CHAPTER 335

After all the excitement of the battle, the wind down of the past few days, and the partying that came after, all Sonya wanted to do was take a short breath and really savor the victory while it lasted. She knew there was more coming - more fights, stronger foes, and a world catching up faster and faster every day even as she pulled ahead across the threshold. She leaned against the railing and smiled, feeling the breeze wash over her as her sister’s mind rose up in the back of her head.

Tired of people? she asked, amused.

They’re exhausting when they aren’t being villains, Erina grumbled.

Yeah, they’re great, though, Sonya thought with a small smile.

They are good friends, yes. I was not expecting them to welcome me as they did, especially Amos, Erina said. He and I have our tensions.

Sonya shrugged. It is what it is. He’s cool, I’m sure. You’ve grown a lot, Sis.

As have you, Erina said.

Sonya chuckled and felt a presence approach her. She glanced over to see Charon walking towards her, cane twirling between his fingers. From behind him, Colin joined them with his hands stuffed into another one of Amos’ hoodies. He grinned ear-to-ear as the two of them met her gaze, expectant looks on their faces. She smirked. “Colin told you already?” she asked Charon.

He set his cane against the deck of the ship with a sharp tap and leaned forward, red eyes twinkling. “Oh, yes, he tells me you have the missing pieces to our little project,” he said eagerly. “It sounds like we’ll have to go through a bit of a convoluted process to make it work, but I think we can do it now.”

Sonya nodded. “Yep, it’s been a long time coming since we had the idea way back when,” she said and glanced at Colin. “Is Amos making it happen?”

“Yep,” Colin said with a flip of his hair. “Infrastructure is going to take a bit since we don’t want any governments taking it down, but we should be done in the next few months. With Erebus backing our currency and plenty of villains willing to do anything for you at this point, the hard work will take care of itself.”

Sonya frowned. “Erebus,” she muttered. “He’s becoming a bit of an issue, too enthusiastic. I warned him about pushing the envelope too far.”

A small shape darted out between Colin and Charon, the lithe form of Levi nearly crashing into her. He wound about her legs, pressing up against her as she looked down at him. “Hey, you,” she said brightly. “You’re feeling friendly today, aren’t you?” she asked, kneeling down to pet him while her subordinates shared a look.

“About Erebus,” Charon said.

“Hmm?”

“They identified the body in Otis’ car,” he said. “It was one of Erebus’ sons.”

Sonya paused and glanced up at him, her expression hardening. Levi let out an empathetic growl, picking up in her shift in mood. “Excuse me?”

“Yes,” Charon said. “We don’t know if they went to meet Otis on his order or not, but-”

Sonya exhaled; there was no proof of anything in this situation, as per usual with Otis. “I see, well, that’s a problem. Kera was the one who did it, as we all know. I’ll need to go visit, I suppose. I want you guys on the Brokerage project.”

They nodded, and she let out a small laugh. “It’s funny, my main ability is called Broker, but I don’t do a lot of brokering. That’s about to change, though. It’s time to get down to the real business of villainy, boys,” she said with a grin and turned to leave. “Go make some money.”

“What’re you gonna do?” Colin asked.

She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “Gurl, I have Carla Mint waiting for me in my suite. What do you think I’m gonna do?”

With that, she left, strutting to the soundtrack of her friend’s raucous laughter.

–

Colin glanced at Charon. “This website is going to turn the world upside-down,” he said thoughtfully. “I don’t think any of us can predict what’ll happen.”

Charon shrugged. “It’s how we do things, man. If we weren’t flipping the paradigm at least once every six months, I’d be worried Sonya was getting lazy,” he said with a chuckle.

“Fair point,” Colin said and stretched his arms over his head. “Ah well, at least it gives us something to do. Otherwise, I’d be doing cases at The Hague, and I’m kinda avoiding Leiandra Firth right now.”

“What? She scare you?” Charon asked.

“Hell no,” Colin snorted. “She just makes things difficult. I want to do my thing, she wants to push and prod me about hearings that she wants me to attend. I say fuck off. She berates me about decorum. It’s a whole thing.”

Charon snorted and leaned on his cane, watching Sonya go. “She’s gotten a hell of a lot better, hasn’t she?”

“Yeah. I’m still worried though,” Colin said. “She brought up Crusader and Mimir when she was still in a bad place. That’s gonna bite her in the ass somehow, I know it.”

“Probably,” Charon agreed. “But I don’t think Mimir has long for this world. I’ve heard her muttering about hunting him down. She’s tired of waiting for him to deal with Astaroth. If that guy doesn’t pull it off before she’s done with Erebus…”

Colin nodded. “I don’t think I want to see the new Sonya pissed off,” he said with a shudder. “That guy’s fucked. Any word on Majordomo or Craftsman?”

“Still nothing on the gray bastard. For Craftsman, though, I’ve noticed some shipping movements that hint a bit, but I think he’s hiding in a dungeon or something. My people tell me he picks up his packages all over the world and never in the same place twice in a row. He does use specific addresses, though,” Charon said thoughtfully. “Wanna check it out?”

“Sounds more like a Blackrazor thing to me,” Colin said. “We lure in idiot villains and get them to sign their lives away, remember?”

Charon pressed his lips together and trembled as the chuckles rose; Colin was not far behind him. “Y-you still remember it, don’t you?”

“I drink to it,” Charon choked out.

“Fuck that guy,” Colin laughed.

“Wanna do it again?” Charon asked.

Colin barked out a laugh. “Absolutely, partner, let’s scam the whole planet this time!” He turned away and started walking back to the door that led to the secret lounge. “For now, though, the boss has given us some time off. Let’s enjoy it!”

–

Setsuna sat in silence, staring up at the moonlit sky over the water. Her son had wandered off to who knows where, probably to finally do more than just shift awkwardly around girls. She shook her head. He was such a mommy’s boy. He needed to branch out more, and she, well, now that her people were safe and far happier than they’d ever been, she wanted to live a little too.

“Sherry?”

The voice came from her left. She looked up and smiled at the handsome doctor that she’d been spending so much time with. She reached out to take the glass from him and sipped at it. Smiling, she touched her throat, a faint sound coming from it before she spoke. The sound of her words was muted as the unscrambler spoke on her behalf. It sounded like her, if a bit mechanical. “Thank you, Da-Som.”

He smiled and sat down next to her. “Finally got some quiet? Your son has been hounding you ever since he caught us the other day.”

She laughed and raised a hand to cover the faint flush of her cheeks. “You are a scoundrel, Doctor. He was not happy.”

He let his head fall in mock shame even as his smile grew wider. “Another crime in the long rap sheet of this ne’er-do-well doctor.”

She laughed again and put a hand on his arm, lingering there for a moment before pulling away and sipping at her wine. She took a deep breath of the fresh, salty air and sighed. “How is the Mistress?”

“Exhausted, but her body recovers from it quickly now that she’s … ‘changed.’ She doesn’t sleep, but apparently that’s normal. It’s baffling,” he said with a disconcerted look on his face. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“I can imagine. She is becoming more than human,” Setsuna said patiently before leaning against him. “It is a place we could all reach if we worked hard enough.”

“I don’t know if I want that,” he said and leaned into her as well. “How’s your head?”

“A little heavy today,” she said. “I-” She gasped as the feeling came over her, something she hadn’t experienced for some time. Her body convulsed, and her eyes rolled up into her head. She could distantly feel his hand behind her back as clarity broke through the clouds that separated past, present, and future. Images, flitting sounds, voices, and truths hidden behind shadow given illumination for the briefest moment as the words spilled from her lips.

“The pale queen's long hunt ends in blood and fire. Truth at a terrible cost. Two courts rise in conflict. A light in the dark and darkness in the light. The golden beast shall lay waste. The sleeping titan awakens. The halls of glory are revealed to mankind. The old world falls to a pen and a word. The forgotten son of Olympus intercedes at the darkest hour, the bloodline of Zeus enters twilight. When the last living descendant of greatness is no more, the end shall draw near. Dawn or dusk approaches! Woe, Mankind! Turn you away! The king of lies comes! The false god has begun his ascent!”

The words spilled from her lips as something popped in her throat, and her eyes went unfocused before sense returned to her. Her body ached, pain throbbing in her neck. She coughed and looked up at a pale-faced Da-Som. “Fine, I am,” she wheezed. “Your toy, I broke.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “What do you need me to do?”

Setsuna closed her eyes and sighed. “Must know, the Mistress. Go. Rest, I must.”

He nodded, lowered her onto the beach chair, and then raced away. Setsuna closed her eyes and shuddered. That vision had been the most trying of them all. Even seeing the apocalypse didn’t quite compare to the mayhem that lay ahead. She held her head in her hands and caught her breath. All we can do now is be ready, she thought. All we can do now is brace ourselves. That monster won’t stay quiet for much longer. Mistress, I hope your heroes are ready.

–

Chunhua staggered forward, holding her side as she dragged herself down the endless marble hallway. Archways followed her on either side and opened up over a vast green courtyard miles beneath her. Her sword scraped and sparked against the ground, and it took a moment to remember she could will the thing to levitate. She focused, but her strength was spent. She stumbled as her meridians churned. Power was already building inside of her, the energy taken from the Anchor Monster changing within her body. I’m going to break through very soon, she thought as she stumbled forward. I haven’t broken through since just before fighting Ishtar at The Hague.

Her brows furrowed as she steadied herself, the memory a bit fuzzy. I must have hit my head too many times. I can’t remember the end of the fight. Ishtar must have done something to me.

She frowned as she pulled herself forward a few more steps before she heard the sound of feet coming up behind her. She stopped in place and turned, noting the trail of blood she had been leaving, and saw four figures running her way. She smiled, relieved. “You made it,” she breathed. “How’d it go with the sub-bosses?”

Bandit slipped underneath one of her arms and helped her steady herself a bit more. He grinned at her and gave a two-finger salute off his brow. “Piece of cake.”

“He’s lying,” Lifesaver grumbled, marching over to look her over. “You’re in about as bad a state as he was when we were done. Let me get you patched up.”

She shook her head. “If you have to,” she wheezed, “do it while we walk. I still don’t see the end of this path, and the Anchor Beast is dead. We need to retrieve the reward so we can be teleported out.”

Lifesaver and Bandit looked at one another with a dawning alarm as the other two arrived. “Would you two slow down?” Bluestar demanded. “You can’t keep running ahead like that. It’s hard for me to put barriers on you when you aren’t in line of sight. That’s why you got so banged up, Bandit,” she grumbled.

Bandit lowered his head while Chunhua looked to the last member of their group. “Thank you again for your help.”

Evergreen brushed her hair back and shrugged. “Buy me a coffee later or something. I was getting bored chasing Dupe’s copies around town anyway. When Sonya told us you were heading to a Heroic Dungeon, we came as fast as we could.”

Chunhua smiled. “She’s great,” she said with a breath before nodding back towards the path. “We can talk as we go.”

Evergreen raised her hands, and a platform of ice formed beneath the five of them. Soon they were skidding down the hallway at a breakneck speed, and Lifesaver was treating Chunhua’s wounds. “You’re a mess,” he grunted. “Your heart rate is all over the place too. Some kind of Heroic-tier poison?”

Chunhua grunted and crossed her legs as the last of the cuts closed on her arm. The healing seemed to be accelerating her coming breakthrough. She held up a hand to stop him from treating her any further. “I’m… going to break through,” she gasped and gritted her teeth. She felt a charge dance across them before racing down her arm, a crackle of energy popping from her fingertips to snap against the ice. “It’s not long now. We need to get out of here. The tribulation is one thing, but the process could take hours or even-” She winced. “Days.”

“Well, I have good news!” Evergreen called. “I think that’s our destination!”

They all turned to see a set of stairs up ahead leading onto a small platform. There, atop it, was a pedestal and what looked like a bundle of fabric. Bluestar glanced her way. “Are you good to move?” she asked.

“Yes,” Chunhua said.

“Good, cuz that thing’s yours. We were just back up, and none of us are Internationals,” Bandit said. “Technically we’re only here cuz the Chairwoman said it was okay.”

“You could still grab it for me,” Chunhua chuckled.

“Nope,” Evergreen said. “There was a dungeon I cleared a few weeks ago that had a reward that bonded with the first person who picked it up. They’re going to make adjustments to the regulations soon because of it.”

Chunhua balked as her body went through another tremor. The platform of ice came to a sudden stop, and, with all the strength she could muster in her shaking body, she threw herself off the side, racing to the top as the world began to vibrate. The dungeon’s collapsing, she thought hurriedly, and ran to the platform. There, sitting atop an altar, was a bundle of fabric wrapped around what looked like a broadsword. It had a black handle and golden crossguard sticking out of the fabric wrapping.

She grabbed the handle and froze. Something from inside the sword reached into her without warning and without giving her a chance to push it back. She felt it probe through her, like it was tasting her soul. Whatever it found, it didn’t like. In an instant, she felt all the strength leave the arm that had grabbed onto it, and the sword felt like it weighed thousands of pounds. She gasped and let it go, looking at her hand. Did it just tell me I’m not worthy? she thought and reached for the body of the weapon with her other hand.

Nothing happened.

She hefted it up; it was still weighty even without whatever curse it had cast on her. It didn’t matter, though. She had it, and that meant- 

DONNNNGGG

The low tone made the entire dungeon shake as the others raced up the steps. Bandit caught her under the arm again as energy began welling up inside her once more. “Thanks,” she gasped as he dragged her along. Ahead of them, a portal ripped open, and they all charged through.