Crow descended the ladder with bated breath. After exhausting himself by keeping his physical enhancement active for such a long time, it was all he could do to use his strain and glimpse ahead into the future even a little. Without the increased speed from his more conventional ability, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to dodge any traps even if he did have a moment’s warning before they activated. He knew he’d be able to do so with the others, the ones he had left behind after evading and running his reserves of magic dry, but the problem was that there was every chance the traps into which he was walking, and he was almost certain he was walking into traps, would be harder to avoid. If that was the case, he imagined they’d incapacitate and disqualify him before he could do anything about it. Gulping as he felt the sweat build atop his brow, Crow reached the bottom of the ladder and looked into the room he now occupied.

He winced for a moment upon entering, the room was well lit but that provided no comfort to his worry of traps. Crow walked around for a minute or two, the silence making his feet appear to cause a clamorous echo with each step. After a while with no premonitions, Crow tentatively deactivated his Eye of Chronos’s future vision- sighing with relief at the sudden lack of strain on his already diminished magic- and took a more thorough look at the area around him.

It wasn't like the others, but then none of the rooms he’d walked into had resembled the ones before it. The floor appeared made from some crystalline structure, perhaps even just regular glass. He could see his own face looking back at him from it, reflected imperfectly- distorted somewhat almost as though it were a deliberate mockery. It was unnerving, so Crow pulled his eyes from the ground and affixed them to the walls. They were plain white, perhaps marble, and impossibly smooth- without adornment from glyphs or ancient art like the last few he’d come across. There were two exits from the chamber. The first was the ladder through which Crow had just entered, the second was a doorway leading to a corridor directly opposite said ladder...

Crow called Ethi down, then looked at his gauger while she made her way to him with Unity.

'Room Objective: Prepare'

Though he knew what he saw should have sent chills down his spine, he was too exhausted even to flinch. He had run out of fear, and of worry. As he stared sightlessly at the symbols displayed before him, Ethi reached the bottom of the ladder- laying Unity down next to it with surprising gentleness and glancing at her own gauger before setting her sights on Crow.

"Prepare for what exactly?" She asked, burning red. Her gaze flickered towards the exit on the far side of the room.

"If the last creature was anything to go by I'd say to be ragdolled around"

Unity coughed, causing Crow and Ethi to nearly jump at his sudden wake. Crow watched the way the black haired boy shifted his position as he sat up, each slight change in posture causing another grimace of pain. Just how much of him had been broken?

"That was...fun to watch." Ethi chuckled, grinning weakly at the boy. She reached the exit, closing the last few paces of distance with no small amount of nervous tension, and slowly moved her palm over the threshold of the doorway. Crow saw the ripple of another barrier in the air, as though a leaf had landed on a pool of water. He thought back to the frantic mystics at the start of the Sieve practically trying to claw their way through barriers just like it. The three of them, it seemed, were stuck.

Thoughts of the thing in the tunnel behind them gripped Crow, but he banished them from his mind. He wasn’t going to think about it, he could do nothing to stop it from reaching them if this truly was a dead end- which meant there was no reason for him to concern himself worrying about it. He’d rather concentrate on something else. He turned to Unity.

"How powerful are you?" He asked, remembering the amazing display of power that had caved in the tunnel. It occurred to him that Unity may even have been strong enough to punch through the barrier, if that ability he’d used wasn’t a one-time deal, however decided against asking, a cave-in would probably not be as beneficial if it were him it landed on. With that in mind, he began to pace around and examine the walls to see if they really were blank.

"Slightly more powerful than you." Unity answered through gritted teeth.

Crow frowned, that couldn’t be right.

“I saw what you did back there, that was not slightly more than what I’m capable of. I doubt Ethi and I could’ve mustered that much energy put together.” He glanced at Ethi, who reaffirmed his statement with a light and subtle nod- apparently she wasn’t eager to give Unity’s ego any validation.

Despite the compliment, Unity’s face twisted with annoyance.

“That’s because both of you use the most basic bitch abilities possible. Cutaris to produce energy, Valumis to channel it through your bodies and make yourselves stronger. I don’t have that luxury, so I needed to be a bit more creative.”

Crow blinked.

“You use a different sphere?”

“Yes, obviously. What I used back there was a combination of Atirstam and Utalis. Luck and matter. I use Atirstam to generate entropy and chance, then Utalis to apply it to physical matter. The result, as you so cleverly observed, is capable of fucking with that particular matter quite a lot more than if I’d just used the most primal and mystical force in history to hit it really hard.”

He took a brief pause from his rant to cough, and Crow was very concerned to see a spray of red exit the boy’s mouth. Unity straightened and continued.

“Any more questions, class?”

Ethi chipped in, her voice carrying a hint of concern for Unity’s condition.

“Are you aware that Utalis is literally the second most common and easily mastered sphere of magic there is?”

Unity scowled as she spoke, and Ethi’s eyes glinted with what Crow imagined was no small amount of smugness at her petty victory.

“Yes,” Unity snapped. “But that still makes it harder than Cutaris, and nearly as tricky as Valumis. Of course the part I had hoped you’d focus on there, though perhaps it was a bit too generous of me to assume you’d pick up on an implication when it wasn’t explained to you- was that I can also use Atirstam. Literally the third most difficult form of magic known to man, and also fuck you for making me talk while I can feel one of my ribs poking into my fucking lung.”

Unity punctuated his rant with a coughing fit.

It seemed Ethi wasn’t finished, her eyes flicking to Crow- or more specifically his own eyes. However she glanced back to Unity’s state and simply turned back to examining the walls. Crow was glad, he really wasn’t fond of people talking about his strain. Old Bert had told him strains were rare, even Astra didn’t have one- and she was better than Crow at just about everything, but he hadn’t known that they were rare enough to make people talk about him as though he were nothing but a particularly interesting natural occurrence. After looking at Unity and making sure he was okay, Crow too resumed his study of the walls.

They worked in silence for what was probably a few minutes, though without any clock or access to the sky it was impossible to tell. As much as the conversation had distracted him, Crow felt the building anxiety of knowing the thing in the tunnels was growing closer and closer. He’d been hopeful and calm at first, but after his third trip around the room to scan every inch of the walls, ceiling and floor that calm began to come apart at the seams. As he was about to begin his fourth trip, however, something occurred to Crow.

"Wait, how do we prepare ourselves?”

The others looked at him as though he had just used a particularly expensive tablecloth as toilet paper, so he hurriedly added.

“I mean, the task must be something significant right? It needs to be tricky, or at least notable. Yet there’s nothing here to really prepare ourselves with, they wouldn’t add a stage where you can’t pass without a specific ability because that would defeat the purpose of testing general aptitude and skill, so I doubt we somehow missed some super important writing on the literal walls. What if…” He licked his lips. “What if the preparation is general, too? Like we just need to… get to know each other.”

He pushed on even as Unity’s eyes rolled and Ethi’s seemed to drop in attentiveness.

“I mean our abilities and weaknesses. I mean, surely it’s more productive than looking for writing that isn’t there, right?”

"That's stupid." Unity frowned.

"I think it's at least plausible." Ethi shrugged, turning to the wounded boy.

"Well you're stupid too."

"Sorry, didn't quite hear you with all that blood down your throat." She said, all sympathy vanishing from her voice.

Unity made a rude gesture with his hand and she quite maturely replied by sticking her tongue out at him.

"Guys!" Crow interrupted. "Let's just focus."

"Fine, but she started it." Unity folded his arms and Ethi just glared.

He sighed. "Let's start with me. The Eye of Chronos lets me predict the future. It also lets me do a few more things but I'm not exactly good enough to use them in battle yet."

Unity frowned.

“What makes it different from just using Neramis then? It’s the most difficult sphere, but I’ve met one or two people who can do what you can.”

Ethi stared at him.

“Nobody can do that with Neramis, at least no normal person. Are you saying you’ve met one or two Immortals?”

“Yes.” Unity shot back simply. “It’s your choice whether you believe me or not, but I have, in fact, met a wide variety of mystics. In fact I’ve met at least one of each of the five Mortal scales, and a sizable number of Immortals.”

Ethi simply resumed her staring, head shaking slightly.

“I’m not sure whether you’re just fucking with me or not.”

Unity just scoffed, and the air turned silent and still.

Crow could understand Ethi’s uncertainty. There were supposedly only nine scales of mystic, each one measured by raw mystical Potency. Saints were the weakest, generally children or unusually untalented individuals. Grit were the most common, or so Old Bert claimed, and made up the majority of adults. Sages were unusually powerful mystics, Crow was rather proud of the fact that he himself was one. After Sages came Gladiators, which were rare enough that they made up only one out of every few hundred ordinary mystics. Next on the line were Paragons, and Paragons were usually the most famous. Their power was extraordinary, in fact Crow had heard that less than one out of every ten thousand mystics was of Paragon level. After that a mystic was on the scale of Immortals, of which Crow knew of only a handful in the entire world’s history. To think that Unity had met one, nevermind a large number… it was absurd. And yet the boy seemed so frank, so direct. He couldn’t help but believe him.

He supposed that stranger things had happened. After all, Crow of all people had met two Immortals already... He pulled his thoughts away from that memory, he couldn’t afford to deal with the emotions it stirred within him.

Ethi broke the silence, pulling Crow back to reality and bringing his attention onto her.

"Alright...mine's called mood swing...it alters what I can do based on my emotions. As the prick-” she looked right at Unity “- so helpfully pointed out, I glow. When I'm angry I glow orange and get stronger, basically a more powerful version of the standard strength enhancement we mere peasants use rather than the much more situational cave-in magic.”

She grinned as Unity coughed while calling her a cunt, then she continued as if nothing had happened.

“When I’m calm and collected I glow white, and I can produce a white substance to make things from- like the bridge. Then when I’m…” She grit her teeth, clearly not fond of volunteering this information. “When I’m scared I turn red, and when that happens I’m fast.”

She looked from Crow to Unity for a second, eying them up as though daring them to mock her. Crow couldn’t imagine ever doing such a thing after having such clearly sensitive information shared with him.

“So you decided to make an ability based around your emotions? Isn’t that a lot like a man deciding to use his magic to become good at putting up shelves?”

“Piss off.” Ethi snapped, and for the first time since he threw Crow out into the traps it felt like Unity had pushed her beyond mere irritation. The Oni stared at him for a long few seconds, before finally Unity broke the silence.

“I’m sorry…. That… uh, that was probably uncalled for.”

Ethi seemed completely taken aback, Crow knew he was. He saw the girl scanning Unity’s face for any trace of sarcasm, after she apparently found none she spoke once more.

“Well, for the record I didn’t exactly choose this ability. It was made by one of my ancestors and everyone in my family’s had it shoved down their throat from an early age since.” Her eyes hardened. “Along with a nice chunk of mental abuse to give us the mindset needed to change our own emotions as needed.

The silence that descended upon the room was thicker than the rubble they’d left the thing in the tunnel buried under. Crow wanted to say something, anything, to try and comfort Ethi- the look in her eyes was one he didn’t want to see on anyone. But what could he say?

The quiet was shattered by a single word from Unity.

"Chaos."

"What?" The two both said as they looked up at him.

"That's the name of the magic I use." He said defensively. Unity raised his palm up. "It causes disorder."

"Much like your personality." Ethi added.

"Much like your personality." He repeated her words in a high pitched tone, head bobbing from side to side mockingly. "That's you, that's how you sound."

She glared daggers at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Now as I was saying, I didn’t lie about the bulk of my ability. It works by combining probability with matter, but it also uses Patais. That’s the sphere that-"

Ethi cut him off irritably.

“We know what the fucking forces sphere does, we know what all the spheres do. We’re not children.”

Crow chuckled nervously before adding.

“So, uh….”

Ethi sighed and placed a palm over her face, Unity grinned and answered his unasked question.

“Patais gives influence over the natural forces. Gravity, cohesion, etc. Different ones have different levels of difficulty to use, but they’re all under the same sphere.”

Crow gave him the thumbs-up and Unity carried on.

“If nobody else has anything to add, my magic essentially removes the constants which keep things the way they are. Makes it possible for things to happen which would usually be restricted by the laws of physics. Not anything obviously, I can’t turn a brick into a supernova, but I can still manage something like this with a lot less effort than if I just tried to smash it with brute force.”

He placed his palm against the wall and the crimson thin lines from the tunnel slowly spread across its surface. They stopped only when they had covered about a metre-wide section of the wall, and a moment later that same section broke apart and fell to the ground- simply sliding away from the rest as if it had always been a separate piece and had merely been gently nudged out of place.

Crow coughed as the dust clouded the room. He waved his hand in front of his face, trying but failing to waft the debris away from him. Thankfully it began to settle on the ground of its own volition, and after a minute or two had passed the air was clear enough for him to see once more.

"Oh crap."

Ethi groaned. Crow turned to her, she had her eyes on the wall and he followed it. Crow blinked away shock as he gazed upon the armory just beyond the massive hole Unity had formed. The room had the exact same silver layout as the one they were in but rather than being completely blank, the walls were adorned with a cacophony of weaponry just waiting to be claimed. Swords, spears, maces, even a few war gauntlets.

"Ah...so that's what it meant by prepare." Unity said.

Crow was the first to walk in, confident in his ability to predict danger. He picked up a gauntlet that lay on a shelf, studying it and seeing a golden glow with an assortment of rainbow colored gems etched onto its sides, the weapon was practically craving attention, hopefully it had the quality to back that up. It was half again as wide as Crow’s hand, and he could tell from holding it that it was ridiculously heavy. Unsure whether he’d even be able to move his arm while it wore such a thing, Crow slipped it onto his hand to find out. There was a soft clicking and the strange feeling of the interior seeming to melt and form itself around him, and all of a sudden the weight vanished to nothing. Crow gasped at the sudden lightness, flexing his fingers and moving his hand around with shocking ease.

"Looks good on you." Ethi said from behind, she was trying on a helm with a visor on it so he could only see her smile.

"That looks good on you." Crow replied.

"I have half my face covered." She frowned, folding her arms.

"Ah." He blushed. "Ah uhm...it really highlights your smile?"

He could practically feel her rolling her eyes underneath the visor. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Unity.

"That's odd. It says, preparation complete."

"That doesn't sou-"

The vision came upon him suddenly. A sight of blood and violence, his own head spraying out a crimson torrent as something knocked him to one side. Crow couldn’t see what it was, only the impact, and from the impact he could tell it would strike him on his right side- so he ducked himself down. There was a whossing in his ears as he suddenly lowered, and Crow heard a scraping along the floor next to him just as he caught another glimpse of what was to be- this time the back of his neck erupting similar to how the last vision had presented his temple. He rolled forwards instantly, realising from the effortlessness that he must have reactivated his enhancement ability on instinct. He came up into a crouch, then straightened into a stand and stared around for the source of his premonitions- seeing only Ethi staring at him in confusion.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

Crow realised that to her it must have seemed as though he had simply started leaping around with no rhyme or reason. He didn’t care, she hadn’t seen… she hadn’t seen herself like that.

His heart was thumping, his mind was racing and his eyes darted from side to side. Where was it?

"Yeah." He managed to force out.

"Huh. well you don't look it."

Crow couldn’t think of a reply. He was too busy staring at every corner of the room, scanning it for any hint of movement.

"Something... something's here." He whispered.

"What?"

Crow felt a spike of irritation at his teammate’s hesitation, and yet before he could even snap at her she folded over and hurled backwards- body tossed as though it were a ragdoll and slamming against the wall ten paces away with a sickening thud. There had been no warning from the Eye of Chronos, Crow couldn’t yet glimpse events which did not directly affect him. In other words Ethi and Unity were completely defenceless.

"What the hell?" Unity gasped.

Crow looked around for the danger, desperately now. He wanted to turn his attention on Ethi, to make sure she was okay, but he couldn’t afford to let his guard down for even a second. Yet as frantically as he was searching he still couldn't see anything even slightly out of the ordinary. His pulse quickened, thundering in his ears and he formed a grip in his gauntleted hands. And then, over the explosive pounding of his heart, he heard something behind him- the slightest impact against the ground, like a footstep. His strain showed him his head jerking back, eyes rolling into his head as he lost consciousness. He just managed to pull himself out of the way in time.

There was a rush of air to the left of him as he leaned to the right, and an instant later the wall behind him broke apart in a spray of dust and rubble. It didn’t matter, Crow had his answer now. That noise, the delays in the attacks, his enemy was invisible- and that meant that provided he found where they were, they’d keep being there.

Crow turned on his heel and swung a gauntleted fist in a wide arched back-hand at the space just in front of the wall, for a second he thought he’d missed- but the satisfying impact rushing up his hand let him know his strike had found home. Of course even if it hadn’t, he’d have been tipped off by the jittering almost silhouette like figure which appeared before him for an instant. That same figure was flung to the side by the not inconsiderable force of Crow’s magic, fading back into complete imperceptibility as it did so. There was no time to celebrate this smallest of victories, however. Crow turned to his teammates.

"It's invisible!" He yelled.

"That explains a lot!" Ethi croaked.

Crow felt a flood of relief as he glanced at her, however it quickly melted back into worry. She was conscious and standing, but that was about all the good he could say about her. She had blood down the front of her clothes and chin, possibly coughed up, and she appeared to be using her spear as a crutch.

A quick appraisal of the room let him locate Unity leaning against the far wall, face still swollen and bruised but at the very least nothing about him had worsened from when they entered. Crow took a moment to gather his wits before moving to the centre of the room, licking his dry lips in anticipation and feeling his barely-calmed breathing begin to try and heavy itself once more. He could win. He knew the enemy’s ability, and he could beat it. He could win...

He looked to Ethi and they nodded to each other, each offering wordless reassurance. She was surrounded by a red glow, either because she was so scared that her fear was impossible to override and replace with another emotion with her training or because she had decided that speed and reactions were the best ability to make use of in their present situation. Whichever it was, it still served to make Crow realise that he, too, could benefit from a boost in that area. And so, with great reluctance, he began to concentrate more of his dwindling magical reserves into his eyes.

He had told her and Unity that his Eye of Chronos only let him glimpse things before they happened, and as much as he hated to say it, that had not been truthful. It had one more ability, one he really didn’t like using due to the fact that, frankly, it fucking hurt. And yet as the familiar burning sensation lit up his eyes, as they began to glow green the way he had been told they did when he practiced this particular technique, as he felt some of the miniscule glyphs lining his pupils to go dun while others lit up, the world appeared to slow. It was not by much, and it would not be for long, but for the time being Crow was effectively faster than the rest of the universe- or at least faster than he’d have been otherwise.

He reached the middle of the room and stopped, inhaling and exhaling slowly as he waited for the inevitable.