric Removed Centralization, which was a project that was originally meant to bring small portions of Humanity into orbit to see if Humans could survive as a colony in space or travel through it. However, now it was being used to take portions of intellectual people and bring them away from the natural disasters.

Scientists, Engineers, and more piled on, but the governments only took the brightest. They took tests that pertained to their fields and, if they didn’t pass the first test, they were booted from the program.

However, the common folk, grocers, animators, writers, and more, didn’t even have a chance to be accepted. They felt slightly avenged when they saw that one of the space crafts had failed to launch, causing the vehicle to crash back to Earth. Only half of the crew survived the fall.

Feeling that the end days were upon them, people started to steal to survive. They took what they could to build bunkers and shelters to try and, hopefully, outlive the event. In four different cases, there were buildings specially made to withstand floods, earthquakes, and radiation, but one of them didn’t survive and broke down, killing all the inhabitants.

In about a month, both of the working ARCs were working and monitored the situation from above. Their engineers and scientists working out a way to survive to long periods of time in space.

In that time, coasts of many countries were covered in sea water and even half of Taiwan was flooded. Japan had many islands flooded, but they had already started  to create a wall to block out the water. At the moment, it seemed that everyone wanted to move inland which caused massive stampedes of both cars and people.

Humanity lost about one fifth of its entire population by the first Shift. What happened after that was, after four months of surviving, the gravity started to flip and turn in several parts of the world: Florida, Nebraska, Egypt, Finland, India, Brazil, and Mongolia.

The gravity shifted to either do one of three things: It created areas of zero gravity, reversed gravity, or make it seem like gravity turned ninety degrees. People flew and fell and the amount of people dying rose.

Of course, my great-grandfather was there. But, instead of being affected by the gravity, he was in his bunker in Nebraska. The gravity there made it so that there was zero gravity and he and his family plus some family friends floated around in their bunker. Luckily, he was able to survive both Shifts.

The first Shift stopped after a week. The water levels then seemed to drop to about what they were originally and it looked like the world was going back to the way it was. But the people aboard the ARCs knew better.

They sent out transmissions and messages to tell us that it wasn’t over, but, by then, it was far too late. They were able to identify a second one, but only three days before it started. Even then, they didn’t know when it would come and, by the time the messages and warning reached us, it was too late.

The second Shift started eight months after the first one, when small areas of zero gravity appeared all over the world. It just suddenly happened. They gave off electromagnetic waves that people could detect, but only with the correct equipment.

Aboard the ARCs, they scanned the entire world to see which areas got affected, but, as it turned out, it wasn't just a few select areas around the world, but there were at least ten mile long spheres of zero gravity in every country.

Of course, since they were spread out, a few portions of Humanity managed to avoid them. However, after a week of waiting, like the last event, the gravity in those areas reversed and thousands were sent into the atmosphere.

What was horrifying about that was that the ARC space stations had their own gravities, albeit they were small, and some bodies started to orbit around them. At the mere sight of such things, people regurgitated the meals they ate prior.

After another week of waiting, the gravity spheres started to shrink and they started to move towards different areas. At each of those points, the spheres combined to create enough pressure to create what many called Madness Vortexes. It was said that, if you walked too close to one, you would either go made with the urge to kill or die on the spot. As it is now known, those vortexes were actually connected to several points in the Madness Realm where mainly emotions and feeling exist. However, it was quite lucky that nothing living from that realm actually entered for, if they did, it would be unstoppable.

At the point that many would call “The Convergence”, the vortexes turned into portals and beings of fantasy and magic entered the world. Earth had now changed forever and, as some may have said, for better or worse.

The portals were connected to one of four places: The Underworld, Limbo, the Feylands, or an unknown realm where no one goes in or out of. Beings could move back and forth between the two worlds via portals.

Nowadays, there are only four portals. One for each realm.

The Underworld led to a world of spirits, but not one that most would think. Humans have decided to call it that because they heard other races call it that. In fact, there were Yokai and Evil Spirits that came from that land as well as Spectors, Banshees, Vampires, Werewolves, and more. Too many to list off the top of my head.

The Feywilds is a wonderful place full of lush, green fauna… or so I hear. The Elves, Fae, Elementals, and more came from that place. Some are hostile to Humans while others work alongside them.

Limbo was where Daemons and Devils arrived from. Contrary to their names, these Daemons were somewhat friendly towards Humans, but mostly because they embody the Seven Deadly Sins. I actually asked my grandfather about it and, apparently, the Daemons and Devils and everything else are quite similar to things from what used to be Humanity’s fictional stories. Sometimes, the worlds converged causing some other worldly beings to arrive and then, after a while, disappear.

That was how Vampires and such became the beings told in legends. Why Satan was known as the Demon King and why the Seven Deadly Sins were told to others. It was all because of these small convergences.”

She stopped speaking. She had become tired telling her niece the world’s story. Actually, she was the daughter of her adopted sister, an Elf. The niece she told the story to was a mix of an Elf and a Cambion who actually worked diligently unlike his brethren. Their daughter was more Elf than Infernal, but had a pair of pale horns and a tail.

The person telling the story, Priska, was not simply a mix of two or even three different species. She was a mix of five. The only Human blood she had running through her veins had come from her great-grandfather who had married a Succubus. Then, after a long line of marrying into different species, she was the final product.

Using her hands to prop herself up on the carpet, she looked up at the ceiling. She hadn’t been alive long enough to experience any of those things. However, two of her grandparents were alive at the time.

Her grandfather on her dad’s side, Gusion, a Duke of Hell, and her grandfather on her mother’s side, Daemos, a Pure-Breed Vampire. She found that it was easier to ask Daemos as he gave her answers that were nice and easy to understand while, even though he spoke straight to the point, Gusion’s answers were not so… understandable.

Now, one might question why someone might marry a Duke of Hell. The answer was simple, in a way, a girl who happened upon him when he was just starting out a company using three of his forty legions of Daemons and Devils liked how he was always to the point and could be kind and considerate to those around him, even if his answers could hurt people as he usually told honest answers.

Thus, her father was born after three years of trying to win Gusion over. Of course, due to how painfully honest and brutal Gusion’s speech was, her father, Naelstrum, went off on his own when he was 16. At that age, he already found a place where he could work with a cheap apartment nearby.

His work place was a spell scroll shop known as Entomb where he was now the manager. Currently, he was thinking about expanding the business to different locations that didn’t have spell scroll shops.

Her mother actually had a much easier childhood, but filled with a lot more blood. Daemos ran a company that leased Vampire soldiers and bodyguards out to anyone for the right price. Occasionally, there would be disputes on price and how much they would be allowed to have at a given moment. That inevitably led to Daemos stealing both the blood and the life of the customer.

Her mother’s name was Diena which was a name that her mother chose for it was the same name as a protector spirit that was somewhat famous in the Underworld. Her mother was a Banshee, but Banshees, who were used to be thought of as ghosts, were actually ethereal spirits who could go through solid objects and, if they were so inclined, could have children.

However, many chose not to and this was one of the rare instances where they did so.

Both of Priska’s parents were mixes who carried the same powers as their parents, but they also had a chance of developing a new power from mixing old ones.

“What happened to the ARCs?”

Priska looked back at her five year old niece. For someone who was related to Elves, a race not commonly known for curiosity in things other than magic, she was quite rare in her way of thinking.

Turning away from the white ceiling, Priska answered as she had nothing else to do. She was given the job of entertaining her niece while her brother-in-law was working and while her adopted sister was buying some groceries at the local market.

“They are still in the sky. You can see them from down here.”

She pointed past the window they were near and her niece, Mea, looked skyward. In the distance she could see a large sphere with some other geometries sticking out.

“They built their crafts to be better and to be more resilient. It was forty years ago when they sent down ships to the Earth’s surface to look for resources and life when they realized that Humanity had already started to live with other species. The ships went back, bigger and better than before, and those new species went up along with them.

Nowadays, there are four ARCs with Humans still running them, well, at least mostly. I’ve heard that some Elves and Daemons have learned how to use the instruments in space. The only reason why the two ARCs from before don’t come down is because, if they did, it would be like the asteroid that crashed into Earth, wiping out all the dinosaurs. Do you understand?”

While Mea could understand most of what Priska said, she did not know the meaning of many words spoken to her. Those foreign words confused her to the point where she flat out ignored them and tried to fill in the holes.

It was at that moment that, with her excellent hearing, Priska could hear that the door was being unlocked. Turning just in time, she saw her sister, Nile.

Her beautiful, blonde hair flowed around her as she hefted her grocery bags inside. She looked to be around the age of 16 rather than her true age of 24.

Wiping the nonexistent sweat from her forehead, she looked at the two of them and smiled.

“So, what did aunt Rika tell you today?”

That was her name for her sister, Rika, since it was shorter and easier to say. Mea jumped up, off the carpet, and hopped over to her mother. She squeezed her tightly in a hug and let go long enough to spit out a few words before going back to hugging.

“Auntie told me about the world!!”

Of course, such an ambiguous answer would make anyone confused, but Nile still put on a smile. Still hugging her child, she looked over at Priska who was getting up.

“What did you actually tell her?”

With a shrug as she moved past the two of them, she spoke.

“Just about how Earth became the way it is now, 84 years ago.”

Nile made a face to say that she understood what she had told Mea and she nodded. It wasn’t an inherently bad thing to tell children, but it was something that was either better told at an age where they could be taught about it in school.

Priska and Nile, however, were taught all about the subject when they were but children. Of course, their parents talked to Priska more about the subject due to her being their actual daughter. Nile wasn’t jealous of them doing so for she was 10 years old at the time and felt that playing games and hanging out with friends was much more important.

Priska on the other hand, was just 5 and loved to hear stories about her family. How her grandfather, Gusion, led his 40 legions against another Daemon and won. How her other grandfather, Daemos, was able to terrorize entire villages. How her great-grandfather had met with his wife.

It was all interesting how all this history made up a small portion of her family. Of course, being Human, that great-grandfather who had survived both Shifts and the Madness Vortexes, he had died quite a while ago. Some of her other great-grandparents also died, but not due to old age.

As for some, her grandmother who was a Banshee was formed from the large amount of negative emotion that entered from the Human realm. That energy came together and formed a humanoid that could go through solid objects and scream at a high enough pitch that it affected the human psyche. Gusion, however, was born from the void. He obtained a form that defied human logic four thousand years after the Limbo was born. Six thousand years after that, he gained several forms, but only three of them could be shown to Humans.

“Well, I’m going to go home now.”

“Alright! Bye!”

“Bye-bye!!”

The mother and daughter waved to her as she gave a slight wave before exiting the door. She locked the door behind her before putting her four keys in her pocket.

Priska was wearing grey cargo pants that had six pockets. Her keys were in one of the two pockets on her thighs. Her wallet was in her left waist pocket and her phone was in her right. In her back pockets, she had only a can of mace and three pieces of honey candy.

Walking down the steps of the apartment building that her sister lived in, she reached into her back pocket and unwrapped a piece of candy. Plopping it in her mouth, she looked around.

This scenery was native to her, but was certainly very different from what most who lived before the Convergence would see.

Now, the smallest building in the world was three stories, excluding privately owned houses. The largest building was known as the Giants’ Domain, but not because it was for Giants. No Giant had ever set foot on Earth due to how devastating the effects would be. No, it was called that because it was as tall as the tallest Giant who stood at 8 miles and reached the stratosphere.

That building had everything, from arcades to grocery stores and houses to barracks. It was also one of the most heavily fortified buildings in the world.

Speaking of which, the geography of the world actually stayed the same, save for some craters dug by the gravity spheres, but the governments came together under the new government known as the Species Per International Agreement, or SPIA for short.

Of course, there are some rebels who have broken off from SPIA, but they were forced into alliances due to how much support SPIA had from every species. Their firepower and human resources in the military and security was unparalleled by any country in the past or in the present.

SPIA’s leaders consisted of a High Elf, a Human, Satan, and a Lich King. One representative was chosen from each world, except the one that no one knew what transpired within it. Their terms were for life, but they were tested each year to see if they would act in benefit of the people living under SPIA and to see if they were planning to assassinate other members of their high council.

The High Elf was an Elf who had lived for three thousand years already and was a master spellcaster. The Human was an extremely charismatic leader who could increase morale with a single speech. The Lich King was one of the three most powerful Undeads in the Underworld who could raise entire armies of the undead. Lastly, Satan. The leader of the Daemons who was very persuasive and, unlike what other religions said about him, he was quite friendly with everyone who wasn’t a complete goody two shoes.

Aside from the buildings and otherworldly beings, the technology had improved immensely. In fact, Elves had started to spearhead the research for A.I., even though people were quite against the idea. Phones still retained their classic rectangular shape, but were now able to do things that computers could do on top of their original function. There were more satellites in orbit and basically the entire world shared this technology.

However, there were downsides to this change in society. More fights broke out in the streets, usually inter-species brawls, and the jobs like assassin and mercenary made a comeback. They were now officially recognized as legal jobs as long as you went about it through the guilds the government set up. Unsurprisingly enough, it was Satan who accepted this act and allowed it.

Finally down the last flight of stairs, she felt her phone vibrate. Taking it out, she saw that it was one of her seven coworkers, Seru, who was calling her.

“Hello?”

“Ah! Priska! Um, there is a job for you that is near where you are now… If you could, could you take care of it?”

“As if I have a choice.”

“I am sending the directions over now.”

Seru hung up and Priska looked at her phone once more. Seru had sent instructions via text and Priska readjusted her cropped, black jacket.

In that jacket, she had two pens in her breast pocket and two secret pouches on the inside of it. Her shirt was white with the image of a cat outlined in blue. To be honest, this wasn’t even one of the most out of the norm clothes. Some people wore clothes entirely made of dark materials or some wore cartoony shirts.

Immediately turning left from the steps, she found herself at one of the many roads in the city. She walked along the sidewalk, dodging people as she passed them, and managed not to get pickpocketed.

This city she was in now was New York City, a city that expanded to at least a quarter of all of New York, but it was now a den of thieves, pickpockets, and gangs. There were many poor people living here, but also many well off or rich people as well.

She turned once again and moved at a brisk pace towards the trains in the station. She scanned her card and entered through the gates. Waiting a moment, she crammed herself on one of the trains and the doors closed.

After what felt like an hour and was actually three minutes, she heaved a great breath in and out as it felt great not to be squished by so many people. Two more minutes later, she was outside of the station and looking at a giant casino.

“Umm… “The Silver Rabbit”? I don’t think that’s a great name for a casino…”

She looked down at the instructions once more. Looking back up, she found herself face to face with a giant man dressed in black.

“And what is a little lady like you doing around these parts?”

Her height was actually 5 feet and 10 inches which was quite tall for a woman. However, compared to the giant man looming over her, she was quite small.

“I’m here to gamble.”

She scoffed at the man, as if she had actually meant to go to this casino just to gamble. Even if she thought that gambling was a disease, this was the easiest way to infiltrate the building.

“You don’t seem like the type to gamble. You here to serve drinks? You’d look mighty fine in a bunny costume!”

The man chuckled to himself, imagining the girl in front of him dressed in tight, black clothes and fishnet stockings. To be quite honest, Priska was quite a beauty, a trait she received from being both part Vampire and Succubus, even if just a quarter and an eighth of each.

“No. I’d rather not make a fool out of myself dressing up in some ridiculous outfit, thank you very much! Just let me through.”

The man clicked his tongue and stepped aside to harass another person entering the casino. Priska quickly bounded up the steps and looked around.

Considering how much the world had changed in the span of 84 years, it wasn’t too strange for casinos not to go out of business. They have actually helped to set up peace talks in the beginning, at least at the casinos that weren’t submerged in the sea or upturned by gravity spheres. Also, it was just 84 years and more people got addicted to gambling and such things.

There were loads of tables with people betting on and playing with cards. Thousands of slot machines were lined up in rows and people of all species were gambling away most of their money, only a few managing to win.

She looked over at a girl holding a platter of champagne and tapped her shoulder. This girl who was wearing a white bunny costume almost seemed to jump a few feet in surprise. She soon calmed herself when she saw it wasn’t a lustful customer or her boss.

“Excuse me, but do you know where the High Roller’s Den is? I’m supposed to meet up with a friend of mine there, but I can’t seem to figure out where it is…”

“Oh! Just go up the stairs for two flights and go down the largest and widest hall. At the end of that, you will get to a kiosk that will ask for confirmation that you want to roll for high stakes.”

The girl pointed at a flight of stairs and in another direction that was likely supposed to be where the hall to get to the High Roller’s Den was. A beat later, she was moving back into the crowd to serve drinks.

Nodding her head to show her appreciation, Priska moved towards the stairs and hopped up both flights with amazing agility. She also had to slip in between the tight spaces in the crowd, but she had done so with seemingly no effort at all.

In just a few minutes, she stood in front of the High Roller’s Den’s hall and looked back at her phone. She couldn’t read it aloud, but if she did, she would say: “A man with blue skin and three horns?”

But she couldn’t question her orders. It did come from her superiors after all.

Sighing, she placed her phone back into her pocket and strode through the hall. The crowd seemed to be more and more spread out the farther she went until only a small handful of people were about her. Those around her seemed to also not be regular citizens. They were dressed in clean and fancy suits and carried briefcases.

There were several doors in the hall that she had passed while walking. She found that most people who entered the den only went to those rooms as this last room only allowed for one winner and you needing at least five thousand dollars to spend freely, if not more.

Beyond that group of two and three, since there were two different groups of people waiting, there was a door. It was huge and made of, or at least coated in, gold.

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There was a kiosk and Priska peered down at the screen. It said that it would give her a pass into the den if she filled out the paperwork saying that she wouldn’t sue the casino if she lost upwards of one thousand dollars.

Since it was needed to complete her current job assignment, she signed and filled it out. After pressing the “Okay” button, she was given a small card that came out from one of the three slots on the machine.

Looking towards the door as she took out the card, she saw the door open. It seemed that she had come at just the right moment since the High Roller’s Den opened up at 3:30 and, even though she didn’t know this, she entered the building at 3:15 and finished her paperwork at 3:29. That meant that she was able to enter the den.

In the center of the magnificent and glamorous room lay one grand table. The surface of the table was green and there was a deck of cards on the table. On the opposite side of the table sat three people on high chairs. Though high, their chair seats only came up to the table’s highest point.

Each of them wore vertically striped suits that were a navy blue color. The two men on the sides had ties while the only female in the center had a bowtie. They each wore white masks with a painted on smile.

This mask was for protection since there had been cases of people beating up the staff members for not winning once they saw them in public. This was just one of the three protections they had in the room. The other two being a glass wall with some circular screens to speak through and armed guards that had magic guns, though they were outside the room.

To the left, there was a bar with an extraordinary amount of alcohol on its shelves. To the right, there were tables and four doors, three bathrooms and one to enter the kitchen.

“Welcome! To! My! CASINO!!!”

A man with a deep voice bellowed and the six of them could hear his voice through the speakers.

“I am Knig! The owner of this fine, fine establishment! You six have entered the High Roller’s Den’s Ultimate End! This will be the place where you will either win big or lose all!!”

Suddenly, two spotlights appeared in front of the bar and they could see the one talking through the microphone: A man with blue skin and three horns.

By his side, there were four armed to the teeth men or women, it was hard to tell under all the armor and kevlar, and they had their fingers on the triggers. Of course, the safeties were on, but, if things went south, they would open fire.

And so, just as he had appeared, the pair of people next to Priska, both dressed in black, pulled guns and started to fire upon the five. Unfortunately, they were mowed down the second they pulled out their guns.

The bullets discharged from the guns of the guards were high powered energy rifles that used a combination of lightning and light magic to deal devastating attacks. Using those attacks, the guards blew apart the bodies of the pair. All that remained were scraps of meat and bone. Some of their skin had melted and was charred and their faces were now unrecognizable.

“Ooohh!! That did not look good!! Looks like you lost… your life!!!”

Knig smiled as he spoke into the microphone while Priska cringed at the bad joke. Then, after fishing out a small, rectangular box with a button on it, he pressed the button and the double doors shut behind them. The trio who stood next to Priska was now shaking with fear as they felt trapped, like mice being played with by a cat.

“Admit it. You six are here to kill me, right? I’m right, aren’t I.”

The other three behind her got on their knees and put their hands in the air to surrender. Priska, however, started to stroll over to the guards. The faces of shock on the trio’s faces was truly amazing. What wasn’t, was the shape they would be in in just a few seconds.

“Well, that makes this easier!”

As she spoke, her face contorted to form a smile so filled with malice and evil that two of the guards lowered their guns slightly. They were so taken aback at how such a cute girl could make such an evil face.

“Fools!! Well, kill them!!”

Knig looked to his left and to his right and pointed at the girl walking up to them while cracking her knuckles and licking her canines. She looked like an insane, bloodthirsty maniac.

The guards, following orders, started to fire their guns at the girl. They didn’t want to as it seemed like this young girl was unarmed and it also seemed like a waste, at least to the men, to kill a girl as cute as her.

However, as the bullets streaked towards her, she didn’t flinch, not one bit. Instead, she just kept on walking with the intent to kill Knig.

This was her job, she had to kill this bastard because of his crimes. He assaulted people all over the city, killed a couple dozen in the blink of an eye, and even dealt in some drug trading. The problem was that the police couldn’t do anything without evidence, but that was where she and her coworkers came in. Multiple people created contracts saying to kill this man, and so, her job was to fulfill this request.

The bullets entered her body, but kept on going straight through and hit the trio. Apparently, all these people were assassins and mercenaries, but they seemed to be just amateurs. They saw a good, hefty reward and flew too close to the sun.

However, unlike those who weren’t prepared and didn’t have the naturals talents needed, Priska was able to adapt to the situation just by turning into one of her three forms. One was the one she was in when she wasn’t working, another was for advanced combat, and the current one came from a fusion of Vampire and Banshee that her mother could also use.

The Banshee side allowed her to move through solid objects while the Vampire allowed her to heighten her senses. She sniffed the air and, because Vampires are quite sensitive to smells, was able to identify eight other body odors in the room, not including the five who had died behind her nor the five in front of her. The three dealers and bartender had already left the scene and were hiding in the kitchen.

The shooting stopped as soon as they realized that she couldn’t be hit and they started to move Knig. The downside to being ethereal meant that she couldn’t hit anyone. She had to stop using it to attack. However, she had a trick up her sleeve to avoid this problem.

Blood trickled from the dead corpses and it moved silently in a river. That river snaked towards the group of guards and Knig and, as if it had a mind of its own, it sprang up from the floor. Solidifying, it skewered them all in the head. The blue skinned criminal, however, still seemed to be alive, albeit in much pain. He yelled and screamed as the area between his eyes was punctured. His species was one that could stay alive as long as their hearts weren’t damaged.

The other guards were not of this species. Two were Humans while the other two were Elves. When they got stabbed in the head, they died. Not only did they not stay alive afterwards, but they also fell to the floor and stopped moving.

The blood turned back into liquid and the hole in Knig's head slowly closed. Crawling on the floor, he turned back just in time to see something with horns and covered in fur reach into him.

This beast was something that people would fear if they saw it roaming the streets. It was a being of wrath and death and, to those who would dare defy it, it killed in extremely brutal ways without any feelings of remorse.

It sliced open the area above his heart and it retrieved it just to pop the still beating heart in front of his eyes. Then the creature devoured the rest of the heart after dropping it into its long maw.

With terror-stricken eyes, Knig breathed one last time as blood filled up his lungs. When the beast pulled out his heart, it had dug a hole in his body that damaged the lungs and multiple bones. Drowning in his own blood, his head fell back to the floor and the color faded from hsi eyes.

“Phew! Target eliminated!”

Priska wiped the blood from her mouth. She had changed back into her casual form and started to walk towards the door. On the way there, she stooped down and grabbed a rifle. She was going to need it in a second.

Looking down at the gun, she realized that this wasn’t nearly the amount of bullets she needed to escape. Hurrying back to the corpses, she took their clips and filled her own. Counting the amount she had, there were two full ammunition magazines and three bullets, each magazine had twenty bullets.

“Mmmm. I’m gonna take this.”

She reached down and took off a kevlar vest that seemed about her size. Donning it, she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like metal banging against metal and someone wheezing.

She drew the charging handle back and cocked the gun. Making sure the safety was turned off, she pointed the muzzle at the kitchen door. The kitchen door was made of metal, but had a small, circular window at about head height.

She could see a man with a gun held up to his eye through the window. He seemed to be trying to be cautious, but Priska was already aiming the gun at his head. After a single tug on the trigger, a bullet of magic flew from the gun, moved through and made a small hole in the door, and hollowed out the man’s head.

A moment after, she could hear a scream that sounded from the kitchen. It went on for a while and the source seemed to be moving farther away. Nineteen bullets left in the magazine.

Using her heightened senses, she could tell that there were at least ten people on the other side of the golden entrance now. What she could do was enter her Ethereal Vampire form and move through the oncoming volley of bullets, but she couldn’t kill or hurt them. She was going to need to use her third form that already came out for a moment to finish off Knig.

She pilfered the remote that Knig held in his cold grasp and she pressed the button. The double doors swung open and there were some shouts. The guards beyond the door had been startled by this action as they had intended to blow up the door with the explosives that were already placed on the door.

“Go! Go! Go! We have permission to kill all assassins on sight!”

The guard that was yelling that ran into the room. He was covered from head to toe in a mix of metal and kevlar armor. On top of being the most heavily armored guard in the room, he also had buffs that increased his strength, speed, and stamina. You could tell by the blue, red, and yellow aura that shimmered around him.

As soon as he stepped into the room, Priska started to fire her rifle. Each bullet that she fired found its way into the man’s armor, but it didn’t seem to penetrate his skin.

“Die! Die!! Die!!!”

The man hefted two large assault rifles to just above his waist area and started to fire. His aim wasn’t too sharp, but that didn’t matter if you managed to put a bullet in the thing you are aiming for, at least that was his thinking.

Turning ethereal as fast as she could, she found that a bullet managed to enter her left forearm and she winced in pain as she touched it. Quickly, using the blood magic to send the rifle she dropped into the area that she was diving into for cover, she hid behind the bar.

The bullets kept hitting the walls, alcohol, and bar itself as she stopped being ethereal. Using two of her fingers, she started to claw out the bullet that had lodged itself in her arm. When she had gotten it out, the other nine guards had come into the room as well and were firing.

Taking a dish cloth from the floor that the bartender had dropped, she wrapped it around her arm to try and stop the bleeding. While she was able to heal faster than the average Human, she wasn’t able to regenerate lost flesh in mere seconds. No, it took hours just to heal up a single bullet wound like the one in her arm.

With her right arm, she held up her hands towards the gun and puddle of blood. There were rules when using her blood magic. One of them was that she had to be able to see it to use it. If it went out of her field of vision, it would splash on the ground and become a puddle once more. Another one was that it could only use general movements, like moving stuff in a direction or things like that. It would be too inaccurate to try and fire a gun with it.

On top of the rules for her blood magic, there were also rules for her ethereal. She wasn’t able to pass through walls, floors, or ceilings. However, she could go through doors, furniture, items, and people with no problem. One thing that prevented her from just walking from the situation was magic. It could also damage her and it actually had a chance of injuring her more as she was vulnerable to magic in that state.

The only thing she could do now was wait for a chance. A chance to use her natural abilities given to her by Gusion, one of the Dukes of Hell.

Everyone was firing, but Priska could tell how many were firing at the same time and who was reloading. She was not able to locate where that person was, though, she was able to tell what type of gun they were using and how much magic was being used. Her senses did not only pertain to the five regular ones, but she could also detect the amount of magic using a skill that she had that allowed her to sniff out how dense the magic was in one area.

As four out of ten were reloading their guns, one of them being the fully armored guard, she hopped over the counter with rifle in hand. Right as she reached her apex, she started to morph.

Her pale skin sprouted dark grey fur. Her nails turned into long talons. A tail grew from her tailbone and it poofed up with fluffiness. Her bones began to shift as the structure changed. Red eyes turned gold as her face turned into a snout. Horns erupted from the top of her head, between the two wolf ears she now had.

If one had to describe her general shape, they would say it looked like a werewolf, but more feral. It had two horns that made a slight “Z” shape and ended in sharp points. The teeth seemed to shine with a mixture of saliva and a fluid that could paralyze someone if it came in contact with their bloodstream. Her fur looked sleek and fluffy, but nobody would want to try and pet her.

It was a proven fact in the world that Werewolves and Werewolf-like beings were some of the most feared medium sized humanoids. Their lust for blood and fighting was greater than most and their combat and assassination prowess was far more extraordinary than most. An annual survey had been taken just a month before and the top three things people were afraid of, species-wise, were Werewolves, Vampires, and Shape Changers. The first two were usually one of the top five every year.

With that thought in mind, seven out of the total ten guards took a step back, stopped firing, and tensed up. The other three kept on firing their guns, one of which was the man decked out in armor.

Priska swung her rifle towards the guards and held down the trigger. Bullets flew both towards and from the enemy and several guards were either injured severely or killed. Only six guards remained as she moved in a zigzag movement to attack the guards at close combat.

Two of the guards had managed to hit her with bullets. One was the one who held two assault rifles and the other was holding a submachine gun. The rest of the guards held rifles or pistols or shotguns, but they all somehow managed to miss every single one of their shots, likely due to fear.

Three bullets landed in her left arm once again as she used it to block. That arm also held the rifle meaning that she could catch the bullets from midair, which she could do if they weren’t from sniper rifles, made of silver, or made of pure magic and if she was concentrating on catching them.

She didn’t use her right arm to block and catch because, if she did, it would inhibit her ability to cut and shred the enemy.

Her right arm was outstretched and she was ready to slice and dice her enemies into small giblets of meat. Her claws stretched out of her fingers to create talons the size of kitchen knives.

With a single swing, she created enough air pressure to push everyone off their feet. Then, without wasting a single moment, she swung wildly at the enemy. However wild it seemed, it was actually a controlled attack where she pinpointed the weak points and targeted them.

The talons dug in and out of bodies creating lifeless corpses that fell to the floor in a mess of blood and intestines. She gouged out their livers, spleens, parts of lungs, and their hearts.

To get to all those bloody innards, she had to rip apart the metal or kevlar armor which she did with ease. It was like taking scissors and cutting paper. The kevlar was shredded and the armor diced until all that remained were dead bodies.

Ten bodies were strewn along the floor as blood dribbled down the walls. The glass that had separated the players and the dealers was so covered in blood that you couldn’t see the other side. Even one of the chandeliers had a lung and intestine on it.

She dropped the rifle and used blood magic to literally douse it in blood and crush the gun into scraps so that her fingerprints weren’t on the gun.

Turning back into her regular form, she started to sit down at one of the booths. She had to get the bullets out of her arm before they tainted her with magic corrosion. Magic corrosion was an effect from a bullet that basically poisoned the victim until they become paralyzed and, if untreated in five days, die.

She ripped out the bullets that had been lodged in her arm and she started to rip parts of the guards’ clothes to create makeshift wraps to stop the bleeding. If she was a Pure-Breed Vampire, they wound would have disappeared in a matter of seconds. Her mother would heal from a bullet in a couple minutes and wouldn’t die of blood loss. Priska needed a couple hours to heal and would most likely die of blood loss and other things that would not kill vampires right away.

Quickly moving towards a section of alcohol that hadn’t been shot, she pulled off a bottle of whiskey and dripped some onto her would. She winced as she did so and wrapped the cloth over her wounds.

After treating her wounds, she started to walk towards the double golden doors. She didn’t hobble or limp over because her legs weren’t injured, but her arm felt like shit.

She pulled out her phone with her right hand and used her fingerprint to access it. After pulling up the app, she texted Seru.

She messed up the spelling of some of her words because her whole body was shivering ever so slightly, but enough so that it hindered her texts. This was one of the side effects of magic corrosion that meant that the magic corrosion wasn’t too terrible.

Seru had a habit of texting sentences while trying to watch out for grammar and to see if it made sense.

Right when she was about to leave the room, she picked up a jacket that was too large for her that was on one of the dead amateurs. Going outside of the room while essentially showing off her wounds was a terrible idea. Even more so was that guards were able to tell they were bullet wounds and would start to open fire on her since the only ones with those wounds were people shot by the guards.

She put it on over the wrapped pieces of cloth that her blood was drenching and left the scene. There obviously were security cameras everywhere, but her manager should be able to take care of that problem by destroying all the footage and the rest of the evidence. As for people who saw her, they would have their memories altered by the Clean Up Crew.

Being a mercenary meant, at least in this day and age, covert operations and keeping the body count to a minimum. Of course, there would always be collateral: bodyguards, rookie mercs and assassins, and even some civilians.

Her actual occupation was known as Mercenary. In that job, she had a sector of seven other mercs, assassins, and hired bodyguards. For each of those eight people, they had a manager who erased data and handed out assignments and a cleaning crew that was comprised of three people.

Each of those eight people were ranked in the country from best to worst, best being 1. In those sectors, people generally helped each other out by telling them job descriptions or actually tagging along with them to do the work. Each sector needed immense trust and, if even one person died of those eight, then the trust would have to rebuilt from the ground up.

The sector number she was in now had changed throughout her career, mainly being that the number kept getting higher as more talented people joined up with her. The current number was Sector 4 out of a total 1,834,472 sectors all around the world, some even in other worlds.

Most sectors had people who were relatively okay at their jobs, but many still messed up from time to time, ultimately leading to their demise. The number would then start to lower due to lack of mutual trust, but then the number would increase with how well the sector worked together. Of course, every sector lost and gained people causing numbers to fluctuate.

Before the current people in New York City’s sector, it was ranked 4,573. Just from Priska joining, since she was the first of the current members, the rank went straight to 1,002. When the other seven current members entered, they went up in rank until they reached fourth.

“Excuse me. Pardon me. Just squeezing through…”

Priska was dealing with less pain than before due to her healing abilities. While only seven minutes passed and her wounds were still there, the blood had dried and the pain had stopped.

At the moment, she was moving through the wave of people that had appeared. Apparently, many people who like to gamble go on Sunday as there are more tables open and that got in the way of Priska.

When she finally dove into the dark blue car, she was exhausted after getting turned around several times in the tsunami of gamblers. She made a face at the crowd.

“I don’t understand why they go to such a crowded place… even if they do have an addiction…”

Seru patted Priska’s shoulder. Seru’s build was like that of a small teenager. She was petite in both height and width and was almost as fragile as one as well. However, what made her a great assassin was the large amount of far-ranged spells she knew to assassinate her targets. If the target was within a mile, she could snipe them. On top of her knowledge, the sheer amount of mana she could use was superior to that of even young dragons who wield much greater magic than even the nobles of the High Elves.

Her race was known as Dark Elf and most of her people were only capable in some magics, but High Elves usually had more proficiency. Since she had so much more magic that the rest, she was treated like nobility until she became around the age of 20. Then the portals opened up, dumped her and her tribe onto Earth, and that portal closed. Since then, she had to find work in many different forms until coming upon her current job that she prefers to the rest of them. That and the large paychecks.

“They think they will win and they will move as a part of the crowd until they do so.”

She thought lowly of both Humans and Spirits and disliked how they both were unreasonable and acted mostly on emotion. She got along fine with Priska and the rest of their sector because they mainly relied on logic to help them survive the jobs, so, even though Priska was a quarter Spirit, she was fine with her and the two of them were actually great friends.

“Yeah… So, we gonna go to the office or…”

Seru stepped on the gas and sped down the shoddy streets. The sidewalks were caked in filth and the homeless were taking what they could. This neighborhood was just a den of evil.

“I still don’t understand how you are able to drive being that short.”

Priska chuckled to herself as Seru put on a fake amused smile.

“Well, being short has its benefits, like being able to get a boyfriend. Oh wait, it’s your personality that is throwing them off.”

She chuckled as Priska’s face morphed into one of someone who wasn’t amused.

“Anyway, why didn’t Beta IV call me? She’s my manager after all.”

“She said that she was, and I quote, “Taking my wonderful children to the ballgame today!” or something like that.”

Priska’s manager, Beta IV, always talked about her two “wonderful” son and daughter who always bickered. Thankfully, no one at the office had to see her children as they always heard the phone calls, that were turned on speaker mode, from the dad saying that the children were out of control.

Beta IV is her codename as she is more fond of that than her actual name and no one, save for her family, knows her real name. On top of no one knowing her real name, she hides her ID in a wallet that had a number lock on it. Even with all the secrecy, she still talks about her family and personal life.

“Makes sense.”

Priska nodded. Then she had a terrible thought.

“She… she won’t bring them here for Bring-Your-Child-To-Work Day, right? I mean, by what I’ve overhead, they like to mess with everything!”

“And? You do not have any makeup.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got my arsenal! And Beta IV’s office is directly connected to mine! If they do come, I’ll have to tape off my area then…”

“Do not be foolish. No rational parent would bring their child to a mercenary office.”

She said as flags were being set up.

They reached the office. Contrary to what many thought merc offices looked like, the building was made of limestone and was cleaned enough so that there were no stains or filth on the walls or windows. The windows were made of bulletproof glass and the building itself was surrounded by a light blue coating that shimmered in the afternoon light. Most would not be able to see the barrier at all unless they actively looked for it and had magic.

Magic users could see active barriers or auras of magic in their range of vision. Non-magic users could see offensive magics and some magics that could buff or heal a person. So, to the ordinary eye, which consisted of only 11% of the world’s population, the barrier was basically non-existent.

The building was seven floors tall and each floor was quite large as well as square. There were some windows lined up along the walls, each an equal distance away from one another.

Seru pulled up into the parking lot and parked her blue car in one of the eight spaces designated for the people who work in the field. There was a total of fifty spaces although there were only forty three people working in the office at the moment.

The two of them exited the car and walked through the small parking lot that was built around three sides of the building. They moved around the building and opened the front door.

“Sup.”

The man at the front desk slightly looked up from his tablet. He always liked to read web comics and watch videos on different platforms. He was an Oni and had two long horns on her forehead.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

Seru was a person who disliked to speak with slang and too casual language. Thus why she spoke in a somewhat formal tone.

The two of them nodded at him as they spoke and they walked into the elevator. There were two elevators and two sets of stairs, one on the left and one on the right, and one elevator was open and waiting on the first floor.

Pressing the button to go to the fifth floor, Seru stretched her petite arms and stood on her tiptoes. Every time she drove a car, she felt the need to stretch afterwards due to how cramped it felt to her.

It took less than a minute for them to reach their floor, but Seru had already gone through several stretches in that amount of time.

“Whew.”

She wiped her forehead, even though there was no sweat, and stepped out of the elevator with Priska. She was clutching a small purse that had a strap around her shoulder. The reason she acted this way was due to one of their coworkers.

“I hope Vao does not show up today.”

“He’s the one who took some money from you yesterday, right?”

“It is not just yesterday. He does it everyday. Yesterday, he emptied out my coin purse.”

“Ah, the black cat one, right?”

Seru nodded as she peeked around the corners of the small wall barriers that were taller than her by about half a foot. Priska could easily see over them due to her height and noticed a shadow moving closer towards them..

“Wah!!”

It was Vao and he was here to take some more money to spend it on something no one, except for him, knows. Vao was a person who lingered in the shadows and crept up to people. This skill of his led him to being one of the most skilled assassins who utilize close combat.

“Can I have some coins?”

Seru hugged her purse closer to her and hid behind Priska. She hissed at him as she slowly backed up towards her office.

“I think that’s a “No”. Why do you even want the coins?”

Vao stood up straight as he was crouching before and he put both his hands in his pockets. Smiling, he decided not to answer and he sneaked around Priska to get to Seru once again.

No one wanted to get in a fight with Priska, at least not in close combat. While Vao carried one of the best close combat records, he always used melee weapons. Priska only needed her fists. Her current type of mercenary was known as Heavy Brawler and she was one of the best.

Vao was a quarter Shadow Demon, an eighth Wood Elf, and five eighths Human. Shadow Demons and Wood Elves were known to be skilled in stealth skills and Shadow Demons made for great assassins. So, while Vao was only a quarter Shadow Demon, he was still quite talented.

Priska turned to watch as Vao sneakily followed Seru to her office and sighed. She shook her head a bit and moved towards her office.

The area that she was currently in was basically like a lounge area with a few low walls, come potted plants, and a couple couches. Along the walls on the left and the right, there was a line of computers on a table as long as the room. There were doors along all sides of the room with a total of twelve. There were four doors on the wall with the elevators and the rest had two doors each.

Those doors led to small halls that were connected to two door frames with no doors. One was the office for the eight mercenaries and assassins and the other was for the managers. Two of the doors on the wall with the elevators were bathrooms and the other two were closets.

Priska walked to her office on the far side of the lounge. Her office was on the door to the left with a poster of a white cat next to it. The poster had actually been hung up before Priska came into her current job.

She walked over to her office chair and plopped down. Her work day usually didn’t start until 8:30 am, but if she had to do a job in the morning, she was required to go to the office. After every job, there would always be paperwork to fill out and a paycheck needed to be received.

On top of the paperwork, there were also the contracts they were told to complete and the building had several different vehicles to reach the target as quickly as possible. There was even a helipad on the roof where four different types of helicopters were parked.

There was a tan colored folder on her desk and it had the words “Casino Target XVII” written in messy handwriting. She opened it up and pulled out several pieces of paper that she started to fill out. One was for the medical bills if she had any injuries, but she didn’t fill it out as her wounds always healed by the next day. There were two pieces of paper for collateral damage, one for objects and buildings and the other for civilians and others. The last several were to count up how much the mercenary’s paycheck would be if you take in account the two collateral papers while the medical bill was paid by the government, but you still had to pay at least a thousand dollars for a single bullet hole.

The file was created by the managers, given to the mercenaries or assassins after they killed the target to sign, and then processed by the government and given to the person who created the contract to have them pay. In, usually, a few hours, their paycheck would arrive and it would generally be a large sum of money.

With the files and paperwork, one could usually figure out how much they would be paid per job. That being said, some mercenaries don’t bother doing such simple calculations, largely due to how tired they are, and send it off to the government via messenger.

“Phew! 14,533 dollars! Well, without tax…”

Some days, they didn’t get targets and they were left without pay. On top of that, the money they received would also have to be used to procure new equipment or repair old equipment. Then, with the remaining money, they had to take out the living expenses which were quite high in NYC and then, finally, they could use the rest to do whatever they wanted.

She crossed her arms and sighed. She actually didn’t really know what to do with most of the remaining money and placed them in either the stock market or her bank accounts. Occasionally, she would use some money for social events or just buying stuffed animals.