“GIRLS!” Evarius shouted at the sight of Synthia crashing into Livian from up ahead. It took all of his willpower to not chase after them. He caught sight of someone in a green cloak knocking Synthia back but nothing else. He clutched the door frame so tight it was as if he were begging for splinters. If he had gone on ahead instead of Iggy, he was sure he could have prevented what had happened.

He whipped his head around, raising a hand for Christoph to stop before he came charging on ahead. “Hang on! The doors will lock if we head up.”

Christoph, however, disagreed. “If we don’t go on ahead, those guys could be gone forever! The plan didn’t work, you and I have to push on before they do.”

Gritting his teeth, Evarius went over what to do. The encompassing stillness of his surroundings did nothing to calm his thought process. In fact, said stillness only served to distract him. It was a burden that some murderer had flung at him in order to draw out some manner of sadistic pleasure.

“Dammit!” There was no other option. They had to push forward no matter what. It would be a gamble, but as things stood it was their only option.

“Hang on, I’m coming up now,” Christoph said. “I can manage decent darkness magic even as I am, and we can use that to cut through the distortion in that car. It won’t be as effective as the Mioja, however.”

“Just be quick about it!”

Taking a deep breath, Christoph walked through the door and stopped holding it. It slid shut behind him with a thud. There was no going back. He continued taking confident strides forward while remaining vigilant for their opponent.

Clenching his uninjured fist, Christoph resolved to himself to do whatever it took to get Synthia and the others back. If only he weren’t injured! He would’ve been able to do at least something. He felt increasingly useless on this journey, but he would make up for that. He would ensure that his contributions would mean something.

He was almost at the end of the car. His foot was raised to cross it and join Evarius for their investigation of the third car when...

“CHRISTOPH, NO!”

A familiar voice shrieked from behind him. Startled, Christoph jumped but his foot was already over the threshold. It would’ve landed if not for being tackled back into the car by two bodies.

“OOF!”

He shoved his attackers off him, rolling back and firing up a spell. He stopped when another familiar voice said, “Christoph, please wait!”

Blinking, Christoph looked up at Synthia, her expression frantic. Behind him, Iggy had pulled open the door again and had a look of immense relief on her face. In front, he saw Livian and a woman in a green cloak getting up to their feet. It appeared they had tackled him.

Immensely confused, Christoph looked between all four of them. “I—Wait, what? What just happened?”

...

Retreating to outside the last car, Synthia and Rynne brought the men up to speed. Their faces grew pale as they realized how close the last car had gotten to being destroyed. Iggy and Livian let them do the explaining, with Rynne throwing up a quick barrier spell to prevent their opponent from potentially listening in on them. Iggy shored it up with her own magic to make doubly sure.

“And so I would advise you not to rush ahead so you can play hero,” Rynne said bluntly. Her blue eyes stabbed at Christoph like frigid icicles, and he found he had no words to defend himself. While he knew it would’ve been accidental, the guilt of almost causing so much death couldn’t be shrugged off lightly.

“Hey, it’s not like he knew,” Synthia pointed out. “Right now we’re in a position where we can take the fight to this guy and finally put an end to all this.”

“Hmph. You’re not incorrect...” Rynne did not broach the subject further. “What matters most is coming together to put a stop to this menace. I shall join you in this endeavor.”

“Hold it lady, there’s still a few things I wanna clarify.” Livian strode forward, glaring at Rynne. “From what you’re saying, you were basically stalking us. I didn’t have enough time to grill you about it down there but frankly, I’m not so sure I can trust you knowing that. How the hell do we know you’re not just gonna stab us all in the back and take the sword for yourself?”

“A valid concern, but I assure you I have no intent of harming you,” Rynne said. “That is, unless you turn on me first.”

“Well, why don’t you ask him?” Christoph indicated Evarius. “Her story sounds valid enough, but it couldn’t help to get extra confirmation. He might even know her, being another elf.”

Livian rolled her eyes as Evarius muttered, “Why do you think I’d know her?”

“You don’t think he already would’ve told me that?” Livian chastised Christoph. “If I did, I wouldn’t need to give this chick such a hard time. Besides, Evarius here is, uh... well, his situation’s kind of special.”

Meekly raising a hand at the attention thrown his way, Evarius clarified what Livian meant. “Technically, I’m not really ‘elven’ anymore. Not in a legal sense. It’s a long story.”

Christoph blinked “Seriously? Well, I guess that would explain a few things.”

“We can deal with that later,” Synthia said, cutting through the tension. “Right now, we need to work together and find this guy.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Christoph said, laying a hand on her arm. “You said you had to fight Rynne down there to prove your worth, correct? Are you sure you and Iggy are alright?”

“Oh yeah, we feel like a million lepta now,” Synthia said, rolling her shoulders to demonstrate with a cocky grin. “Time works differently down there, so for us we were actually resting for hours on end or something. And apparently, we don’t really need to eat when trapped in a dimension like this. Our bodies are being held in limbo or something. We sustain ourselves off mana if I’m understanding correctly?”

Evarius and Rynne nodded. Synthia went on. “Now we’re all good and raring to go!”

“That doesn’t inspire me with confidence,” Livian said skeptically. Iggy quickly came to Synthia’s defense.

“No, you guys should’ve seen her. I can verify for myself that Synthia can pack a wallop if I’m there.”

“And on my own?”

“Eh, still debatable.”

The two shared a good laugh at that. The others were surprised.

“What happened between you two?” asked Evarius.

“Well, I guess we cleared a few things up,” Iggy said. “Now it’s time for us to charge forward and finish this!”

“Nothing for it, I guess,” Evarius agreed. “So what’s the plan?”

Explaining their strategy, the girls observed anxiously at the guys mulled it over.

“It could work,” Evarius said. “But there’s still too much we don’t know about this man. Especially...” He glanced at Rynne.

“What?” She asked.

“If there’s anything else you’d like to tell us, now is the time,” Evarius said. “Because your powers are awfully similar to our opponent, and I sense that is no coincidence.”

Rynne’s face remained as stony as ever. “I assure you it will not interfere with our mission. It is... rather difficult to explain.”

Livian eyed her suspiciously. “Yeah? How so?”

For the first time, Rynne seemed to be hesitant. Almost afraid. “I...”

Synthia clapped a hand on her back, breaking her out of her reverie. “If she doesn’t wanna tell us, that’s fine by me. At least for now.”

She jabbed a finger in Rynne’s face with a confident grin. “You went rooting around in our heads, so later I do expect the courtesy of telling us a little about yourself. Especially if you plan on sticking around.”

Rynne blinked before nodding. Her expression remained composed, but there was a slight relaxation to the stiffness in her shoulders the others hadn’t even noticed before she was more at ease.

Satisfied, Synthia continued. “Okay, so per the plan, Christoph is going to be sticking back here. He can’t get too far away from the back car. Otherwise those people pay the price. Right?”

“Right,” everybody repeated.

“With Rynne here, we can teleport right to the front without worry,” Synthia said. “But be warned Evarius, it’s a weird feeling. And may come with a prodding through your memories as a consequence.”

“That is only when moving into a new dimension,” Rynne said. “Remember, I construct it from people’s memories. Moving about in the same one does not require that extra measure, although it is likely our opponent has already done so with his hostages. He may do the same to you.”

“Damn,” Evarius said. “Not prepared to have somebody else witness my more embarrassing moments. But, well, if we catch this guy, I guess it won’t be a problem.”

Synthia continued. “We need to be fast. Hit him hard, and with the least amount of opportunity to use any hostages as leverage given to him as possible. This plan depends on speed.”

“But we don’t know what the environment’s like either, so there could be further complications,” Iggy added. “One mistake means somebody could die. This is real.”

“Where do you get off lecturing us?” Livian muttered, but otherwise let the girls continue unabated.

“Once we move, it’s touch and go.” Synthia locked eyes with everyone as she said this, putting out her hand. “You ready for this?”

Livian raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

Synthia began blushing. “I mean... this is the thing teams do. Put your hands together, throw ‘em in the air.”

“It’s lame,” Livian replied bluntly. Synthia whimpered at her harsh tone, immensely embarrassed. But only until Iggy joined her and placed her hands over hers, to which she responded with a wide, toothy smile. Christoph followed suit, with Evarius and Rynne getting the message. Soon enough, Livian was the odd one out.

Sighing grumpily, she defeatedly place her hand on top of the stack. “Oh, what the hell. Let’s show this asshole he messed with the wrong pack of wannabe adventurers.”

“Hey! Don’t lump me in with you guys,” Christoph chimed in, to which everybody gave a short laugh. Throwing their hands up, everybody sans Christoph huddled around Rynne to teleport.

“Some side effects may make you a little ill,” Rynne warned Evarius. “And you are clearly quite old.”

“She’s pretty direct,” Evarius muttered. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“If this plan is gonna work, I hope you will be,” Synthia said. She flashed Christoph a quick grin. “Hold down the fort!”

“Go get him, boss,” Christoph said, smiling. “I’ll take care of everything on this end.”

“Excellent! Alright, Rynne, let’s go!”

Rynne brought her hands together and began to concentrate. The air around her seemed to bend as the light became sucked in. Soon they felt a pulling sensation, and their surroundings melted away to be replaced by fading, rushing colours. They could only imagine what was hidden behind these walls of a fake reality, be they sweeping vistas, the now familiar interiors of the train cars or blank nothing. They could not clearly tell, but they were pulled forward all the same to their destination.

The pulling sensation stopped, and the group were deposited to the ground. Or at least, what they thought was ground. They tried to blink, but their surroundings were nothing but darkness. They couldn’t even see one another. It felt like the same nothingness that had surrounded the train car. All four grew rigid as a familiar voice rang out.

“Welcome to Rell’s roaring rampage, folks!” The glee in it could barely be contained. “A pleasure to have you! Let the madness begin!”