No one was about to ignore Audrey’s warning. With only a baseline sense of cohesion, we all turn and sprint away from Audrey and the other mentors, even as explosions of force shake the ground. Dread sits in a pit in my stomach as I hear the fighting behind me. They’re fighting each other! What is going on?!

We run and run, the members of Team Picnic often outpacing the soldiers and being forced to slow down to allow them to keep up. I breathe hard, desperate to pull in enough air to keep my legs going as fast as possible, even as my side burns from the effort.

I move swiftly, barely pausing to take in my surroundings as Celeste feeds me information from above. Following her guidance, our group ducks through side alleys, leaps over the rubble of collapsed buildings, and navigates away from the rumbling explosions behind us.

[Not that way!] Celeste yells into my mind, causing me to stumble and nearly fall onto the wet pavement. Only a hand from Akari stops me from taking a tumble, and we continue our sprint together.

[Go left! Into that building!] Celeste instructs as I recover my feet. [You’ve got a group of about thirty wolves and a C Rank alpha coming in just in front of you! We need to wait for them to pass!]

“This way!” I call, trying to turn towards the building to my left, just as the ground shakes violently. Trying to change directions while in a full sprint with the uneven terrain and the ground shaking has me tumbling to the ground. My blue shield briefly flashes around me, absorbing the impact and stopping me from getting road rash from the asphalt. The shield doesn’t stop the icy cold water that coats the ground from soaking me more than the light rain had.

In an instant, Akari is before me, grabbing my arm and pulling me up. My eyes widen at just how easily she’s able to lift me; maybe her assault state grants her more strength than mine. The soldiers and the other members of Team Picnic are already streaming into the cracked façade of an apartment complex, and, still stumbling, Akari and I move in after them. Just in the nick of time, too.

Pressing my back against the wall, I don’t even have time to truly process the room I’m in. My mind is fully focused on the scraping sounds as I hear the wolves start to pass us. I breathe hard, willing myself to be as silent as possible but still needing to catch my breath. My heart beats so loudly that I’m certain the wolves must be able to hear it.

The wolves continue making those horrible high-pitched growls and snarls that cause shivers to run down my spine. It’s like someone scrapping their nails across a chalkboard multiplied by the terror of being stared down by a predator.

[There are a few flying volcora that have spotted me! I’m going to- AHH!] Celeste’s mental voice cuts off for just a moment before reappearing, sounding less distressed. [My physical body was destroyed,] she reports sadly, even as my eyes widen.

“You’re okay, right?” I think desperately to my familiar; I know she’d told me before she’d be fine, but having your body destroyed cannot be a pleasant experience.

[I’ll be fine,] Celeste says, her mental voice still holding a note of what I interpret as residual pain. [I won’t be able to guide you from above any longer unless you re-manifest me. Right now, there are so many volcora above and around us that I don’t think that’s wise. Save the mana; we are going to need it.]

For a minute, we all sit, catching our breaths and doing our best to be as silent as possible. The volcora continue to stream past us, apparently both above us in the air and to our sides on the ground. I keep expecting one of them to duck into the apartment complex lobby we shelter in, but that keeps not happening. It’s almost as if…

“Celeste, what if they are going after Audrey and the other mentors?” I ask as the ground shakes under me again, proof that the fight is still ongoing.

[I find that likely. The way they are moving seems so organized. Volcora never act like this. It’s almost like something is controlling them. It’s hard to tell from the ground, but from the air, I could see it clearly. They were organized. I’m certain I was taught that they shouldn’t be this intelligent,] Celeste says.

“What could even do something like this, though?” I ask, hoping that Celeste might have some idea.

[The only known volcora I can think of that can do something like this is called a mind flayer. Those have to be at least B-Rank to appear, though. One this powerful, it could even be A-Rank or at least high on the high end of B-Rank. I don’t understand how it can operate in an incursion with stygis levels this low,] Celeste explains.

I close my eyes, taking a shuttering breath. A mind flayer — that doesn’t sound like something that could or should exist. Although, I’d seen it at work. I’d seen the power worming its way inside Audrey. A B-Rank volcora… is there even anything I can do against that?

“So, a mind flayer controls peoples’ minds?” I ask, wanting to confirm.

[Sort of. It can completely dominate the minds of any volcora of a lower rank than itself. It can influence the minds of non-volcora, but it can’t directly puppeteer them like it can with volcora. Supposedly, if you have enough willpower, you can resist, but if this is a B-Rank, I can’t see how anyone could break free from its influence.] Celeste dutifully explains.

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I take a deep breath, my fingers tightening and loosening around my bow again and again. Being a sentinel wasn’t meant to be like this, and I’m not sure what to do moving forward. Try to survive, I suppose.

For a while, I just sit in silence, listening to the river of volcora passing by us. I can’t keep from questioning our situation as I sit. What is going to happen? Is Audrey even still alive? How do we leave this incursion zone? Am I going to survive this?

I don’t know, and that’s the most terrifying thing. Maybe Audrey will have some item or ability that lets her fight off the volcora’s mental influence; that sounds like something she might have. I mean, she’s Stardust Angel; she can’t just die. Right?

The occasional shaking of the ground seems to indicate that, wherever Audrey is, she isn’t dead. That could change at any second, though. How long can she fight? With her mind being influenced, the other mentors, and the hoard of volcora, how long could anyone hold up? Audrey had always been a legend, but no one can handle that.

I shiver, wishing my clothes hadn’t been so thoroughly soaked when I’d fallen. The air is cold and smells of mildew. The apartment complex lobby we hide in doesn’t have any lights within it, making it difficult to make anything out, but I can see a stairwell further up and a reception area of some kind. I wonder if I would be able to see when the volcora pass if I go upstairs? Probably not worth the risk of getting spotted, not that the volcora I hear seem to be at all interested in searching the buildings.

My team sits around me, all of us slumped against the wall by the door. The soldiers who had followed us had moved a bit deeper into the building, making it hard to make them out in the shadows. Beside me, Baylee seems to be trying to calm herself, clutching a necklace I hadn’t noticed her wearing before and taking shuddering breaths. Haruto, next to her, just looks shell-shocked.

Akari looks remarkably calm for the situation; her expression is carefully neutral as she listens intently to the passing volcora. Noticing me watching her, she moves to place her hand on mine, offering a comforting smile. I return her smile weakly, finding it odd how much our positions had reversed. Now, she is the one trying to comfort me. How can she be so calm?

Furthest from the door sits Claire, her head buried in her hands. Her entire body trembles, and it takes me a moment to realize that she is suppressing sobs. My heart aches to see her like that. This isn’t the Claire I’d come to know; this isn’t how my team is supposed to be! We’re sentinels! Protectors of the world! Only now do I realize that being a protector means that there is no one to protect you. We’re on our own now. No Audrey, no mentors, no easy way out.

“Celeste?” I ask in my mind, wanting to be able to talk to someone.

[Yes?] Celeste asks, her own voice sounding scared.

“What options do we have?” I ask her, hoping beyond hope that, with her knowledge, she has an idea.

[We don’t have any good ones if that’s what you’re asking,] Celeste responds sadly. [These are the only things I can think of that get us out of here alive. Our best option is for another sentinel team to come check up on why we haven’t completed the incursion zone yet. I find this unlikely, and even if it does happen, it will take six or more hours. Besides, Audrey told us that there was no backup for this incursion. Next, we could hunker down and try and wait out the incursion zone. If it breaks down with us in it, it will dump us back into the real world just like it does with the volcora. That’s not great either because we’d be right back in the same situation except just on Earth. We could try getting back to the aperture so we can warn the GDF and get more people in here to deal with the incursion, but-] The ground shakes violently under our feet, cutting her off. Dust drifts down from the ceiling.

[But we’re cut off,] Celeste continues once the shaking dies down. [Finally… Well, we could try and kill the mind flayer. From what I know about them, they are considered powerful because of their long-ranged mental abilities. If you can find their physical body, though, they are meant to be relatively fragile for their rank. It could be possible.]

“Won’t it just control our minds, though?” I question.

[Potentially, but from what I know, they can only control so many people all at once. There’s a reason that it only targeted Audrey and the other mentors. I believe that means that it would be forced to release the others to try and influence us,] Celeste says. [We are reaching the edge of my knowledge on the subject, however. Mind flayers are rare and aren’t well studied.]

I close my eyes, trying to repress my fear and think logically through the options Celeste had presented to me. What we choose to do will depend on our end goal. We could just hide or try and slip back to the aperture to escape. Doing that, though… if a mind flayer controlled army of volcora was dumped on the slums right outside the city, it would be a massacre. We have magical weapons and shields, and even with those advantages, we barely managed to take down three volcora. There are hundreds out there, probably thousands. The death toll would be unimaginable.

Absently, I slip my phone out of my pocket in a desperate hope I might have a signal. Maybe we could call for help outside the incursion zone? Celeste hadn’t mentioned it as an option, so I’m guessing not. Still, it’s easy enough to check. Opening my phone and shielding the light from escaping with my hand, I see that, indeed, I have no signal. What I do have is a text from my dad waiting for me.

I trust you, Serena. Whatever needs doing, you can do it. Please be as careful as you can, and come home safe. I love you more than anything.

For a long time, I stare at the simple message. What would Dad do if he was the one here and I was the one in the city he was protecting? He wouldn’t even think of giving up, of hiding or running away. No, this incursion, these volcora, they put far too many people at risk. Thousands of innocents, my father, Mr. Yamamoto, and all of my friends at school. They are depending on me. What if the mind flayer got out and influenced the mayor to make certain decisions? What about the military and GDF leaders? This getting out could lead to complete disaster.

“We have to stop this here,” I tell Celeste, my mental voice growing with confidence. “We cannot let this incursion breakdown.”

[I’m with you,] Celeste responds immediately. [Let’s kill us a mind flayer.]