Rose screamed as she was propelled into the sky like a rocket. Screaming didn’t help, the oncoming rush of air making her lips dance and pinning her tongue to the bottom of her mouth. Her stomach plummeted into her pelvis, her lungs fighting for air as the wind tore at her face and her silk dress tugged at her body. It was taking every ounce of effort just to hold on to her staff.

  And then the wind slowed down, no longer fighting her but flowing around her. She found herself gliding forwards, curving through the air, almost weightless, her organs settling back into place. Beneath them, the pinpricks of light receded as the town shrank away.

  Then just as suddenly, she began to fall. She screamed again, her heart and lungs jamming into her throat, her stomach floating into her chest as the trees of a forest ahead gradually grew larger, and then began rushing towards her. She closed her eyes, convinced this was the end as the man to her left laughed maniacally.

  She heard the crack of thunder as Elliott slammed into the ground, but he kept her lifted, protecting her legs from the impact. It was almost considerate, but she didn’t have time to wonder what it meant. He leapt again, and she could feel the wind rushing towards her, her hair whipped back, her dress straining, her stomach fighting for dear life. She clenched her buttcheeks, straightened her back. It helped a little.

  She kept her eyes closed the entire way, as Elliott made that same leap several times, until he came to a stop and placed her gently to the ground, a soft crunch beneath her feet. She reopened her eyes and blinked several times to adjust to the darkness.

  She turned to se–. She keeled over, hurling the contents of her dinner across the hard-packed earth. She put a hand on her stomach, rubbed it like that would help, before she dropped her staff to the ground, keeled over and vomited again. Then again. She remained like that, bent over until she was certain it was done, her body trembling. She began to straighten herself out. Nope, she bent over on her hands and knees and retched again.

  “Are you alright there?” Elliott asked, as a small flame appeared above her. “I tell you what. If you look at it at the right angle, that’s a bloody masterpiece of art you’ve made there.”

  She gathered herself as best she could, breathing heavily. The ground around her hands was soft and cold. Snow. She drew a deep breath as her body stopped convulsing and then felt mana flows from Elliott. A tranquil breeze passed through her, touching every limb, every organ, every vein and the sickness she had been feeling passed just like that.

  She stood up gently, retrieving her staff and warily looking at the man she thought she could kill. Dressed like a Rogue, casting spells like a Mage, and now healing like a Priest. He violated every law of magic, physics, the System that she had ever learned. Rose had never really known what it felt like to be so utterly unmatched. No amount of tutors or sparring partners could have prepared her for this. Her parents could have hired everyone in the world to help her and she’d still be just a candle held against the sun. Yesterday, she knew herself to be the most powerful mage on Earth. Now, she was learning the myths of her past truly did exist.

  She tightened the bracers on her arm, fiddled with her belt, gripped the Staff of the Fallen more firmly. She wasn’t sure whether it was nerves or fear that was coursing through her body. She had a look around and saw the silhouettes of towering peaks surrounding her on all sides, clusters of trees scattered among them as wind whistled through the passes.

  “Why did you bring me with you?” she asked. Elliott was scanning the mountains.

  “I could hardly leave you with Isabel or Elsie. Or alone, for that matter.”

  Elsie. That’s what he called her. The six-inch stitched doll he had placed on the wall near the tavern, asking it to watch the tavernkeeper. The doll had run off in its pretty stitched dress, a hodgepodge of light browns, subtle oranges and dull yellows with striped pink and teal stockings. Hand-crafted boots, one in blue, one in pink, with alternating ribbons in the same colours. Pink hair gathered with purple bands to either side so its hair flared out.

  “You know Els…” she trailed off. Of course he must know Elsie’s a doll.

  “I know Elsie what?”

  “Nothing,” she smiled back. “I wanted to ask who Elsie was. You seem quite protective of her.”

  Elliott turned to her. “She’s my sister. My twin.”

  Sister. Interesting. The man was more than a little unhinged. The doll would have made a delightful toy for any little girl. A toy Rose would have enjoyed herself once. Except she’d seen it cut open five S ranks back in Elliott’s office – opponents Rose could have taken down but only after a struggle, and not simultaneously. The doll had made it look easy, twirling between them like a tornado, black pins in her small hands carving through them in a blur of motion. Her companions hadn’t had a chance.

  It was then she’d known how unmatched she was against him. The man was unnatural, carrying around a child’s toy and animating it into a murder doll. Rose was only alive because that wormhole had appeared from nowhere and dumped them here.

  “Come on,” Elliott said, as Rose eyed him warily. “It’s that way.”

  The snow crunched beneath Elliott’s feet as he led the way with Rose gliding alongside him, her [Float] spell keeping her silk slippers dry. She knew he could do something similar, but he chose to walk instead. Small clouds formed in front of them as they breathed in the frigid air. Elliott’s eyes were fixed on a faint reddish glow, beyond a ridge of shadowy trees.

  “Why did you bring me at all?” Rose asked. She didn’t buy his earlier reason. She knew he was being honest, although it was brutal to hear that he saw no threat in her. But that wasn’t the reason he had allowed her to join them.

  “I told you already.”

  “You told me why you don’t mind me joining you. You didn’t tell me why you offered for me to join you.”

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  “What would you like to hear?”

  “The truth?”

  “Hmmm, I don’t know if you can handle the truth. You young ‘uns have trouble stomaching it.”

  “I’m not young.”

  Elliott stopped walking and glanced at her. “How old are you?”

  “Almost twenty-one.”

  “Very old indeed,” Elliott said and continued walking, but he remained silent and Rose didn’t push it. Although she felt more than a little affronted by his words. She wasn’t old. But she wasn’t young. He had no idea how much she had seen in her short time. Maybe he just enjoyed being condescending. She’d make him eat his words.

  It wasn’t long before they crested the ridge and found the source of that reddish glow. A towering horror, many times larger than themselves, prowled the mountain range below them, footsteps igniting the trees beneath its feet and boiling the mountain snow into steam. A humanoid body of pure flame wearing gleaming black and red armour that struggled to contain the infernal heat within. Flames on its thighs, its shoulders, its head licked at the frigid night sky. In a massive gauntleted hand, it held a flaming mace, fire dripping to the snow beneath with a sizzle.

  Rose had never seen such a thing on Earth, but Elliott’s complete lack of any surprise or fear or any normal human reaction at seeing what could only be described as a walking abomination of destruction was more than a little unnerving. The man seemed to be…almost excited at what he was seeing. She had never in her life felt excited at facing an opponent and she had never faced anything like what she saw in front of her. She could feel the mana flowing in and around the Firelord and it scared her.

  “What do you think, Rose?” Elliott whispered to her.

  “I think we should go back.”

  “I’ll do you a deal. If you kill that thing, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  “How am I supposed to kill it?”

  Elliott turned to her, a smile on his lips. “Aren’t you a Black S Rank? Most powerful mage on Earth?”

  He was taunting her, she could tell. She looked back at the Firelord swinging its mace at a grove of trees to one side as if sweeping its path. How had the Academy of Mages got it so wrong? Either Elliott and his companions were far beyond anything the world had seen, or the rankings were wrong. Or a mix of both. In any case, a being of this sort would be beyond S Ranks as they were measured on Earth. If Rose was a candle, the Firelord was a volcano.

  She turned back to Elliott. “You know I can’t,” she admitted. No need to get herself killed from pride. She’d almost gotten herself killed once already, back in Elliott’s office.

  Elliott smiled at her. It was almost fatherly. “No, you can’t. Now, sit back and enjoy the show.” He patted her on the shoulder, before he stood up and strolled towards the Firelord.

  He needed her for something, she knew that much. That’s why he was keeping her around. But two could play that game. She could learn a lot from this man. More than anyone else could teach her on Earth. And in that time, she could learn his weaknesses for when the time was right.

  Rose remained hidden behind the ridge, watching as Elliott approached the Firelord. He bent down, rummaging a hand through the snow and picking up a small stone which he flicked at the Firelord’s shoulder. The rock struck the creature’s armour with a tiny clink. Flames roared higher, shadows dancing in the snow as the creature turned, searching for the source of that rock. Eventually, its burning eyes narrowed in on Elliott, like it was looking at an ant. With a roar, it brought its mace crashing down where Elliott stood, steam hissing where the flames met the snow. Rose’s heart raced. When the Firelord removed its weapon, it cocked its head. Rose caught her breath.

  Elliott stood calmly in the centre of a steaming crater that fit the mace’s head perfectly. He used the back of his hand to brush some snow from his shoulder.

  Then she felt an incredible flow of mana, so strong that she felt it would rip her apart and take her with it. It flared for an instant, from Elliott. Then a pillar of pure white light erupted from the ground beneath the Firelord, piercing the night sky like a beacon to the heavens. Rose shielded her eyes against the brightness, but just as quickly as it had come, the light faded away. When she turned back to see, the Firelord wasn’t there. It had simply…ceased to be. The only remnant of its presence was a single chunk of steaming metal ore cooling in the snow, in the middle of a crater the size of a small lake.

  There had been no casting. No intricate drawings of sigils. No time wasted. Elliott simply wanted it to be. And it was.

  As she watched Elliott dust himself off, and walk towards the ore like he was having an afternoon stroll, she had to reassess her opinion.

  Learn his weaknesses?

  With power like that, did the man even have any?

  As she emerged from behind the ridge and floated over to Elliott, she thought back on what he had said in the sewers. Someone had brought them here. She didn’t need to be a genius to know that meant they wanted Elliott. And as her mind replayed the destruction he had just wrought on a being most of the world would run from, she couldn’t help but wonder. Who in their right mind would summon this man?

  Elliott trudged through the snow towards the third chunk of star metal ore, steam rising from its black surface, the snow surrounding it melting into a puddle. The core differed from the first two that he’d collected, ice-blue crystals jutting out from the black obsidian rock, where the others were blood-red. He wondered if the elemental type affected the final metal composition at all.

  He bent over, applying a little more cooling to the ore than the surrounding snow and wind could provide, before lifting the football-sized rock and pocketing it into the sack along with the other two. Rose floated towards him, shielding herself from the drifting snowflakes that swirled around them.

  “That should be enough for now,” Elliott said. He released some more mana from his reserves, which were still largely untapped. A long way from needing to be refilled. Rose would have sensed the mana flow he had used for [Light of the Void], but there was no need to open his mana pores and let her sense the lake beneath the surface.

  He directed the mana into a line of sigils on the floor, matching the sigils for the [Portal Node] he had dropped earlier outside of the tavern. As he drew the final line, a stroke of white light appeared just slightly above the snow and expanded upwards and outwards into a rectangle taller than he was and wider than the both of them. The white light shimmered into an image of the street beside the tavern.

  They stepped through and he dismissed the [Portal Node]. In the very faint light from the candles in the windows above, he could make out four bodies lying on the ground, dressed in mail and leather, halberds by their sides.

  Each had had their throats slit, a pool of blood spreading across the alleyway floor.

  He didn’t question it. Elsie knew what she was doing and she’d deliberately placed the bodies here knowing he would stumble upon them and clean it up for her. He wondered if that was just universal among siblings. The older cleaning up after the younger. Even if there were only a few minutes between them.

  He threw three [Mirages] out, one on either side of them and one above so anyone looking into the alley wouldn’t see the next bit.

  [Incinerate]

  A flame burst around the bodies and their weapons, burning fiercely at temperatures as hot as the surface of the sun. The flame flared for a few seconds before extinguishing and leaving no trace behind. He turned to Rose standing at his side, her face pale, her green eyes wide. Was it the bodies or the lack of evidence of them that bothered her?

  “Come on,” he said, hopping onto the tavern’s back wall, sack of ore in hand. The back of the tavern wasn’t a beer garden. It looked more like a processing area, with several sheds and cutting equipment. He jumped down and Rose followed a moment later, floating over the wall. He dismissed the [Mirages] in the alley and made his way to the door that led inside the tavern.

  Time to found out what was going on inside.