I raise my arms to shield my face from the insane magic that erupts from Gisela’s position. It feels like standing directly behind a jet engine that’s constantly blasting coarse, superheated sand against every part of my body. But it doesn’t even leave a mark.

“What the hell is this?!” Noland yells over the fanfare. “Shelby?! Did the coin you gave her do this?!”

“How the hell would I know?” I shout right back. “We didn’t do any testing on it, remember?”

He pauses. “I kind of forgot about that. Why didn’t we do that again?”

“Because we couldn't get anything at all to work.” I say flatly. “But if this is the Fortress coin’s doing, at least we know how to get it to work.”

Fleur’s arms hug me tightly, creating a shield over my face and upper chest. I breathe a sigh of relief and lower my own arms, then pull out my Class Card to see if the announcement came with any kind of info.

“Would it not be considered testing even if it did not produce results?” Fleur asks, her voice clear and normal even though the magic. “Or is there another definition of ‘testing’ that I am not familiar with?”

“You can’t really call it ‘testing’ if you can’t get it to do anything.” Noland replies with a chuckle. “But I wasn’t a part of it, so I can’t really say anything. Shelby?”

I look up from my Class Card and shrug. “I tried using it, tried letting Pearl use it, and that’s about it. Anything else I couldn’t justify for shit.”

“So… why’d you give it to Gisela, then?”

I shrug again. “I thought maybe it’d do something with the coin it evolved from. Looks like I was right.”

With that, I lower my head and swipe through my Class Card. No new entries suddenly appeared anywhere, and there isn’t exactly a ‘new rule’ notification anywhere. Even though it’s still partly in my vision like a logo burned into a phone screen. I swipe through everything, double check that I didn’t just scroll over it, and send the thing away with a sigh.

“Looks like I didn’t get credit for it. Even though I’m the only reason ‘Class Perfection coins’ exist.” I say as I start walking forward through the magical distortion. “I’m going to see if Gisela’s still here. Fleur, you’re with me. Noland–you deal with the crowd just in case they riot. Don’t be afraid to throw your weight around if need be.”

He quickly salutes with a smile. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Go give a warm welcome to our new unexpected business partners.”

I raise an eyebrow as he moves to leave. “You’re seriously considering what she said?”

“Definitely. I’ll be good to have a public arm of the organization that we can use to push making the world a little better. Besides; the resort is really only a place. A safe haven for people to use magic in everyday scenarios. But one day… the entire Earth will be a resort.”

He grins, his teeth sparkling against the magic, and turns away. I watch his back until the distortion blurs him enough that I can’t make him out any more. It feels like I just got a glimpse of Noland’s ultimate goal for everything he’s done. Or, at least, the absolute surface-level view of it.

Fleur taps my shoulder with a curled finger. I nod and restart walking towards Gisela, feeling my feet rise slightly as if lifted by the world itself. Dozens of steps–far too many for the distance I know was between us–click and echo against the ground. Fleur’s embrace grows a little tighter as the magic intensifies.

With a flash of magic and a burst of sound, I break into a strange scene. Gisela, her hand bloodied and mangled, trying desperately to break away from the pillar that looks like it’s inserted itself into her arm. She screams for help as Ava leans over her arm, magic pouring freely into the wounds just barely keeping the encroaching pillar at bay. And Gasp standing at Gisela’s ear, whispers filled with magic seeping into the woman’s mind.

Coins appear between my fingers before I realize what’s happening. Gisela lets out a blood curdling scream and trembles helplessly, thrashing her neck from side to side without a care for Gasp’s helmet. Then her eyes meet mine. Recognition flashes in hers, but it’s replaced by pain almost immediately.

“HELP ME!” She wails.

Ava and Gasp’s focus snaps to me. I expect to see guilt, or surprise, but in Ava’s eyes I see a plea for help.

“You! Shelby, and… uh… Salty!” Ava motions with one hand for me to come closer. “I don’t know what to do!”

“Do not call me salty.” Fleur pouts, but doesn’t move.

I frown, and without dismissing my coins, slowly walk up to Gisela. Ava lifts her head from the mangled arm so I can get a better look–and god, it is not a pleasant one. Tendrils from the pillar are embedded in Gisela’s skin, ripping bloody gashes halfway up her forearm and slowly rotating like burrowing worms. Root-like offshoots dig into the skin around the tendrils, pulsing under the thin flesh barrier like a blood infection.

“What the hell is this…” I trail off and gently put a hand on Gisela’s arm. “When did this start?”

Ava swallows hard as sweat beads on her forehead. “Right after the truth announcement. The pillar took her Defender coin just fine, but when she put in that other one, it did this. It looks like it’s trying to… I don’t know! Devour her or something horrible like that?!”

I find myself nodding in agreement, which gets me a stifled gasp from Gasp. No matter how I look at the wound, all I can see is the Pillar trying to either pull Gisela in or wrap itself so far up her that it can kill her. Neither are good options. I trace a tendril down her arm, into her hand, and down to the tendril alone. My fingers slide over the material like industrial concrete, all the way up to the pillar–

Truth Creator: Shelby Thestalos.

All truth about ‘Class Perfection Coins’ is as follows.

When a Class reaches Clearance 99, the previous maximum, it can now merge with a ‘Class Perfection Coin’ to continue growing.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

These classes are stronger versions of the base Classes, have their own skills, and cannot be gained until Clearance 99 is achieved. If gained before Clearance 99, the Perfection Coin rejects its owner and will work to reclaim itself.

I blink and pull my hand away. Clearance 99… was the max? But Illumisia was worth so much. Do I need to get that much Worth to hit the old max? And if that’s true, how much Worth would clearance 100 take? Just as I’m about to do a mental deep dive, I find myself staring into Ava’s eyes and I’m reminded of why I’m here in the first place.

“Class Perfection coins only work on clearance 99 people.” I say and step away. “It looks like what Gisela did broke that rule, so now she’s being unfairly punished. Since the ‘truth’ of it didn’t exist until she put the coin into the pillar.”

Ava’s eyes go wide. “How can the system do that? It isn’t fair–Gisela didn’t know what she was doing!”

I snort out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, you’re not a Worth class, that’s for sure.” I mutter under my breath, then put a hand on Gisela’s shoulder. “I don’t know if it's possible, but you need to reject the Fortress coin. Let the pillar take it from you without killing you. Is that possible?”

Gisela stares down at me with manic desperation. She opens and closes her mouth silently, then slams her eyes shut. Magic wells up somewhere that doesn’t exist inside of her, radiating outwards like a bonfire in a metal barrel. The moment it hits my awareness I know it’s the Fortress coin trying to take hold. But she doesn’t have the clearance required with Defender for it to actually do that.

Her eyes shoot open and she stifles a scream. “Ican’tIcan’tIcan’t! HELP!”

“Shit.” I turn to Fleur and raise an eyebrow. “Maybe… can we isolate the coin inside of her and stop it from trying to take hold?”

Fleur’s myriad arms shrug as one. “Even if I was at my strongest, I do not possess such a power. Perhaps… you have something that could do it?”

Me? My powerset’s pretty damn limited, honestly. Just relocation, projectile, shield, and my skills. Which of them could do the trick? Maybe relocation could get the coin out of her, but I’m not confident it wouldn’t just go right back in and restart the suffering. Maybe if my shield could stop it, but… well… I mean…

I frown and hold a hand to my mouth, then whisper as quietly as I can. “Pearl, do you have any ideas?”

She blows a raspberry. “Not really. If you could put relocation on things without having to touch them, then maybe. Or… um… would her Class Coin count as a part of her right now, but not combined? Maybe just touching her could make the connection?”

“It’s as good an idea as any.” I lower my hand and press a coin to Gisela’s shoulder. “I need your permission for this. Defender looks like it merged with you just fine, but Fortress is fighting you all the way. Try to give me permission to relocate it.”

A trickle of blood drips down the side of Gisela’s mouth as she frantically nods. My coin lights up with a spell before her neck finishes bobbing, but I can’t really feel what–or where–the target is. I think that’s a good sign, but it also means I have no idea how long or strenuous the actual relocation is going to be.

“Fleur, can your salt block intangible magic?”

“Yes, it can. But you should already know this, as your shields have repelled Gasp’s magic.”

Gasp winces at the mention of her previous employer’s plan. I ignore her and wrap the relocation coin in three layers of small, thick shields. They’re set to last as long as possible while also being as strong as possible, but honestly, I don’t know if its going to be enough. All I can do is step away, focus on the relocation, and get ready for whatever happens.

I turn to Ava and tilt my chin. “I’m about to do it. If it really hurts Gisela, you’re going to have to heal her. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, of course I can.” She smiles shakily. “Healing and killing are all I’m good for.”

Those words feel a little wrong to me, especially how she says them, but I don’t have time to dig deep into Ava’s past. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

Relocation flares. My mind spins, splits, and suddenly the world is two-tone. One colourless and blurry, like a newspaper whose ink is running, and the other pure colour that’s way too sharp. They’re both overlaid on top of each other, and when put together, they form what I’m used to seeing as reality. In the colourless blur shines a single coin in Gisela’s body, tendrils reaching out to desaturate her colours in the other existence.

My spell crosses over like a baseball crashing through a window. It grips the coin with iron strength, rips as hard as it can, and in a spurt of monochrome, exhumes it from the colourless reality. A faraway scream, undercut by a sob of relief, meets my ears as the twin realities combine once more and the Fortress coin appears inside my shell of shields.

It looks like a parasite. Tendrils scrabbling at my shields, shedding magic like a mangy dog, and as angry as a drunk hockey fan whose team just lost. Pressure slams the side of my head every time one of its tendrils touches my shield, but it’s manageable.

I sigh in relief and look around. The nova of magic is gone. And… so are Gisela and Ava. Gasp stands awkwardly a few feet away from me, and I get the sensation that she doesn't know if she should be scared of me. I cradle the ball of shields under my arm, the coin mindlessly thrashing inside, and put on a calm expression.

“Where did they go?”

Gasp swallows so loudly it makes me cringe. “The other world took them. Ava was supposed to go back today apparently, so she just went with Gisela.”

I frown and motion for Fleur to go talk to Noland. “That’s a problem. See, she just made a huge announcement like that and left us to clean up the mess. Not very partner-like if you ask me.”

“I know.” Gasp says timidly. “I stayed behind to help you.”

My nose wrinkles in distaste. “We don’t want your brand of help.”

She holds out her hands. “N-no, I don’t mean like that. I mean…” She clears her throat and straightens her back. “Please give me a few minutes to gather myself. I’ve… had my world thoroughly shattered tonight.”

“Whatever.” I snap and wave her off as I walk away. “You’re coming back with us anyway. Take all the time you want.”

Gasp breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you. But… I’m not coming back with you. Just as Gisela needs Ava, Dora needs me.”

“...What?” I turn back to her with a deepening frown. “The hell do you mean?”

“I am a Psychic. So is Dora. She needs my guidance so she doesn’t fall for the same trappings that I did.” Gasp puts a hand on her chest that she puffs out proudly. “Just like Gisela is a defender, so she’ll need Ava’s help to not just become a useless shield generator.”

I… wait… Ava’s a Defender? Not, like, a Medic or a Doctor?

“Wait, wait, what the hell are you talking about?” I take a step forward, but a pillar of jagged green energy erupts from the ground between me and Ava, cutting me off mid-sentence. “Oh, no. You’re not leaving right now. When did Gisela talk to you about this? Was this the goddamn plan all along?!”

Gasp shakes her head sadly as she summons her Class Card. “I can’t delay it any more. I’m sorry–I really am–and I hope I get the chance to properly apologize when I come back from the other world with the other three. The resort… it sounds… too good to be true.”

Her arm descends on the pillar, card-first. “WAIT!”

But it’s too late. My words don’t even reach her as her body disappears with a single swipe of her Class Card, and I’m left lunging at open air. I spit a few curses and ball my fists in frustration; I can’t shake the feeling that I just got played for all I’m worth, and now I’m stuck holding the Class Perfection coin that’s trying to kill Gisela.

“Motherf…” I trail off as Ursula’s voice crackles to life in my ear.

“Shelby. Dora used her Class Coin.” She says flatly, her voice undercut by cold anger. “Did we just get played?”

I grit my teeth and turn so my eyes can meet with Noland’s. “It’s too soon to tell. But one thing's for sure–we’re done with this damned party. Meet you back at the resort once Noland sorts all this shit out.”

“Roger that. See you soon, Shelby.”