Theodora Greyman, President of Zone 1 and Chairwoman of the World Council, looked fixedly at her desk. Although she had plotted and bluffed her way into the position that she had thought would make her the most powerful woman in the world, she had still been forced to this point. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. Then she sighed. “If we do nothing, we seem inept. This attack was practically announced a week in advance. And our people… trusted that we would handle it responsibly.”

Douglas just stood in front of the communication terminal and looked over to his boss. The technicians at the facility were waiting on her answer.

“On the other hand,” Theodora continued. Her voice was low and rough. “If we were to take this action now… we would be firing our greatest weapon at a location that is filled with civilians… it might be our only chance of breaking through that strange barrier that has appeared, but the fallout will be disastrous either way. If it shatters the barrier and kills some of the people within…? Suddenly we are beyond cold-blooded; we are accessory to murder. It will seem like we offered the fans at the game as bait to lure out the Red Revival.”

“You need to make the call, Madam President,” Douglas said as he rubbed at his eyes. There were deep bruise colored bags underneath both of them. “Every second that goes by is another second that they are trapped in that stadium with the bloodbeasts.”

I suppose this is what power is. Being the one who has to make the bad decisions. Being the one who will endure all the criticism, as others speak about the incident as though this had been your plan all along… Theodora breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. Is this why you walked away, Randidly Ghosthound?

Then President Greyman met Douglas’ gaze. “Pull the trigger on Mjolnir. I’d rather be cold-blooded than inept.”

*****

What kept Dere from moving too suddenly was the flow of Mana into the metallic casings that he held. Every second was another bit of damage that he could inflict on an unsuspecting target. The coil of power Derek prepared became tighter and tighter within the Mana Bombs’ cores. Almost there.

Derek spun the three bombs in his hands, faster and faster. Around him, people were rapidly fleeing to gather in his tier of the stands while the ape drones rushed out to block the pursuing bloodbeasts. The fighting between the two sides was brutal; neither seemed to feel pain as their bodies smashed into each other. Derek had already shaken a dazed Tim awake, then urged him to hop over the wall to the field and hide in a small referee alcove right below their location.

The kid hesitated but quickly listened to him. Seeing his son was safe, Derek moved to the front of the rapidly growing group of people and stared intensely out at the action occurring on the field.

The giant mecha body of Ghost orchestrated its drones to unleash a barrage of attacks against the dome around the Winged Serpent. The light from that strange wheel was no longer growing any brighter, but the aura it now released still made Derek feel extremely strange. Underneath the array of lasers from the drones, Straud walked forward with a grin and spread his arms. “Do you need a playmate? Bloodbeast, rise and serve our God!”

Crimson energy flowed from Straud’s fingers to form into an orb the size of a chicken’s egg that grew to be the size of a kitchen table within a second. Then the large crimson egg popped and a rapidly growing werewolf composed entirely of blood straightened up into a standing position. The liquid wetness of its claws gleamed as it twisted and stretched. When it finished growing, it was still smaller than Ghost’s mecha, but only by a small amount.

The two tall figures sized each other up. Then the bloodbeast werewolf leapt forward to meet its metal opponent while howling its hatred of the living.

The mecha Ghost did not wait for the large bloodbeast to attack it. With an elegant twist, it brought its heavily engraved sword around and slashed it at the new foe. The werewolf responded quickly and both the sounds of screeching metal and burnt flesh could be heard as the werewolf’s claws met the mecha’s sword. Ghost’s servos groaned and the arm of the werewolf bloodbeast bulged strangely.

But just as quickly, action elsewhere drew Derek’s attention away. Everything was happening at once.

The woman who could be no one but Alana Donal, riding the Dragon Broodmother that had once terrified the surrounding Zones, raised her spear and charged forward. Thea Glasshammer, the human woman turned Nemesai, hopped up onto her monstrously large undead bear and urged it to dash directly at her foe as though the two were engaging in a strange joust.

The man with the large iron ball rushed forward to meet the Bandit King. With burning eyes, the Bandit King whipped out a wickedly serrated blade and guffawed at the man. “Still confident with that shit image? I’ll chop you to pieces and feed you to my dogs!”

As they were the closest combatants, Derek could feel the difference between these two’s images most starkly. And the Bandit King was right. The man’s image was a dense one that only touched the area immediately around him, but even that area was being steadily encroached by the Bandit King’s greedy image.

Damnit, my piss poor attempts at images are nowhere near enough to help in a fight like this… If I hadn’t hesitated to risk getting Level 50… Derek shook his head helplessly and looked to other areas of the field. He was running low on Mana, but had to wait for an opening before he was willing to step out and intervene in a battle of this tier. His Survival Instincts made him incredibly aware of the hovering presence of the Grim Reaper.

Images were running rampant. Even the strange aura they released applied pressure to the surrounding people. And Derek…

Derek pressed his eyes closed. I can’t die. I couldn’t risk condensing a Fate. Tim needs me. Without me, he… but really, have I been protecting him even from the normal dangers of life… Am I really just… afraid…?

Before he could fall down that mental rabbit hole, Derek focused himself. The bloodbeasts that had followed out the Nemesai contingent surged toward Hank Howard. The man quickly spun his revolver one last time and put it away. Then he raised his repeater and unleashed a slew of quick shots that hit the heads and joints of the bloodbeasts that surged toward him.

One by one they dropped to the ground, but they quickly seemed to recover and stand back up to stagger forward. Hank frowned. His image sharpened as he fluidly reached to his waist, drew another clip, and reloaded his repeater in a split second. But as he brought the pistol to bear on his next target, a sinister shadow leapt toward his back.

Without panicking, Hank drew his revolver and used the ivory handle to catch the knife of the assailant. The two strained there for a second before Hank threw the shadow backward.

Hank bared his teeth. “Ya really switched sides, eh Decklan?”

Decklan Hyde didn’t answer, simply using his spare hand to whip up his crimson robe to hit Hank’s face. Hank rolled backward, unleashing another dozen shots to incapacitate the surrounding bloodbeasts as he hopped to his feet. But when he looked around, Hank frowned.

Decklan had disappeared once more.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The stadium shook as the largest clash of the fights on the field occurred. While the Nemesai and heroes of Earth had been carefully selecting their foes, the Obsidian Duke and the Jade Prince ran directly across the turf at each other. The Obsidian Duke’s image was heavy and persistent, while the Jade Prince was pure and radiant. Those two images seemed to physically pummel each other as the owner’s bodies hurried to recover from the collision.

The Obsidian Duke’s body morphed into strangely shaped weapons as he fought more like a wild animal than a human. Meanwhile, the Jade Prince countered every wild strike of his foe with a sharp stab that hit the weakness of the other’s attack. In terms of image power, the Jade Prince began to forcefully press the Obsidian Duke back with only a few blows.

The terrible overseer of blood, Straud, laughed as he watched the fights develop. “Let’s not let things get out of hand… Beam of Lost Life!”

Straud raised his hand and unleashed a powerful crimson blast that shot outward at the Jade Prince. The Champion tried to dodge sniping shot, but the Obsidian Duke accepted a powerful blow to his chest in order to keep the Jade Prince immobile. So when the beam from Straud arrived, the Jade Prince had to throw every bit of his image into deflecting the Skill rather than avoiding it.

Ignoring the wound inflicted on his chest, the Obsidian Duke pressed both arms together and created a giant ax that he smashed into the distracted Jade Prince’s waist. The Jade Prince was smashed backward, ripping up a long strip of turf as he skidded across the ground. He quickly got back to his feet, but his face was pale as the Obsidian Duke rushed forward to meet him for a second round.

Above them all, the stone wheel of the Winged Serpent continued to spin. The scent of blood in the air grew stronger.

Alana and Thea crossed blows violently and they were not even; although the Dragon Broodmother and the undead bear appeared to possess equal strength, Alana’s image smashed Thea’s to pieces. Thea was knocked off of her mount’s back and Alana was about to leap off her own to follow up when Straud turned quickly and unleashed a beam at Alana.

Snorting, Alana raised her spear and an almost holy radiance suffused her body. The wings on her helmet grew and became as sparkling and pure as pearls. She burned like the sun with all the righteous fury of an angel. Her spear stabbed forward and impacted Straud’s Beam of Lost Life directly.

Alana shook and rocked backward on top of Wivanya, but she endured the blow. For the first time since the fights started, Straud frowned. “You…”

“Spread the Brilliant Word,” Alana said simply. Golden light blasted outward from her body and touched everyone in the stadium. Some of the struggling guards of the Order Valorem were bolstered with strength and began to push back the bloodbeasts in the stands. The wounded Jade Prince seemed to find his footing after being touched by that light, even as the Obsidian Duke released a bestial series of attacks. With the assistance, the Jade Prince’s defense slowly came together.

The man with the large iron ball finally stopped being pushed back by the Bandit King with the support of that light. His image grew even denser. But the flickering movements of the serrated blade continued to suppress the man.

When the light of Alana’s Skill hit him, Hank Howard finally drew his revolver and pointed it out through the dozen or so bloodbeasts that rushed toward him. A sneering voice could be heard from amongst there midst, seeming to come from nowhere. “Do you really think you can hit me with that?”

“No.”

Bang!

A golden bullet zipped across the battlefield, slamming into the crimson barrier around the Winged Serpent. The barrier wavered then shattered to a thousand pieces. Even Straud seemed shocked and he was forced to immediately jump right in front of the bullet and smashed the golden projectile with his fist.

At the same time, the stone wheel above the Winged Serpent seemed to activate. Derek noticed that the blood around him that was dripping down the stadium stairs seemed to twitch.

With the target exposed, the man with the iron ball exploded into motion, his image suddenly smashing past the Bandit King. Alana’s eyes sparked as she ignored Thea and did the same. Most everyone had the same thought: stop the Winged Serpent.