I knelt beside Vespera first, carefully helping her sit up. Her black and white feathers were matted with blood.

"Hey," I said. "Vee. Let me help you."

She looked up at me, one eye swollen shut, half of the feathers on her face torched away by her own lightning which should have been impossible to happen to an electricity-proof Thunderbird.

"Why... why are you helping me?" Her voice was nasal and broken. "Why aren't you mocking me like the others? I... effed up... so bad."

"I still gotta kick your ass in History Club!" I said with a smile.

Vespera let out a half laugh, half sob.

I helped her limp up the stairwell to the others. Cinder remained frozen on stage.

"Ci, how do we call up the nurse?" I asked.

She didn't respond.

"Cinder," I said softly, approaching her. "Hey. Talk to me."

Her ocean-blue eyes were distant, unfocused. Tears continued to stream down her face.

"Emergency hexagram," Vespera let out, pointing a blood covered, magisteel-reinforced claw. "Over there on the wall. Looks like a green Kitlix."

"Io!" I ordered. "Go press it, you're closest."

The Mothman responded, moving as if he was half-asleep. He reached the hexagram and laid a shaking, gray paw on it.

"You okay, man?" I asked him.

"Just out of mana," he slipped down to the floor, large hat tilting to cover his exhausted face. "Gonna need time to recharge. Also, I don't think that it's working. The Auditorium's ward is... totally fried."

Vespera let go of me and dug into her armor, pulling out her phone. It was burned from one side, the screen covered in cracks and flickering with random colors.

She threw the phone at a wall, letting out a wail-swear. The phone exploded into its constituent parts, bits and pieces scattering across the stage just like the troupe's dreams of hitting it big today.

"Bloody useless Thunderite trash! I didn't get a single XP point for this shite!" Vespera's snarled. She yanked off her fried armor pieces, revealing a sleek black hexasuit that was torn in multiple places. "Everything, ruined. How does a MistMark XII watch just shatter?! You were supposed to be effin' indestructible!"

She tore the smartwatch off her wrist, yeeting it at another wall.

I reached down to Solace, feeling for a pulse. It was there, if a bit slow. The Olgoi-Khorkhoi were incredibly tough.

"Vesp, stop throwing your things and tell me the school's emergency number," I ordered.

I already knew the number, but wanted to distract the Thunderbird from her rage.

"7555-HEAL," Vespera answered, deflating.

I dialed. A pleasant voice answered immediately.

"Skyfall Academy Emergency Services, what is the nature of your emergency?"

"Multiple injuries in the auditorium," I reported. "One student impaled by their own weapon, one with electrical burns and a broken nose, one completely drained of mana. Also the Vice Principal is unconscious."

"Already en route with security. Please remain calm."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In a few minutes, the auditorium doors burst open as Nurse Keystoni rushed in, a wheelchair strapped to her back. A team of security officers in dark hexasuits followed, pushing hovering, beast-core powered stretchers.

"What in Nazareth's name happened here?" The nurse demanded, her green Kitlix familiar sparking on her shoulder.

"We don't know, mam," one of the security guards said. "All of the See-orbs within the auditorium are fried."

"Just... a poorly planned show," I replied with a sigh.

The security team moved quickly. Two officers carefully lifted Vice Principal Graves onto a hovering stretcher, his faceless head lolling to the side, dark tendrils barely visible. Another pair worked on extracting the battle-axe from Solace's back

"Careful with that!" Nurse Keystoni barked at them. "The blade's serrated. Pull it straight up or you'll cause more damage!"

The nurse unfolded her wheelchair and threw some kind of a gemstone into the air above herself. The gem detonated with a flash, pouring a few buckets of water onto her like a quick rainstorm shower. Her legs fused together into a tail and she rolled herself to Solace.

"Deep puncture wound, possible spinal damage," the nurse muttered, her green Kitlix familiar jumping onto Solace to assess the damage and to seal the bleeding cut. "Get her to the medical ward immediately. She'll need emergency healing. Healer Klementine will handle it. I've stabilized her."

"Thanks... Lex," Vespera muttered gruffly as two officers helped her onto a hovering stretcher. "I... I owe you one. For not being a total dick about this."

"Just get better," I replied. "History Club needs its queen bee."

She let out a wet laugh that turned into a pained groan. "Ugh, don't make me laugh. My face is so busted."

"Any other injured?" The Nurse turned to Iogann and Cinder.

"Just... drained," Iogann mumbled from under his hat. "Need a nap. Will be fine in thirty."

I walked over to Cinder and pulled Em's bracelet out waving it in front of the catatonic-looking Quetzi.

"Ems is going to need us." I said. "Want to walk with me to the Lazarus cavern?"

Cinder's eyes slowly focused on the dark bracelet in my hand. Her feathers shifted slightly, a hint of color returning.

"Em..." she whispered, her voice hoarse. "She... she just..."

"Melted like the wicked witch from Oz, yeah," I finished for her. "But we can fix that. The bracelet seems to be fine."

"The Genesis Pool," she nodded slowly. "We need to... to..."

"Get her back on her feet," I said, offering her my hand. "Come on."

Cinder's claws wrapped around my hand, her grip almost painfully tight as we walked to the elevator. Her wings remained a dull, lifeless gray sparking with bits of reds and violets at the very edges.

The Nurse watched us as we departed. The ritual of bringing a close friend back from death was a sacred thing in Omnid culture and was Cinder's right.

The elevator doors closed with a soft ding, leaving us alone in the small space. Cinder didn't let go of my hand as if I was her anchor to physical reality.

"Alex," Cinder's voice was small and weak. "What... what the shit was that thing? That... Captain?"

"A System Wizard," I said. "It called itself 'Corpseworld Caretaker'. Presumably it's a being that can straight up rewrite reality with a glance."

"It just... walked through our wards like they weren't even there," she muttered. "Em's artifacts, her sword, her armor - everything just... broke."

I nodded.

"I've never..." Cinder swallowed hard. "I've never seen anything like that. Em was so strong, so confident. And that thing just... it didn't even try. Everything we had just... failed. This was... so... so much worse than the Festival. Slayer! This is the first time Em died at a show!"

"Sometimes the universe reminds us that there are bigger fish out there." I commented.

"Bigger fish?" Cinder let out a broken laugh. "That wasn't a bigger fish, Alex. That was a fucking leviathan playing with minnows."

"A polite leviathan," I said. "She listened to me."

"She?"

"Maybe a he?" I shrugged. "I don't think that Captain wished to be defined by us. I... took a picture. Honestly, I thought that Graves was scary. But..."

"Graves is scary," Cinder agreed, burying her face in my shoulder, her tears starting again. "But that thing... it just dismissed him like he was nothing. Like we were all nothing. How can something like that even exist?"

"Aren't there living gods on Arx?" I asked.

"Yeah, but..." Cinder shuddered into me . "This was different. The gods of Arx are... comprehensible, finite. They can be killed, follow rules, have clear forms, limitations. They are basically really old... nearly decrepit mages with a single, near-absolute, incredibly high-level skill. They can't even leave Arx, 'cus the lower Aetheric density would kill them... I think."

The elevator dinged and opened to the Lazarus Cavern. The liquid mercury surface of the pool was perfectly still.

Cinder finally let go of my hand and took Emerald's bracelet from me. She stared at it for a long moment.

"What if it..." She uttered. "Doesn't bring her back? What if something went wrong and she can't come back? What if that thing did something to her soul?"

"Only one way to find out," I said gently. "Want to do it together?"

Cinder nodded.

Together, we approached the Genesis Pool. The liquid mercury surface reflected the golden bioluminescent crystals above, creating an otherworldly glow. The statue of the female Omnid loomed over us, her stone wings spread wide and her sword pointing down at the pool's surface.

Cinder's claws tightened around Emerald's bracelet. She took a deep breath, then held it out over the pool. I also grabbed onto it.

"Em," she whispered. "Please come back."