My foot tapped lightly at the pedal as I guided the wagon through a narrow passage left between the piles of smashed-up cars and then slammed on the brake to stop the vehicle in the middle of the cross-walk.

There, to our right, was the mall. Our truck was parked across the street under the bridge, though little remained. Animated corpses, some fresher than others, streamed past the flaming wreck. The metal frame remained, but the canvas cover had caught, which had then ignited the hardwood that made up the vehicle's body. It wasn't as spectacular as when the pickup truck's fuel tank had gone up, but it blazed like a bonfire all the same.

Periodically, the darkened bridge would be illuminated from within by a series of orange-yellow flashes, silhouetting the figures shambling towards the mall for a moment.

I had just opened my mouth to comment on this being the second time someone has torched our ride, but it was cut short by the blast.

Tiny points of light raced across the bridge and around either end, and there was a blast of smoke and broken glass. An instant later the truck was rocked by a shockwave that felt like a kick in the chest, and the bridge dropped, all in one piece, to crush what remained of our truck and dozens of the animated corpses below. The impact squashed flat our truck, the majority of our supplies, and sent bits of burning plank across the street.

There were three more blasts, though the distance and intervening buildings muffled the noise.

"Wally," Vall urged, tugging at my arm, "We need to go."

I gritted my teeth. We would be leaving everything behind. It being a raid, we'd all packed pretty light and didn't have much in the way of supplies. Just what we had in our pockets, really. What hadn't been in the truck was up there in the mall, sitting in the rooms Agamemnon had lent us.

And beyond our gear, we'd also be giving up on what little aid was available to us in this hellscape. But I knew Val was correct. We wouldn't do anyone, least of all ourselves, any good if we got ourselves killed trying to get past the besieging forces.

I twisted around and threw my arm over the back of my seat. The wagon was cramped, but at least I had room to turn. Regina hardly had room to breathe, and that's even after she ripped free two seats to make room to lay down.

The scene out the back window was not promising. The passage was hardly wider than the wagon, and it had been difficult enough to make it through the first time.

I had the pedal on the floor before I'd even finished turning to face forward.

There were hundreds, not thousands, of shamblers on the street, the vast majority of whom were now trying to form a pile to get at the open wound in the side of the building left by the bridge. So when I pulled out and swung the vehicle around to the left, the street before me was clear enough that I could dodge the stragglers.

As much as I might have liked to run them over, this thing was made of wood, and even a desiccated human body can do a lot of damage if you hit it at fifty kilometres per hour.

The wagon skittered from side to side under acceleration and braking, as at each street or promising-looking entrance I'd hammer on the brake to get a proper look, and then seeing it wouldn't do, would get back on the throttle to get back up to speed. Just keeping the damn thing going in a straight line was hard enough, and I reasoned out pretty quickly that all the power was going to the rear wheels.

"Find me some cover," I growled, "They're starting to pay attention to us."

We needed to get off the street. The zombies were beginning to draw together as we approached, which with the rear-wheel-drive wagon only made it more challenging to get around them without spinning out. We needed time to think, to figure out what the hell to do, but that was a little tricky with the world coming down around us.

"There," Val jabbed her finger at the windshield, "The sign is the same as where you had me hide this."

The blue and white sign was beginning to darken, and streams of thick black smoke rose into the air, but the word "Parking" was still legible.

I brought the wagon around wide to the left, avoiding an undead group before swinging right. I kept the wagon at the very edge of losing traction as I fought to keep the hood pointed at the entrance. The flimsy metal bar popped free as I rammed the parking gate, and we were all thrown forwards as we hit the steep ramp going way too fast. I heard something break, neither wood nor bone, and the vehicle sagged towards the front left corner even as I got it up off the ramp and into the garage proper.

I could hear the metal wheel bands on the front left tire scraping against the inside of the wheel well, but I pressed on, heading for the spiral ramp that led higher into the parking tower.

Were there four or five floors?

It didn't matter. I went up to the third, so quickly that the wagon took some air as we came off the ramp. I already had my foot on the brake before we landed, but the distance covered while airborne left us with little in which to brake once we touched down, and we only came to a halt after skidding into a parked hatchback. I gave mental thanks to the god of car alarms that the pile of scrap metal we'd run into was too old to have one fitted.

I said something urgent and probably unintelligible, but the others didn't need me to tell them. The wagon hadn't even finished rocking on its busted suspension before they were out of the vehicle and headed for the double glass doors that led into the adjacent building.

Amity reached them first, and finding them locked, jerked them open anyway. She held the way clear so the rest of us could sprint through, Regina bounding after us. Amity pulled the doors shut behind her, and there was a metallic screeching as she tore free the push bar and twisted it around the handles to secure the entrance.

"Wallace," she called, "If you could-"

"On it."

This was an office building, not an apartment tower, but we had entered just by the break room. I found the refrigerator, made of brushed stainless steel and nearly as wide as I was, it would do the trick. I pulled it free, and tore a pair of gouges across the vinyl flooring as I pushed it into and down the hall. Amity stepped clear, and I wedged the thing up against the glass doors as best I could.

There was a bit of a gap in the top right corner, but we filled that quickly with bits of office furniture wedged in to fill the open space.

And then the sprinklers went off. Drenching us to the bone.

"For fuck's sake," I sighed.

"In here," Val called.

Her voice was muffled, and I soon saw why. She'd found a conference room, one whole wall of which was glass, which looked out onto the rest of the office space. Val had crawled under the long table and now sat cross-legged, beckoning the rest of us to join her.

"Go on," I said resignedly, as I crawled under the table to join her, "Go ahead."

Val raised a questioning eyebrow and shuffled over to make room for Regina.

I didn't even have the space to sit, so I ended up lounging on my side, but at least I was dry. Or drying, I guess.

"Fine," Val relented, "One dirty joke to raise your spirits in this dark time. Ahem, this is hardly the first time I've been crawling about under a table, soaking wet."

"I'm glad we can count on Valentine to keep things lewd, no matter how dire the circumstances," Amity said with a faint smile, "Now, what have you got knocking around in that big noggin of yours? How are you going to get us out of it this time?"

I shook my head, "We already ran my master plan. Gonna be honest, didn't think the zombie apocalypse was going to be a 'today' problem," I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts, "But we need to help the others. If the fey and Lady Death are buds now, they're going to turn around and come for us the moment they're done with the mall. Maybe Agamemnon and crew can fight off those zombies, but there's a hell of a lot of them, so I doubt it. If we let them fight us one at a time, we'll be screwed, but I don't see how we can get back into the mall with things as they are."

Amity turned to look between Val and me, "Couldn't we just leave?"

I spread my hands, "Maybe? And it would take four or five days. We're not going to be able to make it till The Long Night. Maybe we could speed that up if we found a vehicle, but anything large enough for Regina and me wouldn't do great offroad. So who knows? The wagon," I nodded back the way we'd come, "Probably still rolls, but with the suspension trashed it's not going to do great either. And that's not even considering supplies. Fine, we can do without tents and sleeping bags. But Regina and I both have a real hard time going without food for more than a day or two."

"You spoke of how plentiful human cities are..." Val trailed off.

"Yeah," I agreed, "It would be hard, we'd need to get past all the assholes outside and out of downtown, but yeah, we could probably find somewhere to restock."

"Yes," Regina huffed, "I believe I am coming around to your point of view. Surely the rain of fire is due to the fire god. I believe I recall he had been killed. Doubtless, Lady Death has raised him to serve her. We need only find him and the other risen god and return them to their natural state."

"They're probably watching the battle at the mall right now," Amity agreed.

Val grimaced, "You've seen the size of these glass spires. They could be concealed within any of a hundred different places, peeking out at the carnage, safe within one of a dozen buildings that itself has hundreds of vantage points."

"Don't forget the fey," I added.

"I haven't. Though I had rather hoped we would have arrived at a countermeasure for their magic before our next meeting."

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. The rush of water was somewhat soothing, even if the circumstances were far from the ordinary, but the incessant beeping-

I opened my eyes and peeked out from underneath the table.

Almost hidden by the cascade of water, way down the hall was a little flashing red light. It blinked near the ceiling in time with the beeping. It was a smoke detector.

"I'll be right back," I promised and rolled out from under the table.

I rose to my feet, and waving off the others' confused questions, walked down the hall to where the smoke detector blinked. I tore it off the ceiling, removed the batteries to silence it, and carried it back to where the others waited under the table.

"Smoke detectors," I began, "-that's what this is- contain a bit of Americium, less than a microgram. You remember the spike field we passed on the way to Pelignos? Well, the stuff buried there isn't quite the same as this, but the elements behave similarly. They've got what's called a 'half-life'. If that's two months, then every two months, the total mass of whatever you've got is cut in half. Two more months, half again."

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"Where does the mass go?" Val frowned.

"Well, okay, it's not that it goes anywhere," I corrected myself, "It mostly just turns into a different element, working its way back up the periodic table to... lead, I think? But yeah, some of that mass does get released as energy. It's that energy that will mess you up if you're not careful, and it's why Simon said he'd kill anyone screwing with the site."

Val leaned back, away from the smoke detector I was busy prying apart, "And there is some of this material in there? Are you quite mad?"

"Only a little," I repeated, "There's probably tons under the spike field, but there's not even a microgram in here. It's safe, hell, the way it detects smoke is by watching to see if the stream of particles- that's the energy I talked about -is blocked by the smoke. Alpha particles won't even make it through your skin."

"Fine," Val said grudgingly, "It's safe, but what good is it to us?"

"An element that slowly changes form over time? If anything has Time mana, this is it."

With the housing pulled apart, it wasn't hard to find the Americium. It was in the capsule with the prominent radiation warning symbol slapped on the side, and I had no trouble prying it from the circuit board.

"Wally," Val grimaced, "This is your first time experimenting to find a new mana source, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah. Not sure we've got a choice, though."

"Time mana may not even exist."

"Well, at least there's only a microgram here. If I do get it wrong, there'll only be so much damage my screw up can do."

"The fey are not here for you to test against. How do you intend to proceed?"

"First," I began, rising once again, "I'm gonna get out from underneath the table so I only hurt myself when this inevitably goes wrong. But I figure I'll keep it simple. If there really is Time mana, I want to see the future of our fight with those two undead gods. That'd be Sense Time, I guess?"

Val fished in a pocket and came out with a broken link of chain, "Here's your silver. Do be careful."

I didn't open the capsule. Not because I was worried about contamination, though I was just a little, but because I didn't want to lose the material. There were other smoke detectors, I could hear them in the distance, but I'd need them for what came next if this worked. Besides, if I could draw power from the air around myself, it was hardly more trouble to reach inside the capsule to tap into the mana.

"I want to see our fight with the undead fire god," I thought, as I drew mana from both the link of chain and the speck of isotope within the capsule.

And there I was, standing on the rooftop of- I tried to turn my head but couldn't. I couldn't even shift my gaze. -of some building, at the very least. I paid attention to those that rose around it and the metal panel-work that I could see rising to border the roof in a low wall.

The fire god was not in great shape. He seemed immune to the rain's effects, but the same could not be said for his burnt and charred clothing. Not that the fire would have done much to skin that looked like old leather. And his eyes. Though dried out and clouded with cataracts, they stared back at me, oblivious of the length of pipe that protruded from his chest.

Had that already been there? No, I remembered launching it with Move Metal. I'd speared him right through the back, but he'd only whirled and extended his arms.

Why was I- Right, I'd dodged to the side, carrying Val down with me as I avoided the gout of flame that had burst forth from his palms.

Amity and Regina were still on their feet, charging the corpse when a streak of white cut across my vision.

Amity was on the ground when I could see again, and red flames were boiling up from her back. An instant later-

No, I don't think I need to see that.

I could guess what would happen when large enough batteries were subjected to significant overcurrent. The only trouble was finding where the bolt had come from-

I'd hardly formed the thought before I was standing on a different roof. Again I paid attention to the buildings that rose within my field of vision. I noticed many were the same as what I'd seen before, though we were several floors above our previous position.

Again, I remembered having struck from behind, only for the god to turn around with a great big gaping hole in its chest. The lighting god looked much like his partner. Bald, charred clothing, and with skin like tough old leather. There were two main differences this time. For one, the leather was beginning to char as well, and most of all, its dead eyes were locked on Amity.

The gynoid attempted to lunge out of the way, but it was not a bolt of lighting that projected from the dead god's outstretched palm. Instead, the image burnt into my vision was a branching spread of searching current. Each fork looking for a place to ground itself, until finally, one found Amity.

I pulled myself away as quickly as I could and seized upon the first pondering that would banish the vision before me.

What if we succeed?

I caught a glimpse of black latex and heard Val scream. I lingered on that vision only long enough to ensure that, yes, she was enjoying herself, before trying to find a more productive vision.

What if we split up?

Again, the rooftop with the lighting god. Covered to the neck by her flight suit, Val seemed hardly to notice the flaming droplets. Even those that landed on her head ran clean off her hair without singeing a single strand.

I was using- Weird, the droplets seemed not even to touch me, as if I had some sort of force field. Ah, likely Move Fire. That explained the-

The vision ended, and I snapped back to my very damp reality.

"Are you okay? Did it work?"

I gave a little start. Val was standing before me and held both my forearms, regarding me with a look of worry.

"Where the hell did you get a catsuit?"

A look of confusion passed over her face before it was replaced with a wry smile, "I suppose it worked then."

I set my hands on her shoulders, "Right, flirting later. I picked up on some things. First of all, yeah. Radioactive stuff totally has Time mana, or at least, Americium does. I saw the rooftops the two gods are camped out on. They've split up, and we need to do the same. Amity and Regina hit the fire god, while Val and I start to tangle with the lighting god. They seem to be providing each other fire support, and twice I saw what happens if the lightning god gets a solid hit on Amity."

Amity peeked out from under the table, "Wallace, your care is endearing, but I doubt you would fare much better."

"Yeah, maybe not," I agreed, "But I don't have a ton of batteries that can catch fire and explode."

Regina's hackles raised at that, and worry marred her usually stern and indifferent visage.

"But that's not going to happen because we'll hit them both at the same time. I might be as vulnerable to electricity as the next meat bag, but you're the only one who's anything close to fireproof. Just be careful. Standard zombie rules apply. In my visions, both gods took massive trauma to the chest and just kept on going, so if you get the drop on them- and we did in my vision -go for the head."

"Shall we gather more of these smoke detectors then?" Val suggested.

"No, you and I are going up to the roof. I need to figure out which buildings our buddies are stationed on before my memory gets too fuzzy. Regina and Amity will get the smoke detectors and meet us upstairs."

----------------------------------------

The god of fire might be making a mess for the rest of the city, but he was certainly making it easy for us spellcasters to use Fire magic. I didn't know what exactly was in those tiny droplets falling from the sky, but they were potent stuff, and when combined with a touch of Movement mana from within my own body, they were more than enough to conjure up the fire-shield spell I'd seen myself using in the vision.

I searched the skyline, noting those buildings I'd seen in each of the visions until my gaze fell upon the familiar metal panelling.

There's the fire god's building. And if that one belongs to him, then...

That pencil tower's got to be where the lighting god is hanging out. There were taller buildings, but not many, and none closer to the mall.

A mall that was still under constant bombardment by lighting that came so fast that looking at its roof was like staring down the barrel of a strobe light.

I raised my forearm to my eyes and turned away.

"Well, there's our signal. The moment the mall stops getting hit, Amity and Regina can go in."

Val's hand found mine, and she drew it up to her neck, holding it close to her chest, "Did you see nothing of the fey in your vision?"

"There's undead gods chucking lightning bolts and making fire rain from the freaking sky, and you're worried about some spellcasters that might be kicking around?"

"Blame your own influence. You have a unique way of thinking, and I'd like to think I've been able to pick up on it, just as you seem to anticipate it when I have a dirty joke on the tip of my tongue. Gods or not, they are limited. You said it yourself. You can do anything you have the patience to figure out. The same is true for my kin, while these gods are constrained to very narrow powersets. They are predictable."

"Amity and Regina will bring us plenty of smoke detectors. We only need one for each of us. We'll have plenty of spares we can use to try scouting the fey, and the Time enchantments should hopefully keep the worst of their magic off us."

Val smiled and bowed her head, "You amaze me constantly. Anyone else looking up at this sky would be entirely reasonable in concluding that the world was coming to an end. Yet you're calm enough to explain the idiosyncrasies of human science and then apply them to the discovery of what is likely an entirely new type of mana. To say nothing of the enchantments you have planned for your discovery," Val ran her hands down my hand and up my forearm, caressing my skin and the rock hard muscles beneath, "You're tall, handsome, and gods, are you ever strong. I was so very jealous of you when we first met. I wanted to be you," she shook her head, "I'm still jealous, and I still want to be you."

"The grass is always greener on the other side," I muttered, "Even here, where people are happy to have at each other with axes and swords, you can only get so much use out of eight feet tall," I ruffled her hair, "I think you've got the better end of things here. We'll dial in those strengthening enchantments, and you can get them tattooed. Just look at yourself. You've come so far since we started. Give it long enough, and we'll have you just as strong as me. Trying to fix my heart is going to be a hell of a lot harder."

"I suppose if I can't be you, I'll have to settle for wanting you," she grinned.

"Man, would a psychologist ever have a field day with that."

----------------------------------------

Once again, modular enchantments saved the day.

There were several ways I could think of to counter whatever the fey might try. Move, Protect, Strengthen, Weaken, and Transform Body would all be required for full coverage, and if I were to combine them all into a single enchantment, it would be a mess. The magical equivalent of spaghetti code, and that was before the addition of Time magic added another level of complexity.

So I built each Verb-Body combination as its own enchantment and set them up to wait for word to act. That alone was five enchantments, and I would need to repeat each three more times, though at the moment I had only the prototype. Best to make sure my reasoning was sound before using any more of the scarce Americium capsules.

I knew time was of the essence. Even now, Regina and Amity reported the mall was under attack. The defenders were still holding back the zombies, shooting them dead- again -as they tried clambering up into the bridge opening. But among the horde below were bodies that had been in the ground longer.

In strict terms, a skeleton would not be as durable as a fresh corpse. Bone, even the bones of an average human, are more robust than most people expect. But much of that strength is lost as they dry out and bleach, laying for years or decades in the ground.

But damn, were the things ever fast, and most importantly, light. Amity had seen zombies throwing the skeletons up into the gap, and yet more had begun slipping in through spaces too small for intact corpses to pass through.

The defenders responded well, plugging those gaps whenever they could, but re-killing these gods would go a long way to taking the pressure off. I could only imagine what havoc the constant lightning strikes were having on Agamemnon's attempts to keep the mall's power stable.

Steel and glass might not burn, that was borne out from what I'd seen from the roof, but there was more than steel and glass in a modern skyscraper.

Even here, seated by one of the windows, working at some executive's overpriced oak desk, I could see several rooves ablaze where the tar paper had caught. It likely wouldn't spread to the interior, but if those lighting strikes kept up, who knows what might happen to the building's wiring? Even a small electrical fire might be enough of a distraction to upset the delicate balance of the ongoing siege, and I dare not think about what hellish decisions the defenders would have to make if the building really started to burn.

Moving up from the Verb-Body enchantments, I had Sense Magic to detect whatever the hell it was the fey- or anyone else -was trying. The enchantment would also report to the individual Verb-Body enchantments and tell them when to turn on and what to do.

Finally, a step up from that was Sense Time. It would look a millisecond into the future and give what it saw to Sense Magic. In a way, Sense Time was the actual information gathering part of the spell, while Sense Magic acted like a filter to determine what was relevant.

I leaned back in my chair and turned aside to Val. She had her seat beside mine, though facing the opposite way, covering my back while I focused on the business of enchanting.

"First one is done. But to make sure it works-"

Val snatched it up before I could finish.

It was an odd-looking amulet. The Americium containment capsule hung on a steel chain with zinc, lead, silver, and gold brazing, and Val would brook no argument as she settled it around her neck.

"The bodypaint is all well and good," she insisted, "But we both know that even with it, you are the one we can't afford to do without. If one of us is to be the test subject, best that it be me."

"Val-"

She patted me on the cheek, "Wally, shut up."

"Yes, Val," I sighed.

"Now go on and do something terrible to me, and we'll see if this was worth the trouble."

"Let me know as soon as you start to feel weird."

"Wally-"

"Not because I'm worried about hurting you, even though I really super am worried, but because I need to know when I start to overwhelm the amulet."

Val pursed her lips, "I suppose it's my turn to shut up."

She settled back in her chair, and I narrowed my eyes as I focused on my spell. It was a slightly cheeky test of the amulet, but I didn't want to hurt her and I suspected she'd approve of this use of Strengthen Body, even if it was far from what I typically imagined such mana types were for.

She quirked an eyebrow, "Have you started?"

I nodded wordlessly and hoped that she'd attribute my reddening cheeks to my deepening focus.

Val spread her arms and stretched her legs, looking down at herself, "Your amulet seems to be working."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, "Looks like."

"So. What exactly were you trying to do to me?"

"Not telling," I replied airily, turning back to my work, "But if we get out of this in one piece, and you behave, maybe we can try it again without the amulet in the way."