"...I think it's a eulogy," I say, taking a moment to decide on a specific translation. "'There is no justice greater than freedom, and thus no afterlife deeper than where he rests.'"

  "Hmm," Melpomene frowns. "And deeper is… better, yes?"

  "I think so," I nod. "I guess this statue was Antipathy Martin Luther King Jr. or something. It's impressive it managed to stay so intact all this time."

  Thea, Melpomene, and I are wandering the town, our investigation of the huge central building offering no further insight. Thea collected as much artifact scrap as she could carry on her magic hovering disc thingy, and now she's doing the same around town while Melpomene and I take in the sights.

  "It's so strange to see the ruins of a civilization so much like our own," Melpomene says softly. "Ancient civilizations on Earth may have had the advantage of being human to help us empathize with them, but there's something uniquely chilling about a dead civilization that probably had tablets and smartphones. Their level of technology exceeded ours, but not by all that much in the grand scheme of things."

  "Yeah, they're pretty humanlike as freaky tentacle monsters go," I agree. "It's weird. They're from a completely different universe. The odds of their culture developing so similarly are astronomically small."

  "No, they aren't," Melpomene says. "That claim only holds true as a logical assumption if emotions are arbitrary qualia, like humanity used to think. But there is power to them. Therefore, there's an evolutionary advantage to having the specific emotional range we happen to fall within. Of course other species would evolve this way. Of course they would develop cultures, develop prejudices, develop slavery, and then eventually push back against it. Disgust, fear, hatred, anger… it's all baked into the very foundation of the universe. They were not so different to us, Luna. And we are not so different from them. That's why we must learn from their mistakes. If we don't, we are doomed to repeat them."

  I stare up at the statue with her, weighing those words along with all the others she's said to me since this started. For a person so concerned about the future, she's awfully self-destructive. I quickly track down Thea's magical signature and ensure it's far enough away before responding.

  "Just spitballing here," I venture, "but has it ever occurred to you that one of those mistakes might have been creating a robotic torture-powered soul enslaver?"

  "It has, as a matter of fact," Melpomene answers flatly. "But unless you know of some other body you could house your soul in, I suggest you get used to it. As mentioned, yours is otherwise occupied."

  "Okay, but—"

  "Shut up," Melpomene snaps, and my voice stops working. "I only brought you here to assist with collecting knowledge. I don't have the patience to tolerate your complaints. Stay on task."

  I don't outwardly react, but I feel any thought of berating her become impossible to follow through on, at least for now. Ugh. I guess even when she's in a good mood, she's still a bitch. I give in to the urge to resume my analysis of the statue, the suite of sensory equipment in my head investigating the stonework for cracks and other imperfections. Overall, it has held up remarkably well, especially in comparison to the dilapidated buildings surrounding the small courtyard the piece is displayed in. The statue itself is of an Antipathy, of course, carved with one set of tentacles forming a large O above his head and the other set of tentacles splayed out above him like he's trying to do the YMCA dance.

  "Back on topic then," I say, "I think my body does raise an important question. Why is there an immaculately preserved statue of Tentacle Abraham Lincoln here in the city of the people who made the Slavery Optimiser Zero-Point-Nine? It seems a little incongruous."

  Melpomene nods, conceding the point.

  "It is odd, but there are so many possibilities it's difficult to narrow them down. Though I'm loath to believe anything the Preservers have told us, it is entirely possible they were being honest when they said the Antipathy went mad. So much of what we have seen so far simply doesn't match the level of spite present in the more recently developed artifacts of their civilization. Plus there's the simple fact that they call themselves 'Antipathy.' I seriously doubt that was the name of their species before the war; it would be like if, at the dawn of language itself, humanity just unanimously decided to call themselves 'the haters.'"

  Pfft. I mean…

  "That would be super accurate though," I point out, and Melpomene's lips twitch into a smile fills me with bubbles of satisfaction.

  "Perhaps, but it's still not something the species as a whole would actually do. 'Antipathy' seems more like the name of a faction, a rebel group. Yet it's so pervasive I've yet to find any references to another name."

  "Hence they all went mad," I say. "Yeah. The faction idea still makes a lot of sense, though. If they took over, they could have just censored other names. But where do the Preservers come in? If the Antipathy were having a civil war, couldn't the Preservers have just stayed out of it?"

  "That's the other thing. I'm not sure I believe there was a civil war," Melpomene hums. "Just look around. The city is in poor shape, but there's no sign of battle. The buildings have collapsed, but they haven't been blown up. I also haven't seen any signs of burnt or melted materials that would be relatively common in a magical fight. If the Antipathy were fighting amongst themselves, it certainly wasn't here."

  I look around, double-checking her claim and coming up with the same conclusion. By looking at nearby piles of rubble I can check the geometric outline of each shattered piece and match it to other chunks of stone in the same pile, reassembling the puzzle. The way everything broke is consistent with the ruins collapsing to mere wear and gravity. There's no signs of material being flung a substantial distance away or being damaged by outside sources prior to the collapse.

  "You're right," I confirm. "So what happened to this city? Did the magical apocalypse that broke the universe just happen to kill everyone but leave their houses intact?"

  "It must have," Melpomene says. "The question is why."

  "And how, isn't it?"

  "Partially," Melpomene answers. "I don't know the details on how the Antipathy broke their entire universe, but it clearly created an excess of free-floating magic in the process. They would have all died in the same way you nearly did."

  Hmm. Catastrophic soul damage from foreign magical energy getting osmosed inside, like a human cell not knowing how to stop absorbing water. I guess my body's plating being largely impermeable to magic protects me now, but… no, even when I open my plates I don't feel like my soul is getting attacked by the atmosphere. Maybe it has something to do with the crystals?

  "Actually, I have a question about that," I say. "The black mist stuff is magical energy, right? So why do you guys go through all the trouble of stealing emotions from abusive households if the entire atmosphere outside your house is mostly magic?"

  Melpomene rolls her eyes and huffs, apparently offended about having to explain such an amateurish question. Sorry, master!

  "Nanaya has taught you what all the different colors of magic are, right?"

  "I mean, she didn't tell me about black," I say.

  "She didn't have to. Think about it. What color is black?"

  Well, I guess my first thought would be that it was hate or something, but I guess that's covered by purple. Are there any major emotions missing? No, I'm thinking about this wrong. What color is black?

  "Is it just everything mixed together?" I ask.

  "Exactly," Melpomene confirms. "And I'm sure you've noticed, but magical warriors tend to optimize towards a single color wherever possible. Using other emotions is certainly doable, but even then you'd never want to mix different emotions into a single spell unless you knew exactly what you were doing. The magic in the atmosphere of the Dark World, however, is always mixed and never consistent. It is a tumultuous slurry of emotions, and worse, it's an uncountable number of different people's emotions. Attempting to use it as a source of power would be destined to backfire dramatically. The emotion that generates any given iota of magic is not irrelevant. Magic might be power, but it is a power that is owned. It comes from a soul. If you steal it, it must be carefully used in a manner consistent with the reason its soul created it. Joy must be used in a manner which would bring them joy. Anger must be used in a manner that would bring them anger. With the mist, that is all but impossible."

  Interesting. Very interesting. Magic always wants to act in accordance with the will that created it. That feels… correct. Consistent with the vague recollections my body lets me have of the times I understood magic well enough to cast spells of my own. Is this why that knowledge gets locked away? If magic is always by its very nature attempting to fulfill my true desires and feelings, I guess it would stand to reason it would be an excellent tool for escaping the prison I'm in. Even if I was actively trying to cast a spell that does something completely different, any spell I cast could potentially work to free me instead.

  Spellcraft is, presumably, designed explicitly to direct magic in ways that minimize this risk. It would just be stupid if it wasn't. Magic can already hypothetically do anything without the structure of a spell directing it, so what else would the formula be for if not reliability? Yet Melpomene is implying that even with that guidance, a spell can go wild if the emotion fueling it contradicts it enough. I guess knowing this is technically a bad thing, because it makes me less capable of doing it, but I unfortunately can't delete this thought process because it is too directly tied to a conversation with Melpomene.

  Still. It's a nice bit of hope to hang on to. If things get bad enough, maybe I really will be able to free myself by accident.

  "Well, I think we've seen all we can see around here," I say, changing the subject.

  "You're probably right," Melpomene agrees. "It's beautiful though, isn't it? I could sit here all day. Unfortunately, we do need to leave before the convergence ends."

  "Should we get going, then?" I ask. "It will probably take a while to convince Thea to stop scavenging."

  Melpomene smiles fondly.

  "I suppose it will," she agrees. "Honestly, I haven't seen her this excited in years. Even if you couldn't translate for me, I might keep you with us just for that."

  Uh. I'm not really sure how to feel about that one. Melpomene looks happy again, though, and I'm getting a little tired of not letting myself take that win. That's part of my plan, remember? Make the boss happy enough, and I might even get promoted to a position I can quit.

  Tracking down the little green otter is easy enough. She's actively casting a spell in order to carry all of the junk she picked up, so Melpomene and I can both pinpoint her location with ease. We find her on the edge of town, rummaging through a squat building with walls thick and sturdy enough to survive the apocalypse.

  "Thea?" Melpomene calls out as we walk in. "We need to get going soon, dear."

  "Give me just a sec!" Thea insists. "This place has so much good tech. We've hit pay dirt on this one."

  "Really?" Melpomene says, suddenly intrigued. "What kind of tech?"

  "I have no idea!" Thea answers gleefully. "I've never seen this stuff before! It's magic-powered, though, so this could be a huge learning experience. This could be the missing link I was trying to find to bridge the gap between those two different sizes of communicator… aagh! It's taking everything I have to not just open these babies up right here."

  "I'll help you load it all up," I offer, walking into the room and spotting rows upon rows of a chunky rectangular artifact slotted into little holders on the walls.

  "Luna! Hey! Read this!" Thea insists, holding one of the artifacts up to my face and needlessly pointing out the words engraved on it.

  "It says 'stormbreaker,'" I tell her. "One word."

  "Woah!" Thea grins. "That's awesome!"

  "It's a portmanteau, technically, so I'm pretty sure it's another relatively meaningless brand name," I explain. "It probably just says that to seem cool."

  "Okay, but what if it actually breaks storms!?" Thea vibrates. "What if you could just point this baby at a hurricane and just—kazap!"

  "Then you are probably holding a weapon of mass destruction, and you should be careful with it," Melpomene answers. Thea groans and rolls her eyes.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know."

  We retrieve the devices, stacking them all on Thea's disc. It's a bit of a precarious pyramid, but we manage it. There's barely enough space for the three of us to pack on together, but soon enough we're up and away. The trip back to the wall of mist is simple enough, giving me plenty of time to think about everything we've seen today.

  In terms of artifacts, there has been a surprising mix of magic and non-magic powered technology. Some of it is impossible to identify, but some of it—like the boxes full of decomposed mush—are more easily identifiable as refrigerators or other food storage. Even with the gap in technology, we can tell when something was originally a lighting fixture, or a plumbing system, or other simple things because the fundamentals of how they work are still more or less the same as our versions of them. The only exception are the lighting fixtures that still glow in the undersides of the archways we saw on the way here: Thea ended up taking one apart and found that they're actually tubes of liquid full of bioluminescent creatures. Which, you know, was kind of sick, but it made me very sad when all of the stuff poured out onto the ground.

  We pass through the barrier of mist, my sensors going haywire for a moment before we end up back in the liminal space. We find Nanaya pacing angry circles in the ground, a pair of girls trussed up in glowing red string at her feet. They're both unconscious, breathing shallowly and outside their incarnate forms, just normal humans. They do, of course, both have transformation stones, but I guess they couldn't sustain their magical girl forms after whatever Nanaya did to them.

  Nanaya quickly notices us, and then rounds on us immediately.

  "Finally!" she snaps. "Where the hell were you!?"

  Melpomene straightens up, a little taken aback.

  "You know exactly where we were. Did something—"

  "They took Anath!" Nanaya interrupts her.

  That stops everyone short.

  "What? What happened?" Melpomene demands.

  "Well she lost, obviously," Nanaya growls. "I told you she was over her head. She barely managed to fight Fulgora by herself, so what did you think would happen if the entire other team of Guardians attacked her as well?"

  "We'll get her back," Melpomene insists.

  "You're damn fucking right we will. And you're going to help me."

  Nanaya yanks one of the girls up by the threads binding her and tosses her at Melpomene. Awkwardly, Melpomene catches her.

  "We're raiding the Guardian base. Now. These two will get us inside."

  "Woah, woah, what?" Thea asks. "Can we just do that?"

  "If we're fast enough? Yes," Melpomene confirms, a sharp frown on her face. "I would have preferred to stay further under the radar, but I suppose needs must. Nanaya and I will find the Guardian base holding Anath and infiltrate it with these two as our keys."

  She indicates the unconscious girl in her arms.

  "The two of you should head back to the castle. Defend yourselves and the artifacts if necessary. They are too valuable to lose."

  "O-of course," Thea nods, clearly shaken. "Are you sure you'll be okay? Actually, give me one sec."

  She dives into her pile of artifacts, for a moment visible only as a tail flicking out of the scrap metal. She eventually emerges with some materials, and with her book open she starts quickly reshaping them, disassembling and recombining various parts until ultimately constructing what looks like a simple metal box about the size of my palm. She hands it to Melpomene.

  "A tracker," she says. "We'll be able to find the entrances if this is inside their base. If you guys aren't back in a few hours, we're going in after you."

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "Thank you, Thea," Melpomene smiles at her. "I'll see if I can hide it somewhere inside, but I doubt we'll need it. The girls in our city can't stop us. I just wish we didn't have to make them aware of that fact quite so early. This will be our only opportunity to perform a raid like this relatively unopposed."

  "Well, you should have thought of that before letting Anath run off by herself again," Nanaya snaps at her.

  "Don't act like you couldn't have stopped her," Melpomene counters testily. "She wanted to go, and we both thought she'd be stable enough to escape if things got bad. Quit blaming me for this. Let's just get on with it."

  "Fine," Nanaya spits. Summoning her viola, she plays a screeching note that has both magical girls waking up screaming and clutching their ears.

  "You are going to show us how to enter the base in Fort Collins," Nanaya orders. "Understand?"

  I suppose their whimpers get taken as an affirmative, because Nanaya and Melpomene leap away shortly afterwards, dashing across the rooftops towards the edge of the liminal zone. I clench my hands into fists, but it's the only expression of disapproval I can physically manage. Saving those girls is beyond me while my master has a use for them.

  "I hope they all get out okay," Thea says softly.

  I nod. With the magical girls so close and the likelihood of running into another on the way back, I can't really say anything.

  "Well, come on. We have to get this stuff back home. Mel and Nana are really gonna kick the hornet's nest here."

  We load back up onto her disc and fly off in more or less the same direction as Mel and Nanaya. Thea goes a little slower than we did on the way here, though, either because of the extra weight or because she's trying to make distance between us and the other two. Ideally, Thea and I will make it back to the castle while all the attention is on Melpomene and Nanaya, but who knows what will happen.

  I just hope I don't have to fight.

  - - -

  Groggily, I blink my eyes open, taking in the bright white ceiling above me, the space connecting it to the walls organically curved rather than cornered. I'm at base, I guess. What am I doing at base again…?

  "Fulgora-san!"

  Fulgora what? Who said that? Wait, I remember.

  "Susan?" I groggily ask, sitting up and looking around. Sure enough, there's a short asian girl standing next to the bed I woke up on. She no longer has animal ears on her head, seeming completely back in human form. I glance down at myself and see that I have also fallen out of my incarnate form. I guess that explains why I woke up.

  For some reason, though, she's still holding Anath over her shoulder.

  "You are okay!" Susan beams. "I was very worried when you did not become normal again. How did you hold incarnate form without having awake?"

  "Obstinance," I grunt. "Why are you still holding Anath? If she wakes up while we're in human form, she will destroy us."

  "Yes, etto… where do we put her?" she asks. "And where is your Preserver?"

  I blink.

  "Are they not around?" I ask. "Uma'tama? Huh. Well, that's two good questions, I guess. Uma'tama!"

  I pull out my phone as I get off the bed, dialing the number they always call me with. Heading out into the hall, I look back and forth to figure out which room I'm in. Do we have a place to lock people up? I don't think we have a dedicated prison or anything, but there are some sturdy rooms and if nothing else we can take her transformation stone. A quick glance at her indicates that Susan has at least thought of that much; she's no longer wearing the choker that houses her stone.

  "Thank you for—" Uma'tama answers.

  "Uma! Where are you?"

  "—contacting us through the Earth cellular phone network service. I am not connected at the moment and may not currently exist within your universe. Please leave your name and number after the little beepy noise and we will return your call as soon as I figure out how to check my messages. Goodbye!"

  The answering machine beeps and I nearly snap my phone in half. Okay! That's fine. This is fine. Where's the rest of my team? Are Veritas and Aurora okay? I guess I need to shift into an incarnate form if I want to track them down, but my Fulgora body is too injured and I just really don't want to be Minerva right now.

  Wait, why not? This is kind of an important situation. Why do I keep getting so uncomfortable with my Minerva body sometimes but I'm totally fine with it at other times?

  Well, I definitely don't want someone I just met to find out I'm both Fulgora and Minerva.

  Well I don't want that either, but this isn't really a situation where we can worry about that.

  'We?' 'Either?' Why do I keep thinking shit like that? Did my mind finally crack?

  We also don't have time to worry about the fact that we're crazy! Come on, just let me take over already.

  What the fuck?

  "O??? A????, I F????."

  "Wait! Fulgora-san, you are still very injured, you should not—"

  "B???? P?????ss D?????? M??????," I conclude, looking up at a world where suddenly everything is a couple feet taller.

  "…Eh?" Susan blinks.

  I immediately activate a communication spell, pinging for Uma'tama and my team. I find Veritas and Aurora immediately, both giving me confused return pings from deeper in the base. Thank goodness. I request them to come meet with us, sharing my location.

  "Fulgora-san…?"

  "My name's Minerva when I'm like this, yes I have two incarnate forms, no I don't know why, please don't make a thing out of it."

  Susan nods, though the frown on her face indicates she still has many questions. As long as she waits to ask them at a better time, that's fine by me.

  "Okay, follow me," I say. "We should have a relatively safe place to put Anath, and I should be able to bind her up for a while."

  I lead her through the halls, dropping Anath in a small room and wrapping cuffs of lightning around her wrists and ankles. Then I exit, locking the door behind me as I turn to address Susan again.

  "Okay, I'm not sure where Uma'tama is, but—"

  "We're here!" Uma'tama squeaks, appearing out of thin air above my head. "We're here, please accept our apologies, there was a slight incident. Two Guardians from a city over fell out of contact while stationed at a convergence site. We still aren't sure where they are, but we've gathered some Guardians from other areas to search for them. Anyway! Hello!"

  "Uh, hey Uma, we sort of—"

  "Hello, Uma-sama!"

  "Er, hello Amaterasu. It's Uma'tama, actually."

  "Sumimasen, Uma'tama-sama."

  "What? Oh, ah, ii desu yo. Apologies, I'm a little rusty with non-English Earth languages. It's just been so long since I learned all the others!"

  "It's okay! I have not practiced English much yet!"

  "Then we can learn together!" Uma'tama smiles. "Though in truth, your English is already quite impressive."

  "Yeah that's great I'm glad everybody's saying hi to each other can we talk about the girl we have imprisoned in the other room?"

  "The what?" Uma'tama blinks.

  "Yes, yes! The funny blue and yellow squirrel!" Susan agrees. "What should we do with the traitor?"

  "Traitor?" Veritas asks, walking in from the end of the hall. Aurora wanders in behind her, looking equally curious.

  "Susan here captured Anath," I explain.

  "Su-san," Susan repeats.

  "Oh, um, hello Su-san," Aurora waves. "I'm Aurora, and this is Veritas."

  "Hello!" Susan beams.

  "Did you really capture Anath?" Veritas asks. "Can we see?"

  As much as I'd rather they didn't…

  "Yes, we'll need your help, I think. Anath mentioned being a distraction for something, Uma. It might be connected to whatever made those other guardians go missing."

  "You think… oh. Oh no," Uma'tama gapes. "Oh, we hope that's not true."

  "Why, what's the matter?" I ask.

  "Well, let's not worry about the worst-case scenario when we have someone we can ask directly," Uma'tama hedges. "Come, everyone. Let us see what your wayward sister has been up to all this time."

  We open the door and find Anath exactly where I left her, unconscious and cuffed to the wall. Aurora walks forward, Veritas summoning her weapons to cover her. Then, Aurora kneels down and casts a healing spell on our enemy, recovering her just enough to wake her up.

  "Wha?" Anath blinks groggily. "What the heck… oh. Huh. Haven't been here in a while."

  "Hello, Anath," Uma'tama greets.

  Anath brightens up immediately.

  "Uma'mama! Hey! How've you been?" she asks.

  "Rather stressed, recently. And very worried about you and your friends. We wish you'd all just come back to us of your own accord."

  "Nah, can't do that," Anath shrugs. "We're all pretty sure you're evil. Plus, there's no way you would let me keep beating up Fulgora, and where would be the fun in that?"

  "Can we stay on topic?" I grumble. "You mentioned that you were distracting us from something. What was it?"

  A bunch of the other girls turn towards me with concerned or annoyed expressions.

  "Giving away the game a little," Susan scowls.

  "What, you think she's just gonna tell us?" Veritas snaps.

  Oh yeah. I forgot none of these people have spent the better part of a year fighting this moron.

  "Yes, that's exactly what I think she's going to do," I answer.

  "I mean, I was going to, but now I kind of don't want to," Anath pouts.

  "Just tell us already," I insist, glowering at her. She tilts her head to the side and gives me an odd look.

  "…Fulgy?" she asks. "Why are you so small?"

  "Anath," I snap.

  "Fine, fine," she sighs dramatically. "Honestly, I wasn't really paying too much attention to the details, but Melpomene and Thea were both super excited so they were probably going to go explore some Antipathy ruins and grab a bunch of artifacts. I got the impression it was a pretty big deal, so I volunteered to go beat you up and keep you busy. Which worked! Now I just have to figure out how to leave."

  "Oh, no," Uma'tama frets. "Oh dear, oh no. We have to stop them!"

  "You know something, Uma?" I ask.

  "The girls that went missing! They were guarding a massive Dark World fragment. Any number of dangerous things could have been inside! If we let them collect whatever artifacts they can find, it's inevitable that they'll end up getting sold to the black market! This could be an influx of Antipathy weaponry unheard of on Earth!"

  "Ready for deployment, Uma'tama-sama," Susan says, standing up straight.

  "Err, just Uma'tama is fine, dear. But you just fought Anath!"

  "Fulgora did most of work, I'm in perfect shape," Susan insists.

  "My team is ready to go too," I add, because I can tell they are. Veritas is just about vibrating in anticipation of a fight.

  Uma'tama sighs, putting a paw to their forehead.

  "We know this will not discourage you, but Melpomene and Nanaya will be very difficult enemies to face. If it comes to it, prioritize rescuing your allies, destroying the artifacts, and escaping over defeating the enemy."

  "We will win," Susan insists, a feral smile creeping up her face.

  "Ooh, I like you. We should fight later," Anath grins.

  "…We did," Susan answers.

  "We didn't fight," Anath disagrees. "You just cleaned up Fulgy's sloppy seconds."

  "Doesn't matter," Susan says, holding up Anath's transformation stone. "You won't be getting this back."

  Anath laughs.

  "Won't I, though?"

  "Enough banter, she's just stalling us," I insist. "Uma, we need to deploy now. They've got to be going back to the fragment they usually hide out in. Can you help us track them at all? Help us head them off?"

  "We will do our best," Uma'tama nods. "Aurora, please put Anath to sleep."

  Aurora nods and casts a spell, which Anath fights for only a few moments before going under. She's pretty seriously injured.

  "Alright! Let's go, team!"

  We move out together, settling into our usual formation of Aurora in my right arm and Veritas in my left, untransformed on the trip over. Susan becomes Amaterasu, speeding ahead of us at a pace I couldn't match even if I wasn't carrying the rest of my team. It's embarrassing, but I grit my teeth and let her rush out of sight. We have no idea where the witches are, no idea if they're already long back at their base by now. Every second counts if we want to intercept them.

  "Su-san reports detecting an active spell in the liminal space," Uma'tama informs me over comms. "I will indicate the travel direction."

  I get a feeling vaguely urging me in a particular direction so I turn to follow it, pumping more and more fear into my flight spell to get there as quickly as possible. What if we fail? What if Amaterasu is already dead by the time we get there? What if they found a massive weapon stockpile and create an army? I know these fears aren't rational but they don't need to be. They just need to be fuel.

  "Stop it!" a girl's voice rings out in the darkness of the liminal space. "Stop! Would you just listen to me for a second?"

  A flash nearly blinds me, or at least it would have if my incarnate form wasn't so used to lightning. Three impacts ring out before I manage to see what's going on, and by then Veritas and Aurora are already transforming. I throw them at the battle before I even fully take in what's going on.

  A huge transparent platform floats in the air, absolutely piled with the largest collection of artifacts I have ever seen in my entire life. Among them is the humanoid artifact I fought a couple times before, constantly in motion as it blocks and counters attacks from Amaterasu, little more than an orange-gold blur as she leaps around the battlefield looking for new angles of attack.

  "Are you about to tell us that you are here to give all of these to the Preservers?" Amaterasu calls out.

  "No!"

  "Then I do not think there is much to say!"

  And then there's her. A witch I haven't seen before, the title almost comically fitting given her green skin. A blade-tipped tail thrashes behind her, crystalline growths marring the entire right side of her body. Her right eye, too, has an inky-black sclera, indicative of the Dark World corruption seeping through her blood. Is she new? Did they get more recruits, or is she just one of the members I haven't met yet? She's not attacking, not even really defending, though she occasionally throws up a magical shield to protect the pile of artifacts.

  Veritas and Aurora land on the platform, immediately moving to engage the humanoid artifact. Amaterasu rushes in to do the same, and in the moment it takes for me to summon my staff and aim my spell, there has already been a rapid exchange of a dozen different blows. The artifact moves with inhuman precision, every attack missing by the barest fraction of an inch or deflected at the last possible moment. But it can't deflect this. I launch my signature spell, and it crashes into the artifact's shielding despite an attempted dodge. From there, the others begin to get the upper hand, preventing it from even attempting a counterattack.

  "I. Said. S???."

  The air thickens into a sludge so unyielding it feels almost solid. My movements are slowed to a crawl, an enormous effort of strength required to shift even the slightest bit. The green witch stands with a large tome open in her hand, the pages flipping themselves as her transformation stone gleams on the cover. Everyone but her is affected, Veritas, Aurora, and even Amaterasu all locked mid-swing in whatever attack they were attempting seconds before. The humanoid artifact is similarly locked, frozen motionless without even the twitch of watery eyes trying to blink.

  "I don't want to fight any of you," the green witch insists. "And I doubt any of you should actually be here fighting me. My friends are in your base and breaking Anath out as we speak. Shouldn't you have more important things to do?"

  With a sound like shattering glass, Amaterasu suddenly breaks away from where she was locked, rushing the witch.

  "G???? B????!"

  A brilliant beam of light erupts from one of her daggers, and she dismisses the second to place both hands on the hilt of the now-longer blade. The witch blocks her thrust with another shield, but with a roar of effort Amaterasu shoves her empowered weapon through the barrier, causing an explosion that knocks the witch screaming from the platform. The effects of her spell end immediately, and the artifact reacts before Veritas and Aurora do, sweeping their legs and knocking them to the ground.

  No!

  I swoop in without thinking, deflecting the artifact's followup strike with my gunstaff. This gives Amaterasu enough time to rush back, connecting a punch directly to the side of the artifact's head that launches it off of the platform. The artifact flips in midair, thrusters emerging from between its metal plates to arrest its momentum just enough for its feet to fully cushion its impact with a nearby wall. The liminal brick cracks under the force, but a moment later the artifact is launching itself right back at us.

  Probably not the best move.

  "F???????? T??????!"

  I put more impact into the spell than usual, knocking the artifact off course and sending it crashing towards the ground. Amaterasu leaps off the platform and intercepts it before it can land, dismissing her weapons and grabbing it by the wrist before unleashing a laser from her other palm directly into its chest.

  "[S ? ? ? ? B ? ? ? ? ? ?]"

  Hey, what the fuck. Did that thing just steal another one of my spells? Sure enough, a torrent of angry clouds forms out of nowhere and swirls around the artifact, electrocuting Amaterasu as she tries to press the assault. The artifact uses her as a springboard, kicking her towards the ground and activating its thrusters to rush back up to the platform, but Amaterasu manages to catch its ankle and throw it back into the ground. Aurora is doing what Uma'tama suggested, and is about to melt the entire collection of Antipathy scrap into slag.

  "?C??????? L????????!"

  "No!"

  The witch leaps up onto the roof of a building and another barrier pops up between Aurora and the pile of artifacts. Aurora grits her teeth, clenches her fists, and burns through it, melting an enormous chunk of the dangerous contraband.

  Nice work, Aurora!

  She really is talented. I'm not sure if we can completely win this, but achieving our main objectives is doable.

  "Q??? P??s? R??!" the witch screams, glowing sci-fi weapons constructed from pure magical energy appearing in the air in a formation over her head. With a high-pitched screech they all fire green lasers at Aurora, and though she dodges a direct hit, the force of the impact still knocks her off the platform. Veritas jumps off after her, catching her in the air and preparing to leap back into the fray.

  "You idiots!" the witch shrieks. "Do you have any idea what you've just destroyed!?"

  Not really, and I don't care. Amaterasu has resumed her assault on the artifact, and the longer the fight goes on the more and more it seems to be tipping in her favor. I turn my weapon towards the witch. You don't get to shoot my team and get away with it.

  "Can you really not just leave us alone?" the witch asks through gritted teeth, and I realize she's crying. "Can I not even have a single conversation without being attacked?"

  I hesitate. She's not faking it, I know she's not. I guess I'd already decided we would be letting her go, so…

  "We're just here for the artifacts," I tell her, my weapon still ready to fire. "You were an Earth Guardian, right? You know I can't let you have them. But if you leave, I won't stop you."

  The girl sighs, her eyes glancing down at the skirmish between Amaterasu and the humanoid weapon.

  "I was an Earth Guardian," she confirms. "And I still am. G???? M? C??????."

  We all feel it. That twist of time when a Guardian transforms. Or, I suppose, when a witch assumes her incarnate form. The transformation stone wedged in her tome glows brightly, the wild-grown crystals on her body glowing as well, bathing the liminal space in green. The witch's entire body falls away into that light as her baggy overalls disintegrate into nothing, revealing the misshapen, animalistic legs underneath. But as the transformation progresses, they morph and twist back into the humanoid shapes they presumably once had. The blade-tipped tail shrinks back into her spine, the clawed, webbed hand of her right side reverts to soft, pale skin, the fingers unbound.

  The various crystals growing out of her flesh seem to peel themselves off of her skin, spiraling and flying through the air as streaks of light, orbiting around the tome holding her transformation stone until they impact the front cover, fusing with the book. The intricate leather bindings twist and grow like living flesh, the crystals forming cracks in the cover like something erupting from within. What was once a beautiful book becomes monstrous, a hideously twisted corruption from what was once a collection of knowledge to what is now a weapon of war. The transformation stone peers out from the fleshy bindings like an eye, staring hungrily into my soul.

  The girl's outfit manifests, a tattered, black and green backless dress that flaps freely in the wind. A wide-brimmed pointed hat settles onto her head. And though her book devoured most outward signs of her monstrousness, leaving a frail-looking barefooted girl, both of her eyes are now black.

  "F?????? S??? D????? A???????."

  The burst of magical pressure that erupts from her when she says those words is enough to push me back a full foot. The air is heady with fear, spreading from her body like leaders of ionized gas before a bolt strikes. But what someone that powerful could be afraid of, I can't possibly imagine. She reaches inside the pages of her book and pulls out an emerald staff, holding it in one hand while her tome remains open in the other.

  "It's been a while," she says softly, "but I still remember how to fight monsters."

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