Sev winced as what felt like a thousand mental cries — maybe more — suddenly slammed into him; if he hadn't experienced nearly exactly this dozens of times by his own volition, his mind might have cracked from the force of it. As it was, his eyes widened and he stumbled back, almost shattering a glass case if not for Misa reaching out to steady him.

Her eyes were concerned. "Sev? You alright? The fuck's happening?"

Sev tried opening his mouth, but no words came out. Stupid. Shouldn't have tried connecting to something unknown—

But there had been no better way to find out.

He could handle this. He had handled this, even if it wasn't quite the same. Absorbing the pain of others as a part of his healing had prepared him for this.

He just needed to anchor himself and find the voice inside him that was him.

Sev focused on the feeling of Misa's hand on his arm, on the concern in her eyes. He focused on the faintly dusty smell of the jewelry shop, mixed with the slightest scent of polish and perfume. The glass case behind him dug painfully into his back, but even that pain was something he could grasp at that anchored him to the present — to who he was.

Slowly, he made himself remember. There were voices in the chaos of the connection he'd established, but he made himself a rock in a river, and the voices rushed past him instead of through him.

He let out a long, slow breath. "I'm fine," he said. "Did something dumb. Took me a second to correct. I'm... doing better now."

"If you're sure." Misa didn't take her eyes off of him, nor did she let go of his arm. She kept him steady as he moved himself over to the nearest chair and sat, and then sat herself down next to him, watching him as he tried to parse his way through the voices in his head.

It was thousands of voices. More than that, probably, but scale wasn't something the human brain was good at grasping after a certain amount. Some of the voices even seemed familiar.

Who are you? he tried to ask, but he thought the words to himself instead of sending it through the connection. The link was sore, and it pushed against his attempt to speak through it. Sev winced and tried again. Who are you?

A roar responded — a cacophony of voices that made Sev wince and clutch at his head. Misa said something, sounding concerned, but he could barely hear her over the roar — he simply gripped at her shoulder, his fingers digging into her skin as he tried to understand.

We

are

Names. So many names, rushing past him in a river of noise, thousands of identities and concepts of the self; fathers and mothers, sons and brothers, shopkeepers and knights and soldiers and thieves. People who thought themselves worthless and people who thought too much of themselves, all mixed together in a single, incoherent whole.

And yet one thing stood out above it all: they were all people. Ordinary people. None of those identities had led lives that had lead to their ascension — Sev knew what those felt like.

These were just citizens.

The people of Elyra.

Sev caught his breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm the tumbling turbulence in his mind. Misa's hand on his shoulder provided him an anchor as he tried to pluck out details, tried to understand.

They weren't complete. These were fragments of people — small pieces of stolen identities, forgotten dreams, lost ambitions. It was like someone had somehow tapped into a small piece of every single person in Elyra and wrapped it all up into a single, haphazard whole.

Sev was, in fact, almost certain that that was exactly what had happened. It explained too much about what was going on. Steal a small piece of self from thousands upon thousands, and turn it into a nascent god; bend that nascent god to your will, and use the link it still had with the people it was formed from to manipulate them, influence them, control them.

What do you want?

It was the next obvious question — but when he asked it, he felt the presence falter. The river of noise became a stream, then a trickle, and then silenced into nothing at all; the air hung with tension, like the presence was confused.

It didn't know what it wanted.

Obey, it finally said, but the word was a whisper and a response, not a command. It wanted to obey. That was all it really knew, all it understood.

Obey who? Sev asked.

There was another series of flashes in his mind.

People wearing robes of white, the colors of the Wisfield house. A man who emanated menace, who made even this nascent god flinch in fear. The resonance of a command so powerful Sev almost felt the residual power of it even through the mere memory of it.

[Obey.]

He shook it off. The power of it was weak, compared to what had actually been leveraged against this half-formed god formed out of the Elyran consciousness. "It's House Wisfield," he said, looking up at Misa.

"The House that specializes in mental magic?" Misa raised an eyebrow, then glanced at one of the blacked-out windows, listening to the sound of people talking just outside. "I could've told you that."

"You don't understand." Sev shook his head. "This isn't normal mental magic. It's divine. They've created and hijacked a god somehow."

Misa paused, then frowned. "That sounds dangerous," she said. "Can we prepare for it?"

"I've already done what I can to protect us from divine influences," Sev said. "I might be able to extend that, but my limit is about a block at most. You guys will need to stay close by." His brows furrowed. "There are ways I can extend that range if we need to split up, but I'd like to avoid it if possible.

"Also, Wisfield's somehow restricting full gods from interfering with Elyra, so I'm betting there's some chaos at the temples right around now. Our first step is probably to find a way to let the gods back in."

"Or kill the new god in its cradle," Misa said, cracking her knuckles. Sev frowned at her.

"It's a proto-god formed from the collective consciousness of every Elyran citizen," he said. "That's how it has access to everyone's minds. I don't think killing it is a good idea, even if we could, and no matter how strong we are I don't think we're at godkiller levels quite yet."

"That's what you think," Misa snorted, but she took his words seriously. She glanced over to Vex, and Sev followed her gaze — Derivan had both of his hands held in both of Vex's, and their eyes were shut. Around them, an aura of magic pulsed, strong enough that Sev could feel it as an electric buzz over the hairs on his skin.

"We need to do something about Wisfield," Sev said quietly. "I don't know exactly what their plan is, but with the Void encroaching they're doing it at the worst possible time."

"The worst part is that they should know what's going on." Misa frowned, speculative. "They have to, right? They're mind readers. They'll have seen everything we have — they probably figured it out sooner."

"So if they're not evacuating themselves..."

"They either have a way around it, or they think they can benefit from it somehow." Misa completed the thought, her expression grim.

"Five gold it's the latter," Sev said with a sigh. Misa snorted.

"No bet," she said. "I know better than to bet against you. Especially on that."

Sev managed a small smile, though the joke didn't do much to lighten the mood. He shot a tense glance over to Vex and Derivan, who were just getting up from their positions. Their expressions didn't make him feel any better.

"Wisfield district," Vex said. "They're cornered."

"Can you make us a portal?" Sev eyed Derivan, who hesitated.

"It will take me a moment, and will only last a short while," he cautioned. "But I can do it. I believe it will be best for us to retrieve Helix and his team, and then regroup."

"We gotta be prepared," Vex said. "I dunno what's going on, but I don't think Helix is going to be exempt from it. I mean, he's a target, so maybe he is, but..."

"I can flood out divine influence if I have to," Sev said. "I've been keeping it just around us because it's costly to try to expand it, but I think I can keep your brother safe too."

"We'll need a better long-term solution," Vex said. "We can't rely on you to keep us free of whatever this is."

"Divinity," Sev said, and he gave Vex and Derivan both a quick explanation of what he'd figured out. Vex frowned as Sev explained it, contemplative.

"If they're making a play like this, they're going to be prepared for us," Vex said. "We need to make sure we're prepared for anything they might throw at us. Hostages, Platinum-rankers, whatever."

"The goal is to help the rebels get everyone out of Elyra," Misa said. "Wisfield can rot in here by themselves if that's what they want to do."

"So if we can evacuate small groups..." Vex frowned. "That'll take too long if Sev is the only one that can counter this. Misa, you think you could block the divine influence?"

"Once, probably," Misa allowed. "Mental influences count. But I can't do it for every single citizen, and not constantly."

Vex winced. "It's a good option to have in case Sev is knocked out or something, though," he offered.

"If I get knocked out, we have bigger problems," Sev said. He was immune to most status effects; par for the course with his class; if something could overcome that, then they were in trouble. "We need to focus. Is Helix in trouble? If so, we should get him right now, and any other crucial members of the rebellion. My bet is that there are limitations to what Wisfield is doing that we're not aware of yet — otherwise all the rebels would be turning themselves in, instead of civilians being turned against them."

Vex paused. "Huh," he said after a moment. "You're right. Helix is... he's okay for now, but we should get him as we're done here. He's holed up in a barrier and is surrounded. The barrier will last for a while barring anything unusual happening."

"There are definitely limitations. It's not full control, it's a state that's triggered on sight," Misa said. "I was paying attention. They only started acting strange once they caught a glimpse of us."

"Then they must know who's affiliated with the rebellion, somehow," Sev frowned. "Maybe because the god is connected to every citizen of Elyra. It knows which parts of itself to attack."

"Does that mean they only knew to attack us because I was with you guys?" Vex asked worriedly.

"...Probably." Sev didn't meet Vex's eyes. "Look, let's go get Helix. We'll be able to plan better if we have a solid idea of what's happening with the rebellion."

"I am ready when you are," Derivan said, and Sev gave him a nod.

There was a pregnant pause. Sev felt the buildup of system-energy more than anything else, something he'd learned to sense after his recent exposure to reality shards; it was a prickling in the air, a faint sense of wrongness. Derivan pushed through the air, and the air in front of him rippled.

A hole tore open. For a moment, it led to an empty nothingness — then Derivan pushed again, and the nothingness was replaced by an image of Elyran streets, bright mage barriers, and Helix sweating as he tried to keep away a massive crowd of civilians.

"About time," Helix said, noticing the portal. "Come on, guys, let's go—"

He paled, glancing at something past them — and then sprang forward without another word, dragging his two companions with him.

"Close the portal," he hissed once he was through.

"I am trying," Derivan said. He sounded as close to panicked as Sev had ever heard him. "I cannot."

"That's because I'm holding it open." A woman wearing white robes peered pleasantly into their portal, smiling. "Seems we're due for a chat, aren't we?"

"Liz," Helix hissed.