It was six in the evening the next day, just after dinner. Tee stopped walking—but not to climb onto her bed. The Lieutenant handed her a telecom, and she instinctively turned her back to her teammates.

  She tried to focus on the bloody brawl about to begin, but the smile she caught on Kie’s face wiped her mind clean. He couldn’t still be thinking about the smooch she’d given him the other night, could he? They were about to face the Harbingers, yet his thoughts lingered on such foolish things.

  As he strapped on his telecom, his elbow brushed her waist. Her right eye twitched in irritation. Why did he have to stand so close? If he knew she was a Xeno-victim, he would have thought twice before doing that.

  The thought of her secret filled her with a sinking dread, twisting uneasily in her mind. The white tiles beneath them looked fragile, and she half-imagined them cracking, sending her tumbling into the elders’ secret dungeon. Oh yes—she still had her secret to reveal.

  She took a deep breath, trying to banish the silliness. That was another chance to outperform her fellow Sentinels. She needed to be the one to take down a Harbinger and spark her god-like power that had to be blue energy.

  Miko knew there was no rush to teleport. Arriving too early could be dangerous. But she wished they had more time to settle their food. Moving right after eating was never wise.

  Saeda hadn’t eaten at all. She regretted getting too absorbed teaching Snickers new tricks. The little creature seemed to delight in the maze she’d built. The thought of facing those who wanted to trap her forever, she felt the night pressing in—dark, unnatural, almost alive. The thought of teleporting into that void made her shiver.

  Zod’s fingers fidgeted before summoning his swords, his eyes unblinking. Something inside him would break if he saw that bandaged demon again. Even after killing it, the Harbingers were unpredictable. Why hadn’t the Lieutenant given a countdown? What were she and the Commander waiting for?

  In an instant, their surroundings shifted. A new world unfolded around them, and no one spoke. The sight alone made their jaws drop.

  There was no open space above their heads to mark the sky, yet there was light peeking down through it all to show the brilliant colors. Their surroundings were clusters of bizarre landscapes at different heights. Parts that weren't connected floated across the limited space. Everything was never-ending upwards and around. No doubt, the end of the grounds they stood on would send them falling onto other lands.

  “Where the flip are we?” Zod gasped, stepping cautiously.

  Tee’s brow furrowed. The distant glowing blue-orbed forest ended abruptly in a swirling dust storm, lightning arcing through the clouds like jagged veins.

  “How the hell do we find the Fragment in all this—much less the Harbingers?” she asked, her voice tense.

  Zod’s mind raced, struggling to comprehend the impossible. The glowing, house-like structures seemed alive, shifting as if aware of their presence. He stepped forward, mesmerized.

  “Where did all this come from?” he murmured. “It’s like someone ripped pieces from different worlds and dumped them here.”

  “It’s sorcery, Zod,” Miko said, her voice low, scanning every edge of the surreal terrain. “Don’t overthink it.”

  “You mean the person who created the Alpha Seal knew sorcery? Didn’t the Alpha Seal come from outer space? I… I’m confused,” Zod admitted.

  Tee thought making Zod more puzzled would keep him silent. “These places got teleported from across the Veil,” she said with an evil smirk.

  Miko shrieked and raised her swords before her face. “Do you mean monsters are here too?” She kept her eyes on the flowing waters, expecting something to emerge.

  “That makes no sense.” Zod pointed his sword at the house-like structure with flower pots around the entrance. “Tee, are you telling me mindless monsters live in that? I know these places didn’t come from Geovalon either.”

  He gasped and put a hand on his chin. “Vergants.” His eyes widened. “Wait—that would mean Primus isn’t the only occupied Vergant village—”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Stop overthinking unimportant things,” Kie said, his brows still furrowed as he surveyed the paradoxical surroundings. “Focus on finding the Harbingers we need to take down.”

  Saeda was curious about their surroundings too. She glanced behind to make sure Kie’s back was turned. When he wasn’t looking, she removed one of her gloves and touched the ground. But she felt nothing, even though she was far from Primus.

  Kie’s boot suddenly stamped in front of her. “What are you doing?”

  Saeda jumped to her feet. “I-I was just trying to see if I could find the fragment,” she said, hastily putting her glove back on. “I should be able to sense a pull since it basically anchors this entire place.”

  “Well?” Kie asked, hands on his hips.

  Saeda lowered her arms. “I got nothing.”

  “Maybe the Harbingers have already found the fragment,” Miko suggested. “We have no way of tracking it, so maybe we should—”

  “We’re not leaving until I get a sure sign the Harbingers took the fragment,” Kie interrupted, turning to face his teammates. “We split up and check in regularly via our telecoms to stay in range.” Before anyone could object, he began walking toward the tall green trees, disappearing among them.

  “Any sign of the Harbingers—”

  “Make contact, and no heroics,” Saeda finished his sentence.

  Split up? That meant Tee had a reason to go off on her own. The pale face and black-filled eyes of Lilith flashed through her mind. If she was going to become the best Sentinel, she would do it by being careful—and good.

  She checked her teammates’ positions on her holo-map, then rushed through the field of strange glowing fruits—balls of light attached to branches.

  A river flowed upward over sloping land instead of down. Tee stopped to stare. The harmless pink monster from their previous Harbinger mission playfully splashed in the water, but when she blinked, it was gone. She realized she had imagined it.

  How strange. Surely the monsters in that battle had come from across the Veil. But what did Lilith mean about the creators? The thought had only come after seeing the pink monster. Just like the aberration she imagined, Tee must have misheard the monster cry for help in English. The Seal defense was messing with her mind.

  She ended the thought and activated her eye ability, but her search was pointless. Dust storms swept over parts of the land, and whenever she tried to refocus, her vision looped endlessly. The places were moving from where she last saw them.

  Since she couldn’t keep track of her vision, Tee decided to keep moving. Her teammates were far, but at least she could track them on her holo-map. When she reached a jungle of glowing yellow vines, she felt she was onto something.

  She swung her swords to lash the vines aside. Her heart sank when they hit nothing, and she stepped back. The vines—and everything before her—began to lose their color. She knitted her brows as loud whirs approached, but she didn’t turn around.

  It was the fragment’s defense trying to push her away. Whatever monster was coming, she was determined to kill it. She focused her foreseeing eyes to see what lay ahead.

  Then the rushing brown clouds swept in with lightning, snapping her out of it. She dashed the other way. The whirs turned into a thundering roar as she raced through a field of orange cones.

  Where did that dust storm come from? She should have seen it and avoided getting near. Weakness struck her legs as her feet were lifted off the ground. She shrieked and closed her eyes as the strong wind tossed her through the air, flipping her several times. The scream in her head was louder than the whirs of the storm.

  Smack! She landed face-first onto something flat. Tee lifted her head through the white strands of hair that had fallen into her face. Her neat bun was gone. She pushed herself up, but the odd sight before her froze her. The ground held a dark imprint in the shape of her body, and each step she took left dark boot prints behind.

  If creatures were nearby, that would be a problem. But she hadn’t seen any life—just plants and her teammates—since teleporting. More strange thoughts came. Why wasn’t there a speck of dust on her? After that storm, she should have been covered in brown.

  She stopped at the base of a monstrous stretch of mountains riddled with thousands of holes. If she didn’t know better, she would expect an entire species to live there. The holes were shaped like doorways, and the fragment—or the Harbingers—could be hiding inside. She got closer.

  The thought of fighting an army of monsters made her activate her ability to see within. She almost got a headache from the never-ending tunnels and empty caverns. But everything stayed in place, so unlike before, she was making progress.

  Then she glimpsed the black-filled pair of eyes. They grabbed her vision, shutting out everything else. Blood rushed from her face as if a boulder crushed her brain. She fell to her knees. The pain in her eyes shook her whole body with fear.

  Were those Lilith’s eyes? How could Lilith see her invisible vision when no one else should? Had the Harbingers been that close all along?

  Tee fought through the pain and panic to open her eyes. Everything was pitch black. She began to fidget as liquid trickled down her face, splashing onto the ground and ringing in her ears. The pain told her her eyes were a bloody mess—she wasn’t going to see anytime soon.

  Something approaching reminded her of her teammates, almost coaxing a smile from her. Then a solid metal boot stamped her back, squishing her against the ground. Her last hope seemed to burst from her lips.

  "Aaaaaah!"

  “Like a bug that’s been squished!” The deep, thundering voices of thousands drilled into her ears.

  Her scream echoed in her head before fading into nothing.