{INCOMING Logic - 321 LB}

{AVAILABLE Logic - 416 LB}

I inhaled deeply and felt the Logic soaking my being, nourishing my soul, trailing behind me like wings of bright blue light as I sprinted toward my enemy. The spider reared, screeching with anger, weapons unfurling.

Time slowed to a crawl.

I jumped, brought Pharus up into another two-handed swing.

Sticky white fluid shot from a small gun mounted on the spider’s shoulder.

The web lanced straight for my chest.

No Arx to save me now.

Panic swelled.

I exhaled sharply.

{CONSUMED Logic - 300 LB}

{AVAILABLE Logic - 116 LB}

{Memory: 20/20 LKB RAM

IS NOW

Memory: 20/40 LKB RAM}

A bell rang, and for a split second, everything was quiet.

Then a shockwave burst from my center and washed over mosaic and men, flame and Feral, war and web.

The force crashed against the web-projectile mid-flight, consuming much of its momentum.

[//run arx.exe]

{[Arx, Saint’s Embrace] IS NOW ACTIVE.}

{Memory: 23/40 LKB RAM}

The web, so dangerous just a nanosecond before, splattered against my armor and slid off uselessly. I landed with explosive force, sinking Pharus’ spike-wreaked cage into the spider’s weapon-ringed back. Guns and sensors shattered, flashing red splinters bloomed around the impact. Gold and teal flashed in a dark sea of twitching hair and ruined tech.

The scepter ignited.

>>PROCESSES BY USER SuwfnGmachTn-2 are now highlighted]

Then the moment passed, and mayhem reigned once more. The Feral chittered agonized broken-sowing-machine sounds and lashed out, its two frontal legs slamming into me. One bounced off of my robes, the other dug deep into an unarmored section on my forearm.

{CPU Load: ▲ 85%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 65° C}

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱ 79% ▼

I hissed in pain and brought my weapon down on the spider’s rusty leg. It gave way with a satisfying snap and the spider pulled back, drawing a splash of my blood across the cobblestones. Behind me, the screaming had stopped, which gave me a bad feeling I couldn’t quite explain, but I couldn’t look back until—

Like a single sharp note from an Arabic violin, Zephyro’s sword sliced through the spider as he landed in a crouch. When my brain caught up, I understood he had somersaulted over both my kneeling form and the Feral, scoring a deep gash on its back. Cyan light erupted from the Feral and —having learned from my earlier mistakes— I immediately claimed it for myself.

{INCOMING Logic - 90 LB}

{AVAILABLE Logic - 205 LB}

Knowing Zephyro had my back, I spun and found myself facing three angry spiders approaching quickly. They all showed the same readout, not really giving me enough to make a decision:

[SpeZTgrbGX-13/14/15]

[Absolute danger level: medium]

[Relative danger level: medium]

Cursing, I just picked one (#14) and haltingly assumed one of the fighting stances Stax had tried to teach me during our last autumn at Advance’s Pinnacle. I was pretty sure it was a form designed for swords only, but remembering the training reminded me to keep calm, and kept me from thinking about things that would fray my edges even further.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The chaos of the fight did the rest to keep me focused. Spider 14 and 15 crept closer. Like spring-loaded coils, their hairy black bodies slowed as they approached.

“Three spiders,” I said for Zephyro’s benefit. “Two are closer, one is hanging back.”

“Understood, Sultana. Are there more?”

Without turning my head, I gave the plaza a quick scan and found no other threats. I noticed the people funneling into the palace had picked up the pace, but couldn’t tell whether that was because of Zephyro’s efforts at organizing them or seeing their friends and loved ones torn to shreds by invisible spiders.

I had only been looking away for maybe a second, but when I brought my eyes back to the Ferals, all I saw instead was something dark and disgusting flying in my direction. It hit me straight in the face and barreled me over. My sense of orientation shattered, something hit my back hard, and I barely had enough presence of mind to push the spiked tip of the Torch into the black mass and flare it. A teal glow illuminated my field of vision, and a second later the spider spasmed.

[>>PROCESSES BY USER SpeZTgrbGX-13 ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]

Zephyro kicked it off of me with so much force that it flew straight through a storefront window. The opening flashed bright blue at the exact time a sickening crunch echoed from the interior.

Getting up, I flared Pharus even before turning towards the remaining spiders, swinging as I did. Sure enough, the backhanded blow took another of the beasts straight in the stomach. It had already been mid-flight, razor-legs aimed at my head, but the strike hit it so hard that its carapace cracked open like a piñata. Cyan light streamed out of it like I was painting the air blue with Pharus as a brush. The corpse went flying, a trail of cyan describing its arc.

I pulled it into myself before the Ferals could.

{INCOMING Logic - 55 LB}

{AVAILABLE Logic - 260 LB}

I did not know why I had been able to kill that spider and not the others, but at that moment, it didn't matter. The last remaining spider was smaller than its comrades, and I played with the weight of the scepter in my hand as it approached me cautiously. When it skittered backward like a scared animal, I couldn't help but smirk and launched into a full sprint bringing my scepter overhead. I slammed it down without even bothering to flare it. The golden cage crashed into the monster's back and I laughed in triumph.

In return, the spider rammed its mandibles into my shin and sent an electric current through my flesh that made me feel like my lower body was on fire. Screaming in pain and anger, I brought my weapon down on the beast again, with similarly little effect. It just kept zapping me with all it had, making my integrity drop at an insane pace. No longer possessing the energy to scream, I whimpered as I swung again, but this time I activated the marking ability.

{CPU Load: ▲ 88%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 79° C}

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 42% ⚠ ▼▼

[>>PROCESSES BY USER SpeZTgrbGX-15 ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]

I did not have to wait long for Zephyro to come to my aid. With a war cry, he impaled the beast with his sword, lifted it up, and smashed it onto the ground, cleaving it in two.

With heaving breaths, I watched the spider dissolve into Logic before absorbing it.

{INCOMING Logic - 45 LB}

{AVAILABLE Logic - 325 LB}

{CPU Load: ▲ 91%}

{Core Temp: ▼ 78° C}

My Torch sputtered and after making sure all the spiders were dead, I disabled it with a flick of my wrist. I walked over to the ruined store, its broken window still glowing cyan from within. My chest heaving, I stumbled but caught myself. I didn’t even curse. The weariness didn’t just run bone-deep anymore. It had started to trickle into my soul. It had finally gotten to that point…

I had been fighting every second since I had arrived in Zephyro’s Domain. Fighting to understand, fighting to keep up, fighting monsters… I had long since passed the point where a normal person would’ve been tired enough to sleep for days. And yet, I couldn’t stop, not even a second. I had to keep using anger to keep myself afloat. Just a little longer, or until I ran out…

I knew what came next. That moment when I succumbed to my exhaustion had been the start of many living nightmares. I could almost taste it now as well. The rise of an Intense calm after the adrenaline starts to run out. The urge to sit down, for just a moment…

During that moment of rest, the damned fear would slip into the cracks. It would seep into my eyes and ears and nose and mouth, drenching me, swelling as it submerged my lungs in panic as thick as crude oil until I couldn’t breathe anymore. But it wouldn’t stop. The pressure would swell, and swell, and I would burst open like a plastic bottle filled with sludge and grime, and go slack and all my weight would hang on the fraying rope that was my composure, my sanity.

I wouldn't let that happen. I couldn't let that happen.

I reached for my anger. I tried not to notice how hard it had gotten to grab it. It still came easily enough, for now. I could get angry at a lot of things these days. Safety was always just an annoyed thought away.

But in the haze of my exhaustion, things that reliably drove me mad—like the absolutely sluggish pace of the evacuation— had become almost rote, and a part of me asked itself if getting worked up about it was even worth the effort. Maybe I could just sit down for a moment…

I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper.

“Can't you make them hurry up?” I asked, suddenly, causing Zephyro to perk up. I started thumbing my Torch on and off as I watched people funnel into the palace. It made for a satisfying rhythm. Click, whoof, crackle, click…

“I doubt it, Sultana,” the vizier replied. He was looking at the crowd, too. Worry lined the set of his shoulders. “I have given my most trusted lieutenants all the authority they need. All we can do now is cover them while they shepherd my people to safety.”

At that moment, watching him looking at his people, I ignored the voice that urged me to tell him to shove his sympathy and just do as he was told. A twinge ran down my spine, and yet I still did not give in. There are a few things that can never be unsaid, and by some fortune, I recognized this was one of them. Saying the words would change me, not just in Zephyro’s eyes, but my own. It would make me into a person that did not care about costs.

I wasn’t like that. I did not want to be that.

Ah! said a goddamn memory.

Ah, so that’s the Sam you were hiding from me…

Nice to know you Sam, I’m Patti…

I turned away sharply, breath shuddering. A bit of smoke had gotten into my eyes. As I rapidly blinked to clear them, they traveled up the massive gates, past the intricate carvings and the fiery braziers towering above me in judgment, and up to the tiny speck of night sky that still hovered over us. The stars were blurry, but even without seeing them clearly, I knew the darkness had already swallowed most of them, just like it would swallow us all. It would wash over the city, and then it would—

I dug my fingernails into my palm. How could I be so stupid, how could I not stop thinking about that sort of bullshit? I knew it would only make it worse, so why couldn't I stop? It was like I was actively trying to make myself fall into that pit. I needed something for my anger to latch on to, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find a viable target. Oh, I tried getting angry at Zephyro, I tried getting angry at the villagers, but my stupid, weak mind couldn't get past all the things I had seen.

Zephyro standing over me defending me from the Ferals.

The fear in the eyes of the citizens as the Ferals tore into them.

That wild panicked expression on that boy’s innocent face, quietly begging me to help him before he exploded, spattering the high street and me with his Logic, his essence.

I couldn't.

I just couldn't.

I wanted to, needed to, the rage needed to go somewhere needed to unload itself, or else it would—

When I saw movement in the shadowy alleys, and a hyena made out of sickly green fog emerged, accompanied by several rats, the rush of relief came so out of left field, it felt like a punch in the gut.

I wanted to cry.

Instead, I flicked on my Torch and, illuminated by teal flames, faced the enemy.