Lucy was tired of the color red. It was everywhere, from the skies to the shadows cast by the rigid sun’s rays. It was inside of her in not just her organs; the once pristine mana, blessed by the Goddess herself, had mutated into red soul energy. The only solace was her dreams, and even in those the memories of the past sometimes replayed through a crimson staticky filter.

That damned red had cannibalized another poor soul, transforming them into a monster. She could figure out what led to Adam’s excess consumption later. Now, she and Saria needed to fulfill their duties, both as a protector of protecting West Junction, and as a war maiden of Astraea.

She concentrated, digging deep inside her soul for its energy. It flowed out like sticky honey, coating herself in its distasteful yet reassuring aura. There was enough inside of her to last through his encounter.

“I’m so sorry, Adam.” She spoke, dropping into stance again Saria ejected an empty shell from her rifle and loaded in a fresh one. Runes lit up across the barrel in orange. “Our carelessness got you into this mess.”

The monster craned his neck to stare at her. The veins around the neck and cheeks bulged. Its eyes were that of the vagrants—white and blank.

"So, we’ll take responsibility. You need not suffer anymore.”

Lucy kicked off the ground and ran towards Adam. Her blade swung in an arc straight towards his neck. Around it, a pendant radiated light.

Adam stood in place, wondering what he had been doing. His surroundings were red. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, and the air were all the same color. They pulsed and trembled, like feverish skin. Where was this and how had he gotten there? He tried to remember but failed. He wanted to press a hand to his forehead and found he could not.

A figure ran towards him. He saw its shadows trail behind through its movement. Oh, now he remembered. This was the enemy. The entire room was full of them.

He had to move. He needed to dodge, protect himself. That was his job, they had said, so he was going to damn well accomplish it.

The best defense was an offense. He learned it on the concrete roads, amongst the darkness of the alleys, where bone hit tarmac and blood ruptured. There, he smashed the enemy in front of him. Sent its innards flying like debris. Already a good start.

He grabbed that chair and bashed it over that enemy’s head. He took their heads and slammed them together until they cracked like watermelons. His body had the energy to spare. Why stop?

“Crush the skull, break the neck or dismember the limbs.”

See? He was doing it. There were knives around, for some reason. He picked up one. He was stabbing, cutting, and gouging with them.

“You shouldn’t have to do any of that, however.”

Why not? He was winning. Look at all the enemies he destroyed. So much so that the place was silent.

That wasn’t enough. He needed more. More enemies to fight. More bones to crush. More blood to bleed.

“We will protect you.”

It didn’t make sense. So, he ignored them. They hung in the air, then faded into the walls, leaving nothing behind.

Weird.

Who even said them? He couldn’t remember. It wasn’t important, then.

Sound in the distance! Something was happening there! More enemies were fighting, in a large group centered around two shadowy figures. He ignored them, jumping headfirst into the fray. This was what he wanted. This was his element. This was where he was meant to be.

He punched and tackled and threw until, once again, there was nothing left to fight. Maybe it was time to rest? The blood pumping through his veins disagreed. Don’t stop, it said, or you’ll die.

See?

Look at how that shadow attacked you out of nowhere. She almost tore through your neck. Good thing you sidestepped in time, but don’t ignore bystanders again. Break them all until you’re the last one standing, okay?

Adam snarled. Red tore free from his throat and reverberated through the air. Let those shadows come. He would survive. He would win!

Lucy backed off in haste, feeling the air hiss from Adam’s right hook. His fist dented the nearby wall instead, leaving a crack. She advanced again, driving her machete at his exposed arm. Flesh tore, blood was spilled.

Only skin-deep. Damn it to oblivion! Lucy thought. Had she been half a second faster, she would have severed the tendon and disabled the arm. All she had accomplished was enraging him. Adam bellowed like a mad bull and stormed forward, arms outstretched.

Lucy gripped her machete in both hands and threw her body forward, so low she almost began crawling. She dove under Adam’s grab, then rose with the machete aimed straight at his heart—

And then Adam pulled back to grab the machete’s blade, the tip barely scratching his chest. Lucy’s eyes widened and tried to pull the machete back. It was stuck. Adam’s contorted face sneered at her. It then gave one mighty swing to the side. Lucy was flung to the ground, the machete spinning uselessly out of sight.

Adam plunged down the fist. For a moment, it seemed all was lost. Then, Lucy vanished from her spot. Once again, Adam’s fist hit empty air. He looked around, confused, then saw Lucy re-appearing in a puff of smoke next to Saria, her chest heaving.

“Take this!”

Saria fired two bullets, aimed at the chest and head. With Saria’s accuracy and speed, Adam’s body should have dropped from the double-tap. Instead, he rolled to the side in that split millisecond, dodging the first and letting the second pierce his shoulder. The last one hit his shoulder. He shrieked in pain, clutching the wounded spot.

It happened again. A glint of purple from the pendant around Adam’s neck. The next moment, he miraculously dodged the killing blow. Was that sense of forewarning his Talent, just as the short teleport was Lucy’s? Saria glanced at Lucy. Both were frustrated. Both had reached the same conclusion.

“The balcony edge. We can shove him off there.” Lucy said. She drew the second machete from her belt and forced the last vestiges of her red into it. “His Talent must have a limit. I’m going to engage with him again.”

“That’s dangerous!”

“I’ll risk it. Pick him off when I’ve got him close to the edge” Lucy said. The mission was now to redirect Adam to the balcony. It was not going to be easy. If only we had a heavy with us. “Here we go!"

The pain spread across his shoulder like cracks on the glass. It hurt! Damn that shadow, with her rifle and her bullets. He was going to grab her neck and wring it like a cloth.

Oh, what’s this? The other shadow was racing towards him? Hadn’t she learned her lesson from last time?

She swung her blade at him. He punched in the opposite direction. His gloved fists reinforced like steel, deflected the blows. Any missing flesh was quickly built back up by the red. She slashed again, he blocked once more. They continued like this, dancing together in an invisible ring.

Neither of them had a real advantage. This was familiar to Adam. It was workable. That’s why he let his guard drop and allowed the shadow to sink her blade into his flesh.

Again, it hurt. But more importantly, the blade was stuck. He didn’t check if she realized this. Through the electricity seizing his nerves, he pulled his fist back and punched the shadow. A direct hit, just before she could concentrate for her little trick! Away she flew, straight into the wall. He pounced on her, grabbing her hair and driving another fist into her face.

Red flared up around her. Huh, somehow it cushioned his blow. No matter he would have to punch her again. She raised her arms to block. They easily crumpled. Her nose broke the cartilage twisting, blood pouring out of her nostrils. She gasped in pain and Adam kneed her in the stomach. He needed to damage her before she disappeared from his sight again!

Oh, the other shadow was screaming. Running towards him with that gun. Well, he had a solution for that.

This was going to hell in a handbasket. When Adam’s fist smashed into Lucy’s face, Saria abandoned all reason and charged forward.

“Get your hands off her!” she screamed. She swung the butt of the rifle at the back of his head. He whirled around, letting go of Lucy in the process. Saria flipped her rifle around and fired at his head. Adam ducked and went in for the grab. Saria blocked with her rifle. The two struggled in a lock. Saria pushed with all her might, but she soon began to buckle beneath Adam’s frenzied strength.

Courage and justice! Strength and hope! She shoved with all her might, bellowing a curse from her old world. Adam stumbled back. Lucy flung herself off the ground with the last vestiges of strength, delivering a powerful kick into his side.

“Now, Saria!” Lucy roared.

Saria spun around, aimed, and fired the last bullet. It sunk into Adam’s midsection, blowing out chunks of flesh. The impact flung him forward, off the balcony, and down towards the floor below.

Adam was falling. The air whistled through his airs. It felt nostalgic, for reasons he couldn’t describe.

The ground rushed up to meet him. A sickening crack ran through his side. He reached up to his chest and felt sticky blood.

Oh, he had lost, then? The power, so sweet and promising, had dashed off without paying. The red was receding, replaced by the dust and dim lights of the area around him.

No!

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! He was supposed to win! How had those two shadows beaten him?

He tried to scramble up, even though his arms did not obey. He wanted to walk, but his legs remained dead. He tried to speak and see, but the world was consumed by inky blackness. All-consuming, omnipresent, eternal. He sank like a rock into the deep ocean.

Past the memories of Steeldale, past the time inside the new world, past the encounters with Lucy and Saria…falling, falling, falling until he reached an infinite bottom.

A figure stood in the distance, with long brown hair tied into a ponytail, dressed in a shirt and jeans. She smiled as he floated down next to him. Mary.

Mary, the beloved sister. Mary, who went missing, came back bloodied and torn and left a gaping hole in his life. How was she here?

Was she here to pick him up after all this time? Or was this merely the last remnants of thought in his dying mind?

He blinked and Mary’s image shifted. The ponytail was gone and her hair now hung loosely around her shoulders. Her casual wear was replaced with a black uniform with a cloak. A sword was sheathed on her belt. Her skin was covered in scratches and wounds. She turned around and limped to the side.

“Where are you going, Mary?” Adam mouthed. His voice still wasn’t working.

A figure lay on the ground, bleeding out. Another girl, with silvery hair and clad in a combination of uniform and a frilly dress. Mary knelt by her side and extended a hand. The unknown girl reciprocated. Golden light flowed out of the connection and onto their wounds, healing them. The image of a chain wrapped itself around their wrists, then vanished. Sparks flickering off into the distance like smoke in a campfire.

He knew that light from elsewhere. At the top of a pyramid, as a reward for climbing the fastest and the hardest, as the others were devoured by a red pool…

YOU WILL BE A PACTBEARER.

And the voice boomed through his head like thunder again.

Mary then turned her head back to Adam and smiled again. He recognized it immediately. Whenever Mary wanted Adam to learn something, she would demonstrate it first, then give him that smile. Half encouraging, half-daring.

“You want me to do this, Mary?”

She just kept on smiling. Guess she wasn’t here to pick him up, after all. And yet…“Okay. I will.”

It didn’t matter if this was really her or a figment of his imagination. Even gone, he would still do anything for her.

“You okay, Lucy?”

“Enough to move. Let’s go.” The black-haired girl wheezed. Her face was a mess, her nose bent and bruises forming. Both were spent, but Lucy had received the worst of it.

They climbed down the steps, supporting each other. Adam lay at the bottom, resting just beneath the tip of the fractured balcony. His bullet wounds were beginning to fester.

Neither Saria nor Lucy had the energy to feel angry. They moved to him and stuck their hands in the air, absorbing the leaking red. It got to work inside their systems, restoring vitality and alleviating some of the pain.

“Is he dead?” Saria asked.

“He will be soon,” Lucy said. “Poor guy. He didn’t deserve this.” The deserted mall was quiet. All the vagrants and other beasts had been scared off. Reinforcements would arrive soon to pick them up. Adam’s body would be burned and his ashes scattered to the wind.

It was a better fate than leaving his corpse behind to be turned into another vagrant.

She saw his right hand twitch and felt nothing of it. Then, it expanded into a flat palm. Golden light streamed from within his torn sleeves, joining into a cluster on his palm. Saria drew her rifle once more, only to lower it once she got closer to the light.

She let out a frantic giggle. She holstered her rifle and ran her palms down her face. “You gotta be kidding me, Adam. After all this, all the hurt you put us through, you turn out to be a…a…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. She was too busy laughing. “Goddess above, I hate you so much right now! Why couldn’t you have done this earlier?”

“He’s a Pactbearer,” Lucy said, awe in her voice. “I thought they had all been snatched up. West Junction is going to freak out.”

“Do we just pact with him?” Saria cried. “What are even the protocols for this?”

“Touch his hand, announce that you’re making the pact. That’s what the rumors say. Saria, you do it.”

“Me? But you’re the stronger one.”

“I’m too tired. Might not survive it,” Lucy said, collapsing on the floor. “I don’t mind, either. You need it, don’t you?”

“You mean it?” Saria said in a small voice. "You won't regret this."

“Yes. Now go, he’ll die if you don’t hurry up.”

Saria scrambled over to the golden light in Adam’s palm. She leaned down and touched his hand with hers.

“Pact…” Adam mumbled, delirious and quiet as a whisper. “Mary…I have to…”

“I, Saria, warrior of West Junction and former war maiden of Astraea, accept this pact,” Saria said. “Let it last until Adam has fully recovered!

A torrent of light enveloped the two. Lucy closed her eyes and waited for the fireworks to fade. The front doors slammed open and a group of men and women, wearing the same cloaks as the two girls, rushed in. They arrived in the plaza just as the torrent dissipated, leaving behind Saria standing over Adam, golden trails sparkling around her body.

“Saria! Lucy!” The man at the front cried out. “Where are you two?”

“Here.” Lucy called. “We’re okay. The horde is gone. Our escort is also okay. But, as you can see…”

“What the flipping hell is that light?” One of the warriors at the back exclaimed, staring at Saria and Adam. “Is that a Pactbearer’s light?”

Saria fidgeted on the spot, not saying anything. Lucy heaved a deep sigh. She knew it wouldn’t be the last one today.

“It’s a long story, everyone. Let’s go home.”