“Ragna!” Altera arrived from the eastern exit, but Ragna didn’t react to her call. Tears of blood ran down Altera’s face, and ice had replaced her wings’ tips as crimson lines wormed through them.

Her eyes caught the runes floating in the air. “They’re…activated…again.” Her voice became subdued, pants dividing the words into sentences. “…Fuck…”

“We just destroyed them.” Behind her, Grendel was huffing. He sounded as if he wished to cry. The foreign Mana sludge was corroding through his armor, turning him into a mosaic amalgamation of scales and human being. Their onyx color had mixed with his blood and followed him like his tail.

He would have already bled out if his ability didn’t turn him into this creature. Not that Altera had much ground to speak on. She had managed to replace the Orichalcum with ice and stopped the bleeding, just like on her wings. Repairing both later with her Mana shouldn’t be a problem. But if she lost too much, the damage would become unsalvageable. Well, if she didn’t die first.

Behind his broken mask, Grendel’s eye peeked at Ragna’s group, making him growl. “It’s already affecting them. I distract it; You deal with the runes.”

Altera nodded. A stream of fire erupted from Grendel’s jaws and hit the abomination in the center. The flames smoldered the Mana sludge, the boar skull turned around, and Altera saw it as her cue. She widened her wings, dashing towards Ragna’s group on the other end of the area.

Before the sludge could reach them, she landed in front of them. Altera beat her wings, creating a gust of wind that blew the ooze away.

Good. That should give her a bit more time.

She coated her finger in her blood and painted the Fehu on Ragna’s arm. Ragna’s body relaxed, and her muscles started to move.

“What just happened?” Ragna lifted her arms to check that her body functioned again. “My body was paralyzed.”

“That thing can use runes.” Altera drew the Fehu rune on Jareth’s mask.

Somehow, the abomination used the circles in the air to manipulate runes like humans from the kingdoms. As she had trained with Eric, she had experienced the Isan rune on herself and recognized its use: Depression, fatigue, a reduction of movement and heat, negativity, despair.

She had finished drawing the runes on Bedivere’s and Lutz’s cheeks and explaining to them that the circles functioned like runes and that destroying them disabled the effects temporarily.

“I can’t believe it. That thing can use runes.” Lutz shook his head, chuckling at the ridiculousness of the situation. “How would it even know to activate them?”

“We can discuss that later.” Altera glanced at Grendel. He was screaming while his fire fended off the abomination that they should hurry up. “Does anyone of you know the effects of these runes?”

Grendel had to endure for a bit longer. To win the fight, they needed to know what the runes did. Still. Could only humans use runes? That dragon in her “dream” had used Midgard’s runes, too. No, now wasn’t the time. She had tried to ignore that vision, trying to avert it through her actions, and she wouldn’t start now.

“This will throw me in jail, but we’ve to get rid of that thing.” Ilias pointed at the Ansuz rune. “That one’s from Kemet-Raa. It creates thunder and electricity. It must be responsible for the paralysis. Though I’ve never seen it being used on a micro-level and travel through our muscles.”

“Don’t worry. The Fehu rune will let your bodies move as long as your brains function, and I’m not out of Mana.” Altera nodded and told them the effects of the Isan rune.

Saving lives took precedence over the kingdom’s secrets. Not that it made a difference to her. Midgard had already marked her a Nidingr. Even without a future and her dreams shattered, she had to fight for the sake of the world. She could wallow in self-pity once they had dealt with the threat.

“Jeran’s Harvest,” Bedivere said and revealed the effects of the last rune. “It’s accumulation on a time-axis. The more one endures, waits, and puts effort into; The more one gets as a reward.”

“But what does it accumulate? The sludge?” Jareth asked. “I can feel its Mana rising by the second. But what does it intend?”

“Whatever it is, don’t let it destroy the Sea Mither.” Bedivere pointed at an Orichalcum door within the center of the wall opposite to them. “That’s the last defense. It usually keeps the AT-Shield from leaking out. Now, it’s all that prevents a complete fallout. If it falls, it’s game over.”

Ragna had already transformed with her Fylgja. She summoned obelisks of ice, encircling the abomination in its prison. While they advanced toward its body, Grendel’s flames gnawed at it. Ice covered the goo, and fire ate through it from the other side. The elements pushed against the abomination, and a wave of sludge shot out of it in response. Ragna dashed to Gredel and lifted him at the last second as the deluge consumed fire and ice, freeing the abomination.

With Grendel under her arm, Ragna beat her wings. She flew backward and landed next to Altera.

“Our attacks didn’t do anything.” Ragan let Grendel down and sighed. “It just got bigger and absorbed them. How can one even hurt it?”

“We have to destroy Jeran first,” Altera said. “As long it’s active, it will build up more and more sludge and Mana. It’s like a machine that creates more energy than it consumes.”

“So, if we hit the circles enough, they’re gone, right?” Ragna widened her wings.

“Only for a short time, and the interval’s shrinking.” Altera nodded. “If we can destroy all the sludge at once while the runes are gone, we should defeat it. I tried it before, but my attacks were never enough.” She looked at Jareth. “Your sword uses void energy, right? Can you extinguish the runes?”

“I can remove either Ansuz or Jeran.” Jareth brandished out his blade. “Isafa’s the problem. It deals with negativity. So, it would cancel my void sword with its superior Mana.”

“Then deal with Ansuz,” Altera said.

Jareth nodded. His jetpack started to buzz and levitated him into the air as he shot toward the rune circle.

“Ragna, you come with me. We both deal with Jeran.” She faced Lutz. “You deal with Isafa. And you two.” She looked at the remaining two members. “You keep that sludge at bay.”

Bedivere gave her a thumbs-up and stormed off with Grendel.

“Guess it’s my turn.” Lutz put on a wry smile that didn’t decipher whether he enjoyed or dreaded facing the abomination. “Tamiel: Weißer Tod, König Freischütz-Dolchstoß.” In his hand appeared an assault rifle as long as his arm. Curving crosses marked the back part of the weapon, and over the trigger, a wing-like piece of metal decorated the muzzle. From Altera’s point of view, the handguard resembled a sword’s edge and the weapon an airship.

“What’s that?” Altera’s eyes focused on the firearm. “It’s almost like a Ysbryd.”

“I’ll explain later.” Ragna widened her wings. “What should I do?”

“Just hit the rune hard enough with your blades.” Altera raised her hand, and from the hallway, her partisan swooshed to her, levitating above her palm. “I’ll support you from behind.”

“Got it.” Ragna flew into the sky, and the partisan followed her.

At the same time, Lutz shot a sphere of Mana from his weapon without looking at his target. He had focused his eyes instead on the fighters on the ground.

Fire spread out of Grendel’s mouth, covering the sludge that started to creep toward them. Bedivere, meanwhile, shot barbs from her spear. They flew in the direction of the skull, but the pitch-black Mana sprung from the ground and caught the projectiles.

Despite Lutz’s lack of aim, the sphere traveled toward the Ansuz rune in a straight line.

Was that part of its ability?

Altera couldn’t spend more time analyzing Lutz’s weapon. A geyser emerged from the ground, blocking the path between bullet and rune. Altera activated the Hagal rune. Immediately, the sludge froze to a pillar of ice beneath the projectile. The sphere passed by and hit the rune in its center. Blue lighting and flashes of light escaped from the collision point in all directions as the orb consumed the rune. A moment later, the projectile had collapsed and vanished with the circle.

“One down, and two more to got.” Altera pumped her fist into the air. “Provide support or attack the monster. It’s up to your judgment.”

Lutz nodded without saying a word, and Altera’s focus shifted to Ragna and her partisan. Both had reached the circle and attacked from opposite sides.

Another fountain shot up. But instead of a geyser, the sludge started to spray everywhere. Altera poured further Mana into the runes she had drawn on her teammates, increasing their speed.

Ragna and the partisan flew around the sludge bombs, and Lutz raised his rifle and pushed the trigger repeatedly. A barrage of spheres fired out of its muzzle. All of them hit the sludge and devoured their Mana. Ice traveled from Altera’s feet towards the fountain’s stem and enveloped it before the sludge could spray.

Without any opposition keeping her from attacking, Ragna jetted toward the circles, both blades in her arms. Altera shot her partisan to the target as well. Ragna swung in a cross-motion and slashed the rune when the polearm hit it. Their weapons pierced through the letter, and the circle crumbled to nothingness.