Driving in the frigid cold, with my window blown out was difficult. At least I wasn’t wearing scraps of clothing. The bag I had brought with me had survived the whole mess, and with it, a spare set of clothes. Inside contained some basic items and now held the newly minted bronze coins from the previous engagement.

  However… It wasn’t all roses and sunshine, literally and figuratively. The blood moon was still ongoing. Driving in the dark night, with the moon above blocked by a literal floating fortress, with the occasional showers of blood. All thanks to all the dead monsters caught up in the vast web covering the central part of the city skyline, really, it was almost nightmarish.

  The headlights were busted, the van made strange noises as it went. I could see shadows shifting in my peripheral vision, corpses were dragged off into dark alleys. One wrong move, and I’d likely be swarmed.

  More worryingly… As I went, I came across a police checkpoint. The nearby building had been secured and reinforced. Not that it helped. Something had torn through the building. Ripping through thick reinforced gates, the interior torn through. Blood was everywhere, the bodies missing. Abandoned weapons and armor strewn about.

  Something was happening, had happened. Which only spurred me on. I had a promise to keep. Logically, I should have stayed at the company building. I should have stayed behind to make sure the job was done without a hitch…

  Logic could take a backseat. Something inside me pulsed. That feverish parasite that had crawled into my heart all those years ago yearned for release and every single instinct I had told me; I had to be there. That if I didn’t show up, I would never see the truth. Like a young chick, trying to break out of their shell, I had to do this.

  Even if I was exhausted. Buoyed, just barely by the injection of energy thanks to that silver coin Liche had given me. Even now, I felt it hemorrhaging out. The core of my being felt empty as well, alerting me that whatever power I had pulled upon, that scorching heat that gave me that monstrous burst of strength, telling me that there would not be another.

  I had half a mind to ask éclair about it, the next time we met. Among other things. So much ran through my mind, as I was stopped not once, but twice by barricades and forced to move them aside. Each time, greeted by a hollowed out and ruined police checkpoint.

  Each time, I felt countless hungry eyes on me. Each time, my eyes would drift upwards as blood dripped down like rain. Above, a battle was still ongoing. Countless bats swarmed creatures, even as they attempted to breach the web above.

  With a heavy heart, I pressed on. Which only grew heavier when I arrived.

  The police station was a mess. The station was practically a fortress, a ruined one. Walls of sandbags were torn apart, metal barricades cut and thrashed. There were still bodies scattered about, many torn, some being actively eaten by horrors that scattered upon my approach.

  No sooner had I stopped the car, shifting the gear into park, that the engine gave a final rattling cry and died. No matter how I turned the ignition, it wouldn’t go. The engine block smoked. It was clear as day, the van had died…

  I still owed money on this… I took out a loan…

  I was too exhausted to care. That, and the lingering ice in my veins kept me just cool enough that I didn’t break into a litany of curses. Instead, I just sighed, a weary sigh any working man would know.

  Stepping out, I made my way to the front. My knights stepped out of the back and fell in just behind me. We worked our way through the debris, my rifle in hand. The main entrance was wrecked, metal shutters were bent, torn asunder, and covered in blood.

  The interior was just as bad. Tiles were cracked, the main desk a mess. Blood smeared everywhere, and even bodies were strewn about. Over the loud flickering of lights, I heard something else. A noise I knew all too well.

  The hiss of burning. The sound of something being cut. The sound, almost too subdued to be real. Readying myself, checking my rifle, I made my way around the main desk to the rear, and paused. The darkness here had a physical thickness to it. Like a black cloud, or a thick shroud. In the midst, I could barely make out flickering flames, and a single light flickering, illuminating a smoldering figure above a ruined fountain.

  It was Grim. She swung wildly into the surrounding darkness that seemed to press in, seeking to consume her. I almost rushed in, but from afar, I heard a voice.

  “I’m surprised you can keep going like this. Then again, how much more do you have to burn away?” A voice taunted.

  “As long, as even a speck of me exists, it shall be rendered to ash. If that is what it takes.” Grim responded, her voice laced with burning fire and ash.

  The hidden speaker laughed, the darkness swirled and pressed in. I could barely make out figures, creatures made of darkness with red eyes and glittering claws rush out, only to be cut with Grim’s blade. Their forms would dissipate, the fire would cling to the surrounding darkness and burn at it before being snuffed out. Leaving a fine puff of ash in its wake.

  Grim was losing. More precisely, she was being worn down. It had to be a fox. Even if the magic emanating from the cloud was subdued, it felt more like a still lake whose depth could not be ascertained. As I was, I had no chance against it. Yet, the pain in my heart, the cracking of the shell urged me on.

  It was almost too perfect. The spotlight. The ray of light. My entire being yearned for it, demand I take that stage.

  So, I did just that.

  With bayonet affixed, I charged forward. The bayonet cleaved through the pall of darkness with ease, offering me a passage, and just behind the knights followed. It was like plunging into the icy depths. The darkness pressed in from all sides, cold and heavy. A soft exclamation rumbled through the darkness on my entrance.

  Even as I pushed forward, bayonet carving the way, I felt the darkness press in. Like the weight of an unfathomably deep ocean pressing down on me. Rapidly, my momentum died. Even as each step cracked the tiled floor, even as I put my full might into pushing forward. Like a ship breaking through ice. All the while, my silver bayonet keened, rejoicing as it carved my way forward. Eager, gleeful at fulfilling its purpose.

  Just before I could be stopped and stalled. Just before the crushing weight could press me down, I punched through. The tip of my bayonet glistened in the light, shining from that lone, light hanging above. All around me, the darkness clung, forming into countless hands and tendrils that sought to pull me back into its depths. Only to be banished, burnt away under the light.

  In a few quick steps, I found myself at the center of the fountain, rifle at my side. I stood before Grim and threw my backpack at her. Loose bronze coins clinked and fell out of the top. I felt her gaze on me, even as I readied myself for the coming confrontation. Just behind, my knights pushed through and took up positions. Us three forming a triangle with Grim at the center.

  “Prima?” She said, breathlessly. She was kneeling. Blade stuck into the ground. Her armor was white, ashen. Like when charcoal is nearing its end. Her entire body looked ready to simply fall apart.

  “I brought coins. Top up.”

  “I can’t…” She said. “I’m at my limit already…” She continued. “You… should not have come.”

  “I promised.” I answered back with conviction. My own heart thumping in my chest. The cracks widening in anticipation of what was to come. Of what was to be revealed. “So, I came.”

  She let out a laugh, low, and desolate. “You have no chance.” She told me, and she wasn’t wrong. The darkness was unfathomable. The sheer pressure it gave off told me, that just being in the darkness would be enough to kill me. I only survived the trek due to surprise and speed. Only because I blitzed my way through.

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  Already, any chance of escape had been sealed. The darkness grew more solid, like a veritable wall. I eyed it, the darkness shifted as if alive.

  “If I gave you an opening, could you kill it?” I ask. I could feel that whoever, whatever, was behind this darkness was taking in the situation. Perhaps with a bit of morbid glee.

  “If you can give me an opening, I can kill her.” She stated with the certainty of steel. “But, I don’t know how you could…” She followed up with, a final sigh leaving her lips. “Not unless you have something up your sleeve.” She said, with a bit of hope. Not a pleasant kind, but like a man willing to drink poison to quench their thirst.

  “My debut.” I felt it. A shift in the air. I could almost feel Grim’s predatory smile. The sudden spike of uncertainty that came from the one controlling the darkness.

  “How fortunate of me.” She said, “A magical girl, typically only gets one.” She continued, almost like a proud mother about to witness her daughter’s recital. Though, the comparison wasn’t entirely wrong.

  As her words fell, the darkness receded like the tide. Roiled back, to prepare to crash into us with the force of a tsunami. I paid it no attention. Nor did I pay Grim any attention as she shifted, forcing herself up. I felt for my heart, cracked, and covered in fissures. A heart of literal ice that had been hammered and beat. Whose wounds had only grown and multiplied since coming to this city.

  Inside that injured heart, I felt it. Something so hideous, yet so beautiful thump and thrum. I could hear it. Over the rushing darkness, coming at us, rushing to end us in a single swoop. With each thump, the fissures widened. Each thump made the cracks greater…

  Until, with the sound of shattering glass, my ice heart broke to pieces. At the same time, the ground broke apart and I fell through into a black abyss, a single ray of light shone down on me through the smallest of openings.

  The breath left my lungs. The icy water flowed into them. The depths wrapped me into its cold embrace. Frost covered my form. Freezing me from head to toe. My clothing, flaking away like motes of snow. The world, did not fade away. It came forward, focused entirely on that ray of light.

  Under the light, I felt my wounds fade away. As if I were baptized, I felt something inside me shift and stir.

  My body shifted, landed at the depths on one foot, hands raised, one leg raised under the burning light. In the distance, I heard them. Breathing, seats creaking under their occupants shifting. Countless eyes on me, and me alone under the burning spotlight. I took a breath and I moved. The first movement was swift. The ice on my body began to peel away. With every turn and twist, it was as if ribbons of frost were being gathered upon my form.

  There was no sound, no song. Nothing beyond the sound of my own breathing, of the crowd watching, of blades scraping on ice.

  With each move, the audience moved in tune. With every completed trick, the crowd grew more raucous, the ribbons gathering over my form gained substance. It all came together at the final moment. The crowd roaring, cheering, clapping, A final twist in the air, a perfect landing into a spin. The ribbons came together, coalesced before my eyes.

  I looked up, into the light. I could just barely make out masked figures in the higher rows looking down at me… and… the glimmerings of… strings?

  A blink and I was elsewhere. My spin finished. The ribbons finished forming into what would be my uniform. My rifle formed in my hand with a loud crack and snap. I took up position, one foot forward, the other just behind at an angle. Chest puffed out, head slightly tilted up, as if both presenting myself to the world and preparing to face it head on. Without fear, without question.

  Under the light, I shone. My uniform, bore some semblance to a military court dress. It clung to my form like a bodysuit, the silver epaulettes widened my shoulders and frame, giving me a more masculine appearance, along with the gloves that went up to my elbow. Yet, juxtaposed by the short skirt that fluttered in the absence of wind, held up by a white leather belt, adorned with various pouches and satchels. Off-white heeled boots that went just under the knee, whose white laces were tied into numerous ribbons that ran up the boots. White socks that went up to just under the thigh, held in place with clasps.

  My hair, was a light blue, having grown long, it was pulled back into a ponytail, held together with a silver ribbon tied into a bow.

  I had barely a moment to adjust myself. No, I didn’t even need a moment too as the darkness crashed in. With it, the weight of an ocean. It should have felt suffocating. Should have pressed down on me and yet…

  It felt no different from that stage I had been on. The light above shone down, illuminating the area around me. My own uniform, made of an off-white material that glimmered like crystal in the light made me shine, and glow. Making ignoring me, an impossible task. I could feel eyes focus on me and me alone. The exhilaration ran down my spine.

  I could feel what was inside my heart blossom and grow. Greedily supping upon the attention. With a flourish of my hands, my knights moved. Like limbs, they moved according to my whims. The pair circled me, revolved around me, like I was the center of the universe. And they were my moon and stars, a mere backdrop, a background to make me shine ever brighter. Their blades gleamed and glowed, carving into the darkness, scattering it wherever it passed. Leaving only glittering frost in its wake.

  The darkness trembled. Figures formed and launched out of the darkness with red eyes and glittering claws. Their claws helplessly crashed against my knights’ shields, their blades aglow as if made of starlight cut and carved through their number, but there were too many. Like trying to beat back the tide, my knights failed.

  The monsters in the dark surged through what gaps they could find with hungry gazes and claws thirsting for blood. The first that passed met my bayonet, which left trails of glittering frost in its wake. I flowed from strike to strike, cutting and carving through those that passed, yet even that wasn’t enough. With a mighty surge, they pushed through, past my knights, my bayonet alone not enough to keep them at bay.

  With a leap, a mighty leap, almost like a deer, I flew out from the shining light. Past the tide of creatures, their claws scraped and grasped at my form. Skirt fluttering, spreading motes of diamond dust in my wake. Just before I hit the ground, I felt a weight settle on the sole of my boots. I crashed down, not on my soles, but on blades made of silver.

  With a twist, a shift of momentum, I swung out with my other leg, carving through still forming creatures, cleaving through the cloud of darkness. I finished my spin and came to a stop, a larger hand, made of darkness made manifest shot out of the surrounding murk. I punched off the ground into a midair spin. The hand flew by, and with ease, the tip of my blade found its way into the monster’s head, sticking fast. With a twist, the blade shattered, and my other leg scythed out, its blade glimmering in the dark, cleaving through a swathe of creatures that were pressing in.

  With the area cleared, the monster I was atop disoriented, I aimed my rifle and fired into the surroundings. In a breath, I fired four shots into the cloud, each shot crashed into a manifestation of the darkness, killing them, and scattering motes of glittering ice where they landed. The last shot went into the beast below, and as it disintegrated, I leapt off. My hand shot for a nearby pillar, the metal pillar just a bit too large for me to fully grasp in hand. Yet, my glove stuck to the metal with ease. I followed through and my grip loosened. Letting me slide down, and while I did so, my one leg, still clad with a silver blade, swung out, beating back the darkness.

  I crashed to the ground, my blade shattering on impact. My hand shot for a pouch at my side, retrieving a newly formed clip of bullets. With practiced ease, I slid it into the rifle and slid the bolt back into place.

  Everything had happened in what felt like a blink of an eye. My body and mind were in perfect sync. The world moved as if it were frozen, a titanic iceberg slowly shifting. My heart beat, slow and steady, but with an unstoppable force. My breath long and low.

  I felt invincible. The world felt so far away. I felt like a star on the stage, untouchable by those in the audience. I could feel a burning heat. As if I was still under that spotlight, despite being in absolute darkness. I could feel the eyes burning into me. Their emotions, their feelings.

  I wanted more. So much more. Yet, my time was limited. So, very limited. I raised my rifle and aimed into the mass of darkness. Right for the glowing red eyes. I inhaled, the world crackled, slowing to a near stop. I pulled the trigger.

  The bullet sang its dissonant song. Its tone off and slowed. Just the moment it left the barrel, I had ejected the casing and slid the next bullet in. In an instant, faster than a heartbeat, the blink of an eye. Faster than a flash of lightning. I had emptied the clip.

  My bullets flew, my heart rapidly picked up pace, like a train picking up pace. My eyes landed on the glittering shell casings as they fell and my body moved. I kicked myself into a spin, one leg down, the other close.

  My raised leg lashed out, snapping into the falling casings, one by one, sending them flying into the crowd. The final casing, though, I missed as my heart thumped, the world crackled and began to speed up. Throwing me off balance.

  I gripped my rifle, my foot stamped down, I took in a breath and swung with an exhale just as the world came back to speed. The butt of my rifle crashed into the casing, smashed it into the cloud of darkness. At the same time, everything exploded. My bullets with their dissonant cries exploded with force, sending shrapnel everywhere, along with it, filling the dark cloud with glittering frost. The casings followed not a moment later, with the final one, slugged forward by my rifle went ever further crashing into something that made the whole darkness quake.

  I panted. Nearly fell to my knees as my heart raced. The darkness quivered and I shot forward. Blades once again formed under my boots, cut into the floor and guided me forward. Claws shot out, cutting into me, leaving small wounds along my body. But with a final twist and jump, I threw myself back into the light, where my knights, battered and wounded, laid in wait to catch me, caught me.

  With a final flourish, I laid my feet down at the center of the fountain. With a single hand raised, and with a single snap… the last of my magic bled out. Every mote of frost that hung in the air, clung to the ground or otherwise, exploded. The darkness frosted over.

  Yet…

  In a matter of seconds, the frost faded. The last vestiges of my magic bled away, and already, I could feel my uniform fading. Only through showmanship did I stand. My legs shook like a newborn fawn, even as I forced myself to stand and pose.

  This was everything I had wanted. Well, almost everything…

  I only wish I had been the main character here, and not the extra…

  And with that thought, something shifted…