Snooping came as easily as breathing. Two minutes. That was all it took. It would have been one—if Kim hadn't taken it upon herself to kick down a few wrong doors purely for the joy of it.
When the correct one finally splintered beneath her shoes, we found only three men inside.
And the girl.
Tied to a chair in the corner, her white hair matted against her face, her body slumped and unmoving.
"Busted!" Kim announced brightly.
Lilyanna's hand had already gone to her weapon.
The men froze around the low, guttering fire in the centre of the room. One of them slowly lifted a finger and pointed at us.
"…Superheroes?"
We shook our heads.
"Magical girls?"
Another shake.
"The Rangers?"
Kim blinked at him.
"Do you see crazy colours on us?"
Their eyes slid—inevitably—to her blazing orange pigtails.
Mine followed. I couldn't blame them, she would fit in with those Clawns.
"Nah," I said mildly just to antagonise her. "She's just a loser."
Kim whipped around, ready to murder me with words alone.
Lilyanna cleared her throat.
The sound cut clean through the tension.
Her staff snapped free from the small bag at her waist and locked into a bō with a sharp metallic click.
"We're here for the girl," she said. "Hand her over." Not asked.—Stating.
The men exchanged crooked, confident smiles as they stood.
"And why would we do that?" one of them asked. A blue beanie pulled over his balaclava caught my attention.
— Wrong answer.
Lilyanna moved before any of them could reach for a weapon. She lunged at them with flashing steps, reaching them in no time.
The crack of her staff against bone echoed through the room as the first man went down.
She pivoted on her heel, smooth and deadly, and brought the weapon across the face of the one who had asked all the questions.
He crumpled.
Fast.
"Aww," I murmured. "I liked that one."
Kim glanced at him, then at me.
"Him?" she said flatly. "He looks exactly like someone you would like."
I frowned.
That… felt unnecessarily personal.
The third man rushed in.
Lilyanna met him with a sharp strike to the shoulder—merciful, by her standards.
She was on fire today.
If Kim had handled it, there would have been bones protruding.
The beanie guy tried to come at Lily from behind.
She twisted out of her follow-through and swept his legs out from under him.
He hit the floor hard.
Kim and I stood watching her make quick work of them.
"Do you think their insurance covers this?" I asked lightly, even as the sound of metal against flesh filled the room. "Or is this a workplace injury?"
"They're criminals," Kim replied automatically.
Then paused.
"…Yeah. Workplace injury."
While Lilyanna finished dismantling the remaining resistance, I moved for the girl.
White hair.
The mole on her cheek.
So young.
Too young.
I knelt and hovered my hand above her brow. Blue light spilled gently over her face.
Nothing critical.
Just sedatives.
Relief loosened the tight coil in my chest.
I looked back and gave Kim a thumbs-up.
Lilyanna had the men disarmed and on their knees within seconds.
It should have ended there.
But the air shifted.
My head lifted slowly.
Kim met my eyes—expecting news about the girl.
Instead, I reached my hand to my face, tapping my nose. The smell had crept into my lungs without warning.
Burning grass.
Sharp. Bitter.
—Wrong.
Lilyanna raised a hand in silent question.
Kim sniffed once. And frowned, nothing.
Neither of them could sense it.
I opened my mouth—but before I could even voice my concerns and the smell to them…
The floor trembled.
For a heartbeat, we all assumed the men were Awakened, trying some desperate attempt. But no. They looked just as startled.
Instinct seized us up. Eyes darting around, I swear they had the same look as the Phantom—whenever he was preparing himself to fight. That look that screamed danger and preparation.
I stepped back, one arm stretching over the unconscious girl. Shielding her with magic.
The smell twisted.
Changed.—Musky.
Burning grass became something far worse.
Rotting flesh.
"Something's wrong," I warned my teammates along with the three men. The room felt tight around me, like eyes had turned towards me from all directions.
The men stood without being told. The one with the beanie must have been the leader, as he—just like Lily, who now also got the sense that something was off—looked around.
The vibration increased on the floor. It was getting closer and closer. Then the old abandoned factory practically screamed, shivering in fear.
And in that moment, the wall exploded inward. Bits of concrete burst at us in all directions, followed by the light smoke of dusty debris from the wall.
A massive blue bull tore through concrete and dust. Giant horns the size of my entire arm burst from each side of its head. Its body was translucent. Massive and bigger. A moving sky lived inside it—stars drifting, constellations twisting through its form like living light.
I had seen creatures that bent the rules of reality. I had never seen something like this. A night sky tattooed over a giant bull was, unfortunately, not one of them.
It started running straight. It slammed straight into Kim. Ramming straight through her.
Why wasn't she trying to fight? Compared to me and Lilyanna, she was the fastest on her feet, the one I expected to be skipping and jumping around the bull. But no.
Her body hit the wall with a sickening crack. Her front hitting the concrete wall, nothing she hadn't experienced before. But she wasn't fighting back… heck, she wasn't even moving.
It slammed her against the wall again, her back caught in its forehead.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then I saw it. Its horn caught the thin fabric of her top and ripped it apart as it dragged her back. It was trying to get her off in the only way it seemed to know.
"Kim!"
Lilyanna and I shouted together.
The men were frozen in horror.
They could see it.
Lilyanna launched herself at the creature.
Her staff swept through its head.
Through. Like trying to hit a ghost.
She failed. Landing crouched on the ground like a cat landing on its feet as she looked back. The bull gave her but a glance as it tried to get Kim's unconscious body off.
Then it hit us. It wasn't transparent.
—It was untouchable.
Transparent even.
My throat started to burn.
My eyes stung.
The bull turned.
Its gaze locked onto me. Readying its hooves at me. Or maybe the girl behind me—I couldn't tell.
Behind it, the man in the blue beanie broke free of his terror and ran for Kim.
He dropped to his crouch beside her, taking her arm, dragging her limp body away from the creature's legs.
Her skin was already losing colour.
Like the air itself was feeding on her. Was it because she was closest to that thing? I thought to myself.
"Careful, Mira," Lilyanna said, stepping in front of me.
The bull reared. But not towards us. But at them.
Hooves rose.
My hand snapped flat in front of me, the other one behind me.
A blue shield exploded into existence around Kim and the man shielding them. Same with the unconscious and tied-up girl behind me.
The impact shattered it. My wrist almost jolting down on impact.
Not absorbed.
Shattered.
My breath stuttered. But I had no time for silly thoughts, repositioning my arm straight in front of me. Keeping the shield up.
My shields did not break.
Instead, I dragged my other hand to align with the other, forcing the magic to hold.
The girl behind me temporarily forgotten.
I was stuck between not getting detected by the Order of Merlin or using a stronger spell to keep them safe.
Cracks spidered through the barrier anyway.
This was almost the same feeling I got whenever I fought Sakura, but even she had never pushed me like this.
But then she had never truly tried to kill me. To her, it was a silly sparring match against a child.
The bull lifted its hooves again. My chance to strike sparked up. Sakura's words, harsh but true, came ringing in my ears.
'No honour in losing. Strike them before they can even make a move.'
Her voice like a leech on the back of my skull.
I kept the shield alive with one hand and drew my other arm back.
A blast of blue magic tore through the air from my clenched knuckles and hurled the creature across the room. Away from Kim and the man.
It slammed into the far wall, near the other two men. Snapping them from their frozen moment.
Ready to run away, shame be damned, but they looked back.
Then stopped.
The beanie guy refused to leave Kim just yet. Struggling to get her up as my shield kept hitting his head every time he tried to stand up, only to feel something he couldn't see keep him in place.
They turned back for him. What good friends, I thought. I wasn't sure if I wanted to let the shield go. I couldn't take that chance just yet.
Lilyanna stared at the creature with naked frustration.
She could not touch it.
Only magic could. It seemed.
Then she turned on her heel. At first I thought it was to stand next to me.
But.
She passed me for the girl. She didn't need to say whatever she had come up with. It was protocol.
While the bull was still down, I made an ice blade fall behind the chair the girl was tied to, slicing the ropes, and the girl fell over without the restraints. Lily caught her by the shoulder.
Not hesitating, but giving a side glance to me, then the man by Kim's side. Might as well use his bravery and get Kim out.
She hauled the unconscious body over her shoulder.
"If you can't fight it," she said calmly,—too calmly. "Get out." And with that, she was moving out with the girl on her shoulders like a sack of potatoes.
I lowered the shield, signalling the man to follow the black elf. His next action made me sure of it—he had some kind of training, as he simply obeyed.
The men lifted Kim. Carrying her like an unconscious child.
They ran.
Just in time.
The bull rose again.
Its hooves scraped along the concrete.
It charged.
I fired.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The magic vanished into its body like rain through smoke. My attack that had just worked a second ago failed me.
My eyes hunted. At anything different.
There. I yelled to myself in my head.
The horns.
Grey.
Solid.
Man-made.
Everything else glowed blue and unrealistic galaxies.
The horns did not. They were dull and metal.
Screw it, I thought. The Order of Merlin can come and find me all they want. Lilyanna had a portable portal to get out before that.
"Ignites of ten." I practically yelled it. A white lotus flower bloomed to crown my head, before expanding into a blue light around me, turning into a ring of floating ice-blue blades.
I didn't waste a second.
They struck.
Most at once shattered on the horns. It landed.
The rest passed cleanly through its body and buried themselves in the wall behind it.
I had no answers.
No clever spell.
No perfect solution.
So I stopped running.
The bull thundered toward me.
The stench filled my lungs.
The world narrowed to its lowered head.
Its horns.
Right before impact—
I tore open a portal.
Straight into the crushing black of the deepest ocean.
The creature vanished mid-charge.
Silence crashed down around me.
"…What the hell," I breathed.
"Ignites—fall."
The remaining blades melted into water and steamed away.
No trace.
No proof.
I snatched Lilyanna's fallen staff and ran.
Kim! I thought to myself, remembering her earlier condition.
Debris blurred beneath my feet.
The brown metal door stood open.
They were outside.
I found Lilyanna kneeling over Kim's pale body.
The girl lay nearby, still unconscious.
The men were gone. They owed us a favour.
"Lily," I yelled for her, praying that they were already safe.
She looked up, relief breaking across her face.
"Thank the Goddess," she breathed, letting out some of the tension in her heart.
"Is she okay?" I asked, already checking Kim's pulse. "Did she wake up?"
"No." I could hear the stress in her voice. This was a bad idea. We shouldn't have been so careless.
Magic stirred.
Sharp.
Foreign.
My blood went cold.
Order of Merlin.
"We're going to Organisation C," I said.
An arrow ripped past Lilyanna's shoulder—
And I tore space open.
The world folded.
White floors.
Dozens of stunned faces.
Kim's limp body in my arms.
"Get Professor Adrian!" Lilyanna shouted.