“Twin... Brother...”

Julie suddenly seems ready to snap in a haze of rage and violence. But at the same time, she seems shaken further than Francis has ever seen her in their entire time knowing each other.

“We were the Fury Twins,” Mayor Pete tells her . The two strongest beings in all of Mystix. United for our entire lives. It took me a long time to recover these memories, but as soon as they returned to me, it’s like my life here on Earth completely changed.”

“Fury Twins...”

“We were fearsome rulers, Julie. You and me, fighting side by side for years. We helped end the Great Dam War and bring peace to the world after years of strife. We were heroes known to every corner.

“And then, of course, we came across some Sorting Scepters. And we were given the option to reclass. To accept our ultimate destinies.

“We became [Demigod] class heroes, determined to keep the world safe from any future wars. That, of course, was a lot easier of a task in peacetime, and the lack of fighting and strife didn’t mesh well with the cursed [Demigod] class whatsoever.”

“[Demigod] is the same class that Eryk has, sort of,” Francis says. “You’re the same as him? You got it sealed up like him and your memories erased?”

“No, not quite,” Pete says. “Naturally, where there was no conflict, we ended up creating it ourselves. The [Demigod] class corrupted us, turned us into the villains essentially. In the end, we were put to deah by a massive army of beavers, ghouls, and orcs, united together. We brought stability and peace, by becoming the evils that needed to be vanquished. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“And we both were reincarnated on Earth?”

“I imagine The Goddess wanted us to become angels. We refused, of course, and ended up here on Earth.”

“And somehow you’re fifteen years older than me?” Julie asks.

“Time is a strange thing, isn’t it? Some strange event seems to have majorly desynced the timelines between Mystix and Earth, and I can’t really explain how it happened. For most of history, the two worlds were linked one to one. But then it snapped out of nowhere. The reincarnation system was thrown into complete chaos. I’m sure it was the work of some powerful magician as part of a master plan, but I couldn’t tell you what that plan might have been. Only that it clearly succeeded.”

“There’s forces at play here beyond both our controls,” Julie says. “That’s why I can’t let you take the Warring Core. You’ll mess things up even more.”

“And what, if I go home empty-handed, are you going to peacefully walk away too? I’m sure you didn’t come here for exactly the same thing.”

“We’re just ambassadors trying to scout out potential allies in the war,” she tells him.

“Well, you found one in me. Just as long as we’re collaborating. I’m not going to be some lackey for The Goddess to retake her power. I want to be in charge.”

“Won’t happen. You’ll get a shorter prison sentence, maybe.”

Pete smirks. “This is war, sister. Prisoners aren’t even in the question anymore.”

“Uh, mister Secretary,” Francis says, “prisoners are very much in the question. The Geneva Convention and all that.”

“Well, you know what they say. Conventions are made to be broken.” Pete’s eyes start to glow, and a visible magical field begins to generate around him.

“You know, Eryk’s really got experience with breaking conventions. Although I guess that’s the nerd kind, not the war crimes kind.” Francis thought that joke sounded funnier in his head.

“Well, I can make do with a little war crime here and there,” Pete says. “As a treat.”

“Normal sane people don’t say things like that, mister Secretary Pete.”

“Shut up, Francis,” Julie says. “Let me handle it.”

“Join me, Julie,” Pete says. “I don’t want to fight you, because I know I can’t win. But defeating Joe Biden is going to take the both of us. He’s too powerful, and if we’re not both there, he’ll end up destroying the whole multiverse in his hubris. It’s all or nothing. Join me, or we both die.”

The same kind of energy field builds up around Julie as well. The sheer power of these two North Spirans and their former [Demigod] powers is enough to send a thick pressure pressing against Francis’s entire body.

“You said it.” Julie enters a fighting stance. “I’m much stronger than you.”

“Yes. You have the Armageddon Power inside you. I could never achieve that level, even back on Mystix. Once you unleash that, you can destroy an entire universe. Blink of an eye, everything’s dead.”

“The...” Julie is clearly taken aback by this.

“Think about it. The two of us can team up and defeat Joe Biden in pure skill. Or you can sacrifice yourself and the entire world you’re standing in after you trick Biden into fighting you one-on-one. That’s your only options, because he will obliterate you otherwise.”

Julie stares at him for several moments.

Pete stares back. Calm smile on his face.

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Julie asks.

“Search your feelings. You know it to be true.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Julie blasts him with a beam so hard he goes flying far off the platform.

Tumbling from the tower, screaming.

The scream fades, and Secretary Pete Buttigieg falls off the edge of the mega-city, to his doom.

The battle was over before it even began.

Julie looks at Francis, smiles. Then touches the Warring Core.

“You’re not gonna... Are you?”

“He had a good idea. Sort of. This thing powers the whole mega-city. Grants everyone on the world their powers. I wonder if we can just sort of reach in and...”

And that was the story of how Julie and Francis temporarily doomed an entire magical fantasy world by stealing its macguffin and taking it back to Earth. Temporarily! They’ll give it back after the war!