I sighed, thumbing the bridge of my nose as I got up. It’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to take action now.

Honestly, I should have probably acted sooner, or simply shouldn’t have relied on my other ability. While it is useful, it’s also just a temporary solution to our little pest problem.

Pests, you ask? Well, I’m talking about the mercenary group that’s currently trapped inside the apartment building. Starfall team 1, if I’m correct. I was able to do a bit of research on them after hacking into their system and shutting down their coms. Actually, it was a bit too easy. Their own logistics and computer technician tried to hack my own system, so I opened up a small “backdoor” into the servers and watched as the technician found it. I then counter-hacked them. You’d think people would be more wary of such an obvious ploy, but apparently not.

Well, regardless, it looks like they’re getting a bit desperate. It’s been about an hour since I trapped them, and the mercenaries are about to go a bit berserk. I would to, were I trapped in a seemingly endless series of hallways and stairs. I can’t let them use any violence though, since they’re still in a residential area, and I don’t want any bystanders to be hurt.

Really, I shouldn’t have used my other ability. I should have simply taken them down with my own strength from the beginning, since there’s less risk involved that way.

So, I got up from my computer chair, and walked over to one of the closets in my apartment. I felt Joel’s curious gaze on the back of my head, but ignored him. I reached my hand into the back of the closet, and pulled out one of my most prized possessions.

It’s not that it has sentimental value or anything, but rather that it’s the most expensive thing I own at the moment. In fact, it has more value than most space-craft. I think the best part is that I didn’t have to pay a single cent for the thing.

I am, of course, talking about my sword.

The sword’s pretty large—almost too large for me, in fact. It’s only by the merits of my strength ability that I can wield the thing. It’s blade is more white than sliver, and kinda reminds me of old bones. That’s not the interesting part, however.

No, the fact that it can cut clean through steel plating is what makes this blade unique. The sword is damn sharp.

I have no idea what it’s made of, who it was made by, or even how old it is. All I know is that it works well.

Anyway, I pulled the sword from the back of my closet. It was still sheathed, but that didn’t stop Joel from recognizing what I was holding.

“Is that…a sword? But I looked through that closet! There wasn’t anything like a sword in there.”

He kept looking through my stuff? It looks like I’ll have to discipline him when I get back. There’s no time for that now, unfortunately. It looks like the mercenaries are getting really impatient.

I fix him with a stern stare, and tell him to stay in the apartment. Joel gives me a questioning look, but it seems like he’ll listen to me this time.

I leave the apartment, and shut the door behind me.

I’m met with an amusing sight outside.

The mercenaries are all standing outside my door, arguing quite loudly. Both Joel and I could hear them, so Joel probably thought I was taking the sword with me to shut up the loud people. I don’t think that he realized that they were arguing about their kidnapping attempt on Joel. I did.

None of them noticed me walk out of the door, nor did they notice it when I walked straight into the middle of their group, observing them with my own eyes.

None of them look like bad people, really. Then again, the worst people tend to be the most liked and admired as well. However, the leader of this little group has a sort of bearing to him, which tells me I might be able to trust him after paying a “small” sum of money. I mean, he is a mercenary. They all are.

“Damn it.” He growled under his breath. “Jacob and John—you guys sure about this?”

One of the three identical tall, blonde men nodded sagely. “Like anything else, this trap should collapse if we all apply enough pressure. The rabbit snare will never work on a bear.”

The group leader considered the man’s words for a moment, before nodding.

“Right. Lets have Josh, John, Raphael and I outputting as much aura as we can, with Jacob supporting and providing buffing spells. I don’t think Sylph will be coming anytime soon, since she hasn’t already. For the time being, consider our immediate group to not have any outside support.”

Ah, it looks like they’re planning on simply blasting their way out of the predicament. It’s for this reason exactly that I decided to come out here and confront them.

“Ready on my mark. Five, four, three…”

Of course, I couldn’t let them do as they please. So, I made myself visible, appearing right in the center of the group.

It took them a second to notice me, but when they did…oh man, were their faces entertaining.

The three identical looking guys all stepped back, surprise and shock echoed across each of their features. The leader’s reaction was far more professional, as he fell into a combat crouch, his mouth drawn into a hard line. The normal looking guy just seemed disinterested—like he observed me appearing, but attached little significance to it. By far, the triplet’s reactions were the funniest to me.

After a moment, they must have recognized me though.

“What? But you’re the girl…?” Said one of the triplets, obviously very confused.

“Fuck.” Vocalized the leader, staring straight at my face. “You aren’t at the 1st divide, are you?” He asked. A very astute first observation, in my opinion. All my records list me as being at the 1st divide, but then there’s the fact that I somehow just “appeared” in front of five men preparing to release all their power against my own. Even if they weren’t completely ready, the accumulated energy would force anyone below the 8th or so divide to their knees. The fact that I was standing before them was very demonstrative. The fact that I wasn’t sweating, or showing any signs of strain was similarly demonstrative.

“Need you to leave.” I said to them. Simple, and straight to the point—just the way things should be.

The men were taken aback by my words. Then they got over the initial surprise of seeing me appear, and issue a straight-up ultimatum.

The triplet’s sneered almost as one, and the foremost one was about to open his mouth, when the leader of the team spoke up and cut him off.

“Why? We have a job to carry out, regardless of if a little girl is standing in our way.”

I shook my head slowly.

“I stronger, and have money.”

A few eyebrows were raised at that. A small chuckle came from the leader, and I saw the mirth in his eyes.

“Ah, youth. You think that a little bluff is enough to scare off hardened mercenaries. You see, we’re being funded by a High-Family. I doubt you can beat their commission rate.”

Alright, he has a point there. While I may have a good sum of money at the moment, it hasn’t had nearly the time it needs to grow into a fortune capable of clashing against the bankrolls of a High-Family. That was a bluff.

“Your second mistake was saying that you are stronger than us. Were you truly stronger, you wouldn’t have spoken at all. You would have beaten or killed us with that strength. The truly strong don’t negotiate.”

Oh boy. That’s a landmine. It looks like people who live based on the strength of their arms and minds are sensitive when it comes to the question of power, and who has the more of it. Which is me, obviously. I’m the protagonist, right?

Great, and now the men are looking down at me in what would normally be an intimidating way. They’re coming closer as well, leaving very little personal space to me.

“You know, if you just tell us where Joel Al’Verath is, nobody has to get hurt. I’m sure he would be sad to know that his lover was…damaged.”

Oh, ewww. They think we’re…lovers? Gross.

Well, needless to say, I’m not telling them. That would be counter productive, you know. Especially since I have my own way of dealing with this.

I think these guys have to learn that not everyone with strength uses it in the first instance they can. I rather dislike fighting, which is why I gave that admittedly weak attempt to settle this whole thing amicably.

Well, I guess I have to beat people up now. Oh, the tragedy~.

I think they realized something was wrong when I simply sighed, and lifted my sword. It was still sheathed, as blunt force trauma sometimes sends a stronger message than neat and cleanly sliced sushi victims. Especially when you want the targets to still live afterwards.

I hit the normal looking man first. Why? In my experience, if you can’t see any reason why someone might be dangerous, then they’re probably the first ones that need to go down. It’s a simple quality of being an unknown. I don’t like not knowing something, so I thumped him right in the face with the sword. Because I don’t know the slightest thing about him. Even Starfall’s own computers didn’t have any data on him, and that scares me.

The others, I’m confident in bringing down. All of them are under the 11th divide, so I shouldn’t have any problems.

Wait, it just occurred to me that I’ve never really explained the whole “divide” stuff to you guys. Okay, crash course for everyone not about to fight four armed mercenaries!

There are 12 divides, each further sectioned up into 9 steps. Every three steps represents a particularly large step up in power, and are grouped as 1-2-3, 4-5-6, and 7-8-9. These give a general indication of a person’s strength, though only a general indication. That being said, someone at the 2nd divide is normally stronger than one at the 1st, and so on, so forth. The divides represent a qualitative increase in power and control.

Once you pass through the 12th divide, 9th step, you reach the 13th divide. “But you said there are only 12 divides, Revy!”

Yeah, well there’s a 13th divide. It’s normally considered separate from the others, since that’s when a person is considered as having ascended to Divinity. It’s a whole ‘nuther ball-game at that point.

So, that’s that.

Back to the important stuff now.

The normal man hit the floor, knocked clean out. He has a funny little look on his face too, with that faint bit of surprise that just tells you he didn’t consider this a possibility. Stupid man. Of course I would hit your head.

The other mercenaries also looked surprised. But that’s more due to the fact that they probably didn’t see me move. Likely, they saw a blur, then their companion bit the dust.

I propped the overly large sword up on my shoulder, looking at the leader cutely. Boy, you done fucked up.

“I stronger.” I repeated, still smiling a cute smile. Man, their blood must be freezing right now.

The triplets share a look, and I could almost hear their thoughts, which were written so clearly on their faces.

‘We should charge her’

‘That was obviously just a trick.’

‘Let’s take her down quickly, before anything else happens.’

Ah, the idiots.

They all ran towards me at the same time. The triplets, that is.

Starfall’s leader seemed smart enough to hang back. Besides, he was still staring at me with an expression of shock, and…is that wonder?

Damn, they’re here already. It seems I’ll just have to make a deal with the only the leader.

I knock all three of them out in a fraction of a second. Really, the triplets should have properly probed my abilities before committing so heavily. My sword was resting on my shoulder again, before they even hit the ground.

I could hear the leader swallowing a wad of saliva, and then clearing his throat.

“Perhaps…we could come to an accord?” He said, smiling weakly.

I smiled a shit-eater’s grin right back at him.

Revy left the apartment building’s hallway shortly after that, leaving the mercenary leader to collect his fallen comrades and bring them back to base. The whole time, he couldn’t help but shiver inside.

That wasn’t a little girl he had met in that hallway.

That was a veteran monster—a powerhouse of the highest levels.

He was simply glad that she had let them go. Most people at the 11th divide and higher tend to have eccentric personalities, and few of them would have any qualms, if at all, in killing them all. At least Revian had let his team go.

He still couldn’t find out how she had trapped them in the building. Maybe it was space manipulation; maybe it was something far worse. He honestly didn’t want to know. More knowledge isn’t always a good thing, especially since the most powerful people tend to value their secrecy.

As to how he had carried everyone out of the building, well, it was rather easy.

Josh, John and Jacob dropped out of Awakened form as soon as he had been knocked out. And he reformed into a single weedy looking guy, with lackluster grooming abilities. Raphael hadn’t been in Awakened form, and so stayed the same.

That was no problem to the leader though, since he easily slung the two smaller men onto his back. Starfall’s leader may look old, but he was stronger than the vast majority of military personnel.

As he wandered back to the hotel acting as their operating base, he ran into Sylph, who was visibly panicking.

“Sir, you’re okay? What the fucking hell happened out there? I lost all coms, then got trapped in some sort of fucking pocket dimension or something.”

He held up a placating hand.

“Calm down Sylph. Everyone’s fine. I think we’ll end up having to call off this mission though.”

“But sir…”

“No, I’ll explain when we have everyone again. Let’s meet up with Kara first, okay?”

She nodded, and obeyed his orders.

They quickly reached the hotel, and found Kara furiously typing on her holo-screens. She looked up, her face under lit by the glow of the screens.

“Oh! Thank the deities! You guys are all right!”

“What happened?” Asked the leader in a flat tone of voice, referring to the coms shut-down.

“Ah…” Kara said sheepishly. “Well, simply put, we were hacked.”

“What?! How? Aren’t you the best Techno-mage to come out of XCU in the past few decades?” said Sylph.

Kara shut down the holo-screens, revealing that her eyes had deep, dark shadows under them and were lightly bloodshot—sure evidence that her ability had been over-drafted.

“Someone got the better of me. It happens. Though, not in quite a spectacular fashion most of the time. I think it took the hacker all of five seconds to breach my firewall, tunnel into the systems, and disable everything even mildly important.” She said in an excited, but tired voice.

The leader nodded, and reassured her with a few words.

“Don’t worry about it. Just learn from the experience. I think that’s what all of us has to do.” He said, and outlined what had happened after the coms had gone down.

By the time he had finished, the two unconscious members of the team were beginning to wake up.

He admonished both of them for making tactical errors by vastly underestimating Revian.

He also told them that they should never seek to touch her in the future, and steer well clear of any contact.

After that, they determined as a group to withdraw form the mission. Joel Al’Verath is simply to big a fish for them to take. Especially when the gods-damned kraken is waiting nearby with hungry jaws.

There was also one more thing.

He thinks he knows exactly what Revian’s power is—the one she had used to trap most of his team.

Kara actually asked him about it, due to her curious nature demanding to find as much information as possible.

“Her ability?” Asked the leader.

Kara nodded emphatically, drawing the attention of Jerard—the man whose Awakening splits him into three.

“It’s spacial manipulation, right boss? I can’t think of it possibly being anything else.” He said.

The leader shook his head.

“No, that was not spacial manipulation. I’m of the opinion it was something far worse. In fact, we’re even luckier to have made it out of there alive, if I’m right.”

“Well then, what do you think her ability is?” Asked Kara again.

The leader sighed, before speaking.

“What I’m about to say, doesn’t leave this room under any circumstances, got it?” Everyone nodded. He continued. “Revian bends reality. However, she doesn’t touch upon the actual, physical reality, but our perceptions of it. She’s an unbound illusionist.”

He saw that Jerard was about to scoff, obviously in a huff about this.

“No, do not dismiss this, Jerard. Illusion abilities are one of the few that are always clipped at birth, stunted to prevent too much growth. This limits illusions to petty tricks which can be broken by a strong mind or power, or to pittiful and simple applications. If Revian is an illusionist, than she isn’t bound by such restrictions. Let me ask you this—If you are stabbed by an illusory blade, and feel the pain of the wound, see the blood, and become weaker form it, then who’s to say that the blade wasn’t real all along? If you die inside an unrestricted illusion, why shouldn’t you die for real?” Said the leader solemnly. He didn’t explain why he thought Revian was an unbound illusionist, and simply left everyone to their own thoughts afterwards.