Magical Girl Crystal Genocide

by RavensDagger

Table of Contents

Cover

Art and Maps

Prologue - Twelve Girls Stood on the Moon

Chapter One - Crystal’s Strange Afternoon

Chapter Two - Valuable Organs

Chapter Three - You Alright?

Chapter Four - Pretty Nice Time

Chapter Five - An Hour Past Sunset

Origin - One - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Six - Kircken Up Ahead

Chapter Seven - Not All that Big

Chapter Eight - Lit With a Long Match

Chapter Nine - Like a Pet

Chapter Ten - Bright and Early

Origin - Two - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Eleven - A Routine Test

Chapter Twelve - Familial Magic

Chapter Thirteen - I Said Simple

Chapter Fourteen - A Magical Girl With a Sword

Chapter Fifteen - Wake Up

Origin - Three - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Sixteen - Mission Briefing

Chapter Seventeen - The Arcane Tower

Chapter Eighteen - Tobias Wonders

Bonus Chapter - Ryker - Part One

Chapter Nineteen - Voluntold

Chapter Twenty - Crest the Hill

Origin - Four - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Twenty-One - Tie the Daemons

Chapter Twenty-Two - Ride the Cage

Chapter Twenty-Three - Sized Up

Chapter Twenty-Four - Sorting Themselves Out

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sword in its Sheath

Origin - Five - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Twenty-Six - Brilliant Embers

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Going Outside

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Legible yet Nonsensical

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Returned

Chapter Thirty - Guildmaster

Origin - Six - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Thirty-One - Ideal Person

Chapter Thirty-Two - Glad of One Thing

Chapter Thirty-Three - Front of the Carriage

Chapter Thirty-Four - Continued on Until Nightfall

Chapter Thirty-Five - Unlocked Many Doors

Origin - Seven - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Thirty-Six - Waiting Space

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Put Skills to Use

Bonus Chapter - Ryker - Part Two

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Not so Bad

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Excited to Get Moving Again

Chapter Forty - Arena Floor

Bonus Chapter - Crystal Learns Martial Arts

Origin - Eight - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Forty-One - Tickets

Chapter Forty-Two - Last Bout Before the Final

Chapter Forty-Three - Crystal Hesitated

Chapter Forty-Four - Many Chains Surrounding It

Chapter Forty-Five - I Had a Few Questions

Origin - Nine - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Forty-Six - Powerful and Resilient

Chapter Forty-Seven - Triangulation Point

Chapter Forty-Eight - With Little Trouble

Chapter Forty-Nine - Loop Around a Mountain Range

Chapter Fifty - Mysterious Friend

Chapter Fifty-One - Get Out

Origin - Ten - Rending Nightmare

Chapter Fifty-Two - Convey Her Urgency

Chapter Fifty-Three - Three at a Time

Chapter Fifty-Four - Going All Out

Chapter Fifty-Five - King Minos

Origin - Eleven - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Twelve - Rending Nightmare

Epilogue

Art and Maps

Cover art:

Art by Fnostic!

Art by NovelAI

Map by me

There's more artwork here, as well as 12 bonus chapters on my partreon! LINK

Prologue - Twelve Girls Stood on the Moon

Prologue - Twelve Girls Stood on the Moon

Twelve girls stood on the moon.

Around them, around the moon, was a great ring. It stretched out into the black expanse of space: uncountable stones, roiling magma, and long plumes of twisting smoke. The ring was, until recently, Earth.

“So, we messed up a little,” Magical Girl Burning Ultranova said.

She shook her head and her long red hair flicked out behind her. The tips, of course, burned. There wasn’t any oxygen for them to burn, but then, they were standing atop a flattened mountain on the moon without any regard for its lesser gravity or the lack of air to breathe.

That kind of thing wasn’t a concern to them.

The mood, despite Burning Ultranova’s aloofness, was bleak.

“We did win, I guess,” Magical Girl Screaming Bioplague said. She tugged on the lapels of the jacket that came with her magical girl dress. It was an old nervous habit, one they hadn’t seen in a while. Under the circumstances, no one could blame her for being a little worried.

“I-It’s okay,” Fractured Time said. She reached over, across the circle the twelve made, and touched Screaming Bioplague on the arm. It was a small comfort, but it was something.

The Earth continued to hover around them.

“We did win, didn’t we?” Magical Girl Crystal Genocide asked. She tilted her head back and the chime-like lengths of diamond hanging off her costume rang, even if there was no air for them to ring. “It feels like we lost.”

“We’re alive, we can’t have lost,” Burning Ultranova said.

Next to her, Magical Girl Feasting Carnage reached into the folds of her bright orange-white costume and pulled out a box of candy-sticks. She opened it, only to find there were just three left. The girls could see the moment Feasting Carnage cracked, just a little. Her hands clamped tight and the box scrunched together. She threw it aside where it gently flew across the moonscape. “Fuck,” she said.

There was a gasp from Gravity’s Heartbeat, but the others didn’t react, not immediately.

“We can’t give up, girls. We’ve never given up before and... and I don’t want to see us giving up now. We’re magical girls. We can do anything. We can fix this!” Magical Girl Happy Sparkles said. She was as hurt as any of them, but she was also hopeful.

“She’s right,” Magical Girl Rending Nightmare said. She always agreed with Happy Sparkles, but this felt different. “We’re all here, the enemy is dead. Why can’t we pool our powers together and turn this whole thing around?”

“Because everyone we know is dead,” Magical Girl Fractured Time snapped.

“Then we’ll un-dead them,” Rending Nightmare snapped back.

“She’s right,” Happy Sparkles said. She nodded and then shared a big smile with the others, and even if there were tears in her eyes, it didn’t matter. “We can do it. We can make things better. No matter the cost! Please, please, you’re my friends, I love all of you, and I need you to help me.”

There was a beat, then one after the other, they agreed.

Each in turn, the girls summoned their magical foci and together they pointed them towards the centre of the group. As tradition would have it, they started with the first who became a magical girl.

Magical Girl Rending Nightmare extended her rapier down first and their side of the moon gained a blue glow. “Awaken,” she demanded. Ancient magics responded. The rocks that were once Earth shifted, the shadows between them gaining nightmarish forms.

Magical Girl Fractured Time lowered her clockhand staff. “Move on,” she said. The blue glow covering the moon grew and gained darker undertones. Some of the stones in the distance started to flow backwards.

Magical Girl Happy Sparkles grinned, then she pulled her chainsword from her chest with a quick pirouette and pointed it ahead. “Let’s be friends!” she cheered. The glow gained traces of deep, royal purple even as the distant stars seemed to flicker brighter.

Magical Girl Gravity’s Heartbeat just pointed her wand ahead, face set and serious. “Be still,” she demanded. A pink glow reached out. The moon suddenly felt a thousand times more weighty beneath them, but it slowed none of them down.

Magical Girl Burning Ultranova flicked her staff forward and flames danced in the mouth of the dragon at its head. “Burn, bitch.” Space grew warmer and a red glow suffused their surroundings.

Magical Girl Dimension Death flicked her wrist out with one hand while the other adjusted her glasses. “Die,” she spoke. A red-orange light started to appear from slits in reality around them.

Magical Girl Hypertense Breakpoint hefted her warhammer and pointed it ahead. “Shatter!” she called out, and the moon responded by cracking. Orange light slipped from the cracks and joined the forming rainbow.

Magical Girl Feasting Carnage grinned and stabbed forwards with a fork-headed staff. “Devour!” Entire chunks of the once-planet around them were chewed apart even as yellow-orange magic joined the rest.

Magical Girl Silenced Annihilation pointed her wand ahead, then let go of it. It floated there while her hands made the sign for “silence” then she pressed her finger over her lips in a sign that they would have understood even if they hadn’t learned to understand her already. Yellow light spread even as space returned to its proper silence.

Magical Girl Phantom Mist pulled at the string of her bow and a yellow-green ball of magical might appeared at the point of her arrow. “Scatter!” she said.

Magical Girl Screaming Bioplague merely pointed her wand towards the centre, sickly green light burning from the twin snakes biting each other near the head. She screamed, loud, angry and nearly incoherent.

Finally, the newest of them took a deep breath, then pointed her crystal sword towards the middle. Bright blue light joined the rest, finalising the ritual. “Flash!” she called.

The world obeyed. A great flash, faster than light should have been, burst, and with it the entire galaxy shifted and warped out of place.

When it cleared, all that remained was a ragged hole where reality should have been.

Millenia later, those observing the distant Milky Way were disturbed to see half a galaxy disappear.

***

Chapter One - Crystal’s Strange Afternoon

Chapter One - Crystal’s Strange Afternoon

Crystal was having a strange afternoon.

Strange afternoons were normal for magical girls though. It was just one of those things that happened so often that even the weird stuff seemed less weird over time.

She could vividly recall some of the early days, when she was still finding her footing as a magical girl and she had to deal with tentacle-y monsters pretending to be teachers at her high school, or magical talking animals.

It had seemed very strange at first, but eventually even a godzilla-look-alike showing up in her home city didn’t phase her.

Today was a whole new sort of strange though.

She had woken up while falling. Or maybe it was while being thrown? It was hard to tell the difference, but either way, the ground was rushing towards her too quickly and she had kicked on her reflexive magic. That resulted in a whole lot of crystals being formed out of nothing so that she could bounce off of those at a less jarring angle.

That ended up with her crashing through a sparse forest on the edge of a small mountain range. She tore through a few trees, then dug a trench through some rocks before she finally came to a stop.

Crystal sat in the little crater she’d made and just thought things through.

Usually, when she was tossed around like this, something big was going on. Alien invasion, cross-dimensional invasions, some sort of ancient hidden sect summoning daemons (who were actually just aliens from another dimension) or something like that. She couldn’t remember what was going on though.

Reaching up to her hair, Crystal plucked a small hairpin out and looked it over. The pin had several little diamonds encircling thin magical filigree that her friend and fellow magical girl Rending Nightmare had created. She squinted at the hairpin. The diamonds on it were steaming a little, some faint smoke pouring off of them.

Rending Nightmare had created a bunch of similar devices for all of the girls that would glow brightly if something tried to take over their minds, subjugate their personality, possess them, or otherwise play with their memories. They all wore the pins on visible parts of their costumes. That way they could tell at a glance if a friend wasn’t being herself.

There had been far too many moments where ghosts took over one magical girl, or another ate some sort of magical thing which lowered their inhibitions.

Rending Nightmare had made the devices after Fractured Time confessed her undying love to Gravity’s Heartbeat in a very public display that was entirely unlike the usually reserved girl. That had been the last straw, really.

But no, Crystal wasn’t under any mental effects. She was just confused.

The hairpins had another feature; the ability to teleport them to someone specific in case of an emergency. They’d go off if the girl wearing them was knocked out. Hers should have sent her right on towards Rending Nightmare, in fact, but a glance around revealed no dark-skinned, blue-outfitted girls anywhere.

Shaking her head, Crystal stood up and brushed down the poofy skirt of her pale blue costume. The last thing she remembered was her friends working on some very, very powerful magic on the moon.

“Oh, right!” she said, a fist smacking into her open palm. They’d accidentally destroyed Earth.

She looked around. The place where she crashed wasn’t super high up, but it was on the side of a mountain which afforded her a good view of the surroundings. She could see rolling hills below, and an open plain to her right which stretched out so far she could make out the planet’s curve. There were mountains that way, and to her right and off in the distance was the shimmering blue of a huge body of water. It was probably the morning, she guessed from the position of the sun.

A small town lay at the base of the mountain, maybe a twenty minute drive away. She wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t for the smoke coming out of some of the homes and the roads leading to it cutting across the countryside.

Frowning, she patted herself down to check for injuries, but found nothing amiss. Not even a bruise. Though to be fair her little crash landing hadn’t been that impressive. She had slowed down some before hitting the trees.

One of those was toppled nearby, a trunk bigger around than she was ripped apart three-quarters of the way up. There were a few splinters of it caught on her pantyhose which she picked off.

“Alright,” she said before concentrating.

Magical Girls could communicate with each other if they wanted to. It was very long range telepathy that... well, she hadn’t paid too much attention to the explanation that Hypertense Breakpoint had given her, but she knew that it always worked unless the magical girl on the other end didn’t want it to.

That was handy, because having a group conversation while cramming for end-of-year exams was terribly distracting.

She focused and got a lot of nothing.

No one was on?

That was beyond strange. There was always at least someone out there listening.

Crystal pouted and glanced around again. Had she ended up in another dimension by accident? A mirror world? Dream world? This didn’t look like hell and her magic seemed to be responding normally, so she dismissed a few possibilities.

“Well, whatever,” she said. There were other ways to communicate with her friends. She just needed to find a city.

After picking out the last of the wooden shrapnel from her pantyhose, she straightened her back and started down the hill.

She headed more or less in the direction of the town by the base of the mountainside. She could fly, of course, but it wasn’t really her strong suit. Actually, her flying was more... flinging herself through the air and hoping for the best. Flight under gravity was complicated. She didn’t weigh much, and all the ways she had to create thrust were a bit too potent. She always ended up way too high.

One day she’d figure it out, or maybe enough practice would allow her to fly as well as some of her friends. Burning Ultranova could rocket around with ease, and Phantom Mist was as light as a feather when she wanted to be, so she really just jumped and kicked her way across the sky by dancing and playing with her weight and momentum. Some of the others could teleport, which was a neat shortcut.

She had crystals and lasers, neither of which were great for flying so she would have to walk for a while.

It wasn’t all that bad. It had been a long time since she enjoyed the great outdoors, and longer still since she spent some time all on her own.

An hour into her walk, after bridging a gap across a ravine with a crystalline bridge, she found herself entirely bored.

Nature was fun in documentaries. Less so in the real world.

Flies were buzzing around her curiously, only to be swatted out of the sky by stray lasers, and at some point she walked around a tree only to come within a metre of a big buzzing hive hanging from a low branch.

She screamed and darted deeper into the woods.

Sure, whatever sort of yellowjacket was in there couldn’t hurt her, but they were still scary!

Her run was cut short as she stumbled into an open clearing and tripped over some roots which sent her flying bum over teakettle into a prickly bush. The bush, or its nettles, weren’t the problem. The problem was the large boar which jumped to its feet and turned to face her. It had been laying on its side on a flat rock, soaking in the morning sunlight and minding its own business.

Crystal stared at the boar and it stared back. “Uh, hello, mister pig,” she said.

The boar snorted, then pawed the ground.

“Okay bye!” She leaped back and out of the bush, ignoring the way it tried to keep hold of her. Her costume was more than tough enough to tug itself free from the grasp of a few thorns.

The boar didn’t stop at just pawing the ground, with a deep huff it started to charge and Crystal eeped before she started running in the opposite direction.

The magical girl and the boar ran a circuitous route through the underbrush, crashing through bushes and leaping over fallen trees. After rounding a rocky outcrop Crystal noticed a camp, just an ancient, ratty tent perched under a willow with a long-dead campfire and a few odds and ends left behind. “Help!” she screamed.

The boar snorted behind her, giving her the incentive she needed to speed up a little.

She stumbled through the tent, the old tarp wrapping around her middle and clinging to her like a wet net before she sputtered and nearly managed to free herself from it.

That was about when she reached the end of a cliff she never saw coming.

Her foot came down, expecting to meet solid dirt, and landed on nothing at all instead.

She fell, screaming all the way down a steep hill where jutting rocks poked at her kidneys and bonked her on the head and where thorn-covered bushes were the only thing to slow her down, but not without trying to rip her costume apart first.

After a few seconds of falling she remembered her magic and started to summon small crystalline plates which flashed into being just in time to negate some of the damage she would have eaten with her body instead.

The roll, at long last, ended at the bottom of a hill.

Her head spun for a couple of seconds while the disorientation faded.

“At least I got away from the pig,” she muttered. Then she noticed that she was quite surrounded, and not by pigs, but people. Crystal groaned. People could be so much worse. There was a reason she wasn’t the face of her friend group when they had to deal with people!

Still, all she had to do was keep her wits about her and talk things out, and nothing would go wrong!

***

Chapter Two - Valuable Organs

Chapter Two - Valuable Organs

“I don’t care how valuable their organs are, I’m not going to let you kill them,” Veronica snapped. Her hand reached to the side and the air filled with thin white vapour as the temperature around her dropped.

To anyone looking from the outside, the world past her magic’s effect would suddenly seem warped. Straight lines were broken, the air filled with a strange haze. It was like looking through the sorts of poorly crafted glass one might find in a smaller settlement.

It scared the people cornered behind her, but they had no choice but to press themselves closer to the hillside and hope.

Before her, looking on with something between annoyance and frustration, were her teammates. Former teammates, maybe.

“Come on, Veronica,” one of them said. Frederick, who was always the placating, easy-going one in their group. He was something of the group dad. A big man, with a big heart who would step in and put down disputes.

He knew her father; had worked for the baron once or twice, either as favours because he was a daemon-fed in the baron’s own territory, or for pay. Frederick was an adventuring guild mercenary, as were the rest of her companions.

“Don’t patronise me, Frederick,” Veronica said. She didn’t want to fight. He was a good man. He had insisted that she be left alone, had watched over the very few women in the crew to make sure nothing untoward happened, and when that weasel Michel had grabbed Andrea to do gods knew what to her, he had walloped the man something fierce for his uppityness.

The truth was, she shouldn’t have been here facing off against scattered daemons. She was the daughter of a baron, she should have been in some keep somewhere, taking care of the finances or pining after some noble knight.

But she was a daemon-fed too, and she wasn’t going to sit back and watch her kingdom fall without doing something to help.

This... this didn’t count as that. Chasing after peasants and threatening to put them to the knife? It was unspeakable.

Michel sighed. “Come on, Fred. Just slap her aside. There’s six of them back there. That’s six gold. Even split amongst the twelve of us that’s enough silver to visit every brothel in Lindenburg for a week apiece.”

“You’d know how much they cost, wouldn’t you?” one of the men in the back said. She hadn’t bothered to learn his name yet.

The crew had travelled to Oberschield from her home city, picking up a few hands as they went to pad out their numbers. They were twelve in all now. Most of those were ‘green’ with only a ring or two on their guild-issue daggers but they had four daemon-fed in their number, Veronica included, and that counted for a lot. Her house guard only had three.

Their mission was simple: travel to Oberschield, which was half a day’s ride by cart from Kircken, then clear out the daemons around the area and bring their meat back to be processed. A single daemon head, both intact and fresh, was worth a few gold, and that was for the most common and weakest. The greater and rarer daemons could fetch a king’s ransom. They were in high-spirits as they left, the promise of wealth keeping the mood up.

Then they arrived and found a region filled with other mercenaries and hunters, daemon-fed and normal, all looking for riches and opportunities.

Which led to this. Her crew hunted down a lead, and that lead turned out to be six or so half-daemons. People who had started to turn into monsters, but through divine providence, sheer luck, or incredible will, had kept their humanity.

Their heads were worth less than an ordinary daemon’s, but they’d still be bought.

But they were innocents, just unlucky, poor people who had been at the same time both fortunate and not. Veronica glanced back quickly. The people there were a mess. Some had scaly skin, others had too many limbs. One looked exactly like a monster except for their very human eyes.

They would all have daemon magic, of course, but they’d held back on using it so far. Or didn’t know how.

“Look, Frederick,” Veronica said. If she could persuade him, the others would follow. Her part in the group was over though, she couldn’t trust them and they couldn’t trust her. “Just set this aside. I’ll take care of them. My father will take them in, I’m certain. You find some other daemon to hunt down and go on living with a clean conscience.”

Frederick shook his head. He wasn’t going to say yes.

He was a brute, a man able to punch like a landslide and take hits like an unbendable oak. That’s what his feeding had given him. It was a common power, but strong all the same.

Michel, that constantly-smiling ass, had a strange ability. Nearly perfect aim with a power that let anything he threw move lightning-quick. She’d seen him snipe a bird out of the air at three hundred paces with a pebble.

The last of the daemon-fed was near the back, with the others. An older man who could shape the earth at will. But his ability was slow to work. He mostly built little forts for them every night and smoothed out the road as they marched. He wasn’t a big threat.

Frederick and Michel were. The others too.

She could slow down any bolts fired her way, and they knew it. None of them had pulled out their crossbows. They’d come at her with spears and Michel with his throwing knives.

“She’s got some fight in her,” Michel said as he reached into a fold in his gambeson and pulled out a short, sharp knife. He spun it between his fingers. “I’ll take out her arms and legs. We can tell the good baron she got taken out by a daemon. Careless, you know?”

“We won’t kill her,” Frederick growled.

“Well, not immediately,” Michel said.

The few women in the group and some of the men gave him dirty looks. He was just a peasant who’d gotten his hands on some uncommon daemon meat and had ended up with a decent power.

Her magic was better than theirs, but Michel nearly countered her. They had experience that she lacked too. Michel had been part of a mercenary group in Kircken before an entire section of the city was turned into a crystalline grave.

She was going to die, or worse.

She shifted to the side, falling into a well-practised stance with the tip of her rapier pointing towards the group.

“I said I won’t let you.” She tried to sound intimidating. Instead, she sounded like a frightened young woman barely on the cusp of adulthood. Her father had once told her that there was no bravery without fear.

If that was the case, then her bravery would be well fed.

The moment held, like people posing for an artist to paint them.

Then it was interrupted from somewhere behind her. “Ouch, oof, owie, ow ow.”

Rocks scattered and dust came rushing down as something large and with a foul tongue came rolling down the side of the cliff. She--for she imagined it was a girl from the voice--rammed through a bush. There was a glint of something, metal perhaps, or glass, but she didn’t dare give her more than a glance.

And then the figure rolled down and into the space between Veronica and her former comrades.

They all paused to stare. The girl was dressed in a pale blue dress of a strange make. A foreigner? It was hard to see much of her clothes though, for she was wrapped in a tattered cloth filled with rips and tears.

It gave her the appearance of some nightmarish creature of the night.

Or perhaps just a homeless beggar.

She sat up, then looked around herself.

The girl’s hair was yellow. Veronica’d never seen the like, though some daemon-fed could change their appearances, or gained strange anatomical quirks from their feeding. Veronica herself couldn’t feel cold after gaining her power.

“Sorry about that!” the girl said with good cheer. She untangled her limbs. Somehow, she was unhurt after the tumble, though there was a coat of dust on her. She laughed as she climbed to her feet. “You wouldn’t believe what happened. Just taking a nice stroll when out of nowhere this boar shows up. Chased me right to the edge of that cliff over there. Think it’ll follow me?” She pointed back up the way she came.

“Who in all the hells are you?” Michel asked.

The girl paused, then shrugged. “I’m... just a normal girl. Pleased to meet you all. Sorry for the entrance.” she looked around, at Veronica on one side with the lost behind her, and the mercenaries on the other. “Am I stepping into the middle of something?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Michel said. “Now leave.”

“Hey, hey, I said I was sorry!” The girl raised her hands and smiled at the mercenaries.

“She’s a half-daemon,” he said.

Veronica thought she couldn’t be cold any more. She was wrong. Her heart froze. Another person they’d try to slaughter?

The girl paused, then glanced around again. “What? Sorry, I really don’t know what you’re talking about? Hey now, why’s everyone looking at me weird?”

The mercenaries didn’t look certain anymore. She could see them putting things together. The people behind her were peasants. This girl looked like a foreigner. There was a difference between going after a nobody and... a somebody.

“Move along, stranger,” Frederick began. “Just step aside and we--”

There was a loud crack.

Michel had thrown one of his knives. It was a straight throw, hard and fast. There was a small ring in the air before him where the knife passed.

The knife clinked off a thin sheet of glass, no thicker than a hair, which hovered before the girl’s face. Veronica flinched as the bent weapon ricocheted off into the treeline.

“Oh,” the girl said. “Well, that was a bit on the rude side.”

The man twitched.

She looked to Michel, a pouty glare marring her features. “Hey, could you apologise, please?”

“Michel,” Frederick warned. The man was overstepping, a lot.

Another knife went flying, and this time Veronica almost saw the pane of glass appearing to intercept it.

“Michel!” Frederick snapped.

Matter creation. One of the more powerful sorts of magic. Instantaneous, and almost reflexive. Tough, too, if it could stop one of Michel’s knives with so little effort.

The air next to her rippled. “Oh, come on, really?” she complained before an angel ripped itself into reality. A figure of crystal and glass, perfect proportions that hinted at sharp femininity. It was no bigger than a person, but that didn’t matter. It felt immense, as if god had deigned to glance their way and found them wanting.

Michel screamed. Daggers flew through the air at the angel and bounced off of crystalline shards that appeared before them and disappeared just as easily.

Some of the more cowardly members of the group were running already.

Then the angel twisted and the world flashed red.

Michel, or rather, the burning stumps of his feet, fell to the ground. There was a chasm seared into the earth behind him. Trees were missing half their trunks in perfect, curved slices that steamed.

That was enough to break the resolve of the others. They turned and ran.

They were here to fight daemons, the monsters that terrorised the world and who killed thousands of unprepared souls every day. They were not ready or equipped to deal with this one lonesome girl. But then, was she really a girl, or was she a magi?

“Aw, man, that’s just not good,” the girl said. Then she turned to Veronica. “Hey, you alright?”

***

Chapter Three - You Alright?

Chapter Three - You Alright?

“Hey, you alright?” Crystal asked. The woman she was asking was staring after the other group, who were currently running away.

As far as introductions went, Crystal gave herself a six out of ten for this one. Sure, someone died, but only the one, and thanks to the costume she had on top of her costume (that was, the tattered tent tarp) the people running away would have a much harder time pointing her out to the appropriate authorities!

Crystal’s mood plummeted. She was in so much trouble, and there was no way that would hold up to any sort of investigation. But it wasn’t her fault! Her magic was, partially, instinctive, and that guy had thrown his knife first. So technically it was self-defence, and automatic self-defence at that.

If Fractured Time were there, she’d smack Crystal upside the head for causing so much trouble. If Happy Sparkles were here, no one would have tried to kill someone else to begin with.

“Who are you?” the woman asked.

Crystal perked up. She wasn’t running in terror like the others! That was great. “I’m Crystal,” she said. “Pleased to meet you!”

The woman nodded and she swiped her hand through the air. A slight sheen of frost started to pool away from the air. “I’m Veronica Dotter, of house Dotter. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Crystal nodded, then gestured towards the rising steam. “Are you a magical girl?”

“Pardon?”

“I’d guess you’re not,” Crystal continued. The woman was in her early twenties, way too old to be a magical girl. Crystal... was probably not much younger, actually. Magical girls didn’t age, of course, otherwise they’d just be magical women at some point and that’d just be weird. Which begged the question. “So, is that magic?”

Veronica, who currently had a tight rein on her daemon-fed powers, nodded. “Yes, of course it is,” she said.

“And what’s the name of the place we’re in?” Crystal asked. She had a worrisome worry in her tummy.

“How lost are you?” Veronica asked honestly. Depending on how lost the girl before her was, her answer would change. She pointed to the mountains right next to them, where they could see one of the peaks rising high above the others. “That’s the Widow’s peak, to the south of the Theinplains. Kircken is a few days to the north.”

“Huh,” Crystal said. She had no idea where she was. “Nice, okay. I’m starting to realise that I’m in a bit of a pickle.”

“You’re pickled?” Veronica asked. She couldn’t fathom what this girl was talking about, but it was clear she was a powerful magi of one sort or another, and her father had taught her to tread carefully around those with so much power.

“In a pickle,” Crystal corrected, even if it was probably pointless. She was starting to suspect that she wasn’t on Earth anymore. Or at least, not her Earth. Dimension Death sometimes jumped to other worlds for fun. She used to call it “isekai’ing” herself, but she said that most Earths were pretty much the same as theirs, but usually a little more boring.

Crystal considered what to do for a moment while rubbing at her chin and thinking hard. If this wasn’t Earth--and she hadn’t confirmed that yet--then she needed to find a way back home. That would require either powerful magic, or very good technology. She looked at Veronica again. The woman was wearing a gambeson with some chainmail and a breastplate that only covered her upper torso. She had gloves on, and boots with metal plates over them.

That didn’t exactly scream high-tech to Crystal. The people past Veronica were dressed in poofy clothes that looked rather strange to her. Most of them were wearing wooden clogs. Those that didn’t had strange, monstrous feet.

“Alright,” Crystal said. She stood straighter and put her hands on her hips. She had a solution. “I’m very lost, and you look like a responsible adult. So I’m going to follow you around until I figure out what’s happening.”

“Pardon?” Veronica asked.

“Um. Which part didn’t you hear?”

Veronica narrowed her eyes at the young lady. “No, don’t worry. I think I understood. But what I don’t understand is who you are, exactly?”

“I told you, I’m Crystal. Magical Girl Crystal Genocide!” Crystal flashed a V-for-victory next to her face while winking. A few teeny-tiny crystals summoned in the air behind her gave the scene the brilliant flickers and flashes it needed to look properly artsy.

Veronica stared. The girl wasn’t sane, she decided. Not sane, coupled with a great degree of control over whatever powers she’d obtained. “Fine. I was going to guide these people to Oberschield anyway. You may follow, if you wish.” The moment they arrived, Veronica would make herself scarce and report what had happened to the guild.

If she could get her report in before Frederick, then it might tip any future judgements in her favour.

The problem was getting to the guild in time for that.

“Which way is Oberschield in?” the girl asked.

Veronica paused, then pointed.

“So... the same way the people who just ran away went in?” Crystal asked.

That was a good point, one that Veronica hadn’t considered. Frederick would return to Oberschield first, if only to regroup. Then the group would either continue their hunt, or join up with another, or maybe they’d even return to Kircken.

With Veronica... quitting, and Michel currently nothing more than a still-smoking pair of boots, that left the team with only two daemon-fed members. Not nearly enough to hunt any of the local daemons for their meat, not if they expected to have a good haul.

“Ma’am?”

Veronica jumped and turned to face one of the people she’d been protecting. The group had been so quiet she had nearly forgotten about them. The man speaking to her had stepped up, hat in hand, and was eyeing the dirt beneath her feet.

He was partially-turned, though the transformation had stopped early enough that he retained much of his humanity, at least in appearances. His eyes were too large, and too far apart, and there was something… Fishy about his skin, but he could have passed himself off as a particularly ugly fellow if it wasn’t for the webbing between his hands. “I want to thank you. We all do,” he said without looking up.

“Oh,” Veronica replied. She hadn’t been expecting that. “You’re welcome, citizen.”

“We’ve been on the run since... well, you likely know. We’re just peaceful folk who were cursed in the worst way. We don’t mean anyone no harm, ma’am. When we saw those folk coming for us, we thought it’d be the end. So thank you.”

“Why were you afraid of them?” Crystal asked. She had pretty decent hearing, and couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation between Veronica and the strange fish-man. All of the people by the walls of the cliff were strange. She hadn’t figured out if that was normal or not yet.

Veronica seemed normal, but she was also able to make things freeze via magic... somehow. The other people who’d run away had all been human-looking, but Crystal hadn’t stared at them all carefully, so she couldn’t be sure.

She listened in as Veronica and the fish man spoke back and forth. It seemed that the people just wanted to keep heading the way they were going... without Veronica or Crystal coming with them.

Veronica couldn’t decide if she was incensed or not. The peasants didn’t want her assistance beyond what she’d done already. In one way, it was a relief. It meant less work for her. She didn’t even know where to begin to worry about the logistics of moving so many people. In another way, it was clearly an insult.

They were as good as saying that she wasn’t good enough to defend or care for them, and the fact that it was entirely true didn’t factor into how she was feeling about it.

In the end, common sense took over and Veronica wished the peasants well. She even fished out a couple of silver and gave them to the man she assumed was the group’s leader. It wasn’t much, but for what looked like farmers and seamstresses, it would be enough to buy a meal or two for the entire group if they were careful.

She wasn’t some uneducated noblewoman who didn’t know the value of coins. Her father was a mere baron, and that meant they were closer to the peasantry than they would have ever liked to admit.

“Bye bye! And good luck out there!” Crystal called out to the strange people as they left. “Watch out for boars! They’re quite mean!”

Veronica turned to her, and Crystal tried a smile, though she knew it came off as a bit awkward. “I’m going to Kircken,” Veronica said. “It’s two or more day’s walk from here.”

“I can walk,” Crystal said.

Veronica eyed her. How much could she trust this strange child? Not much, she decided. “Sure. Let’s go.”

It was both pragmatic and rude, but Veronica was determined to lose the girl at the first rest-stop they reached.

It wouldn’t be hard. There were plenty of inns a quarter day’s ride apart along the main road to Kircken. She’d just leave before the girl noticed her going and keep up the pace until she was left behind.

If she really needed help, well, she was on the road. There would be plenty of people willing to help.

Veronica decided not to dwell on the morality of it.

Crystal, meanwhile, was just happy to have a direction to head in. “Okay, so I have a million questions,” she began.

***

Chapter Four - Pretty Nice Time

Chapter Four - Pretty Nice Time

Despite everything, Crystal was having a pretty nice time.

Veronica wasn’t proving to be very good company. The young woman was quiet and reserved, and didn’t seem very chatty at all. She reminded Crystal of some of her friends, though with how many friends she had (eleven, it was easy to keep count) it wasn’t surprising that anyone she met would have one or two traits in common.

In Veronica’s case, the traits she had in common was a constant sense of irritability, and a grumpy disposition.

Other than that, Crystal was enjoying the trip. They had started in a direction that Veronica called north and had continued that way for a while until they ran across a road. Apparently, that would eventually lead to Kircken, which was supposed to be a big, and rather important city.

Crystal didn’t need to follow Veronica. In fact, it might have been better if she didn’t. For all that Veronica was mostly nice, she didn’t seem entirely... put together at the moment, and what Crystal needed most of all were answers.

Unfortunately, Crystal had the sort of personality that meant that she kind of tended to cling onto the first person she met. That could be both good and bad. Or so the therapist which Happy Sparkles had insisted all of the Magical Girls meet with had said.

Veronica was someone, Crystal needed someone, and so bing-bang-bong, the magic of social awkwardness stuck the two together like glue on toast.

Meanwhile, Veronica was counting down the seconds until she could get rid of Crystal once and for all.

Not that Veronica planned on killing Crystal. She thought herself capable of killing, but she also had morals, and killing a child, or a teenager as the case may be, just because they annoyed her wasn’t something she’d ever allow herself to do. She merely wanted Crystal to be... elsewhere.

The girl kept skipping along, with no sign that she was growing tired after such a long walk. Veronica had thought she was in decent shape at the barony. She went on frequent runs and trained a bit with the guards, even before becoming daemon-fed and gaining her particularly cold kind of magic. She had discovered otherwise when she joined Frederick’s crew. The day-long walks had tired her out like nothing before had ever done.

It was sobering to learn that the level of physical conditioning she had was only enough to barely keep up with the average mercenary. If it wasn’t for her magic, she wouldn’t be worth carrying around.

And this girl, a head and a bit shorter than her, with her yellow hair and bright guileless smile had been skipping for the past three hours without so much as a bead of sweat on her forehead to show for it.

Veronica had a lot of things to be angry about. At the moment, Crystal happened to gain a more-than-fair share of that ire on account of being in close proximity.

The afternoon continued, Crystal eventually shed her ruined tent, muttering something about a friend of hers disapproving of the way it didn’t fit her costume. Veronica was too tired and frustrated to even want to ask.

To be fair, she’d ignored a lot of Crystal’s questions. They were foolish ones, like how did magic work, and what had happened to the villagers they’d left behind to turn them that way. The kind of thing that any child should have known already. Veronica was under the impression that Crystal was a little bit moon-touched.

At last, just as the sun started to drop from its zenith, Veronica squinted and caught sight of a building ahead. The road to Kircken was filled with deep valleys and slight hills, which made the terrain annoying to walk on and cut into their visible range, so the distant inn only came into sight as they crested a particularly tall hill. “That’s our destination,” Veronica said.

The Putit Inn was a smaller establishment whose location didn’t help it overly much. It wasn’t a day’s walk from the nearby Obershield, and it wasn’t a day’s walk from it to Kircken. It wasn’t even at an intersection.

Further out, just a few hills over and perhaps an hour’s walk away, was the Jamit Inn, which did happen to be nearly halfway between the town and the city, and so had a lot more clientele on the average day.

“What is it?” Crystal asked.

“It’s an inn,” Veronica said. “You... do have money, right?” Crystal’s answering blush was enough to answer that particular question. Veronica sighed. “I’ll pay for a room for the both of us.”

“Oh, thank you! I’ll pay you back, promise! Pinkie promise, even!”

Veronica ignored the extended pinkie. She had plans. First, she’d grab food and something to drink and wait for her feet to stop aching. Then she’d send Crystal off to her room or something and grab a ride with the first carriage out of the inn heading northbound.

As they approached, she saw that her plan might be easier than expected. The inn was packed with people. Many of the people waiting around outside were adventurers. Their gear ranged from simple clothes hardly better than peasants to full plate-mail. Some were clearly daemon-fed, with the strange magical effects to show for it, but they were a minority. Others she could only tell were part of the guild because they had the daggers that identified them as members.

She reached to her hilt and adjusted her own belt almost self-consciously. By her side, in pride of place, was a foot-long dagger. It was single-edged and made of what was probably some very ordinary steel. It wasn’t anything special, except for the hilt.

Hers had two bronze rings on the pommel and the symbol of the guild was tilted to the side, indicating that she was daemon-fed. Two bronze rings wasn’t going to impress anyone but a peasant, but it was still good to have. It meant a slight discount, and a bit of respect. She wasn’t some lost noblewoman, but a fellow of the guild.

One day she’d have the pommel transferred to her rapier, but not while she only had two bronze rings. That would be a little too... presumptuous.

“Lively place!” Crystal said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many horses before.”

The inn’s stable was obviously at, or past, capacity.

Crystal didn’t care. She had never actually been close to a horse before. Obviously, she wasn’t a horse girl. But she was still a girl, and had seen at least thirty b-rated movies where one of the main characters was a horse of some sort, and so she had a genetic predisposition to wanting to pet one. Or she assumed it was a genetics thing. She wasn’t Screaming Bioplague who actually knew all that medical-ish stuff. She was just a well-raised teenager with a strong urge to pet the horses.

“Come on,” Veronica said, snapping Crystal back to attention. She followed her taciturn friend into the inn and found it just as crowded within as without.

There were lots of men here, two or three for every woman, discounting the waitresses moving around with trays of yummy-smelling food. It was good that the food was around to perfume the place, because otherwise it smelled like sweat and horse-poop.

Crystal kept her hands by her sides, pressing down on the ruffles of her skirt to prevent them from rubbing against any of the tables or patrons.

She stayed by Veronica as the young woman spoke to an older lady behind the bar-counter at the head of the inn. The negotiations were quite stern for a bit, but eventually Veronica slapped a few silvery coins down and turned to Crystal. “Our room is on the second floor, by the back. Room nine. Can you go see if they’re clean, please?”

“Oh, sure!” Crystal said.

Veronica watched the girl bounce off, entirely heedless of all the attention that had fallen on her. She was a single teenager wearing a dress that was far too pretty for a place like this, bedecked with little--likely cheap--jewels, and with the perceptive abilities of a fish on dry land.

Veronica felt a tiny bit guilty as she told the innkeep to watch out for Crystal before leaving the place and finding a carriage heading north. She flicked the driver a silver, flashed her guild dagger’s hilt, then jumped aboard without much fuss.

Finally, at long last, she was free of the pest.

“Veronica!”

Veronica closed her eyes and held back a sob.

“Veronica! You forgot me behind!” Crystal screamed as she ran full-tilt along the road, easily outpacing the cart. “But it’s okay! I saw you leaving! I’m coming, Veronica!”

***

Chapter Five - An Hour Past Sunset

Chapter Five - An Hour Past Sunset

Veronica and Crystal arrived at the Jamit Inn an hour past sunset.

The cart-driver Veronica--and subsequently Crystal--had hitched a ride with said that he’d rather brave a pothole or two than stay parked next to some field overnight. After all, there were monsters in the area and cart-drivers tasted as good as anyone else, so even though the hour was late, they still made it to the inn.

The Jamit Inn was quite a bit bigger than the inn they’d stopped at earlier, but the extra size didn’t mean it had any more room. There were adventurers and merchants sleeping outside already.

Veronica cursed her luck at the sight.

“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked as she jumped off the cart. “Thank you, sir!”

The driver gave them a friendly wave, then continued on towards the stables. Veronica imagined he would have a hard time finding space for his horses, but maybe someone would let them into the pens and they could nibble at some hay.

“What’s wrong,” Veronica said as she suppressed a sigh. “Is that we’ve arrived too late to get a room.”

“We could have stayed at the last inn,” Crystal pointed out. “We had a room there. We would have had to share, but I don’t really need to sleep, so it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Veronica looked at the girl. “You don’t need to sleep?” she asked. She didn’t know what sort of daemon the girl had fed on to get her powers, but whatever it was, she was lucky to have gained the abilities she had. Just the option to forgo sleep would be worth a fair amount to the right people. Guards and the like, some workaholics as well.

The fact that the magic that came with the feeding seemed so potent was just salt on a filling meal. Or perhaps it was the other way around. In either case, Veronica had to rethink her plans to get the girl sleeping, then leave before she woke up.

“We might be able to find a place in the stables,” Veronica said. She eyed the people outside of the inn. A few had lit up some fires in the field across from the inn, with tents set around the open fire. It was clear that some of the adventurers and merchant guards had gone to sleep already, leaving others to the first watch. Plenty of them were still enjoying the night though, sharing drinks and chatting at some of the more open fires.

“Do you have a tent?” Crystal asked with a gesture to Veronica’s backpack. She didn’t know what was in there, but she guessed that if Veronica was some sort of magic-user she might have a neat magical bag filled with cool stuff.

Veronica shook her head, disappointing Crystal a bit. “All I have is a blanket and a change of clothes and some trail rations. A few tools too, but nothing that would let us set up for the night.”

They came closer to the stables and Veronica’s heart sank. The stables were quite full, with the horses sent to graze in the enclosed pasture behind them, the long, low building had been repurposed as temporary housing. Veronica noted that it was just women in there. Presumably the women from the various adventuring parties had decided to band together for the night.

Women adventurers were far fewer in number than men, but nearly two thirds of all of them were daemon-fed which made the prospect of annoying them a stupid risk.

“We could keep walking for a bit,” Crystal said. She didn’t mind the idea herself. The last inn... well, when she heard Veronica talk about an inn, her mind had gone to hotel chains and bed and breakfasts. What she’d found was a seedy, stinky place that wasn’t fit for a magical girl.

Actually, no, both Feasting Carnage and Burning Ultranova would have loved the atmosphere.

“I don’t like the idea of walking out there at night,” Veronica said with a dismissive gesture down the road.

Crystal could understand. The road went on for a ways, then disappeared into the darkness. The moon was only a thin sliver above a sky obscured by heavy clouds, which meant the only light came from the inn and the fires around it, and those only went so far.

“I could provide some light,” Crystal said, but she knew it was a losing argument. Even if she showed off her incredible flashlight skills (developed after dropping her phone under her bed, repeatedly) it probably wouldn’t put Veronica at ease. “Or I could make a small tent.”

“A tent?” Veronica asked. “How could you make one?”

“Out of crystals,” Crystal said. “A tent’s just four walls, isn’t it? I can make a sort of hollowed out cone-shaped crystal with a bit of focus. It won’t be super strong, but it’ll keep the rain and wind out. Like a teepee, I guess. But without a cloth flap for an entrance.”

Veronica eyed her for a while, then sighed. If the girl wanted to help, then who was she to refuse. “Sure. Why not? I’ll go get something to eat. Stay fairly close to the stables, alright?”

“Okay!” Crystal said. She wandered off the road just a little bit. Staying close to the stables wasn’t hard, it meant that she might be able to pet the horses in the morning. She found a nice grassy spot, then summoned a large hexagonal base to work with.

The crystal appeared without much fanfare, a big plate, maybe as thick as her hand, made of corundum. It was a satisfyingly hard material to use as a base, though it was a bit brittle. Mostly, she liked the blueness of it. She didn’t imagine Veronica would enjoy a transparent tent, so she made the walls--which rose up and met at a point a bit above her head in height--somewhat opaque.

It was going to be possible to see the outside, but only as vague shadows. Unless they looked through the opening she left in the front, of course.

Proud of her work, Crystal slid into her giant sapphire tent and sat down to wait.

Meanwhile, Veronica was slowly losing what patience she had left.

It seemed as though all the level-headed people had gone to bed already, which left the non-level-headed and the drunk behind, as well as some clearly overworked staff. “Excuse me,” she said to the person behind the bar. The man turned her way and blinked. “I need meals. Two of them.”

“Kitchen’s closed,” he said without really engaging with her at all.

“Hey, lovely, you know, if ya want a meal, I got something you can eat right here,” a very drunk patron said.

Veronica turned, sneer on full display to find a man not so much sitting in his seat as he was hanging onto it. She almost chewed his head off, but she noticed the sword by his hip. Two silver rings on the pommel. And he wore a pale yellow scarf like a small sash.

“I’m afraid I’m not interested,” she said.

“Ah, come on!” he slurred. “Aren’t I good enough for you? Look at you, all pretty and blue, but just a little bronze, ain’t it? Not much there, huh?”

“Sir, I’m tired after a long day’s work, all I want is--”

“A warm bed, eh?” he asked before elbowing the guy next to him. Another drunk, though this one seemed a bit less tipsy. They both laughed, and Veronica decided that she could go one night without a warm meal. Her trail rations only needed to last until they made it to Kircken and that was only a day’s walk.

She started to walk off, but the idiot grabbed her by the wrist. “Let go.”

“Come on,” he said with a smile that had her gorge rising. He stank of the cheap sort of beer only given to those too drunk to know better than to drink it.

Veronica snapped out with her magic, catching the man in its effect and slowing him down noticeably. She, of course, wasn’t affected, so she spun around and slapped him across the cheek and watched him fly back in slow motion before she tore her arm free and walked on.

Her magic ran out over the area and the man crashed to the floor as momentum reverted to what it had been.

She hoped that no one noticed the bit of frosting on his glass as she stomped out of the inn.

She’d make a formal complaint in the morning. There should have been bouncers or something to keep the rabble in line.

Then, still stewing in anger, she arrived to find a small structure made out of what looked like a gem fit for an emperor’s emperor slapped down next to the stables.

“You know what, I don’t even care anymore,” she grumbled.

***

Origin - One - Rending Nightmare

Origin - One - Rending Nightmare

The room was silent in the way that only an exam hall could be.

There was the occasional cough, maybe a sniffle, the scratching of pencils--often, the silence was broken by the surprisingly loud screech of a chair on the waxed wooden floor.

She took a deep breath and tried to remove herself from the distractions around her, to place herself in that nook in her mind where it was all quiet. Her grandpappy, bless his soul, had taught her that trick. He was a strange man, and she didn’t remember much of him except for his big beard, his smile, and a few of the strange lessons he taught her.

This was one of them, he called it riding the nightmare.

When she was younger she thought it was nothing but a silly way to have fun. Later she cynically thought it was an old man’s way of getting a little girl to sit down and be quiet. Now... now she needed that strange focus.

This was the entrance exam to the Escola Central de Brasil. It was a prestigious campus to be on. From high-school to early college. It had great after-school clubs, it had a political sciences and early-STEM course. It had links to several of the region’s best colleges, and a lot of students from here travelled to the United States to attend one of their ivy-league schools once they graduated high school.

The English teachers were actually English, from England.

The yearly cost for a student was... steep, and that didn’t count the bribes her family had had to pay just to get her to sit in on this exam.

She needed to get good grades on it.

She shifted in her seat and then allowed herself to run a hand through her dark brown hair to push back a bit of sweat. The question was done. On to the next.

Her heartbeat was a drum in her ears, a quick thump-thump beat. She felt a little faint, but pushed through it.

Years of hard work led to this. If she passed, if she studied hard and graduated with a scholarship, then all of her family’s dreams would be so much closer to being accomplished. She’d go to a good college, maybe go into medicine. That was acceptable for a young woman, and it paid well. Or maybe engineering? She’d like that.

She shook her head and re-read the next question while a staff member walked by her. She kept her head down and her lips shut. Being noticed would be trouble.

So many thoughts and scenarios pushed themselves into her mind. So she closed her eyes, just for a second, and she imagined herself grabbing the nightmares and subjugating them to her will. It was a trick to help her nap better when she was little, a lesson that she was in control of herself, even of her own fear.

There was no letting fear control her. Fear, anxiety, stress, they were all things she made for herself. She gripped her pen harder and opened her eyes. A glance to the head of the room and she took in the time. Still two hours to go. She refrained from counting the number of pages left.

Someone screamed something at the front of the room. She didn’t pay attention.

Reaching the end of the page she was on, she flipped it over, then penned her name at the top. Alice De Armas. Just the one family name, not that most would question it.

Next was math. She liked math. It was logical and straightforward. The more... abstract maths were a little hard to wrap her head around, but this was meant for a new high school student. It wouldn’t be much more than algebra and geometry.

A few chairs squeaked, and someone ran by. A teacher spotting someone cheating?

She refocused.

Someone jostled her desk and she frowned, but didn’t look up. The first page was laughably easy, but she went over every question again, just in case.

The next scream was much, much louder, and she jumped in her seat. It was too late though, a boy ran into her seat, head turned to look over her shoulder. Alice gasped as her chair was struck and it tipped way, way back, then with a forward swing, it righted itself and she sprawled onto her desk.

She glanced towards the gymnasium’s exit, confused. What was happening?

There was a bright red light coming from the corridor just outside the doors leading into the gym.

A girl stumbled through the doors. She was bleeding, a lot. Her outfit, a pale blouse and long skirt, were stained with more blood than Alice had ever seen.

She tried to stand.

EVEN THE MIGHTIEST LORD OF THE DIVINE HELLS FEARS THE SHADOW OF SLEEP.

Alice stumbled back into her seat. Someone had just shouted at her. No... it wasn’t a shout. She had heard that voice as if someone had turned a megaphone to its highest setting right next to her, but it was too clear for that.

She was dazed, and it took her a moment to stand back up.

The other students were running to the far end of the exam hall. There was a stampede. The door wasn’t opening, no matter how much they pressed and pushed.

FOR IN THOSE MOMENTS OF UNGUARDED NEAR-DEATH, THEY ARE CLOSER THAN ANY TO THE DOMAIN OF SHE WHO RENDS, THE QUEEN OF SHADOWS, THE NIGHTMARE WALKER.

Again, the voice. “What’s going on?” she asked. She didn’t want to go to the back of the room. Even now, the strange panic that had overtaken everyone was only growing, but some intelligence prevailed and people backed away from the door. One of the teachers, a big burly man, reared back and kicked the door.

It thumped, but remained closed.

Another scream, this time from the entrance. A staff member stumbled into the room, she was screaming, a strangely high-pitched yet gurgly scream.

BESTOWED WITH THE WILL TO REMAIN STEADFAST AGAINST ALL, SHE WHO RENDS WILL WALK AND HAS WALKED THROUGH THE SHADOWS OF THE GREATEST FOES OF HEAVEN AND HELL ALIKE.

Alice grabbed at her head. Her heart was pounding in her ears, faster and faster. But it didn’t hurt. “What are you saying?” she asked.

Something told her she was the only one hearing that voice. She didn’t know what it was talking about though. A nightmare? Someone walking through it?

She couldn’t forget the words. Every one of them was right there, loud and clear as if she was reading them from a plaque in front of her very eyes. That didn’t help her understand them though.

FOR WITHIN THE PITS OF DARKNESS, HER REIGN IS ABSOLUTE, AND EVEN THE BRIGHTEST OF LIGHTS CASTS A SHADOW.

The teacher by the door collapsed. Alice noticed the long, serrated knife plunged into her back. It was pitch-black, crude and poorly made.

A few students ran to her, more teachers shouted instructions that no one was listening to. Only a few students had phones out. They weren’t supposed to have those in the exam room to begin with.

A shooter? Here? Today?

No, she hadn’t heard shots. A person with knives?

BECOME THE WHISPER IN THE NIGHT. BECOME THE STRANGLED CALL. BECOME SHE WHO RIPS APART THE SEAMS BETWEEN REALITY. THE NIGHT IS ETERNAL. YOUR SHADOW AWAITS.

Someone... something, stepped into the gym. It was small, no taller than Alice’s hip, with red skin and thin limbs. It was emaciated and gaunt, with little horns atop its head and beady black eyes.

She imagined, for a moment, that it was a large carablanca monkey, but the skin was all wrong. It had a pair of knives.

The creature looked across the room, then laughed, high-pitched and cruel. “So much prey! So many deliciousness for the dark lords! And for us!”

More of them started to file into the room. One of them was dragging a girl. Someone Alice’s age. Dead.

Alice heard the room’s collective gasp, she felt the wave of fear pressing in from everyone else. The only windows were high above. The doors weren’t opening. There was no other exit but that one. They were going to die.

I AM DREAM CHARTER. CRAFTED BY YOUR FUTURE HAND TO GUIDE YOU TOWARDS YOUR INEVITABLE VICTORY.

Alice didn’t feel any of the fear. Or... she did, but her lessons, long ago but frequently practised, came to the fore. She took hold of the fear and made it her own.

She stood taller. Something was happening to her. Her heart beat faster and faster. Her skin felt warm. Her eyes watered, unfocused, then refocused and her vision felt cleaner, more clear, as though she’d been wearing dirty sunglasses indoors and just removed them.

AWAKEN ME, AND BY YOUR COMMAND I SHALL SERVE ONLY YOU, RENDING NIGHTMARE.

It was obscene. It was stupid. She was hearing voices and now there were horned demon monsters filling into the gym. One of them ran at a girl nearby, entirely ignoring a boy between it and the girl. It jumped on her chest and raised an arm to stab down at her.

“Awaken,” she murmured.

LET US SPREAD THE FEAR OF YOU.

Alice almost fumbled the sword that appeared in her hand. Her grip loosened, then tightened on the hilt just in time to stop her from dropping it.

The sword was a deep blue, with a double-edge and a basket over the hilt. She wasn’t sure what kind of sword it was, but it seemed almost... fantastical. The colour, the lightness of it.

What seemed less silly was the way the sword’s shadow travelled down to the ground as an almost solid thing. It didn’t make sense, and yet it did.

“What now?” she asked.

YOU ARE A MAGICAL GIRL. THERE ARE DEMONS INVADING. TRANSFORM.

She froze. A magical girl? For some reason everything up until that moment felt right, believable. Sure, there were demons attacking and she had a magic sword. But being a magical girl? That was just far, far too silly.

Then the girl the nearest demon was on screamed as she was stabbed in the head, and Alice felt her rapid heartbeat stutter. The girl fell, her scream silenced.

Someone had just died while she debated how nonsensical things were.

“How do I... transform?” she asked.

THE SHADOWS ARE YOURS TO COMMAND. DEMAND THAT THEY ASSIST YOU. TAKE CONTROL AND YOUR WILL SHALL GUIDE.

She didn’t know what that meant. She stepped up anyway.

The demon that had stabbed the girl giggled manically, then it jumped up at her.

Alice gasped, tried to grab the sword with two hands, realized that there wasn’t room for her off-hand on the hilt, then she swiped the sword out towards the imp on reflex.

The blade met the demon’s knife and metal went spinning through the air to clatter nearby. The imp pulled its knife back, staring at where the tip should have been. “Bitch whore!” it spat. “Eat your eyesies I will!”

Alice stumbled back. Transform. She was meant to transform. But she was afraid and... and she grabbed her fear. Somehow it was so much easier than it had once been, and also, a lot more literal.

She still fell back, but instead of crashing to the ground, her shadow grew, expanding beneath her and ripping itself free as it fought against the very light that created it with tooth and nail.

The shadows ate her.

For a moment, there was no Alice. And then she was reborn, hatching from a moulting, twisting darkness that had every being that saw it--human or demon--screaming as long repressed fears came to the fore.

The egg cracked, and Alice shot out of it faster than she’d ever moved before.

Her sword painted a black line through the air that casually moved through the imp.

She wasn’t dressed as she had been. Her skirt was replaced with tight pants, like riding pants, and her blouse was now a creamy shirt with ruffles at the chest. She had a caplet of a deep, dark blue, and unfamiliar-but-comfortable hiking boots with golden tassels where laces ought to have been.

The outfit felt incomplete, but she didn’t have time to wonder at it.

“It’s her!” one of the imps screamed.

It ran at her.

Another gurgled something in a tongue that made her skin itch and a ball of greenish fire appeared before it. It tossed it at her.

Alice moved, and almost stumbled at her own speed. The world felt slower, as if it were moving in slow motion whenever she acted. The charging imp was beheaded, then she sliced the fireball apart.

The burning green flames were split apart, but each half still crashed onto the ground and onto a desk and lit both of them up with a gush of fire.

Alice flung a hand out towards the next fireball and the shadows it cast as it moved reversed directions and rose, swallowing the flames with too many teeth.

“Kill it! Kill it for the dark lords!” one imp screamed.

“Eat her soul!” another said. “Eat it and become as a dark lord yourself!”

She didn’t like the sound of that.

Alice ran towards the little demons, the shadows around her leaping up and snatching fireballs out of the air like an eager dog catching treats.

Then she was among the imps and her sword swept left and right. Some tried to parry, but her sword moved through flesh and steel as if it were no more than a suggestion.

And then, with her mind thrumming, Alice came to a stop and looked around her.

Imps, or parts of them, lay across the ground. Some cut, others partially swallowed by their own shadows. Their faces were rictuses of anger and hatred. She couldn’t feel any guilt at what she’d done, only confusion.

WELL DONE, RENDING NIGHTMARE.

The darkness around her slid back, and her sword disappeared with a hiss. She knew she could call it back at a moment’s notice. Her costume faded like darkness before a light, and she was, once more, in her normal outfit.

Then she turned and noticed all the students staring.

“Um,” she said.

How was she going to explain this... and would she have to retake the entrance exam?

***

Chapter Six - Kircken Up Ahead

Chapter Six - Kircken Up Ahead

Veronica sighed as she saw Kircken up ahead. The trip over had been taxing. Not so much physically--they had gotten a ride on a horse-drawn cart heading into the city which moved faster than she could on foot and which saved her feet the sores of being on the road--but more mentally.

Crystal hadn’t shut up.

Veronica was contemplating removing one of her stockings and shoving it into the girl’s mouth. The fact that Veronica hadn’t bathed in three days--her stocking probably smelled bad enough to reflect that--would only be salt onto the sweet silence of not having to hear Crystal prattle on.

The girl had gone on and on about her strange friends, as if they were the only thing that mattered. From what Veronica had pieced together Crystal was part of some club of overly rich noble girls of the same approximate age. They were all daemon-fed as well.

How Crystal had ended up so far from wherever her home was, Veronica didn’t know. The incompetence required to get so lost wasn’t beyond Crystal, in her opinion.

Crystal sat up straighter. She was on her knees behind the driver’s seat, mostly because the cart really wasn’t carrying much, just a few small boxes and a few packs, so while she didn’t get to sit at the front with the driver (Veronica got that seat) she did get to squeeze in between them. And, that meant that she got to see Kircken out ahead.

So far they’d crossed a number of little farms. Most of those were made of a single modest home and maybe a barn or pig pen or two. There were a few villages too, or maybe that wasn’t the right term. They were usually collections of four to six homes with fields all around and small roads that branched off the wider, main road leading to Kircken.

Kircken itself was undoubtedly not a village or a town, it was a proper city.

The walls around Kircken rose ten or more metres off the ground, big stout things with towers set at every point where the wall turned. The tops of the walls were lined with parapets, and the towers had big siege engines sitting on them. There were catapults and ballistae, just like the ones Crystal had seen in cartoons.

There were a few buildings around the city, mostly little farmlettes and a few big enclosures for horses and cows and sometimes both. Roads criss-crossed all over the place, though only the big, main roads were made of anything other than stomped dirt.

“Whoa! That looks so medieval,” Crystal said.

“It looks what?” Veronica asked.

“Oh, nevermind,” Crystal said. She grinned. “So, that’s Kircken, right?” Early on she’d asked the same question about one of the first towns they came across which was, in her opinion, a natural mistake to make.

“That’s Kircken, yes,” Veronica said. “It’s a trade city, between the coast and the mountains. The city’s grown a lot in the last few decades, and some of that is thanks to the guild.”

“Oh?” Crystal asked.

Veronica decided to humour her question. It was something she’d had to learn in one of her lessons on local history. “The region, as you can tell, is quite hilly. There are plains on the other side of the city though, and they tend to house a large number of daemons. Enough that the guild set up a permanent headquarters here to hunt them. They’re mostly common, weaker daemons, but they ensure a constant stream of gold.”

“I still don’t know what a daemon is,” Crystal muttered.

“Of course you do,” Veronica dismissed. “You probably just have another name for them where you’re from. Monsters, maybe?”

Crystal pouted. Veronica wasn’t mean, exactly, but she was very dismissive at times, which made it hard for Crystal to learn about things when Veronica just insisted that Crystal knew those things already.

Usually, magical girls had the opposite problem, where people assumed they knew nothing because they were teenage girls.

As they approached the city, Crystal started to pay a bit more attention. There was a big gate with towers on either side of it and guards stationed around the gate with long halberds. The guards wore plain beige clothes, but they looked thick and padded, and they all had metal helmets on that looked a bit like pots with one side cut out.

For all that she thought their uniform looked a bit silly, Crystal still tried to remain serious as they approached. They had to jump off the cart and walk towards a line for people entering the city on foot.

A guard by a smaller gate was checking people as they entered. “Papers, please,” he said to Veronica as she approached. He glanced up, then noted the dagger by her belt.

Veronica fished out her papers from a small waterproofed pouch and handed them over. They would identify her as Veronica Dotter, the child of a baron, which really didn’t make her very much at all, but it was better than being a peasant. Her guild papers weren’t much more impressive. She had only been a member for a month or so.

“Alright,” the guard said. “And you?” he asked Crystal.

“Um... I don’t imagine you’d accept a passport?” she asked. Reaching into the poof of her skirt, she pulled out her passport. It was a special one, issued by the United Nations to all magical girls. They tended to end up in strange countries, fighting evil overlords and necromancers and aliens, and that made international travel visas a bit tricky.

The guard raised an eyebrow and took the passport. “Um,” he said as he opened it to a picture of a smiling Crystal in a pale blue blouse. It was a few years old, so she was noticeably younger.

Crystal smiled in imitation of the image, as if to say ‘see, that’s me.’ the guard tilted it to the side, then the other.

“I can’t read this,” he said.

“Oh,” Crystal said. Of course he couldn’t. There were pages in a few languages in there, English, French, German, Spanish, and a few others besides, but she imagined that didn’t help. She wasn’t even sure what language they spoke here because her magic was cheating for her.

“I’ll vouch for her,” Veronica finally said with a sigh.

It was something of a risk, of course. Now if Crystal caused trouble, they’d be asking Veronica some pertinent questions but... she felt a little responsible for the girl. And maybe a tiny bit guilty.

She signed a few papers, then gave the gate guard some copper to enter. “Alright,” she said as soon as they were past. Kircken opened up before them. Being such a relatively new city (it had been around for centuries, but always as little more than a fort and a small rest-stop for traders, now it was a proper city) meant that the roads were wide and clean and that the buildings were all impressively new. The main thoroughfare was lined with shops of all sorts, most aiming to attract adventurers and magi. “Is this where we part ways?”

“What?” Crystal asked. The question cut into her ogling of the cityscape around her. “Part ways? But... where will I go?”

“Don’t you have a family to return to?” Veronica asked.

Crystal crossed her arms. “No. I’m looking for my friends. I don’t know where they are. I don’t even know where to begin looking.”

Veronica rubbed at her face. She couldn’t afford to pay the girl enough to get by. A few nights in a seedy inn, maybe, but not much beyond that. And now, thanks to the gate guards, Crystal was somewhat her responsibility.

Sometimes she hated noble obligations. “Well, while you’re looking, you’ll need work.”

“Work?” Crystal asked.

“To earn coin.”

“I know what work is,” Crystal replied. “I’ve just... never held a job before.” Some of her friends had part-time jobs, after-school things that they’d use as excuses to get out of magical girling, but she’d never really worked that way before.

“Do you have any skills?” Veronica asked.

“Plenty,” Crystal said. “But, uh, they mostly have to do with killing things.”

Veronica eyed Crystal for a moment. She looked old enough. And she was decently strong, if clueless. And of course, there was a small finder’s bonus on the line... not to mention the credit would help her earn her third bronze ring and she could use every bit of goodwill she could find for when Frederick reported what happened.

“Have you ever considered fighting daemons?” Veronica asked.

Crystal blinked. “Isn’t that what you do?”

“It is,” Veronica replied.

“In that case, sure! Sign me up!”

Veronica grinned. Perfect. She could dump Crystal at the guild, she’d get some training, then be put on a team far, far away from Veronica. It was the ideal solution.

***

Chapter Seven - Not All that Big

Chapter Seven - Not All that Big

Most of the buildings in Kircken--even those that didn’t look old at all--weren’t all that big. Crystal was used to the modern cities of her own Earth, with tall skyscrapers and big apartment buildings all over.

The biggest homes in Kircken weren’t much bigger than two floors. They were mostly wood and stone and brick, with shuttered windows being quite common on the ground floor.

The city was pretty, but it kind of stank. Crystal was very much not fond of the strong odour of poop and sweat circulating around them.

To Veronica, it smelled like any other city. “We’re heading to the central plaza, that’s where the guild is. If you ever get lost, just head towards the middle of the city. It’s mostly uphill.”

Crystal glanced around and only then noticed that the cobbles were at a bit of a slant and that they were walking uphill. It made sense. There were plenty of hills all around Kircken, of course they’d have no choice but to build onto one of them.

“So, what does the guild do?” Crystal asked.

Veronica sighed. “Does the guild not exist where you’re from?”

“Well, I’m sure we have plenty of them,” Crystal replied. She had paid more attention to after-school clubs, personally. Guilds sounded a bit more... formal and adult-ish.

“The guild, or more properly, the Daemon-Hunter’s Association, is an organisation designed to assist hunters with killing and harvesting daemons. It’s international, and it’s powerful. The guild has fought the armies of small nations to a stand-still before, mostly because so many of its members are daemon-fed like us.”

“I still don’t know what that means,” Crystal said.

“Magi. People with magical abilities.”

“Oh,” Crystal said. “Well, I don’t recall eating any daemons for my magic, but okay.”

Veronica rolled her eyes but didn’t argue the point. Her father, who was quite the wise man, had once told her that arguing with fools only added more fools to the world.

They walked across the city, keeping to the sides of the roads where the carts and carriages didn’t pass as often and avoiding the few stalls trying to entice them with fruits and meat. Veronica had enough on her mind that her hunger was a distant thing, and Crystal was still just flat broke.

They came onto the guild soon enough. It was a grand building in the city square. Tall and made of interlocking stone, the Kircken guild had two gigantic stone figures before its entrance: a knight to the right and a proud hunter to the left. The only non-stone objects on the two were the rings on the knight’s pommel and around the hunter’s bow, which were copper polished to a near-golden gleam.

“If this is the guild, then what’s that?” Crystal asked with a gesture across the square. Opposite the guild was a tower. It was the tallest edifice in the entire city, easily rising three floors over the guild and taller even than the nearby cathedral and city hall, though for all its height it was rather narrow.

“That’s this city’s Arcane tower,” Veronica said. She didn’t let her gaze linger on the building long. While she herself was a magi, she had little to do with the arcane arts beyond those she practised. “They study the daemon arts, and are quite powerful in their own right.”

“Are they, like, the guild’s competition?” Crystal asked. The idea of a wizard’s tower was pretty cool. Sure, she was a magical girl, not a wizardess, but that didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate having a big lonely tower from which to practise magic from.

“It’s complicated,” Veronica said. It was more than a little complicated. The Arcane towers in nearly every city held a fair amount of clout. Every member, without exception, was daemon-fed. That alone made them powerful. The quality of the members was also concerning to most, but for the most part, they sought knowledge about the daemons and about their own magic.

Creative use of magic could turn a simple power into a true menace, and their stance on recording and distributing knowledge often had them butting heads with the church.

There was nothing preventing a member of the Arcane towers from joining the guild though, and Veronica had heard that there was some crossover. Some of the best quests handed out by the guild were from the towers. They were the most dangerous quests, but the best paying.

On occasion, an Arcane tower might ask someone with a unique power to visit them for testing. Veronica shuddered at the idea.

“Come on, stay close, alright?” Veronica asked.

“Okay!” Crystal said.

Veronica nodded to the guards at the guild’s entrance, then when prompted, explained that Crystal was a potential new member, and that she was there to speak to an administrator. They were let in in short order.

The guild wasn’t full, but it was busy. The main hall was a grand place, with some seating to the side where teams were gathered up and waiting. Veronica wasn’t intimately familiar with this branch, but it wasn’t too different from the one near to her home.

The floor above would have temporary housing for trainers and the messengers who moved from guild to guild. Above that would be the meeting rooms and administrative offices needed to keep a guild functioning. As well as the guild-leader’s office, which she dearly hoped she wouldn’t need to visit.

There might have been a basement, with an armoury and storage as well. Certainly there was a testing room somewhere, as well as a place where a guild member could get some training, either with a new daemon-fed power or just weapons and hand-to-hand combat training.

This guild’s library was off to the side, in a room with wide doors that they crossed on the way to the front counter. The library would have tales from other guildmates, maps, and long indexes with information about various daemons.

A team hunting a specific creature had to know how best to tackle it.

To Crystal, the place was more interesting because of its decor than anything else. The entrance hall was filled with pillars reaching up to form big arches that lead all the way to a long counter at the end of the room.

She and Veronica walked all the way over to the counter where a young woman was waiting for them. The young miss smiled, and Crystal almost missed the long scar on one side of her face, and the missing arm. She had a long knife by her hip, similar to Veronica’s, but more narrow and with three silver rings on the pommel.

Crystal was beginning to suspect those meant something.

“Hello,” Veronica said. She fished out her papers and set them on the desk. “I... need assistance.”

“How can we help, guildsister... Dotter?” the receptionist asked.

Veronica smiled slightly. Someone with three silver rings didn’t need to call her sister. Then again, a receptionist... Well, the woman was probably retired from fieldwork, but likely no less dangerous. “Right, let’s start with the easy stuff. My... travel companion here is looking for work. Her name is Crystal...” Veronica realized she didn’t know Crystal's family name, and moved on quickly. “She’s looking to join the guild.”

“Oh! Well, we could always use some fresh blood,” the receptionist said. Her smile was just shy of unnerving. “We’ve had a rush of new members lately. I can sign you on now, miss, and you can go do the written test as soon as I find someone to overlook you.”

“There’s a test?” Crystal asked.

“Nothing too complicated,” Veronica assured her, then she remembered her own test and despaired. “It’s just a bunch of common-sense questions. The physical part is simple too. I’m... I’m sure you’ll answer enough questions correctly to pass,” she lied.

Crystal always found tests a little anxiety-inducing, but maybe not knowing about one until the last second would help with that. “Okay? It’s just a written test?”

“Brilliant. The physical tests will be conducted... tomorrow morning. It’s a little quick, I’m aware, but we already have a large group of applicants set to be tested,” the receptionist said.

“What’s the physical like?’ Crystal said. She wasn’t sure if she was comfortable with having a doctor’s exam with someone she didn’t know. Ever since she’d met Screaming Bioplague, Crystal had just gone to her whenever she had any health issues.

“It’s a combat test. A guild-certified trainer will have the group face various challenges to see if you’re fit and capable enough to work as a daemon-hunter,” the receptionist said.

“Oh, I can manage that,” Crystal said. “Can I use magic at all?”

“There’s a magical test as well. It should actually help you pass if you have difficulty with other parts of the test,” she said. “Women often fall behind when it comes to some of the more strenuous parts of the exam, but magic cures many ills.”

Veronica nodded. “That covers my first issue nicely. My second one is a lot more complicated.”

***

Chapter Eight - Lit With a Long Match

Chapter Eight - Lit With a Long Match

Crystal checked out the room as she entered it. It was rather plain, just a space with a few desks pointing to a blackboard at the back. There was a single small window overlooking a courtyard, and a lamp hung by the door which the receptionist lady lit with a long match.

The lady placed a small stack of pages onto one of the desks, then she placed a pen next to that, then an inkwell. “This is the standard entrance test,” she said. “It’s twenty-four questions, please fill them out as clearly as you can, but if you don’t know an answer, just skip it.”

“Thanks,” Crystal said. She smiled, then plopped herself down behind the desk. At the front, the receptionist took out an hourglass and spun it around.

Little grains of sand hissed down from one bulb to the other, a gentle murmur in the background that was far louder than the distant thumps and talking in the building. They had pretty thick walls.

Crystal checked the pen, which looked like a calligraphy pen but without any little decorations on it, then she read the first lines on the exam.

FULL NAME.
PLACE OF BIRTH
AGE

Crystal smiled. Easy-peasy. She knew all of those, obviously. She hesitated over the name though. Was it better to use her real name, or her magical girl one? Her passport used her magical girl name, and it was good enough for a bunch of official things back on her Earth, so she went with that.

It was a little tricky to write with the pen, so she turned the test around and drew some lines, then a few circles, and then, for good measure, a squiggle or two.

Place of birth was easy, she came from Wellington in New Zealand. She didn’t know if anyone here would know where that was, but it didn’t really matter.

Age? She blushed as she wrote seventeen. She looked a bit younger than that though. She hoped she didn’t have to explain how magical girl biology worked, because she really didn’t know.

On to the next question.

DESCRIBE IN DETAIL HOW TO EXTRACT THE BRAIN FROM A HANIEL.

Crystal blinked. What the heck was a Haniel? Why would she want to extract its brain? Brains were icky and gross, she didn’t want to touch one if she could avoid it.

She moved to the next question.

WHAT KIND OF DAEMONS LIVE EXCLUSIVELY IN SHALLOW WATER?

She pouted most mightily at the paper. No one would explain to her was a daemon even was! How was she supposed to know?

WHAT SUPPLIES SHOULD A HUNTER PARTY OF FOUR BRING IF THEY ARE HUNTING A KERUBIEL?

Crystal huffed. She could kind of guess some of the things for this one. Food for four, tents, and camping equipment. She listed off the kinds of things she thought would be appropriate, then moved on to the next question.

UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES CAN A GUILD TEAM USE THEIR OWN HUNTED BOUNTY? WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR SUCH?

She had no idea.

Crystal flipped the page over, then went over all the questions. There were two more that she could guess at. One had to do with caring for horses, where all those horse movies she saw came in handy, and the other was about team composition, which she kinda knew a bit about from working with her friends so much.

“Um, I’m done,” she said. She felt a little ashamed at how much of her test was blank.

The receptionist looked up from a stack of papers of her own. “Oh,” she said as she stood up. The hourglass’ top bulb was very much still full. “I’ll take that, then.”

“Um, if I don’t do good, does that mean I’ve failed?” Crystal asked.

“Your written score will be tallied against your practical score, which is going to be tested tomorrow morning, an hour after sun-up. Please don’t be late.”

“Right!” Crystal said. She practically ran out of the room, face steaming-warm the entire time. She hadn’t done so poorly on a test since... forever.

As she went to the lobby to wait for Veronica to come back, she hoped that her new friend was having a better day than her.

Veronica, who was upstairs standing at attention before the guild master’s desk, was not having a good day.

The guild master was an old gentleman by the name of Lucas. She didn’t know his family name. She did know that the longsword hanging from a belt hooked to the guild master’s chair had a single golden ring around the pommel. The man might have been a few years her father’s elder, but he was wire-thin and looked like he could take on a dozen bronze and iron ring guild members all at once to teach them to respect their elders.

She wasn’t afraid that he would lash out physically though. A guild master had to be level-headed, and one who presided over a guild as strong as Kircken’s had to be especially smart.

“How many dead?” he asked.

“Just one, sir,” she said. “Michel. Three silver. He was a daemon-fed who could throw--”

“I know who he is,” he said. His hands came together, fingers interwoven before his mouth. “And after he died you abandoned your team?”

“No, sir, it was more complicated than that.”

“I’m sure it was,” he grumbled. “From what I understand, Frederick, your team leader, decided to capture a group of half-daemons, you objected, then somehow, Michel, a long-time member of the guild, died, and after that you were separated from the group. Am I understanding the facts correctly?”

“...That’s an oversimplification sir,” she said after a long moment's hesitation. “But the civilians.”

“But nothing, Miss Dotter. That would have been a matter to bring up to your team lead after the half-daemons were captured. You endangered yourself and the team by acting out of turn. Something which should be obvious seeing as how a member of your team died.”

Veronica took a deep breath, then focused on a point above the guild master’s head. She wanted to argue, but she understood how poorly things looked for her at the moment.

“I imagine I'll be receiving a report from Frederick sometime soon,” he said.

“That seems likely, sir,” she replied. Frederick should, if she were lucky, still be on his way over. Unless he decided to keep on the hunt even though he was two members short. That would have been irresponsible, but then if they only focused on the weakest of daemons, or perhaps assisted other teams out in the field, then they could still make a tidy profit without too much risk.

“That report will determine your fate in this matter,” Lucas said.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

“Now, what’s this about a new member?” he asked.

“Her name is Crystal. She... is the one who had an altercation with Michel. He attacked first, she defended herself. I’m not sure what drove him to act.”

He hummed. “And you haven’t handed her over to the authorities yet because?” he let on, leadingly.

“Because she seemed innocent at the time. She’s... nice, I suppose. And she had expressed interest in joining the guild at the moment.”

Lucas leaned back in his seat. “Power, as you may well know from your background, absolves one of many sins in this world. To kill an silver-ringed member, I imagine she is powerful in her own way?”

“Um, yes sir, she is somewhat powerful, perhaps enough to reach gold, one day?” She couldn’t imagine it. Crystal was too much of a clutz to ever reach even iron, but by the time anyone realized that, it might be long enough that Veronica’s reputation was saved.

“We’ll see,” he said dismissively. He reached into his desk, drew out a few sheets with lines pressed into them already, and then made a few notes. “I’m writing to the city guard and demanding that you and Miss Crystal remain within the confines of Kircken until further notice.”

“How long, sir?” she asked.

“Until further notice,” he repeated. “I might allow you to leave the city on guild business if I receive Frederick’s report and it corroborates your own. Don’t expect me to be any more lenient than I already am. We have cells in this building for a reason, Miss Dotter.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

And then she was dismissed.

Crystal perked up when she saw Veronica coming down the stairs to meet her. “So, how’d it go?” she asked.

“Let’s just get an inn for the night,” Veronica said.

“Oh no, did things not go well?” Crystal asked.

Veronica debated what to say, then she sighed. “No, they didn’t. I’m getting raked over the coals for everything, I think. This might devolve into politics. And... yeah. What about you?”

Crystal winces. “I did bad,” she admitted. “I really don’t know what a daemon is, and all the questions were strange.”

Glancing at the smaller girl, Veronica closed her eyes and groaned. She’d messed that up too, hadn’t she? “Fine. Let’s get a room, and I’ll explain everything I can to you.”

***

Chapter Nine - Like a Pet

Chapter Nine - Like a Pet

Veronica paid the innkeep, thanked them, then moved past the counter on the way down a short corridor lined with doors leading into various rooms. Crystal followed after her. Veronica had never had a pet before, but she imagined having one would be somewhat similar to this.

Or maybe it would be more appropriate to think of it as having a daughter?

That line of thinking made her a little uncomfortable. She’d known a few women who’d passed while giving birth, even some daemon-fed who had been quite strong in their own right. The idea was somewhat traumatising, though... no, this was more like adopting a fully-grown child.

She shook her head. The compounding stress was making her mind run in strange directions. Stupid ones, at that.

The room she’d taken was relatively small, but it had two beds, and they were allowed to use the bathing room next to the kitchen, even if that room was little more than a few buckets of warm water and a drain. She was looking forward to it; and to removing all of her gear.

But first, she had to deal with a rather awkward conversation. “So... what do you know about daemons?”

“I know a lot about demons,” Crystal said, pronouncing the word strangely. “From fighting them here and there. But they tend to be pretty different depending on which bit they’re from. I don’t know what kind of demons or daemon or whatever you’re dealing with here though, they sound pretty different from the ones magical girls have to fight.”

Veronica nodded slowly. It was possible that Crystal was from somewhere far enough away that their daemons were different, or they had a different system for dealing with them. The Daemon-Hunter’s Guild was a strange institution whose origins were steeped in desperation. Another country might have had their own way of protecting themselves from daemons.

“The daemons here are usually fairly different from each other, but they can be grouped into similar sorts. Just like... a cow is a cow, but there are brown cows and some who are white with black spots,” Veronica said.

“Or black with white spots,” Crystal pointed out.

Veronica shrugged. “They’re a cow either way, aren’t they?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Crystal agreed.

“Right, well, daemons are like that. Similar, but not always identical. They’re all dangerous, of course. The guild ranks them based on their level of threat, and some hunters will specifically be outfitted and trained to hunt specific daemons.”

“You hunt them because they’re dangerous, then?” Crystal asked.

“We hunt them for their brains,” Veronica corrected.

“Huh?” Crystal was more than a little confused. Either Veronica was hunting these monsters to get smarter, or because they were smart. It didn’t make sense.

Veronica noticed her confusion. “Do you know where magic comes from?”

“Friendship?”

“... No. Magic comes from daemons. And by eating the brain of a daemon, you can gain their magic.”

Crystal blinked. She looked somewhat horrified. “So... you what, hunt these daemons down then pickle their brains for magic?”

“I don’t think we pickle daemon brains. I’ve heard of them being salted for travel before though. You generally don’t want to risk the meat too much or it might not work.”

Crystal raised a hand to pause Veronica. The way the older girl was speaking told her that she was entirely serious about this. “So, your magic... comes from eating a monster’s brain?”

“Yes. It was an exceptionally expensive one. My family could hardly afford it, but the hunters who brought the beast down were lucky in their hunt and we had the best offer in the region. They would have made a fortune here, but several day’s travel would have been a great risk, of both theft and losing the meat to rot,” she explained. “So I was lucky, in a way.”

Crystal shook her head. “And there wasn’t a cute animal companion to guide you?”

“Pardon?”

“No talking weapons?” Crystal tried.

“No?”

“What the heck,” Crystal said. “This is so weird.”

Veronica sat closer to the edge of her seat. “The fact that you are unaware is what is bizarre here. Everyone knows this. Children know all of this.”

“You let kids eat demon brains?” Crystal asked.

“I imagine some do. The children of the exceptionally wealthy or fortunate, perhaps. A peasant can save up for three years to afford the lowliest of daemon flesh. Giving it to a child... well, that might make some sense, they would grow up learning the limits to their powers and perhaps growing them.”

Crystal just stared off into the distance for a moment, then she recollected herself. “So, people in the Daemon-Hunter’s guild... hunt daemons? You just run around and kill them for their meat?”

“Essentially. It’s important, both to produce more daemon-fed, like us, and to keep the area free of daemons. New ones are born in droves, usually.”

“This place is nuts,” Crystal said.

“Do you have more questions? I need to bathe,” Veronica said. The... lesson of sorts, was surprisingly tiring.

“Yeah, I have one question!” Crystal turned and gestured to the nearest of the beds, which was a wooden frame lifted off the ground with a padded mattress atop it and a cage of wrought iron about that. “Why do the beds have cages over them?

“So that if someone turns into a daemon overnight they will die to the cage’s binding,” Veronica explained the obvious.

“If people what?!”

Meanwhile, as Crystal was discovering all sorts of things about the world she found herself in, the guild master of the Kircken Daemon-Hunter’s Guild sat at his desk with two of his best companions in the room.

Ella, his long-time secretary and receptionist of the guild, whose rank would have been considerably greater had she not chosen a semi-retirement when she did, and Leopold, who was one of the meanest, toughest men Lucas had ever had the pleasure of working with.

On his desk sat a simple test, the same one they gave to every prospective guild member.

“I don’t want to test her,” Leopold said. “She’s clearly some sort of moron.”

Lucas lifted the page and looked at its contents, or lack thereof. “She’s part of an ongoing investigation,” he said.

“I don’t care. I don’t need an idiot on the training field,” Leopold said. “She might get someone hurt, or herself.” He crossed his arms, but Lucas knew his old friend would budge if he pushed.

“What do you think?” he asked Ella instead.

“She... is a kind young woman, I think. But yes, she’s clearly both ignorant and stupid. Possibly well-bred though. The dress she wears is bizarre, but well-crafted, and she walks... I can’t quite describe it. Not like a fighter. Like someone well-trained in dancing, perhaps?”

Leopold snorted, but he didn’t say anything until Lucas looked at him. “Could be she’s trained then. Some kinds of fighting look like dancing. Not the local sort though.”

“She doesn’t seem local,” Ella said.

“Yes,” Lucas replied as he looked at the mostly-blank test. “I can’t imagine anyone local naming their child Crystal Genocide.. For that matter, I’ve never heard of this New Zealand. It must be a strange place if they produced this one. Leopold, run her through the gamut. Someone told me she killed a guild member in self defence. I don’t know if I believe them yet. Discover if it’s possible.”

Leopold frowned, then nodded.

Lucas moved on. The guild wasn’t going to stop running for one strange child.

Veronica raised a bucket over her head, then gently tipped it back, pouring lukewarm water over her hair and back. She sighed. Crystal had had... a lot of questions. A lot of weird, inconsequential ones. Then she’d gotten distracted by a tangent and started yammering on about one of her friends and Veronica had run off to take her bath.

She was in a small, humid room that smelled of soap and lye. Her clothes were handed off to one of the inn’s cleaning ladies with a few coins and now all she had to wear was a shift and some smallclothes.

It felt strange not to have armour on, though she kept her sword on the ground next to her and her magic on a short leash.

“What is going on with my life?” she groaned as she dipped her bucket into the water again.

Hopefully, things would soon return to some form of normality.

Crystal was thinking something very similar, though with more pacing back and forth and pointless gesticulating. “Man, what is wrong with this place?” she said to the empty room.

It didn’t deign to reply.

She groaned. Honestly, she just wanted to lay down and maybe throw a fit, but there was a cage over the bed in case she turned into a monster in her sleep, so really she wasn’t sure it was the place for that.

“I’m really not liking this place,” she muttered.

***

Chapter Ten - Bright and Early

Chapter Ten - Bright and Early

Veronica got up bright and early the next morning. She did her morning stretches, took care of her ablutions, then met Crystal in the corridor that bisected the inn’s first floor. “Hello,” she said. The fact that Crystal seemed fully awake and full of energy irked Veronica a little, but she wasn’t going to mention it.

“Hi!” Crystal replied. She was glad that Veronica was finally awake. She’d spent most of the night sitting in the inn’s main room, just... kind of occupying a seat in the corner and waiting.

Fortunately, she had a very active imagination which kept her out of trouble. She’d covered the table in little crystal people, like tiny magic robots, and she had them fight and act out stuff. It was like playing with dolls, but the dolls were made of precious gems and could be puppeteered to do whatever she wanted.

She blushed a little.

The romance she’d played out between the fearsome Ruby and the lovable Citrine had gotten very steamy by the time morning came around and a few customers started to file into the room. She’d deconstructed everything in a hurry though, before anyone saw her playing with dolls.

“It was a long night,” she said.

“I imagine,” Veronica replied. They stepped into the inn’s main room and Veronica ordered two breakfasts. It wasn’t much more than a few eggs and some flatbread, but it was filling.

“So... this test today,” Crystal began while she played with her food. “What’s it like?”

“The combat test is rather simple. I don’t know who your instructor will be, but he’ll have you go through a series of exercises, usually as a group, and then give pointers and criticism based on how well you’ve done. Usually at the end there’s a one-on-one combat test, either with the applicants fighting each other, or against one of the instructors.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Crystal said.

Veronica looked at her, taking her in properly. At the moment, with her still-perfectly-clean hair and outfit, and with her guileless expression, Crystal looked every bit the innocent princess. “It can be. Are you sure you want to do this? You can back out.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I shouldn’t have any problems with fighting, I don’t think.” Crystal pumped an arm up, then grunted and tried to flex her bicep enough that it would show. It didn’t do much. “I’m pretty strong, you know?”

“Alright. I’ll be there for most of it, so if anything happens... well, I’ll be there,” Veronica finished lamely.

“Thank you,” Crystal said.

Once they finished off their breakfast, with Crystal sliding her leftovers onto Veronica’s plate, they headed out onto the busy Kircken streets.

Veronica turned her nose up as peasants ambled by, and carts rattled along the paved roadways carrying heaps of hay and morning produce likely destined for the city markets. There were guards on patrol, and ladies gossiping on street corners while men walked off to work.

They navigated through the hustle and bustle of the city, taking in both its stink and the less malodorous smells, like freshly baked bread.

Once they reached the guild, they found it a lot busier than the previous day. There were plenty of guildmates out and about, but also a long line of young men and a few young women standing awkwardly to one side of the entrance hall.

Veronica counted twenty applicants before she gave up. “I hope you don’t mind crowds,” she muttered.

“Me? Nah, I’m okay with being the centre of attention,” Crystal said.

They found the same receptionist as the day before out from behind her counter and working hard to wrangle the new applicants. She caught sight of them, then nodded. “Miss Genocide, please stand with the others. Guildsister Dotter, a pleasure to see you again. If you wish to see the spectacle, then make your way to the arena. And wrap this around your arm, please.”

“The arena?” Veronica asked, but the receptionist moved on.

“Well,” Crystal said as she wrapped the armband on. It had a number on it, similar to the armbands that all the others in the room wore. She climbed to the tips of her feet, then back down. “I guess this is ‘see you later?’”

Veronica nodded. “Right. I’ll see you soon. Just need to figure out what arena they’re talking about.”

“Okay,” Crystal said. She waved Veronica goodbye, then skipped over to the side where the other applicants were waiting. “Hello everyone! My name is Crystal.”

That earned two scoffs and a sneer. She resisted the urge to pout, lowered her hand, and then tried to find a place to stand that wouldn’t make her feel any more awkward.

“You should head home, kid,” someone said.

She turned to find an older woman standing nearby. She was wearing a breastplate, and had a helmet hooked onto her belt, but her arms were entirely uncovered. She looked tough, with a few scars near her chin and dark eyes that took in Crystal as if weighing her.

“Pardon?” Crystal asked.

“You’re here for the entrance exam, right?” the woman asked. At Crystal’s nod, she continued. “Hunter’s guild isn’t what it used to be. These days there are more applicants than jobs, so they’ve upped the stakes, making it harder to enter. Bet you half the people here right now have a sponsor on one team or another already.”

“Oh, I guess I sort of have something like that, maybe,” she said.

“Hmm, good for you. Hard for a girl to get guild work,” the woman said. “You can pass all and still fail though.”

“How?” Crystal asked.

“End up as a single-ringer. You can’t take jobs solo, and if no team wants you, then you’re out of luck. Some of us here are ex-members, just here to catch the eye of a team recruiter. Don’t know if they'll be impressed by your pretty dress.”

“I don’t know, I feel like underestimating someone because they’re pretty is rather short-sighted. Also, thank you, I like my dress too!” Crystal grinned. “So, what’s your name?”

“Minna,” the woman said. “And you’re Crystal, the pretty girl with the strange hair.”

Crystal blinked. What was so strange about her hair?

She was still wondering when a big guy stepped into the room. He wasn’t too different from anyone else, except maybe because of the large hammer strapped to his back with the silver rings on its pommel, but somehow just by standing there he got everyone to shut up and listen. His eyes scanned the ground, lingering on her for a moment longer than the rest.

“Forty-four applicants,” he grumbled. “I expect eleven to pass. I’m Leopold, your tester today. Follow me. Keep up or leave.”

Then he started to walk out of the guildhall, making full use of his long stride so that everyone had to hustle to keep up.

Crystal blinked as someone’s elbow bonked her in the head. Then another person’s foot accidentally ended up in her way. She tripped over it, but Minna caught her flailing arm and sent a glare over Crystal’s head at the person who’d accidentally tripped her up.

“Thanks!” Crystal said.

It got better once they were outside.

The streets were just as busy as earlier, but Leopold didn’t seem to have any trouble cutting around people, or jumping over barrels. Crystal hummed to herself as she jogged along. It was almost a run, but that was only because Leopold had much longer legs than her.

She hopped over a cart, with only a dainty step on the rails to prevent her from hitting it, then she paused at the next intersection to help an old lady across.

That lost her a bunch of time!

But it wasn’t so bad, the group was stretched out with those having a hard time jogging trailing at the rear. Crystal put a bit of pep in her step and zipped past them and back to where Minna was huffing along.

“Where are we going?” Crystal asked.

“The... arena,” Minna said between deep breaths.

“Oh, where’s that?”

“Just... behind... the guild.”

Crystal blinked, then looked around. “Well, this isn’t the most efficient route there,” she pointed out. They seemed to be heading right out of the city. She was proven right a moment later as Leopold led them outside where he picked up the pace for a hundred metres or so, his jog turning into an all-out run before slowing back down.

He repeated that five more times before they all re-entered at another gate further down.

This time, the city was much calmer. Someone had left long wooden planks across the roadway, each one about as high as Crystal’s waist.

Leopold vaulted over each one with a one-two kick sort of move. Crystal hopped onto the edge of one, then jumped to the next, then the next. It was sort of fun, actually. She did pause at the end of the row when she noticed that her new friend Minna was having a hard time scrambling over the barriers. “Come on! You can do it!” Crystal cheered. “Everyone can! Woo! Go us!” She made some pom-poms out of loose strands of carbon and waved them around.

That seemed to really energise some of the boys falling behind.

They reached the arena a minute or two later, everyone jogging in to find a serious-faced Leopold standing with hands on hips in the middle of a wide open space covered in loose sand with some equipment to the sides. The ring was surrounded by seats behind a half-wall. Many of them were occupied.

Crystal spotted Veronica, then waved! “Hey! I think the test is gonna start soon!” she called out.

***

Origin - Two - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Two - Rending Nightmare

Things quickly became a confusing, chaotic mess once she cut down the last of the imps.

One of the teachers, a short, older woman who had the look of someone who didn’t take nonsense from anyone, shook off the panic and immediately took charge of things.

She ordered the PE teacher and a few of the bigger boys to move the imp bodies aside, then she had some of the teachers guide everyone out of the gymnasium. Everyone except for Alice. She was pinned down in place by the woman’s stern gaze, and ended up stepping aside while she replayed what had just happened.

“What’s a magical girl?” she asked.

A SAVIOUR. SOMEONE WHO HAS THE ABILITY TO MASTER THEMSELVES AND CHOOSE THEIR OWN DESTINY. A VANGUARD. A GOD.

She shivered. The voice... Dream Charter’s voice, was as pervasive as it was strong. It was all real, she knew. The bodies on the ground, both imp and... and potential-classmate, the magic that she felt thrumming inside her.

Her classmates rushed by, some glancing her way, but most not. She could feel their fear.

Then the moment passed, the gymnasium was left mostly empty, and at long last, the police arrived.

She supposed it hadn’t actually taken them that long. The department was close. How long had it been since the fight ended? Five minutes, ten? It was hard to tell. She knew, intellectually, that she was in shock, but it didn’t help any.

She was led out of the building, through a side corridor, and into an ambulance. An EMT looked over her, but she was fine, and once that was made clear, the man ran off to see about another person. There were lots of ambulances, and lots of injured to tend to.

The moment she was alone, Alice closed her eyes and focused. Her grandpappy’s lessons came back to her, so she faced the nightmare.

What was going to happen now?

Well, she was a magical girl, apparently. She was involved in killing the things that attacked her potential school. Her school had been attacked by imps. Demons were, apparently, real. She regretted missing so many sermons now, maybe they would have given her more of a hint about that.

What else?

Would she be held responsible for this? Would people question her about magic and magical girl... stuff?

“Dream Charter?”

YES, MY ETERNAL MISTRESS?

“What do I do now?”

YOU ARE THE NIGHTMARE RENDER. I AM NOT ONE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, ONLY TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR POTENTIAL.

She shivered. “And what is that?”

INFINITE AND UNBOUND.

“Right,” she said. That wasn’t helpful. She frowned. “Wait, the sword went away.”

I AM ETERNALLY BY YOUR SIDE.

And it was... true. She could feel where the sword was, as easily as she knew her hands were on her lap, and she knew that it could be in her hand again with only a stray thought. This entire magic thing was bizarre, she decided. Alice wasn’t certain if she liked having the extra sense yet.

Then again, it had saved her, hadn’t it? Those imps in the gymnasium were killing people, and she imagined that she was going to be next.

“Where did those imps come from?” she asked.

THEY ARE INVADERS FROM HELL. SENT BY THEIR DARK MASTERS TO DO THEIR CRUDE BIDDING.

“Attack a school?” she asked.

PREVENT THE BIRTH OF THE ONE WHO COULD SO EASILY END THEM ALL.

Her blood went cold again. “People died because of me?” she whispered.

DEMONS ASSAULTED EARTH, BREAKING ANCIENT COVENANTS OF THEIR OWN VOLITION. YOU ARE BLAMELESS.

That was all well and good but... no, it wasn’t her fault, was it? She was just some girl trying her best, not some great villain, not someone any demons had to worry about. Not until now, she supposed.

“Will they attack again?”

THE HUBRIS OF HELL IS WELL DOCUMENTED.

“Oh,” she said. “Is... is a magical girl’s job to protect people?”

IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WISH IT TO BE.

Alice nodded. She did. But... she also didn’t want to get into trouble herself. But maybe that wasn’t possible anymore. “Can I learn? Magic, I mean. How to fight, be stronger.” She tightened her fist and... yeah, she did feel stronger. If she wasn’t so unbalanced mentally she’d probably be feeling at the top of the world.

Her new sense, her magical sense, wasn’t all terrible either. It was a subtle awareness of the shadows around her and of... something else. People, maybe?

She had magic. The full weight of that implication was still sinking in when a pair of men showed up at the ambulance’s door and asked her to step out. She was escorted to the police station, past a cordon of gawkers who were staring at the school or arguing with police. A glance revealed a number of families hugging and greeting each other in a panic nearby.

How many of them would be learning that a son or daughter... she closed her eyes. Maybe if she’d become a magical girl just a little earlier, she could have saved more. Or maybe if she hadn’t become one at all, the demons would have left them all alone to begin with.

She was escorted right to the police station a few buildings down, and into a small room. An officer asked her if she wanted something to drink, and when she nodded, they returned with a can of guaraná which she slowly sipped from.

Alice was expecting a grilling. She was expecting some crime-show sort of interrogation. Instead a young detective stepped in, sat across from her, and politely asked her to recount what had happened.

Alice, of course, lied. She didn’t like lying. She knew it was wrong. But the truth in this case was far too complicated. “I don’t know what happened. There was screaming, and people were trying the door, and then these little red... imps came in and they stabbed people.”

The officer nodded along while taking notes.

“And that was it,” she said.

He asked her for more, but she said that it had all happened so fast, and then she simply kept skipping over some parts. It was, she realized, very easy to play the role of a traumatised young woman.

When her parents arrived she was immediately fussed over at length. Hugs were had, her father made a point of giving the officer a stern talking-to, and then she was simply let out with a card from the police telling her to come back if she had more details to share.

She made it home in one piece, endured some questions from her parents, and briefly glanced at the TV which was playing a news report about the school.

Alice frowned. It was calling it an unprovoked act of gang violence.

She begged off to go to her room and then grabbed her old laptop (formerly her father’s) and looked up as much news about what had happened as she could.

None of it was right. No one mentioned imps, no one mentioned her. There were some comments, and a few quick interviews that mentioned someone saving others in the school, but no one named her.

To be fair, that was her first day, and she didn’t know the names of any of the other students, so of course they couldn’t tell who she was by name but... well, the costume had been very distinct. The sword alone was probably worth remembering.

“Hey,” Alice muttered. “Do magical girls have something that makes people... forget?”

ONLY THOSE WHOSE POWER ALLOW SUCH THINGS. THOUGH MAGIC CAN BE USED TO ASSIST YOU IN CREATING SUCH AN EFFECT, SHOULD YOU WISH IT.

She didn’t wish it. “Will people be able to remember that I was the one who... you know.”

PERHAPS. THOUGH HUMAN MINDS AND PERCEPTIONS ARE FALLIBLE.

That made some sense. She couldn’t remember the faces of those sitting next to her, so why would anyone remember her?

Alice chewed on her lower lip and pushed that issue aside along with the laptop. She had to think, and she did that best while moving, so she set to pacing around and around in the centre of her little room.

There were a lot of problems to tackle. First, the demons. She didn’t know what to do about those. “Will they attack again?” she asked. Alice realized that she was talking to a sword that wasn’t even there and for a moment the strangeness of it all gave her a powerful sense of vertigo. It passed.

THE DEMON HORDES KNOW LITTLE OF PATIENCE AND MUCH OF REPEATING PAST MISTAKES.

That was as good as a confirmation. “And the ones I killed. The little red imps. Those weren’t the strongest, were they?”

THOSE WERE A SLAVE CASTE, BORN INTO HELLISH SERVITUDE. THEY ARE THE WEAKEST TOOLS OF THE DARK LORDS. STILL CAPABLE OF USING THE BASEST OF MAGICS, THEY ARE NONETHELESS THE WEAKEST DENIZENS OF HELL.

So, obviously, the next ones to show up would be stronger, probably smarter, and probably able to do more magic than fling fireballs around.

The solution was as obvious as it was simple. She needed to become strong enough to fight off the hordes of hell all on her own.

Somehow, the thought was galvanising. It removed a weight from her shoulder. She flicked her hand to the side and from the shadows came her sword, Dream Charter. “How can I become stronger?” she asked it.

***

Chapter Eleven - A Routine Test

Chapter Eleven - A Routine Test

Veronica knew that this wasn’t a routine test as soon as the applicants showed up.

For one thing, they arrived following the instructor while sweaty and out of breath, except for Crystal and perhaps a dozen others. One of them just collapsed by the entrance, panting hard and red in the face.

She disregarded them. The tests here might have been a little hard, but a daemon-hunter was expected to be able to do a bit of light jogging for half an hour without difficulty.

Leopold clapped, and everyone paid attention. Even the conversations on the bleachers quieted down. Veronica wasn’t the only one watching the tests. There were half a dozen others sitting nearby, and more on the other side. Most were members of the guild, with either the guild-standard daggers hooked onto their clothes or armour, or fancier weapons with the rings transferred over. She was probably the only bronze-ring in the stands.

It made some sense to her. The people looking for recruits for their teams would be team-leaders, which meant more experienced daemon-hunters.

“Alright, you maggots,” Leopold said, his voice had a mean growl to it that carried well across the sandy arena. “Line up. Three rows. Enough space between you that you won’t hit each other. Come on! This is hardly complicated! Move!”

The applicants shifted around aimlessly for a moment before natural order came about and they formed a rough rectangle, three rows deep with more or less even numbers in each. They all faced the front, where Leopold was standing with his arms crossed looking mightily unimpressed.

He waited a few long beats, and Veronica realized that he was waiting for the slower members to catch their breaths.

That was surprisingly fair of him.

“One hundred pushups,” he barked. Then he fell onto his front, arms absorbing the impact. “One!”

Every one of the applicants rushed to get into the appropriate position, a few of them calling out “one!” in response as they did their own.

“Two. Three. Four.” Leopold barked out numbers, each accompanied by a textbook pushup.

Veronica pitied the applicants, even those who were obviously daemon-fed. Crystal’s new... friend, the woman in the half-plate, seemed to be one of those. Her arms bulged, muscles bloating just beneath her skin and she did the push ups with greater ease than some of the stronger looking men nearby.

Crystal, of course, did them one-handed. Her other hand was behind her, keeping the hem of her skirt down.

Leopold continued to count up. “Thirty-one, thirty-two.”

One of the applicants fell onto his face, and Veronica noticed one of the people in the stands making a quick note. So, he was the one keeping track.

The applicants wouldn’t fail on pushups alone. But failing to keep up or do a satisfactory number of them would be a mark against them in the end.

More fell off in the mid-fifties - most of the women started to drop around there, with the men carrying on a little more, though some were having a difficult time rising themselves up.

“Eighty-one! Eighty-two!” Crystal cheered along with Leopold. She was the only one still counting aloud along with the trainer. It was earning her a lot of dirty looks from the others.

Finally, there were only seven applicants left doing pushups. A couple in armour, at that. Of those, three of them were certainly daemon-fed. The woman next to Crystal, with the bulging arms, Crystal herself, and a thin man near the back of the group who was moving with such ease that it looked almost as if he were nearly weightless.

The others kept up with sheer determination and muscle power.

“One hundred.” Leopold brought a knee up to his chest, planted his foot, then heaved off the ground to push himself to standing. “Next is sit-ups,” he barked.

Crystal’s new friend rose to her feet, then started to unbuckle her plate. There was a lot that people could do in armour, but breastplates did limit mobility somewhat, and that usually made curling one’s chest over difficult.

“I have a question!” Crystal asked.

“Why?” Leopold demanded.

“What if someone looks up my skirt while I’m doing sit-ups?”

Veronica almost smacked herself in the face. He’d probably tell her off for wearing such a strange outfit to begin with. She stuck out like a sore thumb, even among those wearing armour.

“It is a violation of guild etiquette to bother another member in such a way. Sexual assault of another member is met with immediate expulsion.” He growled, hands balling into fists that cracked so hard she heard it from her seat. “Violent expulsion. Rarely survived.”

“Oh, okay, thank you,” Crystal said.

The last of the armoured applicants was done removing his plate and setting it next to where he laid down for his sit-ups.

Leopold nodded, then sat on the ground, crossed his arms, and dropped back. “One!” he shouted as he sat back up.

There were fewer people counting aloud from the start, likely because they were burnt out already. Crystal continued to count though, and Veronica could tell it bothered the others.

This time the first to fail to rise came at thirty-six. The women were a little more even this time, but Crystal’s friend stayed down at seventy-nine.

More of them reached a hundred though than last time. The man across the arena made notes about each pass and fail.

Leopold rose back up, adjusted the warhammer still strapped to his back, then he grunted. “Good enough,” he said before turning to the man in the stands. “Fails?” he asked.

“Nine,” the man said. Then he read off nine names.

“If that’s you, then leave. Next trial’s in a month,” Leopold said.

The herd thinned out again, with nine members leaving. Unsurprisingly, they were those who’d fallen off early on.

“Split into three groups,” Leopold said. He pointed to his right. “Normal folk, over there.” He pointed straight ahead of himself, to where the applicants were already standing. “Physical daemon-fed there.” Then to his left. “Magi, there.”

Crystal immediately turned to Veronica, a query in her eyes. Veronica considered it for just a moment. Crystal was definitely physically enhanced. Whatever sort of daemon she’d eaten, it empowered her body to a stupid degree. But then, Veronica had seen the girl shrug off attacks, blast a person with some sort of beam attack, and create things out of crystal.

In the end, she pointed to the magi group, and Crystal grinned and skipped over to that side. There were only two others there.

The reasoning was simple for Veronica. The guild prized magi more than others. It wasn’t necessarily fair, but a good magi could turn the tides the way no normal person could. And while enhanced daemon-fed were impressive, they were still only just stronger in strange ways.

Veronica wouldn’t have gotten two bronze rings, or any, if she wasn’t able to freeze the world around her at will and slow down enemy motions.

There were four daemon-fed with physical enhancements. One of them was Crystal’s friend, who clearly had fed on a daemon that gave her an ability concentrated around her arms. Veronica had seen a few similar things. They weren’t terribly uncommon. There were at least two species of daemons that she knew of who had out-sized arms.

Leopold nodded, then tapped the ground with a foot.

A pillar of stone rose up behind him, five paces tall and a pace thick. He took a step to the side and unhooked the hammer from his back. “You’re going to step up one at a time and explain what you can do. If it’s resistance, I hit you. If it’s damage, you strike the pillar.”

Veronica was impressed. That power was common, very common, even. Earth-manipulation was definitely a magi-power, and one that didn’t come with any physical enhancements that she knew of. Most who ate from a daemon who gave that power ended up working for a city, building walls and displacing earth for ditches and trenches. They were useful in a group too, to build walls around night-camps or to create traps and destroy caves.

For one of them to reach Leopold’s rank with an otherwise weaker power was impressive. It also meant that he had done the exercises with the others because he was just that fit.

“You,” he said, pointing to the woman with the big arms. Though her arms had returned to being plainly muscular instead of bulging. “You’re first. Strike or get struck?”

“Strike,” she said.

He nodded, then stepped twice to the side, leaving her plenty of access to the pillar.

She walked up to it, kept a pace and a half away, then brought an arm up to her side. Her muscles grew, then grew some more before her whole arm went blackish-blue and the muscles tightened until they were whip-cords under her skin.

“Rragh!”

The woman swung her arm forwards so fast it cracked through the air. Her fist smashed into the pillar with a hard thump and a layer of dust blasted off the back. A long crack appeared from top to bottom, then a few chunks of stone flaked off around the spot she’d struck. There was an imprint of her fist left behind. “I can take a good blow to the arms,” she said while moving her shoulders in circles. “But it’s just harder. Heals much faster, but that’s all.”

Leopold nodded. “Good. Go back.”

She nodded and returned, then it was the next daemon fed’s turn.

***

Chapter Twelve - Familial Magic

Chapter Twelve - Familial Magic

There was something strangely familiar about the way Minna’s magic (was it magic?) worked. The way her arm bulged out and became all muscley, the way her muscles tightened up, even the dark trails under her skin, her veins turning purple-black.

It was eerily similar to something she’d seen Rending Nightmare do.

She put it out of her mind as the next applicant was called up.

“You, you’re next,” Mister Leopold said while pointing to one of the guys next to Minna in the physical group. The man stepped up, a twenty-something guy in a loose shirt and shorts. He was one of those who’d managed all one hundred push-ups and sit-ups. “Offence or
defence?” Leopold asked.

“Defence,” the man said. “Self-healing. Not sure I can take a blow from your hammer head-on, but I can do cuts well enough.”

Leopold nodded, then reached to the small of his back and retrieved a long knife from a sheath that Crystal hadn’t noticed. “Shall I?” he asked.

The man raised a finger in a ‘one moment’ gesture, then he quickly shucked off his shirt.

Crystal averted her eyes. It wasn’t nice to stare at topless people. Besides, he was a boy and all covered in muscles, which were kind of icky. It was a lot prettier when it was a girl who was all muscley.

Leopold struck out, lightning-quick, and slashed at the man three times. Once across both arms and again across his chest.

There was a lot of blood, and Crystal wasn’t the only one to gasp.

Then the man wiped the blood off with his hand, revealing clear skin with long, clotted scars where the cuts had been. He absently started to pick away at the clots, which had faded, paler skin beneath. “That good enough?” he asked.

Leopold nodded. “Acceptable,” he said before pointing to another. This one a much older man, with more flab and less muscle. “You, same daemon-fed ability?”

“Ah, yes-sir,” the man said as he stood at attention.

“Well, come on up.”

This demonstration was similar to the last, but it took the man a lot longer to heal and it was clear from the look on his face that he wasn’t enjoying any of it. He was also one of those who hadn’t gotten that many push-ups in.

Crystal wondered if people with the same power actually had the same power. Or maybe it was a matter of practice?

Her friends, all magical girls, had unique powers, but they also had plenty of abilities that were identical to each other, stuff like changing the appearance of their costumes, or magical self-cleaning and healing and all sorts of neat magical tricks that they could all learn. Some of her friends were really good with those, some were good with only some, and she was barely passable at any of them.

Maybe these powers were similar, where training and practice would help them get better.

“Last one up,” Leopold said. “Offence or defence?” he asked.

“Both,” the next man up said. He was a shorter guy with broad shoulders and a well-trimmed beard.

“Offence first,” Leopold said as he stepped away from the pillar.

Crystal hadn’t noticed when he’d fixed it, but the cracks from Minna’s punch were all gone. The new guy stepped up to the pillar, bounced on his feet a couple of times to loosen himself up, then he punched the pillar while dancing from side to side.

His blows didn’t even crack the stone, but they did sound hard, more than hard enough that Crystal imagined they’d really hurt a normal person. He lowered his hands at some point and pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and showed them to Leopold who nodded.

His next series of punches, in the same rapid pattern, left little cracks and dents in the rock, but not much beyond that.

Crystal wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be impressed or not, but there was a bit of a stir in the stands.

“Now defence,” Leopold said. “How hard can you take it?”

“Don’t break my bones,” was the reply.

Leopold nodded, then he swung his hammer around and it smashed into the man’s ribs with a meaty ‘thump.’

Crystal took a step forwards as he went crashing to the ground, but she soon realized that he was fine. Mostly fine. He coughed a couple of times, then shook his head and kipped up to his feet. “Can’t do anything to stop myself from being sent flying,” he said.

“Good,” was Leopold’s reply. “Get back in line.”

Crystal suddenly felt very nervous. It was her group’s turn next. She sneaked a glance at the other ‘magi.’ One was an older gentleman with a cane who had done surprisingly well during the physical portion of the test, even if he was one of the last to arrive from the run. The other was a young woman in a gambeson and thickly padded skirt. Her outfit’s collar rose to cover the lower half of her face and she had a leather cap on.

“You,” Leopold said, pointing to the older man. “You’re up first. Light explanation. Keep what you want to keep to yourself, but remember that your teammates will need to know what you can do.”

The gentleman nodded along and moved closer to the centre of the arena. “My ability allows me to project a cloud of toxic gas,” he said simply. “It burns the lungs and eyes, and will kill if allowed to linger.”

Leopold nodded, then he turned to the back of the area to a man who was taking notes. “We need a live one,” he shouted.

The man with the notebook made a little gesture, and the world warped nearby. A fleshy tentacle burst out of the ground, bloated up into an egg, then burst apart revealing something like a weird goat with a single pointed horn.

Crystal blinked. That was one-hundred-percent a move she’d seen Rending Nightmare use.

“I can hold the gas to one location,” the older man said. “But a little bit may slip away. Please back up.”

Everyone did as he asked, moving to the edge of the arena, even the fearsome Mister Leopold. The old man cleared his throat, but he seemed comfortable with the attention. The goat-summon bleated, one sharply-tipped hoof patting the ground nervously.

A long stream of yellow-green gas hissed out of the man’s outstretched hand and raced over to the goat-monster. It wrapped around it, sizzling and twisting even as it chewed through the goat’s skin.

The meaty summon bleated, coughed, then fell onto its side, dead.

The old man focused, then raised his hand and the gas raised with it until it was so high up it was no longer visible. “It should disperse harmlessly,” he said. “Though, I did once earn a rain of pigeons for my lack of care.”

Crystal noticed a lot of people taking notes in the stands and felt her little bit of anxiety grow. She couldn’t do anything like that! What if she failed the test?

“You.” Leopold said. “You’re next.”

Crystal let out a relieved sigh when she realized it wasn’t her, but the woman in the gambeson.

“Power?”

“I can break organics,” the woman said.

“Contact?” Leopold asked.

The woman nodded. “I can do it at range, but I need some form of contact.”

Leopold nodded, then looked to the note-taker who gestured again. Another tentacle with a goat in a sack, this one right over the last. Someone was going to have to clean all that meat out of the sand, and Crystal didn’t envy them.

The woman faced off against a fresh goat, this one had a twisty horn, and was a bit taller than the last, though it was also thinner. She reached to her side, lifted a flap on her armour, and pulled out a sort of throwing star with a string tied to its middle.

She tossed it forwards and it tapped the goat without penetrating.

Without missing a beat, the woman cut the string with a tug and pulled out a second throwing star which she flung ahead. This time it stuck and she pinched the string between two fingers.

The goat bleated a second later, then it broke apart as if someone had bisected it a dozen times from random angles all in the space of a second.

“It’s faster with contact,” the woman said.

“Good,” Leopold replied. He gestured, and a pair of boys ran onto the arena with a wheelbarrow and shovels.

Crystal knew she was next. She glanced at Veronica, who gave her a quick, reassuring thumb’s up, then back to Leopold.

As soon as the goat chunks were gone, he gestured to her. “You’re next,” he said. “Power?”

“Ah, well, it’s a bit complicated,” she said.

“Make it simple,” he replied.

Crystal winced, but stepped up. “I can create crystalline structures and imbue them with magical and physical effects. From lasers, to fractal self-cloning, to limited artificial life. Oh! And I can use it to protect myself. And I can summon the crystals anywhere, and as many as I can imagine! I’m pretty strong!”

***

Chapter Thirteen - I Said Simple

Chapter Thirteen - I Said Simple

Mister Leopold looked at Crystal, entirely unamused. “I said simple,” he replied.

“I can show you what I mean!” Crystal said. If it sounded a bit petulant, then that was entirely deserved in her opinion.

Mister Leopold gestured to the pillar, then to the spot where the weird monster goats had been. “Be my guest,” he said.

“I’ll start with the pillar,” she said. She wasn’t squeamish about the goat thing... well, maybe a little bit. But it was hard to train with her friend Screaming Bioplague without getting covered in blood and guts and squirming meat bits. It had really grossed her out at first, but eventually she got used to it.

She stepped up to face the pillar, then took a couple of steps back and considered the giant stone. It was pretty big... she could laser it down, but then that would destroy all of the city behind the rock, which wasn’t great and would probably deduct some points.

She could cut it, turn it to crystal, crush it... ah! She had an idea.

Grinning, Crystal reached a hand forward and summoned a small crystalline spike about as long as her hand. With a quick flick towards the rock, she threw the crystal and it thumped into the side and stayed planted in place... barely. Only the tip had penetrated the stone.

A few people laughed in the crowd, and she saw some people in the bleachers shaking their heads.

“Is that it?” Mister Leopold asked.

Crystal sniffed. “Of course not,” she said. Then, talking to the crystal in the rock, she gave it a single order. “Fractalize.”

The length of crystal made a faint chiming noise and doubled in length, another blade, as long as the first, growing out of the side in a blink. Then, a second later, two blades poked out of it. One of those planted itself in the rock again.

Another second passed, and this time there were eight growths. The next second, sixty-four.

Crystal wasn’t good enough at math to keep count, but what was happening was pretty obvious. Blades of crystal were growing into the pillar, then doubling themselves with a hum like a windchime being struck. Every second, more of the pillar was covered in sharp-edged growths, and the entire thing started to fall apart as it was ripped to shreds from within as if the stone was no tougher than warm butter.

By the tenth second, the pillar was no longer visible, replaced instead by a nest of crystal blades poking out at exacting, geometrically precise intervals from each other. They formed a sort of large, spinny helix of glimmering diamond spines.

The pillar, what was left of it, exploded with a loud crack under the increasing pressure.

Crystal ordered the magic to stop, and it settled in place, with only a few tinks as loose pieces of rock fell from between the blades.

“See,” she said.

“Hmm.” Mister Leopold said. “Does it work on organics?”

“That trick? Yeah, I guess,” she said. There wasn’t nearly as much laughter from the crowd now. “Can I do stuff with the goat now? I’ve got other tricks, you know?”

Mister Leopold nodded, and with a gesture to the guy with the clipboard, another goat monster was summoned.

This one was the biggest so far, with three horns and as many eyes. It bleated, though the sound was more of a bassy rumble.

Crystal nodded, then she paused. “Um, for this trick, you might want to wear sunglasses.”

That was met with a lot of strange looks, but she ignored those and lifted a foot up. Mimicking Mister Leopold, she stomped a foot down.

The earth shook, then a small stump broke out from the arena’s sand-covered ground. It was no taller than her knee, and just a lump of many-faceted sapphire that glimmered in the mid-day sun.

Crystal focused. This would be tricky. Usually this move was used to wipe out evil villain lairs, or to strike down alien space invaders. Using the same trick on a single monster-goat was surprisingly hard. It reminded her of how some of her friends had to work hard to scale back their magic. Hypertense Breakpoint used to accidentally break chairs all the time before she started practising more.

The air around the lump of sapphire started to haze and shimmer, and a few of the applicants covered their eyes as it glowed brighter and brighter.

Then there was a flash of bluish light, and Crystal grinned as a laser screamed into the air. It stopped as easily as it began, and the lump of now-melted sapphire on the ground sizzled and steamed.

The goat had a hole from chest to back large enough that Crystal could stand in it with room to spare.

“Taa-daa!” she cheered.

“Hmm, good,” Leopold said. “Alright, now that you’ve all had a moment to rest, we’re moving on to the next part of the test.”

Crystal pouted. She had so many more tricks to show off! But Mister Leopold was clearly moving on, and she didn’t want to hold the others back. She had to hope that what she’d shown off so far was enough to be impressive.

“Form up! Three lines. Hurry up.”

Crystal ran back, then she slid into place next to Minna who had been nice to her so far. The woman gave her a strange look, but didn’t say anything, not when it was clearly Mister Leopold’s turn to talk.

“The last test is a combat test. Seeing as how we can’t bring a daemon here for you to die pitifully to, we’ll have you fighting each other. You are allowed to refuse any fights. This may be a mark against you. When I call out your name, step forwards. Weapons are available on the racks. This is not a fight to the death. The person you’re fighting might well be a future partner and ally. Keep that in mind.”

Crystal nodded. She’d done sparring before.

Mister Leopold called out two names and two men stepped up. They both went over to the racks on the side, and returned with a pair of spear-like weapons, but instead of a spearhead there was a chunk of wood painted black, with the edges blunted.

The two men came to stand before each other, then Leopold barked a sharp, “begin!” and they jumped into action.

It became clear within seconds that one fighter was far ahead of the other in terms of skill, even if he had less reach than the other, and soon he swept his opponent’s feet out and planted the spear at the man’s neck.

“Good,” Leopold said. “Don’t worry if you lose once. You’ll be fighting multiple times. Worry if you lose each time instead.” He called out two more names, and another pair stepped up.

This one was even worse. One of them, a woman, had clear weapon’s training, so when she picked up a spear and wooden sword, it was with the ease of someone who knew what she was doing. The other guy waffled about which weapon to take, then grabbed a large mallet-like hammer and went to the ring with it.

He was strong. That didn’t matter when his opponent ducked to the side and tapped him between the collarbones with the tip of her wooden sword hard enough that he went down choking.

“Next,” Leopold said.

The next dozen fights were interesting, but Crystal soon found her mind wandering, that was, until Minna got called up and she paid a bit more attention, but then, Minna fought a normal person without any daemon magic and she easily overwhelmed her opponent.

The people in the stands were taking lots of notes though. Crystal shored up her resolve to be as good as she could.

“Crystal.”

She jumped, then darted forwards. “Coming!” she said.

Her opponent was that guy who had the weird daemon-fed ability that made him super tough and able to punch hard. “You going to be okay?” he asked as he walked over to the rack. He looked things over, then picked up a pair of heavy-looking gloves from off the ground. They had a bit of cushion on them.

“I’ll be fine!” Crystal replied. She checked all the weapons quickly. She really only knew how to use one sort of weapon, her own magical girl weapon. But an ordinary wooden sword? That was close enough. She grabbed a longer sword, tested the weight, then stepped back to her end of the sandy circle. “Okay, I’m ready!”

Her opponent chuckled, then raised his fists. “What style were you trained in?” he asked.

“You mean sword styles?” Crystal asked. “Mine’s called Sword Genocide.”

“Start!” Leopold barked.

Crystal leapt forwards, skipping across the few metres between her and her opponent while her sword hummed through the air on a straight path towards his neck.

He bent backwards, out of the way of the swipe, then tried to strike out towards her face.

Crystal ducked to the side, then turned, planted both feet solidly in the ground and executed a spinning upwards slice using her shifted momentum. The move was called Diamond in the Rough, and it was meant to be hard to avoid.

Her opponent managed, barely. He slipped out a few choice and rather impolite words as he stumbled back. “Whoa there! Slow down, yeah?”

“Oh, I can do that,” she said.

She had to remind herself that she was here to show off. That wouldn’t happen if she just ploughed through her opposition!

***

Chapter Fourteen - A Magical Girl With a Sword

Chapter Fourteen - A Magical Girl With a Sword

Her opponent was pretty decent, for a guy without any weapons fighting a magical girl with a sword.

He swooped in with a trio of quick jabs which she wove around, then she slowly brought her sword up, then back down, executing a perfect--if slow--Stalactite Meets Stalagmite. He, of course, dodged it, but only by a hair.

Crystal grinned, then unbent her knees fast enough to make herself hop up so she could execute a textbook Fractured Lattice. It was the wrong move to make, but it was very pretty, especially the way it made her skirt twirl about. Obviously, it was rather telegraphed, so her opponent had time to step out of the way and prepare his next move.

In the stands, Veronica watched Crystal toy with her opponent.

There was no other way to describe it. Veronica had had experts training her with swords from a decently young age. It was considered a little strange for a lady, but she was merely the daughter of a baron and most of the influences near her were hardened men who didn’t mind showing her the ropes, especially as she practised and improved.

She liked swordsmanship, and though she would never consider herself an expert, she knew enough to understand the gulf between herself and someone who was truly an expert.

It made the event below more entertaining. She had picked out a few common sword styles from some of the applicants, and even a spear and a form dedicated to fighting with an axe. A few applicants used martial arts that she only knew by name, not by sight, so it was nice to see those being used.

A number of them didn’t know the sharp end of a sword from the hilt.

She had expected Crystal to be one of those.

Instead, the girl was grinning as if she were toying with an over-large puppy instead of chasing an expert fist-fighter around. The little twirls and dancing steps she did were... bizarre. Veronica’s instructors would have rapped her knuckles for trying something like that instead of keeping her feet planted and her centre of mass low.

But the results spoke for themselves. Crystal casually stepped around a blow aimed for her face, then she skipped over a quick kick and redirected a jab with the flat of her wooden sword.

The man she was fighting, the daemon-fed that Veronica had earlier noted as a shoe-in for one of the most talented of the applicants, screamed as he lost his temper and started to try to grab Crystal.

She stepped back, pirouetted on the point of one toe, then giggled before bouncing out of reach of a tackle.

Leopold didn’t seem entirely amused. “You will be working with your guildmates in the future,” he said, his voice was low, but it still carried. “It would do you well not to toy with them.”

“Oh, sorry!” Crystal replied.

She hopped back, then for the first time, entered a stance. It was a strange one, her feet in an L on the ground, her back straight, off-hand resting at the short of her back and her sword parallel to the ground.

“Be ready, mister. I’m about to execute a Light of the Shimmering Gem.”

That name sounded appropriately imposing.

Veronica didn’t like to think about how incredibly outclassed she was by Crystal, but she leaned forwards all the same to see what the girl was about to do. She wasn’t the only one. A few others in the stands did the same.

Crystal’s opponent bounced on his feet a few times, then wiped some sweat out of his hair. “Fine then,” he said. “No more playing around.”

Crystal forced away her smile and nodded. “Right!”

When the move came Veronica did everything she could to follow it. There was a forward hop to meet her charging opponent, then a twist and a lunge using the strange position her feet were in to execute a sharp turn while also letting herself almost fall to the ground.

Her adversary had to stop in his tracks and turn to face her properly.

Then the technique itself began.

When it ended, Crystal twirled her sword with a flourish, then flipped it around and brought it down along her side, as if sheathing it by her hip. Behind her, the daemon-fed crashed to the ground, landing shoulder-first with a thump, legs and arms splayed out.

Veronica replayed the move in her head and found that she couldn’t follow all of it. There was a moment when she hit his knees, then a strike that spread his arms out, but when had she turned him upside-down?

Everyone was quiet for a long moment, digesting what had happened.

“Was that okay?” Crystal asked, sounding surprisingly insecure.

“Was that a daemon-fed ability?” Leopold asked.

“Huh? No, my magic’s mostly crystals and stuff. This is just swordplay.”

“That wasn’t supplemented by your magi abilities?” he asked.

Crystal shook her head. “I had a really great teacher. She was the strongest sword-user ever, and she taught me for a couple of weekends so that I wouldn’t trip over my own sword.”

“I see,” he said. His attention very obviously shifted to the groaning man on the ground who flopped onto his side, then laid on his back, arms and legs spread. “Get up. We have more fights to get through.”

Crystal ran over to the wall-rack and put her sword away, then she ran back to her place among all the others. “Did I do okay?” she asked Minna, who was eyeing her.

“Yeah, I’d say so,” the woman said. “Nice moves.”

“Thank you,” Crystal said. She blushed a little. “I still have a lot to learn though.”

The fights continued,but Crystal found herself zoning out. The swordfights caught her attention a little, but a lot of them had people just flailing their swords around and she wasn’t very impressed by those.

Once the last fight finished--notably, without Crystal being called out again--Leopold stepped up before the applicants, crossed his arms, and nodded. “Not as bad as some of the sorry lots I need to look over. Come back to the guild tomorrow morning. If you pass, your name will be on the board. You can collect your rings then. If you don’t, return next time we take applicants, and use the time between now and then to improve.”

With that said, he turned and left, the man taking notes meeting him by the arena’s opened exit and leaving with him.

It didn’t take long for the onlookers to start heading out too, though a number of them were on an intercept course for the entrance already.

The lack of fanfare caught some of the applicants off-guard, but soon enough they were streaming out too, with the best of them being stopped by team leads who wanted to offer them spots on their own teams.

Crystal ignored all of that and ran to the wall ringing the arena, jumped up, and tugged herself over the edge before the spot where Veronica was still sitting.

“Do you think I’ll pass?” she asked.

“It’ll depend on the results of your written test, but yes, I think you’ll pass,” Veronica said, deadpan. The girl had to be clueless if she didn’t actually know what people thought of her skills.

Crystal cheered. “Yeah! Cool! I’m glad I’ll pass, then I’ll be a little bit more like you, right?”

“Yeah, certainly,” Veronica said. “It’s about time for lunch. I can show you to a place I like.”

“Okay,” Crystal said. “But we’re only going as friends, with no subtext of any kind, right?”

Veronica blinked. “Um, right.”

A few hours later, Leopold sat across from his long-time friend and boss. He didn’t often ask for a seat, but he felt like he needed it today.

“So,” Lucas said. “Is she a dancer?”

Ella’s guess that the girl was trained in dancing wasn’t so amusing now.

“Maybe,” Leopold said. “Maybe she dances on graves. She’s dangerous. If I had to take her down I’d bring a small team of silver-rings with me.”

Lucas blinked. “Truly?”

“Powerful and versatile magi, impeccable if strange sword-fighting skills, and either great acting skills, or a tenuous relationship with reality. I don’t know which is worse, but I do know that it’s not my problem.”

Ella, who’s been quiet so far, blinked and looked at the information they had on the young woman. “Well, according to this, she only barely passes. One bronze ring, if any. A case this poor would be at the guildmaster’s discretion.”

“What?” Leopold asked, genuinely surprised. “How? She led everyone in the physicals.”

“And only got one part of her written tests correct,” Ella said. “She wrote her name and personal information correctly, which affords her one point. Average a perfect physical score with the worst written one you can have short of not taking the test...”

“And you arrive at an average that’s actually average,” Leopold said with a scowl.

Lucas considered things for a moment, then came to a decision. “We’ll accept her. One bronze. See if that bothers her any, Ella. Then we’ll keep a close eye on the young lady.”

***

Chapter Fifteen - Wake Up

Chapter Fifteen - Wake Up

First thing the next morning, Crystal dragged a still blurry-eyed Veronica out of their inn and to the Daemon-Hunter’s guild. The older woman groaned, silently cursed Crystal for being in such a good mood, then rubbed at her face to wake up properly.

The day, at least, was trying to be cheerful. The sky was a startling blue, with only a few clouds hovering far above to provide the occasional wave of shade from the rising sun. The entire city was wide awake already. Bread was baking, people were emptying chamber pots into the street-side gutters, and kids were running down the streets looking for mischief.

“Oh, I can’t wait!” Crystal cheered. “I love the ring system. It’s so cool. It’s like having levels, but in real life.”

“Levels?” Veronica muttered.

“Yeah, like in a game. Dimension Death went to a place like that once, but she left when she got a stupid class that she didn’t like. Anyway, I always thought it was really cool. But this is cool too,” Crystal said. Or perhaps babbled was the right term. She was aware that when she got excited things started to spill out of her a bit faster than was reasonable.

“We don’t even know if you’ve passed,” Veronica said. She doubted that Crystal had failed. The show the girl had put on during the application test was certain to turn some heads. But still, she couldn’t help but want to tamp down on Crystal’s enthusiasm, if only to spare herself a headache.

“I’m being optimistic about it!” Crystal said with a cheer. “One of my friends was always going on and on about how optimism is good, not just for your mind, but for your body too. I mean, we’re magical girls, so I’m not sure we really need to worry about our bodies that much, but it’s the thought that counts. Literally!”

“I’m sure she’s great fun,” Veronica muttered.

“Uh-huh, she’s one of my top eleven best friends,” Crystal said before breaking into giggles. She really was in a good mood. Sure, she was in this weird world, far from her friends, and she’d been forced to undergo some weird tests, but overall, her mood was still pretty high.

They arrived at the guild to find it less packed than the day before. The people who were there were familiar faces though. She didn’t know their names, not really, but she recognized many of them from yesterday's test.

“So, are those who passed going to have their names called out?” Crystal asked.

“Hmm? No, nothing so formal,” Veronica said. “There’s a list.” She pointed to one wall next to the front counter where a list was pinned to the wood. “If you’re on there, you get in line, the guild-master shakes your hand, and you get your rings.”

“Like the ones on your dagger,” Crystal said.

“Yes. Though, you can either take them with the dagger, or you can take just the rings,” Veronica said.

Crystal nodded along, then darted ahead and to the front. She stood by the wall, eyes scanning up the list until they landed on her name. “I passed!” she cheered.

“Oh?” Veronica asked. She was genuinely curious. A member’s standing in the guild was very much a public thing. It had to be easy to verify if someone was a member, otherwise it would be absurdly easy to fake one’s membership and rank.

Crystal’s name was near the bottom. Next to it was a single brown ring.

Veronica let out a little sigh of relief. She didn’t think of herself as overly competitive, but she didn’t want to be behind the girl, even if it was just in terms of guild rankings.

“Hey, it’s you,” a deeper, feminine voice said.

Veronica and Crystal turned to find Minna, the friend she’d made during the exams, standing nearby. The woman had her arms by her hips, which naturally drew their attention to the dagger hanging there. Three bronze rings adorned the pommel.

“You made it too!” Crystal cheered.

Minna sniffed. “I did, this time. I see you did as well. Only one bronze? Strange that.”

“I think I flunked the written exam part,” Crystal said morosely. “But hey, I got my ring!”

“That you did,” Minna said. “Congratulations on that. Do you know what your first mission will be?”

“First mission?” Crystal asked.

Veronica, who was starting to think that her job was now exposition-machine, jumped in to explain. “After getting your rings you’re usually given a mission. Some will pick something with whatever team they get scouted into, with a member of that team acting as their... guide, I suppose would be the right term. If you can’t get someone to do that for you, then you often have to wait around.”

“That’s the gist of it,” Minna said. “But hey, you have your friend here to help, right?”

Veronica frowned, then nodded. “I suppose I can. I’ve never led a mission, but something small and easy to handle shouldn’t be beyond my means.” She wasn’t sure she’d be allowed to do anything of the sort though, not with the restrictions placed on her.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Minna said. “Need to start building a good reputation fast, and I can’t do that without passing my first mission.”

“Wouldn’t you be better off joining a fixed team?” Veronica asked.

“Hah! Right now, every team’s running around, recruiting anyone they can, but it’s all money-grubbing. The increased number of daemons around the area isn’t helping. It’s getting a lot of people killed. I want in a proper team that’ll earn me some coin and keep my head on my shoulders.”

“That’s fair,” Veronica said. “If you haven’t found anyone by the time we’re done...”

Minna grinned and gave them a thumbs-up. “Sure thing.”

With that finished, Veronica led Crystal to the line of new guild members waiting their turn in the stairwell to the second floor. There weren’t all that many of them, of the forty-four who’d started the test, fewer than twenty had earned their rings.

It was probably more than they usually saw, but the number of applicants was impressive as well. Forty-four when Veronica’s own test had hardly had half as many people applying, and that in a guild of an equally-sized city with fewer exams per year.

It made some sense to her, the area was known for its daemon-hunting, and a number of well-known teams were based in Kircken.

Crystal bounced up and down until their turn arrived. When it did, she glanced around, taking in the guild master’s office with all of its fancy trim and the nice view of the city from the window behind the old gentleman who could only be the guild master himself.

“Hello,” he said. He smiled genially, then he gestured to the two seats before his desk. “Come, sit. This will only take a moment. You’re Crystal, right?”

“How did you know?” Crystal asked.

“You’re rather distinct,” he said. He gestured to his desk where, next to a small stack of papers, a dagger sat in a sheath, and next to that a single bronze ring was resting on a piece of cloth. It made the simple bit of metal look rather important for what it was.

“Are those mine?” Crystal asked.

“One or the other,” he said.

The dagger wasn’t quite the same as Veronica’s, Crystal noted. It was a little thinner and a little longer. She imagined that the daggers themselves were made locally. She’d seen a smith in the city and had stopped to stare for a bit, so she knew there were some around.

“And I can put the ring on any weapon I want?” Crystal asked.

“Usually around the pommel, yes,” the guild master said. He gestured to the wall next to his desk where a large axe sat on a stand that was still close enough to reach if he jumped for it. The bottom end of the haft had a set of rings on it.

“Nice!” Crystal said.

“Before you make that choice though, I wanted to inquire about your plans for the future,” he said.

Crystal blinked. “Oh... well, I’m looking for my friends, I guess. I’m not from around here and... yeah, just wanna find out where they’ve gone.”

“And you joined the guild to help with that?” he asked.

“I guess? I can’t remember why I wanted to join, really.”

He blinked, and Veronica resisted the urge to palm her face.

“Well, there are some magi who are capable at finding people, given the right circumstances,” the guild master said.

“Really?” Crystal asked. “Do you know any?”

“A few, perhaps. In fact...” he glanced at Veronica as she felt herself straightening. “I think I have an idea for your very first mission. Here, take your ring, it’s important to have it when discussing your first mission for the guild, I think.”

Crystal hesitated, then plucked the empty ring from the table. “Thanks! Now, what’s this mission?”

***

Origin - Three - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Three - Rending Nightmare

Alice stabbed forwards with Dream Charter and the blade made a discordant hum through the air. A darkening shadow gathered at the tip of the blade, and when her thrust ended it flew onwards.

It reminded her a little of a firework, lazily drifting ahead, looking slow, but in reality moving with deceptive speed until, with a twist of her will, it exploded.

Not a huge explosion, more of a pop with a few trailing shadows that spluttered out after a few metres.

Alice let out a breath, then straightened and flicked her sword to the side, then back up.

The gesture was... extra, and rather unnecessary, but it felt right, and she was beginning to realise that that was important with her particular kind of magic.

That attack had been weak, weak on purpose. She was in her backyard, next to a mango tree planted by her grandmother when the family had first bought the house and she didn’t want to see anything destroyed because she was careless.

Also, the mangos were still in-season and they always tasted so much fresher than what they got at the store.

“Okay,” she said. “How was that?”

BETTER.

She nodded, satisfied, and walked over to the side where her laptop was sitting on a table. There was a video paused on the screen, of something called HEMA, where people beat themselves and their friends with dulled versions of ancient weapons.

It was the closest thing she’d found to a training video.

There were some martial arts available in the city, but those didn’t appeal to her, not the way she was now.

“Okay, next,” she said as she dismissed her blade and it disappeared into a wash of darkness. She laid herself flat on the tiles next to the table, locked her legs in place, then started doing push ups. She didn’t bother counting, knowing that there was no point.

Even if she counted aloud, eventually she’d reach the triple digits where she couldn’t say the numbers faster than she could do another pushup and it slowed her down. So now she just moved until she started to feel some strain, some pressure in her muscles that told her they were working hard.

It took literal minutes.

Whatever had happened when she turned into a magical girl had done a lot for her physique, and that was while she was out of costume. At the moment, in nothing but shorts and an old t-shirt tied to the side so as not to get in the way, she was fitter than... well, probably an Olympian, maybe.

The problem was the knowledge that went with her physique. Sure, she could run for hours without breaking too much of a sweat, but now that she could run so much faster, she found that her coordination was just a little bit off.

Her reflexes might have been faster, but her reaction time was still lagging behind a little bit.

It was actually nice. It reminded her that she was still her; that while her body might have improved substantially, her mind was still Alice, and that was important.

“What’s after this?” she asked as she pushed herself up to her feet. There was a notebook sitting next to her laptop, with doodles and notes all across it. It had her training regimen, and some notes on magic.

Magic which she couldn’t quite wrap her head around.

Or... no, that wasn’t right. She could, easily, and maybe that was the problem.

Shadows called to her. She ordered and they obeyed. She could tell when others were nervous or afraid, and when someone nearby, even homes away, was having a nightmare.

It all felt natural, as natural as breathing.

Weaponizing it was easy too, though she worked very hard to limit it all to attacks that weren’t explosive, or lethal... or loud. At least, after the first time she’d tried creating a ball that made noise and set every dog in the region to barking when she made a nightmarish, twisting sphere of darkness which whirled to reveal hidden mouths.

Her magic wasn’t pretty.

She’d done some research on that too, of course. Magical girls.

It was the one part of her research that was maybe a little more normal, and the part she didn’t mind her family seeing. Which of course meant that they now thought she was having a weird cartoon phase, but she could live with that.

The magical girls she saw differed from herself in two ways. Well, she wasn’t a cartoon character, so maybe more than just two, but two really jumped out to her.

First, their powers were generally colourful and bright. Hers were very much not. And second, they tended to rely a lot on each other; there was almost always a running theme of friendship and camaraderie working in the background, or sometimes the theme was right in the viewer’s face.

She was alone in this.

Alice raised her hand then turned it palm-down. That cast a shadow, which made it easier to pull her magic from wherever it came from. From the shadows came wisps that shifted and moved, questing for something while shying away from the light.

She focused, and the darkness started to take shape. A cube, a sphere, a pyramid with first three, then four, then five sides.

If she had a better imagination, she might try something else, but for the moment this kind of exercise seemed decent enough. It was all so easy though. Magic was... well, what did she know? But it felt as if something that could be so powerful ought to be harder to use.

Her exercises were interrupted as her mom opened the screen door and Alice flicked her hand, instantly dismissing the smoke. “Mom?” she asked.

“Hey sweetie,” she said as she came over. Alice endured a hug. Her mother more than anyone else had become a lot more... touchy since the incident at the school. “There’s a letter for you,” she said as she pulled out an envelope. One that was notably open already.

Alice took it and noted her name on the front. “You opened it?” she asked as she inspected the crest on the opposite side to her name. It was from the Escola Central de Brasil.

“I was curious,” her mom said, unapologetically.

“Hn,” Alice said as she pulled the paper out and unfolded it. She scanned the page, then lowered it. “I was accepted?”

“Congratulations!” her mom said. She pressed a kiss onto Alice’s forehead. “We can have some pave later, if you want. I have cherries.”

Alice nodded. She wasn’t going to say no to her favourite dessert, and... well, she wasn’t sure if she could put on any weight being as fit as she was, but maybe she ought to put that theory to the test.

“You don’t have to.”

Alice looked up to her mom. She didn’t have to look too far up anymore, she noticed. She was catching up in height, and had been for a while. “What?”

“The school. You can go elsewhere. I know we really wanted you to be able to, but... it’s up to you. There are other places.”

“No, it’s fine,” Alice said.

“Think about it, there’s still some time. Classes don’t start for a little while.”

“Alright, I will,” Alice said. But she wasn’t going to turn down the offer. Not because it was the best high school in the region, but because if the demons returned, it was very possible they’d try at the same school, and she needed to be there to keep people safe. Safer than they had been the first time, where her confusion had slowed her down.

This time, she’d do better.

The rest of the time until school started passed as a blur, but not the sort of vague, unimportant haze she was used to losing her summer vacations in. Instead, every day she woke up, ran, ate a hearty breakfast, meditated, and then studied.

Her parents didn’t prohibit her, or tell her to stop. If anything, she suspected they saw her push as a way to cope with what had happened.

It was even true, in a way.

That, and magic was fascinating. Her powers obviously touched on darker things if she could sense people’s less... kind emotions, but at the same time they literally allowed her to control shadows. She could make hers disappear, she could darken others and from those darker shadows, summon just about anything she wanted as long as it was a twisting mass of wriggling nightmares.

Oddly enough, one of the things she was finding to be most limiting was the lack of defined rules to her magic. As long as she could envision it, and it roughly fit within the theme of the magic, she could do it.

A bit of concentration and she could blend in with the shadows. A little more and she was able to distract people (or so she assumed, she’d limited herself to testing on stray dogs whose confused expressions when she tried to make them forget about the snack she’d dropped in front of them was always amusing. So was the glee when she let go of the magic and they rediscovered a whole snack right at their paws).

Her sword, Dream Charter, was as helpful as it was annoying. It merely told her that she was limitless, which... didn’t suit her. She had been raised with clear goals, intentions, and a structure. She wanted that too.

It seemed that if she wanted structure to her magic, then she would have to build the scaffolds herself, which was, to some degree, what she had been working on. Her magic didn’t come with ‘spells’ so to speak, but if she did the same thing the same way, she could expect similar results.

It was something to start with, and it was what occupied a lot of her time until the day came that she had to go to school for the first time.

The Escola Central de Brasil had a uniform, or at least, a choice of attire based on a small selection that the school sold. She had a choice between a long navy blue skirt, or a long beige skirt, and a similar choice in sweater vests. During the colder months they had little jackets too, but for now, as she was dropped off at the front of the school, all she saw was a tide of students in navy and beige, with the school’s emblem sitting proud on their chest.

The boys had slacks, of course, and while the school insisted that both boys and girls wear a tie, they were allowed to pick their own, within reason. It added a splash of colour to the scene that she felt was needed.

The school was all modern architecture trying to emulate the grandiosity of old English schools. So it was tall and imposing, with lots of cement and sharp angles and useless glass features. It would have been a little drab if it wasn’t for the huge pile of wreaths and posters and pictures off to one side.

Alice averted her eyes from those. She didn’t want to see the smiling faces of people who’d been killed by the demons.

Demons who might only have been there because of her.

She entered the school, hiking up her bag and taking in the grand entrance hall, a wall of which was dedicated to the trophies and awards the school had won and another which had pictures of successful former students.

“It’s a lot, huh?”

Alice blinked and glanced over to find a girl half a head shorter than her standing nearby with a wicked grin on and an all-navy uniform that clashed with her pink tie. “Pardon?”

“All of this, it’s a lot, isn’t it?” the girl asked. She extended a hand. “I’m Marcia.”

“Hi,” Alice said. She was going to grab the hand, but was tangled up in her backpack and then Marcia let hers drop with a rueful smile. “Um, do I know you from somewhere?” Alice asked.

“Nope, but I remember you. You’re the magical girl that saved everyone. Figured I’d best make friends with you before anyone else.”

***

Chapter Sixteen - Mission Briefing

Chapter Sixteen - Mission Briefing

Veronica looked over the mission briefing and made sure she understood every line. It was her first time acting as something approaching a team leader, and she wanted to make sure she was doing it correctly.

The guild didn’t usually assign missions to their teams. Instead, the teams would come and pick out a mission for themselves.

Most of the time, these were protection requests.

Veronica always thought that the guild was misnamed. They did very little actual hunting. Most of their work was glorified guard duty. Protecting caravans, protecting small settlements, protecting cities, and protecting the estates of nobles. The hunting only came when an area a team was meant to protect was threatened by a daemon.

By the time a daemon appeared or started to hunt in an area, it was usually too late to head out and ask for the guild to come and assist. A caravan caught unguarded by a daemon would simply lose its members. A small town could be decimated or entirely wiped by a passing daemon in a single night.

So missions like the one she was looking at were strange.

A request from the Arcane Tower of Kircken, by an Acolyte Tobias Greenfield. That was a rank similar to an iron ring, at least insofar as she could compare ranks across two very different organisations.

The request was bizarre, but it did suit a team with one (or maybe two) brand new members led by someone who was still just a bronze ring. They were being asked to capture a daemon.

Usually, that would be a nightmare of a task, but the kind of monster they were being asked to capture simplified things a little. It was a Paruvil, or a Dream-Watcher, depending on who was asked. A simple kind of daemon that wasn’t too physically strong and which was generally fairly predictable.

The Arcane tower Acolyte had discovered that the daemon in question was present in a small settlement just a short carriage ride outside of Kircken. He needed assistance in capturing the beast.

Dangerous work, but not so dangerous that it would require a silver-rank or above team.

Given a large enough cage, some time to prepare traps, and a couple of daemon-fed members, a team should be able to capture the daemon with relative ease.

Or so Veronica hoped.

Downstairs, Crystal was having fun chatting with Minna, entirely unaware of Veronica’s hard work or her mounting anxiety. “So you’ll join us?”

“Yes,” Minna said.

“Really-really?” Crystal asked again.

The older woman chuckled. “I said yes already, didn’t I?” She tapped her breastplate, over where her heart was. “I’m a woman of my word.”

“I know, I’m just happy that I’m making more friends,” Crystal said. She smiled, though it wasn’t quite as cheerful as her last. “I had a hard time making friends before. Well, before I became a magical girl. Then I had a heap of friends who were all the weirdest, nicest people.”

“Were they a mix of weird and nice, or were they all both?” Minna asked.

Crystal grinned. “Yes!” She half-turned as she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. It was Veronica, descending from the guild’s upper floor with her papers tucked into the crook of her arm. The young woman saw them staring, then approached. “I have everything filled out. Minna, will you be coming with us?”

Crystal laughed and Minna sighed. “Yes, I’ll be coming with you, but not if the two of you keep asking.”

Veronica blinked, then nodded slowly. “Alright, I’ll not ask again. I need your signature on the final page here, since I’m not an official team-lead or anything, we can’t sign as a team.”

“That’s fine,” Minna said. She took the page, glanced over it, then borrowed a chalk pen from Veronica and scrawled her name in blocky letters near the bottom.

Crystal signed next, her own signature a lot more fluid and pretty. She even took a second to draw a little heart as the dot of the i in Genocide. “There you go!”

She knew that Rending Nightmare would give her an earful for signing a contract without reading it through and contacting a lawyer. The older magical girl was very particular about that kind of thing. Then again, Crystal hadn’t noticed any demons (not daemons) around who might try to snag her soul with a contract, so she figured she was probably safe.

“Alright,” Veronica said. She glanced out of the guild’s front door and noted the time as best she could from the shadows on the street. “We still have most of the day to burn. Unless you need more time, Minna, I think it would be wise to visit our client.”

“Some Acolyte, right?” Minna asked.

“Yes, from the Arcane tower just across the square. The mission details were a little sparse in a few places.”

“We just need to capture a daemon, right?” Crystal asked.

“Essentially, yes, but we don’t know where to bring it afterwards, or where the equipment to capture it will come from. The pay is alright, but not nearly enough to cover the costs of a cage able to hold a daemon or the cart to transport it.”

Veronica knew that leading a team of hunters was a lot of work. Her father had taught her some of the intricacies of running a barony, and that had given her a healthy respect for logistics. Still, she wasn’t expecting to run into so many issues all at once.

It gave her a newfound respect for Frederick, her previous team’s leader. The man might have been... found wanting at the end, but he had run a large team with little to no difficulty, and that was away from any city where they couldn’t just stop and buy food at their convenience or rest at an inn.

“Then let’s go!” Crystal cheered. “I really wanna see this tower place.”

She was curious about the magic they used. Not that she didn’t know about magic herself. She was a magical girl, which came with its fair share of magical tricks, but she’d never made a point of really studying the magic she used, not the way some of her friends did.

“We can stop at a shop along the way, if you want,” Veronica said to Crystal. “You have your ring, but you haven’t placed it on any weapon.”

Minna nodded. She herself had her guild-issue dagger proudly hanging off her hip. “When on official business it behooves you to make it clear who you’re affiliated with. People will take you more seriously then, even if you’re just a bronze ring.”

Shrugging, Crystal pulled the ring out from between the ruffles of her skirt where she had a small pocket hidden away. “Well, alright.” She reached down to her side. Let her eyes go half-lidded, and then she ordered her sword to come. “Flash, Scintillating Disharmony.”

A familiar weight appeared in her hand, and Crystal flicked her wrist around and brought her sword up into a simple one-handed high guard.

“What.”

She glanced at Veronica whose gaze was locked on Scintillating Disharmony.

Crystal couldn’t blame her, the sword was quite pretty. It was a pale blue, made of a smooth metallic material that changed to a light-catching crystal along the edge. The hilt had a full basket made of twisted filigree with a bow near the ricasso.

“It’s beautiful,” Minna said.

“Thanks,” Crystal said, a touch of warmth clinging to her cheeks. “Right, just need to place this, right?” She turned the bronze ring around and placed it over the sword’s pommel. There was a crackling sound, crystalline structures growing with faint tinks until the bronze ring was locked in place.

Crystal flicked the sword around, grabbed it by its blade, then she slid it towards her hip where a sheath formed from thin air made of a long diamond sleeve that turned blue as the sword skated into place.

“There!” she said. The hilt hung by her side, its bronze ring clearly obvious. She patted it. “Does that work for a status symbol?”

“It sure does,” Minna said.

“Yeah, I suppose that works,” Veronica said flatly. “We should get going then.”

With that, they left the guild and crossed the busy city square. The Arcane tower was impossible to miss, seeing as how it literally towered above every other building in the city.

The place was guarded by a pair of soldiers in full-plate, each standing as still as they could with halberds by their sides. “Let me do the talking, please,” Veronica said.

She walked up to the guards and nodded. “Ma’am?” one of them asked.

“We’re here on guild business. A contract from Acolyte Tobias?”

The guard nodded, then reached over and opened the main door. “Please come in. Remain in the atrium, the Acolyte will see you shortly.”

She nodded, then stepped into the tower, a wave of nervous apprehension washing over her as they stepped into territory that was neither friendly, nor antagonistic, but all dangerous.

***

Chapter Seventeen - The Arcane Tower

Chapter Seventeen - The Arcane Tower

Crystal craned her neck back. While the Arcane tower was pretty tall, it wasn’t very big otherwise. Still, they’d clearly tried to make the best of it, and that included Vaulted ceilings covered in huge paintings, with wooden arches and pretty carvings.

They were mostly old men and pretty women, often wearing less than was ideal, and with sparks and streaks of magic around them.

“Like the ceiling?” Minna asked.

“Yeah,” Crystal said. “It reminds me a bit of something I’ve seen a few times.”

“Oh?” Minna asked.

Crystal nodded. “There was this big brick wall on the side of this school close to where I lived. It always got covered in graffiti. After that one big incident... well, I guess you wouldn’t know about it, but it was called the Godzilla-incident. Anyway, a bit after that the wall got covered in art of my friends, and then when more magical girls showed up they’d always repaint the mural with the new ones.” She shrugged. “I never got to see if I was added to the wall. Kind of disappointing actually.”

Minna frowned. “I’m sure you could return and look one day.”

Crystal chuckled. She didn’t mention that she and her friends had accidentally blown up the planet, mural and all.

Veronica listened with half an ear, but most of her attention was on the room itself. There wasn’t an entrance lobby like the guild. The Arcane tower was less a business and more... well, its own thing.

If someone needed to contact a member of the tower, then they needed to know the right people. It wasn’t a question of walking to the front desk and asking to speak to the tower master.

The atrium reflected that. It was grand and well-decorated, with statues within alcoves and paintings hanging from the walls. There was no sitting space though. It was an area to stand and wait while the tower did its own things.

“Let’s stand aside,” Veronica suggested. She led her two... teammates to an area of the room where they stood rather awkwardly next to a statue of an old crone with a knowing smile and a handful of thorn-covered weeds.

“Where are you from, Veronica?” Minna asked.

Veronica blinked. “Oh. I’m from Lindenburg. Yourself?”

“A ways to the south, little town next to Hungenroth,” the woman said.

“Ah, I know someone from there. Sir Kleiner,” Veronica said.

“The knight?” Minna asked.

She nodded. “Yes. He was a nice enough man, the one time I met him.”

“I wouldn’t know. Never rubbed shoulders with his sort. Then again, I’m starting to think the both of you have blood that’s a little more blue than mine.”

“Huh?” Crystal asked. “No, my blood’s red. One of my friends asked me if I wanted a custom colour for my blood, but I thought it was a bit silly. I’d rather not see my blood at the best of times.”

Veronica noticed someone entering the room so she touched Crystal’s shoulder. “I think our employer’s here,” she said.

The man standing at the entrance was relatively young, maybe a few years Veronica’s senior, thin with half-robes on which stopped at mid-thigh and tried valiantly to make his shoulders seem broader than they were. Unfortunately, he was swimming in the too-big robes, which only made him look rather foolish, a boy in his father’s armour.

“Hello,” he said as he came over. “You must be the team from the Daemon Hunter’s guild?”

“We are,” Veronica said. She endured the man eyeing her up and down, then he did the same to the other two.

This, she knew, would be a troublesome moment. Most people had an image in mind when they summoned help from the guild. This guy was probably expecting a group of hardened, toughened men. Minna mostly fit that image. She was a woman, undeniably, but she was obviously strong.

Veronica herself didn’t want to admit it, but she likely looked a little slight even with her armour, and Crystal looked like Crystal.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said. “I’m Acolyte Tobias. I put out the request that brought you here. Do you have the forms?”

Veronica nodded and fished out a small metallic tube from a pouch. Handing it over, she watched Tobias open the container, pull out the page within it, and scan it quickly. “Is everything in order?” she asked.

“It is. You must be Miss Dotter, the team lead?”

“I am, yes,” Veronica said.

“And in that case, you must be Miss Riehl and...” Tobias squinted at the paper, lips moving as he re-read something. Veronica wondered if Crystal’s family name was difficult to pronounce. Her first name was... interesting. Likely not her birth name, given that her powers were far too suitable for the name. “Genocide?”

“That’s me!” Crystal said.

Veronica felt her headache returning in force.

“Ah, well, very, well,” he said. Tobias smiled, and it shaved a few years off his features, making him look a lot more boyish for a moment. “Well, this isn’t a very complicated quest. I need access to a certain kind of daemon. I don’t need its head. So once the experiment is concluded, you can feel free to keep that for yourselves and sell it off.”

“Thank you,” Veronica said. Even the cheapest daemon head was worth a fair bit, and with all the members of the team being demon-fed already, they’d be free to sell it and split the revenue three ways. “Do you have the additional mission details for us? Type of daemon, last known location, the cage to hold it and so on?”

“I have all of that,” he said, “and more, even. I intend to accompany you.”

“The mission didn’t indicate we’d be guarding anyone,” Veronica said.

“I don’t need you to guard me, Team-leader Dotter, I need someone to do the work. If the job is to deliver the daemon to me, and I’m right there, then that’ll make things infinitely easier, won’t it?”

Veronica didn’t have a rebuttal for that. The mission was meant to be an easy one. Their target was one of the weakest daemons around, and they would have the assistance of a magi (or at least an Acolyte) from the Arcane tower. She didn’t have much to complain about.

“We’re ready when you are,” Crystal said.

“Perfect!” Tobias said. “Follow me, please.”

He spun around and walked back the way he came, Veronica and her teammates scrambled to keep up. The Acolyte pressed in past a doorway at the back, then through a far less ostentatious corridor where he grabbed a large satchel from a table and slung it over his shoulder.

“Want me to carry that?” Minna asked.

“Hmm? No, I should be... oof, okay, maybe?” he said after taking a step with the satchel and almost falling as it pulled him down.

Minna took it one handed and held it by her side, fist grabbing into the leather. “What’s in here anyway?”

“Very precise equipment which I am taking--with permission--from the tower. I can’t afford to lose it, and I certainly can’t afford to have it break, so please be careful with it.”

They continued on until Tobias pushed through a door and they found themselves at the back of the tower. The yard was rather typical of a small city estate’s yard. It was a cramped space, with crushed gravel on the ground, a few little outbuildings, and even a tiny garden in the rear.

A cart was waiting for them, with a donkey hitched to it and a large cage sitting on the back. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to use the cart to ride,” Tobias said. “The poor ass can hardly pull the cage and a driver along at the same time, I don’t believe three more weighing it down would suit it well.”

“That’s fine,” Crystal said. “We can walk.”

“Ah, I was going to offer that you hold the reins,” he said while oozing awkwardness.

“It’s fine,” Veronica said. “We won’t be going too far, will we?”

“No, just outside of the city limits, perhaps an hour of walking,” he replied.

“Then that’s no problem!” Crystal said.

“Can you enlighten us on what to expect? We’re hunting a Paruvil. Have the locals fought it already? Scared it off?” Veronica asked while Minna placed the satchel behind the driver’s bench and Tobias unlatched the gate.

The Acolyte frowned. “It’s less about hunting a daemon and more about proving a hypothesis.”

“You’re trying to prove a theory?” Crystal asked.

Tobias nodded as he jumped up and onto the cart. “Exactly, Miss Genocide. I noticed something of a pattern, and I would like to be able to test it. Capturing this one daemon might very well allow me to do so.”

“That does sound kind of cool,” Crystal agreed.

Veronica didn’t care, as long as they got paid in the end.

***

Chapter Eighteen - Tobias Wonders

Chapter Eighteen - Tobias Wonders

Tobias wondered if this whole thing was an added test from Archmagi Wagner.

It was exactly the sort of thing that old woman would try to pull on him. He had used tower funds to pay for this expedition. Sure, it wasn’t a grand amount in the greater scheme of things. A few gold for a small team of hunters, just enough to help him along, a small fee for the cart and the donkey’s feed, both of which were tower property to begin with, and then some small miscellaneous costs.

The cage had been free thanks to his befriending a magi who wasn’t using it at the moment, and he had secured some time off for this moment by trading chores with other acolytes.

The Kircken Arcane tower had twenty-two acolytes, six magi, and two archmagi. He was incredibly fortunate to be allowed to work in its hallowed confines, to uncover the underlying rules of reality, which at times seemed more math than magic, to fill his mind with countless new ideas, some of which they all knew were wrong, but didn’t have better theories to disprove that wrongness.

It was also a position that would, one day, lead to greater power, both political and social.

He was born a peasant. Under different circumstances the most he could aspire to was a good position in a guild or perhaps a vain dream of becoming daemon-fed through luck and circumstance.

Joining the Arcane tower had been a fluke of luck. Golden, shining luck.

He wasn’t going to squander that luck.

Luck which he felt was being tested today.

Why had his team from the hunter’s guild not looked anything like what he imagined? He expected--perhaps unfairly--three to five gruff men. Not three pretty ladies.

The youngest, with the strange no-doubt foreign name (what kind of family called itself something like Genocide? It must have been a mistake in translation) was attractive, though she seemed young. Seventeen, or eighteen. Marriageable age, to be certain, but too young for him.

Minna, the tall gruff one was what he expected to receive from the guild, but gender-flipped. She was kindly though.

It was the last, this team’s leader, that had him sweating and distracted.

Veronica Dotter.

He wondered if there was any relation to the nearby Baron Dotter. There had to be; someone so pretty, well-mannered, smart, and cunning had to be of noble blood. Her few smiles lit up her face and set his heart aflame.

“Mister Acolyte Tobias?” Crystal asked. She was a little worried about their current sorta-boss. He was blushing a lot, and looking at Veronica from the corner of his eyes... was he thinking rude things, or was he ill?

“Hmm? Oh, yes?” he asked as he attempted to refocus.

“Is that the village we’re headed to?” she asked while pointing out ahead. They’d travelled to the northern end of Kircken, out of the city and along a road that snaked around the edge of some rather large hills. There were little rivulets at the bottom, most of them meeting up at a small but respectable river that pressed into the city itself.

Out ahead, where she was pointing, was a valley encircled by a few of those hills. The area was surprisingly flat, though it was still tilted at a slight angle. A dozen little homes dotted the space, with fields all around them and a few enclosures for sheep and cows and a few barns a little distance from the roadside.

“That’s the place,” Tobias said.

“What’s it called?” Crystal asked.

“Oh, it doesn’t actually have an official name. It’s too small to really be of any real note, and it’s only an hour’s ride away from Kircken. I think the locals will sometimes call it the Stockmeyer place though. After the largest family here.”

“Neat,” Crystal said. She skipped ahead, skirts swishing quite pleasantly even with the weight of her sword holding them down to one side. Minna and Veronica didn’t quite have the same amount of energy. The walk hadn’t been too far, but it was still a decently long one at a pace set by an impatient donkey.

Tobias had offered to switch out a few times, but eventually it became a question of pride and none of the women accepted.

Veronica was regretting it now. There was a disgustingly damp spot at the small of her back and her armour was weighing on her uncomfortably. She was looking forward to the mission being over and done with.

“Do you know the whereabouts of the daemon?” she asked.

“Not its exact location, no,” he said. “I know what sort it is, though. It’s a Paruvil.”

Veronica frowned. It didn’t take much to recollect what that meant. Paruvils were relatively common. They were smaller daemons, with spidery forms which were fast and good at sneaking about. They tended to track people down in the dead of night and attack them in their sleep.

The daemon was an easy one to kill. It was weak to open flames and on eating one’s brain, someone would develop abilities that allowed them to meld into shadows and darken their presence.

“Are we going to stay here until nightfall?” she asked.

“No! Well, not if my hypothesis is correct,” Tobias said. He didn’t elaborate. Veronica assumed that he wanted to keep his business to himself.

Tobias, meanwhile, was worried that his usual long-winded blabbering might embarrass him in front of Veronica.

They rode towards the almost-village, the trek made easier since the road was angled down and they had gravity on their side. As they approached, Crystal started to squint and look for signs of life. There was smoke from a chimney or two, but no one was waiting outside, or tending to the fields or the cattle within.

Finally, when they were riding before one of the homes, the door opened and a broad-shouldered man stepped out. “Oi! You’re the magi?”

“I am, sir,” Tobias replied with a nod. “Are you Mister Stockmeyer?”

“That’s me,” Mister Stockmeyer said. He stepped out onto the road fully, and checked the donkey out, then the three hunters with a critical eye. “Where you wanting to be set up?” he asked.

“Is there somewhere central, where we can see every house?” Tobias asked. “We’ll want to see the daemon coming. Keep in mind, if I’m correct, the daemon will be heading in a specific direction.”

“Bait?” Minna asked.

“Something like it, yes,” Tobias said. He jumped off the cart with an oomph and tried to play off the pain in his knees. “Do you think it would be possible to move everyone to one place?”

Mister Stockmeyer rubbed at his chin, then nodded. “Yeah. Got that big hay barn down over there. It’s empty this time of year. Can hold the entire village easy. Not going to let everyone go to sleep though.”

“No, that would be foolhardy,” Tobias agreed. He was more than happy to accommodate as long as it didn’t interfere too much with his test. “Keep a few men awake with whatever weapons they’re comfortable with. If things go poorly, they’ll be able to lend a hand and keep everyone safe.”

“Fair,” the farmer said. “But if we take the daemon down, we’ll want our share, you know?”

“That seems fair,” Tobias said. “How about I pay you a little extra now? For the trouble?”

Mister Stockmeyer seemed to like that idea. “Right, let me get everyone moving. You know how slow some folk can be.”

Tobias nodded, then turned to the donkey. He’d have to find a place to leave the animal while they got to work.

“Pardon me, Acolyte Tobias,” Veronica said. “But what, exactly, is this plan of yours?”

“Oh, I suppose I ought to share that sooner rather than later,” he said with an awkward grin. “See, I have a hypothesis. The daemons are attracted to people and animals.”

“Yes,” Veronica agreed while Minna nodded at the common sense.

“Ah, but the Arcane tower ran some tests several years ago with imprisoned daemons and groups of people in caged wagons, to see how, exactly, daemons hunted. It was all quite educational. We can say with some degree of certitude that daemons don’t need line of sight to know that people are somewhere. We tried masking scent, and preventing noise as well. None of those senses mattered.”

“What are you saying, then?” Veronica asked.

“The daemons,” he said, a little excited now that he was on a roll and had a captive audience. “Hunt by a means different than the known senses. There’s something else, then. Nobody was terribly invested in the idea at the Arcane tower, but I found it interesting. What if that thing can be discovered, and what if we can harness it?”

“You could lay traps,” Minna said.

He nodded. “Or you could attract daemons away from towns and cities, keep them apart from our living spaces. Unfortunately, it took two years to really discover what attracts them. Or what I suspect does.”

“And what is it?” Crystal asked, she was a little curious now too.

He paused before answering. “We suspected that it might be sleep, initially. But now... now I think the thing that attracts daemons the most successfully are nightmares.”

***

Bonus Chapter - Ryker - Part One

Ryker - Part One

A long time ago, a world or twelve away...

Obviously, the world decided to end on Ryker’s only day off.

It started strangely. Ryker was walking from the groceries, a paper bag tucked against his chest, one hand underneath so that the contents wouldn’t rip out of the bottom. He had one day off a week, which meant he had to cram as many chores as he could in as few hours as possible. Then he could get back home and stare at a screen while pretending that he didn’t have another six days of work coming up.

It was, in his professional opinion, a terribly unhealthy way of living. He had bills to pay, though.

He cut through one of the green zones that dotted the city. They were a decent idea, on paper. He had read the articles that encouraged their creation, even. The idea was to have spaces with trees and bushes and grass, where people could enjoy a touch of nature and greenery. They also served to cut apart the stark grey-on-grey of the rest of the city, especially the defensive wall which cast its long shadow across the housing districts.

In reality, the green zones added to everyone’s commute. Without roads crossing through the areas, buses had to go the long way around, and they spaced out the subway exits more than usual.

With a sigh, Ryker hitched his bag up and continued on his way towards his housing block.

He paused when someone screamed up ahead of him.

An old man stumbled to the ground next to a pond. There was an elderly woman next to him who fell to her knees and moved her hands over the man, clearly uncertain of what to do and panicking. Ryker automatically assumed a few things. It was, he knew, human nature to automatically fit any scenario into a few dozen boxes.

First, the man was in distress. Heart issues? A seizure? He was screaming so he wasn’t choking.

Second, the woman was obviously a wife or significant other. She didn’t freeze the way other onlookers did. Everyone else—though there weren’t too many people in the park at the moment—was caught staring.

Third, as a medical expert of some sort, it was his job to call for help right away. But he had a bagful of groceries and no place to put it down.

Ryker snapped back to attention and knelt, placing his bags down even as he tapped his watch’s screen and started to call an emergency line.

Then the old man’s scream went weird.

It turned from something pain-filled to anand almost synthetic wail. It sounded fake. There was a warble and tinge to the sound that no human could make, not without electronic assistance.

“No!” the old woman shouted.

Her husband exploded.

His arms swung around in a wide circle, batting the woman aside even as his jacket was ripped apart from within by muscles that had torn themselves off of their ligaments. The man’s back arched and he wailed to the heavens even as spines ripped through the fabric of his coat and his leg bones cracked.

He—it—was still halfway through its transformation when it turned its head towards the woman and shrieked.

The air warped. Ryker had seen it before, once. He’d gone to a big music festival and someone had started playing dubstep at an obscene volume right after it started to drizzle. The thumps of the bass could be seen in the air.

The same thing happened right ahead of him. The air burst.

The old lady’s screams were cut short as her dress, her coat, and her skin were peeled off. A large V of grass was blasted away.

She fell back, flayed arms writhing.

Ryker stumbled back. He had frozen, he realized. Others were running already. One man was running towards the thing that had been a person a moment ago.

It wasn’t human anymore.

Strangely enough, the information just filed itself into his mind, as if he was reading an article off of a wiki. Drekavac. Named after a slavic myth. It could manipulate sound into a powerful blast that could disorientate and sicken. At close ranges it could be lethal.

Essentially, it was a Kaiju.

That could only mean one thing.

The siren started to roar across the city and the ground rumbled. The world, or at least this one corner of it, was going to end.

The Kaiju wasn’t the only thing to scream. Soon the entire city accompanied it. The sirens blared overtop each other. People scrambled away in all directions. Car and store alarms went off. Soon, the noise was so loud that windows shook in their panes and Ryker was certain that his hearing would be irreparably damaged from the event.

He’d heard that kind of story before, actually. Though in the after-action relief, there would be people with healing powers around.

He just needed to survive until then.

Ryker took one last look at the Drekavac Kaiju and ran. Somehow, twenty metres into his sprint in the general direction of home he realized that he had picked his grocery bags back up. He didn’t even know why.

He ran to the edge of the green zone, then stopped, running shoes scraping on the edge of the sidewalk. Two cars had crashed on the street ahead of him. Obviously the drivers had taken manual control of the cars and immediately ploughed into each other.

People were running, and chasing them were Kaiju, four-legged beasts with too many mouths who duplicated themselves with every-other-step until there was a stampede of ungainly creatures rushing down a main road. An explosion sent dozens of those flying back, and Ryker caught a glimpse of someone in a costume blasting Kaiju away until one of them caught the person from behind and they were buried in scrambling claws.

Another Kaiju stood on the end of the street, likely right where the person who’d turned into it had been. It glowed from within, then in a blink it was forty metres away and the ground it had crossed steamed. The few people in its path were blown apart.

Ryker spun around and ran back.

Safety, his mind screamed. He needed to get to safety. There were shelters.

He was supposed to take a Frak-stop too. He had some. At home. That wasn’t convenient at the moment, but they’d have some at the shelter. In fact, they’d force him to take one whatever the case.

His breathing was coming in sharp, and he winced as he felt a stitch forming in his side. Where was the nearest shelter?

There was one on the same block as his home. Was there one closer? Would he make it there before the buildings armoured up? No, that didn’t matter, they wouldn’t just close access to the shelters. There would be a hero defending them, likely a Rank B, or Rank C at worst for each one.

Ryker’s breath hitched as he heard gunshots deeper in the city, then the loud zap-hiss of someone using a laser-power.

Things were getting intense.

And then, some twenty feet ahead of Ryker, the world ripped.

He didn’t know how else to describe it. Space just tore open. A perfect ninety-degree angle, each side pushing upwards. Each edge was taller than the housing block where he lived.

From the rip came a long crystalline structure. He could almost see through it, but not quite. Somehow, the sky was still blue above, still sunny and bright despite everything, and because of that brilliance he could see the millions of complex inscriptions, each one geometrically perfect, within the crystal that ploughed through reality like a bullet through toast.

One of his first clients, back when he’d been new, was a man from Miami. He had been close when Israfil had ripped its way into the world then laid waste to the city and most of its suburbs. The client had been the only member of his family to survive. The man had post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing anything round and bulbous, and he had panic attacks when he heard certain sounds.

Ryker realized that he had never truly sympathised with the man until this very moment, as he craned his neck way, way back and stared at the form of an angel of destruction ripping its way into his home.

His heart stopped as a block of crystal the size of a bus brushed past him, so close he could reach out and touch it. He even saw his own face reflected in it before the crystal stopped pouring out of a silent portal rent into reality.

Tamiel the Perfect, the Crystal Sword, the City-ender, was here. Undeniable proof that if there was a higher power, it hated humanity.

***

Chapter Nineteen - Voluntold

Chapter Nineteen - Voluntold

Crystal sat on a haybale to one side of the barn. Minna and Veronica had voluntold her to keep a watch on Tobias as he worked, so she got to watch the acolyte give people sips from a clear glass potion bottle filled with a brownish liquid.

He said that it was a mixture of a few plant-based oils that, when taken before sleep, would both cause someone to feel drowsy and tired and would cause them to experience nightmares as they slept. He said it was a mixture of Valerian roots and Moon flowers.

Crystal wasn’t sure she’d ever volunteer to take a swig from that, and not just because so many lips had touched the bottle. She wasn’t fond of nightmares at the best of times, and not having to sleep was usually one of the big pros of being a magical girl.

She’d had terrible nightmares before, sometimes reliving all the things she’d had to do. Being a magical girl was awesome until it wasn’t.

“And that’s the last of them,” Tobias said. He pressed a cork into the lip of his bottle and shook it around while checking its contents. There wasn’t much left.

The last of the villagers to have taken a sip moved on deeper into the barn. The little almost-village was pretty upbeat about the event. They had blankets strewn out across the hay on the ground and a few pillows too. There was a bit of laughter, and the barn was well lit, even though it was still mid-day outside.

“Will they be okay?” Crystal asked.

“They should be fine,” Tobias said. “I’ve tested the concoction on myself. It’s mostly effective, but perhaps not as much as I have suggested.”

“Huh?” she asked.

Tobias grinned and tapped the side of his nose knowingly. “It’s a little trick an archmagi taught me when I was a new acolyte. Sometimes, if people want to believe something enough, it becomes true. You can convince someone that they’re poisoned with nothing but cooking oil or tell someone that they’re healed with a few drops of the same. The mind is surprisingly strong. Of course, that’s also a weapon used by charlatans and hustlers.”

“Oh,” Crystal said with a nod. “It’s a placebo effect.”

“I’m unfamiliar with the word,” he said.

She shrugged. “It just describes what you said. If people think that something is a lot stronger than it is, then they’ll feel as if it’s stronger. A friend of mine, Happy Sparkles, used to do something similar a lot where she’d convince people that we were way, way weaker than we were so they’d leave us alone.”

Tobias blinked. “Um, yes, I imagine we’re not the only ones who know that kind of trick. Anyway, the potion does work, regardless of if you believe it does. I’ve tested that as well. I still owe some of my fellow Acolytes some favours for it.”

“And no one got sick?” Crystal asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he said. “The taste is rather foul, admittedly.”

“That’s okay. Medicine isn’t supposed to taste good.”

He nodded along, then gestured to the entrance which was defended by a few young farmer boys who were learning against the walls with hoes and shovels nearby. “Shall we?”

“Mmhm!” Crystal hummed. “So, the tower has acolytes and archmagi, is there more?”

“Unlike the Daemon-Hunter's Association, the tower uses a more academic system. Acolytes train for three to five years before graduating as magi. A magi needs a certain level of accreditation and a number of proven discoveries to reach the rank of archmagi. Usually, these require the magi to explore the world, study powerful daemons, and lead complex experiments for the tower. But the Arcane tower is more of a... school than anything else.”

“That’s cool,” Crystal said. It sounded a lot more fun than highschool ever was.

“Hey, are you all done in there?” Minna asked as they stepped out into the much brighter daytime.

“We are,” Tobias said as he shielded his eyes from the sun. He idly noted that Crystal didn’t so much as blink at the change in lighting. “The potion was administered, now we just need to wait and see if any daemons take the bait.”

“How will we know?” Crystal asked.

“The charging, angry daemon will be our first clue,” Minna said. She patted Crystal on the head. “Veronica asked that Stockmeyer guy for a good vantage point, and some of the farmers set some ladders up against that shed.”

The big woman pointed to a small shed a dozen metres away from the barn right next to a field of something like wheat that stretched out all the way over the nearest hill. Veronica was sitting on the shed’s inclined roof. She waved at them, but continued to scan their surroundings.

“Good idea,” Tobias said. “If no one minds, I’ll sit with Miss Dotter, and you two can stay down here and guard the barn?” He smiled and hoped that neither of them caught on to his ulterior motives.

Not that those were terrible, exactly. He really didn’t want to be in the centre of any fighting, and the barn did need protecting. But he had planned on staying within the barn once they shut it up. The opportunity to sit next to Veronica for a few uninterrupted hours though... well, that was something he wouldn’t pass up.

“You go and have fun,” Crystal said with a knowing grin.

He smiled back, but he felt like it was a bit weak. “Right, of course.” With that said, he walked stiffly over to the shed, then awkwardly made his way up the ladder pressed up against its side.

“He has a crush,” Crystal said to Minna as soon as Tobias was out of hearing range.

Minna barked a laugh. “Oh, he has the moon in his eyes, he does. Veronica hasn’t noticed it at all.”

“That happens,” Crystal said. “You should have seen my friend group, it was a real mess of who was into whom. We needed a chart in the end.”

“I can imagine,” Minna said. “One of the reasons there are so few women in the guild. It’s too easy to fall in love when everyone around you is tough, in good shape, and earns as much as a robber baron.”

Crystal shrugged. She supposed that Minna wasn’t entirely wrong there.

“So, what’s it like, fighting a daemon?” Crystal asked.

“Never fought one?” Minna asked.

Crystal shook her head. “I don’t think so. Maybe that goat thing during the test, but that’s the most I ever fought. At least, around here.”

Minna quirked an eyebrow at that last addition, but she didn’t ask anything. “It depends a great deal on the daemon. Some are merely beasts, no harder to fight than a bear or rabid wolf. Which isn’t to say that it’s easy. A bear is strong, a wolf nimble and quick. But they can be defeated with minimal preparation. A spear would do for most, or a good sturdy knife.”

“Okay,” Crystal said. “That doesn’t sound too dangerous.” She imagined if the people of this world discovered gunpowder and guns that they’d be really popular.

“It truly isn’t,” Minna said. “At least, if you’re prepared for it. They can still take you off guard. Even the weakest of daemons is a threat in the night if you’re sleeping soundly and aren’t expecting the attack.”

“That’s fair,” Crystal said. Maybe not sleeping was the right choice, then.

“Other daemons are different. Some meld into the shadows, others are strong, sometimes only in one place.” She tapped her bicep. “Others are terribly strong all over. Others still cannot be harmed with just a knife but require hammers and picks and strong arms to break through their hide. You need to tie them down.”

“Sounds kinda hard,” she said. She could remember a few adversaries like that, where she had to work with her friends to take them down.

Minna nodded along. “It can be. It’s why you want a good team that are used to working with each other. Some daemons can only be taken out by daemon-fed though. Those who turn into night, those who move so fast you can barely see them, and a few others. You can lay traps, but they’re only worth so much. There are some that’ll make you wet your pretty skirts just by screaming, and still others can turn a whole city into an inferno.”

“Oh,” Crystal said. “I’m pretty tough though, so we should be fine today, right?”

“Against just a Paruvil? We should be, yes,” Minna said. She smacked Crystal on the shoulder. “Keep your eyes peeled and your head fixed on straight, and we’ll make sure everything works out in the end.”

They both straightened as a scream came from the distance, like a coyote’s howl, if the coyote just had its tail stepped on.

“Well, sounds like the acolyte might have been onto something,” Minna said.

***

Chapter Twenty - Crest the Hill

Chapter Twenty - Crest the Hill

The daemons crested the hill, and right away, Veronica knew that they’d be in trouble.

For one thing, their contract very explicitly called for the capture of a Paruvil-type daemon, or a daemon of approximate threat and sort.

That was a normal provision in most hunter contracts, after all, the average client couldn’t be trusted to know the difference between one sort of daemon and the next. It didn’t help that that difference could be slight at the best of times.

The contract did say one daemon. One.

The hilltop had five.

“Back up to the barn,” Veronica said as she picked out what features she could of the daemons.

Three were, in fact, Paruvils. They were tall, slender, and long. With bodies that looked like lumps of black flesh and small squarish heads on a short stalk. Their long limbs could fold in close, letting them scuttle near to the ground or high above it, and she recalled that the ends of their limbs had claws which, while not coated in venom, could lead to infections if they scratched or cut someone.

With herself, Crystal, and Minna all working together, they might be able to hold the three off, maybe kill them, even.

The other two daemons put that idea down.

“No, no, I’m so sorry,” Tobias said.

She glared at him. “Get to the barn,” she snapped. The least he could do was not stand in their way before they were all killed.

“That’s a Zadkiel,” Minna called out. “Not sure about the smokey one.”

Veronica didn’t wait for Tobias to fumble his way down the ladder. She sat on the edge of the roof and hopped down, knees bending hard as she landed. Then she took off to join her teammates. Reservations aside, they’d need to work together for what was to come.

“The other’s an Urfeil,” she said. “It breathes embers that are very hot. It’s made of ash. Don’t touch it if you can avoid it. Douse it with cool water or smother it to death. Otherwise, hard physical blows to disperse its body until it dies.”

“You’ve fought one?” Minna asked. The woman cracked her knuckles and flexed her arms.

“No,” Veronica admitted. “I’ve read about them.”

“What about that one?” Crystal asked while pointing to the other. She was far too unconcerned, but Veronica didn’t let that stop her from explaining. They’d all need to know as much as they could coming into this.

“That’s a Zadkiel. Lower end of the mid-ranked daemons. Mid rank meaning that you wouldn’t send anything but an all-silver team against one.”

She didn’t need to point out that they weren’t that.

“He looks a bit... wispy,” Crystal said.

The Zadkiel did look wispy. Its entire body was little more than thin bones and tight, corded muscle. Its skin was black vapours that twisted and writhed like the smoke over a campfire that had been tamped out.

The Urfeil next to it was a lot more solid. A two-legged lump in the vague form of a man made of slumping ash that glowed faintly from within. It had a scorched human skull for a face, wedged into the top of its body with peeling, wet skin and husks for eyes.

“Zadkiels can teleport,” Minna said. “We need to draw a salt line by the barn door.”

“No, that doesn’t actually work!” Tobias said as he jogged past. “Light! Light will keep it at bay.” He ran past and Veronica eyed his back for a moment before looking back up the hill.

The daemons were on the move, and she had no time to plan or act or even pray.

Crystal was wondering what the big fuss was about. The daemons were plenty scary-looking, she supposed... to someone who’d never had horror-movie night. She gave them a solid four out of ten in the spooky department. They actually reminded her of something, but the memory was quick and fleeting and she didn’t catch it in time.

Regardless, there were only five of them. “So, should we kill them?” she asked.

The Paruvil’s were running down the hill already, bodies low to the wheat that covered the hilltop so that the stalks whipped against them as they moved. The plants behind shifted back into place once they’d passed, creating a sort of living wake behind them.

Veronica only needed a second to see where their path was leading them. “We need to get to the barn!” she said. She whipped her sword out of its scabbard and ran as quickly as she could to catch up to Tobias who was only then barging into the building. The men at the door were rushing to close it.

That was probably for the best. The Paruvils weren’t too physically strong. The problem was the Urfeil, who’d just burn the barn down, or the Zadkiel who’d slip in through the smallest crack and then shift around in the shadows eating souls.

She grunted and pushed herself to move faster, and she arrived just in time.

Her power struck out, a blast of familiar cold filling the air around her before it swept over the nearest daemon and slowed it down to a crawl. Its claw-tipped forelimb was already racing down for her before she swiped her sword and left a long cut in its side.

She let go of her power, she’d need to ration it for this fight.

Then Minna arrived, the full force of her entire weight and all of the strength of her daemon-fed ability in her arm. Her fist rocketed into the daemon’s side with a hard wallop and the Paruvil stumbled onto its side.

It was still alive though, limbs thrashing hard enough that she didn’t dare approach; the others...

Veronica looked up, searching for the other daemons.

They were dead.

Crystal was rather disappointed at how easily the two other Paruvils had died. All it took was a flick of thought and a pair of metre-long crystal blades appeared above the monsters and plunged into their skulls.

The hardest part was gauging the angle of attack. From her spot it was easy to tell if she was off to the left or to the right, but it was a lot harder to tell if she was too close or too far off. Even with practice she couldn’t exactly thread a needle from afar.

Fortunately, the Paruvil’s skulls weren’t needle-holes.

“You two want to capture that one? We need to keep one alive, right?” Crystal asked.

“Um... yeah,” Veronica said.

“Cool. I’ll take care of the other two, I guess, since you’re busy.”

Crystal glanced up the hill, then started walking that way even as the next two daemons started to run at her. By the look of things, they’d decided that she was the bigger threat, so they’d attack her first.

It was kind of cunning.

She thought it would be a lot more cunning to run away.

The Urfeil screamed, that same coyote scream she’d heard a while back. The burnt face’s jaw unhinged and a torrent of smokey embers and cloudy ashes poured out and down, washing towards her like a shower.

She twitched a finger and formed a wall of sapphire between them. Then, because it seemed to like red so much, she formed two sets of ruby jaws just under the hill. When the Urfeil charged closer she closed her eyes and closed a fist.

The jaws of her sorta-bear trap snapped together in a wink with a shriek like glass cutting into glass. The teeth of the trap were all as long as her forearm, and obsidian-sharp. It chomped the daemon in half.

The Zadkiel could teleport. So the moment it disappeared, Crystal whipped around with her sword and executed a simple Two-Carat-Slice aimed behind her.

The daemon howled as its two forelimbs went flying in opposite directions, trailing black wisps.

“Teleporters are all the same,” Crystal complained. She planted her feet en-pointe, then squatted down a bit before executing a sharp lunge with the pommel of her sword striking out at the daemon’s head before it could react.

It was a move called Setting the Pearl and it wasn’t one of her favourites. Mostly because as soon as she’d struck the daemon its head exploded into giblets and she had to summon a temporary glass umbrella to keep herself clean.

She swept her sword around to remove any detritus from the blade, then she slid it back into its sheath.

“Done,” she said.

Minna and Veronica were giving her looks.

“What? Do I have daemon bits on my dress?”

“No, it’s fine,” Veronica said. She flinched back and out of reach of one of the Paruvil’s claws.

“Do you need help with that?” Crystal asked.

“We’ll manage,” Minna said. “At this point, it’s a matter of pride.”

Crystal didn’t know what that meant, but she shrugged and let them do their thing. “Just tell me if you need a hand or whatever.”

***

Origin - Four - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Four - Rending Nightmare

Alice wasn’t sure what she thought of Marcia. The girl was... not nice, exactly. She was extroverted and quick to make friends in a way that Alice wasn’t.

Not that Alice was introverted, necessarily. She could hold her own in a conversation and she wasn’t shy about putting her foot down. But Alice didn’t have the easy charisma that Marcia had. She was more... well, like her father. A bullheaded person who could put their mind on something and wouldn’t let go.

Still, Marcia made some things easier.

The first few days at the Escola Central were a challenge for all the new students. Some friend groups were carried over from middle and elementary school, but there were lots of students who had moved in closer to attend the prestigious school, and more who had had private tutoring until now.

That meant that plenty of the students were still feeling out the social situation at a school that was still reeling from the deaths that had occurred in the very corridors they wandered every day.

Alice was lucky, she found, to have met someone to socialise with without having to worry too much about... all the rest.

She had enough on her plate as it was. Adding homework to her magic practice was leaving her with little time for anything else. Not that she minded overly much. The school day gave her time to practise with her more subtle spells and to think up new ideas she could try later. It was also a nice distraction.

As was Marcia. The girl was a chatterbox at times, always asking questions, poking and prodding and listening to every bit of gossip circulating through the halls. She was friendly, open, quick to make connections with the other students and the staff, and always close by Alice’s side.

It was too bad that Alice suspected that Marcia was a demon.

“Alice!” Marcia called out, one arm waving above her head as if Alice could miss her. The shorter girl was standing on one of the edging stones around a flowerbank at the school’s front to give her a few extra centimetres of height. “I’m here!”

A few other girls were lingering nearby; it was obvious from their body language that they had been chatting a moment ago, before Marcia jumped up for Alice’s attention.

“Hey,” Alice said as she got closer. She had her thumbs hooked onto the straps of her backpack. It meant that her arms were in a position where she could easily summon Dream Charter and swing the sword down if she needed to. “How are you doing?”

“Better now that you’re here,” Marcia said with a big grin. Sometimes her smile stretched too much, but this wasn’t one of those times. “Did you do the math homework?”

“Yes,” Alice said. It was a good thing Marcia could carry most conversations because Alice felt tremendously awkward around the woman.

The other girls looked between each other, then back. Alice was aware that there were already strange rumours going on. “Alright, now that Alice is here,” Marcia said, “should we head in?”

“What about Rachel?” one of the girls asked.

Marcia looked at her, as if the girl had asked about the president of South Korea instead of a fellow classmate. “What about her?”

“She’s not here yet?”

“Then if you want, you can wait for her. Come on, Alice, they refilled the vending machines this morning. I want to know what your favourite drink is.”

“Right,” Alice said. She shrugged to the others, then followed after Marcia. The girl bounced ahead of her. Often she would turn, and it almost looked like she was reaching back for Alice, but she never touched. Ever.

Alice couldn’t recall Marcia coming in contact with her, despite how touchy she could be with others. When she was talking to other girls she often started with hugs, and she was even quick to hug any boy they happened to be talking to.

The lack for Alice was conspicuous.

“So, any preferences?” Marcia asked.

“Uh. Fanta?” Alice guessed. She had been thinking of other things for a moment, and might have missed out on what Marcia said for a moment. It wasn’t fair of her. She wasn’t certain that Marcia was a demon yet, so failing to pay attention was nothing but rude.

“Cool!” Marcia said. “I haven’t tried everything yet, so I’ll try that this time.” Marcia led Alice into the cafeteria on the ground floor and towards a trio of machines next to the entrance. A few people were gathered nearby, chatting and complaining as students did this early in the morning. A few had taken up tables and were finishing up homework or early semester projects.

The school was alive with chatter, and unfortunately, the smell of too many pubescent boys in one place.

Marcia poked away at the vending machine for a while, seeming happy just to watch the machine clunk out the drinks she ordered into the basket below. She scooped them out, then underhanded one of the cans to Alice who swiped it out of the air. “Did you hear?” Marcia asked as she pulled the tab with a hiss.

“Hear what?” Alice asked.

“There was another attack,” Marcia said. She smiled and took a sip from her can. “Oh, this is sweet.”

“An attack?” Alice asked. Her grip on her can tightened, the cold seeping into her hand. “Like the one that happened here?”

“Just like it! This time it was at a mall. Right in the food court! Well, you can imagine, I bet.”

“When did this happen?” Alice asked.

Marcia blinked and glanced off to the side. “Well, I suppose it’s happening... right now?”

Alice flicked her still-unopened can to the side where it flew into a garbage bin, then she reached out and grabbed Marcia by the wrist.

The girl hissed. Marcia’s Fanta clunked onto the ground.

Alice pushed her back until she bumped into the nearest of the vending machines.

They locked eyes. The lights in the cafeteria flickered. The shadows danced. No one came to split them apart. “Tell me,” Alice said.

“It wasn’t me,” Marcia said. “I just know.”

“I don’t care,” Alice hissed. “Tell me what you know.”

The girl smiled over her arm which was still held at an awkward angle. Something snapped, and Alice loosened her grip just a little. “A bunch of little wanna be pop-stars are doing a signing at the food court. Someone thought it would be clever to hit the event. So many girls in attendance. All the rebellious sort who wouldn’t mind skipping out on school. Plus a number of schools have today off, you know? We’re just open to make up for the year starting a little late.”

“Where?” Alice asked.

“The big mall, in the centre of town.”

Alice pointed to Marcia with her free hand. “When I come back, you will be here.”

“And what do I get out of that deal?” Marcia asked sweetly.

“To live,” Alice said. She let go, backed off, then stomped out into the main hall. Marcia would have to be dealt with later. The girl was definitely strange, possibly in cahoots with Hell, and maybe a devil herself. Alice would discover that later.

She knew that there would be no escaping her. Her magic was tailor-made to delve into the shadows and uncover things. She’d find out, one way or another.

But for now, an emergency awaited.

Alice left the school grounds, then hesitated. First, how was she going to get to the centre of the city? That was technically only a dozen blocks over, but that was still far. Run? She could sprint all the way over, but that would still be fairly slow.

She glanced up to the nearest rooftop, then chewed on her lower lip. Maybe?

Ducking into a bus shelter set at the front of the school, Alice spun around so that there was room behind her, then she closed her eyes. She just had to trust in her magic, and in herself. She fell, and in falling summoned her powers to herself.

Shadows lengthened beneath her, and she crashed into a pool of darkness that swallowed her whole. When she opened her eyes, she was in her magical girl costume. She pressed her hands over her eyes, then let out a relieved sigh. Her costume now included a domino mask.

It wouldn’t do too much to protect her, but... well, part of the protection was having the mask in the first place, she figured. It was a sign to anyone who wanted to look that she was trying to protect her identity in the first place.

She was gambling on people not being fools about things.

Alice... no, Rending Nightmare, swept out of the bus shelter, her capelet fluttering behind her, her tight white pants almost glowing. She knelt, then jumped, the leap taking her far higher than any human should have been able to travel in a single leap.

Landing with a crunch atop the roof of a convenience store, Alice wobbled for a bit, arms splayed out for balance, then she took a deep breath and started running.

She realised immediately that she would need to add parkour to her training routine. Sure, travelling in what was almost a straight line across rooftops was faster on paper, but she hesitated too often and had to pause to find places to jump from one roof to another.

Still, when the rooftops aligned, she felt like she was making good speed across the city, jumping over the alleyway gaps and onto exposed fire escapes that clanged with every impact of her boots.

On arriving closer to the centre of the city, she spotted a familiar mall complex. She’d been there a few times, with family and friends, sometimes on the lookout for something specific, sometimes just to wander the stores and look at all the things she couldn’t afford.

There was a large space behind the mall, a parking garage that was just close enough to the buildings next to it that when she ran around she was able to leap over and land on one of its concrete walls.

“Okay,” she said as she vaulted down from the wall and onto the ground. The parking garage’s topmost floor was open to the sky, with a building at one end that had elevators leading into the mall. “Now we see if Marcia was telling the truth or not.”

Or Alice could be in the wrong place entirely. She reached her senses out as she walked towards the elevators. There were shadows aplenty heeding her call, but none of them hinted at the presence of devils. Though... she could feel some shadows moving on the floors below. People walking? It was hard to tell.

Another thing to practice.

She stepped into the elevator next to some tourists and a few locals. Alice resisted the urge to squirm. Her outfit was a little strange but... well, it wasn’t stranger than what some people wore for Carnival, even if that was a ways away. And besides, the mall was a place for people to show off strange fashions, so her strange outfit wouldn’t look too out of place. Or so she hoped.

She exited on the middle floor, then immediately paused outside of the elevator.

The mall was a huge, sprawling place, with an open atrium in the middle where she could see stores on the levels above and below.

How in the world was she going to find anything here?

Then she heard the panicked screaming and her attention was drawn down, to the bottommost floor where people were rushing away from something.

That was helpful, she decided.

Grabbing the edge of the railing, Alice vaulted over it, then she spread her arms wide and fell, a leap of faith trusting only in her own magic to keep her from splattering below.

It was time to see what was really going on.

***

Chapter Twenty-One - Tie the Daemons

Chapter Twenty-One - Tie the Daemons

Veronica held the daemon back down as Minna gave a few last tugs. With a grunt, the bigger woman finally managed to tie the daemon’s many feet together. It had a length of cord with wood tied across its mouth as well, jamming it open so that it couldn’t bite.

“There you have it,” Minna said as she stepped back. The Paruvil’s head thumped onto the ground next to her, its face stuck in a mean snarl.

Its brain-matter would fetch a decent price. More because they were bringing back a live specimen, which was uncommon. Most hunters only brought back the heads.

She looked at the corpses. Two more Paruvil’s, an Urfeil, a Zadkiel. A glorious number of kills for such a small hunter team, and all within walking distance of a city that would welcome the sales.

It meant enough gold, even split three ways, for someone to live in a respectable inn for a year without having to lift a finger.

If their brains weren’t smashed.

Veronica winced internally as she approached the first two Paruvils. They had crystal spikes plunging into and through their heads and pinning them into the ground. No good there.

“Dammit, Crystal,” she muttered. Only that girl could turn such an unexpected victory into a pyrrhic one.

“What?” Crystal asked, entirely guileless.

“When you kill a daemon, you’re supposed to leave the head intact if you can.”

Crystal pursed her lips and puffed her cheeks. That was hardly her fault. She twirled her glass umbrella about. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I thought it was obvious,” Veronica said. She was less mad than she was exasperated. A small, logical part of her reminded her that Crystal had just saved her derrière. That small part wasn’t as big as the chunk of her who just saw their payday shrink immensely.

Veronica stomped over to the Zadkiel. The power gained from that one varied. It could be a fear-inducing scream, a voice that could manipulate emotions, or most valuable of all, a slow and short-ranged teleportation ability.

That was, if Crystal hadn’t splattered its head across half the field. The rest of the body was nearly intact, save for a pair of missing limbs.

She felt her eye twitch, then she moved on to the Urfeil. This one had been crushed by massive crystalline jaws that had ripped out of the earth, dislodging a number of wheatstalks and ripping apart one of the fences.

Veronica was determined to smack the first farmer who complained about it.

The daemon’s head was bitten into by one of the crystal teeth, but it was the lower half. “This one might be salvageable,” she said.

“I’ll open the jaws then,” Crystal said. She flicked her hand open and the huge rubies unhinged, leaving the daemon to flop bonelessly onto the ground. It was very dead, what with its body ripped in half except for some strips of ashy tissue.

“Going to be a tough sale,” Minna said as she stepped over the jaws and tugged the head free with a hard jerk. “Looks like the brain was hit a little.”

“Some gold is better than no gold,” Veronica argued. A person didn’t need to eat a daemon’s entire brain. Some people even cooked the brain first, though she’d heard stories of terrible mutations happening sometimes.

No, the best was a fully intact brain, entirely eaten, even if rumours said you only needed one bite from it. After all, only one person got power from the brain, and it was best to eat it all, just in case.

“I’ll ask the farmers if they have a bag we can use,” Veronica said.

“Best ask for two,” Minna suggested. “Some people don’t like the brain juices leaking. Say it’s bad luck.”

Veronica nodded. Two bags wasn’t asking for much more than one. She wiped her hands off on the front of her gambeson, then settled her equipment in place before starting towards the barn. “Keep an eye out for more daemons. If five showed up, there could be more.”

“Will do!” Crystal chirped.

Stepping over to the barn, she stopped by the front door, then rapped her knuckles against it. “It’s Veronica, the hunter. The area’s clear,” she said.

No one opened the door. She frowned, then knocked harder, with her fist this time. Had a sixth daemon slipped by them?

“Hello? Are you safe in there?” she asked.

“We’re fine. Go away,” someone shouted back.

Veronica’s frown turned into a glare. “The area’s clear. We’ve killed the daemons.”

“We don’t believe you,” came the reply, from another voice this time.

“I don’t care if you believe me or not. Open the damned door.”

There was a pause before the next reply. “How do we know that you’re not being controlled by a daemon?”

“Because no daemons of that kind showed up today, and doppelgangers can’t communicate,” she said. It was only mostly true, but it was close enough in her opinion. “Now, can you open the door? I need to talk to Acolyte Tobias.”

“We’re hanging him,” someone said.

“You’re what?” she asked.

“We’re going to hang him! He said he’d get rid of our daemon problem, not bring a whole army of them down on our heads!”

“You... idiots!” Veronica spun around, then cupped her hands over her mouth. “Crystal!” She shouted. “I need a hole in the front of this barn, now!”

If their client died, they wouldn’t get paid!

Crystal nodded, gave her a thumb’s up, then gestured vaguely in the direction of the barn. There was a flash, and Veonice noticed some crystals slicing up along the sides of the barn’s front. Then the entire side of the building nearest her creaked ominously.

“Oh, come on,” she muttered before turning tail and running.

The front of the barn collapsed to the ground with a huge whump of displaced air which shoved her ahead a few steps. It crashed just a step behind where she’d run to.

“Oops!” Crystal shouted.

Veronica spared the girl a glare, then turned back to the barn. Its two floors were uncovered now that the front of the building was cleanly cut off, revealing a few people resting on piles of hay, clearly asleep, and a group of farmers holding Tobias on a stool, a rope spun around his neck which hung from a post above.

“Alright, hand him here,” she growled.

“Um,” one of them said.

“Do you see what we did with the daemons?” she asked with a sweeping gesture behind her to the corpses littering the ground. “What makes you think a few fat farmers would slow us down any? Let the acolyte go.”

The makeshift noose was removed from around Tobias’ neck, and he was none-too-gently shoved out of the barn where he stumbled across the planks that had been the barn’s front. “Thank you,” he said while rubbing at his neck.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Veronica said. “I’m somewhat angry with you still.”

The acolyte winced. “Right, of course. I... had not figured my experiment would be this successful. I had planned for quite the opposite, really.”

“Successful?” Veronica asked.

“Oh, yes, of course,” he said. “Look at the number of daemons that showed up! We’ll have to repeat the experiment... with a bigger budget for daemon hunters. You can take part, of course! Your team did excellent work. Very... ah, impressive.”

She stood a little taller, enough so that she could try to look down her nose at him. “Right, of course,” she said. “Is attracting this many daemons really a success?”

“We can’t rule out coincidence,” he said. “We will have to run the experiment again a number of times under different circumstances to be sure that it’s working the way we expect, and we want to rule out false-positives as well, which this could be. But if it’s working because of my hypothesis...” He smiled so bright it lit up his face.

“Yes, I’m sure that would earn you plenty of credit at the Arcane tower,” Veronica said.

“Of course. This could be a means to keep villages and cities safe. It could be a future method to farm daemons. Can you imagine, being able to reliably lure them into a specific, prepared area?”

She could imagine that, actually. A few cities had spaces reserved for that, and when a powerful daemon, or a band of them like they’d seen today, wandered close, they’d send some brave soul out on a fast horse to annoy and pull the daemons into a space where they could kill them from relative safety.

“We’ll be expecting a bonus from this,” Veronica said. That wasn’t part of the contract at all. In fact, she was pushing things quite a bit by asking, but at the moment she was a little frustrated and disappointed by how little they’d make for the work they--mostly Crystal, really--did.

Tobias nodded. “Of course. And when we return, I’ll pay for a meal, just us. I mean, me, you, and your team.”

“Mhm, yeah, sure,” Veronica said. She turned back to the barn to get those bags she needed.

***

Chapter Twenty-Two - Ride the Cage

Chapter Twenty-Two - Ride the Cage

Crystal got to ride on the cage. It wasn’t quite as good as riding on the cart, mostly because the metal bars of the cage were too slim to be comfy for her behind, but it wasn’t all that bad; it meant that she could see quite a ways further than anyone else, and she didn’t have to walk all the way back to Kircken.

In the cage was the one surviving monster they’d captured. It was all trussed up, limbs tied together with the rope brought by Minna, and a few extra lengths the farmers didn’t mind parting with.

The daemon was awake, and it wasn’t very happy about being caged up.

“Oh, come on,” Crystal said as she reached between the bars and scritched the monster’s head. It rammed itself up, but Crystal was too fast and got her hand out before it could try to squish her.

“Miss Genocide, could you please, ah, not?” Tobias asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Crystal said. They rode on for a while before a question occurred to her. “So, Acolyte Tobias, you said this basically proves your hypothesis, right?”

“It certainly suggests that it’s correct, but one occurrence of an event isn’t enough to do that. We’ll have to run repeat experiments, with differing factors, to really determine if I’m correct, but this is a great victory for me.” He grinned back at her, and she smiled back.

It was nice to be on the way back... well, perhaps not home for her, but back to a base after a successful mission. There was something about that relieved feeling and the easy camaraderie that came with it that always made her happy.

“I hope things go well for you,” Crystal said. “I bet the big archmages will be impressed.”

“Archmagi,” he corrected. “And I hope so too. I imagine they might be. This opens up an interesting avenue for research into daemons, how to deal with them, and maybe one day into their spread.”

“That sounds mighty important,” Minna said. She was lugging the bag with the other intact daemon head in it. They didn’t want to overburden the cart, which was why Crystal was picked to sit atop it. She was by far the lightest of them. Veronica was a bit taller than she was, and had a bunch of armour on, and Minna was... Minna-sized.

“It is,” Tobias agreed. “We have so many questions to answer about the origin of the daemons.”

“Have they been around forever?” Crystal asked.

“Daemons? No, not really. It’s not hard to pin-point the exact time they started showing up. The entire world felt their arrival.”

“When was it?” Crystal asked.

Tobias laughed. “Before our time. Over a hundred years ago.”

“And before that there weren’t any daemons at all?” Crystal asked.

He shook his head. “Not as far as I’m aware. Though I wasn’t around before the Night of Nightmares.”

“That’s not the most creative of names,” Crystal said.

Minna laughed, but Veronica just snorted. The woman was being strangely taciturn.

“So, where do daemons come from?” Crystal asked.

“You mean what causes a person to turn into one?” Tobias asked.

Crystal shook her head. “No, Veronica told me all about that. People sometimes wake up and turn into monsters. Sometimes it only half-works and they’re still people even though they look like monsters. But she also said it happens in waves, sorta.”

“That’s how it usually occurs, yes,” Tobias said. “You’ll have a whole region suddenly experience a great number of turnings all within a short period. It’s fortunately infrequent, and there are measures we can all take to ensure that if we turn, we won’t harm our family and friends. Well, I think everyone here is demon-fed, so we shouldn’t have that kind of problem.”

Crystal filed that information for later. She wasn’t daemon fed, which meant that if she slept, there was a tiny chance she’d turn into a person-eating monster. She was never happier not to need to sleep.

“So, you didn’t answer my question,” Crystal said. “Where do they come from?”

“The daemons? I... don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows. Some people say it’s a punishment from God, that only those who aren't devout turn,” Tobias said. Minna nodded along at that. “But the tower experimented, and the amount of devotion and belief in what the church teaches doesn’t correlate to your chances of turning or not.”

“This doesn’t feel like something a very nice god would do,” Crystal said.

“That’s true,” Tobias said. He didn’t notice Minna’s scowl, but the big woman held her tongue. “Anyway, I don’t think we’ve ever found an origin for the daemons. They just showed up one day.”

“Are there any that are smart enough that they might know?” Crystal asked.

“There are some who can talk,” Veronica said. “And there are some who are smart. Those tend to be dangerous in their own way. Some can use weapons and tools and lay traps. Those are the weakest of the daemons able to reason. Those who are much smarter, well, they’re gold and above.”

“There’s the Oracle of Geiselharting,” Minna said. “But it’s sacrilegious to speak to it.”

“Not in Geiselharting,” Tobias said. “They practically worship it.”

“Who’s that?” Crystal asked.

“A large, powerful daemon that will take your soul in exchange for a prophecy,” Tobias said. “They are, as far as the Arcane tower was able to determine, entirely accurate. As for the soul part, we’re not sure about that.”

“Of course souls exist,” Minna said.

Crystal sat up straighter. She could see Kircken coming up as they rose above a hill. She told the others, and they started to move with a bit more speed, Tobias daring to push their donkey a smidge harder now that they were so close to the end of their mission. The day had been exciting, but it was also coming to an end. The sun was setting to her left as they came to the city gates.

Crossing the city gate with a live daemon turned out to be a bit of a chore, and Veronica had to puff her chest out and pull rank to get any of the guards to actually listen. Even then, her pointing to Tobias in his Acolyte robes was barely enough to get them through, and that was with an escort.

Fortunately, the escort did make it easier to return to the Arcane tower where Tobias was able to run in and get a magi to step out and smooth things out.

The older man was apparently quite interested in the daemon they’d brought over as well. Crystal took it to mean that daemons weren’t often captured when killing them and taking their head was enough to do the job, but Tobias insisted that he needed it for further experiments.

Experiments he said he would start the next day.

“We must celebrate,” he said. “We, ah, I know a nice place to eat. It’s only a block down. My treat, after everything we went through together.”

Veronica hesitated. “We need to report that our mission was a success,” she said. “And we can hardly walk into a nice establishment with a daemon head in a sack. I can’t think of many places that allow that kind of thing.”

“Then we sell it first,” Tobias said. “Then the three of you can split your earnings as you want, and we celebrate with a good, hearty meal and perhaps a small cup of Kircken’s finest wine.”

That won Veronica over, and Minna was won over at the prospect of money and food. Crystal was just along for the ride, really.

Tobias insisted on accompanying them to the place where they’d sell the daemon head, he said it was because he was curious, but Crystal knew it was because he wanted to spend more time walking next to Veronica, who seemed to be in a better mood now that they were back in Kircken than she had been all day.

Minna led them across the city, since she was a native and actually knew where to go. That turned out to be an auction house a couple of blocks over from the tower. “It’s slower,” she said. “But they give you a good bit of gold upfront based on the average cut you can expect to earn, and then once the auction’s held, you get a percentage of that.”

“That sounds like a gamble,” Veronica said.

“It is,” Minna replied with a grin. “But you generally come out on top here. Don’t worry.”

Things were going well, and Crystal was excited to try out that new restaurant--spurred on, of course, by the rumbles in her tummy--so no one was expecting it when they turned a corner and found the street blocked ahead of them.

“So,” a man in a long coat asked. “Which one of you sorry lot’s the bitch that killed my brother?”

***

Chapter Twenty-Three - Sized Up

Chapter Twenty-Three - Sized Up

Crystal sized up the people ahead of her in a blink.

It was an important skill; to be able to tell how strong an opponent was before facing them in a fight could decide whether or not that fight would end in victory or if running away was the best option.

There were five guys. Two of them she immediately dismissed as followers. They were a few steps behind the guy in the long coat and looked like little more than thugs. She didn’t get any sense that they had any tricks up their sleeves.

There was a woman to the right of coat-guy. She was shorter, and a few years Crystal’s senior, which made her maybe a year or two older than Veronica. She had leather armour on, which jingled faintly as she moved. Ringmail? Her hands were holding onto a pair of daggers as if they were ice picks, and she had a loop stuck to her belt. It was filled with rings. Bronze, silver, and a couple of sparse golden rings.

Were those trophies? Kind of morbid.

The other person was behind them, on a nearby rooftop where the shadow cast by a chimney hid his presence. The smoke probably covered his scent as well. He had no weapons that she could see at a glance, but something told her he had magic on his side.

Then there was coat guy. He seemed strangely familiar, though she couldn’t place why or how. His hands were fists by his side, and he seemed ready to charge ahead and start whaling at a moment’s notice. He had a shortsword by his hip, with a silver guild ring on the pommel.

Crystal evaluated the threat around her and relaxed.

Her friends--mostly it was Rending Nightmare and Phantom Mist working together--had developed a warning-rating system. It went from ‘spooky’ to ‘dangerous’ and they used it to decide how much effort to put into fighting something.

A rift opening up in the middle of nowhere and disgorging eldritch monstrosities that specifically enticed redheads into doing evil deeds? That was spooky. An alien armada showing up and stealing all the moons in the solar system? That was dangerous.

These guys didn’t even rate.

Veronica, meanwhile, was nervous.

She didn’t know this man, but he seemed to know them, and he was holding a grudge. Worse, they were evenly numbered, which wasn’t ideal when she wasn’t sure of two of her companions.

Tobias might have been able to fight, but... no, she couldn’t rely on him. The only comfort there, as small as it was, was that as an acolyte of the Arcane tower it was very possible that the thugs would let him go.

There was a lot of trouble that could fall on a moron’s head if they killed a member of the tower, and the tower made sure to let everyone be aware of the few times they had to make an example.

No one wanted to mess with a group whose members counted among the most powerful magi in the world.

Minna would help, Veronica knew. The woman was steadfast and she suspected loyal. Besides, Minna seemed the sort who liked a bit of a brawl. Which left Crystal.

Veronica didn’t want Crystal to fight, because she gave even odds that if the girl let loose, things would get very messy, very quickly.

“Who are you?’ Veronica asked.

The man grinned. “Hans, Hans Wademar. Was it you?”

“What?” Veronica asked.

“My brother. Michel. Are you the one who killed him? Oh, who am I kidding. You were there, weren’t you? That’s good enough reason to kill you all on its own.”

“What are you talking about?” Veronica said.

Maybe she could play this off. Pretend that this guy had the wrong target. At worst, she could delay. The guards in this city weren’t the hardest working ones around, but they’d have to patrol the area eventually. The street was empty, the locals probably feeling the tension in the air. Maybe one of them had run off to get the guard.

It was a small hope to kindle.

“I’m talking about how one of you killed my brother,” Hans growled.

“Oh!” Crystal said. It was too fast for Veronica to spin around and slap her hand over the girl’s mouth. “Was he the guy with the knives?”

“Yes,” Hans said.

“Yeah, my bad.”

“Your... bad?” Hans asked.

Crystal shrugged. “He tried to stab me. Well, throw a knife at me to stab me with it. I guess it’s the same thing? Look, I don’t know much about throwing weapons, okay?”

Veronica twitched. She was going to strangle Crystal one day. “This is a bad idea, Hans,” she said. “Guild fighting guild isn’t a good look, for either of our careers. Let the guild itself handle it.”

“The guild won’t handle shit,” Hans snapped. “Frederick told me everything. The guild master’s brushing it under the fucking rug! My brother! My little brother!” His face was an unhealthy red, and Veronica could see the veins popping just under the surface of his forehead.

“We can talk,” she said. “If you fight us, the guild will sanction you.”

“Oh, I won’t fight,” Hans said. He took a deep breath, then gestured to the side, to the woman next to him. “Arne here will. She loves guild members. Don’t you, Arne?”

“I love their blood on my boots and along my blades,” the Arne woman said in a sibilant, sing-song tone.

“Oh boy,” Crystal muttered.

Hans laughed. “Arne here didn’t come cheap. But she’s the best in the business at what she does.”

Arne raised a hand towards the group and Veronica tugged her sword out of its sheath in a flash. She was ready to unleash her power to slow the woman down, or charge ahead to take her out.

The woman just laughed. “Tsk tsk, if you try anything, Marcus will tear you apart.” She tilted her head towards the rooftop where a man was still hiding by the chimney. “So, just sit back, and bask in your own sins.”

“What’s that mean?” Crystal asked Minna. Maybe it was some local saying she hadn’t heard just yet.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good,” Minna said. Then she gasped as her shadow, made long by a lamp hanging on the roadside, started to shift and rise off the ground. All of their shadows were doing the same.

“My power personifies your shade. The more you’ve sinned, the greater and more powerful the monster you create. It’s incredible how few of the guild’s vaunted heroes can survive their own self-made tribulation.”

Veronica tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. She’d heard of a similar power before. It was incredibly potent. Useless against the average daemon, but deadly against a person. Worse, Arne seemed a capable enough fighter on her own, and they had Hans and the two thugs to deal with, as well as Marcus, wherever he was.

She stepped back as her shadow rose. It was... her, but with a larger head and frail limbs and without any of her armour or clothes.

“My my, it seems you haven’t sinned all that much at all,” Arne said. She glanced to Hans. “I don’t think it’s that one.”

Minna’s shade grew, a larger version of herself, with its shadow-darkened skin covered in poorly-healed scars of religious symbols. It looked fearsome, but it stood on small, stalk-like legs.

“And she’s not much worse,” Arne said. “I’m glad I took payment in advance, this is just sa--”

Crystal’s shade grew. It grew and it grew, a pillar of roiling blackness that rose up into the sky while expanding ever upwards.

All thoughts of fighting fled for the moment as they all watched the shade continue to climb up. Its body was covered in obsidian growths and massive, pulsating tumours of shadow. A million mouths warped into being along the shade’s surface and they joined each other in a screeching, horrified scream that cut off all at once as every mouth choked at once.

Then eyes started to force their way out of the million mouths, each plopping down and dangling by the stalk above them like macabre garlands. And still, the shade grew. Massive limbs formed and soon it was clear that it was larger even than the city.

“W-what did you do?” Arne screamed.

Crystal shrugged. “This and that, you know? Anyway, can I kill this thing?”

“Please do,” Veronica said.

“Nice,” Crystal said. She whipped her sword out, pointed it to the side then focused for a second.

The ground around her ripped upwards, flagstones tumbling aside as six crystalline pillars formed from the earth. They glowed, brighter and brighter until the light became a physical thing and arced out to hit the point of her sword.

“Flash.”

Veronica reeled back as the early evening became noon-bright in a split second.

The monster above screamed as it was pierced through and crackling sparks of lightning crawled across its tumorous flesh, rending it apart.

“Okay,” Crystal said as she lowered her sword. “Now... uh, Veronica, what do we do now?”

***

Chapter Twenty-Four - Sorting Themselves Out

Chapter Twenty-Four - Sorting Themselves Out

Things sorted themselves out quite easily once the guards arrived. All Crystal had to do was threaten to blow-up-ify the baddies. Sure, the one guy on the rooftop whose name she forgot tried to skewer her with a shadow-y lance thing, but... well, it didn’t work.

Crystal was probably the weakest of her friends, but she did have something of a type-advantage against darkness-based attacks. Crystals were glowy and bright and a lot of her magic played with light and raw energy in a way that hard-countered shadow magic.

Once she convinced him to come down and step into the light--via threat of evaporating him--all they had to do was wait for the guards to show up.

The guy with the big coat--whose name she also forgot--tried to spin this story about how he was wronged, but Tobias stepped up, and it looked like he had more credibility than coat-guy. Plus, the Arne woman was a known murderer-slash-assassin and she was wearing a belt of rings taken from people she’d killed, which really was kind of a stupid fashion choice for an assassin to make in Crystal’s opinion.

Then again... she remembered her own short-lived goth phase and decided that maybe she wouldn’t cast stones from her crystal house.

In the end, they ended up at the restaurant that Tobias had recommended, the four of them sharing a table and a big meal.

“So, what’s the next mission you’re planning on taking?” Tobias asked as he carefully cut into a steak.

“We don’t know that yet,” Veronica said. She glanced towards Crystal, then back to her plate. She was thinking back to how she’d once tried to get rid of the girl.

Oh how right she’d been. If anything, Crystal had proven to be leagues more trouble than Veronica could ever have imagined.

“Our team was quite temporary. It’s possible we’ll all be heading our own ways,” she said with a nod.

“Oh? That’s unfortunate,” Tobias said. He smiled good-naturedly. “I’m certain that if you want, we can find more work for you.”

Crystal raised a hand, like she’d been taught to do in class. “I want to discover where the monsters come from.”

“Just look at wherever you came from,” Veronica muttered.

Crystal frowned at her, and the woman clammed up.

“Why do you want to know that?” Minna asked. “If you’re truly curious, we could attend a sermon.”

“I doubt she’d learn the truth from a pulpit,” Tobias said with a shake of his head. “All they peddle there are lies and deceits.”

Minna glared across the table, so Crystal waved her hands to stall any sort of argument. “Ah, one of my friends, Happy Sparkles, said that you should never talk about religion, politics or the economy at the dinner table because that’ll always make the food go sour.”

“Hmph. Your friend’s clever,” Minna said.

Crystal nodded. “Yup. She’s the best when it comes to social stuff. Everyone trusts her, which is why she’s the one who handles the Chart.”

“The what?” Veronica asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Minna interrupted.

Veronica shook her head. She didn’t. Tossing her utensils next to her plate, which still had most of her meal sitting on it, she began to stand.

“Are you okay?” Crystal asked. It couldn’t be the food. They’d all ordered a roast with veggies and while she thought it could use a smidge more salt, it really wasn’t bad, especially after such a long and active day.

Veronica shook her head. “I can’t stop thinking about Hans.” On seeing Crystal’s blank look, she added. “The guy with the coat.”

“Oh, him. What about him? He’s not a problem anymore, is he?” Crystal asked.

Minna scoffed. “The way Kircken guards work? He’ll be out before the week’s over. I don’t imagine that assassin woman was cheap either.”

“You have some powerful enemies after you,” Tobias said with naked sympathy. “I... wish I could help. No, I will help, I just don’t know how.”

“There’s nothing to do about it,” Veronica said. “I’ll make a complaint at the guild, but Hans is ranked higher than any of us. The only thing that might get them to slap him on the wrist is the way he threatened you, and even then, someone like Hans might be able to talk his way out of that.”

“Crystal’s, ah, display won’t have gone unnoticed,” Tobias pointed out. “It was quite large.”

“Thanks!” Crystal chirped.

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Veronica said. She shivered as she worked to suppress the memory of the... thing that Crystal’s shadow had turned into.

Crystal huffed. “I’ve decided to take it as one, and there’s nothing you can do to change my mind about it.” She tapped the side of her skull. “Brain as thick as diamond is what Burning Ultranova used to say.”

“Actually... that big thing earlier, if everyone in the city saw it, well, it might inspire a number of nightmares tonight,” Tobias said. He glanced around the restaurant, and Crystal followed suit.

She hadn’t really been paying all that much attention earlier, but now that she was looking for it... it was clear that the place was really, really quiet. Maybe too much so. The other tables that had people at them were all either quiet, or having hushed, whispered conversations, and she vaguely recalled their waiter telling them that a few staff members had gone home early.

Had the shade shaken up the city that much? “Will that summon a bunch more daemons then?” Crystal asked. “That was your theory, right?”

Tobias blinked. “Oh. I hadn’t considered that. But yes, actually. That was what prompted my hypothesis. During times of great upheaval there is usually an uptick in the number of daemon attacks. A king gets assassinated, there’s a small earthquake, a local business goes under, leaving many people without work. All things that lead to restlessness in a population and therefore, I suspect, more night terrors, which attract more daemons.”

“So, with that whole ordeal, Kircken might be in for a rough night?” Veronica asked. She tapped the tabletop with her fingertips, a rapid, anxious beat.

“Possibly,” Tobias said. “I’ll inform one of the archmagi when I get back to the tower. They can inform the city guard, and from there, well, maybe we can head off any sort of trouble, right?”

“Right,” Veronica agreed.

Their evening at the restaurant ended on a rather anticlimactic note. Tobias paid, and they agreed to escort him back to the tower, but their goodbyes once they got there were a little on the anaemic side. “Thanks for today,” Tobias said. “I’ll put a good word in at the guild for you.”

“Thanks!” Crystal said. “I’m kinda tempted to try and work my way up the ranks and get like... what’s above gold?”

“Nothing you’ll see for a while,” Minna said. She ruffled Crystal’s hair. “I think this is goodnight for me too. Today was exciting, but I need me some sleep.”

“I think we all do,” Veronica said. “Goodnight, Minna, and goodnight, Acolyte Tobias.”

“Please, just Tobias,” Tobias said with the most awkward smile Crystal had seen in a while.

“I’m not sure if that would be entirely appropriate,” Veronica said. But she softened it with a smile and turned without seeing the disappointment on Tobias’ face.

Crystal gave him a shrug, then a pat on the shoulder before she jogged to catch up to Veronica. “Are we going back to the inn?” she asked.

“We are,” Veronica said. “I am exhausted. The fighting we did today... that I did today, wasn’t too bad, but I ended up using my power twice.”

“Is there a limit?”

“No, not quite. I’m just tired. Most people feel that way after using a daemon-fed ability. It’s usually no worse than doing some light physical activity for an hour or so, and it can mean that you’ll fall asleep with greater ease as well.”

“Oh, that’s a neat trick,” Crystal said. “If you can’t sleep, just blast your power around. Mine used to leave me tired too.”

Veronica glanced at Crystal as she walked. “It doesn’t anymore?”

“Well, I guess it does, but only if I’m really overusing it. But at first it was a bit of a chore, you know? I had to practice a heap until it became easier and easier. Like doing exercise, but instead of only seeing tiny improvements after months of hard work, you see big ones after days.”

“You’re lucky,” Veronica said.

Crystal nodded. “We all were. I think we all knew it too.”

“You’re talking about your friends? These magical girls?” Veronica asked. She recalled that Crystal insisted that her friends were stronger than she was and... and Veronica wasn’t sure what to make of that. Crystal was far beyond the most powerful magi Veronica had ever met. Those same powers given to someone more ambitious, more cunning, and... well, smarter, would undoubtedly lead to massive changes in the world.

“Yeah,” Crystal said. “We were all special, but sometimes I think we were special because we were magical girls, and not magical girls because we were special. Does that make any sense?”

“Sure,” Veronica said.

The inn still had a room for them, though not the same one as the night before. Veronica was too tired to make a fuss about it. She retired, tossed off her armour, slid into something more comfortable to sleep in, then crashed onto a bed that wasn’t as comfortable as she wished, but was more than enough for her tired body and mind.

She was awakened about an hour later by every bell in the city tolling an alarm.

***

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sword in its Sheath

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sword in its Sheath

“Whelp,” Crystal said as she tugged on her skirt to make sure it was on straight, then she checked her sword in its sheath. “Time to go.”

Veronica was still half-asleep, so it took her a moment to figure out what, exactly, Crystal was saying. “Go where?”

“I don’t know,” Crystal said. “But that ringing, that’s not good, right?”

The city’s bells continued to toll. Initially there was just the one, but now it was joined by a second and then a third. They were to the east of the city, or so Veronica guessed. Her sense of direction was usually pretty sharp... when she wasn’t operating on less than an hour’s sleep. “That’s the alarm,” she said, then she rubbed at her face and continued to explain. It didn’t do to just state the obvious. “Three rings, a pause, three rings. That’s a daemon attack from outside the walls.”

“Is that a big deal?” Crystal asked.

Veronica shook her head. It wasn’t a big deal yet. “The guard will take care of it,” she said. It sounded to her as if there were three bells chiming at the same time, so a decent stretch of the city’s outer wall was on high alert. “This happens every so often. Sometimes the guards get twitchy. A team from the guild is probably on duty to take care of it, that’s what the bells are for, to tell them where to go.”

“Oh, okay,” Crystal said. “How would we know if things are getting bad?”

“Then the guard captain on duty would send up a flare.”

There was a distant whistling sound, and the world just outside their room’s tiny window lit up in stark yellows. Crystal stepped up to the window and pushed the curtains aside, revealing a tiny flickering light coming down from the heavens in the distance.

“And that means that the guard captain needs help?” Crystal asked.

“That’s what it means, yes,” Veronica said. “Now, if the guild launches its own flares, we’ll know there’s trouble.”

“What would that mean? For us, I mean.”

Veronica stood and shucked off her shirt. Crystal’s head whipped around so she wasn’t staring. Usually Veronica would have minded a bit more about her dignity, but it was both too early to do that, and something of an emergency. “If that happens, the guild bell will ring, and every available guild-member will be told to gather at the guild for orders. That only happens if there’s either a lot of daemons attacking all at once, or a very powerful one.”

The bell sequence changed. Veronica noted a second bell added to the first, but it was higher in pitch. Not the guild’s bell, then, but another signal. She didn’t know how to read that one, though. “I’ll get dressed, just--” she paused to stifle a yawn. “Just in case.”

“Okay. Well, I’m going to head out and see if I can help.”

Veronica stopped mid-motion. “What?”

“I’m a magical girl,” Crystal said, because that was plenty as far as explanations went. Or, it would have been on Earth, but Veronica just looked even more lost. “It’s basically in my job description to go out and help where I can.”

“And what would you even do?” Veronica asked.

Crystal shrugged. “What I always do as a magical girl. Murder whatever’s threatening humanity until there’s nothing scary left.”

The words were delivered with Crystal’s usual guileless good-cheer, but they still sent a shiver down Veronica’s spine.

“If something bad happens, will you make it to the guild on your own?” Crystal asked.

“I’ll manage,” Veronica said. “If you want to head out, go ahead.”

Crystal grinned, then nodded and slipped out of the room. Soon, Veronica heard her skipping along down the corridor while her door slowly shut itself with a dull click.

For someone who had worked so hard to get rid of Crystal, she didn’t expect to suddenly feel... whatever the strange churning feeling in her gut was. It wasn’t worry, it wasn’t loneliness, and most of all, it wasn’t something she wanted to focus on.

Veronica pulled on her boots, then started to look for her armour.

Meanwhile, Crystal made it outside and started making her way across the city. Kircken was a lively place during the day, but late as it was, there was no one out on the streets. Lights were coming on, though, within homes and within a few shops. Flickering lamp-flames that cast long shadows across the road.

People were awake, and they were worried. She could taste it in the air, a tense feeling that made her heart beat a little faster. It was exciting, and a little nostalgic too.

She wasn’t sure if she was old enough to be nostalgic yet. She was the newest magical girl in her friend group, the one with the least experience and who’d faced the fewest challenges. By the time she gained her powers, a few of her then-future friends were already known across the world, magic was becoming a thing, and it was hard to find her place.

So she decided to just do her best.

She wasn’t the smartest, she wasn’t the cleverest, she wasn’t even the hardest working or most optimistic, but she'd still found friends that liked her even if she wasn’t the most anything.

On arriving at the wall, she found troops of guards running around. Some weren’t equipped properly, many looked as if they’d just been woken up and weren’t happy about it. There was lots of grumbling, but it was efficient grumbling. Younger boys were carrying around baskets filled with arrows and Crystal stepped aside as a team from the guild ran past and up a set of stone steps built along the wall.

She followed after a moment’s hesitation, pushing past the impression that she wasn’t supposed to be there.

The guards atop the wall weren’t grumbling. Instead, most were staring out into the near-darkness with open trepidation.

She approached a parapet and leaned over it to see out into the hilly countryside around Kircken. There weren’t many trees out there, just a few copses. Most of the terrain was farmland, with ditches cutting across as irrigation.

And, of course, there were daemons.

Crystal didn’t know enough to name any of them. Some had four legs, others walked on two like pale, disfigured imitations of humans, still others slithered across the ground or had more legs than she cared to count.

“We’re all doomed,” the nearby guard said.

Then the officers in the ranks started to kick up a fuss. Cowardice was drowned out in bravery as the guards were shouted into action. Bows were strung, and along the walls, where little towers with wider bases stood, siege weapons were being loaded up. They weren’t catapults, she didn’t think (catapults didn’t have cords at the front with people tugging on them to fire stuff) and below, what looked like locals were being given spears off of racks.

She turned deeper to the city when another flare went up. Red this time, right over the Guildhall.

So, this was an all-hands-on-deck sort of moment.

She glanced back out past the walls. The monsters out there, the daemons, weren’t going to do this like any normal army would. Some were already charging across. Others were teleporting to the lonesome homes of farmers out in the fields and she noticed a few places like those burning already.

Crystal jumped as a daemon appeared right on top of the wall maybe forty metres away and grabbed a guard with too-long arms. The guard screamed, the daemon opened its jaws wide to chomp into him.

She flung a crystalline javelin through its skull on reflex, then winced as she remembered she wasn’t supposed to smush the brains.

The guard was saved from a nasty tumble by his comrades who grabbed him and kicked the daemon corpse loose and let it fall over the edge.

Crystal made up her mind. All of this? Yeah, it wasn’t good, so she was going to do something about it.

Planting a foot on the edge of the parapet, she bunched up the muscle of her leg, then launched herself upwards. The stone cracked and shattered, but she was already up in the air and too far away to really care.

Her jump wasn’t flight, so she eventually slowed down and felt the skirts of her costume ballooning up as gravity took hold of her.

She had a few seconds to decide what to do while she was in the air. Really, the choice wasn’t all that hard. Whipping Scintillating Disharmony out of its scabbard, she pointed the sword towards the ground and the daemons waiting below.

A thousand shimmering lights appeared across the sky around her, each a flickering diamond that caught the light of the city below and the stars above.

“Flash,” she murmured.

Then those little points glowed brighter and brighter until, on reaching a crescendo, a thousand rainbow-hued beams speared out of the sky, turning night into day and blasting the ground below.

Then Crystal landed, dirt kicking up around her, and she got to work for real.

***

Origin - Five - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Five - Rending Nightmare

Rending Nightmare crashed into the atrium’s floor feet-first, and in that split-second battle between the floor and her feet, her feet came out on top.

Splinters of linoleum scattered out around her and some of the people running by screamed.

She took a deep breath and stood. Dream Charter was held by her side, her hand tight around its hilt. She was in her full costume, mask included, and she was about as ready to face whatever was coming up as she could be.

Or so she hoped. A few weeks of practice didn’t feel like nearly enough.

“Come on,” she said.

I AM FOREVER BY YOUR SIDE.

The blade’s words in her mind were a comfort, at least. Seeing people running by in a panic, on the other hand, didn’t calm her down any. She stepped to the side as a woman ran past, a toddler pressed close to her chest and her stroller abandoned behind her.

More people were running by. Mostly younger people, but a few elderly people were there as well. Alice wanted to help. She saw a pair of older ladies helping each other, both of them barely moving faster than Alice could walk even as they obviously tried to flee.

She ran her thumb along the edge of Dream Charter’s hilt. She’d help by destroying the threat first. There would be time to look after the civilians later.

Alice let out an unamused laugh. The civilians. As if she could really consider herself anything different.

The mall’s centre had a wide open space with four glass elevators in each corner and a walking area in the centre. Some years they had events there. A tiny haunted house, some Christmas decorations with a Santa Claus actor for kids to sit on and list their wants to. Once, she recalled, a petting zoo.

Now it was mostly screaming locals. Surprisingly, there were a number of men there, all of them looking deeper in, towards the food courts. A trio of guards in clean white uniforms were there too, hesitating as they watched a few last people running out of the court.

Alice walked past them, ignoring one’s shout for her to stop.

The food court had dozens of chain restaurants in it, all encircling a space with tables and benches and half-walls with fake plants sticking out of them. It smelled like fried chicken and mixed spices, spilled soft drinks and blood.

The walls were painted a garish red, and the lights of the restaurant’s many ads were competing with a glowing slit in reality that hovered to one side of the court.

Alice stopped at last, right on the edge of the food court.

There were imps.

She recognized them from her school. Small creatures, no taller than her hip with ruddy red skin covered in scabs and welts, with little stubs for horns and often carrying weapons.

Some of them had been here for a while, she judged. Those were covered in blood, gore, and whatever food had been abandoned in the court. A few were clearly gorging themselves on trash while others plunged poorly-made knives into the corpses of those too slow to run.

Alice felt her stomach recoil at the sight and smells hitting her. She wanted to run, to go elsewhere. A girl didn’t belong next to this kind of carnage.

But maybe a magical girl did.

An imp ran at her, voice a high-pitched shriek.

The sight of a tiny, murderous creature charging at her with knife raised snapped her out of her funk. She half-turned to better face it, then stabbed forwards with her sword. The tip bit into the imp’s face, and when she pulled the rapier out it came with a gush of blood that she had to sidestep to avoid.

That got the attention of the others.

There was a long moment of growing tension as the imps in the food court turned her way and stared. A number of them were grinning.

“Ah, so you’re here already.”

Alice’s attention snapped to the glowing scar as a person stepped out of it. A man, shirtless and only a little taller than herself. He wore chains around his waist and skulls, broken and disfigured, hung by their hips. The red skin and foot-long horns told her all she needed to know about their origins.

With a wave, the demon dismissed the portal behind them which slowly began to close itself. “I didn’t know if I would find you so easily.”

“Who are you?” Alice said.

“Kill her,” the demon ordered. “The one who brings me her head will be given their weight in infernal gold and an eternity of pleasure in the house of Lust.”

The imps ran at her, screaming and yammering.

Alice weighed her chances.

Against one or two imps, she knew she would win. Their movements weren’t super human, and they seemed no tougher than a person. She had better reach than them, could move faster, and she suspected she was stronger.

But against the dozens charging her? A quick glance around let her count at least forty little demons. Some were hanging back, flaming balls forming between their hands.

Alice whipped her arm around with a grunt of effort, and from the shadows pooling under the nearest food court table came a wash of dark energy that slammed into the nearest imps with the strength of a runaway train.

Imps were thrown back, but the wave washed away in the light and the fireballs rushing her way weren’t going to be stopped.

So she ran.

Keeping herself low to the ground, Alice hugged the edge of the tile half-walls, only peeking up between plastic fronds long enough to keep an eye on the imps, and the demon who followed her with its gaze. That had to be some sort of leader. It had directed the imps after all, and the imps themselves... didn’t seem intelligent enough to orchestrate their way out of a paper bag.

A Fireball whooshed past and crashed into the stores along the edges of the food court. She didn’t pay them any mind. Maybe they’d light something on fire. Maybe not. It wasn’t a concern yet. What was a concern was taking out as many of the demons as she could.

Coming around the end of the halfwalls, Alice spun, dug her foot into the ground to stop herself, then darted towards the demon, the floor behind her cracking with the force of her push.

“You are not as impressive as I expected,” the demon said.

Alice brought Dream Charter around to her left, then swung as she approached the demon.

Her eyes widened as her swing met the demon and his entire body turned into a roaring fire.

She gasped, eyes clenching shut as she ran through an expanding cloud of flames that licked at her skin and hair. It hurt. Strangely, it felt like jumping into a pool of cool water a few days after suffering from a sunburn.

Spinning, Alice looked for the demon and found it sitting on the edge of a half wall across from her. Another illusion? How would she tell? She glanced down at herself, checking for injuries. She seemed fine, and after the initial surprise and flash of pain, she didn’t feel any more discomfort.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“I still expect her head,” the demon said to the gathered imps.

The imps renewed their squealing attempts to behead her and Alice grimaced as she stepped to the side and avoided as fist-sized ball of roiling flame that zipped by at the speed of a baseball.

Fighting every imp to reach the demon would take time, and she wasn’t in that kind of mood. “I’m supposed to be in class, you know,” she growled. “If I get a failing grade because of you...”

The demon laughed. “Are we so unimportant to you, Nightmare, that you would put such foolishness before our evil cause?”

Alice raised a hand, closed in a fist at first, but when she opened it a small spinning ball of darkness hovered over her palm. She aimed it towards the nearest imp, and with a small focus of will, the ball shot ahead and into the chest of one of the nearest imps.

That had taken her a split second. Too slow. There were a lot of them.

She needed to push herself harder. But she kept glancing at the demon, the true threat, and...

Alice flung herself backwards, Dream Charter raised before her just as a lick of flame appeared from nothing before her and crashed into the edge of her blade.

Her grip tightened as she was flung back a dozen metres until her calves caught on the edge of a table and she ended up backflipping into an ungainly heap.

She didn’t linger on the floor. That would have been asking for trouble. She rolled along the floor, then onto her feet, sword coming up before her in a guard stance she’d learned on Youtube.

It took her a moment to realise what had hit her. It had come out of thin air with only some flames to announce its arrival. A cord? No, a whip, though one that struck without a whip’s crack.

Her gaze snapped from corner to corner, looking for the demon but seeing nothing of him. “Dream Charter, what do I do?” she asked.

THE ENEMY USES YOUR SIGHT TO BLIND YOU. BUT YOU ARE THE RENDERER OF NIGHTMARES. THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS. INVITE HIM AND HIS SOLDIERS INTO YOUR REALM.

She took a moment to parse that, then looked up. The ceiling was lined with neon lights, and there were more lights in the various stores and restaurants around the food court.

Could she break them one by one? Would that help?

She shook her head. No. So far, she hadn’t found a true limit to what she could do, and if there was ever a time to push herself…

Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes for a moment, squared her shoulders, then roared.

The shadows in the food court shifted. The imps screamed. The room’s darkness grew sharper until its edges could cut.

Then the shadows speared upwards, darkness made manifest and physical as they lanced towards the nearest lights.

Alice opened her eyes to see glass raining from the ceiling. The court, far from any windows as it was, was pitched into darkness.

She was considering congratulating herself when the bright flare of a flame bursting to life came rushing towards her and she jumped to the side.

“I don’t see why so many were afraid of you,” the demon said. “Nothing but a mortal child with a few petty tricks.”

Another flame, another slicing whip, cutting through the air on a path towards her.

She ducked under it. This wasn’t sustainable. The imps were confused now, but the flashes of light near her were pointing them in the right direction, and a number of them were summoning fresh fireballs to push away her darkness. Darkness which she realized she could see through with perfect clarity.

Something to investigate later.

The demon had to be in the room... so she’d just turn the entire place inhospitable for him.

Before another whip could swing out towards her, Alice repeated her opening strike against the imps, but this time, as she swung her arm out and demanded that her will-empowered darkness do the same. The blasting tendrils of darkness weren’t just shapeless blobs. They were sharp.

Tables were sliced apart, bricks and tiles flew into the air and pieces of imp were sprayed across the room as sharp-edged shadowy spikes hissed out of the shadows.

Alice heard a grunt and she turned to see the demon a dozen steps behind her. Its teeth were showing, and it sported a nasty cut along its calf. “Clever, clever,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed and she spun around. “You’re mine,” she shouted as she brought Dream Charter to point towards its chest.

There was a moment of calculation in the demon’s eyes before, with a grin, he made a choice. “No, I don’t think so.”

Alice jumped away as a wash of flames rushed towards her... only for her to realise that it was all illusion.

When she landed once more, the demon was already slipping through a burning slit in reality.

She flung a blast of darkness at it, but the slit closed and its glaring light faded.

Her darkness faded into light, leaving her in the centre of a devastated room. “Damn,” she muttered.

***

Chapter Twenty-Six - Brilliant Embers

Chapter Twenty-Six - Brilliant Embers

The first daemon to attack was vaguely familiar. One of those fire-breathing Urfeils charged at her, mouth open wide to spew a torrent of brilliant embers towards her.

She created a shield between her and the monster, embers and open flames doing very little against a magic-imbued matrix of diamonds. Then when the Urfeil’s breath stopped the diamond shield collapsed in on itself, forming a many-pronged lance which spun wildly. Light collected in its centre, then that light screamed out of the tip of the newly formed spear.

Once again, night turned to day, though this time the red glow of her beam was a little more concentrated.

That wasn’t the end, of course.

Her big aerial attack had blasted a thousand new craters into the countryside and probably woke everyone within several kilometres up, but the daemons were resilient.

Crystal shook her head as she walked across scorched ground between the remains of a smoking carcass. If only these monsters were more organised and attacked all at once, then it would be so much easier to kill them all. She needed a target.

A larger one roared as it tore itself out of the ground. Clods of dirt went flying around it and it stomped the ground with elephantine feet.

Good enough, Crystal decided.

She lunged ahead, Scintillating Disharmony singing as it swept through the air in a long, horizontal slash she called Silk Draped over Stones. The daemon’s roar turned into a pained howl as she cleaved into its torso. Not quite enough to cut it in half, she noted as she twirled around a wild swing of a mammoth limb.

Crystal landed past the daemon and kept walking. The ground behind her where she stepped shimmered for a moment before long spikes burst out of the soil and through the big daemon.

She was closer to the centre of the action now, she judged.

A dozen daemons rushed her position, and she marvelled at their lack of sense. They really were less than animals. Those, at least, had the sense to run.

One of them spat fire, another teleported right up to her. She idly felt something probing at her mind and the gem attached to her hair glowed faintly as it rebuffed the weak intrusion. The only attack that was vaguely interesting came from a large, bulbous daemon with many knife-tipped tentacles that came hurtling out of the remains of a small barn.

It struck her with a wide area-of-effect attack that she didn’t have time to dodge.

Time around her literally slowed, though she could tell that it was localised.

It surprised her for a moment, but then, she’d sparred against Magical Girl Fractured Time a few times, and this kind of trick was almost laughable compared to what that girl could do to the very concept of causality.

Her magic didn’t lend itself well to combating entropy. But she did have lasers, and no matter how much someone worked to slow one of those down... well, the speed of light was fast, even at half-speed.

A spinning disk formed around her, then it lashed out with a razor-thin beam of light that sliced everything out to a hundred or so metres.

The only problem with that particular trick was limiting the range of the beam.

She wiped her brow, taking some time now that time itself was restored and the thing messing with it was sliced apart.

She wondered which of the monsters was responsible for the mental intrusion magic. Or, for that matter, what it was trying to do. Crystal looked around, but it was hard to guess when everything nearby was cut in half.

Shrugging, she skipped over a muddy puddle, then continued in the direction in which she heard the most roaring. There was a shudder from the wall, and she looked up to see rocks flying through the air. They crashed far to her left.

Had she ended up away from the centre somehow?

Crystal bunched her legs under her, tapped Scintillating Disharmony against the ground to form a crystalline pillar, then extended the pillar and her legs in one smooth motion that launched her up and into the air.

From above, she could tell that her guess was more or less correct. The majority of the daemons were to the... was it west? She wasn’t great with directions like that.

With a spin and a kick off a platform she formed in mid-air, she launched herself in that direction.

Arrows were raining down onto the mass of daemons, and she was glad to see that they were a lot more concentrated around that area.

The reason why became obvious as she approached.

There was a big boss-type daemon in their midst. Or, she assumed it was a boss. It was vaguely humanoid, maybe three times as tall as she was, with obsidian skin and long, demon-like horns that burned with bluish flames that seemed ethereal.

It was wearing armour, which she assumed meant it was a bit smarter than the rest of them.

She landed hard on the spine of a long, lizard-like daemon with a loud crack of popping vertebrae. Crystal hopped off the daemons back and flicked Scintillating Disharmony to bat a teeny tiny wasp-daemon out of the air. “Hello,” she said.

There was maybe twenty metres between her and the big bad daemon.

They stared at each other.

Rocks rained down around them from the wall, and a few arrows thunked into the ground and some unlucky daemons, but the volley was rather anaemic at this range. Then one daemon opened its many-mawed mouth, and a shimmering shield formed an umbrella above. It didn’t stop the rocks and arrows, but it did seem to slow them down a lot and served to protect the daemon forces.

“Spread,” the big daemon growled. He reached down towards a smaller daemon and plucked something from it. A sword. Or, at least, a long piece of vaguely sharpened metal with a handle and hilt guard. It was longer than Crystal was tall, with jagged edges and overall seemed rather poorly crafted.

“So, you can talk!” she said. “Do you have a name?”

He--she decided that he looked kind of like a he, but really he was all Barbie-doll between the legs, not that she really looked for very long--growled. “I am Shihlun. Nightmare of man. I have seen you in the eternal dream. Perhaps you will haunt it no longer when I have eaten your soul and body.”

As far as threats went, she wasn’t too impressed. Though, it did make her curious. She supposed maybe it was good that way. If she was curious it might distract her a little.

“I’m Magical Girl Crystal Genocide,” she said. She tightened her grip on her sword. “So, what’s this eternal dream?”

“A gift, from the Rendered.”

Crystal blinked. Wait, "Rending Nightmare?” Her friend? How did this guy know about her? “Tell me more, please.”

The demon, Shihlun, laughed. “No.”

Then he launched himself forwards.

Crystal met his sword with her own, a quick flick to parry it aside that turned into an equally quick bit of backpedalling when that didn’t work and the massive weight of sharpened steel whooshed through where she’d been.

He was stronger than she’d thought.

“Can’t we talk? Before I eradicate you and your friends?” she asked.

“No. The dream eternal beckons.”

Crystal bounced back a bit, casually beheaded a teleporter (they always waited for that kind of distraction) and then shifted into a more respectable sword stance. The Jeweller's Lament, one knee out, back bent slightly, sword tip hovering ahead of her with the only vibration along its length the carried wave of her heartbeat.

“Fine then,” she said. “I’ll have to ask around myself, I guess.”

She flicked a hand to the side, and focused for a bit. The air ripped apart as tiny crystalline seeds appeared next to her, one to the right, the other to the left. The seeds spun in on themselves, each one becoming a twisting mobius strip that tore itself open and expanded exponentially.

The crystals grew and grew until they formed two vaguely feminine creatures, like hovering store mannequins made of a single lattice of precious minerals which only extended from the head down to the torso with a hint of hips. “Go kill some things,” Crystal said.

The two beings paused for a moment in mid-air, then darted away, both smashing into nearby daemons and ripping through them with blades that extended from their arms.

“Okay, now it’s just us,” Crystal said.

Shihlun charged again, and this time she was ready. She wove around his first three wild swings, noting that for all his strength and speed, he lacked grace and form. So she decided to teach him a little.

“One Hundred Cut Gem,” she said. Yes, calling out the names of her attacks was silly. No, she wasn’t going to stop doing it.

She grinned. Going outside had been the right decision.

***

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Going Outside

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Going Outside

All Veronica could think of was how going outside had been the wrong decision.

She ran to the guild, answering their call even if it put her at risk. Fortunately, no one seemed willing to assassinate her when the city was in the midst of a crisis. Instead she was grouped up with a team of bronze-ranked guild members under the leadership of a silver-rank she didn’t know, and then they were led across the city at a quick jog.

There weren’t enough guards to keep the walls safe, so they’d serve as meat shields.

The silver ranks and above were preparing to head out. They were trusted to be talented, knowledgeable, and experienced enough to handle themselves beyond the walls, though some chose to stay on the walls nonetheless. They wouldn’t get to grab a bounty of daemons heads below, but some had talents that were best used at range, or they just didn’t fancy themselves capable of taking on a wandering force of daemons with ease.

And then Veronica arrived at the wall just as everyone started to look up and murmur.

Obviously, Crystal had decided to do something complicated.

The sky above was filled with crystalline pillars that caught the light of the flares and torches on the wall.

“Flash,” Crystal said. It wasn’t a shout. Veronica heard it on the wall anyway.

She hissed and brought an arm up to cover her eyes as a thousand bright beams rained down from the heavens and exploded on contact with the ground, each one spaced more or less evenly apart.

A form fell from above, and with a squint, Veronica made out Crystal just before the girl crashed into the ground and started to fight the first daemon to charge at her.

She was fine, Veronica figured. More than fine even, the countryside on this entire side of the city was now pitted with hundreds of knee-deep craters.

“Who the hell are they?” someone asked nearby.

“Could be trouble,” another said.

“Probably someone above gold,” another said.

Veronica sighed. She was going to have to do something about this. Damage control. She tapped her team lead on the shoulder. “Hey, who’s in charge at the wall?” she asked.

The young man blinked. “It’s Miss Ella.”

The secretary? Veronica didn’t question it, instead she shouldered her way through the crowd, aware the entire time of the fighting going off to her side. Some of the guards were rallying others, but no one dared to fire just yet.

It was generally bad form to shoot while you had an ally on the field. A stray arrow killing someone on your side was a disaster. A disaster most would be willing to overlook if it meant killing ten times as many monsters at the gates, but at the moment Crystal all on her own was doing a number on the daemons.

Veronica glanced over, just in case. She wouldn’t admit to being worried to anyone but herself.

Crystal was surrounded.

Veronica stopped. She recognized some of the distant daemons. They were tough ones, far beyond what a bronze would be expected to tackle, or anything below a team of silver-ranked daemon hunters. One of those was a Mitzrael, a mind-control daemon.

“No,” Veronica gasped.

Then Crystal casually sliced everything around her in half with a giant, expanding beam of rainbow-hued light.

Veronica wanted her momentary worry back, it was wasted on the likes of Crystal.

She found the people in charge of the wall’s defence easily enough. They were in the largest tower on this length of the wall, which happened to be the tower set right next to the gate leading into the city.

“I need to talk to Miss Ella,” she said to the guard standing in her path. The man blinked, so she slipped by before he had time to protest.

Within, the secretary of the daemon hunter’s guild was next to a map-covered desk along with two guard captains and a few scribes who were working hard to look busy.

The secretary and the guard captains were looking outside through a window covered in heavy iron bars.

“Miss Ella,” Veronica said as she approached the secretary from behind. The woman glanced over her shoulder and looked Veronica up and down quickly.

“Yes?” she asked.

Veronica stood taller. “I’m here representing my team, ma’am. In case the city needs our assistance.”

“And you came to me specifically?”

Veronica shrugged with what she hoped was believable nonchalance. “You were looking at my teammate at work just now. I thought you might want to speak with me. We need to arrange things for once the combat is done.”

The secretary blinked, then looked outside at Crystal, who was just a tiny figure in the distance, obscured by night and the smoke rising for a hundred craters, then back to Veronica. “That’s Crystal Genocide?” she asked.

“Yes,” Veronica said. “And I suspect she had cut her share of heads already. We, of course, would appreciate any assistance the guild can provide collecting our bounty.”

If Crystal was going to be a pain in the ass, she could at least help Veronica afford some silk-covered cushions.

The secretary only paused for a moment before nodding along. “Certainly. Say, one in four heads retrieved.”

“One in six,” Veronica said.

“That’s generous.”

“You know which direction I meant that to be in,” Veronica shot back.

Their haggling was interrupted before it could even start as one of the guard captains cursed. “An Azazel,” he said.

Veronica’s blood went cold and she, along with the others, rushed to the window. But whatever was happening was too distant, and the window too small for so many gawkers, so cursing herself, she ran out of the tower and leaned over the edge of the ramparts.

Way off in the distance Crystal looked tiny as she stood before a towering beast of a daemon. The captain had been right, it was an Azazel, a daemon Veronica only knew because her lessons on the enemy of mankind had all taught her to run the moment she saw one.

It was the kind of monster only a team of gold-ranked hunters would dare to take on.

And Crystal was there, all alone.

Veronica could only watch as her new companion seemed to converse with the daemon. Then the other monsters took off running, circling far around her to charge at the wall. Arrows were loosed, the mangonels above the nearest tower roared as those working them pulled on their cords and loosed a volley of stones that arced high above and came crashing down. Most missed, a few struck daemons and injured or killed them.

She kept on looking right at Crystal, that tiny kernel of worry growing bigger and bigger by the moment.

Then the daemon and Crystal started to fight, and immediately, Veronica’s worry ebbed away.

The Azazel was fast and powerful, its sword was massive, and it seemed trained and clever in a way that few daemons were. But Crystal danced around it like a maiden at a village fair.

She could almost imagine Crystal’s laughter as she jumped and spun around the monster’s wild swings. Then their swords connected and Crystal was sent flying back by her heavier opponent only to land on a skid.

The girl stood up, then she shifted, hands holding onto the hilt of her sword, stance strangely low and leaned far forwards.

“Crystal Finisher,” Crystal’s voice rang across the battlefield and both daemons and man paused to listen. “Blood Diamond.”

Crystal appeared behind the Azazel even as the night sky turned a deep, bloody red.

On the field, the Azazel crumpled down onto its knees with a thump that Veronica felt in the soles of her feet, despite the fact that the daemon couldn’t possibly weigh that much.

Its head thumped to the ground some three seconds later.

The daemon army, if it was ever truly an army, panicked.

Whatever vague formation they had broke apart and daemon turned on daemon as the scene beyond the walls of Kircken turned to chaotic carnage.

Crystal looked about, and even from afar Veronica could tell the young woman was quite satisfied with herself. Then she took off with a bounce that carried her through the air on a straight path towards the part of the wall Veronica was standing on.

“Hey!” she said as she landed on the parapet nonchalantly, like she hadn’t just jumped a hundred metres.

“Hey,” Veronica repeated. “Did you have your fill of carnage?”

“I don’t know if this counts as carnage, really. More like a scuffle? It’s certainly not a genocide.”

Veronica didn’t want to know why Crystal had a system in place to categorize that kind of thing, nor did she ask about the connection between the idea of genocide and Crystal’s own name.

“Well, now you get to help me with the paperwork.”

Crystal crumbled. “Paperwork?” she whined.

It was clear at a glance that Crystal had no idea the effect she was having on the guards and hunters on the wall.

Veronica shored up her bravery and nodded. “Yes. Paperwork. You hardly expect me to do it all, do you? I’m running on no sleep at all here.”

Shoving Crystal in a little room where she could do no harm sounded like exactly what Veronica needed.

***

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Legible yet Nonsensical

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Legible yet Nonsensical

Crystal gleefully made a mess of any paperwork she was given. She drew doodles that were legible yet nonsensical wherever the papers called for details, wrote extravagant numbers wherever they fit, and generally made such a mess of things that no one with two brain cells to rub together would actually want to use the papers for anything.

It was a trick she’d picked up from Dimension Death. The older magical girl was perhaps one of the most laid back and ‘cool’ girls Crystal ever met, and in her own words being cool and doing paperwork didn’t mesh.

The trick mostly amounted to filling out the papers in such a wildly unhelpful way that people eventually just gave up and did the work themselves. And if those people were able to fill the forms and such out themselves, then that just meant that the forms probably weren’t all that important to begin with.

That’s how Crystal and her friends managed to avoid paying taxes for years.

Well, that, and the fact that after a certain level of political and literal power, the governments were willing to look the other way when someone like Dimension Death returned with a backpack full of gold from somewhere, or when Screaming Bioplague invented a cure for cancer and sold it for a buck a dose.

Even the most studious and careful of Crystal’s friends, like Rending Nightmare, didn’t care much for paperwork. She said it was incompatible with magic.

In the end, it didn’t matter much. Crystal didn’t want to deal with bureaucrats, and fortunately, she had Veronica to help her. Crystal made a mental note to buy Veronica something nice because the girl had shouldered the responsibility of explaining Crystal to the authorities, and from personal experience, Crystal knew that explaining magical girl stuff to anyone too serious was a pain in the butt.

So, when morning finally came around and tired guards were told they could go back home and the people from the hunter’s guild pulled to the wall were busy collecting heads out in the field, Crystal silently left.

She stifled a yawn as she walked across the subdued streets of Kircken. She didn’t need sleep, sure, and her body was pretty much always operating at its peak, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t get tired sometimes. The magic she’d used during the night drained her just a little bit.

But that was fine. She had other things to worry about than being a pinch tired, like what that daemon had said. The words echoed in her mind, and she couldn’t help but think that they were important, which was why she was crossing the city on a path to the Arcane tower.

Tobias wasn’t expecting guests that morning, not after a night spent with very little sleep. There was too much going on in his life all at once for him to fall asleep easily. His project had moved forwards greatly, one of the archmagi of the tower had seemed interested in his initial results, and the other mages seemed impressed as well.

He was somewhat worried that the project might be swept away from him. After all, it was a great discovery, and the one who cemented it would earn a lot of accolades.

At the same time, maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. Some of the credit would come to him, and having a superior owe him a few favours wouldn’t be a bad start to a career as a magi of the Arcane tower.

Then his sleeping mind was plagued by other things. Veronica, and her pretty but oh so rare smile, and that scuffle in the streets of Kircken.

When the bells tolled and woke him up, it was almost a relief.

He had spent a few hours with some of the other acolytes on one of the tower’s upper floors, watching the flashes of light over the city’s walls as no doubt dozens of daemons tried to breach the city.

He wondered if he could use this all as evidence for his hypothesis.

And then, after a few hours of sleep on a bench upstairs, he was woken up by another acolyte. “You have a guest,” the young man said.

“I do?” Tobias asked. He rubbed at his face, realized that he couldn’t do anything about the stubble on his cheeks, then he stood and made his way down the tower to the first floor. There, he found Crystal sitting on a waiting bench, legs kicking out in a simple one-two rhythm.

“Tobias!” she cheered as she saw him, then the girl bounced off her seat and walked over. “Did you have a nice night?”

“Uh? Yeah, not too bad,” he said while resisting the urge to rub at his eyes. He wondered what time it was. The sun was up outside, certainly, but it couldn’t have been up for very long. “What about you?”

“Got my day’s exercise in already,” she said with a grin. “But it wasn’t so bad.”

“Okay,” he said. “That’s wonderful. I don’t mean to be rude, but, ah, why the visit?”

Crystal clapped her hands together. “Right! So, I was talking to a daemon, and he said--”

“Wait, what?” he asked.

“Context first?”

He nodded. “Yes, please. It’s a little too early for... whatever that is.”

She gestured vaguely in the direction of the door. “I can head out, come back later if you want.”

“No, no, it’s... fine, follow me,” he said. He was going to get some tea in him, then he’d see about figuring out what Crystal was talking about. The second floor of the tower had a small eating area. The food wasn’t prepared in the tower itself, but was brought over at the crack of dawn by a few locals, and it was generally more than good enough to feed all the hungry acolytes and fussy magi inhabiting the tower. Plus there was a constant supply of warm tea which had proven effects when it came to helping someone stay awake and sharp.

Crystal glanced around the room, then Tobias directed her to a table in the corner next to a window where they’d have some privacy. Fortunately, the tower was never at capacity, so there was an expectation of privacy at all times. It helped that the sort of person to become a magi was rarely the traditional sort of gossip.

Tobias found two mugs, filled them to the brim with tea that gave off bitter vapours, then brought both to the table. Crystal sniffed at hers, then immediately reached for the sugar and that day’s fresh milk.

“So, I heard you say that a daemon talked to you,” he said.

“That’s what I said, yeah,” Crystal replied. She took a sip of the tea, then recoiled. Way, way too bitter.

“I need more context than that,” Tobias said.

“Well, the how and where don’t matter too much, I don’t think,” she said. “It’s what he said that I’m curious about.”

“He?” Tobias asked.

She shrugged. “I’m assuming his gender. He was big and burly and had a deep gravelly voice.” She tried to mimic Shihlun’s hellish baritone and failed miserably.

“Okay,” Tobias said. He freshened up the mental note that said that Crystal was bizarre. “So, you spoke to a daemon... presumably between when we last saw each other--last night--and now.”

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Anyway, he said... let me try to remember this exactly... I am Shihlun-- that was his name-- nightmare of man. Very edgy title that, but I guess I can’t toss diamond stones here. Uh, then he said something about seeing me in the eternal dream.”

Tobias nodded slowly. “That’s possible. Some daemons can speak. It’s uncommon, and usually they’re not smart enough to hold a conversation, like, well, like a bird. Did you know some of them can mimic speech?”

“Oh, I saw a parrot once. And there was this video where a crow talks,” she said. He looked confused, so Crystal waved his concern off. “Nevermind. It was cute. This daemon guy wasn’t though.”

“I can imagine. Why did you come to me with this?” Tobias asked.

“What’s the eternal dream?” Crystal asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Presumably it’s a dream that lasts a long time?” She gave him a flat look, and he sipped at his tea to cover a smile. “Sorry. I jest a little. I think I might have heard mention of something like that before. There was a time when some people wanted to bargain with the daemons, at least those who could still be trusted to speak, as well as half-daemons, the poor souls who are partially transformed.”

“Oh?” Crystal asked. “And would they know more?”

“I suppose? I’ll look into it, if you want,” he said. In reality he was just planning on shrugging the assignment off onto a newer, younger acolyte, as was his right as a senior acolyte of the tower.

“I’d like that.”

“Why are you so curious?” he asked.

“Because that thing, the eternal dream? It sounds awfully familiar. A lot of things are. I have a friend, her name is Rending Nightmare, and her powers... well, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s just that something feels off, and I think that I was just given a big clue.” She pouted. “Sometimes, I wish my magic made me smarter along with the rest.”

***

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Returned

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Returned

Crystal returned to the inn, but Veronica was nowhere to be found. So she sat down, had a meal, then she very awkwardly told the owner of the inn to put it on their tab because she didn’t have any money on her.

She headed towards the walls, but the wall was still very busy. The whole city was. There was a nervous energy, and a lot of people were murmuring out in the streets. Sometimes she felt like she was being watched, but... well, she was a magical girl; that was kind of normal, wasn’t it?
“Do you know where I can find Veronica?” she asked the sword by her hip.

It shivered a bit, and she nodded.

“Good idea.”

With that, Crystal headed to the Hunter’s Guild headquarters. She was expecting it to be a smidge busier than usual, but she wasn’t expecting it to be quite as full as it was.

There was a line leading out of the building, so Crystal sighed, found the back and waited there. It didn’t take long before someone came to stand behind her.

“What are you doing here, kid?” the man asked. He was tall, with a chiselled jaw and a shirt that barely contained his muscles. He had a knife in his belt, with a familiar bronze ring around its pommel.

“Um, I’m waiting in line?” she asked.

“It’s busy today,” he said.

“Yes. I, ah, can see that,” she said.

He shifted to the side, leaving his place in line to come closer. “What I meant, was maybe a little girl like you shouldn’t be slowing things down, you see?”

“Uh,” Crystal said. She looked at his knife again. Three bronze rings, but that wasn’t much, was it? “Aren’t we basically the same rank?” she asked as she tapped the pommel of Scintillating Disharmony.

The man reeled back, then he reached over, as if he was going to grab her.

A loud smack sounded out, and suddenly there was a second man there, with his hand wrapped around the first’s wrist.

The first guy tried to pull his arm back, but yanking it did nothing - the newcomer’s grip was far too solid. “Hey, let go of me!” he growled.

The newcomer shook his head. He was a lithe man, tall and thin, with a set of knives in silver-gilded sheaths at his hip. They had very prominent and obvious silver rings around their pommels. “Shut up,” he said. “You have no idea who you’re talking to.”

“What? This kid? She’s just some upstart biiiiii-ouch! Let go! Let go!” His fingers wriggled as the new guy very obviously tightened his grip.

He turned his attention to Crystal. “You can go in,” he said.

“But there’s a line,” Crystal pointed out while the three-ringer squirmed and smacked at the hand holding onto him to no avail.

“That’s fine. They’re expecting you inside.”

“Oh! Well, in that case, I wouldn't want anyone to have to wait for me. Thank you, mister.” Crystal skipped along past the line. Truth be told, she was pretty happy. Lines sucked.

She looked around the inside of the lobby and found it just as busy as expected. People were jogging around, a lot of the back-room staff were out filling forms, and doing what she could only assume was boring busywork.

Fortunately, someone noticed Crystal looking around and jogged over. “Are you miss, ah, Genocide?” they asked.

“That’s me. It’s not actually a family name though, just... just call me Crystal, that makes everything so much easier.”

“Um, yes, of course,” they said. “The guildmaster wishes to see you.”

“Isn’t he busy?” Crystal asked. She gestured vaguely around her at the very obvious busy-ness going on.

“Well, yes, but he said to send you over as soon as you showed up.”

Crystal shrugged and followed them up the stairs and then down to the Guildmaster’s office. She was almost at the man’s door when someone came running up behind her.

Veronica had heard that Crystal was in the building and she rushed to catch up with the girl. If the guildmaster was going to get his grubby claws in her, then she had to be there to mitigate things.

Also, Minna was with her. The big woman had shown up at some point while Veronica was in the fields outside the city arguing over which daemon had clearly been killed by Crystal and which had been struck down by a stray arrow from the guard.

Really, she didn’t mind sharing, but the guard were ready to claim nearly every kill instead of taking a more respectable percentage and... well, Veronica was nothing if not a good friend willing to look out for her other friend’s massive, massive profits.

Crystal’s kill tally was just shy of eighty daemons slain in the end. The number alone was staggering. Then it came time to figure out the value of those heads. That meant figuring out and labelling the daemons she’d slain and then valuing their heads based on a few factors.

It was overwhelmingly complicated, and there were plenty of systems in place all there to rip off the unwary and give them the short end of the stick.

Minna showing up had been wonderful because the big woman didn’t shy away from intimidating weasels. She’d even thrown one who offered a measly fifteen silver for a head that was worth as many gold.

“Crystal!” Veronica said as she caught up with her wayward teammate. “Where were you?”

Crystal blinked. “Uh, hi! I was talking to Tobias? Didn’t I tell you? I needed to know some stuff. Also, hi Minna!”

“Hello.”

“Oh,” Veronica said. “Yes, maybe? I... sorry, busy day. I’m glad I found you. You were going to talk to the guildmaster?”

Crystal nodded. “Yup. Someone told me he wanted to chat. Do you think it’s about last night?”

“Undoubtedly,” Veronica said. That, and the amount of gold Crystal had earned. As part of her education as a baron's daughter, Veronica knew plenty about budgets. Crystal had earned more in one night than her father’s barony made in taxes over half a year. It wasn’t an unbelievable amount of money. The Hunter’s Guild probably moved a hundred daemon heads a month or so, disregarding events like the previous night’s. The city wasn’t quite prepared for the influx, but they’d manage, and a lot more daemon-fed would be showing up soon.

The point was, Crystal had a lot of money at the moment, and only a fraction of it was in actual gold. The rest was tied up in promises and bonds and contractual statements from merchant homes and auction houses, as large sums of money tended to be.

It all meant that the guild was going to turn on Crystal, because it expected a certain percentage of those sales to return to them and Veronica had spent the morning turning those sales into things that couldn’t be taken so easily, as anyone well-versed in accounting would do.

“Want to come with me?” Crystal asked.

“Sure,” Veronica said. “I’d love to be there.”

The guildmaster, Leopold, and Ella the secretary were all in the room already. None were behind the guildmaster’s desk, instead they were crowded around a table covered in paperwork. They straightened as Crystal and her friends entered.

“Hi!” Crystal said.

“Miss Genocide,” the Guildmaster said.

“Just Crystal, please.”

“Crystal, then,” he said with a nod. “I didn’t see much of your work first-hand, except for a few flashes in the sky. But I’ve been hearing reports all morning.”

“Oh, well, thanks,” Crystal said bashfully.

He nodded. “Veronica, Minna,” he said to the other two. “It’s nice to see you as well.” He half-turned to the desk, then picked up two items that he underhanded over.

Veronica swiped the one aimed at her out of the air. A ring, bronze. “Sir?” she asked.

“You did well, and I heard of what happened in the alley. You handled yourselves well. Besides, I think the extra rings might give you a little more... pull.”

She nodded in return. The difference between two and three bronze rings was negligible, but there was a difference in the amount of respect someone earned by default for every ring added. She probably didn’t deserve iron yet.

“Oh, congratulations!” Crystal said.

“I have something for you as well,” the guildmaster said. He reached over across the desk towards a golden ring.

That only made sense to Veronica. Crystal was not a bronze ring. Not after that display. It was arguable whether she’d saved the city or not, but the fact that an argument could be made at all was big.

“I get my second bronze?” Crystal asked.

The guildmaster paused. “I was thinking... perhaps a little more than that.”

“Three?” Crystal asked. She gasped, then turned towards Veronica. “We’ll be the same!” she cheered.

And of course, Veronica thought, Crystal had to go and complicate things.

***

Chapter Thirty - Guildmaster

Chapter Thirty - Guildmaster

Crystal stared at the guildmaster, and the guildmaster, being a tough, strong kind of guy, didn’t flinch at her unwavering gaze. “I’d really rather just the two bronze,” she said.

“Are you certain?” he asked. There was just a smidge of condescension there, as if he was letting her make her choice, but he knew that it wasn’t the right choice to make.

Crystal had heard it before. Usually from well-meaning adults who tried to meddle in the affairs of magical girls and who thought that just because they were teenagers (or later, looked like teenagers) they must know better.

It was quite annoying.

“Yup, real certain,” she replied. “Besides, if I accept that--” she pointed to the golden ring sitting on the table. “--Then I’ll have to accept a heap of responsibilities and that kind of stuff, won’t I? I bet you’d use the rank as a reason why I can’t work with Vero anymore, and as a reason to tell me what to do more than you could tell a measly three-bronze.”

“Vero?” Veronica muttered.

“You don’t like it?” Crystal asked. “Vere works too.”

“I’d rather... not,” Veronica said, putting paid to the idea of nicknames in general.

The guildmaster cleared his throat. “Very well. I suppose the additional rank will have to suffice for now. Though if you continue to perform as well as you have, then I can’t imagine it will be possible for me not to give you several more rings, and of greater quality.”

“That’s okay,” Crystal said. “Besides, I don’t think I’ll be in the area for very long.”

That had everyone in the room tensing up. “You intend to travel somewhere?” the guildmaster asked. He seemed the least surprised.

“Yup,” Crystal said. “But it’s going to take a day or two to really plan things out. I think I might use some of my earnings to plan.. What do you call it... an expedition?”

“Where to?” he asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Crystal said honestly, and that was the end of that as far as she was concerned.

The conversation went on for a little bit, and Veronica took over as things turned to a discussion of just how big Crystal’s earnings ought to be. Eventually, they were let go, and Crystal toyed with the two bronze rings she’d just gained. She placed them on Scintillating Disharmony’s pommel, and the two rings locked themselves in place next to her first.

“Where did you intend to go?” Veronica asked once they were out of the stifling office.

Crystal grinned. “I really don’t know. But Minna might.”

“Oh?” Minna asked.

“Mhm. Do you know any place where talking daemons gather?”

Minna rubbed at her chin. “Not in particular. There are some places lost to the daemons, if that’s what you mean. And there are a few rare places where the half-turned congregate and hide.”

Crystal snapped her fingers. “That! That would be perfect. Where’s the nearest place like that?”

The taller women chuckled. “I don’t know, exactly. I think to the south west? It won’t be too close.”

“That’s fine,” Crystal said. She turned towards Veronica. “We have enough to travel, right?”

“We?” Veronica asked. She was tempted to cut herself out from whatever disaster Crystal was rushing into next as soon as possible. On the other hand... well, even if Crystal shared a measly tenth of what she’d earned, it would be a small fortune. Certainly more than what Veronica would earn in a year of being a bronze-rank daemon hunter. Perhaps more than several years, even. “I mean... Yes, we can afford to travel in comfort, if that’s what you mean. I’ll need a certain budget to arrange things, of course.”

“Cool! Ask me if you need any large piles of precious gems or metals. Making gold from nothing is tricky, but I can technically manage it,” Crystal said with a nod. And with that, she skipped ahead of them, leaving Veronica behind to fight back against a full-body twitch.

Minna pattedher shoulder. “She’s a nice girl. I’m sure she means well, whatever idea she’s cooked up now.”

Lucas, Guildmaster of Kircken, leaned back into his seat then let out a long, low breath. “That was something,” he said.

“That was tense,” Ella said as she adjusted her spectacles. “She seems entirely too naive and innocent for someone capable of doing what she did. I wonder what her angle is in refusing the gold.”

“I think she was honest,” Leopold said. “I was there during her initiation and training. She was forthright and honest the entire time. I also think that assuming that she’s as innocent and naive as she acts would be the height of stupidity.”

“A good point,” Lucas said. He opened one of the drawers of his desk, then undid a false bottom and pulled out three cups and a thin metal flask from which he poured a molten-bronze mixture into the cups. “It has been some time since I was in a small room with such a threat.”

“You get used to it,” Ella said.

“Oh?” he asked.

She smiled, then nodded to the sword hanging off the back of his seat,a sword with a single gold ring around the pommel. “You seemed to think she was on your level. A Monster made man.”

“I’m no monster Ella, you know that more than most,” he said. “But yes. She’s dangerous, and rain is wet and the sun is warm. Let’s not sit here making observations of the obvious and patting ourselves on the backs for it.” He placed a cup before Ella, then another before Leopold with twin clicks.

“I’m sure this will help us with that,” Leopold said as he took his cup and gave it a sniff.

They downed all three at the same time, then placed the cups top-down on the desk. Ella was the only one to react, placing her palm over her chest as she exhaled. “That’s warm,” she said.

“We might need it. The day’s only begun, after a long night at that, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Lucas said.

Leopold nodded. “What do we do about Miss Crystal Genocide? I’m starting to see where she earned that name, now that I think about it.”

“We do nothing. It isn’t the purview of the guild to act as minders over every little bronze-ranked member.” Lucas grinned. “Isn’t that exactly what she wanted?”

“The city’s council will certainly question how and why she’s only bronze,” Ella said.

Lucas hummed to himself, then he smiled. “That Veronica woman. She seems to have Crystal’s best financial interests in mind. If she wants to be the young problem’s secretary, then let’s let her. Redirect the council her way.”

“Is that wise?” Ella asked.

“She’s no fool. Young, and inexperienced, and she thinks too highly of herself, but she’s not a fool. And she knows Crystal better than we do. So we let her figure out how to handle the city council’s interference in Crystal’s affairs. If we’re all quite lucky they’ll be gone before anyone has time to really act.”

“Losing her would be a blow,” Ella said.

Lucas shrugged. “A week ago we didn’t know we had her. Treat last night’s victory as an act of merciful nature and get ready to work out the next disaster the way we’ve worked on all the ones that came before Crystal Genocide was around.”

“I’ll redirect questions as you asked,” Ella said. She moved around the office, gathered up a few things, then she took a moment to compose herself before walking out. “Good luck,” she said before closing the door behind her.

“She’s got the right idea,” Leopold said as he stretched his back out with a pop. “Work won’t wait. I’m sure I can scare some of the morons downstairs into being a little more polite just by walking around.”

“And by scowling,” Lucas said. “You do have a wonderful scowl.”

Leopold scowled at the guildmaster who grinned wider.

“That’s the one, yes. Go on, I need to get ready to placate a bunch of busybodies who want me to pat them on the shoulder and to tell them that the worst is already past.”

“But that next time might be harder if they don’t give the guild a little bit of help?” Leopold asked.

“That’s exactly right,” he replied. “If Miss Crystal Genocide won’t accept gold, I certainly will. This place doesn’t run on camaraderie and the sense of duty for humanity as much as it feeds on gold and silver and political favours.”

Leopold sniffed. “That desk is making you more devious even as it makes you softer.”

“Maybe I should visit that training yard of yours, remind you why my sword has that ring.”

Leopold grinned. “Maybe. Keep warm, Lucas, I’ll keep the place standing while you sit.”

***

Origin - Six - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Six - Rending Nightmare

Alice didn’t stick around. She imagined the police already had her name from the incident at the school. Having them catch her here, in a mall that just got attacked... Well, it wasn’t a good look..

Fortunately, the place had cleared out. She noted some security and some young men waiting with them on the edge of the food court, far enough that they weren’t threatened by the imps that had been there. She hoped they couldn’t see her in the partial darkness she’d plunged the food court in. And in hoping that, the darkness thickened.

Alice took that as her cue to leave.

She glanced around, then ran over to a shop, vaulted the counter, and pushed into the backstore. There was a tiny space for the employees to sit, rows of shelves, a large fridge, and a backdoor that she discovered was locked.

Frowning, she glared at the lock, then summoned Dream Charter and sliced the hinges apart with a swipe before she tugged the door out and shoved it aside.

She discovered a few employees hiding in the long corridors at the back of the restaurants where pallets and a few forklifts were parked and abandoned. Alice ran past them all and found an exit that opened up to the back of the mall.

From there, it was relatively easy to cross a road and find a fire escape that brought her close enough to roof-height that she could make the jump.

In the meantime, the roads were filled with the whirring sirens of police cars and ambulances and, to her horror, what looked like army trucks that rushed after the first responders.

Those were followed by news vans, and curious onlookers that she just knew were going to rubberneck and jam up traffic.

But that wasn’t her problem. She was supposed to be in school.

Tugging her phone out, she checked the time and winced. Her classes started half an hour ago. This was going to cost her some points, she just knew.

Alice almost felt like skipping out on class, but that would just make it more suspicious. Besides, there was someone she dearly wanted to have a very pointed discussion with.

She hopped from one roof to another, making her way across the city and back towards her school, the path a little faster now that she’d done it once before. Her wandering imagination and worries did cause one little issue though.

On jumping between two buildings, she misjudged the distance and found herself coming short.

Alice’s heart skipped a beat and she swung her arms around, but she was in mid-air already, and she wasn’t going to make it.

Then the shadows between the buildings coalesced into a great appendage that reached up and she bounced off the top of it to land with a skip onto the next roof over.

She stopped running, hands going to her knees as she panted and her heart settled. She made a mental note not to allow herself to become so distracted while roofhopping. After shaking off the momentary lingering fear, she patted down the pants of her costume, then continued hopping her way school-ward.

On arriving across the street, she dismissed her costume, returned to her school uniform, and climbed down a fire-escape back onto terra-firma. Crossing the street, she jogged to the front of the school, then slowed down. There was a man standing by the door, arms crossed and looking unimpressed.

“Uh, hi,” she said.

“Students aren’t supposed to leave the school grounds, or enter after class has started,” he said.

She blinked. “But... uh...” Licking her lips, she jumped to the first excuse she could think of. The truth. Or the partial truth. “There was another attack,” she said.

He straightened. “A what?”

“An attack. Like what happened here. At the mall in the city.” She gestured behind her, in the general direction of the mall. “I had to see if everyone was safe.” She hoped he would understand that as her meaning she wanted to check up on her family more than anything.

He frowned, then pulled out his phone. The waiting as he tapped away was excruciating. “Huh,” he said. “You’re right. What the hell is happening to this city.”

“I think that’s where the problems are coming from, yeah,” she said.

He gave her a strange look, then nodded her into the school. Alice thanked him in passing, then walked at a pace that was just short of being a jog. She needed to get her things from her locker, and then get to class. A class she shared with Marcia.

It was impressive, she noted, how fighting imps and demons could be less of a strain on her nerves than walking into class a few minutes late.

On arriving at her classroom, books tucked against her chest, Alice opened the door and peeked in.

The teacher, an older lady with glasses perched on the end of her nose, looked unimpressed with Alice. “Hello?” she asked.

“Ah, hello. Sorry, something came up, and I had to take care of it.”

“I see,” the woman said. “Well, get to your seat. Ah, but miss,” she added, freezing Alice on the spot.

Alice’s eyes locked with Marcia and she promised the girl through her gaze alone that they’d be talking. “Yes?” Alice asked.

“We were in the middle of a lesson, and I was wondering if perhaps you could assist me,” the teacher said.

A few students snickered, and Alice felt her heart plummet. It was only fair, she supposed, that the teacher rake her over the coals at least a little. “Sure,” she said.

“Could you read the sentences on the board?”

Alice glanced past the teacher and to the board. There were three sentences written there, one above the other. They were all the same, she noted, though spaced a little differently, and maybe with a changed word here or there. “It's with such profound happiness. Such a hallelujah. Hallelujah, I shout, hallelujah merging with the darkest human howl of the pain of separation but a shout of diabolic joy,” Alice read. She glanced at the teacher who seemed confused. “Did you want me to read the other two?” she asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Um... It is with such deep happiness. Such hallelujah. Hallelujah, I cry, hallelujah that merges with the darkest human howl of the pain of separation but a cry of diabolical joy.” She skipped down to the third and last and read that one aloud too. “It is with such deep happiness. What hallelujah. Hallelujah, I scream, hallelujah merging with the darkest human howl of the pain of separation but with a scream of devilish joy.”

The teacher was eyeing her now. “You speak Spanish and English,” she said.

Alice was taken aback by the statement. “I... don’t?”

“You certainly read them,” the teacher said. “Go sit, please.”

“Okay,” Alice said.

She sat, then eyed the board, confused. It was only when she focused that she really noticed that the words written there weren’t in Portuguese at all. Well, one of the lines was, but the other two were in different languages that she didn’t speak... even if she understood every word written. She muttered one of the lines under her breath, but soon stopped. She was muttering in a language she didn’t know but she understood what she was saying all the same.

Alice swallowed and sat back. She would be investigating that later. But it seemed rather benign and even helpful to have as a skill. She just couldn’t see why or how it worked with her other magical girl abilities.

Then again, magic could be strange.

She opened her book up to where the person next to her was and followed along with the lesson. They were going over the history of Portuguese and its ties to other European languages as part of an introduction into some of the more advanced parts of the language.

Alice let the lesson roll by her as she cast surreptitious glances towards Marcia. Every time, she found the girl staring back at her with a knowing little smile. Marcia’s hand was on her lap, and she was notably writing with her off-hand.

Had she not reported that Alice broke her wrist to anyone? Has Alice broken her wrist? She wasn’t sure, but she could still vividly remember the crack and snap the girl’s wrist had made. Somehow the memory was sharper than the fight in the mall.

The moment the bell rang Alice gathered up her things, then came to stand next to Marcia’s desk. “We should talk. In private,” she said.

There was some giggling, and when Alice looked around she noticed a few girls pressing hands over their mouths to hide their mirth. She went over what she’d just said, then suppressed a blush--successfully. She wasn’t going to let some dumb misunderstanding on someone else’s part keep her from doing what she needed to do.

“Sure,” Marcia said.

She stood, and started to gather her things one-handed. Alice stepped in to help. “I’ll carry your things,” she said before leading Marcia out of the room.

They went up and up, eventually arriving at the school’s roof access. The door was locked. Alice pressed her hand to the lock and flooded it with shadows. She could probably learn how to pick a lock, sensing each tumbler with her darkness. Instead she froze her darkness in place and wrenched it around with enough force that everything in the lock was ripped apart. The door opened.

Marcia came to a stop a few steps behind Alice, her skirt flaring out as it caught in the wind and her hair fluttering along with it. “So, you wanted to chat?” she asked with the same smile as always.

“What are you?” Alice asked.

“Just a simple girl,” Marcia answered with a smile.

Alice glared across the gap between them and for a moment it seemed as if the entire world darkened, as if thick clouds came between them and the sun’s light.

“Oh, you’re scary,” Marcia said without a hint of chance in her voice. “So, you don’t like my story?”

“That you’re just a normal girl? No, I don’t. What are you?”

Marcia tilted her head. “I’ll tell you if you make a deal with me,” she said.

“I can rip it out of you,” Alice warned.

The young woman pouted. “No fun. But fine. I’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear.”

“No,” Alice said. “You’ll tell me the truth.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to make a deal out of it?” Marcia asked.

“Fine,” Alice said. “A deal. You tell me the truth, I don’t kill you. How’s that for a deal?”

Marcia grinned. “Deal!” she said. And then Alice felt a faint, cold shiver run down her spine.

The next thing she knew Marcia was on the ground Alice had Dream Charter in her hand, and the blade was whispering a hair’s breadth away from the girl’s neck. “What was that?” Alice demanded.

Marcia smiled. “We made a deal. You can’t go killing me now, not as long as I tell you the tr--” her face contorted in obvious pain and sweat immediately appeared beading across her forehead. She wretched, and Alice almost pulled back. “Okay, okay, no, you can still kill me. But I must tell you the truth. If I do lie, then you have to kill me. Fun, isn’t it? Probably the worst deal I’ve ever taken.”

“So, what are you?” Alice asked.

“I don’t actually have to tell you, that wasn’t part of the deal.”

Alice pressed her sword closer.

“But I will! Because I’m nice like that.” Marcia sighed. “I’m a succubus of the Second Circle. While most of the clans of hell wanted to deal with you the old fashioned way, we thought it might be nicer to just... say hi. And now I have you riding on me, so altogether, things aren’t going that bad.”

Alice realized, quite suddenly, how compromising their position was.

***

Chapter Thirty-One - Ideal Person

Chapter Thirty-One - Ideal Person

Crystal visited Tobias again, mostly because he knew a bunch of stuff and she figured he was the ideal person to help her plan things out.

As it turned out, that was a fine idea.

Tobias was almost getting used to Crystal barging into the Arcane tower to ask him about strange things. Today she burst into one of the study rooms on the upper floors, and he was very curious about how, exactly, she managed to convince the guards to let her in.

In any case, her walking into the room with a hand raised in greeting and a question on her lips was a fantastic way of derailing their current lesson. “Tobias, where can I find the nearest place with a bunch of talking daemons?”

“I’m sorry, Acolyte Tobias, could you please introduce your friend here?”

Tobias winced and looked to the front of the room where Archmagi Wagner was standing behind her desk looking about as impressed as usual. “Ah, Archmagi Wagner, this is Crystal Genocide, from the Hunter’s Guild. She accompanied me on my journey a few days prior.”

“Hello!” Crystal said without an ounce of the respect and deference due to an Archmagi of the tower. She grinned. “Pleased to meet you. And I’m sorry for, uh, interrupting I guess. I can wait, if you want.”

“Oh no, who am I to ask that someone wait after me,” the Archmagi said. The sarcasm was thick and unmistakable.

Which was probably why Crystal missed it anyway.

“Oh, cool. Thanks!” Crystal turned back towards Tobias. “So, do you know any places like that?”

“Is this because of the, ah, conversation you had with the Azazel?” Tobias asked.

That perked the Archmagi’s attention up. He figured it would lessen the blow a little if the older woman discovered that Crystal wasn’t just a belligerent, impolite child. She was a belligerent, impolite child with a lot of power.

Crystal made a vague so-so gesture. “Kinda? I’m setting up an expedition, but I don’t know where I’m going, and Veronica was very insistent that that was important.”

In Crystal’s defence, she was used to a more interconnected world. When a godzilla-expy attacked Japan, she could get onto an airliner and be there within a few hours. Or she could beg for a ride with one of her friends and be there a lot sooner. This world’s travel was significantly slower, relying on horses at best and her own feet at worst.

She could probably travel faster on her own, but then that would be lame, and she knew that she’d inevitably get lost.

“I can see why she’d think that,” Tobias said.

“Child, tell me why you’re looking for these daemons?” the archmagi asked.

“Hmm? Uh,” Crystal hesitated, then glanced at Tobias. Hypertense Breakpoint had once taken her aside and given her a long-winded lesson on the importance of secrecy and of keeping things to themselves. That girl did not trust the government one whit. Crystal wasn’t sure if this lady was the government or not, but she had this aura of... political self-importance that set Crystal on edge. “Hey, Tobias, can I trust her?”

“Uh,” Tobias hesitated. It figured that Crystal would jam him between a rock and a hard place. “Yes, I think. The Archmagi is a trusted figure within the Arcane tower. Though, and I mean no disrespect, Archmagi Wagner, the tower generally tries to stay out of certain kinds of business, so if what you’re going to say is respective of that...”

Crystal nodded, then smiled at the Archmagi. “I was just going to say that when I talked to that daemon, the Shihlun guy, he said a few things that made me curious. Now I want to know more, but Tobias doesn’t know, so I think the best solution would be to talk to another daemon.”

“Interesting,” the Archmagi said.

Tobias sat up a little, a cold shiver crawling down his spine. There were few things that the Archmagi could have said that would be more threatening than that. The interest of an Archmagi was dangerous.

“Uh-huh! I want to learn about where these daemons came from, because no one seems to know, or if they do, they’re not telling me, and there’s something really strange about their magic,” Crystal said. “So I’m mounting an expedition! I just don’t know where we’re going yet.”

The Archmagi nodded along. “That is the correct response, young lady, to an enquiry with no answer.” She looked Crystal up and down. “Would you have a passing interest in magic, perchance?”

Crystal laughed. “Yeah, of course. I’m a magical girl. I’m basically all magic, all the time!”

“Oh?” the archmagi asked, and that had the alarm bells tolling within Tobias’ mind. “So, you’re familiar with all of the literature, at your age?”

Crystal blinked. “Well, I’m not. And I’m older than I look. And act. Also, of all my friends, uh, I’m not the one that paid the most attention to magical things. Some of them are really into testing stuff. Rending Nightmare really likes training and a few of the others just really know magic well. I mostly just wish for things real hard and expect them to happen.”

“I’m afraid that’s not how it works,” the archmagi said.

Crystal shrugged. “I mean, as long as it’s on-theme, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work that way.”

Tobias decided to step in before something regretful could happen. He had an idea of how powerful Crystal was. Rumours didn’t usually reach the Arcane tower, but the news of Crystal’s exploits had still made their way over, and he wanted to cut things off before the Archmagi connected the two together then started to poke and prod at Crystal.

“So, you were looking for a place where you can talk to daemons?” he asked.

“Yup!” Crystal nodded. “Minna mentioned that some people who become... half-turned? Is that the word?”

“That’s one of the terms, yes,” Tobias said.

“Cool. Anyway, she mentioned that there are a few places where they gather. I figured I’d start there, then ask them if they know of any places where I can find smart daemons.”

The archmagi stepped over to her desk and pulled out a map which she unrolled across the surface of her workspace after clearing a few things. Tobias recognized it as a map of the continent, with the various cities linked by trade roads.

“If you’re starting from Kircken,” she said with a tap of a bony finger over the city in question. “Then your best bet would be to head south and west. The nearest settlement with a large number of half-turned is Langenbrook.”

Crystal came closer and crowded over the table. “Here?” she asked, pointing to the town in question. “That’s not too far, is it?”

“In a straight line? No. But there are no direct routes. And there’s a certain stigma about the town. Most traders would rather travel from Friedersdorf to Bahren to get to Hungernroth rather than travel to Langenbrook directly.”

“Because there are half-turned?” Crystal asked.

The Archmagi nodded. “And the terrain is more difficult, with poorly maintained roads and fewer amenities along the route. The main path north is filled with little villages, stopovers, and inns within a half hour’s ride of each other.”

“Oh, that makes sense then, I guess. So, from here... we go here, then here, then finally here?” Crystal said as she traced a route from Kircken.

“That’s correct. Unless you have the funds to chart a path straight across,” the archmagi said. “Which would be faster, in some respects. But also far more expensive unless you’re going on your lonesome?”

“Ah, but I’m not worried too much about time,” Crystal said. “And no, I think I’ll be going with my friends, Minna and Veronica.”

“Did you want me to come?” Tobias asked.

He regretted letting his lesser brain talk a moment later as both women looked at him.

“I mean, it would set back my studies minutely, but on the other hand, Crystal’s query is interesting and there might be some interesting, ah, data to collect on the trip and on the return. I don’t think there’s much of a tower presence in Langenbrook, is there?”

“No, there isn’t,” Archmagi Wagner said. She hummed, then nodded. “Yes, having you along could be of some use. Though your funding for this trip would be limited to just enough not to make you a burden.”

“Oh, funding’s not an issue,” Crystal said. “Veronica said I was rich now, which is kinda cool, I guess.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind having you along, Tobias, it’ll be more fun!”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m sure.”

Silently, he was cursing himself... but he was also a little excited at the prospect. A whole voyage with Miss Veronica wasn’t something he’d pass up easily.

***

Chapter Thirty-Two - Glad of One Thing

Chapter Thirty-Two - Glad of One Thing

Veronica was glad of one thing, at least: they wouldn’t have to carry all the things she was buying.

The first thing she did, once she got over the shock of Crystal deciding they were going on a expedition with so little prompting, was to collect some of her gold, walk into a coach builder's workshop, and point to a carriage that was sitting by the entrance.

“Is that one sold?” she asked.

The shop’s owner was confused for a moment, but eventually he told her that no, it wasn’t, and it was more of a showpiece than anything. He was quite excited to show her the long metal springs on the undercarriage that would guarantee a less bumpy ride.

She bought it on the spot with a bagful of gold, then the grateful shop owner helped her find a reputable merchant who sold her a pair of well-trained and groomed horses. The animals were docile and used to the rigours of the road.

She bought both, then paid the merchant a little extra to keep the animals fed and watered overnight while she fetched other materials.

Crystal had no idea how long their trip would be, or where they were going, so Veronica did the sensible thing and assumed they’d be travelling along the longest road out of Kircken. That meant a four or five day trip if they went slowly, which she assumed might be the case with someone as airheaded as Crystal in charge.

Her next stop was to gather provisions. Two large barrels of water, each heavier than she was, were loaded into the carriage. There was a small space at the back for luggage which happened to hold both barrels quite easily.

They’d be able to gather more water on the trip, but just in case, it was nice to have a source of clean water.

Then foodstuffs. Dried meats in strips and in small casks filled with salt. Dried fruits in preserves. Bread which she paid for without collecting yet. That would be delivered just before they left, so it would remain fresh enough to eat for a few days.

The only good part of her running around was having as much gold at her disposal as she did. It made everything so much easier when she could just throw gold at any problems that rose up.

By the end of the day, she had everything she thought they would need.

Food for a party of six, enough to last a week with full meals every day.. Feed for the horses. Camp supplies and equipment, some of which she bought from the Hunter’s Guild. Then more generic equipment. Ropes and chains and bedrolls and tents. Even a spade, just in case.

She'd also splurged a little on some spare weaponry. A set of shorter spears and a crossbow with a few bolts. The last was just something she’d always wanted to play with when she saw a few of her house guards practising and she thought that Crystal wouldn’t mind the expense.

With everything carefully packed away in the new carriage, that left enough room for three or four people to comfortably sit inside on padded seats.

Usually it was only the truly well-off hunter teams that had anything approaching a carriage, and usually it was little more than a tarp-covered wagon with a few benches within that would quickly toss any hunters out as soon as they had daemon heads to carry.

Having a whole coach carriage to themselves was very much more than would be expected, but she figured it might not all be bad.

Sometimes the guild hired out hunters on escort missions. These didn’t pay as handsomely as a well-executed hunt, but they were generally safer, and if a team was moving from one city to another anyway, it only made sense that they’d sacrifice a little speed for a little coin.

The shopping had been fun, but she returned to her inn feeling rather exhausted, with sore feet and a mind spinning at how much gold she’d just spent. Several month’s wages were gone in a single day.

She found Crystal, Minna, and surprisingly, Tobias, sitting in the main room of the inn. They were in one of the quieter corners, at a table covered by small, easy-to-pick-at foods.

The older two had mugs before them. Crystal was drinking milk.

“Hello,” Veronica said as she pulled out a seat and sat down between Crystal and Tobias. “How’s everyone doing?”

“We’re doing great!” Crystal said. “We know where we’re going now.”

“Well, that’s something,” Veronica said ruefully. It was about time. “And where’s that?”

Crystal turned towards Tobias, who seemed to have been volunteered to answer. The young man shifted in his seat and smiled. “Ah, right, we’re going to Langenbrook.”

“To the south-west?” Veronica asked. She’d never travelled that far from home before. “Doesn’t that town have a poor reputation?”

“That’s why we’re going,” Crystal said. “Apparently there’s a bunch of half-turned there, so we’re going to go and ask them a bunch of questions. Tobias is coming along too!”

“Just to conduct further experiments and perhaps ask a few questions of my own,” Tobias said quickly.

Veronica nodded along, then paused to signal a passing barmaid that she wanted a mug of her own. She had a theory that working with Crystal would be far easier after a pint or two. “So, Langenbrook. That’s a ways away. Will we be travelling to Lindenburg?”

“Isn’t that where you’re from?” Crystal asked.

“It is. My father’s the baron. It’s a rather small city though, smaller than Kircken even. If it wasn’t for the main trade routes cutting across our lands we wouldn’t be much more than a town.”

Crystal nodded along. “I’m not sure if we need to go that way. It’s west of here, but it’s north, and we want to go south, no?”

“That’ll either mean going to Oberschield, then west, or cutting across the plains,” Veronica said. She had a sinking feeling.

“So let’s cut straight across the plains,” Crystal said. “It’ll be faster, right?”

“Until we lose a wagon wheel, or get assaulted by daemons out in the plains. If we use one of the main routes we’ll at least be able to stop at an inn every night for safety.” And to sleep on a bed, she didn’t add.

Crystal leaned back in her chair, the very image of a petulant teenager. “But that seems so much slower,” she said.

Minna chuckled. “I don’t mind cutting across the plains. At least until we hit the Junction Inn. Then we can keep to the roads. There hasn’t been rain in a couple of days, so we won’t deal with too much mud, and the plains are mostly flat and easy to traverse. It’s a common enough shortcut that there are routes we can follow. They’re just not patrolled or guarded.”

“I can probably deal with any daemon we run across,” Crystal said.

Veronica sat up herself. That was true. And if they did take a non-road over, they might run into more of them. Which of course, meant more daemon heads. “Alright, but we’ll have to stop by a city eventually. Hungenroth, maybe?”

“That’s the plan!” Crystal said.

“Good,” Veronica said. She could live with that. By the time they arrived in Hungenroth it was very possible that they would have earned enough to make up for the cost of the trip. “And, of course, you wouldn’t mind helping people along the way? There are lots of little villages that are plagued by daemons and who would love a helping hand.”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind,” Crystal said. “That’s a magical girl’s job you know?”

That settled it for Veronica. If they made enough of a splash along the way, killed a number of daemons, and generally made enough money and earned a reputation, then it was very possible that she’d see her fourth bronze ring within the month.

That would open up a number of doors that were currently shut.

A person with one or two rings was someone who managed to pass the test and little else. Anyone could do it, and not every guild was as harsh as Kircken when it came to testing. There were rumours of some guilds where someone could buy their first ring or two.

But someone with a number of rings? That was harder to falsify and would be a much greater way of proving that she was worth something.

“It’ll be a long trip,” Minna said. “I’ll have to bring some yarn to knit something along the way.”

“Oh, that’s true. Maybe I can buy a few books,” Crystal said.

“That’s certainly an idea. I wouldn’t mind learning a thing or two as well,” Veronica said. “Hey, Crystal... do you think we could have a few small training sessions along the way?”

Generally, someone’s magic couldn’t improve, but the application of it could, and while she didn’t know exactly what Crystal’s magic did, the girl did seem to use it in creative and terrifying ways.

The pursuit of personal power required many sacrifices, Veronica knew. She never expected one of those to be spending time with Crystal.

***

Chapter Thirty-Three - Front of the Carriage

Chapter Thirty-Three - Front of the Carriage

Crystal got to sit at the front of the carriage as they left Kircken. She wasn’t alone, of course. She had no idea how to handle a horse, let alone two, so she sat next to Veronica who needed to be out of the carriage anyway since she was the one taking care of all the paperwork.

They left through a different gate than the one they’d entered the city from. This one wasn’t quite so busy, maybe owing to the fact that an entire section of the wall was covered in a large lump of malformed crystal that seemed as if it had just dropped out of nowhere to crush a few warehouses and part of the wall.

“Was that always there?” Crystal asked.

“No,” Veronica said. It was a very decisive ‘don’t ask about it’ kind of no, so Crystal just shrugged and minded her own business.

She was pretty sure it wasn’t her fault because she’d remember attacking the city. And if she did, there wouldn’t be as much city left to begin with.

They got clearance from the guards who were quite nice once they noticed Tobias and all of their bronze rings, then it was off through the gates and into the wider countryside. Crystal sat up and waved at the first farmers they crossed and she moo’d at a pasture with some cows until one of them moo’d back at her.

She grew bored rather quickly though. For all that the countryside was vast and peaceful, it only took a few minutes to realise that one large hill was much the same as the next and that while the cows and sheep and goats they crossed in big enclosures were nice, they were all doing about the same thing. The farmers in their fields were preoccupied with farming work, and there wasn’t much else to see.

The sky wasn’t super cooperative either. Instead of a bright, sunny morning, they had a low, overcast sky filled with grey clouds to deal with.

Crystal missed radios.

She didn’t think it would happen, but there it was. “This is kind of boring,” she said.

“Then go in the carriage and take a nap,” Veronica suggested.

“I don’t think I’m that tired,” Crystal said. “Besides, I don’t want to sleep.” This was a world where nightmares attracted daemons and she was certain there was something going on with that. Dreams and nightmares and the like were about as far from her domain as could be, and she didn’t want to take any chances. Besides, she was a magical girl, as long as she had the power of friendship by her side, then did she really need sleep?

Probably, but she would go on without anyway!

Crystal tried to start a conversation with Veronica, but the older woman was a little terse and ended up yawning several times, so Crystal dropped it and, eventually, just climbed around the carriage and snuck into the back.

Minna was sitting across from Tobias, the big woman leaned forwards, elbows on her knees and back bent forwards to read a book by the light streaming in through the carriage windows. Tobias was sitting with his knees together so that he wouldn’t be bumping legs with Minna. It didn’t look very comfortable.

“Hey guys,” Crystal said.

“Hello, Crystal,” Tobias said. He tried on a smile. “You’re not sitting with Veronica anymore?”

“I wouldn’t go up there just yet,” Crystal said. “She’s in a bit of a mood, I think. I don’t know why though. Just the grumps.”

“The grumps,” he repeated, then a flash of knowing crossed his eyes and he nodded. “Ah yes, of course.”

Crystal was pretty sure that whatever conclusion he’d just drawn was flat out wrong, but it wasn’t her job to figure it out or correct him. “Anyway, what'cha reading?” she asked as she slid in next to Tobias.

Minna marked her place with her thumb and blinked as she looked up. “The good book,” she said. “I always wanted my own copy, and... with our recent windfall, I decided to buy one for myself. If I care for it right, I might be able to pass it down.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Crystal said. It was a nice looking book. All leather bound and with pages that had their edges gilded in something shiny. The text looked like it had been stamped onto the page, not hand-written, so she imagined someone had a printing press working somewhere to make copies. “What’s it about?”

“It’s God’s word to man,” Minna said.

“Okay,” Crystal said.

Minna looked up. “Are you a believer?”

Crystal hummed and tapped her chin. “Well, I know Hell is real. One of my best friends went there.” At Minna’s horrified look, she went on to explain. “She didn’t die! See, Hell was invading Earth and trying to kill girls because my friend’s powers were threatening the devils. My friend got a bit annoyed by all of this, so she invaded Hell, blew everything up, and mostly made a mess of things for them before returning home. I don’t think my home dimension was ever invaded by Hell again, actually. So yeah, anyway, my friend got into a smidge of trouble with all sorts of religious people because they were all super wrong about a bunch of stuff and they weren’t happy when she proved them wrong. And I guess I don’t know if a God is real or not, but I’m sure if they were, my friends and I could take them in a fight.”

“That is... rather blasphemous,” Minna said.

“Okay,” Crystal replied. “I don’t mean to insult anyone, just, you know, that’s what I think.”

Tobias chuckled. “You’re quite humorous, Miss Genocide.”

“Thank you!” Crystal said. She didn’t know what she said to be funny, but she would take it where she could. She was about to ask Tobias to explain the joke she’d apparently told when the carriage rumbled to a stop. “Um... lunch time already?” It hadn’t been more than an hour or two since they’d left Kircken, she judged.

“I don’t think so,” Minna said. She carefully closed her book and placed it into her bags. “Want to go see what’s going on?”

“Sure!” Crystal said. She stood, opened the door, then stared around. “Oh, we’re being ambushed,” she said.

“Yes, we are,” Veronica’s terse voice replied from just outside. “Can you come out to help, Crystal, Minna?”

“I’ll just stay in here,” Tobias declared as the women stepped out.

The carriage had stopped along one of the smaller side-roads leading away from the city. Their route south wasn’t taking the biggest road, which meant less traffic. It also, apparently, meant more chances of running into bandits.

Crystal looked around. The area wasn’t wooded, so the bandits had dug out some trenches on the sides of the road where tall grass could hide them until they stood. A set of what looked like unfolding barriers blocked the path ahead behind which three men stood with bows drawn.

She did a quick count. There seemed to be four or five men to a side, with three more ahead, and a pair of them at the rear blocking off any escape. They were well and truly surrounded.

“Hello there,” one of the men ahead said. He raised his hand in a genial wave. “How are you fine ladies doing this morning?”

Veronica’s glare could almost be felt. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” she asked.

“Divesting some kindly ladies of their material goods?” the man asked. “And perhaps giving them an experience they’ll never forget while I’m at it?” He chuckled, and a few of his buddies laughed along with him.

Crystal cringed. The implication was disgusting. “Veronica, is this illegal?”

“Yes, obviously,” Veronica said.

“And what’s the punishment?”

“For banditry? It would depend on the success of the bandit,” Minna said. “But a few left dead on the roadside wouldn’t keep any lawmakers awake at night.”

“Whoa there,” the leader said. “Let’s not be too hasty. You’re quite outnumbered. And we’re not without a few tricks, you see.” He snapped his fingers and a ball of black fire roared to life over his palm.

Crystal ignored him. “So I can just kill them all?”

“Yes Crystal, you can just kill them all,” Veronica said.

Minna cleared her throat. “Perhaps we shouldn’t encourage her to kill all of her problems?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure they implied they’d do nasty things,” Crystal said. “I remember when someone touched Gravity’s Heartbeat’s butt once. She’s the nicest girl in our whole team, and she still took away that person’s ability to ever interact with gravity.”

The bandits might have been cluing in that things weren’t working out, because the man at the lead flung his fireball over their heads.

Crystal rolled her eyes at the theatrics. If he wanted to intimidate them, there were better ways to do it. “Alright, well, let’s get going again,” she said as she turned to step back into the carriage.

“Pardon me, but this is a robbery, you would do well to at least be a little afrai--” the leader’s voice cut off in a choked gurgle as a thin crystalline spike rushed out of the ground beneath him and pierced him through.

All of the bandits stayed frozen in place as they were skewered from below.

Then those at the front fell back with a snap as those crystals broke. “Okay, we should be good to keep going,” Crystal said.

***

Chapter Thirty-Four - Continued on Until Nightfall

Chapter Thirty-Four - Continued on Until Nightfall

After leaving the hilly countryside around Kircken and making it past their first--and hopefully last--highwayman ambush, Crystal’s little group continued on until nightfall.

Veronica said that she wanted to reach the main road that crossed the area, which had enough traffic that it was well guarded, but they didn’t find it before nightfall, despite having travelled more than far enough to reach it, at least according to Veronica’s maps.

No one made too much of a fuss. They found a little copse of trees to gather firewood from and freed the horses with long tethers to graze for the night while Crystal lit a small fire (there was a neat trick using a teeny tiny laser and a couple of pieces of glass to create a lot of heat that she’d learned a while ago). “This is a trick I learned when I turned old enough to buy cigarettes. I wanted to be able to light them up with a bit of magic, and I was planning on buying a leather jacket, and then I’d look cool,” she said.

“Cigarettes?” Minna asked as she watched the fire grow.

“They’re like... little sticks of tobacco and stuff?”

“Oh,” Minna said. “Like a pipe?”

“Sorta,” Crystal said. “But they give you cancer and are bad, even if they make you look cool. I ended up coughing a bunch when I tried one so I never got that jacket. My friends made fun of me instead, which I guess was a little deserved.”

Once they had a fire going and tents set up, Tobias and Minna took turns cooking a few things. The acolyte was a little shy about his cooking ability, but apparently it was one of the chores that he had to do in the tower and the quick stew he whipped up was quite tasty.

Minna and Veronica insisted on drawing lots for the night’s watch, even if Crystal said she’d be up all night regardless. She even offered to summon some magical crystal constructs to guard their camp, but they insisted that that would draw more attention their way, not less.

To be fair, their position wasn’t exactly well hidden. There were some trees next to their little camp, but other than that, there wasn’t much to offer them any shelter. Still, the night passed without issue, and the next morning they hitched the horses again and packed everything up to leave.

They discovered why they hadn’t connected with the main road around mid-morning once they finally found it. As it turned out, they had angled southwards too much and missed the intersection Veronica was aiming for by several kilometres. Fortunately, the dust kicked up by passing carts alerted them to where the road was, and they rejoined it before noon.

They actually stopped by an inn that afternoon for an early lunch where Veronica’s map-reading skills were teased at length and the horses were watered and brushed down a little and given some rest. While that happened, they hired out a pair of rooms and got to take a few quick baths in boiling-hot water.

It wasn’t the most luxurious bath Crystal had ever taken, but it was nice to clean herself off. Even if magical girls didn’t sweat, they still got dusty, and the roads were nothing but dust.

The road wasn’t asphalted, nor was it entirely paved. Instead it was packed dirt on top of packed gravel on top of a bed of logs placed perpendicular to the path. It actually made for a fairly stable and level road, and one with few potholes, though since the weather was warm and rainless it did mean that there was a constant film of dust in the air.

They ended up at a big inn situated on an intersection that night. It was--appropriately--called the Inn Tersection, and the place was quite packed. Veronica managed to get them some rooms anyway, because she had lots of gold to toss around.

Another day of travelling came and went, and on the fourth day since leaving Kircken, relatively early in the day, they made it to Hungenroth.

Crystal was expecting a city much like Kircken had been, but Hungenroth was more... “That place looks like a dump,” she said.

Hungenroth had short walls, no more than three times Crystal’s height, and she wasn’t the tallest girl around. Not only were they quite short, they weren't even properly maintained. She spotted more than a few places were the stonework had started to crumble, unable to withstand time and the elements.

There was a line of carts and carriages heading into the city jammed up by the gates, which seemed a little small. It took them a good hour just to get into the city, and it wasn’t because of inspections or anything; the guards barely glanced at their carriage as it rattled in. The problem was the too-narrow roads where traffic was getting stuck.

While Kircken had been a city with plenty of multi-story buildings, Hungenroth went the other way. The city sprawled out much wider, with most buildings only being a story tall. Some neighbourhoods were squeezed in tight, while others they crossed while heading towards the city’s centre were more spread out, with each home having a small yard where they often had small gardens growing.

“Watch your purses while here,” Minna advised. “Hungenroth’s not a... bad place, but it’s not the safest either. The locals are plenty nice, but there are a lot of travellers and plenty of vagrants.”

The carriage stopped eventually, and Crystal jumped down from the top and stretched her arms up and out until her whole body shivered. They’d arrived! It was only to the halfway point of their journey, but that was something big.

“How long will we be staying here?” Veronica asked. The question was directed to Crystal who blinked, taken off-guard by the query. “You’re the client here, for all intents and purposes.”

“Oh, I guess so. Um. Well, we’ll probably spend the night, and let’s say we stay tomorrow too? I need to find out more about Langenbrook before we leave, and maybe some of the locals might know more?”

“I’ll stop by the tower then,” Tobias said. He looked up and around, then pointed to the only truly tall building in the entire city. It was a bit shorter than the tower in Kircken, but it made up for it by being more squat. “But that can wait until after we’re settled, I think.”

“Right, then I’ll get us some rooms,” Veronica said.

“I’ll help,” Tobias volunteered.

“In that case,” Minna said. “I’ll tag along with you, Crystal. Do you know where to start with your quest?”

Crystal let out a long breath. “Nope, not even a little.”

“Start at the Hunter’s Association,” Veronica said. “There’s a branch here, I’m sure. They’ll have information about any nearby towns and the like, if only so that a team moving towards one of those towns will know where they can buy supplies on a hunt, or where to find shelter. Some towns forbid hunters from entering them... usually that doesn’t last all that long though.”

“Why would they do that?” Crystal asked.

“Because hunters sometimes bring trouble. And we’re usually seen when people are dying, and the superstitious sort tend to put their carts before their horses,” Minna said.

“And it doesn’t last long because if you forbid hunters from hunting, then the whole area becomes infested with daemons. Though a few bigger towns might have their own guards and hunters to take care of smaller threats,” Veronica said. “In any case, Hungenroth’s not one of those, and I don’t think Langenbrook is either.”

“Okay then!” Crystal said. “Let’s go see what the guild has to tell us, Minna.”

Minna chuckled and followed after Crystal, then she redirected her towards the actual centre of the city when Crystal started to get a little lost. Hungenroth was an organic city, which meant it was entirely disorganised and easy to get lost in.

Still, they found the Hungenroth Hunter’s Association building a few blocks down. It was near the Arcane Tower and the centre of the city, with bigger, more impressive buildings all around. Crystal noted a number of people loitering around one particularly grand building a little ways down the road, but she didn’t let her curiosity drag her over.

On entering the guild, they found it nearly empty. The space wasn’t quite as pretty as the Kircken guild, but it was clean and spacious, which did much to make up for its slight lack of more ostentatious decorations.

There was a young man behind a desk at the front who didn’t look up as they approached. “If you’re here about the tournament, that’s a few buildings down,” he said.

“We’re not,” Crystal said. “But now I’m curious. What tournament?”

***

Chapter Thirty-Five - Unlocked Many Doors

Chapter Thirty-Five - Unlocked Many Doors

“Veronica!” Crystal cheered as she barged into the inn. Veronica was by the counter, having just concluded negotiations with the innkeep. It had been difficult to secure just two rooms. She could have had them fairly easily, of course. Gold unlocked many doors, including the doors to the nicest rooms in this... inn of questionable quality in a city she was looking forwards to seeing behind them, but spending their gold frivolously wasn’t something she wanted to do.

So, negotiations ensued. A back-and-forth battle to find the lowest price the innkeep would be willing to go to until they both left somewhat unsatisfied.

“Hello, Crystal,” Veronica said. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Crystal blinked, then she smiled and nodded. “Yes!” she said. “I talked to a nice secretary at the guild, and he let me look at a map of the road between here and Langenbrook, and he had a file about the place with all sorts of notes. But that’s not what’s got me excited.”

Was there a time where she wasn’t excited? “What’s that?”

“So, you know how we’re going to Langenbrook to talk to a half-turned? Well, there’s one here, in Hungenroth.”

“Oh?” Veronica asked. “That could save us a lot of time, if they know whatever it is you’re looking for information about.”

“I don’t know. See, they’re kept in a cage all the time, and it’s guarded, so I can’t just go up and talk to them. Well, I guess I could, but I think I’d need to kill a lot of innocents to do that and I don’t want to be a bad guy.”

“They’re kept in a cage?” Veronica repeated. She glanced up to Minna, who was still on Crystal babysitting duty.

Minna grinned. “The half-turned is called Gewinner. They’re the champion of the Hungenroth arena. There’s a big tournament going on, starting in a few days. Apparently it’s attracted its fair share of attention.”

That might explain why the inn was so full, Veronica realised. “And they’re part of this tournament?”

“They’re the previous champion. The entire tournament is a bracketed fight that’ll allow the winners to fight Gewinner together.”

“I want to enter,” Crystal said. “I’ll be able to meet Mister Gewinner at the end and have a chat with him.”

“That’s presuming you’ll win,” Veronica said. “And is this the kind of tournament where you can enter on your own?”

“I don’t know,” Crystal said. “I can manage solo, I think.”

Veronica was hesitant to tell Crystal that she couldn’t, mostly because she wasn’t certain if that was true or not. Crystal could very well be able to take on even an experienced team of silver-ringed hunters on her own, and Veronica suspected that she could go toe-to-toe with most gold-ring hunters too. But what if she met her match? Everyone had a weakness.

“I have the form here,” Minna said as she pulled out a page of loose leaf and handed it over to Veronica. “If she wants to give it a try, I say we let her.”

“Hmm,” Veronica said. It would prolong their stay in this city, which she wasn't entirely fond of. But, it might also mean cutting their adventure short.

And there would be gambling.

Her father had often warned her against the temptations of a good gamble. But he had placed a few gold on some bets himself over the years. And he never lost a copper penny that she saw, because he only gambled what he could afford to lose and when he knew he would win.

She looked at Crystal, with her slightly puffy cheeks, guileless smile, and strange, yellow-white hair.

How many others would place gold on Crystal being a capable fighter?

Those... would be fantastic odds.

“Well, Crystal, if you want to try, then I don’t see why I should stop you,” Veronica said. “How is the tournament organised?”

“Four melees, then the champions of each fight one another in single eliminations until a final victor is crowned. They, in turn, can fight Gewinner if they wish to,” Minna said.

“What’s a melee?” Crystal asked.

“It’s an open fight. The arena is filled with combatants, and the last one standing is the victor,” Veronica said. “Will each melee have its own prize pool?”

Minna shrugged. “I don’t know much more than what I’ve said already.”

“So, can I?’ Crystal asked.

“You... don’t need to ask my permission,” Veronica said.

“Oh, well, yeah, I know, but... sorry? I’m just kind of used to, you know, asking for permission. It’s second nature.”

Veronica wasn’t going to dispute or discourage anything that kept Crystal from doing whatever she felt like doing, so she just nodded along. “So, when does this tourney start?”

“In three days,” Minna said.

“I’ll make sure we stay in the inn’s books for a few days more then,” Veronica said. “In the meantime, what do you intend to do?”

As it turned out, there wasn’t much for them to do. The group gathered for a meal that evening, then spent the next couple of days just seeing the sights. Crystal wanted to visit the local jewellers, and Veronica and Minna spent some time practising in the inn’s backyard under Tobias’ supervision.

The acolyte knew more about magic than most, and he had a few ideas to share with both women after seeing their abilities in use. For Minna, that mostly came down to how muscles worked and how to get the most out of her daemon-fed ability to grow and empower her arms.

For Veronica it came down mostly to turning her ability into something more precise. Smaller, quicker uses still tired her out, but they tired her out less than bigger, more power-hungry uses. There was a middle ground where her ability was most effective, and if she could exploit that, then she might be able to stay in a fight for longer and make the most out of her power.

While they practised, Crystal visited jewellers. It wasn’t something she had been too keen on before gaining her magical girl abilities. After all, in a time before that she couldn’t even afford costume jewellery. But, since then she gained an appreciation for gems, their cuts, and because it was tangential, their settings.

Unfortunately, she didn’t discover anything too interesting, even when she went with Veronica and explored the one boutique in the nicer, noble quarters of Hungenroth.

“Are you interested in these because of your powers?” Veronica asked

“Yeah. Seeing the cuts and the different kinds of gems and crystals really helped. Especially when I was just starting out. They gave me ideas on what was or wasn’t possible. Of course, I could make as much of anything as I wanted, almost, but it was hard to tell what was actually good,” Crystal said. “Did you know, the DeBears company once put a hit on my head.”

“Why?” Veronica asked.

“I was making big pillars of diamond, ruby, sapphire, and whatever else, and I was just leaving them around. So people took to grabbing them, cutting them up, and reselling them. As it turned out, in the space of a few months I discarded more precious gems than they sold worldwide in a year, and I was really cutting into their share of the market.”

Veronica nodded slowly. “There have been talks in the past of limiting certain daemon-fed from entering certain businesses. They provide unnatural advantages, some people claim. And in a way they’re right.”

“Yeah, some people said the same thing about magical girls, but I mean, come on! There’s just twelve of us, and most of our powers don’t really overlap. If one girl can ruin your entire business, then maybe it wasn’t that great a business to begin with.”

“I don’t know, some more powerful daemon-fed hold a lot of personal power. It's impossible to overestimate how much damage those people can do when they set off on the warpath,” Veronica said. “More than one lord has been deposed by an upstart who just decided to act against them for good or ill.”

Crystal shrugged. “I guess. But for any of us to take out a company or something would require that we actually care enough to try, and I don’t think most of us ever really did.”

“Not even when they try to kill you?” Veronica asked.

“Well, none of them have the tools to be successful at that,” Crystal said. “So it’s kind of a moot point. You don’t get angry at an ant for blocking your path, you know?”

Veronica suppressed a shiver at that, and a strangely hollow feeling followed her until the day of the tournament began.

***

Origin - Seven - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Seven - Rending Nightmare

Alice backed up, then took a moment to just breathe. “What’s a succubus, and what’s the Second Circle?” she asked.

Alice wasn’t sure if ‘asked’ was the right term, really. She didn’t have her sword pointing at Marcia’s throat any longer, but the threat was still there.

“The Second Circle is the second layer of hell,” Marcia answered simply. “And a succubus is what I am. A demon of temptation and lust. Oh, don’t look at me like that, of all the sins I’d like to think that lust is the most genuine and good, no? True love wouldn’t be so true without desire behind it, and pleasing yourself and others isn’t so wrong, is it?”

Alice pushed any thoughts about lust and such aside, and she pointedly ignored the way Marcia’s hands pressed down across her stomach and along her hips in a way that was... no, it wasn’t time for such distractions.

“Hell is real?” Alice asked.

Marcia shrugged. “Real enough.”

“Does that mean that the church was right?” Alice asked.

The girl, the demoness, laughed at that. “Of course not. Who do you think runs the place?”

“So, when people die...”

“Oh, it’s not a true afterlife. Most of what you know is probably wrong, only slightly right, or made up and twisted into actual truth but only through sheer coincidence.” Marcia shook her head. “It’s complicated.”

Alice licked her lips. She had a lot of questions to ask. More than she had time to ask them in. “Why are you here? You, specifically.”

Marcia tilted her head. “It’s an opportunity. Hell is Hell. Power counts for everything, and opportunities to gain more power are scarce unless you already have power. I don’t have much of that. Better off than some, worse than others.” She shrugged languidly. “So here I am. Tempting you instead of killing you.”

“Are those your two only options?” Alice asked.

“Did you expect me to come here to become your true friend?” Marcia asked with a bitter note of sarcasm in her tone.

Alice glared at the girl who was still on her back. “I suppose not. Fine then, why is Hell attacking this city? Do... do you do this all over, all the time? Some great big coverup?”

“Oh, no no, the only covering up going on is entirely humanity’s doing. At least, I think. Hell has rarely interfered with Earth. Why would we? What does this place have that we might want?” She gestured around herself, then paused. “Ah, that’s rhetorical. There are some things. Human chattel has its place. And some succubi have come to test themselves here, but most demons cannot pass themselves as human and what we prize most won’t be found on Earth. Besides, there are... other circumstances that make it unfavourable to come here.”

“Then why now?” Alice asked. She had a sinking feeling she knew why, and Marcia’s grin only made it worse.

“Because of you.”

Alice clenched her fist. “Am I so special?”

The girl rocked her head back and laughed. “Oh! Priceless. If you weren’t so terrifying that insecurity would be so delicious to poke and prod. But no, I want to live.” She wiped at tears that never were. “Alice dear, Rending Nightmare. The shadow queen. The Nightmare walker. Hell wants you dead more than anyone or anything else.”

“Because I’m a magical girl?”

Marcia scoffed. “They wouldn’t care if you were the magical pope.” Her face contorted and she coughed. “Okay, they would care about that. A lot.”

“There’s a magical pope?” Alice asked.

“No? But if you became one anyway they’d care,” Marcia said. She sighed. “That was a terrible deal. I can’t even lie socially.”

“And apparently I can’t kill you unless you lie,” Alice said.

She noticed that Marcia was about to say something, then the succubus stopped herself.

“That’s how it works, right?”

“That’s how deals work between demons, yes.”

Alice glared. “You dodged the question.”

“I chose to interpret it in a more interesting way,” Marcia corrected.

Alice brought Dream Charter around to point towards Marcia who raised her hands. “Please, don’t mess with me.”

“Alright, fine, fine. Demons make deals. And we keep to them. Breaking them a little hurts a little, breaking them in a big way, on purpose, kills us. A human making a deal’s even worse off. There’s no little bit of pain for a slight transgression. It’s straight to the morgue for them. But, ah, you’re not exactly human, are you?”

Alice blinked. “What? Of course I am. I’m my parent’s spitting image. I remember being little, and I haven’t done anything... not-human.” She glanced at the magic sword in her hand. “Until recently.”

“Oh, sure, you’re human, but you’re also a magical girl, which takes all sorts of precedent. If you were just some human girl with a bit of magic, you wouldn’t have a bunch of nobodies from hell invading to take you out so soon.”

“So, what does that mean for the deal?” Alice asked. “We agreed that as long as you don’t lie I won’t kill you.”

“I don’t know what it means,” Marcia said.

Alice glowered.

“Hey! It’s the truth! See, no pain! I have a few suspicions, everything from it being worse for you to you just shrugging it off, but nothing concrete. Do you know how many magical girls there are?”

“I don’t.”

“None. There are none. The only reason we know about them is because of seers and some really powerful demons who could scry into the future warned us about you a long, long time ago.”

“Fine,” Alice said. “You mentioned that the demons attacking were nobodies?”

“Some seers from the Seventh Circle said that you would be appearing about now. I moved fast to get here first, and those idiots mucking around and making a mess of things? They did the same. There’s a lot of glory to be won by taking your head. That just means that the people trying to kill you are all hotheaded idiots though.”

“And what does that make you?” Alice wondered aloud.

“A succubus who doesn’t mind taking chances. Seducing you would be a big win for me, you know.”

“I’m not gay,” Alice said.

Marcia laughed in her face.

“What?”

“Oh, you’re as precious as you are terrifying. I’ll let you figure that out on your own.”

The bell rang, cutting Alice off just as she was about to start asking a lot more questions. She glared at Marcia, then flicked her hand to the side, dismissing Dream Charter into a smokey shadow. “Count yourself lucky,” Alice said. She reached a hand down for Marcia to take and helped the girl up to her feet. “If I catch you messing with the students, or harming anyone, no amount of saying the truth will save you.”

Marcia grinned. “You’re going to make some submissive little thing fall head over heels for you, you know?”

Alice felt her cheeks warming for a moment before she quashed the emotion and glared. “And stop talking about my romantic life.”

“Oh, that I can’t do,” Marcia said. “See! It was even the truth! I have a racial affinity for romantic meddling.”

“You’re messed up,” Alice said.

“In all sorts of fantastic ways, yes,” Marcia agreed. She wrapped her arms behind her back, then stretched. Her vest had come open at some point, and her shirt was no longer tucking into the band of her skirt, exposing her lower stomach as she twisted her upper body left and right.

Alice caught herself staring and looked away. “Get back to class or whatever.”

“You’re not coming?”

“I need to think.”

Marcia nodded, not pushing the issue. She turned and walked off with a final wave over her shoulder. “Have a nice think, magical girl.” Marcia turned and walked off, shaking her hips with every step like a Carnival dancer.

Alice resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

She couldn’t help but ruminate on what Marcia had said... mostly about her own sexuality, but she dismissed that out of hand. The woman was a demoness. A sex demon in the guise of a teenaged girl. Of course she’d try to mess with Alice.

“What do you think?” she asked her sword. It wasn’t around her, but it could still hear her, she knew.

THE DEMON HORDES ARE RIGHT TO FEAR YOU. THEY ARE WRONG TO DO ANYTHING BUT GROVEL IN TERROR.

“Right,” Alice said. That was less helpful than she would have hoped. At least Dream Charter was always confident in her. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, then sighed and let her arm drop. She had classes to attend to. This next period was math, and the teacher was some young sporty kind of guy. If he asked her why she was late she could always beg off and claim she had feminine issues.

The feminine urge to invade hell.

Chuckling to herself, Alice got going. She wasn’t closer to a solution, but at least she had a few more pieces of the puzzle at hand.

If the denizens of Hell continued to invade, then she would just need to continue to punish them for it.

Then again, if Marcia was right and those attacking her so far were just the fools and chattel, then it was quite possible that future threats would be a lot harder to deal with.

She needed to get stronger, and as she arrived in her class, pretended to have some issues she didn’t want to talk about, then sat down to study, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was wasting her time here.

But no, an education was important, and she wasn’t about to let Hell ruin her life. So she paid attention until class let up, picked up her things, and moved on to the next.

She was kind of regretting skipping lunch at that point, but that was easy enough to ignore.

When school ended, Alice lingered around for a moment or two, then when she didn’t see Marcia heading her way, she left for home since she didn’t want to miss the bus back.

On arriving home, she crammed through her homework while eating a sandwich, then escaped to her room.

There was a lot to think on, but she still found herself laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling while her mind buzzed. “I need to get stronger,” she said. It was the root of her problems. She had lots of power. That very day she’d defeated a demon and sent him running, and the fight against the imps had been pretty one-sided. She was quite certain she could take on a number of human adults too.

But she didn’t envision herself taking on all of Hell.

Not that Hell seemed to know that, the way they were gearing up to fight.

Alice sat up on her bed. “Dream Charter,” she said.

YES?

“I control dreams,” she said.

YOU DO.

“Can I.... I can send a message to someone through a dream?” she asked.

YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES. ALL NIGHTMARES ARE YOURS TO TWIST. IT IS THE ESSENCE AND BASIS OF YOUR POWER.

She nodded, her fledgling idea growing. “Can I send a nightmare to a specific person? To a specific set of people all at once? Could I... if I wanted to, send a nightmare to all of Hell?”

DO THE DENIZENS OF HELL DESERVE THE WARNING?

She took a deep breath, then let it all out. “Maybe. It might stall them, at least a little. We... I have to try it. Otherwise more people will die and I don’t want that.”

THEN LET US PARLEY WITH THE DEMON’S OWN GREATEST FEARS. MAY THEY FOREVER FACE THEIR OWN SLUMBER WITH TREPIDATION AND DISMAY.

***

Chapter Thirty-Six - Waiting Space

Chapter Thirty-Six - Waiting Space

Crystal and her friends were allowed into the waiting space for the tournament contestants at the crack of dawn. The space was a large room in a building just behind the arena. It wasn’t fancy or anything. All they got were some benches and access to some overused washrooms that stank so much it made her eyes water. The room itself wasn’t much better. She suspected the average gladiator didn’t take showers as often as they should.

“So,” Crystal said as she looked over the room. The fighters were a mixed bunch. She knew there would be at least four groups because she’d been given a little plaque with the number four on it. “What’s a grand melee anyway?”

Veronica shook her head. “You’d think you would try to inform yourself before the morning of the tournament.”

“It didn’t seem super important,” Crystal said. She twisted her shoulders around one at a time, loosening them and stretching her muscles out a bit.

“A melee is a fight with a few set rules where every contestant is pitted against all of the rest,” Veronica said.

“One at a time? Or all at once?”

“It’s a free-for-all,” Veronica said. “Though alliances will form and be broken at startling speed during a melee.”

“Neat!” Crystal said. She looked around the room, taking note of any fighter that she suspected might be more of a challenge. A few were big, topless men with rippling muscles, and there were some knights hanging out at the far end of the room, next to a window that she imagined blew in some air that smelled a bit better. “Any rules I should keep in mind?”

“Killing is frowned upon,” Veronica said. “So try not to kill anyone. If someone comes at you with the intent to kill and you have no choice... well, being disqualified isn’t a big price to pay.”

Crystal nodded. “I can do non-lethal.”

“Right,” Veronica said. She considered skipping the other rules, then remembered that Crystal was Crystal and what was common sense to most wouldn’t apply to her. “The fight starts when the announcer says so. In fact, don’t start until everyone else has, just to be safe. Don’t attack the crowd. Don’t use ranged magic that has even a tiny chance of flying off into the crowd or of hitting the judge’s box. Don’t say anything controversial. In fact, just try not to interact with the audience at all.”

“Okay, I think I can do all of that,” Crystal said. “In fact, it sounds like there’s a lot more stuff not to do than to do.”

“Mhm,” Veronica said. “I’m sure you’ll manage just fine. Minna and Tobias and I will be in the stands watching you. Ah... you’re not nervous in front of crowds, are you?”

“Me? Nope! Not one bit. Some of my friends are, though, so I know what that’s like. But don’t worry, shyness isn’t one of my problems!”

Veronica nodded along. That was one problem Crystal didn’t have. It made up a little for the many problems she did have. “Well, good luck.”

“Thanks,” Crystal said.

Veronica took off, and Crystal found herself standing in the corner of the big room with nothing to do. So she touched the hilt of her sword and then wandered closer to the knights, since the smell wasn’t as strong in that corner.

One of them noticed her approach, tapped another on the shoulder, and they moved aside, leaving her some room next to the window. “Thank you!” she said. “I guess knightly chivalry really is a thing.”

“Always, ma’am,” the knight said. Crystal could feel it as he eyed her up and down, but not in a creepy way. “Are you a participant, miss?”

“Yup,” Crystal said.

“Are... I wouldn’t want to question your wisdom, but are you certain? These ruffians won’t be kind to you.”

Crystal grinned. “It’s okay. I’m not planning on getting hit at all. Besides, I’m pretty tough even if I do get hit.”

“I see,” the knight said. He looked to his companions. “If you wish, you may stay close to us. We won’t interfere in your fights, but it would go against our vows to combat you ourselves. It would give you somewhere to point your back.”

“That’s really nice of you, thanks,” Crystal said. “Are you part of an order or something?”

“Yes miss,” the knight said. His armour clanked as he stood taller. “We’re knights of the Order Daemonica. Defenders of the innocent in service of Bahren, Friedersdorf and their people.”

“That’s impressive,” Crystal said. She extended a hand for a shake. “I’m Crystal Genocide. A magical girl in service of love, justice, and mass destruction.”

“That last one is concerning,” he said as he took her hand, turned it back up, then bowed above it.

“It’s mostly the mass destruction of bad guys, don’t worry!”

A moment later a reedy man stepped into the room and called everyone to attention. “Group four, you’re the first ones up. Please follow me onto the field.”

The fighters filed out of the room, Crystal hanging out close to the knights as they slid out of the waiting room, across a yard, then into a tunnel below the giant building of the arena. The tunnels below were damp and cool, lit only by a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

She could hear the crowd above as they reached a staircase leading back up and arrived in a second waiting space, this one with walls covered in weapons and with a big caged door to one side leading into the battlefield where they would be testing each other.

“The battle will begin at the blare of the starting horn,” the administrator said above the babble. “We will be checking your weapons here before you enter for the melee. Blunted edges are a necessity. If you don’t have your own weapon, you may take one of the arenas, though it must be returned.”

Everyone formed a long, disorganised line with the administrator letting people pass after observing their weapons. When it was Crystal’s turn, she pulled Scintillating Disharmony from its sheath and let the inspector look at her blade. The edge was, of course, entirely blunt after just a twist of her will.

He seemed a little confused by a sword entirely made of crystal, but it didn’t have a sharp edge, and wasn’t all that heavy besides, so she got it back and slid it away.

The waiting was making her nervous in a way she didn’t expect. Her heart was beating faster, as if she was in the fight already, but nothing had started yet, so Crystal found herself shifting from side to side to bleed off nervous energy while waiting for things to finally get ready.

Then, finally, the gates were opened and they were allowed onto the field.

The space was round, surrounded on all sides by stands with wooden benches. The smell of carnival foods wafted down and Crystal grinned even as she covered her eyes from the sun’s glare and searched for her friends in the stands.

There had to be a few thousand people on each edge wedge of the stands already, and there were four of those sections. They weren’t even filled yet, and more people were stepping up and finding places.

From what Crystal understood, the four melees to start were more or less ranked by difficulty. Hers was the one with the most competitors, but the fewest experts and returning gladiators, so they pulled in the smallest crowd.

She was okay with that.

The arena was all beaten dirt, with an obvious track around the edges and softer soil in the centre.

The hundred-odd competitors spread out, some forming clumps but many of them moving to have space around them. Crystal stayed close to the knights of the Order Daemonica, who had been nice. She’d let them come in second place, that way they’d still look good in the end.

There was a break in the stands where a few boxed seats were. One of those, she imagined, was for the judges, and the rest were probably for nobles and the like.

A waving arm caught her attention, and Crystal squinted to make out Minna on one of the lower levelled stands. She gasped, then raised her own arm in a wave. “Hi!” she called out, then remembered Veronica’s rule about not interacting with the crowds. “Oops,” she muttered.

A horn sounded and her hand whipped to Scintillating Disharmony, but no one else was moving to fight.

“Welcome, one and all, to the seventeenth Annual Hungenroth Grand Tournament!” a voice blared out across the stands. It wasn’t amplified by a microphone or anything. It had to be some sort of sound-based magic. “Today’s festivities are brought to you by...”

And Crystal stopped paying attention. Ads were ads, no matter the setting, and she wasn’t interested in which noble paid whom to get what done.

Bouncing on the spot, Crystal got ready to fight. With only a hundred competitors, all she needed to do was beat like, fifty of them, right?

***

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Put Skills to Use

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Put Skills to Use

To Klaus of Friedersdorf, squire (though soon-to-be-knight) of the Order Daemonica, this grand melee was just an excuse to put his skills to use.

Years of practice, hundreds of spars, and countless mock battles came together to give him and his companion-squires a good foundation for this battle.

It wasn’t a test, exactly, but then, most things were a test, weren’t they? The melee was to be far more chaotic than any spar, with skills and combatants whose abilities he could only guess at.

Still, when the horn sounded to announce the start of the battle and the crowd’s roar grew in pitch, he was almost taken off guard. His mind hadn’t been on the pitch but was instead fretting over many other things.

Practice saved him from looking like a fool as he whipped his practice blade out and fell into a simple mid-guard stance.

Nearby, a huge brute of a man turned, then roared as he charged towards Klaus and his two companions. “I have this one,” he said as he stepped up to intercept the man.

This was an easy one. Duck under the man’s wild swing while punishing the predictable move with a rap of his sword against the man’s shin, then come around to tap him in the middle of the back with his pommel. It was a hard blow, but not one that would injure permanently. Klaus had enough practice to judge that much.

The man went down with an, “Oof,” then rolled around onto his back.

Klaus tapped him on the clavicle with the tip of his blade, and he saw the moment the man considered his situation and surrendered.

Good, one down.

Klaus brought his sword back up and lowered his stance as he surveyed the field. There were a hundred fights occurring all at once, but he concerned himself first with the nearest. For now, it seemed like he had a moment or two of respite, which we would gladly take.

Fights of this size, he knew, would be about conserving his strength, keeping the beating of his heart slow, and not tiring himself out with flashy moves.

Klaus glanced to the side where that young woman had stationed herself. It was a little foolish to worry about a competitor that wasn’t a companion, but his knightly chivalry demanded that he look out for any woman... besides, he was still a young man and she was admittedly cute.

He found the woman mid spin.

It took a moment for his mind to catch up to what his eyes were seeing.

The young lady, Crystal, was spinning around horizontally, skirt flared out wide around her as she jumped sideways over the lunge of another competitor. She landed, twisted her upper body around, then swiped her sword across the exposed neck of the man next to her before her leg whipped out and crashed into the armoured breastplate of another man who went flying back.

“Woo!” she cheered. “Come at me! I’ve still got forty-three to take down!” That’s when he noticed the half-dozen bodies left in her wake. Not dead--there wasn’t enough blood for that--but certainly left with a few bruises to ego and flesh.

Klaus backed away towards his companions, no longer so certain that the young lady needed help.

Her path through the field drew a wide arc around the position Klaus was in. She leapt from adversary to adversary, pausing before them for just long enough that they noticed her before she engaged them in a flurry of shifting lace and flashing petticoats.

He... didn’t know what to think. She was clearly daemon-fed. He imagined her abilities had to be what was giving her such an immense edge over anyone she fought.

It might also be what gave her the temerity to stand against other daemon-fed without any armour but silken cloth.

Then he watched, a gasp escaping his lips, as one competitor bathed her in fire.

Klaus’ grip tightened on his sword. How dare someone do that to a woma--

Crystal’s sword swirled around so quick it was little more than a crystalline blur and the flames were dragged with it. She swung, and the fire that had been blasted her way spread out in a wide arc to her side, pushing back a few fighters who seemed ready to rush her.

“Nice move!” Crystal said. She planted a foot down with a thump so hard Klause felt it through his boots. “Imperfect Gem Break,” she said. Her voice resonated across the field as she darted ahead, little more than a blue blur that met the fire-user with a knee to the gut. She grabbed the man by the face, landed with her back bent to keep his feet off the ground, then with a full-body swing, she tossed the flailing man into what Klaus suspected were his companions.

Who in the world was this woman?

Crystal spun her sword around, a move to dislodge guts and grime from the blade, then she faced the others with one hand on her hip and her sword held pointing straight ahead. “Who’s next?” she asked.

Surprisingly, the one to step up was an older gentleman, who was obviously a spearmaster of the Wingu woods. The man had that flowing dark-green garb and his spear--though it lacked a head at all, so it was more of a staff--had the appropriate corded rope around its haft.

“I will be your challenger,” the man said.

The battlefield hushed up for a moment, the last few fights ending and everyone taking a moment to breathe as the spectacle unfolded.

“Uh, alright,” Crystal said. She shifted her stance, spreading her legs a little wider, bending her knees more, then bringing her blade around so that its edge was skywards and the blade horizontal with both hands over the hilt.

The spearmaster shifted into his own stance.

They both held their positions for a moment... then Crystal jumped forwards with a push of her back leg. It was a testing prod, Klaus guessed, to see the spearmaster’s range, and it was a mistake.

Wingu spearmasters use the cords embedded within their spears to give themselves more reach than they ought to have, and more strange flexibility in combat.

Crystal weaved to the side, then when the spear came back around she tapped it away and watched as the spearmaster caught it once more and continued his advance.

A dance played out before them all, and Klaus realized something terrifying. Though he was no master of any arm, he was well-practised, enough to see expertise at work. Crystal countered the spearmaster with ease. Some of her motions were more than human in terms of speed, but for the most part she predicted and countered the way a swordmaster should.

Then the Wingu spearmaster placed a foot out of place and Crystal swept his legs out from under him. He rolled, but she clamped a foot onto his spear then poised her sword over his neck. “Nice fight!” she said.

And just like that, after an intermission that had lasted less than twenty seconds, the fighting was back on. Klaus had to jump back into the action as a group of men in rough leathers assaulted him and his companions from the side, clearly trying to use their moment’s distraction against them.

One of his friends went down with a roar, but not before smashing a gauntleted fist into one of the ruffian’s faces.

Klaus fought, his body moving through practised forms as he deflected clubs and stabbed into hardened leather and even planted a boot into the gut of one man who was a little too presumptuous about his own skills.

The fight, bloodless as it was, ended with one companion down and three adversaries on the ground. Klaus was breathing hard, his helmet felt like it was made of lead, and he knew that the melee had only just begun.

They couldn’t just stand here, though. That was begging to be swarmed. “Let’s move!” he shouted. Then he turned and brought his sword out to point towards the nearest opponent... and found only a small group remained.

They were perhaps twenty in all, a sizable portion of the battlefield, but this group didn’t seem like people who would ordinarily fight together.

But against a common, greater foe?

Blasts of darkness swept out, spears of chitin and small, contained explosions. A man with a bow fired blunted arrows as quickly as he could nock them and at the fore, the biggest, strongest men on the field fought with great billowing roars.

Against them, Crystal danced and weaved and made small talk, her sword a blur that intercepted projectiles and slapped aside opposition while she herself twirled about, like a child in a park that left grown men groaning on the ground beneath her.

The group’s efforts reached a critical moment, and when all of their combined abilities failed... they broke apart, routed.

Crystal stood in the centre of her devastation, head tilted to one side like a curious puppy, and for a moment, Klaus wondered if she didn’t realize the terror she inspired.

“Does that mean I’ve won?” she asked.

***

Bonus Chapter - Ryker - Part Two

Ryker - Part Two

Ryker was going to die. There was no surviving being this close to something like that. This was a Rank S Kaiju. A city killer. God’s Perfect Sword and the Blade of the East.

The Kaiju folded in on itself, as if it didn’t even have a passing care about the physics that ruled the world. The being became a massive sixteen-sided hexadecahedron which ended in points thinner than the tip of a needle. Then one of those long pointed sides opened up. Ryker watched, almost detached, as a section of the side, a perfect-edge line was ripped apart.

The Kaiju didn’t even have the good grace to make a noise as it warped natural laws and tore apart ten thousand lives.

Ryker glanced back.

The portal was closing.

He was going to die.

He was going to die if he stayed where he was.

Ryker wasn’t sure what part of his fight or flight response demanded that he move at that very moment, but he found himself suddenly running towards the portal and jumping just as the edges of the rip in reality started to close in on each other.

Within the portal, Ryker was working hard to keep his lunch, and he didn’t just mean his groceries. He hugged his bag of groceries tight and squeezed his eyes shut. He was falling.

Below him was the city. Ahead was more of it. And above, the garden-topped skyscrapers of his home reached down like the blunt claws of some godly beast. It was as if the entire world was a puzzle, smashed apart and put back together by a god who had no concept of what space in three dimensions was meant to look like.

Ryker didn’t scream. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t. By all means, if there was ever a time where screaming would be appropriate, he thought that right then and there would be it.

The city collapsed in on itself, and Ryker realized that he was moving less towards the ground... any of the many grounds around him... and more in a vaguely forward direction.

Buildings closed in on their mirrored copies and phased through each other while they spun in on themselves. He was at the head of a cone that was pressing close from both ends, and every fleeting glimpse he took sent a fresh wave of vertigo racing through him.

He was a denizen of the Flatlands, shoved bodily into a world with a whole new dimension and he was not enjoying the experience.

And then, out ahead of him, Ryker saw the bud in the centre of the flower. A pillar that led out into infinity and at its end a complex array of perfectly poised crystals, laid out like the petals of a smaller flower. He recognized the crystals. They were the same as Tamiel’s.

It clicked.

The crystalline flower was hovering over the warping cityscape, mirroring the real Tamiel’s position over the same. That made it so much easier to understand everything.

What didn’t help was the fact that he wasn’t slowing down and the central flower was growing closer and he realized that it wasn’t just crystal but there was a growth atop it and he was going to--

Ryker spun himself around with a wild kick, some old reflex sending him in a spin that let him crash onto the Tamiel-flower back-first instead of meeting it with his skull.

The landing was made softer by the Kaiju gripping onto the crystalline surface. He landed on the organic blob instead of the hard crystal.

The fleshy Kaiju didn’t appreciate the intrusion though. Tentacles ripped themselves off of the crystalline flower and waved through the air, each of them tipped with mouths that had too many teeth.

Ryker wheezed for a moment, then rolled to his feet.

His groceries tumbled around him, some merely floating off, other bits staying close or acting as if they were under the influence of some unseen gravity.

Still wheezing, Ryker tossed himself to the side and narrowly avoided having his face tentacled.

In passing, he grabbed the first weapon he found: a large can of diced mangos in light sauce.

The Kaiju wasn’t one he’d seen before. That wasn’t too unusual. New ones appeared frequently enough.

The general rule of thumb when fighting a Kaiju was don’t. And if one couldn’t not fight one, then the second option was focus on its brain.

Ryker gulped in a lungful of air, pretended that he couldn’t see the twisting world around him, then he charged ahead with his can gripped as if his life depended on it.

Ryker ducked under the swing of one tentacle, then smacked another aside with his large can of diced mangos. The blow almost sent him reeling back, but he managed to keep his feet under him and after stumbling a step back--while standing on the kaiju’s body, no less--he twisted his waist forwards and tripped back towards the monster’s centre.

He had the impression, after half a minute of tangling with the monster, that it wasn’t very good at fighting.

Those existed. There were some kaiju whose combat abilities were basically laughable, at least when it came to direct confrontations. Some were designed more for stealth. Others had far more insidious powers. Mind-control and powerful abilities that could warp an entire area into a nightmare didn’t require the monster in their centre to be dangerous.

He wasn’t sure what was up with this kaiju in particular, and he didn’t care at that moment.

Ryker was a therapist. He worked in an office. Sure, he took frequent walks and played badminton once a month or so, but he wasn’t exactly in the same sort of shape he’d once been in. It didn’t take long before he was panting, legs working hard to both keep himself stable and push forwards across the Kaiju’s body.

That’s when he noticed it. The monster wasn’t wrapped around just crystal. There was a person there. A young woman, curled in a fetal position, in a cocoon of crystalline glass. He... had no idea what that could possibly mean, but he imagined it wasn’t good.

He continued to climb, even if it was like walking across a heap of beanbag chairs, while fleshy pool noodles tried to smack him away. Others lunged towards time, gaping mouths open to bite, but they floundered and bumped into each other, throwing their aim off.

Finally, he reached the middle and stared down.

The Kaiju had a single large eye which was staring balefully up at him. He didn’t know what was going on. He didn’t know where he was. What he did know was that he was frustrated and that frustration and stress could be let out using physical exercise.

The mango can came rocking down and thumped into the eye with a dull thwack.

The Kaiju writhed, tentacles flicking around wildly. One of them whipped Ryker across the shoulders and he fell down onto the monster. The eye was broken, fluids oozing out of it.

He raised the can and brought it down again, this time next to the eye.

Something cracked on the third blow and the Kaiju’s skin split open.

On the fifth, something shifted and he suspected he’d broken the Kaiju’s equivalent of a face bone. Tossing his can aside, he reached into the wound he’d open, following some almost caveman-esque instinct, then he ripped the flaxen, rubbery skin of the monster apart.

It was like calamari, he noted.

Every Kaiju’s parts were valuable. He was ripping through the meat of a species he was pretty sure no one had seen before. Ryker didn’t think of himself as too materialistic, but he still felt a pang as he tore apart the Kaiju to get to its innards.

It was incredible, the amount of wild shit a human would do if they thought they had no choice and would die if they didn’t.

He found the Kaiju’s brain, raised his fist, then punched it.

The world, of course, exploded.

Ryker was twisted around, flipped head over heels, and then, finally, he crashed hard onto something that had just enough give that he didn’t break any bones. Groaning, he waited for the world to right itself and stop spinning, then he opened his eyes.

Earth. He was back on Earth, in the city of Hope, even. He turned and groggily climbed to his feet. The city was a mess, buildings toppled, fires spreading around and screams in the distance.

It wasn’t the devastation that caught his eyes the most though. No, what stole his breath was the massive rank-S Kaiju towering above him, canted at an angle so that it rested against a skyscraper. It was unmoving; its insides didn’t glow. It was dead.

“Holy shit,” he murmured. Had he just killed the God Sword? He looked back and at the slice across the ground where the portal he’d jumped through had been a moment before. He was... feeling a lot of things at the moment, but one thing flashed to his mind. What had happened to that girl he’d seen?

***

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Not so Bad

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Not so Bad

“That wasn’t so bad,” Crystal said as she stretched. It was important to keep her muscles limber and flexible, so she tried to remember to always do her post-exercise stretching where she could. She looked around the arena and didn’t find anyone who wanted to fight her.

The nice knight boys were off to the side, and when she looked at them they bowed and sheathed their swords. There were two others wrestling each other in one corner, too busy trying to pin the other to the ground to notice that the fighting was pretty much done.

She took it to mean that she’d won, really.

Folding her hands at the small of her back (just above her big bow) she skipped over to the exit. A lot of the competitors were standing in the armoury room beneath the stands, but they pressed themselves away from her as she approached. “Hey!” she called out to one of the organisers. “Did I win?”

“Um,” they said.

Crystal didn’t want to step out of the arena just yet. What if they took that to mean she was forfeiting? But there wasn’t anyone left to fight, and even the cheering of the crowd had died down. She squinted up and shaded her eyes from the sun to see the people above better.

It really looked like they were calming down after all the raucous shouting and cheering that had gone on earlier. She saw her friends seated in the same spots as before, seemingly calm compared to everyone else.

“And we have our first winner of the day!” the announcer finally said. “A surprising upset from the lowest-bracket in the melee, the inexperienced and new Miss Crystal Genocide comes out on top, showing herself to be a fearsome fighter!”

“Inexperienced?” Crystal repeated in a low mutter. What did the announcer know about her to call her that? She was plenty experienced at kicking butt.

Crystal didn’t have time to complain as she was escorted off the field by a nervous administrator. At least she got to say goodbye to the nice knights who met her by the entrance with a set of bows.

“Well fought, Miss Genocide,” one of them said, the one she supposed was the group’s leader. “I will admit, I didn’t expect to see such prowess with the sword from one so young.”

“Thanks!” Crystal said, her chest puffing up in pride. Her magic had been a gift, but her skill with the sword was practised and the result of years of hard work. “You did pretty well out there too! Did you, ah, expect to win?” She felt a little guilty all of a sudden. If she chose not to participate, then maybe she wouldn’t have stolen someone else’s victory.

The knight shook his head. “No ma’am, I didn’t expect us to last through the melee. But I think we put on a good show, and we’re leaving somewhat unharmed, which... well, hopefully that’ll put us in a good light. We have a few senior knights watching, and I hope they treat us well after this.”

“One of my friends used to say that discretion is the better part of valour,” Crystal said. “It’s better to leave unharmed with a loss than to push forwards and lose everything just to soothe your pride. Maybe your senior knights will know that too?”

The knight bowed again. “I imagine they might, ma’am.”

Crystal smiled. “I should go see my friends! Thanks for being nice, and good luck!”

“Good luck to you as well. We’ll be watching your next bouts with interest.”

Crystal laughed. “Cheer for me!” she said before heading off. The administrators wanted her to hole up in some room, but she said she wanted to go see her friends, and she wanted to see the other melees besides.

She was pretty sure they didn’t want to let her just go, but then she remembered some advice from Happy Sparkles. If someone didn’t want to give you what you wanted, but they were also aware that you could easily wipe their existence away, then the most peaceful way to get what you wanted was just to smile and politely insist.

They let her go after sweating a bit, and she climbed up to the stands and waded through the crowds until she found her friends. They’d left a bit of room for her, so she stepped over a few legs and then plopped herself down between Veronica and Tobias. “Hi!” she said.

“Well done out there,” Minna said.

“That was impressive,” Tobias said. “I expected you to use your daemon-fed abilities more. I’m impressed by your restraint.”

“Oh, well I was trying to be fair, and besides, I didn’t need to use actual magic, so why would I?” Crystal asked. “One of my friends said that when you’re doing stuff in front of a crowd, it’s sometimes best not to show off too much.”

“Is that Happy Sparkles?” Veronica asked.

Crystal felt a spot of warmth in her tummy; Veronica had been paying attention to her stories! “No, actually. That was Silenced Annihilation. She... had a bit of a very public debut, and from then on she was always very careful to avoid people.”

“I see,” Veronica said. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t go all out. Collateral damage aside, you’re making for better odds.”

“Odds?” Crystal repeated.

“For the gambling,” Veronica said.

Crystal blinked. “How does that work?”

“You don’t know, really?” Veronica asked. They had plenty of time to talk about it, the field was being scoured over by a few people with long rakes and one guy who looked like he had some sort of earth-shaping magic. “It’s not too complex.”

“Okay,” Crystal said with an encouraging nod.

“Well, ah,” Veronica began, then she frowned. Crystal imagined it was one of those situations where someone took something so for granted that it wasn’t easy to explain. “Well, the essence is that the amount you win is based on the odds the bookkeeper gives to a participant. The more likely they think someone is to win, the less money someone will make when they bet on that person. That’s to ensure that they don’t need to pay out as much. Those with less of a chance at winning get better odds. You get paid more if they do win.”

Crystal tapped her chin. “So, if I wanted us to make more, then I should have made myself look worse?”

“Essentially,” Veronica said. “But don’t bother now. The real betting only starts with the one-on-one bouts.”

“But my odds should be pretty good, no?” Crystal asked. “Or bad for us if we’re betting on me, I guess.”

Veronica shrugged. “That’s true, but we can make up for the bad odds by placing a lot of money on you. Even with a bad return, a large sum will mean large winnings.”

“Oh!” Crystal said. “Good, because I don’t want to hold back on purpose like that. I’m not a good actress.”

“I can’t imagine it being all that difficult,” Minna said.

Crystal shook her head. “No, I’m really bad. I tried to do advertising once, but I’d either forget all my lines or I’d sound super wooden.”

Minna frowned. “Lines?” she asked.

That prompted Crystal to explain ads, which of course required her to backtrack to an explanation about what TVs were, which led to Tobias asking how they worked, but Crystal didn’t know that beyond ‘plug them in and press the buttons.’ It was still a pleasant enough conversation and it carried them over until the arena below started to fill with fighters once more.

“The second melee of the day is about to begin!” the announcer cheered, voice carrying across the stadium.

“Oh, this group is supposed to be better, right?” Crystal asked.

Veronica nodded. “This group is made up of people with either some experience in tournaments or who have been vouched for.”

The group was a little smaller. Maybe eighty people compared to the hundred or so in Crystal’s own group.

There were a lot more knights and men in armour, and a lot more people displaying obvious signs of being daemon-fed. The crowd started to grow more tense, with shouts and yells sounding out across the space as they got more excited.

Crystal allowed herself to get swept up in the wave of pleasant tension filling the air. They were all here to watch people beat each other up, and that came with a certain sort of visceral excitement that got the blood pumping.

The match started with the blowing of a horn, and almost immediately, the violence began.

Crystal cheered as one man in a knight’s armour bashed another across the face so hard with his shield that the man did a full backflip before crashing into the ground.

There were eighty contestants, which meant forty little battles going on all at once, with the numbers dwindling as competitors were beaten out of the fight.

Crystal could see why people liked these kinds of things. They were fun!

***

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Excited to Get Moving Again

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Excited to Get Moving Again

Crystal enjoyed the melees, but by the end of the fourth and final one, she was excited to get moving again.

The big fights were chaotic and wild, and they required that she shift her attention all over the place. In a way, they were a little tiring to watch.

And they lacked the more... performative aspects of fights she’d seen before. Wrestling on TV might have been fake, but there was usually a beat and reason to what was going down. Every big team sports had something that this fight lacked.

Character, maybe?

The crowd certainly seemed to enjoy it all, whatever the case.

The second melee ended with one guy standing in the field. A short but well-muscled man that stood his ground like a pillar instead of a fleshy meat person and who punched like a freight train. He had been rather brutal, if slow and predictable, but in the end no one in the second melee was able to take him down, and anyone that did come close to him was beaten to a pulp.

There had been some bodies on the ground at the end of that melee, unmoving and bleeding.

So much for avoiding killing where they could.

The third melee was taken by an older man. He was wiry and thin, and wore simple trousers and a shirt with a number of patches sewn into it. He fought with a long staff, and moved with agility that didn’t suit his age at all. The end of the third melee had the old man stepping up between two crowd favourites and knocking both out with a single sweep. Most, it seemed, had dismissed him, and he had avoided much of the fighting by ducking and running away from it until the end.

Crystal decided she liked his style.

The fourth melee’s victor was a woman with a big bow and a set of knives. She could teleport and was quick and accurate with her bow.

But there had been a bit of an upset at her victory. She pinned the last of her opponents in the crook of the shoulder, between two armoured plates, but her opponent--a knight in dull black armour who could summon long spikes of obsidian from the ground, stabbed her through the stomach.

In the end, the knight surrendered and she was crowned victor of her round, but she was sweaty, covered in blood, and looked faint as she waved to the crowd.

“I should go!” Crystal said as she bounced to her feet. Confectionaries and crumbs flew off her dress as she stood, the result of three melees worth of snacking. “Wish me luck!”

Her friends did just that, and Crystal weaved her way through the dense crowds gathering on the stands to return to the space beneath the stadium. It took some wandering before she found someone who knew where she was supposed to go. Or rather, they found her.

“Miss Genocide,” the administrator said. “You’re here! Good, we were worried.”

“That I wouldn’t show up?” she asked.

“Yes. The fourth bout’s winner has already bowed out of the competition. We don’t have much time to find a replacement for her. It’s good that you’re here. Please follow me.”

Crystal shrugged and followed the man across the underground and up a staircase. That brought her to a larger room that was, she realized, under the box seats. There was a slit in the wall that allowed her to see onto the arena ground. They were level with the floor, the window maybe a dozen centimetres off the sandy ground.

The room wasn’t empty. The other contestants were there, as well as a few members of staff, one of whom seemed to be interviewing the old man.

Crystal tasted the air for tension, but found that it was surprisingly calm. The old gentleman was sitting cross-legged to one side, nursing a cup of tea, the knight who’d come in second during the last melee was talking to what Crystal suspected was a squire while they looked over a bent piece of the man’s armour, and the last participant, the winner of the second melee, was pacing up and down off to one side, arms crossed and face set in a scowl.

She decided to stick by the opening in the wall where she could see the crowds. Meeting new people was nice, but she wasn’t sure about any of these people just yet.

Eventually, a man came over to her and nodded. “Hello there,” he said.

She recognized his voice. “Oh, you’re the announcer,” she said.

He grinned. “I am! I was just meeting the others, asking them a few questions. This kind of tournament is always so much more entertaining when there’s a bit of familiarity with the participants and when there’s a story behind it all. Do you mind if I ask you a few things?”

“I don’t!” Crystal said. She did like talking about herself. It was one of those few subjects she knew a lot about.

“Perfect!” he said. “So, your name is... Crystal Genocide? Is that a moniker?”

“It’s a magical girl name,” she said. “So I guess it is.”

“That’s good, very evocative. I like it. I like it, and where are you from, Crystal?”

“New Zealand. That’s a place far, far away from here.”

“Oh, a traveller then. That would explain the hair, I suppose. And the dress. Yes, that’s nice. Did you participate just for the money or...”

“Oh, no, I don’t care about that. I’m here because it’s the easiest way to get in touch with a half-turned. I want to talk to Gewinner.”

The announcer’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s certainly a unique reason to join the tournament. Yes, I think I can work with that.” He half-turned as someone deeper in the building blew a high-pitched whistle. “Ah, that’s all the time I have, but I’ll put something together that’ll have everyone remembering you.”

“Oh, uh, thanks?” she said.

Then the man was off.

It was only a few minutes later that she was ushered out of the room by a nervous attendant while another reached out to the stocky guy with the big muscles.

From the looks of it, the first and second melee victors would fight first, then the third and fourth, with the winners of both bouts facing off against each other in the end. The final fight, of course, would be against Gewinner.

She was brought to the far end of the arena and made to stand behind a big door. On the other side, she could hear the stomping of feet and the growing excitement of the crowd.

Crystal loosened Scintillating Disharmony in its scabbard, then as the doors were swung open, she walked onto the field with a pep in her step. Across from her came the big muscled guy, stomping forwards with balled fists at his sides and a nasty scowl on his face.

“Coming from parts unknown, distant and exotic lands, this young lady is here to risk it all to defeat the one who insulted her pride and assaulted her clan. She’s here today to face off against the great Gewinner himself. It’s the Crystalline Genocider!”

Crystal turned and stared up at the announcer’s booth. None of that had been accurate.

The crowd though, didn’t care. They cheered all the same, a repeating chant of “Crys-ta-line! Crys-ta-line! Crys-ta-line!” picking up in volume and ferocity.

She reluctantly waved at them, and the cheering grew even louder.

“From our very own Hungenroth, a home-grown champion and tournament favourite, it’s the one and only, the skull crusher, the man eater, the brutalizer... it’s Turnip!”

The man across from her, Turnip, raised his arms and roared.

The crowd roared back.

Turnip pointed at Crystal with a big finger and glared. “I’m going to put you in your place,” he said.

“Um, is this pre-fight banter? I was never good at that kind of thing,” Crystal said.

Turnip scoffed. “A woman’s place isn’t on the field of battle. You stole the place and power that could have gone to a man!”

“Oh, wow, misogyny! But like, the really stereotypical sort. I wasn’t expecting to hear that. Is this part of the routine too?” She tilted her head a little. “Are you trying to psyche me out?”

“Worthless whore!”

“Um, no, I’m not. I’m pretty sure I’m worth a lot too?”

Turnip lowered his arm, his expression softening. “Hey, look, I’m just trying to play the heel here, can’t you give me something to work with? Maybe a few threats? I don’t know,” he asked, voice lower so it wouldn’t carry to the crowd.

“Oh, uh.” Crystal stood taller then whipped her sword out so fast its passing drew a line across the sand. “I swear, Mister Turnip, you will not be dying of natural causes today!”

The man frowned as he tried to work through that insult.

“Let the fight... begin!” the announcer shouted.

***

Chapter Forty - Arena Floor

Chapter Forty - Arena Floor

Crystal blinked as Turnip roared, planting his feet into the dusty ground of the arena floor. The man shifted so that his stance had him positioned with a fist raised and the other cocked back, ready to strike. His muscles flexed, and it looked to her like his skin started to glisten a little.

He continued to roar along with the crowd while also... just standing there.

His roar died down, and soon the entire stadium’s excitement hit a strange hitch. “Hey, aren’t you going to attack me?” he asked.

“I was intending to, but then you started screaming.”

“Yeah, it’s a fight,” he said. “You should be screaming too. Haven’t you ever been in a fight before?”

“Usually the screaming starts after I’ve stabbed at least one person,” she admitted.

“Uh.” Turnip rubbed at the end of his nose with a closed fist. “So, you’re not a tournament veteran?”

“No?” Crystal tried.

He nodded. “But you’ve fought people before?”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. That was more familiar ground.

“And killed?” he asked.

“Yes, but don’t worry, my friend told me not to kill anyone if I could avoid it, so I’ll be going easy on you.”

Turnip nodded back. “That’s very appreciated. Well, come on, we’re putting on a show here, you know!”

Crystal grinned. “Okay!” she said. Then she started running towards Turnip at about the speed and pace she’d expect from a teenaged girl on the wrong side of average (at least when it came to height!).

“And the fight’s on for real! Oh, if only we could hear what kind of banter passed between the two!” the announcer’s voice rang across the arena. Crystal was just glad that no one had figured out cameras yet. Or cell phones, for that matter. She didn’t like it when people filmed her much. It was one of those downsides of having a very acrobatic fighting style coupled with a rather poofy skirt.

This world’s perverts didn’t have the internet to feed their perversions, which made it, at least in one small way, objectively better than Earth.

Crystal left her sword in its sheath and came in close to Turnip. The man grinned, then rocketed a punch towards her face. She ducked to the side, then had to step quickly to avoid a sweeping kick that tried to yank her ankles out from under her.

Turnip’s fighting style, she discovered, was a mixture of hard, heavy blows that seemed easy to combine into grapples and another, entirely different style, that used big, sweeping gestures that chained into each other to preserve momentum.

The styles--she thought as she hopped over another kick, then backflipped to gain space--were quite different from each other. So Turnip must have trained in both separately. She imagined that it gave him something of an edge when it came to fighting people who didn’t expect the changing styles or who didn’t have anything to ground themselves.

The way he struck out super hard while putting his whole body into the swings also told her that he was tough enough to take a hard hit, otherwise his own strikes would break his bones.

“What’s that martial art called?” Crystal asked. “The one with the big swings?”

“Ah-hah! This is Meinzing-style Dancing Fist,” he said. “And the other is Laugendorf-style grappling.”

“That’s neat,” Crystal said as she continued to step just out of his striking range. He was moving towards her pretty fast, which meant that they were travelling all across the arena as Crystal was chased. “Okay, my turn!” Crystal said.

“You know a martial art?” Turnip asked. He bounced on his feet, arms raised to ward off an attack.

Crystal nodded. “Yup! My friend Dimension Death came up with it. It’s called Silk and Lace style. It’s for girls!”

“Ah,” Turnip said, lowering his guard a little.

Then Crystal’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist and she was hurtling forwards towards him. “Silk and Lace style, Testicular Torsion kick!”

Turnip spun himself around, narrowly avoiding her knee strike, but she was still grabbed onto him. She let herself fall and dragged him down to the ground where she was already spinning her lower body up.

They ended up in a tangle for a moment, but only long enough for Crystal to end up behind Turnip, his arm locked into the small of his back while she brought her other, free hand way up and above.

“Silk and Lace style, Concussion Blow!” Her arm came swinging down, the point of her elbow slamming into the nape of Turnip’s head so hard that his face bounced off the arena floor and there was a loud crack that sounded even above the cheers of the crowd.

Turnip finally managed to land a hit on Crystal as his boot landed right in her short ribs and sent her flying back. She still landed on the balls of her feet though and with a bounce was ready to get back in.

“What kind of martial art is that?” Turnip asked.

“Uh... the effective sort?” Crystal said. “I would have tried a Twisting Fishhook, but there’s kids watching us.”

“A what?” he asked.

She made a hook shape with her two forefingers, then twisted her wrist around hard. “It’s when you poke your fingers into the bum and then rip.”

Turnip looked horrified. “Why would you do that to someone?” he asked.

“Oh, there’s a bunch of reasons, even if it's a little gross. See, the tissues there are soft and sensitive, so if you rip them, it makes it hard for the opponent to move their legs afterwards. Plus, anal injuries aren’t a joking manner! There’s all sorts of bacteria back there, and it’s a place that’s hard to heal, so even if they end up winning the fight, they’ll be in for a world of trouble.” She grinned, big and proud. “Dimension Death made a series of DVDs about her martial art and I used to watch them religiously before I turned into a magical girl myself.”

“Can you... not do that to me?” he asked.

“I wasn’t going to! It’s yuck!” Crystal said. “I’m just gonna beat you up the old fashioned way.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Turnip said. “Wait, you don’t think you can beat me, do you--” He cut off as Crystal shot forwards towards him so quickly she left an afterimage.

The man barely had time to bring up a hand to catch the tiny fist that rocketed towards him. They collided with a meaty smack, and despite outweighting Crystal three times over, he was sent flying back.

She was too, but she landed with a scrape and twin jets of dirt kicked up by the toes of her magical mary janes. Then she launched herself after Turnip again.

All he saw now was a twisting mess of lace and petticoats before Crystal planted a foot into the ground and kicked upwards. Her shin caught Turnip under the jaw and he was sent skywards, arms and legs trailing back until he reached his apex and started to come back down.

“Wow, you’re tough!” Crystal said as she jumped up and met him in mid air.

She twisted her entire body around like a cat, foot whipping out to catch Turnip in the gut.

The man was spiked towards the ground so hard he bounced.

Crystal landed nearby, hands held by her sides so that her skirts wouldn’t flare out too much, and she landed with a dainty little step. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Turnip spat to the side, then pushed himself up to his feet. He was covered in a fine layer of dust, and the knee of his pants were ripped apart, but he was still in one piece. “You’re fast when you want,” he said.

“Thanks!” She said, “But I’ve been holding back a lot. Like you said, we’re putting on a show, right?”

“Right,” he said. “How about a final punch then? One last blow to show the world what we’re made of?”

Crystal considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Alright!”

“Give it your all!” he said.

She just grinned. “I’ll give it some effort, but I think the crowd wouldn’t appreciate me giving my all.”

“I’ll make you regret that!” he said.

Then he started roaring again, and Crystal joined in too as they both charged towards each other, fists cocking back.

Just as they met and the crowd stood up in a grand cheer, their fists shot forwards towards each other’s respective faces.

There was a loud thump and a shockwave travelled out from around them.

Then Turnip was launched backwards and through one of the arena’s walls, stones and bits of broken masonry scattering out behind him.

Crystal blinked into the hole she’d left, then she wiggled her hand to loosen it up. “Good fight!” she called out to the hole. “It was fun!”

***

Bonus Chapter - Crystal Learns Martial Arts

Bonus Chapter - Crystal Learns Martial Arts

POV: Crystal
Age: 12

Crystal stepped in and tossed off her boots next to the door just as her mom called out from the kitchen. “Don’t track mud in!”

“I won’t!” Crystal called back. She’d done it before once or twice, and her mom always got really annoyed by it. Especially that one time Crystal climbed onto the sofa with her boots. Her dad had thought it was funny... until her mom made him clean off the stains.

She had just finished tending to the chicken coop and she had a small Warehouse bucket full of eggs which she’d placed next to the door. “I’ve got the eggs,” she said.

“Hmm? Oh, bring them here, just finished the dishes, might as well wash them off,” her mom said.

Crystal ran over to the kitchen, then helped her mom dry off the dishes.

The front door opened, and her dad stepped in with a couple of bags. He tracked mud to the kitchen island and placed the bags down, then got a scolding for the mud from an irate mom while Crystal looked through the bags for snacks. He’d gotten marmite and watties and... she paused as she found a small wrapped package at the bottom, but then her dad swiped it out of her hands.

He was smiling that smile, and right away, Crystal got excited.

“Three guesses,” he said.

“Oh, what did you get her this time?” her mom asked fondly. “It had better not be chocolate again.”

“Nah, this is real healthy. Come on,” he urged Crystal.

Well, that was one guess down. She tried a couple of other things. Was it socks? He’d once set up a treasure hunt, with notes hidden all over the house with clues on them, only for her to find socks at the end, and she was determined never to forgive him. But it wasn’t socks, and it wasn’t candy, and it wasn’t a puppy (which wouldn’t fit in the package anyway, but she was running out of ideas).

He whipped the gift out of the wrapper, and Crystal grabbed it lightning quick. “No way!” she shouted.

It was a DVD, with a poorly-photoshopped image of Dimension Death--the Dimension Death--on the cover with one hand up in a peace sign. Above that, the name of the DVD. “Dimension Death teaches SILK and LACE. Self Defence for Girls of all ages!”

Crystal was vibrating so hard she practically made the house shiver.

“Go on,” he said. "No one’s using the living room.”

“Okay!” Crystal ran towards the living room, then stop, spun around, hugged her dad extra hard, then her mom too even as her dad protested that he deserved all the hugs today, then she ran back to the living room.

The DVD flew out of the case and into the player, and soon it was closed and spinning.

There were several episodes (11 hours of content!) but Crystal navigated through the menu and clicked on the first, then she ran to the middle of the living room to watch while standing. She had too much energy for something like sitting down.

The camera wobbled a bit, and some text scrolled by. There was a watermark in the corner for some free video editing software, but Crystal ignored it, because there, slightly-out-of-focus and standing on the roof of a big building somewhere, was Dimension Death!

"Um, hi everyone," Dimension Death said. She stared at the camera, then remembered that she was supposed to be smiling. "Uh, so, a lot of girls get bullied, and hurt, and we generally think that’s pretty shi--- uh, pretty bad.”

She was looking at someone behind the camera. Was there another magical on the scene? Crystal could barely contain herself, but she focused hard anyway. This was one of her heroes!

“Anyway, I figured it would be pretty cool to teach everyone a little bit about self-defence,” Dimension Death continued, and as she did, she grew more confident. “I’m not trained in any martial art, but I’m pretty darned creative when I wanna be, and I’ve been to a few dimensions where they were really big on martial arts and I picked up a trick or three that I’ll be teaching you today!”

The camera shut down and turned back on, and this time Dimension Death was out of her awesome costume (Crystal ‘aww’d’) and was instead in more normal street clothes.

“So, this style was going to be called Ultradeath Fist, but Happy Sparkles insisted that we call it something more tame and ‘marketable,’” she said with air-quotes. “So this martial art is called Silk and Lace, and it’s perfect for girls to learn!”

Crystal nodded. “I’m ready,” she told the TV.

"So, the first set of moves I'll be showing you is great for girls. You can practice it just about anywhere too since the moves aren’t too hard. It's called the Eye Gouging Arts and they're all about that motion in the wrist. Here, let me show you on this demon we captured."

The camera panned to the side where a huge, muscular demon was chained to a chair. It had six eyes, and all of them were filled with terror as it wobbled and tried to get away from Dimension Death.

“Don’t ever try this on anyone who, uh, you care about,” Dimension Death said. “Okay, here goes! First, you want to take a quick step forwards, then reach out, try to use your index, middle, and thumb all at the same time and make this sort of claw shape. Oh, and aim for that little pink bit of the eye too, it’s the easiest part to slip your fingers into.”

Crystal was almost squealing with excitement. This was the best gift ever!

***

Origin - Eight - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Eight - Rending Nightmare

“I need you to sleep at my place.”

Marcia choked, spluttered, then pounded her chest with a fist while coughing.

Alice watched the teenaged-girl-looking-succubus as she worked hard to regain control of her own breathing. It took a while. “You want me to what?” Marcia asked.

They were sitting at what Alice presumed was the ‘popular kids’ table. All of the prettiest and smartest girls were here, as well as a few lucky guys. Alice wouldn’t have minded being at literally any other table, but Marcia wouldn’t allow that.

The young woman had a very strong streak of... Alice wasn’t sure if there was a polite word for it, but it boiled down to Marcia needing to feel superior to everyone else, including when it came to where she sat at school.

It took no time at all for the girl to attract sycophants, and Alice might have worried that there was magic at use except that Dream Charter had been on the lookout for that, and so far the magical sword claimed that Marcia’s social graces and ease of manipulation were all entirely mundane.

Or as mundane as a tailored version of their uniform whose neckline plunged deeper than normal and a body that was... distracting could be.

Alice refocused. She had gotten used to ignoring the fawning girls--and boys--and somehow had cemented her place in the social hierarchy as a studious bitch who happened to be the most popular girl in school’s best friend.

She didn’t know how she felt about that.

“I said, I need you to sleep at my place,” Alice repeated. She then chewed on a mouthful of beans.

“Oh, well, if you’re asking so nicely,” Marcia said, a little breathless. She fanned herself. “You know, usually when I’m with someone, they’re not so formal about things. I like my arrangements a little more... casual.”

Alice paused, then grabbed a pinch of rice and beans and flicked them across the table. “Don’t be crass,” she said. “It’s nothing like... that. You pervert.”

“You don’t want your first time to be with me?” Marcia asked, clearly disappointed.

Alice gave her a disgusted look.

“Come on, I’ve seen the way you stare, it’s cute.”

“No, stop,” Alice said as she reigned in any sort of blushing. “I need you at my place for... work-related stuff.”

“That’s not nearly as fun,” Marcia said. Then she proceeded to continue to tease Alice. She often pushed the limit, but when Alice warned her off, she would back up, at least for an hour or two. The woman was incorrigible, but for all that, Alice found herself enjoying her company.

It was why she had decided to try out the first phase of her plan with Marcia before she really put any effort into it. That was something else her grandfather had taught her. If you have an idea, then it’s worth trying it small. Small failures are easy to overcome, and teach many small lessons.

Classes continued on, and Alice found herself coasting along in most of them. She put some effort in, of course, but... well, she suspected she was at the top of her class in every class.

The language classes were a joke when her magic allowed her to speak and understand English and Spanish without any thought, the math came naturally to her, and while she had to study for history and geography, she found it so much easier to keep track of things. Physical classes were a non-issue, of course. If anything she had to hide how fast and agile she was. And then the science classes were even easier than some of the others. They mostly required that she memorise some basic materials.

Had becoming a magical girl made her smarter?

That was a heady thought.

Classes ended, and Alice found Marcia waiting for her at the edge of the school campus. Together, they headed towards Alice's home. She didn’t live too far away. It was a short bus ride from the nearest stop to the school and towards the entrance of the suburbs right on the edge of the busier part of the city.

Marcia talked the entire time, prattling on about the local gossip and who was doing what with whom and so on. Alice was surprised by how little she cared. She had never been as much of a gossip as some of the people she knew--her mother said that gossip took precedence over football as the national sport--but now it all felt wildly unimportant, especially when so many people seemed to have forgotten about the attack on the school and mall already.

She got off at the stop nearest her home, hiked up her backpack to make it sit right, then walked alongside Marcia towards home.

It came up soon enough. A little two-storey place, with a garage to one side that had a flat roof that they’d converted into a patio. A few flower boxes hung from the windows, and there was a small gate keeping the small yard they had out front clear. The roads here were all big cobbles, worn smooth by passing cars and feet, and constantly uneven no matter how much people complained to the city about them.

It was a nice home to grow up in, with just her, her parents, and once her grandparents, though they had passed on some time ago.

A good quarter of the homes in this neighbourhood were cousins or second cousins, uncles and aunts and long-time friends of the family.

When there was a wedding, or a baby was born, the entire community would come out to rejoice.

Alice suspected that that was part of why she had been pushed so hard. Having a successful young daughter was a point of pride here. Plenty of the neighbourhood kids a few years older than her were going to prestigious colleges, and that status was something their family would wear with pride.

This was a tight-knit community, but it was one aiming for better.

Alice unlocked the front door, then stepped in and flicked her shoes off by the entrance. Marcia did the same while glancing around. “Nice place,” she said.

“Thanks,” Alice said absently. Her house wasn’t that nice, but it was clean and well-maintained, which made up for a lot. “Come on, I’ll show you to my room.”

“Oh, already,” Marcia said. “Are you planning on ravishing me? Because I’d be okay with that, and you know I’m not lying.”

“There will be no ravishing,” Alice said. “Or anything else perverted. Keep your hands to yourself.”

“Well, that’s no fun,” Marcia said.

Alice’s room was a small space in the back of the house, but it had a window with a nice view into the backyard where they had a few trees--including a mango tree that wasn’t in season--and the room had space for her desk and some room to walk around in. It wasn’t bad, by any means, but she was keenly aware that it was a little small for two people to be occupying it.

“Alright, let me explain what’s going to happen,” Alice said. She flicked her hand to the side and Dream Charter appeared, the rapier’s comforting weight pressing into her palm.

Marcia’s eyes locked on the sword, not with envy or her usual poorly disguised lust, but with a flash of fear that was gone almost as soon as it appeared. “Are you going to undress me with that?”

“Lay on my bed,” Alice said.

The succubus’ eyebrows shot up. “Wow! I... you know, I didn’t actually expect to get that far. I was just teasing, but if it’s what you want!”

“I’m going to make you fall asleep,” Alice said. “And then I’m going to give you nightmares.”

“Um,” Marcia said. “That’s significantly less hot.”

Alice shrugged. “I’m the Queen of Nightmares, or somesuch, aren’t I? It shouldn’t be too hard. I know I can give people dreams. I tested it on a dog.”

“And I’m the next guinea pig? Straight from dogs to poor Marcia?”

“I wouldn’t test it on a human,” Alice said.

“Ouch,” Marcia said.

Alice rolled her eyes. “I need to see if it works on a demon, like you. I can hardly fetch another volunteer from the bowels of Hell, can I?”

“Alright, and what kind of nightmare are we talking here?”

Alice frowned. “Is there something you’re afraid of?”

“That’s not a nice opener,” Marcia said.

Alice shook her head. “No, no, I’ll avoid anything like that. I... don’t want to hurt you here, I want to test if this sort of magic works at all. Then I can scale it up, see if it works at range, maybe see if I can’t send a nightmare to someone in Hell.”

Marcia sat up on Alice’s bed. “You want to spook the lords of Hell?” she asked. It was a big leap to make, but one that wasn’t altogether incorrect.

“Not just them,” Alice said.

The succubus paused for a moment, then flopped back onto the bed, laughing. “You’re gonna spook the entirety of Hell?”

“I don’t even know if that’s possible,” Alice said. "My magic seems strong, I guess, but... well, I imagine there’s a lot of people in Hell.”

“Sure, sure,” Marcia said. “Keep thinking that you’re that weak, please, it makes it easier on me. But, by God’s saggy tits, you’re going to make a mess, you know?”

“I want to warn them away from Earth, from me,” Alice said.

Marcia shook her head. “I don’t know if that’ll work. It might, for some of the smarter ones. But you don’t need to be smart to be powerful down in Hell, just strong, and a few idiots will take this as a challenge. Not that those idiots aren’t already going to cause trouble, mind you.”

“You don’t think my idea will work?”

“Your idea is the equivalent of setting off a nuke next to the shore of a foreign country as a friendly reminder that they’re not beyond your reach. Some will sue for peace, sure, but others will just want to fight you even more.”

“But they’re going to want to fight me regardless,” Alice said. “This is me giving them a fair warning, and maybe stalling for time. I want and need to get stronger in the meantime. So... yes, lay down, close your eyes, and go to sleep.”

Marcia did as Alice said, though not without turning around and fluffing up Alice’s pillow, then giving it a sniff as if to see if it was dirty.

She rested on her back, then stared at the ceiling. “This isn’t going to work, usually to fall asleep, I need a good f--”

Alice concentrated for just a moment and Marcia’s eyes fluttered shut.

Soon the succubus on her bed was breathing calmly. She snored, Alice discovered.

Setting Dream Charter aside--the sword was content to hover in the air, in defiance of gravity or common sense--she stretched her back until it popped, made sure her door was locked, then sat on her desk’s chair and spun it to face Marcia.

Then she set her elbows on her knees and focused on the demoness.

She could feel the woman’s sleeping mind. It was dreamless at the moment, empty in a way that always felt a little strange to perceive. In that place between sleep and dreaming, but gently sinking towards the dreaming world. The world where Alice was supposed to reign, at least according to her magic sword.

All she had to do was give Marcia a little metaphorical push... and there she was, her sleep more profound, her mind at once more active, but also more disjointed... and then Alice rolled her eyes and allowed her cheeks to flame a little. Of course the snippets of dreams she caught from Marcia were exactly what she should have expected.

With a long suffering sign, Alice grabbed a hold of her magic and got to work.

***

Chapter Forty-One - Tickets

Chapter Forty-One - Tickets

“Um,” the man in the booth said. He was looking at the tickets Veronica had placed before him. He picked them up, squinting at them very carefully, almost as if he was looking very hard for any signs that they might be false.

They weren’t, of course. He knew, because he’d been the one to issue them to her an hour ago and at the time he’d worn a little smile, as if she was wasting her gold.

Her very large sum of gold.

Veronica tapped the counter. “My gold,” she asked.

“Yes, of course,” he replied.

He couldn’t be too nervous about it. After all, if the odds on Crystal were so awful, then that just meant that most people had bet against her, and so the bookies made their fortune already.

Veronica was just taking a slice of that. A very large, tasty slice.

The bookie returned and set a box down onto the table, then he turned it. The inside was lined with grooves into which her golden coins were carefully slotted.

“Nice,” Veronica said. She tapped the box. “I’d like to place a bet,” she said.

“With... all of that?” the bookie asked.

“Is that an issue?” Veronica asked in return.

In all honesty, she was just glad to be able to deal with the bookies that dealt with the nobility. The others were outside of the arena and all of the gambling was done via screaming and clamouring for tickets. She didn’t want to deal with them, and flashing the amount of gold she was using there was just a bad idea.

“Ah, the odds have been recalculated since,” he said. “Miss, um, Genocide isn’t a favourite to win, but she’s not far behind now.”

“That’s fine,” Veronica said. “I have a good feeling about her. Put everything on her winning the next round she’s in.”

“The odds haven’t come in for that one yet, not until this round’s winner is determined,” he said.

“You must have an idea of what those odds will be,” Veronica said. “Come on, I’ll even take slightly worse odds than predicted.”

“You’re really sure about this?” he asked with a gesture to the gold. “This is, ah, a large sum.”

She knew that. With the last two consecutive victories on Crystal’s part she’d taken what had been a few month’s wage for a talented craftsman and turned it into the yearly wage of a lesser noble, then she’d turned that into the price of a small but respectable estate in the vicinity of a modest kingdom.

Now... well, now the odds the bookie gave her were far less adventurous, but if... when Crystal won, they would be turning that large sum into a slightly larger sum. And then there would be yet another match, against Gewinner.

Veronica wasn’t sure she wanted to push her luck that far. “Thank you,” she said as she received her ticket. She immediately hid it away in a pocket tucked away in the front of her chemise. If anyone tried to grab it... well, she’d be within her rights to put them down.

She suspected that when she returned to grab her gold the bookies would insist that something was wrong. Maybe they’d claim that Crystal cheated, or they’d say she bet too much. It didn’t matter, in the end. She could waltz in with Crystal herself and make them sweat the gold.

With a bit of a pep in her step, Veronica returned to the stands. Their seats were decent, but by no means luxurious. Just a decent view of the field while surrounded by fortunate peasants, lesser nobles, and a few hunters and merchants who could afford to take a day off to attend this kind of event.

The next bout hadn’t started yet, but from the tension in the air, she knew it wouldn’t be long.

“How did it go?” Minna asked.

“Well enough,” Veronica said. She wasn’t going to boast about money aloud, not in such a crowded place. “I put everything on Crystal again. I’m sure she’ll make it to the end.”

“Me too,” Minna said. “She’s been playing with her food so far.”

Veronica nodded. Though that was probably for the best. The kind of destruction Crystal could bring about wasn’t well suited to an arena where people lined the stands.

She sat down, Minna giving her some space next to herself and Tobias. Staring around and waiting while nothing happened grew tiring after the first few minutes, so she turned her gaze towards Tobias, who... well, the young man was a bit of an awkward conversationalist, but the breadth of his knowledge was interesting to poke at, at times.

“What do you think,” she asked with a gesture to the arena. “About all of this?”

“Ah, it’s interesting. I’m not sure if I’m one for all the cheering and screaming, but the displays of power are riveting. I suppose they are my area of study, but I don’t get to see so many different power sets being used in one place at the tower.”

“That’s understandable,” Veronica said. “Don’t you have connections with the Hunter’s Guild? They could allow you to see several daemon-fed using their abilities. I imagine that most wouldn’t mind taking half a day off to show what they can do for a small payout.”

“It would be a nice way to pad out your ring-resume,” Minna said.

Veronica nodded. More completed quests and missions were always helpful when it came to gaining another ring. Of course, something like a study by the Arcane tower wouldn’t be worth much but it would still be one more thing on the list.

“I’ve done that before!” Tobias said, now more excited. “Though only twice so far. The first time went well, but the second... I ended up working with someone rather belligerent. Anyway, it wasn’t an experience I was ready to repeat. Not until I met your group, of course, Miss Dotter.”

Veronica let out a long breath. “I don’t know if it’s my group, exactly. More like... we’re babysitting Crystal.”

“Honestly, it might be for the best that she never received that gold ring,” Minna said.

“Why do you say that?” Veronica asked. That was something of a change in subject, and it caught her a little off-guard.

“Because gold-rings often have their own entourage of silver-ringed hunters. Especially if their power is in high demand,” Minna said.

Tobias nodded. “That’s true. I met a gold-ringed hunter once. He couldn’t fight that well, but he could heal and it made him... somewhat invaluable.”

“Ah, I see,” Veronica said. She was about to go on, but the crowd perked up and soon she noticed the doors on either end of the arena opening. From one end came a knight, and from the other an old gentleman in plainclothes with a walking stick by his side.

The dissimilarity between the two contestants was striking, and Veronica wondered if it was done on purpose.

The contestants faced off near the centre of the arena while still keeping some dozen metres between them. The knight bowed, then the old gentleman planted his staff in the ground and pressed his hands together without his staff ever shifting.

“Hailing from Balzac! A Knight of the Order of the Overflowing Cup, it’s Sir Richard Loins!”
The knight raised a hand to the cheers and adulation of the crowd. Many young women were hooting and waving scarves over their heads in a dizzying array of colours.

Veronica rolled her eyes. She imagined their opinion might change if they could get a whiff of the man. Knights in sweaty armour rarely smelled as pretty as they looked.

“And hailing from the mysterious north, the man known only as Moe had blessed us with his wisdom and presence today!”

More cheers, though somewhat more subdued than they had been with the knight.

“Today we will be seeing knightly talent versus aged experience! Let the fight... begin!”

The two combatants stood off for a moment, then the knight nodded his armoured head and stomped a foot down.

Tall spikes of pure-black stone ripped out of the ground, each moving no faster than a person could walk, but there were dozens of them in a rough cone facing the older man.

Moe didn’t merely stand there though. He vaulted aside with his staff as a pole and then started to run in a spiral towards the knight.

They met, staff clacking hard against sword.

Veronica leaned forward. The knight’s swordwork was impressive. Fast, precise, well-practised.

The old man was better.

The fight started to travel, the knight backing up onto his own field of spikes, the dangerous terrain not bothering him at all.

Moe followed, skipping, bouncing, jumping around like someone fifty years younger, and with every move, his staff whipped out to strike and probe.

Then the knight stomped a foot down and summoned a wave of obsidian...

Only for it to stop with a wave of the old man’s hand.

“An anti-mage!” Tobias breathed a moment before Moe’s staff swung around and crashed into Sir Richard Loins’s head with a deafening blow.

The knight toppled, and the crowd went wild.

***

Chapter Forty-Two - Last Bout Before the Final

Chapter Forty-Two - Last Bout Before the Final

It was the last bout before the final, so of course, people were really excited. Crystal smiled and waved at the cheering crowd, and she was both surprised and happy to see that some people were waving blue banners, and some even had her name on them.

Did she have fans?

That wasn’t entirely new. She’d had fans on Earth.

Not as many as her friends, of course. She was the newest and for a long time weakest of the magical girls, and her friends had mostly been around for a while so they’d established something of a presence, some for years before she showed up.

The next-youngest was Screaming Bioplague, who cured cancer across the entire planet one afternoon, which kind of made her very popular in a way that was hard to live up to when Crystal’s own best trick was collapsing the international gem market.

The only girls less popular than Crystal were Fractured Time and Phantom Mist. Fractured because scientists the world over hated her, and Phantom because her entire gimmick was being invisible and going unnoticed.

Crystal wondered if this world had a China-like place that would soon create illegal bootleg merchandise of her the way they did back on Earth.

And if so, would they make stuff about the man she was about to fight?

Moe stood across from her, the man puffing at a long-stemmed pipe while he leaned to the side, his staff the only thing holding him up. “How’re you doing, miss?” he asked, just loud enough that she could pick him up over the crowd.

Crystal smiled back at him. “I’m doing alright,” she said. “How about you?”

He nodded. “Well enough. I did my stretching already, so I’m about as limber as I’ll ever be. Hehe!”

“Stretches are important,” Crystal said with a nod. “You don’t want to get a muscle cramp or pull something in the middle of a fight. Or get a stitch, those suck. Oh, I especially hate it when your calf muscle does that thing where it kind of locks up and like, burns? It hurts!”

Moe chuckled. “I’ve had that happen a time or two. I changed from stationary meditation to moving meditation some years ago. A little more tiring, and it’s harder to keep focused at times, but at least I don’t have a hard time standing up after an afternoon of sitting on the ground.”

Crystal nodded.

“Fewer haemorrhoids too.”

Crystal stopped nodding.

The announcer chose that moment to speak up. “Our two contestants, from wildly different parts of the world, are ready to face off in a climatic battle! On the one side, the beautiful young Miss Crystal Genocide!”

Crystal dipped into a curtsy, pinching the edges of her skirt as she tipped to the side. It seemed like the polite thing to do.

“And on the other, another dark horse in this tournament filled with surprising twists, it’s Moe!”

Moe stuffed his pipe, then slid the whole thing into a little pouch that he flung off to the side. It thumped onto the ground next to the entranceway, and someone dipped into the arena to pick it up for him.

He exhaled a perfect circle, then blew out some smoke through its middle. “Ready?” he asked.

“Yup!” Crystal said.

“Who will come out on top? The elderly Moe, with his many tricks and incredible acrobatics, or the quick witted and pretty Crystal, with her sharp looks and sharper sword.”

She frowned up at the announcer’s box and wondered if he had to go on about her looks so much.

“Let the battle... begin!”

Crystal looked over to Moe, but Moe didn’t seem eager to start things off right away, so she turned ninety degrees and started a slow walk. Moe grinned and did the same in the opposite direction so that they were keeping an even distance from each other.

“I noticed that you fought the last fellow hand-to-hand,” he said conversationally.

“Yup. It seemed fair,” she said. She glanced at his staff. “Mind if I copy yours? I’ve never fought with a staff before, I don't think. Maybe in a spar or two, but not really beyond that. Oh, I did fight with a giant fork once.”

“A giant fork,” he repeated, then he laughed. “Certainly. Though it’s a little late to ask for a fresh weapon, even just a stick.”

Crystal waved the concern off then flicked her hand upwards with her next step. A crystalline spike stabbed out of the ground, narrow and about as long as she was tall. It was a dull red, made of corundum with a smidgen of chromium, to give it a nice blood-red kind of tint. The interior was mostly interlocking bits of carbon though, since gems were always a little brittle and she wasn’t going to use this one in a kind way.

They continued to circle around until Crystal was where Moe had started and he was where she was. Their little walk hadn’t been any sort of fight, but it had done wonders for calming down the crowd who had grown more and more tense as they moved.

“So,” Crystal said as she wiggled her new staff around. She didn’t want to use it like a really long sword, that would be silly, but she didn’t know how to hold onto the staff otherwise. She settled for holding it the same way Moe held onto his. “Shall we?”

Moe nodded, then he was charging towards Crystal.

She leapt forwards too.

Judging from the last bout, Moe had some sort of anti-magic skill, but she had the impression that there was more to it than that. The old man moved fast. Maybe it wasn’t superhumanly fast, but it was about what she’d expect from someone in peak health, and Moe was in his sixties or seventies.

That didn’t mean that he was too old to spar or fight or anything, but she knew that old age tended to make one a little less spry.

Staff struck staff and instead of the hard clack of wood meeting wood, there was a low ‘bong’ sound, like the tail end of the noise a large bell made when struck. Crystal tightened her grip on her staff, then ducked away as Moe’s foot swung towards her head.

She ended up fighting in retreat as Moe’s swings came in from a few different directions and she had to scramble to block them. They were probing strikes, for the most part, with the occasional jab or harder swing mixed in to throw her off.

Moe was, she realized, a pretty darned good fighter.

She swung back at him, imitating one of the simple moves he’d used. She wasn’t sure if it was even a ‘move,’ especially since he didn’t seem inclined to name his attacks at all, but it was a set motion designed to smack someone’s ankles aside.He blocked it with a quick downwards swing that continued as he rolled her staff around and above then came down to try and hit her arm.

Crystal stepped back and out of range, then when Moe swung for her legs she repeated the move in reverse against Moe, but he twisted his wrist and somehow his staff was suddenly inside her guard and he bapped her face on the chin.

“Ow!” she complained as she stepped back to rub her jaw. “That was something.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” he asked. “Now, are you going to stop toying with me and take this a little more seriously?”

“Hmph,” Crystal said. “Fine then.”

She launched herself at Moe, determined to take things a little more seriously. Her strikes came in harder and faster, and Moe met each one with practised counters. It wasn’t easy, not judging by how much focus he was putting into it, but he wasn’t backing down.

So she started to magic it up a little.

Taking a page out of the playbook of the knight she’d seen fighting Moe earlier, she summoned a crystalline pillar to jab him in the side.

He side-stepped it, then counter attacked a little faster, becoming more reckless as he tried to land a harder blow against her.

Crystal grinned, then stomped a foot down, sending three crystal spears at Moe from different directions.

He grinned back, then narrowed his eyes.

She felt... something brush up against her. It was a slurpy, goopy sensation that wasn’t touching her body at all, but felt more like it was trying to grab her... soul?

Crystal summoned a pillar underfoot and launched herself backwards. She copied the same basic guard stance Moe had adopted recently while she licked her lips and felt at the sensation. That wasn’t anti-magic... “You’re a power thief!” she said as she caught on. “Oh! That’s tricky!”

Moe blinked. “Ah, I have been discovered, it seems. But that begs the question: why can’t I get a grasp on your magic, and why does it feel so strange?”

***

Chapter Forty-Three - Crystal Hesitated

Chapter Forty-Three - Crystal Hesitated

Crystal hesitated. How would she answer that question?

How was her magic different, and why didn’t Moe’s magic work on her?

She came to a simple enough solution, an answer that would fix everything. There were people in the crowd who might hear her, after all. It wasn’t impossible that the fight was being recorded somehow too. She didn’t need her abilities and secrets getting out so easily... not that she’d even been particularly subtle.

Crystal pressed a knuckle to the side of her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and stuck her tongue out before replying. “It’s a secret!”

Moe laughed. “That’s fair. I suppose that means I’ll have to fight the hard way.”

“And how’s that?” Crystal asked.

Moe set his staff down next to himself, then stretched his back out, spine popping as he let out low grunts. “Ah, see, I’m as you said, a power thief. I take a power, and that person loses it for a few minutes, maybe an hour. Usually wipes the fight out of them. Thing is, I keep those powers. Or a shadow of them, at least. And I’ve been stealing powers for... oh, longer than you’ve been around.”

“Oh,” Crystal said. “I have a friend who does something like that. But she needs to, ah, eat the person whose power she’s stealing.”

Moe’s eyebrows shot up. “Rather morbid, that.”

“Oh, it’s not as gross as you’d think,” Crystal said. “She has a magic fork.”

“Right,” he said at last. He finished his stretches, then shifted into a martial arts stance that Crystal wasn’t familiar with, his staff left on the ground next to him, seemingly abandoned. “Are you ready to lose?”

“I don’t think--”

Crystal launched herself to the side as an obsidian pillar thrust out of the ground next to her, its edges glinting in the afternoon light.

“Why, what wa--”

She leapt back, ducked, then rolled as a trio of black fireballs roared past her. Another spike came ripping out of the ground and she came out of her roll mid-jump, the tap of a foot atop one of the pillars changing her directions just as the ground where she’d been heading opened into a burning maw.

Then Moe was launched out of the shadows of the spikes he’d created, a long scimitar that trailed icey vapours in hand and already swinging towards Crystal.

“Wow!” She said, “That’s a lot of powers.”

The blade met her staff and there was a massive crack as what seemed like a power that allowed Moe’s weapon to become an unstoppable force met Crystal’s obstinacy.

Her staff exploded apart and Crystal was sent flying back to tumble across the ground.

Moe disappeared and Crystal rose in a spinning kick aimed behind her on reflex. “Oh, not coming in from behind?” she asked.

“Teleporters always do that,” Moe said from a dozen metres away. Then he swung his arm out and a dozen fireballs raced towards her.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Crystal said as she weaved through them. “But I think I might have to hold back a little less.” She flicked her hand to the side and Scintillating Disharmony appeared in her grip.

Moe’s barrage of fireballs ceased, and he shook his hand out. “That’s one gone,” he muttered. Crystal suspected she wasn’t supposed to hear that.

It was a hint, then. Did he use up powers that he stole? Could he only use them for a limited time? Or was it more that he could only have a certain number of powers on at a time?

She planted her foot down, crystals sliding across the ground beneath her feet to stop any other magic from encroaching on her footing, then she shot forwards, sword swinging around towards Moe.

Her blade cut through him, the old man turning into smoke and reappearing on the other end of the arena.

She spun in midair and crashed feet-first into a summoned pillar of crystal. “Nice trick!” she said before launching herself at Moe once more. Halfway to the man the air shimmered and a twisting gust of wind started to howl and scream as it turned into a massive golem of air that tried to bat Crystal aside.

“Gemcut shavings!” she shouted as she swung Scintillating Disharmony. The air wobbled and the summoned elemental was ripped apart. She heard the crowd screaming as the heavy winds battered at them and sent food stuffs and loose clothes flying. The rest of the crowd was cheering madly, of course.

She found Moe waiting for her behind a wall of sharpened obsidian. The same power, she noted, that the knight he’d just fought had used. Crystal summoned a plate of diamond around herself like a solid cloak and rammed into the spikes with a heavy crunch. She tore out of the other side, let go of her creation, then jumped towards Moe.

He resummoned that scimitar and they met with a trio of blink-fast strikes, each testing the other. Moe was moving almost as quickly as she could.

Almost.

Crystal grinned. “This is fun! But I’m sorry Moe, I need to win.”

Moe grunted and shadow stepped away from a swipe only to appear next to her mid-kick, his foot trailing a wash of boiling water. She met his shin with her own and deflected the water with a paper-thin barrier so that it splashed away from her and didn’t get a chance to turn her skirts wet.

The air behind Crystal shimmered and a pair of crystalline figures appeared, both of them vaguely feminine, with long immobile wings and mannequin faces. They shot towards Moe, blade-arms chopping at the man, who shadow-stepped away, then launched a black spear at the nearest, cracking its chest, but failing to remove it from the fight.

Crystal jumped after him, and with a quick proding stab, gave Moe the first injury in the fight: a slight cut across his thigh that had the man hissing in pain.

He spun away, and Crystal had the impression that he was out of teleports, or else he would have used one just then.

A fresh pair of pillars ripped out of the ground, and Moe swung his arm around, summoning a wall of bright-yellow fire that Crystal deflected with another barrier.

By the time she caught sight of Moe again, his wound was healed.

A healing power, on top of all the rest?

She pouted. It wasn’t fair to fight someone--who wasn’t one of her magical girl friends--who had more powers than she did. The sky cracked and large pillars appeared over the arena, each the size and width of a school bus. They glimmered as they collected sunlight.

Then beams of concentrated light came rushing down in the centre of the arena.

Not lasers. She didn’t want to blind the people in the stands and was limiting herself to less-destructive powers. But still, the beams were uncomfortably warm, and she supposed that constant exposure without sunscreen could cause sunburn or even melanoma if someone wasn’t careful!

Moe weaved out of the path of the sunbeams, hounded by Crystal’s summons and sweating up a storm even as he flung a few random powers her way.

Black shadow darts--she batted them aside. Shadowy tentacle whips which she destroyed with impunity (magical girls, on principle, hated tentacle things). He met her eyes and she felt a faint tickle in her mind and her hairpin lit up for a split second before it negated whatever that had been.

Moe was throwing everything and the kitchen sink at her, she noticed.

Crystal was starting to get used to the game.

She countered thrown spells with summoned shields. Sicced her summons on any that Moe brought up. Flattened ground effects with crystalline plates. When he flung gems at her she laughed, took them over, and flung them right back while they were still in mid-air.

Moe squinted and lightning came crashing down from a clear blue sky and Crystal redirected it with a laser so that it missed her entirely.

All the while, she continued to skip after him.

Finally, Moe roared and jumped towards her, ignoring the twin cuts left by her summons and the bright light beaming down atop him. He closed his fist into a tight ball and with a mighty explosion behind his wrist, punched Crystal with the strength of a giant.

She headbutted his fist.

There was a loud thunk that reverberated across the arena, and Moe’s face went very, very white.

“Oh, shoot, was that your wrist?” Crystal asked.

Moe fell back, cradling his arm. “Ah, I give,” he said.

Immediately, Crystal dismissed all of her powers, and the arena, pitted with holes and covered in crystalline growths and all sorts of strange magical effects, returned to... not exactly normalcy, but it calmed down considerably.

“And there we have it! Crystal Genocide goes on to defeat Moe Ki Un!” the announcer declared before his voice was drowned out by the crowd.

“Well, we put on a good show, at least!” Crystal said.

Now it was time for the main event.

***

Chapter Forty-Four - Many Chains Surrounding It

Chapter Forty-Four - Many Chains Surrounding It

It took nearly an hour for the arena’s maintenance people to fix the floor. At the same time, a team of workers dragged in a huge metal box and deposited it to one side of the arena, the box coming down with a hard thump and a jangle of the many chains surrounding it.

“Whoa,” Crystal said. “That must be Gewinner, huh?” she asked.

Veronica, who stood next to her in the line for some roasted sausages being sold from a little portable stand next to a row of similar stands at the topmost tier of the arena, glanced down. “Ah, yeah, I suppose so. I don’t actually know much about this Gewinner guy.”

“Are they even a guy?” Crystal asked. “Maybe Gewinner’s a cute girl, huh?”

“I don’t think so,” Veronica said. “I think if they were a... cute girl, there wouldn’t be quite as many chains around the heavy metal box they’re locked in.”

Crystal hummed as she thought. “Maybe. But I don’t think people should underestimate girls just because they’re cute. Cute can be dangerous, you know.”

“I think I can see what you mean, yeah,” Veronica said with a look at Crystal.

Crystal spun around, hands meeting together in an excited clap. “You think I’m cute?” she asked.

“What? No.”

“You do! You said you knew what I meant, then you looked at me, and I’m dangerous and cute, so you think I’m cute!” Crystal cheered.

“I think you’re an idiot,” Veronica said. “And yes, I suppose you’re not unattractive. You seem healthy, your hair is... interesting, and you’re powerful, which I suppose some people might find attractive in its own right.”

Crystal was smug for the rest of the time they spent in the line until they had their order in hand and were walking back to the part of the stands where Veronica and the others were sitting. A few people recognized Crystal, of course. She was the only blonde in the entire arena from what she could tell. Everyone else had either black or brown hair, with the occasional splash of grey or white on older heads.

They reached the others and handed out their snacks. Crystal took a drink in hand and silently regretted that this world hadn’t invented carbonated soft drinks yet. Then again, it was probably for the best.

“I’m impressed by your fight with Moe,” Tobias said. “That man was... powerful, to put it lightly.”

“Ah, thanks!” Crystal said. “He had a lot of powers.”

“It looks as though he was a power copier,” Tobias said. “Or a thief, rather. He shut down that knight’s abilities for a while.”

“That’s what I was thinking, yeah. I think he had so many powers because he’s spent years stealing them from people. I lost count of how many different powers he used.”

Veronica nodded. “At least in the low twenties. He can’t be a permanent power thief though. Otherwise people would have chased him down a long time ago.”

“So temporary power nullification, combined with him gaining that ability permanently?” Tobias hypothesised.

Crystal shook her head. “It wasn’t permanent. Also, I think he could only use the power for a short time. Otherwise he would have been a lot better with the powers he used since he would have been able to practice. Oh, and some of the combinations he had could have been better.”

“That’s plausible,” Tobias said. “But to truly see we’d need to question the man himself. Even if you’re mostly correct, powers tend to have slight variations and differences in application and use. Two people given brain meat from the same kind of daemon won’t get precisely the same abilities. They’ll be similar, but not identical.”

That sparked a lively debate about powers and magic. Crystal was firmly in the ‘magic is real’ camp while Tobais, who basically studied that kind of thing for a living, believed that magic was a myth.

It turned out to be more of an argument about the definitions of what counted as magic and what didn’t than an actual argument with any real merit, but Crystal enjoyed it, and Tobias was appropriately excited through the entire thing.

Eventually though, a few arena staff people started looking for Crystal, and while none of them told her to move, they were lingering nearby with the looks of people impatient for someone else to move.

“I’ll be back in a bit!” Crystal said.

“Wait, Crystal,” Veronica said. “Did you intend to win the fight?”

“Huh? No, I just wanted to chat with Gewinner. I don’t think I need to beat them for that.”

“Ah, good, good, go on then,” Veronica said with a smile.

Crystal went on, following the staff members through the corridors beneath the stands and back to the big preparation room with the door learning into the main part of the arena. She found the announcer waiting for her there, looking over a few pieces of loose leaf.

“Oh hey, it’s you,” she said. “Thanks for getting my name right last time!”

“Ah, well, thanks for putting on such a good show!” he said.

“No problem! So, what can you tell me about Gewinner?”

He grinned. “Wouldn’t that ruin the surprise?”

She looked at him, meeting his eyes and refusing to let go of them even as her face settled into a neutral expression, neither a smile, nor a frown, just a flat visage that didn’t waver from the announcer’s. “What can you tell me about Gewinner?” she asked again.

The announcer swallowed. “Right. He’s a half-turned. Civilised despite that. Ah, he looks monstrous though, and his powers allow him to smash and break just about anything. He’s tough too, and can heal quickly. But that’s about the extent of his power.”

“And how is he... like as a person?”

“I never had a conversation with him?” the announcer said, squeaming under her continued gaze.

“Well, that’s unfortunate. I came all this way to ask him a few questions, so I intend to get the most out of it.”

“You... really just came here to ask him questions?” he asked. “Not for revenge, or for something like that?”

“No? I’m looking for a half-daemon to ask some questions to. He was the nearest one,” Crystal said. “Or, I think he is? Are there others around, like a small community of them?”

The announcer blinked. “If I said yes, will you go there instead of fighting?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, no.”

Crystal narrowed her eyes at him, and then sighed. “Fine. A buncha people would be disappointed if we didn’t fight anyway. Go on, get ready to do your announcer thing.”

“Will you be going all out?” he asked.

“No! I want to ask Gewinner questions and I can’t do that if he’s dead, silly. I can’t bring people back to life, you know. Besides, it would defeat the entire purpose if I went all out.” She shook her head. “Oh, and get my name right this time too, please.”

“Yes, of course,” he replied before bowing and running off.

Crystal was offered something to drink while she waited, and the nice staff people seemed ready to wait on her hand and foot, but she didn’t need anything from them so she mostly settled with pacing impatiently next to the door.

Finally though, the time came. The doors shuddered open and she was let out into the sunny arena. The crowd had filled out a little more than before, and now it was so full that people had to stand in order to see anything at all.

The cheering was almost deafening as she came out. When she waved it only grew louder, and Crystal found herself smiling at the masses. It was nice, being the centre of attention, but she was determined not to let that get to her head.

She had to focus, after all.

The big metal box which held Gewinner shook, a bang loud and hard enough that it rumbled even above the noise of the crowd.

As the noise quieted down and Crystal floofed out her skirts in preparation for a fight, the announcer took his queue and his voice filled the air once more. “After facing countless harrowing challenges, our champion is here to face off against today’s biggest, meanest foe. Give a great cheer for Crystal... Genocide!”

Crystal locked her eyes on the box and didn’t let her focus waver even as the announcer went on.

“Former champion of this very arena, the undefeated, the man-ripper, He Who Wins, Hailing from the daemon lands themselves, it’s the crowd favourite... Gewinner!”

The chains fell and the door to the box went flying to tumble end-over-end across the ground. The last few staff members, responsible for loosening the chains, took off running back into the safety of the arena.

Gewinner stepped out of his box, cracked his neck from side to side, then locked eyes with Crystal.

The fight was on.

***

Chapter Forty-Five - I Had a Few Questions

Chapter Forty-Five - I Had a Few Questions

“Hi! I had a few questions,” Crystal began.

Then Gewinner leapt into the air and struck down onto her position.

She, of course, rolled aside, but not fast enough that the impact of his fist on the ground didn’t push her further away. “Hey!” she protested.

Gewinner turned, almost seeming surprised not to see a crushed body beneath his closed fist. His eyes locked onto her again and he started running her way.

Since she didn’t feel like being crushed, Crystal took to running backwards and away from the giant of a man. Or half-man. She wasn’t entirely sure.

Gewinner was two metres tall, at least, with broad shoulders from which a panache of black spikes grew. The same spikes were ripping out of his flesh along his spine and the length of his arms. There were more atop his head, shorter, blunter ones that looked like they’d been hacked off with something crude to allow him to see.

Fortunately, despite the spikes all over him, he still had clothes. Baggy pants and sandals of all things.

Those didn’t slow him down as he rushed towards Crystal. “Hey, can you hear me at all?” she asked.

Gewinner caught up and swung at her, and Crystal met the blow with the flat of Scintillating Disharmony. Still, the bigger man outweighed her ten times over and the blow sent her flying across the arena where she landed with twin streaks of kicked-up sand in her wake.

She huffed, then waved the sand away from her face in time to see Gewinner stomping her way with all of the grace and elegance of a charging rhino.

She flicked her hand to one side and a row of crystalline spikes grew out of the ground before Gewinner, like spears in a deadly formation awaiting the charge. The champion planted a foot down and changed course with a grunt of effort.

Crystal tracked him with her eyes as more and more spikes ripped out of the ground between herself and the man, each one cutting off the room he had to reach her. Finally, he caught on to what was going on, she was building a circle of spikes around herself.

The back of his hand rammed out against the nearest of the crystal spires, shattering it into a thousand smaller fragments. “So, you’re not animal-dumb,” Crystal said. “But I’m really hoping you can at least talk, otherwise I’ll have wasted a lot of time and... that’s just not cool.”

“Die,” he growled as he struck at her.

Crystal was already standing atop one of her nearby pillars, grinning from ear to ear. “You can talk! Good! Now, let’s have a productive conversation!”

The half-daemon rammed a fist into the pillar she stood on, but Crystal had backflipped off the end already and was hopping backwards away from him.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you should talk with your mouth more, and not your fists so much?”

Gewinner grunted, then tried to kick her.

Crystal rolled her eyes. This wasn’t going anywhere. She jumped back towards the centre of the arena, away from Gewinner’s reach, then she stood tall and proud, shoulders set, chest puffed out a bit, and after she adjusted her dress, she folded her hands over her stomach. The image of a proper young lady. “Let’s talk, please,” she said.

Gewinner rushed at her, open hand lashing out towards her head.

It met her face with a loud clap that echoed across the arena, and the giant stumbled as the force of the blow recoiled through his arm.

Crystal hadn’t moved.

“Are you done?” she asked.

Gewinner closed his hand into a fist and swung, putting his back into the motion. There was so much energy in the blow that when his knuckles met her forehead the ground between them was blasted apart.

Crystal shook her hair loose while Gewinner pulled his fist back. “Do you want to punch me some more, just to check?” she asked with false sweetness.

Gewinner’s eyes narrowed and he started to whale on her, fists pounding down with the force of a landslide. Blood soon started to fly and the constant ‘thud, thud, thud’ of Gewinner’s fist colliding with Crystal made the entire arena tremble.

The giant of a man stopped when the air between them was filled with a haze of kicked up sand and misty blood. He looked down at his hands, both of which were shredded and ripped apart, knuckles bent at strange angles and the white of his bones showing through the seeping blood.

He looked back down towards Crystal, who stood there unblemished. “Done?” she asked.

He screamed, and slammed his fist down one more time, rage and pain pushing him to hit as hard as he could. A last blow putting every bit of strength he had to wipe Crystal out.

She caught his fist.

The crowd screamed in shock and surprise as a boom like a cannon shot pushed against them. Crystal’s hand, barely big enough to reach across the width of Gewinner’s, was flat against the giant’s. “I have questions,” she said.

She reached past the hand, wrapped her hand as far as it would go around his wrist, then stepped backwards, dragging him down with her so that he crashed into the ground at a stumble while she brought his arm around and to the small of his back.

Crystalline growth fractalized out of the ground, spreading across Gewinner’s legs and finally around his back and neck and arms, pinning them all in place while he struggled.

Crystal walked around to the front of him and squatted down, elbows on knees to meet his eyes. “Gonna chat?” she asked. “I don’t really like the idea of hurting someone who can’t fight back. At this point it’s way too close to torture, and only villains and sometimes the desperate resort to that kind of thing.”

Gewinner glared up at her and tried to pull himself up, but the crystals around him weren’t the flimsy, weak things she’d been using before. These had some effort put into them.

“Tch,” he breathed. “What do you want?”

“Oh, you can talk,” she said. “Good good, that’ll make this so much easier. See, you’ve annoyed me, so the next little bit is going to be very important for you, you understand?”

He continued to glare, jaw set, then he nodded slowly. “I understand,” he growled.

“Fantastic!” Crystal cheered. She ignored the announcer telling the world that she’d come out victorious and the crowd’s cheering. She had more important things to deal with. “You’re a half-daemon, right?”

“I am,” he said.

“Tell me everything you know of the eternal dream.”

Gewinner blinked. “How do you know about that?” he asked. Then he squinted at her, and she felt his attention moving up and down her form. “You’re one of them.”

“Them?” she asked.

“The figures in the dream.”

She idly noted that some staff people were coming their way and blocked their path with a ring of blunted stalagmites. She didn’t want to be interrupted just yet. Besides, other than Gewinner’s hands, neither of them needed help at the moment. “Tell me about it,” she said.

“I... I am not a daemon. I was just a farmer before. Just a normal man, with a family, and...”

He was a lot more talkative now, she noted. Maybe the defeat had helped loosen him up. She waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she gave him a little prompting. “Then you turned?” she asked.

He nodded. “I became this. I fought it, but it wasn’t enough, not at first. My family, my farm. I... I don’t want to die, but I deserve it. So I fight here. They pay me.”

“Okay,” she said. Now she was starting to feel a little bad about everything. “And this dream?”

“Every night, whenever I sleep. I never remember it all, but little pieces. It’s a strange dream.”

“Tell me about it,” she said.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because... well, I’m in it, aren’t I? And I didn’t give anyone permission to start spreading dreams about me. So I’m pretty sure I can know about it if only because it’s a violation of my copyright.”

He stared.

“Uh. I want to know what happens?” she tried instead.

He shrugged as best he could. “The dream’s not complicated. There’s darkness, then lights.”

“How many?” she asked.

Gewinner’s brows knit. “I don’t know. A dozen? They’re all different colours. And they all split apart. One of them... one of them is you. I know that. Then another comes closer and the dream is about them. About being stuck.”

“Stuck where?” Crystal asked. “And who is the dream about? Tell me.”

“It’s about a girl in blue, with a sword. She’s surrounded by darkness but it’s not a bad darkness? I don’t know how to explain it. The dream’s all feelings and like I said, I don’t remember it.”

She nodded. “Thanks anyway,” she said.

She had a lot to think about.

***

Origin - Nine - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Nine - Rending Nightmare

Crafting a nightmare was... easy.

Perhaps uncomfortably easy.

Actually, nothing had ever come to Alice as naturally as this. All of her skills before becoming a magical girl, as mundane as they had been, took a while to practice and perfect, if she ever bothered perfecting them in the first place.

She wasn’t lazy, but there was a lot of ‘good enough’ in her life when it came to little things.

In any case, diving into Marcia’s nightmares felt less like exploring a new skill, or learning a new trick with magic (which she had been doing frequently as of late) but more like... walking. It was something she’d been doing for years, that she did without having to think about how she was doing it.

“Whoa,” Alice said as she pulled out of the dream.

Marcia was still on her bed. Alice was still in her room. A glance at the digital clock on her nightstand suggested that no more than a minute had passed since she’d tried to dive into Marcia’s dreams.

The experience was strange, though. She reached over to her desk and pulled out her seat, then she sat herself on it, elbows on her knees as she stared at the sleeping succubus.

Diving into Marcia’s dreams had been a little like walking, sure, or perhaps more like walking into her own imagination?

Alice was having a hard time conceptualising what she’d just done. The worst part was that the entire time, she was wholly conscious of her real body. It might have been easier to manage if she had split apart, or had her consciousness float away from herself... or something.

“This is both too hard and too easy,” Alice complained to Dream Charter.

ALL DREAMS ARE YOURS. IT IS YOUR DOMAIN THROUGH WHICH YOU ARE BOTH EMPOWERED AND IN TURN IT IS POWERED BY YOU. YOUR EASE IS NORMAL. THE GREATEST SORCERER OF THE NINE PITS OF HELL ITSELF WOULD WEEP AT THE SKILL WITH WHICH YOU DIVE INTO THE UNREALITY OF THE DREAM.

“That’s nice, but it doesn’t simplify things.”

She leaned back into her chair, one hand idly toying with the lapels of her school jacket while she thought.

She could shape dreams, and nightmares, as she saw fit. That much was clear.

It was as if she had just picked up a paintbrush for the first time ever and had discovered that she had the skill of a master. Several masters. Anything she imagined, she could create in the dreamscape with perfect clarity, every stroke a purposeful insight.

Alice knew she was being overly dramatic. She had brought Marcia here exactly for this, to test the range and power of her ability, but she had imagined herself--at best--being able to place her voice into Marcia’s mind. Not... this.

What if she pushed too hard? What if she crafted, with a few idle moment’s thoughts, a dream reality that was as real to the dreamer as reality itself was to her? Could she do that? She felt that she could, and easily.

What if she created an inescapable fortress of nightmares? What if she built a labyrinth where every one of a dreamer’s worst fears were unravelled to them, one after the other?

She could do it. She could do it with ease she felt.

She didn’t want to do that, however. Not to Marcia, even if the succubus had been something of a pain in the rear.

No, what she was looking for was a way to send a message. She shifted a little, searching her room for ideas, then she leaned way to the side and picked up her backpack. Alice was going to test this more empirically.

She opened a notebook to a random page, then plucked a pen from her desk and wrote a simple message before closing the notepad up. She tossed it onto the desk next to her, then closed her eyes. Keeping them open was possible, but for now she wanted them shut as she worked her magic.

Marcia was dreaming about... intercourse, again, because she was a one-dimensional, one-track mind sort of person.

Alice sighed and wiped the dream away with a stray thought. In its place, she conjured a plain room. White walls, a simple desk. Marcia was in the room, and Alice felt Marcia’s consciousness poking at it.

The demoness’ imagination, her dreaming mind, tried to summon up people to populate the room, tried to turn the desk into a bed and the walls into flowery curtains, but her dreaming mind struck Alice’s will like a feather trying to move an anvil and accomplished nothing.

Alice then summoned her notebook onto the desk, and with a tiny bit of her will, directed Marcia towards the notebook, making it an item of curiosity, something that Marcia wanted to have and to open.

Marcia, the dreaming mind of Marcia whose self-image was at once the girl Alice knew, but also a demon with long wings and less clothes with a sharply-tipped tail, ambled across the blank room and picked the notebook up.

She opened it, and read from the pages within. Then she lowered the notebook and seemed confused as she looked around the room. Her dreaming mind tried to create more, more people, more items, it tried to change the location, but Alice prevented it all.

And with a snap of her fingers, she woke Marcia up.

Alice blinked, then took in the form of Marcia on her bed, eyes fluttering before she looked around herself. “Huh?” Marcia asked.

“Sleep well?” Alice asked.

“I suppose? That felt... did you try to cast a sleeping spell on me?”

“Try?” Alice asked. “I think I succeeded. You snore.”

Marcia snorted, then kicked her legs off the side of Alice’s bed and sat on the edge. “Alright... I think I remember a dream I had, but it was weird. Was that you?”

“What was the dream of?”

“A very dull white room. No one there, and... nothing but a desk and a notebook.” Marcia’s eyes snapped past Alice and she stood. “That one right there, in fact.” She pointed to the 30-page paper notebook behind Alice.

“Mhm,” Alice said. “And what was written in it?”

Marcia frowned. “Dogs are better than cats?” Alice nodded. It had worked. She smiled to herself, pleased with the work so far while Marcia stood and picked up the notebook and leafed through it. “Yeah, it was this one,” Marcia muttered.

Now Alice just had to find out if she could use the same trick on everyone in Hell all at once, which actually presented... several problems. “Do the people in Hell know how to read?”

“Some of us, sure,” Marcia said. “I learned Portuguese... eh, a while ago. I can muddle through a few other human languages too.”

“And what do they speak in Hell?”

“French,” Marcia said.

Alice stared at her while Marcia’s face reddened and she started to sweat.

The demoness then gasped. “Oh, come on! That stupid deal... but it was worth it! Why didn’t you laugh; that was hilarious!”

Alice gave her a deadpan look. “You’re not as funny as you think.”

“I’m perfectly funny!” Marcia defended. “But nah, we have our own language. Languages? There’s dialects and accents between the levels of Hell. Can’t understand what people from the first level are saying half the time. You thinking of having everyone look through a book like this?” She waved the notebook around.

“I was thinking that, but I don’t know if I can... give someone reading comprehension in a dream. I guess so? It should be possible, as much as it might be possible to imagine yourself speaking another language in a dream, I guess. But maybe I should just have everyone hear a voice?”

“That might be simpler. You know that no matter what, the Princes of Hell won’t be keen on leaving you be, especially if you show them to be weak.”

Alice frowned and shifted. “Then what do I do? Just sit back and let them keep coming after me?”

“Oh, that’s not good either. They’ll just keep on escalating things slowly. The bounty on your head will increase over time, especially if you kill some of the snobbish brats who’ll come for you first, and then you’ll end up facing a trickle of stronger and stronger opponents.”

“That... might not be bad for testing my limits,” Alice said. She could face enemies that were only a little stronger each time, growing her own skills as she went.

“Sure,” Marcia said with a languid shrug. “But you’re underestimating how many demons there are. There’s a hell of a lot of us.” She grinned, then made finger-guns at Alice. “Get it?”

Alice got it. She turned her head away, to make sure that Marcia didn’t catch even a hint of the fact that she’d found the joke somewhat funny. “So, I’d end up fighting them piecemeal for a long, long time?”

“An eternity. We’re kinda quick to breed down there. Like rats with more attitude. The lesser races, imps and the like, rarely live longer than a few years, but an imp warren will spew out literally hundreds of fresh-faced fodder a week.”

“They don’t feel like a challenge,” Alice said. The imps she’d seen could be taken down by a determined medium-sized dog or a person with a bat and some willingness to get close. “That other one I fought at the mall though, he had magic.”

“Right,” Marcia said. “But I bet you could take him in a fight.”

“Yes,” Alice said. She was confident that had he not run, she would have defeated him. “So... I should wait before executing this plan?”

“I think you should be ready before executing it. Maybe pick the place where you’ll greet the first responders, because you know there will be a rush of idiots that are going to charge out to meet you first thing.”

“I was thinking I could do that in Hell,” Alice said. “Go down there and meet them head on? If my magic even works down there.”

NEITHER THE BROILING PITS OF HELL NOR THE SHADOWS OF THE DARK ONES THEMSELVES WILL HIDE YOU FROM YOUR OWN POTENTIAL AND POWER.

That more or less confirmed that she could still use magic in Hell, but she wouldn’t want to try anything without testing it first.

“Hmm,” Marcia hummed. She sat back down onto Alice’s bed and kicked her legs out. “Well, you’re supposed to be really strong. All the old prophecies say so, but none of them really quantify it, you know? Like, are you really strong like a prince? Or are you really strong like one of the Nine Kings?”

“What’s the difference?” Alice asked.

“They’re just titles,” Marcia said. “But you need to be strong or cunning or both to get and keep a title in Hell.”

“And what happens when someone fights and kills one of these princes?” Alice asked.

“Oh, it’s not that simple. Come on, it’s Hell. We’ve perfected bureaucracy,” Marcia said. “But... yeah, killing a prince pretty much clears the spot for someone else to take it, and it’s rare that the spot won’t go to the killer. I mean, if it doesn’t, that usually just means the killer’s going to kill the next person to take the spot until the third one gets a clue, you know? Though some princes kill each other, and there’s always the occasional story of revenge and subterfuge and assassinations.”

“Fascinating,” Alice deadpanned. “Sounds like a fun place.”

“Literally Hell,” Marcia said. “I don’t know what you were expecting.”
“That’s fair,” Alice said. She reached into her backpack and pulled out her agenda, then she scrolled through it. “We have a three-day weekend in two weeks,” she said.

Marcia blinked. “Are you serious?”

“I need to test my idea on a bigger group than just one succubus, and like you said, I need to prepare the terrain.”

***

Chapter Forty-Six - Powerful and Resilient

Chapter Forty-Six - Powerful and Resilient

Veronica wasn’t usually too concerned about Crystal. About the things Crystal did, sure, but not usually about Crystal herself. The young woman was proving to be both powerful and resilient.

Veronica had gasped along with the rest of the crowd when Crystal took a blow that looked like it could shatter walls to the face and didn’t so much as flinch. Veronica wasn’t even sure if Crystal had blinked.

But it wasn’t Crystal’s physical state that worried her at the moment. It was her mood.

From the moment they met near the rear of the arena where Crystal stood with a large flower wreath in hand and a trophy tucked in the crook of her arm, the girl had been... Veronica supposed the right word to describe it would be morose.

Without saying very much, not even to Minna and Tobias when they congratulated her on her victory, Crystal set to following them back towards their inn.

Veronica walked next to her, and when the others were a little further away, she glanced down at Crystal. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Crystal stared up at her for a moment, then tried on a smile. “I’m okay,” she said.

“You seem... thoughtful?”

“Ah, I learned a thing or two,” Crystal said. She reached up to her hair and touched the little pin attached to her hair. “And... yeah, it’s just a lot.”

“Did you want to talk about it?” Veronica asked.

Crystal considered it for a while, then nodded. “Back in our rooms?”

“We can do that, sure,” Veronica said.

She expected Crystal to want the conversation to be private, but on arriving back at the inn, the girl gained a sudden burst of energy and started going through all of their things. Finally, she slapped a map down onto a dining table after shoving everything off of it and pinned the corners of the map down with her guild-issued dagger and a few mugs. “Alright,” Crystal said.

“Um,” Tobias replied. “Is something going on?”

“Yes,” Crystal said. She glared at the map, then nodded. “Okay, from the start then.”

Veronica looked to the others, then shrugged and pulled out a seat for herself while Crystal paced the room.

“So, when I arrived in this world--” she began, only to be interrupted by Tobias.

“I’m sorry, what?” Tobias asked.

“Right, you wouldn’t know. I’m an interdimensional traveller. I think. It’s more likely that this is another dimension than this is another planet in the universe, I think. There’s a few hints pointing at that, anyway. One of my friends, Dimension Death, used to dimension-hop all the time. We used to go on barren Earths to practice our stronger moves all the time. Anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s something you can brush off with an ‘anyway,’” Tobias said.

“Sure I can,” Crystal said. “I’m good at brushing off problems.”

“Go on,” Minna said.

Crystal smiled, then stabbed a finger onto the map atop Kricken. “When I appeared in this world I did so around here. I know that, because there’s part of the city covered in my crystals. But I didn’t plant them there. They were, I think, part of a cocoon. It’s a move that my magic does sometimes, when it wants to protect me.”

She traced her finger down towards the mountains to the south of Kricken, near Oberschield. “That’s where we met,” Veronica said.

She wasn’t entirely sure if she was onboard with the idea that Crystal came from... another world. She wasn’t even sure if she liked the idea of other worlds to begin with, though maybe they would explain a few things. Did daemons come from one such world? Were all the people in Crystal’s world like Crystal?

That was a nightmarish scenario. But no, Veronica recalled Crystal prattling on about how only she and her friends were magical girls. Which limited the number of them to twelve. Twelve Crystals.

She shuddered.

“Yeah, that’s where we met. So... okay, I don’t know why I’m here. But I know how.” Crystal reached to her hair and undid her pin. She placed the little piece of jewellery onto the table next to the map. “This is something my friends made. I only helped a little. It’s a hairpin, yeah, but it’s also magical. Like... very magical.”

“An enchanted piece?” Tobias asked. “There are some magi who can imbue items with effects.”

“Exactly. This one does a few things. It stops mental abilities, or tries to, and if it fails, then it glows a bunch.”

“Useful,” Tobias said. “Some lords would hand over castles for that kind of advantage.”

Crystal nodded. “It’s pretty great. It can do one other thing. When one of us is in big trouble, it activates on its own to teleport us. So... there’s twelve of us, and we tend to do a lot of things in order of seniority. Since I’m the newest, a lot of my stuff is related to my mentor, Rending Nightmare. And her stuff is pointed towards Fractured Time, who is the second oldest of our group.”

“That makes some sense,” Minna said. “You got the short end in one way, but you also get the help of the eldest and presumably most experienced in the group?”

“Yeah! Exactly! Now, the next youngest is Screaming Bioplague, and she rarely needs my help. Uh... anyway. Point is, this.” She poked the hairpin. “Should teleport me to Rending Nightmare if I’m in trouble. But it brought me to this world instead. Which is weird, right?”

“Unless your friend is here,” Tobias said.

Crystal’s head bobbed up and down. “Exactly! And the daemons, they mentioned something to me. About an eternal dream? That’s totally Rending’s kind of thing. She’s big on dreams and nightmares and darkness and stuff. Gewinner knew about her too, I think. So... yeah, I think Rending is somewhere in this world.”

“And now you want to find her?’ Veronica guessed.

“No, now I have found her,” Crystal said. She tapped the hairpin and it came up to hover over the table, then it slowly spun and pointed... towards one of the walls. “She’s that way. I should have thought about using this so long ago, but I didn’t know she’s be here to begin with.”

“A compass,” Tobais said.

“Uh-huh! And we have a map, so we know which way to go.”

Tobias nodded. “And if we get two or more readings, we can triangulate her exact position.”

Crystal blinked. “Uh. I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, sure!”

“We’ll need to leave the city for that. Unless she’s very close,” Tobias said. He jumped to his feet and searched his packs, returning with a compass that he set next to the map before frowning. “Do you think she’s on the move?”

Crystal looked at the hairpin. “Well, it’s not moving, so she’s probably not, no. I feel like she’s maybe not that far away, not in the grand scheme of things.”

“We can at least get an initial direction,” Tobias said. He wiggled the knife out of the table then set it aside so that he could twist the map around. “Keeping in mind that this is a map that isn’t perfectly accurate, but if we align it with the compass and then find where we are.”

He went over to his bags again and returned with a ruler and a chalk pen.

“I hope this will rub off,” he said before lining things up and drawing a line.

Veronica stood up a little to better see what he had drawn. A pale line of white chalk crossed through Hungenroth on a path that went south and a little west, into the Aureawich desert and to the west of Binenwalde.

“That’s not the most hospitable spot,” Veronica said.

“No, quite the opposite,” Tobias agreed. “Unless it’s further south than this map covers.”

“What’s further south than that?” Minna asked.

“I don’t know. But we can head out and start triangulating things tomorrow. An hour’s ride west to east should do it. And we know we’ll be heading southwards, so... the route towards Meinzing?”

Crystal nodded. “Yes! The faster we go, the sooner we’ll find Rending Nightmare. We should go now!”

“And run out there without the materials we need?” Veronica asked. “No. We’ll head out tomorrow afternoon, if you really want, but we are not travelling without fresh water and enough food to make the trip.”

She held firm, even against Crystal’s devastating puppy-eyes attack.

Whatever mess Crystal was going to try and drag them into this time, Veronica had no intentions of going at it unprepared.

Besides, she had a small fortune to spend from her wise investments at the gambling booth and all that gold was worthless on the open road where there were no shops to spend it in.

“Okay,” Crystal said. “But by this time tomorrow, I want to be halfway to the next city!”

***

Chapter Forty-Seven - Triangulation Point

Chapter Forty-Seven - Triangulation Point

Their first triangulation point was taken just outside of Hungenroth, a minute outside of the gate where Tobias said there would be fewer chances of foreign magic interfering with Crystal’s hairpin. She didn’t think that would be an issue, but it was a sensible enough concern that she didn’t protest.

The direction the pin was pointing in seemed the same as within the inn, but then again, they were looking to mark down even the slightest change.

That was why Tobias had insisted on them picking up a set of compasses and a better compass (the other sort) as well as a larger map of the region that had cost a pretty penny but which had been drawn by a daemon-fed cartographer who could fly.

Their second triangulation point was drawn up at a little roadside stop on the road towards a town called Meinzing to the south-and-a-bit-east of Hungenroth.

The stop was only a few hour’s carriage ride from the city, so Tobias had said that unless the pin was pointing towards something very close, there wouldn’t be much of a difference.

As it turned out, there was just enough of one that he was able to mark out two chalk lines that almost, but not quite, ran parallel. They ran off the side of the map, but it looked like they would meet somewhere in the desert.

“We’ll take more readings as we go along. It’ll give us a more accurate picture of where to look,” Tobias said.

So they continued their voyage. The day rumbled on quietly. There seemed to be something of an exodus leaving Hungenroth after the tournament, merchants and participants leaving the city in droves. It did mean some problems along the road. After all, there were a lot of people who’d come to the city looking for a fight and not all of them got what they were after.

But then, every time there was a scuffle ahead of their cart, Crystal would stick her head out to see if she could do anything about it. The people arguing would spot her and that would be the end of the argument.

She wasn’t sure what to think of her new reputation, but at least it meant less trouble.

At least, until they reached the first inn on this leg of their trek.

It was set in the bowl of a valley, a space that might once have been a lake but which was currently filled with a dusting of fine sand. The inn was right on the lip of that bowl, with a shield of trees to one side and a lot of nothing on the other. The ground was so sandy that the only things growing there were a few scraggly bushes.

It was called the Dustrious Inn, and it was smack in the middle of the road between Hungenroth and Meinzing.

The problem wasn’t getting rooms--though the way Veronica muttered suggested that they were going for a premium--the problem was the reception Crystal received when she entered the inn.

A man with big muscly arms barred her path. He stood with arms crossed and head tilted back just enough that it was clear he was looking down at her.

“Hi, sorry,” she said. “Just trying to squeeze on through.”

“You’re the so-called champion?” he asked.

“Uh, I guess?” she said. “I got this little trophy and everything, so I guess I am.”

He sneered, and she idly noticed that the inn’s main room, which had a number of tables and chairs, as well as a long counter, behind which the innkeep had paused to take in the show.

It was going to be one of those times, she realized. The guy before her shifted, hands clamping onto his belt where a sword was prominent. It had a trio of iron rings around the pommel. “You know what I think?” he asked.

“I don’t, no. Mister, do we really need to do this? It was interesting the first time it happened to me, but now it’s just kind of cliche, don’t you think?”

“What did you say?” he asked.

“I said it’s cliche. You’re gonna be all macho and mean, and then we’re going to have to fight or something, and you don’t want that.”

“You’re a bronze-ring,” he said.

“Yup. And I’m still stronger than you. I get that it must hurt you to see that your ranking in a guild doesn’t equate to actual real-world power, but that’s just how it is sometimes.”

He glared. “You know what I think?” he asked. Louder this time.

She rolled her eyes. “No, what do you think, mister?”

“I think the competition was rigged. A big show to get people’s money.”

“I mean, yes, literally. That’s what the tournament was for. Did you think they ran it for free? Those seats cost something. Now, I’m guessing you’re suggesting that I was too weak or whatever to actually win fair and square?”

“You’re a bron--”

“Yup, we’ve covered that,” Crystal interrupted. “Okay, so there’s two big possibilities.” She raised her hand with two fingers up, then tugged one down. “The first is that you’re right and I was hired as some sort of actress. In which case you’re basically just bullying someone who was paid to act on a stage, which really isn’t nice. Or two, I actually am that strong and if you continue to annoy me I might prove it to you.”

She watched as his brain cells rubbed together and started to form ideas. She even gave him time to think it through because... well, Crystal never thought of herself as very smart, so she understood how hard it could be to figure things out sometimes.

Then he pointed right at her face. “I think you’re a faker, and we shouldn’t allow your sort around these parts. I ought to teach you a lesson.”

“You want to beat me up?” she asked sweetly. “You, a grown man, want to beat me, a magical girl, up?”

“Uh,” he said.

“No no, think it through.”

He reached down to grab her and Crystal sighed. She wrapped her hand around his wrist, then stepped back outside, dragging him along as if he weighed no more than an overfilled trash bag. Then, once outside, she flung him over her shoulder.

He flew a good dozen metres away before crashing onto the sandy ground with an oomph. At least his roll would bleed off the momentum and probably save him from any injuries. After smacking her hands together to dust them off, Crystal flounced back into the inn where she found it strangely quiet.

She went to the bar, sat down, then fished for a coin in the pocket-space pockets of her dress. She slapped a bronze coin down. “One milk please.”

That’s where Veronica and the others found her later, making bubbles in a mug with a straw made of a crystalline tube.

“I heard you got into trouble, again,” Veronica said.

“What? When?” Crystal asked.

“Try not to injure the hotheaded idiots that accost you,” Veronica advised. “Some of them might have friends and allies, and then we might end up having to wipe out entire teams, which I don’t think I need to explain would be bad for our reputation.”

Crystal pouted. “I didn’t injure him, I don't think. Like, maybe some roadrash at worst. Besides, it’ll be good for him, right? If he’s injured he can use the time it takes him to heal to think about why he got hurt.”

Veronica just stared at her. “Yes, I’m sure you did it just to teach him a lesson.”

“Hey, I was left all alone while you guys did stuff,” Crystal said. “So I did my best, which is all you can ask.”

Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose, but it was Minna who spoke next. “You’re right. Maybe from here on out I should act as your bodyguard.”

“I... don’t think I need one?” Crystal said.

Minna chuckled. “Oh, I know. It’s more like I’ll intimidate people into leaving you alone. No offence, but you don’t exactly look threatening.”

Crystal hummed. “Maybe I should try going goth again. I did it once, but then Phantom Mist took me aside and explained that it really didn’t work for me.”

“Goth?” Minna asked.

“Yeah, maybe I should have gone pastel goth instead of whipping out the black mascara. Anyway, turns out what I was doing was ‘cultural appropriation without any appreciation’ and it was wrong.”

Veronica shook her head. “Whatever. This is another one of those things that’ll take a several-hours-long rant to explain, isn’t it? So I’m going to grab a meal and get to our rooms. You can join us later.”

“Okay!” Crystal said.

Then she started explaining retro 2000s fashion to Minna in excruciating detail.

***

Chapter Forty-Eight - With Little Trouble

Chapter Forty-Eight - With Little Trouble

They made it to Meinzing with little trouble after spending a night at the Dustrious Inn. Before arriving at the little town, however, they stopped one last time for Tobias to get another reading from Crystal’s pin.

She would have left him the pin so that he could use it himself, but the item was rather precious to her, and being without its protection made her a teensy bit nervous, so she insisted on being there whenever he had to make a mark on the map. Fortunately, Tobias didn’t seem to mind.

“This pretty much confirms it,” he said. “Wherever this is pointing, it’s not at any city on the map, not unless the city is across the Windbreaker mountains.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s that far away,” Crystal said. The intersecting lines all crossed over each other in the desert. It wasn’t too far from the mountains he’d mentioned, in fact, but certainly not past them.

“There’s no road leading up to the spot,” Tobias warned.

“Is that a problem?” Crystal asked.

“It means,” Veronica said. “That we’ll have to discover a way to get there on our own. Which road brings us closest?”

“Technically? Binenwalde is the nearest town. I don’t know if there are roads heading further west from there. Getting to Binenwalde will require that we continue south for a while.”

Crystal touched the map, then followed the line Tobias had drawn. “Can’t we just go straight?”

“If there was a road straight along that path it would still take us three or four days to travel that far,” Veronica said. “There isn’t though, so double that time. Maybe triple it. And we can only carry so much with us in our carriage. Enough feed for the animals for a day or two, and food for us for about twice as long, but not the week-or-more worth of rations and supplies we’d need.”

Crystal rubbed at her chin. She wanted to make it there quickly, and going around seemed like it would take forever. Two weeks was a lot. “How long if we take all the roads, then?”

“Six days to Binenwalde by road, then another day or two to the destination,” Tobias said.

“We can carry that much,” Crystal said.

Veronica nodded. “And don’t forget that once we get there, we need to travel back. Something tells me we won’t find a fully stocked general store at our destination.”

Crystal crossed her arms, then she had a brilliant idea. “Okay, what if we go from here all the way to Binenwalde? It’ll skip all the roads between, so even if it takes longer off-road, we’ll make it there in less time. And we don’t need supplies for a return trip.”

Veronica looked at the map for a good long while, then nodded. “Five days, I’m guessing. So let’s call it six days worth of provisions. Honestly, the main road down to Altengesees is almost along the same path, so really we might as well travel down there, then just circle around this little mountain and head over from there.”

Crystal nodded. It wouldn’t shave off much time, but any little bit helped.

She knew that she could very easily head out on her own, and while her walking speed wasn’t as fast as their horses, she didn’t need to stop for food or sleep if she didn’t want to. Plus, she could just jump or fling herself across part of the distance. It wasn’t a pleasant way of travelling, but it was fast.

The truth was, though, that she didn’t want to leave her new friends behind just yet.

“Okay, I like this plan,” she said.

“Good,” Veronica said. She left Tobias to roll up his maps. He flashed Crystal a quick smile before running off after Veronica, no doubt to strike up an awkward conversation with the young woman.

Crystal was impressed by Veronica’s ability to miss all the clues laid out before her.

Then again, some of her friends had missed more than their fair share of clues, at least until the Chart Incident.

Meinzing was a small trade stop turned city. Though Crystal wasn’t sure if it deserved the title of city just yet. The place had walls, but most of them were only a little bit taller than she was, with parapets along the edges and a knee-deep trench along the outside filled with sharpened logs. The city wasn’t well-defended, but maybe that was because there wasn’t much to defend in the first place.

With only maybe a hundred buildings within the walls and a quarter as many without, the mini-city wasn’t sprawling. There was a small river running through the centre of it, feeding a couple of mills and bringing in some fresh air. It was definitely the nicest-smelling settlement Crystal had found herself in recently.

They pulled up along the central road, and disembarked. “We won’t be stopping here,” Veronica said. “Just resupplying.”

That took a couple of hours. They ended up trading in one of their horses because Veronica discovered that it was missing a shoe when she checked on them. It cost a little to buy a fresh horse, but trading in one of theirs cut down on that significantly.

Then they bought fresh food for the road, hired a blacksmith to look over their carriage to see if anything needed fixing, and had a farrier reshoe the other horses, just in case.

After a few hours spent in the city, including a fresh meal at the inn, they got back in their carriage and headed out.

The day was nearing an end, but there were still a few hours left until the sun was low enough that they’d need to stop, and a few hours of travelling was worth the pain of having to camp outside as far as Crystal was concerned.

They set up camp along a roadstop, paying a nice farmer a silver to borrow a barn for the night where they stowed their carriage and let the horses out to graze along with the farmer’s sheep for the night.

They got to sleep on big piles of hay, which, while not super comfortable, were better than the cold ground. The farmer even let them use his home’s little kitchen to cook up a few meals, which they were happy to share.

The next morning, it was back onto the road.

Crystal was getting used to the routine. It was slow, of course, but not necessarily bad. She was just used to a life where everything moved at a much faster pace. Cars, the internet, and even just telephones and trains made the world she came from so much more connected and faster than this one.

It wasn’t all bad. She rode atop the carriage for a good part of the day, sitting cross legged atop some of their luggage and just enjoying the view.

The countryside gently went from grassy hills to a rather bumpy bit of terrain and then by early evening they were crossing a road covered in dustings of loose sand. Their second night camping on the road was in a small spot hidden from the wind by a half-ring of hills with a few scraggly trees for cover.

The space had an old firepit and some logs set out as benches, so it had clearly been used before. There was even a latrine dug out in the back.

Crystal never thought that one of the things she’d miss most about Earth would be public washrooms, but here she was.

The next day one of the wheels on their carriage broke.

It wasn’t a hard break, but one of the spokes cracked with a loud snap that they all felt and heard, and then Veronica was using some unlady-like language to describe the smith they’d hired to look over the carriage, the person who sold it to them, the people maintaining the road, and the wheel itself.

Fortunately, the break wasn’t too bad, and Crystal created a sheath of interlocking crystal rings around the spoke to keep it in one piece. The wheel was terribly unbalanced, but it held until they made it to Altengesees.

This town didn’t bother with walls at all, probably because it was more of a collection of farms that happened to be close to each other than a proper town. There was a general store though, as well as a smithy and a roadside inn with a stable, so Crystal supposed it counted.

They had the wheel replaced, picked up an extra wheel for the road in case they needed to replace another, and then bought nearly all the supplies the general store had in stock.

They spent the night in the inn while someone took care of their carriages. It gave the horses some time to rest too, and meant one less meal prepared next to a campfire.

It would be their last nice meal for a while.

***

Chapter Forty-Nine - Loop Around a Mountain Range

Chapter Forty-Nine - Loop Around a Mountain Range

The road from Altengeses to Binenwalde looped around a small mountain range, and they ended up heading eastward when their ultimate destination was to the west.

It frustrated Crystal, but there really wasn’t much she could do about it unless she felt like blowing up an entire mountain, and while she did feel like doing that, the splash damage of that kind of thing would make it hard to find the remains of the town they were heading to on the other side of the mountain.

After their short stint in Altengeses, the road was all they had to look forward to, at least until they reached the next town, and unfortunately, Veronica was insisting that they move a little slower than before. She suspected that the reason their wheel had broken was because they were pushing the carriage to move faster than was normal.

They had rumbled past a number of slower carriages on the route over, so maybe there was some truth to that. Crystal wasn’t used to carriage travel speeds, so she really didn’t feel like she could comment.

The next couple of days carried on in a rather routine fashion. Crystal would help pack up the camp in the morning, then they’d have a quick breakfast before hopping into the carriage and heading off. In the afternoon they stopped to care for the horses a little, have a light lunch, and stretch their legs, and in the evening, a bit before the sun went down, they would find a place to stop and camp.

On most days there were areas where other caravans had camped before that they could use, but once they found nothing, so Crystal used her Make Gazebo spell (which wasn’t really a spell, but no one had to know that) to create a roof under which they could camp.

They argued a bit about whether or not they should leave the tent behind come morning, but Crystal admitted--rather sheepishly--that making crystals was easy, but getting rid of them was a lot harder for her.

Once they were out of the rocky, bumpy terrain around the little mountain next to Altengese, Crystal expected the road to become much easier to traverse, but that wasn’t what they discovered.

Instead, the further they went, the more sparse the vegetation around them became, and soon enough the road had a thin layer of sand across it, which worked really well for hiding potholes.

The air dried up, and the warmth which had once been nice and pleasant became notably less so.

Minna said that they would have to ration their water soon, and the one big cup they each got at around lunchtime felt wonderful, even if it was rather lukewarm.

Crystal wondered if she could use her magic to gather water. She’d seen this one thing on a children’s science show with transparent wrap, a rock, and a hole in the ground. Could a clear enough crystal substitute for that kind of wrapping?

It was kind of a moot point since they were on the move anyway.

The horses got more water than any of them, but no one complained since even with extra water rations, pulling the carriage by hand didn’t seem fun at all.

Finally, they made it to Binenwalde.

Crystal was actually expecting another small town, or maybe a very, very small city. She wasn’t expecting Binenwalde to be a sprawling place, with multiple walls--albeit, none that were much taller than she was--and maybe hundreds of homes.

The houses of Binenwalde were small, squat things made of yellow-orange bricks that were mortared together and occasionally covered in something not unlike stucco, only it was more of a sandy-yellow colour that made the homes blend into the desert around them.

The roads were slightly recessed into the ground, and so were the homes. A glance into a farmer’s little hut revealed that the floor was half a pace lower than the ground just outside. She imagined it might be a way to keep the homes cool against the constant sun and dry air.

With most of the homes being so squat, the walls actually served as a good windbreak, and long, thin sand dunes were piled up against the structures.

“Ahoy!” a man said. He stood in the middle of the road, leaning against a long staff... no, that was a spear. The metal head was planted against the road and covered by a sort of colourful thin scarf. The man himself was quite colourful too. He wore loose pants and a loose shirt that stopped at his knees and almost looked like an oversized dress on him. A long piece of cloth, not quite a turban but not far from it, was wrapped around his head and the end trailed down his back.

Everything he wore was dyed in yellows and reds and even a few splashes of green.

“Hello!” Crystal said. She was atop the carriage as they arrived, one hand gripping the edge of the carriage, another holding onto a crystalline umbrella.

“Not often we see new folk over here,” he said conversationally. “What’re you folk doing down in Binenwalde?”

Crystal grinned and leaned forwards. “We’re here to--” she began.

“Just passing through,” Veronica, who was sitting at the front, said. She had a hand half-raised to cut Crystal off. “Thought we might stop by, get some water, maybe tend to the horses a little on our way past.”

“No one comes through here,” the man said. He still sounded rather jovial.

Crystal noticed that he wasn’t actually alone when someone peeked around the corner of one of the nearby buildings. Someone else’s hand grabbed them and pulled them back.

She might have considered it a set up to banditry (something she was growing accustomed to) but the person she’d seen was dressed the same way as all the other locals she could see deeper in the town.

“We have water,” the man confirmed. “Maybe even some feed for the horses, though not at prices anyone reasonable would want to pay. Water’s scarce here, as you can imagine, and while some tough grasses grow, that’s about all you’ll find here. Not much for feeding horses with.”

“Alright then, we don’t mind paying,” Veronica said. “We’re not beggars.”

“I’m sure you’re not. How about you turn your nice cart around in that there pasture, and we’ll fetch you whatever water you need. Free of charge, even, but the feed will cost you,” he said.

“What about supplies?” Crystal asked. “We need a bit of food, and... ah, I don’t know, but I’m guessing we’ll need more than just that to be able to cross the desert.”

“Cross the desert?” the man asked. His eyes narrowed. “Where are you heading to?”

“Don’t know!” Crystal said. She glanced at Veronica who seemed to weigh things, then she shrugged and Crystal kept on chattering. “We’re going about... that way, more or less. But we don’t know how far we need to go, or where we’re going.” Crystal gestured in the vague direction their makeshift compass had been pointing them. Now that they were closer, Tobias has been able to circle what he thought was a pretty accurate space on their map.

Their greeter shook his head. “Nothing that way but desert. What you’ll want to do is turn on around and head back the way you came, eventually the road will fork, and then--”

“Um, no I’m pretty sure we want to go that way,” Crystal said.

“There’s nothing that way,” he said, more forcefully this time.

“I guess we’ll find out once we get there,” Crystal said.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and his friendliness started to ebb away. He whistled, quick and sharp, and the guys hiding around him came out of hiding.

That’s when Crystal finally noticed something a little strange. Well over half of them had proportions that didn’t quite make sense. Too long arms, backs that curved in ways that were subtly wrong. All of them wore the same loose clothes, dyed in a multitude of colours which worked well to hide bits of skin in inhuman tones and drew the eyes away from some of the strangeness.

“Are you trying to intimidate us?” Crystal asked. “Because it really won’t work.”

The man whom she presumed was a leader of some sort, kept on glaring at them. “Do you know where you’re trying to go?” he asked.

“To where Rending Nightmare is,” Crystal said. “She’s my friend, and I’m not going to be stopped from visiting her by anyone.”

“Please sir,” Veronica said. “Listen to Crystal here. I’m certain you’re all very impressive and powerful, half-daemons and all, but this isn’t a fight anyone wants. Mostly because it will be hard to buy supplies from your widows.”

***

Chapter Fifty - Mysterious Friend

Chapter Fifty - Mysterious Friend

Veronica wasn’t too worried about getting attacked. It was clear that Crystal, who was still sitting behind her, was really anxious about finding her mysterious friend, and if Crystal decided to stop holding back and being... herself so much, she could easily wipe this strange little town off the map.

Veronica didn’t know any of the locals, nor did she much care for their attitude, but she liked to think of herself as a proper noble woman, and that would mean resisting the urge to kill off the peasantry.

Carefully, Veronica stood up at the front of the carriage and raised her arms to shoulder height. That put some of the locals on edge, and she was disturbed to note just how many of them were half-daemons.

It happened, on occasion, that a little town would have someone partially transform, but that person would be a popular local, or a member of a kind family who would keep them close despite any potential issues that their partial transformation brought on.

It wasn’t every half-daemon that was a misformed monster. Some came out of it with small horns, or a tail or some other minor disfigurement. Most came out of it with the same kind of power that Veronica herself had. Stronger, even. A lot of half-daemons had more potent abilities than the average daemon-fed.

But for every strange little town that kept one or two of them close, there were half a dozen that would exile or outright kill any who were lucky enough not to turn into a monster.

This place had, at a glance, about twenty half-daemons. And they all happened to look like young men if she looked past their disfigurements. Was this the place where lost souls ended up? Far from most civilisation, next to an area where apparently some daemons were attracted to.

“Let’s not be idiots,” Veronica said. She locked eyes with the man who’d been out speaking to them for a while. “My name’s Veronica Dotter, from Lindenburg. This is my... friend Crystal, and within the carriage are two more companions, an acolyte from the Arcane tower and another member of the Hunter’s guild, like myself and Crystal here. We are trying to get to a location some ways to the north and west of here. Binenwalde is the closest town to there, so we came here to resupply for the trip. That’s all.”

“And if we chose not to believe you?” he asked.

“Why would we lie about something like that? I can understand being mistrustful of strangers, but we’re not here asking you for anything but simple supplies which we would be happy to pay you for.”

“You threatened us,” he said.

“And so did you,” Veronica snapped back. “Did you think having a whole crew of you in your colourful cloaks step out of the shadows like bandits on a roadside would make you appear friendly?”

She noticed a few of the young men looking rather sheepish, and she counted that as a point scored.

“You came to our town first,” he grumped, but there wasn’t much force behind it, and Veronica knew she had him on the backfoot. “But... maybe we’re acting in an unneighbourly way as well. We’ve had plenty of trouble with hunters before.”

“How so?” Veronica asked. She could imagine how, but getting him to talk would maybe let her ingratiate herself with him.

It was something her father had taught her. If you wanted someone to like you, let them talk to you. Only interject to encourage them to talk more. Soon enough they’ll give you all their secrets and consider you their greatest ally.

“They come here thinking they’ll make some easy gold leaving with the heads of our family and friends,” he growled. His grip on his spear tightened. “Most of them get a far worse welcome than you’re receiving.”

She nodded slowly. So, some idiots came over to kill the locals and got their comeuppance right away. Her theory that this was a community centred around an entire group of half-daemons was almost certainly correct, then.

“You seem to know about the thing Crystal is chasing,” Veronica said to change the subject. Being a hunter was probably not something she had to advertise so much.

The man nodded his head a little. “I don’t know about it myself. But a few of our folk mention it. A sort of tugging from out west. Sometimes we’ll see groups of daemons heading out that way in the night. They don’t usually stop to bother us, though we’ve lost a goat or two over the years.”

“No problems with daemons otherwise?” Veronica asked.

“We can take care of ourselves,” he replied.

He was probably right. If the region had higher-than-average numbers of daemons then it was entirely possible that the locals were all daemon-fed, or at least moreso than usual.

If every half-daemon here retained some of their abilities, then that would also make them a difficult group to handle.

It was a little strange for Veronica to consider a tiny, lost town out on the fringes of the desert as a place that was safer than most, but here she was.

“How far is Rending NIghtmare from here?” Crystal asked.

It wasn’t their greeter who answered, but one of the local half-daemons. A young man wearing a mostly red outfit which served to disguise the redness of his skin. “None of us who follow the call make it back,” he said. “But, if I had to guess, I’d say three days on foot?”

“That’s well into the desert,” Veronica said. “We’ll need to buy some water off of you. Maybe a few casks or barrels to put it in.”

“We have some old wine casks,” the man said. “They’ll even give your water a bit of flavour. Otherwise... if you know your way around the deeper desert, there are ways to make it through without as much trouble, though you’ve picked a bad time of the year to make the attempt.”

“Why’s that?”

“Cold winds coming in from the north,” the greeter said.

‘Wouldn't that make it nicer?” Crystal asked. “It’s a bit warm out here.”

“No. The winds are heavy and hard. They’ll kick up sand, and there are lightning strikes in those storms that will light up the night like day and leave claws of glass across the ground where they hit. It’s why we have walls around our village. To keep those winds at bay.”

That was somewhat concerning. Veronica thought they had good odds of making it initially, but she was less trusting of their expensive carriage now than she had been on leaving for this trip.

“Oh... I think I can do something about the lightning. Unless it’s like Rending Nightmare’s black lightning, in which case we’re pretty much all dead if we get hit,” Crystal said.

“What?” Veronica asked.

“Oh, don’t worry, Rending is nice, she wouldn’t hit me!”

Veronica was somewhat concerned. She turned back towards the greeter. “When would be a better time to cross?”

“In a couple of seasons? Dead of winter’s not too bad. The nights are cold enough to make your fingertips fall off, but if you bring some kindling with you, you can stay warm enough. And travel during the day’s nicer around that time.”

Veronica sighed. There was no way they’d be willing to wait for that long. She could tell that Crystal was eager, stressed, even, about finding her long lost friend.

She stepped down from the side of the carriage and then moved to the side and rooted around in one of her bags. She came out with a small pouch filled with silver coins. A handsome amount, she imagined, for a little town in the middle of nowhere. Her gold was spread out in many bags and a couple of lockboxes tucked away in the carriage here and there. They’d need to lose the entire thing to go flat broke.

“Here, let’s see about that water. And maybe a meal and some feed for our horses? The poor things deserve a little rest.”

The clinking of coin, at least, won the townsfolk over.

They were allowed to lead their carriage to the centre of the town, which didn’t have an inn or a real restspot, but it did have a little general store which had a bar built into half of it that seemed to act as the town’s gossip centre.

Minna and Tobias got out of the carriage, and Tobias immediately contorted his foot into his mouth when he started asking the locals questions that they clearly found intrusive.

She left him to it. It wasn’t her job to look after the man, and besides, he was being rude in the way that poorly raised children were.

She had bigger concerns, like making sure they made it wherever they were going in one piece.

***

Chapter Fifty-One - Get Out

Chapter Fifty-One - Get Out

Crystal couldn’t get out of Binenwalde fast enough.

The town was interesting, sure, but it was also... wrong, in all sorts of ways. Mostly that was because the locals clearly didn’t like her and her friends and... yeah, that tension was making her back itch and her tummy twist in uncomfortable knots.

So she was pretty happy that they weren’t staying the night.

With their carriage packed up and sloshing about from all the water they carried, and with the horses fed and watered and brushed down, they were as ready as they could be given that they only had a few hour’s break.

Tobias replaced Veronica at the reins, and Crystal slipped into the carriage itself where she sat next to a knitting Minna. “I hope we make it soon,” Crystal said.

“Nervous?” Minna asked.

Crystal nodded. “Yeah, a bunch. I... don’t usually bother with stress. It’s not good for you, you know? So I make an effort not to be. It was always easy for me. Ah, one of my friends used to tell me that stress was a smart person’s problem, so I was spared that particular issue. Anyway, yeah, I’m feeling that now.”

“I’d love to tell you that it’ll all be okay,” Minna said. “But I don’t like lying. I don’t know how things will go, what we’ll find, and if things really will be okay in the end, but I’d like to think that we’ll try our best, and that’s something I can do. Maybe focus on that instead?”

Crystal thought about it, then nodded. “Thanks. You’d make a good grandma, you know.”

Minna paused, then roared with laughter. “Thank you! I think we might be skipping a few steps for that, however. Now, you’re lucky I don’t take umbrage when people talk about my age.”

“Ah, right, sorry,” Crystal said.

She leaned to the side, listening to the conversation going on at the front of the carriage. Veronica was talking, rather passionately, about the law and nobility. Tobias was listening, of course, sometimes interjecting and asking questions.

“Do you think it’ll work out between those two?” Crystal asked.

“Tobias and Veronica?” Minna asked. “Only God knows. I think he has a chance though... don’t let her hear this, but I think Tobias can do better.”

Crystal slapped a hand over her mouth. “Really?” she asked. “Veronica is very pretty.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure,” Minna said with a dismissive little wave. “She has her qualities. She’s a hard working woman, with some power to her, a decent amount of training, and a good head on her shoulders. Fantastic with gold as well, and probably well-connected. And, as you said, she’s pretty.”

Crystal nodded along. “She’s a bit... not magical girl-y enough for me, plus I think she’s more into boys than the average magical girl is. But if it weren’t for that, I could see myself having a crush on her.”

“Uh-huh,” Minna said, sounding a pinch doubtful. “Well, in any case, she’s also vain, doesn’t hide her true ambitions very well, and is prickly at the best of times. I imagine she’s the sort to want to marry an equal or better, and she’ll test any partner endlessly to make sure they fit her elusive criteria. Poor Tobias would be run ragged trying to keep up.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Crystal leaned back into her chair. “Well, they have time to make mistakes and all that, yeah?”

“I imagine so, yes,” Minna said. “What about you? You look young, but I suspect that you’re a little older than you look.”

Crystal grinned. “I’m old enough to drink! In... some countries.”

“Any experience with love, then?” Minna asked as she continued her knitting.

Crystal felt her face flush before she grinned. “Nope! Well, maybe a smidge? I love all the gossip that happens when you have friends who are doing that weird dance where they can’t decide if they should ask someone out or not.”

“Ah, yes, that is quite fun. Good teasing material.”

Crystal bobbed her head up and down. “Yeah! Now, don’t tell anyone, but there was one of my friends that I might have had a teensy little bit of a crush on, for a few years... inclusive of the present.”

“Oh?” Minna asked.

“Yeah. She’s the girl we’re going to try to save right now!”

“Ah, so this isn’t all about saving a friend,” Minna said.

Crystal sat up. “Hey! Rending Nightmare is a friend! She told me so herself. But she’s also my mentor, and she’s so cool, and collected, and knows so much about everything. She never makes stupid mistakes like I do. And she’s hot.”

“You know, some people think it’s ungodly behaviour to love those of the same gender as yourself,” Minna said cautiously.

Crystal snorted. “Well, if your god’s got a problem with it, he can let me know personally. And if he wants to fight about it, then we’ll just have to prove who’s right the old fashioned way.”

“You’d dare to fight God?” Minna asked. “I think that’s heresy, you know.”

“Nope, it’s only heresy if you lose. And I’m a magical girl. We don’t lose when we’re fighting for something we believe in. That’s kind of our entire gimmick.”

The trek continued for some time. They’d lost a good few hours at Binenwalde, but there was nothing to do about that. They’d needed supplies and a bit of a rest. But that did mean that they didn’t get too far before they had to start looking for a place to make camp.

“There's nothing but rocks and sand,” Veronica said as she hung off the side of the carriage. It was still moving along, so she was grabbing onto the door frame while the ground moved by below. “We’re looking for a place with cover, or maybe some trees, but there’s not much.”

“I could make something,” Crystal said. “A half wall, or maybe like, a small crystal fortress? I can manage something like that, I think.”

“We might have to, but I’m hoping for something a little more discreet than a giant pile of crystals that’ll catch the sun and be visible for miles around,” Veronica said. “This area is supposed to be full of daemons.”

“Have you seen any?” Minna asked.

“Only from afar,” Veronica said. “They don’t seem interested in us. I’d say it was strange, but we were warned that this area was bizarre. Still, I don’t want to give them the opportunity to come around and cause trouble for us.”

“I’ll make something a little less flashy than usual,” Crystal said. “Maybe... I can blast a hole for us to stay in.”

“Blast?” Veronica asked.

Crystal winced. “That would be rather loud, wouldn’t it? But hey, once the echos die down it’ll be hard to spot?”

“Let’s not,” Veronica said.

In the end, they settled for Crystal’s fortress idea. She had Veronica outline a big circle, which was easy since the ground was covered in a thin dusting of sand, then Crystal focused for a while. She needed a wall that was nice and tough and that didn’t reflect too much light.

She settled on jet. It was technically a mineraloid, and was a bit harder for her to make, but it was tough when she made it thick enough, and it was usually black and kind of craggly on the edges.

With a wave and a bit of effort, Crystal summoned a giant ring of the material that blossomed out around them, growing thicker and pushing upwards until they had a several-foot-thick wall all around their camp, with an open rooftop above and a big opening to one side.

The jet’s sides were nice and coarse, so Crystal grabbed a handful of sand and tossed it against the wall where it stuck.

“Perfect!” she said.

Once the wind picked up, the entire building would be basically invisible from the outside.

Veronica was shaking her head nearby. “I’ve seen magi who manipulated earth do something similar, but never as quickly or as easily.”

“Ah, thanks!” Crystal said.

“Not exactly subtle though,” Veronica added.

“Hey now, once the wind picks up it’ll be fine. Sand is coarse and rough, and it gets everywhere. I love it!”

One of Veronica’s eyebrows perked up at that, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she turned and headed towards the carriage. “Come on, we have a bit of stuff for a fire. We’ll eat warm tonight.”

“Okay!” Crystal said.

Tomorrow, she knew, they’d find Rending Nightmare. She could feel it in her gut. Her friend was close.

“I’ll find ya,” Crystal promised to the wind, then she skipped on over to her new friends to grab a bite to eat.

***

Origin - Ten - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Ten - Rending Nightmare

Alice had two weeks to prepare before going to Hell, which wasn’t something most people, she assumed, were afforded.

Two weeks, with school on top of it, wasn’t a very long time to get ready for anything, but she still made the best of it. Every lunch hour was spent on the school’s roof, casting spell after spell and learning new ways of twisting her magic.

After school, she’d go to a local park, past a stand of trees where it would be hard for people to spot her, and there she fought with Marcia with Dream Charter. The succubus had claimed to be ‘proficient with handling swords.’ She’d delivered that statement with a wiggle of her eyebrows and a suggestive wink, but Alice took her up on the offer and soon they were spending every afternoon with Alice becoming more proficient at sending Marcia crashing to the ground.

On the one weekend she had, Alice planned to take a bus out to the countryside to really let loose with her magic, to see how hard she could push things far from any civilization, but she had to cancel that trip early.

She was on the bus heading out when a report came over the radio of an attack at a nearby college campus.

She’d gotten out at the next stop, changed into her costume in an alleyway, then darted across the city to the college where she found several demons fighting the police. Fireballs were being flung towards already-burning cop cars and imps were being gunned down with extreme prejudice from men with assault rifles who were still pouring out of black BOPE vans.

Alice watched it all from a roof across the street, just one more person staring at the mounting carnage of the assault from the sidelines.

The attack was clearly being led by a trio of demons similar to the one she’d fought before. Big men with reddish skin and large horns who thought that chains and tanned leather counted as clothes.

Their skin seemed impervious to the smaller pistols the police were using, but they shied away from the bigger guns the special operatives had.

As Alice watched, she winced at how ineffective the police were at taking them out. They were prioritising getting civilians out of the crossfire though, and she saw more than one officer go down while trying to save people.

She decided that she was going to test her larger spells right then and there.

With Dream Charter by her side, Alice gestured ahead of her and willed darkness to swallow the light.

Instantly, it became overcast, shadows lengthened, and the air chilled.

She reached out, then closed her free hand in a fist, and with that gesture the dark fought the light cast by magical fires until the flames cast by the demons below were smothered and extinguished.

The demons noticed her.

It didn’t matter. Her next move was to turn their shadows into nightmares. The darkness beneath their feet surged upwards with claws and teeth and soon the demons and their imps were screaming in pain and horror as they were eaten from below.

One of the demons opened a portal in the air, a rent into Hell.

Alice concentrated, formed a large spear of writhing darkness behind her, then flicked her sword forwards like a conductor calling for a sharp change in tempo.

The spear rammed into the opening portal and both exploded, hellish fire and burning darkness warring for a moment before both burned each other out.

Alice watched, searching for more threats for nearly a minute before she decided that things were clear and she stepped away from the lip of the roof. She went around, intending to jump onto the roof of the college, but then she noticed a police officer setting up on a rooftop across the street, so she ran around and landed on the roof a dozen metres away.

The officer jumped and turned to stare at her.

She must have spooked him a little, she realised. A young woman with a mask on and a strange dress carrying a sword wasn’t normal, especially after she landed onto the rooftop from what was clearly a long jump.

“Hey,” she said while raising a hand in greeting. “Do you know if there are any more demons left in the campus?”

The officer rolled backward and brought his rifle up, pointing it at the ground before Alice. “Stand down!” he shouted as he reached for a radio hooked to the front of his vest. “This is Andrew, I have a suspect on the roof with me.”

“I’m not a suspect,” Alice said. “I’m the one who helped you guys.” She gestured and a small ball of darkness appeared over her hand.

Then the police officer shot her, and Alice stumbled back.

She gasped, then, on reflex, jumped back and away.

Her landing was less than graceful, and she found herself cupping her chest as she spun around and leapt from roof to roof until she dropped down to a fire escape a level down.

When she looked, there was a neat dent in her dress that dug deep into her side. There was blood leaking out from beneath her shirt.

Alice gasped in a breath, then tugged at her shirt.

The bullet popped out of her with a squelch, and she felt her gorge rise and was worried she might lose her lunch for a moment.

Then she opened her shirt at the front and looked at the wound proper. It was a thumb-sized hole right between her ribs, just a bit to the left her her sternum, and it was bleeding slowly but surely with big spurts of near-black blood.

“Oh, I’m going to die,” Alice gasped.

ONLY IF YOU WILL IT.

She blinked, then shook her head and refocused. Her magic pooled in her hand, then she pressed it to the wound and willed it away.

Her skin burned and her blood sizzled, but the wound knit itself closed and she found herself leaning against the brick wall of an apartment building, laughing at the pain ebbed and flowed away.

Bending down, Alice picked up the bullet. It was both at once massive, and somehow tiny. She wondered what calibre a sniper’s rifle used, then dismissed it. It hadn’t gone through her costume, but the punch had still hurt her.

She wasn’t bullet proof, then. Not yet, in any case. Something told her that if she’d been shot that way just a couple of weeks ago, soon after gaining her power, she wouldn’t have been able to skip away from the incident so easily.

And maybe in a week or two she’d be just a little stronger too, more resistant. Less.... human, maybe.

“Am I becoming non-human?” she asked.

YOU ARE BECOMING YOURSELF.

That was somehow reassuring, in a strange and twisted way.

She used her own shadow to scrub away at any blood left on the scene, then she fell down to the ground level and dismissed her costume to become just another girl out in the city on a normal weekend. She never did make it to the countryside that weekend.

The rest of that week followed more or less normally for her. More practice whenever she could get away with it. She started using her magic to sense the feelings and thoughts of sleepy students, and she walked the corridors with her eyes closed, relying on her sense of where shadows were around her to see.

Marcia was a constant, and strangely helpful in her own perverse way.

She had some fantastic ideas for exercises Alice could practice to hone her skills, some derived from how demons practised their own magics, others...

“Come on, different colours reflect light differently, right?”

“Yes,” Alice admitted. “Different materials too.”

“So the quality of a shadow can change based on the thing the shadow’s resting on?” Marcia asked to clarify as they walked through the halls.

Alice sighed. “Yes.”

“So you can guess at a person’s underwear colour with your powers,” Marcia said.

Some of Marcia’s practice ideas were, unfortunately, less than useful as well.

The week wore on, and soon enough, it was the last Friday before a three-day weekend. Alice had brought Marcia home enough that her parents had met her, and other than Alice having to kick Marcia to stop the succubus from making passes at her father, those visits had gone well enough.

As far as her family was concerned, Alice was spending Sunday and the next Monday at Marcia’s place.

It was even true, in a way. If they considered Marcia’s place as ‘Hell itself’ then Alice wasn’t even lying, just bending the truth creatively. Marcia really was a poor influence.

Alice discovered that Marcia lived in a rundown motel on the edge of one of the big transport roads leading into the city. “I got the room with few questions asked,” Marcia explained with a shrug as Alice followed her into her room and tried hard not to touch anything. There was a smell, mould and sweat and something else that Alice didn’t want to think about.

“I can’t imagine how you managed that,” Alice said.

“Oh, I gave the owner a blow job that almost literally blew his mind. He ended up in the hospital,” Marcia said.

Alice just stared at her... friend. “Okay,” she said. She made a mental note to judge the owner harshly if she ever saw him. “Just... how do we get to Hell?”

“Some people say that Hell is other people,” Marcia said as she shoved the room’s bed to the side. “But I always found that saying stupid. The fastest way down is the straight path. Grab both ends and fold them in on each other, you know.”

Alice nodded along, even if she didn’t quite understand.

Then Marcia cut her arm across the air vertically, and a slice of reddish darkness remained where her hand had crossed. It widened, and the motel room’s interesting scents were replaced by the stink of sulphur and brimstone and an uncomfortably warm wind. “Ah, home,” Marcia said before stepping into the rent in reality.

Alice closed her eyes and allowed the darkness to swallow her and spit her out in her magical girl costume. She flicked her hand to the side, summoning Dream Charter, then she held the sword and her will close as she stepped into the rift.

There was a deeply uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach, and the warmth grew more and more until it was nearly unbearable. Then Alice stumbled for a step onto an uneven stone floor. She was in a large chamber lit by... normal light bulbs in sconces that had once been used for candles hanging off of stone walls.

The chamber was quite large, with three raised platforms, one of which held the portal she’d stepped out of.

“Hey, you made it out alive,” Marcia said. She was standing nearby, a hand picking at some light singing on her school uniform. “I didn’t know if that would work.”

“You thought I might die?” Alice asked.

“It’s not exactly human-comfortable down here,” Marcia said. “And transportation magic sucks in a big way.”

“And what would you have done if I died?” Alice asked.

Marcia shrugged. “Taken credit, obviously. It would make me quite famous, you know. But... yeah, I think I’d be sad too. You’re fun to tease.” Alice glared at her, and she relented. “Very sad. Super sad. Might even cry a little... into my pile of gold.”

“You can be utterly insufferable sometimes.”

“High praise down here,” Marcia said. “In any case. Welcome to the Second Circle! Lusts and pleasures most carnal abound for any and all. No matter who you are and what bits you have, you’ll never feel as sinfully good as you will here!”

***

Chapter Fifty-Two - Convey Her Urgency

Chapter Fifty-Two - Convey Her Urgency

“Crystal!” Veronica shouted. Though it wasn’t that much of a shout, really. She raised her voice, but kept it just under a scream. It was enough to convey her urgency to Crystal who jumped in her seat.

Somehow, after days without any real sleep, she had almost dozed off while riding along the bumpy non-roads of the desert. The seat wasn’t even comfortable, with nothing more than some padded leather to keep her bum from being pressed up against a wooden board for hours on end.

“I’m up,” Crystal said. She wiped her face, then blinked her eyes a few times to clear them up. “What’s going on?”

“We have trouble up ahead,” Veronica said. “Can you come up?”

Crystal nodded and stood up. She swung out of the carriage’s side, then climbed up onto the seat at the front. Tobias was there, as was Veronica, and they both ended up much closer to each other as Crystal squeezed in onto the bench. “Where’s the trouble?” Crystal asked.

It looked like they were moving along through a valley of sorts. Tall walls of sandstone rose up on one side, and on the other, there were large hills that shielded them from the sand. The wind was coming in from behind, pushing them forwards and clearing their path. It was mostly raw stone and hard packed dirt ahead, with plenty of ruts to give some bounce to their travels.

“Tobias thinks that our destination is ahead and to the left here,” Veronica said as she pointed ahead. “We’re going to need to check the map again, because I’m hoping he’s wrong.”

“Why’s that?” Crystal asked.

“We’re climbing again,” Tobias said, as if that would explain things. They were, in fact, climbing, the carriage tilting back slightly as they went up a slight incline. The wall to their left grew shorter as they climbed, and Crystal stood to see over its top.

The terrain above the wall was flat, but it wasn’t empty. All the daemons they’d been seeing in the distance, they were all heading in the same direction, and it was pretty clear that this was their ultimate goal. Just at a glance, Crystal could make out a hundred or so daemons of all shapes and sizes.

The only saving grace was that they seemed more focused on something in the opposite direction, and weren’t bothering to look back towards them.

“Well, that’s no good,” Crystal said.

“You think?” Veronica asked. “There are enough daemons there to keep an entire guild branch busy for a year. And I’ll bet a quarter of my gold that there are ten times as many out of our line of sight.”

Crystal cringed. That was a lot of daemons. Far more than what had shown up at the walls of Kircken that one time. She stood up on the bench, then put a hand on Veronica’s shoulder for stability as she squinted at the group. “What are they heading towards?” she asked.

“I don’t know. It looks like there’s a small building or something over there, though,” Veronica said.

The carriage dipped down as it reached the apex of the hill and soon Crystal lost sight of the daemons again. “Here,” she said as she removed her pin. “Let’s make sure that Rending is actually in that direction. Maybe we’ll be lucky and it’s not that way?”

She doubted it, though. There was a faint, almost unnoticeable tugging in her tummy that pulled her in the same direction the daemons were rushing in.

After giving her pin to Tobias, who reached over and got his map out, a chalk pencil, and his compass, she watched him draw a line across the map with now familiar-ease. “That’s pretty much directly towards the daemons,” Tobias said.

“Fantastic,” Veronica muttered.

“There’s another thing,” he added. “This formation, the, ah, wall-like structure?” he gestured towards the sandstone. “It’s curved.”

Crystal looked out ahead, and while she couldn’t see too far because they were heading downhill, it did look as if the wall curved away slightly. “Okay? Does that matter?”

“Well, I suspect it’s curved around like a circle, the centre of which might be where this is pointing.” He took the pin and handed it back to Crystal, who took it carefully, blew on it, then slipped it back into her bangs.

“So, Rending’s in the centre of an... inverse crater?”

“I don’t know if inverse craters are a thing, but basically, yes,” Tobias said.

Crystal rubbed at her chin in thought, then after a few minutes of having no thoughts, gave up. “Well, let’s go to the middle then.”

“Did you fail to notice the literal armies of daemons between us and the middle?” Veronica asked.

“Yeah, you’re right. Okay, let’s park the carriage next to, maybe that space over there? It looks like it would be easy to get onto the inverse crater from there. Just need to make a small ramp.”

“And then what?” Veronica asked.

“Then I’ll create walls around the carriage. It’ll keep you guys safe.”

Veronica shook her head. “While you take on the entire army?”

Crystal shrugged. “Yeah?”

“Do you think you’re strong enough to do that?” Veronica asked. “I’m not doubting that you’re powerful. You might well be gold ranked and above, but there’s hundreds of them there.”

“Maybe, but this time there isn’t a city nearby for me to have to worry about collateral damage.” She flexed an arm and patted her bicep. “I can go all out without having to worry at all!”

Veronica glanced at Tobias, who shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Well, actually, I see several reasons why not, but in the end it would mean several dead daemons, which can only be good for humanity as a whole. And we might be able to bring some choice heads back.”

Crystal imagined gold coins flashing before Veronica’s eyes. “That, Tobias, is the best Idea I’ve heard from you in a long while.”

“R-really?” he asked. “Um, I mean, certainly. I suppose I could use my share to fund more research. Ah, anyway.”

“Right,” Crystal said. “Let’s get the carriage parked somewhere safe, and we’ll figure things out from there after.”

That turned out to be... not hard, but not easy either.

They rode the carriage up onto the inverted crater, with Crystal building some crystalline ramps for them to climb. She had to build them twice. The first set she grew were made of sleek crystals that didn’t allow the horses’ hooves enough grip for them to climb, and the angle was a little too steep for comfort.

It took well over an hour for them to get onto the crater, and then they discovered a sort of natural ramp onto the crater a kilometre or so away, though that ramp was being used by daemons, so they stuck with their new shortcut.

Once they were settled, Crystal hopped off the carriage and started to summon walls. She created metre-thick buttresses of diamond, with interlinked crystal matrixes for added strength. Her barrier was a giant half-dome, the centre of which was clear enough to see out of.

She partially enclosed the dome, leaving a sort of switch-backed exit that was just large enough for the carriage to pass through on the side while also making it impossible for something to just walk straight into the centre. The centre was about the size of a small amphitheatre, so they had room to set out tents and put down a water trough for the horses.

“Okay,” Crystal said as she wiped imaginary sweat off her brow. “That should do it for protection.”

Her crystals could be pretty tough, especially when hit from the right angle. She suspected that the defences she’d just put up would be able to tank a nuclear bomb blowing up right next to them, though... she wasn’t so sure they would be able to endure her going all out a few kilometres away. So she decided to hold back a little, just in case.

She’d at least make an effort not to aim in the general direction of her friends. Like in that one firearms course Hypertense Breakpoint had forced her to take after she picked up a gun off the floor and accidentally shot herself in the foot.

“Okay,” Crystal said once she was satisfied. She placed her hands on her hips and shook them left and right to loosen her back up. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. An hour at most.”

“Be careful out there,” Minna said. She smiled and patted Crystal on the back.

“Don’t die,” Veronica advised.

“Ah, yes, do your best,” Tobias added.

With all of those good vibes at her back, Crystal stepped out of her dome and headed towards where she hoped Rending Nightmare was waiting for her.

She flicked her hand to the side and Scintillating Disharmony appeared in her grip. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

***

Chapter Fifty-Three - Three at a Time

Chapter Fifty-Three - Three at a Time

Crystal created a staircase that led up to a glass platform some ten metres off the ground, then she took the steps three at a time to reach the top.

It afforded her a spectacular view of the inverted crater, and from up there, she could easily make out the rough, circular shape with its big nub in the middle.

“This whole place is a bit... boob-shaped,” she declared to herself.

Unlike any mammaries she’d seen though, this place was crawling with daemons.

She didn’t bother counting them, not when it was so hard to tell some of the daemons apart. There were large clouds of gas that formed into solid beings, lumps of flesh which crawled along, and more deformed humanoids than she had ever seen before.

Crystal reached up to her hair and pulled out her clip. She held it in her open palm, and the hairpin spun slowly to point right towards the middle of the inverse crater. She didn’t need to check. She could feel the magic coming from there. It was dark and cloying, thick and miasmic.

This wasn’t her kind of magic. Crystal’s magic was hard but bright, sparkly and joyful and quick. What she felt now was dark and slow, a tenebrous cloud of spreading ooze that never let go of anything that sunk into its fathomless depths. It was horror and nightmares and the worst cruelties imaginable.

It was definitely Rending Nightmare’s magic. She’d recognize it anywhere.

That same magic had shielded her from bad dreams once. Had caught her during bad falls. Had wrapped her in comfortable dreams while deploying hellish horrors upon the things trying to harm her.

It was her friend, somewhere in there, and Crystal wanted her friend back!

She took a deep breath, then addressed the monster hoard.

“Hello daemons!” she screamed, her voice carrying across the empty expanse of sandy ground.

The daemons turned her way. Or some of them did, in any case.

“If you run away, you won’t be hurt!” she said.

Then Crystal snapped her fingers and summoned some valkyries. Huge, statuesque figures of living crystals. There were twelve in all, each armed with a different weapon, but seeming rather similar to one another, and all twelve were about as tall as a semi-trailer was long.

The twelve figures raised their hands, and light began to concentrate above their palms in swirling balls that glowed bright enough to compete with the sun.

“Last warning,” she said.

A few daemons actually listened and started running. Only they were running towards her.

“Oh well.”

Twelve beams shot out across the desert, scorching rays of light that cooked the air and created rainbow coronas at their base that bathed Crystal’s back in a comforting warmth. The beams dipped down, and as they came closer to the ground they kicked up sand and dirt and bits of molten daemon.

Then one of the valkyries exploded apart as a massive daemon appeared next to it, its hand wrapped around an anchor with shaved edges.

“Oh, I’ll actually have to fight, huh?” Crystal asked. “Okay then.”

She turned her attention to the first of the big daemons and it screeched as the carbon in its bones fractalized into growing spikes. With a faint twist of her hand, she ripped it apart from the inside out.

Then she let her valkyries loose, all eleven remaining crystal statues rushed ahead and found survivors to fight.

Some daemons were able to resist her opening attack outright, others had been shielded by magical barriers which had redirected some of the heat and light, and still others had merely evaded the attack.

Still, of the thousands of daemons that had been standing there at the start, only a few hundred remained.

Crystal leapt down from her platform, a hand between her legs to keep her skirt from billowing out. She landed sword-point-first in the skull of a big, ugly-looking daemon, rolled down its spine, then touched down on the ground with a sweep of her sword to clear it of daemon detritus.

She ducked under the grasp of one daemon and left him without an arm in passing, then she fanned her hand out, summoning long crystalline javelins that were already moving fast enough to crack the sound barrier before they were even done appearing.

The further she moved, the more resistance she encountered, and in the back of her mind, she was aware of her valkyries being taken down one by one.

It seemed as if her initial attack had just culled the weaker daemons, leaving the strongest behind.

Crystal jumped over a dark puddle on the ground, sliced through a cloud of toxic gas, then ripped the head of a teleporting monster apart in passing before she landed with a dainty step and cast a ring of jutting spikes around herself to ward off the approach of too many daemons.

This wasn’t working.

Frowning, Crystal bunched her legs up, then launched herself into the air. At the apex of her jump she spread her arms wide and a pair of angelic wings, each feather a different, delicately carved gem, appeared behind her.

It wasn’t flight, but she was able to fire lasers down towards the ground which propelled her up and away to swoop across the gap.

As she flew, she summoned massive circles across the sky, great big fractal glyphs that warmed up and then blasted columns of radiant fire across the battlefield.

The glyphs gently moved across the sky, painting trenches into the ground and turning any daemon they touched into ash.

More runes appeared in her wake, these ones firing down hard lumps of multi-ton crystals that struck the ground hard enough to make the entire region tremble.

Her wings exploded out, every feather zipping away and exploding on contact with the ground and with daemon flesh even as Crystal landed hard atop the earthen lump in the centre of the inverse crater.

She’d made it this far, and now the space behind her was a crater-filled mess with the remaining survivors rushing back towards their lumpy... she wasn’t sure what to call it. A temple? Were they worshipping Rending Nightmare here?

That might have been somewhat appropriate, if she was the originator of their powers, but that didn’t quite feel correct.

Crystal plunged Scintillating Disharmony point-first into the ground and concentrated.

A bright light shone around her, then she dropped through the long tunnel she had just bored into the ground.

The lump had multiple floors, she discovered as she fell past a dozen before crashing through the bottom of her hole and into an antechamber.

It was a large room, with vaulted ceilings and maybe half a hundred very large, very intimidating daemons within.

“You dare to interrupt--” one of them began.

Crystal summoned a monomolecular ‘spaghetti whip’ and flicked it across the room. It ripped the speaker into many small chunks.

She felt a very slight twinge of guilt over cutting someone off, but no one who had giant horns and who began a sentence with ‘you dare’ was a good person.

Looking around and past the lumps that were left of the daemons in the room, Crystal searched for what, exactly, she had interrupted, but it seemed as if it was just an ordinary bad guy meeting around one of those big round tables with uncomfortable chairs.

Some aesthetics just never faded away, she supposed.

Discarding her whip, Crystal took off running. She hadn’t expected the big lump to be more of a base, but here it was, all base-like and confusingly laid out. She didn’t even bother looking for a map on the walls. No one ever bothered putting one of those out in a bad guy lair, at least not in her experience.

Following her gut, and the feeling of Rending Nightmare’s magical signature, Crystal took a flight of stairs down, casually cutting through the daemons she encountered on the way and summoning a spikey field of crystal shards in the corridor behind her to dissuade followers.

It was only when she reached the bottom of the stairs that she felt she was on the right level.

She ran, pushed through a door, then unleashed a pair of quick lasers against a pair of guards standing by a huge door leading into...

A cathedral, of sorts. A massive room with thousands of seats around a throne of black, fleshy material. Upon that throne was a figure cocooned in a gently writhing mass of semi-transparent flesh.

“Alice!” Crystal screamed.

Then the entire room shifted and the throne rose up, revealing that it was more of a crown, a crown that continued to rise, destroying the cathedral to reveal the daemon that wore her friend like a prized jewel.

Crystal tightened her grip on Scintillating Disharmony.

“I am Minos, the king of all daemons,” the king said as he continued to rise, destroying the building as he did.

“You’re dead if you don’t give me Alice is what you are!” Crystal shouted back.

***

Chapter Fifty-Four - Going All Out

Chapter Fifty-Four - Going All Out

Veronica had seen Crystal at work for a while now, and three times already she had thought to herself ‘that’s what Crystal going all out can do.’ So far Crystal had consistently proven her a fool.

The battle had started off with Crystal being herself. Asking the daemons to surrender, or at least run away. Of course, that hadn’t worked.

Then Crystal summoned massive angelic statues, huge beings with glittering skin whose presence alone made Minna gasp and start muttering prayers while Veronica licked her lips and wondered at the truth about gods and men.

The battle began so quickly that she was taken aback for a moment.

Beams of searing light crossed the flats, then daemons were around Crystal. One of them even ripped one of the angels apart, only to be killed in turn.

Veronica clutched onto the nearest person, Tobias as it happened, and watched with her breath held and her heart thundering as Crystal cut a swatch of destruction across the plains.

Spikes rained down from above, lights so bright and potent in destructive energy that they felt them within their crystalline shelter. The air rumbled with unrestrained chaos.

The daemons were ripped asunder as Crystal walked, then flew, across to the centre of the strange protrusion they were upon.

By the time the girl disappeared--Veronica couldn’t imagine her not making it--the plains had been transformed.

Massive corpses of daemons able to fell entire garrisons were strewn about like so much chaff. The broken, mutilated bodies of crystal angels lay on the ground in pieces, and massive columns of solid crystal stood out in the midst of their own little craters.

The only sound was the whisper of the wind and the strange ‘tic-tic-tic’ of sand-turned-glass cooling off.

“God,” Minna said.

“I don’t know,” Veronica replied.

She felt Tobias’ hug tighten for a moment before the man seemed to notice, then he let go and adjusted his clothes. “That was... something,” he said. “Ah, do you think Crystal is well?”

“She is,” Veronica said, certain of it. She... could admit to herself that she liked Crystal. The young woman was a pest, a brat, and a clueless idiot most of all, but she was also earnest and kind in a way few people Veronica had met had been. “She’s fine.”

They lingered there, the three of them on the edge of the crystal wall where they could see the battlefield with the least trouble. It allowed them to see a couple of rare daemons popping their heads up out of the sand. Often they’d look around and just sit there. Others ran.

Veronica was just starting to wonder how much gold she could make if she managed to drag all of the heads she was seeing back when the earth shook.

They gripped onto each other, for comfort and balance. The horses neighed in the background, protesting the sudden tremor.

“That has to be Crystal,” Minna said.

Then, as if to contradict her specifically, a voice slammed into their minds and all three stumbled to their knees.

“I am Minos, the king of all daemons.”

The little mountain in the centre of the plains exploded outwards. Great big chunks of stone, bigger than homes, came raining down onto the plains while an avalanche of dust and ash spewed out of the hole.

And from within climbed a giant.

He was taller than mountains, with shoulders upon which a small city would dwell. His body was ash and twisting sinew and skin of nightmares and the anger in his gaze was as undeniable as the pull of gravity.

Veronica whimpered.

Standing before him once the ash cleared was a tiny figure in brightest blue. Her own anger eclipsed, but no less real.

Crystal pointed at the king, at his crown. “Give me Alice back!” she shouted.

Then Minos swatted her back, his arm moving so fast that the air rent at its passing.

Veronica’s head whipped to the side to follow the minuscule blue blur that was Crystal.

She was dead. She had to be.

But Crystal loved nothing more than to surprise, and her retaliation came in the form of a rain of glittering crystals that smashed into the giant.

He raised an arm, protecting his face from the onslaught before he grunted and the earth broke apart beneath him. Massive pillars of writhing blackness imposed themselves between Minos and Crystal, eating up her attack before it could reach him.

By the looks of it, the assault had only just left him with a few small scratches, and already those were fading away, with dark, brackish smoke pouring out of the wounds.

“He’s impossible,” Tobias said.

“He’s strong,” Veronica said. She didn’t know if an army of gold-ring hunters could take this daemon on. “But she’s... Crystal.”

Minos took a great step forwards and with a thrust of his arm, fired a great beam of darkness that seemed to swallow even the sun’s light. Somehow, it was entirely silent, at least until the beam ended and the air cracked into the place where it had been.

All that stood there now was Crystal, who stood upon a platform of diamond hovering over nothing.

Veronica saw Crystal look her way, and for a moment, she could have sworn that their eyes met, despite the great distance.

Then great walls of crystal jutting out of the ground. Not between the two adversaries, but around Veronica and her companions. They formed a massive translucent dome, far greater and thicker than what they had protecting them already.

“Oh no,” Veronica said.

If Crystal thought that they’d need this much protecting, then things were going to get bad.

“You think yourself my equal?” Minos’ voice roared.

Veronica couldn’t hear Crystal’s reply, but she could imagine it. “No, but I think you’re in my way.”

“Fool!” Minos screeched. The king of daemon’s shadow rose, and with it came hundreds of shades, daemons of all forms and shapes that spilled over each other and rushed towards Crystal in a ghastly tide.

She jumped up, away from her platform and high into the air only for her flight to reach its apex just as another crystalline platform appeared.

The air rent as circles of intricate runes flashed into being, and from them came a barrage of brilliant lights.

They were met by a cascade of darkness from Minos.

“You will lose,” the King declared with absolute certainty.

Veronica saw Crystal shake her head. “No,” she said. And this time Veronica heard her clear as day. “Finishing move. Remiel’s Scream.”

A mountain appeared.

Between one blink and the next, the king of daemons was dwarfed by a massive, perfect cube of pale blue sapphire, with Crystal herself safely nestled in its centre. The tide of shades crashed into the gem and did nothing at all.

Then the shape twisted in on itself, an inverted fractal that expanded and shrunk in a way that no shape ought to. In its centre came a ball of light, a miniature sun that bathed everything scarlet.

Veronica shielded her eyes even as an unearthly scream began, a sound like a million souls being tortured.

It all came to a head as a massive shockwave. Heat poured off the wall protecting them in waves and Veronica stumbled back even as she felt her skin going dry as though she’d sat too close to a campfire.

The world beyond was a sun made manifest.

Then the light faded, Veronica blinked and took in the scene.

Crystal was standing atop a thin tower of corkscrewing diamond a hundred paces tall. Across from her stood King Minos,his skin flayed and bleeding shadows, but still alive.

There was a piece of the earth missing. A trench that stretched a hundred feet across and which continued on forever.

“She destroyed the mountains,” Tobias whispered.

The distant Windbreaker mountains had a new passage cut through them. One peak was crumbling in the distance even as they stared.

“Huh,” Crystal said. “I thought that would do it. Oh well. I have more finishers to try.”

“I think we should go,” Tobias said.

“Go where?” Veronica asked. There was no outrunning this. This was cataclysmic on a scale that she’d never even imagined. She doubted even a nation’s full might could slow either of the fighters down now.

King Minos raised his arms above him, with dark, tenebrous clouds forming.

Crystal grinned, and the sky ruptured as shards the size of mountains cracked into being.

Veronica rarely thought that she was going to die, but it had been happening a lot more frequently as of late. She watched the two forces charging towards each other, and thought that this was it, this was how she would pass on.

And then, in a blink, she was somewhere else.

“Huh?”

She looked around an unfamiliar room. She might have thought herself dead, but she wasn’t alone. Tobias and Minna were there, both looking haggard and, at least Minna, confused.

She glanced out of a window, and while the sight wasn’t entirely familiar to her, she recognized a few of the buildings. The guild, the arena. This was Kricken.

“I, ah, never did tell you what my magic power was, did I?” Tobias asked sheepishly.

***

Chapter Fifty-Five - King Minos

Chapter Fifty-Five - King Minos

This King Minos guy was a real pain in the butt.

Crystal shot to the side, a large diamond weighing as much as she did flinging off into the other direction (because Newton was a pain in the butt too, sometimes).

The space where she had been filled with tenebrous darkness, which was a word she’d picked up from Rending Nightmare after she was overheard saying ‘dark darkness’ one time too many.

The magic burned the air itself, and Crystal grit her teeth as she flipped around and landed feet-first onto a long, winding ramp made of smooth crystal she summoned just ahead of her. The ramp twisted upwards, and with a last blast behind her to gain some speed, Crystal was sent flying back up into the air.

This was one of the challenges of fighting any sort of huge enemy. It didn’t matter if it was mecha Hitler or a kaiju, they always tried to have the high ground.

Fortunately, the ground itself was sort of her weapon. It was where the gems of the earth resided, after all.

With a twist of her will, Crystal summoned long, sharp-edged spires from out of the ground right under where Minos was repositioning his foot.

The king grunted as they bit into and through his flesh, black blood oozing out from the freshly opened wounds.

He wasn’t screaming at her so much anymore, not now that he was covered in lacerations and nasty cuts. He wasn’t looking great, and it was probably clear to the king that he had made a bit of a mistake messing with her.

The bad guys always had the same confused expression when they started to realise that the ‘puny’ and ‘stupid’ magical girl they’d started the fight by insulting was holding her own and even dishing out a lot more pain than she was receiving.

Crystal had once heard Hypertense Breakpoint wondering aloud if it was all some sort of sexism. Would they be underestimated as much if they were ancient wizards with long trailing beards? Screaming Bioplague had offered to grow her a beard and then the conversation had turned to something else, but Crystal still remembered it well.

She missed her friends.

Fortunately, one of them was right there.

Rending Nightmare was enclosed in a swirling cocoon of dark energy, with several bands of... something around her holding her in place, like the golden tines on a ring keeping a precious gem locked in its setting.

She snapped her attention back to the fight as Minos grunted and swung a building-sized fist at her.

This was her chance!

Crystal tightened her grip on Scintillating Disharmony and spun.

The sword chimed as it sliced through the air, then its tip sliced into the end of King Minos’ knuckles and gripped on hard. She jerked back as his punch ended, but her grip on her sword never loosened.

Crystal whirled about, planted her feet on the king’s hand, then started to run with her sword trailing across the king’s skin behind her.

As she ran circles around his arm, she left an open trail of cut skin behind her, with sparkling little gems encrusted in the wound. King Minos’ wounds were slowly closing, so she was determined to leave something within them. Something explosive.

The king flicked his entire arm up just as she reached his elbow, and Crystal was sent up and into the sky in a flurry of skirts and petticoats before she regained her balance in the air.

The king looked ready to smack her out of the air, as if she was no more than an annoying fly buzzing around him.

So as he swung, she grinned. “Flash!”

Minos roared as the hundreds of gems encrusted in his healing arm activated. Some were plain explosions. Others fired out powerful omni-directional lasers that cooked and fried his skin, still others grew into metre-long crystal spikes from under his flesh and the rest of them gave off powerful but short-lived bursts of ionising radiation.

While the king was busy clutching his arm, Crystal continued to fall. She twisted her hips about, gripped onto Scintillating Disharmony with both hands, then took a deep breath to let out a shout of her own.

The day turned a brilliant blue as every gem on her dress burned brighter than the sun itself. Crystal was happy they were fighting so far away from any civilisation; it let her cut loose a little more than usual.

“Asscher Cut Diamond!” her voice rang across the desert even as Scintillating Disharmony turned from a magical sword into a blazing rod of light, as if she was gripping onto a piece of a blue giant about to go supernova.

Her first attack came from above, with all the weight and speed of her fall turning it into a dangerous, plunging stab towards the king’s unprepared face.

“Cutlet!”

She spun twice, the recoil of the impact and of her magic meeting Minos’ breaking resistance sending her reeling back, but she regained control in a millionth of a second and came back in with a pair of rapid slices.

“Pavilion!”

The next attack used Scintillating Disharmony’s new, warped form to fire a beam of powerful burning light that seared into the king. Some of that light was redirected behind her in four facets, just like the gem cut she had named the skill after.

“Girdle!”

Then, as the pressure released, she pushed upwards and out, now aiming her cuts upwards with violent force.

“Crown!”

And finally, she landed on the ground and immediately launched herself back up, leaving an expanding crater behind her as she blinked up to the king’s neck.

“Table!”

The last cut of the attack took all the rest with it, transforming it into a metaphorical, and literal guillotine of magical energy unleashed in a single concentrated horizontal cut.

The king’s body was blasted away, turning into smoke even as it crashed backwards. His head stayed even with Crystal as they both fell down towards the earth far below.

Crystal was feeling a bit sweaty, and even maybe a smidge tired, but not so much that she’d miss seeing Rending Nightmare falling from the tines holding her in place.

She gasped, then launched herself across the space between them and caught her mentor in a tight hug before they crashed into the ground. Crystal absorbed the impact with her knees, raised a crystalline shield to protect them from the blast of dust the king’s head set up as it crashed, then promptly fell onto her butt with Rending Nightmare cradled close.

“Alice!” Crystal said. She shook her friend’s shoulders. “Rending! Wake up!”

She checked over her friend, hands fluttering over Alice’s body without actually touching her. Crystal desperately wished for a moment that her magic was good for healing.

Then Alice’s eyes fluttered open.

“Ali--” Crystal began.

Then there was a massive snap, and she felt as if the entire world was twisting.

Crystal gripped onto Alice and didn’t let go. She knew this feeling, she’d felt it a couple of times before. Teleportation. Teleportation specifically keyed to them, designed to bring them to safety.

Had her hairpin activated? But that didn’t make sense, and it didn’t feel right.

Then Crystal gasped as she was suddenly in freefall and still clinging onto Alice.

Her friend fully woke up then, then spat a few creative swears in Portuguese as they continued to tumble through the air.

Fortunately, the fall didn’t last too long.

Unfortunately, that was because they encountered something.

The girls were separated for a moment as they ripped through rusty tin and were slammed into rotting flooring.

Bits of debris rained down around them for a moment, with dust clogging the air.

Crystal stared up at the hole in what was clearly a tin-roofed ceiling above her. She could see the sky through it, grey and overcast. “Ouch,” she said, more for something to say than because of any actual pain.

Then Alice was pulling herself out of the floor and looking around herself, clearly lost. “What happened?” she asked before pressing a hand to her head.

“Oh!” Crystal said as she jumped up. They were in... a trailer. A trailer-park sort of trailer, with a microwave on a small counter further in, and a tiny TV nearby with two long metal-rod antennae sticking out of it. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and not just because they’d blown through the roof. “Wow, uh... Yeah, I have a lot of explaining to do.”

Rending’s eyes narrowed. “Crystal,” she said warningly.

“It’s not my fault!” Crystal said. Then she shot across the space between them and wrapped Rending in a tight hug. “I missed you! But you’re here now! Wherever here is! And you’re in one piece! And... wow, I have a ton of stuff to tell you!”

***

Origin - Eleven - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Eleven - Rending Nightmare

Marcia led Alice through a few winding corridors, and Alice found herself... conflicted at what she saw.

When she went to Hell, she had a certain image in her head of what the place would look like. Pillars of basalt, rivers of lava, tortured souls and whip-cracks and demons of all sorts.

What she saw now was the interior of an elaborate castle, with stone walls illuminated by modern lights stuck into far less modern sconces. “This place looks... not bad,” Alice said. She paused a little to look at a grand oil painting on one wall that was as tall as she was. It was of a buxom woman with reddish skin and two curving black horns.

“Who’s that?” Alice asked.

Marcia paused and looked up at the woman. “Ah, one of the former princes of the second circle,” she said. “Like the look of her?” She made a crude gesture towards her chest and Alice sighed.

“No. I don’t think I’m into women, or women with red skin and horns.”

“That’s racist,” Marcia said.

“I... I don’t think so? Are demons even the same species?”

“We can interbreed,” Marcia said with a shrug. “So maybe.”

“Of course,” Alice muttered.

They came to the end of a corridor with a single door, and Marcia opened it, stuck her head out, then closed the door and turned towards Alice. “Alright, so we have a bit of a problem.”

“A problem?” Alice repeated. She didn’t like the sound of that, not one bit.

Marcia shrugged, then gestured down to herself. “As you may have guessed, this isn’t how I look normally. Certain succubi can shift their shape, change little details about their appearance. It makes... certain tastes easier, more enjoyable, even. And of course, you meet people with all sorts of tastes.”

“I have the impression I don’t want to know.”

“Oh, let’s just say that I’ve been exactly what a lot of people were looking for,” Marcia said with a thought. “As for you... I’m thinking peppy blonde, a little shorter than you, maybe all smiles and good mood, and perky--”

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Alice said. “What was the problem, exactly?”

“Well, when you’re going around, you don’t go around looking like a weak little human,” Marcia said with a gesture to herself. “That’s asking for trouble, even in the Second Circle.”

“So... what, you want me to disguise myself?” Alice asked. She glanced down at her magical girl costume, with its tight blue shirt and white pants. It did clash a lot with the darker stone of the walls and the red accenting on any of the furniture they’d passed.

“Yeah, basically,” Marcia said. “You’re going to stand out in a big way. Your magic is... potent. Look, I can tell you’re nervous because the shadows we’ve been crossing have been moving, and you’re leaving this... magical girl stink in the air. Some lowly demons won’t sniff it out, but anyone powerful won’t miss it at all.”

Alice shrugged. “Do you think I could take them?”

“The... the more powerful people from the Second Circle? Yeah, maybe. In a one-on-one probably. We’re all about the lust and the backstabbing. More princes have died in their sleep here than anywhere else in Hell. But I don’t think you want to take on all of the Second Circle all at once, do you?” Marcia asked.

Alice considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Fine, you’re right. But I don’t plan on painting myself red and hiding myself all day.” She frowned, then reached up to her capelette. It was a smallish piece of cloth that wrapped around her shoulders and stopped at the middle of her back.

She had created a mask from nothing before... Alice concentrated for a moment, and then met a sort of resistance against her will. It was nothing like using her shadow or dream magic, those did what she thought with no resistance at all, this was tugging back.

She frowned, then pushed past the resistance.

The caplette lengthened and grew with a swirl and a snap, like a flag catching the wind. Soon, Alice had a long royal blue cloak with a delicate swirling embroidery edged in a much paler blue. She reached around and tucked her hair away within the cloak’s hood, then tugged it up to cover her face. “Better?” she asked.

“No... now you look like someone who’s trying really hard to tell everyone that they’re hiding something,” Marcia asked. “Where did you learn about stealth, cartoons?”

Alice suppressed a blush. “Will it be enough?” she asked.

Marcia sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” She shook her head, then before Alice’s eyes, Marcia grew by a few centimetres, her hair lengthened, and a pair of large horns sprouted out from her head.

Her skin went from a nice tan to a reddish hue, then straight to a deeper red the likes of which wasn’t natural on a human face.

“Ah,” Marcia said. She stretched her back out with a pop, then much to Alice’s concern, popped the button on her skirt. “You can't imagine how stuffy that felt. And these clothes! So constricting. You’d think with all the technology you humans have, you’d have perfected the bra by now. But no, just have to guess at the right sizes and hope for the best. I swear.”

“Is that what you normally look like?” Alice asked.

“Most of the time,” Marcia said. Her voice had changed too, Alice noted. Becoming a little huskier. “Couldn’t go around like this on Earth though. Now... before we head out, do you have an idea of where you want to go?”

“I... don’t, not really,” Alice said. “I suppose I’m mostly here to kill every demon.”

Marcia looked at her, lips pursed and hands on hips. “Really?”

Alice shifted on the spot. “No. I don’t think indiscriminate genocide is the right answer to anything. But... maybe we can prepare a space to fight some demons in. Those who answer to my taunt will probably be the same ones that I’d have to fight in any case, right?”

“That’s more like it,” Marcia said. “I think I know of a few good places for that kind of thing. Come on.”

With that, Marcia spun on her heel and pushed through the doors.

Alice fixed her hood, making sure that it covered the sides of her head properly before she flicked her cloak out to dislodge any dust. Then she followed after Marcia.

There were two demons on the outside of the building, both flanking the doors with long spears held in their hands. They were armour made of some sort of leather and to Alice’s disgust, had the uncovered lower bodies of male goats, but neither of them reacted to her passing, and soon she was distracted by the sights and sounds ahead of her.

The space they’d teleported into was a vast building of stone covered in blood-tinted ivory and surrounded by tall fences. It stood atop a plateau, with more castles and grand estates all around, like a massive shelf that kept going and going with a slight inwards curve until she lost sight of the end of it all in the distance.

Below was another plateau, then another, each tier a smaller circle until everything levelled off at a huge city.

Skyscrapers rose out of the city, the tallest of the buildings rising all the way up to the stoney ceiling above. Huge lights lit up the massive cave, some affixed to those same tall buildings, others hanging off of natural pillars of stone that were as long and thick as cargo ships.

Alice slipped past Marcia and crossed a road to stand on the edge of a precipice overlooking it all. “Are the lower levels the other circles?” she asked.

“No, this is all the Second Circle,” Marcia said. “Welcome to the Kingdom of Lust.”

There were massive billboards on the buildings of the city below, and even from way up high she could hear competing jingles and the blaring of distant horns. Cars and trucks were jammed on streets that didn’t have enough room for all of them, and even from afar, Alice could make out tiny figures in the city below.

“How many people live here?” she asked.

“In the Second Circle? I don’t know, a billion?”

“Ah,” Alice said.

“What? How many people did you expect to have to fight?” Marcia asked.

“Fewer than a billion,” Alice admitted. Two things crossed her mind then. First, it was going to take more than one long weekend to fix all of this. And second, her sword--and even Marcia--seemed entirely convinced that she’d be able to destroy all of this if she really put her mind to it.

That second thought was exceptionally disturbing.

“Well, the Second Circle is the most populous,” Marcia said. “And I’d say the most civilised, though maybe pride is a little bit ahead. Greed has the best toys, most of the time too. Come on, let’s get a cab?”

Alice turned away from the edge and followed after Marcia. Soon, the demoness was flagging down a coach. It was a carriage with a thin demon sitting upon it with a long whip in hand. Before him were six demons covered in tight leathers chained together like horses on a carriage.

Marcia climbed aboard and Alice reluctantly followed after her.

“So, the upper tiers here, well, these are for the well-off, the princes and their confidants, the rulers of the Second Circle. The further down you go... well, it’s not hard to guess, I think.”

“I got it, yes,” Alice said.

“So, there’s this nice big arena not all that far from here. The Circles of Wrath and Violence have the best gladiatorial shows, of course, but theirs end in bloodbaths in the crowds. Ours end in a lot more fun for everyone involved. The arena happens to be close to a nice big teleportation station. One of the more open, public ones, instead of a private one like we just used.”

“That was a private one?” Alice asked.

“For the well-to-do,” Marcia said. “You don’t think I’d make it to Earth and back from a ritual room designed for just any peasant to use, do you?”

“Marcia,” Alice began. She shifted on the seat of the carriage. It was little more than a thin cushion over wood, and wasn’t nearly as comfortable as she might have wished. “Just who are you?”

“Well, Marcia’s hardly my real name,” Marcia said. “My real name is Mania, and right now, I’m really no one of any great interest. Just a girl with more ambition than sense.”

“So, you’re not one of these princes of Hell?” Alice asked.

“Not yet,” Marcia... Mania, said. “But maybe one day soon. You don’t seem inclined on wiping the slate entirely clean, which means that you’ll need someone to help you rule. Unless you don’t plan on ruling over Hell at all, in which case... well, someone will need to fill that void.”

Alice leaned back into her seat and wondered just what she’d gotten herself into.

Then, after a long trip past several mansions guarded by imps and others, and down a switch-back road that brought them down a level or two, they finally arrived at the arena that Mania had mentioned.

It was a grand thing, as large as any football stadium than Alice had ever seen, and it was all encased within one of the stone walls wrapped around the city.

No one was filling the space, but judging by the ads being plastered by the front, that wouldn’t last forever. The entire space was somewhat enclosed, that only meant that there was lots of room for shadows to reign.

“Yeah,” Alice said as she looked around. “This will do.”

***

Origin - Twelve - Rending Nightmare

Origin - Twelve - Rending Nightmare

“Come and fight me, if you dare.”

The message Alice sent to demonkind all across the Second Circle was simple. A dare, a warning, and her location.

She didn’t bother making it impressive, or making it fancy. No, that would just give some demons the wrong impression, or maybe the right one? What she wanted was for a decent number of them to take the threat seriously enough that they’d show up, but not so many that she’d be overwhelmed. Keeping the message simple also--hopefully--discouraged the stronger demons.

Alice didn’t know if she could take on a prince yet. Marcia was confident, but Alice wasn’t as certain of her own abilities.

It took an hour, but the first of the demons appeared at the threshold of the arena.

Marcia and Alice had unceremoniously ripped apart the entrance of the arena, tearing down walls and floors and shredding one side’s row of seats to leave a large tunnel from the exterior of the arena to the main floor.

Alice stood on the far end of the oval, still in her cloak, shadows swarming around her.

The first demon to step into the arena was a large specimen. He was very obviously male and proud of it, judging by his pantsless state. Alice swallowed back some revulsion as she watched the beastly demon stomp into the arena and pointed across at her. “Are you the meat of the hour?” he roared.

“That’s a Baelite,” Marcia whispered to Alice. “Strong as a bull and half as smart. Some of them can turn invisible. Terrible in bed. What they lack in technique they fail to make up for with their equipment, if you know what I mean.”

Alice groaned. “Don’t make this all about sex, please.”

“Sorry, it’s in my nature, and being home is bringing it all back,” Marcia said unapologetically.

Alice cleared her throat, then she pointed across the arena. The demon wasn’t alone. There were several others with him, but they were lingering behind. “Hell has insulted me by invading my home. I’m here as a reprisal.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” the Baelite asked, his voice a roar that carried perfectly well across the space between them.

“It means that I’m here to kill every demon that has a problem with me,” Alice said. “Until there’s either none of you left, or Hell learns not to mess with me and those I’m protecting?”

“And who’s that?” he asked.

Alice paused for a moment, considering. “Humanity. All of it.”

The demon laughed, and a few others joined in. “I’ll take you up on that. And once I’m done beating you up, I’m gonna--”

Alice tuned him out. All he had to say from there on were pointless threats. Most of them graphic and sexual in nature. “Is he from this circle?” she asked Marcia.

“Hmm? Oh, no, but plenty of folk come and visit. Maybe you should just injure him? He’s from Pride, which means that tossing him out will really piss him off, maybe get more to come and visit.”

Alice considered it. There were only a hundred or so demons by the arena’s entrance, and of those, only a dozen were filing into the arena itself. She had actually hoped to gather a bigger crowd.

Then again, if she made any sort of big announcement back home, how many people would actually show up? People, even the people of Hell, had jobs and things that they had to do. They wouldn’t all come out to meet some random challenger that most of them had probably never heard about, even if she’d delivered a vague message in their dreams.

So she needed a few survivors to spread the tale.

The Baelite ran up to her and swung.

The shadows beneath her feet ripped upwards, jutting spikes of darkness ramming into and through the demon and flinging his bloody corpse back where it flopped to the ground and ragdolled away.

She’d pick others to be the survivors though. Maybe some of the more polite demons.

Another demon screamed and charged at her, the one a strange wolf-like creature with the head of the snake. Alice decided that it could live, so she grabbed it by the neck, spun, then flung it out of the far end of the arena.

“Think that’ll get more of them to show up?” Alice asked.

Marcia shrugged, then sat back down next to Alice.

They were both in one of the VIP booths, far above the ground floor of the arena. Below, another Alice... or at least, a hastily crafted illusion of Alice with her cloak tossed on, fought the demons back.

Alice was focused mostly on summoning shields against the ranged attacks of some of the more cowardly or cautious demons while beating back any that came too close. She decided to focus more on using her shadows to rip and tear them in the middle ground. That made it harder for any demon to come close enough to reveal the deception.

“Fanta?” Marcia asked as she held a can out towards Alice.

“Oh, thanks,” Alice said as she took it. It was cool to the touch, and she frowned. “Where did you get this?”

“The... vending machine,” Marcia said. She pointed over her shoulder to the corner of the VIP room where, indeed, there was a vending machine.

Alice turned the can around and squinted at the label. “This says feito no Brasil.”

“Well, yeah, you think we bottle soft drinks in Hell? I mean... there might be like knock-offs, but they taste worse. So all the fancy folk just import them.”

“Huh,” Alice said as she popped the tab and took a sip. It tasted how she expected it to. “Weird. Does Hell import a lot of stuff?”

“Sure, I guess. I’m not someone who has spent a lot of time studying Hell’s economy though, so I’m mostly just guessing here, but I think most of the really high-quality stuff used in Hell for the last... eh, fifty-to-one hundred years has been made on Earth. Before that it was more or less the same though.”

Alice blinked. “That’s... interesting. I wonder if all of this will have an impact on the economy,” she said with a gesture to the arena. More demons were starting to show up. Alice had some of her shadows ‘eat’ the corpses piling up across the arena floor, to prevent them from building up too much.

“You mean, besides the fact that a lot of dead people means fewer workers?” Marcia asked.

“Ah, yeah, besides that. Does Hell get a lot of things from Earth?”

“Not that much, I don’t think. At least, not that much in the grand scheme of things. Hell’s big, but it’s only the top echelon that really care to live in what you’d consider luxury. If Hell had a class system, then it would only have three classes. The rulers, those kissing the ruler’s asses, and then all the rest.”

“I don’t think it’s all that different from back home, then,” Alice muttered. She flicked her hand to the side, sending the illusion of herself below flying to the side as a rather quick-moving demon tried to crush her with a large hammer. She had the illusion fling its arm to the side and a brace of dark darts stabbed into the demons and started to eat away at its flesh.

More demons were showing up, fortunately, so her show was gaining an audience.

“Do you think proving that I’m the strongest will be enough?” she asked.

Marcia snorted. “Here, no. The strongest princes of Hell still have to put down upstarts every so often. There’s a hierarchy here, of who’s the strongest and toughest, but it doesn’t make the strongest immune to others trying to take what they have.”

“So this is all kind of pointless, isn’t it?” Alice asked with a gesture to the arena floor. One demon in particular was howling, staring at the stump where their arm had been. That hadn’t even been her fault. It was friendly fire... or unfriendly, she supposed.

“No, because even if strength doesn’t shield you, it still brings about respect. Being the baddest bitch doesn’t mean no one’s going to try for your head, but when they do try, they’ll put some real effort into it because they’ll know that half-assing it won’t work. And besides, the smarter demons will just decide that there are other fish to fry.” Marcia shrugged. “Not like you’re planning to get a house down here in any case, is it?”

“I think I’d rather stay, ah, home. The air down here is a little dry,” Alice said.

Marcia giggled. “It can be, yeah. I think your next move should be a little more direct. This is about sending several messages, right?”

“I suppose?” Alice said.

“Right, so by sending a message to everyone’s dreams, you’re warning all of this circle that it’s within your range, even if that’s just to send a message. That’s a lot of power still. Then by beating up all of this chaff, you’re proving that you don’t just have the power to use weird magics, but you have the strength to beat up anyone that you disagree with too. That’s a strong warning.”

“But it’s not enough, is it?”

“Not quite,” Marcia said. “Which is why your next step should be to find that one douche that got away and stomp him flat.”

Alice thought back to the mall, and the demon who’d fled once she’d turned the tides of their fight. “Him? He... well, he felt strong, a little, at the time, but I think I could take him on now without breaking a sweat.”

She was currently taking on literally dozens of demons at that very moment while sipping from a soda in a VIP box. She wasn’t even paying as much attention as she felt she should. The illusion was starting to fray at the edges until she squinted down at it and restored the image.

“Yeah, sure, but he came to your place and messed it up. So by going after him, you’ll let anyone that has a few brain cells to rub together know that pissing you off has consequences. And if you make it particularly brutal, they might decide that it’s not worth it.”

“I thought that people down here would fight anyone stronger, regardless of how dumb an idea it is?”

“Ah, some will, because they’re just that stupid, but they’re not the ones you need to worry about. Most clever demons will gladly take out someone a rank or two higher than they are, but only if they think they can get away with it. For your purposes, I think making a big statement is more important than worrying about some small fry’s retaliation.”

Alice sighed, sipped the last of her can, then crumpled the can and flung it across the room into a garbage pail next to the exit. She leaned forwards, elbows on knees and rubbed at her face. “Being a magical girl is... significantly more complicated than I thought it would be.”

“There there,” Marcia said as she rubbed Alice’s back.

“There’s this whole invasion of Hell, insane magic stuff, and then there’s school and I need to keep up my social life, and I don’t want just anyone finding out that I have this kind of power. It’s a lot.”

“... There there,” Marcia continued. “I’m sure being gifted phenomenal cosmic powers over the concept of nightmares is awful.”

“Yes, Marcia, it is,” Alice said. She sighed and stood up. Then glanced down at the arena floor. A few bigger demons had shown up and were cornering her illusion, and she noted that the quality of the demons in the area had risen overall. There were still imps and a few scattered demons that looked weaker, but as a whole, they nearly all looked pretty strong.

She swiped her hand from left to right, a massive slicing blade of darkness sweeping across the arena faster than most could blink. When it passed, all that lived were a few imps short enough that the blade had missed their heads.

“Let’s get going,” she said as she dismissed the illusion. “I think I’ve made my point here.”

***

Epilogue

Epilogue

“How’s your magic?” Crystal asked. She flicked her wrist and summoned a nice long diamond with a whole heap of facets. It didn’t take any more effort than usual, and seemed perfectly normal. She tossed it into a nearby bush, one that was growing out of the side of an overturned trash can.

The trailer they’d landed on wasn’t the only one around. There were a few dozen of them, each on their own separate lot. Some with fences around, others without, all, though, were very clearly overgrown.

A road ran between the trailer homes, old pitted gravel with plenty of weeds poking out. Crystal had noticed a few cars next to some of the trailers. She didn’t know much about cars, but these seemed pretty old. Maybe from the seventies or something? They were rather boxy.

Alice groaned as she placed her hands on her hips and stretched her back out with a satisfying pop. “It’s working,” she said. A snap of her fingers summoned her shadow from the ground. The darkness spun around her hand, then faded away against the evening’s orange light. “I have a bit of a headache, but I think it’s fading.”

“That’s good,” Crystal said. She shuffled closer to Rending Nightmare, then carefully gave her another hug. “I was worried, you know.”

“Mhm,” Alice said. She rubbed Crystal’s back. “Well, I’m here now, wherever here is?”

“It looks like earth,” Crystal said. “But maybe in the wrong time period? The last world I was on was all mediaeval and magical fantasy. This seems closer to our time.”

Alice rubbed at her face. “That sounds... bizarre. You’re going to need to fill me in on the details.”

“Well, long story short, I think we all ended up split apart? That world I was on had lots of magic that looked like yours, and I think... maybe you were being used as, like, a magic battery or something? Anyway, I found you and yoinked you away, so it’s all good now. I wonder if this world is based on Fractured Time’s magic?” Crystal glanced around, but there were no skyscraper-sized clocks hovering around, or any clear signs of time doing weird stuff.

Alice touched a small, discreet pin holding back a bang and closed her eyes. She had always been leagues better than Crystal with any kind of magical thing. “She is around,” Alice said. “And I can’t sense anyone other than you. She’s not close, though.”

“Cool!” Crystal said. “So we just need to find her and rescue her! Easy.”

“I don’t think it’s all that easy,” Alice said. “Something had to have imprisoned me. Were you in the same situation?”

“Uh, I don’t know? I kind of woke up falling from the sky, so maybe? It feels like it's been a while since, you know, Earth...” She made little explodey gestures.

Alice hummed. “Very well. What do we do now, then?”

“You’re asking me?” Crystal asked.

“You’re the expert right now.”

Crystal grinned. “Thanks! Ah... well, I haven’t slept in... several days, and you were in a cocoon stuck to the crown of a giant daemon king, so I think we both deserve a bit of a break.”

“I... okay,” Alice said. “Yes, I can see why that might be needed. Did you not sleep because you were worried?”

“A little?” Crystal admitted. “So, let’s find people?”

Alice took in a deep breath, then let it out as a long sigh. “I suppose we’ll have to find people, yes. I could eat.”

“And I need the things to send a letter,” Crystal said.

“Send a letter?” Alice repeated.

Crystal nodded along. “Hey, I made friends in that other world, you know? Veronica and Minna and Tobias. I’m reasonably sure they survived that big fight in the end, but now when they go looking for me, I’ll be missing.” She touched the hilt of Scintillating Disharmony hanging by her hip. “It wouldn’t be kind not to let them know that I’m alright, I think. Besides, I dragged them into a bit of trouble, I should send a reward back, or something.”

Alice shrugged. “You can write something whenever. If we ever get a hold of Dimension Death and Fractured Time together, you can probably send it back.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking!” Crystal said. “Anyway. Can you sense anyone nearby?”

Alice closed her eyes for a moment, then gestured off in one direction. “Some people are sleeping that way. It’s not too close, though. Not too many people, either. So, maybe a small village? I’m also sensing other sleeping things around us.”

“Animals?”

“Some, and other things too. I think this might not be the Earth we’re familiar with.”

***

Veronica stepped into her office, then stared at the mountain of paperwork on her desk, and she almost spun on her heel and left.

The only thing stopping her was the insane pain in her feet.

Why did being pregnant hurt her feet? It made no sense.

She grunted and deposited herself behind her desk. It was the same desk that Lucas had used back when he was the guildmaster. He’d left it behind when he retired, something about it being too much of a pain to move. She appreciated it, in any case. It made her just that little bit more intimidating, which in a rapidly changing world was an incredible boon.

The city around them had once been the centre of the region’s trade in daemon heads. Now, with no more new daemons to hunt, it had to change. Fortunately, with her at the head of a large group of people with lots of magical abilities, and lots of... interesting skills that suddenly had fewer peace-time uses, she found herself in an excellent position to grow and expand the guild’s influence.

It was enjoyable, being at the top where she could put her skills to good use keeping people from harming themselves.

She picked up the page at the top of the pile and glanced through it. The handwriting was immediately familiar.

Tobias, her idiot husband, wanted to set up one last expedition to the desert. He had theories about certain kinds of tougher daemon heads which might have lasted to this day, brain matter and all.

She knew what this was about. The lug wanted their kid to have a big step up in the world.

Veronica rolled her eyes. She’d talk him out of it later. They’d made their fortune from there already. Besides, if he thought she hadn’t hidden a few items away, then he was as big a fool as she thought he was.

Veronica set the page aside and reached for another.

That’s about when reality above her head ripped apart, just for a moment, and before she could trigger her magic or duck away, a parcel smacked her on the head.

“Ow! Damnation!”

The door to her office swung open and Minna stared in, clearly worried. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Veronica grumbled. She bent down to pick up the package, cursing the size of her stomach the entire time. She was only halfway through her blasted pregnancy and she hated every bit of it already.

She’d take it out on Tobias later, she decided. He deserved it.

“Oh, I know that look,” Minna said. “Should I tell Tobias to stay at the tower tonight?”

“And leave me cold all night? No. My feet are aching enough as it is without making them cold on top of the rest,” Veronica said. She looked over the packet. Teleportation wasn’t terribly uncommon, but it was potent. This was probably not an attack.

If someone wanted to kill her and they could drop things onto her head so easily, then there were other, better ways about it.

The packet was made of some sort of fine parchment, and was fairly heavy. A letter was pinned to the top of it. “To Veronica, Minna and Tobias.”

She opened the letter, and her breath caught in her throat. The writing was all done up in an embossed... not ink, but thin layers of crystal stuck to the page. There was only one person she knew who could do something like that.

Hi guys!

So, sorry for not replying earlier, but I was a bit busy. Turns out Alice’s (Rending Nightmare) own hairpin yoinked us into this weird post apocalyptic place. Took a while to get everything sorted out, but I wrote you a heap of letters to keep you informed! Now that we’ve saved Dimension Death (She was a few worlds over) I can finally send them all back! I hope you don’t mind the lack of postage.

I also hope you’re still alive! It would suck if all three of you, or any of you, died.

Anyway, enclosed are all my letters and a few trinkets I found here and there. They’re magic and really cool!

Maybe we’ll see each other again soon, too!

Don’t die <3

--Crystal Genocide

“Are you okay, Veronica?” Minna asked. “You’re pale.”

“I... yes, I’m fine,” Veronica said. She couldn’t stop the fond smile that came over her. She didn’t want to. “It’s good news, I think. Well, good news of the Crystal variety.”

***