Day in the story: 12th October (Sunday)

I was a firm believer in the saying: a coincidence can get you into trouble, but never out of it. That truth had shadowed me long enough to carve itself into habit.

But there was a difference between stumbling into coincidence and crafting one.

It was possible to arrange events just so, to line up accidents like dominoes and tip them toward your own ends. That's exactly what I was doing now: walking the razor's edge between masterful orchestration and a disaster spun wildly out of control.

And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely enthralled from the moment the plan took shape.

"Are you ready, Zoe?" I asked my partner in crime.

She was safely at home behind her laptop, voice coming through my earpiece, because for what I was planning, I couldn't trust magic alone.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Are you? Peter says this plan is batshit crazy and honestly, I'm inclined to agree this time."

"And yet — here you are, helping me anyway."

"I am. I'm curious if it'll work."

"Reality only knows," I muttered.

Zoe laughed. "Yeah, that's one way to put it. Everything's set on my end. Good luck, Lex. I'm going radio silent now, like we discussed."

Good. Good. Good. So far, so smooth.

I stood fully suited up in my room, combat gear on, mask secured with its latest upgrade, cards packed tight, Ella and Equinox hanging at my sides, Travel Grimoire in hand a bag of spray cans slung over one shoulder and a head full of dangerously good ideas.

I took a deep breath.

Showtime.

I teleported into Shiroi's apartment first.

"Shiroi!" I shouted the moment I landed.

A loud thud, he'd dropped something. Within seconds, he rushed toward me, pushing aside the curtain that separated his workspace from the common room. He arrived with a silent presence, a fleeting shimmer of light that vanished as quickly as it appeared.

"Alexandra? How did you…?"

"Did you get my message?"

"How could I not? You stole the necklace. Again."

"Yes, because you failed to destroy it. So now I'm taking matters into my own hands. But I'm ready."

"Ready to do what?"

"To defeat Eveline. If that's still what you want, meet me at the docks. The place where we fought. Where you nearly killed me. Be there at exactly 3 PM…"

I started and laid out the plan.

"This is crazy, you know that, right? You can't be sure it'll work the way you think."

"You want her gone. So do I. Will you do what I asked?"

"Why should I trust you?"

"For the same reason I trusted you." I met his gaze. "We don't have a choice, Akira."

He held my stare for a long moment. Then, slowly, he nodded.

And with that, I vanished, reappearing at the overlook above the de Marcos estate.

The entire de Marcos house was on high alert now. Guards were stationed at both the lakeside gate and the main road. A few patrolled the fence and nearby paths and I counted two more on the balcony. I reached into the hidden pouch opposite the one where I kept my cards and pulled out the necklace, holding it in the air in front of me.

"Can't believe all of this and all the magic that's happened and is about to happen, is because of this little thing," I muttered to myself.

With my other hand I pressed against the Travel Grimoire and with a thought, selected the dining hall inside the house I'd been watching.

In a blink, I was there.

A maid screamed the moment I appeared, startled half to death.

I quickly tucked the necklace into my pocket and sat down calmly in one of the dining chairs. "Please tell Eveline that she has a guest," I said.

She didn't waste a second, she bolted from the room.

[Your ability to manipulate space is being suppressed,] Anansi spoke into my soul.

Another sigil? Or Reality itself?

[Sigil.]

Do you know the order it's bound to?

[No one can move using time-space magic within the sigil's area. Notify me of any intrusions that happen.]

Are you blocking the second part? If yes, stop. Focus on altering the first restriction.

I hadn't anticipated this sigil, but it changed nothing. I still needed Eveline to confront me and I knew for a fact she was here. Beatrice had confirmed it to Penrose just yesterday.

I heard footsteps now, heavy, fast. Guards.

But there was another set too, lighter, more deliberate, trailing behind. Eveline, maybe.

I jumped over the table and opened Ella with a flick.

Become my shield, I commanded.

She obeyed immediately, shadowlight flooding her frame, pulsing like rainbow-colored electricity. The sudden surge, sharp and wild, crackled through her and through me.

Was it the adrenaline? Or something more?

"What are the numbers?" I asked Zoe quietly.

"In the hundreds so far," she replied.

The double doors burst open with a loud thud, nearly ripped off their hinges as four guards stormed in, rifles raised and aimed directly at me. I could hear the faint flutter of their hearts, they weren't expecting this.

And who could blame them?

A girl in sleek, metallic armor stood before them, feet shaped more like a rabbit's than a human's. In one hand I held an open umbrella, spinning it idly to a rhythm only I could hear.

They shouted the usual warnings. Don't move. Hands up. Get on the ground. The same tired script, over and over again.

"I'm waiting for Eveline de Marco," I said, loud and clear. "Is this how she welcomes her guests? I heard she was once in the market for a friend."

That earned me a chuckle, from her.

She stepped into view behind the guards, calm and poised, lifting a hand to wave them off. The weapons slowly lowered. Eveline wore a long, elegant black-and-white dress, simple yet regal. Her hair was tied neatly back with a black ribbon, every strand in its place.

"Do I know you?" she asked, her voice sweet, composed.

"No," I replied, "but we've met before."

She tilted her head slightly, curious.

"At our first meeting, you were… comforting. But I took something from you. At our second meeting, in the city park, you mentioned you lacked proper friends. But we both know that wasn't really what you were after. You were searching for a Domain. Hoping the necklace would be found soon."

That hit home.

Her posture changed in an instant. No longer relaxed, now tight, guarded. But the pleasant expression remained, fixed like a porcelain mask.

"Have you come to return what you've stolen?" Eveline asked, voice like velvet stretched over thorns.

"Do you mean the silver dragon necklace with five egg-like pearls?" I said, loudly, clearly. "The one that lets you cast magic that doesn't belong to you?"

"That magic is mine. I earned it, as I did the necklace. Give. It. Back." She punctuated each word with controlled fury.

"I might've," I said, tilting my head, "if it weren't for the fact that you're kind of a monster, aren't you?"

Her eyes narrowed. "And yet it's you who's dressed like one. I'm giving you one last chance, hand it over and I'll let you walk away."

"Oh, thanks!" I chirped with mock cheer. "But no thanks. I've got a meeting at three, you know? With Shiroi. You've heard of him?"

That did it.

Her mask cracked, fury seeping through. Her jaw clenched and the fire in her eyes ignited, almost literally.

"He's going to get rid of it," I added. "Once and for all."

"Give. It. Back!" she screamed, pulling a lighter from her pocket. She sparked it and a flicker of flame danced briefly, then exploded into a roaring inferno, surging toward me like a living beast.

I whipped Ella in front of me and activated the wind rotors painted into her frame. The umbrella groaned, then spun with a screech, redirecting the fire in a swirling arc that engulfed the table I'd been standing on seconds ago.

The blast had barely cleared when I flipped backward across the room, landing at the far end.

"That wasn't very nice," I called out, brushing soot off my arm. "Also? Not very effective. So, I'll just see myself out, hope we never meet again!"

And with that, I dashed toward the window, ready to leap.

"Give me your number!" she shouted.

I froze mid-step.

Suddenly, I couldn't move. At all.

Of course, the debt. I had said it myself when we first met: If we ever see each other again, I'll give you my number. Now she was using that vow against me, turning a harmless phrase into a magical shackle. I'd read all about this in the de Marcos Debt Domain guidebook, so I'd prepared for exactly this.

I gritted my teeth and spat out the digits, fast.

The invisible weight lifted.

With a shout, I crashed through the window using Ella, transformed into baton form, to shatter the glass. Just as I leapt, I heard her order her guards: "Shoot her!"

I landed on the front lawn to a hail of gunfire from every angle. I sprinted forward, the suit propelling me at speeds no human could match. The bullets, when they hit, felt like rubber bands, annoying but dulled by my suit and the passive layer of my authority.

Two guards thought they'd play heroes. They rushed me, batons raised. I planned to sidestep them.

But before I could, they exploded, literally, as a fireball tore through them, spraying gore across the grass and trees.

Then I heard another fireball shrieking through the air behind me.

"Damn," I muttered. "She has actual fireballs."

I veered sharply left, diving behind trees. Bark exploded in embers as the fireball crashed where I'd just been.

Are we good on the rule rewrite, Anansi?

[Yes. Changed according to your instructions.]

Good, I thought. I want her to see it. I need her to see it.

Instead of fleeing, I turned, ran toward Eveline and her guards. If they were disturbed by their comrades being incinerated, they didn't show it. She must've enthralled them somehow.

I picked up speed, charging Eveline and then leapt, high and hard, toward one of the remaining guards. My suit-enhanced legs turned my leap into a rocket-powered dive.

I dropkicked the man square in the chest.

But I didn't just hit him, I took him.

The moment we made contact, I activated my lifeline talisman, pulling us both into my Domain, sidestepping the sigil's space restriction the same way I did before. She never saw how I did it.

We landed hard inside my Domain. The guard was already unconscious from the impact. I stood over him for a breath, then flicked him back through the anchor, straight to the de Marcos estate.

I didn't need him. What I needed was for Eveline to see me disappear… and wonder how.

And that?

That I got.

**********

Penrose went ahead and attacked Robert's operation after all.

I didn't mind, one snake biting the other's head off meant fewer drugs on the street. Better for everyone. And if Phillip wanted to deal with the consequences, that was his mess. He'd been hounding me more and more about the necklace these past few days, but I decided he didn't get to have it. Not after deciding the course of my life once before.

Now it was my turn to choose for him.

That's why he still thought I was looking for it.

Meanwhile, I stood on the crumbled wall of a riverfront building, the necklace dangling from my extended hand silver dragon, five pearlescent eggs, still warm with its twisted power. I could've dropped it into the river right then. But that wouldn't stop Eveline.

"Such a beautiful thing," I whispered to the wind, "and so deadly. A source of almost all Eveline's magic."

I tucked it into my hidden pocket.

She was unhinged, that much was clear from our last meeting. Power-hungry. Manipulative. The things Beatrice and Shiroi had said about her might be true after all.

One way or another, today would prove it.

Shiroi arrived early. He stood by the rusting machine near the spot where he once tried to unravel me into threads. I scanned the river and city skyline.

"How are we with the numbers now?" I asked into my earpiece.

"Almost ten thousand" Zoe said. "But most think it's CGI. Pre-recorded."

"That's why I'm here. I see some in the distance."

"Yeah. Your open invitation to non-believers at the riverfront is spreading."

"They can hear us?"

"No. I muted all of our comms like you told me."

"Good. Wish me luck. I hear our other guest incoming now. Showtime."

"Good luck, Alexa."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I leapt from the building.

The fall was forty feet, at least. I hit the shallow water with a crack and splash, pavement fracturing beneath me. My legs only tingled.

Oh, Reality, I love magic.

Shiroi jumped back when I landed, startled like a cat. For someone who could unravel people on touch, he sure startled easy.

"Why did we have to meet here?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. "It reeks. It's a dump and it's repulsive."

"That's what she said," I replied.

He blinked, confused.

"…What?"

"Never mind, man." I waved it off. "Remember what I asked? Please, for the love of everything holy, do not use your powers until I tell."

"I remember."

"Someone else is coming,", I pulled out the necklace, "someone who really wants this magical necklace giving her all the powers back."

"You're talking weird."

Before I could answer, bullets ripped through the air.

I shoved the necklace away and dove behind the rusted machine in the center of the yard. Shiroi followed, eyes wide.

"Follow the plan and trust me," I said, voice like iron. "Even if it's the last thing you ever do, just trust me and do nothing."

He nodded and held position.

I stepped out.

Ella in hand swirling open, glowing with infused light. Bullets pinged against her and scattered. A few struck my suit, meaningless.

Then she walked in.

Eveline. Dressed for war now, cargo pants, boots, tactical vest. Hair tied back. Fury in every step.

"Stop the shooting," she said quietly, yet I heard her perfectly through my rabbit ears. She stepped to the front, unafraid. So sure of herself. So stupid. So reckless.

Penrose was right. Maybe it really would've been easier to just blow her up.

"You thought I wouldn't find you?!" she shrieked.

So much power. And yet she didn't even see the leash dragging her here.

"You stupid girl. I could track your phone! You gave me your number!"

She laughed. Genuinely delighted.

Oh, I really needed to find myself a proper villain someday. I kind of hoped to fight and defeat Shiroi, he at least had a style.

"If you want this necklace, the source of your powers, you're out of luck, Eveline," I said, holding it up. "I won't give it to you."

With one charged leap, I soared up to the steel balcony above. I hit the grating and sprinted across it, boots clanging on rusted metal.

Below, I heard her shouting orders to her minions and then the heavy tread of her own feet as she followed. Good.

"Get her!" she shouted again. The grunts followed, both feet and bullets pounding after me. They flew like angry wasps. I ran along the railings, jumping from one to another, trying to dodge as many as I could. I extended Ella in front of me, like a shield on a stick, catching what bullets I could.

Some still hit. They stung a little, maybe just like those wasps I mentioned, but from that distance, they weren't life-threatening.

I leapt, higher and higher still.

I jumped across a wide gap between two metal walkways, cutting the distance to the roof entrance by at least a quarter. I landed by grabbing a railing, slid along the underside of the bridge and flipped myself back up just in time to block another burst of gunfire from below.

Eveline was following too, no longer just a passive commander. I caught a flicker of motion, her hand opening a metallic lighter, a tiny flame dancing to life.

Then came the infusion of shadowlight from her other palm. The small flame launched into the air like a comet, soaring straight toward me.

I activated the rotors painted atop Ella and deflected it with a gust of forced air, then bolted upward again, pushing ahead.

This chase reminded me of the first one Eveline's goons gave me, back when I was holding this very same necklace. But this time, I wasn't trying to escape.

This time, I wanted their attention.

So when I reached the roof I slowed down, just a little, crazy, right? Maybe I was going crazy.

I leaned back against the chimney, catching my breath while I waited. Might as well use the moment for a little show.

Oh, did I forget to mention? My mask had received an upgrade over the last three days, courtesy of Zoe. We'd installed a discreet camera, one that streamed everything I saw through my phone's Wi-Fi, managed by the one and only Zoe.

So yes, the audience was watching. And it was time to remind them, magic is real.

I climbed onto the chimney and scanned the rooftops, then further, toward the bridge, the riverside. People had come. They were out there, watching. Doubting. Hoping. Some convinced this was just some high-effort CGI stunt.

Perfect.

I pulled a card from my deck, a light one.

Shadowlight flowed into it, warping it into steel. I charged it with radiant flare, turned it into a beacon, then hurled it high.

Next, a rotor card. I did the same, infused it, threw it near the roof's edge. It whirred to life, blasting away garbage and dust in a perfect visual storm.

Just for them.

Just so they could see: this was real.

And then my pursuers caught up.

The first wave were guards, clattering out of the steel stairwell with rifles raised. But I wasn't waiting anymore.

With a swift jump, I landed right in front of them. I could hear their hearts spike, panic. Surprise.

I drove a hook into the jaw of the closest one, a sharp upward arc. Even with his tactical helmet, the blow sent him sprawling.

Out cold.

One of the others turned to run, flight response, kicking in hard. Two stayed. Big mistake.

One swung his rifle butt at me. I ducked under and swept his legs, he toppled backward into his comrade.

They fell together, tangled. I surged forward, placed a single open palm to the fallen man's chest and pushed.

Hard.

The air left his lungs in a wheeze. His lights went out.

I grabbed the other by the collar before he could recover, jumped high, twirled once mid-air and flung him at the one who'd tried to escape.

Both landed hard. Both stayed down.

And that's when Eveline arrived.

Magically, she was strong, very strong. But none of her Domains gave her a real physical boost, aside from healing. Sure, she had shadowlight inside her, like I did, which made her tougher and stronger than a normal human…

But not stronger than me.

Not stronger than me with all my gear.

Except for one thing.

She still had access to the Debt Domain.

I'd spent the last three days poring over de Marco's Domain guide, researching how it worked. I knew now, any wound I gave her, she could reflect back onto me.

If I wasn't absolutely sure I could take her out in one clean blow, then any strike was a risk. And that was a risk I wasn't willing to take.

"You're an interesting mage, rabbit," Eveline said, her voice calm and sharp like a scalpel.

I didn't answer immediately. I jumped back, far enough to give myself breathing room, but not so far that she'd think I was running.

"You're strong, physically capable and you can teleport… something I've long wanted for myself."

"Well… kind of," I shot back. "But you'd suck at it. It requires artistry. Something you clearly lack."

That stung. Her face twitched with irritation, but instead of another fiery outburst, she moved with eerie calm toward the bodies of the guards I had knocked out. She knelt beside one of them.

"You made a mistake underestimating me," she said, brushing the man's forehead like a mother might comfort a fevered child. "Because even when I only had access to a single Domain, my own, I was still dangerous. And now, girl, you've created the perfect circumstances for me."

"I don't care, Eve," I said flatly.

But I did. I cared a lot.

I needed to focus back on the necklace, the thing that made her this powerful in the first place.

"Well," I said, narrowing my eyes, "you might've had some power before… but most of it? That came from the necklace, right?"

She tilted her head. Smiled.

"Most," she admitted.

Good. That was all I needed to hear.

Then I saw it, her shadowlight leaking from her fingers. It flowed in those ethereal, washed-out colors: soft pinks and faded violets, like diluted ink in water. It slid gently down into the unconscious soldier's skull like a breath, like a whisper.

She stood up abruptly and threw her arms into the air, as if conjuring lightning.

But it wasn't the soldier that rose.

It was something else.

At first, the air itself warped around him, like the Openings to Ideworld. It cracked and shadowlight was pulled into those fractures. As it did, the sound followed.

It was like hearing the screams of someone trapped in a nightmare, slowed down and played in reverse.

Then his shadow appeared, shaped by his dreams, routines and self-image, rising like a dark twin out of the invisible lake, drawn straight from the Ideworld.

It shared his silhouette, but it was bulkier, distorted. Warped.

The rifle it held wasn't standard-issue anymore; it looked like a minigun ripped off a helicopter. His face had melted into the helmet, man and machine now one and the same. A brutal caricature of military devotion.

He smiled. Wide. Mechanical. Maniacal.

I'd seen a lot of monsters.

But this one grinned like it had nothing to lose.

"Say hello to my Domain, girl," Eveline purred.

The Domain of fucking dreams.

Of course.

The monster was disoriented at first, his birth into this world had left him dizzy, perhaps. He stumbled, struggling to walk and crashed into the arm of the man whose mind and soul had birthed him. It was a wet, instant collision. Blood splattered like a smashed melon.

Bone cracked.

The slick blood beneath him didn't help his footing, he staggered again, catching himself against the brick wall by the rooftop entrance we'd all used. As his hand touched it, the wall crumbled like dry clay.

Then, finally steady, he looked up at me.

I snapped Ella open and poured shadowlight into her just milliseconds before the hail of bullets slammed into me. Her canopy flared to life, a domed shield of crackling shimmer, but the barrage still shoved me back, inch by inch, like I was getting hit by a hurricane made of molten lead.

These weren't regular bullets.

They hummed with her authority.

Any one of them could erase me if they landed clean.

I braced Ella under my arm, shielding as best I could, while flipping through my deck, fast. Found what I needed. Eyes and ears.

I infused them with steel and eyes and tossed them out and immediately gained new vision, panoramic, elevated, wide-angled. Now I saw everything.

Dream Hulk, advancing steadily, his minigun still roaring.

Eveline, circling, trying to flank me from the right, behind the chimney.

Clever. But not clever enough.

I slipped another batch of cards out. I infused them all with steeliness, easier when they shared a singular identity. Then, with practiced fluidity, I hurled them in Eveline's direction, each infused mid-flight with its face value.

I'd trained this. Over and over. Muscle memory.

The rooftop erupted.

Cards exploded in wind, light, sparks and sound, each like a miniature trap, a sensory flashbang with elemental kick. I heard Eveline snarl somewhere in the chaos, caught off-guard.

And Hulk? He hesitated, half a second of confusion, but that was all I needed.

Ella wedged against a roof tile, letting me pivot forward. I bolted left in a tight arc, faster than most humans could blink.

The Dream Hulk, too focused on destroying the umbrella, noticed me breaking from cover a few seconds too late.

He swung his gun toward me mid-burst, but overshot the arc, those things weren't built for finesse. I closed the distance.

One final card. Infused with piercing steel. I flicked it like a dart, right between his shadow-sculpted eyes.

Thump.

The illusion of indestructibility shattered. Blood spattered.

The hulking rifle dropped with a seismic clang, crushing the poor bastard that was under it.

They both collapsed, through the weakened roof.

Vanished in a thunderous crash of metal, wood and broken dreams.

The creature moved its now-free hands to cover the wound, a gesture so human, it was almost jarring coming from a beast born of nightmares.

I launched myself again, cyber-rabbit legs pumping with full kinetic might. I spun midair, lining up both feet for a precision strike straight into the Dream Hulk's chest.

Impact.

It was like hitting a brick wall.

He barely flinched.

The air jolted out of my lungs. I landed hard, kneeling on his massive torso while still horizontal, then used that same coiled posture to spring off him in a flash, twisting into a backward cartwheel midair.

Adapt. Move. Flow.

That's when the other set of eyes saw it, Eveline, crouched like a predator, fire already swirling in her palms. A glowing orb ignited between them, heat warping the air. She hurled it with a scream, inferno shot, roaring toward me like a meteor.

She expected me to land straight into its path. Cute.

I tucked my arms and shifted mid-descent, letting my limbs go limp in simulation of a fall. Instead of landing upright, I let myself slide across the rooftop, skimming just beneath the fireball as it screamed overhead, singeing the air inches above me.

It crashed somewhere behind in a fiery boom, just as I rolled up onto my feet and sprinted behind cover.

Eveline was already launching more, fireballs raining like comets, each impact shaking the tiles beneath me. Her laughter echoed like a siren across the city skyline.

Maybe she could be a proper villain after all.

But Dream Hulk wasn't going to wait politely for her to finish. He charged forward again, massive frame stomping through the wreckage like a tank.

I vaulted over the collapsed rooftop, only to skid to a halt a foot away from a wall of flames erupting from the ground, like the maw of hell yawning open.

I leapt sideways toward a nearby chimney just as I heard a shriek. Eveline shouted something, but it sounded more like a banshee's wail, designed to shred my senses and crush me with laughter alone. Discord magic? Most likely.

I froze for a moment. But a moment was all the Hulk needed. He barreled toward me and slammed both fists into my chest, launching me like a missile through the air.

I saw my flight through the planted cards, bracing myself just in time, arms extended to soften the blow. I absorbed some of the momentum, then bent my elbows hard, channeling the rest into a roll like landing from a great height.

I hit the ground and spat blood.

Eveline followed it up with a searing missile of fire.

I hurled one of my cards in the nick of time. It split the flame midair, diverting it, though the heat scorched the card like a stove burner. The still-glowing card continued flying and struck Eveline in the side. She bled for the first time.

A second later, pain flared in my side as the same wound opened on my body. Shallow, but sharp. Her Authority so strong I wasn't even given a chance to fight it back.

Eveline, meanwhile, healed instantly in a flash of aquamarine light.

I took Noxy out, just a handheld pistol in its regular form, but a pistol nonetheless. I snapped it up, took quick aim and fired a few shots. The first one hit her, she flinched, then bolted, probably more out of habit or fear of pain than any real damage.

The Hulk reoriented himself too. He grabbed one of the fallen soldiers by the leg and charged, whipping the body overhead in a brutal arc. Then, with a sharp jolt, he slammed it down like a makeshift morning star. I holstered the pistol mid-motion, vaulted to the right, rolled across the roof and came to a stop just a foot short of the gaping hole that led all the way down to street level.

I leapt across.

Through one of my other eyes, I saw the wreckage the impact had left behind. The body he'd used had been smashed with such force, it was reduced to a wet mush of blood, bone and organs. The creature, now holding just a leg, looked at it, blood streaking his face and decided it wasn't much of a weapon anymore. He tossed it aside.

I was nearing my wit's end.

How much longer could I keep this up?

"Do the viewers believe now?" I asked into my earpiece, voice low, breath tight. "Are they seeing what's happening?"

"Yeah," Zoe responded, a mix of awe and urgency. "People nearby started confirming the fire above the rooftops. I ran a poll, most think it's real now. You're trending everywhere."

Good. Any second now. I hope.

A pause.

"Pete couldn't watch anymore, Lex…" Her voice softened. "He left."

My heart faltered.

Just for a second.

Focus.

I clenched my jaw, ducked behind a scorched chimney and prepared the next move. If Pete couldn't face this, it meant we were close. It meant this was working.

And it meant Eveline had just made it personal.

Yeah, it wasn't looking good.

Eveline was summoning something massive above her head, some god-sized fireball, like a dying star being pulled into shape. I saw it first through the card-eye, but that wasn't enough, not for what I needed.

So I turned my real head to look.

To show them.

To make them believe.

And there it was, pure fire, suspended overhead, roaring and radiant like she held a piece of the sun itself. Its corona whipped out in tendrils of lashing flame, so bright it turned the whole rooftop hell-orange.

She was going to roast me alive. I felt it. And Dream Hulk, yeah, he was charging too, ready to turn me into paste.

And then, he stopped.

He didn't even fall. He folded. Like a cloth thrown on the floor, limbs caving inward, body coming apart like scraps of fabric, until the air itself caught the last of him and scattered it to the wind like thread.

Shiroi stood behind where the Hulk had been, arm extended, eyes wide with the strain.

"Run!" he shouted.

Idiot. This heroic act might have made everything I did here pointless.

I didn't run.

But I didn't get incinerated either.

NO MORE!

A voice without sound reverberated through my soul, then something far worse hit me. A wave of Authority unlike anything I had ever felt surged over me, like the ocean breaking free from a dam that had held it back for centuries.

It was like being peeled open from the inside, like my soul had been yanked up by the spine, wrung dry and stomped flat. My very existence overwritten in an instant.

I was cold and hot.

I ran and stayed.

I slept. I sang. I heard. I felt and didn't.

I saw the fire spread… and then it just ceased to exist.

Gone in a blink.

Then there wasn't any fire.

Was there ever?

Yes. No. Yes, …No.

My legs gave out and I crashed to the rooftop, breath gone, body limp.

Everything was quiet.

No Authority.

No strength.

No alternate sightlines, no Domain access, nothing.

I felt human again. Weak. Cold.

And then I heard her.

"No!" Eveline's voice shattered like glass, fragile yet piercing, as if her shout were barely more than a whisper. I looked over.

She was kneeling, tactical gear askew, lighter trembling in her hand flicking and flicking, trying to pull fire from it. A little flame sparked up. She reached out and nothing happened.

She tried again. Still nothing.

It worked. It fucking worked.

The backlash Dam warned me about, when enough sleepers witness undeniable magic, when belief turns into certainty—

—Reality doesn't just erase memories anymore.

It fights back.

Hard.

"We call it a Backlash. Reality uses its divine Authority to suppress or erase the mage's power entirely. It can rewrite abilities, undo enchantments, even strip Domains. Whatever it takes to make the world behave according to his rules, not yours."

His exact words.

Words I bet everything on.

I scrambled for the necklace, switching off the camera feed in my mask, thank Reality it was still in my hidden pocket and ran to Shiroi. Please, please let him be unaffected. No one saw him use his power. No audience. He might've slipped through the cracks.

"Take it." I shoved the necklace into his hands. "Try to unravel it. Its power should be gone, Reality saw this as the cause. I made sure of that." A flicker of silver light shimmered briefly above us as he took it into his hands.

He looked down, then up, understanding hitting him like a slap. He focused. Held it. Examined it.

"You still have your powers?" I asked, lowering my voice.

"I do," he said. His fingers gripped the necklace tighter, but it remained whole.

"I can't do it, Alexa. It's still too powerful. Let me just kill Eveline, "

We both turned, but she was gone.

"Fuck! Where did she go!?" he shouted.

"We'll find her," I said, eyes scanning rooftops, alleyways. "But for now, don't focus on breaking the artifact. Focus on the link itself. The soul-thread. Between her and this necklace. It's got to still be bound to her, but inactive, right? Can you unravel that?"

He paused, looking at the necklace like he was seeing it for the first time all over again.

I realized, suddenly, that I was gripping his shoulders with both hands.

And he didn't unravel me.

Had he stopped seeing me as a threat?

I drew my hands back anyway.

Just in case.

That's when I saw it, a glimpse of golden light.

The thread. Soulbind.

It stretched from the necklace to Eveline, gleaming in the air, alive. It pulsed faintly, shifting with her flight, though she was still on the run, most likely. The thread was unmistakable now, glowing with a growing intensity… then began to dim. Slowly, deliberately.

Shiroi stayed focused, fingers clenched tight, expression locked in unwavering concentration. He was fighting his own battle now, far less spectacular, but no less fierce, no less vital.

The thread resisted him, flaring brighter once more. A pulse traveled along it toward him and then he unraveled briefly, his hands and arms dissolving into threads. Yet the necklace hovered in place, tethered by millions of ribbons woven from fabric, skin, blood, muscle, bone, veins and nerves. It was both beautiful and horrifying.

I was defeated after all. Everything had been in vain.

A pulse of light surged along those threads, the purple and violet hues of Akira's Domain. Every thread shimmered on the wind like rays from a black star bound to a singular, potent artifact. The light danced, then crushed them back together in one violent outburst, instantly reassembling Shiroi, now fully engulfed in the radiance of his own magic. His eyes glowed with dark colors as he refocused his will. The necklace no longer held him, he was the one in control.

Then,

Snap.

The thread broke, violently. Its golden strands staggered in the air, confused, like nerves with nowhere left to fire. Then, with a shimmer, they vanished entirely.

"You did it!" I shouted and ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck.

He dropped the necklace in surprise, but after a second, he hugged me back, tightly.

"Yes," he said softly. "I think I did."

I stepped back quickly, smiling and reached down for the necklace. My fingers curled around it and I looked into his eyes. He looked like someone who had finally exhaled after holding his breath for years.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," I said gently, pressing the necklace into his palm. "Can you unravel it completely now? Should be easier. Layer after layer."

He looked down at it, hesitating.

My smile faltered. Did he want it?

"Will you unravel it if I gave it to you… like this?"

He stood still. Frozen.

"Akira. Wake up."

Finally, he moved. He took the necklace and did not hesitate.

Seconds later, it turned to dust in his hands.

"Thank you for this," I said, quietly. I smiled again, softer now. "Hope to see you again one day. See you."

He was still standing there, stunned by everything that had just happened. While he tried to process it all, I turned and ran to the edge of the rooftop. I clipped onto the line I had set up days earlier, leapt off the building and disappeared over the side before he could follow.

I ran.

Far.

All the way to an abandoned building where I changed into more ordinary clothes.

And for the first time in, Reality knows how long,

I walked home on my own two feet.

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