Apparently, whoever was managing this whole affair—whether the platform maintainer, raid designer or someone else entirely—didn’t have as much confidence in Carne and Hyr’s ability to read the universe as they themselves—as well as increasingly Emilia herself—had. Rather, once Emilia had selected the option for her and V’s first {Blood Tattoo} to be purged from their bodies, the aether within them swirling and shattering in a way that put Hyr on edge, their hand tightening around her own—it was only then that Emilia realized the syn had barely released her since they and Caro had descended into her disastrous fight with the god—something different happened: for the first time, Emilia and V were supplied instructions on how to use their new blood weapon.

  Carne seemed annoyed when they told him, her and V’s eyes mutually reading over the dialog box that had slotted itself into their vision. Hyr didn’t seem to care, which probably made sense—the Nur’sa had a long history of blowing off the seeing abilities of the synat. Even Emilia herself had done so, to some extent. Granted, the syna Gru had never been particularly open with their own abilities, preferring to keep to themself, so it wasn’t like she had much experience with synat abilities.

  In hindsight, the most obvious the syna Gru had been with her about their seeing abilities was when they had ‘accidentally’ stumbled on her and a bunch of her badly behaved friends eavesdropping on a very important meeting of the higher ups. That accident had been a big part of how the Gru had become a part of their division.

  Still, for as much as the syna Gru had always been private about themself, never quite meshing with the unit, their death had been hard—watching someone as generally stoic as Hetexia breakdown had been extremely disconcerting—and while Emilia definitely felt bad they died during the war, another part of her was annoyed! Now that she had seen Hyr’s abilities, she was seriously curious as to how much the syna Gru had seen during the war and never told anyone—save perhaps Hetexia, who now that she thought about it had sometimes supplied ridiculously good strategies for assaults—for fear that their words would be brushed off.

  Emilia wanted to ask them what had gone through their head during the war, how they had lived with knowing things and being unable to tell someone who would listen. Had they known when each member of their unit would die? Where each assault would come next?

  Had they seen Alliance Ridge coming? Had they seen their own death coming?

  Hyr might know—or at least, they would be able to tell her whether the synat as a whole had a policy for how to deal with similar situations, as well as what they themself thought they would do, were they to suddenly find themself in another war.

  Later, perhaps, she’d ask them. When they were out of here. Eventually, Emilia hoped they’d have a chance to talk to them about that and their life, about Eruzia and how their connection to the aether worked and if the Northern Tribes had any myths or histories similar to what Conrad’s Free Colony and Dion—possibly—had.

  Later, the two of them would meet, hopefully. They hadn’t talked about it, but she hoped they would meet up again. Perhaps that would be whenever she made her way to Nur’tha, perhaps sooner.

  Perhaps Hyr, future reader that she increasingly believed they were, might already know.

  ?We have to split up,? V said over Carne’s complaints about gods from without not believing in the power of the gods from within—the god really was quite upset about this, more emotion flowing out of him than Emilia had ever seen. ?One of us stays here, the other leaves… goes to the area above this place.?

  ?Looks like we need to be at the centre points…? Emilia noted, reading over the instructions again. This wasn’t the sort of thing they wanted to fuck up. ?I hope that just means centre on the ground, for whoever stays in here. It would really suck to have to try and time some jump from the top of the buildings.? The eventual splat on the ground would also be rather terrible, virtual or not.

  V’s lips quirked as they followed Carne back up the stairs, searching for the two girls they’d left behind for some reason—even Carne said it was a future that may have been cut off, due to what had happened with the other god, but he couldn’t be sure. All he knew was the girls needed to stay behind, and now, he couldn’t see any future for any of them; the god’s power interfering with his connection to the universe, apparently. Both Carne and Hyr could catch glimpses, but they were blurry and unclear, each hoping that once they were out of the god’s reach they would be able to see more.

  ?I’ll stay,? V said as they reached Gale and Phino, who looked… not so good. Evidently, watching her brother and friends explode hadn’t been good for her, and when Hyr reminder her that Phino and his sister were barely old enough to use temporary Censors and hadn’t been in many raids…

  Yeah, the poor kid was going to need some therapy. Luckily, the Northern Tribes had an excellent caste of therapists. She’d be fine… eventually.

  ?Stay where?? Gale asked, popping up and peering around, searching in a way that broke Emilia’s heart.

  As much as the local teen had usually found Caro annoying, there was no denying the two had had a connection. To watch her now searching for them, her shoulders sagging, lips and eyelashes trembling as Key told her the child had died… Emilia’s heart broke all over again, Hyr’s energy naturally beginning to press into her once again.

  The syn’s energy wasn’t like Conrad’s. Where the other visitors had been strong and forceful—a strange wall of protection and comfort—Hyr’s was soft and caring—a gentle pull back to the ground. They were both nice, neither preferable to the other, although she was sure Conrad’s wouldn’t have been as grounding. There had been that moment, of course, when she’d begun to disassociate while watching him interrogate the Clarity members, but while his energy had been there, keeping her company, the man himself had been what brought her back down.

  Hyr, on the other hand, could leave—walk away and never look back, only a small tether of their energy continuing to exist between them—and Emilia was sure she’d still feel better. Protection versus healing, she supposed.

  ?I’m gonna stay here, while you all leave,? V softly told Gale, pulling Emilia out of her winding thoughts on cores and how much she wanted to be able to feel her Free Colony friends’ energy within her in the real world now. Definitely something high on her priorities list, once she got out of this place. ?You feel that thing around us? It’s the thing that was powering the minds of the Clarity members. We have to stop it before it goes further than this place.?

  Gale frowned, scuffed her bare foot against the ground next to Phino, who didn’t really seem to be paying attention to anything. ?So… this is goodbye??

  V tugged the girl into a hug, reminding Emilia of how much time the two of them—along with Astra and Caro—had spent together. Her as well, at different times. In the end, Gale was the only one of the strange little group from Livery who would be left in this world… all alone, no less.

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  ?Psst, Key~? she hissed at the local boy. Her haphazard attempts to keep their conversation private worked, amazingly—although she couldn’t help but think Hyr could feel her talking to Key somehow, what with their energy twinning together. ?Can you, like… take care of her? She doesn’t have anyone anymore.?

  Key looked between her and Gale, who had stepped back from V and was resolutely looking at no one as they waited for Boundary to come get them, the last of the evacuees being moved as V bid his goodbyes.

  ?I’ll try,? he said, sounding truly terrified of the teenager. That was fair—more than fair.

  ?Maybe Rin can help… she probably only has you now, too,? Emilia mused, silently wishing an increasingly concerned looking Key luck. Gale and Rin against Key… yeah, they were going to eat him alive.

  V turned away from Gale, awkwardly bidding Key a goodbye. ?Thanks for coming to help us,? he said, the two of them having apparently discussed Key’s reason for finding them at some point. ?You’re a good guy, and it’s easy for the world to try and squish that out of you.? The other visitor laughed as Boundary popped up, beginning to move their group. ?Even I might have tried to talk you out of coming to save us, and I can’t tell you what’s right or wrong, but what you did was kind. Keep your heart safe. It’s better to die a stupid man with a good heart, than an old bastard who was more concerned with himself than anyone else.?

  Key’s mouth opened, but Boundary popped up behind him, having already moved the girls, and whatever he was going to say was lost to embarrassment.

  ?See you soon,? Emilia said quietly before Boundary pulled her and Key away, up to the surface where Rin and Phlostra were supervising the last of the evacuees, who they’d resorted to bringing onto the land above the Clarity City System, due to how long the safety precautions at the landing pads were taking.

  Boundary vanished once more as Emilia skimmed through the instructions yet again. The Risen Guard would move V where he needed to be, the centre of the city system, then move Emilia where she needed to be. Two points of power, which would join and lock the city system down. No one, not even the god, would be able to escape. That also meant all the people still inside would be trapped as well—their final plan to destroy all remaining Clarity members and anyone too difficult to evacuate coming to its terrible conclusion.

  Looking around in the few moments she had, Emilia took in the people the others had been able to save. The people here were a small portion of those removed by the combined efforts of the Risen Guard and the rebel Clarity group, many of whom were seated against the decrepit buildings the existed above the Clarity City System, two of which were collapsed from whatever had taken out the one building inside the city system.

  ?Oh… uh… I don’t know what caused that?? Key told her as they waited for Boundary to come back, everyone growing antsy as it took longer than it should have for him to return. ?We were inside that building, you know? We were running from Sk’lar, and he was so close behind us that I couldn’t try teleporting us out—although, V did try to convince me to take Caro and Gale out.? The boy’s head dipped as he admitted that maybe he should have, contemplating whether that would have made a difference or not, whether Caro would be alive or not if he had.

  “You should not torture yourself with what ifs,” Hyr said softly, their vision once more fixed through the {Blood Glass}. “You can never know what would have changed. All three of you could be dead now, had you left then.”

  ?Is something wrong?? Emilia asked, watching the bob of Hyr’s throat as they swallowed, their eyes and the {Blood Glass} following the trail of something downwards, below their feet and then—

  ?YOU!? Carne yelled, grabbing Phino and hauling her up. ?You are needed.?

  ?Wha—? the northern girl started to ask, Hyr already surging forward to remove her from Carne’s grasp, their energy tugging free of Emilia so violently she almost toppled over.

  ?Please!? Carne said—and Emilia couldn’t imagine the god saying please in anything but a sarcastic tone, so she assumed Ash was suddenly in control again. ?Boundary, you have to—? Ash’s words cut off as Boundary teleported back in, a giant hole ripped through his shoulder. Ash took several steps forward, catching Boundary, their eyes wide and afraid. ?Please?? he asked again, turning those eyes onto Phino who looked scared shitless, but wasn’t resisting Hyr’s attempts to move her closer.

  The syn leaned down, whispering into the young jur’s ear in Brylish, Emilia catching bits and pieces of his advice and support as she joined Carne beside Boundary, hissing as the Risen Guard’s blood burned her fingers while she tugged his armour away, revealing the hole through his shoulder. It wasn’t through his heart, at least, and while it was big, it certainly wasn’t something that would have been fatal in their world.

  In this world, though? Given the looks on the faces of nearby locals, it was probably fatal. Thankfully, they had a healer from their world here, and even a baby jur should be able to heal something like this well enough that it wouldn’t be fatal.

  That was assuming the young girl could pull herself together, anyways. Fortunately, Hyr was just as solid and grounding a force for their sister’s friend as they’d been for Emilia—and no, that wasn’t jealousy bubbling in her stomach at watching them use their energy on someone else, thanks—and it didn’t take long for Phino to relent and kneel beside them as well, her energy immediately beginning to flow into Boundary and pull the aether of his wound back together, so reminiscent of both the blood curse of this world—albeit much more impressive, the blood curse having easily given up on healing the wound—and the ability of the real-world raids—and the skills that powered them—to pull the world back together after they concluded.

  This was the impressive healing of the jur’t—the power that pulled through the memories of the aether and reformed what was lost. This was the technique that had inspired Emilia to design the skill pair {Memories of a Moment} and {Limited Rewind}, which had unfortunately been co-opted by Hail to power the raids, along with whatever skill—she couldn’t currently recall the name of it, okay?—that altered the world for the raids, whatever proprietary skill powered its monsters, as well.

  Seriously, though, Hail using skills she had designed was one thing—although her brain was still itching over what her dream version of Halen had talked about, in regards to her and others still retaining some ownership over their contributions to real and virtual raids—but it was the question of how they’d managed to make them work without a person powering them that bothered her. Unless Hail was lying, machines powered the execution of real-world raids, and as much as Emilia could appreciate how terrifying the skills behind them were—all of the locals watching Phino heal Boundary were certainly giving off a certain amount of absolutely terrified vibes—it was Hail’s ability to remove the human aspect that was frightening. Small skills could be executed by machines. None of the skills needed to make raids work were small.

  ?What happened?? Rin asked, popping Emilia out of her thoughts. The former—maybe former—Risen Guard was looking around through narrowed eyes for possible threats. Various Risen Guard Emilia hadn’t formally met adjusted their stances as well, magic swelling through the air and pressing down on the evacuees, as though whatever had happened to Boundary in the Clarity City System were about to be repeated up here.

  ?The power,? Boundary managed to cough out, which was significantly better than the gurgles they’d managed before Phino started healing them, ?threw debris. Didn’t see it coming.? His eyes met Emilia’s. ?Go.?

  Her map flashed, a spot lighting up just as it had back when he’d just been the random Risen Guard saving her and the Livery children, giving her access to his system simply because they had a similar goal.

  ?V is… waiting.?

  If Boundary could be nearly killed by the power of the god throwing around random shit, V could too.

  Emilia took off, racing down the path Boundary had set for her through the collapsed buildings, trying not to stumble and kill herself on something sharp. What a terrible turn of events that would have been.

  The last thing she saw before she ran off, however, broke her heart. Gale. It wasn’t concern for Boundary written on her face—Emilia didn’t think the local teen cared much for the man, even now—but rather Gale was staring at Carne, horrified and fully aware that her brother still existed within him.