AQORMWe put my little Sastraneth on our ship, and set a course for Phoenix. It took a few weeks, because Ambrosia was steering the ship, but somehow we got there. As usual, the island of Phoenix was raining. A thick mist covered the land, filling it with ummm thick mist. Okay, so I’m not that descriptive right now.

    Sastra ran on all fours, climbing trees and shrubs like some sort of strange cat. After exploring a bit, she jumped on Lilith''s back and got a piggyback ride while she napped. Lilith was willing to carry her, and soon we made it to the town of Phoenix. We stopped for a quick meal at the local restaurant, and I was surprised how much the town had changed. I had been near Aiken Monastery after all for the last nine years, so I had not seen the slow adjustments as they happened, so it seemed to me that someone had simply uprooted all the houses from before and replaced them with brick or metal high-rise buildings. At least they hadn’t messed too much with the nearby rocks and hills. Phoenix had far too much character to be a tourist dump like Hinata.

    Today''s Phoenix was a product of globalization. This is not to say globalism. Globalism is the idea that it is a duty to take in immigrants. It is about global unity and a lockstep culture, even at the cost of one''s own country and national identity. Phoenix however, rejected this. Globalization is about trade between different cultures to create healthy markets and healthy economies. Phoenix rejected globalism when the Council had fallen, and they rejected it now. Instead of permanent immigrants, Phoenix believed in trade, in viable business, in tourism, and in exchange of ideas. Phoenix kept its culture, yet also had a number of shops that sold goods from Kirin and Hinata, and restaurants that cooked foreign meals. They had no chefs from Kushiyama, but rather their own chefs bought recipes, and sold some of their own, learning to cook Hinatese baozi with their own variations.

    Phoenix''s food, for instance liked fried foods more than other countries so when the food was made locally, Phoenician bao had a fried skin, unlike the steamed bao of Hinata. This meant Phoenix was the only place one could get it cooked this way, which in turn created reasons to visit Phoenix as a tourist. Likewise, Kirin liked their food braised with covered dishes, and often used snow and ice to preserve meals. A strong national identity meant there were reasons to travel, since the entire world wasn''t filled with carbon copy nations. I mean, who wants to visit Kirin after you’ve remade it like Zuran?

    And so, the way Phoenix looked was much different from how Ghobli and Zuran looked, since Zuran had become almost like an old European village in the 18th century, while Ghobli had quickly become a trade village yet had kept much of its rural charm, updating mainly in terms of agriculture, as it borrowed some of the developments from Futanari (while keeping their citizens unchanged, of course).

    We stopped at a bakery, and picked up some churros and fried ice cream, sprinkling some cinnamon on top of both. Then it was time to go. We crossed some mucky territory where the land had washed away, climbing over vines and muddy soil, before coming to a bridge. I remembered Nevras slicing up a giant of some sort long ago. Sёar?h the n?vel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Ambrosia was in a hurry for some reason, so despite the disgusting marshland making things difficult, we just kept charging ahead and ignoring everything our path Lilith and I stopped at the entrance to Phoenix Castle, explaining to King Charis that we needed to leave Sastraneth with them because we couldn''t keep her safe. She was also incredibly powerful and the writer of this book couldn''t figure out what sort of abilities she had, so she got benched as just Tamashii''s friend. I explained to her, “We''re very sorry to do this, but we had to make sure no harm comes to you, and just know that we love you... Lilith you say something too!” Lilith flatly told her, “Suck it up, kid. Let''s go Aqorm.” She walked me off, all while my daughter had a vaguely pained look on her face. “I''ll contact your friend Portia! You won''t be alone, I promise!” I said as I got dragged off.

    Ambrosia was apparently trying for a speed-run of her quest, since she made it to the temple of Apollo in record time. In fact, most of the humans in our party were wheezing and coughing after the exercise. Even if she wasn''t any stronger, nine years of farming had apparently conditioned her body so she had more more endurance. We made it to the door, and opened up. Apollo sat once again front of his mirror and looked at us. And then, like before, he spoke, “I see you''ve done well against attacks from outside, and you''ve managed to curb your desire to ruthlessly slaughter. Yet there is still one thing you must master. You must defend your life against yourself.” I wasn''t Ambrosia so I wasn''t always sure what these people meant, but it sounded like the Oracle was trying to tell her that an important part of this “death ground” theory discussed before was to guard against suicidal thoughts and tendencies. In any case, whatever they were saying was quickly lost, since upon seeing Ambrosia with Tamashii, the old man launched into a seeming tangent. He said, “So... You''ve returned? I see you haven''t learned your lesson either, for I see you''ve birthed a child. It must be killed.” Not only did this not seem to follow what he had just said, but it didn''t even match any of his previous teachings! The sacrificial child answered in a cheery voice, “Hey there!” Ambrosia blinked, “Must be killed?!? But didn''t you say... I could have sworn...” She must have noticed this contradiction as well. He nodded as though no such logical problem existed, “Correct, all who live undergo suffering. Suffering is cruel, and thus they must be put out of their misery, for this is true mercy!” I thought about this mentality, and how as odd as it sounded when he said it, it was applied quite often to suffering pets or euthanasia for people. Eventually, it got so bad that people wanted to sedate babies because they were crying. Fortunately for Tamashii, this idea freaked Ambrosia out. With her eyes wide open in fear, she shook her head vigorously, “I think a lot of people have the impression that kindness is the use of strength to end the suffering of others. But strength is kindness, not the other way around. I must have strength enough to preserve my own life, but kindness enough to preserve the lives of those I love.” He said, “Nice to see you learned something from your quest. Keep that in mind.” Another glowing mark appeared on her Crest. “Mommy,” asked Tamashii “can I get a tattoo like the one you have?” Ambrosia nodded, then shook her head, “Not from this guy, you can''t.”

    ESTHERIEL

    At one time, I was a very loyal servant of the Lord. But I stopped caring about his plan, and started on my own when I saw all of the evil humans were capable of. Let''s be clear. I''m not some generic cackling villain. In this world, all I want is to see humans and animals have a sense of justice and mercy. Suffering and sadness is all I have seen instead. I''d seen things, like rejection, or cats dying after twenty years of love and care, or people being really distant to each other. I was determined to make the world a better place, a place where such sadness did not exist, where all could enjoy the world and all it brought without such evil things as death, or pain, or free will.

    Memories of my past surfaced. I had been a female immortal known as Freya almost as long as I had been a sexless angel. As an angel, my memories spanned several eons, but I recalled a particular incident. My story begins years ago, when I did my service to the poor. I loved humans, then, and even today, I still do. But there were to be some problems with helping them... I forget what the town was named, for human towns all run together in my mind. I am the archangel concerned most with Justice, and much of my journeys take me to remote towns to aid the sick, and to avenge wrongs. In an alley between the town streets, children were suffering. Some had bites from insects, some had cuts and bruises, and some had signs of the Plague, centuries after it had cured for most of the population. Such were conditions among the poor in this town. And so, God asked me to intervene. I probably would have, even without his permission.

    The Plague is not some generic disease, as one might expect from its prosaic name. Rather, it was named this because like the Great War was thought to be, the Plague was the last disease that actually troubled mankind. Shortly after the Plague, human beings came into contact with elves. Or rather, because of the Plague. As much as elves loathed humans for their rampant development of ecosystems into cities, humans as a species were having a terrible time. Besides, the symptoms of the Plague were particularly nasty. The symptoms were a discoloration that started forming on the head or arms and legs, and gradually spread to other organs. Comparisons were made to leprosy, in that it produced changes in the body structure, as well as producing sores and pigmentation. But unlike leprosy, the Plague did not involve loss of limbs through weakening of bones and muscles. Instead, the opposite happened. The body formed new muscles, flesh, and bones. These manifested in spike-like bone protrusions from the body that would continue to grow until the person couldn''t move their arms without poking themselves. It was sometimes called the “porcupine disorder” due to the spikes creating a major nuisance in everyday life. Victims of it would usually die in their sleep, as the spikes poked the body and caused internal bleeding. If not, the spines would grow more spines, until the body tore itself to shreds.

    The humans of the day were just guessing with regard to treatment, until a few elves led by the healer Siofra Athanasius decided to teach a few humans the mystic arts. This was after God granted the latent ability of thaumaturgy. Some healers had already figured this out, but this was the point where humans began to be formally trained in the working of mystic power. You must understand, this was a time period where aura was only vaguely known by humans, where elves mostly still hid themselves, where people still believed the old world nonsense about “germs” rather than correctly identifying the cause of illness as runes and evil spirits. At the time, this disease was able to continue because so few people knew healing. This was why they were so eager to help.

    The Plague had come like most diseases, from one person not taking care of himself. Unlike humans, angels understood the origin of disease. It was not from “germs” but from the immune system running itself down. At all times, humans were carriers to all sorts of bacteria and viruses. They were constantly inside the body, yet the average person remained healthy so long as they were not overworked, overtired, overstressed, underfed, or dehydrated. When the body was worn down, it would naturally become incapacitated, but it did so through its immune system being unable to keep a bacteria or virus population in check. If the seasonal weather was overly hot or cold, it was the right climate for certain pathogens to replicate. Likewise, since stress was a factor in health, a society that was in a bad mood could perpetuate illness. And there was another thing: disease wasn''t actually contagious. Enough people believed it could spread, so a sort of informal rune was created, causing 瘟 to float around the air. But really, what was outside the body could not make one sick, only what was inside the body.

    This is why runes could deal with any illness, because for the most part disease was code, and could simply edit out the problem. Removing illness was not a matter of researching specific diseases as it had been in the past, but simply to put the immune system on overdrive until it naturally culled the population of pathogens. And they could erase runes that produced psychosomatic reactions.

    While I did not remember details about humans or the towns they lived in, all of the names of the people I encountered were known to me. There was a little boy with short brown hair suffering from worms named Schweined?mon Schei?kerl, or Schwein for short. There was a little girl with a red skirt and what used to be a nice white blouse that had since turned brown from sleeping in the dirt who had cuts and bruises from life on the street, named Punduris Neglīts. Punduris was her family name though, and everyone called her Neg. There was an older boy with a bandanna around his head suffering under the Plague named Wūyā Yāojing. But everyone called him Bird for some reason (probably because his short quills from the Plague resembled feathers). Oddly enough, all of these kids with bizarre names I had no trouble remembering, but there was another child, a teenager with blue hair who only recently became homeless, who somehow had no troubles despite having suffered all of the same conditions. Ah, now I remember. The name of the town was Galaxia.

    I healed these children, each in turn. But human nature is able to see inequity where there is none. “No fair!” said Schwein, “I was suffering way worse, but that angel healed you more!” He turned to the girl Neg, and beat her up for his insane jealousy. Being a street kid, she had no crying or screaming, she gave back what pain she was given. Soon, two of them were lying bruised on the ground. I protested, “I healed all of you the same. Stop fighting!” Instead, now that I technically healed those other two more, the other boy, Bird, joined in, and soon all three were lying on the ground.

    I didn''t know what to do. If I healed them, they''d probably beat each other to death when they recovered. If they sat there untouched, they might recover, but they might also slowly die in agony. It was this day that I decided this world shouldn''t have such things as pain and suffering. And so, I used my Script, saying, “Eternal Slumber - Duration: Instant.” This was a Script that had rarely been used because it basically made someone who was suffering gradually fall asleep and stay alive forever yet comatose. It was the closest thing angels had to a death spell without doing something that might turn them into a demon. It was that day when I decided, that this world was unjust and I would work for a better one, a world where nobody had to suffer agony, rejection, despair, or any sort of torment. The human life was so full of sadness.

    AMBROSIA

    We made our way back to Phoenix, when we got a letter of challenge. At least, I think it was a letter of challenge. It read, ? 我挑戰玉井約會.? Elias could have translated it, but I didn''t take it seriously, and tossed it into the trash. This was the beginning of our troubles.

    TOSHIRO

    I possibly should not tell you this, as it might blow my cover, but I am a ninja. Or rather, I was the grandson of the leader of our Clan. I was only ten but I knew when I saw that purple-haired girl that I wanted to date her. But her mother tossed my note challenging her to date in the trash without so much as looking at it. Yes, I probably should have bothered to learn Common, but even so, I felt that I deserved an answer.

    Now, normally ninjas work by contract, but unlike bounty hunters, there was a certain amount of leeway for personal ambitions. We are freelance workers, after all. We don''t work with posters or anything like that, our clients simply write down their wishes, and we carry it out. Any mission, even walking a dog or seducing someone would be accepted. If we died, our mission was transferred to the next ninja, and the next, until it was either completed or all of us were dead. Failure to reward us, however, was something only fools did. I pity the fool.

    I shadowed them for days, dressed the first time as the waitress at a bar, again as a beggar on the street, and again as a jester who was juggling fire in the street. Changing height, sex, and physical appearance was normally impossible for people using runes because of Original Intent, but as a ninja, I was doing something entirely different. This was a technique of Body Control. Every ninja knew it. Even the lesser elemental ninjas understood this much, along with basic stealth techniques. But the most powerful can use scrolls, elementalism, vanishing tricks, and qi to enhance our martial arts. Walking on water was easy for the likes of us, as was punching a wall down with a glowing fist.

    Frustrated with being ignored (even though it was the nature of a ninja to be low profile), I even just showed up as myself in a black ninja uniform. I should have been used to being ignored, but having a potential love interest shun me was another matter. I issued another letter, bumping into them on the streets of Galaxia and stuffing it in their pockets so quickly that it didn''t even land in their pockets until I was long gone.

    AMBROSIA

    We got another letter, which read, ?您侮辱了三船 氏族忍者，並且侮辱了我。 我將把五風追隨你.? This one, Elias snatched up and read before I could get rid of it. He translated, “''You have insulted the Mifune Clan ninjas, and you have insulted me. I will send the five winds after you.'' Oh wait, sorry, I think he meant the Five Elements. I think whatever the first letter said, you should have done it.”

    I ignored him too. Elias was being like a nervous old woman, making a big fuss over... Nevermind. I first encountered problems when I was trying to order tea, and there were these women dancing around with fans to entertain the guests. The tea kinda tasted gross, and I felt a bit drowsy. They continued to dance as I started to nod in my chair, until one of them lost hold of a fan somehow, and it whizzed past my head. I decided it was probably an accident, though she did have a strong arm I suppose, because the fan embedded itself in the table. That, uhhh, kinda shouldn''t be possible.

    The others continued to dance, spinning faster and faster, creating a strong draft around them. I put up may arms defensively, reflexively using Apollo''s Crest. Even though it was not exactly magic, the wind storm didn''t seem to care, breaking apart the gust. The dancing ladies appeared shocked. After all, it was not their fault that they were moving too fast. We thanked them for their performance, and left the restaurant. Walking around helped shake off some of my sleepiness, and no sooner did I walk a few blocks than some men in full-body gold jumpsuits that hid their hair and face literally appeared out of thin air. They ran around us at high speed, tossing shovel-shaped blades into the air. Elias called them kunai, but I knew. They were shovel-shaped knives.

    Now, I would normally be able to seamlessly sidestep out of the way of even this huge amount of falling knives, but I could feel a strong wind holding me in place. I couldn''t move away, I couldn''t move aside, and in fact I couldn''t move at all. In fact, this should have been curtains for me, ending with me winding up with tiny daggers embedded in my body, but two things happened.

    First, Aqorm threw knives of her own, knocking several of them aside. At the same moment, she used her elf Protection powers to create a cushion against attack. Normally, this could actually stop attacks, but she kinda threw it up with zero preparation.

    Then, Nevras rushed forward and bashed at me hard with his shield. It knocked me forward, but I was no longer fixed in place. Elias was on the scene, slapping all us with a Bless prayer. My body was not only stronger and more resistant, but it felt somehow more solid somehow, able to stand up to the wind. These ninjas advanced all all of us, but it felt like they were moving in slow motion. I caught up with some of the nearest, and slashed at them, as did Aqorm, Nevras, and Lilith. There were only about three left, so they changed tactics. They made some sort of hand motions. Normally, from what I saw of cast magic, it involved drawing runes to a location, saying the words of the spell or prayer, and making broad sweeping gestures to guide the runes in the proper direction. On the other hand, I couldn''t see any runes here, but instead it looked more like one of Nevras''s techniques. The only real difference was that they were using their hands to make little gestures, swapping the gesture every second or so for another. I couldn''t really see the flurry of hand motions, but judging from Elias''s face, he couldn''t tell what they were doing either. A whirlwind formed and gradually grew bigger, and while those of us nearby tried to attack them, all we got for our troubles was dents or burns in logs that were now sitting where they were standing. Meanwhile, the mini-tornado was enough of an issue that we decided to leave the area before it got bigger.

    Whoever those guys were, I''m sure they wouldn''t be troubling us any longer. Nope, a whole new group of creeps decided to bother us. We walked across the bridge hoping to flee from the assassins who had pursued us before, but near the riverbank between the two cliffs we saw some bamboo straws extending from the water. All of a sudden, the water bubbled up in a way that was unnatural, almost like there were geysers in the middle of a river. These assassins emerged from the water in soft blue uniforms, climbing the cliffs with nets and spears. “Let''s blow up the bridge!” said Lilith, but I refused her. This bridge was built by Nevras''s family, and while it was kind of a crappy rope bridge that could probably stand to be rebuilt, its sentimental value was everything. All the same, before the battle had proceeded very far, this bridge did in fact fall, and in the next few days after our battle, we would halt our journey until the bridge could be rebuilt, staying in the town of Phoenix until it was finished.

    But this is a tale for later. Right now, the bridge was destroyed, with us on it. The assassins that challenged us which Elias said were “ninjas” (I was still skeptical) cut all four sides of the bridge at once, causing it to fall into the water together, rather than sway to a side or the other. They must have really wanted it gone!

    We landed with a plop in the water, and the bridge bobbed up and down, with us standing on it. My legs hurt from the fall, and the rope from the bridge threatened to tangle around our legs and drown us. I was off balance, so I was hopeless at using my Crests right now, since they needing all sorts of precise stepping, and I wasn''t too good at dodging in water either. It was a terrible place to fight, as everyone''s balance was off, and things like Nevras''s techniques and wonder-working was difficult to use. We swam in the direction of the coastline. The island of Phoenix was actually three smaller islands, joined together with this now-cut rope bridge between the island with Phoenix and the island of Phoenix Castle, and joined again by a thin strip of land. The southern island, unlike the cliff areas here, was a much lower elevation. If we could just make it to there, we would be safe... But as we swam, we hadn''t the balance to fight effectively. These ninjas (I guess I had to admit it) had no such restriction. With some sort of technique, they arose and stood on the surface of the water, and began to walk as if it were ice. Elias marveled at their faith, just before two netted us, other ninjas with spears approaching from behind.

    AQORM

    I was in the same net as Ambrosia and Nevras, who were squabbling about whose fault it was that we used this bridge. Lilith was heavy enough to be in her own net, while Elias and Yazim Jianne were together. Tamashii was in a net with the Elias and the sorcerer, but her small body managed to squeeze through the netting. Selqui had slipped underwater. We were in a bad position right now. Tamashii did some sort of shield around herself and slipped beneath the waves. It looked like one or two of these ninjas dove in after her, but I saw a few underwater explosions and some steaming water. No more went after her, so I hope she was alright!

    This really wasn''t the most pressing concern right now, though. That would be the swinging inside a net while people with spears were coming to impale us. We had to do something fast. We were caught, and we were trapped in a situation of despair. Danger was all around us, and closing in. There was nothing we could do.

    And yet we had to keep moving, we had to keep struggling. No matter how hopeless, how pointless, or how depressing things seemed... the people I cared about were a part of this. More than myself, I wanted them to be safe. Sastraneth would not be the same if she lost her parents. And I would not be the same if Lilith wound up getting hurt, even flawed as she was. I struggled against the nets with all I had.

    Hanging in a bag though I was, I told the others, “Shut up!” Ambrosia and Nevras stopped bickering, and watched me as I rocked back and forth. Then they began to do the same, trying desperately to rock the net out of the holder''s hand. The ninjas with all the spears were edging ever closer, while those with the nets yelled, “Stop that! They might get away.” We had to keep moving no matter what they tried, and we had to wait for our chance. The ninjas were strong after all, strong enough to carry several us in a bag, so they were definitely strong enough to throw Lilith, and that is precisely what that one did. He needed both hands free to use his elemental powers, after all.

    Lilith landed with a thud in the cliff face, creating a small indentation in the rock, where her body rested instead of falling into the water below.. The ninja ignored her and turned his attention to us, using his hands to control the nearby water and send it towards us. They wanted to splash us enough to knock us out. They didn''t know who they were dealing with. Sure, the jet of water came towards us, but I reached out my hand and touched it. Or rather, what I touched was the water below me, which touched the jet.

    My geomancy didn''t just work on the ground. Water had energy too, and all water had a tendency to bond together. The water they moved was still connected to the water below us. It was all over for them. The water froze, starting with what I touched, and returning to the main body of water, then fanning out in a circle around us. The ninjas holding the bag slipped and fell, sliding off the ice, and straight into the water. They couldn''t help it, each of them holding us was carrying a burden, and despite their attempts to float atop the water, they were exerting an upward force on the water to create surface tension while a downward force was pushing them forward. We fell on the ice, and they slid off, straight into the waters where Selqui was waiting for them. Electricity charged the water, hurting all of them but a lone ninja who wasn''t carrying anything. This one used the frozen water, creating insulation against all that voltage. Tamashii surfaced, apparently having been victorious earlier, and apparently shielding herself from all that electricity and water. She seemed exhausted from all her efforts though, and probably wouldn''t be able to protect herself. The ninja prepared to attack her, when behind us was a loud growling sound. Lilith was pissed.

    Demons have a number of powers and abilities, but aside from their Hellfire, their strongest ability was the ability to Berserk. Their eyes glowed bright red (including the sclera) for a Minor Berserk and deep black for a Major Berserk. The first was temporary, but the second was usually permanent without serious therapy. Demons only went into a Major Berserk only when something put them in such a state of rage or sorrow that they were inconsolable. They could distinguish friend and foe, but only barely, and they would be unable to calm down without serious help, and given to fits of screaming or crying, as well as practically unable to calm down. As Lilith snarled, her red eyes glowed, and her body was cloaked in a black aura. She charged forward, running along the cliff walls, then ran so fast that her body refused to sink in the water. The ninja fired shot after shot of water and ice at her, and then pelted her with shuriken. None of it did any good, she rushed past the ninja, tearing it to shreds with one swipe. She tore up any remaining ninjas with spears, and stopped and sniffed. She looked around, and finding no enemies, screamed into the air. I grabbed her by the waist, “Shhhhhh... It''s okay. Tamashii is over there. I''m okay. All of us are fine. We''re safe now.” Her Berserk had been a mix of fear for our safety, and annoyance at getting bashed into a wall. But as quickly as such feelings rose, they went away. I was thankful nobody was really hurt. We swam towards the shore, following Tamashii.

    I had remembered, though, that there were supposedly five types of these ninjas. One for every stage of grief, I joked to myself. You know: denial, depression, anger, withdrawal, and apathy. I think that''s what they were. All of these stages, including the last, must be overcome. Just as all those ninjas needed to be killed, and whoever sent them. Odds were, there were probably some on shore too.

    We swam to shore, noticing some eels with sharp teeth swimming towards us. The eels curved to the right and left, steadily moving closer, until at last... Selqui speared the lot of them in rapid succession. We made it to shore, and had roasted eel for dinner. It felt odd to be on the same island as when we had just visited the shrine of the Oracle, but I guess this was how things had to be. We passed the building, entering a large field of flowers of a bright red color. As we edged closer, the flowers got redder and redder, and the area felt strangely warm. Then I noticed the same sort of rippling of the air as would be true of the inside of a a stove. The flowers themselves started smoking, and soon most of the island was on fire. I pulled out my knives and moved towards one of the red-garbed ninjas only to have them turn into balls of fire and teleport away. I changed position, but it kept happening, and they''d often appear behind us and attack us with shuriken or burning paper. Or we’d try to attack these guys, then it would turn out the whole thing was an illusion and we were attacking our friends. Damn it, enough was enough! I screamed, “I have had it with these motherfuckin'' ninjas on this motherfuckin'' plain!” I managed to launch myself in the air, and it looked like I was almost about to reach one of them, when I got hit in midair when that one used the Art of the Fire Wheel. I was pretty badly burned, but I would live. Thankfully, my midsection too the brunt of that, and I was wearing Lilith''s dress, which after the last one had basically been destroyed, she instead contracted some tailors to turn that dragonscale into a few outfits. I had burns on my face, and my skin around where my dress was also stung, but no worse than a jellyfish bite. I was however knocked off balance, and likely wouldn''t move again for most of the battle. Elias tended my wounds while I withdrew to the water to cool my feet and hands.

    Now that we were on solid ground though, the others could use their attacks. Tamashii used her Telekinesis, yet they kept shifting their location until finally she tried her flame abilities to set them on fire. It seemed as though these ninjas were largely immune to their own element though. We would need to try something else. Yazim Jianne managed to fend them off with his sorcery, using temporal spells to freeze some of them in place, reverse their movements, and even managed to dispense some of them with a Meteor Shower and some with a Tachyon Burst. But he could only use spells that he had prepared ahead of time, and today he hadn''t set up many offensive effects. And besides which, they kept teleporting from danger only to set more fires around us. If only there was some way to... And then, I had an idea.

    You see, as anyone who has been alive for thousands of years with nothing but massive amounts of books knows, flame-based magic follows all of the laws of thermodynamics. In simplest terms, a Fire spell needs a fuel source to last more than a few seconds, it needs to be in an area that is warm, dry, and insulated from the elements, it operates more effectively in a small space, and it needs air in order to ignite.

    This meant that I could effectively cancel their power by getting rid of one of a few things, either the air, the fuel, or the aridity. I wanted to breathe, so the first one is out, but raising the humidity and lowering the fuel amount were viable options. And so, I whispered my plan to the others. I had to tell it a couple times though.

    First, Ambrosia and Lilith used darkness effects to kill all grass and turn this field filled with flowers into a lifeless waste. And then, because they also could ignite the air itself, I used my geomancy to add the water that I was standing in to the air. This greatly increased the humidity to that of the other island. The stream bed dried up until the next rain and a few fish at the shallower parts wound up being beached, but it was totally worth it for them to not be able to attack. After that, we defeated them easily. We left the island, and headed to a well-forested area. I expected we might deal with some green ninjas here. That is, if things kept up like they had been doing.

    As predicted, when we walked too near a group of old spruce trees, some men (and probably women too, though all of them were well-concealed) phased through the bark of the trees to throw some ropes with hooks at us. Unlike the others, they didn''t seem to be overly violent, but they did appear to have a strong desire to keep us restrained. And drugged, apparently. They reached into bags and spread what appeared to be some sort of mushroom spores, scattering it into the wind. And then, I lost all sensation...

    I narrate this passage hours later, since at the time, I was in no condition to do much of anything. Half-elves and elves are both extremely resistant to most actual toxins, but hallucinogens are another matter. Angels are not much better, although they are able to purge drugs quickly as a result of a heightened metabolism. Demons are a different matter since their internal organs are basically inert, and mermaids don''t react to many land toxins. This is why Lilith and Selqui were able to fight them off while the rest of us were out of it. I was in better shape than those humans though, they were hopeless for up to six hours, with Ambrosia having the worst of it. My trip only lasted 30 minutes, and it was relatively mild. Aside from some intense queasiness similar to just eating rotten mushrooms, I just had a few minor hallucinations. One involved a pentagon or triangle or some kind of angled shape that I was too messed up to put into words at the time that appeared to be burning in electric blue flames. The other had what appeared to be grains of rice that gradually wriggled like maggots. I heaved, and it was out of my system.

    There''s three major types of hallucinogens: psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. Psychedelics are things like peyote that simply heighten the senses, allowing things to kind of run together. Interestingly, this is much how Heaven was, with its intense colors and sounds. Deliriants allowed the senses as (mostly) normal but distorted perception of reality, so you would think your piano session was awesome when it wasn''t or that friendly people were out to get you. Most magic mushrooms (not to be confused with mushrooms sought after for restoring mystic power), on the other hand are dissociatives, which rather than augment reality and the senses, would basically cut off the senses. In other words, it was like a dream in that it was difficult to pick up outside stimuli. For the entire duration that Ambrosia was under the influence, she was unable to see or hear me, even though her eyes were open. This was probably why they used it, it was an easy way to attack people and not have them fight back while they were withdrawn into their own fantasies. Whether they attacked or ran off, they had all the time in the world.

    After they finally pulled out of it, Lilith, Selqui, and I gave them a meal, since those five had nothing to eat or drink in hours. They “woke up” to find dead bodies all around, so I''m not sure this was an ideal way to come out of their altered state. But well, death is part of this life, I guess. After a meal of grain-bean buns and water, they were ready to go. We marched along as the forests turned to a stretch of soft clay. Surely they could be no danger here. The ground looked so soft and welcoming!

    AMBROSIA

    I stomped around in the soft clay with my boots, heedless that anything was wrong. We''d fought off four ninjas so far, so I figured that I could probably just accept the way things were going because our group would take care of matters anyway. I must have rubbed against a rock, I figured, because my boot tore near the front. I looked down. The “stone” appeared to be pretty flat, metallic, and pretty much a spear. The rest of us stepped back as a series of spears moved up and down randomly along the clay, retreating back to the grass. We were safe there, near the territory of the green ninjas. The wood ninjas were defeated, and for the most part dead. But they didn’t know that.

    After few seconds of hitting nothing, ninjas in brown garments popped out of the ground, leaving a vacuum that sucked the dirt where the clay had been behind them. They attacked us with their spears and chucked kunai daggers and shuriken at us, but after facing down all those other ninjas, I dodged with ease. Oh yeah, and some of the others did too. Seeing that wasn''t working, one of the ninjas (who appeared to be the leader since he had a black outfit instead of brown) pulled out a long scythe fastened to a metallic orb with a long chain and began swinging it at me. He also appeared to have much more skill than the others. My normal dodges didn''t work all that great. Whenever he swung the thing my body moved almost automatically in response to planned action, while attacks that happened as a consequence of another attack I had less than ideal reflexes against. I was getting bashed quite a few times when this chain swung its sphere and hit my shoulder and stomach. It was all I could do to block the thing from hitting my head. And to make matters worse, I risked injury to my arm every time I did so.

    The others weren''t doing much better. Those other ninjas did a bunch of weird hand motions and started shifting rocks around underground, causing rockslides that landed most of them on all fours while they tried to toss large stones at them. Spending a huge amount of effort using Telekinesis against multiple boulders, Tamashii stopped this until finally she was spent. When normal people used psionic powers, it tended to explode their brains, but Soulfires could do so easily. Still, doing it too often did tend to drain them. My daughter was exhausted and deserved to sleep. “Elias,” I said, “take my daughter to safety. Phoenix Castle should be nearby. Nevras''s parents should be able to help her out.” When Tamashii had shown herself to be a powerful Soulfire, Vickie, as she now insisted I call her since we were family, had revealed to me that she also had some ability with this, and had trained her every now and then, at least enough that she was not a danger to herself or others. She would know how to help Tamashii. The downside is, Tamashii was probably the best person to help against these freaks. But now she''s gone. We will have to cope somehow on our own.

    While we were occupied getting my precious to safety, they''d done something with the soil, mixing it differently, so the lower layers of lime and sand were now on top, and the clay was on the bottom. Since the leader had control over earth and water, he quickly took advantage of their actions and turned this into quicksand. Quicksand only forms when the right type of sand becomes filled with water. This usually happens when it is in a sink hole or hollow in the ground that is made out of material such as clay that does not allow the water to drain from the sand. That was pretty much exactly our situation, so down we went. Lilith managed to jump atop some trees, and she was safe for now. Aqorm likewise figured out what was going on, and used geomancy to save herself. The rest of us were not so lucky. We got stuck in the quicksand.

    Like a fool, I kicked and struggled, having not read any survival manuals on how to deal with quicksand. And Elias wasn''t here to help us with his infinite information about usually useless stuff that would probably be really handy right now. I looked for help from Yazim Jianne, our second smartest team member, but I forgot that he was immoral and unlikely to help anyone but himself and Selqui. Yazim Jianne simply teleported himself and her away in the direction of Phoenix Castle, leaving us to deal with this crap.

    I tried to pretend nothing was wrong. I screamed and I raged. I bargained with God to help to get me out of there, forgetting for a moment that I was God (I also had apparently forgotten that the job of being God equipped me with a Console that could literally reshape all matter in the universe to my whims, leaving that thing in the bottom of my backpack). I began to cry. And then finally, about waist deep, I decided I was completely cool with this, that I didn''t care anymore. Like many other fools following the old model of the Five Stages of Grief, I believed I had found acceptance. Actually, I had simply stumbled into a state of apathy and had basically submitted to my fate. I continued to believe that I had found contentment. The only other person left in the quicksand was Nevras, and he had fallen over on his back and was struggling. I couldn''t watch, believing that he would sink immediately in that position. I turned away, sinking a bit more in the process. At this point, I was nearly up to my chest. The good news was it appeared that I hit bottom. The bad news? Well, it was getting hard to breathe.

    “Hey! Hey dumbass!” I heard Aqorm''s rude voice. “Ambrosia, I''m talking to you!” she said. I glared at her, and tried to retort, but realized by lungs could only expand so much, and my voice was tiny, “How rude! What gives you... *gasp* the right... to...” Aqorm scoffed, “Are you going to spend the rest of your life in there? The Ambrosia I know wouldn''t give up like that!” I was tired, I was out of breath, but now I was angry. She continued, “Nevras already figured a way out. But I guess I expected too much of you. He calmed down, relaxed, and thought things through. But I don''t think you can do it.”

    She was probably right. It was hopeless. I coughed. But at this moment, I decided that instead of consigning myself to my fate, I''d try a few things. First, I tried to loosen things up, pulling off my backpack and chucking it towards solid ground. I lucked out, and it didn''t fall into the muck to never be seen again. Instead, Nevras caught it. I also tossed my knife (that was originally his) at him. He flinched out of the way, and it almost fell in the soft sand, but he managed to fish it out at the last possible second. Casting my fishing rod, I managed to coil it around Aqorm, trying to pull myself towards her. “No, stop, you idiot!” she said, “You''re dragging me in with you!” It turns out that while it''s possible for someone else to pull you up with a rope through quicksand, from where I was standing, I might as well be surrounded by cement. Nevertheless, it was probably a good thing that I tried this. Aqorm cut the line suddenly, and the force knocked me off balance, causing me to flop on top of the sand. I remembered Aqorm''s hint about relaxing, and realized that what Nevras was doing earlier had been intentional. I lay on my back, and called out to Aqorm, “What do I do now?” She explained that I had to back stroke, which I kinda was really bad at since I''m the sort of swimmer that caused God to repeatedly reset after I fell in. After trying and almost losing balance, Nevras chopped a nearby branch and handed it to me. I grabbed hold and he pulled while I tried my best to keep my head above the sand. He dragged me out, and I tried to get all the gunk out of my scalp. My hair was all oily from all our exertion too. I’d need to wash it soon.

    The Earth ninjas hadn''t made any moves during all this time. They expected the quicksand to take care of us, and they didn''t seem to care much. But now that I was out, it was time to use my newfound acceptance to totally trash these guys. Because that’s how acceptance works. After slaughtering them with my Oracle powers and the rest of us joining in the gang up on them, Nevras and I shared an embrace. I was tempted to make a Star Wars joke about not liking sand, but I figured right now it was far more important to just get the heck out of here, and get a decent shower.

    YAZIM JIANNE

    I teleported directly to the castle, and wandered the grounds before setting my eye on Tamashii and Elias. You must understand, while I did have time/space powers, the ability to set up rituals, and Void spells, I wasn''t actually very useful in battle. Oh sure, as a sorcerer, I also had abilities of an Onmyouji, but most of these powers boiled down necromancy, curses, and various charms, or using shikigami. I couldn''t use necromancy because it was forbidden by most local ordinances. And unlike Azrael, I had nothing in the way of direct elemental ability, but I could only make a fire by compressing air to release a tiny explosion of heat. My actual defenses were limited to a completely overkill Meteor Shower or the super-speed Tachyon Burst (which wasn''t very powerful), some force effects like Magic Arrow, some Void abilities... okay, maybe I have a some abilities after all, but that battle was still no place for me. I regret nothing.

    I set up a ritual to restrain and properly align mental energies. Soulfires tended to destroy property if their powers resurfaced during a nightmare, and she had fallen asleep after using her powers to their fullest extent during a series of stressful events. When she awoke, I hoped she would be recovered. It was a shame that those others probably hadn''t made it. Too bad... I guess I would just have to quit the group and go home after all. And Tamashii would be mine. Mine to train, mine to cultivate into a powerful sorcerer, since the powers of a Soulfire were a more undisciplined version of my own powers. And when she was of age, she would become an heir to the research of Selqui and I.

    Such power... Surely, Ambrosia wouldn''t mind... An hour later, the rest of the group arrived, and I do not believe that they looked happy with my retreat. Ambrosia cracked her knuckles, and soon I was covered in bruises. Hmmm, perhaps I miscalculated?

    TAMASHII

    I tossed and turned as I dreamed, while I slept in my paternal grandfather''s guest bedroom. I possessed psychic powers so I could remember all my dreams, and sometimes have lucid dreams if I was awake enough. I could even enter the dreams of others sometimes. But my nightmares often seized control of me and wouldn''t let go. And when I had used my Soulfire powers frequently, any dream was fair game. The dream started okay but quickly turned south. It was usually this same dream.

    I was standing in a field surrounded by my friends. Mom was eating some fish with Dad, and Portia with sitting next to me holding my hand and chatting, while I talked to her and Sastra. My brain added in details when I woke, so I think we were talking about whether a swallow could migrate while carrying a coconut or not. Sastra insisted it could probably do this if it were an African Swallow, but anyway the conversation wasn''t that important. The important part was that all of our friends, even Yazim Jianne, were nearby on this picnic, and all of us were enjoying ourselves. Suddenly, Yazim Jianne disappeared. I didn''t notice immediately, because he was kind of an asshole, even if he was our asshole. Then Selqui disappeared and I noticed that a bit more, as she could occasionally be sweet to me. One by one, the others vanished, starting with my mom''s friends, then my direct family and my friends. I panicked, as Portia screamed, “Tamashii, help!” Sastra disappeared before she knew what was happening. I looked around, and the nice spring picnic scene was suddenly changed. It was cold, it was dark, and it was windy. “Somebody!” I yelled, “Somebody!”

    “Somebody! Somebody!” I called out, rising suddenly from my bed. I awoke to find my mother standing nearby Yazim Jianne and Elias, with all the others. Portia was nearby looking concerned, and even Sastra had somehow come here despite the collapse of the bridge. Elias was performing some sort of healing, while Yazim Jianne appeared to be involved in a ritual. Mom appeared to be relieved that he hadn''t just run away from battle while I was out, but was actually helping. Though I''m not certain what he had been doing. Whatever it was, it looked like he had been injured for his efforts.

    Now that everyone was up, we sought an audience from King Charis and Queen Victoria. You know, my grandma and grandpa. Something about the bridge getting wrecked by ninjas and having no means of getting back to the town or the port. They did manage to ship us, along with Sastraneth and Portia, to the main town of Phoenix, but Dad forbade us from leaving until the island had a working bridge. “It''s our civic duty to watch the progress of the bridge, since the king himself will rebuild it. With a number of skilled carpenters and other help, of course,” he said. The rope bridge of Phoenix had been built about 30 years ago, and the rope had already felt like it was ready to fray at the time we last walked over it. King Charis intended to build a stone bridge and the huge bridge ought to be done in a few days, since he had contracted not only professional architects but also Earth ninjas. Considering it took years to build a bridge of this length back in the day, this was pretty good progress. With just the builders hired, it would have been a nightmare. In any case, it looked like we were stuck here for the time being.