It was code red under the dark blue winter sky.

The party of four stood before the shambolic, snowy vista. It was littered with vehicles flipped over, a rolling flaming tire raced across the asphalt, and the infected of all ages and sizes—some wandered aimlessly and bumped into each other, while others lay on the snow in defeat, all of them were releasing the same horrible, droning moans.

A sudden squelch coming from the side pulled Zeke’s attention from Bahnhofstrasse. Akachi was pushing the pointy end of his staff into his palm. After pulling it out and making another squelch, he turned back and crouched to draw a bloody sigil on the asphalt.

The sigil breathed out a giant cloud of bright green smoke that lingered in the air for a while. When it vanished, it left behind a massive green tent that towered over every building in the area.

Akachi stood up and put his hands on his hips while happily staring at his conjuration. He turned back to the others and frowned. “Well? This isn’t a movie! Stop staring! We have to help these people.”

“Are you going to explain the tent?” Ugo asked.

“This is my traveling party tent. I had this spell prepared because in a lot of the parties thrown by gods that I attend, there were always instances when a god would get fatally sick, sometimes even multiple gods. It’s warm inside, and there’s water and beds and anything else we need to get these people out of the snow and somewhere safe while we can administer medicine to help with the pain.”

Zeke smiled, elated with Akachi’s focus on the patients instead of finding Kian right away. They were the main priority before bringing the well-deserved barrage of pain onto the deranged Infectiologist.

Aida transformed into her hybrid form and set off on all fours without saying a word. She helped a group of old women (their heads massive and dotted with several eyes) make their way into the tent.

Like what Akachi said, it wasn’t a movie where he was a spectator protected by the barrier of the fourth wall. Zeke was in the movie, and his actions would directly affect its ending. He tightened his grip on the handle of his doctor’s bag and started moving just as Ugo and Akachi did as well.

Zeke turned to his side to a bench area and hopped over a small hill of snow where a woman whose eyes had vanished from her face and were now on the back of her eyes—painfully obstructed by her tangled black hair. Half her mouth was fused shut, and her nose was upside down; she was sobbing in German while scrambling and moving her hands around in a panic.

A mutated baby lay on the snow on its back near a flipped-over stroller, crying from all three sets of mouths he had. The baby was dangerously close to the woman’s scrambling feet. Playing action-hero, Zeke dropped his bag, slid to the baby, and picked it up right before the woman’s boot was going to crush its tiny organs under her boot. Zeke stood up and looked at the woman he presumed was the mother. He shot a blue vein from his sleeve and wrapped it around her waist.

Zeke noticed more infected in the area having trouble getting used to Kian’s blessings. He grew out extra veins and had them grab hold of each of them. Like a shepherd, Zeke led his facially-mutated sheep onto the tent while holding the baby tight to his chest with his arm (with extra veins to help hold its head up).

The inside of the tent was spacious and toasty. The rows of beds available in the room seemed to go on endlessly. Beside each was heart monitor machines, water, and cabinets that were probably filled with more essential materials.

He caught a glimpse of Aida tucking in the last elderly woman in one of the beds before she sped out of the tent, leaving a trail of smoky, burnt orange aura behind.

Akachi appeared and took the baby from Zeke. “Ya gotta stop daydreaming, man,” he said. “Leave them to me. I’ll make a crib for the baby and some more in case you find more.”

Zeke nodded, released the other infected, and ran back into the chaos.

It was a hectic dance going in and out of the tent with new groups of infected each time all trying to avoid slipping on the snow and re-equipping his doctor’s bag in the process, but when Zeke started getting a hold of the rhythm it was like riding a bike. Aida was killing it, speed-dashing around the area. Ugo was holding himself up well despite his mutations and helped out a lot of patients.

Then, Zeke found a bus flipped over on its side and could hear a choir of groans coming from inside as he stood back to think about how he should handle the situation…

His thinking was disrupted as his soul was struck with powerful sources of Mana, and he heard flapping from above. He looked up and saw the petite-winged being descending from the winter night sky carrying a tall girl by the wrists.

Zeke’s mouth fell open as AJ dropped near him. Her messy hair was showing from her knitted cap, and she had a vest over a long-sleeved thermal shirt and thermal pants, looking prepared for a winter jog.

Before Zeke could say anything, Nananiel appeared and landed on the bus as Naomi alighted near AJ.

“Hi, Zeeeeeeke!” Naomi shouted and withdrew her wings, bubbling with enthusiasm. She wore a winter edition of her usual prep uniform-inspired outfit wearing a coat over her sweater and a collared shirt.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“It was all over the news before the signal was cut off,” AJ said.

Nananiel withdrew his wings. “We know of the Tainted who lost his life. I’m sorry.” He was wearing the Burger Queen clerk uniform, and even with the lack of long sleeves, he managed to sweat in the snow.

Zeke refrained from commenting on Nananiel’s pit stains and said, “The only one who has to apologize here is me, Nananiel. You gave me the warning, and I still screw things up.” AJ cautiously neared him from behind and cowered slightly to appear smaller—a mannerism he was familiar with.

“I am sure you did your very best,” AJ said.

“And that wasn’t good enough.”

He then took a pathetic punch to the shoulder by the angel-demon hybrid. “Stop it…” Naomi pleaded.

“AJ…? Naomi!”

They looked in the direction of the voice and found Ugo halted near them. Naomi screamed in terror like a little girl.

“Whoa, it’s me!” Ugo confirmed. His Healer’s Garb looked quite strange on him with the mutations.

“Oh…” Naomi said, opening her eyes. “Sorry.”

“Ugo volunteered to get himself infected with the disease to help with the vaccine,” Zeke explained, “which is finishing development right now as we speak.”

Nananiel grinned. “You Healers never cease to amaze me.”

The next addition to the scene was Aida, who stopped before them. “I sensed angelic energy and thought I was going crazy…” she said and looked up at Nananiel.

“I come in peace,” Nananiel said and waved down at Aida.

Aida waved up at Nananiel and then whipped over to Naomi. “Wait! Are you…?” She dashed over to Naomi.

“Yes, that’s Naomi,” Zeke said.

“Hi!” Naomi said with a happy wave to a star-struck Aida, who waved back absently.

“Ezequias,” Nananiel called and then pointed at the tent. “You’re taking the infected over there, right?”

Zeke nodded, and Nananiel ran to the bus’s door and tore it open.

Right after, Akachi zipped by them, riding Helios’s Chariot and catching everybody’s attention.

“Uh… was that Helios’s Chariot?” AJ asked.

“That’s Akachi,” Aida answered. “He is one of the Tainted like us and always needs to be the center of attention.”

“People!” Nananiel clapped. “That’s enough catching up. We need to help these people. Help as many people as possible and get them to that tent.”

“Yes, Nananiel!” Naomi said, sprouting out her wings and flying off.

The rest of the gang split to help out.

Zeke ran forward in search of more infected, but something stole his focus. It was a malicious aura coming from a distance. The image of Kian’s pale face and his acrylic painting-like black eye came to mind. It was his aura, alright, Zeke looked over his shoulder, and everybody was dead set on getting people to the tent.

The aura was like a beckoning finger, calling him, taunting him. The sensation had him staring forward. Without turning back, Zeke ran towards the source.

After dropping off some more infected, Akachi was out on the streets again, feeling good, doing a great job of saving a handful of people, and looking the coolest while doing it was a bonus. Still, an annoying itch on his soul was tampering with his focus. It was of Black Magic. Black Magic energy was swirling everywhere in the air, but this specific source was one he dedicated to memory. Once he felt close enough to the source, he couldn’t ignore it any longer and commanded Helios’s steads to a stop.

He stepped onto the sidewalk and stared at a patisserie. Letting himself into the aesthetically-pleasing shop, he found the fat source of the annoying itch stuffing his gullet with Swiss milk chocolate truffles straight from the box.

Gill was the only one in the shop with shelves holding boxes of baked goods around the place, tables, and a glass counter displaying beautiful desserts.

“I thought treating your demons was top priority,” Akachi said, giving Gill a disgusted look. “When it comes to innocent people in danger, that’s not enough for you to stop tending your demons, but cakes? Definitely, right?”

Gill swallowed and gave Akachi an empty look. “My family is cured, thanks for asking.” Then he fixated on the box again, helping himself to more chocolates. “You really can’t come up with something more clever to attack me with than my weight, huh?”

Akachi scoffed and removed his goat skull headdress. “So, are you here to help or just eat, Fatass?”

Gill put the box back on the shelf and gestured to a table. “Sit. I owe you an apology, Akachi.”

The words had Akachi stagger back a bit and wonder if he picked up a strain of Kian’s specimen that messes with hearing. “Apologize for what?”

Gill plopped down at a small table already with two apple strudels picked out for them. “Take a seat, and I’ll elaborate.”

His brain lost the fight to curiosity, and he took a seat, placing his headdress beside him.

“As I was saying… I owe you an apology,” Gill said, picking up the pie fork and picking away at the pastry. “I assumed you to be a complete imbecile incapable of ever doing anything that’ll impress me. You’ve proved me wrong, although the reason why is quite predictable, unoriginal…”

“What are you going on about, fatass?”

“Akachi… I know you killed Yaalon.” Gill said casually as he cut a piece of strudel.

“No, I didn’t.”

Gill took a bite and chuckled. “This’ll be a lot quicker if you would just admit it, and then we can move on to my proposal, but fine, let’s do this little dance, shall we?” He took off his glasses, leaned back into his chair, and folded his hands on his lap. “Let’s begin with the how. You’ve been planning to kill Yaalon for a while and then the golden opportunity showed up when I announced the winter retreat for us. With Ugo and Azaekias being newbies in this whole mess they were potential scapegoats for your plan.”

“You organize us to stay in your big-ass house, and you suspect me?”

Gill raised a hand. “Let me finish, Akachi, and allow me to take you back to the night of Yaalon’s murder. Remember when you suggested to spice up my get-together?”

“Yeah, so?”

“It was perfect. Getting everybody drunk and, or, drugged.” Gill pointed at Akachi.

“You brought in those wooden carts filled with goods, remember?”

“Again, I just wanted to spice up the party, nothing wrong with that,” Akachi said as he shrugged and then wondered why he was still giving the obese demonologist the time of day.

“It was a good situation to conduct your murder. No one would suspect you because the get-together was my idea anyway! This gave you the opportunity to poison Wade. You being close to him, he wouldn’t suspect any of the drugs you gave to him, but that wasn’t enough; you also got a hold of his stash and tweaked it.”

There were so many more important things to do than hear the overweight hack and his moronic theories. Despite wanting to leave, Akachi’s legs refused to get up. It was like a spell had been put on him that fused his feet to the floor. He listened to Gill while focusing on not making facial reactions of any sort.

“I bet Yaalon was difficult,” Gill said. “He was already pushing it with sipping alcohol, but there was no way he was getting drunk. So you spiked the cave troll juice with more of Dionysus’ nectar.”

Akachi thought back to the crazy truth-or-dare game everybody bravely subjected themselves to after the team wine pong game. Yaalon chugged down the entirety of the slimy cave troll juice Akachi got for him.

“You have no proof of that,” Akachi said.

“Sure,” Gill responded, still casual. “Now, let’s proceed to the next part of the plan. Your besties. Of course, you have a stronger resistance to the nectar than the rest of us. You were able to nudge Aida and Wade back into each other’s arms. You wanted them to retreat to their room together.”

“What am I? Paschar of the First Sphere? I can see the future now?”

“No, but you know those two very well. It’s probably not the first time it happened while they were inebriated at a party.”

Akachi’s lips narrowed, and he pulled his eyes down to the strudel.

“Kian left after Yaalon did, right? Then Aida and Wade, and then Azaekias and Violet. And finally, you, Ugo, and Ashlin. Everybody was already in their rooms by then. That’s when you carried out the plan. You put on something that covered your whole body and bathed in bleach. You snuck into Aida’s room and didn’t have to worry about Wade’s condition because he was really out of it, thanks to you.” Gill finished his strudel and then finalized his argument. “You got a hold of Tsukikaze, avoiding making eye contact with it, confronted Yaalon in his room, who was dazed thanks to your spiking, killed him, exited through the window, ditched your clothes somewhere or burned it. I don’t really know. You’re the kind of vain guy who feels the need to walk around shirtless in a snowstorm, so it’s plausible you made your way back into the house completely naked.”

“Everybody knows about Wade being unable to sleep and bleach messing with Aida’s sense of smell and Tsukikaze’s curse. Just because I’m close to them doesn’t prove anything.”

Gill pointed at Akachi’s strudel. “Are you going to eat that?”

Akachi growled. “Are you really thinking about food while accusing me of murder?”

“Do you remember who suggested for me to get rid of my servants that night?” Gill flashed a smile.

Akachi gulped as Gill took his plate.

“Now, let’s review the reason why,” Gill said, devouring his second serving of strudel. “Akachi, I know how much you enjoy being part of the Tainted Generation. It makes you feel special in a way you didn’t before your Mana Pores opened up. Having to share that specialness with 10 other people was bothersome enough, and then comes Yaalon yapping about wanting to teach normal people how to use magic.”

Akachi remained silent as he watched Gill finish the strudel and clean his mouth with a napkin.

“What would be so special about you if everybody else could use magic the way we do? And sure, their affinity isn’t all that great, but anomalies could happen. Someone could rise to surpass us,” Gill smiled wolfishly as he tilted his head down slightly, having his dark green eyes gleam in the moonlight. “Yaalon just wouldn’t shut up about it, so you did it for him.”

Silence took over again, and the two stared right at each other.

“Akachi,” Gill started, “after that just comes the process of elimination. I know I didn’t do it. Zeke and Ugo are too new to this to pull something like that off. Aida has too much respect for life in general, and if she were to commit murder, she wouldn’t hide it. It’s the same with Isaac and Violet when it comes to admitting to murder, but don’t share the same respect for life. If either of them killed Yaalon, they wouldn’t lie because they don’t see any of us as threats. Wade was drugged, and Kian has no reason to kill Yaalon—”

“So, it was Ashlin!” Akachi suggested eagerly.

“No. If she did, she would tell me.” Gill looked over to his side. “Isn’t that right, beautiful?”

As the sound of clicking heels arose, Ashlin appeared from behind the glass counter in provocative winter clothing. “Right, darling,” she said and moved around the counter. She approached them with a super-feminine walk having her unbelievable hips move back and forth to her sides emphasizing her tiny waist.

What happened next had Akachi’s heart jump into his throat. Ashlin pressed herself against Gill and leaned onto the top of his head as he wrapped his flappy arm around her curves.

“Between you and me,” Ashlin started as she grabbed Gill’s glasses and cleaned them on her skin-tight, low-cut winter dress. “I am happy you killed the Jew. He was annoying.”

Akachi bolted out of his seat and decided he had had enough of the horror show and wanted to return to the other one outside (at least that one made more sense). He grabbed his headdress and was on his way. He was steps away from the door when Gill called him back. He turned around and saw Ashlin putting Gill’s glasses back on his face as he slapped a piece of parchment with text scrawled across it and black flames around the edges.

“You’re freakin’ stupid if you think I am going to sign that,” Akachi said with a smug smile.

“Akachi,” Gill said, now caressing Ashlin’s behind, “with what I know. I can set your life on fire.”

“That includes ruining your precious friendship with the mutt and the dopehead,” Ashlin added. “Whatever joy you find in being a third wheel is beyond me.” She slowly reached into Gill’s inside pocket and pulled out a fountain pen with a screaming skull on top.

Gill pushed the contract forward. “There’s nothing to fret about. I am inviting you to be a part of my family.”

Akachi stared at the contract.