My team and I move through the busy shops of the hub as we try to meet Kayne’s time limit. As it turns out, for succeeding in such a difficult incursion zone, we had all gotten a very healthy number of credits. As the one who had dealt the final blow to the mind flayer, my credits, in particular, had swelled to dizzying heights — which is a good thing, too, as there is a ton to buy!

I only stop by Ratchet’s shop for a moment to pick up the one thing I'm not willing to go into an incursion zone without, a Last Resort Shield. My last one had saved my life who knows how many times in the previous incursion zone, and I’m not willing to go into another without one. So, with that in mind, I find the strongest Last Resort Shield I feel I can reasonably afford and buy it.

This time around, I also convince all of my teammates to buy Last Resort Shields as well, which isn't hard. They had all seen me survive getting thrown into a building by the mind flayer, which absolutely should have killed me. Instead, I’d survived with few enough injuries to keep fighting. If Claire had also purchased one, perhaps she might still have her right arm.

The place where I spend most of my allotted thirty minutes, however, is the small medicine shop where I’d purchased the regenerative serum that had brought me back from the brink.

Unlike Ratchet’s massive spatially expanded shop, the medicine shop is rather unassuming. Looking like a small pharmacy, it has a single counter with an attendant who would bring out various medicines upon request. A necessary measure, apparently, as there are some items here that could kill a sentinel who used it incorrectly.

From the medicine shop, I purchase five regenerative serums, five clarity pills, a couple rolls of bandages that increase healing speed, and finally, a few boxes of the weaker pills that numb pain and improve energy. Even with my new Hands of the Healer ability, I want to be prepared. We could easily end up in a situation where keeping mana toxicity low is important again.

Oddly, the most novel part of shopping for the magical items isn’t the actual shopping itself but placing the items in my inventory. With a wave of my hand, I could make items disappear into my inventory and reappear, always in a swirl of blue-white mist. Compared to my ability to turn to mist myself, I had been mostly overlooking my unlocked inventory. Not any longer, though, as it is just absurdly helpful. No longer will I have to run away from volcora with a backpack awkwardly thumping against my back.

Although… if what happened with the gazer happens again, I will need the healing items to be available to the others just in case I’m too incapacitated to bring them out. Or… dead, I suppose…

I shake my head to clear that grim thought. I’m not going to die, I have both Kayne and Audrey watching out for me, and they’re both insanely strong! Of course… that’s what I’d thought when I’d gone into the last incursion zone. I shudder and force myself to just stop thinking about it as I return to where Kayne waits for us in the plaza.

All in all, I’d spent over a thousand credits on my new Last Resort Shield and my medical supplies. However, there is not a thing anyone could say to convince me they weren’t worth every credit. A shield to save my own life, and mana-infused medicine to save others. There’s no purchase I could make more valuable than that.

Even still, I’d managed to save just over three thousand credits for the purchase of my new bow. Hopefully, that will be enough for me to get something that will last a touch longer than one incursion zone.

A few minutes later, the rest of my teammates arrive back at the plaza to stand before Kayne, who looks down on us imperiously. As I cast nervous glances at the massive man, I can’t help but consider that doing this with Audrey would have been a lot more fun.

When the thirty minutes are up exactly, Kayne straightens from where he’d been sitting upon the edge of the fountain and typing on his phone. He looks over us arrayed before him before giving an approving nod. “Come on, we need to move quickly if we’re going to get to ground level and still have time for the rest of today’s training schedule.”

Scene Break [https://i.imgur.com/H7S9RSV.png]

The fact that the Mercurials operated from the ground really shouldn’t have surprised me. From Akari’s description, they ran a black market of sorts, and any kind of black market would need to be hidden quite well. The smog-choked underside of Shinara is the perfect place for such a group to operate from — almost no one wants to live there other than criminals and low-lives.

What is properly surprising, though, is that the GDF Headquarters elevator system goes all the way down to ground level. Most high-end buildings are completely solid for their first dozen floors, both to help provide additional structural support and, controversially, to keep out the poor people. Can’t have them getting dirt on the rich residents living there, now can we. The fact that I now count among the people able to afford living in such a building is not lost on me.

If I’d thought the elevator ride from the skyway to the hub was bad, the ride from the hub all the way to the ground is worse. They really should put chairs or something in these elevators because this is ridiculous. That, or put the elevators outside the building so they don’t have to pass through the specially expanded spaces. I already can’t wait to be able to get wings or something like them as Audrey has; I can see why she’d started despising the elevators enough to just fly to whatever level she needed to be at.

I briefly imagine what it would be like if the elevators need maintenance and went down for a day, and everyone had to take the stairs. The thought brings a smile to my face as I imagine everyone glaring at Ashlyn at the skyway level reception desk as they started their likely hours long journey to their own desks.

Finally, after even I had started considering swapping to my assault state to punch a hole in the stupid speaker playing elevator music and Claire was nearly past the point of no return, the elevator blessedly slows to a stop, and the door slides open.

Baylee gives Kayne a look that definitely isn’t a glare as we step out of the elevator. “I feel like it would have been faster to go down to the skyway and then go to a neighboring building to go the rest of the way.”

Kayne sighs, even his ever-strict demeanor having cracked a little. “Trust me, it isn’t. Many a sentinel without a flight power has tried to optimize the routes, and the elevator is just fast enough that it isn’t worth it. Besides, most buildings don’t have ground access anyway.”

The first floor of the GDF Headquarters is rather small compared to the others, leading me to believe that it both doesn’t have spatial expansion shenanigans going on and that the majority of the floor is solid foundations without any rooms.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The first floor is only one large room that looks more like a military guard post than anything else. Dozens of heavily armed and armored GDF soldiers stand at attention with truly massive guns pointed at a large hanger door that seems to be this floor’s only exit. The door is made of massive plates of reinforced steel and is marred with the occasional black mark and dent.

The guards, mostly sitting in positions behind barricades, glance in our direction before returning their attention diligently to the door — although I do notice a few decks of playing cards being hastily hidden as Kayne strides into the room.

The captain is one of these guards, who I notice with a giggle had been one of the ones playing cards, scrambles to his feet before skittering over to Kayne and snapping a solute. “Sir, what can we do for the sentinels today, sir?”

Kayne, who stands so stiffly I think his spine must be a steel rod, nods to the captain. “We’re going out, begin procedures to open the door.”

At this, the captain and all of the other guards under him truly start to look nervous. The captain swallows and clears his throat, “Sir, I’m supposed to warn you that the area directly around the base is considered high risk. We aren’t to open it unless under-”

Violet flames start to bleed into Kayne's dark irises, “I gave you an order, Captain. Unless your previous orders were given by General Novak herself, you will follow it.”

The poor man wilts under Kayne’s glare, “But, sir. Our orders are… too…”

His words trail off as he stares in horror at the swirling violet flames that had appeared beside him. They dissipate quickly to reveal the form of a truly massive tiger that has our team moving into formation. Claire and Haruto step forward in front of Baylee and I protectively with Akari acting as a rear-guard. My teammates weapons materialize out of their inventories, leaving me feeling naked without my bow.

My breath catches as I look at the black and violet beast before me, my mind flicking back to the cutesy form I'd seen on the get-well poster from my hospital room. This beast barely even resembles the cute fluffy familiar from the poster, standing well over half a meter taller than me, even on all fours. Violet flame drips from the beast’s snarling jaws like saliva from a normal animal, and its eyes burn like violet stars.

Kayne’s familiar steps closer to the poor, petrified captain, looming over him and letting out a deep, resonant growl that vibrates in my chest. The feeling is deeply unsettling, making me feel like a prey animal standing before an apex predator.

“B-Begin the… o-opening p-p-procedures,” the guard captain stammers out, his eyes wide with terror and a dark stain starting to spread down one leg of his pants.

I close my eyes, my teeth clenched with impotent frustration. This… this is no way to treat the people under you. Kayne had abused his powers and his station to get what he wanted without any consideration for this poor captain. The way he’d acted grinds on my nerves like one of those massive stone wheels used to grind wheat. Slowly, I can see more and more of why Audrey and Kayne don’t get along.

The way Kayne acts… it’s like he believes himself to be better than human — like he is somehow more than any non-sentinel. But… isn’t he? He has unbelievable power, is practically unkillable in his assault state, and has combat experience that anyone in Japan would struggle to match. That is likely the reason he can get away with things like this. Who could stop him? Audrey, maybe, but what does a human force of nature care about laws?

“This is wrong,” I whisper quietly to Akari as we watch the captain move to a control panel on the wall near the back of the room.

“He reminds me of my uncle… and that is not a good thing,” Akari responds, her low voice vibrating with anger. She clutches the grip of her katana tightly, just as I had right before I plunged that very blade into the head of the mind flayer. I shudder at the memory; maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be as hard as Kayne from time to time.

In front of us, Baylee’s staff dissolves into pink light, and she gives the others a significant look. Silently, everyone else’s weapons disappear back into their inventories as well. None of us want to be seen defying Kayne — as Audrey had once said, he is goddamn terrifying.

Our attention is drawn as the motor above the steel-plated exit begins to whine. The sound eerily familiar to something a volcora might make. With a clattering groan, the steel plates of the door begin to slide upward into the roof.

Beside me, Baylee, Claire, and Haruto begin to cough — hands covering their mouths as the silently killing smog rolls into the room from the barely open door. Only Akari and I, who had been ready for this, manage to hold back.

Covering his mouth with his arm, Kayne turns around to level a glare at me as his familiar vanishes once more. “Solace! You have dominion over weather. Push away the smog.”

My eyes widen, and I shift uncomfortably under his gaze. “Sir, I… I don’t have an ability like that.”

Kayne gives me an exasperated look, “You can summon and control mist, Solace. Mist is water vapor, and the particulates that make up smog will attach to the droplets of water in the air. All you need to do is generate new mist from your body and push it as far away from yourself as you can before letting it fade. The smog will bind and also be pushed away, leaving only clean air behind. Continue doing this in a loop, and we will have fresh air.”

I frown; what a strange application of my powers. It could work, though, I suppose. “I will need to shift to generate that level of mist, sir.”

Kayne rolls his eyes and turns back towards the slowly opening door, glaring at the dark buildings beyond like they owe him money. “Then shift.”

With a shrug, I shift. The now familiar rush of power flows through me. I don’t focus on that, though — instead, focusing on my core of power and how I might do what Kayne said.

“Is this even possible?” I think to Celeste as a thin haze of blue-white mist begins to form around me.

[I don’t know,] she responds with the mental equivalent of a shrug. [The mana cost shouldn’t be too much, though, since controlling your mist is the easiest thing you can do. Here, I will help with control.]

I feel Celeste’s willpower join with mine, and together, we control building mists. Thicker and thicker, the mist begins to swirl around my body until it explodes away from me in a constant tide out of the building and away from my teammates.

In front of me, but far enough away that I can barely see him in the swirling mist, Kayne extends his hand in front of his face and sighs. “I probably should have seen this coming,” he mutters.

Visibility in the room had dropped to almost nothing, to the point that I could only see my teammates, Kayne, and a few of the soldiers who happened to be close enough. Everything else is just a void of swirling white and blue. Except… even though I can’t see through the mist, I can feel it.

The mist feels connected to me in a deeper way than it had before — as if it were an extension of myself. While I know that I stand at the center of the mist… I feel as if I could be anywhere within it, and where people and walls are, I can feel the absence of that potential — like holes in my presence.

“Do you feel that?” I ask Celeste, mind whirring as I can suddenly take in everything the mist touches. It feels almost like omnidirectional sight.

[Our connection with our powers will have deepened from our increased sub-rank, but… this feels like more than that,] Celeste says, her voice contemplative.

Hesitantly, I reach out my hand and run it through the mist, feeling it swirl and move just as much as I can see it. It feels cool and soothing on my skin, like a mister on a hot summer day. That had been how it felt before, but now it feels… deeper. Like it's connected with all the other mist in the room. It feels like a gateway.

“This is Mist Step,” I tell Celeste with awe. “This is what it does when combined with my Living Mists.”

[I see, but that would mean…] Celeste starts, trailing off.

I nod with a grin, “That means that when we are within our mists, we can be anywhere the mist touches.”

With a flex of will, I activate the ability, and my body dissolves into mist. The sensation of weightlessness only lasts an instant, though, before I reappear beside the guard captain, who doesn’t even notice my appearance — my assault state’s colors allow me to blend in perfectly with the whites and blues of my mist. An instant later, I allow myself to dissolve again, stepping through the already-existing mist like a doorway. I don’t need to travel but am transmitted instantly by my mists.

I grin broadly, even as my teammates continue watching Kayne. They hadn’t even seen me leave. “Celeste… we can teleport!”