"After her!" the guards shouted.

A girl with shoulder length black hair at just above five feet tall was running. She was running away from the guards wearing a blue uniform. She had taken something very important from the battlefield.

It was only a few months ago that the black spheres appeared in the sky. Giant mechanical beasts rained down upon the battlefield. It was there that a pair of women fought against their leader and forced the mechanical beasts back. Since then, the army had begun to scavenge the remnants on the battlefield and attempted to reverse engineer the technology they found.

One of those people that were working on it was Lucy. She had found a way to melt the metal on the creatures and turn it into a malleable metal. The result was what she called a "Power Suit." In theory, it would enhance the physical capabilities of its wearer tenfold. However, because of the materials used, the Power Suit was even greater than that. The suit could absorb mana from the atmosphere into its booster. The thicker the mana was, the faster it could recharge. For brief moments, it was possible to activate the booster, increasing regeneration, healing, strength, endurance, and speed for however long it lasted. The maximum amount of time was one minute. This was possible because the technology was amplified by magic, just like how the two women in the sky fought that day.

"Stop, Lucy!" shouted Preston.

Preston was the man in charge of the facility. He allowed Lucy in because of her extensive knowledge, but now, Lucy was the one who was going to ruin their plans. Lucy built nearly the entire suit by herself in the lab.

"You cannot stop me," said Lucy. "I will find my brother!"

"Your brother is dread!" said Preston. "Nothing can bring him back."

"No, he is not!" Lucy answered back. "I will find him, even if it’s the last thing I do."

The visor on the suit lowered itself and covered Lucy's face. She could see some general information about everything around her.

Name: Preston

Level: 70

Class: General / Soldier

Sub-Class: Commander

Stats: High Vitality

Threat Level: Low

Lucy turned around and continued running. She made her way past the scraps of metal that used to be the large fearsome creatures. As her breath ran short, the suit pumped extra energy into her body, instantly restoring her strength. With the suit, even her sickness could be halted. If she could make her way outside, then she would be free to pursue her brother through the black sphere.

A large mechanical goliath stood in front of the exit, blocking Lucy. A goliath was a mechanized power armor that was built from the scraps of the Dreadnoughts during the attack. It was repurposed to allow someone to pilot it.

Name: Machine Spirit – Goliath

Level: 95

Class: Machine

Sub-Class: Invader

Stats: High Vitality

Threat Level: High

Lucy activated the booster. Ten black blades appeared behind her, simulating wings. With a powerful push, Lucy increased her speed. BANG. She smashed into the Goliath and knocked it through the large gates. She had broken through the sealed exit through sheer force.

Lucy immediately headed straight towards the black sphere in the sky. She had seen the two women disappear into there. One of them looked suspiciously like her brother. She might know where Riley was.

Lucy penetrated the thick viscous black clouds. She could feel vibrations that shook her armor. It was still holding stable, but it was very dangerous. If the booster ran out, her suit might break as well.

The black smoke cleared and all Lucy could see was a black sun with grey clouds. The mana was incredibly thick here, but there was not much else. The ground itself was cracked and barren. She had no idea where she was. As she looked around, there was not much around. There were no signs of life in any direction. As she looked closely, she spotted that the ground itself was not barren, but made up of sheets of metal. As far as the eyes could see, the ground was covered entirely by metal.

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As Lucy looked around, she spotted that there were machines building more machines. They were trying to replace the ones that were lost in the previous attack. As much as Lucy wanted to take them down, the weapons on her suit was poor. All she had was a single projectile weapon. It was not enough to take down the hundreds that they were building. Worst of all, if she attacked even just one, they might all turn around and attack her. For now, she needed to find a way out of here. She needed to find a way to where those two women went. If only there was a way to track them.

Lucy looked around and spotted a few more black spheres in the sky. Each of them led to a different world. But, there was almost a dozen of them. She had no idea where to find her brother. She needed a clue of some kind.

Two of the Machine Spirit – Storm types took off into the black spheres. One headed to the black sphere that Lucy came from. One headed into another. Lucy followed the second one as it passed through the black sphere. The turbulence was a lot less than when she went through it by herself. The Machine Spirit – Storm absorbed the brunt of it.

When the turbulence cleared, Lucy could see a wide open plain. Behind her was an enormous wall that stretched as far as the eyes could see. The side panels on the Machine Spirit – Storm opened up as the Dust Devils within began to rain down onto the ground. Lucy quickly let go and went off to hide in the hills in the distance. From there, she could observe the fight using the suit.

The Machine Spirit – Storm opened up an enormous blast towards the wall. But, it was met by someone who deflected the attack away. There was a man in black and gold who stood atop the wall. He had single handedly stopped the attack. A group of individuals in black and gold rushed to intercept the attackers. The Dust Devils began to glow with a yellow light and entered into a berserker frenzy, jumping at the closest enemy.

One by one, the Dust Devils fell to slashes by the group in black and gold. Within a minute, they had all been stopped.

"You know, you stand out in that," said someone from behind Lucy.

Lucy turned around and saw a woman dressed as a maid. She recognized the woman from the attack on her world.

Name: Anna

Level: ???

Class: ???

Sub-Class: ???

Stats: ???

Threat Level: DANGER!

Lucy was not able to see Anna's abilities. But, the fact that it read danger meant that she needed to run. She turned around, but the maid was already in front of her. "You were there during the attack…" said Lucy.

"Where did you get that suit?" Anna asked.

The woman stared into Lucy's eyes. "Riley? No, you're not Riley."

"You know a Riley that looks like me?!?" Lucy shouted.

"I do," said Anna.

"Please, take me to him," said Lucy.

"Why?" Anna asked.

"He's my brother," said Lucy. "I've been looking for him."

"He's in the Forbidden City, scouting out the area before the Annual Tournament," said Anna. "I cannot bring you to him now."

Anna remembered seeing Lucy's face somewhere. "You're that girl from Riley's world, but why do you have that suit?"

"I built it," said Lucy.

Anna bit her finger nervously. "Who else has one?"

"Just me," said Lucy. "I figured out how to make it by analyzing the remains from the attack, but I took it so that I could search for my brother."

Anna let out a sigh of relief. "You must not let anyone, but your brother take a look at that suit do you understand?"

Lucy nodded. "Will you take me to my brother if I do?"

"Not yet," said Anna. "Your brother is doing something important in preparing for the upcoming war. You will have to wait to see him."

"War?" said Lucy. "What war?"

"A war that will decide the future of several words," said Anna. "But, I do have a task for you and your suit. If it works, you can help your brother come back more quickly as well."

Lucy considered that it might be a trap. She did not know this woman very well, but she could have killed her at any point, but chose not to. For Lucy, this was a chance to survive and to find her brother. "What do you need me to do?" Lucy asked.

"Far to the west is an enormous city called Anzio," said Anna. "I need you to go there and look for ruins beneath the city."

"Ruins? What kind of ruins?" Lucy asked.

"One that appears ancient, but has advanced technology," said Anna. "That is going to be key to the upcoming fight. If you can find it, it will make things easier for everyone and might be able to stop your home world from being attacked again."

Lucy paused for a second, but she had to trust this woman. After all, this woman helped protect her world. She at least owed this woman a favor for that alone, even if it meant delaying seeing her brother. "In exchange, I want to see my brother as soon as possible," said Lucy.

"I will tell him to wait for you in Constantinople when he is done here," said Anna. "Is that okay with you?"

"Where is Constantinople?" Lucy asked.

Anna placed her hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Teleport!"

In a flash, Lucy had moved to the middle of a large city. There were all sorts of strange creatures moving around and clearing up the rubble here. "Zedd!" Anna shouted.

An old man flew towards them. "Who is this?" Zedd asked.

"Riley's sister," said Anna. "She's going to help search Anzio."

"Then if Riley and Garnet can take Peking with Akiza, we will be ready to face the Guides," said Zedd.

Zedd turned to Lucy. "But can you handle it?" Zedd asked.

"I will do anything you ask of me as long as I get to see my brother again," said Lucy.

"Even kill?" Zedd asked.

Lucy hesitated. "If it's a bad person who intends to cause harm, I will kill," said Lucy. "But I will not kill innocent people."

"Good," said Zedd with a smile. "Because if you were willing to harm innocent people, then we would have a problem."

Anna handed Lucy a piece of paper. "You are looking for this," said Anna.

Lucy took a look at the piece of paper. There was a symbol on it. In the center of it was three triangles with an inverted triangle at the center. Around the corner of each triangle was a sphere. "May I ask what this is?"

"It is one third of a multi-world defense spell," Anna explained. "If we can get Garnet to activate and link all three cities, we can activate a defensive barrier that will force the Guides to this world and under the effects of a suppressing spell that will greatly weaken them and make them easy to kill."

Lucy was surprised. She had no idea such a thing was possible. On her world, they were focused on increasing their own power to become a match for their enemies. They had never considered finding a way to weaken their enemies. But, if you could strengthen yourself while weakening your enemies, it would vastly increase the difference in power and it would also be easier than always trying to build something bigger and better since innovation would often reach a bottleneck at some point. By closing in from two directions, you could make it a lot easier.

Zedd handed Lucy a few scraps of paper. "When you are ready to return, use one of these," said Zedd.

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

"A teleportation spell," Zedd answered. "Just channel your mana through it."

"I can't use mana," said Lucy. "Mana only comes from this suit."

"Can you channel the mana from your suit into it?" Zedd asked.

Lucy focused on activating the booster with the teleportation paper in hand. The paper lit up and flashed, warping Lucy several meters back where she first appeared in the city. "I guess that's a yes," said Lucy.