“I wasn’t expecting this development...” Drauko muttered.

Kaleb stood before them, a chain gripped in his hand and eyes focused. Beside Drauko, the van they had been driven in was upside-down, and crushed under it was likley five other people.

“Before we do this, Kaleb...you don’t mind if we just-”

They inched toward the car to rescue their friends but paused as a chain whacked into the concrete in their way, crushing it. “Not happening,” he said. “I don’t have anything against you, but I can’t hold back.”

“I’m basically just a normal person,” Drauko said with a shrug. “If you really wanted to capture me, why not just do it?”

He tugged his chain back to his side. “You aren’t a normal person. You’re two. Now sit still and wait for my reinforcements, or I’ll have to pound some sense into ya’. Capiche?”

Drauko smirked, then leaned forward into a fighting stance. “Nah, I think we’re good. There’s something else you should ‘reinforce’, though...”

He cocked an eyebrow, then hit the concrete below with his chain, cracking it and sending chunks of rock splattering across the street. “What?”

“...deez nuts.”

Kaleb tried to hold in a chuckle.

Drauko suddenly rushed forward while he was distracted, but Kaleb narrowed his eyes quickly enough to swipe his chain forward. They suddenly leaped over it, then rolled forward as they hit the ground hands-first, only for the end of Kaleb’s chain to stab toward them from his left.

As they ducked out of the roll and into a crawl, they then saw the mana holding the chain smack down, and tried to push toward Kaleb before it could catch them.

The chain slammed to the ground, then quickly curved around their ankle just as they raised a fist toward Kaleb, and a moment later, they were flung backward by their leg and sent scraping down the concrete.

They raised their head as they tried to stand, bleeding even more from the concrete scraping on their skin. They frowned. This hurts. Then their expression shifted into a bittersweet smile. But it’s easier when I feel like we’re side by side.

“The fuck are you, a skinwalker?!” Kaleb yelled, pulling back his chain.

“Uhh...why am I being compared to one of those?”

“You’re crawling under my damn chain like a maniac, not to mention flipping around.”

“But I don’t see...” they began before smirking. “Oh, I see...you think I’m scary....” the smirk grew cruel as they stepped forward. “What, afraid of a bit of acrobatics Kaweb?”

“Rah!” he swung his chain from overhead, and Drauko stepped left. They shook their head as they hopped over a below-the-ankle swipe of Kaleb’s chain.

I’m a fusion of two people... which means I should have twice the flaws and twice the strengths...

They stepped forward with confidence despite the pain enveloping them and ducked as the chain swiped just above their waist.

“You should get a job as a contortionist, freak,” Kaleb said, reeling it back as they took another step.

But not really? I mean, I feel really confident because I’m Drade, but shouldn’t I be not confident because I’m Luuko? Or was I...she...? Was I ever not confident?

Kaleb took a step back and swung his chain again. This time, Drauko noticed he was holding back so he wouldn’t kill them if he hit, and so as they ducked, they reached out and grabbed the chain.

Their arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets as they pulled their whole body forward, then tumbled closer to Kaleb, who stumbled toward the car in obvious fear after they’d moved behind him.

Yep, I think I get it now. It’s more like I’ve got twice as many strengths, but it’s not like simple addition; we cover for our weaknesses! Their eyes fluttered as they tried to fight and think at the same time. Okay, maybe not if both of us have the same weakness...Man, it should’ve been obvious to me how tired Drade is, but I just never noticed... They blinked rapidly as they thought, trying to remain awake. “What, are you more afraid of me than a giant plant monster?”

He shook his head and tried to regain his composure. “I thought I was going to die anyway. Now...now, I can fail. But either way, I won’t let that happen.”

“Just a BTW,” Drauko said as they basically cartwheeled over another swipe of his chain. “If you’re going to lose this, Kaleb, it’s going to be because you’re trying too hard.”

He took another scared step backward as Drauko approached even closer. “Y-you’re stupid!” he yelled before suddenly hitting the concrete with his chain, sending concrete flying about the place. One stone suddenly hit Drauko just below the knee, sending them squealing to their knees in surprise and pain.

“Just try to get close!” he yelled, holding his chain out and threatening another swipe. “You aren’t winning.”

They held their knee in pain. “Oww...”

He raised the corner of his mouth in confusion. “Uhh...are you...okay? You’re bleeding all over, and that’s what put you out of commission?”

“No,” they shook their head before standing again and yawning, loud and long and mocking. “It’s just...do you remember what I said just before we began fighting?”

“Uhh...no?”

Suddenly, Kaleb froze in place as an arm looped over his shoulder, the van’s rearview mirror in its hand. He saw a girl in glasses smile toothlessly in the mirror as she set her head on his other shoulder.

She then whispered into his ear: “They meant it when they recommended that you ‘reinforce deez nuts’”

Drauko’s neck tensed, and they closed their eyes as Tabitha’s knee brutally shot up between Kaleb’s legs.

The teen froze for all of a second before falling to the ground, air wheezing out of his throat. He rolled about in a fetal position, holding his crotch as he tried to bear the pain without uncontrollably yelling.

Drauko’s eyes shot open as the eldritch girl raised her shoe up over the already neutralized boy, a sadistic smile on her face. Kaleb shook his head pleadingly. “P-Please, no-” he wheezed out.

“H-hey...” Drauko stepped forward, a hand timidly outstretched. “Y-you’re not seriously going to hit that kid again, are you?”

Tabitha tilted her head. “Yeah, in the balls. Why?”

Drauko’s mouth just hung open, completely powerless to stop her.

Tabitha’s expression suddenly shifted as she stepped back. “Ah- erm, sorry.” She shrugged, closing her eyes nonchalantly. “I just don’t know what came over me” As she said it, though, her eyes shot open for a brief moment, warningly glaring at Kaleb before closing again as though nothing had happened.*

He rolled over in fear. “I-I don’t know what I did to you, b-but I’m sorry...p-please don’t...”

She leaned down to whisper into Kaleb’s ear. “Good puppy.” She then stood back up and walked to the car. “Everyone else seems...head injured, including Livia. Oh, wait, no, looks like she just woke up. Dazed, though.”

Drauko stepped past Kaleb with an apologetic expression, then nervously came to Tabitha’s side. As they did, she carefully dragged Livia out of the car.

“Thankfully,” Tabitha continued, “Our crash wasn’t too bad. I think it was merely bad luck that they were knocked out.”

“I did see that...” Drauko muttered.

Tabitha paused for a moment, then shook her head and looked at them with a questioning expression. “What did you mean when you said you saw it?” she asked.

They blinked, surprised that Tabitha was keen enough to notice what they’d meant by it. The Luuko in them wanted to wave it off and move on, but Drade wasn’t the type to back down from questions, “I -Drade in particular- have really annoying luck, and I can see flickers of mana when it influences things. Oh, and I have manasense if you didn’t know.”

She narrowed her eyes, a very genuine expression of concern on her face as she quickly continued pulling people from the car. “Luck? So you think that this ‘luck’ of yours knocked them out? I assume you mean you have bad luck.”

“Mmm...” Drauko meandered their head back and forth. “No, luck doesn’t work that way. It’s everywhere around me, and it just does...things. Luck usually pushes me to take certain actions, and as long as I follow whatever path those actions take me down, it usually makes sure that things end up fine for me and my pals. I-it’s difficult to describe.”

“Hmm...” Tabitha looked down as she dragged out Felix. “How does that make any sense, though? If it were just luck controlling things, you wouldn’t see magic, surely. Were you cursed somehow?”

Drauko shook their head. “No, I...don’t exactly know, but I think that there is a reason I...Drade has luck like that. Like...it’s fate.”

Tabitha’s eyes widened. “Fate? Fate is-”

Suddenly, someone fell from the rooftop, a supersoldier who quickly launched at Drauko.

In a flash, Tabitha sent them rolling away with an empowered punch, magic surging through her body. The next instant, another person fell from the building, only for her to blindly lean left, evading their fist, then grab it as they fell to slam them back first into the concrete, leaving a crater in their wake. “Looks like I’ll need to keep you...like I’ll need to fight for you, Drauko.” She suddenly leaped over the car and dragged Sara and Datai out, the last two inside. “We will continue this conversation later, you can be sure about that much. In the meantime, I’ll leave it up to you how you survive.” She piled the bodies beside each other, then helped Livia onto her feet. “Before I fight off their reinforcements, I have one question.”

“Y-yeah?”

She seriously glared at Drauko. “Is this ‘fate’ you’re referring to trying to stop us from discussing its true nature?”

After a moment’s thought, they nodded. “It’s difficult to notice when fate touches people, but whenever I mention it, most people ignore me like...like they didn’t pay attention to my words, I guess you could say.”

Tabitha looked up as Livia rubbed her head. “Very fascinating. I leave the rest up to you, Drauko.” Then, she leaped upward.

At the top of the building was a floor whose walls had been destroyed, leaving it filled with broken office cubicles. Standing at the top, and now surrounding Tabitha, were a growing number of supersoldiers, who suddenly stepped back as she gracefully leaped onto the broken wall, standing over them with a superior, confident smile.

Tabitha held her arms out. “Oh, please. Only twelve? At least send a baker’s dozen.” Another one, then two, fell as though prompted, and they stepped forward, ready to strike. Her smile opened up, revealing her canines in a maniacal smile. “Well, I suppose that provides a minimum number of people needed to threaten me.”

One stepped forward, and in an instant, her instincts took over as she crashed a fist into their gut, slid beneath another’s punch and tripped the first soldier over with her forward-facing foot, then grabbed them and chucked them into their attacking allies, giving them pause as she stood without wasted movement, caught a punch and deflected another without looking, then flung the other in front of her using their momentum to upset their stance, where they then served as a temporary meat sheild.

She spent the time they’d given her to kick into the abdomen of the other person who had punched her, causing them to step back in pain before she then raised her arms up and slammed down onto them with her conjoined fists, sending them crashing through two floors of concrete below.

As careful as she could be, Kai’Vra enjoyed the thrill of danger without hardly noticing how exited it made her feel.

Livia shook her head. “Ugh, that sucked.”

“Cool, cool, could you...mmm...heal everyone already?”

“Yeah, don’t rush me...” she waved a hand, and it wasn’t long before Onei, Datai, Felix, and Sara were shakily holding themselves to their feet, their concussions healed. The same went for Drauko, whose bloody cuts healed over.

Datai rubbed his head as he looked at his car. “I...am very disappointed. Can’t say I didn’t expect my car to be wrecked, though.”

“I’m sure it’ll be repaired by the end of the week,” Drauko said, shrugging. “But let’s not waste time and get going!” They raised a hand in a random direction, implying that they should go that way. “Mostly so we can get this over with, and I can sleep.”

Datai nodded to Sara and Felix, then began running, even as people were flung from the building above, crashing into its floors and the other broken buildings as Tabitha singlehandedly handled the gang of soldiers stronger than herself.

Onei and Livia exchanged glances with Drauko, and they followed, running into the streets as they usually did at the end of these chapters.

Hilda put a hand to her ear as she overlooked a soldier of hers who was just outside the gas station that held the enchanters’ headquarters. She hadn’t anticipated anyone to have an anti-magic field, so she couldn’t listen in with her magitech.

She raised a hand to her ear. “Who is this?”

“Therin. I’ve found her,” he said through her earplugs.

“Who, exactly? That’s rather vague.”

...

“The god?”

“Umm...” she blinked. “Oh, yes, her...I was hoping we wouldn’t need to think about any more gods-or-whatevers today.”

“Unfortunately, it seems like someone did indeed release her.”

“So...is she a problem or does this matter at all?”

“I’m not sure. I thought it might be harder to find her, but she put up her Aura of Starlight, which is...convienent yet concerning.”

Far away, on another side of the city, Therin looked about himself. From inside, he couldn’t see outside a sphere that seemed to see past the earth and sky and into the stars themselves, the sky shimmering above him as though it were ancient times; although the sun remained visible. It almost appeared as if he were on a platform floating in space. The aura made it easy to locate the god in question because it centered around her, making it clear that she was not far beneath the street.

“I will attempt to speak with her, but last time we met she was...to put it lightly, quite unreasonable.”

“Awesome...” his subordinate said sarcastically. “But again, is she a problem or not?”

“That very much depends. Even now, I’m seeking the ability to kill a god, but she is immortal, so...if she tries, she could be a thorn in her side. Also, I don’t know how, but she probably plans on regaining her former power somehow. If she succeeded, she would defeat even that girl who defeated the fire elemental.”

“She did what!? I thought you said that its great wildfire couldn’t be stopped? And that it was fire eternal and whatnot?”

“Oh, did I not tell you? She just put out the fire by blowing it up with an even bigger one. Or something like that.”

“I-you- forgot to tell me?!”

“It’s rather unimportant. She apologized and offered to help me, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

He heard Hilda sigh. “Whatever. Can’t we just use the enchanter’s anti-magic on the god, then kill her? What could she possibly do, then?”

Therin shook his head. “Even if we convinced them to help us, a god like her doesn’t necessarily use magic to become immortal. Take the power of one’s soul to partially command their body, for instance. If that were made of magic, then you would die upon touching their field, but you don’t. Instead, it is more like a magic furnace, which is strung throughout one’s body. For a god, their most innate powers come from not the magic they produce, necessarily, but from their soul, which can have many different properties. Although, I suppose that, in truth, souls are magic, just that of a different f-”

Hilda interrupted him, “Doesn’t matter. Do you need help or what?”

“Just a progress update. I’ll fall below and speak with her now.”

“Understood.”

“One last thing...”

“Yes?”

“Drade is captured, right?”

“...”

Therin sighed. “Drade is...captured, right?”

“Sir-”

“The normal kid who you said you would capture easily is captured, right? The one who has no powers which could help him in a fight. The one who should lose literally any fight with any one of our two-hundred soldiers. The one you claimed to be a non-issue.”

“We have failed in capturing the normal teenager, yes.”

“Okay, but why the fuck not? I told you not to underestimate him. We can’t allow The Friends to recuperate. Why haven’t you been targeting him!?”

“I have been tripping over myself to do so! Fifty of my men are seeking him at this very moment. The rest are searching and capturing anyone remaining because the evacuation phase is over.”

“Why is he not captured, then?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been working on negotiating with the spellcasters residing in the city.”

“Get. Him. Now. Drade is the core of The Friends, right? Capture him, and they will willingly lay down their arms for his safety. If he finds some way to contact his father too early in our plans, it’s over for us.”

“With all due respect, sir, it seems just as easy to capture them individually, and we’ve taken multiple precautions to ensure that he isn’t notified of our attack on Changeton, such as the electromagnetic field. And any one of The Friends, besides that other eldritch abomination-”

“Call her what you want; Eldritch girl. Or person. Or being. Or entity. I don’t care, just not abomination, Hilda.”

“Ahem, eldritch girl,” she corrected herself with vitriol, “are nothing more than weaklings, and that girl is about to be captured by the cats or whatever anyway...”

Therin sighed. “I’m not going to say this again, Hilda. You must capture Drade. Nothing takes precedence over that. I haven’t given you all of the details regarding him.”

“What details? And why haven’t you?”

“Clearly, you had no idea what you were getting into when you began interacting with eldritch creatures...” Therin said through gritted teeth. “Drade takes precedence over any group, even over a god. You don’t take chances with him. Do you understand? Get. It. Right.”

He tapped his earplug headphones.

“‘meh, you suck at leading, Therin’, ‘meh, I’m going to ignore orders because I’m so much smarter than you and have my head stuck up my ass’.” He rolled his eyes. “What a bitch. Moving on to the bigger one in the room...”

He hovered to the ground and kicked down on a manhole cover, causing it to crash into the sewer below. He’d meant to flip it into the air, buuut that worked too. He leaped down and hovered over the flowing water, gazing into the darkness.

He watched as a red, glowing eye slowly grew brighter and brighter, and the sound of metal and squishing plant matter sloshing in the water and stomping on the ground grew until he saw the creature enter the very edge of the sunlight.

He let a breath out of his nose as he saw her again. Her melted skin, robotic eye, third mechanical arm, planty leg...the tentacles arcing behind her back...and of course, the starry liquid that masqueraded as blood.

“Mmm...son...” her face twisted into a smile, though the way her face was, it seemed to come with great effort, and it was difficult to tell whether it was genuine or not. “It’s been so long...hehe,” she chuckled.

His face was cold and serious. “You always sucked at lying, mum. You remember our last interaction quite well.” He clenched his hand. “I knew a few people you killed...” She lost her smile, and he continued after a moment of silence. “I would have been fully willing to resurrect you fully, to provide you the vessel you needed, but...you clearly didn’t want to be reasoned with.”

“You don’t understand, son,” she said pleadingly, “this isn’t a petty matter,” she continued to try and sound calm and reasonable, but he could see how restrained she was even as she spoke so self-assuredly. “It’s a matter of fate, the power which binds us all to a ceaceless darkness of strife. It wants us to fail, son. The world has changed since our time, and you can’t even see it. If you would only open your eyes, you would be able to understand just the power the world itself holds over you; how meaningless everything you have done is. I was sealed in another place, another time, but you don’t remember, you don’t remember how long it has been, how many times you have repeated it all over and over, with no will to bind you. The Fatebringers are our enemy, and they must die or we will forever be oppressed and made a scapegoat for their...their games. Son, you simply must listen...” she trailed off as she outstretched her human arm

Therin listened to her with an impassive expression and shook his head when she finished. “That’s what you told me last time...after you killed two of my lead researchers and released The Devourers into the sewers. Hmph...” He stared at her features, then shook his head. “If I, for some reason, get beef with fate itself, maybe I’ll ask you for advice, mother...” he shrugged. “But I have better things to do.”

“Like what, child!? What ‘better’ things could you be doing than making a new world where we can thrive?!”

He blinked. “Uhh...making a new world order where everyone can?”

The Great Mother leveled a gaze at him for a moment. “The world will not accept you.”

“Doubtful. I’ve already leveled Changeton. Even should I fail, the world will soon know about the power of magic, and a new age will come and stuff. I don’t need your help.” He slowly flew out.

“Fate forbids magic from our world, Therin!” she yelled. “You will fail, no matter the odds that seem in your favor! There is no reprieve but total victory!”

He ignored her and flew away, though not before one last passing glance.

Fate forbids magic from our world... What did she mean by that?

And could she stop with the archaic grammar and cryptic explanations!? No wonder she didn’t have any friends...

The Dark Queen watched Changeton from above, leaning onto her slowly falling unbrella with her heel placed on its curved handle.

From so high in the sky, it almost seemed peaceful between the occasional rumble of rogue collapsing buildings or cataclysmic fighting. Her seemingly perpetual smile twisted into a frown. Then again, perhaps it was peaceful, despite the ongoing war. There were far, far less people occupying the city than there had been for centuries, probably, and that meant that, realistically, it was relatively quiet.

“Hmm...” she pulled her phone from a pocket in her gaudy red and black dress and clicked its side. It failed to boot on. “Ahh, so that’s why Therin never offered me a magitech phone; so I can’t contact Gau. What a sly dog...Oooh, petting a dog sounds like a quite enjoyable activity~” she looked around herself. No dog in sight. “...not that I could meet a dog even if I could spot one since I’m...” Her expression twisted as she trailed off.

Although there wasn’t a single other person paying attention to what she was saying as she fell from nearly a mile in the air, she didn’t want to utter the fact that she, in fact, was completely stranded and powerless, only able to wait for her magical black and scarlet umbrella to lower her to the ground. Perhaps her choice to remain silent would have made sense, as she followed not by an omniscient third person narrator but instead, a limited third person narrator, but alas, her powerlessness was laid evident.

“Well...” she muttered in what amounted to a sigh as she tapped her phone’s screen impatiently. “Wonderful...and here I was hoping to continue playing Bite and Smite online with that ‘Uffy’ person...what a shame. Ahh, the misery. I’ll have at that wind mage that destroyed my skyscraper if I get the chance...and maybe turn him into my servant for a while...”

...

With nothing to do, she opened her mouth, then began singing, “One day, we’ll find it...the rainbow connection...” she trailed off. “I...don’t know...”

...

The Dark Queen, supreme overlord of Changeton, Dark Horse, and cabinet to Gau, The Dark President, didn’t know the lyrics.

Therin's advice to the would-be villans of the world:

{It is not power that I fear.

Power is but the crutch of the petty. Power is but a reason to feel power. Power is but wrought and sourced of fear. Power is many things, but never a method.

To those who believe that gaining power would give them some instant sense of agency, relief, or happiness...just think. When this power comes to you, will that really happen?

Power, of course, is not meaningless. Far from it. But power will never be meaning on its own. Power is nothing if it is not used. If it is used poorly, then that power is of poor quality.

True meaning, true agency, true happiness. It all comes from what is within your soul. I don't mean that in some saccharine way, either. These things leap out of the realm of the mind like words from a page and give life to themselves. You -yes, you- have meaning. You have power.

Even I forget this sometimes. However, I wish to someday learn to control them within my own soul. Then, I may sculpt the world with the fine chisel of my mind.

And is that not beautiful?}