All of us stood on the roof of the office, the tallest building in the base, as we watched the countdown. As I looked over the base, I couldn’t help but feel amazed at how it all looked under the night sky, especially with the newly grown grass and spirits wandering around, illuminating the place, at least for me.

It hasn’t been a year since we were dropped into this world, but we have made a lot of progress. Though the coincidence of running into Trinity still felt strange, having her and her clan join us really sped things along. Geralt’s team of soldiers had really given us a huge boon with their expertise and assistance and we went from being a rather small team to now having a base. Though there was more work to do, with a bit more of a push we would have a base capable of holding more, especially now that Ghost’s farm is producing more fruits and vegetables.

“It’s all rather amazing, isn’t it? We came into this world with nothing but a shitty gun and now we’ve got a fully functional base…well, nearly.” Sheep walks over and stands next to me, looking over the base with a slight smile.

“And to think, one of those Butterflies could just lay waste to it in seconds.”

“Well, that’s a bit darker than I hoped our chat would go.” Sheep chuckles while looking into the distance. “You’re not wrong though. We can’t just stop here, we should try and explore more after the Nexus event and find people. By the way, how strong are you, Miss Elf?”

Grinning and glancing at Deven, my friend of many years now, I put my arm around his shoulders. “Don’t know, I can test my strength on you. I think if I throw you hard enough you’ll end up where the butterfly was.”

“That could be a good battle tactic…” Sheep grinned. Chatting with him for a few seconds, we went silent as the counter slowly reached two minutes. The atmosphere shifted in the base, becoming more tense as everyone around the base stood as if on guard, hands on their weapons. I held the M82 in one hand, even though it wasn’t Graded it’s still a stupidly powerful anti-material sniper.

Winter stood on my left with Sheep on my right, the three of us overlooking the base, waiting in anticipation as the countdown reached five seconds left…four seconds, three. My grip on the sniper tightens slightly. Two, one.

World Shift is in progress, new dangers may appear nearby.

As that message came up, the building under us started to tremble and very quickly it became apparent the world itself started to shake heavily as I quickly shifted to maintain my balance. Quickly looking around, I saw others fall onto their behinds, buildings in our base were shaking and a pressure washed over my shoulders. The shaking got worse and looking around, my vision suddenly saw something from above us.

Quickly looking up, I used Hawkeye to try and spot what I had seen and in the next moment I saw it, high in the sky, well and truly far from us. Pain filled my head as whispers of information flooded my brain quickly, all happening within a split second of setting my eyes on it. Gasping in pain as blood poured from my nose, I tore my gaze away, gasping for breath as a message came up, as if talking to me.

Don't look up…

\What I had seen is what I believe to be a gigantic magic circle, covering the entirety of the night sky, outside of normal people's vision. My health had plummeted to fifty percent, and realising if I had stared too long I would be dead.

That magic circle had been deep purple in colour and it dripped with malice, like it wanted nothing more than to destroy, like it had been seeking to lay waste to everything. The information that had poured into my mind was incomplete and I couldn't understand it nor the part of the magic circle I had seen. But it felt like it would be highly beneficial to me at some point.

Looking around as I chugged a health potion, I avoided looking directly up. Nothing seemed to be changing in our base, but using Hawkeye I could see tears in the air outside of the base, away from the grass line. Humanoid creatures stepped out of these tears, poured out in droves. Dozens, a hundred then hundreds.

They looked similar to Husks but they were all different, some towered high above while others were crawling along the ground on all fours. They didn't look towards us as they stumbled away. Looking at yet another group of Husks pouring out of a portal, they too just walked away from us. Is it because of the so-called sanctuary?

Pivoting my head, I saw another group of Husks coming from another tear. At least a thousand poured out but this time they turned towards us and started walking over the incomplete wall.

"Sheep, enemies at…Sheep?" Quickly looking around myself, I saw everyone but Winter and I on the ground, as if unable to lift themselves. Quickly I realised that it's due to the pressure that I could feel, they were being pushed down by it. Hurrying to Sheep’s side, I grabbed him by the shoulder. “Sheep, oi! What’s wrong?!”

“Argh, it’s-it’s like I’m being forced down.” His face is red, all of his muscles straining as if trying to lift himself up but failing to do so. Standing, I quickly looked at the approaching group of Husks that were about two kilometres from our base. Looking around again, I tried to think of what to do, Rebecca and I could only do so much. Frowning, I slowed myself down and took in the situation around the base, my mind telling me I missed something important. Carefully analysing everything, I saw what I had missed.

The spirits. They were floating around, carefree, as if nothing hindered them. Bouncing, floating and zipping through the air carefree. An idea comes to my mind as I recall the details of a recently acquired spell. Taking a breath in slowly, I slowly brought mana to my throat before speaking.

“elttab ni ymene rieht ecaf ot ydaer ,dnats erom ecno ot meht wolla ,seow rieht morf feiler meht tnarg ,deen ni esoht pleh ot uoy nopu llac I ,sdneirf ym ,seilla yM .llac ym deeh ,dlrow siht fo stiripS O.”

As I spoke, spirits of all colours came towards me, lighting the building we stood on, all bobbing happily, as if my presence and call made them happy. I held a hand up, stunned by this sight as dozens of them landed on not only my hand, but my shoulders, arms and even head. With my vision, I could see that the spirits were very tiny humanoids, like fairies from stories and fairy tales in our world! Male and female, even some who looked like children, looked at me as if in awe. I didn’t understand why they did so, but closing my eyes, I gently lifted my hand up even further.

“.ƨtiɿiqƨ γm ,oӘ”

I open my eyes to see the spirits around me erupt, all of them flying away in pairs, as if to seek something. I saw a pair fly over to Sheep and land on his shoulder. The moment they landed, his eyes widened as he stood with no problem, looking at his hands. Looking around the base, I saw a similar sight as everyone did the same, standing with no problem.

“Did the pressure leave? No, but why do I feel slightly stronger?”

“No time to explain, Sheep. We have incoming, a kilometre and a half off.” Turning and raising my sniper, I saw a few spirits who hadn’t left my body and looking at Rebecca she too had about ten on her. Finding it a bit strange, I peer through my scope while laying down, putting the stand of the sniper down as I adjusted myself. Behind me, I heard Sheep yelling as I breathed in and aimed at one of the giants.

Squeezing the trigger, I watched as the giant from the torso up exploded and those behind it were blasted apart. A shield covered my health for one thousand health and at the same time I felt something growing from me. I knew instinctively that roots were growing from me, planting themselves into the wood of the building. Without another word, I turned my scope and fired once more as I heard Sheep yelling orders out. As the Husks got closer, our clan had already taken up position and soon they all fired upon the Husks.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A battle erupted as I kept firing and I saw a flash of blue and purple on the battlefield, dancing between everything, her shotgun blasts eliminating dozens of Husks at once. Not wanting to fall behind my wife, I kept firing into the group of Husks, watching as she created a clone of herself and beautifully moved through the crowd, her shotgun shooting twice due to Repeater.

The Husks didn’t stand a chance, between my powerful blasts and Winter moving through the crowd, we quickly dealt with the thousand strong swarm. Breathing out as I finished one of the few enemies off, I saw Winter through my scope, standing there covered in Husk blood, looking at her hand. At that moment, I felt my heart skip at how hot I found her.

‘God I love you, Rebecca.’ As I think this, I see her suddenly jerk up and look directly at me before grinning and waving.

‘I love you too, Ruby!’ Her voice rings through my mind, making me do a double take as I look at her, moving the sniper away. Either it’s my imagination or…

‘You…we can communicate telepathically?!’

‘Ah, we can! I thought it was my imagination when I heard your voice!’

Seeing her cheerful grin from afar, I could only smile back. After a moment, I looked around and saw that no more Husks were around, most of them stumbling away, but with so many more out there, I knew that swarms may become common.

“Mid, anymore coming?” Turning to Sheep, I shake my head. The ground had stopped trembling and there were no more tears in the air around us, but I still felt as if there was something still going on out of our sight. Leaving leading the clan to Sheep, I kept an eye out and after another hour the System finally came up.

World Shift completed. The world has changed as the forces of destruction make their way into this world. Dimensions have merged into this world, changing the land and giving opportunities for those who wish to explore the new lands.

There are also Dimensions in which the forces of Destruction gather, ready to invade this world. Grand rewards will be offered to those who clear these Dimensions.

“Huh? Wait, so new locations?”

“Most likely, we’ll just do what we’ve always done.” Turning to Melissa, I quickly realised it’s only her and me up here. Diana had at some point already left and holding back my sigh, I approached Melissa.

“Oh my~ Seeing an elf walk up to me like this makes my heart skip a beat.”

“Mel, save the flirting for later.” Wrapping an arm around her waist, she hugged my neck as she whispered into my ear.

“I can save myself for you for later if you want.”

“You really know how to talk so seductively, Mel. But I do have to wonder if you can really back it up.” Giggling, I leaped into the air as I saw the spirits floating away from everyone, seemingly a bit tired. The spirits on myself and Rebecca still stayed however.

Landing with no problems, Melissa sighed as she parted with me before sending me a wink. “If you want to see me backup my words, just come to my house. I’ll throw Michael out and we can have some fun.” Seeing her walk away, I couldn’t help but admit she did have a stunning body. Sadly, for her, I had no attraction for it.

‘Maybe it’ll be a good idea to teach that flirt a lesson.’

‘Ooo, I am so down! A part of me wants to see if she can really back up all that flirting she does with us!’

Flinching a bit, I had nearly forgotten that Rebecca and I could telepathically communicate. While she didn’t respond to my normal thoughts, it seemed if I said anything in my mind she could respond to it. I didn’t mind, I had nothing to hide from her.

‘Rubes, I’m going to go shower, what are you doing?’

‘Thinking of joining you, but with everything that has just happened I need to…do leader things.’

‘Aw, not sharing the deets?’

‘I kinda just make it up as I go, babe. You know that.’

‘I know, it’s a trait I love about you. Oh man, I just realised that we could talk like this forever!’

‘That’s rather thoughtful of you.’

‘Oi! No puns in hashtag general!’

Grinning at our little talk, I made my way through the streets, those around me throwing me looks of confusion before realisation dawned on their faces. Quickly finding the man and woman I wanted to, I grabbed their attention.

“Geralt, Cass. Can I have a word?”

“Oh, Midnight! I’m still getting used to the new look. What’s up?” Cass smiles as she looks me up and down. Geralt just nods and crosses his arms.

“Can you get your team together and map out our surroundings? We need to confirm what has changed around us, the dangers and if the terrain has changed.”

“We’ll get it done. Want it uploaded to the network?”

“Yes, once you’re back. I haven’t made any mapping programs so just upload the text version with estimated distances from Lux.” Answering Geralt, we chat for a bit longer, including me telling them not to engage in any combat. Just as we’re about to part ways, I heard a voice come from behind.

“Sir Geralt! I can’t find Madam Midnight, I need a message passed on to her.” Juliana’s voice sounded out as footsteps approached us in a hurry. Turning to see Juliana who looked at Geralt, I saw excitement on her face.

Geralt frowned and pointed at me. “She’s right there.”

“Huh?” Juliana turns to look at me before doing a double take. “M-madam Midnight?!”

“I told you, no titles. Yes, it’s me. What’s happening?”

Catching her breath, Juliana spoke quickly. “It’s the fonts, they’re active!”

Raising an eyebrow, I crossed my arms and thought for a moment. “Keep an eye on them and upload detailed inform-Ah, I haven’t made a laptop for you guys yet. Alright, give me some time and I’ll bring one along, keep track of the fonts, I’ll visit the refinement building in the next two days.”

“Y-yes, Mad-Midnight.” Juliana spins on her foot and quickly runs off as I bid farewell to Geralt and Cass.

Finding a spot near one of the dormitories, I sat down on the grass. The moment I do, the spirits in the surroundings slowly make their way over to me, landing on my legs, arms and shoulders. Lifting my hand slowly, a few landed on it as I brought it up to my eyes.

“You’re all so cute. Can you talk?”

The spirits' faces all looked happy and swayed gently, as if they were swaying to the sound of music, but no words came from them. Smiling gently, I moved my hand slowly around. The spirits seemed to enjoy the movement and those who sat on my legs moved to my hand. It’s strange, are they specifically attached to me or to those that can see them? Were they always here or did they come with the sanctuary? So much of this world had been revealed very quickly, making me realise just how little we knew about the Prime World.

Lying down on the soft grass, I lowered my hand as the spirits dispersed, floating above me. The various colours were a beautiful sight in the night sky, bringing an odd sense of calm in a time where I should be panicking and leading everyone. I knew Sheep could take over and assist and right now the focus we need is to confirm our surroundings once again and check the base for any damages.

‘Still doing your leading stuff?’

‘Mm, I’m hanging out with the spirits.’

‘Oh no, you didn’t die did you?!’

‘Argh, I wish you could see them.’

‘I’ll come find you, maybe you can teach me?’

Telling Rebecca where I am, soon she announced her arrival by standing over me.

“Comfortable?”

The spirits bobbed happily and quickly moved to Rebecca, sitting on her head and shoulders, looking happy that she’s here. I wanted to know why they looked so happy. Sitting up, I pat the ground next to me. Rebecca sits down and holds my hand as she rests her head on my shoulder. Just like that, we both sat there silently watching as the sun rose in the distance. The sun slowly shone on us, on both a world that has changed and a pair of girls covered in happy spirits.