Erik came to an unknown amount of time ter. The light of day hadn’t changed much. Erik could only hear the whirring of helicopter rotors somewhere nearby. The strong winds that hit his face were sublime. He’d regained enough energy to get back up on his knees, and looked around after he did so.

  He had been wrong. Connecting a power to his willpower had definitely helped out. He was sure he’d have been dead twice over if he hadn’t somehow found the strength to keep pushing against the beasts.

  This was a clear eye-opener, however. He wasn’t strong enough. Not yet. After going over Emma and Ange’s haul of crystals, he’d absorb enough to at least fill out his major power slots, preferably a few more at least, until he was satisfied with the amount of things he could do.

  Right now, one mistake, like forgetting his backpack, could be the end of him. Even when he had it with him, what if he used up all the stuff in there in the middle of a fight? He could barely fight back.

  He needed more abilities. Without the hurting man realising it, the chopper had nded somewhere close, and a big man was already carrying him in his arms. Erik’s torn open back hurt like hell as the man carrying him was applying pressure across his back, but it didn’t seem to matter to Erik at all. The next thing he knew, he was already in the air inside the chopper.

  “Erik?” he heard as he was starting to regain his senses. He opened his eyes, but saw nothing but white for the first while. He looked around, only seeing blurry colours around him. “Erik!”

  Someone was talking to him. Had he fallen asleep? Last thing he knew, he was in a fire. Was it his mother calling for him? No, that wasn’t right. She was there in the fire. He remembered the screams as she ran in panic, completely alight.

  The fires were odd. They had been covered in bck sparks. They spread fast, and they spread straight towards him. The fmes hunted him, and he ran away from them. They were faster, quickly surrounding him before consuming him. Did he survive? How could he? If he survived, then how had he met his friend? That didn’t make sense either.

  Other fmes entered his memory, these ones bright red. They were contained in a cage, dancing around. They didn’t mind being caged. How could they? They wouldn’t dance if they felt captive. The bars around them started melting. That’s right. They were trapped, but they wanted to escape. They had to melt the bars to do that. A moment ter, they vanished, and Erik saw only white again.

  “Erik!”

  Erik looked over again. His mind suddenly cleared as he recognised the woman hanging over him.

  “Ange?”

  “Oh, thank god. You’ve been out for hours. How are you feeling?” Ange said, sitting back down by his side. Erik looked around again, seeing that he was in his hotel room.

  “How did I get back here?” he asked.

  “Amir brought you. He stopped by the air base to pick up a small medical team cleared by the brigadier, and they brought you here. The base isn’t ready yet, and there’s a big commotion happening after your fight in Cambridge. It wasn’t safe for you to stay there. So, they brought you back here,” Ange expined.

  “Oh, yeah. That didn’t go quite as pnned. What’s the commotio- ow!” Erik started, then felt a stinging, aching pain across his back as he attempted sitting up.

  “Lie down! You heal fast, but at least wait a day. They’ve just finished stitching up your wound on your back. Seeing that you were already healing up, they just took the worst parts of the wound. You need to rex. Your entire body is bruised, and you have several broken bones.”

  Erik y back down with a frown.

  What’s the commotion about?” he sighed.

  “Obviously, the Hellbeast bodies have been discovered. It’s breaking news all over the world already. It's uncontainable at this point.”

  “I see. With the air base so close, and probably a few others, they’re facing scrutiny for hiding a way to kill the beasts?” Erik guessed.

  “Not at all. The bodies aren’t the biggest news going around,” Ange said, almost carefully. She nodded over to the TV, and Erik turned his head. There he was.

  The part shown on the news channel as he turned was the part where Erik flew out of the house, crashing through the wall. The camera shook violently, and the voice of a middle-aged man audibly woah-ed off-camera.

  Next, Erik fell forwards, grabbing hold of a small item lodged into the beast, and was bathed in blood and viscera from his legs down as the beast was ripped open. The man’s narration turned both horrified and ecstatic.

  When Erik was violently stepped on and ripped into by the second dog, the man cried a worried ‘no, no, no’ with a breaking voice.

  Next, the dog retreated in what seemed like fear, cowering some distance away. The man was clearly confused, but he narrated what he was seeing, some hundred metres away or so. He suddenly felt dread, unlike anything he’d ever sensed before. He mentioned feeling that he wasn’t supposed to exist at that time. His camera visibly shook more as this happened, and it was barely visible in the clip that Erik dragged himself over to the house, getting back up.

  By now, his aura had stopped reaching so far, and the man had calmed both from the release of Erik’s aura, and the fact that the fighting man was still alive. It was hard to make out the rest, but Erik was tossing something at the dog, clearly not making even a slight impact.

  The dog started closing in on the man instead. The amateur camera-man clearly wanted Erik to stop throwing things at the maddened beast, and when Erik fell over, the man decred the man dead right then and there. That was until the man weakly tossed something once more, and the item grew to massive proportions, resembling a wheel or a saw.

  It spun rapidly and headed straight towards the beast. The whirring bde, audible even on camera, buzzed straight through the beast without a hint of resistance. The hound split apart completely right at its centre and nded on the ground in front of the wounded, possibly dead man.

  “That right there is a hero!” the man cried, still holding his camera towards Erik’s body.

  The man didn’t move any more. Ten seconds ter, the clip ended, and a news presenter’s face showed up on screen, expining the clip followed up with a new clip, proving the reality of the first with a professionally captured clip of the aftermath from close up. Erik looked back at Ange.

  “Oh…” was all he said.

  “Luckily, the quality is substandard, and the zoom doesn’t do the footage any favours. That, and the mask you were wearing doesn’t give anyone anything to recognise you by. Also, a lot of people think you’re dead, but since there are no reports about your body being found, it’s a topic with conspiracies abound. Jessie’s been notified, and she’s rushing back. Emma’s with Amir and Sophie. She’s doing what she can to console her,” Ange expined.

  “I see. What’s the common consensus out there?” Erik asked, wanting to focus on the easier parts of his developing life.

  “You’re either an alien or got some advanced tech with some kind of special metals avaible. Some think your fight was a trial run from some corporation to test out their new weapons.

  The man who filmed you is anonymous, at least for now. We don’t know if he saw you get picked up by Amir, or if he had left the area by then. He’s only shared the footage, not given any statements. I’m guessing that might change over the next couple of days as well.

  All in all, we’re clear to proceed as intended, but things might complicate further. We should y low for a while, at least in this area. I’m in talks with Major MacLeod about us clearing up areas in other parts of the world. There’s no avoiding the fact that you need to get stronger… and you should let Sophie see you. She’s got in into her head that you’re probably dying, no matter what we tell her. She needs to see that you’re okay.” she said.

  “I know we should get stronger. I made one mistake, and this is the result,” Erik said, gesturing to himself.

  “Don’t ignore me,” Ange said with a deeper than usual voice.

  “I’m not. She’s part of the mistake. I don’t have time to deal with the drama. I care for her, I really do, but I can’t let this-”

  “Where’s your backpack?” Ange interjected.

  “Probably by the door,” Erik said, pointing to the clear floor where he thought his backpack would be. He turned with a groan to look around his room.

  “It isn’t here. Don’t bme your inexperience on her. She tried giving it to you, but you were already gone. The girl’s bming herself and she deserves better than you bming her as well,” Ange said. Her stern voice and eyes made it clear she was serious.

  “She does,” Erik sighed. “Let me rest up first, though.”

  “I’m only saying this as your friend, you know that right?” Ange said as she rose from the chair beside his bed.

  “Thank you, Ange.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Ange said, now a sinister smile accompanying her still stern eyes. She tapped a few times on her phone, and put it up to her ear. “Let her in,” she said, and hung up the call.

  “That’s evil,” Erik groaned, sitting up to greet Sophie already down the hallway, judging by the sounds. Ange opened the door, and the younger blonde entered with a huff.

  Her eyes were just as red as they were when he saw her st. Sophie looked Erik up and down with a critical gaze as Ange left and shut the door behind her.

  “Hey,” Erik attempted, but seeing he was mostly fine, Sophie would have none of it.

  “You are an absolute ass!” she yelled. Erik did a double-take. This wasn’t how he thought she’d react.

  “What-”

  “No! No jokes, no causally shrugging things off, just shut up. Shut up until I’m done,” Sophie said, her face red, though not from crying.

  She really was angry with him. Erik barely opened his mouth to speak, but caught himself immediately. He lowered his head, but still kept his eyes on her. She was silently huffing as she stared back at him. It didn’t seem like she knew what to say, despite her earlier bravado.

  Erik had to stop himself from saying anything several times, as the silence and the tension was unbearable. Erik could never stand times like these. He had to break the ice. But out of respect for Sophie, he managed to keep it caged.

  “I hate this. I really hate this,” she eventually said, sitting down on the chair beside him that Ange had vacated. The anger was gone from her voice. She raised her hands up to her face and covered it. “Why are you such a jerk? You must have realised you forgot your backpack. Why did you still go? When I rushed to the door to give it to you, you had already left. You just left. Wasn’t I fast enough? Couldn’t you stand to wait for me for a few seconds?” she cried.

  Her voice grew weaker and weaker, and it was straining at the end. Erik moved his hand to hers, pulling one of them away from her face. She removed the other herself in response.

  “You could’ve died. Didn’t you consider any of us?” she asked, and waited for a response.

  Erik wasn’t sure whether to respond or not. Of course he considered others. He considered the eventual victims of the beasts if he hadn’t fought them off. When push came to shove, those were the ones that mattered. That’s why he’d fight this war. Enough people had died.

  That wasn’t what she was really asking, however. She asked if he considered her, her sister, Emma and Ange. He hadn’t done that. The area the dogs had reached had been completely evacuated, or at least mostly. How long would the beasts have kept in that area, wreaking havoc before continuing on? Maybe they wouldn’t, even.

  Erik had passed several beasts during his escape from the Empire, and they kept to the empty ghost towns for the most part. He couldn’t know what would’ve happened if he waited another hour, taking the time to get back to the hotel and get his gear.

  The same point could be made the opposite direction, however. He couldn’t know they wouldn’t carry on, eventually reaching countless innocent human beings, tearing them apart as they did.

  “Sometimes you’re so easy to read. But sometimes you’re just bnk. I understand why you didn’t come back. I just need to know if you even considered any of us,” Sophie continued after seeing Erik’s complicated expression.

  “I didn’t,” Erik finally said. “I’m sorry. It was my fault, my mistake. I’m sorry I keep hurting you, I never intended to.”

  “I know that. You’re a man, which means you’re stupid. It’s to be expected. Some of it is on me, as well. I told you to leave me alone, but you still let me know what was happening. I appreciate that. I really do. I suppose everything just comes down to you and my sister talking about me behind my back. I’m mad at both of you, but mostly because you know how I feel, but I don’t know what you want. Everything else is clear as day with you, but I really can’t tell what you really feel. You’re stupid for getting hurt, but you have a world to save, so I can’t be mad about that. I’m just gd you’re okay,” she said, taking his hand into hers and pcing his palm on her forehead, leaning into it.

  Erik couldn’t say anything. He had been going back and forth several times over the st day, trying to figure out what he should do about Sophie.

  “Let me tell you,” he started, and she looked up at him. “I’m sorry your sister and I talked about you. She was upset with me for how I rejected you yesterday. She also told me how she felt about you and me. Me, being stupid, didn’t realise I was actually rejecting you that way, but I figured I had to make it up to you.

  I didn’t want to hurt you. And I can’t decide what to do. It’s only been a couple of days, but I want to get to know you better. You’re kind, and funny, and sweet. But your sister is right. It’s a massive risk to your life, in more ways than you might think.”

  “You want to put whatever this is on hold? Until we win the war?” Sophie asked, and her disappointment was obvious.

  “Not at all. You’re starting to know me by now. I want everything, all the time. I just want us to take it slow, get to know each other. Figure out together whether this is something we both really want. Does that sound better?” Erik asked, giving the girl a smile as he caressed her cheek. He didn’t mention the fact that Sophie herself was probably acting rashly due to her own traumas the past few months. It wouldn’t help anything.

  “We can do that,” she smiled back, cracking a dried out line of salt on her face as she smiled back. Erik wiped her face. “Can I hug you?” she asked.

  “Gingerly,” Erik joked. She giggled and hugged him tightly. He groaned inwardly as she did, but kept silent otherwise.

  “Ugh, gross,” Jessie said as she opened the door looking at her best friend and her sister. She closed the door behind her and without a care in the world, jumped onto Erik’s bed, sitting along the edge. “You good?” she asked.

  As the bed bounced ever so slightly as she nded, Erik didn’t manage to keep his groans quiet anymore, and Sophie pulled away, which she didn’t do in response to her sister entering.

  “Yeah, getting there. Where were you?”

  “Picking up some stuff,” she avoided the question. “Hey, sis.”

  “I’m mad at you,” Sophie said, pouting at her older sister. Jessie looked questioningly at Sophie, then at Erik. She looked back at Sophie again, having learned nothing.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because you tattled. I don’t want you to talk about me behind my back,” Sophie said. She was obviously tired and exhausted after the day’s events, but when up against her sister she reverted to a very childlike person when she was mad.

  “Oh, sweetie,” Jessie said in a maternal and caring voice, getting up and walking over to Sophie, hugging her and kissing her cheek repeatedly. “You know I just want what’s best for you. Have you two worked things out?”

  “Yes,” Sophie pouted again, though she couldn’t keep from smiling at her sister’s actions. She had missed their quarrels when she was gone. This was how the two fought. It always had been, ever since Sophie was old enough to speak.

  “And?” Jessie asked, releasing her sister and looking at both of them intermittently.

  “We’ll take it slow. No need to rush things,” Sophie said, gazing warmly at Erik.

  “Speaking of rushing things; should we rush into Ange’s and Emma’s great haul?” Erik asked after clearing his throat, feeling a bit embarrassed at the previous topic. “I mean, I’m bedridden anyway, might as well do something while I’m recuperating.”

  “He’s such a workhorse,” Jessie jokingly said to Sophie, giving her another kiss, this time on her forehead.

  “He’s horrible, I know. He just gets so bored,” Sophie responded.

  “You can come in now,” Jessie said a bit loudly, and the door opened, letting Ange and Emma inside.

  “You’ve been right outside all along?” Erik asked, suspiciously eyeing the two of them.

  “Of course. You guys are so sweet. Anyway, here!” Ange said, tossing a heavy bag onto Erik’s bed with gusto.

  “I can’t believe you watched me sort those things for an hour, then just tossed them all in a bag,” Emma compined, looking disgustedly at the bag.

  “Gave you something to do, though. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, right?” Ange responded.

  The group worked together to once more sort the new batch of minerals and crystals, though this time based on Erik and Jessie’s links to them. The crystals were piled in five separate categories, each one correting to the strength of the link the crystal had with either Erik or Jessie, whichever was more powerful. The st category were the ones neither felt anything more than a trickle from.

  Luckily, none of them felt the same kind of link to the same crystal, with the exception of all the weakest ones. Emma and Ange had scored a much rger haul than Erik and Jessie did, mostly because they couldn’t know which ones to pick. Still, they had found a few more with strong links to either of them.

  Erik had two with waterfall-grade links, and another slightly weaker, but stronger than the river-grade ones. Jessie got four of her submarine-dolphin-grade, enough to fill out all her major slots in one go. She also had a greater number of medium-grade ones, which to her felt like falling and flying.

  Jessie reasoned that she might be more attuned to more elements than Erik was, which might impact what sort of crystals fit her. As Erik didn’t really have any elemental abilities yet, they couldn’t be certain.

  When they were done, Jessie took one of hers with the strongest link, and one of Erik’s strongest links. She felt them talk to her, which Erik now reasoned were the spirits inside the crystals.