The gates smmed shut behind us as we stumbled into the fort's inner courtyard, gasping for breath.

  "Holy shit. You guys look like hell," Frostburn chuckled, shaking his head as he leaned against the wall. "Sorry about that! We elected to stay out of the way while Sunlit Majesty did her thing. Much of a bitch of a nag that Sparrow is, she put on one hell of a fight."

  Elysia smirked, raising a brow. "And where's your partner in crime, anyway?"

  Frostburn rolled his eyes, jerking his thumb toward a rge, metal door. "Birds for brains is irying to figure out this trainier's capabilities. She thinks we use it to get an edge over that... thing."

  I looked around the courtyard, noting the thick crete walls and the armored shutters lining the windows. "This pce looks like it was built to withstand a siege. What the hell is it doing on school property?"

  Frostburn shrugged. "Who cares? We have bigger problems to deal with. And that monster is probably going to be at our door any sed now."

  "You said Sparrow's inside? We o get her out here to help us deal with that thing," Elysia said, stepping toward the door.

  "Heh," Frostburn sneered. "That's the thing. She thinks we have some kinda edge in here. A way to beat that monstrosity."

  Elysia crossed her arms, sighing. "I think I have an inkling of what this facility is capable of."

  "Really?" I asked, turning to her.

  She nodded, pointing toward a pair of thick crete bunker doors on the far end of the courtyard. "The islet here is used by both the uy and our sedary education academy for field testing and exercises. I've heard they ran drills to simute supervilin irs and apocalyptic threats. This fort and the systems inside are only the tip of the iceberg."

  "Hmm," I grunted, looking around the courtyard. "Okay, so what kinds of systems would be involved, then?"

  Frostburn scoffed, gesturing toward the bunker. "Shit, the list is a mile long! We have automated turrets, simuted vilin bots, droraps and traps, and traps, and more traps, and an endless array of traps and gadgets. Did I mention traps? We've got plenty of that."

  "Dude, shut up," Vanna muttered, shaking her head.

  "Aww, did you miss me, lightning bug?" Frostburn smirked, flig his hair as he chuckled.

  "Not on your life."

  Elysia tapped her , crossing her arms as she thought. "But what would even be able to dent that thing? We threw everything we had at it, and it just keeps getting back up."

  Frostburn shrugged. "Well, you did say you knew what the shit in here do. So, if you're ready to take point and show us what we're dealing with, I'll gdly follow."

  I blinked, looking at him in surprise. He didn't strike me as the kind of person who liked to follow anyone. I supposed even the most ceited assholes could swallow their pride food cause.

  Elysia stepped forward, nodding toward the door. "Let's go. We o make a pn."

  "I'll stay up here and tio pick off what I ," Forest Willow stated. "Clipboard should head up with me too."

  I gulped, nodding. "Uood."

  "Hey um, how are you doing on mana, Lux? That Art of yours looked pretty rough," Clipboard asked, worry written across his face.

  I sighed, rubbing my head as I nodded. "I'm fine. Running a bit below half my gas tank."

  "Be careful, okay?" Clipboard said, turning to follow Willow up the ramparts.

  Frostburn turo Vanna. "ing with, sparkplug? Or you gonna stand bad watch?"

  She huffed, rolling her eyes. "You go shove your foot up your ass."

  Frostburn ughed, "That's the spirit! Do something, you know? Even if it's just bugging that annoying little Sparrow."

  With that, he gestured for Elysia ao follow him as he turned and opened another heavy set of doors.

  As we ehe small room inside, we found a brightly lit trol ter with a bank of puter monitors c oire wall. Sparrow was standing in front of a trol panel, staring ily at the ss.

  Firl around my age, she really had an... imposing presence.

  Her hair was now tied up in a ponytail, and she wore a red and silver short dress with a silver breast pte and a rge maul on her back. She was a good head taller than me, ae her young age, had an aura ality and power that made her seem years older.

  She turned as we entered, her eyes narrowing as she stared at me and Elysia. "It's you."

  I nodded. "Yeah. Me. Um, hi?"

  She tio stare at me, and for a moment, I thought she was going to hit me.

  But instead, she walked over and handed me a small, hexagonal device. "Here. Take it."

  I blinked, feeling the object's weight in my hand. "What is this?"

  "Apparently it's called a HESTIA," she replied, turning back to the monitors.

  "A what now?" I asked, looking at her in fusion.

  She sighed, shaking her head. "It stands for Harmoniergy Supply Transfer Iion Array. It's part of the new wave of tech the Guardians have been pulling out of nowhere and granting high and. It's a type of advanced energy transferal device linked up at the uy nearby. This will probably be the only way for you to refill your mana enough to keep fighting. They serve the same role emergency refreshes used to uhe World System, and the instrus say your body is good for one refill until you get a good night's sleep."

  Elysia frowaking and flipping the device over in her hands. "So, where did they get it?"

  "No clue, but if you need a boost, you guys should use it. There's a few of these in a bin in the side room to my left and we don't have much time. Just el some mana through it in one hand."

  I nodded, stepping back from the group as I examihe device closely. It was the size a of a remote trol, and it had a green crystal embedded in the ter of its frame. I could serickle of mana emanating from it, and I flipped it around, feeling its smooth metal surface.

  There was an infinity symbol with a silver tree sprouting through its ter printed otom of it, and the words 'Per amorem perditum, cras avertitur' were inscribed in tiny, elegant script underh.

  I had no idea what that meant, but as I pressed the button on the HESTIA, it flickered to life, glowing with a warm, yellow light. A surge of mana flowed through me, and I gasped, feeling the energy fill my chest and wash over me like a warm wave.

  In moments, the HESTIA grew dim, and I felt its power dissipate.

  Elysia turo me, on her face. "Feelier?"

  "Hmm," I muttered. Feels like it helped, but I'm nowhere near full capacity."

  "Well, it's better than nothing, right?" Elysia smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder.

  I summoned my Nexus to check my status s, and promptly flinched as a chime dinged and several boxes appeared in my view.

  [gratution!]

  [Your Luminary Nova proficy has increased to: Rank 3][Your stitution has increased to 5]

  [Your new level is: Level 55]

  [Aberrants sin si refresh: 63 Beowulves, 4 Ayakash

  [You have acquired: 138 Chaos Points to spend freely.]

  My mouth fell open as the messages rolled through.

  "Wait... what?" I stammered.

  Elysia turo me, frowning. "What is it?"

  "Points?" I asked.

  She bliilting her head. "Points?"

  I shook my head, closing the s as I looked around.

  "Guys? Pull up your personal status ss."

  Elysia summoned a snowfke-themed phone in a swirling blue light, while the rest of the group summoheirs as well.

  After a few moments, they all turo me with simir looks of fusion aement on their faces.

  "Huh!" Elysia smiled. "Well, I guess that's something we'll have to ask about ter."

  "I got a level up, too!" Vanna grinned.

  "Yeah, whatever. Let's just figure out a pn," Frostburn grunted, dismissing his own phone. "I have a feeling we don't have much time left to prep."

  Elysia nodded. "Right. Sparrow, what have you got?"

  She poioward the ss. "See for yourself."

  We all looked at the monitors, seeing the juggernaut slowly lumbering toward us, its massive body taking up almost the entire s.

  "Shit," Vanna cursed. "That thing is huge."

  "Yeah, and it's not aloher," Sparrow said, pointing to another s.

  On it, we could see packs of the wolf-like mohat had been attag us earlier, along with a small army of shadowy creatures. Now that the shadow creatures were closer, I could see that they were raptor-like monsters with long, sharp talons and razor-sharp beaks. Their bodies were covered in thick, shadowy wisps that shifted and shimmered in the light.

  Sparroed a button, zooming in on the image. "These things aren't from our world, clearly. But there are... so many of them."

  "Yeah..." Elysia frowned. "These things definitely aren't being simuted. They're the real deal."

  "Oh? What do you mean?" Frostburn asked, raising an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

  "I mean, these things aren't being created by any of the systems here, and they're not being trolled by the school, or anyone else," she expined. "They're actual monsters like the ones from the Cataclysm."

  "Well, that's great," Frostburn grunted. "Just great."

  Vanna sighed, shaking her head. "Maaan, if Tesseract is pulling this on us for our first lesson, I don't want to think about what the rest of this course is going to be like. So, what do we do?"

  "We o stop that thing from getting inside," Elysia said, pointing to the juggernaut. "But we 't just focus on that. Sparrow, do you have any way to get in tact with Sunlit Majesty?"

  Sparrow shook her head. "I don't know what the hell happeo her. I tried to tact her, but I got nothing. There's something stopping our Nexus devices from w properly in this training field."

  "Well, that's just fug wonderful," Null snorted.

  "Okay," I nodded. "So, Frostburn said that the armory is loaded with traps?"

  Sparrow tilted her head at me. "Yup. Anything from explosive charges to ndmio electrified s."

  "Alright," I said, turning to look at the others. "I don't think any of these ventional ons will be able to put much of a dent in that thing, but it could help with these raptor and wolf things. If we get those things inside, we use the traps and defeo keep them at bay while we focus on the juggernaut."

  "Okay, but what are we supposed to do with the juggernaut?" Vanna asked, crossing her arms as she tapped her foot.

  "I'm built more for speed," Elysia shrugged, "I don't think I throw out attaearly big enough to put that thing down as... as I am. I slow it, but I won't be able to do much to take it down without getting time and room to really work at it.

  Furrowing my brow, I turo the redhead who'd been so antagonistic toward me.

  "I'm assuming Sparrow is another front line fighter, correct?" I asked.

  She nodded with a huff, patting the heavy on on her back. "Yup."

  "And Frostburn? What's he got that Elysia 't pull off? They're both pretty ice-themed," Vanna asked, cog her head. "And she's CRAZY strong."

  Frostburn fshed a smirk, giving Elysia an appraising look. "Well, I do have a hunch that she has me outcssed in terms of speed, skill, and finesse. Welll... I haven't been a knight for very long, but I've developed some tricks fhting big, stupid, and resilient ehat said, we should probably use her to up the trash faster while I keep the big lug busy."

  "Crazy strong, huh?" Sparrow gave Elysia a look. "I'm guessing yic is ice-based too?"

  Elysia nodded, holding up her hand and summoning a swirl of snowfkes.

  "Hmm," Sparrow hummed, stroking her with a scary grin as she leaned in with a sultry gaze. "Well, you might be worthy enough for a spar when this is over, then!"

  "Uh... what?" Elysia blinked. "Are you... hitting on me?"

  Sparrow shrugged. "Nope. Just seeing if you're worth the time."

  Frostburn chuckled. "What a weirdo. A total battle junkie. And to think, the Guardians actually chose her to be in the running to bee a magical girl. The world is a crazy pce."

  "Would you shut up already?" Sparrow scoffed, gring at Frostburn.

  "Make me," he grinned. "e on, give me a reason not to treat you like a bitch. Sorry, did I say bitch? I meant witch. You are a witch, right?"

  "You're an asshole," she snapped.

  "Ooh, nieback," Frostburn grinned. "Praise her! Sparrow e. Raging Sparrow? Truly Kaleidoscope's fi wordsmith."

  "Guys, enough!" Elysia shouted, throwing up her hands. "We're all tired and stressed. We o focus on the problem at hand. So, if you two are finished bickering, we should move forward and decide on a pn of a."

  The two of them gred daggers at each other, but they relutly fell silent and turheir attention back to the ss.

  "Okay," Elysia nodded. "Now, what are our options?"

  "We could try to draw the juggernaut into the forest," Sparrow suggested. "Set both ice users on stalling it outside. I don't know what the others do, but impeding its movement is the most important thing."

  " I erm..." Vanna started. "I guess this is probably the time to say I absorb more magic than just lightning."

  "Lightning gives you physical enhas, right?" I asked.

  She nodded, "Yeah. But it's not just lightning. I've only practiced with harnessing lightning because of Neo, but I theoretically vert other energy attacks to my own mana, too. I'm just not used to abs anything outside of lightning aricity."

  Elysia tilted her head at her. "Wait, you're a multi absorber?"

  "Yeah," Vanna nodded, looking down at her feet. "Learning to use electricity alone was a real pain just on its own, and I didn't want to risk taking in the wrong kind of energy, you know? But I think I could help with that thing out there. Create a bit of chaos. Keep it off bance."

  "Okay," I nodded, looking at the others. "So, we have Frostburn, Vanna, and Elysia to take care of the juggernaut. Anyone else?"

  "Me," Null said, raising his hand. "I don't think I put it down ht, but trust a guy when I say Void Curtain shred it up nicely."

  "A void curtain?" Sparrow asked.

  Null smirked. "You could say it's my personal ability. I shred anything to ribbons. Lemme get one of those HESTIA things or whatever."

  Elysia handed over one of the hexagonal devices. Null grinned and eled a visible flow of inky mana into the HESTIA.

  Then, he blinked.

  "Um. It's not doing anything."

  "Hmm... You aren't transformed, are you?" Sparrow asked.

  He shook his head. "No."

  " you?"

  "Er, no," he answered, pushing his sungsses up.

  "Then you aren't worth the mana."

  "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Null frowned.

  Sparrow huffed, gring at him. "Well, you aren't worthy enough to use it."

  "Wow, okay. This is just getting ridiculous, you know?" Null threw the HESTIA to Vanna, who fumbled to catch it.

  "I'm just stating a fact," Sparrow replied, crossing her arms to stare at him. "And I don't care if it's a problem or not."

  "I don't know what I did to earn this hostility," Null muttered, gring back at her, "What's your deal?"

  "I'm not hostile," she replied, crossing her arms. "I just think that this is the way it is, and I have to deal with it. You didn't earn the right to be here. You 't transform. And that's all that o be said. You're a liability."

  "Okay, seriously?" I asked, looking at the others. "Are we really doing this right now? Are we really arguing over this?"

  "She's right," Frostburn smirked with a chuckle. "I did say we were sed-rate emergency tract holders, and the fact is that she's right. I'm not gonna deny it. I agree with her on that point."

  "You too, Frostburn?" I asked. "Yoing along with this bullshit now of all times?"

  He shrugged. "Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to go all hardliner and try to bury us in the dirt, or something. But I'm also not going to pretend we're all equals, either. At least not in terms of ability or potential. That said..."

  Frostburn walked over and towered over me, fshing a smile. "All of us with one did have to beat the odds, to fight tooth and nail against hell itself to make it this far. That's gotta mean something, right? It's more than the rich, spoiled brats like Sparrow's team ever did."

  Sparrow bristled. "Watch your toh that."

  He shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably better than most. That doesn't ge the fact that you had a silver spoon up your ass, didn't you? I know your lot. All three of you reek of privilege. The way you hold yourselves, the way you speak... it's not hard to figure out."

  "I don't know what the hell your problem is, but yoing tret opening your mouth, asshole," she growled.

  "Squawk, squawk, little birdie," Frostburn chuckled. "Aww, she 't take it as well as she gives it, huh? Well, I'm not here tue with you. We're on the same team, after all. But that doesn't mean I have to like you. And it sure as hell doesn't mean I respect you."

  Sparrow was seething at this point. She ched her fists and gritted her teeth.

  "I've had enough of you. You're a piece of trash. An absolute piece of trash, and I'm going to enjoy wiping that stupid smirk off your face."

  "Hey, I just said what I had to say," Frostburn said. "It's your choice how you take it, little bird."

  Sparrow began to glow, a fiery aura f around her body as her face turned bright red.

  "That's it. I've had enough of you. I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but I'm going to show you just what a 'rich spoiled brat' do."

  "Ooh, are you gonna ow?" Frostburn ughed, clearly enjoying her rea.

  "Enough!" Elysia snapped, standiweewo of them. "This is getting out of hand. We have a fight ing, and we o be w together, not at each other's throats."

  "Oh shut up and stay out of this," Frostburn shrugged her off, stepping arouo get closer to Sparrow. "You act so tough, but you're a coward, Sparrow. A big fat coward who 't take the heat and loves to throw her weight around. And that's what I 't stand about people like you. You're a disgrace to everything the knights stand for. You're just another one of these self-entitled pricks, and I'm tired of putting up with it."

  "Oh yeah? What about you then, Frostburn?" she shot back. "You think you're some sort of hero because you fought some monsters?"

  He chuckled, grinning. "No. Like I said, I'm a sed-rate cadet who has nht to stao someone like her," he poio Elysia, who jumped in surprise. "But at least I'm willing to put my life on the line. And you? Coddled in your safe little house with your mommy and daddy? What do you know of fighting? Of sacrifice? Of the real world? I see those calluses on your hands and nowhere else, princess. You've been fighting for fun, not your life. You're the furthest thing from a hero."

  Sparrow's anger alpable, but instead of shing out, she simply gred at him.

  And then Elysia spped him.

  Frostburn staggered back a step, clutg his cheek with a smarmy smirk.

  "You're out of line, asshole," Elysia said.

  Frostburn rolled his eyes, still grinning. "Whatever."

  Elysia gred at him cooly. "I don't know what your deal is, but you o cut it out."

  "I happen to be one of these 'privileged' magical girls you despise so much, a I don't have an ounce of hate for people like you. We all came from the same pce: we all fought tooth and nail and earned our pce here. One way or another, we've all been fed through hell, and now we're all fighting on the same side. That should t for something," she said, gesturing around the room.

  "So, cut it out with the bullshit," Elysia said. "We're better than this. All of us. We've all earhe right to be here."

  Sparrow's eyes widened. She looked at Frostburn, who had an incredulous look on his face, and then at Elysia.

  Elysia looked back at her with an unfling gaze.

  And then, Sparrow sighed, her anger draining away.

  "I... you're right," she muttered. "You're right."

  "Hey, I didn't mean to offend anyone here," Frostburn chuckled. "You shoulda knower. I was just having some fun. Besides, it's not like you weren't asking for it."

  "Fuck off," Vanna and Sparrow said at the same time.

  He just ughed. "Whatever."

  "Anyway, let's get back to business," I said. "So, we have Frostburn, Null, and Vanna to take on the big monster, and we've got the rest of us to hahe rest of the horde."

  "Right," Elysia urning to the ss. "And it looks like we're out of time."

  I looked at the ss, and sure enough, I saw the monsters had already made their way through the forest and were quickly closing in while Forest Willow peppered them with volley after volley of projectiles.

  "Alright... alright, let's do this then," I said softly.