A man and a woman walked slowly down the deserted road to the stadium. Cheers wafted outward from the heavy building in front of them, hinting at the reverie occurring only a short distance away. The woman carried a clipboard and her hand was constantly scribbling short phrases onto her thick pad of paper as they moved forward. The man was carrying a heavy crystal ball. It was faceted like a gem, all sleek edges and flat planes. There was a misty light in the core of the crystal that pulsed every few seconds

Because the flow of people already went into the interior of the stadium, the outside area was completely deserted. Flags waved lazily above the wide gates. There wasn’t another living soul in sight, although several thousand were only a few concrete walls away.

As the two individuals neared the entrance to the stadium, the woman glanced down at the clipboard. Then she looked at the man with an uncertain expression. “Straud is starting to activate his blood seals. If you really are going to do this, you need to get in there now. But… I hope you know we don’t have to do it this way. Because even if you succeed-”

“Both sides will do their best to kill me, I know.” The man’s smile stretched wide and he patted the crystal in his arms fondly. “This baby will protect me though. As long as I have a little time to get my bearings, I know I’ll be unbeatable.”

If anything, that seemed to only make the woman more anxious.

Leaving the woman behind, the man walked up to the ticketing gates. The one staff member still remaining at his post was surprised at the late arrival, but quickly scanned the man’s ticket and waved him through. After taking two steps forward, the man paused and glanced back through the gates to the woman. Her brow was furrowed in thought. “Hmmm? You still have something to say?”

“Why did you choose this path?” The woman’s voice was raw. Her eyes were red.

If anything, the man’s smile only grew crazier. He shrugged. Then he flicked his arm and produced an all-black motorcycle helmet from an interspatial ring. “This Path is what the world needs right now. All these Nemesai… aren’t they too polite? The people of this world just don’t understand the danger that is coming. Someone needs to show them what the wrong sort of person can accomplish with the System.”

“But Straud-” The woman interjected.

The man silenced her with a disapproving look. “Straud is an extremist. Sure, he is willing to pay any price for his fucked up utopia, but he is a zealot that ultimately believes that his cause is just. That he is saving us through his actions. How can that sort of man be a true villain? Feared, perhaps. But never hated.

“No… what the Earth needs now is someone… Dauntless.”

*****

During the entire half-time show, Nathan’s fingers were in a vice grip around the armrests of his seat; he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Mariah Jane for the entire performance. To the point that his eyes probably looked bloodshot. Although she was only a few short years older than Nathan, she seemed as though she had been born with the maturity and poise to take the stage. Every gestured glittered in Nathan’s eyes.

The concert started slow, with a moving power ballad about searching for someone lost due to the System. Obviously none of the crowd had heard the song before, but Mariah’s vocal talents and honed Skills quickly pulled people to lean in closer and listen. Nathan could practically see the spectators around him being planted with seeds of interest.

And the sense of loss in the song resonated with so many people. No one made it through the early days of the System without scars.

After the ballad ended, a line of fireworks blasted off from the equipment behind the stage and Mariah instantly launched into the catchy dance beat that had earned her the popularity she had in Franksburg and Donnyton. Despite the fact that she was wearing three-inch heels, Mariah twisted and shimmied her way across the stage to the cadence of the music while glittering explosives illuminated the field behind her. As she sang, she seemed to be squeezing every breath with all of her effort to create a perfect note; it was immediately obvious that this young girl was pouring her whole heart into every line. The stoic crowd gradually was pulled along with her passion.

She’s so brilliant… Nathan thought, thinking not about her creative chops but how she shined with all the constant and nurturing guidance of the North star. To him, she was infinitely close to a celestial body that he admired from afar.

Part of Nathan felt a vast inferiority to Mariah, seeing her up on the stage with thousands of people cheering her name. True, they had exchanged some words after the Donnyton challenge and she had seemed relatively interested in speaking with him after he had mentioned that he could help her change her Class…

But… Should someone like him really talk to someone who could transform a crowd into a mass of fans like this…?

Very quickly, Nathan shook his head. Even if she becomes more popular… that bright smile won’t change. She’s not the type to be swayed by fame. And we… I knew her before all this happened, so…

Besides, it’s not like I don’t have some stuff going for me too… I’m just… a bit more low-key.

For her third song, Mariah changed her style again to a pop anthem. And then she finished her performance with an extended version of one of the other songs that Nathan had heard of hers previously. For the last song, even Tykes and Dinesh were on their feet and bobbing their head along with the beat. It was only the dour fun-sucker Kiersty who managed to stay seated during the entire performance.

As a waving Mariah walked off the stage, Nathan ignored his purposefully disinterested sister and looked at Tykes and Dinesh. “I’m going to… to go back and try and find Mariah while the rest of the festivities goes on. Just to tell her how well the show went…”

The two men rolled their eyes but nodded and Nathan hurried away back up the stairs and into the concrete interior of the stadium. He immediately felt a stab of panic as he wavered at the prospect of sending Mariah a message right now, but they had already added each other as friends within the System so it should be fine. Since they knew each other, it wouldn’t be weird to just congratulate her on the performance, right?

With great care, Nathan took his time typing out the perfect message that was just a little funny but also slyly hinted that he would meet her right now if that was cool. Upon a second read through, the message seemed terrible. It reeked of desperation and did an abysmal job of conveying the true message. So he carefully rewrote the whole thing.

The next attempt was worse. Nathan kept making bad jokes and puns and it made the messages completely impossible to read without groaning. Yet as he considered the prospect of trying to write something different, he immediately feared that his corrections would be similarly disastrous. Gritting his teeth, Nathan decisively pressed the send message button before he could try again and return to his seat in tears.

Several seconds passed. Slowly, Nathan’s skin began to tingle. He looked at the empty message portion of his menu with rapidly increasing dread. Because she had just exhausted herself from a concert, Mariah might easily miss his message in the chaos afterward. And once she returned she would likely rest, and her messages would be the last thing on her mind…

And when she finally finds it in several hours… or even tomorrow… Nathan pressed his hands against his face and shook his head. His hands were starting to sweat. Yet just as his mind was preparing to run through the slew of horrifying possible reactions that Mariah Jane could have for Nathan’s idiotically timed message in exacting detail, a notification popped up.

I’m so glad you made it! If you want, I’m just hanging around the VIP booth, you can come join me.

Nathan blinked. Nathan replied that he would be over shortly. Mariah replied back that she told the guards at the door to let him through.

In a daze, Nathan managed to put his feet in front of each other in a pattern that led him around to the main stairwell and managed to ascend him to the box level. Despite the fact that the journey was actually quite the distance in the vast stadium, Nathan’s steps seemed to propel him forward a few meters each time his foot touched the ground. He was practically gliding forward in his hurry to meet Mariah.

Suddenly, Nathan stiffened. Then he frowned as the long years of drills with Tykes jumped to the forefront of his mind. This feeling… violence and… the scent of blood…?

His speed in the next few strides shot up even further. He whipped himself around the corner and cracked the ground beneath him as he shot forward down the long hall. It only took him ten seconds from the moment that familiar scent hit him before he arrived at the door that Mariah had told him about, but in that time a woman’s scream cut through the air.

Mariah! Nathan’s body was on fire. This was every twisted dream and nightmare that he had, suddenly made horrifyingly real.

Seeing there were no longer any guards watching the door, Nathan smashed it open and walked through to the interior. It appeared that there had once been tables covered with a lavish spread of foods that had been knocked to the floor. Broken wine bottles littered the ground. But Nathan’s eyes went to the corner of the room where the people were.

Four figures stood in the corner of the room. Two stood with their backs to Nathan, their bodies fragrant with the scent of blood. They gripped long blades of blood with their hands and advanced slowly toward the two other figures. One of those other figures was a man that Nathan recognized as the head of the Order Valorem. His shirt was ripped, exposing a gash that spurted blood down onto the soft grey carpet on the ground.

And behind the Leader of the Order Valorem was Mariah Jane, collapsed and unconscious against the wall. A trickle of blood ran down from her scalp to her jaw.

The leader of the Order Valorem seemed to be twisting, but he froze as he saw Nathan. His eyes were filled with confusion as he considered him. But the deceptively soft sound of the two figures stepping forward yanked Nathan’s attention away from the Order Valorem man. Nathan felt his extremely hot emotions abruptly become extremely cold. The sweating of his palms grew more exaggerated.

Almost mechanically, Nathan raised his right hand and performed a Soul Shatter on the two figures that seemed to be the aggressors. The powerful offensive Skill blasted forward and sunk into the back of the two’s skulls.

Yet nothing happened. The Skill caused no response. The lack of effect caused Nathan to blink in shock. When he went to strike at their spirits, there wasn’t anything to-

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A tremor ran through the whole of the stadium, clearing emerging from within the building. Through the windows at the far end of the box that overlooked the field, Nathan could see a pillar of crimson energy surging upward from the center of the turf toward the sky. But Nathan quickly disregarded that as a matter for later. Even if the Red Revival was here, Dinesh and Tykes were down there; Kiersty wouldn’t be in any danger.

No, what he needed to focus on now was saving Mariah. And since these two didn’t possess any real consciousness to damage…

This time, Nathan utilized Psychic Surgery. His sharp touch easily penetrated the bodies of the two figures who were taking slow steps forward toward the man from the Order Valorem and Mariah. They didn’t seem to notice the danger at all as his Skill gathered at several key points in their musculoskeletal structure.

They aren’t even conscious… something is controlling them. Nathan felt a flash of hesitation but quickly pushed that impulse to be merciful down. Still… it’s hard to believe that those marks would appear on their arms if they didn’t agree to it…

Nathan made a cutting motion with his sweaty hand. His psychic touch severed their spines at the base of the skull and ripped through the ventricles of the heart. The two men collapsed like paper dolls blown over like a gust of wind.

Congratulations! Your Skill Psychic Surgery (A) has grown to Level 154!

Congratulations! Your Skill Psychic Surgery (A) has grown to Level 155!