“And that’s the second group John has encountered and defeated,” Scarlett’s voice echoed out of the Lightbearer’s phone, as she paced up and down the room.

As John had suggested, Rave had met up with Magoi and, with his wife, went into the Guild Heart chamber. Magnus was not with them, only Eliza and Copernicus. When this whole thing started, he was outside the barrier. As it was, he was safer than anyone inside the Hudson Barrier, even if the enemy tried to assassinate him specifically, pinning someone down in the streets of central NYC (an adept Fateweaver no less) was an incredibly difficult task.

“And now he’s back to the searching part of search and destroy,” the Technomancer continued her live reporting.

“Can’t ya just tell him where the enemies are located?” Rave wanted to know. With all the other things Scarlett just wormed her way into knowing and doing, leaving John to scout himself felt ineffective. “I mean, ya told us the areas they were in, what’s the difference?”

“The difference…,” the sound of Scarlett sipping on some sort of, presumably alcoholic, drink interrupted her answer for a moment, “…is that they smashed the cameras between then and now. The other avenue I have, the communication devices they use, are encrypted to hell and back. I would either need to act in a way so obvious the enemy Technomancers would spot me or take it so slow I won’t get done before the battle is over. They don’t have phones on them and I can’t scan for them in this large an area.” Another sipping sound. “Best I can do is track what our allies are doing and see which cameras have been taken out last. By the by, Chemilia has landed in Manhattan now.”

“What about John’s double?”

“No clue. Nobody but that blacksmith lives in the area, and now that security cleared out of there, there’s no tech around that’d allow me to check things. Only way I get anything is if any of the trio that went there decide to get their fucking phones out of their signal-blocking bullshit inventory.” Annoyedly, the redhead clicked her tongue. “My mistake that John went there not knowing an enemy elite would be there…”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Rave remained cheerful. “I imagine there’s a lot of signals coming your way right now.”

“Yes, sure, but I’m the best at this, so that shit won’t fly,” Scarlett returned. “It’s my job to coordinate these things so we can make the optimal decisions and a failure is a failure. I should have marked the security personal in place with some higher priority code so I would check them first whenever they got attacked… I just… didn’t have the time… and that’s a shitty excuse for something that valuable.”

“I can give ya a spanking after this is over, if that would make ya feel better,” the Lightbearer joked, only to be presented one of those blue windows her boyfriend’s ability conjured. Although she saw them way less frequently, after a year of being confronted with them, she didn’t think much of them anymore.

This particular one, she could see because she was a member of Fusion, the second-highest ranking one by settings, which gave her a certain amount of powers over the Guild Hall. Nothing in the way of placing Buildings or editing the landscape, but she could mess with options and receive notifications for things in John’s absence.

“Speaking of jobs…” she mumbled. Sentinel Golems were level 40. It was impossible for the average soldier to dismantle several at the same time. It didn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that one of the enemy elites was assaulting the Guild Hall. The question was whether or not Rave should act on that information.

That alone was enough for Rave to make the call. ‘If there’s damage to be prevented, then me sitting here won’t do any good,’ she thought, looking to the people she was here to protect. Of course Eliza would be fine. If the Lake Alliance had someone capable of actually harming her, then John and his allies were, to put it bluntly, fucked anyway. “Yo,” she turned to Magoi and Mabirl, “would you two be fine if I left?”

Magoi immediately made a waving motion. “Go. If anyone attacks us, I will just leave the barrier. That would let the enemy leave as well, but the chances of them finding us here are pretty slim anyway.” Rave nodded and then made her way up the spiral staircase.

Usually, walking up and down was no problem. That was because John didn’t have a lot of guests and who was over he trusted. For the most part. Should the Palace ever become more frequented, the same measures that now obstructed Rave’s path out of the chamber might become active on a regular basis.

The last segment of the staircase was lowered, allowing an array of plates to layer around the pillar the steps were spiralling around. Curved and interlocking like the mechanism around a camera lens, Rave had to admit that it looked pretty sturdy. She felt some sort of second-hand pride over John taking these things so seriously. Theoretically, taking one of the doors out was quicker. However, there was a difference between the doors and this mechanical wonder.

The doors had been placed later, forged as individual pieces and assembled to create an analogue mechanism that couldn’t be hacked, only opened via the correct code. This closed ceiling she was staring at was part of the Palace, as such hooked up to the Guild Halls power grid and manageable via the options menu. Which was particularly useful because it meant Rave didn’t have to remember the password.

After finding the right menu, she tapped one button, and the hatch opened. The stairs rose back up, allowing her to just walk up to the Palace proper. Once there, she tapped the same button again, and the whole mechanism closed again. The sealed floor looked equally smooth everywhere. A layer of red carpet magically appeared on top of the closed hatch, obscuring the existence of the room underneath further.

Rave strut towards the southern door, itself also reinforced with a heavy metal sheet that had rolled down from somewhere. The whole Palace was in lockdown. Another few taps on the menu, and she was outside. Standing in the grass, she did a few stretches. “Cappy?” she spoke out, while her flexible sinews loosened up.

“Yes?” the suncat asked, sitting down next to her, his tail laid around his feet.

“Ya wanna stay here or are ya fine with letting me carry you?”

“Since this is a somewhat serious situation, I’ll do you the favour of tagging along. You might need to go all-out after all,” Copernicus responded with an equally benevolent and mocking purr. With no further words, he transformed into a streak of light. It slung itself around Rave’s wrist and turned into a copper band that sat comfortably tight around the black glove of her battle suit.

She rolled her neck and shoulders, took a deep breath, and let the intense sunshine fall on her face for a few seconds. Where clouds collided with the rim of the Guild Hall barrier, they simply disappeared. They reformed on the other side as if they had naturally passed through. This phenomenon was exactly why Rave was fighting in the Guild Hall, rather than run around the place.

The Weather Tower guaranteed that this was the hottest summer day it could be, the heat from the sun fell intensely on the Lightmage. A heat that she much preferred and that charged her body with power. “Here…” she dropped down into a starting position, “…we…” her heel pressed against the wall behind her, “…go!”

The blue of an activated Aura surrounded her, aided her speed as she blasted forwards. ‘Jane… Jane, why can’t we ever just take the stairs?!’ Copernicus complained.

“Your face can take the stairs!” she laughed back, pulling her headphones into position as the pink cat ears sprouted on top of her head, boosting her physical capabilities even further. With a basic touch to the right speaker, she put the music on. Electronic beats filled her human ears, while that extra, supernatural pair on top heard the wind whistling by their folded back shape.

Rave accelerated further, every step bringing her closer and closer to the tip. Displeased meowing echoed in her mind as she leapt twice. Once to get from the grass onto the stone rim, then from the stone rim into the air.

“WHOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!” Rave shouted, spreading out her arms and legs for a few seconds. With as much momentum as she had brought into the jump, the fall carried her far southwards. Forward speed didn’t change the pull of gravity, however. The fortress under Lady Liberty had been raised to a clean ten metres from the roughly six Fort Wood had naturally.

A ten-metre fall wasn’t dangerous to Rave, as long as she stuck the landing. Having quite a bit of practice at this particular jump, she brought her limbs back close when the floor was approaching. It looked like she would hit the ground running, but her feet just stayed still in a particular arrangement. Right up until the very last moment.

Her left foot kicked down. Ki flowed down her leg, gathered in her ankle, and created a flow of energy. The downward momentum she had gathered was suddenly counteracted, overtaken by an opposite force. Anti-Fall, an uncreatively named technique, that allowed the user to prevent falling damage to become lethal. As long as they could channel enough opposite energy, of course.

In Rave’s case, her Anti-Fall allowed her forwards trajectory to continue for a little while, and then connected her feet to the floor in a perfectly fluid motion. No roll, no moment of heavy impact, she continued to run as if she had never landed in the first place. Her Aura went out, slowing her a little bit, while she regained the mana she had just lost. It wasn’t a long process. The L-Baelementium her suit had been fed was the optimal material to absorb the sunlight. It was still second to her naked skin, but that was a worthwhile trade-off to the protection the suit provided.

Silicate Island wasn’t too far off. At top speed, Rave could cross the five-hundred metres in about ten to fifteen seconds. To anyone of the security force still on the island, she was little more than a blue-engulfed, pink streak going by. Grass, street, bridge, rock, she blitzed over all of it, finally arriving on Silicate Island. Immediately, she spotted her enemy. Someone quick enough to react to the immensely sudden arrival.

Rave launched into a straightforward attack. All of the force she had turned into a charge. Her right went flying. Copernicus’ blessing appeared on her heels. The clenched fist approached the face of her opponent, a remarkably attractive one, with long, pointy ears parting straight blonde hair. An elf, who whirled around and performed a sweeping gesture. One of the tall, blue crystals that grew around obeyed the motion, twisted and turned into a cascading barrier between the two of them.

Rave’s charge came to stop, but not without shattering that obstruction into a million pieces. A million pieces that all stopped in the air, turned their pointiest bits toward her, and then came flying. Her Aura flared up, power surged into her ankles once again, then she found herself behind her enemy. Flying around, she went for a high-arching kick.

She felt an impact, but also saw some crystalline spike coming for her head. Her hands crossed, blocking the crystal, the tip shattering on her reinforced gloves, the rest blocked with raw force. A moment of stillness occurred, as Rave smiled up to her opponent, her foot pressing against the purple-blue flickering of an arcane barrier.

“Hi,” the Lightbearer mused, as they remained in that somewhat awkward position, foot pressing against shield and gem-spike against hands. “I’m Rave, and you’re currently assaulting my property. Wanna say anything to the First Lady of the guild you’re currently pissing off?”

“Mhhhm,” the elf’s tranquil voice sounded almost bored with this situation, “how about, I’m just following orders? Don’t really want to be here…”

“Well, you’re welcome to surrender,” Rave suggested with a smirk. “I’ll give ya a kiss on the cheek if ya do.”

“That’d get me in trouble…” the elf sighed. “How bothersome… can’t you just surrender, let us do our thing and we sign that peace deal afterwards?”

“Kinda like my boyfriend having money to pamper me with, so nope,” the techno lover stated. The song changed, a clear signal that the talk itself was about to be done with. “So what’re ya called? Cause I could dub ya cutie, but Eliza would get jealous. She doesn’t like tall blondes.”

“I am Remia,” the elf stated and sighed again, heavier. “Fine… let’s do this then…” The hand she had held up to keep the pressure on the spike going suddenly dropped, and with it, the force that Rave was pushing against. The Lightbearer let herself fall to the floor, then pushed herself back up before the next wave of crystalline destruction could catch her. The Shift technique delivered her to a better position, her hand pushed against the Mana Shield and unloaded a scatter-blast of light.

The barrier withheld the attack, but the blinded Remia ripped her arm upwards. Crystals ruptured the ground under her, surrounded her like a rose with petals made of red thorns, forcing Rave to jump back. Smirking, the Lightbearer took a stance a few metres away.