The air was energized, the clouds of dust, smoke, and debris were charged, sparks jumping across them as they blew across the ever widening field of devastation. Buildings had fallen, their superstructures weakened by the devastating blows thrown wildly by the living force of nature on a rampage. It was a se out of a nightmare or waking fantasy, like a movie brought to life by a disturbed mind. The clouds overhead were darker thahe coiling eel-serpent of electricity tinuing to worm through them and roar out its defiao the heroes down below. The man himself stood at the ter of the battlefield, his body levitating several meters off the ground as he turned in pce, hand outstretched.

  hua darted forward, eyes focused on the smooth stone archway. Her scabbard held tight in one hand, her swripped iher. Her body was a blur to any outsider that looked at her, her hair more like the tail of a et as pials scattered behind her. She raised her arm again and twisted, blog another bolt of electricity with her scabbard just as she passed through the ard appeared in the air over him. She raised the on over her head as the tell-tale st of her wrath burst around her like a cloud. Luminous Moonfall. She willed the stroke into being a power race through her body, the collected energy following her down as a singur beam of light that drove her bde down with it, increasing the force.

  He looked up at her and sneered only for his face to harden as a bullet raced through the air towards his back, jerking and weaving through spad following an impossible route towards its destination. A bore his teeth at her and twisted his body at an impossible angle. She heard a bone craewhere in his body as her bde grazed his cheek and chest, cutting a furrow through his clothing and drawing a small amount of blood. She kept heading towards the ground like a et just as a well made of perfectly smooth stone appeared beh her. The moment she was rocketing into the air, upside down, and a hundred meters away from him.

  hua pivoted, kig hard enough to apply pressure to the very air around her and ge dire as a bolt of electricity carved a path through the spot where she’d just been. “Pressure!” She shouted.

  A hail of attacks from the heroic-tier heroes erupted from all dires as she tagged out, the brown haired Handmaiden darting out from where she’d been cealed, rec from her most ret csh. hua nded on a building and watched from above as the armored woman bounced from spot to spot in the nearly circur field of devastation, her body moving like a pinball through the archways created by Euclidia, dodging bsts as she built up more and more momentum. Occasionally a white streak would stray off of Handmaiden’s body that glimmered and faded. hua turned her attention back to the battle as a whole, closing her eyes aing her senses wash out.

  Cultivating her body and power had made her more than a normal person could ever be, her hearing could pick up words from across the field, even with the din of bat raging around them. More importantly, her danger sense was sharper than anyone else’s. She could feel wheide shifted and when something was very wrong. Her gut twisted as an ephemeral feeling of danger washed over her but it didn’t e from any particur dire. It was like it hung in the air, a potential energy ready to be unleashed as soon as it had built up enough. She tried to perceive it, uand its dire and i, but it was wild, more wild than the man that had caused this cataclysm.

  Something’s ing…

  “Status!” She called into the radio in her ear, static buzzed back at her for a moment.

  “We lost Magnae, his heart gave out before Lifesaver or Vytal could get to him,” Pathfinder said heavily, his tori with the loss of life.

  hua’s lips pressed together and trembled a little, “Any word on Sapporo?”

  “The party’s in full swing,” Euclidia huffed, “I’m about to send him over! He’s a big boy so it might take a sed for him to gh!”

  Relief washed through hua. That meant that the civilians were far enough away now as well as a ce for a reprieve. “When you do, get Handmaiden out of there a some rest, this is far from over.”

  BOOM!

  A crack of force ripped through the air that nearly toppled hua over as Handmaiden’s accelerating form crashed into A from the side, driving her fist into him. The serpent above roared in fury and e, thrashing about in the clouds as A was driven to the ground. He tumbled a few meters as he caught himself and with a barrel-roll of his body threw three bolts of electricity in the woman’s dire. A gateeared in her path just as he fired the shots off, a bullet zig-zagging through the air to catch them. Marta disappeared through the portal and nded o hua, her eyes empty yet again as she dropped to her knees.

  hua watched the woman nearly fall to her face before her chest heaved as her heartbeat resumed and she smmed her fists into the ground, digging out deep furrows before f herself to her feet. She breathed hard, “Got a hit in,” Handmaiden growled while a flurry of bullets approached A from all dires. The maddened hero threw his head ba a roar and bolts of lightning flew, striking the bullets as he darted into the air, spinning about. hua frowned, He’s looking- no!

  “Sapporo’s half-way through!” Euclidia called into the radio just as hua reached for it.

  “arget! Move Pathfinder, now!” hua shouted, panic exploding in her brain as Aurned into a singur bolt of lightning and charged towards a spot oher side of the battlefield. “Pathfinder get out of there!”

  The lightning bolt struck, a cloud of electricity blooming like a bomb going off as a portion of a tilted buildied into scattering debris and superheated rock. hua heard a furious scream oher end followed by a moment of silence as the bolt of lightning darted back out to nd in the midst of the field of devastation. A moment ter a ring appeared over her head and two people fell through. A scorched and twitg Pathfinder hit the ground hard just as Vytal nded o him, holding his hands out. “I’ve got him!”

  The bolt of electricity jumped away from the building and nded again in the ter of the battlefield, ref into A beh the writhing monstrosity overhead. His glowing eyes turned in hua’s dire, anger sm at losing his prey. Before he had a ce to protest, though, a new archway rose from the ground to his right. He paused and turned. From within the slow lumbering form of Sapporo stepped into full view. His body swayed left and right, stumbling now and then even as he held his head high. A golden glow rippled off of him in waves.

  Ailted his head and pointed a hand towards Sapporo, releasing a bolt of electricity potent enough to vaporize a person. It fizzled against Sapporo’s skin and the berserk maated before reag out and bsting the drunk-looking man again and again. Sapporo just kept walking, each step sounding heavier and heavier as he drew closer. Theopped and threw his head back. hua threw her power into her voice, “Cover your ears!” She shouted and cmped her hands over her own ears.

  A jolly, uproarious ugh caused the air itself to ripple and bend. One hero nearby let out a scream of fusion and grabbed his head, his eyes flig about as if seeing something that wasn’t there. Momentary madness gripped him before foam fizzled up his throat aoppled over, unscious. hua shook her head, Going full tilt right out the gate, are you, Sapporo?

  In the midst of the battlefield, Aook a few fused steps back, grasping at his head and shaking it. Above him, for a moment, the horrible eel flickered and almost faded away before rest itself in a mad thrash of fury. A snarled and unched himself at Sapporo only for the gigging man to drive his palm into A’s he cussive force created a cra the grouween them ahe mad mythic tumbling back against the ground like a skipping stohe ground shook as Sapporo took an unsteady step, his giggling loud enough to be heard everywhere.

  “What am I watg?” Handmaiden gasped o hua.

  “Festival of Dionysus. Sapporo was away stirring every single person in Las Vegas into a frenzy of celebration and pushing them out towards the edges of the city. The more people partying, the more powerful he is, he may be a stern man, but he uands celebration and embrag the inner self better than anyone I know,” hua said as another cussive bst shook the ground. “I’ve never met someone who uood the meaning of his power better than him.”

  “Meaning?” Handmaiden asked, gng towards her.

  “Dionysus wasn’t just a god of parties, he owerful god of madness and illusions, he had monstrous physical strength like the ods of Olympus. He could be wrathful unlike any of his kin, and was capable of unspeakable punishments,” hua said, “Sapporo studied Dionysus and everything there was about him when he prehehe name of his power. At first, he could only get people drunk, but now…”

  The giggling and chortling Sapporo spread his arms wide and a dozen of him appeared, dang and ughing and cav about, pointing and mog the fused A who thrashed about, firing off bolts of electricity only for them to do nothing against the halluations. Everyoched from afar, grateful for the reprieve.

  “Get the injured out! How many have we lost in total?” hua called out as Handmaiden marveled at Sapporo’s might.

  “You are w me to the bone here!” Euclidia pined into her earpiece, “Twenty injured heroes, four dead so far, the reinforts from LA say they’re almost ready fateway,” Euclidia said, “That one’s gonna take some muscle though.”

  “Take a breath then,” hua said, not tearing her eyes from the battle for a moment. She gnced up at the great eel above, swirling and ing in the sky as it ss ethereal jaws at an unseen oppo. hua gnced down at Handmaiden who looked deep in thought, her fists ched tightly.

  She gnced back at the battle, Yeah, me too. She thought.

  –

  Veloce twitched, her body spasming once as she swam back up towards sciousness. Her heart still pounded rapidly in her chest but after a few moments she mao open her eyes. Her eyelids fluttered as an ache spread across her body. She tilted her head forward and slid out from the crater her body had left in the wall, debris falling off of her as she tumbled to the ground, catg herself on her knees. She coughed as thunder rumbled in the distand the smell of ozone and burned flesh crawled up her nose.

  “Fuck, I’m alive,” She groaned as she tried to move her legs. She frowned and gnced down at her knees, she couldhem but she could sure as hell see them. Panic rose, “No, no no no,” She gasped a scream bubbling up ihroat. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening, “N-”

  “Quiet,” A cold voice rumbled out above her.

  She whipped her head up in shock, tears in her eyes, and saw a dark shape sitting on one of the i-beams that made up the skeleton of the building. There was a young man sitting there, or at least she figured it was, his entire body was jet bck from head to toe, only violet eyes burning down at her from above. She caught her breath, c her mouth as he gred daggers in her dire. It felt like meeting Ishtar again.

  “Veloce?” The dark figure asked.

  She nodded hurriedly.

  “Bckrazor. I am a of Ishtar,” He said and dissolved, his body turning into an inky bck liquid that fell from his perch like a waterfall before ref before her. He looked down on her with narrowed eyes, “Calm down. She will heal you wheurns, we are to wait here for her. After you recover, I will take you from this pce, she is pleased. Your deal is plete.”

  The pounding of her heart slowed, relief washing over her even as she gripped fruitlessly at her paralyzed legs. She whimpered at them before looking around, “Where is she? The Mistress?”

  Bckrazor looked up and away from her. She followed his eerie gaze towards the portal of the dungeon. The pylons that held up the portal were shaking and rumbling, energy washing off of them in visible wisps of power. A crack of energy rushed up one of the pyloing into a spark that dahrough the metal structure of the building. The air felt so thick, she khat feeling. She tensed and looked up at Bckrazor, “She asked you to protect me too?”

  He gnced down at her, “Yes, why?”

  “Because we’re about to have pany, I think,” Veloce said meekly as small multicolored clouds began to form in the air around them.

  Shadows raced across the ground and formed a ring around Veloce, from them, violet bdes nced out in a ring, creating a wicked barricade. He rose to his full height o her, his shadowy form being more solid as a pair of purple knives slid out of his hands as if from nowhere. The multicolored clouds densed and crackled, bolts ripped out from the portal and struck them before fshing out and through the openings in the inplete building. A raspy cackle came from one of the clouds and a creature fell from it. It had the head and body of some kind of hyena but it was vaguely humanoid, standing upright with a spear in its hands.

  More of the horrible smelling things dropped out of the clouds, taking shape aing to their feet with barks and cackles. They raised their spears and swung them about wildly, howling as more violet bdes took shape in the air around Velod her new protector.

  “This is troubling,” Bckrazor hissed before ung into a vicious defense.

  –

  Thousands of miles away, Amos was on his feet, eyes wide as he stared at the radar s. The other researchers were with him, watg as a massive cloud of mana was taking shape in Las Vegas. Dots were starting to appear everywhere, monsters f in huge numbers.

  He ran his fihrough his hair, “What the hell is happening over there?!”