Somebody Stop Him [Chapters 17-25] (Patreon)

Chapter 17: Corpseworld Caretaker

As Cinder stopped singing and my mind rapidly cleared, I pulled the magic rock from my pocket, my finger quickly tapping out the shield-bubble sequence. The gems under my finger pulsed and a barely invisible bubble of something formed around me.

The Io-made gateway slick layer suddenly popped, revealing a desolate apocalyptic landscape filled with toppled, hollowed out skyscrapers. A truly monstrous cube-shaped megastructure loomed in the background with an impossibly massive dark letter G on it. The skyscrapers didn't make sense - the broken buildings and the cube were too tall, somehow defying perspective, stretching up endlessly into the broiling sky.

A figure stepped onto the stage with a creak of grimy leather boots.

It was… a person in a dark gas mask, a blue-ish dark long coat and red-trim cap. The lines and shadow on the mask made it resemble an eerie smile. Violet lenses moved across the crowd and settled on Emerald. Dark leather glove held a lighter, violet flame flickering and sending sparks flying out of the gate.

"Oh my, what big shiny burning sword you have!" The gas mask boomed with a distinctively merry, French-German accent. "I do hope it's not too heavy for you!"

"DIE!" Emerald swung her sword forward, flames trailing in its wake.

Then something inexplicable happened. Captain simply stepped sideways, away from the burning sword. Emerald yelped, somehow completely missing her target. She careened right into the gateway, burning sword and girl smashing into the snowy, rubble-covered landscape beyond.

All of the artifacts on her ignited and then she started screaming and flailing madly, trailing smoke. Her burning sword fell out of her fingers, sputtered and the flames winked out, dark cracks running along the edge of the magisteel blade.

I watched with wide eyes as Emerald’s gaudy, overpriced magitek hexagrammic gemstones popped one by one like cracked walnuts. Then, the top level armor melted off her body like a peeled onion. The hexamesh outfit under it evaporated away and her skin began to come apart as if eaten away by something invisible.

The audience erupted in shocked screams of their own. The gas-masked figure tilted the mask, violet lenses now scanning the remaining performers.

"Em!" Solace screamed, charging forward with her battle-axe raised.

"Guten Tag!" The gas-masked figure declared in the same overly cheerful accent, completely ignoring Solace's charge. "How delightfully unexpected! Is zat a vintage 1658 executioner's axe? Be careful not to trip!"

Solace suddenly tripped on absolutely nothing, her axe flying up. She rolled badly, somehow breaking her arm with a yelp as she tangled up in her own cape. Her own axe landed onto her back, nailing her to the floor. She choked and trashed and then passed out from the pain.

“Celavi! Violence is bad for zhe soul,” the gas masked thing snapped the lighter shut and stowed it away, the voice far too loud, making my eardrums throb.

“What the eff are you?!” Vespera circled the invincible entity, her black and white wings wide as electrical currents danced up her mace.

The Thunderbird looked absolutely terrified, her expression askew with panic.

Behind the gate, Emerald was already turning into a gurgling soup, flesh flaking and melting off her bones. Her armor had completely flaked off her body, covered in widening cracks. Her overpriced sword groaned and shattered in half.

“Bonjour, madame! I am Zee Captain,” the being from beyond said jovially, somehow speaking what my mind interpreted as bold, purple-tinted words. “Anointed sovereign, emissary of humanity, prescient governor and lady of all things in Captania, the Great and Powerful System Wizard!"

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

System Wizard. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"My, my, such a whimsical audience," Zee Captain declared walking towards the stairwell where I stood like an idiot, frozen from shock. The being's boots crossed the ward and it simply popped away, as if it didn't even exist, hexagrams all around shattering as wardstones overloaded. The runestone in my pocket ignited and shattered, scorching my hexasuit-wrapped hand.

The audience gasped, choked and made noises of pure terror.

"Cryptids and monsters learning magic and is zat a… token human photographer? How delightful!" The gaze of violet, glowing lenses settled on me.

I gulped. Whatever this thing was, it was somehow scanning me, digging into my head, defining absolutely everything about me with a mere glance.

"Ah! Martin, is it?" Zee Captain's voice carried an unsettling echo. "You remind me of my number one minion. Go on, take a picture! I know you want to!”

My trembling hands raised the camera to my face. Something horrid was happening within the viewfinder as if the camera wasn't pointed at a person in a coat. There was nothing and everything on the little display, a trailing shawl made from impossible, incomprehensible shapes made up of endless dark limbs and endless violet lenses. The camera clicked.

All eyes turned to me.

"The nullie's a... human?" Someone in the audience choked.

"Whoopsie. Did I spoil ze plot twist?" Zee Captain tapped a gloved finger on the perpetually smiling mask. "My sincerest apologies, mon ami!"

"Don't listen to this thing, you knobs! It's an abomination from a dead world! It's clearly trying to mess with our heads!" Cinder suddenly rushed to my side, her wings flaring wide.

"Oho!" Zee Captain clapped dark gloved hands together. "A lady… Quetzalcoatl defends her chosen hero! How romantique! Cassiopeia Nova? A very space-y name!”

Cinder choked.

"S-shut up!" She snarled, her feathers bristling. "Whatever you are, you're not welcome here!"

"Not welcome, am I?" Zee Captain pressed a hand to a dark blue coat and black scarf-wrapped chest in mock offense. "But you called me to you with your lovely song, little moosikal bird. Right through zat charming, illegal gate! Now why would you invite me in, if you clearly don’t have a tea party set for my person? Hrmmm?”

Behind Captain, Vespera raised her electrified mace, black and white wings spread wide as she prepared to strike. Lightning crackled between her feathers as she lunged forward.

The Captain didn't even turn around.

"Ah yes, ze surprise attack," the System Wizard commented casually. "I am le shock."

Vespera's mace swing inexplicably careened to the side as if she wasn't aiming for Captain at all. The momentum carried her forward and she tripped over her own feet, crashing face-first into her own mace with a sickening crunch of a broken beak-snout. Her wings sparked wildly as she rolled, electricity arcing across her body in painful convulsions as she cried, pawing at her face.

"Tsk tsk," Zee Captain waggled a finger. "Violence solves nothing, fräulein Vespera. Perhaps you should take a moment to reflect on your life choices, ja?"

The Thunderbird howled in rage, rising up and pointing a clawed hand at the invincible entity. Lightning arched with a thunderous boom. The lighting bolt careened away from Zee Captain and struck her in her own nose. Vespera let out a strangled wail as she rolled and clutched her broken and electrocuted nose, blood streaming between her fingers. She rolled off the stage with a thump of armor and crack of a shattered phone screen.

"Zis is why children shouldn't play with electricity," Zee commented.

The audience was dead silent now, watching in horror as the two Knights were dispatched without moving a finger, while Emerald...

I glanced at the gateway. There was no Emerald there anymore. Only a black, hexagonal bracelet lay idly in the indentation on the snow, impervious to whatever melted the dragon-girl as if she was a sugar cube set into the tea. Bits and pieces of the Lindworm’s gaudy magisteel armor lay around it like broken eggshells, cracking and decaying away into flying ashes.

Cinder seems to have regained her wits from the shock of her friend's demise and then wings flared with impossible colors, her Phase-Shift elongating her face, dark claws stretching out, feathers standing on end.

"Go..." She began, her voice echoing unnaturally and then I stepped in front of her face and slapped her hard.

"DON'T!" I barked.

"Don't?" Cinder sputtered, grabbing at her cheek.

"Do NOT use magic," I growled, grabbing her shoulders and staring into her ocean-blue eyes. "Whatever you're planning to do, it's going to reflect in your face and then your wings might fall off or something! Do not screw with that thing, do NOT target it!"

Zee Captain casually watched our exchange with the perpetually smiling gas mask.

A tall, faceless figure descended from one of the balconies overhead - Vice Principal Graves, his suit immaculate as always. Dark tendrils emerged from his back, writhing as he landed on the stage.

"Ah! Ze local authority figure arrives!" Zee Captain commented, turning to the Slenderman. "Seventeen and a half tentacles. Vice Principal, Graves, yes?”

"What are you?" Graves' voice echoed with unnatural resonance, his dark tendrils spreading wider.

"Merely a tourist," Zee Captain replied cheerfully. "Enjoying zis charming little performance. Though ze special effects could use some work. Is zat a smoke machine? A bit mundane for a school of cryptids, don't you find?"

Vice Principal Graves' tendrils writhed menacingly, filling the air with an oppressive, dark energy. The auditorium seemed to darken around him, shadows stretching impossibly long.

"You do not belong here," Graves intoned, his voiceless face somehow conveying absolute menace.

"And?" Zee asked, seemingly undeterred.

“Depart back from whence thou came!”

“And what would be ze fun in that? Nay! Ze local narrative flow suggests that I cannot leave until I make a deal with someone, monseigneur high school manager,” Zee commented, completely ignoring the waves of static that rolled from the direction of the Vice Principal. “Don’t you know how these things work? If you summon someone to your dimension, you must parlay with zem!”

Iogann, who had been frozen until now, choked out, his entire body shaking as he fell to his knees. "The gate... it... it's not closing! It's still pulling at my mana!"

Zee Captain tilted a masked head. "Of course not, mein fluffy, doom-seeking compadre. I'm propping it open with a Good Word so that I don't lose my way back to Captania! After all, who would feed all of my Snippies if I left forever? A lonely, sad Snippy is quite a dangerous thing, full of angry wishes that yearn to be fulfilled. Zat one time I left him alone for five minutes and he accumulated 8402 Dead Zone viruses onto himself! It was quite ze pickle scraping them all off one by one with my best wash sponge and squeegee. Such complaints he had... such, multitudes of unmerry complaints."

"Be GONE!" Graves raised his lanky hands and reality around the Vice Principal shattered, came apart, my mind catching fire and careening sideways into a darkness-filled abyss, my view of the stage drowning in colorful glitches and flashes of binding, deafening static.

I felt myself falling through an endless void of static and darkness, my consciousness fragmenting like shattered glass. Just as I was about to lose myself completely, my self of self smeared across infinity, something warm and solid wrapped around me - Cinder's wings, her iridescent feathers glowing with a soft, anchoring light.

Her hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me back from the brink. "Hold on to me! Listen to my voice! Stay with me!" Her magic-laced voice cut through the static, clear and determined.

I gasped as reality snapped back into focus, my head pounding madly. Cinder's wings were still wrapped protectively around me, her face inches from mine with naked concern in her expression. The static in my mind receded like an ebbing tide, leaving behind a dull, clawing ache.

I noticed that my knees had given out from the awful aura the Vice Principal was projecting. It plowed right through my soul like a wave of terror, making me sick to the core, had nearly stopped my heart. Cinder held onto me, not letting me fall.
"Ah, young love!" Zee Captain's voice boomed from somewhere close by and also endlessly far away. "So protective! So fierce! Such passion!"

“I said, be gone!” Graves barked. The mind-melting, blinding, gut wrenching, static-filled ocean of terror beat against Cinder's hold on me, my head throbbing like it was about to split open.

"Calmness!" Zee's heavily-accented voice snapped back.

Cinder's wings relaxed, colors leaking from them, her grip on me weakening slightly.

Through the gaps in her feathers, I saw that a dark, static-filled shadow rushed from the Vice Principal towards Zee Captain.

The wave of static failed to reach the interdimensional tourist, flowing back like an ocean wave that encountered an island of jagged stone.

Graves wailed, wrapping his face-less head with his lanky hands as his own attack slammed into him, all of his tentacles coming apart into barely visible wisps of shadows.

“A bit too noisy, Mister Slendy!” Zee commented. “Consider a nap!”

Graves careened backwards into a wall and slid down, not moving. The aura of mind-melting horror radiating from the Vice Principal vanished entirely, the hissing, awful static gone from my head.

Cinder's hands and wings tightened around me once again, her feathers shifting through defensive colors - deep purples, steely grays, warning reds. I could feel her heart racing against my back.

"Alex," she whispered so softly only I could hear, "whatever happens, do NOT move."

Suddenly, Zee Captain's gaze locked directly on me. Even through the gas mask, I could feel the intensity of that stare, going right through the thick layer of rainbow feathers.

Something inside me snapped with a twinkle.

"Ci. Let me out," I growled.

"What?" Cinder asked.

"Please," I hissed. “I need to talk to that… thing. It obviously won’t go away until someone makes a deal with it!"

"But..."

"Let me out! I know what to say!" I growled. "Trust me!"

Cinder's wings loosened slightly, just enough for me to slip forward. My camera hung forgotten around my neck as I stepped towards Zee Captain.

"Cannot define view," Yulia whispered into my ear as I pointed my wristcam at Captain hoping for some advice.

Of course. My own wits it is then.

My mind raced, trying to process what I was dealing with.

This wasn't just some interdimensional tourist - this was a System Wizard, a being that could literally rewrite the rules of reality with a word or two.

How do you stop something that can simply decide that your attacks miss, that can make you trip over nothing, that can reflect any damage back at you? The Captain hadn't even moved to defeat three of the school's strongest students.

Then it hit me - you don't. You can't fight something like this directly. The only way forward was to play along, to engage with whatever twisted game or story the System Wizard wanted to tell.

My palms were sweaty as I stepped forward, but I kept my voice steady. If there was one thing I'd learned from photographing cryptids that could melt me with a single fiery hug, it was how to stay calm in the face of the impossible.

Welp, here I go talking again. I strapped on the Alexander Glock mask harder, aiming my metaphorical gun at unkillable entity.

"Guten Tag," I replicated the thing's accent. "I wish to parlay!"

"Ah," Zee uttered, looming over me. “Excellent!"

I nodded.

“Then let us speak one on one. Let there be a... Pause!” Zee said with a gloved finger snap and the auditorium fell absolutely silent.

I glanced away from the post-apocalyptic figure at the audience. None of Omnid teens were moving. Their faces were gray, without color, not blinking, not breathing, as if suspended in time.

“Are you with them?” I turned back to the undefinable thing.

“Define zem.”

“System Wizards,” I said.

“Yes and no,” Zee shrugged. “Think of me as a renegade... cosmic janitor, a Caretaker of a Corpse world, doomed to forever roam across ze weary land and fix things that cannot be fixed.”

"What do you want?" I asked, my mind racing. "What's it going to take for you to leave? Do I have to wish on you or something?"

"Wishes are dangerous things to meddle with for an untrained Wizard," Zee replied, looking down at me. "For zey tend to expand exponentially and devour all."

"Fine then," I crossed my arms, suddenly thinking about the The Sorcerer's Apprentice's film where the wizard in training created infinite, self-replicating mops. "Then what do you wish for, Mr. Renegade Wizard?"

"I wish for... a story," Zee said. "An interesting fable from the heart. One to keep me warm out there in the endless dark."

I swallowed nervously, thinking of what to say.

"Once upon a time," I began, my voice steady, "there was a teenage girl named Alexa who lived in a treehouse made of stolen traffic signs. She believed that stories could change reality, that imagination was more powerful than any system, any rule. She was a clever, cheeky supervillain and nobody could stop her."

Zee Captain's violet lenses seemed to focus more intently.

"She found four friends and through cleverness and planning she overcame all odds, beat back the darkness, took over the Earth, saved everyone," I said. "Only for a big bad System Wizard to erase all of her work, undo everything, and scatter her friends. This is where I come in. Martin. Her best friend who cannot remember her. Like her, I'm not going to stop until I understand everything and win against impossible odds."

I fell silent.

"Ah," Zee Captain's voice took on a different tone, almost wistful. "Such a troublemaker, zat girl."

My heart skipped a beat. "You… know her?"

"Know her?" Zee laughed. "My dear boy, I was taking her to Manchester! Such a fascinating character - so determined to break ze rules, to rewrite ze narrative. Almost succeeded too."

"Almost?" I blinked.

"She was given a chance to become a System Wizard. She chose a different path. She hijacked zee train, directed it off zee tracks," Zee leaned towards me. "Sent it careening across the void.”

“And then?”

"Ah, but zat would be big Spoilers!" Zee Captain straightened up, waggling a finger. "Can't tell you everything, ja? Where would ze fun be in zat? But I will say... Your curious tale is adequate payment. I am now thoroughly inspired! Here. A gift to keep you warm.”

Zee dug into a dark-blue coat pocket and once again pulled out the old, grimy-looking, steel lighter. A gloved hand threw it my way and I caught it in the air.

“What’s it do?” I asked, glancing at the mundane-looking lighter.

“It’s a Wizard’s implement,” Zee replied with a wink of violet lenses. “You’re a magic-less human in the land of feisty, magic beasts. You’ll need it to fit in. Consider it payment for accidentally exposing you with my Infoscope.”

I glanced at the audience. They were still all frozen, suspended in time.

"Appreciate it," I said. "If I understand it correctly your kind can bend the narrative of reality, yes?"

Zee nodded.

"How do I stop someone like you? How can I prevent my world from being overwritten again? How does your narrative end, System Wizard?" I asked him, feeling brave.

"When you grow strong enough, figure out how to cross the threshold into Endalaus without turning to ashes, find me at the end of everything," she replied, my mind crawling sideways ever so slightly as my perception of Captain inexplicably wiggled from one gender to another. "And execute me with a gun that can kill a god."

I blinked.

"Then take my coat," she added. "And go to Manchester, for it is your Quest to slink amongst the System Wizards to unmake the Rules and tear reality asunder, my darkling."

"What?" I exhaled. "I have to do WHAT?!"

"Shhhh..." The undefinable entity put a finger to their mask and turned towards the gateway, which was still showing that endless, apocalyptic cityscape with the massive G-cube looming in the background.

"Hey!" I called out. "I need to know more! Tell me more about Alexa! What happened to her? Where is she?"

“Here,” Captain answered simply pointing at my head.

I swallowed.

"Oh, and Martin?" Zee turned back slightly. "Do try to keep zee teenage cryptids who summon things zey cannot control in better order, ja? Next time something might come through that won't be as Syntropic as me. You do not want to meet a genuine being of Entropy. Unpause! Have a Good tomorrow!"

Time resumed.

With that, Zee Captain stepped through the gateway.

Cinder's dark claws dug into my body, her entire body trembling.

My eyes settled on the dark bracelet in the snow. I somehow knew that in another second the gateway would snap and then Emerald would be gone forever.

Logically, this meant no more leader for the doomed troupe. No more troupe, in fact. No more Emerald. It would solve a multitude of future problems. But… also, it would not prevent my inevitable exposure. Everyone served their purpose in the grand scheme of things. Everyone mattered in one way or another.

I needed Emerald for my plan, the angry dragon fit into a big part of it all like a perfect gear that spun so many of the others.

"Wait," I yelled at Zee Captain.

"Yeeees?" Zee paused.

"That dark bracelet," I called out, pointing at the hexagonal band lying in the snow beyond the gateway. "Can you... Kick it outta there?"

Zee Captain tilted their head. "Oh? And why should I do zat?"

"Because..." I swallowed hard. "Because a good story needs all its characters. Everyone matters, even the antagonists."

"Hmmm," Zee Captain said. "Very well."

A dark, grimy boot kicked the bracelet out of the gate onto the stage. The gate snapped shut, collapsing into itself like a winking eye.

Chapter 18: Aftermath

For a moment, absolute silence filled the auditorium. Then, as if a spell had been broken, the audience came out of their shocked stupor.

"Oh my god, what a joke!"

"What a bunch of knobfolds!"

"Did you see how fast she melted? Holy shit that was amazing!"

Laughter rippled through the crowd, cruel and mocking. Phones once again came out.

"Guess the oh-so-great Emerald Stratos wasn't such hot shit after all!"

"Owned in a minute by a hobo in a trench-coat!"

"And those two Knights? Tripped on literally nothing at all."

"Yeah, one dumb-ass got chopped with her own axe while the other electrocuted herself! How does that even happen?"

"Serves those losers right!"

"Total clusterfuck!"

I glanced at Cinder. Her wings had shifted to a deep, stormy gray, her feathers bristling with barely contained rage. Her claws were still digging into my arms, though whether for support or to keep herself from attacking the crowd, I couldn't tell.

I bent down and picked up Emerald's bracelet, ignoring the taunts. The dark metal was ice-cold against my skin.

"Hey nullie!" Someone called out. "Gonna try to resurrect your girlfriend's boss?"

"Nah, he's probably gonna pawn it!"

More laughter.

Cinder's wings erupted with a sudden burst of color - deep crimson reds and violent purples that seemed to pulse with raw, unfiltered anger. She stepped forward, her voice cutting through the mockery like a blade.
"SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!"

The auditorium went dead silent.

Her wings spread wide. Her feathers rippled with an headache-inducing reds. Her ocean-blue eyes blazed with absolute fury.

"YOU WEREN'T UP HERE!" She screamed. "YOU DIDN'T SEE WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!"

A Sasquatch in the third row shouted back, "We saw enough! Your whole troupe got destroyed in like, what, thirty seconds?"

Cinder's wings flared wider.

A chorus of jeers and laughter erupted from the audience. The Sasquatch who had spoken was joined by others, their mockery growing bolder.

"Your whole troupe's nothing but a bunch of wannabe delvers!" A Thunderbird called out. "Even a human could've done better!"

"Bet your daddy's gonna be real proud!" Another voice sneered.

The voices became a chorus of cruelty, each cutting deeper than the last. Cinder's ocean-blue eyes, once fierce and defiant, began to fill with tears she was desperately trying to hold back.

"Justice Nova's daughter, everyone!" A Kelpie called out, his voice dripping with cruel laughter. "More like INJUSTICE Nova! Can't even control a simple summoning!"

Cinder blinked.

"You didn't even try using your wings against it!" The Kelpie accused.

The voices became a chorus of cruelty, each cutting deeper than the last. Cinder's ocean-blue eyes, once fierce and defiant, began to fill with tears she was desperately trying to hold back.

"Aww, did we hurt poor Cassie's feelings?"

"Can't handle the spotlight?"

"Go cry about it, cunt!"

I snapped.

My hand dove into my bag, pulling out a show-grade thunderclap. With practiced precision, I yanked the pin and hurled it into the center of the auditorium, covering my ears.

BOOM!

The deafening blast erupted like a small sonic bomb. The sound was so intense it physically pushed people back in their seats. Phones clattered to the floor, drinks and food spilled, and for a moment, absolute silence reigned.

When the ringing in everyone's ears subsided, I was standing center stage, directly in front of Cinder. My stance was wide, shoulders squared, radiating a challenge that seemed to grow from some primal, protective instinct.

"ENOUGH!" I roared whirling around and firing my DSLR's flash directly into the face of the dickhead who'd yelled at Cinder.

The intense burst of the overpriced flash bulb set to maximum made him recoil backwards with a yelp.

I jumped off the stage and swept my camera across the audience, flashing again and again and again, blinding their Omnithean eyes.

"You think this is funny?" My voice was ice cold as I continued photographing faces. "Did you all come here just to berate someone?"

"What's that? A nullie loser defending the band of losers?" Someone yelled at me.

The crowd was beginning to turn against me instead of Cinder.

No. I will not break. I will not bow.

FLASH. Another photo.

"You dumb fucks," I laughed at a group of jocks who started to fling insults at me. "I just got your faces, your voices, your names. Everything. It's 2024. Do any of you have any idea how easy it is to reverse search up a person using the school's yearbook registry?"

"What?!"

FLASH. "You think you're so tough, hiding in the crowd? Making fun of someone who had the guts to get up there and try?"

“Shut up nullie!”

"No, you shut up!” I pulled a smaller bang snap and pulled the string. The gunshot-like firework detonated, silencing the Omnitheans once again.

“Every single one of you who laughed," I barked into the silence. "Who mocked. Who jeered. I've got you all on video. Every cruel word. Every nasty comment."
"Wonder what the school would think about this behavior? Or your parents? Your coaches? Your future colleges?"

The crowd shifted uncomfortably.

"You can't-" someone started to protest.

"I can and I will," I cut them off. "You wanted to humiliate someone? Congratulations, I just recorded your face and its already on the cloud, so threatening or trying to stop me will do fuck all!"

"Effin' nullie," one of the jocks commented.

"That's right!" I laughed. "I am a nullie. And you all know how fucked-in-the-head nullies are, don't you… Tommy Rexof, varsity quarterback. Wonder what Coach Canard would think about you mocking a fellow student?"

I pointed my camera at the green Basilisk who'd been leading the jeers. "And you, Sandy Stratos - doesn't your mom sit on the PTA board? I'm sure she'd love to see this video of you calling someone the c-word?"

The crowd shifted uncomfortably, rapidly escaping as I continued, methodically identifying faces and matching them to names, to social connections, to vulnerabilities.

"Fuck you, nu...!" A gray demon growled.

"Peter Ruvor? Is that you?" I snarled, flashing him. "Didn't you just apply for that prestigious internship at Hozesh Omnicorp? Wonder how they'd feel about your behavior today if I were to email them your video?"

The gray demon's face went pale.

"And you," I turned to the red Omnithean girl who'd made that final, cruel comment about Cinder. "Tekra Nurg. Is your goal to get suspended? Cus I can absolutely arrange it when Graves wakes up!"

“I’d like to see you try, nullie loser,” she growled back, spiked tail lashing.

"Hey," I spread my arms wide. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're all super proud of how you acted today! Get the fuck out, show's over. If any of you fucks want to apologize or try to take me down, you can find me at lunch playing chess tomorrow."

The exodus began in earnest then.

I jumped off the stage and grabbed my tripod and camera, quickly folding the entire setup away.

As the crowd dispersed, I turned my attention back to the anti-delvers.

Iogann stood frozen, his skull-capped wings drooping in shock. The Mothman looked utterly defeated, his oversized hat slightly askew, antennae hanging limp. His usually chill demeanor had been completely shattered, replaced by a shell-shocked expression.

Vespera lay crumpled on the floor right off the edge of the stage, her black and white feathers splayed awkwardly. Blood trickled from her broken beak-like snout, electrical sparks dancing weakly across her damaged wings. Her smartwatch had shattered, designer accessories scattered around her prone form.

Solace, the Olgoi-Khorkhoi death worm, was still pinned to the floor by her own battle-axe. Her reddish-brown skin had an ashen quality and a puddle of blood was spilling around her.

Cinder's wings had collapsed, the vibrant colors drained away to a dull, lifeless gray. Tears streamed down her face, cutting silver trails through her smudged, dark war paint.

I knelt beside Vespera first, carefully helping her sit up. Her black and white feathers were matted with blood, her beak-like snout swollen and crooked from the self-inflicted electrical strike.

"Hey," I said. "Vesp. Let me help you."

She looked up at me, one eye swollen shut, half of the feathers on her face torched away by lightning.

"Why... why are you helping me?" Her voice was nasal and broken. "Why aren't you mocking me like the others? I... effed up bad."

"I still gotta kick your ass in History Club," I said with a smile.

Vespera let out a strange sound - half laugh, half sob.

I helped her limp up the stairwell to the others. Cinder remained frozen on stage.

"Ci, how do we call up the nurse?" I asked.

She didn't respond.

"Cinder," I said softly, approaching her. "Hey. Talk to me."

Her ocean-blue eyes were distant, unfocused. Tears continued to stream down her face.

"Emergency hexagram," Vespera let out, pointing a blood covered claw. "Over there on the wall. Looks like a green Kitlix."

"Io!" I ordered. "Go press it, you're closest."

The Mothman responded, moving as if he was half-asleep. He reached the hexagram and laid a shaking hand on it.

"You okay, man?" I asked him.

"Just out of mana," he slipped down to the floor, large hat tilting to cover his exhausted face. "Gonna need time to recharge. Also, I don't think that its working. The stage ward is... totally fried."

Vespera let go of me and dug into her armor, pulling out her phone. It was burned from one side, the screen covered in cracks and flickering with random colors.

She threw the phone at a wall, letting out a wail-swear. The phone exploded into its constituent parts, bits and pieces scattering across the stage just like the troupe's dreams of hitting it big today.

"Bloody useless Thunderite trash!" Vespera's snarled. She yanked off her fried armor pieces, revealing a sleek black undersuit that was torn in multiple places. "Everything, ruined. How does a Mistmark XII watch just shatter?! You were supposed to be effin' indestructible!"

She tore the smartwatch off her wrist, yeeting it at another wall.

I reached down to Solace, feeling for a pulse. It was there, if a bit slow. The Olgoi-Khorkhoi were incredibly tough.

"Vesp, stop throwing shit and tell me the school's emergency number," I ordered.

I already knew the number, but wanted to distract the Thunderbird from her rage.

"7555-HEAL," Vespera answered, deflating.

I dialed. A pleasant voice answered immediately.

"Skyfall Academy Emergency Services, what is the nature of your emergency?"

"Multiple injuries in the auditorium," I reported. "One student impaled by their own weapon, one with electrical burns and a broken nose, one completely drained of mana. Also the Vice Principal is unconscious."

"Already en route. Please remain calm."

In a few minutes, the auditorium doors burst open as Nurse Keystoni rushed in, a wheelchair strapped to her back. A team of security officers in dark hexasuits followed, pushing hovering stretchers.

"What in Nazareth's name happened here?" The nurse demanded, her green Kitlix familiar sparking on her shoulder.

"We don't know, mam," one of the security guards said. "We had a few men outside... none of the cameras within are functional."

"Just... a poorly planned show," I replied with a sigh.

The security team moved quickly. Two officers carefully lifted Vice Principal Graves onto a hovering stretcher, his faceless head lolling to the side, dark tendrils barely visible. Another pair worked on extracting the battle-axe from Solace's back

"Careful with that!" Nurse Keystoni barked at them. "The blade's serrated. Pull it straight up or you'll cause more damage!"

The nurse unfolded her wheelchair and threw some kind of a gemstone into the air above herself. The gem detonated with a flash, pouring a few buckets of water onto her like a quick rainstorm shower. Her legs fused together into a tail and she rolled herself to Solace.

"Deep puncture wound, possible spinal damage," the nurse muttered, her green Kitlix familiar jumping onto Solace to assess the damage and to seal the bleeding cut. "Get her to the medical ward immediately. She'll need emergency healing. Healer Klementine will handle it. I've stabilized her."

"Thanks... Alex," Vespera muttered gruffly as two officers helped her onto a hovering stretcher. "I... I owe you one. For not being a total dick about this."

"Just get better," I replied. "History Club needs its queen bee."

She let out a wet laugh that turned into a pained groan. "Ugh, don't make me laugh. My face is so busted."

"Any other injured?" The Nurse turned to Iogann and Cinder.

"Just... drained," Iogann mumbled from under his hat. "Need a nap. Will be fine in a thirty."

I walked over to Cinder and pulled Em's bracelet out waving it in front of the catatonic-looking Quetzi.

"Ems is going to need us." I said. "Want to walk with me to the Lazarus cavern?"

Cinder's eyes slowly focused on the dark bracelet in my hand. Her feathers shifted slightly, a hint of color returning.

"Em..." she whispered, her voice hoarse. "She... she just..."

"Melted like the wicked witch from Oz, yeah," I finished for her. "But we can fix that. The bracelet seems to be fine."

"The Genesis Pool," she nodded slowly. "We need to... to..."

"Get her back on her feet," I said, offering her my hand. "Come on."

Cinder's claws wrapped around my hand, her grip almost painfully tight as we walked to the elevator. Her wings remained a dull, lifeless gray sparking with bits of reds and violets at the very edges.

The Nurse watched us as we departed. The ritual of bringing a close friend back from death was a sacred thing in Omnid culture and was Cinder's right.

The elevator doors closed with a soft ding, leaving us alone in the small space. Cinder didn't let go of my hand as if I was her anchor to physical reality.

"Alex," Cinder's voice was small and weak. "What... what the shit was that thing? That... Captain?"

"A System Wizard," I said. "It called itself 'Corpseworld Caretaker'. Presumably it's a being that can straight up rewrite reality with a glance."

"It just... walked through our wards like they weren't even there," she muttered. "Em's artifacts, her sword, her armor - everything just... broke."

I nodded.

"I've never..." Cinder swallowed hard. "I've never seen anything like that. Em was so strong, so confident. And that thing just... it didn't even try. Everything we had just... failed. This was... so... so much worse than the Festival. Slayer! This is the first time Em died at a show!"

"Sometimes the universe reminds us that there are bigger fish out there." I commented.

"Bigger fish?" Cinder let out a broken laugh. "That wasn't a bigger fish, Alex. That was a fucking leviathan playing with minnows."

"A polite leviathan," I said. "She listened to me."

"She?"

"Maybe a he?" I shrugged. "I don't think that Captain wished to be defined by us. I... took a picture. Honestly, I thought that Graves was scary. But..."

"Graves is scary," Cinder agreed, burying her face in my shoulder, her tears starting again. "But that thing... it just dismissed him like he was nothing. Like we were all nothing. How can something like that even exist?"

"Aren't there living gods on Arx?" I asked.

"Yeah, but..." Cinder shuddered into me . "This was different. The gods of Arx are... comprehensible, finite. They can be killed, follow rules, have clear forms, limitations. They are basically people with a single, near-absolute, incredibly high-level skill. They can't even leave Arx cus the lower aesthetic density would kill them... I think."

The elevator dinged and opened to the Lazarus Cavern. The liquid mercury surface of the pool was perfectly still.

Cinder finally let go of my hand and took Emerald's bracelet from me. She stared at it for a long moment.

"What if it..." She uttered. "Doesn't bring her back? What if something went wrong and she can't come back? What if that thing did something to her soul?"

"Only one way to find out," I said gently. "Want to do it together?"

Cinder nodded.

Together, we approached the Genesis Pool. The liquid mercury surface reflected the golden bioluminescent crystals above, creating an otherworldly glow. The statue of the female Omnid loomed over us, her stone wings spread wide and her sword pointing down at the pool's surface.

Cinder's claws tightened around Emerald's bracelet. She took a deep breath, then held it out over the pool. I also grabbed onto it.

"Em," she whispered. "Please come back."

Chapter 19: The Antagonist Role

We let the bracelet fall. It hit the silvery surface with barely a ripple, sinking slowly into the depths.

The dark bracelet sank deeper, trailing silver threads that began to spread like roots through the mercury-like fluid. The threads pulsed with a faint ruby light, growing and rapidly branching into an intricate network.

Gradually, Emerald began to reform within the bracelet's moving ring. First came the crystalline-organic dragon heart, then delicate structures like frozen lightning stretched away from it - her nervous system sketched in silver and ruby light. Then came her skeleton, materializing bone by bone, followed by muscles and organs weaving themselves into existence like an anatomical time-lapse in reverse.

The bracelet rushed up and down the figure of the girl within the silver fluid, printing her into existence.

The process was mesmerizing and disturbing in equal measure. I could see her heart form and begin beating before she even had skin, pumping silvery Genesis fluid through newly-formed arteries. Her crystalline scales grew last, sprouting like flowers made of living rubies.

Cinder's wings trembled as we watched her friend rebuild herself from nothing. Her feathers shifted through anxious colors - deep purples, uncertain blues, hopeful yellows.

Finally, Emerald's eyes snapped open - brilliant gold-orange against the silver liquid. She thrashed suddenly, panicked, and Cinder dove forward without hesitation, plunging her arms into the pool to pull her friend to safety.

I helped haul Emerald onto the stone ledge as she coughed and sputtered, expelling Genesis fluid from her newly-formed lungs. Her ruby scales gleamed wetly under the crystal lights.

"Easy," Cinder murmured, holding Emerald steady. "You're okay. You're back."

I walked to the robe area and handed the dripping Lindworm a thick towel and a robe. Emerald snatched it from my hands, her gold-orange eyes wild and unfocused.

"What..." Emerald's voice was hoarse. "What happened?"

"You died," Cinder said softly, her wings curling protectively around her friend. "That... thing from beyond the gate. It did something that made all your artifacts fail. You basically melted."

"I... melted?" Emerald wrapped the towel tighter around herself, shivering despite her usually high body temperature. "Oh. Right. Everything just... started coming apart... damn. That was... painful. At least it was quick. I don't understand. How did my attack miss? Hey, Ci.... Where's my sword?"

"Your sword melted too," I said.

Emerald's head snapped up, her eyes focusing on me with sudden clarity. "You... you're that effin' pesky nullie. What are you doing here?"

"Saving you," I crossed my arms. "You're welcome."

Emerald's eyes narrowed.

"I don't need saving from a nullie," she spat. "Especially not from some weak little mixed-blood who can't even..."

"Em!" Cinder's wings flared. "He's the one who got your bracelet out before the gate closed. Without him, you'd be gone. Like, permanently gone."

Emerald's gold-orange eyes blazed with growing fury, turning from Cinder to me. "So what? You expect me to be grateful? Bet you just wanted to see me naked, you scale-chaser!"

"EM!" Cinder growled.

"Yeah that's my name, you dum beerch," Emerald snarled. "Why the eff is he here, Ci? What, is he your new pet project? Your little charity case? Why was he sitting in the front row? Did you invite him? I told you that I was going to break your wrists if you kept obsessing over him! Guess it's time for..."

"Vesp invited me," I said.

Emerald's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "Vee? That thundercunt betrayed me?!"

"No one betrayed you," I said calmly. "Your show went sideways because you forced Io to open a gate when he sensed disaster coming. Then you got your ass handed to you by something way above your level. Now you're taking it out on everyone else because your ego can't handle being powerless for once."

"You little shit!" Emerald lunged forward, dragonfire igniting across her claws. "I'ma snap your spine!"

I felt something click inside me as adrenaline flooded my system. The seventeen stolen hexamesh student and security guard suits I'd layered under my clothes suddenly activated in perfect sync, their beast cores igniting with a harmonious hum.

My fist connected with Emerald's jaw in an uppercut, amplified by the combined force of seventeen magitek suits. The impact sent the Lindworm flying backward with a surprised yelp. She splashed into the Genesis Pool, sending silver liquid spraying everywhere.

"Alex!" Cinder gasped, her wings flaring with shock.

"What?" I shrugged. "She was being volatile!"

"YOU!" Emerald surfaced, sputtering and furious. Her ruby scales gleamed with silvery fluid as she pulled herself out of the pool.

I punched her again, directly in the noggin, making her sink under, the Genesis pool extinguishing the sparks and wisps of deadly dragonfire.

Emerald surfaced again, trying to grab at me. I smacked her in the forehead again, making her sink.

It felt good.

"STOP!" Cinder's wings flared, shifting through warning reds and cautionary yellows. "Both of you! Em, he saved your life. Alex, stop dunking my friend in the resurrection well!"

"I'll stop dunking her when she stops trying to set me on fire," I replied, punting the dragon-girl under the silver fluid again.

Cinder blinked.

My hand closed around one of Emerald's horns and held her under. Emerald flailed, her eyes wide. She clawed at my hand, demolishing my white shirt, but her claws were unable to penetrate the layered suits and dragonfire didn't seem to be functioning within the Genesis fluid.

"Alex!" Cinder's voice cracked with alarm. "Stop!"

I lifted Emerald up, letting her surface. She came up gasping and sputtering.

"You..." she choked out between coughs. "You're dead, nullie!"

"Already died once," I shrugged. "Wasn't that bad. Want to try again?"

I ducked her under. As she swallowed more fluid, trashing as her eyes glazed over.

"Alex, please!" Cinder tried to stop me but I was resolute, immovable in my layered outfit.

"No," I growled. "She NEEDS this. She has to see WHAT I saw under there."

After a minute, I pulled Emerald up again. She was barely conscious now, her gold-orange eyes unfocused.

"Listen up, you ruby-scaled disaster," I said calmly. "I'm going to keep dunking you until you learn some manners. Every time you try to attack me, every time you insult me or anyone else - splash. Back into the pool you go. Clear?"

"F-fuck... you..." Emerald gasped weakly. "You're just... prey."

"Wrong answer," I said. "Try again."

Splash.

When I pulled her up this time, she didn't even have the strength to curse at me.

"What am I?" I asked her.

"P-ppprrr..." she stammered.

Her horn cracked as I squeezed it with the power of multi-layered, gloved hand.

"I dare you to finish that sentence," I said, lowering her back into the pool.

Wild, tear filled eyes turned to Cinder. The Quetzi didn't move to aid her friend.

"A pp-pp-person," Emerald choked out a moment before I pushed her under again. "You're... a person!"

"Good!" I said brightly. "And what do we say to people who save our lives?"

"Th... thank..." Emerald struggled with the word like it was physically painful. "Thank... you."

Cinder stared at me.

"I'm teaching her a valuable lesson about humility," I replied calmly. "Now, Emerald. What are you going to do differently from now on?"

"I... I'll t-try to be... nicer t-to you," Emerald managed through chattering teeth.

"And?" I prompted.

"And I won't... t-try to kill you t-today," she added quickly. "Or... set you on fire."

"Excellent!" I helped her out of the pool. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Emerald collapsed onto the stone floor, shivering violently. The Genesis fluid had completely doused her inner fire.

Cinder rushed forward with fresh towels, wrapping them around her friend.

"What... what the Eff are you?" The Rubicund Lindworm whispered, looking up at me. "How are you overpowering me?!"

"I'm... just a person," I replied evenly. "Like I made you admit. Now, are we done with the violence and insults? This is a sacred hall of incarnation, unless you forgot. If you want to challenge me to a duel to the death, you can do so in History Club at a later date. Cinder will serve as my second."

Emerald tried to puff herself up, her ruby scales bristling despite being soaked and shivering. "Don't think this means a-anything, nullie," she snarled, though her voice cracked pathetically. "I'm still going to-"

I arched an eyebrow.

"Go ahead," I said.

"What?" She blinked.

"Do you know why I saved you from oblivion?" I asked her. "You exist as the antagonist. Your role is to antagonize me. Go ahead. Antagonize away."

Emerald tried to draw herself up. "You... you think you've won something here? You think dunking me in the Genesis Pool makes you tough?"

"No," I replied calmly. "I think it makes you wet and cold. And I think you're deflecting because you're terrified of appearing weak in front of Cinder. You saw something under there, didn't you. Do you remember me? Do you remember... Alexa?"

Emerald's gold-orange eyes widened, a flash of genuine fear crossing her face. She rapidly concealed it behind a hastily constructed frown.

"I didn't see shit," she muttered. "And I'm not scared of anything, especially not some weak little..."

I took a step toward the pool. Emerald flinched back.

"Right," I nodded. "Of course not. My mistake. Clearly you're a very brave and strong Lindworm... dunked repeatedly in magic juice by a 'weak little nullie.' Very intimidating."

"You... you..." Emerald sputtered. "This isn't over!"

"Obviously not," I shrugged. "I expect violence and treachery. Just remember this - every time you attack or try to stop me, terrible, awful, no good things are going to happen to you."

"You can't threaten me!" Emerald snarled.

"It's not a threat," I said calmly. "It's a promise. A prophecy, if you will. You're going to keep being antagonistic because that's your role. And every time you do, you're going to fail spectacularly because that's also your role. You exist in a box that you've drawn up for yourself. You are incapable of stepping out of it. You're predictable and this makes you weak."

Emerald's scales bristled with fury at my words, but I could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

"If I let you vanish, had I let your bracelet remain behind the gate," I said. "You would be out of the equation of the future and... perhaps be seen as a martyr of sorts since Omnids don't speak bad of their perma-dead kin. As you are now, you're perfect. Your own excessively villainous actions are going to push your entire crew into my waiting, pink hands."

The dragon-girl glanced at Cinder, perhaps seeking support, but the Quetzalcoatl's wings remained neutral, shifting through thoughtful shades of blue and gray.

"Ci, you can't seriously be letting this nutjob nullie talk to me like this! I order you to-"

"Order me?" Cinder's wings flared with sudden anger, shifting to deep crimson. "You don't get to order me around anymore, Em. Your show was an absolute disaster. You ignored Io's warnings. You got yourself killed and two of your knights were grievously injured. Your fancy artifacts are gone. Your sword is gone. The troupe's over! Go home!!!"

"But..." Emerald's voice cracked. "The troupe... we can still..."

"No," Cinder's wings flared wider. "It's done, Em. You pushed too far, ignored too many warnings. I'm out."

"You can't just quit!" Emerald struggled to her feet. "We're a team! How are you gonna level up?!"

"Level up?" Cinder let out a bitter laugh. "Is that all you care about? Stats and power? Look what your obsession with 'leveling up' got us today! Vesp has a broken face, Solace is in critical care, and you literally fucking melted! If Alex didn't ask that thing for your bracelet back we wouldn't even be talking now!"

"But..." Emerald growled. "We're supposed to be the strongest..."

"We're not the strongest," Cinder sighed. "I met a god today. A real God. Not some bullshit LV-too-high-to-count humanoid on Arx that is powered by tethered souls and citadel cities. And you know what? It didn't care about our levels or stats or fancy artifacts. We were nothing to it. Less than nothing! That thing fried all of the school's wards with a glance!"

The Rubicund Lindworm frowned.

"It made you trip on absolutely nothing! And you know what's worse? It was being nice about it! It was playing with us, Em! Like we were amusing little toys!"

Emerald's fists opened and closed.

"You want to be prey?" Emerald hissed at Cinder. "Fine! Be that way! Side with this... this nullie! See if I care! See where it gets you in a week or two!"

She stormed toward the stairwell, leaving wet, silver-tinted footprints on the stone floor. At the gate, she turned back one last time, her gold-orange eyes blazing.

"When you're done playing with your latest pet project, you know where to find me," she snarled. Then she disappeared up the stairwell, leaving only the lingering scent of crushed pride.

Cinder's wings drooped, shifting through melancholy blues and grays. She let out a long, shaky breath.

"You okay?" I asked, somewhat falling back on the supportive-friend-NPC role.

"No," she sighed. "Nothing about this is okay. The troupe is finished. Em's prolly never going to forgive me for this. And you..." She turned to face me, her ocean-blue eyes filled with a mix of emotions I couldn't quite read. "What you did..."

I tilted my head at her.

"That was dangerously brave and... stupid. Em's going to make your life hell now."

"And fall right into my trap," I grinned.

"You don't know Em like I do," Cinder sighed. "She doesn't forget. Or forgive. Ever. And now you've humiliated her in front of me..."

Then her brain caught up to my words. "What trap?"

"The most dastardly kind of trap," I tapped the side of my head.

Cinder squinted at me.

"The more she antagonizes me, the more she'll push everyone away from her and towards me. Every time she acts out, every time she tries to hurt me or others, she'll dig her grave deeper. She's predictable, trapped in her 'I'm-a-bully' NPC pattern."

"I don't get you. You... you planned this? All of it?" She asked.

"Pff," I waved her off. "I didn't plan for an interdimensional tourist to melt your best friend. But once it happened... well, let's just say I know how to work with what I'm given."

"That's..." Cinder's feathers bristled slightly. "That's kind of scary, Alex. You're kind of scary."

"Says the girl with mind-control wings," I guffawed. "Your singing literally made me crawl onto the stage on my knees. My social rep will never recover!"

Cinder pursed her lips.

I offered her my hand. "Shall we head upstairs, my fair lady?"

The Quetzi-girl looked at my hand.

Finally, she took it, claws wrapping around my fingers.

Chapter 20: Omnigogo

As we emerged from the elevator, Iogann was methodically packing away the show equipment, looking surprisingly calm despite everything that had happened. His large hat was slightly askew as he coiled up cables and packed away various magitek things the purpose of which I had no clue about.

"Hey," he greeted us with a small wave. "Just... cleaning up."

Cinder's wings and tail drooped, shifting to various shades of gray and black. The sight of the stage seemed to bring back a fresh wave of stress.

"You seem... weirdly okay," I commented at the Mothman.

"Had a quick smoke out back," he shrugged. "Plus, you know... I kind of saw this coming. Not the exact details, but... something bad. Remember? That's my thing - sensing disasters, feeding off them."

"H-hey Io,” Cinder let out. “It's... it's over. I told Em that I quit."

"As I expected. At least no one in the audience died this time. Well, except maybe the troupe itself," the Mothman commented.

"Not helping," Cinder growled.

"Just stating facts," Iogann shrugged. "Em's gone full nuclear, Vesp and Solace are in the medical ward, and you… quit. Pretty sure that counts as the troupe being dead. Want a smoke?"

I grabbed Cinder's arm before she could reach for the offered cigarette pack.

"That's not going to help." I said.

"Let go," Cinder growled, her feathers bristling. "I need this."

"No, you don't," I said firmly. "You need hope. And then you need to process what happened, not numb yourself with sus interdimensional smokes. Do you even know what's in them?"

"Who died and made you my therapist?" Cinder snapped. "What hope? What the shit are you on about now?"

"You've got talent. Your voice is incredible. Your performance was amazing until things went sideways. And now you're free."

"Free?" Cinder's wings flared. "Free to do what?"

"To move forward," I said.

Cinder faltered, lighting up for just a moment. Then she stepped back and slumped against a large runework-powered speaker, sliding down until she was sitting on the dusty floor. She pulled her knees to her chest.

"Move forward to where?" she asked quietly. "The troupe was my chance to prove I could be something other than Justice Nova's disappointing, useless daughter." Her wings curled around her like a protective cocoon. "Show went to shit. Everyone saw what a joke we are. What a joke I am."

"Oh please," I rolled my eyes. "That wasn't a show. That was a hostage situation with a harmonica."

Iogann snorted from where he was half-heartedly dismantling the smoke machine.

Cinder's voice was muffled by her wings. "The whole school was here. They'll never let me live this down."

"First of all," I interrupted, "the whole school wasn't here. Maybe sixty people max and I've got all their names and faces recorded.”

Cinder looked up at me, her expression that of pure depression and surrender. She was sinking. I was losing her to an ocean of despair.

Time for the big guns.

"My question is - do you want to push this incident aside, or do you want to weaponize it to make potential Six Hundred Thousand o-bux?" I asked, looking down at her. "Because I've got everything we need right here - the bullying, the slurs, the harassment. One well-edited video on OmniGogo, and we could have your future funded for years to come."

“Huh?” Cinder choked out. "What... what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Think about it," I continued. "Cute Quetzalcoatl girl faces vicious discrimination at school show. Brave half-blood student captures everything on camera. That's social media gold right there. We could have you trending by midnight."

Iogann perked up. "People would actually pay for that?"

"People on WingStarter pay for all sorts of random things like Solar Roadways," I shrugged, already mentally composing the perfect clickbait title. "This is way easier to sell. Bullying, especially overtly hostile, is incredibly easy to weaponize on a platform like OmniGogo or WingStarter."

"Six hundred thousand o-bux for being bullied?" She looked up at me, her eyes lighting up. "Really? That sounds like a made up number."

I sat down next to Cinder and asked Yulia to pull up the article, passing the phone to Cinder when it was loaded.

"Let's Give Merleen -The janitor- A Vacation!

$613,925 OSD in backing

A 72-year-old janitor named Merleen Keeps was subjected to verbal harassment by a group of middle school students while walking home from Jotuna Middle School in New York Citadel. In a twelve-minute video capturing the incident, the students can be heard repeatedly mocking and berating her. At one point, one student shouts, “You’re so f**in’ poor, you lard-ass c*.” Merleen responded to them with quiet resilience, saying, “I try to live by such standards, I do, and it’s not easy at all."

The Mothman whistled low as his eyes ran over the article. Cinder just stared at the screen.

Her feathred tail started to move slightly - the first sign of life since the concert disaster. "So... we could turn their mockery against them?" She asked.

"Oh yes," I grinned. "But.... We're going to do so much more than that. See this?" I held up the 360-degree camera. "This beauty captured everything - every sneer, every cruel comment, every moment they thought they were being oh-so-clever with their mockery. And this?" I tapped the condenser microphone. "Professional-grade audio. Crystal clear recording of every slur, every insult, every bit of harassment."

"But here's the thing - we don't just want revenge. We want to build something awesome. Turn this whole disaster into your origin story."

Cinder leaned closer to me. "Origin story?"

“Hum,” Io nodded slowly. "It's kind of brilliant actually."

“You can help out too, bud,” I grinned at the Mothman.

"You really want to help us? Help me? After I… chased you, yelled at you, kicked your van like thirty times? I didn’t even have the guts to invite you to the show, that was Vee!" Cinder let out, her gaze searching my face for any sign of deception. Her wings were still trembling, but there was a hint of hope in her voice that made my heart do that stupid flutter thing again.

"Yes," I answered simply, refusing to let my eyes linger on the hopeful colors dancing up her silver-blue agate feathers. "But you have to want to help yourself. This won't be a project hanging on my neck alone. Gonna need a... place... to edit the footage and stuff. Maybe the school's comp lab?" I pondered aloud. "If I can install quality video editing software there."

"You can use my garage for it after school tomorrow!" Cinder blurted out, then looked startled by her own eagerness. She blushed as she quickly tried to backtrack. "I mean... if you want to." The attempted casualness in her voice was about as convincing as some of my earlier attempts at being smooth around her.

Iogann looked between us with growing interest, a knowing smirk playing across his face. I pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, sure. Text me the address." I nodded, trying to match her forced nonchalance.

"My dad's workshop computer should work," Cinder mumbled, trying to sound casual as her tail swished. "It's got plenty of storage and stuff."

I flipped the phone to the contacts list. "Here, put your name and contact in there. Add me on Omnigram too."

"Um. Okay,” she started typing in her info. “Hey, what kind of phone is this? It feels like it could survive a nuclear blast."

"Pyroxia X-12," I explained, watching her examine my trusty device with genuine interest. "It's... made in Thunderland for construction workers operating on power-lines and stuff. Has a measuring laser, infrared cam and survives a drop from 72 meters. Ordered it from O-bay.”

"That's... pretty cool," she said.

I shrugged.

"My Omnigram ID name is SongOfDarkness... don't laugh," she said, handing the phone back. Her tail twitched nervously as she added, "And uh... thanks. For earlier. With Emerald and everything."

"Yeah mang, don't mention it," I shrugged, my eyes already scanning the backstage area. The catwalk above looked promising. "I'll poke you on Omnigram. Don't tell anyone that I'm here."

“What?” She let out.

Cinder's ocean-blue eyes tracked my movement as I quickly climbed a metal stairwell and settled into a makeshift nest in the catwalk high above the stage, clipping a hammock to the metal supports.

According to Yulia's report, temperature was supposed to rapidly drop overnight due to a cold snap so staying in the van even with the magic-furs was out of the question.

The industrial metal frame creaked slightly under my weight as I relaxed.

Below, Cinder paused in packing up the equipment with Iogann. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she pieced together what she was seeing.

The tiny speaker in my ear buzzed with a new Omnigram notification.

SongOfDarkness🎻: is that a hammock?! are you effin’ sleeping up there?!

I typed back quickly:

Alex G: Temporarily. Van's heater is busted and a cold front's coming. Don't worry about it.

SongOfDarkness🎻: ...

SongOfDarkness🎻: you can't sleep in the auditorium

SongOfDarkness🎻: security does rounds at night

Alex G: Already mapped their patrol routes yesterday. They never check the catwalk. Too lazy to climb stairs.

SongOfDarkness🎻: alex no

SongOfDarkness🎻: that's not ok

Alex G: It's quite cozy up here actually. Great view of the stage.

SongOfDarkness🎻: seriously, you can't stay there

Alex G: Watch me.

SongOfDarkness🎻: ...

SongOfDarkness🎻:Wait. Where did you sleep yesterday?

Alex G: The van

SongOfDarkness🎻: And before that?

Alex G: The van

SongOfDarkness🎻: And before the fucking van?!

Alex G: Abandoned places. Office towers. Anywhere where it’s warm enough and security is lax. Now quit looking up. You're exposing my location.

SongOfDarkness🎻: get down here

Alex G: No

SongOfDarkness🎻: alex get your ass down here right now

Alex G: Make me

SongOfDarkness🎻: don't make me come up there

Alex G: Lol. What's ur plan? 2 cuddle me to death?

I tried to smash her with a joke.

SongOfDarkness🎻: ...

SongOfDarkness🎻: you're staying at my place tonight

Alex G: No I'm not

SongOfDarkness🎻: yes you are

Alex G: Nope. I'm good here. Got my hammock and everything.

SongOfDarkness🎻: alex i swear to Slayer if you don't get down here...

Alex G: You'll what? Sing me to sleep? Already planning on that. Got a recording. Your voice is lovely.

Cinder climbed up the stairwell faster than I could taunt her again, rapidly navigating the narrow metal walkway. Her feathers shifted through determined reds and stubborn oranges as she approached my hammock nest.

"Get. Down." She growled, looming over me with her hands on her hips.

"Nah, I'm comfy," I replied, snuggling deeper into my hammock. "Nice view up here. Great acoustics too."

"Alex..." Her voice carried a warning tone.

"What?" I blinked innocently up at her. "I've got everything I need right here - shelter, relative warmth, and a recording of your lovely voice to lull me to sleep. It's practically luxury living."

Her wings bristled, shifting to frustrated crimsons. "You are NOT sleeping in the school auditorium."

"Why not? I've already nested," I yawned. "Shoo. You're blocking my…”

Cinder's claws suddenly wrapped around my hammock's support ropes. "Last chance to come down voluntarily."

"Or what?" I challenged, raising an eyebrow.

With a swift motion, she severed the ropes. I yelped as the hammock collapsed, but before I could fall, Cinder caught me in her arms, her wings spreading wide for balance.

"Or I carry you out," she said smugly.

"Hey! Put me down!" I protested. Her grip was surprisingly strong.

"Nope," she started walking along the catwalk, carrying me like I weighed nothing. "You're coming home with me."

"This is kidnapping!" I declared, flailing slightly as my heartbeat went mad. "Io! Help! I'm being kidnapped by a pretty dragon-bird!"

"Have fun!" Iogann called up cheerfully, not even looking up from where he was coiling cables.

"Traitor!" I yelled down at him.

"You can either come quietly," Cinder said, "or I can fly you down. Your choice."

I immediately stopped struggling. "You wouldn't."

"Watch me!" Her mouth spread in a wide grin, wings unfurling impossibly wide.

Cinder's wings erupted with color as she leapt from the catwalk - blazing crimsons, electric blues, molten golds all rippling through her feathers in a dazzling, mind-melting display. The drop made my stomach lurch as we plummeted for a heart-stopping moment before her wings caught the air.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelped, clinging to her desperately as we glided down in a graceful spiral. Her feathers shifted and adjusted with microscopic precision, controlling our descent with ease.

We landed softly near Iogann, who was failing miserably at hiding his amusement. Cinder's wings folded back with a satisfied rustle, though she didn't set me down.

"See?" She smirked down at me. "That wasn't so bad."

"That was completely unnecessary!" I protested, my heart still racing. “Nazareth, who does that?!”

Internally I was laughing like a supervillain. My plan to shake Cinder out of her depression spiral was working quite well.

"I had a perfectly good nest up there!" I continued protesting, though I made no real attempt to escape her arms. "And now my hammock is ruined!"

"You can buy a new hammock," Cinder replied, still carrying me as she headed for the exit. "One that isn't hanging in a school auditorium like some kind of weird theater ghost."

"But I liked being a theater ghost," I pouted. "Had a whole routine planned - rattling chains, moving props around, weaponizing chandeliers, writing cryptic messages on the mirrors..."

"Uh huh," Cinder rolled her eyes, but I caught the slight upturn of her lips. "And how exactly were you planning to shower? Or eat? Or you know, do basic people things?"

"I had it all figured out!" I insisted. "The gym has showers, the cafeteria and vending machines have food, and the janitorial closet has cleaning supplies. "Why must you ruin my Phantom-of-Skyfall dreams with your caring and warm house?"

"Because unlike the Phantom, you need actual food and a real bed," she replied, her wings shifting through amused blues and teasing purples. "Also, you smell like catwalk dust and a sweaty hexasuit. She glanced at my arms where Emerald managed to tear through a few layers. Hold up, how many hexasuits are you wearing?!"

"Umm... seventeen," I confessed.

"Seventeen?" Cinder nearly dropped me in shock. "How are you even moving?"

"I synchronized their activation patterns," I shrugged. "And I'm wearing them in alternating polarities to minimize interference. They're all basic student-grade or generic security-grade stuff. Individually they're pretty weak but together they form a mighty..."

"Dweeb?" She commented.

"No! A... mighty Voltron of stolen school equipment!" I declared proudly. "Like your average student debt, but in hexasuit form!"

"Holy shit," she laughed. "No wonder you punted Em into the pool like that! I thought that the entity from beyond the gate blessed you with super strength in exchange for your soul. Slayer!"

"Nah. Captain blessed me with a magic lighter," I said.

"What?" Cinder laughed even harder, taking my words for another joke. "You're absolutely ridiculous, you know that?"

"Says the girl carrying me like a princess," I retorted. "I demand a tiara if this is going to be a regular thing."

"Keep dreaming, dweeb," she snorted, but her wings shifted through happy shades of pink and gold. "Now, are you going to walk on your own, or do I need to carry you all the way to my house?"

"Well, since you offered so nicely..." I made myself comfortable in her arms. "I accept your generous transportation service. Though I must warn you - the proper princess-phantom carrying etiquette requires you to sing while doing so."

"Don't push your luck, dweeb," she huffed.

"What is a 'dweeb'?" I ask. "Should I be offended?"

Cinder rolled her eyes, but I could see her fighting back a big smile. "A dweeb is... you. And yes, you should definitely be offended."

"I am mortally wounded by your cruel words," I declared dramatically, pressing a hand to my chest. "How shall I ever recover from such a devastating insult?"

"You'll live," she snorted, finally setting me down as we reached the parking lot. "Now help us load shit."

Iogann emerged from the auditorium pushing a huge dolly loaded with cables, hexagram amps, and various other show equipment.

I followed Cinder and Io to a battered van parked behind the auditorium - not my rust bucket, but a slightly less decrepit model in faded purple and black. The vehicle was covered in skull moth decals and "DISASTER AWAITS!" painted in dripping red letters on the side. The logo was somewhat peeling, revealing at least three previous names underneath.

"So," Iogann said casually as we worked, "you two seem... friendly."

"Shut up, Io," Cinder growled, her wings shifting through embarrassed pinks.

"Just saying," he shrugged. "It's nice to see you actually letting someone help for once."

"I'm not letting anyone help," Cinder snapped, shoving a large runestone into the van with more force than necessary. "I'm preventing a homeless idiot from camping in the auditorium!"

“Mmmm, yes, purely practical concerns," Iogann nodded sagely. "Nothing to do with those interesting colors your wings keep shifting to whenever he's around."

"I will stab your eyes out with your own antennae," Cinder threatened.

"Hey, just making observations," Iogann raised his hands in mock surrender. "That's kind of my thing. Noticing impending disasters... and other curious developments."

"Nothing is developing," Cinder insisted. "Get off my wings, you oversized bug!"

"So, are you following us in your van or are we all gonna squeeze into the Mothmobile?" Iogann asked, closing the back doors of his disaster-mobile.

"How'd you know ‘bout my van?" I asked him.

"Ci told me," the Mothman tilted one of his antennae in the direction of orange-red-violet-pink tinted Cinder. "Made it sound like a sweet crib with carpets, beer fridge, beanbags and See-Mass lights."

"My van needs a funeral and a break from being kicked by Quetzis," I shrugged. "Riding with the troupe-gang seems safer. Though I should probably grab my clothes backpack from it first."

"I'll go with you," Cinder said quickly, then seemed embarrassed by her eagerness. "You know... to make sure you actually come back and don't try to nest in there instead."

"Such lack of trust," I clutched my chest in mock offense as we walked to my van. "After all we've been through - death, resurrection, interdimensional tourists, dragon-bestie pool dunking..."

We returned to Iogann's van, where the tetris-like packing situation became immediately apparent. Every inch of space was crammed with show equipment, leaving only the two front seats available. My massive backpack had to be wedged in at an awkward angle on top of everything else.

"Shotgun!" I called out quickly.

Cinder squinted at me.

"What? You can't just fly behind the van like a big kite?" I asked her. "What are those giant fluffy things for? Making pretty colors?"

Chapter 21: Triumvirate Slayer

"I will drop-kick you into next week," Cinder growled.

"Fine, fine," I sighed dramatically. "I suppose we'll have to share the front seat like civilized people. Do you want to sit on my lap or do you prefer to be my fluffy throne?"

Cinder's wings flared with embarrassed pinks and irritated reds. "Neither! We are NOT sharing a seat!"

"Someone's gotta sit on someone," Iogann commented, climbing into the driver's seat. "Unless you want to try to squeeze into the back wedged under the equipment?"

"I am NOT sitting in anyone's lap!" Cinder declared firmly.

. . .

Five minutes later, she was perched awkwardly in my lap, her wings folded tight against her back to avoid taking up too much space. Every bump in the road made her tense up, and her feathers kept shifting through embarrassed pinks and flustered purples. She was unexpectedly light. I supposed that it made sense for a flying-type Omnid to be lighter than a human.

"Not. One. Word." She growled at Iogann, who was failing miserably at hiding his grin.

"Wouldn't dream of it," the Mothman turned the second key in the ignition.

What. Second key?

The van's engine suddenly thrummed to life with a deep, eerie hum that was definitely not standard. Suddenly, the entire vehicle shuddered and began to lift off the ground, wheels folding sideways.

"Um, Io?" I sputtered as the parking lot dropped away beneath us. "Is your van supposed to do that?"

I stared at the [Gurrwulf Industries 2088] winged wolf logo on the dashboard. "Wait... This doesn't look like Omnid Magitek or even mundane Earth tech!"

"Yeah man," he chuckled, flipping switches on what I now realized was a ridiculously complex control panel featuring way too many dials. "Acquired it from a dimension where flying cars are the norm. Pretty sweet ride, right?"

"Acquired?" I arched an eyebrow. "You mean stole?"

"Liberated!" Iogann corrected, pulling back on what looked suspiciously like a flight stick. "From a reality that was about to get wiped out by an entropy wave anyway. So technically, I saved it."

"That's... Bloody amazing, like Harry Potter level amazing," I admitted as we soared over the school buildings. "No traffic, no roads to worry about..."

"And no license plates or flying beast registry for the cops to track," Iogann added.

"What is this thing even powered by?" I asked.

"A fusion battery that expires in 20 years and compost trash," Iogann replied.

Cinder's wings unconsciously spread a bit, catching the wind through the cracked windows.

"The antigrav makes hauling equipment way easier," the Mothman grinned, flicking a switch. "Just gotta be careful about air traffic control and keep the cloaking field running."

"The what now?" I asked just as the entire van shimmered. The side mirror and the front of the van had seemingly vanished from view, leaving only a slight distortion in the air.

"Stealth mode," Iogann explained proudly. "Can't have people spotting a flying van, right? That'd cause way too many questions."

"And probably a disaster," Cinder muttered.

"Hey, my disasters are very selective," Iogann protested. "I seek disasters, I don't make em."

"Uh-huh," the Quetzi-girl rolled her eyes.

As the sun began to set, Cinder gradually relaxed against me, her initial stiffness melting away. Her feathers shifted through peaceful blues and content purples as she unconsciously leaned back, her head eventually coming to rest against my shoulder.

Below us, Leviathan's Cradle sprawled out in all its impossible glory. The massive comet impact crater that gave the city its name curved around the metropolis like a protective wall, its jagged peaks still bearing the crystalline scars of Wormwood Star's violent arrival. The setting sun painted these ancient wounds in brilliant oranges and deep purples, making the entire mountain ridge shimmer like a crown of broken gems.

The ocean beyond the crater-ridge caught the dying light, transforming into a sheet of liquid fire that stretched to the horizon. Massive shapes moved beneath those golden waves - the descendants of the cosmic horror the comet had brought with it, now as much a part of this world as the crystalline mountains themselves.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Cinder murmured, her voice soft with something like pride.

"It's... incredible," I breathed, genuinely awestruck. "Better than in the brochures!" The city itself was a marvel of organic architecture, with buildings that seemed to grow rather than being built, their surfaces alive with bioluminescent patterns that began to glow as darkness approached. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Yeh. When all the buildings light up... it's like flying through a galaxy," Iogann commented, banking the van to the right, following the crater's curve to allow me to see more curious things below.

"That's Dreadspine National Park," Iogann pointed at a massive skeletal structure that dominated the eastern side of the crater. "The bones of the first iteration of the Leviathan that crawled out after the impact."

The colossal skeleton gleamed in the fading light, its ivory-white bones threaded with crystalline veins that pulsed with a faint, ethereal glow. The ribs alone were taller than most skyscrapers, forming natural arches over the North-Western sections of the city.

"And over there," Cinder said, subtly adjusting course to give us a better view, "that's the Triumvirate Slayer's Cathedral. See how it's built right into one of the vertebrae?"

I felt Cinder shift slightly against me, her feathers brushing my neck as she pointed towards a different part of the city.

"Hey, um, Ci," I said. "How come you don't have a personal flying manta ray?"

"Dad doesn't trust me with one," she exhaled. "I failed the flight test like five times. Ughh. I just can't get them to obey properly."

"Don't your wings work on them?" I asked.

"Not really," she sighed. "I can attract em, sure, but not tell a big-ass manta what to do. They don't listen to words."

"I see," I said.

"The dark district with occasional violet neon? That's Scab Row. The neon signs signify gambling dens and massage parlors. And beyond that..." Her voice trailed off as she realized how close she'd gotten, her feathers flushing pink before she quickly settled back.

The city was transforming as night fell. Buildings and cars bloomed with bioluminescence, creating rivers of living light that flowed through the streets. The crater walls themselves seemed to come alive, crystal veins pulsing with deep, ancient power. Massive, sleek flying manta rays and rotund bus-moths took off here and there, weaving in and out of clouds, covered in glowing red and green Kitlix lanterns carrying passengers and goods across the sky.

Iogann guided the van away from the commercial districts, heading towards an elevated residential area that literally rose above the rest of the city. Some of the homes here were practically palaces, each one a unique in its architectural style.

My stomach tightened as I suddenly remembered exactly who lived in this neighborhood. Justice Nova - Cinder's father - wasn't just some random official. He was THE Justice, one of the heads of Omnithornia's law enforcement and judicial system. The man who'd personally signed thousands of human deportation orders.

And I, a completely illegal human infiltrator, was about to walk into his house.

"Hey Io," Cinder called out as we descended towards a particularly impressive Victorian Gothic revival mansion. "Drop us off at the back entrance. Dad's probably home by now, and I don't want to deal with..."

"The usual interrogation?" Iogann finished with knowing sympathy. "Yeah, no problem. The usual spot?"

The flying vehicle touched down silently in what appeared to be a private garden, hidden from the main house by towering crystal Willow-Oak trees.

Cinder reached for the van’s door handle.

"Wait, hold up," I said, gently grabbing Cinder's wrist before she could open the door. "How exactly do you think this is going to work? Your dad is literally THE Justice. You know, the guy who signs deportation orders for breakfast? The one who made that speech last month about 'purifying Omnithornia of human corruption'?"

Cinder's wings shifted through uncertain colors. "He's not... I mean, he won't..."

"Won't what? Welcome a homeless nullie into his house with open arms?" I laughed darkly. "Best case scenario, he runs into a half-blood student sneaking into his house with his precious daughter and will be incredibly annoyed at both of us. Worst case, he calls up a Scrutimancer and then I end up in a detention center or dead in a ditch."

"He's not home much," Cinder protested weakly. "And my room's in the separate wing, he barely ever comes there..."

"Ci," I said softly, using her nickname deliberately. "Your dad hunts ‘human pond scum’ for a living. This is a monumentally bad idea."

"Then what's your plan?" She turned in my lap to face me, her ocean-blue eyes fierce. "Freeze in your van? Sleep in the school rafters until you get caught? At least here you'd have a proper bed..."

"If we do this," I said. "Then we do it my way. None of this back-garden sneaking where we eventually run into your parents or siblings and have to explain ourselves stammering and blushing like awkward teenagers while your father thinks of how to make me disappear. Io, take off. Take me to the Triumvirate Slayer’s Cathedral on 204 Thunderward Street. Dormitory garden in the back.”

"Alex..." Cinder started to protest.

"Cindy," I grabbed her waist, replicating her tone. "Tell me, have you brought Io to your house before? Was it via that sus back garden route where you had to sneak about avoiding cameras? Did that go well with your parents? Did they give Io's hippie robe and hat extra-stern looks and then perma-banish him from ever visiting you cus he smells like a walking vape shop?"

Cinder's feathers shifted through guilty purples and embarrassed pinks. Iogann let out a dry chuckle from the driver's seat.

"Yeah, that was a fun afternoon," the Mothman commented. "Justice Nova gave me a whole lecture about 'appropriate associations' and 'maintaining proper social standards.' Haven't been allowed back since."

"Exactly," I nodded. "So instead of sneaking around like guilty children, we're going to do this properly. Io, cathedral garden, please."

"What's your plan?" Cinder asked as Iogann lifted the van back into the darkening sky.

"Simple," I grinned. "I'm going to walk right through your front door. But first, we need to make me look like someone your dad can't dismiss."

"We?" She blinked.

"Yes, we," I said. "Instead of helping to sneak me through your dad's house, you're going to help me sneak into the Triumvirate Cathedral."

"The cathedral?" Cinder's eyes widened. "Are you insane? That place has..."

"Incredibly lax dorm security," I said. "There is literally nothing of value to steal from administrative offices in the back, so whatever security is there is going to something very basic. I've slept in plenty of Slayer churches during my Urbex days. Their layout is standard. You're coming with me to keep me invisible with those wings of yours."

The van touched down in the shadowy square garden behind an imposing cathedral. Unlike the organic architecture of modern Omnithean buildings, this structure was deliberately archaic - all sharp Gothic spires and carved stone, illuminated by actual flames rather than mere bioluminescence.

Cinder's wings trembled slightly as they wrapped around me.

"This is crazy," she whispered against my ear. "If we get caught..."

"Io, any doomsense about us?" I asked.

"Nah, mang," the Mothman answered, giving me and Cinder a thumbs up. "You're good."

"Perfect," I grinned. "Pick us up in this exact spot in two, three hours. I'll Omnigram you for when I'm done. You're the anon that warned me about the show, yeah? Add me properly."

"Ye, that was me. Can do," The Mothman gave us a mock salute from the van. "Try not to cause too much chaos without me."

Chapter 22: Choir Manager

I kept one hand on Cinder's waist, guiding her across the dark courtyard. Her wings provided the camouflage, their colors matching the shadowed stone so perfectly that we might as well have been ghosts.

The heavy wooden door's lock surrendered easily to my plastic card with a soft click. Old-style locks were hilariously vulnerable to the most simple approach.

We slipped inside, our footsteps echoing softly on the stone floor despite our best efforts to move quietly.

The administrative wing was exactly what I expected - all vaulted ceilings and Gothic arches, illuminated by Kitlix lanterns that cast a warm, flickering light similar to candlelight. The walls were lined with paintings of various Slayer Saints and their heroic deeds, their stern faces seeming to watch our progress disapprovingly.

"This way," I whispered, guiding Cinder down a side corridor and into the head priest's office. According to what Yulia dug up, the Elder Omnid inhabiting this domain was perfect.

With another application of a plastic card and we were in.

I closed the door behind us and slipped out from under Cinder's protective feathers and made my way to the ancient-looking desktop computer that dominated the office's heavy wooden desk. The machine was exactly what I expected - old, rarely used, and probably containing template files for every official document the cathedral produced.

"What are you doing?" Cinder hissed as she kept watch by the door.

"Creating a paper trail," I murmured, booting up the machine. The login screen appeared, demanding a password.

"You're going to hack a church computer?" Her voice was scandalized but also somewhat impressed.

"Pfff," I waved her off. "Obviously not. I'm going to hack a far weaker link - people."

I shuffled through the papers inside the desk for a bit and took photos of everything in the office and then picked up the ancient landline phone from the desk, activating Yulia's voice modulation mode with a whispered command in Kaska. "Yulia, execute Protocol Priest. Voice: elderly male Nazarite, authoritative, slight Southern accent."

"Ready," Yulia whispered back in my ear.

I dialed the IT support number listed on a sticky note beside the monitor.

"NazariteNet IT Support, how may I assist you?" a bored voice answered.

"Yes, hello," I typed into my phone. "This is Father..."

"Yes, hello," Yulia's modulated voice emerged from my phone's speaker, sounding exactly like an elderly priest. "This is Father Matthias Jonannes from the Triumvirate Slayer's Cathedral records office. I seem to have forgotten my password again. These darn systems, you know how it is..."

"Of course, Father," the IT person sighed, clearly used to this sort of call. "I'll need to verify your identity. Can you provide your employee ID?"

"Ah yes, let me see..." I made a show of shuffling papers, then Yulia read out the ID number I'd spotted on the paperwork inside the desk. "EX-2024-117."

"Thank you, Father. And your security question: what was your first parish?"

"St. Nazareth Spire of Lethargic Lake," I replied through Yulia confidently, relying on the AI's reverse-image lookup a photo of that church on the office walls. "Beautiful little place, you know."

Cinder's eyebrows were escaping from her face in a 'what the fuck' look.

"Alright, verified. Your temporary password is 'BlessedGate2025'. Please change it upon login."

"Bless you, my child," Yulia replied.

After disconnecting, I quickly logged into the system. Just as I'd suspected, the computer contained the needed templates.

"Alex," Cinder whispered urgently, looming over me. "Someone's coming!"

I quickly turned the monitor off and slipped under her camo-wings just as footsteps echoed down the hallway. Through the gaps in her feathers, I watched an elderly Omnid priest shuffle past the office, muttering prayers under his breath. He didn't even glance our way through the stained glass office door.

Once the priest's footsteps faded away, I slipped back to the computer and began rapidly editing the templates. My fingers flew across the keyboard as I created a carefully crafted paper trail - letters of recommendation, character references, and most importantly, official documentation of my "charitable work" with the cathedral's youth outreach program.

"What exactly are you doing?" Cinder whispered, peering over my shoulder as I worked.

"Creating the perfect man," I answered.

Cinder choked.

"What were you doing on February 14?"

"What? Why?" Cinder demanded, caught off guard by my question."

"Just answer. Where were you?"

"I was... at the Spring's End Festival disaster," she said. "The one where a bunch of students died from the flesh tree that walked out of the gate. Why?"

"Perfect," I typed rapidly, creating a detailed account of how Alexander Glock had heroically helped evacuate students during the incident, specifically mentioning assistance rendered to one Cassiopeia Nova. "I'm the nullie who helped you during that event."

"But you weren't..." Cinder started.

"Doesn't matter," I said, printing the documents. "What matters is that these records say I was. And they're official church document signed by Father Matthias Jonannes."

"Won't the priest realize none of this happened?" She demanded. "You can't just..."

"Father Matthias Jonannes is 341 years old," I said. "Do you know what happens to old Omnids who repeatedly extend their life using the Lazarus Cavern instead of retiring?"

Cinder looked at me.

"They get super forgetful and confused," I explained, carefully applying the church's ornate seal to each document and signing them with Matthias' signature, replicating it with slight variance. "The mind decays. Elder Omnids mix up timelines, forget whole decades. Their short term memory is constantly disrupted by the reincarnation process. Nobody questions computer databases and sighed records. Especially not from a respected Arch-Elder. Your dad won't doubt these - if anything he might be a bit concerned about why you never mentioned the 'heroic mixie' who saved you during the Festival."

Cinder's feathers shifted through shades of amazement and concern as she watched me work. "This is... so effin' devious. How do you even know all this stuff? How did you know the answer to the secret question?"

"Oodle, plus the sagely wisdom of my personal open source AI," I shrugged. "The secret question is actually pretty standard. Honestly, if I was the school's administration the first thing I'd do is order students to make their own personal AI. There is so much potential in agent-armed LLMs with vision that everyone is utterly blind to."

"Is that how you knew all those students' names earlier? And their connections?"

"Yep," I nodded. "Yulia helps me process and gather information faster, but the real skill is knowing how to use that information within the framework of administrative systems."

"Yulia, generate an image of me, Dr. Slate Glock and Father Matthias Jonannes at St. Nazareth Spire of Lethargic Lake," I whisper-ordered in Kaska. "Don't forget the name tags and event date. Use the image on the wall as reference."

I began humming Omnithornication as I worked forging more documents and contracts, slipping them into appropriate folders and shelves.

"Ugh. I can't believe you recorded me singing that," she lamented.

"It's now my favourite song in the universe," I commented, inserting a usb cord from my phone into Father Matthias' computer and sending the image to the printer.

As the printer hummed, I dismounted one of the many pictures off the wall, popped the glass out and then inserted the AI-generated photograph of myself and my Thunderbird 'father' into the frame, hanging it back onto the wall.

"Holy shit," Cinder breathed, staring at the photo. "HOW?! The lighting, the details, the lake in the back... it looks completely real. How did you... do that?"

"Yulia is really good at using Stable Diffusion," I grinned. "It takes her seven seconds to generate pretty much anything."

"But..." Cinder's wings shifted through confused purples as she studied the image. "Your clothes, your expression, even the way the light catches your eyes... It's perfect. Too perfect. It's just like the other photos on the wall. It's like it was there to begin with!"

"That's the point," I said, saving the photo onto the computer into the Nazarite meetup folder that was already there. "How much do you know about current AI capabilities?”

“Umm. I'm in Mr. Murconi's infomatics class, but he's lame and annoying so I skipped most of it. I know that Omnibook released an AI recently but it's like, pretty stupid, just hallucinates nonsense most of the time, so it's not amazing for essays. Asking it to draw something remotely interesting like some celebrity getting their head cut off gets the ‘requires denied’ yellow cat picture.”

“Sounds about right,” I said. “Many Omnids like you haven't really caught up to what AI can do these days."

"You're actually scaring me a little," Cinder admitted, her wings shifting through uneasy orange-violets. "Like, actually legit freaking me out. You just... Casually walked in here and rewrote reality in what, thirty minutes?"

"Reality is mostly paperwork and photos," I shrugged, gathering the documents into a neat folder. "People believe what they see, especially when memory is imperfect. Your dad might be the Justice of Leviathan's Cradle, but he's still just a person who relies on other systems and documentation to make decisions. I just wrote myself into a month of staying at the church dorms instead of sleeping in the van like a smelly hobo."

"Damn," Cinder muttered. "So... Are we done or…?" She asked as I carefully locked the computer and restored the office to its near-exact previous state.

"We're gonna go to the dorm, so that I can shower and change," I said. "While I do that, you can think of how you met a very brave, nerdy young man on Saint Valentira's Spring's End Day. A choir manager Alexander Glock."

"A choir manager?" Cinder's feathers formed its invisi-canopy over me as we walked to the dorms. "Really?"

"Yep," I grinned, leading her down the corridor towards the dormitory wing. "It explains why I'm so interested in your music, doesn't it? Church choir managers are basically invisible - everyone knows they exist, but nobody pays attention to them."

We reached the dormitory wing, which was exactly what I expected - rows of simple but comfortable rooms meant for visiting clergy and church staff. Most were empty, their doors unlocked and featuring neatly made beds and sparse furnishings.

I picked one of the small rooms in the back, messed up one of the beds and then used a pen to quickly write out "Alexander Glock" onto the sign-in sheet by the door, backdating it to Feb 10.

"Brb," I told Cinder. "Chill in my bed for a bit."

The Quetzi watched me with wide ocean-blue eyes as I rushed off to the bathroom.

. . .

I emerged from the shower dressed in a perfectly pressed set of dark Nazarite novitiate robes I'd "borrowed" from the laundry room. The silver sword pin on my lapel caught the light as I adjusted the silver-black cross collar. Thick, round glasses sat on my nose, making my eyes look far larger than they were.

Cinder became visible, perched with a look of worry on the narrow bed.

"Good evening, fair lady," I grinned at her, adjusting my new thick-rimmed glasses. "Shall we go meet your parents? I believe I'm properly dressed for dinner now."

Cinder stared at me, her feathers shifting through 50 shades of disbelief. The transformation was complete - gone was the scruffy, sweaty nullie in layered hexasuits. In his place stood a proper young Nazarite novitiate, complete with perfectly pressed robes and a demure expression, hair slicked back with plentiful application of gel.

"You look..." she struggled for words.

"Respectable? Trustworthy? Like someone who definitely helped evacuate students during a flesh-tree incident?" I suggested helpfully.

"Like a completely different person," she finished. "How do you DO that? What the fuck. I didn't think that you could look like any dweebier and yet here we are. Holy Shit, those effin' glasses."

"The glasses are essential," I adjusted them with a practiced gesture. "They make me look harmless and scholarly."

"You totally look like a Larry Potter tv set reject," she snickered.

"Uh-huh. Text you parents," I ordered. "Ask them if your friend, Nazarite choir manager Alexander Glock, can stay over for dinner."

"That would be... Pretty out of character for me, but fine..." Cinder stared at me for a long moment, then pulled out her phone with an exaggerated sigh. Her claws tapped rapidly on the screen.

"Mom says yes," she reported after a few minutes, sounding surprised. "She's... actually excited? Says she's been wanting to meet the 'brave young man' from the Spring End Festival. Wait... how in the Abyss did she already know about that? What the fuck is happening?"

"Father Matthias sent a very nice email to your parents about half an hour ago, praising their daughter's volunteer work with the church youth choir and mentioning how wonderful it was to see her again today," I smiled innocently. "The email included a lovely photo of you and me serving soup to the destitute of Scab Row’s soup kitchen."

"WHAT?!" Cinder nearly dropped her phone. "We never... I would never... How did you...?"

"AI-generated images, remember?" I adjusted my large glasses again, showing her the soup kitchen photo on my phone. "The lighting really brings out your angel wing colors."

"You just... effin' created an entire fake history between us in less than an hour! Wtf!” She stammered.

"Not fake," I corrected. "Alternative fiction. The best lies are built on partial truths. You were at the Spring End Festival flesh-tree summoning. You do have an amazing singing voice. I am very interested in helping you produce music. We did meet recently. The rest is just... creative interpretation of events. Now, tell me - how did we meet? Did you think of anything?"

"N-no," Cinder admitted. "I'm not good with this shit. I've been sitting here freaking out!”

"Fine," I said. "Listen carefully..."

I laid out the narrative as we sat on 'my' dorm bed.

"You met me at the Spring End Festival. I was there helping with the choir arrangements. When the flesh-tree emerged, I helped evacuate the attendees while you fought. We didn't really talk much then - just a brief 'thank you' moment, after I pulled you behind the temp soup kitchen's steel door when the flesh-tree was about to pulverise you.”

The Quetzi nodded.

“Recently, you ran into me again at the cathedral where I was organizing sheet music for the youth choir. You felt very bad about so many people dying at the festival, so you started to help out at the soup kitchen, got to know me, got to listen as I directed the choir. In January, I joined Skyfall Academy as a student. Today, I was at your show and I saved your best friend Em from an interdimensional monstrosity that knocked Graves out. You were in shock and I helped bring Em back to life. Don't even have to make much up for this part. You were so grateful that you invited me to dinner with your parents."

Cinder stared at me, her feathers shifting through thoughtful blues and worried purples. "That's... actually fairly believable. Except for the part where I'd help at a soup kitchen."

"Why not? It shows character growth," I pointed out. "No backtracking. Your mom already thinks you've been doing it. The photos are quite convincing."

"My parents are going to have so many questions," she groaned, falling back onto the narrow bed. "They're going to want details..."

"Do you really give your parents details about your life?" I asked.

Cinder snorted. "No. I barely talk to them at all these days."

"Perfect," I nodded. "Then we just need to let them fill in the blanks themselves. People are really good at seeing what they want to see. Your mom probably wants to believe you're secretly doing charitable work, that you were acting out and now want to change. Your dad will want to believe you're hanging out with respectable church people instead of inhaling interdimensional smokes and summoning interdimensional horrors in abandoned subway tunnels."

Cinder blinked at me. "How did you..."

"Your brother told me about the tunnel children's song stuff," I said. "Your family aren't clueless idiots. They know what's going on in your life."

"Oh," she deflated.

"They're probably relieved you're finally bringing someone 'respectable' home," I continued, straightening my novitiate robes. "A nice, proper young man from the church who helps direct choirs and feed the poor. Much better than your usual crowd of disaster magnets."

Cinder's wings shifted through irritated reds. "My 'usual crowd' are my friends!"

"And I will be setting all of your friends on the righteous path as a Goodly Nazarite," I said in an exaggerated pious tone, then dropped the act with a grin. "Or at least, that's what your parents will think. In reality, I'll be helping you build something way better than the Dreadful Delvers."

"Which is what?" Cinder demanded.

"I don't know yet," I said. "You've got real talent, Ci. Not just with singing, but with performance in general. The way you commanded that stage, melted my brain with your song? That was incredible. Your Bard delver skill is absolutely baller."

“I'm not doing any more shows," Cinder's feathers shifted back to depressed grays. "Not after today. And... I don't want to sign up to extra delving outside of Delving class. If I do, my brother will figure out how to attach me to his team on a permanent basis and it'll be nothing but annoying-as-F rules and checklists and wearing bulky-as-shit multi-layered armor that makes me look like an ocean diver."

"We'll make our own delving team," I said. "With you as its Captain and me as Quartermaster. We'll set up whatever rules we want to, figure out how to get the most out of Arx and other worlds. Not just dungeoneering, but everything. I want to know where the Kitlix come from, who makes them and how. I want to understand dungeon monsters and Arx inhabitants and Magitek things and improve upon it all."

"What?" Cinder sputtered. "Who would even be on this delving team?!"

"You, me, Io, Vee and.... Katherine Kells."

"Katherine?!" Cinder's feathers bristled. "The wheel-chair-bound girl who never talks to anyone? Why her and not Solace?!”

"Solace is hella hostile, stubborn and tough, she can remain Em's only friend,” I said. “Leaving Em without someone to yell at is bad. Katherine is an incredible artist and a clever and strong, hella-dangerous hunter," I said. "Her dimensional magic is insanely useful."

"Lots of people in school have useful talents," Cinder pointed out. "Katherine doesn't like me one bit. Why her?"

"Because she knows something important," I revealed.

"About what?"

"About me," I admitted. "About you. About... something else. Something bigger than all of this." I gestured vaguely in the air towards the massive cathedral visible through the tiny gothic window. "But that's a conversation for another time. Right now, we need to focus on dinner with your parents."

"Right..." Cinder stood up with a frown, clearly not looking forward to interacting with Katherine or maybe stressing about my social hacking shenanigans. "My parents are going to ask about your family. Your background. What are you going to tell them?"

"Exactly what the Skyfall and now Nazarite Cathedral records say," I smiled. "It'll be fun, trust me."

I pulled out my phone and texted Io that we were done.

Chapter 23: Dinner

Io's flying van touched down silently on a side street several blocks from the Nova mansion. The last rays of sunset had faded, leaving the city bathed in the ethereal glow of buildings covered in bioluminescent fungai.

We bid the Mothman adeau and began our walk up to the Nova residence.

The Victorian Gothic estate stood in front of us behind lavish gates featuring winged Omnids holding up the archway entrance.

Cinder tapped a card on the intercom and the gate unlocked, letting us in.

We walked up the winding path to the mansion's entrance, gravel crunching beneath our feet. The garden was immaculately maintained, with crystal willows and luminous flowers casting soft, ethereal light across manicured lawns.

"Relax, Ci," I whispered to Cinder as we approached the imposing front door. "Let me do most of the talking. And try to look less like you're walking to your execution."

"Easy for you to say," she muttered, her wings and tail shifting through anxious grays and violets. "You're not the one who has to explain bringing home a total..." She trailed off as the massive oak door swung open.

A Quetzalcoatl woman stood in the doorway, silver-white-pink-green feathers gleaming in the warm light spilling from inside. Unlike Cinder's sharp, angular features, Lady Nova's face was soft and motherly, with kind eyes that crinkled at the corners as she smiled. She was shorter and curvier than Cinder, her appearance motherly to the 10th degree. She was wearing a white dress, white leggings and a white fluffy See-Mass sweater with blue and white Aztec patterns.

"Welcome home, starshine!" She beamed at Cinder. Cinder replied with a half grunt.

"And you must be Alexander!" Lady Nova's warm smile turned to me. "We've heard such wonderful things about you from Father Matthias! Please, come in, come in!"

I bowed slightly, the perfect picture of a polite young novitiate. "Thank you for having me, Lady Nova. Your home is beautiful."

"Oh, please, call me Anitta," she insisted, ushering us inside. "Cassie never brings friends home anymore, especially not such polite young men!"

"Mom," Cinder groaned. "I told you not call me that."

"Call you what, starshine?" Anitta blinked. "Your father and Lance should be down in the dining hall soon."

"Oh, let me take your coat and bag, dear," Anitta offered.

"Thank you, ma'am," I replied politely, shrugging off my winter jacket to reveal the pressed Nazarite robes underneath. "My apologies if the bag is a bit heavy - just some choir music sheets and school books I'm reviewing, plus camera equipment."

"Such a dedicated young man," Anitta beamed, grabbing the large camping bag like it weighted nothing. "Cassie, why don't you show Alexander to the guest washroom so he can freshen up before dinner?"

I followed Cinder down a hallway lined with family photos, noting how her image became progressively darker and more rebellious in newer pictures. The transformation from bright, colorful girl to her current 'I hate you all' goth aesthetic was quite stark.

"Your mom seems nice," I commented.

"She's... yeah," Cinder sighed. "Too nice sometimes. It's annoying. Never listens to me."

The guest bathroom was as luxurious as expected, with marble countertops and gold fixtures. I quickly checked my appearance in the mirror making sure that my goodest-boy NPC mask sat on right.

When I emerged from the bathroom, the sound of voices drifted from the dining room, Cinder waiting for me in the hall looking incredibly tense.

The dining room was exactly what I expected from a high-ranking Omnithean official's home - all dark wood paneling and crystal chandeliers, with a massive table that could easily seat twenty. Currently, only six places were set.

Justice Nova stood as we entered. He was tall and imposing in his formal black uniform, his gray scales gleaming in the chandelier light. His orange eyes fixed on me with laser-like intensity. He was a taller, bulkier, gruffier, sharper and more dangerous-looking version of Lance, bald head gleaming.

"Good evening, sir," I bowed respectfully to Justice Nova. "Thank you for allowing me to join your family for dinner. I'm Alexander Glock."

"Hmm," Justice Nova's eyes narrowed slightly as he studied me. "The choir manager Father Matthias mentioned. You were at the Spring's End Festival incident, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, yes?"

"Yes, sir," I replied. "Though my contribution to the festival and cleanup was rather small. Your daughter was far more heroic that day."

"That's not what I heard," Nathaniel Nova's gaze struck his daughter, making Cinder scowl back. "It is my understanding that Cassiopea was the one to summon the flesh-tree through the gate to begin with."

"Hey Alex," Lance waved to me.

I waved back to Cinder's brother and turned back to my real target.

"I believe there may be some misunderstanding," I interjected smoothly, my voice deep and calm. "When the flesh-tree emerged, I witnessed Cassiopeia actively fighting to protect others. She helped me evacuate several younger students to safety behind the soup kitchen's steel door. As for the summoning, Cassie was forced into doing such dangerous things by Emerald Stratos with wyrm-command Charisma voice skill which bends the listener into total obedience."

Justice Nova's orange eyes narrowed further. "Is that so?"

"Yes, sir," I maintained steady eye contact. "In fact, that's partly why I was so pleased to run into her again at the cathedral. Her actions that day showed real character. Of course you need not listen to me, here is a video taken by the landlord's cam."

I pulled out my phone, displaying a somewhat blurry AI-animated frame of Cinder pulling horrified-looking Omnid kids through the door as red tentacles flashed overhead, obliterating bricks into flying shrapnel. Her wings were spread over the children and her face fiercely protective.

Cinder choked beside me.

"She did not see herself as a hero," I said. "And didn't want you to see this footage because she was indeed the the who participated in the show which cascaded into most unfortunate events after."

"That's quite impressive footage," Justice Nova commented, studying the video intently. "Why haven't I seen this before?"

"The landlord didn't wish to release the footage," I explained smoothly. "I only recently managed to recover this pixelated recording while organizing the cathedral's disaster response records. I thought it important to document acts of heroism alongside the tragedies."

Lady Nova beamed at her daughter. "Oh starshine, why didn't you tell us about this?"

Cinder's wings shifted through embarrassed pinks and uncertain orange-violets. "I... um..."

"Cinder regrets her participation in the festival," I said. "It may please you to know that the troupe responsible for that disaster has been disbanded as of today."

"Disbanded?" Justice Nova asked with a look of surprise. "Really? The Dreadful Delvers are no more?"

"Yes, sir," I nodded solemnly. "After today's... incident at school, Cinder made the mature decision to leave the group. She demonstrated remarkable judgment, especially in protecting me while I saved her friend's life this evening."

"Oh, yes. I heard about that terrible incident at school today from Lance," Lady Nova's feathers shifted through concerned blues. "Were you hurt, dear?"

"Not at all," I said. "In truth, the entity badly hurt every single Omnid who tried to oppose it. The Dreadful Delvers Captain Emerald Stratos died when her artifacts and armor failed catastrophically. Solace Exill was impaled by her own battle-axe. Vespera Simmi suffered severe electrical burns and a broken nose. Even Vice Principal Graves was knocked out. Iogann Wanderer was left paralyzed and left deprived of mana. I was the only one left standing on stage, with your daughter behind me."

"And yet you survived? How?!" Justice Nova demanded.

"The only reason why the entity didn't attack me like the others was because it didn't see me as a threat. As you might have noticed, I'm a Skyfall's academy only half-blood student," I waved a hand at my human face. "Slayer Nazareth taught us that we must wield the sword with wisdom, not merely our strength. It was through humility and careful negotiation that I managed to save the life of Emerald Stratos and convince the entity to depart."

"You... saved Emerald and my sister?!" Lance breathed out, his eyes wide.

I kicked Cinder under the table to back me up.

Cinder jumped slightly at my kick but quickly caught on. "Y-yes," she said, her wings shifting through truthful blues. "Alex talked that thing down when everyone else was injured or incapacitated. He even managed to get Emerald's Lazarus bracelet back before the gate closed. Without his actions Em would be permanently dead."

"Curious," Justice Nova leaned forward slightly. "And what exactly was this entity?"

"It called itself a Corpseworld Caretaker or Zee Captain," I explained. "It seemed more interested in conversation than violence. When I approached it with respect and humility, it responded in kind. I would quantify it as a Paradox-Proxima on the Eugenii Livirii Scale. Impossible to stop, but cooperative when spoken to."

"Here are a few select frame of the footage I've taken," I said playing the video of Cinder wrapping me with her wings standing against the impossible infinite-armed, infinite-violet-eyed thing. "If you wish to see the entire event I can email it to you. Vespera Simmi invited me to the show as a videographer so I recorded the entire thing and was able to get on stage just in time to help."

Cinder's mother let out a squeak as she stared at the video of Cinder and me facing Zee Captain. She covered her snout, feathers turning horrified orange-pink-gray-black.

Justice Nova studied the footage along with his wife, his gray skin paling at the view of Zee Captain on camera. "Truly remarkable documentation. Your camera work is... professional."

"Thank you, sir," I replied modestly. "The cathedral has been very supportive of my work. It helps document our charitable work and community outreach."

"You saved... EVERYONE?!" Lance choked from his seat. "Slayer! Alex! I didn't know! I only heard that things went bad for the performers, but..."

"The entity fried the ward without even touching it," I pulled the cracked, dim runestone from my pocket and handed it to Lance. "The defence keystone you gave me shattered."

Lance turned the dead runestone over in his gray hands, eyes wide with disbelief. "This is... impossible. These keystones are rated to withstand..."

"Everything except a being that can rewrite reality with a glance," I finished. "The entity walked through our strongest wards like they didn't exist. But more importantly, it taught us all a valuable lesson about humility and the dangers of reckless gate-opening."

I booted Cinder again.

"Yes," she let out with a small shudder, her wings shifting through depressed somber grays, sparks of tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "After seeing what happened to Em and the others... I realized how dangerous and stupid we'd been. That's why I quit the troupe."

"A wise decision," Justice Nova nodded approvingly. "Perhaps this incident will finally teach you the importance of proper procedure and respect for authority."

Cinder's eye twitched. I pinched her under the table.

"Yes," she managed through gritted teeth.

I looked at Lance pointedly. The teenage Dover Demon was staring at the runestone in his hand in pure shock.

Then noticing my gaze, he leapt up from his seat. "Thank you! Thank you so much for saving my sister and her friends! I can't believe you managed to negotiate with something that alien!"

"Thank you so much, dear!" Anitta Nova added, her feathers shifting through grateful pinks and warm golds. She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "Not many would have the courage to approach such a dangerous entity. You truly embody the teachings of Slayer Nazareth - wisdom over violence."

I bowed my head modestly. "I'm just grateful I could help, ma'am."

Justice Nova's gaze pinned me even harder. "Tell me more about this negotiation. What exactly did you say to this... entity?"

I took a careful breath, choosing my words precisely. "I simply listened and offered it a story. The entity seemed more interested in narrative than violence. It wanted to hear something that would... inspire it, I suppose."

"So what did you tell it?" Justice Nova asked.

"I told it my story," I lied smoothly. "It stopped time with a word for several minutes... So I told it..."

I hesitated just long enough to make it seem like I was carefully selecting my words. "A story about hope. About someone who refused to give up, even when the world seemed determined to break them."

Cinder shot me a sideways glance.

"I told it about my childhood in North Acadia," I began. "And my study in South Acadia at Saint Christopher's."

I let my voice grow softer, more vulnerable. "My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was twelve. The chemical treatments were... ineffective. But she never lost her faith. She played the organ at the local Nazarite Church until she physically couldn't anymore."

Lady Nova's feathers shifted through sympathetic, warm colors. Even Justice Nova's stern expression softened slightly.

"Then my school... burned down," I continued, staring down at my plate. "An electrical fire. We lost everything - the music sheets, the instruments, all of it. But the community came together. We held choir practice in people's homes, in parks, anywhere we could."

"My mom died last spring," I paused, taking a shaky breath. "Then, the mountain avalanche took my father... And... his Lazarus bracelet was never found."

I thought about holding my mom's hand in the hospital when her heart stopped and my eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, you poor dear," Lady Nova breathed.

"I almost broke then," I admitted quietly. "But my mother... even through her illness, she kept telling me to have faith. To keep singing, keep helping others. Choir music became my anchor."

Cinder was staring at me, her ocean-blue eyes wide. I could see her struggling to reconcile this story with what she knew about me to understand where the truth ended and the lies began.

After losing both parents, I left South Acadia," I continued, carefully wiping my eyes with a napkin. "Father Matthias was incredibly kind, offering me a place to stay in the Cathedral dormitory while I study at Skyfall Academy. He says that music heals the soul, and I've found that to be true. Working with the youth choir, helping at the soup kitchen... it gave me purpose."

"That's why today's incident affected me so deeply," I added, glancing at Cinder. "Seeing someone with such incredible musical talent risk their life unnecessarily... it reminded me of what really matters. Not power or status, but using our gifts to help others."

"A truly inspiring perspective," Justice Nova nodded approvingly. "And quite mature for someone your age."

"The Slayer teaches us that true strength comes from facing adversity with grace," I quoted. "I'm just trying to live up to those words."

"Speaking of music," Lady Nova interjected warmly, "Cassie has such a lovely voice. Perhaps you two could work together? The cathedral's youth choir could really benefit from her talent."

Cinder choked on her drink.

"Mom!" She protested.

"Actually," I said carefully, "It is my sincerest wish to be Cassiopeia's manager. Ever since I heard her sing, I've been amazed by her talent. Her voice has incredible power - not just in terms of skill, but real spiritual resonance. The way she can move people's hearts..."

"What a wonderful idea!" Lady Nova beamed, her wings fluttering with excitement. "Starshine, you could perform at the cathedral!"

"And what exactly would this management entail?" Cinder's father asked.

"I leave that entirely up to you, Mr. Nova. As her father, you would have final say on all performances and venues," I replied. "My role would simply be to help Cinder develop her talent in a safe, structured environment. No more dangerous summoning shows or illegal gates - just pure musical performance."

Cinder's eyes were boring a hole in the side of my head.

"And what would you get out of this arrangement?" Justice Nova wondered.

"The opportunity to work with an incredible talent," I answered without hesitation. "And perhaps... a chance to build something meaningful. The youth choir is wonderful work, but with Cinder's talent, I could create something truly special, help her bloom."

"Hmm," Justice Nova leaned back slightly. "And what are your thoughts on this, Cassiopeia?"

Cinder's wings shifted through uncertain purples and thoughtful blues. "I... um..."

I kicked her gently under the table again.

"I trust... Alex," she finally mewled. "He's already proven he can keep me safe, and... I do miss just singing without all the dangerous stuff."

"Well, I think it's a wonderful idea!" Lady Nova clapped her hands together. "Perhaps you could start with some simple hymns? The cathedral's acoustic are ever-so-lovely... oh my look at the time!"

"Lenora!" She called out up the large stairwell, her voice carrying unnaturally far. "Dinner's ready, sweetheart!"

The sound of rapid footsteps thundered down the stairs, and a small black blur burst into the dining room. A young Black Shuck Omnid, no more than eleven, skidded to a halt beside the table. She had jet-black fur, piercing yellow eyes, and was wearing what appeared to be a black and pink princess dress.

"Sorry I'm late!" she announced cheerfully. "I was teaching Mr. Snuggles proper tea party etiquette!" Her yellow eyes landed on me and widened with curiosity. "Who're you?"

"This is Alexander Glock," Lady Nova explained as she began serving what appeared to be some kind of caviar and calimari slices. "He's a friend of your sister's from school... a choir manager."

"A friend of Cassie's?" Lenora's tail began wagging excitedly. "But Cassie doesn't have friends! Well, except for that scary ruby dragon lady and the moth boy who smells funny!"

"Leny!" Cinder hissed, her feathers bristling with embarrassment.

"What? It's true!" Lenora protested, climbing into her chair and sticking her tongue out at Cinder. "You never bring anyone home!"

"Will Lady Xastigar be joining us for dinner?" I asked politely.

"Not tonight, dear," Lady Nova's feathers shifted from pink to silver-blue and gray. "She's ever so busy with her Arch-CEO work. I believe she's in Thunderland this week negotiating another big contract for Omnimart."

I exhaled mentally. Xastigar Obliss-Nova was a very dangerous woman who could smell lies from a mile away according to Yulia's report on her. Convincing her of my Good-choir-boy persona would be incredibly difficult.

"Mom's probably doing another hostile takeover," Lenora commented cheerfully, stabbing a piece of meat with her fork. "She's super good at those! Last week she made three CEOs cry!"

"Lenoralynne," Justice Nova's voice carried a warning tone. "What have we talked about discussing family business at the dinner table?"

"Sorry daddy," the young Black Shuck ducked her head, though her yellow eyes still sparkled with mischief. "But it's true! Mother says that tears are just weakness leaving the body!"

I noticed Cinder's wings shift through dark grays and violets at the mention of her Prima-mother. Interesting family dynamics.

Anitta quickly brought out more food. The steaks were massive - easily two inches thick and practically raw in the middle, bleeding pink juice onto the plates. The Hearth-Mother served them with a flourish, her feathers shifting through proud pinks as she distributed portions.

"I hope you don't mind your meat rare, Alexander," she said apologetically. "We Quetzalcoatl tend to prefer our food... minimally cooked."

"Not at all, ma'am," I replied. "My mother taught me how to prepare raw fish the Kaska Dena way. She was a First Nations human, one of the last several hundred speakers of the Kaska language, an Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in Znetc human reservation area of North Acadia."

Justice Nova tore into his steak with frightening efficiency, his sharp teeth making quick work of the rare meat. Lance followed suit, while Lenora attacked her portion with enthusiastic if somewhat messy determination.

Cinder glanced at me as I uttered the Nazarite prayer of the Leviathan's Slayer and delicately cut my steak into manageable pieces. The meat was so rare it was practically mooing.

"So, Alexander," Justice Nova said between bites. "What are your thoughts on the current human migration crisis?"

I carefully chewed and swallowed before responding. "A complex issue that requires careful consideration of both security and humanitarian concerns, sir. While we must protect our borders and society, we should also remember the Slayer's teachings about mercy and compassion."

"Interesting perspective," Justice Nova's orange eyes studied me intently. "And what of the increasing human criminal activity in Scab Row?"

"Dad," Cinder growled warningly.

"It's alright," I said softly. "As someone who works in the soup kitchen, I see firsthand how poverty and desperation can drive people to make poor choices. But I also see how kindness and opportunity can change lives. Just last week, we helped three human families find legitimate work through the cathedral's employment program."

"The cathedral does excellent work," Justice Nova nodded. "Though some might argue that such charity only encourages more illegal immigration and Topaz spread. If it were up to me alone, I would level all of Scab Row and ship every human there off to the Alisson Islands."

"With respect, sir," I replied carefully, setting down my fork, "I believe there may be a more efficient approach. The human workforce, properly managed and integrated, could actually benefit Omnithornia's economy, particularly in areas where Omnids are less interested in working."

"Explain," Justice said.

"Take artificial intelligence development, for instance," I continued. "Humans, lacking natural magical abilities, have developed remarkable technological innovations to compensate. Their understanding of machine learning and neural networks could be invaluable for improving our magitek infrastructure."

"An interesting point," Justice Nova conceded. "Though how would you prevent security risks? Many Conservationist Party Omnids are concerned about Instrumental Convergence."

"That's actually only a problem in smaller agents," I said. "A properly characterized, well-personalized Large Language Model tied to a multitude of agents is actually completely incapable of over-focusing on a task."

"Really?" Nathaniel's eyebrows went up.

"Indeed! For instance," I continued smoothly, "by pairing human AI developers with Omnid Scrutimancers, we could create hybrid systems that combine the best of both worlds - human innovation with Omnid magical safeguards. The Conservationists' concerns about instrumental convergence could be easily be addressed by having Death Mothmen thoroughly examine LLMs with their doomsday sense."

"Hrm," the Justice seemed to contemplate my words.

"Consider the delving industry," I elaborated. "Currently, many promising dungeon locations go unexplored because they're deemed too dangerous or resource-intensive for Omnid teams. But humans, with their technological approach and nothing to lose, could serve as excellent scouts and support personnel. Humans armed with personal AIs and drone-scouts could map dungeons with incredible efficiency."

"You seem quite knowledgeable about AI," Justice Nova pondered. "and here I thought that you were merely a choir manager."

"The Triumvirate Slayer's cathedral's youth outreach program works extensively with human children in Scab Row," I explained smoothly. "Understanding their perspective and capabilities helps us serve them better. Plus, my late mother's work with First Nations language preservation relied heavily on AI tools."

The dinner conversation spiraled into increasingly complex territory as I led Justice Nova through discussions of AI ethics, dungeon economics, and integration policies. His orange eyes gleamed with growing interest as I wove together threads of theology, technology, and theoretical social reform into a tapestry that painted me as both deeply traditional and innovatively progressive in just the right ways.

Cinder watched this verbal dance with barely concealed amazement as I smoothly navigated her father's probing questions, while Lenora peppered the conversation with amusingly inappropriate, blunt comments.

Lady Nova beamed throughout the entire discussion, clearly delighted that her daughter had brought home such a well-spoken young man.

Lance simply looked shell-shocked. He had lost the trail of my conversation with his father about twenty minutes ago. It's not that he was an idiot, he simply never truly dug into the social and administrative structures of Omnithornia as deeply or as desperately as I had to, nor did he have a personal AI whispering topic advice into his ear.

As the conversation wound down, Lady Nova glanced at the ornate clock on the wall. "Oh my, look at the time! Alexander dear, you simply must stay the night. I won't hear of you walking back to the cathedral at this hour."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose..." I began with perfectly calculated reluctance.

"Nonsense!" Lady Nova insisted, her feathers shifting through determined pinks. "We have plenty of guest rooms, and it's much too dark for you to be walking about. The streets aren't safe at night, especially for a young half-blood."

Justice Nova nodded in agreement from his seat by the ornate fireplace ignited by an Ignix Kitlix, the crystalline kitten setting the wood alight.

Justice Nova nodded in agreement. "Indeed. The guest room in the east wing should be suitable. Lance, show Alexander to his quarters."

Chapter 24: Winged Interrogator

Lance led me up a grand staircase and down a hallway lined with even more family portraits. The guest room was larger than my entire van, with a four-poster bed and antique furniture that probably cost more than everything I owned combined.

"So..." Lance said as soon as we were alone, closing the door behind us. "You're really something else, aren't you?"

I arched an eyebrow at him.

"The way you handled my father..." Lance shook his head in amazement. "I've never seen anyone navigate his interrogations so smoothly. And the Spring's End Festival? The footage? Where did that even come from?"

"Way under fourty two hours," I smiled. "I promised you that I would fix everything, didn't I? D&D is no more."

"Damn it man," Lance exhailed. "I didn't know that you and Cass were friends for over a month. Way to bamboozle me and Cindy! Abyss, I thought that you... damn."

"Did you notice something different about Cass?" I asked, derailing the conversation away from the Festival.

"Uh... yeah," Lance said. "She didn't smell like smokes tonight. She always comes home smelling like that shit and then mom has to burn incense to cover it up... otherwise dad starts yelling at her," Lance blinked. "And she actually talked at dinner. Usually she just grunts at questions and then storms off to her room."

"Small steps," I nodded with a smug look.

Lance suddenly wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug, lifting me off my feet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed in a fierce whisper. "You have no idea how worried we've all been about her! The smoking, those damned shows, Em, the way she's been pushing everyone away..."

The single security hexamesh suit under my Nazarite novitiate outfit creaked, hardening before the Omnid-hug could shatter my ribs.

"I've no idea how you did it," he gushed. "But whatever you're doing, please don't stop. I haven't seen my sister this... present... in months! I haven't seen dad approve of anyone like he approves of you! I haven't seen Cassie's feathers light up so much over dinner!"

"I'm just getting started," I half-choked out. "But I need your help."

"Anything," Lance said immediately, releasing me and blushing with grays. "Sorry, forgot you're a halfsie."

"No matter what I do, or say, or show, just back me up, yeah?" I said. "Stand by my side as my Nazarite Knight. You and I... we're going to save your sister. No matter what it takes. No matter what lies are spread about me."

Lance's orange eyes blazed with determination. "I swear by the Slayer, I'll support you! Umm... what lies?"

I pulled my phone up and showed Lance a looped, stitched video of Emerald threatening me and calling me "nullie" over 30 times in different locations.

"She threatened me after I saved her life, as a Goodly Nazazrite," I exhailed. "But she's clearly not going to stop until she destroys my reputation at school."

Lance's orange eyes narrowed as he watched the compilation of Emerald's threats. "That ungrateful little beerch!" He growled, eyes igniting with orange flames from within. "And.... after you saved her life? After everything you did today?"

"She's hurt and lashing out," I sighed, rubbing the back of my head. "Her pride was wounded when I had to dunk her in the Genesis Pool to stop her from burning me down with dragonfire. She'll probably try to spread rumors about me, maybe even claim I attacked her first."

"I won't let her!" Lance declared firmly. "I'll make sure everyone knows what really happened. You're a hero, Alex. You saved my sister, saved Em, faced down that... that thing from that corpse world! No one gets to twist that around!"

"She will find a way. Her family... the Stratos clan are ridiculously wealthy and hold grudges for a long time. From what she threatned me with after her incarnation, I suspect that she will probably claim that I'm a human or other such nonsese." I sighed.

"She might hire a Scrutimancer, even go as far as to change public records, pay off fake witnesses," I extrapolated. "She's not going to stop till I am deported from Omnithornia. D&D was Emerald's child and I smothered it to help your sister. Like Slayer Nazareth, I've sacrificed myself... made a terrible enemy in Emerald Stratos."

"WHAT?!" Lance's Dover Demon face became skewered, elongated unnaturally for a moment, hundreds of extra muscles dancing under his skin, the hallway lights flickering. "Let her bloody try! My father may not be as wealthy as the Stratos clan, but he's the Justice of Leviathan's Cradle! If Em tries anything underhanded, I'll make sure he knows exactly what happened today! I've got your back, brother!"

"Thank you older brother," I smiled. "We will both keep an eye on your sister, yeah? She's going through a lot right now. The troupe meant everything to her, even if it was toxic. She's going to need support to find a new path."

"Of course," Lance nodded firmly and putting his large gray hand on my shoulder. "And... thank you. For everything. No matter what bullshit Em spreads, I'll stand by your side."

Lance's firm declaration of support made me want to grin like a supervillain, but I kept my expression appropriately humble and grateful. Keeping Emerald alive was turning out to be my most cheeky move yet - any of her attempts to discredit me would only serve as part of choreographed reality that I was manifacturing around myself.

Even dangerous enemies like Ember Stratos had their purpose in my game.

After Lance left, I carefully examined the guest room for surveillance devices. Finding none, I pulled out my phone and texted Cinder.

Alex G: Your family seems nice.

SongOfDarkness🎻: wtf was that?!

Alex G: What was what?

SongOfDarkness🎻: all of it! the effing video of me saving children, the story about your parents, the AI stuff with my dad... how much of that was even real?!

Alex G: Does it matter? Your parents love me now. Your brother is now my Nazarite Knight. Even Leny likes me.

SongOfDarkness🎻: it matters to ME

Alex G: Why?

SongOfDarkness🎻: because i thought i was starting to know you

SongOfDarkness🎻: and now i have no idea WTF is real and what's just another one of your... I don't even know. Edited reality? AI-generated bullshit?

Alex G: Making you smile matters. The rest is just... fluff.

SongOfDarkness🎻: what does that even mean?!

Alex G: It means that while I may bend the narrative of reality to achieve my goals, my core motivation - helping you - is genuine.

SongOfDarkness🎻: why? why me? what do you actually want? WHO ARE YOU???!!!

Alex G: Who do you think I am?

SongOfDarkness🎻: ...

The 'user is typing a message' notification hung there for a few minutes. I wondered if she was writing stuff and then deleting it over and over.

I slumped onto the bed.

"I wish I knew," I mused. "I wish that I could answer that, Cindy."

The air beside me ignited with a million colors. I nearly jumped out of my skin as Cinder materialized out of thin air directly beside my bed like an angry apparition.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelped, nearly falling off the bed. "What are you, the ghost of Christmas Future?! Don't just appear without warning! What if I was naked in here doing unspekable things?!"

Cinder's feathers shifted through irritated reds, embarassed pinks and frustrated blacks as she loomed over me. "I want answers," she hissed, dark claws digging into my collar. "NOW."

"Ask specific questions," I hissed as she nearly strangled me. "And keep your voice down, unless you want your dad to catch us. Sneaking into a boy's room? You're a brave dragon-bae."

Cinder's wings bristled with frustration, but she lowered her voice to a fierce whisper. "Fine. Was ANY of that story about your parents true?"

"You sure we can't be overheard?" I asked her. "Cus if I'm to tell you things..."

Cinder growled, let go of me, grabbed the remote, turned the TV on, cranking up the volume for some TV show. Then she wrapped me tightly in her wings and brought her face dangerously close to mine.

"The truth," she whisper-hissed, claws digging in. "Tell me the damned truth, human."

"My mom did die," I said quietly. "Cancer. The hospital part was real. She was a First Nations Kaska Dena, one of the last of our kind, pushed to the brink of extinction. Frontenachii Omnicorp and smoking killed her. I love AIs and can rant about them for days... I love your singing. The rest..." I shrugged. "Just dust in the wind. AI generated dust, the kind that can make even the toughest, meanest Justice shed a tear."

Cinder's claws loosened slightly, her ocean-blue eyes searching my face. "Your mom... really died of cancer?"

"Yeah," I said softly. "Held her hand till the end. She taught me Kaska, taught me to sing our old songs. But that's... not something I like talking about."

"And your dad?" She pressed.

"Never knew him," I admitted. "Mom raised me alone. A random dead Thunderbird Bureaucrat served as a my prop father figure to help me get into the Academy."

Cinder's wings shifted through sympathetic blues and troubled purples. "So you're... completely alone?"

"I have Yulia," I shrugged. "She talks to me in my mom's voice, reminding me what I have to do."

Cinder's feathers ignited with reds and blacks of shock and concern. "You... programmed an AI to speak in your dead mother's voice?"

"Yes," I said. "Based off a single voice mail message. It's all I had left of her."

Cinder's wings shifted through a kaleidoscope of emotions - shock, concern, sympathy, and something else I couldn't quite identify.

"That's... that's really messed up," she whispered finally. "Like, seriously messed up."

"Says the girl who Kaleid-named herself after destruction and fire," I countered. "We all cope in our own ways."

"Wait..." Her eyes went wide. "Is that why you're here? In Omnithornia? Because of what happened to your mom?"

"Yes," I admitted, mind melting from the colorful wings wrapping me. "Frontenachii Omnicorp's toxic waste dumping killed hundreds. The cancer rates were... astronomical. But the Omnithean courts ruled it was 'acceptable collateral damage' for progress. I'm going to do absolutely everything to get to the top... to make those Corp executives pay for what they did."

"So this is all... what, some elaborate revenge scheme?"

"Mere revenge against individuals won't be enough to sate me," I growled. "I want... I NEED to change everything when I reach the top. The system is broken, Ci. Punishing a few executives won’t do shit. I have to rewrite the rules themselves.”

Cinder stared at me for a long moment "That's... that's insane. You can't just... rewrite reality! My dad is close to the top and he can't even accomplish the bullshit he wants to do!"

"I've just started," I said. "Look at what I accomplished today - I turned a complete disaster into a triumph. Your parents love me and your brother is ready to defend me to the death."

"But it's all built on lies!" Cinder protested.

"Is it?" I challenged. "I really did save Em today. I really did face down that entity. I really do want to help you develop your talent. The core, back-end truth is there - I just... adjusted some of the front-end bits.”

"So everything you do is just... manipulation? Even... being my friend?" She demanded.

“Friend?!” I laughed. “Is that what you think we are? Oh, no… we’ve moved far… far past that long ago. You’re my… everything.”

"W-what?" she stammered.

“Can't lie… favorite, best, perfect Quetzi… too close… so many pretty feathers,” I was drooling now, completely lost in the dancing hypnotic patterns of pulsating rainbow wings. “Can’t resist… hypno-wings… Only… Human.”

Dark claws snapped her fingers in front of my face. I barely registered the action, lost in her dastardly Charisma Allure.

There was no point in lying, non reason to trick her.

She was my anchor, my Quetzi Goddess. If she wanted me to start building a giant murder pyramid then so be it. So be it! Maybe once I was done she would help me stand against the world, against impossible odds, against all of Omnithornia.

Cinder choked at my words. Oh yeah, my mouth is moving on its own.

Was I still thinking or saying stuff out loud? Somewhere along the line of staring at her wings the distinction between thought and speech blurred and vanished.

Internal monologue? What's that? That's not a thing now.

Unfiltered, untarnished thoughts. Is this what you wanted, Goddess? Here I am, bared to the core. Pure thought, nothing but the absolute unfiltered truth.

Are you satisfied or do you wish to learn more? Is this what you wanted? Because I am going to destroy you if you let me in.

Because even pure unfiltered thought is a weapon, a tool, a very dangerous thing to want. I love you. I have always loved you. Always and forever, since I saw your wings and eyes.

I will cut out ten million hearts for you and then a billion. I will lay waste to nations if you just say the word. I will become Emperor of mankind and write your name in the stars. Cassiopeia Cinder Terror Nova. Ruler of all Omnidkind, the Empress of humanity? Doesn't that sound great?

You are the Leader and I am the Champion. You are the mind-control spiral and I am the hammer. Just point me in a direction and I will not stop. I will never stop because I am broken in just the right, the perfect way for you and only you.

Cinder recoiled as if struck, her wings snapping back, losing all colors, turning pure, liquid silver. But it was too late now. I was still talking, rambling, vomiting words, unable to halt.

"Alex!" Cinder's claws grabbed my face. "Snap out of it!"

I don't wanna snap out of it!

I'm content, happy, achieved the perfect state of being. I am that which defines the narrative of all. The meta-narrative if you will. The inner Narrator. The Monologue.

"STOP!" She hissed, her feathers shifting through alarmed oranges and concerned violets.

What? Is the interrogation done? Can I go home now, pretty angel? Oh wait. I don't have a home. I live in a van. We're probably locked in here if that red hexagram gem above the door means what I think it does.

Cinder spun. She ran towards the door and twisted the handle. Oh yeah. Her dad totally locked down the ward. Probably didn't want someone sneaking around like rainbow ghost.

Cinder rattled the door handle again, her wings shifting through panicked oranges.

She flashed to the window like an angry rainbow and tried to pull the frame up. It was about as effective as trying to use the door.

"Shit shit shit," she hissed. "Damn it Daaaad! I forgot about the stupid lockdown ward!"

Pretty colors. All the colors. Like a rainbow had babies with the northern lights...

She spun towards me.

"Slayer Nazareth, Alex! Would you stop fucking narrating everything I do?! Shush! Shut it! Zip it!"

My mouth snapped shut. I watched her with a dopey, content grin as she angrily paced around my bed like a bird trapped in a cage. Honestly, who needs drugs when you have magic wings? That was kind of... dope? No, that sounds like something Iogann would say. I need a fancier word. A me word... Transcendent! Yes, that's better. This moment is absolutely transcendent.

Inner peace? I has it. Buddhist monks have nothing on me!

"Oh my god," Cinder groaned, pressing her claws to her face. "You're completely hypnotized by my wings, aren't you?"

I nodded enthusiastically, still grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"This is bad," she muttered, her wings shifting through worried purples and panicked oranges. "Really, really bad. I didn't mean to... I wasn't trying to... Shit!"

This is nice. This is perfect.

I found the only Quetzi in the universe that didn't want to mind-melt me into absolute obedience. Then again, I haven't me that many modern Quetzalcoatls. Her mom seemed nice too.

"How long does this usually last?" Cinder demanded, her wings shifting through concerned violets.

I shrugged, eyes tracking her pacing. Her claws raked through her feather-hair as she muttered to herself.

"Okay, think Ci, think! Dad's wards won't drop until morning. Can't call for help because everyone will freak out if they find me in here. Can't leave you like... this."

I watched her with rapt attention, following her colorful movements like a cat tracking a laser pointer.

"Nazareth's sword!" she swore. "I can't believe I accidentally mind-whammied you! This is exactly why I hate these stupid wings!"

I simply smiled at her jovially.

"And now you're just sitting there with that dumb smile!" She threw her claws up in exasperation. "This is so messed up. I didn't mean to... I wasn't trying to... You can talk again, okay? Just... don't do the fucking ridiculous meta-narrator thing."

"Pretty colors make brain go brrrr. All good. No definition of self, no boundary... just rainbow feathers," I let out. "Consider a... blanket."

Cinder stared at me for a long moment. Then her mind finally clicked. She grabbed a blanket from the bed and threw it over her herself, only the snout and ocean-blue eyes visible.

"Cinderrito," I commented.

"What?"

"Burrito quetzi angel," I grinned. "You know? Burrito cat meme?" I showed it to her on my phone, the image conveniently pulled up by Yulia.

"Oh my god, you're such a dork!" Cinder groaned from under the blanket. "Are you... normal now?"

"Define normal," I said.

"You know what I mean!" Cinder hissed from under her blanket. "Are you still... you know..." She waved a claw vaguely. "All weird and confessing your undying love and offering to build murder pyramids?"

"Murder pyramid seems like a lot of effort," I yawned. "Tired now. Never been wing-whammied that hard before. First time! You're my first and only mind-control birb. We should do it again... tomorrow."

"Arghh!" Cinder-burrito hissed. "This is why humans aren't allowed in Omnithornia! We're too dangerous for them! Our passive abilities alone can..."

"It's fine. I'm building up immunity, I think," I stretched out on the bed, grabbed one side of the oversized blanket and burritoed myself in it, closing my eyes. "No more birb noises. S'way past my bedtime and I wanna sleep."

"Alex!" Cinder hissed from her side of the blanket. "You can't just go to sleep! We need to talk about... everything!"

"Mmmuch tired," I mumbled, already drifting. "Bug me tomorrwww. Shhh. No chat. Only dreams."

Chapter 25: The Implement

I found myself standing on a field of rubble and ice, stretching endlessly to the horizon. In the distance, broken skyscrapers loomed impossibly tall, their hollowed-out floors wrapped in ancient glaciers. The sky above was a sickly purple-gray, casting everything in a dim, gloomy light.

Cold wind whipped at my face, carrying the scent of decay and something else - something metallic and strange. The air itself felt wrong, stale, dead for millenea.

Something pulsed in my pocket like a living thing. My hand descended and discovered the lighter Zee Captain had given me. I pulled it out, studying its grimy steel, scratched up surface.

I flicked it open. The flame that ignited seemed normal and it pushed the gloom away just a little bit, made me feel marginally less cold and lonely. The flickering light cast errie shadows, making the rubble around me shift and writhe.

"Gud tomorrow," a voice came from behind me.

I spun around and spotted a familiar figure in a long dark blue coat sitting on a lawn chair, camped on the surface of the glacier that we were inhabiting.

The violet lenses of Zee Captain's gas mask reflected the light cast by the lighter.

"Where is this?" I asked.

"Captania," he answered. "Dead Zone. The infinite corpse of the surface of Eureka omnistructure."

"This some kind of a dream?" I asked, studying the desolate landscape. "Why isn't my skin melting off? Why do those buildings have infinite floors?"

"Dreams, reality - such limiting concepts," Zee Captain waved a gloved hand dismissively. "As for ze buildings... perspective is relative when reality itself has been rewritten so many times. Ze Laws are more like... vague suggestions here."

"Uh-huh," I nodded, focusing on Captain and not the way the skyscrapers loomed in the distance, seemingly stretching up forever and ever. "Why am I here?"

"Because I had a job to take a Wizardling to Manchester," Zee sighed. "And I failed."

"A Wizardling?" I asked, settling onto a broken chunk of concrete nearby. The lighter's flame flickered but held steady, pushing back the oppressive darkness. I didn't let go of the button that released the flame even as it burned my fingers ever so slightly, feeling that Captain might vanish if I do. "You mean Alexa?"

"Ja," Zee nodded, violet lenses gleaming. "I'm still going to have to do my job for I am a Good Wizard."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means zat I must take you to Manchester," Zee Captain replied casually. "And also that I cannot take you to Manchester because you don't have a Fractal Engine on you anymore. Zee problem is that Alexa stepped out of the pre-determined boundary of what was permitted. I am therefore at an impasse, uncertain of what to do with you."

"An impasse?" I asked, watching the lighter's flame dance. "What exactly happened with Alexa? Why can't you take me to Manchester?"

"She destroyed the transit terminal and hijacked ze train," Zee Captain sighed, violet lenses dimming slightly. "Sent it careening off ze tracks, across ze void between realities. Very naughty. Very clever. But also very dangerous."

"Where is this train now?" I asked.

"The train is still moving and also not moving," Zee replied. "The train also crashed into an endless number of worlds, leaving bits and pieces of itself scattered across reality."

"The train crashed into Earth?" I pondered aloud, the hair on the back of my head and neck tingling. "What... what the shit. Do you mean... The Wormwood Star?"

"You're good at ze guessing game!" Zee Captain clapped gloved hands together. "Ze train crashed everywhere and nowhere, you see? Like ripples in a pond, or perhaps more like shrapnel from an explosion. Bits and pieces scattered across everywhere where it really shouldn't be. Very naughty."

I stared at the lighter's flame, thinking. "And... some of those pieces landed in Omnithornia?"

"Precisely!" Zee nodded enthusiastically. "Though perhaps 'landed' is not quite ze right word. There is no single word to describe how catastrophic it all truly is."

"So when Alexa hijacked this train..." I began slowly.

"She became part of ze crash," Zee finished. "Part of ze story. Part of you. Part of everything. Very messy, very complicated. Makes my job impossible. Not that my other job as Dead Zone System Wizard is any less possible to finish."

"Because you still have to take her to Manchester," I realized. "But she's... everywhere?"

"Ja," Zee sighed dramatically. "And nowhere. And also right here." A gloved hand gestured vaguely at me. "Which makes my task rather paradoxical, don't you think?"

"So what now?" I asked, watching the flame dance. "A dream sequence training montage? An explanation of how to use the lighter? A clarification of why Emerald Stratos melted into a puddle?"

"As you are merely human, for you Ze lighter is just a lighter," Zee Captain shrugged. "Though perhaps because it is an object from the Dead Zone embued with excessive amounts of magrad, it might help you blend in better with the cryptid critters by acting as a reality melting battery of sorts, since you cannot generate your own mana."

I squinted at Captain.

"Ignite it as you are doing now and the mana flow around you will increase enough for your body and soul to shift in a... particular direction."

"What direction?"

"Any direction. Enough magrad will bend reality through desire. Numbers go up direction. Or down. Don't use it too often because it will inevitably run out of fuel."

"I see," I said. "Aren't you basically a god? Can't you do anything and everything, send me another one?"

"Mmmm... no," Zee replied. "Our meeting was an accident. It will not happen again. It took far too much of my energy, tools and focus to make sure that the Dead Zone would not spill out of the gate to devour your entire world whole."

"WHAT?!" I choked.

"Oh yes," Zee Captain nodded casually. "Ze Dead Zone is quite hungry. Always seeking to spread, to consume. That's why I must stay there, you see? To keep it contained. To fix what cannot be fixed. A very tiresome job."

"So when Iogann opened that gate..."

"He nearly doomed your entire reality," Zee confirmed cheerfully. "Only one foolish dragon girl melted instead of your entire planet. Very lucky indeed. Captania does not play well with other places."

"Why didn't her Lazarus braclet melt too?" I asked.

"Given enough time, it too would have broken down," Zee sighed. "Some things are just tougher than others. That trinket wasn't manifactured on your world. It was stolen from... elsewhere."

"Where?" I asked, my finger aching and trembling on the button of the lighter.

"Arx," Captain said simply. "A gigastructure that devours all."

The lighter's flame began flickering, making Captain vanish out of existence amidst the debris sticking out from the glacier.

"What's happening?" I stammered.

"The Astral thread is fraying," Zee replied. "You're much too weak, far too removed from where I am."

"What should I..." I began.

"Alexa's actions have unbound the narrative of your world, gave it another chance, saved it from oblivion. Do whatever you wish to do," Captain said. "Marry your true love. Plant a tree. Build a house. Die a million times. Lose yourself to infinity. Become a dungeon. Become a tree. Build a Fractal Engine. Just remember - ze lighter's fluid is finite. Once it's burns out, once it's gone, it's gone. Don't let it fall into the wrong hands, because if they open a gate to its origin, your planet will turn to ashes."

"Wait!" I called out as the flame guttered. "I have more questions! About Alexa! About the...!"

But the flame died completely, plunging me into darkness that stretched on forever. Losing myself to it I felt like everything and nothing, like a string stretched to infinity that was about to snap.

Then it did.

I woke up to sunlight streaming through the gothic window and a weight on my chest. Opening my eyes, I found Cinder curled up against me, her wings spread over us both like a colorful blanket. She must have fallen asleep after more angry roaming and trying to escape.

I carefully tried to extract myself without waking her, but her claws tightened reflexively in my stolen Novitiate robes.

"Mmph," she mumbled, burying her face deeper into my chest. "Five more minutes... too early."

I squinted at the ward hexagram gemstone over the door. It was green. Then I dug my phone out from under my pillow. Oh wow, I actually overslept for once. 7:05 AM.

Damn you, warm feathered creature. Vengeance will be mine.

I considered the most effectively hilarious way to wake up the Quetzi-beast currently slobbering over me.

"Psst," I jabbed her cheek. "Sleeping beauty? It's like 11:42 AM."

"WHAT?!" Cinder bolted upright, her feathers exploding into panicked oranges. "Oh Slayer, I'm so dead! Dad's gonna kill me! I missed first period and-"

I held up my phone, snickering and showing her the actual time - 7:06 AM.

"You absolute ASS!" She smacked me with a wing, her feathers shifting through irritated reds and embarrassed pinks.

"Good morning to you too," I grinned. "Sleep well?"

A soft knock at the door made us both freeze.

"Alexander? Are you awake, dear?" Lady Nova's voice called through the door. "Breakfast should be ready soon! I've brought you some fresh towels and clothes!"

Cinder's eyes went wide with panic.

"Just a moment, ma'am!" I called out, keeping my voice steady despite my racing heart while gesticulating for Cinder to do her ghost thing. "I was just... um... doing my morning prayers!"

Cinder vanished in a shimmer of rainbow colors just as Lady Nova opened the door, balancing a stack of fluffy towels and what appeared to be some of Lance's old clothes.

"I hope you slept well?" she asked cheerfully, her feathers shifting through warm pinks and golds. "The clothes might be a bit big - they're Lance's from last year - but they should do until you can get back to the cathedral."

"Thank you, ma'am," I replied politely, accepting the stack. "You're too kind."

Not at all, dear! Breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes. Justice Nova had to leave early for work, but Lance and Lenora will be joining us," Lady Nova beamed, her feathers shifting through happy pinks.

"And Cassiopea?" I asked.

"Oh, umm," Lady Nova's feathers shifted to blues. "I knocked on her door earlier but she just yelled that she wasn't hungry. Typical morning with her, I'm afraid. Though..." her feathers brightened slightly, "she did actually respond this time instead of just throwing something at the door!"

I considered how Cinder was invisible right next to me and was also yelling from her bedroom.

"Perhaps I could try talking to her?" I offered. "Sometimes it helps to have a friend's perspective in the morning."

"Would you?" Lady Nova smiled. "That would be wonderful! Though... be careful. She can be quite... volatile in the mornings."

"I'm sure she just needs some gentle encouragement from a friend," I smiled innocently. "After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As the Slayer teaches us, 'A healthy body houses a righteous soul.'"

"Oh my, how wonderfully thoughtful you are!" Lady Nova beamed. "You really are such a good influence. Her room is just down the hall, East Wing, third door on the left. The one with all the... interesting posters. I'm ever so glad that Cassie has found such a nice young man to be friends with!"

"Indeed," I smiled warmly at Lady Nova. "Though I must admit, I'm still learning about Cassiopeia. She's quite... private at school. Perhaps if you could tell me more about her? As her mother, you must know her better than anyone."

Lady Nova exhaled. "Oh, my starshine... she wasn't always so withdrawn, you know. She used to be such a bright, happy little firebug."

I nodded.

"She was always so musical, even as a hatchling. Would sing for hours in the garden, making up little songs about everything she saw. The neighbors used to joke that we had our own personal songbird."

"What changed?" I asked softly, projecting perfect sympathy and concern.

"I... I wish I knew," Anitta's feathers drooped. "The smoking, the dark clothes, the troupe... Sometimes I feel like I've failed her somehow. Like I should have done more, been there more... I'm the Keeper of the Hearth of Nova and yet one of my sparks has gone dim and I just don't know why."

"You haven't failed her," I said. "Teenagers often struggle to express themselves. They push away the people who love them most because they're trying to figure out who they are. It happened to me too when I was younger."

Anitta's feathers shifted through grateful pinks. "You're very wise for your age, Alexander. I just... I miss my little starshine. I miss her songs, her laughter. Even when she's right here in the house, it feels like she's a million miles away."

"She's not as far away as you think," I said softly, subtly directing my words at where I knew Cinder was invisible to all. "Sometimes people need to hear how much they're loved, even if they act like they don't want to."

"Oh, I tell her every day!" Anitta's feathers shifted through pinks and warm golds. "But she just... rolls her eyes or storms off. Last week I tried to hug her and she actually hissed at me! Like a angry little kitten!"

Sharp claws dug into the side of my hexasuit.

"But I'll never stop trying," Anitta continued. "Even when she's being difficult or rebellious or... setting things on fire in the garage."

"That's what makes you such a wonderful Hearth-Keeper," I rolled on with Goodly-Nazarite-boy chatter. "From what I heard from Lenoralynne, Lady Xastigar is an excellent Primo-Mother as well."

"We... manage," Anitta smiled softly. "Though I do wish... we were a bit closer. Well, it doesn't matter what I wish. Xasti provides very well for the family, and that's what's important."

"And you provide the heart," I said. "The warmth. The unconditional love that makes a house a home. I... I hope this isn't too forward, but... being here, experiencing such wonderful, full family warmth... it reminds me so much of what I've lost."

"Oh, you poor dear!" Anitta's fluttered. "Of course, I didn't mean to... that is... it must be so difficult, being all alone."

"The cathedral dormitory is quite comfortable," I said quickly, ducking my head. "Father Matthias has been very kind. Though..." I hesitated deliberately. "He often completely forgets that I exist, even though a photo of him and my dad is hanging in his office. You know how it is with Elder Omnids. One days he's smiling at me and praising me for my choir work and the next he doesn't even know who I am."

"Oh darling," Anitta's feathers shifted through concerned blues. "That must be so difficult for you, having no real stability..."

"It's quite alright," I smiled bravely. "The Slayer teaches us that trials make us stronger. And the cathedral work is very rewarding, even if Father Matthias sometimes forgets who I am mid-conversation and starts wondering what a human is doing in his cathedral hall... on the account that I look nothing like my Thunderbird father."

Invisible claws dug even deeper into my side as Cinder caught on to what I was doing.

"Still," Anitta fretted. "A young man needs more than just a dormitory room and a forgetful, old priest. You need proper care, regular meals, a real home..."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose," I demurred perfectly. "You've already been so kind, letting me stay the night..."

"Nonsense!" Anitta declared, feathers flaring with determined pinks. "We have plenty of room, and my trio could use a good influence like you around. And..." her voice softened, "perhaps having you here might help draw Cassie out of her shell a bit. She seems... different around you. More present."

"That's very generous of you, ma'am," I bowed my head. "But I wouldn't want to create any difficulties with Lady Xastigar..."

"Oh, Xasti is hardly ever home," Anitta waved off my concern. "And when she is, she's usually working in her study. Besides, having a proper Nazarite influence in the house might actually please her. She's always going on about maintaining appropriate social connections..."

"I... I don't know what to say," I managed, letting my voice crack slightly. "This is more kindness than I deserve..."

"Then it's settled!" Anitta beamed. "You'll stay with us, at least until you get properly settled at school. I insist! Now, why don't you freshen up and then see if you can coax Cassie down for breakfast?"

After Lady Nova left, invisible claws released their death grip on my side.

"You manipulative little tech gremlin," Cinder hissed as she materialized, her feathers shifting through amazed violets and irritated reds. "Did you just... trick my mom into adopting you?"

"Technically, she offered," I grinned, rubbing my side where her claws had left bruises. "I just... helped her reach that conclusion naturally. You only have yourself to blame for this."

Cinder squinted at me.

"I was perfectly content with my Phantom-of-the-Academy hammock location. And now thanks to you and your Hearth-mom's big heart, I have to actually live in a proper house and have to behave like some kind of civilized person. Do you know how hard it is to maintain a mysterious aura of dark intrigue when you're eating pancakes at the family breakfast table? Also, what's a tech gremlin?"

"A tech gremlin is you," she rebutted. "Someone covered in cameras with an AI in their pocket that sleeps on catwalks. I think I heard it from dad once as a dumb name for humans, but never understood it till now. Like Holy Shit everything you do somehow connects with everything you say and then nobody can get rid of you cus you've already infected everything and everyone with your presence like some kind of social virus!"

"Rude," I scoffed. "I prefer 'Digital Artificer' or 'Cyber Shaman' if you must use labels. Also, how are you in two places at once? Why is the other you so angry? Have you considered sending her to therapy?"

"Oh that?" Cinder waved dismissively. "Just a hexashard bound to my door. It's got a few pre-recorded 'fuck off' variants in my voice that respond to whatever time it is. Mom's used to it by now."

"Clever," I nodded approvingly. "Though maybe we should update its responses to be a bit less... hostile? Your mom seemed pretty hurt by the constant rejection."

"Don't," Cinder's feathers bristled. "You don't get to just... waltz in here and start fixing everything. My relationship with my parents is complicated."

"My relationship with my parents is that they're dead and MIA," I walked into the bathroom and closed the door. "I'm not fixing anything, I'm incepting myself into your social structure. The longer you keep me here the more inevitable your demise will be from Alexfluenza."

"Your what?" Cinder called through the bathroom door.

"Alexfluenza! It's terminal," I called back. "Stop hovering over me like an angry ghost and go to your room and shower and then pretend not to come out or something."

"I'm not hovering!" Cinder protested through the door.

"Uh-huh," I replied, turning on the shower. "And how exactly are you planning to explain to your mom why you're lurking outside the guest bathroom while I'm showering? That's not very proper Nazarite behavior, young lady!"

Cinder growled something about annoying gremlins, but I heard her wings rustling as she moved away from the door.

I dug the lighter out of my pocked. It looked perfectly mundane.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror and spun the wheel with my thumb. A spark ignited the hissing gas, producing a flash of flame.