The whole city was dyed blood red as the sky changed colors. At first, there was a frightened hush that hung heavy in the air. Then screams echoed out.

“The sky!”

“What happened?”

“It’s like the Gate at night!”

The Hunters were alarmed, but the screams from Garden City on the other side were near hysterics. They were so loud, I could hear them all the way from Gate Square. Made sense, really. The Humans had no idea what actually happened in the Gate. They were kept to their safe little lives for a reason — to prevent the mass hysteria that I could hear going on now.

Emma pushed up to her bleeding hands and knees, rubbed raw from sliding across the concrete when the Gate destabilized. “What’s going on?! What happened to the sky?!”

My chest tightened so hard that I could barely breathe. No, I wasn’t ready yet! I hadn’t found the portal to the parasite. Kesstel and I hadn’t set up a solid plan of attack yet. My family was falling apart and I hadn’t fixed it yet.

But my thoughts didn’t change anything as the sky grew more and more red. Just like what happened to Vapria right before it was destroyed.

It’s begun, Goddess whispered.

A roar broke into the air as monsters started to spill from the Gate. They rushed at the unprepared Hunters, ready to start feasting.

Instinctively, I threw out my hand. A pool of mist swallowed the Gate and sealed the monsters inside. The monsters hit my barrier and attacked it with everything they had, some even stopping inches from horrified Hunters.

I gritted my teeth at the immense pressure it put on me, but I refused to let them go.

Some Hunters started to slap their armor on as fast as possible. The braver ones ripped off awkward clothing that was in the way, while others simply didn’t even bother with under armour, just slapped their armor plates over their street clothes. It was a frenzied mess, but when death was right there, growling at you from the other side of a transparent barrier, nobody cared much for privacy. Other Hunters were too shocked to do anything. They kept looking from the red sky to the monsters filling the mist barrier more and more. There was so little space now, and they were so agitated, that the monsters started to attack each other.

“What are you standing around for!” I yelled at the people still laying there. “Get ready!” I couldn’t hold this forever. Every time another monster came out of the Gate to join the pile, it was like another ten pound brick was placed on my shoulders. When there were hundreds, if not thousands of monsters, it was a lot of pressure. I had to get ready myself.

Here, Goddess said.

My circlet appeared in the air, floating just above my hands. Well, it wasn’t the first time the System had pulled something out for me. Only, I needed more than just the circlet. It was pretty and boosted my magic, but I needed to protect my body too.

Still I turned my hand and took the circlet out of the air. As soon as I touched it, it disappeared. A second later, I stiffened with shock as I felt my full armor appear on my body. Faster than the blink of an eye, my street clothes were gone and I was wearing my under armor and armor. It was just there, complete with the circlet around my head.

Since when was that an option? I thought in shock, trying not to get too distracted from the barrier. That could have saved me a lot of time in the past!

Since right now. I thought you might need a shortcut at the moment, Goddess reasoned.

Very much so. Thanks, I thought back.

Kip, who was in the process of buttoning up her rose pink mage robe, paused and blinked at me. “How…”

I tilted my head back as I felt Blood Sword, leading the group of S Hunters, come up behind me. The rest of the Hunters hurried past, but Blood Sword and Healer Laurel stopped at my side.

He reached out for me, but his hand ran into the small dome that was still around me. He glanced from his hand to the Gate and the monsters piling inside. “Are you the one doing that?”

I nodded.

He jerked his chin down in a sharp nod. “At the ready!” he yelled.

Hunters, dressed — or at least mostly dressed — hurried into formation around Gate Square. Since Emma’s team was in roughly the right position, they didn’t try to move, staying inside the dome that I hadn’t taken down yet. Weapons started to appear.

I gritted my teeth and attempted to push the monsters back into the Gate. There was so much resistance, it was like trying to move a mountain with my bare hands. I puffed out a breath, then caught Blood Sword’s attention before he could join the rest of the S Hunters on the front line. “Where’s Kesstel?” He wasn’t with the other S Hunters that walked by, and I couldn’t feel him in the crowd.

Blood Sword pursed his lips. “The Council is still questioning him about the current turn of events.” He glanced at the red sky, his face darkening.

I snorted. “It’s a little too late for that. They should have listened when there was still a chance to do something about it. This is the end of the world. If there is a tomorrow, it’ll be a miracle. If the Council wants to change anything, they need to get off their asses and fight with the rest of us.”

Emma, and anyone within hearing distance, paled. “What?” She gasped.

Blood Sword frowned. “I hope you’re wrong.”

The side of my mouth curled up in a bitter smirk. “I’m going to do everything I can to prove me wrong, too.”

I gritted my teeth as a group of A ranked Lichs came out of the Gate. They pressed on the mist barrier, their ghostly hands slowly inching through my resistance. A sharp pain stabbed in my temple. Ruthlessly, I blocked around their hands then snapped those blocks up. The Lichs wailed, a high-pitched shrill, as their hands were broken right off. The limbs would grow back, but it at least relieved me of the pressure for now.

“Hurry!” I yelled at Blood Sword.

Suddenly, another magic pulse exploded, but this one wasn’t from the Gate in front of me. It was from the wilds on the other side of the wall around Garden City. The magic ripple crashed through Garden City, smashed into the wall around Eden, then washed down into Gate Square. Everywhere it rolled across, people were flattened and unattached things were moved. If it wasn’t for the dome barrier around me, I would have been thrown off my feet like the rest of the Hunters around me. Even the S Hunters were taken down. Emma still groaned from the heavy aura and pressed against Mason as he tried to protect her.

The magic ripple crashed into the mist barrier around the Gate. A yell of pain was ripped from me as fractures split around the barrier, but I refused to let it fall yet. Every Hunter was on the ground right now. They were dead if I let the monsters out now. My head pounded painfully.

Gasping, I turned my head to where the magic came from.

On the other side of the city, a black arch rose in the air, bigger than Eden’s Gate. It stood like an onyx tombstone against the red sky.

Blood Sword scrambled to his feet. “Oh my god. Another Gate?”

The new Gate rippled. A pair of humongous pincers, at least fifty feet long, emerged from the black arch. The gigantic face of a man, his wide, bare torso and clawed arms, then the rest of his body. His scorpion body. He was at least a hundred feet tall and over two hundred long. Every time one of his clawed eight feet stabbed into the ground, it set off a small earthquake.

My eyes widened as I recognized the Scorpionman from the day that Vapria fell.

Both cities were deadly silent, as if everyone was petrified from the monster that made the Volpoda look like a weak little worm. Just the Scorpionman’s aura was enough to make the E Hunters near me shiver with fear.

The Scorpionman tipped his head back, opened his mouth to reveal small pincers hiding inside, and roared loud enough to make my ears hurt from here.

Blue Guide screens popped up in front of every Hunter.

I blinked at the teal one in front of me with one word.

[GODDESS!]

Kip gaped at her screen. “Did … did that monster just say a word that translated?”

The Scorpionman roared again and another screen yelling Goddess popped up.

Instantly, I knew what was going on. My power was from Goddess and seventy percent of the mist I stored in me was from her palace on Vapria. Because I was holding back the monsters in Eden’s Gate with my magic, the parasitic planet was able to locate us. Now it sent something to take care of us.

I was scared. After all, I’d personally witnessed what that Boss had done. But more than being scared, I wanted revenge. Revenge for Goddess’s people, revenge for mine. I wanted to protect my family that was in the defenseless city between me and that horrible Boss.

I turned my head and locked eyes with Blood Sword’s wide ones. “Are you ready? I’m going to let the monsters out now. You take care of those. I’ve got that one.” I jerked my chin at the Scorpionman who still roared.

Blood Sword recovered and frowned. “Are you sure?”

I ignored Emma's protests and nodded. “Of course. After all, it’s calling for me.”

I glanced to the far side of Gate Square. I couldn’t see Kesstel, but I could feel him waiting at the crumbling wall around Eden.

“We’ll go with you!” Emma instantly volunteered without even asking her team. The rest of them paled, but didn’t actually argue.

A soft smile touched my mouth as I looked at her. If this was the last time I would see her, I wanted it to at least be with a smile. “No. That monster will kill you all without a doubt. Stay here, where you can make a difference, protect the people, and live while doing it.”

She shook her head. “But you’re just an E. I have to protect you.”

I would have hugged her if I could. “I’m grateful that I met you. Truly. You were my first true friend since I became a Hunter. I’m grateful for you and your team.” I glanced at all of them. “I hope that we all get to see each other again. If we don’t, then thank you. And goodbye.”

Before Emma could object, I cancelled the dome around us then jumped up into the air and landed on a mist block.

Blood Sword took my cue and ran to the front line. “Ready!”

“Now!” With a sigh of relief, I let go of the barrier around Eden’s Gate.

Monsters spilled out and ran right into the waiting weapons ready for them. Steel flashed, magic exploded, and monsters roared among the screams of Hunters. Soon, the whole Gate Square was a bloody mess. The monsters were relentless, the Hunters were desperate and that put extra energy behind every attack. It was enough to bring the fighting to a stalemate.

They have to be fine, I told myself as I turned away. There were bigger things I had to deal with.

I focused on the giant Scorpionman, still roaring for me and marching toward Garden City. Kesstel jumped up next to me. For the second time since I met him, he wore full armor. He fell into step with me, not even bothering to ask if I'd make my mist blocks big enough for him. He just assumed I’d naturally do it, and I did.

“That’s the giant Scorpionman you were asking me about, huh?” Kesstel asked, frowning at the monster as we quickly closed in. There was nothing relaxed about him at all. He regarded this monster as big of a threat as I did.

“Yes.”

“You still want to save this planet?” he asked and glanced up at the red sky. “Right now is the time to slip away into a Portal without any backlash.”

“We have to save it,” I insisted. “It’s my home.” I glanced at him. “That means it’s yours too, right?”

His face softened for the barest of seconds. “Yes.”

My kindjals appeared in my hands as I glared at the Scorpionman. “Then let’s save it.”

*****