Screams and shouts filled the air as molteh and debris flew in every dire, the heat and pressure engulfing us in an instant.

  Only instead... the wall of gas a froze in midair.

  The world shifted in and out of focus, and the heat and light from the explosion froze around me as if it were moving in slow motion.

  "Tch. Well, that's what I get for calling this exercise b," Null drawled, holding two fingers up in the air.

  Null clicked his tongue, grunting as he maintained his pose.

  Ace giggled, shaking her head as she adjusted her domino mask. "How quaint! I have to say this is much less troublesome of an ability when I'm not on the receiving end of it."

  Waves of shadowy energy radiated from Null, seeping into the ground and f a shadowy barrier around us. The slow-moving wall of destru froze in pce as Null's power celled out whatever effects had triggered it.

  And then, with a sigh and a smirk, Null lowered his fingers. "It's called Void Curtain. I entrench myself into the ground within a certain range and cel out any surrounding abnormal effects. My other skills also be pretty mean for anyone I don't like inside of the dome. There are a lot of limitations but it's more like a panic pause button. It takes much less for me to keep it up than it does to activate it, as well as any area denial skills though."

  "Fasating," Aurora muttered, slowly rising to her feet. "That's a useful ability indeed."

  "But it's quite limiting, isn't it?" Ace smirked. "Or you wouldn't have resorted to just using it to keep Vanna and Clipboard from getting close."

  Null adjusted his sungsses, shaking his head. "Yeah. Unlike you lot I haven't figured out a full transformation. The amount of mana I have to expend to power this just sucks. Plus, my range isly infinite."

  "Well," Aurora shrugged, her eyes glowing as she looked at the frozen ball of molten rock, metal, and mana just meters from us. "At least we avoided that for now."

  "That silly goose Sunny. She probably had no clue we were even in the viity." Ace sighed, rubbing her forehead.

  Elysia looked at the frozen explosion frowning with i.

  "Time dition? Null, you're really underselling your talents."

  He shrugged. "Well, I'm ly ied in standing out like you, Miss Snowfke. I'm just trying to get by and stay afloat."

  "Of course, of course," she grinned.

  Then Elysia put on a pout, putting one hand as she looked beyond the frozen explosion. Dozens of enormous fireballs were still slowly flying across the misty pins in front of us.

  "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I 't say I'm not a little ticked off by Ace's friend raining down fire and brimstone on us like she owns the pce."

  "Yeah, well. I could probably lend a hand in making that friend see sense," Aodded sagely. "She's probably positioned herself a good ways away from us, though. Sparrow and I usually set her up for le bombardments."

  "Well, we have her meteors to deal with now, in addition to that hulking monstrosity and the dog things..." I chimed in, trying to take a deep breath to steady myself.

  Null slowly walked o me, whistling. "So, the Teach has set us up with a baddie boss and a couple of minions. That's on top of an enviroal hazard in a trigger-happy magical girl with a superiority plex. Who - mind you, Tesseract jammed onto a team with a smarmy asshole who showed her up. Wow, sounds like we're in for quite the trial."

  Forest Willow sighed, rubbing her neck awkwardly. "Yeah. Quite the trial."

  I looked over at Vanna, who'd growhly pale, and at Clipboard by her side, who looked just as anxious.

  "D-do we have a pn?" Vanna stammered.

  I smiled slightly, taking a deep breath. "Well, we certainly figure something out."

  I'd vocalized that more to reassure myself, but truthfully I wasn't sure about that at all.

  The 'Juggernaut' that had rampaged through the city had withstood the full efforts of me, multiple supervilins, and two experienced magical girls even strohan Elysia.

  Only the terrifying, timely intervention of the city's supervilin kingpin — Red Masque himself had allowed us to finally put it down.

  It was going to be a nightmare.

  Forest Willow cleared her throat, giving me a determined nod. "Alright. So to recap... we've got a big, lumbering monstrosity on a hilltop, with that jittery girl rainieors from somewhere far away, and a horde of creepy dogs in the field below us. Anything else we o know about this fight?"

  "Yeah. How we're going to deal with said monsters and avoid getting blown to smithereens by Sunlit Majesty's bombardments." Ace grinned, shaking her head as she turned and walked toward the edge of the Void Curtain.

  "Oh well. e along, everyohis could be quite the ii for everyoo bond and cool our heads for a bit. Maybe we even take a group photo at the end! So, any ideas for how we're going to tackle this?"

  Aurora sighed, raising her right hand and fring her wings. "These wings aren't just for show, I fly up with one person who could intercept the meteors? Then we find Sunlit Majesty and maybe get them to pivot from their pn."

  Elysia frowned, crossing her arms. "You say that, but they weren't quite listening earlier. I probably help take care of our meteor problem though."

  "Sending you up isn't the call," I stated, shaking my head. "We don't know how Sunlit Majesty will react when you two arrive, aill have to deal with the juggernaut and the dogs."

  Ace shrugged, g her hands together. "Well, I'm pretty insistent to say the least for a task like that... but! I talk some seo Sunny, that's for sure. We're partners, after all!"

  Vanna raised her brows, turning to me and Elysia. "I have the ability to duct electricity and manipute metals. A-and, I use it as a force projector to push and throw stuff along with enhang myself physically, but uh..."

  She paused, gulping as she looked over at Clipboard. "Clip here isn't as good as Neo with lightning, but we did have a bit of synergy going fighting Forest Willow and Null."

  "I'm probably best suited to dealing with the dogs," Clipboard said, adjusting his colr and messy bck hair before uhing his katana. "That said, I have versatile elemental strikes and a defensive skill that coats my bde with energy. But I don't know if Vanna and I would be enough for that many. I had some experience fighting them while defending the academy."

  Forest Willow sighed, frowning as she twirled her hair. "Well, I think I could pinpoint Sunlit Majesty, but it'd probably be best if I helped Vanna and Clipboard deal with the dogs."

  "And what about the juggernaut?" Null asked, crossing his arms. "That thing isn't going to be easy."

  I turo Elysia, looking at her with a hopeful expression. "I know you said you probably couldn't take it, but you and Ace are probably the stro here. Could you two help me take it on while everyone else deals with the smaller threats?"

  Elysia smiled, shrugging as she gave me a fident, glowing smile. "You know, I 't gauge exactly how strong they are, but I thiing to Sparrow and Frostburn might give us a leg up. I guess I'm going to have to take the front for this, huh?"

  Ace smirked, winking at us as she tapped her . "Well, if the little spark and her snowfke keep the juggernaut busy, maybe we circle around and talk some seo my dear panions. They're not as stubborn as you'd think, and a few words go a long way."

  "And what about you, Null?" I asked, looking at him.

  "Tch. My gas tank is pretty shot at this point, but I have just enough iank to do this maybe two more times, ya dig?"

  "Well, then we'll just have to make the most of it I guess. Think you should stay back, then?"

  Null shrugged, nodding. "Man, I had dicier moments trying to not let my retives and little sibs die all those weeks ago. So... I'm ly afraid of a little monster mash at this point. You got a pn?"

  "In that case, I think the best pce to have you would be by my side then," I grinned, gesturing toward the hill where the juggernaut stood.

  "You don't say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Elysia interject. "She has a pretty high innate Magic attribute, if you couldn't tell back at the gate," she stated with a smirk.

  I sighed, rubbing my neck awkwardly. "Yeah. It probably won't amount to much alone, but I was able to stagger and even blow a hole through one of those things at Refuge Zeta whehio hell."

  Vanna turo me, blinking in surprise. "Wait, you were at Refuge Zeta? They said a single pair of students from Kaleidoscope held off an army of monsters until help could arrive. Were you there, Lux?"

  "Err, it's a long, exhausting, and agonizing story," I replied, trying not to think back to the terror and fear of that night. "But yeah, that was us."

  Several of the students in the group turo me at once, blinking at me with surprise.

  "That was you?" Forest Willow asked, raising a brow.

  I shrugged, trying to ighe heat rising in my cheeks. "Um. Yeah. It was a group effort, though. And, I had help from some very kind and brave citizens who were willing to lend a hand. It was... a mess."

  Elysia put a hand on my shoulder, smiling reassuringly. "Well, don't sell yourself short."

  She paused, tilting her head as she put a fio her .

  "Say, you wouldn't happen to be the magical girl that blew up the port, would you? The grainy, viral cell phone video from that night is at like fifty million views at this point. But now that I think about it, the silhouette of the girl with the wand in that video kinda looks like you."

  Ace giggled, "Now that you've poi out, I see the resembhe hair and the light bsts are a dead giveaway."

  I palmed my face, feeling mortified. "Oh no. You have got to be kidding me."

  Null bli me in disbelief. "Wait, the exploding warehouse district?! Dude, that was you?"

  I let out a nervous ugh, scratg my cheek.

  "Well, you know. Sometimes these things happen, and you have to improvise. I couldn't use that attack right now if I tried, anyway."

  "Yeah, well." He sighed, shaking his head. "Just make sure we don't end up getting blown up by you. Sunlit Majesty's fming balls are plenty enough right now."

  "Aw, who are we kidding?" Vanna smiled, pung me in the shoulder pyfully. "We're all stuck with each other. So we're just gonna have to work together and try not to die."

  Aurora chuckled, nodding as she turoward the frozen explosion. "Yeah, let's get started. We don't have time to waste."

  With that, the group gathered together and began to split into groups.

  Null walked up to the front with me, crag his knuckles as he gave me a wry grin.

  "Ready, fels?"

  "Yeah," I nodded, letting out a sigh. "Here goes nothing."

  The others took their positions, and as we prepared to step forward, the world around us shifted once more.

  Null held up two fingers, smirking. "Let's give it our all, yeah?"

  With a fsh, the barrier around us vanished, and the wall of destru crumbled into shadowy particles and dust.

  I took a deep breath, fog my energy as a golden glow began to radiate from my chest.

  And with a rush of air, we all exploded into the fray in a prism of color and light.