January 17, 2019, 4:02pm. Finally, time to attack. Err. Talk. Eh, we'll see.

The gliders make it trivial to get in position though we do have to deal with a few scattered Fallen who attack us on sight. Welp, that answers that question, so much for talking. A few arrows from Rufka quietly take out the remaining Fallen nearby.

As the others land, I scan the nearby rooftops. But other than the handful Rufka silenced, there don't appear to be any Fallen in the vicinity. As the others detach from their gliders Rufka and I float in place, keeping watch. I urge Smoulder to join the others. She'll be of more use to them than trying to balance on my back.

Moments later Rufka and I float to the sides as we approach the Fallen.

I activate accelerated time the moment we start moving forward, my water shield active with a chunk of stone held ready. I've also shaped armour plates from my metal (which my skill now informs me is iron. Handy that my skill lets me identify specific metals now that it’s improved.) The plates hang on my shoulders, ready for me to shift into place should I need them.

A blast of fire appears from ahead which I'm able to easily neutralize with a water shield. Ahead several Fallen are landing on the roof, Bel'dast, the white Triplet lifting them into place. More spells start flying towards us as I glance at the others running across the roof.

I see Smoulder smash through a Fallen, but she stays close to the others, not running out ahead.

Beside her, Josh is in his full rose petal armour, wielding a spear in one hand, a shield in the other. He impales a Fallen with the spear which appears to be several thick rose stems twisted together with an incredibly jagged tip in one hand while the large shield is composed of four oversized rose petals supported and rimmed by the same rose stems.

I watch as he takes several simultaneous spells on the shield but it holds. That's a relief.

I continue to focus on blocking incoming attacks while returning fire with barely aimed lightning torrents, trusting in their auto-aiming and chaining properties to inflict maximum damage with minimal attention. It works remarkably well, the others only needing to pick off a couple of stragglers as we continue forward.

Tipan is using her blasts of wind magic with surgical precision, only attacking when she has a clear shot or to ensure the Fallen are kept off-balance.

As I survey our situation, Beth lands a hit on Bel'dast, sending her tumbling out of sight with a screech that sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

Then we reach the end of the building. Josh has tried yelling out several times that we want to talk, but each time more spells have come flying back in his direction. A clear-cut response.

So, since they don't want to talk, I pause time while maintaining speed. There are so many spells flying towards me that I immediately direct a huge amount of thrust into adjusting my vector instead of blocking. With the first step of dodging initiated, I start returning fire, mostly relying on my lightning torrents.

I've discovered that ice and stone, and to a lesser extent earth, are the best at blocking lightning. Meanwhile, most other elemental shields offer no effective resistance. I've also noticed that other than Dhanni, the Fallen have very few manipulators who use any of those elements. In fact, the majority use wind and lightning. And most aren’t able to direct lightning away such as the dark-furred Triplet Seldast can.

Taking in the battle from my new, higher view, I realize I'm a priority target. There are twenty Fallen targeting me for every Fallen targeting the others. I'm pretty sure they're going to regret not taking the others more seriously.

Then again, I'm sure they're in trouble no matter what they do.

Not that they're going to be pushovers either. Especially the Triplets. Who I haven't seen a sign of since One-eyed Bel'dast went screeching away.

As I change my flight path again, I start working a few twilight torrents in, obscuring the battlefield while I look for the real threats. I only barely notice the stone roof shifting behind the others.

Somehow Beth seems to have noticed it as well. She's already turning in place, her rifle sliding into place as she calls out while Roberts' barrier flickers into existence.

This is when I see the dark lightning Triplet Seldast blasting out from behind the silver building, lightning already sparking in each hand. She sends a massive pair of lighting bolts arcing in the sky, making my torrents seem small in comparison. I'm too far away to shield the others, but Roberts' shield holds as the lightning splashes against it. His Reprieve does fall by nearly half from those two bolts though.

I didn't remain idle while she struck the others, blasting directly towards her which had the side benefit of completely throwing off the aim of the Fallen below. I start with a torrent of ice as my pause ends, dropping into accelerated time.

Given her ability to redirect lightning, I proceed to unleash a wind torrent next, aiming for where I expect her to dodge to avoid the ice torrent.

I get lucky. Not only does she get knocked into the silver building by my wind torrent, but she also gets clipped by my ice torrent, spinning her around before slamming her head against the building hard. Hitting the building only slows her for half a second before she starts moving again. However, that's half a second of real-time.

That's more than enough time for me to finish a fire torrent while closing in further.

As she turns back, she's caught full-on by the scorching heat. It must have gotten past her health because she screams madly as she charges directly at me. Suddenly it occurs to me that I'm probably closer than I need to be. I reverse at full speed, letting my flight spell chunk through my mana as I try to escape her.

But then she's gone, a bolt of lightning taking her place.

I'm too close to bring my stone shield in place before I'm struck by a massive bolt of lightning. I'm pushed back as Seldast appears, her hand sliding past my face in the wake of her powerful attack.

I shriek as I take…. two points of health damage.

That's it?

Cackling with glee, I pause time once more. This time I don't hit her with a single flame torrent. I use thirteen. For luck.

This time when she screams, I know it's her last as she explodes into blue dust.

Even as Seldast vanishes I notice a glittering crystal falling. Manipulating it into my hand with wind, I realize I also have a quest update.

"Quest updated: Lay her to rest - Dhanni. Hidden requirement: Lay Seldast to rest. Forever. Reward: 1 iron rank integration point. Class reward: Voltranger ability unlocked: Lightning Warp."

"Okay, that's new. You learned her ability. That's not how it normally works. One second, what was it your class description said? Oh yeah, this is just the beginning."

So, I'm learning other class' abilities? That seems broken.

"Also, wow, you absolutely destroyed her."

Yeah, I really did, didn't I?

"Ability - Lightning Warp: Channel yourself into a bolt of lightning travelling with the bolt until it strikes a target or you reach maximum range. This ability uses stamina. Note this ability must be purchased with an ability point."

"This might be useful for expanding your mobility options."

Huh. I need to 'purchase' the ability. That's a little less broken. I wonder if it's going to be the same with the terramancy spell.

"Updating Ability - Lightning Warp: compatible matrix detected. This ability will use Matrix resource facet instead of stamina."

"That's interesting. I don't imagine that's going to happen with every ability."

That makes it much more tempting. But I guess I'll have to see what abilities I unlock when I level my class. I wonder if I can figure out how to make it into a spell instead?

I'm turning back to the others, who I see are under assault by Bel'dast, Dhanni and nearly a hundred Fallen, when several elemental spells slam into me.

While I am knocked back by the combined fire, I don't take a single point of damage. It would appear my elemental resistance is strong enough that the spells these fallen are hitting me with are nothing to me. Ignoring the Fallen below I unleash blazing torrents on the ranks of enemies assaulting my friends.

With the Fallen Triplets down to just the two and the lesser Fallen beneath my notice, I turn my attention to Bel'dast. She's slowly turning back to face me when I drop from paused-time into accelerated-time. I don't see any fear on her face, but there appears to be a new sense of wariness as she flies away from me, literally throwing Fallen at me.

Laughing as I approach her, I dismiss the lesser Fallen until one of them hits me for five damage.

Right. I'm not resistant to physical damage. Other than my health edge that is. I wonder how my resistances work with stone or metal? Am I resistant to metal spells but not swords? That would be weird.

Then again, magic.

Pausing time again, I blast forwards, using the extreme dilation to easily dodge the random Fallen which Bel'dast is throwing my way.

When I've nearly reached her, I feel a massive force push me back, sending me slowly falling end over end. I can't dodge a wave I can't even see. Not yet.

Unfortunately for Bel'dast, I'm already close enough to repeat my overwhelming assault. This time, without Dhanni or Seldast to protect her, I use lightning. The thirteen lightning torrents have no problems making contact.

Unlike Seldast, Bel'dast doesn't scream. In fact, if I had to describe the last expression I see painted on her face before her body fades into dust, I'd say it was one of relief.

And then I flip further away, losing sight of her as the quest update appears. Fun fact, I'm still laughing while time is paused. It feels oddly disconnected.

"Quest updated: Lay her to rest - Dhanni. Hidden requirement: Lay Bel'dast to rest. Forever. Reward: 1 iron rank integration point. Class reward: Aeromancer Ability unlocked: Lesser Flight - Mass."

"And another ability. This would have been more useful before Rufka fixed those gliders."

"Ability - Lesser Flight - Mass: While channelling, grant selected targets lesser flight while within range. This ability uses mana. Note this ability must be purchased with an ability point."

While I agree with Wyonna, my mind is still on the fact that Bel'dast was relieved. I'd been informed the Fallen had some of their original memories but were they then forced to behave as they did?

My pondering comes to an end as I right myself, floating towards the others while the pause comes to an end.

There are no more Fallen attacking them, in fact, most of the remaining Fallen below have started running away in small packs, far less organized than before.

When I float over the ridge, I find Smoulder and Josh flanking a haggard Dhanni. She still has large clumps of earth floating around her, but she's barely raising them to block Josh's twisting spear of thorns or Smoulder's headbutts.

She definitely doesn't raise one in time to block the crackling arrow of lightning Rufka looses from her bow. When it strikes her it knocks Dhanni to her knees.

It seems like the others have her handled, so I fly over beside Rufka as she unleashes another arrow, keeping my eyes open for any other Fallen who may attack. Dhanni doesn't even try to dodge the arrow, collapsing into a heap in front of Josh.

Once I'm next to Rufka, I drop out of accelerated time. She keeps firing arrow after arrow into Dhanni as I guide her down while looking at the other’s resources. Josh is out of Petals and Thorns, but his health and stamina are still high. Beth has more than half her Umbra left while Roberts is low on Reprieve and Tipan is mostly full of Aero.

No one is hurt, thankfully.

Except for Josh, the others continue dealing with miscellaneous Fallen as Rufka and I land not two meters from Dhanni's mangled body. There's no blood. I've yet to see a Fallen bleed, but given the nature of my attacks, it hadn't been apparent until this moment that they simply don't have blood. That’s strange.

Rufka stops firing arrows when our feet touch the building surface, squeezing my hand tightly as we observe Dhanni’s body. It takes me a moment to realize something's wrong. Trying to figure it out, I look around, searching.

Beth's a few steps away, Roberts and Tipan beside her, but she only glances in our direction for a second before raising her rifle to aim at some distant threat. Not them.

As we stand there, I note that Josh is practically standing on top of Dhanni while Smoulder is staying true to form, marking her victory with blazing pee. But that’s normal.

Looking around, I try to figure out what’s off.

What's missing?

And then it comes to me.

There's no quest notification.

While Rufka continues to squeeze my hand hard enough that it almost does damage, I focus on the twisted and torn body of Dhanni.

Even as the fire from Smoulder makes contact with Dhanni, her body twitches, a broken bone suddenly shifting, her body starting to fix itself.

Even as I'm pausing time, Josh drops his spear and one of his pods, grabbing Smoulder as he rolls away.

His pod has started to explode as I follow up with an overkill of thirteen torrents, half fire, half lightning and one metal. Because fuck the second-form boss battle stage. It's time for this to be done.

When the disaster that is thirteen combined torrents being unleashed at short range has finished, I hear a hiss, followed by a small puff of blue dust and the missing quest update.

"Quest completed: Lay her to rest - Dhanni. Reward: 3 iron rank integration points. Class reward: Terramancer Spell discovered: Cloying Terrain."

"Huh. Okay, that's weird. The quest completion has the system updating. One second."

"Spell - Cloying Earth: While channelling, all earth within your control radius becomes thick and viscous while being incredibly difficult to reshape."

When the quest update scrolls past and the pause ends, I hear Rufka sob, before she breaks out of my grip.

Wiping her tears away, Rufka breathes deeply for a second before turning to where Dhanni had been a moment ago. There's nothing left except a single crystal glistening amongst the molten metal. Seeing it reminds me of the one I'm still holding in my hand.

As Rufka reaches down to retrieve the crystal in front of her, I analyze the one from Seldast.

"Object analyzed - Fallen Soulstone - Seldast. This crystal has the soul of the Fallen Seldast bound within. Soul stones can be used by users with rare skills to capture a systemless creature within. These users can then summon or interact with the trapped creature. The creature within the soulstone will possess all of its memories and personality. These are a common resource of summoner base classes.“

“Well, that explains things a little bit. There must be one of these summoners involved with this Ivicka. I have a hard time picturing a user with Swagger as their resource being a summoner. Unless they summon ale. I think you should ask Raz about summoners and soulshards. I have no information on them, which is disturbing.”

I can’t help but chuckle a little at Wyonna’s comment. It's weird though. I don’t remember seeing any summoner base classes in my list of options. Uthica’s either.

In fact, there wasn't anything close.

I'm about to show the crystal to Rufka when there's a loud buzzing in my head. The buzzing only recedes after I glance at the next notification in my log.

"Citizen Status confirmed."

"Updating analysis."

“WARNING! Fallen cannot be bound by the system. Therefore they are not safe to be used as summons. The system is unable to cleanse the corruption from Fallen Soulstones without the use of dedicated facilities. Use of an uncleansed Fallen Soulstone comes at great risk to your life, your sanity and your connection. Use at your own risk.”

"Huh, the system is still updating. Wait. Part of your log is blank. That’s weird."

Okay. Nope. Forget the soulshard.

I tuck the shard into my inventory as Rufka stands with Dhanni's in hand. She doesn't hold it long, storing the crystal after only a second's pause, turning to me with a sad smile painted across her face.

Then the buzzing is back, painfully loud. Again, it only fades once I start to read the notification.

"Corrupted Soulstone found by Citizen Pandora."

"Activating Citizen Duty Protocols."

"Citizens Pandora, Raven Queen, Rose, Roberts and Demo located on the local network."

"Sharing System Quest with all Citizens on the local network."

“Quest received - Purge Corruption. Description: There is a summoner bringing Fallen back to life. This is a perversion of the system generated Soulstones. Find the summoner, prevent them from ever summoning again, destroy their research, and return any other summoned Fallen to rest. Requirements: Summoner found 0/1, Summoners neutralized 0/1, Research destroyed 0/1. Rewards: 80 iron rank integration points, 4 class progression points. Additional rewards for every summoned Fallen laid to rest. Time: unlimited."

"What just happened. More of your log just went blank. Wait, everything just got locked. What-"

"Citizen Anti-Corruption Systems Fully Active."

"Uh, Wyonna? You there?" I ask as I check my log again, making a list of my questions while I wait for her response, trying not to worry.

It clearly states that the four of us are Citizens. Does that mean that Rufka and Tipan aren't? Why not? What makes us Citizens? What is this local network? Who's this Demo? Was there a fifth person who arrived with us and we missed them? What's a Citizen Duty protocol? And what's with the quest rewards? Those are insane.

As I'm trying to distract myself, I keep checking my log, the final question on my list weighing on my mind.

What happened to Wyonna?

When I still don't get a message from Wyonna after waiting a full minute, I fire a couple of twilight torrents until I get a skill increase notification. Then I wait as the others start to ask me what's wrong. And if I know anything about the quest.

But I barely register them, watching my notification screen, waiting for Wyonna to say something. Anything.

But there's nothing.

Wyonna is gone.