Lark couldn’t believe it. There was so much damage to the city compared to when the slimes attacked the school. The people who lived or worked in those buildings…if not already dead were going to be.

Cornelius shook his shoulder, tapping him out of stupor. A cold sweat rolled over his back, his heart feeling ripped in half as warm air and familiar smells pressed over him. The gallery wasn’t blackened by death and Carson was on the floor still amiably chatting.

“Lark, you saw something in the realm of prediction just now,” Cornelius said, his voice low yet familiar like the old gatekeeper in Wangshi’s memories.

“Yes?” He glanced up at the windows making sure there wasn’t a meteor about to pummel Earth and that buildings weren’t about to be toppled over.

Elli stood by the thick veil in the center as the auction host gathered everyone’s attention on the floor.

“What you’re about to see will enable everyone to transverse the planet in seconds. The world will belong to everyone as it was meant to be.”

“You’ve developed real transporters?” Lark asked, a slight tremble of shock and admiration in his tone.

“Not developed, but traded for. They already existed in Volaria, so it has the right to be shared. World-traveling allows that to happen in our infinite spaces through portals. Your father found that portal.”

“My father?” But he’s been missing, Lark thought in disbelief.

“Is Soko’s trading business related to my father’s discovery?” he asked as the crowd grew larger.

“After your father discovered the Immortal artifact in the desert, he didn’t return to base as asked and ignored orders to go back and open the gateway between our worlds. You see, opening the path between worlds requires a lot of energy, energy greater than Leylines, and the only energy purer than mana is spirit energy.

One can’t venture out of their own dimension without forsaking something to the gatekeepers. And the gatekeeper of Volaria is somewhat of a mean god but fair, and with your father’s help, Soko’s paved this trade road based on the collection of human energy.”

“What?” Lark’s eyebrows creased together, remembering his own deal with Nympha. Was she listening to this?

“Don’t be mistaken. It’s not death he asked for, but the conversion or manifestation of spirit energy, which can be made collectible through prayer or other methods. It was a slow, but sure process. In exchange for Earth’s spirit, we received mana crystals from Volarian merchants who were made aware of this secret route.”

Prayer? Was he talking about collecting energy from religious sites? What other methods could there be?

Elli and the auction host were ready to reveal the giant mechanism in center-stage. The lighting from the ceiling dimmed as the spotlights on the floor brightened.

“And why hasn’t my father come back?”

“The Volarian gatekeeper offered something so valuable to him, he took it, in exchange for his life.”

Lark clenched his fists as the veil was taken down.

Metal structures held up what appeared to be a mold of a giant goldfish bowl, and cloudy blobs swirled inside it, changing colors from pink to blue. One word came to mind as Lark looked upon the vibrant colors, it was absolutely magical.

“He should be living somewhere in the crossroads between Volaria and Earth, waiting for you now that you know this secret.”

The silver, metal base shimmered with iridescent pink and blue hues as the blobs danced around each other. Mesmerized audience members began clapping before it turned into an uproar. Lark looked to his left where Cornelius had been standing next to him, but the strange inventor had already disappeared.

Looking back to the stage, Elli was gone too, as the host began his impassioned speech.

‘We have several of these transporters up and running with our business partners in Canada, Japan, Egypt, and Australia. Please, don’t worry China, we’ll have these up soon competing with your beautiful bubble tea shops. Am I right, though? If you could have one of these in your kitchens, wouldn’t you just wanna take a bite out of it like cotton candy. I bet it would taste really good!”

The presenter smacked his lips together as he received some laughs.

“China’s at the top of our waitlist with others who we are less indebted to…”

Lark nearly rolled his eyes at that joke, but it was surprising to learn there were other places housing such a monumental structure.

‘Safe points. You heard of this term if you have played games or tag as a child. If you haven’t, please decide on purchasing some Runesteam games for Christmas.’

Someone make him stop...

‘The basic idea is having the luxury to be in a zone of indestructibility. No one can touch you. You’re safe.’

The host pretended to be an umpire and made the sweeping hand signal for ‘safe!’ and, of course, the baseball-loving crowd ate it up.

‘You can access these safe points once you define locations, in our case they are here, Ontario, Tokyo, Cairo, and…wait, this can’t be right, is there anywhere really safe in Australia?’

Lark could hear Carson cackle with laughter near the front of the stage.

‘Okay, let’s check in with our volunteer there to make sure he’s still alive.’ Five screens came down from the ceiling, projecting a similar layout to theirs: a host and a live audience surrounding the transporter.

‘Looks like our host is safe,’ he said and carried his conversation to the screen. ‘Now, do you have all your volunteers ready?”

The host in Australia began rapidly blinking his eyes and the camera turned to the people standing several feet apart in a ring.

‘He’s okay. Let’s proceed with the transfer. You have your communicator devices out, yes?”

The volunteers lifted up their smartphones and the camera zoomed in, enlarging the image an application called ‘Safe Points’.

‘Okay, then. Let’s jump into the express lane with our technologically advanced portkeys,’ their host announced with an exaggerated wink. ‘Now if you look around the room, you will notice that the building’s layout has divided into two sections. One for ‘leaving’ and one for ‘coming in’ like a subway station.’

People began murmuring with questions.

‘The pink platform, on my left, is for the welcoming party, and the blue side is for the ‘party hoppers.’ The host gestured to the screen and boisterously yelled, ‘Ready party bus?’

The volunteers on the screen began tapping away at their phones and the camera went over one of their shoulders, depicting how the app worked. The users were already registered and their passports recognized for travel. They selected their target location from the list of five given cities.

They’re really coming here, thought Lark, amazed by how streamlined the process was. The panel beneath the users' feet turned from blue to a white circle. Moments later, the white outline turned green as the metal contraption above them began spinning. Chills ran down Lark’s spine as he watched all the volunteers disappear in shimmering light. It was a sight all too familiar, but it seemed like he was the only person in the room with a death-grip expression.

Cheers erupted as the volunteers emerged in their safe point. In a zap, several white circles traced over the pink panel, and the light dissipated revealing the volunteers from Australia. Others appeared in the screens located in Tokyo, Ontario, and one in Cairo. All of this happening in less than ten seconds.

The world was about going to undergo another drastic change. Even though nothing is ever as it seems, the full impact of the everyone’s confessions, Mishka’s, the agency’s, and Cornelius… wouldn’t be actualized until the masses were convinced of it. However, the truth is, this secret took too long to come out. To reconcile or adapt to what was originally seen as really advanced human technology to what it actually was, magic, began one of the greatest human tragedies.

Out of the bloated applause came a furious yell. “This invention should be used for the people. How can you be the ones to decide it to a few countries?”

“He’s right!” came the chorus.

The dissension was starting and the host couldn’t control the situation as more and more angry people came forth.

“For the rich people, do you think this world belongs to you only?”

The world belongs to you only? Lark searched the crowd, watching as people stepped away from the protesters. A tray of glass fell to the floor as a waiter was shoved.

‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing—’

A rather large man with the mass of a bear casually hurled the host off the stage. His body violently crashed into the screen recording the live reaction of the Australian audience. The connection dropped as his body slid to the floor in a sickening thud. The same scenario of confusion and dissent appeared to be happening in Tokyo too. The audience in Cairo and Ontario seemed confused before their connections failed too. 

Suddenly, a green fog descended into the gallery and the volunteers who had transferred over had black bags placed over their heads. Several figures dressed in white and blue capes, pushed one of the volunteers down to their knees holding them down by the arms.

A bad feeling welled inside Lark’s chest as he pulled out his ring to summon both Gushi and the revolver as streams of people ran by him.

“What are you doing—that’s not part of the plan!”

It seemed for whatever reason, ‘they’ were having a fallout. Lark rushed into the gallery looking for any sign of Jody, Corn, Elli, or Carson. Meanwhile, Gushi stacked himself on top of Lark’s head and activated Perception.

“For the people! Arise Ifrit!” the leader shouted as a green magic circle manifested around the stage, sprouting green flames.

“Not so fast! You’re committing blasphemy in the name of the ‘World Tree!’”

A separate faction hidden in the crowd revealed themselves.

“Elli?” The young-granny finally appeared in a military-esque uniform. A gray cloak weaved with intricate blue lines covered the mysterious potions she had hidden in her utility belt.

Which group were they defending from? Lark wanted to ask! His heart raced as the leader of the white capes brought out a humongous broadsword. Someone could just fall on that thing and have their body sliced in half!

Elli pulled out an average-looking staff, and stomped it to the ground, disrupting the flow of mana surrounding the hostage. Several more people dressed in similar attire jumped up into the air while throwing talisman-looking things onto the stage. Some of the pieces of paper were burnt up by a red-flame mage in the group of the unknown faction.

“It looks like a fire-warding charm,” a voice, Lark couldn’t say he was glad to hear, but for the moment he actually appreciated having Sphinx around.

“Sphinx, any idea what’s happening?” Lark hid behind one of the glass podiums showcasing some fine art pieces.

Someone quickly ran up to the stage to rescue the volunteer as the cultists and white-caped faction duked it out in the open. Spells of varied elements flew around the room and as fire and ice collided, the original green flames tripled in size.

Mr. Caskey? Lark gasped as he saw his friend’s father get tossed aside by the huge man.

“This is wasn’t what you said!” Mr. Caskey cried out as the huge man prepared his blade over the volunteer’s head.

“There’s part of your answer; a classic case of betrayal,” was Sphynx’s reply as Lark took aim. The sword was about to go through the hostage’s neck as several fiery shots collided against the stage.

He heard a frustrated yell before panicking and ducking back for cover as spikes of ice and waves of flames torpedoed to his hiding spot.

Did I miss? He made a dash for the center of the chaos where he saw something unbelievable.

Carson was holding up a shield with a tortoise-like pattern. The deeply engraved lines lit up in a bright blue hue and sparks flew as the shield battered against the enemy’s broadsword.

The hostage was still alive! And so was Carson!

“Carson!”

“Lark?” The lawyer looked away for one second before the massive man overwhelmed him with raw strength, throwing him somewhere between the blue platform and Mr. Caskey.

He had a clear shot! As flames dispersed from the barrel of his gun, they were blocked by the flame-mage with natural fire abilities.

“Who are you?” questioned the red-hat mage, who wore the same white clothes as the other fighters. He looked much younger than their leader. Maybe the same age as Lark if not slightly older.

“I should be asking you that? And why you’re here causing a mess!” Adrenaline spiked through Lark’s veins as he threw the closest thing he could find, which was his jacket.

The preemptive throw did nothing except burn his jacket to a crisp, and he was hoisted into the air by an unknown power.

“Your people stole Volarian magic and you’re acting like you don’t know?”

“You’re Volarian?”

The red-hat mage gave a coy laugh before tossing Lark into the bed of green flames. “Face Ifrit’s wrath for your ignorance.”

Lark’s dark suit shriveled to rags as the fire raged over his body. Gushi managed to smoke out the flames with both Patching and Damage Absorption as he rolled back and forth till the flames completely put out. The fog and green smoke were everywhere, but several black bags laid on the floor, which meant he was near the hostages.

Fighting against actual magic-users was tougher than he expected, or maybe deep down he knew Sphinx wouldn’t actually kill him so coldly like how these people were about to. Lark drew out Wangshi’s prized sword, the jian, to his side.

Lark stepped in on his toes, practicing the footwork to Huo-feng. Wangshi taught him how to fan out the flames with this whirlwind move, but he couldn’t produce enough internal energy with his positioning alone, so that’s where the jian came in. He quickly turned on his heel and directed a parallel sweep across the stage. A strong wind gathered in his body’s center, and as soon as the white-caped persons noticed him, that power surged forth.

Lark shouted, feeling the sword’s power whoosh under his arms. The warm wind collided against the flames, smothering them out, but they blew around the man’s bloody broadsword like the sea parting in front of a cliff.

Every fiber of his being wanted to scream and run as he searched for the bloody trails leading up to the headless volunteers. It was too late.

“Cornelius!” Lark shouted for the nowhere to be seen Immortal, as the massive Volarian leader stuck his broadsword into the stage in reverence to the headless body moving. The situation in front of him seemed mirrored to when he encountered the Cursed Human in Wangshi’s memories. The corpse’s body covered in green smoke and starting with its legs, black fluid engorged the muscle until it punctured open and sprouted green flames in its entirety. Evil energy distorted the looming pink and blue hues in the metal structure, which slowly churned into a chaotic swirl of matted red and brown.

The white-caped group raised their hands ceremoniously as their leader harrumphed, “Resurrection!”

It seemed his weak presence didn’t matter to them - for now - as their monster summoning ritual was a success.

“Scan!”

“[Ifrit] (monster) (demon) (fire)

A demon resurrected by the Volarian rebel faction, who wish to revive the Demon Towers.

Condition: Summoned by the Volarian-rebel leader through necromancy magic. Has the innate power of flight. Weakened by lack of surrounding mana energy and incomplete revival summoning.

STR: 100
DEX: 200
INT: NA
MG: 100
SPT: 100

Skills
[Fire Magic]”

It was definitely weaker than Nympha, but Lark didn’t have the ability to summon her again today. He was stranded on the stage between the Volarian leader and the demon known as Ifrit. It had picked up it’s detached, blistering head and engulfed itself in more flames. Then with a wave of its fiery limbs, green flittering bugs seemed to crawl out the holes of its face and the heat of the green flames poof-ed them into flying creatures.

“[Flame Locusts]*
STR: 10
DEX: 50
INT: 20
MG: 10
SPT: 0

Skills
[Burn]”

*Green variation.

It’s not that these mobs were super strong, but coming at him in a dense pack like the devil’s hand breaching out of hell, forced him to run.

As small fiery bugs swooped overhead, Gushi’s mantle began to bubble and Lark could’ve sworn he heard a telepathic cry. He opened the spatial ring, ordering Gushi to go inside.

The slime shook its antenna, activating it’s Patching skill to heal itself.

“Gushi…” Slimes were weak to fire. There wasn’t a point in letting itself risk danger for no reason.

Suddenly the slime jumped off of him and dived into the green mist below the stage. “Hey!”

He had no time to pursue as another swarm cut his path. “Argh!” he roared as one breezed next to his arm. A couple of hours worth of swinging the sword wasn’t going to make him an expert sword-fighter, but experiencing a day’s worth of life or death simulations made his confidence grow in survivability as he poised the thin blade outward and swiftly executed the next sword form. Bi-Feng.

Out of the five forms, Wangshi showed him, Bi- Feng had the most tenacious grip that began with countering then redirecting the opponent’s force back tenfold. Lark slashed wide, forcing apart several locusts, but their numbers filled in the gaps. Expecting that, he stepped into a spin and executed several more vigorous swings. His body moved forward, decapitating every insect within reach, but he couldn’t see where his slime went.

“Gushi!”

A blood-curling scream caused Lark to cover his ears as he looked behind him. Ifrit’s body was melting into a pool of green liquid.

“Hero-boy, retreat,” Elli arrived carrying her staff high up in the air. She was levitating.

Lark made the quick decision to scan her as he ran to where he last saw Carson.

“[Elli/Ellinor] (human)
Titles: Illusionist, Con-artist
Known affinities: ice

STR: 20
DEX: 50
INT: 100
MG: 150
SPT: 10

Skills
[Ice Magic] - Frozen Steps, Ice doll*, Mirage-mist*
[Staff Mastery]”

She used ice magic to create body substitutes! He looked back at the demon as it slowly disintegrated into a pool of hot liquid and ash. Exactly what part of that was composed of illusory ice magic?

The white-caped forces must have felt their control weakening as their magic became angrier and fiercer with spells lashing out all around Elli. Part of him wanted to go back to help her, but another part of him knew he would just get in her way, dealing with magic he had never seen before.

“Champ!” That was Carson’s voice. Lark turned around and made eye contact with him just as a hazy figure with a battle-ax loomed behind him.

Carson barely turned around in time to see the flaming battle ax shatter apart his blue shield. He got knocked flat onto his back.

“Carson, no!” Lark switched to his only long-range weapon in stock, sending shots left and right of the Volarian rebel. But the itty-bitty flames he produced were torched out by the larger gathering flames on their ax.

Lark could only hope as he dashed forward with all his might to tackle him off the stage.

The Volarian made zero effort to stand down and issued a loud battle-cry as his ax raised high above Carson’s neck. A feeling of dread and helplessness surged inside of Lark. Would he be too late to do anything once more as his friends fell victim to his inaction?

His legs vaulted with static as the jian rippled with electrifying energy in front of the dropping blade. Sphinx’s unmistakable jeers echoed inside his head. “Use magic.”

So he did.

The first sword form, Gua-Feng, he could do easily now as the energy collected around him, wanting to be released. As the sword’s edge vibrated with both static and wind energy, Lark let a smirk slip and watched the thin blue-hot filaments crackle out against the green flames.

He didn’t wait for the rebel to pull away, and executed the push-back move, repelling the Volarian several feet back in seconds.

Before his opponent had any chance to restart his attack, Gushi reappeared standing upright in its Boiling Body mode with stuff floating inside of its sac. All the tension in Lark’s grip settled down, after watching a stream of water and glass shards pummel into the confused Volarian.

With quick reflexes, Lark picked up his shaken friend before the fire spread out to them.

“You know you’re in danger when everything falls apart at the seams, hey kid,” Carson joked as the two got off the stage with Gushi finishing the job.

“You almost died just now, you clown bastard,” Lark said a bit winded, wondering how they could leave with all the smoke blocking their sense of direction. “How’d they get in here Carson? I thought everyone was checked and where’s that other bastard?”

“I’m not sure,” Carson shrugged while holding onto his side. “He disappeared after I pulled myself together.”

“Are you okay?” Lark looked worriedly at Carson who was pressing a hand aggressively to his abdomen.

“I don’t know. I hope it’s my appendix rupturing instead of a fucking stab wound,” he said as he pulled up his shirt, where a green mark the size of a fist was growing on his hip.

“Ah. Shit. It’s cancer.”

“Shut up, Carson.” Lark waved a hand over the wound.

“[Carson Wiscombe]
Titles: Lawyer, Trader, Merchant, Jack-of-trades
Known Affinities: NA
Age: 39

STR: 20
DEX: 10
INT: 40
MG: 10
SPT: 10
LUK: 10

Skills
[Shield Mastery]”

“Body conditions:
Minor injuries caused by a battle with the Volarian rebels.
Received the cursed mark: Marked as one of the sacrifices to the Demon Ifrit. If not beheaded to accept the sacrifice’s duty, the mark will slowly eat away the user’s body.”

“You’re not exactly wrong, Carson, but it’s not cancer. It’s more like a parasite.”

“How do you know that? Ah. Fuck. It. I’m still gonna die so young and I’m never gonna live to see past the transporters or the Towers,” he cried, dropping to his knees and laid on his side.

“What towers?” Lark stopped short of pulling out a potion from his spatial ring.

Realizing his mistake, Carson, skewed his mouth sideways. “Ignore what I just said. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s supposed to be a trade secret.”

“Tell me, Carson. Or so help me, this will be your deathbed.”

“Ah! Fine! Soko’s is investing in these Towers to rake in more of these alien-tech goods.”

“How?”

“I don’t know! They were going to talk about it after the transporters were revealed.”

“Who? Who told you this?”

“Who else?” His eyes began to roll back as sweat broke out on his forehead. Lark pushed an Elven recovery potion through his mouth.

“This is gonna cost you, stupid Carson,” he said, leaving his lawyer-friend to recover next to the bar. Gushi climbed to the back of his head, activating Perception as he searched for the one person he came to find at Soko’s in the first place.

Jody.

Suddenly, the ground quaked and Lark’s eyes glued to the center of the stage where Ifrit’s figure had fully dissolved. Volarian rebels laid on the ground, while Elli continued battling the main leader in a match of fire and ice. However, she retreated as soon as a piece of the metal structure fell to the floor. Then all of them were splitting into pieces as if the transporter became too much of a burden to uphold. Like a candy machine breaking apart, the energies spilled into the surrounding debris, eating up the flames and metallic pieces up until all that was left was a circle of matted miasma.

Then a rift in the floor appeared, pulling everything and everyone in it.