The sounds of the battle rushed back to Tristan’s ears as he left the area surrounding the convention center.

Down the street, he could see explosions of fire, water, and lightning coming from behind a hill made of debris. What the hell happened while he was gone? The building was completely destroyed. Had people died in the fight? Hell, who was even fighting in the first place? And why?

He didn’t have time to think about that. Whoever it was, the battle was still in full force.

He took off running. Every few seconds, the ground would quake, making it difficult for him to keep his balance. Somehow, he managed to keep upright with his eyes locked on his destination.

“Bridget…” he mumbled, his eyes moving around frantically. The last time he saw her, she had gone inside of the building. Was she stuck in the rubble? Was she even still alive?

Of course she was. This was Bridget he was thinking of, after all. With her ridiculous strength, a collapsed building wasn’t enough to kill her. At least, that’s what he wanted to believe.

Another blast made the earth roll beneath his feet, and the heat from the fire slammed into him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. His heart pounded. What was he even doing? He was headed right into the fray, completely unable to defend himself.

He seemed to be doing a lot of that today.

As he made it around the rubble, the battle came into full view. A woman in black on one side, a blonde-haired man on the other. There were others too, and most concerning of all, there was a dragon. An actual goddamn dragon.

He laughed nervously. Maybe he had finally lost it. If he was going insane, at least his hallucinations were badass.

It took him a moment to come back to his senses. He didn’t have time to be standing there dumbfounded. Just above him, Yune was dancing through the air, dodging bolts of lightning coming at her.

“Yune!” he yelled as loudly as he could, but then threw his hands over his mouth. He wasn’t thinking straight. She was fighting. She didn’t have time for a conversation. If he distracted her, it could mean her death.

She didn’t seem to notice him. He knew that he should feel glad, but it just made his chest ache. He had never wanted to talk to another human being more in his entire life.

Well, he wasn’t even sure she was human, but that was beside the point.

Yune was with the red haired woman. Both of them were on the offensive now, shooting magic beams only to have them clash with the lightning attacks from another figure he didn’t recognize.

No. He knew who it was. Yune’s opponent was moving so quickly, he didn’t register it at first, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was the girl with glasses. The same one that knocked him out in the café. The one Yune called her friend.

Weren’t they on the same side? It didn’t make any sense.

“What the hell are you doing?” someone yelled from behind him.

Tristan turned to see Bridget standing about twenty feet away. She stood at the entrance to an alley, a puddle of what he assumed used to be one of the dark monsters lying at her feet.

“You wanna die?” Bridget yelled again. This time, the meaning of her words managed to reach him. If he kept standing there, he would be caught up in the crossfire.

He gave one more glance to the battle, and then ran to meet her. “Hey,” he huffed, suddenly realizing how exhausted he was. He couldn’t remember the last time he had run this much. “You’re… okay.”

“I’m fine,” Bridget took him by the arm and pulled him into the alleyway. “Why are you back here? Weren’t you catching the murderer or whatever?”

Tristan stared at her for a moment, an especially large explosion sounding behind him. The feeling of the aftershock spread through his body.

“I-I-I caught him,” Tristan stammered, trying to speak loudly. “Well, there were some other people looking for him too, so I guess they caught him. But… uh, yeah.”

“Oh,” Bridget seemed unsurprised.

“Anyway,” Tristan gulped. “I just thought… you might need some help too.”

“I got ya,” Bridget spread her arms. “Well as you can see, this is a little out of my hands right now.”

“…Yeah.”

“Plus, I’m kind of stuck with these three,” Bridget pointed behind her.

“Huh?” Tristan peaked past her to see three teenagers standing there in deeper in the alley. Well, two teenagers anyway. One of them was a monster. The same kind of monster that attacked them at that magician’s house. Wait. “Holy shit!” he screamed.

“Don’t worry,” the teenage boy said, seemingly a little shaken by Tristan’s outburst. “I have him… under control.”

“Yeah, I got ‘em,” the girl grinned, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.

“Huh…” Tristan nervously glanced over at the shadow standing there. It wasn’t moving, but that didn’t exactly make him feel at ease. He knew firsthand how dangerous they were. The sludge dripping from its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth didn’t exactly sell the ‘safe’ claim either.

“Don’t worry about them,” Bridget sighed. “They’re dumb, but they’re mostly harmless.”

Okay. Apparently, he didn’t need to worry about the monster. Right. Even with Nicholas dead, he didn’t feel like his place in the world had changed much.

“Hey, who are you calling dumb?” the teenage girl shouted.

“The ones that made me hold that thing in a German suplex while you chatted,” Bridget snapped back. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep it from slipping out?”

Now what the hell were they talking about? Whatever. Tristan decided he would be better off not knowing.

“So… What’s going on?” Tristan asked. “With… all this, I mean.”

“Huh?” Bridget turned her head back to him, still angry from her exchange with the girl. “Some kind of magic turf war or something. I don’t know.”

“Is… that kind of thing normal?”

Bridget glared at him. “Of course not, dumbass.”

Tristan looked over at the teenagers, but neither of them answered. Either they didn’t know, or they weren’t going to tell him. Either way, asking them anything else would probably be a waste of time.

He turned back to the battle in the street.

The magic onslaught continued, fireballs cutting through the air only to hit invisible walls. Blasts of water were deflected off into the air. Seconds later, violent raindrops fell back down, pelting the street. If it weren’t for the situation, it almost would have looked beautiful.

There were clearly two sides to the conflict. On one side, there was a woman, her long hair and dress both a deep black. On the other, a refined looking blonde man. Was the woman winning? The man seemed to be completely on the defensive.

Judging by the side Yune was standing on, it was safe to say that the black haired woman was with her. That meant that the man was her enemy, and if he was Yune’s enemy, then the man was his enemy too.

That said, he didn’t feel like he was in a position to do anything to help.

Another round of magic clashed, the battle showing no sign of stopping. He couldn’t be sure, but he doubted this was something magic investigators like Nicholas and Arlene could handle. If it went on like this, what would happen to the city?

And then, just like that, the attacks stopped.

The sudden silence made his ears ring. For a moment, he thought a watch had been activated, but after seeing Bridget looking just as confused as he was, that idea was proven false. What happened?

The girl with glasses. The girl with glasses was standing in front of the blonde man with her hand outstretched. Was it… was it inside of him?

She had stabbed into him with her bare hand.

Before he could even process what was going on, the man lifted his hand up and a sudden gust of wind tore through the alleyway.

“Oh shit,” Tristan cried as he felt his feet leave the ground. Someone grabbed him.

“Come on,” Bridget yelled. “You’re not that much of a lightweight, are you?”

Tristan wanted to tell her that he had been gaining a little muscle lately, but with her literally keeping him from being blown away, he reconsidered his accomplishment.

Finally, the wind died down. Tristan regained his footing and looked back at the scene. The girl with glasses was on the ground now. The man was clutching his stomach. Wasn’t she supposed to be on his side?

The black haired woman let out a crazed laugh, piercing through the silence. “What’s this now?” she asked. “Your demon girl doesn’t seem to be listening to you. Bad, bad girl.”

“You… you bitch!” the man screamed. “What did you do!?”

“I didn’t do a thing,” the woman said. “I think you underestimated your little toy there, don’t you?”

The girl with glasses stood back up as Yune came to her side. They both looked up at the man, still hovering in the air beside the dragon.

“Your magic is far too strong,” the man yelled. “It’s… unbelievable. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh, do go on,” the woman lowered herself back to the ground.

“You’ve gone past the gate. I know you have,” the man’s voice came out pained. “Please… you can’t keep that information to yourself. Help me move magician kind… into a new era.”

“You’re still going on with that?” the woman groaned.

“You can change the world!”

There was a long pause. What the hell was this? What was this about changing the world?

“I’m going to put you down now,” the woman finally spoke, her voice coming out as cold as ice. “I’ve grown tired of playing with you.”

“Then I’ll keep fighting,” the man replied. “I’ll keep going until I find your weakness. I’ll kill you.”

“That’s funny,” she twirled a lock of her hair around her finger. “Because I’m not going to give you a chance to defend yourself.”

Tristan’s heart dropped. Not because of what she had said, but because she was looking directly at him.

“Boy,” she called out to him. “I want you to use what I gave you.”

“…Me?” he glanced around and then back to her.

“Yes, you.”

What she gave him? As far as he knew, this was the first time he had ever even seen her. What did she mean?

“Tristan!” a familiar voice called out. It wasn’t quite a yell, but it was obvious that she was trying to.

“Yune!” Without thinking, he yelled back. “I… really uh, I really want to get to know you more!” Fuck. Why did everything he said have to come out so stupid? “What I mean is… I really like you!”

Bridget’s voice came from his left. “Barf.”

“Watch!” Yune yelled

Watch what?

“The watch!”

He looked down at his wrist. The watch! She wanted him to use the watch to freeze the man. But the battery… Would it last long enough to do anything? Suddenly, he felt something pull on his body. He went flying through the air, screaming like a madman.

He just barely managed to keep his hand on his watch. He felt like a ragdoll. He needed to press a button, but he had no idea which one his finger was on. He could only hope for the best. He pressed down.

The familiar popping in his ears let him know that it worked. He stopped in the air, someone’s arms wrapping around him from behind.

Ahead of him, the blonde man was completely still. In the air, there were hundreds of spikes made of ice. He understood right away what it meant. The woman was really going to kill him. Tristan closed his eyes.

He felt the feeling of the watch fade away as the last of its power left it. Was it all over?

“No…” he heard Yune’s voice close to his ear.

He opened his eyes again to see the dragon covered in the spikes, like a pin cushion. Its blood covered body was wrapped around the man. It protected him from the attack.

“Lem…” the man said, his voice trembling. The dragon tried to stand, but its legs couldn’t hold its weight. It fell with a thud, disintegrating into nothingness.

It took Tristan a moment to realize he was in Yune’s arms, but he couldn’t enjoy it. Something about seeing the man pained him. For just a moment, Tristan felt like he might not be on the ‘good’ side.

Who was he kidding? This clearly wasn’t a battle between good and evil. It never was. Maybe… things like good and evil never existed in the first place.

“Well,” the woman’s voice came from farther back behind him. “That was unexpected. Have you lost your will to fight? Shall I close the curtain on our little game?”

The man didn’t respond.

“Tristan!” Bridget yelled out. He looked back to the alley.

It was a light. No, not a light. What was that? It was black, like he was looking into the void of space itself, and it was getting bigger. Had using the watch… done something?

Bridget yelled again, running toward him. “It’s the boy!”

Before Tristan could say anything back, he heard another voice.

“It’s… it’s beautiful,” the man said.

The man wore a twisted smile. Tears streamed down his face as he lifted his finger to his face, a ball of black energy forming above it.

“The gate…” the man said. “I’ve seen… beyond the gate.”