The battles never seemed to end.

Day after day, shift after shift, time after time. Monsters would swarm the walls, and every time they came, we’d be sent out there.

I swung my spear, dozens, hundreds, tens of thousands of times each day. I swung my spear until my hands bled. Until I could barely lift my arms anymore, until it felt like I was chained down by cinder blocks.

It was a horrible, unsustainable rhythm. Slaughter until I couldn’t do it anymore, then run just before I ended up on the wrong side of the fight, pass out, wake up, do it all over again. Pass off any broken pieces of armor to the crafters, put away my bloody clothes, and get new ones once I awoke.

Everyone in the city was constantly working, just to maintain even basic comfort. Being able to wash myself was a luxury not always present. The amount of days I woke up with caked blood in my hair, only to go and fight again…

Miserable. Truly miserable. Sometimes fighting was miserable, but it was also necessary.

‘Cause people would die otherwise.

Sometimes, there would be a brief respite when Saif came to defend the wall. The amount of destruction archmages could cause was still rather impressive. She’d slowly roll up a ramp to the side of the wall, raise her two right arms, and then monsters would start being torn apart by the wind.

Of course, things could never proceed simply. Not that waking up, killing shit, then collapsing into bed was easy, but it was, in a way, simple. Requiring focus and precision and constant awareness? Certainly, but it was predictable. Just fight.

Eden’s war machine had fully revved up at least. I didn’t need to worry about anything other than slashing and hacking away. Until, after two weeks of ever growing waves of monsters, I woke up to someone new at my door.

A man in a fancy suit, with strikingly blue eyes and short, blonde hair. He looked… put together, if barely. The suit was clearly tailored and expensive, but not pristine. Like it had been worn for too long, with slight bits of dirt.

“Hello, is this Ms. Bellum?” he asked.

I recognized that voice. That was the guy from Jules’ apartment. The one that had an elevator installed. He sounded tired. Then again, so did I.

It was one of those lovely days where I still wore bloodstained clothes, not having taken off all my armor, only the damaged bits. So I wasn’t exactly looking pristine.

“Yeah. Need anything?”

He looked up from his clipboard, as if he had just read what it said. “Yes. It says here that you damaged some of our resources.”

“Oh fuck me, you’re Zinnic aren’t you?” I said, sighing, and leaning against the doorframe. “Do you want money? I really couldn’t care less.”

“Money, sadly, will not do. The reparations we have been forced to undertake-”

“Look, buddy. Let me be extremely real with you. Piss off. Go home, cry to your dad about a failed job, tell him I’m not going to be taking shit. I offered to pay,” I sighed. “I’m not gonna recruit people for you, I’m not bringing new people into Eden for you.”

He seemed to narrow his eyes at my tone. “We may see ourselves forced to take countermeasures and see if we cannot collect our lost resources.”

I stared at him. Very slowly, I reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder. His face scrunched up in disgust, but it got my message across, and would distract him from recognizing me. I did not want Zinnic knowing who I was on the other side.

“What’s your name?” I asked, holding his eyes.

“Richard Terril,” he ground out.

“Alright Rich,” he opened his mouth to interrupt me at the nickname, but I held up my free hand. “Let me make it very clear what merchandise I damaged, alright? The divines gave me a task to clean up trash. People who’d killed Edians. You know that shit is taboo, right?”

I shook my head at him. “So, Rich, imagine my surprise when four people from Zinnic had done so. Imagine my surprise when they attacked me after I told them what they'd done wrong. I hurt them. They came after me again, and I hurt them more. Now, if it isn’t crystal clear yet.”

This time, I really held his eyes, squeezing his shoulder. “I’ll do it again.” My patience was running real thin right now. “I’ll hurt people, Rich, if I need to. I cut off a woman’s hand. I didn’t enjoy that. I hope I never see her again and that she learns.” He gulped.

“So, go home. Cry about the mean woman who won’t give her contribution up. Because let me tell you, if you attack me, I just might cost you more precious resources.”

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Despite the clear apprehension, Rich spoke. “We have a reputation to uphold. If we let this go unpunished-”

“If you let this go unpunished I promise not to take any more blood tax from Zinnic,” I said.

“This should be a prerequisite!” he complained, so engorged in his usual negotiating that the threat went by the wayside.

“Rich,” I hissed. “Be quiet for a sec.”

Then, I held out my free hand, summoning my spear. His eyes widened. I smiled at him, holding my weapon right at the blade. “Careful, don’t flinch. It’s sharp,” I warned.

Ever so slowly, I brought it closer to his picture-fucking-perfect face. “Rich. I need you to know, this isn’t a blood tax, okay? I’m not gonna harm you.” My voice was succinct, but the diplomat was suddenly frozen.

He flinched back slightly as I brought the spear closer to his face, but I maintained my grip on his shoulder. So I brought it a bit closer.

Coursing Qi through my spear, it even hummed softly. I could hear Rich start breathing faster.

With a light touch, my spear moved, and in the blink of an eye, I had cut off some of his perfect bangs. The hair floated slowly to the ground, but I unsummoned my spear, plucking one curl out of the air, and holding it up to him.

“See? You’re safe. Unharmed. I know about Zinnic, about your reputation, about your fucking policies of reclamation. I almost didn’t wanna take the divine job. Almost turned it down. Almost let murderers go. So, and I ask this so fucking kindly, don’t make me a human killer, yeah?”

I let the sentence sink in for a few silent seconds, then clapped Rich on the back. “Well! Off to battle I go. Got monsters to massacre my way through.”

Dunno how long he spent in that hallway afterwards. I didn’t care.

- - -

When I came back from the wall, I threw out the bloodstained cloth, then took a shower, almost passing out in it. As I crashed into the bed, I closed my eyes, trying to get in the barest amount of cultivating I could.

Seeing and fighting so much did wonders for my wells, and a breakthrough felt close. So I plunged into the golden Depths, diving deeper and deeper. Ivan, Chris, Zinnic, my knowledge on the usurpers and the keepers… the world was a vast one. I would see it all.

My underwater scene shifted. Beautiful corals appeared in the darkness. Specks of hope for me to explore.

I smiled.

[Golden Wellspring advanced to 3rd Step.]

I took a deep breath, then fell asleep.

- - -

The hordes were growing more intense. The air constantly swarmed with usurpers. I had grown accustomed to sleeping with the sound of swords and screams in the background…

I was less accustomed to waking to the smell of smoke.

… Despite it, I was so tired I almost simply turned and closed my eyes once more.

But it was hot enough to shake that idea out of my head. Why… was it so hot? Ann’s practice usually didn’t cause that… did she set herself on fire?

My bed was burning.

Finally, adrenaline coursed through my veins, activating any remaining survival instinct I may have had, and I quickly coursed Qi through my body, glowing with a slight sheen. “Ann!” I called for her.

From a few meters away, I heard a tumbling, then a new perspective opened up in my mirror-vision as Ann opened her eyes. I saw myself hop off the bed, charging through the smoke as a dim silhouette. Picking her up, and rushing out of the building.

She conjured wind mana to help her breathe, a small spell. “Fio? What’s happening?” she asked, drowsily but yet alert.

“Building on fire, I guess,” I said, rushing out. “Respiration buff, quick.”

Obliging my request, Ann chanted and moved her hands. Soon, I found myself with a thin mask of mana across my face. Then, I charged back in, calling for the others. I slammed open the doors to their rooms.

Matt woke up when I entered, hand already on his sword and dashing towards me, when his eyes cleared. “Out!!”

When he was down the hall, Marie was already at the door. Liam quickly appeared next to them. I rushed to Emilia’s room, who was quickly snatching up her armor, giving her a nod, before heading for Reya.

As a healer, she was the least physically powerful out of us, and with all the fighting happening… she was wrung dry. Unsurprisingly, she still remained slack on her bed. I quickly channelled my Qi harder, grabbing onto her roughly enough to slowly wake her, as I dashed back down, trying to keep her in areas with little smoke.

We were outside seconds later, and I saw it. The inn had been lit ablaze… by an arrow. Of black fire.

Ann chanted, as my gaze snapped to the walls. It was there. It was there.

A giant skull, its sockets alight with dark fire was at the city. Within its monstrously long arms was an enormous warbow, arrows of sinister, boiling darkness coalescing in its hands. It was aiming at me.

For a moment, I realized it was too late. None of my figments were recharged yet. I didn’t get a warning this time, no re-dos.

The arrow finished forming. I could see the fire in its eyes flicker gleefully, as if certain it had me now. It moved the bow, adjusting slightly, then, finally, began releasing its fingers…

Saif rose into the air. Her grey form was so unassuming in the sky. Her legs dangled below her, two arms outstretched.

Seeing her magic… it was as if I’d never seen a storm before.

Calling it a tornado would be doing it a disservice. The raging winds the archmage summoned could only be described as terrifying. I was just beginning to grow aware enough to notice the screams, only to have them all buried.

The wind howled so loudly, it swept away all other noise. The burning building was like a candle in the path of a hurricane. Chris darted out from the wooden boards that were now being broken and snapped as the fire was snuffed out.

It felt like time slowed down as the storm raged. It tore through the skies, a truly horrific mass of moving air. It slammed into the monster, and the fire in its eye sockets flickered. The bow was knocked off course, the flaming arrow flying off into the sky instead.

Ann was screaming something at me, but I could not hear her. The wind was too intense. She screamed again, then paused, quickly growing more measured. I smiled. She truly had an amazing head on her shoulders.

Taking control of only a tiny sliver of air, inconspicuous enough to not matter in the face of the grans spell, Ann whispered in everyone’s ears. “Let’s move.”

I looked at the monster. We weren’t ready to fight it, not at all, but… I couldn’t run. Not again.

Marie looked at me, and held my eyes. She knew what I was thinking. A moment later, Ann got it, too, then Matt.

The swordsman was the one who brought it up. “Screw running,” he said, his voice coming with the brief smell of plum. “Let’s tear up the frontier?”

We looked around at the group. It all snapped into place. Every last person here… was sick of running.

Despite my fear, my wildly beating heart, and the howling wind, I couldn’t help but give a manic grin.

“Let’s run into the frontier.”