…Sarah’s PoV…

“And you say this thing can access something called the HiddenNet?” I ask while looking at the normal-looking Smartphone in Alex’s hand.

“That’s what the smuggler said, and he looked to be in a hurry, so he sold it to me for cheap. Apparently, what happened to us is widespread since the local Enforcers decided to enact a purge, so he went into hiding.” the red-haired young man replies.

I nod, “Can I check for myself then?”

We discussed my power once we found a relatively safe location, and we decided that I wouldn’t scan Alex or Cynthia’s minds unless I had their permission.

“So, let’s see what we have…” I rummage through Alex’s memories of the encounter with the smuggler. The balding and slightly overweight man looked nervous, but I can put it on the account of the purge. Otherwise, he looked like a normal middle-aged man.

“He seemed honest, and we can’t really ask for a refund if this doesn’t work.” I say, causing the couple to make a wry smile.

We all huddle around the screen when Alex turns the device on and click on the app labeled HiddenNet.

“It looks pretty normal so far…” Sarah mumbles.

“You think so? I never saw an option for universe selection on Goggle…” he points at a small tab at the bottom of the screen.

“…You have a point. But how do we know what universe we are in?” she replies.

If someone told me a month ago that I would be browsing an internet spanning multiple universes then I would say that they are insane, but now…

“There’s an auto-detect button here. Apparently, our universe is named U-146. Now let’s see what we can find…”

As it turns out, the HiddenNet is pretty similar to the normal internet. There are forums, streaming websites, news websites… There’s also a plethora of shopping websites.

“Anyone has any idea what Credits are? Everything seems to be priced in that currency…”

I shake my head, “I heard about it in certain memories, but I never really looked into it. Try looking it up, maybe they have something like Wikipedia.”

“All right, so let’s see the search results… Found it! And it’s related to the Bazaar…” Alex’s shoulders slumps when he finishes his sentence.

“The Bazaar?” Cynthia asks with a raised eyebrow.

“You remember the magical circle hidden into the closet at that fast food place?” she nods so Alex continues; “It was a portal to the Bazaar. According to the article, the Bazaar is some sort of shopping dimension, and Credits is the currency they use here.”

“A shopping dimension? You mean an entire dimension is dedicated to just shopping?” Cynthia asks with her eyes wide open.

Alex shrugs, “The article only says shopping dimension, so I don’t know how much of that dimension is used… I’ve never been there, but it seems too ridiculous to be the case, right?”

He turns towards me for an answer, but I just shrug in response, “Don’t look at me like that, I never really looked into it…”

I decided to evade everything related to the Hot Spot and the storage closet after I scanned the mind of that man... Just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine.

“We confirmed that the HiddenNet is actually a thing, so what should we do with it?” Cynthia asks.

The ex-club leader raises a finger and shows us the phone. “Look at this; I believe it should be pretty useful for us.”

The device displays a few unsuspecting silvery bracelets, but what piques my interest is the text displayed next to the images.

20% off on all Shield Bracelets!

“So, you want us to buy those Shield Bracelets instead of fleeing?” I say with a disapproving glance towards the red-haired man.

He shakes his head, “It’s not that I don’t want to escape… But I’m certain that fleeing would just paint a target on our back. We don’t know the reach of those Enforcers, for all we know they could have the entire country under their thumbs.”

“Fair point, so what should we do next? I think we should keep hiding in this motel for a few more days until the purge ends.” I say while leaning against the wall covered by a used brown wallpaper and look outside the window.

The rundown motel we’ve been hiding in those past few days is at the edge of town, and it only has a few clients other than us. I’ve already thoroughly scanned their minds, and they have no connection to the Hidden World. So, we should be safe…

…At least for now.

…John’s PoV…

One, two, three…

I close my eyes and brace for the detonation as I press the trigger of my Portal Gun. This triggers the makeshift mechanism behind me and a long control rod hits the Infusion Altar, causing the construct to infuse the large puddle of red liquid into the small boulder on its central pedestal.

Then I need to wait until… now!

I press a button on the Portal Gun’s screen, causing it to run the next program. A blue portal appears under the unstable rock and teleports it in the middle of a forested area that’s a couple of hundred yards away.

Now for the fun part…

Covering my ears does nothing a deafening explosion destroys all the windows in my home, not to mention that my eardrums suffer the same treatment. However, the real victim here is the wooded area: It was a nice and lush forest before, but now it’s a fuming crater with a diameter of at least seventy yards. Not to mention the massive black mushroom cloud looming over the newly created wasteland.

I massage my head and take a deep breath before Rewinding to undo the detonation. My attention then focuses on the rock that caused all this mayhem and on my upgraded Portal Gun.

To understand what just happened, we have to go back to a day ago, when I finished testing the MH Shells. At this point, I was anxiously reviewing all the possibilities that could make the upcoming assault easier. And that’s when I thought of the most complex and amazing plan ever made…

…Drop a big fucking bomb on them.

I know that I obviously deserve the ‘strategist of the year’ award for this one.

My first idea was to take a big lump of iron and engrave it with as much mana-absorption runes as possible. So, I fired up my CNC machine and went to work to test the feasibility of the idea…

…And it didn’t work that well.

The bomb did explode, but the destructive power was a bit lacking for what I had in mind. Not to mention that it didn’t hold itself together very well since I had to make some…creative cuttings to maximize the surface area available for engraving.

The first tests also highlighted another problem: The bomb was bound to be big and heavy, so I wouldn’t be able to carry it with me through the portal. And the logistics of teleporting the bomb where I want it to be would be annoying.

So, the bomb wasn’t strong enough, and I had transportation problems… I’m not back to square one, but to square minus one!

But an intense session of Rewinder-fueled research later and a solution started to appear in my head. First of all, the transportation problem was handled by adding another mode to my Portal Gun. The third mode, unlike its predecessors, didn’t require any trigger pulls. Instead, it used the waypoints of the GPS to create portals at predetermined locations. With that, I could run a program and teleport the bomb wherever I wanted.

Second important point, the Scalebound probably added extra measures to defend against pure mana attacks after my stunt with the Black Claws. So I opted for a more unexpected type of bomb. It’s unstable, annoying to make and impossible to control…

To put it simply, it’s a big Power Stone filled with every single drop of essence I had in reserve.

I know that Power Stones will violently explode when improperly infused, and that the power of the explosion scaled with the amount of essence used. So I teleported a boulder on the Altar and went to work.

A couple of full-body disintegrations later and I had determined the size the rock needed to be to accept all the essences I wanted to infuse in it. Another set of explosions, and cursing, later and I had the correct combination of essences that allowed me to infuse the rock without it exploding prematurely.

And now we’re back to present time, where I’m perfecting my ignition system.

Well, I call it ignition system, but in reality it’s more of a set of ropes, pulleys and counterweights. And it obviously adheres to the same strict quality standard of all my previous creations.

So everything is held together by the power of belief and a large amount of duct tape.

My ignition system works this way: A program runs on my Portal Gun and allows a counterweight to drop freely, causing the whole system to engage. This drops the rod on the Altar in a way that activates it and starts the last infusion process. And just after that, another program teleports the Power Stone on the verge of exploding to its designated location.

I’ve spent the last three Rewinds perfecting the timing between launching the two programs, and I think I finally mastered it properly. At first, I wanted to make a program that would run the two programs but my amateurish hacking already forced the GPS to its knees. Meddling with it any more than necessary would just destroy it.

I take a deep breath and inspect my handiwork: It’s wonky, dangerous and barely functional…

So it’s pretty much ready to use.

I don my armor and ready my equipment: I have my Shockwave fully loaded with MH Shells in one hand while my Portal Gun configured to take me to the edge of the Scalebound barrier is in the other.

This is the moment of truth!

I press the trigger and immediately jump into the blue portal-

Only to Rewind back to the beginning of the day.

I want to hide my face in shame, but I can’t deny reality. I’m obviously cursed! How else could I explain that I somehow landed on a magical mine on my first attempt?!

No need to get angry, I just have to keep calm and try again…

There must be a problem with my memory because I somehow jumped from attempt one to attempt forty six.

There’s absolutely nothing between attempt one and attempt forty six.

On a totally unrelated note, I am confident in saying that I could now draw a detailed map of the mines buried around the Scalebound manor. In fact, I do just that and send the map to Riley. It might not be a complete map of all the potential traps the Scalebound have laid down, but it should help him a bit. I also block the Werewolf to avoid the stream of texts and calls that my map created.

The Wolfheart will begin their attack in an hour, so that’ll leave me plenty of time to attack and kill the lizard responsible for my recent problems. I have given up on purging the entire Scalebound Family by myself, but I bet the Wolfheart will be more than happy to help me out in that regard.

Excitement courses through my body and I clench my fists: This is it! Everything has been building up to this moment…

I take a deep breath, fire a portal under my feet and emerge about eight yards away from the Scalebound castle. And calling it a castle isn’t exaggerating: The building, which looks like someone mixed gothic architecture with brutalist style, is truly gigantic. For crying out loud, it’s four stories high and it’s almost the size of a city block!

But my awe is very short-lived since I am rudely interrupted by a flaming meteor crashing directly into my face. My shield protects me from any damage, but it used ten rounds of Magicite in one go.

They certainly came prepared… but so did I!

I take the shotgun slid across my back and rack the handle before firing at the ground. The beam of energy disintegrates the soil and sets off at least twenty mines in one go.

Seriously?! I think there may be more mines that I though…

This is bad, I may need to use more ammunition than I previously thought, but it should-

Another meteor interrupts me again. I sigh and thank my armor for its heat resistance enchantments, without them I would be a well cooked roast right now.

I fire again and clear a safe corridor leading towards the barrier and teleport next to the impressive magical shield. A sudden explosion startles me, and I see a massive column of flame erupting where I was standing a few moments ago.

Holy shit, it looks like I pissed them off!

Staying still will only get me killed considering the power of their defenses, so I fire a MH Shell into the transparent film.

I click my tongue when I see that the barrier is unscathed, the Scalebound are more competent than I thought!

But I don’t let this minor setback get to me and empty the remaining shells into the barrier. A smirk creeps on my face when I notice large cracks.

Their barrier is certainly strong, but it isn’t indestructible!

I am about to reload my shotgun when a column of flames erupts from under my feet. I grunt when I see the stream of empty casings flying out of my Glove.

The Shield Glove won’t be able to handle this attack!

I immediately Rewind to a few seconds before the flames appeared and teleport away from my position. My timing was perfect since the dreaded flames appear a second later.

It looks like they can’t cast those flames too often, and they can’t change the spell’s position once it’s cast so I still have a chance!

I quickly reload my weapon with six new MH Shells and teleport to the smoldering crater that was occupied by the flames just a second ago. The damaged portion of the barrier finally crumbles after I fire my last shell. I was expecting the entire barrier to go down, but it looks like the Scalebound completely outclassed Krognar in the barrier department…

The barrier is already regenerating, so I need to act quickly!

I had programmed the bomb to appear in what is roughly the middle of the Scalebound property. However, the portal wouldn’t appear unless I broke the barrier. But now there’s nothing in my way!

I pull out my Portal Gun and activate the programs in a practiced motion before teleporting away, just in time to witness the explosion. A blinding multicolored flash erupts. Most of the glass windows shatter and several small sections of the castle outright crumble, but the damage is far lesser than I thought. The barrier, while covered in cracks, is somehow still holding.

Tsk… It wasn’t that great, but it’s still better than nothing. And I bet it probably killed a few lizards!

I teleport near a destroyed section and enter the massive building.

…Riley’s PoV…

I flex my shoulders and readjust my armor so it doesn’t tug on my fur too much. Then I look around: We are in front of our mansion, rows upon rows of soldiers are lined up, and each is grouped into their respective Families. There are obviously Werewolves, but there are also Dwarves, Mermen, Fishmen, Centaurs… I can’t even count the amount of soldiers we have here. If I were to eyeball it, I would say our forces are about ten thousand strong.

It’s a lot, and my mother probably pulled every string she could to muster what is basically all the soldiers of our faction.

Her transformed and armored figure clad in blue lightning appears on a raised platform, causing all the people around to stiffen their back. The armor she’s wearing isn’t too different from our own since it’s a large and heavy armor made with the best materials and enchantments money can buy.

“Soldiers of the Wolfheart faction! As you all know, we’ll be attacking in less than an hour, and-” she freezes up and bring her hand to the long ear on top of her head.

“Bring it up now!” she yells and a magical screen appears above our head. We immediately recognize the Scalebound main base, but there’s something moving to the side-

I freeze up when I recognize that fighting style, those weird guns and this manner of dodging everything with perfect timing... its John!

Why is he here?! No wonder he didn’t answer my calls!

I gasp when a large flaming meteor crashes into the armored human and he comes out completely unharmed.

My jaw drops, how on Earth did he get his hands on a shield that is so powerful? It’s nothing compared to what my mother has, but it’s still impressive and it’s probably on par with our heavy-duty assault shields.

But what puzzles me is where it is, heavy-duty shields are quite bulky, but his armor is paper-thin compared to our own…

My questions are left unanswered, and a collective gasp spreads through the ranks when a dozen beams of pure mana appear and destroy a big portion of the ground, setting off a large amount of traps in the process.

How, just-

Another beam interrupts my already confused thoughts, and I can see that the other soldiers look as confused as me.

How did he harness something so powerful? And how is he using it so fast! It’s-

We all watch intently as the figure teleports next to the barrier and unleash volleys after volleys on the barrier that doesn’t take too long to show signs of heavy damage.

I hold my breath when he teleports away, just in time to avoid a deadly flame spell. And, as if it wasn’t enough, he reappears a few seconds later and continues to attack the barrier until he breaks through!

A heavy silence falls when we see what happens next: He fiddles with one of his guns and a blinding flash appears in the middle of the Scalebound castle. Even my mother react when the image clears, and we all exchange confused glances when we see the damage dealt to the building. It’s isn’t on par with what our sappers can do, but it happened so fast…

“The situation has changed! The Scalebound probably angered some very powerful individual, so we’ll use this opportunity to assault! Prepare for battle!”

A roaring battle cry echoes, and we all teleport to the border of the Scalebound compound. We all know what we have to do; and I watch with attention as the barrier-breaking teams teleports to the edge of the dreaded shield. Their arrival triggers a few traps in rapid succession, and I can only turn my head away as I see body parts flying in the distance.

Our heavy duty shields are strong, but not strong enough to endure such powerful traps…

I tried to reason with my mother, I begged her to reconsider he plans and even showed her the map that John has send me. But she dismissed it, saying that her plan was more efficient and would minimize casualties.

And what casualties we have… The Scalebound are launching constant bombardments on our ground forces, not to mention the squadrons of flying creatures constantly dropping deadly spells on them.

I can hear various reports to my mother in the distance, she just clenches her fists and grit her teeth each time a team is wiped out.

Those were people she sends to die pointless deaths, how can she be so calm!

Her ears finally perk up and she turns towards our ranks, “Breach detected on position four, seven and fifteen! Charge!”

We teleport away, and I do my best to ignore the still warm corpses of my comrades under my foot as we storm the area. A veritable deluge of spell descends upon us, and we would be long dead if it wasn’t for our heavy-duty shields. Scalebound forces teleport in front of us as we guide the sapper teams towards the building. My mother turns our enemies into ash with a flick of the wrist and we continue forward, slaughtering our way to our objective.

I recognize a heavily armored figure teleporting just next to me, “Steve! Are you all right?!”

My brother’s armor is covered in scorch marks and he walks with a slight limp. His comrades that teleported soon after aren’t in better shape, some are even missing limbs!

“We encountered a bigger amount of resistance than we expected, so we had to retreat and rejoin with you guys!” he says with a ragged breath.

I click my tongue; losing one front meant that the Scalebound will be able to put more pressure on us!

“At least I’m glad you’re still alive!” I say before ripping off the head of a Dragonewt who charged at us with a flame-covered sword.

The battlefield already devolved into complete chaos; hundreds of spells are flying everywhere, sowing death and destruction as they clash with the bodies of friends and foes alike. The Scalebound air force is stronger than expected, and they are heavily suppressing our support mages. They are now too busy creating walls and shields to provide any substantial support to our forward troops.

Our elites like my mother or the leader of the Stonecrusher stopped trying to push forward, and instead helped with our entrenchment efforts.

Fuck, this is bad… We need a breakthrough!

The situation we are getting into is exactly what we were told to avoid at all cost, and I can understand why. The two sides are rapidly fortifying their positions, and this surprise attack will turn into a battle of attrition we can’t possibly win without very heavy casualties.

“Get ready to charge!” my mother shouts before jumping into the frontline, she’s closely followed by the other heavy hitters who are already preparing their most devastating spells. Torrents of mana explode outward as the Family leaders unleash their most powerful attacks, pulverizing anything that stands between them and their objectives.

Cheers erupt in the ranks when the surviving enemy troops scramble for retreat, their relatively untouched air force also quickly follow suit.

Yes! Now we only need to-

My thoughts are interrupted when a crushing aura forces me and my comrades to the ground. The oppressive power only grows stronger as time goes on, and a massive cloud of thick black smoke soon appears on top of the Scalebound’s base.

The cloud quickly dissipates and what it reveals causes my body to freeze in absolute terror: A thirty feet tall abomination stands on top of the building, and it surveys the battlefield with disdain before raising a hand.

A cyclone of mana gathers into the dragon-like creature, and the resulting orb of white energy is slammed into the other attack group, which is completely disintegrated in a blink of an eye.

All hope abandons me at this moment, almost a half of our forces died with just one attack.

We lost, and this battlefield will be our grave.