Sebastian found himself returned to the roof of Anomaly Labs’ office. The first thing he noticed was the wail of sirens throughout the city. The second was that he was on his back, looking up into a sky full of swirling colors.

He’d made it.

He was alive.

He stared at the colors, seeing shapes moving within. But not the ones which had been in the sky for a year. These were different, like a superimposed image of a completely different sky. Different clouds, but also something he couldn’t put his finger on.

It was disorienting.

When he sat up, he saw the effect wasn’t limited to just the sky.

The world of a few minutes before had been replaced by something alien. Unfamiliar trees shot up through buildings as though it was the inorganic that had grown around the organic. What once had been a main road was now a rushing river flowing right through a canal, carrying cars and bicycles and other debris. A building across that very same canal sat half-demolished on what appeared to now be the edge of a deep canyon waterfall.

“What is going on?”

As if in answer, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

This time it wasn’t a text, but a call from the same gibberish number. Anubis.

He answered, and a voice came through his earbuds. Soft, vaguely British, and speaking at at least twice the normal rate, yet perfectly intelligibly.

“The connection is growing, so I can speak to you now. Paradoxically, when it gets strong enough, we’ll no longer be able to communicate. They will come for you, after what you have done. I am sorry. But this was the only way Earth stood a chance. The awoken Scion is headed in your direction. You should leave before he arrives.”

“A Scion?” Sebastian asked.

“Yes, of the Apocalypse System. You have been calling it Osiris. It is the loud voice you heard earlier. You do not have time for me to explain. Go now, head northwest. You must avoid the Scion at all costs. To face him now would be death for you. And dying is not yet safe.”

Sebastian wondered how dying would ever be safe, but didn’t ask, instead stowing the phone back in his pocket and heading for the stairs leading off the roof.

“At least I can talk to you while moving this way.”

“That is why I switched to this method of communication.”

He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around. “Which—”

“Ahead and to the left.”

Sebastian set off in that direction. “You can see me?”

“For now.”

“Through cameras?”

“No. Through reality.”

That was a lot to process, so Sebastian didn’t bother trying for the moment.

The crowds of earlier were missing, and other than the occasional vehicle driving far too fast, he was alone on the streets.

He wondered where everyone had gone.

He did see one person, wearing what looked like a billowing silk robe, hopping from roof to roof at speed, heading in the same direction he was but quickly outpacing him.

“Uh…”

“She is a new arrival,” Anubis answered his unspoken question. “Do not worry, she is not a danger to you.”

“New arrival? A Scion?”

“No. Someone from the world that is fusing into this one.”

“That’s what this is? Two worlds fusing? Apocalypse System is a good name.”

“This is not its doing, but yours.”

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Sebastian stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“When you broke through the transition zone, it opened a path to another realm and allowed the worlds to fuse. It is your only hope against the Apocalypse System. Your action may well save your world.”

That was also a lot to process.

He got moving again, focusing on the task at hand.

“Where am I going?”

“I have two final things I can do for you before our time expires. They won’t aid your world as your first action did, but will further help you to survive the ordeals that lie ahead for you. The first is guiding you to an aberration that will cause Osiris to lose track of you. The second is a result of the first: said aberration will take you to an area with an anomaly shrine. Unlike the transition zone, I cannot see into it to know what is there, but it will almost certainly be another card.”

“I still don’t know what that first card is supposed to do for me.”

“It gives you an ability—” Anubis suddenly interrupted himself, louder and urgent now, speaking even faster than before. “Sebastian, turn around and run. There is a building across the bridge over the canal, three hundred and forty feet behind you. Enter it and head upstairs.”

But before Sebastian could react, he spotted Magnus approaching.

He wasn’t carrying anything, and was on foot instead of on his bike, so must have run back without their food after the message. Sebastian couldn’t blame him.

Sebastian raised an arm in greeting. His friend was running for him now. He didn’t look scared or confused though. He looked… blank.

He must be in shock.

“Hey buddy,” Sebastian called.

“He is not your buddy,” Anubis said. “Not anymore. You need to leave.”

Sebastian heard Anubis, but his full attention was focused on Magnus. His friend had always been tall, but Sebastian now realized he was truly giant. At least seven feet. And it wasn’t just his height, either. He was now so muscular that he looked like he could bench press a car with one arm.

“What the…”

Magnus came to a halt in the middle of the street and raised a hand. But not in greeting.

“Drop to the ground,” Anubis commanded with such force that Sebastian didn’t hesitate.

He dropped and something whizzed through the space his head had occupied an instant before and slammed into a building behind him with a sharp clink.

“Don’t move.”

Sebastian was going to ask what the hell Anubis was thinking, but then heard the squealing of tires and looked up in time to see a car slam into his best friend.

“Magnus! No!”

But it wasn’t Magnus who was injured. It was the car.

It had stopped dead when it slammed into him, its rear lifting off the ground and slamming back down with a crunch, the hood deforming around Magnus as though he were an immovable steel post.

“Get up and run,” Anubis said. “Now. The building across the bridge over the canal.”

Magnus, still looking blank, lifted his arms, causing the hood around him to peel away with a shriek of metal, then gripped the destroyed front end shoved it away with one violent motion.

He took a step forward and glared at Sebastian.

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Sebastian ran. “The police station?”

“No, the office building next to it. The police won’t be able to help you. They are as helpless as you against this threat.”

Sebastian had no idea what was going on with Magnus, but could figure it out later.

When his best friend wasn’t trying to send projectiles into his head.

He reached the building Anubis told him to go to—a tech startup called BionicMuse that he’d been to several LAN parties at, the most recent less than a week ago—and pushed through the door just as something hit the doorframe next to him.

“What is he shooting at me? And what happened to him? He’s grown at least half a foot!”

“I cannot see a Scion’s abilities.”

The answer efficiently addressed both of Sebastian’s questions.

“Door to your right, stairs.”

Sebastian pushed open the stairwell door and began to climb.

“He’s a Scion?”

“Yes. Exit through the next door. The door to the roof is locked. You’ll need to use the fire escape to reach it.”

Sebastian did, finding himself in the same open-plan office where the LAN party had been held. “What’s with you and roofs?”

“It is merely a coincidence that two aberrations happened to coalesce on roofs.”

He heard a loud crash.

“That was him. Do not let him see you. Open the third window on the right.”

When Sebastian did, he found a fire escape outside of it. He climbed through without needing to be told and headed for the roof.

“This will let me get away?”

“Yes. You will end up at what remains of Central Station.”

“Remains? And that’s several miles away.”

“Then you’ll have a head start.”

“He’s my best friend. I can’t just leave him.”

“There’s nothing you can do for him at this juncture. There, do you see it?”

Sebastian had reached the roof. And he did see the aberration, but this time it was slightly different.

The aberration itself looked the same. It was its position that worried him.

“Uh, that’s like twenty feet away from the roof.” It floated there, nothing but five floors of empty air beneath it.

“Nine point two, actually. Based on your current physiology, you can easily make the jump.”

Sebastian wondered how Anubis knew anything about his physiology, but didn’t ask.

“It’s a five-story drop if I don’t.”

“Which would almost certainly kill you. And as I mentioned, you cannot survive death yet. So it is a good thing you can make the jump. The Scion has reached the roof. He either predicted your destination, or has a way to track you.”

Sebastian spun around to look at the fire escape.

“He took a different route,” Anubis said.

Something slammed into the roof-access door.

The door was thick, solid metal. After the party, they’d gone to the roof, and Sebastian had felt how heavy it was for himself.

Despite this, there was now a dent in its middle, visible even from this side.

As he stared, another appeared, accompanied by a violent thud that rattled the door in its frame.

“That’s impossible,” he whispered in awe.

“Not anymore,” Anubis answered. “As I said, I cannot know his abilities, but based on the damage he’s done so far to the door and his encounter with that motor vehicle, I predict you only have seconds before he breaks through. Run and jump. The aberration will catch you. You will not fall.”

“This is crazy,” Sebastian said. Then he ran for the roof’s edge.