With Anza’s giant shield pressing down on her and the ground fast approaching, Anza had to make every second count.

  She couldn’t use any of her earth-warping Techniques without her feet touching the ground. Wolf Queen Hunting was still active, but her Stamina had dropped below a quarter of its maximum value and she didn’t have a potion to replenish it.

  [STAMINA: 923/4200]

  There was one option that might work. A new Technique she’d been working on, using Splinter Striker, designed to help her fight airborne Kaijus. This was not what she’d developed it for, but she didn’t have any better ideas.

  Anza beat her Stamina into a jagged, choppy pattern of waves and fed it into her gauntlet as she raised it over her head, murmuring the name of her Technique to preserve her focus. “Skybreaking Splinter Spiral!”

  The cloud of jagged rock flattened, turning into a disc around her wrist. Every one of the stones trapped by her gauntlet’s telekinetic field adjusted their angle, and then the whole circle began to rotate. One after another, the rocks crashed into the purple flesh of Artefact of War, carving a furrow into it, and Anza forced her arm away so that the rotation of Splinter Striker wouldn’t be impeded.

  The crude propeller began to kick up wind, tossing her hair, and then finally started to drag her away, skittering across the edge of the shield. Anza offered a silent prayer to the Inexorable Bulwark in gratitude for Amazonian Aegis’ reinforced outer layer, because she would have been dashed into a bloody smear without it.

  The ground was approaching fast. The margin of error could be counted in milliseconds.

  But with an explosion of dust, Anza burst out from the gap between shield and earth and flew upwards, the wind whipping her hair into wild strands. She twisted, kicking the ground and forcing the turbine around her arm upwards, launching herself into the sky.

  Checking her Mana told her that her reserves would hold out a while yet. So Anza didn’t hesitate; as soon as she’d launched herself high up enough above Lahlee, she cut the Technique, did a backflip, and made Amazonian Aegis swell to full size.

  Flipping over and targeting Artefact of War’s exposed back, letting Splinter Striker fall to her hip and raising her other arm, Anza poured a huge chunk of Stamina into Bismuth Knuckle, weaving and reinforcing the patterns within her weapon that symbolised blunt force. Falling back into bad habits, because this was really an appropriate way to use this Technique, she shrieked, “Meteor Fist!”

  Artefact of War turned its helmet to face her, and Anza liked to imagine that she could see Lahlee’s eyes - well, eye - widening in horror at the reversal.

  Then Bismuth Knuckle impacted the back of her head, and drove her straight into the ground. Anza crouched over Lahlee, landing several quick blows to the side of her head. The force of each strike made the ground shake.

  There was a black explosion, and an expanding balloon of flesh threw Amazonian Aegis into the side of the cliff above the Kill Box, crushing several cliff-mounted structures in the impact. Anza slid to the ground, watching warily as Lahlee recovered. Her shield and false right arm had been crushed into dust, and the black flesh had woven itself into a swirling ribbon that span defensively around her.

  As she straightened up, Anza was momentarily distracted by a strange pop-up in her vision.

  [AN ATARAXIA NODE IS EXPERIENCING AN INCURSION FROM HOSTILE AGENTS. A SYSTEM MODERATOR HAS CALLED FOR AID. ASSIST IN ITS DEFENCE AND EARN REWARDS. WILL YOU FIGHT FOR THE GREATER GOOD? YES/NO]

  “I guess Asika’s doing a thing,” She ducked under a flying blow from Lahlee’s ribbon arm. “Sorry, kid, hope you ain’t counting on me. I’m busy,” She flicked away the prompt and slid forwards, driving Bismuth Knuckle into Artefact of War’s sternum.

  There were things to consider now that they were fighting at Goliath size. Both combatants were moving more slowly, it took longer for even their massive Mana-crafted muscles to strike true. Only that didn’t seem to apply to Lahlee’s monster arm, which whipped back and forth as though there was no wind resistance, like it was only as solid as a mirage. It struck her and forced her on the defensive, Lahlee taking advantage of her greater reach to stymie Anza and put a few hundred metres of distance between their Armour Cores.

  But Anza’s feet were on the ground again, so distance was a privilege that she could revoke. She sank her Mana into the earth, and spikes of stone erupted from behind Artefact of War, forcing it closer to her once more. Lahlee tried to regain the initiative, whipping her grotesque prosthetic forwards, but Anza had prepared for that, and more stone spikes were already sprouting to impede the blow. She strode forwards, stepping to the left as Lahlee tried to circle around to the right, using more spikes of stone to block her passage.

  Rapidly finding herself pinned on three sides and with Anza closing in on the fourth, Lahlee made a break for it. She tried to force her way past Amazonian Aegis, but Anza’s right arm lashed out to clothesline her, Bismuth Knuckle wrapping around her shoulder. Adjusting her centre of gravity, Anza pinned Lahlee in a headlock. “You’re done,” she growled.

  Artefact of War vanished.

  Anza’s eyes immediately focused on the tiny figure of Lahlee that had been left behind when her Armour Core was shut off. This wasn’t unexpected; shrinking to normal size at a time like this was a risky gamble but if she had an escape strategy it could well pay off.

  But something wasn’t right. Lahlee was screaming.

  Her eldritch arm had failed to return to normal size with her.

  Lahlee was stuck, like a wart, half buried in a bulbous organ of black flesh with false muscle and bones protruding from it, forming all the shoulder anatomy needed to control a person’s right arm. She fell, shrieking in agony all the way, and Anza’s hands lashed out to catch her, gripping the malformed upper arm and holding it up to get a closer look.

  The Branch Head didn’t stop screaming when she was no longer falling, and Anza brought her hands closer to her helmet, trying to determine what was happening.

  It was consuming her, Anza realised with horrified revulsion.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  The parasite - for what else could it be? - had lost its cohesion. Trying to force it to grow to Goliath size and then just as rapidly shrink back down must have been more than it could handle. Lahlee struggled, but black tentacles were wrapping around her body, bursting through her skin and ripping her apart from the inside out.

  Anza didn’t know how to help. And, if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t willing to risk trying.

  But she could at least try to Identify the mass of black flesh.

  [ERSATZ - LEVEL ??? - TIER ??? - UNKZ0M -]

  [IDENTIFY FAILED. UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED. THIS FAILURE HAS BEEN LOGGED. PLEASE ALERT A MODERATOR.]

  [YOU HAVE EARNED XP POINTS FOR KILLING A HUMAN!]

  [LEVEL UP! CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 52!]

  Huh? Had Lahlee . . Anza looked at her again. In the moment that she’d been distracted, the unknown mass, which seemed to be called Ersatz, had apparently ripped Lahlee’s heart apart.

  She dropped it, and stamped on the warped arm’s shoulder for good measure until it finally stopped twitching.

  [YOU HAVE EARNED XP POINTS FOR KILLING AN ERSATZ(ERROR:UNKNOWN)!]

  <=====}—o

  “Alright! Here it is!” Asika exclaimed as Mikayla and Keldryn followed her into the room containing the Ataraxia Node.

  Mikayla couldn’t help but marvel, finally laying eyes on the MacGuffin she’d heard so much about. It was a triangular pillar cast from an unearthly metal, emerging from a nest of jagged lines and sharp angles and burrowing into the ceiling. Each side had extending from it a panel that was retained by several wires, and Asika gripped one in her hand, pulling it closer to her face.

  It lit up with blue light, and Mikayla gasped. “No way. That’s an iPad?”

  “A what?” Asika off-handedly questioned, navigating menus on the screen. Her solid blue eyes made it impossible to tell where she was looking, but Mikayla had the disturbing feeling that Asika quite literally had one eye on the screen and one eye on her.

  “Right. A handheld computer that controls other machines. It’s like - wait, actually,” She fished around in her pocket, and pulled out her phone. “Well, like this, but larger, and mine hasn’t worked since we came to this world. No electricity,”

  “Ooh,” Asika was distracted, poring over the phone for a moment, flashes of light playing across her face. “What is this? You didn’t tell me about this before! This is amazing!”

  “Shouldn’t you be focusing on the Node?” Keldryn interrupted.

  “Oh. Yeah, right. Don’t let anything happen to that phone thing! I wanna play with it later!” Asika insisted as she turned back to the Ataraxia Node, her motormouth running on autopilot as her fingers burrowed into it. “Okay, lemme see. Wow, someone really did a number on this thing. Are those supposed to be parentheses? Okay, this, this isn’t a program, it’s a bowl of number stew. Who would even . .”

  Mikayla tuned out Asika’s narration disparaging the state of the Ataraxia Node, instead noticing that Keldryn’s ears were pricked up.

  “I hear footsteps,” the foxkin announced, tail bristling and Skyward Grasscutter already forming around him. “Someone’s coming,”

  Mikayla mentally flipped the Black Knight on in turn, and Asika roused herself, one eye still focused on the screen and smile looking a tad manic. “Scanning . . Ataraxian fingerprint confirmed. Looks like the guy who broke this Node is about to come interrupt us. That’s great! I wanna give him an earful!”

  All three turned to face the other doorway, Mikayla and Keldryn moving to protect Asika since she seemed disinclined to release the Node’s control panel.

  A blue man rounded the corner.

  Mikayla was immediately struck by the resemblance to Asika. The same crystalline, cerulean skin and identical sapphire eyes, framed by cropped purple hair that glistened in the light and a matching beard. He was tall and stick-thin, eyes crinkled in disdain, and clad in ornate and impractical-looking robes the colour of sand that trailed to his feet, his right arm bundled in a drooping sleeve of silk. His left arm’s sleeve was shorter, revealing a Core Controller unlike any Mikayla had seen in the Storage; a gauntlet that seemed to be made of glass, with three purple - purple? - Cores set into it, as well as three Pearl and two Lapis Cores. It was also her first time seeing a Core Controller that had all of its slots filled.

  Remembering that she could now do it, Mikayla Identified him.

  [MAHENDRA - LEVEL 57 - FAERIE - █████████]

  Asika was more shocked than her. “You’re a faerie?!” she burst out, eyes widening.

  “Why are you so surprised?” the male faerie sneered. “Did you really believe the meagre intellect of a mortal could have crippled the Ataraxia Node so thoroughly?”

  “No,” That disconcerting scowl was back. “No, I suppose that makes sense. The way this operation has been skirting the System’s every safeguard, avoiding tripping even a single flag. I should have figured that would only be possible with insider help,” Asika glared at him, taut lines parting her face. “But why?” she pressed, her tone shifting to incredulity. “This is treason, against the System itself. How could you betray the whole world?”

  “Because I, the almighty administrator Mahendra, deserve better than to be constrained by the petty powers of the Cosmic Scales!” he retorted. “You are a Moderator, I take it? So was I. For centuries, I toiled, running back and forth across the globe on pointless errands for the sake of worthless mortals. All for what? A pat on the back and more work, endlessly? You’re adolescent, foolish child. In three hundred years, after a thousand missions to save morons from their own stupidity, you will come to agree with my perspective,”

  Asika’s eyes narrowed. “We’re faeries. We have a duty to this world!”

  “Oh, puh-lease. You’re brainwashed!” Mahendra retorted. “What duty? What has this world ever done for us? Did we ask to be born into this System that shackles us with honour and duty?”

  “Doesn’t matter! If we don’t, then no one will, and then the world will be lost to the monsters, or worse!” Asika scoffed. “In case you hadn’t noticed, no one’s forcing you to do anything, either. You quit? Sure. Did anyone tell you that you couldn’t?”

  “Irrelevant!” Mahendra scowled.

  Asika rolled her eyes, her smile turning sardonic. “Whatever. Your delusions aren’t my responsibility,”

  “Oh, you call me delusional, you snivelling, sycophantic sheep? Pull the wool from your eyes! We are nothing to the Cosmic Scales! One of a million, made on an assembly line! Stripped of our heritage and born to serve!”

  Asika took a deep breath. “Mahendra, for the crimes of treason against the Cosmic Scales and the Ataraxian System, capturing and torturing several dozen sapients, disabling an Ataraxia Node, and writing really crappy code -“

  “Excuse me?”

  “- by my authority as a System Moderator, you are under arrest and I am taking you into my custody,” Asika finished.

  “Is that so? You truly are a fool, since you clearly fail to appreciate the qualitative difference between us, Level 33,” Mahendra sneered. “Have you any contingency in the event that I resist arrest?”

  Asika shrugged a bit, smile unwavering. “I gotta say these things. It’s procedure. But yeah, I don’t have the raw numbers to kick your ass no matter how much you deserve it,” she grumbled. Mahendra’s lips twisted into an evil smile, but Asika wasn’t finished.

  “Which is why I challenge you to a duel in the Datascape,”