From the moment they stepped through the portal, they could tell that they did not belong. The strange realm in which they found themselves was constantly shifting, changing color, temperature, geography, flora, geometry, gravity, and more. On top of that, the very air grated on skin and lungs, as though it were trying to scrape them out of existence. The longer they remained, the more uncertain they became what was real and what was illusion, for some of the many beasts they fought did no damage and their blades passed through without harming, while occasionally they walked through walls or fell through the ground. Time seemed to hold no meaning, twisting around as much as space and direction did, and they sometimes saw their past selves in the distance, performing actions they had already completed.

Strange rocks, plants, and creatures dotted the realm, even beyond the monsters they fought or the seemingly hostile geographic features. Part of Rai wanted to study the alien specimens, but the greater part of him was focused on the important thing: finding and retrieving Mizeiya. He knew that she was still here in this bizarre environment rather than the celestial realms, and he hoped that it was less dangerous for her than it was for him and Isa. At the very least, it shouldn’t threaten to tear her soul apart.

Rai and Isa were walking up an stone incline while feeling like they were upside-down and clinging to the surface with their feet, the sky far below, when suddenly they did fall upward, hurtling through the air as gravity shifted repeatedly all around them. They finally landed on their feet on a glass surface, a starry sky below and rust-red grassy plains far overhead. The glass bubbled in front of them, rising up and congealing in the shape of an enormous dragon some sixty feet long from tip of nose to tip of tail. It finished bubbling and smoothed out, becoming more finely detailed, and they found themselves staring at a shiny-scaled, nearly transparent dragon completely covered in long spines.

It opened its mouth and roared.

An immense vibrational shockwave ripped through the area, blowing out Rai’s eardrums and cracking his bones. Isa weathered the assault better than he did, but she still leaked blood from her earholes. Rai immediately raised a hand and fired an Overcharged Star-enhanced Wrath Bolt – a combination fire and lightning bolt – without saying a word. The dragon screamed in pain as lightning shot through it and fire washed over it.

“Overcharged Star-enhanced Disintegration!” Isa cast, firing a pair of green rays at the dragon. Her eyes widened as one ray deflected off to the side and the other reflected directly back at her, striking her squarely in the chest.

“Grk!”

She felt her body protest as it resisted the powerful spell; bones cracked and scales flaked. The dragon snarled, shooting half a dozen spines out of itself, half at Rai and half at Isa. Rai dodged one, had another turned aside by his deflection field, and had his forcefield protect him from the third. Isa, on the other hand, simply weathered the assault, her still-intact scales shattering the spines on impact.

“Star-enhanced Blood of Life!” Isa cast, slapping the blood globule onto her face and immediately healing completely. “You’re going down, dragon!” she snarled, her eyes beginning to glow and her aura appearing around her.

Rai shot a Fireball, this one not overcharged but still enhanced. It exploded around the dragon, but did absolutely no damage. In response, the dragon roared again. Rai staggered, a sudden rush of vitality keep him mostly steady as bones fractured and blood seeped out of his skin. Isa snarled in anger as her newly-healed body was reinjured. She charged forward with shout of, “Golden Wrathful Rush!”

The dragon snapped at her as she approached, but she dodged around the attack and leaped onto its head, plunging the tip of her halberd straight through its skull and into its brain, ignoring the spines that pierced her when she did. The dragon collapsed with a thump, then shattered in countless fragments.

Before Isa could relax, however, up and down reversed and they were falling toward the ground. They hit before either had a chance to react, they slammed into a massive boulder. Rai let out a scream as bones snapped. Isa merely grunted. Rising to her feet, she applied Blood of Life to herself, removing all injuries, and then moved over to Rai. Two star-enhanced Bloods of Life later she had fully restored the critically-injured Rai.

After a brief rest, they continued onward, following their instincts, until they reached a bridge made of a rainbow.

“This seems too obvious,” Isa commented.

“Too obvious or not, it’s the only clear path forward. Just be ready for another fight.”

They stepped onto the bridge and walked forward. With each step they took, space seemed to twist, until they were standing above another, smaller, brown-scaled dragon. Two angels, each standing half-again as tall as they did and colored like gemstones, stood barring their path, while just beyond a cloaked skeleton holding a lantern stood beside someone that Rai had been longing to see for seven years.

Mizeiya! Rai thought joyfully.

“Rai!” she cried out.

The angels drew their swords.

“Not even the servants of gods will stand in my way!” he shouted, pointing his sword at them. Wings of flame and lightning appeared on his back. “Stand aside or be cut down!”

“Foolish mortals!” the male angel said. “You would defy the gods?”

“I will defy whomever I have to! I will bring Mizeiya back to life!”

“Fight to your heart’s content, living ones,” the skeleton said. “My task here is done. Whether you succeed or fail is now on you alone.”

The skeleton vanished.

The angels took to the air and moved to either side of the bridge. Releasing their swords with one hand, they each raised a hand toward Rai and Isa.

“Exhaust!”

“Flame Storm!”

A sudden, bone-deep exhaustion set in for both Rai and Isa. A massive conflagration appeared with them in the thick of it an instant later. Rai jumped up and blinked out of visibility briefly, evading the flames, but Isa couldn’t evade and caught on fire. She quickly and thoroughly patted herself down to smother the flames.

“What gods do you serve?! You would attack us first?! Overcharged Star-enhanced Chains of Wrath!”

Lightning and fire arced from his hand to the green angel, then overhead to the red angel. The angels gasped in pain and surprise.

“What?! How can a mere mortal bypass our resistance to spells?!”

“You’ll pay for this!”

The two spoke in unison. “Stun!”

Rai and Isa jerked, dropping their weapons, and stood in place, swaying slightly with their eyes unfocused.

The angels flew closer and proceeded to unleash a series of hacks and slashes with their claymores. By the time that the two mortals finally recovered from the stun, They had been thoroughly savaged. Isa was in terrible shape, but Rai looked nearly dead, barely conscious – only conscious through sheer will.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Screw you!” Isa shouted. “Overcharged Star-enhanced Disintegration!”

A beam shot to each angel. The green one appeared to weather it fairly well, though he still looked quite injured; the red one coughed up golden blood and nearly dropped her sword.

Rai, unable to cast the same spell – even a different variant – twice in a row, resorted to his next most powerful spell. “Overcharged Star-enhanced Thunderflame Wave!”

The green one let out a terrible cry of pain and doubled over.

“Enough!”

A whole host of armored female warriors appeared in midair, despite a lack of wings. Unlike the angels, they were the same size as humans.

“You bring shame on the celestial realms,” the only one wearing prismatic rather than silver or gold armor said. “What angels try to kill mortals would have committed no crime? You attacked first, and thus the stalemate is ended. In accordance with the will of the Gods of War, Sun, Medicine, and Devotion, we shall escort both the mortals and the soul.”

“What?!”

“Or would you rather we beat you into unconsciousness first? The mortals may not be able to kill you, lacking the ability to stop your regeneration, which even now restores you, and neither can we, but all of us can surely render even more pain unto you until you cannot even open your eyes.”

“I agree with the Valkyries,” the dragon beneath the bridge said.

The red angel wiped blood away from her mouth. “We shall withdraw, but do not think that this is the conclusion of the matter. Our gods oppose this.”

“Shift!” the angels said in unison. They vanished in a flash of light.

“I suppose I should leave as well,” the dragon said, and a moment later both dragon and bridge were gone, gently placing both Rai and Isa on the ground.

“Rai!” Mizeiya cried, rushing over to him. “Rai, can you hear me?!”

“Mizeiya…” Rai said with a pained, tired smile. “I finally… reached you.”

“Rai! Oh by the gods, you’re dying!”

“No… just…”

“Blood of Life. Blood of Life. Blood of Life. And that’s… all of those spells. No more… star energy in my mana heart… to enhance spells. We came… so close to dying.” Isa splashed all three globules of blood on Rai’s face. Within seconds, his thoroughly savaged form was completely mended. Rai waved a hand and touched his clothes, and they mended and cleansed themselves.

“See? All… better.”

“You still sound completely exhausted.”

“That’s because… I am. One of the powers… the angels used on us.”

“Yeah…” Isa agreed. “Blood Elixir. Blood Elixir. Blood Elixir. Blood Elixir. Blood Elixir. Blood Elixir.” Isa poured the magic blood down her throat. “Oh… that’s much… better.”

The prismatic-armor-wearing Valkyrie floated down to them. “Come with us. We will guide you to the exit.” She held out her hands. “True Recovery.”

Immediately, both Isa and Rai felt renewed and rested, all weariness gone. They picked up their weapons and stowed them in their rings, swapping clothes as well.

Rai turned to Mizeiya and smiled.

“Mizieya…” He spread his arms.

“Rai!”

Isa watched their embrace with a little smile. “Aw. How heartwarming.” Then she raised an eye ridge. “Where did her sword go?”

“It returned to the essence of the plane,” the Valkyrie said. “Now, we must go. While the gods will no longer interfere, Limbo Space itself may still throw up obstacles.”

“All right.” At Rai’s will, translucent wings seemingly made of glass feathers appeared on Mizeiya’s back. He summoned a floating light, then gave Isa magic wings as well. “We’re ready.”

They took to the air and flew, surrounded by the Valkyries. At first, all went well. Then, just as they spotted the portal in the distance, disaster struck. A massive blizzard appeared from nowhere, completely cutting off all sight. Rai gripped Mizeiya’s and Isa’s hands tightly.

“Hold on!” he shouted against the wind.

“I-I-I…” stammered Mizeiya. “So… cold…”

“We have to endure! We’ve come to far to back down now!”

“I-I won’t… l-let this… s-stop me!” Mizeiya said.

The blizzard lasted for what felt like forever, only ending when their flight spells ran out. They touched down on a mountaintop. In the valley below, the portal waited.

Rai turned to Isa and his eyes widened in alarm. She was nearly frozen solid, her skin blue and covered with frost, but she was still awake and breathing.

“Mizeiya!”

“The Valkyries are gone,” Isa said, looking around. “We need to get to the portal.”

“That won’t be enough to save her after she, a pure soul, was exposed to a storm like that.”

Rai turned toward the voice and was stunned to see what appeared to be the avatar of the God(dess) of Medicine.

“God of Medicine…” he said in shock.

“You recognize my avatar?” she said curiously, raising an eyebrow. “How curious.”

Isa immediately kowtowed before the god. “I pay my respects to the God of Medicine!”

“Rise, Isa Bloodscale.”

Isa climbed to her feet, but kept her head bowed reverently.

“But… why are you here?” Rai said. “Won’t the gods who disagree be upset by your direct interference?”

“The God of Knowledge is preventing them from seeing,” she said.

“Indeed,” a six-armed woman made of living gold with the head of a dragon said, materializing beside the God of Knowledge.

“I… don’t know which god you are,” Rai admitted, “but given that only four were listed by the Valkyries, and I know what the God of the Sun and God of War look like, I can guess that you are the God of Devotion.”

“Correct. And your devotion to each other, your dedication and love, has pleased me. For this, we two gods will bless Mizeiya Swiftblade. I shall transform her affliction into a blessing and a curse. She will forever be aligned with the cold, unable to bear the heat of flames, and magic that resist the heat will be ineffective on her. However, she will have a natural affinity for cold magic, and indeed, she will now become a mage.”

“And I will grant her the boon of life and healing,” The God of Medicine said. “Unlike a pure soul mage, she will be capable of casting many healing spells, for as long as she continues to pay her respects to us, her patron gods.”

Both gods placed hands upon Mizeiya’s shoulders. She shuddered as gold and silver light poured from the gods into her body. Her skin regained its proper color and the frost flaked off, leaving white snowflake patterns on her face. Rai blinked, and the gods were gone as suddenly as they had appeared.

“Rai?” Mizeiya said, dazed. “Did I… just imagine that?”

“The gods? No. They were here. Now let’s get to the portal before something else happens.

“Wait!” Isa cried. “Look at that, where the gods were standing!”

She picked up two chunks of rainbow-colored metal each roughly the size of an adult human’s head. “What is this? It looks like the material that the lead Valkyrie’s armor was made of.”

“There are smaller pieces on the ground all around Mizeiya, too,” Rai said, picking one up. The colors appeared to shift as he turned the piece this way and that. “We should take them with us. They might be useful; maybe we can make weapons or armor out of them.”

They quickly put them in Rai’s pouch, then Rai cast Flight on everyone again (interspersed with the uses of zeroth circle spells) and they flew down to the portal. As they drew closer, the portal began to flicker and waver.

“That’s bad, right?” Mizeiya said.

“The portal’s destabilizing,” Rai said tensely. “We have to get to it before it collapses.”

The distance between them and the exit continued to shrink until they were a mere hundred feet away. Without warning a massive beast some fifteen feet tall and twenty-five feet long, covered in natural armored plates and sporting a dorsal fin despite clearly being a quadrupedal land creature, erupted out of the ground and leapt toward them. Isa shot forward, smashing its head, which was nearly as wide as its body and had no neck, aside with her halberd, which appeared instantly in her hands.

“Armor Piercer! Dragon’s Wrath! Dragon’s Wrath!” she shouted, holding her halberd backward and slamming the point down repeatedly right behind the creature’s head with a burst of star energy from her qi core – now that she was sixth tier, she could enact three-strike combos, and with star energy, that could become a three-art combo. The beast died before the third strike hit home.

“C’mon, let’s hurry!”

She put away her halberd and joined hands with Rai, who was already holding Mizeiya’s hand. Together, they flew into the rapidly deteriorating portal, and for an instant, they felt themselves being turned inside out.

And then they were through.

-x-

Rai dodged the throwing knife by instinct alone before he even processed his surroundings. Beside him, Mizeiya had turned into a glowing light around which flesh and bone was rapidly appearing. On his other side, Isa had blocked another knife with her arm. Around them, the ritual arrangement was still intact, but the sole ritualist – not someone Isa or Rai truly knew – lay dead on the ground. Instead, a dozen black-clad, mask-wearing men and women were arranged around the portal, each armed with a sword, dagger, or knife. One of them was slightly taller than the rest, a black-haired elven woman several inches past six feet. Unlike the others, whose skin was almost completely hidden, her outfit was slightly revealing, with short sleeves, artfully tattered edges, a cutout that revealed part of her cleavage, and general form-fittingness. In either hand she carried a curved black sword.

“So you made it back alive,” the woman said in a chilling voice that caused the hair on the back of Rai’s neck to rise. “But this is where you die.”

The woman charged.