“That doesn’t look friendly,” Nico said, though it hardly mattered. Kara had already proven she treated both the same.

It lurched sideways, causing the two wheels to skid against the ground, creating a wave of sparks. The woman in front holding the handlebars had long yellow hair and was dressed in pants and a gambeson, both white enough to reflect the sunlight.

The one behind her, a small girl no larger than Nico, suddenly stood up on her seat. She had messy black shoulder length hair and was dressed in a Ranker’s suit. In one hand she held a silver rod as tall as her and in the other a health potion.

The woman in front elbowed the back of her knee. With a yelp the Ranker fell off. The moment her shoes touched the ground her body lurched forward and smashed against the ground. Nico watched her body roll past.

Gaia (V)

Energy: 10/10

Affinity: ?

Soul-Bound Equipment: 2/5

1st Skill: ?

2nd Skill: ?

3rd Skill: ?

Ultimate: ?

The Locust has failed to identify the target’s equipment.

At least a dozen meters later her body came to a halt a broken mess. The black silk of her suit turned orange-brown with rust and red with her blood.

All was silent as the other woman stopped a short distance away from them. She kicked a metal piece on the side of the bicycle out and let it lean on it. A small crest was on her chest. It was a small yellow circle with three dashes on top and on the bottom. Nico always thought it looked more like an eye than the sun.

She was large, easily more than 6 feet, but it didn’t seem like she was built for combat. She had soft looking limbs. He didn’t see any weapons on her.

Luna (I)

Energy: 2/2

Soul-bound Equipment: 0/1

1st Skill: ?

Luna bowed her head slightly towards them. Her right arm was over her heart. “Please wait a moment,” she said, her voice calm and clear. She walked towards them. Nico got a whiff of perfume as she walked past them. She wasn’t sweating, which was utterly odd. Even odder was that her skin was less gray and more yellow white.

She flipped Gaia over and reached inside her coat for something, then she stood up and walked past them back to her spot near her bike. She turned towards them and bowed again. “I’ve come to offer my services to the Nightmare.”

Nico waited for Kara to speak. After a long pause, Luna looked from her to Nico, and Nico looked from the corpse she brought to her. They made eye contact. She had sun washed eyelashes and her irises were a circle half filled with bright yellow liquid that swished back and forth when she moved. The unfilled half of her iris was white. The symbolism was not subtle but effective. It was like he was looking two miniature suns.

Maybe I can be useful here. He started with the obvious. He pointed at Gaia. “Shouldn’t you finish her off?” He thought she managed to get a gulp of her potion before she made contact with the ground, but he wasn’t sure.

“I believe they know each other,” Luna answered, referring to Kara. “It’s her choice.”

“How do we know you’re not an enemy?”

“I have no way of proving I am not an enemy, but there is nothing that proves I am an enemy either,” she said.

“Uh-huh,” Nico said, pausing as he gathered his thoughts. “Who are you, and how did you find us?”

“Until today, I was a priestess of the Suns. I was on a diplomatic mission with the 3rd City’s Syndicate when I became aware of the Nightmare through the Iron House’s Howl communications. I came to the Bronze Field because I would not have been able to reach you with the bike anywhere else.”

Nico paused again. He didn’t know where to go from here. She was just a little bit sketchy. “So, you’re telling me, until today you were a priestess of a pacifist cult, and you quit to join the Nightmare’s side?”

“Besides your use of the word cult,” Luna said. “Yes.”

“Why exactly?”

“I believe it’s my fate,” she said.

Nico resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “What do you offer?”

“Everything, if what the Nightmare is fighting for aligns with what I am fighting for.”

“And what are you fighting for?”

“To make the 3rd City, and the world, a better place,” she said.

“You are aware that that is the exact opposite of what a Nightmare is, right?”

“I am.”

“Well, you’re going to have to be a little bit more specific than that.”

“The cities are on the verge of waging war on each other,” Luna said. “I would like to prevent it, or at least influence it in a way that would suit my priorities.

“So how is the Nightmare going to help you?”

“Once I know what they want, I’ll think of something that will be beneficial to us both,” she said. “For now, I believe I might be able to help get rid of Gaia,” she said.

Gaia was slowly dragging her bottle towards her mouth. She stretched her neck towards it and pushed out her bloody tongue as far as she could. She suddenly lurched alive when the first red drop touched it. She flipped onto her back and let it pour into her mouth until it ran empty. The bruises on her skin closed, leaving the left-over blood to quickly crust on her face.

“How?” Kara asked.

“I’ll give her my bike if you can sort things out with her.”

“What do you want in return?”

“Let me travel with you,” she said. “At the end of our journey, I might make a request that you may accept or decline.”

She’ll give her bike for that? Nico didn’t know much about bikes, but he was sure they worked like Augmenters. They were probably worth even more. They had functions and they used Energy to operate.

Gaia tossed away her potion with a groan, sitting up and holding her head. After a pause she struggled to her feet and stumbled in the opposite direction to them.

“Y-Y-Y-You fu-ck-er,” she yelled, pointing forward. She flinched. She turned and roughly pointed in their direction. Her hand was going all over the place. “Y-Y-Y-You fu—” she burped. She swallowed and ended up coughing. She held her hand up, as if that would make them wait more, and reached into the inside of her coat. She missed it a couple times before her hand went inside.

She froze. She patted it a couple times with panic.

Luna twirled a small leather case in front of her. She flicked the bottle and tipped it until a drop fell. It sizzled before it touched the ground.

“I’ll skin you,” Gaia hissed, taking a step forward.

“But your drink will still be gone,” Luna said. “And you’ll still be sober for a few hours—and without air conditioning.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you,” Gaia said, spitting red and a few teeth to the side.

“You threatened to electrocute me if I didn’t bring you along,” Luna said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well fuck woman, it didn’t look like you minded, and you even made pleasant conversation that I was able to bear,” Gaia yelled. “How was I supposed to know that you were plotting my death? You’re deceitful. Deceitful I say!”

Luna made another drop fall.

Gaia reached forward amicably, whispering with bent knees. “Hey hey, don’t do anything stupid now. Just put the bottle down and we can all go our separate—” she stopped. “No, that doesn’t work for me. I would like to torture, maybe interrogate, then definitely kill you all—for different reasons each, of course. Can we work this out into it somehow?”

Luna capped the bottle. She tossed it towards Gaia.

With yelp Gaia leaped up into the air, catching it. In one expert motion she flicked off the cap and threw her head back, gulping, gulping, and gulping, until she tilted backwards and struck the ground.

Nico winced. He heard her skull smack the bronze. She didn’t breathe. He turned back towards Luna. “What exactly is she?”

“The fuck!” Gaia yelled, jumping back to her feet. She reached into her back pockets as she stumbled towards them in a drunken zigzag. “You ruined my outfit,” she said, pointing at Luna. “And you my plans!” She snapped her hand at Kara. A small metal rod the size of a pen flew out of her cuffs. It struck the ground and slowly rolled towards them.

Nico and Luna followed it with their heads. It came to a halt against Kara’s shoes. They looked back towards Gaia, who froze with her hands reaching out towards it.

She mouthed a quiet curse under her breath. “A-And—and you took my weapon!”

“I purposefully left it, and you purposefully dropped it,” Luna said.

“It’s…it’s to show I come in peace?” she asked. “It’s to show I come to peace,” she said again with confidence, stepping forward and puffing her chest up. “Yeah, I come in peace. You!” she waggled her finger at Kara. “Toss your weapon down, imbecile, then we’ll peacefully discuss things, and then you’ll suffer my wrath!”

Luna bowed slightly in affirmation. She got to her knees and bent forward. She brushed the rust from the smoldering metal with her bare hands in a wide circle. She gestured towards them. Her skin was shining yellow.

Luna (I)

Energy: 2/2

Heat: 0/4

Class: Transmuter-Emitter

1st Skill: Herald of The Sun (Legendary I)

Allows you to Transmute light.

Transmuter Perk: Increase your heat storage by 2.

Emitter Perk: You may emit the stored light.

A Legendary? It was the second time Nico had witnessed one in action. I see what she meant by fate.

Kara walked forward. Nico followed her a step after. As he got closer, he realized that Luna’s skin wasn’t yellow—it was just glowing.

Kara sat on the floor. She raised one knee and rested her sword arm on it.

He sat beside her cross legged, in a buttery fly stance. The metal was rather cool. When he touched the places Luna didn’t brush over, though, his skin instantly reddened.

“May I hold on to you?” Luna said.

Kara shook her head.

“May I hold on to you?” she asked Nico.

How polite. He nodded. Luna held on to his elbow. The moment they touched the muggy air in his lungs began to cool. In a few moments he felt as if he was sitting under a shade of a tree in a cool day. Even the breeze was refreshing.

Gaia dropped besides Luna. “You cuties in cahoots already?” she said, smiling. She spoke rapidly, energetically, and merrily, with a slight tint of mockery. Her voice was surprisingly deep for someone her size. “Is the big bad Kara growing up? Can she use her words now instead of murdering people and taking their stuff?”

“I thought you said she took it when you were sleeping under the bar table,” Luna said.

“Sleeping is one of the dancing forms of death,” Gaia said, seriously, then in a lighter tone. “Right ol’ teach?”

“What do you want?” Kara asked.

“Infinite, endless, never ceasing pleasure,” she said, her wrath already dissipated. She spoke rapidly, energetically, and merrily, with a slight tint of mockery. Her voice was surprisingly deep for someone her size. “But we can start by explaining to my stupid brain what you’re doing, because it can’t seem to understand the benefit of letting everyone know you still exist.”

“I’m hunting,” Kara said.

“Hunting?” Gaia said, eyes wide. She looked at Luna and tilted her head towards Kara. “And here I thought she went on a suicide run, silly me,” She turned back to Kara. “And what exactly is our golden child hunting this time? The moon?”

“The Deep,” Kara said.

“At least the moon would have been doable,” Gaia said, unfazed. “Why?”

“What else do you suggest I do?”

Gaia swished the bottle at her. “Hello? Does this mean nothing to you?”

Kara stared at Gaia.

Gaia groaned. “Okay, okay, not everyone’s cup of tea, but there is always pin-ball! Oh-oh, have you tried ice skating? Maybe rock climbing? I guarantee you’ll feel something for at least a few fleeting moments—Or you can visit the Coliseum! It’s a beautiful…sight,” she said. There was silence again. “…too soon, too soon,” she whispered, nodding. “Fine, I do me, you do you, but know that it’s unlikely you would succeed even with Devi’s arms, much-less without,” she said, pointing her bottle at Nico. She brought it back, drank from it, then pointed at him with it again. “Speaking of—what part of don’t make a deal with her don’t you understand? Are you keeping this tiny kid knowing you’re going to march him and everyone else to another pointless, and likely humiliating death?”

“I’m an inch taller than you,” Nico said.

Gaia looked at Nico for the first time. She had a small nose and intense green eyes. Her gaze instantly made him uneasy. Her eyes did rapid micro changes, as if she was inspecting every curve of Nico’s own eyes. She pursed her lips to the left. “So?”

“Wait, are you a kid?”

“Obviously not,” she said, glancing at his right shoulder, his left nipple, his abdomen, then up to his right nipple, and then at the Locust. There was a constant fluidity to her, a slight swaying from left to right, a twitchy leg, a curling of the ankle. She never once stopped moving, her eyes least of all. They seemed incapable of locking on. They flickered back to Kara. “So? So? So?”

“The Locust is his,” Kara said.

“It’s actually not,” Nico said. “I’m just supposed to deliver it to you, but you’re ref—”

Gaia sighed. “She’ll control you through him, and you’re still letting that happen—remember what happened last time you did something I told you not to do?”

“What happened?” Nico asked.

Gaia smiled. She kept her eyes on Kara as she spoke. “It’s actually a long series of very uninteresting events in which everyone dies—like the hamlet. Not good for the heart. So, before I do anything rash, I just want to confirm—you’re still hell bent on going to try to hunt a small god with your delivery boy and some girl from lunatic land?”

The wind blew. Kara did not answer. “You know I hate when you do that,” Gaia said, scowling. At the tip of her nail electricity began to gather. It formed into a dense, slightly erratic bright blue ball. Slowly, she began to lower it to the bronze ground. “You have until my finger fingers the ground to explain why I should go along with this farce.”

Nico glanced at Kara. Still nothing. But it was worse than how she treated Nico. At least she was annoyed and frustrated by Nico. For Gaia it was just cold indifference. Nico would have hated that more too.

“Imagine a world where the Deep is dead,” Luna said, her voice serene. If she was startled by Kara’s apparent nonchalantness to their violent deaths, then it didn’t show. “Rather than having the Deep eventually end humanity, wouldn’t you rather have them expand, populate further, and continue this humiliating way of existence for a few more thousand years?”

“Well don’t stop there,” Gaia said, rolling her eyes. “Go on!”

“They’ll end up killing themselves. Isn’t that a more fitting ending than being killed by a weapon? Wouldn’t you prefer a slow end, from billions to millions, to thousands to hundreds, until the last human breathes its last, alone, in a barren world it has consumed?”

Gaia’s face, little by little, returned to a smile. Instead of killing all of them with her finger, she instead chose to scratch her chin with it. The electricity pressed against her skin. She didn’t seem angry anymore. “Oh, you dastardly clever woman, I do enjoy it when you speak my language.” She stroked her chin, bending her finger until it pointed at Luna with the electrical bomb. The Locust was unable to identify her skills. “I do prefer that, I truly do—it’s just righter, more fitting,” she said, shaking. “But I’ve already guaranteed our supremacy, and—and—honestly? All the death and destruction?” she shook the bottle. “A means to an end. I couldn’t care less what happens.”

“A means to an end to what?”

“Hm,” Gaia said, back to her frown. “I’m sorry, who are you again? You don’t even know what we’re talking about—do you even know who any of us are?”

“You’re Gaia,” she said, and turned towards Kara. “And she’s Kara.” She turned towards Nico. “I haven’t gotten your name yet.”

“Nil,” Nico said.

“That’s cute,” Gaia said.

“What is?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said.

“I’m going to if you don’t tell me,” Nico said.

“Even more of a reason not to.”

“So—just to clear things up,” Nico said. “You don’t want Kara to hunt the Deep because…why? Are you afraid she’ll die?”

“Meh,” Gaia said, shrugging. “Not afraid—I know she will, but it’s her life, her stupid choices. She does got the nuke though. Really need that for all my plans to work, ya know?”

“And those plans are?”

“Yeah just let me tell you,” Gaia said, chuckling.

“So if we give you the sword, you’ll go away?”

“Sure I will, but what’s the point? She’s barely a quarter of the woman she is without it.”

“In that case, why not give us a year?” Luna said. “You said it yourself—there is ice skating and rock climbing, amongst a few other hundred things to keep you occupied for the rest of time. We will fail when Kara dies, in which the sword will deliver itself back to you.”

“Is that how long it’ll take for you to convert the world with the chosen one’s side, o holy priestess of love and peace?” Gaia said, smiling. She leaned forward, pressing her hand against the floor and whispered into Luna’s neck. “I see you.” Her voice lingered in the air for a few moments before the smell of burnt fleshed replaced it. She sniffed and looked down at her hands. It was scorched. She groaned, falling back on her butt. “Oh, baby you were so close,” Gaia said, clicking her tongue.

She pressed her index and thumb together, squishing the ball. When she spread them a string of vibrant electricity extended from each. “This close. Still, impressive words got you this far—I usually solve my problems by zapping it until it stops rattling—so out of respect, and because you got them nice thick thighs, I’ll let you guess again before I start cooking.” She pressed her fingers together, causing the electricity to combine. She held the ball like a marble. It was beautiful.

“Nil,” Luna said.

“Huh?” Nico said, turning his eyes away from it. “What’s up?”

“Do you have a guess as to why Gaia shouldn’t fear that we would conquer the world through faith in a single year?”

“Fearing is a bit too much,” Gaia said, taking a drink. “More of a—or like a splinter under the nails. So tiny, but potentially day ruining. Really, you should die happy knowing I’m not underestimating you.”

Nico sighed. Killing the Deep? World Conquest? Making cult mainstream? Yesterday he was struggling to kill a couple 2-star fairies, and now he’s hearing this crazy talk.

He didn’t know what was happening. He couldn’t tell who’s serious, who’s lying, and who’s insane enough to be telling the truth.

It’s not that Nico didn’t believe Kara could accomplish great things, with the damage she did to the Iron House even without the Howl, she has more than done enough to earn her a spot in history, but the feats they were talking about required more than individual prowess. While Kara might be the key to controlling the Deep, there were still many moving pieces.

So how do I get this across? Nico thought, looking at Kara’s still body. How do I show—oh for fucks sakes. Nico shoved Kara. She leaned to the side and fell over. They stared wordlessly, even Gaia, as Kara’s chest regularly rose and sank with each breath.