The Malagost forces looked weary to my eyes. Their steps were focused, but bodies occasionally lurched, suffering from their poor campaign against our city. They were simply too large for what they had attempted, and our own methods of whittling them down had left its scars.

Up in the front the pit fighters started their barrage, taking up arms against the allies they had once know. The hedgehog man curled up into a ball, his spikes extending from his condensed form. He spun out ahead, skewering enemies with a speedy pass through their ranks. To his side a giant wolf’s visage, bit at the area, piercing through the flesh of the enemy combatants. Forcezo was evidently in top form. They weren’t holding back against their former neighbors, unwilling to let their new home fall to the invading forces.

That wasn’t to say that the enemy forces were giving up. One of them ballooned in size, a mighty spout of water appearing from their head. It slammed into a bevy of our troops, unprepared for yet another aquatic assault. They slammed into the sides of buildings, felled by the attack not unlike how many were not so long ago. If it was an intentional cultivation of a technique to call back to our city’s attack, it was certainly effective.

Another one’s legs were covered in white fur and they pushed off of the ground, their powerful bunny legs sending them through the air in the next closest thing to flying. They jumped from building to building before breaking up another contingent of forces, the crater from their impact followed up with a second one from their attack.

This was what war was amounting to, in this instance. Just wave after wave of powerful attacks. I wouldn’t know how one could sculpt the battlefield more adeptly. I imagined Amalarys was trying to direct certain units to respond pro-actively to the threats, but her words were unable to reach under the deluge of activity. Maybe if war was just fought the same way by each person she could have navigated a more conventional solution, but with the chaotic nature of the weapons wielded on both sides, it was difficult to advise anything further than positional tactics.

She pointed off to the side and another group of our forces broke out from the shadows, evidently concealed by Alain’s will. They lunged at the closest enemy group, the fighters embroiled for their very lives. I could see Alain passing in and out of shadow, easily avoiding any counter attacks, our training paying dividends.

Just as suddenly as the group assault had started, Amalarys let out a violent cry, signaling a retreat. I couldn’t understand what she was fathoming, but I wasn’t going to be the one to disobey. We ran away, fleeing into the alley, making sure that we lost any potential pursuers. “What’s up with only that brief skirmish?” I asked.

“Perry you idiot,” Mia admonished me. “We’re seeing if they’re foolish enough to pursue, and if they are, we fall back on them. This is also to see if they’re willing to split up their forces. We’re not freely giving up ground.”

She ran with ease for someone that had been trekking about earlier in the day, steps made to conserve energy with each stride. She was prepared for the long haul.

I cast out a glance behind us with my electroreception, noting that we had a contingent of pursuers. “They’re coming behind us. Ready to engage then?” I asked.

“Without Alain here, this is going to be on my signal. In five seconds, fuck them up, Vera. You know what to do.”

Vera nodded, her body tensing in preparation. We counted down beneath our breath, taking the corner just as the pivotal moment passed. Vera lingered behind, ripping up pavement with her horns in one fell swoop. She launched it straight at the pursuers, mauling them with a slab of pure force.

The cobblestone slammed into our pursuing forces, battering them with Vera’s inhuman force. Her strength was only magnified by her beast soul, and being hit with a storm of debris wasn’t a fond experience for anyone. But that was only the appetizer in the dish of violence that Mia had prepared. She flew over the building and swooped on down, moving with Two Heartbeats active. Her daggered danced around the scattered forces, cutting the unshielded vulnerable bits, our pursuers already wiped out.

“Perry, where are the rest of the attackers?” Mia demanded.

“They’re primarily in the marketplace we were just in. It looks like they only spent a few forces. I suppose that was wise of them.”

“Alright. Then Amalarys has certainly set our forces to clash upon them once more. Let’s go rejoin our allies and help clean up the mess that was invited into our city.”

We doubled back, sprinting back to the square filled with violence. In the short time since we had fled off into the side streets, it had already massed a greater amount of bodies, some from both sides, although the quantity of enemy corpses was far greater. While no war was won without loss, we were on the path to firmly routing our enemy, and it seemed like they started to recognize that fact.

It looked like the main forces were being dedicated to slowing down our counter attack, while another small contingent was unwilling to keep engaging with our forces. “They’re getting away. I can’t believe it.”

“Where?” Mia asked, craning her neck to notice what I was sensing.

I directed her towards the south-eastern quarter, where fifteen soldiers were trying to depart back towards the slums.

Mia’s eyes widened and she took to the skies. “Those fuckers aren’t getting away. Lord Montare is there, that little shit. I want to have a stern word with him.”

“Fuck, Vera,” I spat. This was not good. We needed to catch up with Mia lest she fall in her quest for revenge.

“Alain’s around the corner. Maybe he can help us close the distance,” she noted. “I saw him pop out.”

“Fine, let’s go. I can track Mia in the interim. I don’t want to lose her signature. You get Alain ready, alright? Make sure I don’t get hurt.”

I clasped her hand in mine and remained fixated on the skies, letting her guide me towards where she believed Alain was. I had to trust in here, if we were going to ensure Mia’s safety.

She pulled me with just enough restraint so that my arm didn’t fly out of its socket, hurrying us along the perimeter of the battle. We passed without notice from the enemy combatants, their attention diverted by the rest of the city guard increasing their pressure on the remaining Malagost fighters.

Mia swept us into a dark alleyway, where she shrieked in delight. “Alain, you’re alright!”

“I won’t be if you keep pointing out my existence,” he said, panting. Evidently what he’d been doing had taken a lot of energy out of him. I couldn’t say I was surprised. Dancing through the shadows was not without effort.

“Well the same could be said of Mia. She saw Lord Montare and is barreling after him.”

“That lout made his way to the city? That was highly foolish and I suppose his bravado finally got the best of him. Wait, Mia is chasing after him?”

“That’s what I said, you idiot. Perry here noticed his retreat and Mia took off to the skies. Even if she’s a well trained fighter, that doesn’t mean we can just let her go off alone against them. They’re probably some of the more proficient forces of the Malagost army, if they’re defending a noble.”

“It probably would have been better for them to be on the front lines then,” I remarked, unable to fully divert my attention.

“Perry, you’re back? Fantastic. Missed you, buddy,” Alain said, clasping me in a tight embrace.

“Hands off, Alain. Sorry, need to keep track of Mia’s position or else we’ll lose her and my focus is stretched enough as it is.”

“You know where she is? I have enough strength to carry us forward, if we must. I’ve certainly put in enough practice within the last week for my mastery to go up.”

“Great, stop talking, more shadow movement,” Vera demanded. “Perry will ensure we go the right way, you make it so that none of the enemy notices our presence.”

“That’s a lot to ask for, but I suppose when you work with the best you can ask nothing less,” he replied, pulling Vera close to him as well. “Where are we going, Perry?”

I pointed towards Mia’s location and we plunged into the shadows, the icy cold realm threatening to steal my breath away along with my attention. But I barreled on, used to plummeting into different environs, unwilling to let anything escape me ever again.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

We surfaced back onto the streets, far away from the main fighting contingent in a neck of Titan City I was unfamiliar with. “Where is she now?” Alain demanded.

I pointed us once again and he took us into the depths, the second time easier than the first as my mind could prepare for the impact. It was an inky realm, a flat horizon of emptiness overlaid onto reality. It was a horrifying thing, if one were to linger. It was shocking that he spent that much time within the depths as it was.

“How much further are we from her?” he asked, panting heavily. I could see how pale his body was. It was already taxing for Alain to jump within the shadows, but to carry two passengers for repeated jumps with no real recovery time must have been incredibly taxing. I could only imagine what happened when he was tasked to go out with the others for their hunting squads— he would be collapsed on the floor, gasping for air, trying to recover while the rest of the squad eviscerated their enemies.

But that thought was a dangerous train for my mind to take, almost loosing my focus on Mia’s position. “She’s maybe a block or two away. She’s slowed down compared to before. She’s on the rooftop, I think.”

“Alright, there’s no much shadows on the roof but I’ll see what I can do,” he grunted, pulling us down once more into the nebulous world where light feared to tread. We stared at him, waiting for him to take us out, the chill setting in, unsure of how to speak in the depths of his other realm.

I prodded him gently and he slouched over, consciousness faded. My eyes widened and I stared at Vera, hoping to make our silent communication pass. This was a catastrophe. We were trapped in here until Alain let us out, and Mia was at risk of running to ruin when trying to fight with Lord Montare. This was perhaps the worst possible outcome things could be in.

Vera gesticulated with her hands, pointing from me to Alain over and over, before realizing her words were failing to penetrate my distracted mind. If she could have sighed in this murky realm, I’m sure she would have, but instead she reached out and pulled my hand to Alain’s body. She rubbed my fingers together and motioned for me to poke Alain. Something wasn’t getting through. I just couldn’t get it. We were going to die within this freeing realm.

Unwilling to let things go to ruin, she started rubbing her clothes together and touched Alain, letting out a light jump in surprise. The pieces that had evaded my mind started to play together, and I summoned the weakest Direct Current I could muster and jolted Alain with it.

His body jumped up, eyes opening with shock. He pulled us out of the shadows into the open air, our group gasping for breath. “What was that for?” he cried.

“You passed out in there. That was the best idea I had. Well, Vera had. Sorry it took me so long to get it.”

“You panicked. It happens,” she replied, steadfast as always.

We were where we had entered, no additional movement having taken place, but thankfully the same could be said for Mia.

“Why don’t we avoid taking to the shadows for this last leg?” I suggested.

“That’s probably for the best. Evidently I’m not nearly as well rested as I would have hoped to have been,” Alain muttered. He took Vera’s proffered hand and she hoisted him up, lightly dusting him off.

“Let’s go up and meet with her,” she said, motioning for me to grab her free hand. I shrugged and acquiesced, my nonchalance eroding into fear as she started walking up the side of the building. It wasn’t nearly as high as it had been when scaling the cliff side but the sudden movement jolted my heart, a fluttering sensation filling my body. This wasn’t how I had wanted to spend my day, but it felt more and more like what I wanted was never an option, so this was just another ailment to suffer.

It was a short ride to the top, thankfully, and just across the alleyway Mia sat perched upon the rooftop, staring at the territory below. “I’m going to kill him, you know,” she said, upon hearing our approach.

“I know,” was my gentle reply. We deftly leaped across the alley, and I laid my hand upon her shoulders.

“We wouldn’t think anything less of trying to aid in your revenge, Mia, but we wanted to help you,” Vera added.

“I would say that I’m supposed to say something about taking him in for questioning, but I don’t have the strength to fight with you,” Alain interjected.

“Sure, couch it however you need to, Alain. The important thing is you help.”

We pulled in for a hug, feeling empowered by our situation. We were united once again.

“Why have they slowed down?” I asked.

“Not sure. I think Lord Montare is having a meeting with someone inside of that building. He hasn’t come out.”

“And what about his guards? Do they seem tough?” Alain asked. There were two men outside of the doorway. They wore their fur, but it was hard to tell what beasts they were, given how little of their soul was manifested.

“They look like the bottom of the barrel to me. Nothing to speak about. No real sense of competence nor danger like there was in the fighting pit.”

“Can’t say I’m truly surprised in that instance. They did say they were recruiting all of the prey souls, including those who hadn’t fought before. Fine. Let’s make this swift then. Perry, mind taking them out?”

“As you command, leader,” I replied. I summoned my will and compressed two Direct Currents, one for each hand. They flew out and pierced the enemy combatants, jagged lines of electricity trailing from the tip of my fingers straight through their hearts. There was a crack in the air and the pair collapsed, bodies writhing.

In a heart beast, Alain jumped down claws swiped at their necks. The two guards bled out, life fading away into the gutter on the streets.

The rest of us descended to the ground— I had gracefully accepted Vera’s offer for a smooth descent— and we piled up outside of the room, waiting on Alain’s cue for us to proceed.

Who else is in the room?” he inquired. “I want exacts, Perry.”

I nodded, closing my eyes as to perfectly visualize all of the activity through the closed door. There was three bodies and a strange shimmer of electricity in the air— it gave me echoes of the activity I saw back in Old Titan City.

“There’s… only three people in there, anyway. Something else but it shouldn’t harm us, I hope.”

“Not the best words I wanted to hear, Perry, but it will have to do. On three, we go in and blitz them. Alright?”

We nodded and Alain counted down, his words heavy and full of breath. Three, two, one— we barged through, Vera’s horns blasting the door into one of the bodies in the room. She followed up with her opening assault by trampling over the figure, dragging the door to slide the body around against the wooden surface.

To the side, Alain ensnared the other guard, his claws tearing off the legs of the surprised combatant. The enemy was unable to react in time, falling to literal pieces as Alain finished eviscerating the enemy.

That only left Lord Montare, who was adept enough to try and run away, whatever words he was trying to say cutting off with a gasp. I wasn’t going to steal her thunder, but I could ensure that she would have her fated outcome.

I threw an Electromute at Lord Montare, his weak form collapsing to my will. His body locked up and fell onto the floor, Mia closing the gap in moments.

“You little shit. You shouldn’t have gotten my dad involved with your fucked up dealings. It’s your fault he’s dead, and your death will be the least of the good I can do in his memory. I’d ask you if you had anything else to share, but I don’t think it’s worth hearing a single word from your lips. You already chose this long ago when you set my dad up for death. This is just retribution.”

She dragged her dagger across Lord Montare’s throat, his body finally released from my Electromute. He gasped, pawing at the wound on his neck, hands trying to stem the bleeding but the blood slipped through the cracks in his fingers, falling onto the floor.

We didn’t know if he was the leader of the army, and if the war was truly over, but at the very least, Mia had closed out a loose end that had haunted her. Now she could move on, I hoped.

And yet, something was terribly wrong. I felt that electric activity in the air expand, not in the room but outside. The air darkened around Titan City, taking on a red hue. I ran out of the room, trusting my electroreception to point me in the right direction. Lord Montare was already done, but something awful was looming on the horizon.

Up in the sky a dark haired woman hovered in the air. She twisted and pulled at empty space, the area growing darker and darker with each second. Red lightning threaded through storm clouds, thunderclaps resonating through the city over and over again.

This… this was the presence I had noticed in Old Titan City. There was no way to be certain, but at the back of my mind I knew. There was too many elements that added up to pretend otherwise.

Throughout the sky, gates opened and spike feeders started falling down to the ground.

I stared on with horror at the latest threat to enter Titan City. I summoned a Direct Current and tried to fire it at the woman, but it bounced harmlessly off of the air, the impact showing a glimmering orb for a fraction of a second. I could sense her giving a brief glance down in my before looking away, my presence evidently far beneath her.

Off to the side another gate opened and Candace stepped out, eyes wide open.

“The fuck is going on here?” she said. “Why am I seeing all of this activity for all of these gates?”

“I don’t know why, Candace. The sky is erupting with spike feeders—”

“—Bio weapons,” she interjected.

“Bio weapons. Whatever. I don’t know, I just know that woman up there is doing something.”

“She’s doing more than something, Perry. She’s not just summoning this horde of bio weapons. She’s messing with the lockdown on the continent. This… this could be the only option to return back home.”

Candace pulled at the air, her ringlets bouncing as she frantically motioned, the air warping around us. Her body shook with anticipation— I could sense her need emanating from her form. It overwhelmed everything else, even the falling spike feeders cascading from the sky.

Up above, the dark haired woman stepped into her own gate, the sky continuing to fill with shimmering portals throwing spike feeders down into the city. It was uncertain how long this would go on for, but it didn’t seem like it would end any time soon.

“Candace, do something!” I pleaded, but my words fell on deaf ears. She cried out in triumph as yet another shimmering gold disc appeared in front of her. With trepidation she stuck a hand through it, a cry of relief leaving her lips as she continued to pass on through.

“Candace, no! We need you,” I sobbed, following after her. My body crossed the threshold and the gate closed behind me, the sounds of Titan City fading into the distance.

As I stared up at the city filled with towering buildings, a sinking sensation filled my stomach. I could tell that I was cut off from everything I knew. I just prayed that I would still have a home to return to, if I ever managed to find a way back.