Jean crunched her way through the snow and listened to the woman plead for her life. It was no wonder after seeing how Zack had mowed through her companions. She wouldn’t say it had been easy for him. He had been hit and injured severely during the process, after all. From a performance standpoint, however, seeing him impossibly heal the damage, and then fire off his weird magic… It gave her chills, and she was sure it was worse for the woman.
“Wait,” She started shivering again as soon as she stopped moving. “If we let you live, will you swear to not seek vengeance for your comrades, and come back to tell us all the information you know about the portals being unstable?”
“I,” She stopped and hung her head even lower. “I cannot swear that, my lover was also among this group. My pride would not let me go without attacking the boy and either killing him or dying in the process.”
“Thank you for being honest. I thought that might be the case, but needed to ask just in case. Do you have any last words?” Jean picked up the fallen sword, gasping as the ice-cold leather grip bit at her freezing fingers. It was a good thing that she had put a few points towards her constitution over the years. It was helping her to withstand the effects of the bitterly cold environment.
“No, now let me join-“
The sword whistled through the air and bit deeply into the woman’s neck, cutting her off mid-sentence.
Jean pulled the sword free and laid her body carefully face up on the snow where she could look up at the sky during her last moments.
“Thank you,” She managed to gasp out before the light left her eyes.
“Kids should never have to perform an execution,” Jean told Zack. “Killing is a fact of life, unfortunately.” She waved a hand at the various bodies around them. “But an execution like this holds a different place in your mind and on your soul. Those are done in the heat of the moment when they are attacking. Something like this is,” She sighed. “Is just cold.”
Zack glanced at the traveler who had been crawling through the snow and mentally shrugged. They were enemies who were attacking him and Zara, which was good enough for him. The rest didn’t matter. Maybe someday it would, but for now, it was simple, and that worked best.
“You help Edith. I’ll go take care of Dorn with Zara.” He ordered the professional soldier before turning around and wobbling off on unsteady legs. There were more important things to do than debate how much sleep he wouldn’t lose over taking out someone who threatened them. He had the power now to keep them safe, and he would use it.
Dorn was a bloody mess when he managed to make his way over. His nose was clearly broken, from Zara’s boot if he had to guess. Zelda had found an icicle somewhere and was using it to poke holes down the boy’s leg, his other already a bloody ruined mess. George, meanwhile, had packed the hardened snow around his paws and had gone to town on the noble’s arms. Aisha was simply sitting on his chest, watching the other two.
Zara was glaring coldly down at the whimpering boy. “You wanted to break my mind! I’ll break yours, you piece of human filth. You’re no better than the others!”
Zack came up beside her and joined her in looking down at the boy, who had overturned their lives. “Does this feel good, being on the other end of the power-divide?”
“Please,” Dorn blubbered.
“We gave you a chance to answer our questions, to call things off, and leave us alone. Instead, you kept talking about killing us, and worse, breaking my sister’s mind.” Zack stared at him in disgust. “What kind of person would ever think that it’s okay to break a little girl’s mind?”
Zara kicked him at that. His legs, which were still recovering from earlier, barely felt the blow. “I’m not little, I’m twelve, almost thirteen.” She protested.
“Zara, you’re tiny, we both are.” Zack sighed gratefully as the tense atmosphere that had been building began to fade.
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“It’s my right as a noble!” He protested weakly.
Zara rolled her eyes and kicked him in the face, knocking out a few more of his teeth. “That’s not what being a noble means, even I know that.”
Dorn screamed as Zelda poked him especially hard with her icicle, digging it in deep into the meat of his calf.
“What is with you and sharp, pointy objects?” Zack couldn’t help asking the bear. “First it was that scale needle, and now it’s an icicle. Is it because that’s all that’s around or because you just like stabbing things?”
Zelda turned away and innocently hid the icicle behind her back while tilting her head upwards as though whistling a phantom tune.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He turned back to a panting Dorn and raised his hand, a purple glow suffusing it a moment later. There would be no mercy for the boy, not after all he had done, and especially not after everything he had threatened to do to Zara.
Aisha hopped off and pulled George away with her.
“Be less of a psychopath in your next life.” The arcane bolt went straight through his head and deep into the snow without stopping. The boy had been so low-leveled, this may have even been his first time inside a portal. No wonder he wanted to come through first. He hadn’t wanted them to see him awakening.
“Let’s gather up the bodies and collect the suits those travelers were wearing,” Zack told Zara, who was already heading towards the pack of money.
“We’ll never go hungry again with this, no matter what happens after this.” She said with a smile.
Together they headed over to where Jean was leaning over a still Edith, the smiles dropping from their faces as they saw.
“Edith?” Zara yelled.
“How is she?”
Jean frowned as shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s breathing, but it’s so cold I can’t say if she is just unconscious or in a coma. This isn’t my field of expertise. What is though, are portals, and we have been in this one for too long already. Let’s grab those suits, any weapons we can carry, and get out of here now.”
The bears had already begun shifting the bodies closer to the portal. A feat made easier due to Aisha’s size, which allowed her to move a body by herself. Whereas George and Zelda had to work together on each one. Something that rankled the smaller bears.
Jean picked up the still, ice-cold woman while reversing her grip on the sword, laying it flat against her arm. “I’ve got her. You get those bodies. We need to get her out first.”
They nodded in agreement, and she took off at a run for the portal.
“She’ll be alright, right?” Zara wondered softly.
“They have Leigha, and Edith was a traveler at some point in the past. She’s stronger than she looks.” If he knew what was wrong with her, then he could have attempted to heal her with his magic. Casting the examination spell and being able to properly understand it were two completely different things. That came from practice, books, experience, things he didn’t have.
The ground bucked, sending them to their knees as a deep bass tone shook the air and set off an avalanche in the distance.
Jean stumbled and screamed as she bounced off the surface of the portal, Edith flying from her arms.
Messages, similar to their status pages, appeared in front of each of their eyes.
Sufficient Dimensional Fragment power levels reached.
Presence of Dimensional Children detected; special class prerequisites for activation completed.
Access to world parallel fragment code-named -Aperra- locked.
Beginning countdown to Dimensional Fragment Change: Precursor Number Unknown to the Great Change.
All living beings please evacuate through the nearest available active portal. All Ruler Class existences are to assist in the evacuation.
Jean scrambled to pick up Edith and then felt at the surface of the portal. Her hand skittering pointlessly off the slowly darkening surface.
Zack felt the bottom of his stomach drop from his chest as the full meaning of the message trickled through his mind. One, they were stuck inside the portal. Two, it was somehow related to them. Three, Jean now knew they were Dimensional Children, if not what exactly that meant. And four, they needed to find another active portal somehow soon, and he really doubted there was any close by.
He took a moment to panic internally and then opened his eyes. “Start taking the suits off the bodies. Put on whichever one fits the best. Take their clothes and shoes as well if they are better. We are going to need every advantage we can get.” He looked up. “Aisha, bring the bodies over here. Things have changed. Jean, come on, we don’t have much time!”
His firm tone shook the more experienced woman free, and she nodded. “Good, make sure to also grab anything else useful from them as well. Packs, food, water, weapons. If access to our world is locked, then that hopefully means the time limit is also momentarily gone.” She looked out over the cold, desolate wasteland around them.
“We could be in here for a while before a ruler notices us or we get lucky. I hope the two of you got a few levels from that fight just now because you’re going to need them. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the other things; we just have more items to focus on right now.”
Zack and Zara shared a knowing smirk. “I think we’ll be fine on levels. Now, let’s get Edith wrapped up before she gets worse. We have a long hike ahead of us.”