1

Sylvester was at a crossroads.

He didn't know what any of the decisions he could make would lead to. Otherwise it wouldn't be a crossroads, the decision to make would be the most obvious thing in the world. So far, he had believed everything the Lunar Princess... Heather had told him.

Her words made sense and, above all, it would take no trickery or stratagem for her to triumph against him if that was all she wanted.

All she would have had to do would have been to fly to meet him, instead of setting up this elaborate alternate dimension and her endless speech. He knew that. He was well aware of that.

But...

That didn't mean she was his ally, that he could trust her fully. And even if she was, should he?

"I believe you, but you've murdered millions of human beings. Why should I set you free to try again? Why shouldn't I... punish you for that?"

Heather smiled an incredibly sweet, incredibly fragile smile.

Incredibly human.

"I haven't killed anyone. Except for the humans who died to give me life, but that had nothing to do with me. Not really. I wasn't born yet."

"The population of this city...!"

"Still alive. It's perfectly fine, it's just that you need to think of them as dead because I turned them into Lunar Remnants. Without that trick of perception, you wouldn't be able to go on with your daily work. It would mean admitting that you're in the business of killing people to save other people. More than that, killing victims of chance and circumstances beyond their control, above all else."

Sylvester grimaced ugly, full of rage, as if he was going to attack right now, even though he knew he couldn't hurt her. That he couldn't touch her because she wasn't really there.

But he didn't do that. Nor did he say anything.

He had no words with which to refute any of it. Not a single thing.

2

"Another altar," Cynthia said.

It was considerably better defended than the last one.

There were only half a dozen monsters praying like saints, but here there were more than a dozen. All sorts of shapes and sizes, again, because no two Lunar Remnants were alike. She would say because of the spirit and human individuality, but she knew (as did everyone else) that wasn't true. There were people to spare who seemed photocopied.

Magic was magic.

There was no point in wasting time wondering how that sort of thing worked. There were no answers, at least not any that she could find from her perspective as a human being. The only answer to all the questions she had to worry about right now was: Use gun on monsters.

And, like last time, she emerged from the woods to do just that. Now the city was less of an urban jungle and more of a straight-up jungle. There were plenty of places to hide and set up an ambush.

It wasn't easy to see the city she'd almost died to protect countless times (in all honesty, for the sake of her sanity she'd never even tried to keep count) reduced to this, and the monsters slithering through its bones, desecrating its corpse.

It was time to vent all her rage, just as she gathered her strength before sticking her head underwater and charging forward again, that moment of release was important to keep going when the most likely end to this whole enterprise was that she would wind up exactly like the city.

A mutilated, discarded corpse in the meadow.

But I'm not going down here, she thought, by my balls I'm not. By my fucking balls.

The Lunar Remnants who had been praying at the altar rushed to meet her, to meet her little team, fearlessly and without a moment's hesitation. And they had been normal citizens mere days ago.

Not even a full week had passed since the fateful events that had transformed the city of Kaleidoscope into these ruins.

It was easy to talk when you hadn't been through something like this, she knew, especially after talking to Ryan and reconciling. Not everyone was as lucky as Ryan. Or like Elizabeth.

But in any case, Cynthia didn't think she'd turn her back on humanity so easily.

What had happened to them?

Had they decided to accept being as monstrous as they looked? Or had they succumbed to despair, thinking it best to go over to the winning side?

She didn't know.

She couldn't know. Everyone had their own circumstances. How was that, every person was an island?

But that's why, for nothing in the world, her trigger finger could tremble.

"Come on, you fucking bastards. I'm going to show you what's good. I'm going to teach you a lesson..."

That they would forget as soon as she blew their brains out, but hey, it was the thought that counted.

Cynthia slipped between them, gliding with agility and grace. She had guns, unlike her boss she didn't need to get within range of those monsters and their assorted limbs, but she wasn't thinking with her head, she was thinking with her heart. Following her fighting instinct.

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Besides, she no longer needed to fear closing the distance.

With these pistols, he could push away or bring closer whoever she wanted whenever she wanted. They fit her like a glove. She couldn't have thought of a more perfect power even if she had been given the chance. Maybe she should be afraid to rely on a strange power that she hadn't had until four days ago, a power that came from God knows where, but she wasn't. She felt it as if it were part of her body, as natural as moving an arm.

Cynthia grimaced, remembering her shattered and wrenched arm floating in a pool of her own blood. Her original arm. It hadn't been the most appropriate metaphor.

She wasn't good at that sort of thing, what she was good at was killing.

Like this.

Blowing one of those monsters up so that it was impaled on a bed of sharp tentacles Elizabeth had prepared beforehand, a great display of teamwork for two people who had met less than half an hour ago, all things considered.

And like this.

Finishing off the ones Ryan tore apart, not even letting them bleed out on their own. Those carnivorous plants had to be pulled up by the roots without hesitation, for everyone's sake.

If you weren't being cruel and ruthless, you weren't trying hard enough.

These didn't run away, even though they should have soon realized that they were at a disadvantage no matter how much they outnumbered them. Desperate to protect the altar. Cynthia didn't know the ultimate purpose of the altars, only one of their effects on the ground, but it couldn't be anything good, that much was obvious. Even less so if they were protecting it so fervently.

She didn't know what the Lunar Princess had done to these poor people, but she had them willing to lay down their lives for a piece of stone when she had so recently removed them from their normal lives.

It was horrible. And sad.

Cynthia lowered the revolver, aiming it at the head of a defeated Remnant, who was clinging to life in spite of everything. The cruelest thing would be to let them exist like this. To let them suffer like this. There was nothing cruel about her efficient tactics. On second thought, they were mercy.

Even if they didn't see it that way, she was the angel that at least allowed them to stop suffering since she couldn't save them.

The Remnant's eyes bore into her. Burning and accusing, even though its life was a flame about to be extinguished. Like a candle going out as soon as a door opened, with only that small current, a candle almost burned out and what was left behind?

"You were supposed to protect us," it said, full of humanity, with that inhuman throat and that unrecognizable body, monstrous, twisted by an evil that came from beyond the stars.

Cynthia's lower lip trembled, causing her to bite it.

But by no means her trigger finger.

“Sorry.”

There was a bang! and then nothing.

(silence and darkness)

3

"One last thing."

"I'll answer whatever you want," Heather said, "I have nothing to hide. But whatever you decide, you'd better do it quickly. I don't know when they'll get here, but they will. With the intention of leaving not even stones behind."

"As I said, just one last thing. One last question. What have you been doing these last four days? Apart from getting ready to receive me and set up this sort of alternate dimension, very nice, by the way. Have you done anything to prepare to receive... our enemies?" It took longer than he thought to get the word "our" out of his throat.

It wasn't as if it was some sort of verbal contract and by saying it instantly he couldn't back out of working with her. It wasn't admitting and accepting that they were on the same side, just that he would play along until he had a reason to turn his back on her.

"Yes, indeed. I'm not sure how effective the measures will be, but I've done all I could with the time I had. At least that much I can say. Even if it's no comfort if we're all wiped out."

"You didn't answer my question."

"That's what I was getting at. For example, there are stones all over the island. Almost like altars, gathering energy."

4

"One down!" declared Cynthia triumphantly.

It wasn't the second altar they were dealing with, but the third.

They were working quickly and efficiently.

Elizabeth had proven to be reliable, for not only had she not stabbed them in the back on the many occasions they had given her, but she had proved essential in getting through the city without biting off more than they could chew and finding half the monstrous population after their heads.

Cynthia wasn't content just to announce her victory as if anyone cared or as if no one evil could hear her, she also trampled what was left of the altar, a handful of stones, under her boots. Crushing them.

Unnecessary, she couldn't do anything that the wind shots from her pistols, Ryan's strong body or Elizabeth's tentacles hadn't already done, but it felt good.

It was like she was rubbing her victory in that damn monster's face.

Cynthia would thwart whatever plans she had for the world and then kill her. For the sake of all the people who had fallen that day.

For the sake of all the people who had died in this eternal last decade, dark and full of tragedy, where humanity for the first time in its history had shrunk in on itself instead of moving forward for better or worse.

The self-proclaimed Moon Princess had to be the one to blame for all that suffering. She couldn't undo what she had broken, erase the tragedies and bring light back into the world, but she could at least give them a break.

Humanity deserved a fucking break.

5

The sky began to fall apart, the whole world to tremble, and Sylvester experienced firsthand how an ant must feel when its nest was trampled by a human who was just passing by and probably hadn't even seen it. He clung to one of the trees to keep his balance, an unconscious act, pure reflex. His mind was occupied with other things. Above all...

"What the hell is going on?"

But she didn't know either, of course not. It showed in her eyes, but he should have guessed it from the beginning.

Sylvester activated [Infernal Wings], deciding to save the questions for later for a change. If they had time, that is. It was obvious that they would soon find themselves in deep shit. And with no choice but to trust each other. He was now convinced of that.

He had inadvertently received an answer to one of his many questions, anyway. He wasn't going to get out at the point where she'd brought him here, it did matter how far they'd get.

He was in a hurry. Very much in a hurry.

Would they die if they weren't able to get out in time? Now that would be a sick joke. So long fighting to hold on to his humanity and bleeding for the place his species deserved in the cosmos, for the planet that belonged to them, only to die in a place that wasn't even real? Fuck it.

Heather landed in a building that looked like it was about to collapse, and Sylvester followed her without asking questions. At no point had the world stopped falling apart and shaking, so it was hard to keep his balance, fortunately the wings, which he hadn't made disappear yet, helped him more than they hindered his efforts.

He realized.

It was in this state and, like everything else, it seemed to be made of glass.

But this was the building in which the creature who had turned her back on him without a second thought had been born only four days ago, as if they weren't sworn enemies. As if she was already fully convinced that she could trust him.

"What are we doing here?" Sylvester had to ask.

"Leaving."

She snapped her fingers, the blue light returned and when it dissipated they were back in the real world.

Only it didn't look very real.

There were two... holes in space. One orange and one blue.

He thought: They have to be portals, right?

He thought: They're already here, aren't they?

And so they were. From the portals emerged the enemies that were coming to destroy them. From the orange portal came rolling out on eight wheels a metal monstrosity, like a strange futuristic tank, surrounded by men about two meters tall with bizarre armor that didn't leave even a millimeter of skin exposed, an army from another world.

Out of the blue portal emerged Remn-....

No, nothing like that, it was simply the word that came closest to what he was seeing. But that was just a very small box of one more planet in a huge universe, in the middle of an endless multiverse.

They were alien life forms. And they were hungry.

The Dead City Of Kaleidoscope (4): END