I moved into Juni’s body protected by the barrier-shield and opened my eyes in the Astral Ocean aka the Still Forest.

The necropolis of death was silent as always, filled with infinite bone-superstructures. Bones of dead people and creatures intertwined in phantasmagoric formations fused into dead garbage.

I had put Dawn on beneath my nightcrawler armor, with a plan to take her with me to my Astral-hunt.

As I looked down and saw her there - she wasn’t exactly human in this place.

I saw what the painting looked like beneath its feminine visual appearance. She was unquestionably alien, not one bit of her was human.

Dawn looked like a glittering flower-like fractal that sat on my chest. A silver string led from it, akin to a flower's stem heading somewhere into distant, otherworldly, infinite depths of this place.

Interesting.

I waved my hand at her and the flower-like fractal glittered at me, waving one of her appendages. Neat. We had some sort of communication. I no longer felt completely alone. The Still Forest felt less alien and terrifying with Dawn at my side.

I extended the branches, the roots of my soul out of my armor and inhaled, peered into the vast, dark abyss that surrounded us.

I saw them after taking a whole bunch of deep breaths - small, squid-like things that floated between the bones of people, suckling on the inner light that glimmered within the dead imprints.

Phantoms.

One of them spotted me, flashed towards me attracted by my warmth and the glow of my many tendrils.

It was weak, small - far smaller than me. Way below the terrifying power of the first Astral Phantom I had discovered in the Still Forest three years ago. I shuddered as I recalled the abomination that had cleaved me in two with a single tentacle. It was my turn for revenge.

My time to show these damn things who was the boss!

When the little squid reached me, I grabbed at it with all of my extended threads, struck against it with my agile Pneumasomatic Actuators. The little creature flailed, trying to get away as silver clouds of essence spilled from its innards.

I drew it closer to myself and crushed it, inhaling the life spilling out of it, absorbing it into myself.

Static-like sparks flashed, flickered through me. Pain and misery, love and passion, panic and terror. A river of various emotions overflowing, drowning in each other. Hundreds upon hundreds of smudged faces, of discordant memories of things that the little thing had consumed around Undertown. None of it made any sense and felt like a carousel of endless, quickly passing fever dreams.

More.

I needed more. I spread my threads out once again, waiting for another little squid to reach me. When it did, I struck at it, tearing the ghostly life apart, sucking out its life.

MORE.

. . .

In time, the little Phantoms had learned that something was grabbing at them and started to avoid me. Having grown bored of the darkness and silence, I pulled myself out of the Astral and checked my System-clock. I had been under, feeding on ghost-squids for nearly two and a half days.

Argh!

My experience sat at [1245/1800].

I emerged from my room as Juni and looked at the window-slit. It was pitch black outside. Night had fallen on Undertown. I put my backpack on and walked out of the small favela. The Misems were snoring softly in their bedroom.

I felt it then.

Something calling out to me from a distant beyond. A voice from a dead world, a song of Death from beneath the veil of stars, of great, infinite Engines humming in the deep.

When I closed my eyes I could almost see it. The way forward. The path that another me walked.

The death-knife pulsated in its sheath. I reached out to it, touched it, feeling its call. I had to get to the Shogun Gate... had to talk to Infinity.

The Undertown streets weren't too crowded. It was late.

Candles and magical lights flickered all around. Cloaked, scruffy figures loomed in the dark corners. Some of them were smoking, others drinking shine.

They paid no attention to me. Any that tried to come close to me felt the pulse of the armacus and immediately retreated.

I was safe in Undertown. The armacus-pulse protected me, made me untouchable. I started to walk towards the Shogun Gate, towards my calling... my destiny.

I had gotten lost, made a wrong turn somewhere. The labyrinthine city of junk and favelas looked a lot different in the near-total darkness. Without my father guiding me, I wasn't sure which street to follow to get to the Gate.

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“Dawn? Can you guide me to the Shogun Gate?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “You’re definitely going to mess with it.”

“Come on, I’m not going to mess with it, I just want to…”

“You want to use the knife on it,” the painting commented from under my armor. “Don’t think I don’t know. The Inspector told you to wait. Why are you so impatient?”

I groaned.

"Pretty please?" I begged. "I just want to look at the Gate."

"No," Dawn replied.

“Fine, whatever,” I said. “Don’t be a helpful painting.”

My stomach growled. I felt hungry. The feeling distracted me from my gate-shaped destiny.

I walked to the nearest lit restaurant. Magical lanterns swung back and forth ever so slightly. It was dim, but it wasn’t a problem for my chimera eyes. I eyed the fried fish being prepared for shabby patrons inside, contemplated ordering one for myself… and then I remembered that to eat one would require taking my mask off.

Dark, hollow, desperate and tired eyes of the diner patrons settled on me. They felt the pulse from my wrist and began to disperse. The chef looked terrified. I didn’t even know how I would pay for the fish. Was I supposed to promise a favor or something? Undertown didn’t use money. Would the locals even accept a favor from a lawman or simply give me whatever I asked for?

I sighed and turned around.

To my surprise, the street in front of me wasn’t empty.

There were five people there, dressed in black armor. Their faces were covered up too. Steampunk goggles glinted in the darkness.

The leader of the steampunk-ninjas as I had dubbed them raised his armed armacus at me.

"You!" He barked. "Stop right there! You must..."

I yelped, raising my own armacus in response. My bracelet unfurled into its weaponized form too.

A green-tinted spell stuck from the magitek gun of the head ninja.

I swung away from the ray, but I had been a moment too slow. The spell struck me in the left arm and sudden numbness took over my left side. I discovered that I could not move my arm at all!

The numbness was spreading, making me unnervingly sleepy and dizzy.

“You damned bastards!” I barked, my own armacus unfurling.

[Repulsor]

[Wide beam]

[Focused beam]<

The focused beam of my Repulsor went across the five. Two of my assailants went down in an instant with screams of pain while three rapidly scattered away like moths.

“I’m a lawman!” I barked. “I will not be messed with!”

[Repulsor]

[Wide beam]<

[Focused beam]

The three were circling me like vultures. One of them tried to come close to me and fell clutching his chest with a scream, dropping his shiny rapier.

Two left. Some sort of a projectile thundered against my armor. It didn’t go through. Ha!

I stared in mild amusement at the dark dart covered in some kind of colorful fluid.

[Repulsor]

[Wide beam]

[Focused beam]<

The ninja that fired the dart from a small tube fell from a favela, curling up in pain. One to go.

My body felt heavy, my thoughts slow and thick like wobbly columns made from lard.

“Dawn,” I muttered. “I... can't hold out long. What do I do?"

“I don’t know,” she said. “They got you with a paralyzing spell, I think."

"You think?" I hissed.

I had to end this quick. I couldn’t let the last one get me I tried to focus my thoughts and took a step forward. Then another. I was moving, but it felt like I was wading through water.

The last assailant leaped out from the shadows and came at me with a kick. I barely had time to react and put my arm up with the Michell Shield. The kick encountered my arm, shattered my magic shield and pain shot through me. I retaliated with a quick jab of my elbow, hitting him in the stomach.

He grunted and staggered back.

[Repulsor]

[Wide beam]<

[Focused beam]

The pulse struck him like a freight train. He collapsed with a scream, frothing and thrashing.

I stood there, trying to catch my breath.

In a minute, I collapsed on my knees. The numbness had reached my legs. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t. The paralysis was getting worse.

“Dawn,” I muttered. “What do I do?”

“I don’t know,” she said, her voice trembling. “Unfortunately... I can't see your future."

I was going to die here if I didn't do something. I tried to focus my thoughts and summon my soul-threads, but it was like trying to grasp at smoke. I was too weak, too exhausted. I had used up too much of my mana in the past few days hunting phantoms.

“Dawn,” I muttered. “I need your help.”

“What can I do?” she asked.

“Paint me a nice future,” I choked out, my thoughts swimming around like a school of phantom-squids. “One where I'm not freaking paralyzed.”

"That not something I can do," the painted girl replied with a sniff.

"You must have seen this... someone was after me," I croaked. "Who? Why?"

"I don't know," she said. "I only saw which path was best for everyone. This is it... I think."

"You think?! This... doesn't feel like a best path," I groaned. "This bloody sucks."

I tried to look ahead. The view in front of me was swimming, buildings wobbling.

One of the more distant assailants was already getting up. I aimed the [Focused beam]. My hand was shaking. After five tries I managed to hit him and he fell once again with a cry.

"At least contact Lambert through one of your other other posters," I said. "Let my friensshh know... abb-bout this."

It was beginning to get harder to talk.

Something like a blackjack hit the back of my head. The soft padding inside of the nightcrawler skull had protected me. I gave my assailant a hearty dose of the [Wide beam] and heard a gurgling scream from behind me.

"Why won't you people leave me alone?" I snarled. "What do you want?!"

There was no answer. Another dart thundered against my side. Why did I think I was safe in Undertown? Why did I trust Dawn? She knew that this was going to happen to me. How could this be a good future?!

The man on the ground moved, tried to aim his armacus at me. I hit him with another wide pulse and he screamed.

The streets around us had emptied of commoners before the fight even started.

Nobody was coming to help me, I realized. Nobody would find me if these ruffians broke my legs and dumped me into the river. This is how they got Nandine.

This is how I was going to end up dead.

I kept on sending out Wide pulses around myself. At least I would make them suffer before I went down. At least I would show them...

Another dart struck me.

I started to slide down, completely losing my balance. Whatever the first spell had been, it got me good. Dumb, dumb, Yulia.

I tried to keep my finger pressed firmly to the trigger of my armacus, tried to keep the [Wide beam] on, but my consciousness was winking away. My entire right arm became numb as I fell face-first into the road made from garbage.

It didn't hurt.

Paralysis was a bitch.

The screams of the nearby gangsters lulled me into darkness. I knew that they would not be kind to me when my finger would slide off the trigger.