“We should just go in and get him,” Olivia said.

Bram shook his head. “We’re not doing it in the Store.”

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

Olivia sighed in exasperation, but said no more.

He glanced at Ilse, who hadn’t spoken a word since her brother died.

Bram was worried about her.

Worried that she would falter, or break down in a critical moment.

It was a risk he had no choice but to take. They needed her. Without her, they might not survive this encounter.

Not unless their Scion got involved, which couldn’t be counted on.

Bram glanced over at said Scion, an average-size man with anything but an average power, who was staring unblinkingly at the door Sebastian Finch had gone through.

At least ten minutes ago.

Bram shook his head and returned his attention to the door. It wasn’t just their target in there now, but also a cultivator; someone from that other world that had fused into this one.

The cultivator had been blue to him, which meant she was more powerful, but he couldn’t tell how much more. The cultivators were different, had different ranks, and even though he could get a general sense of their power, the feel of it was distinct and hard to interpret. They’d managed to take out a Wolf-rank cultivator, but that was back when they were seven, and this girl was far stronger than the Wolf had been.

Even though it hadn’t been a part of Bram’s plan, it was a lucky thing their Scion was here with them, else she might have detected them waiting in ambush.

Another complication was Sanne.

So far as Bram knew, she was the only one who could remove the card they were after. But right now, she wasn’t capable of much of anything.

Which meant they had to capture Finch, kill him, and rip the card out the old-fashioned way. They wouldn’t be able to remove it from whatever type of core was holding it, so they would still have to wait for Sanne to regain power before they could remove it from that and actually make any use of it.

Unless their Scion had tricks Bram didn’t know about. Which was entirely possible. Bram knew next to nothing about their Scion or his abilities.

He hardly knew anything about his own abilities.

They could get cards with nice descriptions of what they did, but as Vassals, the base they started from was a mystery they had to figure out for themselves. Some, like Ilse, had it easy. Healing, and the ability to share powers with her twin. Same for Olivia, who could forge herself into a weapon.

But while Sanne’s power had at first seemed simple—becoming a human torch—it was turning out to be far more complicated than they ever could have imagined.

And even Ilse’s turned out to be not as simple as it seemed, for that matter. Because even though her brother was dead, she still could fly, still could share her power with the rest of them.

And Bram, well, he could feel the monster inside him, invading his thoughts, but he didn’t know what it was doing to him. It was hard to assess yourself from the inside.

He glanced over at his Scion again, wondering what the man would be like with Finch’s power to defy death.

Bram wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

He’d had a plan for that too, one he’d made after their Scion informed them of their mission and the ability. Now it had gone off the rails. Not fully, he could still recover, but this wasn’t how he’d wanted to do things. The Scion wasn’t meant to be with them. Lars, Daan, and Niels weren’t supposed to be dead. Sanne wasn’t supposed to be weak as a kitten. Ilse wasn’t supposed to be on the brink of madness.

Somehow, it’d worked out so that Olivia was currently the only one he could count on.

Which wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he’d made her leave Sebastian’s cards behind.

Bram knew how rare cards were right now, and even with a power like Finch possessed, he would still want more. He’d gone after those cards, after all. Fought for them. Stabbed Lars in the eye for them.

So Bram had known that once himself and the others had left, Finch would get his cards and use them. Which meant he’d need to get to a World Store to buy a deck initiator.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Because something Sanne had discovered during their fight was that the man’s core deck was empty, that he hadn’t used an initiator. Bram didn’t know how that was possible, but it was. Finch had a card, yet no core deck.

Osiris confirmed this, but was unwilling to expound further.

The Apocalypse System didn’t handhold. It made you work, made you figure things out on your own.

This was a test, after all. Phase 1, The Introduction. Things were going to get a lot more interesting once it was over, for both Vassals and solos.

But as Vassals, they had an advantage: information. And right now, that could be more useful than any card.

Except perhaps the one Finch possessed.

Even Bram himself had been able to feel its activation, and as new as he was to all this, could feel it was something different.

How, exactly, Osiris wouldn’t—or couldn’t—say. That would violate the Prime Tenets. Which even as a Vassal, Bram wasn’t privy to.

But if it worried the System itself, it was powerful indeed. Which was why it was so important for Bram to get that card from Finch. Whatever it took.

They’d underestimated Finch the first time. They wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Finch was in there. Once he bought an initiator, he would discover he had to come outside to use it. And when he did?

Complete deactivation of all powers. Something which Osiris was able to confirm.

Which meant that all they had to do now, was wait.

∎ ∎ ∎

When Sebastian went to buy the deck initiator, he discovered it missing from its spot on the wall, something called a healing shot in its place.

He frowned. “I was sure it was right here.”

He asked the System to guide him to the nearest deck initiator, but was told there were none in this location.

“It’s gone,” he said in confusion.

“There was someone in here,” Eema said, “maybe he bought it.”

Sebastian shook his head slowly. “Nah, I saw it after that.” Then he wondered something. “Uh, do you do like online delivery or something?” he asked the System.

Items in one World Store outpost may be purchased from any other using an Exchange Token, or through the auction system. Pickup only.

Sebastian wasn’t sure if that last bit was supposed to be a joke, or simply answering his question about delivery.

“It says you can buy items from other World Store outposts,” he told Eema. “Someone must have bought that one.”

“Yes, I saw,” Eema said.

“You saw who took it?”

“No. The… System, what it said. It spoke to me as well just now. Words, in my head.”

“Really? Weird.”

Foreign aspirant Qin Li Eema and aspirant Sebastian Finch are considered a team for purposes of System communication.

Would you like to disband?

They looked at each other, then after a moment Sebastian said, “No. That’s fine.” He sighed. “Someone must have bought the initiator out from under me.” He looked around. “Do they have to come here to pick it up?”

“Maybe there’s another one,” Eema suggested.

“System, is there another deck initiator nearby?”

There are no Deck Initiators available in this location.

“There must be more,” Eema said. “The outposts are no more than a day’s walk from one another, which means there must be thousands of them.”

Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, I was just thinking that. What about from other outposts?” he asked the System. “Or the auction thing you mentioned? Are there any initiators for sale on either of those?”

Information not available. Use World Store network interface to gain access.

“Okay… Where is that?”

Forty-three feet ahead of you, and six feet to your right.

“Oh so you can tell me where that is but make me play Hot and Cold to find anything else.”

Requests for guidance are replied to with guidance. Requests for locations are replied to with locations.

Sebastian shook his head and he and Eema headed toward the device, which the System added a pulsing light around to draw his attention to.

The light disappeared when they reached it, and Sebastian examined it.

[https://i.imgur.com/s6n59b9.jpg]

It looked like a star made of bronze and tin, floating a few inches above what was maybe a projector and surrounded by a glowing circle.

“There’s power coming from this,” Eema said, holding her hand out to it, but not touching it. “It’s connected to…” She squinted, shook her head. “I can’t tell. Something immense.”

“Let’s find out.”

He activated it with a thought.

Items popped into existence around them, floating in the air along with prices below them.

He tried touching one of the items, but his hand came up against the same forcefield that protected everything in the shop. He wondered if the items were really there, or just a projection. They seemed real enough. Three-dimensional.

“Can you see this?” he asked Eema.

By way of answer, she used the interface to search for a deck initiator.

None were listed for sale in the auction system, but a message appeared saying there were others available at other World Store outposts.

He focused on it.

Would you like to browse the Bazaar?

“Is that not what this is? Yeah, sure. Show it to us.”

The items blinked out from around them and the star apparatus suddenly grew larger, a spike coming out from the circle below it, connecting to it, and the entire thing began glowing in a familiar way.

It looked like an aberration, or at least the air around it did.

“Sebastian,” Eema said. “Something is—”

But before she could finish, the aberration flashed, and they both disappeared.