I see it now - a purple gash through the air, ragged and branching like lightning. It’s in front of a table, but also behind a flowerbed that’s behind the table, as if reality couldn’t quite decide where to rip.

“Abyss, what have you done?” the mind-mage asks, her horrified voice cutting through the groaning metal, the people screaming, and the overlapping radio chatter.

“What we have done?” Althea answers, outraged. Her power is dimming, the green light retreating. The golden light pushing against her is gone, too. The mind-mage is gathering it back to herself, making her liquid armor shine brighter and brighter.

Kaelich, frozen halfway between the door at me, stares at the tear in midair.

There are things moving in it, I realize. Something like… claws.

Lords and Ladies. A demon. But this makes no sense - when Masters battle, sometimes they weaken the Veil enough for a demon to come through. But Althea and Iketek aren’t anywhere that powerful.

Then the tear opens, like a gaping maw, and something comes out, and I forget every rational question.

I scream, and close my eyes shut - but even like this, I see it. A snarling mass of claws splitting into other claws, glassy and insect-like. Around it, pale, silent wings unfurl.

“Demon!” Aeniki yells in our headpieces, “you’re in no state to face it, run away! We’re evacuating the building!”

Thoughts and images explode into my mind, unbidden - like words spoken directly inside my brain.

//I AM THE ONE WHO

OPENS

UNMAKES//

They aren’t true words, they’re flashes of raw concepts, visions of claws tearing, dismembering, breaking, everything from rock and bodies to subatomic particles. It will tear me, kill me, destroy me in a way worse than death…

//THE WAY SHALL BE

CUT

OPENED PREPARED FOR

THE GREAT UNMAKER//

“Oh, shut up,” the mind-mage says, and suddenly, the string of images, the pressure against my mind, eases off.

I look up, and she’s standing in front of the demon, left hand raised. A sigil of writhing golden light hovers above her hands, and she looks at the horrific mass of claws and horror like it’s a cockroach she found on the floor.

“Shoot it, you useless idiots!” She orders us.

My brain blanks for a moment - is a rogue mage telling us what to do? And if she didn’t summon the demon…

At my side, Kaelich starts shooting, pausing to aim after each bullet, even if I’ve no idea what xe’s aiming at.

The thing snarls, its claws tearing in mid-air, widening the rift, letting more and more claws through. Where the bullets hit, claws shatter like glass, and the whole monster winces.

We can hurt it.

I finally find my own pistol on the floor, get as stable as I can on one knee on a sloped floor, and take a deep breath. It’s hard to stare at the demon, my brains scream at me to look away, to run. It’s like trying to touch a nest of swarming insects, but Lost Stars, Kaelich managed it, and so will I.

Demons have no vitals. But where they concentrate their power the most, they’re most vulnerable.

A group of claws are coalescing toward the mind-mage. I shoot two bullets in quick succession. The first misses - it’s hard to tell where the fucking thing is and where it isn’t - but the second hits, and the purple claws lose color and wither.

The demon snarls, and the world trembles - I become heavier for a moment, then lighter, and see the glass on the floor starting to levitate upwards.

Then the demon strikes at us. Claws snap toward Kaelich and me, so quick I can barely blink - but a wall of emerald light appears in front of us, and the demon hits it with a flurry of claws. Green bits break off, and the whole shield ripples, but it doesn’t break, and it stops the demon.

“The glass tower stands!” Althea screams, and then laughs. She walks toward the demon, a wide grin on her face, now made of pure green light. She looks glorious. The demon recoils from her, and I’m hit with a stream of alien anger and outrage - but whatever the mind-mage did, it works, because it doesn’t overload my brain anymore.

Are we killing it? Claws break off, but they reform. The purple gash through the air is still there, and getting wider.

Demons aren’t mages. Even if a bullet hits them, they’ve no organs to rupture – kinetic energy is useless. The only thing that matters is silver, and bullets are too small to do the trick.

My sword is on the floor, and I’m in no state to handle it, no matter how many drugs I pump in my system.

But of course, I still have a lot of silver - in my armor. A strange calm settles over me. In this chaos, I finally have a sound plan to follow.

“Kaelich,” I say, “when Althea’s shield comes down, shoot once more, then hold fire.”

“What…” xe asks.

“Trust me,” I say. The demon is close - and it will have to come closer to attack us. I drop the pistol, take a theta grenade, and press the other hand against the floor. I keep my eyes fixed on the demon, past the shield of green light - every second I look at it hurts, and I have to fight the urge to recoil and run.

“I swear to stand against the horrors beyond,” I whisper. For all the Agency’s faults, I believe in our oath. It’s a reminder we’re more than a bunch of overpaid soldiers waiting for a cozy pension. More than a bunch of kids playing with silver knives.

Althea points her arms toward the demon, and tables, stools, potted plants fly toward it - but they just pass through the mass of snarling claws, getting sliced to ribbons along the way. Of course telekinesis doesn’t work - she isn’t thinking straight.

“I swear to battle the dark power, I swear to fight those who tear the veil,” I go on, and for the first time, I realize what a terrible oath I took.

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The demon strikes again, an avalanche of glassy thorns. Althea’s green shield breaks, and Kaelich shoots, with perfect timing - some claws break, but the keeps charging us.

This is the time. I order my suit to release all my remaining doses of Rush and Still - I really don’t care about long term effects, now. Five needles breach my skin, and then…focus, like I’ve never felt before, the whole world reduced to two single things: me, and my target.

“Until my strength shall fail,” I say, and jump toward a reality-breaking horror. Adrenaline flows in my vein like fire, and the pain in my broken ankle is only a distant memory. I don’t even feel fear anymore, only perfect serenity, as I lunge straight toward the demon.

It’s like landing into a scorching wind, claws bite and tear, my visor cracks and then breaks, and my face hurt like it’s being flayed - but that’s nothing compared to the horror, the sickening visions of claws tearing people from the inside, dismantling cities, consuming words and stars, rock by rock, atom by atom.

“Until the war is won, and the sky is mended!” I say, even as my mouth fills with blood, and I trigger the theta grenade, letting it fall at my feet.

High on adrenaline, I barely register the claws raking at my suit, tearing my skin, but my synapses are still riding on Y, and I feel the sharp crack of the grenade going on.

The demon shrieks with pain and revulsion. The burning wind flaying my face abates, the claws tearing my skin break, and the visions of horror and destruction disappear like nightmares upon waking. The demon is fleeing, dragging itself toward the gaping hole in the terrace side.

“Oh you’re not doing that,” a thin, bitter voice says, and bright red light blossoms in midair, made of geometrical, interlocking lines, like circuitry. It forms something like a flower of light, a glyph more complex than any I’ve seen before. “Stay and be banished!”

The demon screeches, its claws swipe toward the light, but then the red flower explodes. Crimons lines zip like sewing needles along the purple tears, and the Veil starts to close.

//TIME IS NOTHING AND

YOU ARE NOTHING

MORTAL IGNORANT

THE PATH SHALL BE

OPENED

MADE

REMADE//

The demon screams in my mind, and I get a final, sharp vision of a huge green thing suspended over Rakavdon, so long it stretches to the horizon, and we’re small, powerless, doomed-

There’s a final purple flash, a last flurry of claws, and a burst of force pushes me down. All air leaves my lungs, and the floor rumbles below me. With a horrific noise, the damaged part of the terrace breaks off. There are more groans, and the floor tilts, to the point I start sliding down, toward the sixty-floor fall.

Fuck. My drugs are already wearing off, leaving me utterly empty, too tired to even lift my little finger. There’s nothing I can do to stop my fall. But I don’t mind. I proved myself worthy, even if only to Quicksilver. And I trust Aeniki and my teammates - my friends - will clean the rot away from Rakavdon base. As for me… I killed a demon. That’s enough of an achievement for one life.

But as I wait for it, my fall never comes. On the contrary, I start moving upslope. Groggy, I glance down, to see a flowerbed moving against gravity, pushing me to my team, to safety. It glows green, and when I look up I see Althea, her face distorted with concentration, her fingers clawed like she’s physically pulling a rope.

Hurting everywhere, exhausted, and still lying on the floor, I get pushed back to the broken restaurant door - where the building is still mostly intact. Althea kneels next to me, and in her green, burning eyes there’s not relief or concern, but only anger.

“Help!” Kaelich screams - my earpiece is bust, but with the helmet gone, I hear noises the regular way. I turn to xem, even if I’m in no state to help anyone.

It takes me a moment to find xem - xe’s lodged precariously on an almost-vertical piece of mostly-detached concrete, xir feet propped against a bent metal beam. Xe’s trying to grab something to climb back up, but the floor doesn’t have good handholds, and an avalanche of construction material is falling around xem. Fuck, fuck.

As I watch, a chunk of falling concrete hits xem in the back, and I miss a heartbeat - it’s like looking at the demon again, unadulterated horror etching every moment in my memory, as Kaelich stumbles and loses xir footing.

Althea raises her arms, and green light gathers around Kaelich - but it immediately dissolves, dispelled by the silver in xir armor. Xe swears, and grabs with one hand the same steel beam xe was previously standing on. Xir feet slide, though, and now xe’s swinging over the void with half xir body.

I’ve done enough physical training to read the situation. Xe can’t climb back by xirself. Xe can’t even raise himself to the previous position, without some leverage - Kaelich is very strong, but xe’s also heavy and wearing combat armor. It’s the kind of situation where you need help, fast.

“Throw xem a line! Something to climb!”, I yell. But Althea ignores me, and she conjures a plane of green ice-like magic under Kaelich’s feet. Xe pushes with xir feet against it, and for a moment, I think xe’ll manage to pull himself to a better position, at least - but then the green barrier breaks, and xe falls, until xe’s clinging to the beam by the fingers of a single hand, desperately trying to get xir feet against something solid.

“You’re all fucking useless,” Jaeleri mumbles, near me. His eyes glow red. He puts one hand down, and it sinks into the marble floor as if it was liquid. Circuit-like red lines shoot from the point of contact, running along the broken floor, until they reach Kaelich.

“Xir silver will…” I start.

“Shut up. I’m not an idiot like your girlfriend,” Jaeleri mumbles, and as I watch, the bent marble flows under Kaelich, forming a shape like a large cupped hand under xem. Kaelich finally can prop xir feet against something solid, and xe lets go of the metal beam, collapsing on the magic-ed floor.

Jaeleri frowns with concentration, and his arm turns into red glass all the way to the shoulder. Metal creaks and concrete groans, and the piece of terrace Kaelich was standing on starts to tilt up, re-aligning with the restaurant’s level. Soon, Kaelich can simply stand up and walk to us. It’s hard to make out xir face through the visor, but when xe speaks, xe sounds dazed.

“Uh,” xe says, “thanks. We need a doctor. Cerical looks like shit.”

“I’ll call a doctor!” Althea snaps. “You fucking useless people stay here so you don’t get even more hurt. The mind-mage fled. I must get her. And that shit Korentis. I’ll find xem, I’ll show…”

Even through the haze of exhaustion, I can tell something is wrong with her. Her disincarnated arm flickers, it looks like fire more than glass. And worse, much worse - there’s a crack of green light cutting through her red-and-gold sleeve.

“We’re done for today, Althea,” Kaelich says. “Leave the Else, we…”

“I’m not fucking done!” She yells, balling her fists. “I should have gone alone, you were just in the way! Sorivel! Where’s the mind-mage?”

Her voice trembles with anger, and Jaeleri’s eyes go wide, as he quietly takes a step back.

“Althea,” I say, careful. I hate how sluggish my voice is.. “You’re not thinking straight. Just let go of your power for a moment, and…”

Her mouth twists in a terrible snark. “And you’ll do what? You’ll arrest me?” She asks, her voice shaking with fury. “Why do I have to fucking obey you? I’m the only one who actually gets things done! I’ve been more useful to the agency than all of you combined, and I’m sick of taking orders!”

Oh, fuck. This is bad. Althea is strong-headed at the best of times, and right now, magic is twisting her mind.

“I’m not sure you should obey me,” Kaelich says, quiet. “But you should listen to me, because I’m your friend, and I’m tired, and Cerical is hurt. We need you to leave the Else. Only for a moment. Please.”

She looks at xem, her eyes wild. Cutlery and pieces of broken glass start floating in midair, and for a moment I really fear she’ll attack us.

Then, she takes a deep breath. The floating stuff falls down with a clatter, and light starts fading from Althea’s body.

It usually takes her only a few seconds to re-incarnate. Now, her arms and neck are turning back to normal skin - but slowly, grudgingly. She frowns, and I realize she’s struggling to let the magic go.

But once flesh reaches her elbow, it looks easier. She takes one more breath, and she’s fully incarnated again. There’s a look of horror in her eyes, now, instead of that terrible burning anger.

She slumps to sit next to me. “Exiled’s ass,” she says says, her voice feeble. “That was… bad. Wait. Cerical, how are you?”

That’s a good question. My leg is definitely broken. I’m hurting everywhere, my face is a cake of blood, and my head feels full of cotton..

“Been worse,” I slur. “Not sure when. We killed a demon, though. That was nice. Did team green get Korentis?”