Now, Manila

Aim’s revolvers barked like a machine gun.

Bullets tore through the shades coming out of the stairwell.

His fingers blurred as he reloaded and fired again.

“Out the back!” Rai pointed.

“We’ll get torn up out there!” Mouthy grunted as she lifted Sgt. Butcher over one shoulder.

“It’s not… outside, I mean. Commercial businesses on both sides at street level with an enclosed alley in the middle. I think they did it that way so they could put more apartments on top. Double the foundation space. Didn’t you read the map?” Rai said.

Mouthy shot the young man a rude gesture.

“Kristian, you’ve got the shield, so you’re in the lead,” Aims said to one of their new recruits.

The muscular young man nodded and tightened his grips on shield and axe.

“Smores?”

The dark-skinned young man shook his head. “I can barely run. I’m not going to be able to cast anything until I get a long rest. Preferably, sleep.”

“Fin?”

“I also need rest. Healing Sgt. Butcher took a lot. I can only manage weak, basic spells.”

“Two-toes?” Aims tried again.

“I’ve got enough for one last engagement.”

“You’re ranged damage, stick close to Kristian. Ramira, you’re right with them. Keep them from getting to Two-toes. Rai, you make sure Smores can keep up. Mouthy—”

“I’ve got the sarge.”

“Fin and I will bring up the rear,” Aims finished.

Rayna’s Rangers moved out the back of the real estate office.

Aims and Fin blasted the shades reaching out of the stairwell with shot and spell.

True to what Rai had said they emerged into an enclosed space.

It was dark as night.

“Light Orb,” Two-toes whispered.

A small white ball of light appeared in her hand. She held it up to reveal the cold, sterile space.

Plain, concrete pillars held up a ceiling crisscrossed with a maze of metal pipes.

The unpainted walls were only broken up by closed doors leading into the separate businesses on either side.

Their steps echoed off the plain gray concrete.

So much gray.

They couldn’t miss the swirling fog as they moved through it.

“It’s not as thick in here,” Rai murmured.

“I’d theorize that the fog entity must expend more energy to spread into closed structures. I wonder if it has to defeat boss monsters to claim them? That interaction is fascinating,” Smores said.

“Shut up! Figure all that out after we get out of this shitsoup!” Mouthy snapped.

The floor began to rumble.

At first it was slight, almost gentle, such that no one noticed.

In fact it was a different sense that detected something was amiss.

Alert. Magic.

Fin heard the ever-present voice in his head’s warning an instant before the floor began to shake violently.

“Haven’t had an earthquake in a while,” Rai said.

Two-toes’ eyes shot wide open. “Not an earthquake! Something’s happening!”

“It’s a spell,” Smores agreed.

The floor behind the group suddenly buckled and shot upward. Broken concrete and the dirt beneath formed a wall that rose to the ceiling and completely blocked them from going back.

“Uh… what’s the point of that shit? Not like we were gonna go backwards,” Mouthy sneered.

Alert. Incoming magic attack.

“Down!” Fin cast his magic shield without hesitation, placing it in front of the earthen wall.

Spikes of hard-packed dirt and concrete rubble lanced out from the wall and struck the glowing shield.

It held for a moment, before shattering and sending Fin to the ground from the damage feedback.

Although the young man was knocked out he had managed to turn instant death for several of his team into mere injuries. His shield blunted the sharp ends of the spikes and slowed them down enough that getting hit by them had been more akin to being tackled on the football field rather than being run through by a knight’s lance.

Their formation was scattered as they were knocked to the ground.

Stunned, they didn’t notice the earthen wall parting as a man walked through it.

The gray swirled and thickened around him as he purposefully strode into the rangers’ midst.

Mouthy, tougher than most, was the first to get her bearings. She climbed to her feet and drew her machete. “You’re that fuck nugget that was on the roof. Blow up your own guys then run and hide like a little bitch. Nowhere to run.” She charged.

“Stone Shield.” A small round shield made entirely of a patchwork of stones appeared on the shade’s arm.

“Power Strike!” Mouthy aimed a vicious slash at the shade’s neck.

He raised his shield and met the steel blade with a shower of sparks as chips from both went flying.

Mouthy pulled back for another strike, but the shade thrust his free hand toward her chest.

“Stone Bullet.”

The magical projectile shattered against her chestplate, but knocked her back.

It reminded her of the one time she had been kicked by a mutated horse. Judging by the sharp pain as she struggled to breathe she had broken a rib or two, just like then.

“Stone Weapon: Club,” the shade said.

A large, ugly club appeared in the shade’s hand.

He swung it at Mouthy, who knew better than to try to parry. She scrambled back and tried to circle to her left, the shade’s right, trying to use his attack to get into a blind spot.

Pain stung inside her chest with every move, but she could endure it for a time.

She slashed her machete at his unarmored back.

The shade winced and spun with a wild backhand swing.

Mouthy ducked under and cut the side his thigh.

She sneered at him.

The man blinked and quirked his head as if listening to something only he could hear. “You’re a distraction.” He dismissed his stone shield and pointed at Mouthy. “Stone Spray.”

Mouthy was forced to cover her face as jagged little rocks cut the exposed parts of her arms.

“Mage-types are priority targets because they’re a threat and are desirable. Useful. As I have been cursed to discover. I’m sorry for this.”

He strode over to the prone Smores and rolled the semi-conscious young man over with his foot.

Smores had a ugly cut across his forehead that streamed blood into his hair and face. He raised a hand “Ice Da—” his hand fell. He was spent. He had nothing left.

A sad look flashed across the shades face as he raised his club and brought it down.

“No!”

The stone club shattered against the magic shield that had suddenly appeared around Smores.

Two-toes was on her knees, one hand pointing. The other held a pistol that shook.

“Casting without the words. Desperate circumstances leading to growth… such a spires-thing,” the shade paused, “I hate that so much. It took me losing the last of who I cared about to learn that. Still didn’t make a difference in how I ended up.” He pointed at Two-toes. “You’re a mage-type too.”

A stone spike lanced out and pierced through Two-toes’ stomach. Her armor did nothing to slow it.

Blood gushed out of her mouth as she coughed once and collapsed.

Silence.

Her magic shield protecting Smores vanished.

The shade raised his club again and struck.

Aim’s revolvers barked repeatedly.

The shade shouted as his wrist and the club shattered. “You try so hard to save them. I did too… and failed.”

Aims cursed as he reloaded.

The shade pointed his other hand at Smores.

“Someone stop him!” Aims called out desperately.

Concur. Enemy analysis complete. Mage-type. Minimum level: 30. Terminate now!

Rai fired his pistol. One shot struck the shade in the shoulder, but he barely budged. It was like shooting into the side of a hill.

Kristian charged, but he had been at the front of the formation and was too far away.

Ramira had taken a chunk of concrete and dirt to the back of her helmet and was struggling to get up.

Mouthy was slowed by her injuries.

Fin was low. He needed something strong to stop the shade and he didn’t think he could do it unless he pushed beyond his remaining energy.

Being subsumed by this fog entity is not conducive to our goals. Safety of the sanctuary is required to rest and recharge. This shade mage stands in the way of that. Override safety measures. Emergency energy available. Reward outweighs risk. You will require hibernation to recuperate. Long-term damage possible. Unable to calculate probability.

Fin swept his arm toward the shade.

“Stone Bullet.”

The shade cast his spell at the same time.

A wave of black, crackling energy in the shape of a claw disintegrated the shade at the same time that the stone bullet struck home.

Fin fell to the floor completely spent. He didn’t hear the wails of anguish from Aims and Mouthy. Didn’t see the sightless eyes of Smores as they stared, unblinking into the drab, gray ceiling.

“What the fuck is happening!” Mouthy hurried to Two-toes as the gray swirled around her motionless body.

There was a disturbing hunger to it.

“Get away from her you shitsack!” Mouthy slashed her machete wildly, desperately at the gray even as Two-toes slowly began to dissipate into the fog.

“Fin!” Aims had rushed over to the young man’s side and slapped him. “Wake up, damn it! We need magic! Now!”

“Aims! I can’t do anything!” Mouthy screamed. “Power Strike!”

The gray wisps streamed around her machete. Untouched, as if to mock her ineffectiveness.

Two-toes’ arms and legs were already mostly gone.

Smores’ body was in a similar state.

“Noob! Do something!” Mouthy yelled at Kristian.

“What? You want me to taunt the fog!”

“Yes! Just try something!”

Kristian ran over to Smores and banged the haft of his axe on his shield. “Taunt!” he screamed.

The gray continued to eat away at Smores’ body.

Mouthy’s eyes darted around wildly until she landed on Rai. “You! You’re a fucking Shaman! That’s magic! Do something! I’m not letting this thing turn them into those things!”

Rai stammered. “I can’t— they aren’t spirits.”

“Fucking useless!”

“Mouthy!”

“Don’t you have a special shot Skill or something! Ghost, shade, whatever-killing bullets!” Mouthy snapped at Aims.

“Mouthy,” Aims said flatly. “Everyone. Pull the sarge and Ramira over hear,” he dragged Fin’s unconscious form to the center of their broken formation. “Quickly and get into defensive formation.”

The others noticed what he had already seen.

Dark figures were beginning to form all around them in the fog.

“What the fuck!” Mouthy snapped. “You’ve already killed them!” she dragged Ramira with one hand, while pulling Two-toes’ rapidly disappearing body with the other. “Leave them alone!”

Her scream echoed until it dwindled into nothing, just like Two-toes’ body, followed by Smores’.

“You still with us Mouthy? We need you if we’re going to have a chance,” Aims hissed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mouthy replied. “I’m still with you,” she growled.

The shades, man and monsters, finished taking form and attacked.

“Here!” Kristian banged his shield.

Aims raised his revolvers.

“C’mon! Gonna fucking kill you all!” Mouthy roared.

Hopeless or not, they were Rayna’s Rangers and they always fought till the end.

The portable ward thrummed in Madalena’s arms.

It had grown urgent the closer they got to the main sanctuary. Echoing the beating of her own heart.

It had taken so long to traverse the distance on foot.

Each step was agonizing with the oppressiveness of the gray looming in on them from every direction.

Dark shapes roamed just beyond the sigil’s light, while whispers continued to torment them.

Everyone in the group had lost loved ones to the fog and those voices reached out to them.

They cast blame. They tempted, but no one else had succumbed to those after the example provided by Jason losing himself in his desperate madness chasing after the voice of his wife.

Madalena stopped.

They were close.

Only a few streets away.

“What is it?” Delia said

Madalena shushed the old woman with a gesture. “Quiet… I thought I heard… something.”

She strained her hearing.

Battle?

The ward began to pulse with urgency.

Madalena felt it… pulling her.

That was new.

She regarded the ward for a moment. “It’s nothing… just hearing things.”

“With the fog there isn’t just a ‘nothing’,” Delia said.

“We’re safe as long as we have this. Let’s keep moving. We’re almost home.”

They turned down a street and walked along a long block of mixed business and residential buildings. It was just like the main sanctuary. In fact, much of this area had been built that way a long time ago.

One more turn at the end of the street and they’d make it.

Madalena couldn’t wait to see the Lilah’s glowing sigils casting their warm light against the gray gloom and driving it away.

The portable ward pulsed urgently and Madalena felt as if it was pulling to her left.

She moved it in that direction not exactly in full control of her actions.

It pulsed frantically in response, like a racing heart.

“I— I think we need to go there,” Madalena began.

Cries of alarm from the others in the group assailed her.

“Why?”

“We’re almost there!”

“Now is not the time for donuts!”

“There could be monsters!”

“Monsters? We’re already surrounded by the worst one!”

Madalena experimentally moved the ward. Its beating slowed when she pointed it in a different direction and quickened as soon as she set it back toward the donut shop.

“She wants me to go there,” Madalena whispered.

The others gaped at her, but they didn’t have much of choice. They could only stick with her as she strode to the donut shop.

“Here,” she handed the portable ward to Delia. “I need to be in front in case of monsters, but keep us heading in the direction it beats the fastest at.”

The door was locked, but Madalena opened it with an easy pull.

The interior was almost pristine, if a little dusty. An eerie aspect of the post-spires world.

A message chimed in Madalena’s ear, but she waved it away before the text could scroll in her vision. She wasn’t interested in claiming the space.

Normally, monsters would be an issue, but the fog had done something to change things.

It swirled inside, wispier than outside, but unmistakable.

They were alone.

The whispers and dark shapes didn’t follow them in.

“Keep going straight,” Delia said.

Madalena nodded. She pushed the locked back door open and stepped into a drab, plain corridor of some kind.

The fog was thicker here, but she could see that there were more doors along her side of the wall and across the space.

More businesses.

Then that meant the space was once meant to move consumer goods and food ingredients into the stores through the back.

Madalena saw something to her right.

There was a wall, of all things in the middle of the space.

It was made out of what looked like dirt and concrete.

The sounds were suddenly clearer.

“Hurry!” Madalena longed to rush forward, but the entire group had to stay together and it took doing for everyone to get through the doorway while staying inside the ward’s radius.

They reached the wall and all could now hear the sounds of desperate fighting on the other side.

There was a man-shaped opening in the wall that Madalena peeked through.

What she saw shocked her.

People!

People were fighting shades.

They were losing.

Madalena cursed.

Superstrong hands tore at the earthen wall until the space was big enough.

“Give me the ward!” Madalena reached out to Delia. “Everyone stay in the light!”

She rushed forward holding the ward in front of her like a talisman to ward of evil.

The fog swirled out of her way. It burned to nothing in the light when it couldn’t move fast enough.

The shades vanished as the light engulfed them when Madalena rushed into the middle of the fight.

A muscular man armed with a shield and axe turned and aimed a wild-eyed chop at Madalena.

She moved the ward out of the way and caught the axe blade with one hand.

“You’re people…” Madalena gaped. “I mean, you’re not shades…” The ward pulsed with what she felt was relief as the light washed over everyone.

“No shit!” an angry-faced woman spat blood.

“Mouthy!” a grim-faced man snapped. He holstered two revolvers with a flourish. “I’m sorry. Judging by that thing in your hands… please tell me you’re with the sanctuary… with Eron Cruces?”

Madalena could only nod.

“Thank you. You saved us. I’m called Aims,” the grim-faced man pointed at the others in turn. “Mouthy, Kristian, Ramira and Rai. That’s Sgt. Butcher and Fin,” he gestured at the two unconscious people on the ground.

Truth be told Madalena hadn’t even noticed the latter two and it had been lucky that she hadn’t tripped over one of them.

“You’re from outside?” Madalena said.

“Yeah, we came with Cal Cruces to help his brother and you, it seems, but… well, thanks again. We would’ve dead if you hadn’t shown up when you did,” Aims said.

“Too fucking late for Two-toes and Smores!” Mouthy snapped. “You couldn’t have fucking come a few minutes earlier?”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea you were even here,” Madalena scowled.

“We should head for the sanctuary,” Aims cut in.

“Hardhat’s still out there… the spears, others,” Mouthy said.

Madalena’s gaze hardened. “Then I’ll head back out after I drop you all off.”

“Fuck if I’m staying inside when all our guys aren’t accounted for,” Mouthy grunted.

“Agreed, but the rest need to go,” Aims said.

“Fine,” Mouthy shrugged and hefted the sergeant onto her shoulders. “Kristian, you get Fin,” she un-gently nudged the latter’s unconscious body with her foot.

“Stay in the ward’s light,” Madalena warned.

They headed for the sanctuary at last.

Alexa shared her small familiar’s eyes as it scampered through the air conditioning vents.

The ever-present fog was inescapable, but it was much thinner in the cramped space.

She had given it simple instructions.

Scout out the adjoining apartments and look for a path free of shades leading to a way for them all to get to the roof.

Alexa cursed. “What’re you doing, Mr. Bigglesworth?” she whispered.

Ambrose’s eyes darted to the Eldritch Mage.

It seemed that most of the others hadn’t heard Alexa.

Ambrose opened his mouth—

“Don’t,” Amber shushed him.

“She named that grotesque thing, Mr. Bigglesworth?” Ambrose dropped his voice to a whisper.

Amber rolled her eyes. “I know… she said it reminded her of a cat from an old movie she watched a lot with her dad when she was a kid,” she whispered.

The two watched as a one-sided argument brewed.

“I told you what you needed to do…” Alexa continued.

A beat of silence.

“… you’re supposed to avoid the shades and find a way to the roof… why the hell are you going towards the sounds of fighting?”

More silence.

“Interesting? Interesting… we don’t need interesting right now!” Alexa hissed. “We need a way out of this damned fog!”

A longer silence.

“Don’t you take that— no, no! I’m speaking right now— I won’t have you take that tone with me…”

Ambrose’s brow raised. “It talks?” he said flatly.

“Nah, not really. More like a mental link. Alexa said it wasn’t exactly speech. More like impressions or images,” Amber shrugged.

“Fine!” Alexa snapped, drawing the attention of the rest of the group. “Go and fight! See if I care. Don’t come crying to me when the fog monster eats you and turns you into its butt baby!” She let out a huff.

“A lot of things don’t make sense around her. That right there might’ve just pushed it over the edge for me,” Hardhat deadpanned.

Ambrose nodded in agreement. “I’ve seen and done many weird things and this is definitely up there.”

“Coming from a Headhunter with shrunken animal heads on his belt, that says a lot,” Boy said as he stared out into the gray gloom outside.

“Both are strange,” Venida nudged the stocky, middle-aged man out of the way so she could peer out of the window. “Nothing, but gray,” she turned and regarded Hardhat for a moment. “Since we’re just waiting… I’ve been wondering why a hard hat? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen you take some shots that I was sure should’ve smashed your brains, but here you are. Not even a slight concussion.”

Hardhat stared at the scar-faced woman. “It’s special. Belonged to my dad. Dunno how, but it works better than one of those steel helmets and even if it gets beat up it ends up fixing itself like new.”

“But… how?” Venida said.

“Magic?” Hardhat shrugged. The look on the ranger’s face said that there was nothing left to say on the topic.

“See, I’m not even the weirdest,” Ambrose whispered to Gabrio.

“Nah, dude… you’re still weirder than… most,” Gabrio said.

Sitting on the living room couch, Alexa cursed.

Sharing the eyes of her familiar while it darted through a press of shades, human and monster was a disorienting experience that gave her the worst motion sickness.

Mr. Bigglesworth scampered low to the floor.

It slashed tiny, but scalpel-sharp claws through the Achilles tendons of two human shades.

Then it climbed up the back of a goatman, a sigbin, before slashing through its jugular before using it as a springboard to get to the ceiling.

The aforementioned claws and a strength that belied its light weight and small size allowed it to crawl upside on the ceiling.

Alexa fought the urge to gag as she was taken along for the ride.

The shades were thick in the hallway and were moving away.

If Alexa had her bearings correct Mr. Bigglesworth was two floors below her, on the second floor, the first with apartments.

Shades, human and monster, fought something or someone. It was hard to tell with the swirling fog and the thick press of bodies. It looked as if the shades were trying to defend the stairwell.

Mr. Bigglesworth darted through a sudden explosion of shade bodies that cleared a space near the stairwell.

A human shade stuck a hand out of the doorway and pointed. “Fire Spray,” he said flatly.

The flames brightened the gray gloom as they washed over what turned out to be a man.

Mr. Bigglesworth watched from a safe distance as the man cursed and slapped at the flames.

“Oh…” Alexa gasped.

The man appeared to be unharmed. His shirt, however, wasn’t. What little remained of it was charred. Fortunately or unfortunately, his pants were still mostly there.

He dashed forward with a quickness that startled Mr. Bigglesworth and he grabbed the fire-casting shade’s arm. “Sorry,” he said as he grabbed the shade’s throat and squeezed.

Alexa took a moment to admire the man’s physique. He was muscular, ripped really. An 8-pack, not merely a 6. Broad shoulders that tapered to a slim waist that gave him an aesthetically pleasing V-tapered look. He wasn’t bulky though, more lean, sleek.

Alexa realized that the man looked familiar.

“That’s him, Mr. Bigglesworth! That’s Eron! Get his attention!”

Silence as the others stared at her with concern.

“He won’t hurt you! What do you mean?”

Silence again.

“Well… try waving or scratch a message on the floor or something,” Alexa huffed.

“Um… Alexa?” Amber ventured cautiously.

“We’re saved if Mr. Bigglesworth doesn’t screw it up,” Alexa said.

“Well, hope he— it hurries up,” Ambrose gestured at their makeshift barricade.

It shook with renewed fury.