I held [Melpomene’s Condemnation] for a moment longer, until the last of the unnatural harsh light faded away, and the sun no longer seemed to hang over the forested area around the gate like a baleful red eye.

The scene in front of me was decidedly freaky, and from the way that the blue haired fellow was looking at me, about to revert to violence any moment.

Or it would have, had Jack’s sobbing not interrupted him. He gave me one last glare, and rushed over to his muscle-bound friend… Or lover? I wasn’t sure, and I had a hard time bringing myself to care.

After all, I still couldn’t feel anything below my legs except as a sort of painful cold mess. I was pretty sure my ribs were cracked, again, because pressure differentials DID exist in a light-less, airless void that maintained temperatures just above freezing.

Less, around that fucking toad’s lair, but still. That had been a horrible fight, since it had belched out clouds of vile gasses that faded away into nothing when it opened the third eye on its head.

Finally impaling it on a storm of icy spears had been an immense relief, as had the bonus ability I got afterwards.

And of course, my new Power which would hopefully make this all worth it. It had been part of the second set of powers Chaos had offered me: [PERCEIVE DISASTER] - I’d not had a chance to use it yet, but it synergised with one of my two Eye skills. I wasn’t sure which one yet, but certain parts of buildings, power lines and a lot of the sky suddenly seemed to hold… promise.

What did annoy me was that I had made no progress towards my class advancement, and only taken a single step out of… Three?

[Progress to Class Advancement 0/5]

[Progress to Style Advancement 1/3]

The message flashed up in front of me again, and I paused.

“I can pull up system messages?” I muttered.

“Oh for… Are you serious?” The blue-haired guy said. “You don’t even know how to use the interface, and you waltz in here smelling of oaths and madness to take a trial that is supposed to make you better and you come out with… That, whatever that is?” He spat.

“Alright.” He cracked his knuckles. “My brother just tried to kill me. My boy here is a weeping mess. And the universe keeps piling on the bullshit… So I’m going to punch you now. Destress, ya know?”

And then, he appeared in front of me. I sidestepped his punch, and then I was crashing through the roof. I groaned, and pushed myself up.

“OK.” I grumbled. “I get that this is stressful.” I jumped lightly out the window, drifting down and settling atop the ashen ground.

“But if you punch me again, I am going to hit back.”

The man looked at me, and then, appeared beside me, fist swinging for my face.

[High-Speed Reflexes] wore off at that moment, and my head was rocked back before I could trigger it again - and of course, now was when it started hitting cooldowns. The next few seconds were miserable as the blue-haired man did his best to break my bones with viscous strikes.

And then it reactivated, and I caught his fist. He looked briefly shocked. “My turn.” I murmured, and tapped him gently with my palm. Of course, given everything else that was going on with that Skill, well.

He was sent twirling lightly through the air, unable to get his feet under him, or for that matter, get back to solid ground anytime soon.

“Hell Servant” The man who had been wielding the flaming sword earlier was staring at my furiously. “You interfere!”

I shrugged. “He started-”

“No!” He exclaimed, interrupting me. “You! Interfered! You! You!” He was also getting angry. I could see Jack pulling himself up as well, and I did not fancy a three on one.

Well. Not in close quarters anyway.

I had, thanks to my last bout of Talismania, only Vortexes available to me, but some kind soul had created a thick layer of ash.

SPELL SYNTHESIS FAILED.

I blinked the blue text away, and frowned. Then I saw ashes and smoke begin to coalesce around the dog bones next to the man in faded red robes… That were rapidly becoming less faded again.

SYNTHESISE SPELL COOLDOWN EXPIRED

SPELL SYNTHESIS FAILED

I narrowed my eyes. Once was bad luck, a misalignment, something like that. All I wanted to do was call on… darkness.

I remembered an airless, chilling void, and sighed. It was obvious in retrospect. I used Magical Art, and I had absolutely no desire to use darkness, however useful it might be.

SYNTHESISE SPELL COOLDOWN EXPIRED

SPELL SYNTHESISED SUCCESSFULLY: DESTRUCTIVE TRANSMUTATION, LIGHT TO LIGHT VORTEX.

“Two ways to skin a cat” I cackled, delighted at a solution presenting itself. The light in a large circle around me shattered, becoming a mess of colours and refractions, hard edges that didn’t really exist, and turned every surface into a blurry mirror or a black, light-drinking void.

I ran. I had absolutely no desire to get involved any further in whatever that mess was, and besides - I had a vague notion of what I wanted to do next.

The only problem was finding someone who could teach me Space Magic, but I was reasonably certain that would sort itself out.

Soon, I had left the Gate and whatever that weird fight behind, and was back in civilisation.