> “Starting anything is always going to be the hardest portion. Resolving yourself to keep going afterwards is a test of willpower.”

We rest in the cave Blowout created for a few hours while we wait for the angels to be far enough away to exit. A light chill creeps into my body from the low temperature of the rock. Blowout gently sways her head side to side, her light red-orange hair swaying in sync. Probably working herself up to ask a question. I doubt she realizes how obvious her tells are.

She finally leans forward, asking her question.

“Are you really the Goddess of Power? Like the ruler of the Dominion of Power and the conqueror of the first empire? The same one? It just seems a bit hard to believe.”

“Is there any other, girl?” Perenia raises an eyebrow while putting on an air of arrogance. Through our connection I can tell that she doesn’t really care that much but feels the need to display herself as being superior.

Blowout recoils slightly, “No—I just pictured you being different.”

“Oh, how did you imagine me?” Perenia raises an amused smile.

While they discuss, my analytic brain needs something to focus on. I shift my gaze to the geology of the cave we’re in. Mostly stratiform sedimentary rock stacked in vertical bands of bland colors. Nothing interesting.

“Uh, how do I say it.” She looks at me, “Scary. I mean you destroyed part of a mountain in the southern mountain range because you got mad at someone—or at least that’s what the books say.”

“Not far from truth, although I didn’t do it alone. I doubt any less would have been enough to finally kill the Goddess of Anarchy.” Bitter memories raise from Perenia. They are tainted with grief and rage from losing so much of what she thought she had. They are against a devilish brown haired, short-stature goddess that always somehow found a way to make her ugly resurgence. Until finally relief upon her death.

“Woah.” Blowout leans back, using her cloak to pad her from the hard stone.

Silence falls once more and Perenia still has a question boiling within her for a while now. I can’t quite tell what it is, but I can somewhat feel that it connects to hope and dread.

If you don’t ask, you can’t know the answer. I talk telepathically so Blowout doesn’t hear. I’ve had far too many times when I hesitated and lost an opportunity. It feels wrong to let another person do the same.

You reading my mind is annoying, but whatever.

“Element girl, you pay attention to what happens in this country, don’t you?”

Blowout perks up, eyes alert. “Yeah, I do...”

Perenia looks down with the first serious emotion I’ve seen in her purple eyes, dreams aside. “Are there any of my dark angels left?”

Blowout puts a finger to her chin while pursing her lips, looking to dislike being the bearer of bad news. “According to what I’ve heard, The Goddess of Justice gave judgement based on how willing they were to accept defeat, and the crimes they committed. Most of the dark angels ended up being executed, while some of them had their god energy stripped from them. A few surrendered, relinquishing their loyalty and swearing to join the Nation of Justice. One of them actually converted to being an angel of justice.”

“Who?” Intensity is in her voice, unusual from how she normally is.

“I think her name was Solid Bulwark ­­­but is now named Formed Shelter, sometimes she is called the construction angel for how she helped rebuild a lot of destroyed places after the war.

Perenia’s feelings are indecipherable. “Are there any still with my energy.”

Blowout scrunches up her face in reluctance. “Maybe, most of the ones who initially escaped capture, have been found or killed in the ten years after the war. Since then, whenever any of them were discovered, they would often make a lot of damage, killing a lot of people. From what I’ve heard, there haven’t been any sightings in the past few years, so maybe, but also maybe not. I really don’t know.”

Perenia falls silent.

Neither of them speak again for a time more so I stand and stretch. My muscles ache with a new type of soreness that I’ve never experienced. Mainly in my thighs and forearms. Probably from all of the quick stopping and accelerating that I did in combat. This should be expected, I never moved the way I have been in the past few day. A part of me can’t wait to move like that again.

“Sorry if this is a weird question, but I always wanted to know.” Blowout gently massages one of her hand with her other, bringing attention to reddened, slightly burnt skin. “If you aren’t as evil as the stories say, why would you wage war?”

Perenia leans back in her imaginary throne, subconsciously distancing herself from the conversation. “It’s what needs to be done at times. There wasn’t always as many resources available as there are now. Sometimes it becomes a matter of us or them where you have to choose which one. And you can’t let the people around you down.” She sighs. “I also wasn’t the same person as I am now—I was often quick to act and was violent even when it wasn’t necessary.

A few more minutes pass in silence. Seems like now is a good time to bring up Blowout conditions for following me.

I look Blowout in the eye. “You said that you want to stay with us because you want to help me find a more peaceful option, right?

She nods.

“Then there are a few things you need to agree to otherwise you will be a liability, do you understand.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking when I said that. But I still believe what I said.” She looks up resolutely.

“First and most importantly, you can’t reveal any information that could harm us. This includes our location or anything about me and Perenia. Second, unless otherwise necessary, don’t separate from us. Third, you must follow my lead in high-pressure situations. I can assure you that I can be level-headed in combat. Can you agree to those? If not, then I will be forced to remove you which I would rather not do.”

She nods. “That’s fine I can do that. I’m a bit sad that Tain and everyone will worry about me, but I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

She looks me up and down as if getting a good look at me for the first time. Her amber eyes resting on mine. “Who are you? I don’t like it, but I mostly get that you had to deceive us to stay undetected. I don’t really like judging people but being honest you’re pretty weird. Where are you from—or at least and how did the Goddess of Power end up losing her body? I know there is an interesting story somewhere.”

“How do you think?” A grin forms on my face and I silently send a blueprint to Perenia. I have no issues telling her the truth. It doesn’t affect me at all, not anymore. But I might as well draw it out for effect.

Blowout shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

I form a modern pistol in one hand and display it. I wielded it many times in training, forming a mental image is easy “Have you seen anything like this?”

Blowout gingerly takes it from palm. “Is it—a gun? I’ve seen a few in duels, they are pretty hard to avoid, but you can dodge its projectiles it if you pay attention.”

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Oh, she knows what a gun is.

She goes on. “It’s a pretty simple concept, right? It makes a lot of pressure to propel a small projectile really fast. I once experimented doing something similar with earth and air, but it really isn’t my style. I prefer to be moving around, not setting up projectiles.”

“Alight then, I’ll show off a bit more. Perenia?”

“Fine, use my energy to have fun.”

I reach a hand out while picturing a metal frame and a series of magnet, making a miniature railgun on the ground between us. It is two simple lines of electromagnets along a rail with a small projectile ahead of a magnet. All of it encased in a rectangular frame. Like everything else Perenia makes, it is in a monochrome royal purple.

“Have you seen anything like this?”

She shakes her head. “No, I haven’t”

“It’s a railgun that uses electricity utilizing Lorentz force to propel a magnet that pushes a projectile up to seven times the speed of sound and hit targets up to thirty-five miles away and can be scaled up or down depending on the electricity input.”

Her eyes light up. “Electricity is really cool, even if I don’t understand the other bits. But what are you trying to get at? Not to be rude, but I asked where you are from.”

“Ah, what I was trying to get at is that I can make stuff that is beyond the technology of this world,” I spread my arms out and converting a bit of energy to fire the railgun with enough force to knock a bit of rock loose. “Because I’m not from this world.”

Dramatic. Perenia sarcastically remarks.

Blowout tilts her head. “I don’t understand. You mean like as in god realms?”

“As in I’m from a world where there are no ability or gods and humans use technology for just about everything, from war to living in outer space. You can travel any distance from where we are and never end up getting there.”

A look of shock spreads across Blowout’s face. “What? That’s possible?”

My grin widens. Somehow, I’m enjoying this more than I should. “I can’t take credit though. It is all thanks to Perenia’s constructs that I’m here now. She invited me here a little over a week ago, and here I am.”

Looking down at the pistol with renewed fascination, Blowout replies with increasing enthusiasm. “That’s incredible. It only makes me more interested to know though, what happened to Goddess of Power after the war?

“Girl, sometimes curiosity is best kept restrained.”

She recoils. “Sorry, I get carried away sometimes.”

I can feel Perenia holding back from commenting something rude. This conversation is quickly losing my interest anyways.

Wanting to move out of the cramped space, I take a step outside while dispelling the pistol and railgun. The sun is nearly at its peak, illuminating the top of the nearby forest in golden light. I breathe through my nose, taking in the fresh scents of earthly plants and pure air. Heat from rocks warm my back as I step out, purging the chill that accumulated from in the cave. Aside from a few birds of prey gliding with thermals there is nothing flying with in visible range.

“Back to practical matters, lets talk about that thing—or things we fought earlier. Do either of you have any idea what it was?”

“In terms of their form, they are undoubtedly near identical to energy beasts. Red girl, explain what they are since Epsilon doesn’t know.”

“I can only tell you what I remember from my history classes, but I’ll try.” Blowout puts a hand to her chin. “Since the creation of humanity there were energy beasts. They are different from other wild animals in a few key ways. The main one is that like people, they could enhance themselves using energy. They were known to very frequently hunt people, devouring them to sate their enormous appetite, or otherwise be really bad for society. That was until around a hundred years ago, the Goddess of the Hunt led a dozen other deities—I think you were one of them—to get rid of them for good. It was known as the Great Extinction. Since then, humans have been able to spread further than they could have before, without the need to always be checking behind their backs.”

Blowout heavily exhales. “Is that what you wanted?”

“What you said is correct. What made them easy to exterminate was that they were all very large in size with even bigger energy signatures that could be tracked. Once engaged they never fled for who knows what reason. They were deadly and cunning enough that I couldn’t send my best soldiers against them while being certain that they would win. In one of the longer ceasefires between me and my sister, I received the invitation from the Goddess of the Hunt and gladly accepted. Be glad that you grew up in a time without them girl. I know very well the damage they could cause and the fear they inspired.”

I casually scan the nearby underbrush while I take in the information. “That doesn’t help much with our current situation. Are you one-hundred percent sure that there weren’t any left?”

“Absolutely. We made sure beyond any doubt. The Goddess of the Hunt personally swore on her heart that people were safe from the energy beasts.”

“Then we are dealing with something entirely new that takes their form for some reason?”

“Looks like it.”

Having an unknown enemy is terrible. Especially since we were targeted once, we might be again at any time. Gaining information on them needs to be a high priority.

Blowout steps to the side. “I don’t think I’ve eaten since last morning and I am pretty hungry. I think I saw a -----fruit tree nearby, so I’ll go see if they are ripe.” She heads off in the direction of the trees. “Please keep me in your conversation!”

A proper noun I don’t know. My stomach feels empty as well, but nothing I can’t suppress. I should still eat though.

“Perenia, you mentioned something about the core of the world earlier in relation to the—I’ll call them dark beasts.”

“The core of the world—the birthplace of gods. I vaguely remember something that looked pure black that absorbed my energy. That’s all. I didn’t stay long enough to find out more.”

“So the dark beasts are something of a combination of two unrelated things. Hmm, they could really be anything. Is it possible they are created by a god that hates you for some reason?” I find what I was looking for in the underbrush and pick up a straight stick the I can cut to length.

“It isn’t impossible. They could also be an experiment from the Empire of Improvement gone wrong or maybe even they are a result of us crossing dimensions. Who knows?”

“Let’s work with what we know, baseless speculation is pointless. What matters most is having a way for us to fight them. Is there anything we can do against them if they can absorb your energy?”

“It would be a puzzle I haven’t attempted before. Directly creating what I envision is easiest but if there is a need, I can make the physical material in its place. For example, instead of directly making a sword that is dispelled as soon as energy is cut off, I would make steel in the form of a sword that is the same as any other physical object.”

I look down at the stick I scavenged and toss it aside. “Let’s practice. Steel is mostly iron with differing amounts of other elements like carbon, nickel and chromium among several other others depending on the alloy. I can go into more detail if you want.”

“Knowing chemical compositions does make it easier. I’ll let you visualize it and give you the energy.”

“Alright.”

I lower a hand and visualize the chemical bonds of steel in the form of a basic double-edged sword as clearly as I can. After several seconds of focusing, the sword slowly forms in my hand as it is constructed from the hilt downwards. It is distinctly different from the sword that Perenia created from her energy. This one has definite weight and is has the glossy polish of stainless steel.

“While we are discussing tactics for fighting more dark beasts, do you think manipulating the environment could work? Something like making a landslide or throwing trees at them. Since they aren’t directly contacting your energy.

“That might work.”

The Sun is now in the middle of the sky making now roughly noon. It would be nice to have a working clock to tell the exact time, but anything I make will be out of sync. Now is as good of time as any. I thrust the sword as straight as I can into a patch of unshaded ground, ignoring the light glaring into my eyes from it. I visualize a simple wooden ruler and pencil, and Perenia gives me the energy to make it. Kneeling on the ground, I put one end of the ruler against the sword and measure the length of the shadow. 1.38 inches.

“We are in the northern hemisphere, right?”

“We are.” Perenia tunes me out, uninterested in what I’m doing. I’m not just guessing that she’s uninterested, but I can feel it. Not everyone has to be interested in geography.

Blowout emerges through the trees with an armful of pear grapefruit things. The same ones she fed me in her apartment before.

“We got lucky, there were plenty.” She stops and stares at me kneeling on the ground. “What are you doing?”

I smile. “Have you ever wondered how big your planet it?”

“Are you even going to answer a question directly?” She gently retorts.

“Fair point,” I laugh. “I’m measuring the shadow of a known object to find the angle of its shadow. If I get another data point from somewhere to the north or south also at noon, I can calculate the size of this planet after factoring out time of year. I will keep track of far we go from here since that’s the main number used. It won’t be a precise as other methods, but I’m looking to get a rough estimate. I have a feeling that this planet is smaller than the one I’m from.”

“I think I kind of follow.”

I stand up resting a hand on the sword. “Wait. How many days are there in a year?”

“Three hundred and thirty-nine.”

“Thanks.”

She sets down the fruits and takes a bite out of one of them. “Are you hungry?

I nod. She tosses one of them in a near perfect arc to me. I snatch it out the air.

“Goddess of Power do you want one too?” She offers kindly.

Mild annoyance radiates from Perenia.

“Oh sorry, you don’t have a body, right.”

I take a bite the though fruit. The liquid from inside it reminds me of how thirsty I am.

“Anyways,” I break the awkward atmosphere. “We should clarify plans.”

I lift the sword from the ground, weighing it in my hand.

“We need to stay on the move as much as we can. I want to get more practice with using Perenia’s energy, especially if we are going to fight more dark beasts. We should be able to scavenge everything we need for survival, but I want to go to the nearby city and get supplies in the next few days. For shelter at night, can I rely on you to make caves?”

Blowout nods up and down while taking another bite.

“Great.” I look down at the sword. “Let’s remove this to get rid of evidence. I also don’t want to be carrying around a sword everywhere.”

Energy is let loose from my fingertips consuming the sword quickly making it vanish. I straighten myself and look to the distance.

“Alright, let’s go.”