A faint rumble echoed through the air, and Emberline flinched, her gaze shooting back up at the projections.

One of the giant centaurs had managed to get its claws into one of the kids and held her up to its gaping jaws. She was bleeding heavily from where she had been caught and slashed by its claws, and the blood stained her dress crimson red.

Emberline let out a strangled gasp, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Tess, that's enough! Please. You're going to kill them. You're taking this too far!" Emberline screamed, clenching her fist tightly.

She turned toward Tess, glaring daggers into the other woman.

Tesseract looked away, biting her lips.

"Emberline... I asked you to trust me," Tess said, glancing back at her teammate. "I've had weeks to set up very complicated hyperplanes to cover every inch of the academy's grounds. The students aren't going to be in real danger of dying unless I'm incapacitated."

She gestured around herself and at the projections that showed the carnage unfolding before her. "You know I'm better than that. No matter how much it would appear otherwise, this is all under control."

Tesseract looked down at the screens as a massive explosion erupted on one of them.

A magical girl with platinum blonde hair in a silver dress erupted from a crowd of monsters, wielding a scythe that glinted against the misty background.

Emberline's breath caught in her throat as she watched the magical girl's silver dress transform into a dark cloak with a black dress and red corset.

"Isn't that...?" She whispered.

Tess nodded, frowning as the cloaked girl desperately cleaved through the monsters with her scythe in a flash of red.

"I knew it was her as soon as she hijacked the mana manipulation trick I used to sort the teams," Tess chuckled. "She was always quite a handful, wasn't she? Always was a crafty little shit who couldn't sit still for more than two minutes. Still, she's seriously gotten rusty in her time off."

Emberlinne couldn't help but smile as the image of playing hide and seek with a young, energetic, giggling child flashed in her mind.

She laughed along at the memories, but the tension didn't fade from her body.

"Ok, but Tessie. I've had enough of your bullshit, okay?"

Tess raised an eyebrow at her teammate.

"I want to know how you're keeping this under control. Cut the cryptic bullshit for my sake, please."

Emberline gestured at the screens again and at the student struggling against the centaur's grip. "Because from where I'm standing, those monsters you dumped on them are going to kill them. You've gone too far already."

Tesseract narrowed her eyes, looking up at the struggling student captured by the centaur with an appraising eye.

"Shortly before the Cataclysm, I discovered my hyperplanes have a couple of interesting properties. From where we're standing here, I can more or less affect any part of the hyperplane I desire. And I weaved in several contingency functions in the event I'm too slow to bail them out directly."

She raised one hand at the portal, eyes glowing purple.

And then a series of tiny purple portals began to open up around the projection which zoomed in on the centaur's body.

And then another, and another. All across the room, dozens of portals opened up around Tess's projections, all aimed toward projections where the students were under visible distress.

"Alright, I'm calling it here for that group. Let's end this before it actually gets out of hand," Tess spoke with a confident smirk.

But before anything happened, the projections flickered, turning gray, as if they'd been disconnected from the world around it.

"W-what?!" Tess said, tensing up.

The student in the portal thrust her hand out, firing a golden beam straight into the monster's eye, melting it with a silent scream.

Emberline could only stare in horror as it reared its head back and clamped its massive, gaping maw on the student's arm.

"Dammit!" Tesseract yelled as she raised her hand again, only to be suddenly lifted off her feet. She struggled as she was levitated in the air with intricate layers of magic rings and triangles surrounding each of her limbs.

"Tess?!" Emberline asked. "Hang on, I'll —"

She was cut off as a rumbling, echoing purr came from the table next to them, drawing both women's attention as a golden-eyed Bastet stared back at them.

"Mmm that wouldn't be too much fun now, would it?" the Guardian cooed, swishing her tail. "After all of this buildup? No no, that simply would not do."

"Bastet, what's the meaning of this?" Tess hissed, glaring down at the Guardian from her bound position.

"The stage is set," the Guardian whispered, a purr rumbling through the room. "All the players are on the field. And it's time for them to shine, Tesseract."

Bastet leaned forward on the table, her eyes glowing brightly as her lips curled up into a feral grin.

Tess glowered at the feline Guardian, her fists tightening in rage as the words rang in her ears.

"Oh to hell with that."

She snapped her arm forward and the air crackled with static, distorting around them.

With a gesture the portals that she had opened began to shift again, the air around them rippling and warping. The air in front of the projections shimmered, and suddenly, there were six more of the portals.

They all showed different angles of the centaur creature and the struggling student, and they shimmered and distorted around them, like ripples on the surface of water.

Bastet recoiled in surprise as purple suddenly clashed with gold, their auras mixing in the air around them in an eerie lightshow of magic and will. With a brief crack of her neck, Tesseract flared her aura and snapped her bindings, landing gently on the ground.

Bastet narrowed her eyes and looked up at Tess, who met her gaze with a smirk of defiance.

"I told you. This is my class," Tesseract snapped, her voice dripping with contempt, aiming her arm at the most immediate threat.

With a flick of her wrist, a purple blade of energy shot forth from her arm straight through the portal, cleaving off the centaur's claws and freeing the student it was viciously mauling. Emberline couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as her protege flashed onto the scene, scythe flashing in a crimson whirlwind.

Bastet hissed as she and Tesseract clashed, their auras colliding with a force that sent sparks flying through the air.

Tesseract's eyes burned as the purple glow around her grew stronger and stronger.

Her hair billowed in the air as the static around them intensified, and she took a deep, shaky breath before taking a step back, holding the cat-like Guardian's gaze as they fought for dominance.

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And then the Guardian was bound, shackled by invisible bonds that tightened and constricted around her like a straightjacket. She fell over, the bonds keeping her in place as Tesseract loomed above her with a dark look on her face.

Bastet thrashed against her magical shackles as they tightened, pulling at them with all her might, but she could not move. Her eyes blazed a bright gold as she struggled, her claws flailing against the invisible bindings.

"I will not have my students' lives toyed with and placed at risk just because you're bored." Tesseract growled, looming above the trapped Bastet.

"This is a school. A place where people are supposed to learn to be heroes and to protect this world." Her voice dropped, her words taking on an edge of anger that was unmistakable. "I may push them hard, but I won't have their lives treated as playthings just because you think this is all some sort of game, Guardian."

Bastet glowered back, her eyes flashing gold as she ceased her struggle. Her expression was unreadable as her eyes met Tesseract's.

Then, she smiled, her lips curling up into a grin that showed far too many sharp teeth.

"You continue to impress me, Theresa. Humanity's strongest, indeed."

Bastet laughed and bowed her head mockingly, before flexing, snapping her own bindings with a flash of purple. "But, let's be clear on something. I have never, and will never, sacrifice the life of one of my chosen Champions needlessly either. That is not my style, not at all."

She grinned again and shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "Besides, you're the one who's been pushing them, not I. I merely provided an avenue for your lesson plan. I assure you the seconds I bought here were truly necessary."

Tess scoffed, glaring daggers at the feline. "I would have spare her the actual pain of being mangled to the degree she has, but it seems I was too late to prevent it. No thanks to you."

Bastet chuckled. "Oh? Are you sure that wasn't intentional, Theresa? To let her feel a taste of the pain that can be inflicted upon her? To show her how fragile she truly is in this world?"

The guardian raised her chin and tilted her head as Tess glared daggers at her.

"I'm simply stating that, even in the worst case, I would have ensured my Champion's survival," Bastet mewed, smirking. "Consider that this moment may have been far more important for her than you'd even fathom."

Emberline clenched her fists as she watched them argue, her eyes darting between her teammate and the Guardian.

This was getting ridiculous.

The tension was thick in the air. The magical pressure was so intense it was almost suffocating.

She felt a bead of sweat drip down her temple. It was too hot, too close. Too dangerous.

Bastet had a reputation as one of the wisest and strongest of the Guardians, although the mysterious entities had rarely showcased their powers.

If it came down to an all out brawl between those two, she wouldn't bet her life on either one of them winning. Or the city even standing, after.

And yet, neither of them backed down.

They stared each other down, neither one of them willing to give an inch, and she could see the veins on Tess' temples bulging as her temper frayed. Bastet was as calm and composed as ever, her lips curled up into a sardonic smile that made Emberline want to punch the daylights out of the feline.

"Still, I am impressed by how far you've taken your simple Signature of mathematical projections," Bastet purred. "I must admit, your talent has grown far beyond my expectations, Theresa. You've become quite the artist! This training field is truly an exquisite masterpiece, and I have to wonder what else you have in store for us. It certainly makes me excited for what is to come."

Tesseract's expression hardened, and her gaze narrowed.

Bastet continued, standing back up to stretch her back. "You saved their physical state the second they crossed the boundary into the pocket space. That much is true. But you cannot save them from their own fears, nor can you save them from their memories of pain and terror. Have you considered that? Do you really understand what it is you've done here today?"

Bastet paused for a second, and then she shrugged.

"I don't pretend to be an expert in psychology. But it is clear that your students will remember the events of this training exercise vividly, despite your best efforts. And, well... It's only fair that they make a decision for themselves in the end, isn't it?" she mused.

Tesseract let out an indignant snort as her fists balled. "You said it to me yourself. The threat to our existence will fall upon us soon whether we like it or not, Bastet. The System that has protected this world for centuries has failed. The Cataclysm has arrived, and the only thing that can hold back the darkness that's coming is our own strength."

She turned and looked up at the portals again.

Tess's eyes softened, her lips parting in a small, sad smile.

"They... they need this," she whispered, "I don't like doing it. But the threat that looms over our heads demands no less."

"Indeed, and yet, you still don't understand. You cannot force people to be fit before they can be." Bastet sighed, shaking her head in exasperation. "That's not how this world works. Or mankind."

Tesseract glared at her, and Bastet chuckled.

"Theresa, Theresa, Theresa," Bastet purred. "The champions given emergency contracts are amongst some of the hardiest prospects we could find. I understand you wish the students who escaped the worst of the Cataclysm to understand what their peers are dealt with... but this?"

She shook her head, swishing her tail as her eyes grew somber.

"Even the hardiest souls can only take so much, you know that as well as I."

Bastet looked away for a moment before she turned to Emberline.

"Emberline, do be a dear, and make sure the younglings survive the ordeal with their hearts and minds intact, would you?"

Bastet gave her a wink before disappearing in a puff of black smoke, and the two women were left staring at each other in silence, their expressions grim and tense.

Emberline was the first to break the silence, shaking her head. "What's her deal, anyway?"

"Nothing good I imagine," Tess replied coldly. She snapped her fingers and Emberline was engulfed by a bubble of light as Tesseract's projection ability enveloped her. She looked up at the other girl, and Emberline could see the pain and anguish etched in every line on her face.

Tesseract sighed, looking back up at the portals. "Bastet is right, though. The trauma of experiencing all of that will not go away because of my tricks, and my attempts at mitigating it. Even if their injuries don't follow them outside the pocket dimension, their memories and experiences will. And that was the real point of all of this. To teach them what their peers were facing, and give them a glimpse into what it was like to be in the thick of the fighting."

Tess' hands tightened into fists, her knuckles white. "And that is why I wanted you here. You may not be able to bring them back from the brink of death, but your talents are invaluable when it comes to the mind."

Tesseract looked away, her eyes turning back towards the portal where the girl in black and red was clutching a badly injured Lux as the two other magical girls, one in black and yellow, the other with an angel motif, joined them.

Tesseract glanced down at Emberline, her expression pained. "I'm going to have a long, long night of cleanup ahead of me."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And so, I hope you understand now why you have to be there with them, Emberline."

Emberline looked up at her friend, her teammate. She saw the anguish in Tess' face and felt the pain and guilt radiating off of her.

"Tess... just tell me this. Would you have done this to your own child?" Emberline asked, her voice soft. "If it were up to you."

Tesseract paused.

The pain was evident on her face. And yet...

"If it would have made her more resilient in the end?" Tess replied, her eyes meeting Emberline's, "If it would have given her the tools she needed to survive in the world that's coming for her? A world I know she's destined for?"

She took a deep breath, her jaw clenching. "Then yes. I would have. And still would. And I would do everything I could to ensure she survived, no matter the cost."

She turned away then, looking down at the portals and the three figures that were converging on the fallen strawberry blonde in her bloodied dress.

Emberline furrowed her brow, her eyes focused on the angelic healer as the magical girl in the black and yellow witch outfit approached.

"That girl's healing ability..." Emberline muttered.

Tess glanced down at her, and nodded.

"Impressive, isn't it? Eric personally wrote me briefs on every student under my jurisdiction. Love Angel Aurora's potential is off the charts. If we can help her get it under control, I'm sure she'll give even you a run for your money one day, Emberline."

Tesseract smiled softly. "And I've got a few more aces up my sleeve as well, but... Well, let's see how our students do, first."

The two of them watched in silence as the young girls worked to heal their badly injured companion.

"And she's not the only one. They're all going beyond even the standards I expected."

Emberline could hear the admiration and respect in her teammate's voice, and she frowned.

"Tess..."

"Emberline," Tess cut in, "I can't do this on my own, and you know it. I'm... I'm too goal-driven to be good at the kind of emotional support you're capable of, or at the level of empathy that's necessary with the pressure we're under. That the world's under. We both know this."

She sighed. "But that doesn't mean that I can't do my part. So please. Help them, Emberline. We'll need that golden heart of yours for the days ahead."

The fiery girl frowned at her friend's words.

She still thought Tess had gone over the line, but... Well...

"Kat..." Tesseract whispered.

Emberline finally relented with a nod, her shoulders loosening.

With that settled, she looked up to watch as the girl with golden hair and wings knelt beside the fallen strawberry blonde's prone figure.

"Alright, Tessie. Alright," she sighed. "You're a bit of a bonehead. A reckless, stupid, bonehead with a knuckleheaded engineer's brain. But let's go see just how big of a mess you've made with these kids, huh?"