I’m awakened from my restless attempts at slumber by Chloe’s hand on my shoulder and her gentle, loving voice entering my mind.

“Love, I hear something downstairs. I think it might be the bandits.”

It only takes a second of stretching about and cracking my neck before I’m wide awake. And sure enough, just on the edge of my hearing, I can make out footsteps down below. They sound like they’re trying to be quiet, having stilled their breathing down to the bare minimum. This was definitely an ambush scenario, and had we been a bit less paranoid about the situation, we’d all be about a minute from being worm food.

I slip into my armor as Chloe wakes a rested Jasmine and a not-at-all happy Alana. Such is the danger of taking the third watch shift, and I don’t envy her position in the slightest. Even so, the rush of adrenaline is enough to force away any lingering fatigue as we all prepare ourselves for whatever fight is to come, applying our buffing spells and donning what armor we can while remaining as silent as possible.

Jasmine turns to me, pantomiming at my lack of wings, along with a confused expression on her face. I smile, and with a mental impulse, spawn them out of my back. They do look a bit different than before— instead of being attached to the metal plate that once wrapped around my shoulders and torso like a harness, they instead grow directly out of my back, protruding through my armor as though it doesn’t exist. And whereas before, they were rickety, almost like a hodgepodge assortment of metal plates all strewn together in the shape of wings, now they are lithe and elegant. Futuristic, a veneer of teal coating appendages with the sleekness of chrome. It makes my left arm look positively banal by comparison.

“Oh, wow. But, I wish you would have told me you were doing this. I thought I was just having a bad dream because of the effects of the Tower, but–”

“I– Yeah, I didn’t want to wake you, and I didn’t realize it was going to be so nasty until I got started. And then, once I did, I couldn’t really stop.”

“And–” Chloe takes as deep of a breath as possible while still remaining silent. “I know. I’m sure you did what you thought was best, and I know I can’t stop you from trying to be who you want and need to be. I just–”

“I know. If I’d known how painful it was going to be before I got started, I would have made sure to have let you know to supervise and keep an eye out for complications–”

My apologetics are interrupted as an unsteady hand makes its way to the doorknob on the other side of the door, my [Archangel’s Gaze] letting me catch a glimpse through the keyhole and the gap at the bottom of the door. The person is strong. Weaker than Chloe and I are, but probably a match for Jasmine if both were to go all out. No other presences. Definitely an ambush hunter.

The door opens slightly in complete silence. Also definitely some sort of Skill to completely ignore the creakiness of the hinges. Alana’s eyes lock on mine for a fraction of a second. We share a nod. Her hand moves to her blade just as I move my left hand and point it at the door.

We move in a blur, coordinating adeptly despite having no supernatural communication between us. In one instant, we stand motionless, and in the next, the intruder is on the floor, a blade to their neck and my hand ready to blast straight at their temple.

They appear to be human— or a human-shaped construct, at least— which is going to make the whole situation that much more annoying to deal with. A girl, if I had to guess by the person’s appearance, though probably younger than Chloe and I by a year or two. As we take off her mask, she’s revealed to have a youthful and unblemished face, but her eyes are sullen, world-weary. I can’t help but wonder exactly how much hardship she must have faced in order to look so worn.

“Let me go,” she whisper-yells with an indignant tongue.

“Answers,” I say, willing to be the bad guy in the situation. For Chloe’s sake, I’m not going to kill her, but I’m also not going to tell this intruder that just yet. “Who are you, and why are you barging into our room in the middle of the night? With a very interesting phial of blue liquid, I might add.”

“How did you–”

I glare at her. With my wings protruding from my back, glowing ever so softly, and a stern expression on my face, I’m sure I look the part of a vicious angel of wrath, descended down from on high to smite the wicked. I channel the power of the [Light] glyph in my hand, playing into the scene a bit.

“Bandits,” the girl mutters. “Thieves in hiding.” Credit to her, she looks resolute and unperturbed by my threatening appearance; she doesn’t tremble, nor stutter as she speaks. “Bastards stole from us time and time again. Wanted to attack them while they were vulnerable.”

“Wait, she thinks we’re the bandits?” Chloe asks me.

“Apparently?”

“And why do you think we’re the bandits in question?” Chloe asks.

“Like hell I should know. No one has ever seen the bandits. They show up in the middle of the night, make off with our food and gold, and then vanish before anyone can see what they look like.”

“So,” Alana starts, “What can you tell us about these bandits?”

“I don’t know,” she says.

“Do you promise that you won’t attack us?” Chloe asks.

She gives Chloe a long look. A deep breath follows, then a nod. “Fine.”

Chloe stares at me, and after a second, Alana and I relent, withdrawing our weapons and helping the girl up. Now that I get a better look at her, she’s actually reasonably attractive. Not anywhere near as beautiful as Chloe, of course, but still attractive in a cute way. She stands two inches taller than Chloe, and four shorter than I am, with a muscular frame. Her outfit is to be expected, a thin undershirt, jeans, a thick blouse, and a black bandana that covers hair nearly as dark.

“Do you have a name?” Chloe asks.

“Anna,” she says.

Before we can introduce ourselves, the entire building shakes. I shift my focus outside— it appears that more than just this one building is shaking. We make our way out of the room through the poorly-latched window in the room, Alana carrying Anna in her arms as we make an expeditious retreat.

I scan the area all around with [Archangel’s Gaze]. Nothing within my range. It could be just an ordinary earthquake, but the timing is too suspicious. The barest hints of twilight are beginning to appear far to what I presume is the east. Above, there are hundreds of thousands of stars, some shining brightly, others so dim that I doubt the untrained naked eye could ever hope to perceive them. And to the south is a massive cloud of dust and a sound so loud that I get suspicious, one moving toward Auretun at fantastic speeds. If these are the alleged silent bandits…

No, that’s not true. Anna never claimed they were silent— that was something I assumed. She said that they were quick, that they never stayed very long before leaving, and that they were so quick that no one knew what they looked like. Nowhere did she or any of the other townsfolk claim they were silent or even particularly stealthy. And being able to obscure themselves under cover of sand would be just in line with not being seen.

“Look alive, everyone!” I say. “They’re coming, and quick!”

“You sure that’s them?” Jasmine asks.

“Nope! But there’s definitely something within that cloud of dust, and whatever it is, is quick, and powerful, and headed right for us.”

“Wait!” Anna says. “Take me with you! I want these assholes dead just as much as anyone else!”

“But–” Chloe says.

“We don’t have time for a discussion,” I respond. “I doubt she’ll listen even if we tell her to stay back. If we take her with us, she’ll be closer to us, and we’ll be better able to keep her safe.”

“I hate that you’re right, but I agree with the argument.”

“Fine,” Chloe relents. “Stay close to Sera and me. We’ll protect you.”

Anna nods silently.

We make our way outside and over to the edge of town, having decided to try to intercept. I stand in the front of the formation, flanked by Chloe and Jasmine. Alana is in the back, while Anna stands in the middle of our formation. Despite everything, I’m still not convinced that Anna isn’t a mole who will sabotage us at a critical moment, but I also know that Chloe would never forgive me if I didn’t give her a chance.

I… I also want to believe we don’t have to slaughter all of these townsfolk to get to the next floor.

The cloud of dust bellows closer, and I start to sense masses of Ether within the fog. Five of them… maybe six? Four of them are quite distinct, physical masses within the cloud. But the other one or maybe two… It seems like the cloud itself is alive somehow, through means I can’t hope to comprehend. And all of these presences are powerful. If it had been just one of them, we’d be in for a simple battle. Being outnumbered as we are, however? I am… unenthused about the prospect, but steel myself for battle nonetheless.

Countermeasures… We lack the element of surprise, we are outnumbered, and I am the only person who can reliably see through this fog.

“Do you have any way of blowing away the dust?” Jasmine asks.

“I would if it were just dust. But I feel this dust is alive, somehow. I’m not confident any sort of Wind spell could actually do much to it.”

“Do you have any ideas, Anna?” Chloe asks.

“The rains seem to dispel the dust storms for a time. But that’s all I’ve got.”

I don’t know if that’ll work. This dust just feels too unnatural, and I don’t have any spells with the ability to conjure a rainstorm. I could summon a massive spigot of water that will make the strongest fire hydrant spray look like a tiny thimble, but even that would be less than useless at trying to drown a desert.

As I cycle through our options, I get a vision of the people chasing after us. One who carries a wand and is dressed in all pink, a suit of armor adorned with a pink tutu. One who looks like a ninja, but carrying a sword far longer than even Alana’s. Two armored knights, one tall with heavy green armor, the other with sleek red armor that seems optimized for speed and offense. And the last presence, I can’t pinpoint. I can’t see whatever it is, even with the effect of [Archangel’s Gaze].

I sprout my wings and fire four bullets toward the ninja heading toward us. The first two attacks are narrowly diverted off course by the strange winds blowing around them. The third lands a glancing blow upon their shoulder. But the fourth and final strike, which is lined up for a direct hit, instead phases directly through… Or did the enemy fighter somehow blink out of existence for a fraction of a second?

In either case, this is going to be a far tougher fight than I’d expected.