Explosions louder than bellowing thunder, flames that burn as bright as the sun, and gusts of winds strong enough to knock down buildings… Hyperion is dealing with all these while carrying a barely conscious girl in his arms. That elementary schooler’s life fully depends on Hyperion, the least experienced of the three rookies. His intellect and his handy divine key are the only things keeping the two of them.

“Don’t worry! I’ll keep you safe!”, he says as the kid nods off. “It’s alright! We’ll be fine!”

Sprinting all over the frozen wasteland of a lifeless tundra, he is under the assault of a raging rainbow peacock taking massive leaps into the air to encroach on its victims. Along with it follow fireflies that explode when met with resistance, butterflies with wing flaps powerful enough to knock the average person off their feet, and moths that absorb the surrounding heat and magic.

With haste, he hopes to reach a point where the lines between the real world and this domain blur so he and this kid can escape. In this icey horror lies only this uneven wasteland of ice and stone, a stormcloud that looms above them creating snowfall, and the mountain that pierces through the heart of that cloud. This entire domain is ominous and the demon itself still has yet to make its appearance. Strangely, there are two more creatures near the peak of the cloud-piercing mountain: a paladin clad in black armor and a cocoon with webs reaching into a cavern. He suspects that one or both could be responsible for creating this domain. There’s even a chance that neither are his target.

“You’ll be fine!”, he yells.

All rods and rings on his divine key come undone to form a golden spherical astrolabe protecting only the child he’s trying to save. With haste, he directs it away from him; away from the General pursuing them. The shaft largens and spins blocking projectiles from crashing into him. Just for a second, he looks back and attempts to spot the girl under his protection. Before he could turn around, he’s hit by a gust of wind blowing him into the ice and burrowing him in the waters below.

In absolute agony, he begins drowning as he attempts to move with a thrown-out back. While he’s dealing with excruciating pain, fireflies attempt to drill into him most narrowly avoiding him. A blown-out back and bullet-sized holes in his left lung while he’s drowning… Still, after these past two weeks of brutal beatdowns and extreme training regiments, this amount of pain isn’t enough to break his spirit. Kicking water as hard as he can, he torpedos himself out of the ice nearly splashing the peacock. It panics and walks in circles trying to keep its flames alive.

“So you’re easy to extinguish but live in a world where a misstep could kill you?”, he says mockingly. “And I’m struggling with something like you. What a joke!” After its little show of panic, Hyperion is mostly healthy. The holes that were drilled into him have closed and his back, though it still aches, is mostly fine.

“But knowing that won’t be enough to-”

He gets blitzed by the raging peacock of rainbow flames. The behemoth of a peacock burns brighter as it towers over him. A ferocious kick sends him flying. Somehow its speed has increased in exchange for a few of its plumes. On top of that, the creature atop the mountain guarding the strange cocoon has left its post. The Paladin is rushing for Hyperion and is only 100 seconds away.

Another strike with its incredibly powerful talons nearly eviscerates him. His eyes can track the enemies yet his body is too slow to use that input.

Before he could be struck by another attack, he spots a mirror wherein someone is holding onto the girl whose life he just saved. The person within that mirror, with the use of chains, delivers all the parts of his divine key he had given away to protect someone.

85 seconds…

“Thank you!”, he yells out as he is struck again. However, this time, a sphere as big as the peacock’s talons block the next attack. He throws it off its feet as its legion of fireflies shoots toward him. Not one of them can penetrate his shield.

“Had I used my shield earlier I could have figured something out, right?”, he laments. “Even with the overexposure of light magic… Wouldn’t that be better than being as wounded as she is?”

“No! I have to focus! I can think later!”

60 seconds…

“There’s still at least one more enemy!”

A kick coupled with the gusts of wind breaks through his shield. He dodges in the nick of time and rises into the air. His grand plan is to have his trusty spear do all the work. He lets himself fall in favor of letting his divine key spin at speeds that exceed 10 000 rotations per minute. He can’t maintain this deafening drill while free-falling and detaches the rings from his divine key.

40 seconds…

Holding onto one of the rings, he adjusts the angle at which his next attack must be fired to hit that pesky firebird while hardening his weapon.

25 seconds…

Finally, he finds the right angle at which he must fire his weapon. Now he can finally let go and adjust his rings to add power to this grand finisher.

20 seconds…

All rings are aligned and the spear is locked on. Hyperion shoots his shot and tempts fate as he watches his next target leap into the air with a greatsword in hand. His spear passes through his first ring and doubles its speed. Its new speed is doubled on top of that as the spear passes through the second ring. And its speed after passing through two rings doubles as well bringing about eightfold of its maximum speed.

Butterflies attempt to blow Hyperion’s weapon off its curse as fireflies bounce off his spear. Moths use the heat they’ve absorbed so far to unleash small explosions yet accomplish nothing of value.

“If it weren’t for the fact that you are so stupid you probably could survive, but…”, he jeers. “Even if you dodge, you’re done for!”

15 seconds…

The peacock only steps aside not knowing that this attack will break through the ice with such an impact that it will break the ice underneath it as well while creating a little water tornado that likely will extinguish this fiend. Hyperion laughs as it is submerged in ice and freezing cold water. Its flames extinguished, its fireflies knocked off course, its moths helpless, and its butterflies defeated, it screeches as it drowns. Its ashen body deteriorates as the creature dies in agony.

His laughter cannot echo for long as he is then approached by the dark paladin leaping into the air to strike him down with a greatsword.

0 seconds…

A heavy hit breaks through the three layers of shield the rings provide breaking most of the bones in his chest area while sending him flying. Shock and absolute agony overcome him as his foe far surpasses the strength of the fiend he had just taken down.

“That has to be the demon, right?!”, he agonizes as he crashes into another patch of ice even further away from that frosty mountain peak than ever before. He vomits blood and panics as bone shards penetrate his lungs and heart. His magic kicks into overdrive to compensate for the amount of damage taken and allow for quick recovery. Somehow, even his spine is affected with nerve damage causing numbness and a lack of feeling in parts of his body.

“Calm down! Calm down! Elena has hit you just as hard to prepare you for moments like these!”, he thinks as he is unable to yell. “I just have to nuke it as soon as it steps closer. One explosion at 10% should do!”

It rushes in once again but this time, a ball of light about the size of Hyperion’s palm is launched at it. It explodes before it could hit its extended yet it still delivers a devastating blow that sends the two of them flying. The armor scatters while a steaming pool of water dominates the battlefield. Despite his efforts, the armor reassembles to reform the paladin and hands him his greatsword.

“Then take this!”, he thinks as he allows it to draw closer. Right as he is hit, he hits the paladin with 20% of his magic causing even more mayhem than ever before only to achieve the same effect.

He comes to the conclusion that everything he has faced so far isn’t the lord of this domain. It has to be the cocoon getting further and further away as he battles what he believes to be mere Generals fighting for their master. Getting closer is nearly impossible as the being he’s facing now likely is faster than he is. His divine key can’t go that much faster for long as the eightfold boost gets dulled by distance.

Yet he still has one more idea. These explosions can propel him forward and cause a smoke screen that makes it hard to pinpoint where he will fly to or land without. Each explosion gets him closer to his goal yet he still has to pinpoint the cocoon and land on top of it if he wants to be certain that it’s going to get taken out.

The paladin finally reaches the cave where Hyperion landed in. It knows not where he is hiding. It just knows that he has to be here as it observed him landing directly in here. The paladin steps past the cocoon… It stepped past the cocoon Hyperion is crawling around on to avoid being spotted. The cocoon itself is trying to absorb him taking away a few fingers but the payoff is worth it as this next blast will be beyond everything Hyperion has showcased thus far.

“Hey!”, he yells getting cocky believing that the paladin will close in on him without its greatsword. “Got you!”

As if an atomic bomb had just gone off, the mountain peak is entirely vaporized along with his two targets. The mushroom cloud rises as the domain fades along with the cloud of death. Exhausted, he stumbles over his feet and falls unconscious as the Devil Seed lands in front of him. The person that helped him out picks up the Devil Seed leaving behind an apple.

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Meanwhile, Elena is fighting her own battle. Right now she’s facing off against a Fusion with one demon as the main threat and three more under the main threat’s control. Prometheia, through telepathy, is assisting Elena but remains outside the domain. At will, Prometheia can see whatever Elena sees while Elena can view the world the way Prometheia does.

Prometheia can read information off of living beings just by looking at them. For demons, it only showcases what they are classified as, their date of birth, their nature, and their name. As of now, after two years of learning, Elena finally has four of the seven alphabets needed for learning how to read the letters she can see above every living being. Prometheia finetunes Elena’s mind so that neither suffers the strain of an overabundance of information. On top of that, she still is responsible for the translation of terms as letters alone aren’t useful when you can’t use a single word within that language.

“Type 1 Fusion… No minions, generals, or demons other than our main target sighted so far,” says Prometheia. “The lack of minions and generals likely means that this one is rather fresh.”

Thanks to its recent birth, Dream Catchers that bother to look up reports made on demons likely can deal with this not-too-simple domain. Especially because 90% of the Dream Catchers in Germany do put enough effort into reports that certain demons are nimble and have escaped their grasp, it is even easier to predict the birth and abilities of fusions along with their pathway. Above lies a sky of acidic paint with occasional rainfall that can take out enemies and allies alike. Though the sky is fake, it is beautiful and adjusts to the eyes of those gazing at it. Never is it the same for everyone it looks down on.

Beneath the sky lie massive pillars made of basalt columns mashed together. Though their tops are perfectly even for snipers that intend to drill through their opponents, they can change to trip up victims trying to harm Repudiation or its acolytes.

Every pillar is submerged in an endless sea with no bottom wherein their biggest threat, Repudiation, itself is cowardly attacking from. Normal people are drowned within these waters and are often left to rot till the master of this domain is about to have their feast.

“You said your vision cannot see through solid objects, right?”, Elena asks. “Should I move around myself or just use one of my eyes?”

“Your eye,” replies Prometheia.

Elena is hiding behind one of the pillars. Thanks to their length and the proximity of pillars, hiding among them is easy. Creating threads within their color and covering herself underneath them is Elena’s way of keeping herself hidden. One of her eyes leaves her eye socket and quickly ascends only to be obliterated by a projectile ripping through it. She creates a new one in hopes of spotting her enemy only to be met with another shot that does drill a hole into her second eye yet it remains wedged into that eye. That is all she needs to know where the enemy is firing from and how strong they are.

“What do you think we should do?”, Elena asks. In battles like these, Elena and Prometheia are equals trying to figure out how to take down demons. Elena is at her weakest when the connection between them is severed.

“Medium risk.” Likewise, Prometheia is at her strongest when with Elena. The two of them are a pair that complete each other.

Elena maneuvers around the pillars with air blasts while spreading threads to raise her chance of victory. She comes to a sudden stop after narrowly avoiding another shot. Its trajectory tells her that her target can’t be far. Testing her luck by throwing a replica of her own arm, she determines that the sniper relocates not as fast as she does but still fast enough to run a little more. Every stop she makes means it gets further away.

Elena glances around trying to spot any more enemies possibly trying to lay a hand on her. Below and above are enemies approaching at a rapid pace as strange gooey essence akin to oil paint rains down on her. It burns through her skin and through her flesh meaning it likely is akin to acid. She quickly rises above the pillars narrowly avoiding another shot and two demons attempting to attack her while blowing off the paint on her. On top of that, she creates an air bubble to submerge herself in that reduces visibility but adds another layer of protection. The afflicted body parts are removed and replaced.

“I said medium risk! Don’t just expose yourself like that!”, yells Prometheia.

“Yeah, but I dragged out these three. So that’s something!”, she counters.

She’s exposed the locations and appearances of three demons. The sniper shooting at her is Repudiated Solitude, akin to a harpy. Harpies are mythological creatures half-human and half-bird generally depicted as maidens. This one is male with scarring under its nipples, wings as arms, talons and bird legs, and a tail. Its head is missing and an additional halo entirely made of flesh floats above it firing off the cone-shaped drill with ridges that cut and shred through the air.

Behind her is Repudiated Albertine, an evolved version of the demon that Franky was about to beat before being deterred by a rogue Dream Catcher forcing him to stop his pursuit. Now it is not only a child’s drawing on a wall, it’s your average doll meant for young girls. Its pigtails alone are the size of a house. Its eyes are pitch-black.

Beneath Elena lies a gray cube just the size of her head. Repudiation is its name meaning that this should be her main target. It remains submerged only using hydrokinesis to attack her.

She’s surrounded by enemies yet determined as overwhelming raw power means not that one’s victory is certain. Without wisdom and skill, power is absolutely worthless. Elena speeds towards Solitude maneuvering around pillars of water erupting from below, debris launched at her by a massive doll, and drills ejected by a flesh halo. Though attempts are made at escaping, Elena’s speed is superior to the speed of the sniping harpy trying to escape. Considering it has to turn around and look at her to aim, it can only hope someone intervenes.

“Help me!”, screams out a child. “Help!”

A moment of hesitation gets her shot in the shoulder and torpedoed upward by a pillar of water.

“Those pesky tricks… This Fusion is just a coward, right?”

“Seems so,” Prometheia replies. “You can take them.”

Tired of evading and maneuvering, Elena starts using her powers with no regard for her limits. Hardened threads lift Albertine into the air as Elena forms a violent tornado stronger than any naturally occurring one out there. Winds at Mach 1 obstruct the battlefield as all pillars in the vicinity crumble and shatter. Still, all this only creates a protective screen that allows for all projectiles to be destroyed and redirected before they can make contact with her. It isn’t enough to take out her opponents.

“Then I’ll finish this in four moves… after that, I’ll hurry to that stupid meeting and then get back home for dinner!”, she exclaims betting on who makes dinner.

A controlled blast sends her right past her target as threads emanate from her. Solitude is taken aback yet still attempts to fire at her only to be crushed by Albertine. As a last resort, before its death, it sends a massive tungsten rod descending from the skies as a form of kinetic bombardment. Its attempts are futile as the desperate final attempt is hindered by far greater winds pushing back its projectile.

“One. Two.”

Albertine, wrapped within threads, struggles in its attempts to wiggle itself out of bondage. Instead, it is crushed under the immense pressure delivered by threads that tightened its grip. Two more remain but the one pulling tricks on her has somehow vanished leaving behind its master.

“Three.”

She pulls in the cube, Repudiation, the true Fusion, and punches it as hard as she can. The lack of reaction and damage taken signifies that she needs far more. Water is rising and closing in on her to reclaim its master while Elena is letting the winds gather in her palm. Right now, the power of a tornado capable of leveling an entire city is focused on one point only to create a replica of the cones that were fired by Repudiated Solitude.

“Four.”

Elena finally fires her final attack at a Fusion that refuses to be destroyed. Meticulous drilling and incredible amounts of natural power finally crack the cube and break through revealing only one Devil Seed.

“Five.”

The domain dissipates with the leftover energy Elena had unleashed as she takes a deep breath and lies down on a patch of grass in the woods. Somewhat exhausted, she needs a small break before she can continue on.

“Chicken nuggets and wings,” says Prometheia.

The following day, Elena finally decides to gather every Dream Catcher in her territory. Yesterday’s meeting with the Bavarian Council revealed a grand operation that will occur two days from now. Munich is in peril as strange anomalies seem to gather within the most important city in Bavaria. Elena will be away to participate as one of the leading figures while everyone else will have to hold down the fort and uphold peace.

“With those strangers? Why would I want to deal with them?”, asks Franky. He’s as delighted as always to deal with Elena or the people associated with her. Even when faced with plenty of people far more respected and far more powerful than him, he still has the ability to run his mouth.

“Don’t care. You can do whatever as long as you stay away from the outskirts,” counters one of the new faces. East Asian features with darker complexity… He’s shrouded in mystique as his black, straight hair covers most of his head.

“I don’t babysit. Nor am I interested. I’ll just stay out of your way as long as you stay out of mine. You know how to reach me,” he says. Akio is just another strange man in his early twenties with a smoking problem. He doesn’t stand out all that much nor does he ever put in a lot of effort but he always gets the job done.

“Hey! At least have some respect!”, berates the other stranger. She’s a veteran that retired not too long ago. Though she is only 28, she has to retire as she has grown too weak to fight. Few know why she has become this weak but she still surpasses the likes of Elena and Hellfire.

“Respect? For her?”, he utters as he leaves. “I’m not trying to get cursed so leave me out of it, Maria.”

Maria chases after him as he closes the door on them. Both leave in a hurry not respecting Elena or the remaining guests. Since this little meeting isn’t all that urgent, she lets them go. On top of that, she’s used to being disrespected by those around her as she had been nicknamed Cursed Child since the start of her career. People do consider her an omen of disaster and rather notorious for bringing death wherever she goes.

“Are you just going to let them disrespect you like that?”, asks Franky. “Should you really be like that when you’re like one of the five leaders of Bavaria?”

“Don’t be like that. I’m sure she’s just being nice,” stammers Olivia. “She can’t help that they’re that… passionate.”

Olivia, a rookie who has been around for six months, is rather insecure. Though she has the power to be more, she often lacks courage and never does what she wishes to do. Those qualities have hindered her growth so far resulting in her being barely better than Hyperion.

“Also, we still have the four of us! Even if we don’t quite get along with those two, Olivia, Franky, Prome, and me should do just fine!”, adds Florence. He incites hope believing that their unity will let them jump over any hurdle. “They also seem quite capable! I’m sure that even without working together, we’ll be fine.”

“Yeah! I agree!”, says Olivia pumped up by Florence.

Prometheia jumps into Florence’s lap while Franky feigns indifference. Hopeful, Elena hands Florence the keys to her apartment with just one final message for the four of them.

“There’s a good chance I’m not coming back any time soon… or in one piece. Hell, this could be the last time we meet. So take care of this key while I’m away,” she says nearly tearing up. “While I’m away… you can use the house however you want as long as it remains in one piece.”

She leaves knowing that a mission awaits her 40 hours from now. Elena is rather relieved yet she cannot shake that there’s more she has to be worried about. She cannot explain why she’s relieved and only hopes that this time, the people she holds dear will be alive by the end of this whole ordeal.