Ruth Blaine fell out of the sky.

With a mighty crash, she landed on an empty promenade, stalls and vehicles abandoned all around her. She hadn't arrived alone -- one of the Sheshanaga's deployed combat automatics had served to break her fall. The rest of the swarm she'd been able to cut down in mid-air, but this last one had been tricky.

Well, gravity worked wonders, she guessed.

Ruth's mind was a haze as she rose to her full height, looking out at the devastated city. Dragan had done all this? He'd had the Sheshanaga open fire upon all these people?

No. Doesn't make sense.

She'd been inside the Sheshanaga, and no preparations to fire had been going on. Hell, it hadn't even started until after North had… until after North had died. Ruth clenched her fists.

Something about this whole thing stank.

As she swung around to head back towards the Seat of Man -- she needed to find Agnes -- she stopped. Someone was standing on the other end of the empty street, as though they'd been waiting for her. A young girl in a white dress, with a huge helmet like a golf-ball covering her head.

Nebula Nine.

Luna.

"You'll want to come with me," the prophet said.

The earth trembled.

Moving with perfect synchronicity despite the quake, Bruno ducked down and Serena jumped up, the scissors of Forgiveness Irons passing between them in that moment. Still in an equine form, Bruno whirled around and slammed his back legs towards the former Nebula Ten, while Serena swung a steel sword down towards his head in the same moment.

Snap!

With a high-pitched squeal, Irons pulled his scissors apart into twin blades, using them to block both of the incoming attacks simultaneously. His teeth, exposed as his hood slid back over his head, were bared in what might have been tension or rage. He ground them together as he whispered.

"A frozen droplet in the belly of the beast?! Ah, ah… I cannot abide this! A seed of poison in the gullet of God! This is what you think is permissible?! Nay, I declare! My justice will not permit this! Let all creation fall between metal jaws of redemption and vanish onto the winds!"

The mouths covering his chest belched poison. The eyes covering his arms wept blood. The ranting creature, now only human by technicality, let loose a flurry of slashes that forced both of his assailants back.

"Do you think all of mankind shares your obscene patterns?!" Forgiveness Irons screamed. "Do you think this the end of human goodness?! That all is now drenched in shit?! Not yet! Not yet! A thousandfold not yet!"

Whatever he'd done to his own body using his ability, it seemed his anger was provoking some new reaction. Unwholesome mass was bulging unnaturally beneath his skin, pressing out in great lumps as if trying to escape the constraints of his form. His rambling went on without breath or pause, growing more and more incoherent and muffled as his deformities swelled.

Within the space of a few seconds, the lump had grown to such a size that his entire body was distorted around it, his head pushed so far back that his crown was pressed against the floor.

"And in the garden that shall result from the honesty of new creation a delightful me shall stand atop the mount and call to the masses below and above me and grind them betwixt my hands and rub them over my sores and lick the pus that results as if it is the ambrosia that grants all things and thoughts their forms and functions I shall not allow any disparity from this conduct not for the men and the women or the children all of them my feed, my feed, my feed, my feed, MY FUCKING FEED!"

And with those final words, Forgiveness Irons' flesh erupted.

The lights slammed off, plunging the foyer into near-complete darkness. The screaming of the terrified masses reached a crescendo. In that blackness, little could be seen of Forgiveness Irons' transformation save for brief images of horror, illuminated by his own crackling Aether.

Entrails wrapped themselves into muscles.

Eyes hardened into flat and heavy teeth.

Bones achieved their freedom from skin.

As a gargantuan silhouette rose over Bruno and Serena del Sed, the crackling of light slowly died away. Forgiveness Irons' Aether no longer recognised its master. As the del Sed twins watched in horror and disgust, the final touch completed itself -- Forgiveness Irons' head, warped into inhumanity, pushed itself out through the centre of its new mammoth face, looking for all the world like a crumpled snout.

The thing that had been Forgiveness Irons spoke.

"OINK."

Zephy Pandershi hummed softly to herself as she strolled through the apartment building.

Getting around really was easy now that the evacuation efforts had reached this point. She'd been concerned that this body's appearance would result in some delays dealing with would-be good samaritans, but most of those had already vanished at this point. She'd even been able to avoid engaging with the rampaging combat automatics left over from the Sheshanaga.

Of course, she couldn't fault anyone for feeling the need to evacuate her. In this body, Zephyr Pandershi was an adorable and endearing young girl, after all. She swept her shoulder-length curly white-and-orange hair behind her as she walked, as if the hallway were a runway.

As if her natural looks weren't endearing enough, she'd taken pains -- as she did with all her bodies -- to acquire the most fitting and fetching attire. A fashionable orange hoodie and shorts, combined into one chic garment of Pandershi's own design. Anyone witnessing such a sight would be able to tell that this girl was simply on another level aesthetically.

Ah, she truly was a genius.

She suddenly stopped, angling her head up to look at the filthy ceiling. Such disrepair would never be allowed on Nehr Mut, needless to say, but that wasn't why Pandershi was looking. She had reached her destination.

Officially, the next floor up was home to thirty-three residents, most of whom commuted to administrative jobs at the Seat of Man. In reality, each and every apartment on Level 138 belonged to the dear departed Jaime Pierrot. Darkstar's time on Serendipity would soon be coming to a close, and Zephyr would be leaving with them. She'd be damned if she'd allow the valuable research samples Pierrot had possessed to slip through her fingers.

With perfect speed, Zephyr whipped a pistol out of her hoodie pocket and fired it up into the ceiling. The shot had something of an explosive quality, opening up a hole into the hallway above -- and granting her passage.

Amber Aether crackled.

ACTIVATE AETHER ABILITY

DEMIURGE TERRITORIUM

ESTABLISHING TERRITORY T1

A barrier appeared beneath Zephyr's feet like a magic carpet, lifting her up onto the next level. She stepped off of it delicately, her amber eyes already flicking around. In terms of appearance, this level seemed identical to the one beneath, but the security was clearly several ranks above.

An alarm was already ringing, after all -- the sound was beyond the range of human hearing, but her body had no trouble perceiving it. No doubt it was connected to Ultraviolet Tower or some such place, but they had their own concerns right now. She'd be extremely surprised if anyone actually showed up.

Which left only the on-site security.

A posthumous battle between myself and Jaime Pierrot, Zephyr smirked. How novel.

As if to answer her mental challenge, four panels flipped over on the ceiling before her, exposing plasma turrets that aimed their gleaming barrels directly at her head. Judging by the additional clicks she'd heard, there were more turrets, too, outside of her line of sight. Another eight.

In the second before she was incinerated, she calculated a mental map of where she would have placed the turrets… then adjusted that mental map slightly to dumb it down. She couldn't expect whoever had designed this security layout to be a match for her level of intelligence, after all.

At any rate, she was certain her calculations were correct. That was the principle upon which Zephyr Pandershi lived her life.

ACTIVATE AETHER ABILITY

DEMIURGE TERRITORIUM

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

ESTABLISHING TERRITORIES T2:T13

ADJUSTING PROPERTY TsiloConduct (T2:T13)

-5000%

Amber barriers appeared around each and every turret -- and, as one, they were all deactivated as sparks flew from their innards.

DELETING TERRITORIES T2:T13

With a wave of her hand, the barriers vanished, and she was free to resume her stroll.

Of course, those turrets weren't the only security Jaime Pierrot had left for his personal palazzo. If that had been the case, Zephyr might have just fainted from embarrassment. As she continued down the hallway, combat automatics of every shape and size rushed to her position -- deployed from various positions where they'd been stored in the walls themselves.

Zephyr kept her hands in her pockets as she walked, and kept her eyes forward. For enemies of this level, she refused to use her hands, or even give them the dignity of her gaze.

ACTIVATE AETHER ABILITY

DEMIURGE TERRITORIUM

ESTABLISHING TERRITORY T2

A spear-shaped barrier manifested over her shoulder and impaled a skeletal automatic through the head.

DELETING TERRITORY T2

ESTABLISHING TERRITORY T2

The spear vanished, and a new barrier manifested directly behind Zephyr's neck -- deflecting the blade that had been aiming for it.

DELETING TERRITORY T2

ESTABLISHING TERRITORIES T2:T36

A hail of tiny knives served to shred the impetuous automatic that had tried to behead her.

DELETING TERRITORIES T2:T36

ESTABLISHING TERRITORIES T2:T5

A sword, a spear, a mace, a dagger. Each of the barrier-tools struck down an incoming automatic -- and as they disappeared and reappeared, they did so again and again and again. By the time Zephyr reached the door to Jaime Pierrot's residence, the entire hallway behind her was littered with mechanical remains.

Light work.

ESTABLISHING TERRITORIES T2:T3

ADJUSTING PROPERTY TsiloConduct (T2:T3)

-5000%

For the last two enemies -- cutting-edge liquid automatics -- Zephyr made a game of it, trying to guess where their control centres were within their masses to disable them in one fell swoop. Needless to say, she was correct. It couldn't truly be said that she'd guessed, though -- for someone like her, whose mind was constantly active, guessing without certainty was simply not possible.

DELETING TERRITORIES T2:T3

ESTABLISHING TERRITORY T2

A barrier shaped like a cannonball smashed through the front door, granting her entrance…

…and it was only as she stepped over the threshold that Zephyr Pandershi finally hesitated.

She took a handkerchief from her hoodie pocket, dabbed at her eyes, and inspected the blood that had started to leak from them. As she'd expected -- quite the potent neurotoxin. It must have flooded the apartment when an intruder was detected on this floor.

Foolishness. This should have been disseminated across the entire floor. Had there been concern about other people who might have been here at the time? Utter, utter foolishness.

Needless to say, it was agonizing. Zephyr clicked the joints on her left hand -- a biological shortcut to disable this body's sense of pain -- before considering her next move. Prolonged exposure would probably mean that this body -- Extension T -- would suffer catastrophic damage. Expiration would probably be unavoidable.

Extension T had been the closest one to this location, so it had seemed convenient at the time… but there was nothing else for it. Zephyr would just have to use this body to retrieve what she was looking for, and bring another body over for a handover.

Extension Z, the one Serendipity knew as Titan White, was still being pursued by that pest Tom Foolery. Still, that was fine. Zephyr had only been half-paying attention to that chase anyway, so it wouldn't be too difficult for him to get that body to escape and get over here once he started properly trying. For the time being, though, she'd conclude Extension T's affairs with the modicum of time still available.

Zephyr flexed her shoulders, switching over to the body's backup nervous system. That would at least delay the inevitable. Still dabbing with the handkerchief to keep the blood out of her eyes, she thoroughly inspected the spartan apartment before her. It didn't feel like the sort of place where a person lived, but instead a place for a mechanism to recharge. Zephyr approved.

It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for. A secret panel within a secret panel, with a biometric lock. Extension T was prepared for this -- another reason it was the body Zephyr had deployed here. She finally pulled her hand out of her pocket -- and held in it, about the size of an apple, was a quivering lump of flesh.

One eye, one ear, one finger, one mouth. This biological device had been cultivated from Pierrot's own genetic material, a skeleton key of his flesh and blood. The lock approved entry immediately, a hidden wall sliding open, revealing a cylindrical automatic hidden behind it.

Extension T was nearly destroyed in that same instant.

The Tower screamed as its eye ignited crimson.

"Extermina --"

ACTIVATE AETHER ABILITY

DEMIURGE TERRITORIUM

ESTABLISHING TERRITORY T2

ADJUSTING PROPERTY TimeDiff (T2)

1s = 0.000001s

Strictly speaking, Zephyr Pandershi's Aether ability -- Demiurge Territorium -- did not create barriers. Actually, it created Territories, the borders of which were delineated with barriers. A Territory was a little world all of its own, one where Zephyr could adjust the rules of nature as she pleased. It had been derived from the samples Westmore had provided from his Weird Space homeland.

A world that existed only for Zephyr's sake -- and one that was more than capable of capturing an uninfused automatic like the Tower in a trapezoid of near-frozen time. Zephyr Pandershi smiled through Extension T's bloody lips.

Ah… I truly am a genius.

The time had come.

The advent of blood and guts. The genesis of a world of entrails and pus. The revelations brought about by a new age of eating and excreting without end.

As if in victory, the thing that had been Forgiveness Irons squealed up towards the sky, the rest of the room reduced to miniature by its sheer and glorious bulk. The eyes that covered its body laughed uproariously. The mouths that covered its body blinked frantically.

"OINK!" it declared, like a preacher at the pulpit. "OINK! OOOIIINNNKKK!"

Only two stood against it. The twins, Bruno and Serena del Sed. Bruno still in the barrier-made form of a stallion, Serena clutching twin swords of concrete. Once it got through them, this creature would be free to rampage as it pleased.

It roared wordlessly, mindless territorialism, grinding one massive leg against the ground as it prepared to charge like a bull.

Only… Bruno del Sed beat it to the punch.

With blinding speed, the purple horse galloped forth, leaving burning cracks in the floor behind it. Serena del Sed dodged into the shadows and the smog. Some eyes followed her -- it knew. It knew, it knew, it knew.

The horse was a distraction. The girl was the true threat.

It was so focused on how clever it had been that it almost didn't notice…

…when Bruno del Sed exploded.

Shards of purple barrier flew in every direction like stained glass before dissipating. Purple Aether surged through the air before rushing back in Serena's direction. And within it all, a hidden payload, a young man came flying forth.

The sight was nearly incomprehensible. Clearly, this young man had been hiding inside Bruno del Sed's enlarged body for some reason. Why? What did it accomplish, to launch another puny human like a bullet?

The thing that was not Forgiveness Irons opened its mouth -- and a bleeding tongue, long like that of a chameleon, lashed out to snatch the incoming boy up as a tasty morsel.

When that tongue made contact, however, it was with the palm of the young man's hand -- as if he were giving it a high five.

Tiny Garden.

The ex-Forgiveness Irons blinked with all of its eyes. All the boy had done was slap its tongue and then get wrapped up in it. What was that supposed to --

The great pig exploded.

To put it bluntly, the result was vile. Entrails beyond what should have been packed into a single body rained down without end. A tsunami of blood and pus washed over what was left of the atrium, sweeping the crowds away from the battlefield. A beating heart the size of a car fell down with a wet thump, splattering across the floor.

Rico, still wrapped in that severed tongue, did his best not to vomit as he pulled himself free. He failed.

Serena, poking her head out of the rubble, did her best not to gag as she saw the aftermath. She failed.

Bruno, remanifesting in his humanoid form, did his best not to grimace as he took in the end of Forgiveness Irons. He succeeded! That was only because he no longer had a real nose, or a real stomach.

Still, he gave his opinion.

"Gross."

Today really was turning out to be quite the day, Niain supposed.

He'd all but arrived at Ultraviolet Tower, the headquarters of the UAP's premier intelligence agency -- and the location of the last few things Darkstar needed to acquire before reconvening at the Seat of Man. A web of maintenance tunnels and walkways lay beneath the main section of the needle-shaped building -- allowing the civilian workers to actually keep the facility functioning while the public-facing operation remained pristine.

Niain had elected to enter Ultraviolet Tower through this maintenance web. Even for him, strolling in through the front doors seemed a little too bold. Besides, he liked to think when walking a scenic route like this.

Smiling, Niain reflected on his great loss.

Forgiveness Irons and Samson Rhodes, gone within just a few minutes of each other. Niain had felt the organisms within them vanish, so death was guaranteed. Forgiveness Irons' death wasn't really a surprise -- he'd been a berserker, deployed just to stir things up a bit more than anything else -- but Rhodes gave him pause. He'd been such a good and loyal friend for so long, after all.

Well, whatever. There was a replacement for the Abyssal Knight waiting in the wings, anyway.

Niain turned the final corner… and the smile fell from his face. His clear dark gaze hardened into an irritated glare. When he spoke, his voice dripped with annoyance.

"What are you doing here?" he spat.

The Shepherdess, standing in front of the entrance hatch, smiled at him. It didn't look sincere in the slightest, the enthusiasm mocking.

"Waiting for you, of course," she replied sweetly.