Sapporo was taining A, but he wasn’t gaining any grouher. It was a deadlod everyone k. Something was going to give way one way or the other, though, they were both powerful but her of them had truly unlimited strength. Marta watched them csh with awe in her eyes, regardless of the stalemate. The hero from the iional team prehehe nature of his ability so intimately that he embraced it, practically being the entity whose namesake his power drew from. It was unreal, it took her breath away, but it also made her think. Sonya had enced Kingshark to sider the nature of his power; she'd even suggested reading material for him.

  “The physique of the Nod Baldur. He could e back from any wound or injury and his body could withstand terrible punishment. His only weakness was mistletoe.” Sonya had said, it had been a cut and dry expnation of how the power worked. Marta could not be killed save for being poisoned by mistletoe. It was an odd, mundane weakness, but one she could live with.

  But is that all there is? Who is Baldur? What else did he do? What did he represent? Marta woo herself as the ground shook again from another collisioween Sapporo and A. Above, the terrible serpent coiled again and shed out at it's invisible oppo. Was it actually fighting someone or was it a visual representation of A’s iate? His as? She had her theories but she couldn’t clearly her mind around everything she was seeing and experieng. She had seen some amazing and terrible things sihe fsh, so she was more used to it than others.

  She could only imagine how the others felt.

  A chime in her ear alerted her to an ining unication. She raised her fio it, her heart leaping into her throat. “Sonya? Are you okay?” She asked hurriedly, getting a gnce from Bck Lotus.

  “It’s Amos, where’s Sonya? I ’t get in touch with her,” Amos said hurriedly. “What the hell is happening over there?”

  “She’s in the dungeon, I threw her in to protect her from Duong, the guy’s gone berserk. We’re fighting-” She was cut off by Amos flying into a rant.

  “She’s in the- shit! Fuever mind, never mind! Just shut up and listen to me,” He said as fast as he could, “Whatever the hell you guys are doing there is an absolute fu of mana in the air right now. You know what that means, right? I’ve got hundreds of monster formatios all over the goddamn p the radar and what’s left is heading straight for the dungeon!”

  Marta’s ski cold, she got to her feet, “Mana in the air?” She breathed, “From all these heroes fighting…”

  “Yeah! Probably? Okay, definitely! Anyway yoing to be up to your tits in monsters in a few seds and that dungeon? Yeah well that six month timer I put on it just got a hell of a lot shorter. I hope she’s up to closing it because otherwise that pce is gonna look a lot like Dharan.”

  Marta’s spine jolted and she shot an uneasy g Bck Lotus who to her relief didn’t seem to react. “Amos, I’ll let everyone know,” She said calmly, “I’m here with Bck Lotus right now.”

  “Are you kidding me? She’s a cultivator, warn me!” He griped, “She probably has super hearing or something,” He sighed, “Nah, I shut you up didn’t I? God damn it, just be careful! It’s about to get really bad in a minute!”

  He cut the call and Marta turo an expet looking Bck Lotus. “What happened?” She asked.

  “We’re making mana in the air by having so much of us here, fighting,” Marta expined, “High trations of mana create monsters.”

  Bck Lotus tensed, her expression growing thoughtful before she gnced out at the battle between A and Sapporo, the tarted for a moment and now were charging at one anain. The resulting csh kicked the wind up a dust into the air, “How long?” She asked quickly.

  “A minute,” Marta said, “And we’ve got the duo worry about too, it might go the way of Dharan if this keeps up.”

  Bck Lotus nodded sharply and tapped her own radio which crackled for a moment before she got through, “Euclidia alert everyohat we’ve got ining, monsters are going to start f soon and there will be a lot of them.”

  Bck Lotus frowned harder as she heard her respohank you, Stay alive,” She turo Marta, “I’m going to cover the heroes on the west side with Vytal. you help the East? Lifesaver is already on his way acc to Euclidia.”

  Marta tensed and squared her shoulders, “I’m on it,” She said as Bck Lotus grabbed her rade and darted away. She turowards the east side of the disaster zone befng back at the fighting, at the pockets of multi-colored clouds that were starting to zily form here and there. It was like watg the initial spark of an apocalypse. Powerful light-touched fighting one another creating an atmosphere that could trigger the end of the world. Amos had mentioned ohat if a big enough dungeon exploded, the released mana could trigger another in a rea.

  Marta’s heart nearly stopped.

  “Oh my god,” She murmured, her hand rising to her lips. This is what she saw.

  Sonya's words over the past few months came rushing back to her: “They need heroes now and they know it.” “We o guide them, otherwise they may very well bee vilins in this new era.” “The heroes o be united with a on goal, the right goal, even if I have to force it on them.” “You ot let another Dharan happen! As a hero you take an oath to the people of this world and not yourselves!” “Probably pay for my crimes, I’ll deserve it in the end.” “Let’s just say I’m trying to save the world.” “It has to be me, I have to be the oo do it…” “They’re just what I want to see from the heroes.” “If they’re going to risk their lives for us, the least we do is stand for them.” “Am I still Sonya?” “I’m about to do something irredeemable.”

  Tears welled in Marta’s eyes. What Sonya felt was so visceral, it was like she’d lived through the very apocalypse that ying ht before her eyes. She was willing to do anything, go to ah, make any sacrifice, and bear any bme if it meant keeping mythic heroes from fighting one another. She had schemed t A down carefully but it had backfired, the look on Sonya’s face at the portal had made it clear that this was not the pn. Every time she took down one of her e had been calcuted, avoiding a big show. Her only performance was Hero Day, where it had been a pn t heroes together.

  Marta gnced around as she turo head towards the east side, a chill rushing through her body as she started to pick up speed. She o get to the other heroes, Firestorm’s team was over there and the monsters would form soon. She raised her hand to her earpied tapped it, “Amos?”

  “Yeah, what? I’m kinda busy keeping track-”

  “This is it,” Marta said in as low a voice as possible, “This is what she’s trying to prevent.”

  –

  hua stood behind the pilr, she’d doubled back after hearing what that man Amos had said through the earpiece. ovna clear a dungeon? How? hua thought as Marta stood there, staring out over the battlefield for a moment. The woman seemed to e to a realization and hua sensed shock overe her, there was another sound, a choking in her voice. Grief? Why? She trated, trying to listen in a bit more carefully. The woman was a cautious ohough, and didn’t say anything until she turned away and began rag towards the east side. She called up that Amos man again, it sounded like.

  ‘This is it, this is what she’s trying to prevent.’

  hua stiffened, What does that mean? She thought, her mind trying to piece together the puzzle. There was something missing, something that didn’t make sense and didn’t fully add up. Sonya ovna khat something like this could happen? How? The grief in Handmaiden’s voice made it seem like the pretty young russian had thrown herself to the wolves in order to prevent what was happening right now. Certainly she had been a vocal spokesperson of heroes, but her as had been praiseworthy nic.

  Her frown deepened and she looked up at the battle unfolding, shaking her head. Now’s not the time.

  –

  The monsters arrived with a cackle that nearly shook the battlefield as much as the ongoing war between two would-be gods. The multi-colored clouds had spread like wildfire after the first one appeared, more and more swelling before popping to reveal a gnoll as it fell to the ground, spear in hand, eager for bloodshed and violehey didn’t pop down at a distance from the heroes, there was no merciful pt ical anization. They just fell everywhere, between groups, o people, even on top of one poor man who had his throat ripped out by savage jaws.

  Firestorm threw his hands out a a cascade of fme over the ruined buildings, the creatures letting out screams of pain and fury. Even so, they didn’t die right away. They were far strohan hounds, each of them close to a lurker in general ability, and there were hundreds of them. The mayhem was instantaneous and the rea swift. Powers flew left and right in a chaotic tumult as everyone fought for their lives. Firestorm couldn’t have known that it only fueled the chaos rather than pushed it back. All he could do was fight and protect those close to him.

  “Blue! What’s the status?” He shouted, swinging his mad sending annoll hurtling through the air with a dying whimper of pain.

  “Barriers like this take time! Fortuhere’s a lot of mana in the air, so that’s definitely helping!” She shouted, “My body’s not taking it well, though, where’s Lifesaver?”

  A trio of dark arrows flew past Bluestar and buried themselves into the iums of three gnolls that had raced up behind her as she k, hands pressed to the ground. She was desperately trying to erect a magical structure that the other heroes could retreat into and help weather the onsught. Bandit nded a short distance from her and gnced around, fog on annoll that crawled up from behind a fallen pilr. He drew his b bad killed it, looking her way. “He had to stop with anroup, they’ll all be joining us here soon!”

  Firesthed and raised his fist up, fmes f in rings beh several gnolls that charged their way, ns of fire burst up into the air and ied the wretched mongrels. “Our boy is getting a workout today, isn’t he?”

  “Speak for yourself, ‘peak-heroic’!” Bluestar jeered back at him.

  “Oh you’re not doing so bad!” Firestorm teased.

  “You two are making me jealous!” Bandit joined in, croug and firing into the air, his shadowy arrow grew thick for a moment before exploding into dozens of narrow darts of bess that rained over the approag gnolls.

  “Oh don’t be like that, love!” Bluestar ughed, “You know he only has eyes for Miss ovna!”

  “ht!” Bandit barked, pivoting and firing off a powerful arroierced three gnolls in a row, “How could I fet he’s utterly hopeless!”

  “I’m calling human resources after this!” Firestorm pined.

  “We don’t have o!” Bluestar said, “Remio set one up whe back!”

  “Fg!” Firestorm and Bandit shouted at the same time.

  “Nerds!” Bluestar shot back, “Okay it’s ready! Get over here! Euclidia dump the others inside o’s formed.”

  Bandit brought his hand up to his ear and started bag up towards Bluestar, “Send ‘em our way, miss Euclidia!”

  Firestorm threw a fireball in the dire of an approag cluster of gnolls and it exploded, sending them flying into the air. He started moving backwards, firing shot after shot. Behind him he heard the sound of a stone archway f and voices ing out of it. Heroes p through to escape the chaos aore some sense of order uhe prote of Bluestar’s dome. Bandit fired an arrow over Firestorms shoulder, “Pull back, red! Handmaiden is on her way!”

  Relief washed through Firestorm as he started stepping back as well. He was already getting winded, between running around saving civilians at the outset, pummeling A with attacks, and now this, he was surprised any of the Heroes were standing. Another shuddering boom from the duel between Sapporo and A rang out. The ground shook and a portion of a building toppled over as the transparent blue of the barrier began to form in front of him. He could see past it now and saproag trail of devastation in the form of Handmaiden.

  The only problem was what was between her and them. A sea of gnolls had gathered in the open spad had only missed Firestorm and the retreating heroes because of the visual barrier. Now hundreds of eyes turned in his direore than a heroic-tier barrier could possibly handle.

  He whipped his head back at Bluestar a her eyes. Near her, Lifesaver was on his knees rest a wounded man’s arm, the puy screaming as flesh kself back together. More injured heroes were ing through Euclidia’s archway. He looked up at Bandit and his rade o him, his lips formed in a thin line. Before Bluestar could say anything he darted from his position and nded o Firestorm, rolling his shoulders and adjusting his grip on his bow.

  “You owe me,” Bandit said.

  “You aren’t going to say anything?” Firestorm asked, stepping through the f barrier.

  “Didn’t we just do a thing about fgs?” Bandit grunted.

  “Right, right,” Firestorm nodded and slung his mato his shoulder, fmes coating it and sinking into the head. It began to gle, thehen white. He started to rise off the ground as Bandit stalked forward, drawing his b as the arrow f on it grew bigger and bigger. “How long till she gets here?” He asked.

  “Two minutes, at that rate?” Bandit griped, “Fug hell she’s strong.”

  “Rain of Chaos?” Firestorm asked.

  Bandit chuckled and pulled his hood back, scratg at his mess of bck hair, “Keep saying stuff like that to me and Bluestar’s gonhe jealous one.”

  The ground shook again and the first cluster of gnolls at the back of the army flew into the air as Handmaiden came in tact with them. Meanwhile, the majority threw their heads ba a battle cry and charged at the two men. Firestorm let out a roar of his own and raised his mace over his head as heat surged through his body, fmes spread from the on and leaped into the air before raining down in a self-tained cataclysm. A moment ter, bck arrows joihe firestorm, cutting through the fmes and igniting into an explosive bination. Fming bck arrows exploding on tad sending dark needles everywhere, spreading fmes and poison through the ranks of their enemies.

  Behind them, the barrier fiaking shape. Dozens of injured and dying heroes inside.