Brand fired at the demons. Two shots rang out strangely distorted. His bullets had no more effect than anything I had done. “We need to do something!”

“Any suggestions? I asked, my voice still had the uncanny feel like the audio was wrong.

Crack! The demon struck again.

Brand didn’t waste time, “Can you destroy the ice beneath their feet?”

Expend Free action? Yes/No

Note: you must select the total number of seconds spent before activating.

I only selected one second. I was already through nearly half of my time stops.

My tools blazed with power. I focused on the ice beneath the feet of the demon with the club

Veil cannot be pierced by physical means.

Destruction check …Failed.

Time started “Fuck!” I shouted. Blood poured down my front.

The demon raised the club and just before they struck a crossbow bolt lodged in their eye. It flailed and screamed. Don’t get me wrong, screw them in particular, but getting shot in the eye had to hurt. Just seeing it made me flinch.

What sent panic through me was the idea that a goblin,a specific one, had fired that shot. Spine was not ready for this level of fighting.

A lot of things happened all at once.

Angelica pulled her right arm free. The demon with the bolt in its eye flung a massive ball of hellfire toward their attacker. Angelica made a desperate grab for her hammer. One of the demons holding her leg decided to bail on trying to restrain her. It fled into the darkness almost as fast as Angelica. The screaming glow of hell fire meant it was also preparing an attack. The goblin jumped backwards as the shrieking sphere of baleful flame bore down on them. A small figure stepped forward holding a heavy metal shield.

Brunhilda was here. The goblin aimed his crossbow over her shoulder. Its hands were red. It was Philip. Was that the Narrator’s plan? Had I just thrown everything into uncertainty or had using ‘Empowered Critical’ allowed this to occur? It didn’t matter either way I was committed.

Boom! Angelica struck with the hammer. She hit arrow-eye right in the head. Driving the bolt way deeper into their skull parts. A new baleful demonic cloud manifested in our world. The demons who had been holding Angelica’s arm gave up on that, and were both lunging with their barbed pikes. The one that had fled launched a blast of hellfire at Angelica as well.

Philip and Brunhilda were too far away to intervene.

“Give her my armor,” Brand insisted. He didn’t yell, but he is slightly hurried words had that certainty to them that brooked no argument.

Expend Free action? Yes/No

Note: you must select the total number of seconds spent before activating.

I selected 4 seconds. My pool of time stops was beginning to run dry. I figured three were need. One to take the armor from Brand. Then I would need to see if anything terrible happened to him for the second action. If there was a problem I would put the armor back, otherwise I would try and transfer the armor to Angelica.

Craft Check… Success

Source of all Rivers withdraw from Brand

The armor unlatched from Brand and snapped into place around me. Brand was still standing there staring at Angelica. His face was resolute. He didn’t crumple into dust nor did he look harmed in any way. That said, time was stopped.

Analyze Check… Successful

The wall of data hit me. Brand was still at two thirds of his max hitpoints. He had the Abdominal Laceration Condition, the Torn Annular Ligament Condition, the Mild Concussion Condition, and Severe Burn (Back) conditions. These were all inflicting pain effects totaling up to Serious Suffering Condition, but that was suppressed by the Existential Dread Condition. It would seem you could not heal or recover in this place, but physical injuries caused no pain. He was also Immune to the Ephemeral Dissipation Condition because he had a Corporeal Anchor.

I am pretty sure that meant since he had a living body his soul wasn’t scattering in this place.

So far so good.

Veil cannot be pierced by physical means.

Craft Check …Failed.

Shit! No! No, no, no! Why System? You just let me move a shell from Brand. I should just be able to move it. What was the description?

Source of All Rivers

The Glacier is not just a force of change and destruction. Its true power is not its resilience, but its ability to sustain life. Water flows from the Glacier and power flows from you. This ability allows you to transfer any or all aspects of this Cosmic Martial Art to any valid combination of beings. This ability requires a WIllpower roll to maintain.

I should be able to just transfer it. Willpower was no problem. Why wasn’t it working? I could do this. I passed off my buffed Ablative shell no problem. It was basically a reflex. Why didn’t it work now?

Think.

Think!

Think, dammit!

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I stopped myself. I took a breath. Panicking wouldn’t help. I had to use this time well. I read Source of All Rivers again.

I checked the earlier prompts. I didn’t roll Willpower. I had made a craft check. There it was. I had been exploiting the system. I had manifested the Shell on me to give it maximum protection by adding the buff from Titanic Armor 2. I had then used Craft to reshape it onto someone, and then transferred the Ablative Shell ability to them so they could move freely in the armor. I couldn’t do that now.

I needed to transfer Ablative Shell to Angelica, and destroy this stack so she could manifest a layer on herself.

“I am an idiot,” I told myself. I reread Source of All Rivers. I should have buffed Angelica with my cosmic martial art. She could have trivialized the fight with counters triggering each time she dodged, blocked, or took a hit. Now though Angelica’s health was in the red and she was at death’s door because I was moron.

“Stop it,” I told myself. “Focus on what matters.”

Willpower Check… Successful

Source of All Rivers grants Angelica Ablative Shell

When time didn’t start up again I realized I still had one second left. I can take a free action nested in the time stop without moving time forward. This time I didn’t mind the System being completely unbalanced. That state of affairs almost always benefited me, but in this moment where I truly needed it, it was a relief.

Destruction check…Successful

Ablative Shell Destroyed

The ice armor instantly sublimated into a shroud of mist.

I had one last action. I really looked at Angelica.

Willpower check… Successful

Emotional state remains under control

At the start of the fight Angelica had looked blurred and indistinct. Now though with her health low she was stark and easily visible. So were the injuries. One of the impacts of the club had peeled the skin on the scalp causing a large flap of flesh to lift free and fold over. I could see her skull. Another had landed on her mouth. Her lips were tattered ribbons of flesh barely concealing jagged shards of broken teeth. Her stomach and arms were covered in burnt rough hewn gouges from the demonic weapons. Her legs were a charred and blistered mess. The skin had sloughed off entirely on her left foot.

How was she still conscious?

So many complicated and dark thoughts spun in my mind. Seeing people you care about in pain…it hurts. Eloquent, I know, but that is kinda the point. Empathy is foundational. It is required for any human connection. That is the true evil of cruelty. It was devoid of empathy, devoid of humanity, and in order to fight it one must become detached, removed from empathy. That is a bunch of words to say that rather than understand the horror of her injuries, I considered which stage of Unrelenting Glacier would best allow Angelica to survive.

She wasn’t going to dodge well with her legs burnt and battered. her crippled arm could swing the hammer and while strong, seemed to lack the dexterity she normally had. That took block off the table. It was a bad option. The very idea of Angelica taking another hit puckered my asshole to the size decimal point.

Willpower check… Successful

Source of All Rivers grants Angelica Rebounding Force

All said and done the only thing to do was stack the deck as best I could and trust her and the others.

Time started.

The demon preparing to throw fire at Angelica screamed as another bolt slammed into its eye. Philip seemed to have a preferred target with that crossbow of his. Trouble was he was a split second too late. The demon attack flew straight and true. The screaming blast of hellfire surged toward Angelica.

Brand seized my arm just as the blast enveloped Angelica. Don’t get me wrong, my heart was hammering in my chess. It slammed against my ribs like it wanted to bust free, but I saw a flash of pure white light blaze in her eyes and the glint of water crystallize around her a microsecond before damage was applied.

The flames erupted in a dreadful burst of orange hellfire. The wailing of the damned drowned everything out for a very long moment. I had just enough time to worry that I had messed up when from the heart of the fire a bolt of lightning erupted. The serpentine chain of energy struck the demon right in center mass. The impact lifted the demon into the air as the lighting impaled the creature. The demon screamed. It wasn’t dead. Its hellfire faded and flickered out of existence.

The other demons were no worse for the wear. Angelica's ablative Shell had melted to nothing. She was bringing the hammer down on the nearest demon. The other was absolutely going to skewer her. The first might get their hit in too. It’d be close.

It is tough fighting something that doesn’t fear death. They will pull kamikaze shit like this. They don’t have to win so long as you lose.

Boom!

Angelica flattened her target. In an explosion of thunder and gore the demon died and another cloud burst into existence here in the land of the dead. It fled to the west immediately. The second demon stabbed Angelica in the chest. The red hot barbed pike ripped a massive chunk of flesh out of her. I could see ribs and the organs beneath them.

Why hadn’t Celeste stepped in.

Kaboom!

Angelica retaliated with her hammer fast as lightning. Her health bar was almost empty. That didn’t lessen the impact of her attack. Her hammer smashed the demon’s head like a pumpkin.

The last demon wound up to throw still more hellfire. Brunhilda was charging toward Angelica. My drinking buddy was resolute and someone you wanted with you in a fight, but they weren’t a sprinter. Philip was dashing toward the demon, spear in hand. He wasn't going to make it either.

The hateful star of fire the demon had collected surged toward Angelica and Brunhilda. This attack wasn’t like the first few. Those had been roughly the size of a basketball. A compressed node a torturous flame. This was a screaming mass of baleful destruction at least two yards across. The demon had unloaded everything it had in that attack.

A phantom snow lion jumped in front of the ball of hate. The flames engulfed the spectral big cat and erupted in an upsetting geyser of hellfire. The thing is it did that like forty feet from Angelica and Brunhilda. Nothing but the snow lion was hurt. I will repeat that. Nothing of value was hurt.

I don’t like Snow Lions. That’s not entirely fair. This one was okay. It didn’t overstay its welcome.

Philip tried to impale the demon but it flitted through the dark of night. It wasn’t as fast and Angelica but it was close. The demon was clearly ready to go. Come back another day. Rachel slammed a ka-bar knife into its face. She then did that again… like thirty times. The demon died well before she was done, but I wasn’t going to stop her. I think Rachel had some issues to work through.

The Chime of Brunhilda crashing her gauntlets together. Rippled through our world. For a split second everything was crisp and the colors were vibrant. Then the unlife of this place reserted itself. Angelica went from stark to blurred again.

We had done it. They had done it. Everyone was going to live.

“Thank God,” Brand managed. He was still white knuckling his grip on me.

Someone behind us clapped and then did that piercing whistle some folks do.

Aiko looked behind us and then hugged me like a caber.

“As long as I exist I can’t help but cheer every time the living beat death,” Debbie said. I could hear the smile in her voice. “This one got down to the wire.”

I turned and saw Debbie. She looked like a stooped old woman and was leaning on the are of another lady. The woman was maybe a little over average height. She clearly had a few years under her belt, but aged gracefully. She was wearing a simple blue blouse, and a dark grey skirt, and practical boots. Her steel colored hair was in a tight braid. She gazed at us a little confused, “Grandmother?... Who are these people?”

“Oops,” Debbie said, standing up straight. “Sorry Granny Mabel, I really don’t like breaking character.”

Aiko and Brand hid behind me. Fair.

“Wait, is your name Ganny Mabel?” I asked the woman.

She blinked and her eyes sharpened, “Yeah, and?”

“Nothing,” I said. Rather than get clowned by Granny Mabel I turned to Debbie, “Could you helps us out of here.”

Debbie sucked air through her teeth, “Don’t be mad, but no.”