The goat exploded to bits.

  Two inside-carved missiles hit it like meteorites, leaving nothing but a crater behind where the arch goat had just enjoyed eating its imaginary grass. The facets’ light returned, revealing utter destruction left behind where the missiles had just hit.

  Coshi was grinning next to her. Vivi, however, barely registered the sight.

  Blood rose to her head. Five signals. Five consecutive signals.

  Oh, God, Essi was in danger!

  “Coshi, watch that I don’t get killed!” Vivi said in a rush. She sat and lay on her back. “An emergency came up!”

  When she closed her eyes, she didn’t need to ask Lucius to take her to Paradise. She fell asleep, and Lucius brought her exactly where the signals had come.

  ***

  A thunderstorm welcomed her to Paradise.

  The wind pulled treetops. Leaves scrubbed against each other violently as their branches thrashed. Vivi grabbed the hood of her coat and tightened it, but even with the hood, the wind tossed rain at her face. The dirt had turned to a layer of mud.

  Within the storm was a panicked girl in a black raincoat filled with pink flowers. The hood was low, and rain poured on Essi’s head. Her hair was already drenched. So was her face, but her eyes were reddened. She looked lost and betrayed, and panicked, as if someone was chasing her.

  Spotting Vivi, she rushed over and pressed her face on her shoulder, crying. She tried to speak, but the words were incoherent.

  “What happened?” Vivi asked.

  “They tried to…” Essi managed to say, before her teary throat cut her words. “They’re trying to kill me!”

  Vivi grabbed the girl from her shoulders and looked her in the eye. Now was not the time for comfort. “Where are you?”

  Essi’s breathing was too panicked to speak. “Dear god…” she muttered. “They said they’ll grab my family!”

  “Essi, where are you?” Vivi asked. “Please listen. I’m coming. Just tell me where you are.”

  Her spirit appeared on her shoulder. Willum spoke nervously as well, but he could at least speak. “We are on the fourth level.”

  “I did just like you did,” Essi said. “They tried to poison me first. But when I refused to drink, they… They just called their swords!”

  “Who’s they?” Vivi asked.

  “I don’t know!” Essi said. “Some dark-cloaked hunters!”

  “The Sylva Bloods,” Willum said. “Olaf and Alfen were involved. I sensed their spirits. They want to move me to another hunter.”

  A cry escaped Essi as she covered her face in her hands.

  Vivi turned to Willum. The spirit would be a much clearer source of information. “What happened?”

  “I told her to run,” Willum said. “And I blew up the wall. I feigned our escape toward the teleporter, and the hunters followed, while Essi ran out of the town. Then we ran through the mud, all the way to the next town over, and we used the teleporter there. We are now on the fourth level. But we’re lacking ether, and the storms have not been cleared here. The monsters will kill us.”

  Gods. This sounded so familiar.

  “I’m coming,” Vivi said. “Where exactly are you now?”

  “I can share our location to your spirit,” Willum said.

  Lucius nodded. The two pressed heads, and some sort of transfer happened. Then Lucius said in her head, “They are in the blight.”

  “Oh my god,” Vivi whispered. “Are you safe? You shouldn’t be in Paradise.”

  “We are hidden in a burrow,” Willum said. “With our aura concealed, monsters are walking past. But we have no food, and if we step out, we will die.”

  Vivi’s heart was pounding, while Essi continued whimpering, trying to get a hold of herself. Vivi needed to get over there now.

  She immediately thought of plans. What was the quickest way to get there? Probably to just run. If she used her ascension skill, she could probably run to Boblin in an hour. Before that, she would need to obtain a large chunk of meat for the lizard to ensure that Boblin actually took her to the fourth level.

  Lucius, can you tell Coshi right now to grab us a slab of meat, just like we did the first time. Right now!

  “Yes,” he said. “Your connection will be cut for a minute.”

  Do it.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “I will be back,” she told Essi, giving her a hug. “Please wait here.”

  Her vision went black. Vivi didn’t wake up in the real world. She was just asleep for a moment longer while Lucius spoke to Coshi, hopefully relaying something intelligent. But Vivi trusted Lucius to take this seriously. When he wasn’t messing around, his words usually made sense.

  Consciousness returned in Paradise roughly a minute later.

  By then, the scene had changed. Essi wasn’t alone in the thunderstorm anymore. Figures in black cloaks had arrived, forming a concave around Essi, who sat helplessly, hugging her knees.

  Vivi wasn’t filled with ether yet. Lucius kept her deliberately hidden; as hidden as he could, at least. And in the thunderstorm, that seemed to be enough for the Sylva Bloods to not notice her. She stood behind a tree and listened.

  “You are aware of what will happen to your family if you don’t return,” a man unfamiliar to Vivi said.

  “I can’t!” Essi cried. “I regret this already! I shouldn’t have escaped. Please believe me! I’m stuck on the fourth level. I’ll die here alone!” She took panicked breaths. “Give me time! I’ll come! Don’t harm them!”

  The figures stared down at her. “You will have two days. The first will eat the solution then. Two days after that, we will poison the next. They will all die of unnamed, incurable diseases.”

  Essi’s whimper shattered something in Vivi’s heart. Blood dripped from her fist, onto the mud as her nails dug into her palm.

  Ascension Of Divinity flared active, and Vivi pushed twenty thousand ether for Lucius to burn. This was Paradise; the consequences didn’t matter. She didn’t bother with a protective layer, and she didn’t use any void ether, as she actually needed to see and speak this time.

  The Sylva Bloods sent panicked glances in her direction. They were too slow—Dawnpour had already pierced the first man’s gut.

  While he was disintegrating, Vivi grabbed his mask, ripping it off of his face. A panicked man with plump cheeks and wet brown hair was revealed beneath. Vivi memorized the face.

  The four remaining cloaked figures called their spirit blades. A laughable attempt. Dawnpour felt not the slightest resistance as it ripped the blade into pieces. Vivi grabbed the mask, ripping it, and revealed a man with silver eyes and a pretty face beneath.

  Vivi’s fist crushed that face, and he disintegrated to ether.

  She did the same for the remaining three, placing their features into memory: one woman and two men. With the last one, she held the plump-faced monster with golden eyes up from his collar.

  What can I ask him? Vivi thought. Not much, she figured. This was Paradise. She couldn’t threaten him with his life. She didn’t want to ask questions; she just wanted to crush him into bits.

  The man smirked, turning his head. “You have two days, Essi. We will meet then. The first one to die will be—”

  Vivi slashed his throat, and he disintegrated to ether.

  Everyone was dead now. Vivi promptly collapsed on her knees. She coughed blood, cursing in her thoughts. Sharp pain pierced what felt like every muscle fiber at once. It wasn’t stopping. She coughed violently.

  Blood came with it. Vivi realized her body in Paradise would die, and that made sense, considering she’d ascended to a peak of thirty thousand ether at once with no protective layer to think of.

  “Vivi!” Essi called, rushing over and holding a hand over Vivi’s arched back.

  Vivi let out a laugh. “This is Paradise. I ascended a bit too far, that’s all.”

  Essi looked worried nonetheless. “I… I can’t return to the surface. The monsters will kill me!”

  “They will not,” Vivi said. With her last remaining strength, she held Essi from her shoulders. “Promise me you’ll stay alive. I’ll be there in no less than three hours.”

  “Vivi, they’re going to get my family as well!” Essi cried. She was barely listening.

  “No,” Vivi said firmly, “No they will not.”

  Essi paused, staring at Vivi. She was calm for a moment. Then she sniffled again. “I’m sorry… For being so pathetic…”

  “You’re not pathetic at all,” Vivi said. Because she knew for a fact she would have cried and panicked if her family was being threatened like this as well.

  If she still had a family as loving as Essi’s, that was.

  “You were brave to escape,” Vivi said. “Now we just need to make it all okay.”

  “Please help me, Vivi… You’re all I have now.”

  Vivi nodded. “I’m coming. Promise me you won’t die.”

  Essi took a deep breath, and managed to form her most determined expression yet. She returned the nod.

  And before Essi would have to watch Vivi’s next wave of painful coughs as her body died from the inside, Lucius cut her connection.

  ***

  When Vivi woke up—swiftly springing to sit with no time to waste—she found herself already underneath Boblin’s cliff. She stood and eyed her surroundings in mild confusion.

  A lot of demons were present. A handcart carried a large piece of meat. Another moved the second iteration slingshot launcher alongside a barrel full of missiles. Vivi spotted Patryn, Anthony, Tsarvan, and a lot of members of the ballistics team, including operators and a small reloading team.

  “Welcome back,” Coshi said next to Vivi.

  Vivi blinked, turning to the Luminary. “What’s this?” she asked.

  Coshi wasn’t grinning. Blossom’s tip touched the sand as Coshi held it proudly from the pommel, facing Boblin’s tunnel.

  “Your spirit told me these human hunter assholes were trying to kill your friend, and maybe her family.” Coshi turned to Vivi, a fire burning in her eyes. “I say no they will not.”

  Vivi watched in awe as the demons prepared. They were stuffing equipment into bags and attaching them firmly to their bodies. The types of waterproof bags they hoped would survive up to the fourth level through Boblin’s tunnel.

  Freyven walked up to them. He gave a swift respectful bow to the Luminary and told Vivi, “I was informed you have access to spatial storage. How many slingshot launchers and parts can you cram in there?”

  “Maybe two or three?” Vivi asked, but she nudged Lucius for a better answer.

  Her spirit popped out and said, “I can expand storage to fit everything you have. But only temporarily, and it will cost ether. Around a thousand wisps will be burned with everything we have.”

  “You can fit the full second iteration launcher?” Vivi asked, surprised.

  “I can try,” Lucius said. Then he frowned as something appeared from spatial storage. “I’ll have to leave the duck.”

  Vivi’s face remained dumbfounded while everyone else continued preparations. Lortel was present as well with a few of the Luminary’s Lights—there were enough elite demons and firepower to defeat a full surge. Were they really all coming to the blight? For another visit to the surface? What did you tell them? Vivi asked Lucius.

  “I just requested another quick simple raid party,” Lucius said. “Nothing too complex.”

  Coshi looked determined beside her. “I’ll have to stay and protect the city this time, and to clear the rest of the desert. Anthony will head up with you. Everything looks ready.”

  Patryn handed Vivi the improved first iteration slingshot launcher with an inside-carved barrel. “All of us are maxed out,” he said, “but we’ll still require protection if monsters get close. But I believe I need to come in case the launchers break.”

  “Thank you, everyone,” Vivi said. “I don’t know how I can repay this.”

  “Let me meet your friend one day,” Coshi said. “And promise me you will both live with smiles. That is all I ask.”

  Vivi nodded. Lucius had managed to cram everything into spatial storage. As he said, he had to burn ether to expand the size inside, but everything did fit, even the large platform that the second iteration launcher was built on.

  “Let’s go meet some humans.”

  Patreon!