The cold bark of the tree pressed into Bella’s back. It thrummed with life — raw injection of the System’s power coursing as surely as the barbed tendrils that linked her to the blade — the blade that devoured the soul of a living creature like a vacuum devoured air.

Worse…

She felt that soul trickling through those barbed metal veins into her own. Felt her Skein replenished. Her body rejuvenated.

It felt amazing.

Had it really been a soul? Did monsters like that have souls? Did she?

No.

The answer from her sword was swift and final like a thrust through the eye.

You have no soul, but you have me.

The truth burned, blinding, as it weighed upon her and she sank into the shadow behind her eyes. What did it mean to devour the souls of her enemies?

Two paths opened.

One where she truly refused the sword. Starve until it fell from a grip too weak to grasp, or let someone… maybe Zoe… best her in combat. Let them take the blade and its horror.

Zoe seemed like she could handle the horrors of this new world.

Or Bella could embrace the blade.

Yes! Hissed the blade like the wind across a razor. Devouring the souls of our enemies means fewer enemies. We can climb to heights of power unparalleled. Stand before the sun and burn it down.

But, to what end?

Darkness enveloped her. Shadows stolen from a well inside a dungeon, where her salty tears dripped down to the still water below. She felt like a rip pulled her along, and she lacked the strength to fight the current.

How did Zoe keep on fighting?

How did Anton keep from caring?

She gripped the sword so tightly she felt her pulse thrum against the handle. A pulse answered from within the ancient metal.

What did she want?

Footsteps crunched the snow, and Bella opened her eyes.

Zoe crouched before her.

“We need to get moving,” she said. “Anton lost an eye on the perimeter. Reinforcements are coming.”

Zoe helped Bella to her feet, and they walked over to the bug’s corpse. The petrol station glowed down below them on the hill. In all the chaos of the fight, Bella had almost forgotten about it.

The fight…

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help more,” she hung her head. It had only been level 10, but it almost killed her! “I’ll improve…”

“That thing was empowered.”

Zoe showed her a large tooth. It was dense. True, somehow. It drew the eye like a diamond amongst pebbles. A promise of power.

“I’ve spotted the reinforcements,” Anton said. “Two mantis with eleven wings each.”

“So level 22?”

“We can stay and put that theory to the test.”

“No.”

Zoe gripped Bella’s shoulders. Drew her gaze.

“Hey, mate?” Zoe grinned scarred lips around the unfamiliar word. “I need you to cut the arms from this bug. Quickly.”

“Why?”

“Incorporation.”

Bella nodded. Despair could wait. She leaned down and pressed the runeblade between the armpit-like sockets of the mantis. Without its Skein, the metal carapace was tough, but not impenetrable. She hurried to cut as many limbs free as possible, focusing on the task, and ignoring the deep satisfaction as her sword edged closer to unlocking the second rune.

###

“Can I hold it?” Anton asked.

“No,” Zoe responded. “Keep an eye out.”

“I already have a dozen eyes out. These larger mantis are slower. We have time,” he said as he stared at the tooth in Zoe’s hand. “How did it empower the mantis? Does just holding it work, or do we need to swallow it?”

“It was inside the brain, not its stomach… When I was in Purgatory, Trinch snapped out one of his ribs and gave it to me.”

“He sounds like a beast.”

“He was an asshole. I only used the rib as a dagger, but it let me stab someone I couldn’t have harmed otherwise. From what I saw with the python bracelet, the essence is so dense it empowers —”

“Yeah, it’s time to go,” Anton hurried toward the semblance of a path continuing downhill.

“Bella?” Zoe asked.

“Done.”

Four limbs lay separated from the body. Zoe wished she could strip and harvest the whole body, but she would have to settle for the wickedly barbed claws. She stowed Trinch’s tooth in a pocket inside her jacket and lifted Oriz onto her shoulders. Anton picked up two claws, and Bella the others.

Without another word, they sprinted down the uneven terrain of snowy rock. The gas station was close. Once they hit the flat ground of the highway, they would be almost there.

“They’re behind us,” Anton grunted as his silver eyes flashed around them. “Dive left!”

As one they dove to the side. Zoe gripped Oriz as she activated [Self Reflects the World].

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A fat whip of turquoise energy struck the ground and splashed. Droplets flew out as they tumbled downhill. The liquid glowed white and sprouted an enormous grasping hand. Glowing fingers that could wrap around the hood of a car gouged the snowy ground as the hand groped blindly.

Some droplets landed on Zoe’s clothes. Tiny arms grew from the droplets and clawed at her. They popped when they touched her mirrored skin.

The slope she rolled down suddenly cut out. Zoe fell through the air and crashed into the snow at the bottom of a cliff. She groaned as she stood. Oriz had fallen clear and landed in the snow. Zoe lifted the unconscious woman and sprinted. Her feet pounded through the thick snow covering the highway.

The chill invaded her now. The harrowing, inexorable call to sleep of true cold. Exposure wearing through her exhausted mind.

“Right!”

Zoe blinked as she tried to understand what Anton meant.

She leaped.

Turquoise exploded above them. Hands rained down, grasping as they fell. They burst as they struck Zoe’s mirrored skin, a hand grabbed hold of Oriz’s leg and almost dragged her off Zoe’s shoulder. A swift mirrored punch dissipated the glowing appendage.

“Help!”

Bella lay pinned. A fat hand grasped her entire chest. Its glowing fingers sank into the earth on either side of her. Smaller hands gripped her wrists to prevent her from drawing her sword fully. She still grasped the handle and the caustic aura belted out, blackening the hands. Layers of charred flesh sloughed away, but still, the hands held her tight. The air stank like burning sugar and hair.

Anton swung a barbed mantis leg into the giant hand.

The long metal limb sank into the glowing liquid as though it were molten marshmallow. Tiny hands pulled themselves free of the sticky mass. They crawled along the length of metal, dragging themselves by their fingers, long wrists stretching from the mass and thinning like chewing gum. Anton dropped the limb and backed away as the hands grasped for him.

“The mantis are getting closer,” he said.

Two gigantic silhouettes strode down the hill. Each twice as tall as a human, with eleven gossamer wings spread out behind each monster. The giant insects advanced like judging sentinels. Their claws tucked in a posture of wicked prayer.

Zoe plunged her free hand into the sticky mass. The mirrored force of the blow expanded out. Pale flesh bulged, burped, and split.

Free of the weight, Bella grasped her sword. The caustic aura flashed out like burning oil.

The pale hands blackened. Melted. Anton hissed as aura washed over him, and it stuck to Zoe’s mirrored skin. She gritted her teeth against the burning pain as she grabbed Bella over her free shoulder and charged toward the gas station.

The yellow lights were close, and that was all she focused on. Snow past her knees dragged at her, but she plowed ahead. Each foot met the cold blacktop and propelled her forward. Breathe. Ignore the weight of friends. Build Momentum. She passed fuel pumps as turquoise liquid exploded against the roof. Long pale hands drooped down. She threw herself forward to avoid their clutches. They clawed at her clothes.

She hit the step out the front and rolled toward the doors. They opened blessedly. Bella crawled through the door as Zoe stood.

Where was Anton?

He walked up to her, hands in his pockets, as one of his eyes zipped through the closing electric doors of the gas station.

“They stopped following,” he said as he walked past.

Panting, Zoe looked back.

The giant mantises stood halfway down the slope where the sudden cliff scooped out the slope. They stood still as statues. Zoe felt their gaze even at this distance. Above level 20. Theory confirmed: two levels for every wing.

The door closed behind Anton.

Zoe took one last look at the watching mantis. The limbs of metal still lay at the bottom of the cliff, but Zoe would not risk it now.

She flipped off the monstrous bugs.

“Don’t be there when I leave.”

###

As Zoe passed through the sliding doors something strange draped over her. A sensation she couldn’t quite understand or even truly perceive as it blanked out her mind.

Relief.

The inside of the gas station was the closest thing to heaven she ever experienced. Harsh fluorescent lighting. Slightly too cold. Tall shelves lined with everything she could ever think of not needing. Bella fixed herself a coffee, muttering to herself as she stared at the option. Anton rummaged with something somewhere hidden behind the tall shelves. His silver eyes zipped through the air. If there was anything to worry about, she trusted him to find it.

So, insects outside keeping their distance, no threat in sight…

She strode straight to a shelf of individually wrapped cakes. Her fingers trembled as she tore open the package of a white powdered doughnut.

Scarred lips devoured the white pastry.

She wept as she tore open the package of a raspberry apple strudel. Flakes fell to the ground amidst the wrappers. She moaned. The swirl of a slushy machine caught her eye, and she hurried to grab a cup. Her fingers trembled, knocked over cups, and she tilted her mouth under the spout.

Cold blue slush spilled across her tongue. She swallowed, devoured, and waited for a brain freeze that didn’t come.

Breathe.

She pulled herself away even as her hunger growled at her.

She sank to the ground.

“We did it.”

Bella raised an eyebrow as she stirred a steaming cup of coffee.

“How many more times do you think we can keep doing it?”

“How long is a piece of string?”

“Hah. I’m at the end of my rope.”

Zoe chewed a red skittle in silence.

“Did you ever get a notification to reject the system?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You refused.”

Bella waved around at the gas station.

“And look at me now! Besides,” she grew serious, pacing. “I think, what happened to Cassy… She was unconscious.”

“You think she rejected the system while unconscious?”

“I think she couldn’t choose. The System rejected her.”

Bella set down her coffee as she gripped the pommel of her sword. Something dark in her eyes as she paced.

“Don’t you feel it? Pushing you along the path? Pulling you into place? It’s a train track straight into a blender.”

Zoe nodded. Bella pointed with her sword. The metal gleamed sable black in the light and the runes even darker.

“We have no control, Zoe. Why are we even together right now? What god gave us matching seats on the plane?” the blade wavered. “I’m not angry, I just… It’s in my head! Do you understand?”

“It’s in all our heads.”

“It’s playing us like a game,” Anton said from behind a shelf. “Don’t think we mean nothing. All of this effort is too great for us to mean nothing. We are not expendable, but we are not real, not to the system. There’s a dining area by the way, and a proper kitchen. We can make some actual food.”

“What does that mean?” Bella asked.

“Like burgers and stuff.”

“No, about the game…”

But the moment had passed. Whatever tension coiled around Bella, seemed to have passed. Zoe stood and hugged the blonde woman. Limp hands patted her back, before truly grasping. They held each other. Said nothing. Breathed.

And then they parted.

Bella returned to her coffee, and Zoe followed Anton into the dining area. For lack of a better place, she left Oriz sleeping in a booth.

With a quiet, relaxed mood they fished around in the kitchen and fired up the grill. Each burger had too many toppings, and they charred the meat on the outside but left it a little pink inside. Nobody cared. Bella even found some ranch.

They sat in the dining area as they cleaned their plates. No windows on the walls, just paintings of assorted fast foods. Consistent electric light. Cheap tiled floors. Heavens.

Anton cleared his throat.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Zoe raised an eyebrow.

“This sounds good.”

“Yeah, well, I —”

Zoe’s head exploded.