“You can kill those things?” both girls interrupted halfway through Erik’s story. Erik asked them to hold their questions until the end of the story, and despite their frowns, they did as asked. Ending his story when he arrived at Leicester, the two had no lack of questions to ask him.

  Before that, though, Jessie ordered her sister to buy some beer and bring it back while she made dinner for them. Making dinner, in this case, meant throwing some frozen food into the oven for half an hour, but that didn’t make it less appetising in the end.

  “So you’ve killed Hellbeasts?” Jessie asked before her first forkful of lasagna.

  “Five, I think,” Erik said, thinking back before nodding in confirmation. “I think they’re vulnerable to magic, actually.”

  “They’re certainly unkillable by other means, or so I’ve heard,” Jessie said.

  “Yeah. That means you’ll probably be able to witch them to death too, you know.”

  “What if I can’t, though? I mean, we can’t be sure, right?”

  “That’s actually part of the reason I’m here. I got some help from the military stationed between Sweden and Denmark, and some new friends that are at the nearby air base right now. They want me to help them win the war, but I need your help. If you can give it, of course,” Erik said, looking at Sophie at the end. “I understand your family needs you-”

  “I’ll do it, obviously. The moment I got back and learned of the invasion, I was heartbroken. If I can help, even just a little, I have to,” Jessie explained, also looking at her sister.

  “Of course she’s helping!” was all her sister said in response to their stares.

  “That reminds me - what can you do?” Jessie asked, her mouth full of pasta and tomato sauce.

  “Err… stuff? I mean, it’s just a bunch of weird stuff. What’s your power?”

  “Oh! It’s really cool!” Sophie exclaimed, her eyes practically glowing with pride.

  “Oh?” Erik said, looking at Jessie.

  “It’s multiple things, like you. I call it ‘Call of Nature’, and it lets me cast a spell for each natural element. One fire spell, one water spell, an earth spell and a wind spell. Like Nana guessed, some are offensive and some are defensive,” Jessie explained.

  Nana, who was a fount of knowledge for recently reborn Remnants, had guessed that based on Jessie’s Crest. On her chest were two bird wings, one pointed upwards with sharp feathers, the other with thicker plumage pointing downwards. The left one looked like a predatory bird’s wing, like that of a falcon or eagle, and the other resembled that of an owl.

  The Core was right in the middle, and each wing had one row of circles along the bones, and another along the edge of the feathers. She also had one extra line of circles straight down from the Core.

  Like Erik’s, the first circle in each row was larger than the rest. With the additional row, Jessie had one more row for absorbing powers, and one more major power than he did. Sometimes, the Crests could be used to tell what kind of abilities the Remnant was suited to, and Nana guessed that Jessie’s would either be both offensive and defensive based on the two different wings.

  That didn’t mean that was Nana’s only guess, as it could also mean something like hard and soft, or even up and down considering the directions they were pointing. Erik’s swirl was harder to pinpoint, as it was uniform. That could mean that there either wouldn’t be that much variation in his powers, or that the differences weren’t easily quantified.

  “Can I see yours?” Sophie creaked with enthusiasm.

  After dinner, Erik removed his shirt, letting Sophie see his Crest from up close. She touched his dimly glowing red core with her index finger, following the swirls to one of the ends.

  “Why are your thingies hexagonal?” she asked. This had been discussed in Afterlife as well, but the general consensus was reasons. It didn’t seem to matter at all, but it was always geometrical shapes.

  “Hey, you said the name of your power was Call of Nature, right? Did you name it yourself?” Erik asked, trying to focus on something else than the pretty girl touching his chest.

  “No, it came to me when meditating on it. Didn’t you get that? That’s how I learned what I could do at the beginning,” Jessie explained.

  “I have to say, I completely forgot about meditating. I just did it for a few seconds when I fought that first Hellbeast.”

  “That’s dumb! Nana said meditating is one of the most important parts of being a Remnant. It’s how we’re supposed to grow stronger!”

  “I know, I know. I’ve been busy, okay?” Erik excused himself.

  “Do it now,” Jessie ordered. Erik could only sigh in response, and sat back down on the couch. Sophie stepped back and stared at him along with her sister.

  How was he supposed to just do it, with the rest of them just watching him? It was weird, right? Still, he had to try. There was no way Jessie was letting it go otherwise.

  Almost immediately after settling down, the massive sea that was his magic hovered in front of him, everything else pitch black around him. He didn’t know this, but his red core was glowing brighter in front of the girls he was with. He tried searching for the feeling he got when touching things his power worked on, but he had to eventually figure out another way to do it since nothing seemed to happen at all.

  He felt the edge of the sea with his hand. It was both warm and cold, wet and dry. It made him unsure whether the pitch black was actually the sea, not the other way around, but he couldn’t be sure. Eventually, something did come to him, but it wasn’t the name of his power suddenly appearing in his head. It was something else. Someone else.

  “Behold the Titan,” the figure said, growing ever more clear, yet still giving off no real details. It was clearly humanoid, but still seemed blobby. It was red, like the light of his Core, streaked with black. It undulated as it spoke, but stilled again when observing Erik.

  “Who are you?” Erik asked. He ran through several other questions, but none of them made more sense to ask at this moment.

  “Behold the Titan. Carry the Cross,” it responded.

  “I don’t know what that means.” Erik tried reaching out to the figure, but despite its apparent closeness, he couldn’t reach it at all.

  “Carry the Cross. The Titan is reborn.” The form faded, all signs of it gone in a second. Erik woke from his meditative state.

  “Unexpected Arsenal,” he said, not sure quite where those words came from. He felt like he knew a whole lot about his power now, but that too seemed to fade, though slowly.

  “What else?” Jessie asked. Her voice was hard to hear, like he heard it through jelly.

  “Zero. Zero?” he said, more guesswork than knowledge.

  “Same as mine. I think it means the rank of the power. You remember?”

  “Yeah. Nana said there were different scales for tiers and ranks all over the universe. So tier zero, rank zero?” he guessed.

  “I think so. We agreed to call that Iron-tier, right? So what does your power actually do?”

  “I feel like it goes something like ‘Manifest spiritual power.’ and a bunch of limitations, but I forgot all those already. That’s weird.”

  “So how have you used it so far? I don’t know what that means. Mine explains the different effects of the different spells, though specific details elude me, too,” Jessie said.

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  “I get a sense of what certain stuff can do when I touch it. When I infuse magic into the thing, I can activate it, and it does that thing. I have a plastic frisbee that hovers in mid-air and extends an invisible shield a few metres around it. I have screws that turn into lightning bombs,” Erik explained, slowly getting all his senses back in order after his meditation. It wasn’t supposed to feel like this, right?

  “Cool!” Sophie exclaimed.

  “That does sound cool,” Jessie agreed.

  A little later into the evening, Erik told Jessie his plans for getting stronger, including how the military and his new friends, Angela and Emma, could hopefully help. The details would be gone over later that night at the air base, but he was planning to get a good supply of gemstones to expand his repertoire quite early on.

  It was especially recommended to at least get his major powers down first, as they would be the base of his powerset. If he filled out an entire row of one major and two minor powers first, the rest of his major powers could be slightly skewed towards fitting with the minor powers instead of his core and major powers. That wasn’t necessarily bad in any way, but could force him into a path of development he wouldn’t be suited for.

  As his powers evolved, meaning going up in tiers, they would develop based on his usage of them and how he meditated on how to improve with them. It was easier to make all of his powers go in one direction if they all started at base, rather than skewed towards a certain thing.

  One example Nana gave was if he had a spell-based major power, with one fireball minor power and a firewall-power, his second major power would be slightly skewed towards either spell-based or fire-based powers, rather than mobility or strength-based powers.

  That wasn’t bad, but it limited his growth to that direction, practically making him a mage-type Remnant. Supposing he started with the spell-based major power only, his second major power could just as easily become a strength-based one, giving him a better chance at developing into a swing-and-fling archetype.

  Erik found all this easier to consider if he thought of it in RPG-terms and he thought he understood it fairly well. He could still get all his major powers as spell-based powers out of the gate, but he was assured his personality and soul had at least some part in what powers he got. He was only scared he got really evil powers, as that would say a whole bunch about him he didn’t even know himself.

  Jessie wanted to join him to the air base later that evening, and Sophie gave them no choice in the matter whether to bring her or not. She was going. Erik didn’t mind either way. In fact, he enjoyed Sophie’s company. She had a bubbly personality he felt like he really needed right now, all things considered.

  The next few hours, the three talked about new beginnings and plans for the future until an army convoy churned through the streets outside the flat.

  “I’m guessing that’s our ride…” Erik said, getting up from his seat to look out the window. “I thought we were supposed to be low-key.”

  Luckily the convoy didn’t exit their vehicles with megaphones. Emma left the frontmost vehicle, looking around. She noticed Erik through the window on the third floor and looked at him apologetically.

  “Guess we’re off?” he said to the worried girls behind him.

  Out on the street, Erik went straight towards Emma, but was all but manhandled by a couple of soldiers, being pulled towards another vehicle than Emma’s.

  “Let go,” Erik said, calm as a lake on a still day.

  “Come with us, sir,” one of the soldiers said, trying to pull him further. When he noticed a couple of other soldiers doing the same to Jessie and Sophie, the weather around said lake changed.

  “I promise you, you will not get me into that car without my consent, soldier,” Erik said, his demeanour completely different. The other soldier grabbing him let him go, but the one who had ordered him around still kept his hands on him.

  “Don’t make me taser you, sir,” the soldier said, reaching into one of his back pockets, pulling an electrical device out.

  “Try me,” Erik said. He did.

  The device clicked several times as the soldier pushed it against Erik’s torso, but the Remnant barely flinched other than a repeated twitch on the corner of his mouth. A few seconds later, the device stopped, and the soldier looked nervously at Erik’s eyes. Erik then pushed the soldier back with his hands, the soldier practically flying back until he hit the car three metres or so behind him. Erik looked at Emma, who looked equally as annoyed as Erik.

  “What’s going on?” he asked her.

  “They don’t know what to do in a case like this. Cut them some slack. They promised not to hurt you,” Emma said, though whether she believed her own words or not weren’t obvious.

  She looked Jessie and Sophie up and down, before nodding in greeting at them. Jessie nodded back, but Sophie only looked nervously around.

  Erik went over to the car they wanted to put him in, gesturing to the driver, still in the car, to drive the window down.

  “Room for four?” Erik asked, leaning into the car through the window.

  “Uh, yes?” the driver said. Erik smiled and thanked the man.

  “Emma, Jessie, Sophie, you’re riding with me. Shotgun!”

  Erik then entered the car in the front passenger seat, eyeing the soldiers around the rest of the girls as the girls wandered off towards his commandeered vehicle.

  The soldier he pushed gave Erik a violent stare, but got into another vehicle with the other soldier. Soon enough, they were driving off.

  “What was that about?” Erik asked openly in the car. The driver was really busy focusing on the road in front of him.

  “They’re just nervous. I don’t know the details about the missive from the general, but it cracked some shells, so to speak. The convoy is under Colson’s command. The guy you pushed,” Emma explained.

  “The guy who tased me, you mean?” Erik asked in a corrective manner.

  “Yes, the guy who tasered you. The rest of them don’t know anything, but he’s putting them all on edge. Don’t give the rest of them a bad time, please.”

  “I’ll try. So do they know?”

  “They know some, I guess. Like I said, I don’t know the details of the missive Angela gave the brigadier.”

  “Do they know we can kill the Hellbeasts?” Erik asked, and the vehicle they were in swerved back and forth, almost crashing into an oncoming car.

  “Well, he does,” Emma said with an annoyed tone. Erik looked at the driver, who looked incredibly tense.

  “Hey, you can keep a secret, right?” Erik asked with a calming voice.

  “I, uh… Y-yessir?” he responded, having got the vehicle under control once more.

  “Great! Anyway, Emma, meet Jessie-” Erik said, gesturing towards Jessie. “- and Sophie, the bubbly little sister.”

  Sophie smiled at Erik, then greeted Emma. Jessie shook Emma’s hand, as the two were seated next to each other. Sophie and Emma were seated on opposite ends.

  “You’re the other one?” Emma asked Jessie, eyeing the driver as she did.

  “I suppose I am. We should talk when we arrive, I think,” Jessie said, getting a nod of approval from Emma.

  Ten minutes later, the convoy stopped outside the gate to the air base, and soon moved on through the opening gate. A line of soldiers were waiting for them outside a hangar they stopped in front of.

  Erik, not much for waiting for orders, casually stepped out of the vehicle, stretching his arms into the air. A middle-aged man practically reeking of authority walked towards him, only temporarily stopping to share a few words with Captain Colson, who still looked quite angry. The brigadier soon stopped in front of Erik.

  “Good evening, Mr Fried. I’m Brigadier Bumley, in charge of the Leicester air base. I hear you’ve already had an exciting first meeting with the British Royal Army… I apologise for the captain’s behaviour. I hope we can start over in a more agreeable way for both parties.”

  “Well, what’s a little light tasing between future friends, am I right?” Erik said, looking over at the captain, who merely grunted in response as he walked away.

  “Quite… General Mathisen’s missive has been both eye-opening and quite lacking in details. I hope you and I can talk more in a less public arena?” the brigadier asked.

  “Of course, Brigadier, that’s why I’m here. I want Angela, Emma, Jessie and Sophie to join, if that’s not too much to ask. I realise my whole squad is me and a bunch of girls, so you can bring in a couple of guys if you like,” Erik answered. The brigadier took a few moments to respond to that.

  “Of course, Mr Fried. I would like to bring Captain Colson along, if you wouldn’t mind too terribly.”

  “My mind is nothing if not malleable, Brigadier. If you trust the man, I’ll give him a chance,”

  “Much appreciated. Shall we?”

  The group were led into the hangar, immediately turning left to climb a narrow staircase. They followed a catwalk across the hangar and into a meeting room on the opposite side of where the hangar gates they entered from.

  The meeting room featured an old-fashioned blackboard, a CRT TV and a collection of desks and chairs. The desks were pushed together to form one large table, with the chairs placed all around.

  “This looks like ancient school-equipment,” Jessie commented, and Erik agreed. It was like he was back in first grade.

  “The invasion has stretched our resources quite thin. This is only a temporary camp, after all, and there’s only so much fancy equipment to go around. We have modern computers and radio equipment, of course,” the brigadier explained, gesturing them to sit down in the chairs of their choice. Captain Colson and another man entered the room a minute later.

  “We should start by officially welcoming our guests and greeting them appropriately,” Bumley started as everyone had seated themselves. As you know, I’m Brigadier Bumley. It’s a pleasure to meet you Jessie, Sophie.”

  “Sorry to interrupt, but where’s Angela?” Erik asked, only slightly worried.

  “She’s communicating with General Mathisen at Bridgefort. She’ll be along shortly,” said the hitherto unnamed third UB soldier in the room. Erik nodded to him. “I suppose that makes me next. I’m Major MacLeod. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” he continued.

  He got several nods of greeting in response, but silence reigned absolute for the next short while, only interrupted by the major’s clearing of his throat. It was clearly directed at Colson.

  “Captain Colson. Pleasure,” the angered man lied.

  Erik’s group was next, and they all introduced themselves one after the other. Emma didn’t use her military rank as she did, which didn’t escape the notice of the other major and the brigadier. Angela entered the room during the introductions, and she ended by introducing herself to the room, mostly for Jessie’s and Sophie’s sake. She, too, avoided stating her rank.

  “Introductions out of the way, I would like us all to now talk about this missive, handwritten by General Mathisen of the SEMP. I will begin reading the most critical part,” Bumley said, before reading a part of the missive. “For the sake of the future, and any chance of us winning this wretched war, I beg you to assist this civilian contractor, Erik, and his team, in whatever way you can. Understand that this is not a request for aid, nor reinforcement. This is to be considered a personal request, avoiding any and all usual channels. Let it be known that I, General Mathisen, hereby place any and all responsibility for the actions of this team on myself and my rank.”