Ragna landed back at the arena’s center and exhaled. The battle was over. She had won against an opponent who should be stronger than her.

Her wings and armor disappeared. She had deactivated her Fylgja and looked like a twenty-one-year-old girl.

Her eyes skimmed her environment. Clouds had turned the sky into a gray sea. It would be raining soon. Winstone was leaning with his back against the grandstand. He had closed his eyes, and his chest heaved back and forth.

Wasn’t he conscious a moment ago?

Since the water reached his knees, he wouldn’t risk drowning. The fur on his body retreated. His appearance reverted to his human form, and the flame markings on his torso had lost their luster. They became black like tattoos and grew paler.

The audience was gasping. A veil of silence lasted on the arena, forbidding anyone to blemish Ragna’s victory with noises.

Ragna dropped her shoulders and gifted her audience a smile. Beneath her feet glimmered the remains of the government’s cleansing. The skulls’ rainbow coloring was in flux, shifting through the spectrum of light that glared at the spectators.

Would the day come when their glow would diminish as well?

Ragna picked up her swords and kneeled in front of the audience. “I do this because I wish to.” She placed her weapons next to her. “I don’t know your names. I don’t know your faces. Your lives are shrouded in the grains of time. I cannot abolish your misdeeds; I cannot praise your accomplishments. My words won’t be enough to reach most of you. But for the few this battle opened the gates, I hope they will assist. So let me ask you: Do you see your loved ones?”

The audience’s silence disappeared. As the cameras filmed Ragna and transmitted her action to the digital world, the audience repeated her eulogy and raised from their seats, placing their hands on their chest. They spoke the words everyone with a shred of honor would know.

“Do you see your relatives and your comrades and enemies past? Do you see the green and beautiful? They call to you, seek your place among them. Live there forever and find your bliss.”

A minute passed. No one spoke.

Ragna stood up and concealed her weapons, and the audience started to clap. First a few, then more applauded her.

Out of a whim to amuse them, Ragna raised her fist in the air. The spectators chanted her name, and Ragna allowed them to bask her in their praise for a few moments before she turned their back.

“And that concludes today’s battle,” the speaker said. “Please remember that no fights will be conducted for the next two weeks because of the evacuation. And please don’t forget to leave for your bunkers within the next two hours. Thank you.”

Ragna walked across the arena and crossed the bridge towards the gate. She entered the entrance’s rainbow light and existed the Boneyard Colosseum, leaving behind the cheers and the arena.

Her lips formed into a smile once her face stared at the sky.

She did it. That the world knew that she was alive in Heorot and saw some of her abilities might cause problems in the future, but she had removed the most immediate road bump in her journey. She had won the battle, earned enough Honey for a ticket to Avalon, and activated her Fylgja. And she still had most of her Mana.

Ragna started to walk towards the exchange stand.

It should be around the corner. She needed to put the Honey into her card and trade it for a ticket.

Once the others won their tickets, they could leave for Avalon. It should solve the problem of the world knowing that she was in Heorot. Even her enemies should encounter difficulties entering Avalon. Once one had passed its gates, the city of apple trees served as a sanctuary, protecting anyone it permitted inside. Then, she would find her father and get the truth out of him. That should prove her innocence, and on top of that, Altera would have succeeded in her Bragi. If one combined these factors with a statement from Aura that she had tried to protect her, she could get her life back.

No. Ragna shook her head.

Her old life was gone. Sven was dead, her father and her kingdom had abandoned her, and she had changed too much. But she had met people she would hold dear for eternity.

That the world had seen her abilities shouldn’t hinder her, as well. She had just started her path and discovered her Fylgja. No one could tell in which direction her abilities could evolve.

Ragna looked around. The exchange corner should be here. Besides her, no one else was walking on the streets since the citizens of Heorot had abandoned their homes for the bunkers on the outskirts. Despite their recklessness and general attitude, they took the evacuations seriously.

Ragna scratched her temple.

Shouldn’t the evacuations happen in a few weeks? If the gambling dens had closed, they couldn’t earn Honey or trade it for tickets. In the worst-case scenario, they couldn’t leave for Avalon and had to stay in Heorot for two more weeks. And they had to eliminate the abomination before it could destroy Heorot.

Organs started to thunder through the streets, throwing Ragna out of her thoughts.

Huh? What’s going on? Her eyes widened, and her arms trembled as she gazed upon the streets.

“What the…?” She clutched her saber.

Slowly played the tunes of the invisible instrument, piping to each stanza with every second, and to them, distorted the buildings. Their edges’ lines bent to curves like snakes as if they were dancing.

And then, the organ’s music exploded in volume.

The clouds twisted around their axis, their bodies elongating; their colors bleaching to ivory until they hung like narwhale horns in the now clear blue sky.

Humanoid shadows appeared on the horizon. Their voices echoed in the distance, accompanying the organ’s music with their chant. Gods had descended from the heavens, looking down on her, and started to sing.

“What the fuck?” Ragna’s face contorted, and her irises shrunk. She forced herself to smile, her eyes jumping all over the scene in an attempt to make sense of the events.

A knife was shooting at her.

Ragna caught a glimpse of a knife’s edge and drew her saber. The weapon’s point clunk against her sword.

“Not bad, not bad, not bad.” The assailant laughed.

And Ragna saw his face. Her eyes widened a second time. “How? You should be dead.”

“And yet here I am.” Clockwork jumped a step back and attacked with his butterfly sword. “Even Hel won’t hold me back until I’ve taken you out from this world.”

Ragna parried the move with her saber.

It didn’t matter how he had survived the forest god. She had gotten stronger since their last encounter. If he thought she was the same girl he met back in the temple, he would eat his words.

She activated the Hagal rune, and the bass dropped. The music’s rhythm changed, beating against the drums. Earth and sky swapped places. Asphalt looked down on Ragna, air spread between her legs.

And the sky quaked. Ragna’s feet became unsteady. Milliseconds separated the tremors, trying to sweep her.

“What’s happening?” Ragna could barely retain her balance.

Electronic beats mixed with the organ’s sound; and the chants, and together, they created a song defying time itself. She pivoted on her heels and deflected an attack from a dagger.

“You…” Ragna growled. Her eyes turned into slits.

Skyfrost clicked their tongue. “You’re still breathing. How annoying.”