As we once again approached the Kremlin and the center of town, we only had 14 enemies left to kill. Weeks used her ability and identified them scattered between four buildings flanking the roadway just before we entered Red Square.

I could see the Kremlin now. It was red, with towers rearing up over towers, all pointy, and lots of windows. Unlike every other building we had passed, it seemed untouched by the ravages of war.

I slowed before we got within easy range of the enemy waiting for us. We crouched behind a ruined apartment building, its walls torn open on two sides, the floors of the apartments cascading down onto each other. Broken beds, shelves, and household debris made a pile blocking off the street. We weren't completely sheltered here, but it was relatively safe.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," I said. "That building is much too prominent not to have a purpose, but all of the supposed enemies are ahead of us. I think we're going to get another challenge once this is done."

"That's not fair," Ling complained.

"Reality engines aren't fair," I snapped. "Be prepared for that. How do we want to take these last ten men? They're split up between the four buildings, two on each side of the street. We could try clearing one side, then the other, or take the buildings one at a time.”

"Most of these buildings have choke points where it's hard to get more than four of us on target at any given time," Dorman pointed out. "I think it makes sense to do two at a time."

"Agreed," I said. "We'll do left side, then right."

I broke us up into two different fire groups, keeping Sanders, Dorman, Hester, Will, and me together and assigning the other soldiers to the second fire group.

"Stay in communication," I said. "Don't leave your building unless you have to, until the other team reports clear. After that, we'll rush across the street and take them. We have to expect they'll see us coming."

Chavez grinned. He had his double-barreled shotgun out, and he worked the action needlessly now with one hand, raising a fist skyward as he did. "Let's do this! Wolverines!"

Weeks cheered. She'd gotten more headshots than anyone but Sanders when I was planning to suggest Allison work with her to develop a build that took advantage of that proficiency. One thing at a time.

"Go," I said, and we rushed out of cover and down the street. Will cast Cloud of Smoke as we ran, throwing up an obscuring smoke cover to hide our progress.

I had claimed the right to breach this time, and I hurried forward with my team. As we came to the target doorway, I put my shoulder down and rammed. The doorway burst under me. I stumbled into a crowded flat. Furniture was piled on top of furniture. Boxes and bags everywhere. I did a quick Inspect, and it reported back to me that the bags were full of valuables. Someone had been using this as a staging area for loot.

There were no enemies here, but at the back of the room, a staircase led upward. I pointed and charged. As I hit the bottom of the staircase, I saw the door at the top standing open and a rifle barrel peeking through at me. I cast Fastest Gun in the West and rushed up the stairs in a blaze of speed. I smashed into the room, knocking back whoever was at the door, and cast Call 'Em Out on everyone in the room. Then I threw an explosive round at the man I'd targeted while coming in the door. My Trick Shot meant it hit his hand where he was raising his Nagant. His hand exploded, knocking the gun flying.

My team was on my heels. Hester threw down a Polite Clap of Embarrassment, which rendered all of the enemy unable to fight back for five seconds, and we poured on the lead.

Sanders and Dorman were a beautiful tag team, taking the first man with a burst to the center of mass and then rounds to the head as his body hit the floor. They rushed forward, targeting the next, then the next. In seconds, the room was full of bodies, blood, and smoke.

I caught my breath as my team double-checked that all the baddies were actually dead, and then I sent a message to Chavez.

"Clear here. How are you?"

"All good, boss."

I checked and saw that we were down to eight enemies left, in the buildings across the street.

"Let's finish this. Let me know when you're in position," I said.

We retraced our steps down into the crowded lower room. When Chavez signaled his team was in position, I took a deep breath, then "Go!"

We burst out of the building, raced across the street, and rushed inside. I let Sanders and Dorman take the stairs this time. They raced up, burst into the room above, shouted back down, "Clear! No one here!" and then back onto the landing.

The men raced up the stairs ahead of me. I followed tight on their heels. They burst into the room, guns blazing immediately. I darted inside. Sanders and Dorman were both crouched behind overturned couches. On the other side of the room, a trio of Russian soldiers fired on them with their rifles. I noted that the couches were actually stopping the bullets. More reality engine nonsense, and then headshot one of the Russians.

Will burst in after me. He splayed his flamethrower across the room. Flames whooshed up. One of the Russians screamed and dove through the window. The other two charged us. We riddled them with bullets and then, as the smoke filled the air and burned my lungs, I ordered us back outside.

We retreated. The flames were already everywhere. The building seemed to be made of gasoline-soaked newspapers. Didn't see how it could have still been standing considering all the damage to the surrounding buildings but here we were.

The smoke was so thick I couldn't see the exit. Will shouted, "This way!" but I couldn't tell where he was. He grabbed my hand and yanked me forward. A moment later we stumbled out. Will disappeared back inside and returned with Hester. The two soldiers stumbled out after us. Coughing, I leaned against the building.

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"Sorry about that," Will said. "I didn't expect it to go up in flames like that."

I looked around for the man who'd gone out the window and spotted him lying on the ground. I walked over. He wasn't quite dead so I shot him a few times with my Alaskan until the kill counter notched down to zero.

Fireteam 2 emerged from their building. We stood in the street catching our breath as the flames devoured the buildings beside us.

I stumbled forward toward the square. "Come on," I said. "There's something more to this."

As I set foot in Red Square, a new message appeared. [The Geist of Moscow. The building ahead of you is the refuge of the last mayor of Moscow and what remains of his survivors. They barricaded themselves in here at the start of the siege and haven't had neither food nor water supplies for the last hundred days. It is said that the mayor did not wait for the food to run out to begin supplementing his diet with cannibalism.]

"Said by who?" Sanders demanded. “Wait, I thought we were defending against Germans.”

"Just go with it," I advised. "This is signature reality engine. It may be just a fragment of Kronos but I recognize the touch.

[Enter his lair and defeat the Geist and any minions. Then claim the lair for yourself before Moscow goes up in flames behind you.]

A timer appeared ticking down from 23 minutes. I swore and looked back over my shoulders where a plume of smoke was rising to the heavens as the fire we had accidentally set spread further through the city. "Let's go!" I shouted.

"Plan, sir?"

"Break in, break stuff."

"Got it!"

We rushed forward. Hester threw her shield again as we went, and I let Sanders and Dorman burst down the doors of the building. We stumbled into decadent ruins. This had been a grand foyer once, probably before the Soviet Union. Now the place was littered with pallets, crates, and empty bottles. Blankets lay heaped here and there as makeshift beds. But I didn't see anyone.

There had been a stair leading up once. It had been ripped down. From the soot on the ceiling and the burned patch on the floor, presumably used to keep warm during the night.

"Weeks?"

"I can't tell." She took another step in, then pointed down. "It's below us."

"Find the door," I ordered, and we spread out.

Hester located the trapdoor, half under a pile of blankets. I ordered Sanders, Chavez, and Weeks to cover, and I pulled back the hatch.

We recoiled at the stench that emanated from below. It smelled like quite a lot of things had died down there. There was a ladder leading down. I did not like the look of it. We listened, but heard nothing.

"Any idea how many there are?" I asked Weeks.

She shook her head. "No. The system's refusing to tell me that information."

"Well, great." I sighed, sheathed my revolver, and started for the ladder. "Sanders, Chavez, you two next. Then I want Will and Hester, followed by everyone else. Weeks last." They grunted agreement.

I climbed down into the darkness and stepped away from the ladder, carefully feeling my way forward as my eyes adjusted to the gloom. My team followed down. As Hester landed, she whispered, "Light or none?"

"Light," I decided. I had a feeling whatever was down here would be able to see in the dark. Hester threw out Candle Flame in a Misunderstood World and a flickering ball of light appeared over her head.

She sent it forward. We were in an old wine cellar. Racks of bottles and casks formed three long narrow aisles leading off into the darkness. Red liquid ran down between the aisles. It wasn’t wine. I could smell the blood.

“Sanders, Chavez, on the left. Dorman, Weeks, on the right. Everyone else follow me.” I set off down the center aisle, watching the darkness for movement as I chased Hester’s light.

I reached the end of the aisle and halted as motion caught my eye.

It was a creature. Half human, half rat. Its pale face was terrifyingly expressive, its eyes wide and staring, its teeth protruded down from its jaw. There was an unmistakable tail flick as it turned and vanished through a knee-high hole in the wall.

I started forward. Hester grabbed my arm. "Hang on," she whispered. "Let's see if we can get an idea of what's beyond."

“Good thinking.” I cast Lay of the Land again, not expecting much, and to my surprise, it gave me a detailed map of the lower levels of the Kremlin, though I very much doubted the real Kremlin was anything like this.

The level above was labelled the Threshing Floor, and down here, the Grape Press. The hole, and what was beyond, was labeled Lair of the Damned. It wasn't very big. It turned to the team. "I have no intention of following that thing into its lair if we don't have to. Let's try some explosives."

Sanders grinned. He rubbed his hands together. "On it," he said. He pulled bundles of dynamite from his inventory, connected them to each other, then pulled all the strings. He wound tape around to make a single large bundle, then pulled a ten-foot-long pole with a brush on one end out of his inventory. He used it to shove his bundle of explosives into the hole, retaining the fuses. Then he stepped forward to light them. Will held up a hand. “3x damage if I light it," he reminded us.

Sanders looked disappointed. “Fine, you do it,” and handed Will the bundle of wires. We stepped back as Will ignited them.

I quickly thought better of it as the fuses began to smolder. "Back up the ladder," I ordered. We swarmed back up. I had just reached the floor above when there was a muffled "whoomp" noise from below, and the whole building shook.

Part of the roof fell in. I dove out of the way as slate tiles came pelting down around me. Hester covered her head with her arms and shrieked. Chavez was hit by several slates. Hester tried to throw a healing spell on him, but too late. He disappeared beneath a pile of ceiling tiles.

"Did we get him?" I bellowed, looking at the timer. It was still ticking down. I pulled up my objectives. “Defeat the monster" was now highlighted in gold, while "claim his domain" was gray. "We've got to claim this place." I looked at the timer. We had eight minutes left. "How do we do that?"

I started Inspecting everything in sight, looking for a claiming point. The team spread out. Chavez sent me a message. Sir? What’s going on? I just entered and there’s no one here.

I sighed. You got killed. It’s all right, we’re almost done. Just back out and we’ll see you shortly.

Ling pointed at the floor. “Look!” There was a design of five-pointed star with different colored circles at each point.

I nodded. "Alright, everyone stand on a point." They obeyed.

Nothing seemed to happen. I went and stood in the center of the star, and a timer appeared over our head.

"Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight."

"It can be contested!” I shouted. "Keep an eye out for enemies."

"What enemies? We killed them all!" Weeks said. "It wouldn't be fair for the system to send in somebody now, would it?"

I drew my gun and kept a close eye on the door.

"Ten. Nine. Eight."

As the timer ticked down to three, two, one, my team gave out a whoop and a holler.

A moment later, the system announcement appeared. [Victory!]

The dust and smoke in the room began to clear, and then I spotted it. A man entered through the door. He was dressed in a tattered Russian uniform, a rifle slung across his shoulder. He limped into the room and gave me a salute.

A moment later, he vanished. Kronos whispered in my head, Thank you, Shad Williams. I have gained a fragment of myself. As promised, I will turn over the reward. It is at your discretion, Shad Williams. No one else's.

And suddenly I had another menu pop up, labeled "Ethereum Reserves." It had 230,517 units.

I toggled for information on "unit," and it said [Quantity needed to transform one mortal body to a Reality Engine-aligned individual. Quantity needed to produce one ton of basic single element from base materials. Quantity required for more complicated transmutations may vary.]

You may transfer this to various aspects of your own threshold systems as desired, Kronos said.

The world around us flickered as a new door formed in the wall, tall and imposing, with a big red “EXIT” sign over it. "Good work, everyone," I said wearily. "We will debrief over dinner at Mama Grace's. Dinner's on me." The team whooped and hollered. “Last one there gets to wash up afterwards," I added, and they were out the exit before the words were out of my mouth.