The winds of hell blew hot and dry as they swept between Zoe and the other contestants from the Gambler’s game. She stood in front of the corpse of the Earth System, with her friends beside her. The tongue of that deceased god sat within her mouth, and she wanted to check her status and see if anything had changed, but this was not the time.

These other human contestants — the Scottish punks, and the South African family — were selected by the Gambler for a reason. Zoe knew she had been one of the most powerful people, but that meant these others were in the same tier as her. The family all wore those hyena skin cloaks, and she witnessed them heal injuries during the game. The youngest daughter still lacked an eye, but the wound was cleanly healed as though it had happened years ago.

She had no way of telling what other tricks they might have. No way of knowing what each of them might be capable of. After all, she had survived the apocalypse up to this point, would she want to meet herself in a dark alley?

Probably not.

Brassus, the black-skinned suburbanite brewer with the hyena cape leaned against his wife. His severed foot removed his mobility. Zoe felt a strange sense of sympathy. It wasn’t long ago that she had suffered the same injury.

He gazed unflinchingly at her.

“You took the Earth System corpse.”

“I did.”

“I need its eye for my daughter.”

“No way,” said Anton. “No way in hell.”

The line, spoken on instinct, stumbled the conversation. For a moment, they were all aware of the absurdity of the situation, and the blonde punk even laughed.

Brassus glowered, but at a look from his wife, he visibly forced his voice to remain even.

“Please. None of this is fair… you were a part of the same game as we were, but you can help my daughter. I saw you use the tongue to help yourself. It’s possible. I will pay anything.”

Anton’s eye flashed in front of the man’s face.

“You think money is worth anything?”

“I have more than money!”

Bella stepped closer to Zoe as the argument escalated.

“Reminds me of the plane,” she whispered as her grip tightened on the sword. “Bunch of headless chickens.”

It was like the plane crash. A group of strangers forced together by tragedy, but they had one thing in common.

[Our Hearts Toll as One]

“We’re all alive,” Zoe said as she pushed her technique into her words.

The effect rippled over everyone. They all turned toward her. She could feel her whispers washing over them. It did not sway them, not even a little, but she had their attention.

“I guarantee whoever tries to take this corpse from me,” she stared at the other contestants. “You will die. Right now, we’re all alive. Right now, we can make our way out of here, and I know that working together is the best way to do that.”

Bella was right, this was like the plane. They had been strangers, and some of them — like Anton — had wanted to kill her, but in the end, working together had seen them survive the dungeon that followed.

Some of those strangers were now the closest friends she ever held.

ding!

And I like them too!

Zoe grinned with her scarred lips. Hopefully, her words would be enough. She didn’t want to fight more humans — didn’t want to have to kill them — and she didn’t want to know what would happen if they denied her Hunger the corpse.

Fleetingly, she wondered if it might have been better to take Lorrilla’s corpse. She knew Trinch’s body was a powerful treasure, and a godling of Love would be even greater…

But the thought of Rue’s fury at his — friend’s? Lover’s? — corpse being desecrated made even her Hunger gag.

Derek, the Scottish man with the pink pompadour and the bleeding holes for ears, swaggered toward Zoe.

“Even if I could listen to ya,” he said louder than needed. “I don’t think I would! You’re sided with Deviant Jack. His first album might have been revolutionary, but once a sellout, always a sellout! If you associate with him, then you’re no better!” His whole body twitched, and his veins writhed, as he activated some technique. “I’m going to give you to the count of three to step away from that corpse.”

The two ladies on either side stepped clear of him and started circling. Though they were dressed like punk strippers in torn denim, tight leather, and fishnets, with safety pin piercings and heavy makeup, they looked more than capable of fighting. Lightning crackled between the hands of the blonde, while the dark-haired punk produced a bronze-tipped spear from a pocket that should have struggled to hold a cigarette.

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“One!”

His muscles swelled. Veins popped. His grin grew fangs.

Zoe and her friends readied themselves. Brassus moved his family behind him.

“Two!”

Derek threw a colossal punch, but Zoe was faster.

Her chains extended as her fist shot through the air. It passed over Derek’s preemptive strike and caught him by surprise in the neck.

“Urk!”

Her fist slammed into his swelling throat. The blow did little more than piss him off as his muscles continued to pump with blood and Skein. Was he one of Lorrilla’s favorites, back before she died?

Zoe didn’t bother thinking about it as she extended her fingers around his throat like a noose.

[I Will Carry You]

She increased the weight as much as she could until her shoulder burned just keeping her arm outstretched. Derek’s face grew red as he pawed at the chains around his throat.

“Don’t panic,” Zoe said. “With a vitality like yours, it will take several minutes before you run out of air.”

The two punk women snarled and charged at Zoe.

A spear thrust toward her, but Bella intercepted it with shocking grace. She moved the runeblade with a confidence Zoe had never seen before and flicked the spear away.

The dark-haired punk smirked as she twirled her spear around. A mouth opened in the bronze spearhead, and it shrieked through the air as a long tongue emerged.

“I see I’m not the only one blessed with a rune weapon,” she said. “But you’ll never complete the Mubilashi-Maelstrom quest.”

“Blessed?” Bella scoffed. “Blessed?”

The blonde Australian charged forward, her blade swinging hard to intercept the return of the screaming spear. The enchanted weapons clanged. White fiery sparks spat out as their attacks grew faster and faster.

Anton flexed a hand, his invisible air technique at the ready as he eyed the blonde punk. Her lightning flickered up her arms, but she hesitated.

“What’ll it be?” Anton asked her. “Think you can take us all on? You think she can, Jack”

A ball of fire flowered between Jack’s palms.

“I don’t think she can.”

The blonde woman smiled. Eerie, like a doll’s smile.

“I don’t think I need to,” she said.

Anton frowned.

“What do —”

The blonde punk spun and pointed double finger guns at her allies. Two bolts of lightning spat out. One struck Derek as he knelt and groped at the chain. The other struck the dark-haired punk in the small of the back as she defended against Bella’s strike.

Both electrocuted punks stiffened. Zoe seized the moment to wrench her hands and snap Derek’s neck.

As the spear stiffened in the dark-haired punk’s grip, her guard grew sloppy, and so Bella moved past her guard and thrust her blade through sternum and heart. The tiny denim vest provided no resistance and barely soaked up the blood bubbling forth.

Moments after the fight began, it was over. Two more corpses lay on the metal floor of the hell. It hadn’t been a fight at all, really, not for Zoe as she merely struggled to maintain her techniques.

And now she was drained. Her muscles ached in ways they hadn’t since before the apocalypse when an associate at the clinic had persuaded her to go to a CrossFit studio on the other side of town.

Overwhelming force only worked while it could be sustained, and if any of them attacked her now, she wouldn’t be able to so much as lift her arms in response.

The blonde punk seemed to have made her position clear, which just left the family. Blood could be a powerful bond, but Zoe knew it was a precarious one. What would Brassus do now? She met his eye, and the man nodded at her.

He understood she didn’t have the strength left to resist him and his family. He was smart enough to see that.

But he wasn’t stupid enough to discount her allies.

If he attacked, he would need overwhelming force, or his family would suffer.

If he had overwhelming force, he would have attacked while they were distracted.

He hadn’t, and so he didn’t.

They were at a stalemate.

Or maybe, just maybe — laughable as the idea was — he didn’t want to fight other people if he didn’t have to.

Zoe nodded back to him.

“This corpse belongs to me,” she said. “I dragged it here, and so it’s mine. I don’t care how childish that makes me sound. But,” she said before he could interrupt her. “I will allow your daughter an eye.”

“Zoe!”

Anton whirled on her. A look of betrayal on his face. It was so out of place compared to his usual poker face that Zoe couldn’t help chuckling.

“Anton, she is a child.”

“And?”

“And she’s getting her eye back.”

“Only one eye, though!” he couldn’t completely hide the question in the statement.

Zoe nodded.

“She suffered in the game, so it’s only fair she regains what she lost. All of us who paid the Gambler’s mad price will have a chance at healing. As for the rest of you…”

She eyed Brassus’s family and the blonde punk who stood smirking above the corpses of her former allies.

“If you join with me, I shall feed you the flesh of our former god. Make its strength your own, and together we shall escape this hell.”

The blonde punk crossed her arms.

“Fine and dandy, but what proof do you have we can escape?”

Bella gestured to herself and Oriz.

“We’ve been here before,” she said. “We got out.”

She let her status bleed forth and displayed her title.

[Hellbreaker: your time in hell is treated as real-time and you earn commensurate rewards from death energy and meditation]

The blonde punk’s eyebrows shot up.

“Ok, I believe you,” she said as she looked over at Jack. “I always preferred your later albums, anyway.”

“Me too,” said Jack with a smile.

“I’ll join you,” the punk said as she knelt. “If you’ll have me.”

Brassus whispered to his wife. She whispered back, and Brassus spoke up.

“Heal my daughter, and we will join you. But whatever happens in this so-called hell, I will put my family first.”

“As you should,” Zoe responded, more anger in her voice than she meant to let out. “As you should.”

[Our Hearts Toll as One]

The whispered wave of Skein rolled out — almost draining her — and she felt it wrap around the hearts of the five humans. Without resistance, her technique settled into place, and she sighed with relief.

Despite the heat, the cages, and the horror of hell, she felt a moment of lightness. Together, they would make it out of here.

She had to believe it was possible, and so she did.

ding!

I believe it too! More friends is the best amount of friends!

Zoe agreed.

Now she just needed to figure out how to get everyone out of —

[System Announcement]

Everyone froze as the cold voice rang through the air.

[Due to your proximity to Rue the Usurper, you have a choice]

“Choice?” Brassus asked. “What is this?”

“He did it…” Bella whispered. “He killed the Gambler.”

[A new front opens in the eternal war. Do you side with the Crimson Armada that has given you the strength you currently enjoy, or do you side with the Heart Torn System and the chaos it represents?]