Solera woke up, beading with sweat. The caved-in face of the channeler, the decapitated head of the swordsman, Merlot’s burnt corpse instantly vanished from his sight, but the images remained in his mind.

That hadn’t happened, right? That had just been a horrible dream, right?

Solera stared down at his blankets as a flood of memories poured into him.

After running half a kilometer, a cloud of imps had appeared, flying towards Fortress Hickory at maximum speed. Right behind them were men on reindeer, worry on their faces. When one had come to assist him, Solera had realized how exhausted he was.

Right then and there, he had blacked out.

Now that he woke up, he was extremely confused. He had controlled a Vigor in the morning, listened to a lecture, run approximately twenty kilometers, and killed six people, but that shouldn’t have caused him to black out without even knowing about it!

As he sorted out his memories out, his eyes swept down to the rock hanging around his neck. Seeing it, his eyes widened as his thoughts were thrown into disarray again.

The power crystal was a verdant shade of green again!

Solera clearly remembered it turning translucent after being used. He couldn’t see it clearly with the poor lighting, but it was definitely not translucent right now.

Had it really been a dream? Solera’s bloodshot eyes scanned the room in detail. In the other bed next to him, Guinness snored away.

Fortress Hickory’s bed was one bunk bed with four bunks. This bed was not his bed.

Solera was completely baffled. The memories were so clear, but there were no wounds on his arms. His hand felt as good as new. His power crystal seemed to be unused. But he was in another room, whose walls were made out of dirt, instead of the black Siehnti that Fortress Hickory was shaped from. Had he been drugged and brought somewhere, without his knowing?

There was one way to figure this all out.’

Solera stumbled out of the opening in the room into a dirt passageway. He was in an underground tunnel, lit by peat torches. Careful not to make any noise with his footsteps, Solera advanced down one side of the tunnel. After ten meters, he could hear faint voices drifting in from another passageway.

His eyes squinting, Solera struggled to make out the words.

“... really is revolutionary. Nobody ever used wings en masse like Archibald does. We’re lucky we’re in the forests, otherwise-”

“Chianti!” Solera yelled, running into the room. Chianti turned her head from her seat on a sofa to look at Solera. Immediately, she got up and hugged him.

“My god, Solera, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” She stroked his head softly. “It’s okay, Solera. It’s okay. You’re alive.”

The dead bodies flashed through Solera’s mind again, but he dispelled the images with a deep breath. He didn’t want to look weak.

“Tell me, Solera.” Chianti dragged the both of them down onto the sofa, next to another female soldier. “A soldier dropped you and Guinness off here, where I found you. Do you know if any other children survived?”

The image of the assembly hall rose up.

“No,” Solera muttered. He didn’t want to think about it. “Where are we?”

“We’re in a base at the Eden-UD border.” Chianti patted Solera’s head as she pulled them both up from the sofa. “But enough of that, I have a pleasant surprise for you.”

Confused, Solera followed her through the maze of tunnels into another room, where a boy sat meditating on his bed. Solera’s eyes turned red, and his expression grew ugly.

“You pond scum, Chip!” Solera howled, rushing forward and delivering a vicious punch straight to Chip’s stomach. Chip was sent reeling onto the bed, breaking out of his trance with a cough of blood.

Climbing onto the bed, Solera delivered another two savage blows to Chip’s torso before being dragged off by Chianti.

“He left us!” Solera shouted, struggling to break free from her grip. “He left us to die!”

“Quit it, Solera!” Chianti roared as she rammed him against the wall. “We have bigger problems to worry about!”

Tears of rage streamed down Solera’s cheeks. Three punches wasn’t enough! Chip had to pay for what he did!

Chip got up, coughing out some more blood.

“I put my life into my own hands, Solera.” He said, wiping the blood off his mouth. “You all die and I live, or we all die, which one’s better? Besides, killing myself by fighting alongside you, someone I barely know? To me, my life is worth more than that!”

Solera’s face had grown incredibly ugly to behold. But before he could retort, Chianti spoke.

“Fuck that, Chip!” Chianti snarled. “This kind of attitude will get us all killed! Right now, we’re behind enemy lines. The UD Airborne division controls Fortress Hickory! If we’re not going to cooperate at all times, then it’s best just to strip naked and surrender right now.”

Chip folded his arms. “What’s that got to do with me? I’m a creator, not a combatant. I don’t want to fight.”

“Soldiers from the United Duchies are that way, and that way, and that way, and that way!” Chianti drew a circle around her head. “If you want to surrender, go do it! But you saw how they violated the code of war. What do you think will happen to you if you surrender? Chip, now that we’re in this position, we need every able-bodied person available to us. This is war, and we’re surrounded by the opposing side!”

Chianti glared at Chip. “We all die and you maybe live, or we live and some of us die, which one’s better, Chip?”

Chip fell into a sullen silence as Chianti’s gaze bored into him.

“Forget it.” Chianti muttered. She let go of Solera, but made sure to stay in between the two. “Like I said, we have bigger fish to fry. Come with me, we need to test everyone’s capabilities.”