So Sylvester set out to walk alongside the Lunar Princess through the ruined city called Kaleidoscope, in an alternate dimension where it was inverted and as if made of glass.

He had many questions.

For example, if he knew how to get out, would he get out as far as he would have gotten on his own two feet or where she had brought him into this place? In other words, did this walk make any sense or were they just doing it to have something to do while they talked?

He didn't know, but that didn't matter as much as the juicy promise of answers about both of their powers and the 'game' they were involved in, of course.

It didn't...

But he was curious nonetheless.

"Are you trying to waste my time or is what you said true?" Sylvester asked.

The inverted city took a step further away from the real city. They had to pass over a bridge that hung over the void, but it broke down and came back together piece by piece as they passed by.

He wondered if the Lunar Princess was doing all this in an attempt to impress him, sending some sort of message, or had simply happened because she couldn't control all aspects of this alternate dimension. To call it something.

Speaking of which...

"First of all, how do you want me to trust you if I don't even have a name to call you by?"

"I'm the Lunar Princess."

"That's not a name, it's a title. I know you've just arrived in this world, but you're not so ignorant that you don't know that."

No matter how much he provoked her, she couldn't hurt him yet. Not here. In theory.

But he didn't provoke her, she simply smiled in response.

"True, but I've never needed a real name," she said. "Give me one."

"Excuse me?"

"Choose my name. You are my only equal in this world and the person who saw me being born. I suppose you're something like a father."

Sylvester grimaced, but he couldn't deny that the metaphor made a certain amount of sense. Except for the part where he hadn't contributed anything at all to bring her into the world, quite the contrary.

It was the souls (again, just for lack of a better word, he didn't believe in such things) of that crowd of poor bastards that had given her life.

The people he was here to avenge. Them and all her other victims.

He knew it, he remembered it very well. That she wasn't a human being, as much as she resembled them in what mattered. She was farther from human than any Lunar Remnant, because she was something worse than that. She had never had a human foundation.

He knew that. And he wouldn't forget it. He had no reason to.

"Heather."

He supposed there was nothing wrong with giving her a name.

"You'd already thought of that, hadn't you? Not for me, though."

Had it been that obvious? He looked away, clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, what can I say? I dream of retiring with some nice woman and starting a family. With the life I lead, that's all I can do, of course. Dream."

"You say that, but what if it didn't have to be that way? What if you could live it? What if your struggle had an end?

Sylvester looked sideways at her.

"You're saying you're going to stop the transformation of people into Lunar Remnants?"

"I would if I could, but I'm not the one causing that. It's just another element of this game, Sylvester."

"Well, get to the point already. What game? What are you talking about?"

He was incapable of provoking her no matter how angry he got, and that made him even angrier. But it wouldn't do any good even if he succeeded. Quite the opposite. He was walking with her, through the ruins of the city he had protected, for the promise of answers. If he succeeded in angering her, she'd just shut her mouth and the answers would remain forever out of his reach.

But he couldn't help it.

This creature had killed millions of people, after all. The entire population he had bled to protect countless times.

It was a miracle in itself that he was talking to her as if she were a civilized person.

""It must be hard to believe, considering how your life has changed," Heather said (more comfortable than Princess Lunar, and she had no other name to call her by), "but you getting powers was a complete accident. So was the appearance of what you call Lunar Remnants. This planet wasn't supposed to be involved in the game."

"This?"

"Indeed. The game involves dozens of planets... even in different dimensions. And, in short, there can only be one left. The rest of them would be... Well, like a gardener mowing the lawn to keep it short and neat. It's nothing more and nothing less than that. A cosmic cleanup job. That's what I've learned in these four days. That and other things."

A cosmic cleanup job.

All the suffering humanity had gone through during the last decade, nothing more than an accident. And on top of that, alternate dimensions existed and the participants involved were supposed to fight each other, staking nothing more and nothing less than the existence of their planets. Or rather their dimensions?

Yes. It was definitely hard to believe.

Too hard for it to be a lie designed to fool him, he had to admit. If she wanted to fool him, there were easier ways.

What's more, she'd already proven that she didn't need such trickery to crush him.

Why would she lie to him?

He didn't want to accept any of it, but why would she lie to him? Unfortunately there was no reason that he could see.

Sylvester stopped suddenly, ducked his head.

Heather stopped too, of course.

"Sylvester?"

Good thing she's not going to start calling me father, he thought.

"Okay. I believe that. I believe you. What's the next step? What do you think the point of telling me all this is? I mean, what is it you're looking for?"

Heather blinked.

"I thought it would be obvious. I want us to join forces, to fight the invaders together. The fate of the world is the fate of all of us, after all. Nothing else makes sense."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

——

The Lunar Remnant, named Elizabeth, led them through the forest to exactly what she had described. In that, at least, she hadn't lied to them. Cynthia watched the strange ritual crouched in the undergrowth.

Lunar Remnants of all shapes and sizes praying to a golden idol. Not because of the material, it was ordinary stone, but it glowed with a strange ethereal light. Also blinding and quite annoying.

"And what exactly does she intend to do with this?" Cynthia asked in whispers.

She got the answer soon after, when she noticed that the surrounding flowers, all the vegetation, was dying. Okay, that thing was bad news.

It could never have been anything else, but now it was more than clear.

She glanced sideways at Ryan. At her partner.

He looked back at her and nodded, telling her that the decision was hers, that he would follow her wherever it took and he trusted her. The truth was that it was nice, that feeling of companionship.

Nice and necessary, when you were on hostile ground and you only had each other, with nothing but monsters for miles around. Monsters and also other syndicate agents, and their boss somewhere, but they didn't count as long as you couldn't see them.

The only real thing was the danger.

The feeling that anything could come out of the darkness at any moment to bite their faces off.

"Elizabeth," it felt odd to call a Lunar Remnant by a human name, but she had no choice, and she'd done her part. She wasn't going to start calling her "thing" or "monster" now. It would be a bit ungrateful ", your willingness to help is limited to showing us the way?

"I get the hint. Yes, I'll help you fight. But I warn you, I'm not very strong. Don't expect much from me.

Don't worry, I wasn't, she thought. She was asking more to find out how easy it would be to keep an eye on her as the fight progressed.

Cynthia reached for her revolvers and stepped out of the undergrowth. The monsters, all of them (except Elizabeth) were on their backs. Since they had no superiority in numbers or strength, they might as well take advantage of what they could while they could.

She'd always liked the element of surprise. The best fights were the ones that ended before they even began. Decisively and brutally.

"Come on, let's go then," she said, giving the starting signal.

Ryan stepped back as the dying vegetation reached where he stood, and he lowered his head to watch the flowers and grass wither.

He shook his head.

He then ran with them, transforming in mid"run.

——

"But you're not human," Sylvester said, "You're not from this planet, only in the sense that you're trying to occupy it. If you're telling the truth, then all the more reason for us not to cooperate. If there can only be one left, it has to be us. Humans."

"Oh, right." Heather sighed. "You're misunderstanding things. I'll explain it again, don't worry. You getting your powers was an accident, just like the appearance of the Lunar Remnants in this place. And, consequently, mine. So we're all in the same boat. We're not from another planet, competing for the only chair."

Sylvester nodded.

He wasn't sure how far he could believe her, but it made sense.

"All right."

"All right, meaning you will cooperate with me?"

"All right, meaning I believe what you're saying, but... I need time before I make any decisions. It's a lot of information. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid we don't have much time. I'm afraid you're going to choose only after they break down the doors and come in to kill us all."

——

They rushed at them without fear. Cynthia had always been willing to sacrifice her life, otherwise she would have chosen anything else as a career, but now others had new tricks.

One, actually.

Just one new trick, but it was enough to balance the scales. To make her feel a little like her boss must feel.

More than human, throwing things around that no other human could employ.

In this case, gusts of wind.

Thus began the ambush. She blasted four or five of the bastards, interrupting their prayers, far away. One of them landed against a tree with enough force to tear it off the ground. It was too fast, she didn't see it, but somehow the Lunar Remnant in question ended up under the tree instead of on top of it.

Anyway, she had bigger questions. Like how she could do this in the first place. Her revolvers weren't designed for this.

The syndicate scientists hadn't been of much use in this regard, although to be fair it was hard to do anything in four days with the end of the world hanging over their heads like a guillotine. Everyone was scurrying around like headless chickens on fire, not knowing what to do. Cynthia included, of course. She was nothing special.

Ryan took the opportunity to take care of the other three quickly, before they could get up off the ground and charge back. He bit the heads off all of them with frightening ease.

It would prove very intimidating were it not for the fact that he was on their side.

Since he was, it was just a little intimidating. Especially when she saw him swallow the heads without a second thought.

Damn.

Elizabeth had joined the fight as well, using the gray tentacles protruding from the human wrapper. But, as she had found out in the mess at the hotel and had told her herself less than a minute ago, they weren't very strong. Especially if you knew their weak spot. The crack in their defenses.

Cynthia wouldn't mind if she got ripped apart, it would just be Lunar Remnants, monsters that had turned their backs on their humanity, killing each other.

The most natural thing in the world.

But they needed their guide alive, so she gave her a hand. A gust of wind, that is. There was no need to fix what was broken and how was that saying? Ah yes. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like nails.

Both were very true, but it was just that it was so useful.

In the four days that the boss had been indisposed, she had discovered that she could not only throw them away, but pull them to her. So the Lunar Remnant that had been about to tear her guide in two flew off at great speed toward her.

It would have been on top of her, except that she dodged it by the skin of her teeth.

Yes, just by the skin of her teeth, even though she had known exactly what would happen. She still didn't control it very well, what could she say? But she had to give it her all and not hold back because of minutiae like that. It was all minutiae, compared to what was at stake.

Compared to the danger of dying at every turn. What did it matter if she died crushed by a Remnant she'd pulled in herself or some other way? The point was that she would be dead.

After she was dead she wouldn't care about anything at all, so she would give it her all while she was still alive. Case in point, she approached the downed Remnant, which had landed rather poorly, put the barrels against its skull and fired.

But not the usual bullets, no sir, but the wind again.

The wind blew its head off his shoulders and sent it flying into the treetops on the other side of the meadow in pieces, as if what she had brought near its head had been a sword.

She loved this. It was a real improvement.

Cynthia lured another Lunar Remnant, wrenching it from its fight against Ryan, with a revolver shot. This time she didn't bother to dodge. With the shot from the other revolver she ripped it to shreds before it could crash into her.

It was a great tactic and could speed this whole thing up quite a bit, something the remaining enemies seemed to have noticed, as a couple of them turned and tried to escape.

Unsuccessfully.

Oh, they came close, but this wasn't the kind of activity where they got points for trying. Ryan plucked one of the trees from the ground and wielded it with all the force of his massive body, as if it were a sword or a battering ram, anything you wanted to compare it to. In any case with the liberal application of that improvised weapon he managed to keep the sheep in the encirclement, forcing them back.

The next thing he did was to smash the trunk against the head of one. He was left with nothing but a few pieces slipping through his fingers and clattering to the ground, but he had never needed more of a weapon than his own body.

Ryan howled. His howl shook the ground, but not as much as the enemy in front of him. Good one, partner, she thought. Good one.

Well, she could celebrate her partner's successes too, couldn't she?

But first things first. Get it over with, she'd have time to high"five him later. She couldn't do that now unless she wanted to risk losing an arm again, of course, he'd have to transform into a human being again.

They were dispatched quickly and with relative ease. None of them even managed to escape to alert the others and bring the entire city down on their heads like the wrath of god.

Still, it struck her as odd that they hadn't found them en masse.

Just because, there were millions of people transformed into monsters after all, not necessarily because they had screwed something up. Anyway, there were hundreds of agents who could screw up too, and maybe they were busy with them.

Or in the final battle. For all she knew, maybe the boss was fighting tooth and nail already against that abomination.

In any case, she wouldn't question the good fortune too much, she would accept it because it was pretty scarce lately.

When they were done, Cynthia didn't return the revolvers to their respective holsters. More of those monsters could come at any time. The energy given off by the creatures as they unraveled into purple moon-seeking butterflies could be seen from far away, too. So they had better hurry.

In doing what they had come to do in the first place.

Now, the stone.

The praying ones had left, but it still gave off that retina-burning glow. What a fucking nuisance, she rubbed her eyes.

"What do we do now?" Ryan asked before she could do it herself.

"Break it? "Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't know, man. You think that monster told me all her plans, that I'm her confidant? I only know that these altars are bad news. For us and for the world."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders too and walked over to the stone.

"Stop," she asked him, and Ryan stopped, though he didn't seem to understand why she was asking him to do that. "I'll do it first, I can try it from a distance. It's silly and I can't be sure, but what if touching it hurts you? What if it has some kind of defense system? Or who knows what, it could be anything. It's an alien artifact, after all."

Ryan stepped back, smiling to himself. Pleased.

Well, she was just being a good companion. Nothing more or less than that. For a change.

Cynthia fired and there was nothing to it, it was very easy to smash it to pieces. The glow eventually disappeared, but she knew it had worked before because she saw that the vegetation had stopped dying.

Who knows what other harmful effects that artifact had?

But they couldn't breathe easy yet, they had a lot of work to do.