With a SMASH my fists broke deep into the mirror-glass beside Alator’s head. I roared my rage out until lungs were empty and my voice was hoarse, and raised and pummelled the ground again. Opening his eyes, Alator flinched away as shards pelted him, but couldn’t yet muster the strength to drag himself away.

Movement. I glanced around and saw three of the Mercurial Cichlids float round a corner. They must have been the ones that followed us to the mesa, now drawn by the noise. Spotting me, they all dropped open their vacuous maws, bone-tongue glinting, and sped towards us.

Alator tried to turn over onto his side and put an arm under himself to rise, but slipped and fell onto the cracked mirror.

“Talbot — run.”

But my mind was still ELECTRIC. The steaming buzz of the upwards spiral that coursed through my veins burnt like plasma, but I knew all I had to do was direct it somewhere — ANYWHERE.

[Battle Tactics], [Vigour], [Weapon Mastery], my Skills pulsed on immediately, one-by-one, at my slightest thought. As if the world had slowed, every part of my surroundings was made clear to me in solely utilitarian terms — the world was only a tool for my warfare.

Kicking down, I dug my toes a few layers deep into the glass beneath, then by dragging my foot forwards through the ground, and flicking my ankle, I threw hundreds of shards into the air. Choosing one carefully, but in a moment, I snatched a long, wide shard which seemed to me to be hanging suspended and held it aloft like a javelin. The fiends were still so far away.

Before the rest of the glass had even started to fall back towards the ground, I pitched the shard with my steel muscle fibres at full burst. It flew with a scream through the air and carved into and past one of the fish, its mercury body halving, one half splashed to the floor and disappeared, the other remained coalesced and fell into a messy pile of translucent scales and thick liquid-metal.

The other two continued unabashed, stretching their spear-barb tongues out and rocketing onwards. Their unnerving flute-like tubes sung out as they did, and their fins were tight to their tall, thin bodies.

I clicked my teeth and Alator covered his face with his arms as the glass shards fell all about us, shattering into dust. I wanted to tear into the other two enemies with my bare hands. Instinct had me reach for the Analysis Card.

Fiend :

Mercurial Cichlid A, Level 5

Stats :

Str 4, Dex 12, Con 2, Mnd 22

Attacks :

Needle Maw, Tongue Spear

Loot :

Mercury Scale, Cichlid Flute

Weakness :

You

XP :

44

Fiend :

Mercurial Cichlid B, Level 5

Weakness. . . . I threw my head back and laughed. Well done, SYS!

They were on us. Both went for me, the bigger target, and reached me a few seconds apart. The spiked tongue shot out of the mouth. I moved aside lazily and plucked it from the air, held it tight like my old bronze spear.

THIS dealt me a mortal wound?

The fish thrashed against my grip and the other came on quickly. Leaning back on my heels, I twisted my torso and brought my arms full-stretched about to spin the fiend around me, turning on the spot. [Weapon Tactics]. It felt entirely second nature to me that I had first used the environment as a weapon, and now I used another enemy.

At such speed, centrifugal force sent large beads of liquid-metal running down its body towards its tail, contorting its shape. Then I launched it like a hammer throw at the other.

With a sickening slap the two bodies collided in the air and burst into a fountain of translucent silver mercury. Most of their bodies exploded outwards and after splashing on the floor, disappeared into the cracked mirror surface, though at least a part of them maintained shape and fell with a plop.

“That’s it?” I called into the space. All that came back was my own voice, echoing a thousand times into nothingness.

Near-complete silence returned to the flat ground — only the slight shifting and crunching of glass around us. Sweat pouring off me, I turned back to Alator to find him sitting up on the floor, his arms trembling, but his face reticent.

He nodded to me.

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“That was incredible.”

For a moment, a flash of pure rage came to my mind, but with a twitch and a clench of jaw, I managed to still it. At that moment, with both hands on the wheel of control, I felt myself deflate. The upwards spiralling energy evaporated and my ability poured away from me like breaking a dam. My shoulders slumped, I dropped from my toes back on my heels and wavered for a moment, and my vision was struck by the painful sunlight again.

I felt spent, but not necessarily exhausted.

“Look, Talbot, I —” Alator started, but I held up a hand.

Embarrassingly, for a moment I couldn’t even remember what we’d been fighting about.

My chest!

I looked down and peeled back a corner of the torn Linothorax; the bare torn red muscle and sinew had been replaced by new skin, and all that remained of the ghastly death-wound was a graze — albeit ugly and wide, beading red. The mottled burn-wounds I’d sustained while underneath the living furnace of the demon armadillo were nearly completely healed, as was the glass cut on my palm from the morning, the arrow-cut on my cheek from Akhur'shet the day before, and the impact bruises on my arms from Old Mereth’s magic — all were settled into very fine and faint scars.

“Forget it,” I said. “Water under the bridge.”

Alator struggled to his feet and, meeting my gaze but visibly unsure, nodded, then started to inspect the bruises and blood on his body.

I realised then I’d lost the Bronze Dagger somewhere in the confusion. I sent a probe out.

BUZZ. The little bronze sphere appeared next to my ear. Its electric-blue eye slowly peeled open across its diameter.

// SYS : You gained 22 XP when Alator defeated the Mercurial Cichlid. You also gained 132 XP for defeating the three Mercurial Cichlids. You now have 181 and need 102 total for the next Level. //

Let’s deal with that, first. Strength.

// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 6. Your Strength Stat is now 12. You have 79 XP remaining and need 108 total for the next Level. //

H’m, probably should have done Dexterity to help with the grind, or even Constitution to assist in these awful environs.

// SYS : I’m not finished, but . . . you might not like what I’m about to say. //

A ball of dread rose to my throat. I had an inkling. . . .

// SYS : You gained 34 XP for defeating Ishi the Orchard Hand. You now have 113 and need 108 total for the next Level. //

A foul, dry taste took over my mouth and my stomach turned.

Dexterity, this time.

// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 7. Your Dexterity Stat is now 8. You have 5 XP remaining and need 115 for the next Level. //

Forcing down the repulsive nausea, I tried to focus again.

Anyway, now, SYS, what you said — you were egging me on.

// SYS : My prerogative is the same as every System’s — to accompany you on your journey. //

You manipulated me!

// SYS : Talbot, remember — your quest is quite different, and quite a bit more important, than any other in this World. So I will also do what I can to bring out your potential. //

Potential! I scoffed. This was going nowhere. I had no doubt that SYS was as morally bankrupt as Alator was. Anyway, that WAS incredible — Warrior’s a broken class.

// SYS : You think everyone’s [Berserk] is like that? . . . No, Talbot. It might not be accurate — or at all acceptable or decent — to call you the Chosen One, but you are one of the chosen, and for a very good reason. You have a great and ambitious capability in you. //

But you’re not going to spell that ambitious capability out for me, are you? . . . Not even a hint? . . . Didn’t think so. Anyway, that’s the third time in two days that I’ve been —

“You cracked a rib,” Alator said, leaning and rubbing the side of his chest. “But, as you’ve realised, I heal faster than most. I’ll still be able to walk with this.”

“Hold on, let me speak to SYS a moment.”

I am constantly at risk of dying in this World.

// SYS : As advertised. //

She had a point.

Listen — give me some guidance. What am I doing here?

// SYS : You are here to avert catastrophe, to face the World-Eater. //

Yes, thanks, but that doesn’t really help me. What about the guy who was fighting it the first time we met?

// SYS : I told you before, there was no other. You have only your own ability in this world. I have also provided you a tutor, Alator. //

Forget it. What Level should I be before I face it? Should I find some big open field with lots of fiends and kill as many as I can every day, for XP?

// SYS : There’s not really a simple answer — //

Just admit that you don’t know.

// SYS : — but you are on the right track. Awakening your [Berserk] Special is a firm step in that direction. . . . Are you asking for spoilers about Barbican? //

Sure, whatever.

I almost felt the bronze orb sigh. Its eye definitely narrowed.

// SYS : Past the Glass Flats and over the Breathing Sands, you will find the Coral Town of Zhai-Khul, and from there, you will pass underneath the Quartz Ribs of Hulgar to reach the Hanging City of Ith-Korr. Ith-Korr is perhaps the second-largest settlement in Barbican. If you recall, I gave you pretty solid advice to understand your abilities, attain power, and make new allies. You need to actually meet other people in order to ally with them. //

Preferably other people who don’t want my — and I quote — BLOOOD.

// SYS : That would be best, yes. //

And are we talking natives of Barbican, or people from another World, like me?

// SYS : Yes. //

It would be really helpful if you had a register or something I could look at — there must be a few people in Barbican who have vastly greater Stats than I do, that would be able to help?

// SYS : . . . I’m afraid my kind can’t share information about our assignments — we’re in the dark. //

The suns, one red and one white, had dipped slightly in the sky, but the reflections in the mirror-world about us were still painful and strong, and I imagined the danger from the angelfish fiends still remained.

“Learn anything?” Alator asked.

I shook my head.

“We need to get going, Alator — out of the Glass Flats to the Breathing Sands, short stop in a Coral Town, then some more Ribs, then the Hanging Gardens of Babylon —”

// SYS : Hanging City of Ith-Korr. //

“The Hanging City of Ith-Korr. Apparently, our destiny takes us there.”

“Apparently? Does that foul System not know?”

“No, and I don’t find it very satisfying, either, but we’re certain to get some good Experience on the way, and maybe eat some more great food.”

“You mean have some good experiences?” As a knee-jerk, he corrected me like a father would a child.

“Sure,” I shrugged. “So. . . . Can you do your thing and point us in the right direction?”

Alator nodded, centred for a moment, and after a dull glow of yellow light, turned squinting forwards in the direction of the suns, and set off.

While we walked, the ground gradually became less sure beneath our feet — higher traffic, or heavier fiends, had made this place a stomping ground, and whatever reformed the mirror surface couldn’t keep up with the damage. The first few minutes passed with sheer luck, but eventually I crunched into a pile of dusty glass and tore the sole of one of my feet open.

Damn!

Remembering that my sandals had been splintered into loose wicker at some point during the fight, I picked some of the larger glass shards out of my foot. I untied the ruined Linothorax from my chest, seeing as the wound was almost healed, tore it in two, and wrapped it as best I could around each foot.

There we go, now I look totally insane.