I’m not sure what sort of a beast could produce a surge of lightning so intense. Hells below, I don’t know what sort of beast could grow so large. We’ve fought large creatures before. The brachiosaur that attacked a few months ago being the most prominent among them. Several of the slimes and oozes we’ve faced were quite large as well. But those creatures were merely ‘house’ sized, even if the ‘house’ in question was more of a giant mansion.

But this… Colossal, Titanic, Gargantuan… I’m not sure that any of these words really do it justice. It extends at least a thousand feet into the air, considering where the crescendoing coalescence of electrical energy is gathering. Definitely a kaiju-class creature. More pressingly, considering its size and strength, we’re probably looking at a creature with at least six digits of health… Hopefully not more than six, or we might lose by sheer attrition alone.

I raise my left arm, launching multiple non-elemental [Ether Bullet Barrages] into the first wave of flying hippocamps. Though the gale-force winds attempt to knock my attacks off course, the size of the concussive bursts and the sheer volume of the attacking monsters ensure that more of my attacks hit home than miss, if not always their intended target.

I’m not the only one attacking with ranged attacks. Anna lobs a [Flaming Sphere] toward the descending horde, and Jackie follows up with a basketball-sized sphere of blue energy that explodes into a mass the size of a tennis court which briefly outshines the floodlights down below. Hundreds of mundane machine guns, some enchanted with rudimentary glyph, and enchanted arrows by the dozens, follow suit. And Alexey, the imposing, grizzled warrior that he is, leaps into the air with a titanic roar that shakes the ground below. He throws a single punch so fast I can hardly track it, and with enough power behind it to briefly invert the winds and slam right through his target.

A second roar follows, and I realize that he’s using one of his Skills to draw enemy aggression to him. A wise strategy. Chloe and I can fly, as can a few others I see launching themselves with plumes of flame and gusts of wind. But most of the soldiers are ground bound, and drawing our flying foes to the surface is the best way to eliminate their intrinsic advantage.

Through it all, Chloe remains lost in the incantation of her spell. The [Ether] flow around her is massive and continues to build further. Through our bond, I sense her unwavering resolve, twice bolstered further by my and Alexey’s Skills. She’s waiting, watching, sensing the entire battlefield.

We can’t see or hear what each other is perceiving through each other’s senses unless we actively send those sensations to one another, but she is always passively gaining information about my mood and general status, just as I am with her. She senses my triumphs, feels my pain, surprise, joy, or any other. And her [Mind], as a pure caster, is even higher than my own, corresponding to a frankly ridiculous ability to multitask and process information. Enough that, even as she maintains the focus for [Binding Soul Chains], she’s still able to throw out [Heals] and [Curing Lights] to soldiers as soon as they suffer critical injuries.

I take to the skies, my teal wings glowing as I ascend. I extend the range of my [Hearken] from a thousand feet to three thousand. My [Ether]’s consumption rate is proportionately higher to compensate, but with nearly six thousand points to spare, it’ll still last for several minutes. Not a long time compared with the battles of yore, but a small eternity in a clash between superhuman forces.

Being kicked and charged and bitten by flying horse-fish hybrids in the midst of a hailstorm has never before been my idea of a fun time. But defending the woman I love, the people I care about, the city I grew up in, and the world and universe I’ve sworn to protect? Those are all burdens I proudly bear.

Spurts of Fire-elemental [Ether Bullet Barrages] fill the sky. Having tested out every option, these seem the most effective against the equine beasts. Light- and Wind-elemental attacks also work well, although the latter of those has an accuracy issue amidst the storm. But the damn [Water Evokers] are undoing our hard work, a fact I piece together as a [Waterspout] slams into one of the creatures near death.

For a moment, I’m stunned that the creature is still moving. Then my bewilderment turns to shock as its movements become stronger and the numerous injuries scattered throughout its body mend and stitch themselves back together in the span of tenths of a second. So bizarre, seeing how elemental absorption healing works like that.

“Stop all Water-based attacks!” I cry out, not sure how many people can hear me between the screams of battle, the thunderous claps all about, and the auditory signatures of various Skills and spells being launched. I hope I don’t have to resort to going around, knocking out the dozen or so [Water Evokers] one by one, but I will to prevent them from inadvertently aiding the enemy.

Bit by bit, we’re slowly winnowing down the ranks of the hippocamps. However, the [Fear] effect of my [Hearken] skill is proving a problem, in a roundabout way. Alexey’s Skills allow him to serve as an indomitable wall. Some increase his [Vitality] and overall toughness, but most are dedicated to drawing enemy aggression toward him and away from others. My Skill, on the other hand, is causing about a quarter of the monsters to flee from the battle altogether. Not itself a bad thing, but every monster that doesn’t attack us is one that’s free to overrun the flimsier defenses further toward the center of the city…

A problem that diminishes considerably as a blade of pure white cuts through the unnatural darkness, severing through one of the flying beasts and killing it in an instant. A second blade of light, only slightly dimmer than the first, follows suit. Three other fighters I don’t recognize, armed with considerably less luminous weapons, also fly from the east, dispatching their own beasts, though with substantially more effort.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I ignite the fur coat of another hippocamp. Alana’s group might not be numerous, but having even this many more capable reinforcements is a welcome sight in the midst of battle.

But before there’s a chance to celebrate, or even catch our breath, the lumbering lightning kaiju stops moving. The surge of electrical energy building in the massive cavity in the middle of its chest is compressing. Tighter, brighter, ever more powerful… A single beam designed to destroy an entire city. And I don’t think I can stop it.

I charge forward, flaring out my [Hearken] to its maximum range, readying my strongest [Repulsion]-based spell to try to topple the creature. Maybe if I can get close enough and knock it off course, if only a little, I can see to it that the majority of the city is spared.

Despair sets in as the compression reaches its maximum. I’m too late. Even as I sprint down with everything I have, using my maximum speed, throwing all caution and longevity to the wind, I’m still going to be half a second away when the blast comes.

Worse still, I’m thrown off course by a burst of wind assailing me from behind. What the hell was that, I wonder. I didn’t know there was some sort of wind spirit as well within the storm. Why didn’t I sense it? What else am I missing?

But my defeatist helplessness turns to relief as I notice the aquamarine beam shooting out from Nicholas’s [Ether Cannon]. And for the second time, I’m forced to swallow my pride and acknowledge the wisdom he had in constructing the device. It makes contact with the core of the titan’s attack just as it begins to fire its annihilating beam. The two attacks annihilate each other with an explosion that blasts away all the rain in a cloud of intense heat and pressure. For a few moments that seem to stretch on far longer than they have any right to, sound seems to stop. I don’t feel the pain of a burst eardrum nor blood gushing out of my ear or anywhere else, so I

By some miracle, I don’t sense anyone having been killed in that explosion, although after my experiences with [Black Hole] some weeks back, I won’t assume that the casualties were zero. Unfortunately, the attack also failed to bring the titan down. Injured. Angry, almost certainly. Filled with a resolve to stomp us specifically out of existence. But not dead. And that’s a problem.

The [Ether Cannon] is already charging again. I don’t know its exact specifications or how long it will take down to the second, but comparing the Ether released in that blast to the rate of accumulation, we’re looking at six to seven minutes for a full charge. That might as well be an eternity. No, this fight will be decided long before that happens. And I’m going to be the one to do it.

“Chloe! Tell everyone that they’re going to have to do without me. And let’s get ready to bring the big guy down!”

“Understood, love. I’ll be ready the moment you need me.”

With that, I pass beyond the one mile radius of our telepathy. Again, it’s an odd and somewhat uncomfortable sensation, like I’m losing a piece of my mind. But I set the feeling aside, flaring my wings out and ascending up the behemoth’s legs.

I’m forced to constantly dodge. Although the creature doesn’t shoot out lasers or electrical attacks from its pores, it is shedding millions of tiny scales, each of which does a not insignificant amount of damage when they hit. If they hit, thanks to the effect of [Archangel’s Gaze] helping me dodge the vast majority of them.

It’s barely five seconds before I’m at the site of its primary weapon, a large, parabolic cavity in the middle of its chest. So bizarre, imagining what sort of processes led to the creation of such a beast. Is it even a living creature, or is it an automaton? Or is it like me, some mixture of both? No matter. If it’s alive, it can be killed, and if it isn’t, it can still be broken.

The creature roars, attempting to push me back through sheer air pressure. I’m pushed back slightly, but I’m able to resist being flung like a ragdoll. Frustratingly, it’s enough to push me out of the cavity. And since the attack is once again charging up, I’m unable to get back inside to where it’s weakness is likeliest to be. Damn it all! Damn my Lightning vulnerability most of all!

It’s right as I’m cursing myself that I’m forced out of my way by a link of glowing golden chains flying straight toward me at high speed. Chloe’s new Skill lands right in the center of the building mass, causing it to instantly dissipate. The creature lumbers, falling to one knee with an impact that roars like thunder and shakes the entire city like an earthquake.

It’s not just me that seizes the opportunity Chloe has given us to bring the brute down for good. Alexey, along with nearly a hundred other soldiers, starts charging over the base’s fencing, roaring battle cries as they do. The hippocamps, though far fewer in number, continue to harangue us all, but morale is through the roof and even painful and crippling blows are being shrugged off by the rallying soldiers.

I focus myself on the strongest spell I feel I can reasonably cast. Remembering my weapon from another timeline and vaguely recalling the glyphic patterns etched into the shaft and tip alike, I begin crafting my spell. [Gravity] remains difficult for me to Manifest properly, but after my time in the Tower, strengthening my willpower and Skills alike, it is manageable. [Wind] and [Sharpness] come next, the two linking together in a way that defies whatever I would have thought to be common sense before seeing it firsthand. It’s also the first array that can’t be easily mapped onto a two-dimensional surface, as [Wind] slots in best when linked in the normal direction relative to the mostly-2D [Gravity] glyph.

Once [Sharpness] is added— a glyph that links very tightly to [Wind], hence the relatively common air blades and [Wind Cutter] style attacks— it’s just a matter of connecting everything together and using a [Straightness] glyph to form the shape of my spell into that of a spear. Everything locks into place and I–

“Ow!” I scream out.

My concentration is broken and the array stored in the center of my mind falters as I’m slammed in the back by the titan’s right arm. Though its primary weapon is temporarily disabled, it seems that Chloe’s magic can’t restrain the behemoth completely. I dodge the follow-up attack and start trying to re-form my spell array.

“You got a plan while your girlfriend is doing all that?” Jasmine asks.

“Yeah! But I need you all to buy me a little more time so I can form the circle again!”

A pair of hippocamps charge at me, taking advantage of my momentary dizziness. I raise my hand to shoot, only to have them punched out of the sky by a very angry Master Sergeant.

“You need us to deal with these bastards for you?” Alexey asks. “Morris, Wilson! You heard the woman! Time to give these sons of bitches all the hell we’ve got!”

“Yes, sir!” Alana and Jasmine say in unison, cleaving a path through the remaining monsters.

And it’s not just them. Alexey has no flight Skill of his own, but he doesn’t let that stop him, jumping from monster to monster and showing how vicious a pure [Strength]-based fighter can be. Each of his attacks is sharp, gory, and utterly brutal, delivered with an unnerving ease before leaping off a dissolving carcass toward his next unsuspecting victim.

I shoot down two more with a blaze of flame before recentering myself within my mind, trusting that all my comrades and allies can buy me the time I need to rebuild the circle. I block out all the pain and all the noise and all the fatigue, stitching together my array again, piece by agonizing piece. My concentration wavers and falters, some temporary mental backlash likely sustained as my circle broke, and physical damage enough dealt to break the [Cloister] protecting me.

Even the hail and the winds are damaging me so close to the center of the titan’s fury, but I ignore them as well. I’ve still got just under 5,000 [Health], and I’ll not succumb as long as I have a single point to my name.

My rush to complete my spell is only exacerbated as I notice that Chloe’s [Soul Chains] are starting to fade. Even she can’t hold back such a titan indefinitely. Her strength and will are both wavering, and I can feel the complex mix of mental resolve and love battle with fatigue and foreign will, and the cries of pain going through her. I grit my teeth and clench my fist, and it takes everything I have and am not to rush through the spell circle before it’s finished. I know that she would never forgive me if I acted so self-sacrificing, losing a leg or an arm or maybe my head all to get the spell out a split-second earlier.

A spattering of blood emerges on my right arm as I’m bitten. It only lasts for an instant before it’s lit aflame and then swiftly disintegrated by an attack from the ground. Thank the goddesses that the attacker had good aim or a Skill to prevent friendly fire.

“You almost ready?” Alana’s voice calls out. “That thing is about to fire again!”

“I need maybe five more seconds!” I say, finalizing my circle and gathering the necessary [Ether] from within the depths of my core. I’m going to need every scrap I can muster to properly power this.

“I don’t think we have five seconds!” Jasmine cries.

“Then we take them from this bastard by force!” Alexey screams.

With a roar that shakes the heavens, he launches himself off the nearest hippocamp and hurls himself head-first toward the creature’s right leg. He launches four consecutive punches in front of him, clearing the way and reducing the air pressure, accelerating his fall yet further.

And he’s not the only one. Jackie is following closely behind, screaming with all the fury of a madwoman made manifest. Hundreds more follow, abandoning all pretenses of a prolonged, defensive struggle. For good or ill, they trust me— or trust their special forces, who in turn trust me— to do the most important part. And seeing how much they are depending on me fills me with a terrible resolve. I can’t let them down. “Sorry, Chloe,” I mutter, even though we’re outside of telepathy range.

They attack the creature’s legs and stomach and everywhere else. Alexey’s attack is far from able to bring the creature down, but together with everyone else, they are staggering it. Forcing it to utilize its array of defensive Skills. Distracting it. Slowing its focus and the buildup of energy in its primary attack array. They’re giving everything they have to

I fly up as high as I can, getting face to face with the towering terror and getting a good look at it for the first time. And just as I’d expected before, it’s a goddamned Godzilla ripoff— a bipedal lizard with tens of thousands of Seraphina-sized teeth, towers over skyscrapers, fierce roars. The whole nine yards. Time to send it back whence it came.

With everything I have and my spell circle completed, I descend right into the creature’s core, not letting wind nor hail nor the electrical impulses surrounding me and shocking my arm and wings slow me down. It hurts like hell, but it’d hurt far, far worse if I let the nearly one million people living here be slain by this monster. And so I fly inward, right into the disc that is rapidly building up electrical power, waiting until I get as close as possible before I unleash my attack. I have but one chance, but I won’t miss. From this distance, I can’t miss.

I pull my arm back. A spear appears in my arm, one that appears to be made of the night sky and that shines with a galactic glow. The very fabric of space and time bend around it, tearing at the muscles and connective tissue in my right hand. I wait. Longer. Longer. Right until I get right up to the focus of the titan’s disc. And then, in the instant before it fires its attack, I strike first, thrusting my spear with a roar of defiance.

Nothing happens. Then nothing happens again. Lights all around fade. Sounds go quiet. The roar of the beast high above is faint, distant. The cries of soldiers on the ground and hippocamps attacking all around are muted, as though muffled through hundreds of feet of water. Then the world goes silent, and the creature implodes from the effects of [Gravilance Thrust].

The air all around rushes inward toward a singularity that lasts only an instant. In the next instant, I’m thrown backward. My body is battered. My [Ether] is down under twenty. It’s a struggle to maintain consciousness against the pain and the fatigue of battle. The hippocamps are routed, flying off in every direction now that their accompanying titan is broken. And I need to wait. Need to see that notification. Need to stay awake just long enough to know that I killed the damn thing. That the people I’ve sworn to protect are safe and sound.

I can’t fly. I can hardly move. But I need to see the damn thing register as dead before my battered body hits the ground. Eight hundred feet, and it’s not dead. Then six hundred, five hundred… Damn it, why isn’t it dying? Three hundred feet… Still not dead. It’s body is torn off, imploded from the waist down. How is it still registering enough life force for… Shit! Shit! Shit shit shit! All of this for… That damn System!

It’s not until I’m a mere seventy feet above the surface, lower than even the tallest trees, that I finally see the notification that the fight is finally over. And then, before I die, before my consciousness expires, before I splatter against the concrete pavement beneath my feet, I trigger [Seraphina Overlimit]. I’m going to hurt like hell in about two minutes, once this effect expires. But at least I’m going to live through this. Just as I promised Chloe I would.

[Your party has slain 14,507 Hippocamps (Levels from 43 to 46). You have gained a boosted 51,000 Experience.]

[Your party has slain a Titanic City Slayer (Level 59). You have gained a boosted 380,000 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 54 (from 52). [Strength] +2, [Speed] +2, [Vitality] +2, [Mind] +2. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 8).]

Continuing from before, I assign my points to [Strength] and [Speed] in equal measure. Though they didn’t play an outsized role in this particular fight compared with my flashy [Glyphcasting] display at the end, the former helped me dispatch the hordes more easily, and the latter kept me alive long enough to do what I needed to do to win the fight.

[Your [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank VIII)] has upgraded to [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank IX)].]

[Your [Elemental Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank VI)] has upgraded to [Elemental Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank VII)].]

[Your [Angel’s Grace (Rank VI)] has upgraded to [Angel’s Grace (Rank VII)].]

[Your [Glyphcasting (Rank XXV)] has evolved to [Multidimensional Glyphcasting (Rank I)].]

[[Multidimensional Glyphcasting]: One of a [Glyphcaster]’s major breakthroughs comes from realizing that glyphs can be combined in ways that span more than a two-dimensional projection. But beware the Curse of Dimensionality: with vastly more possibilities to explore comes commensurately more danger… and potential. Take this Skill, and delve into the next frontier of [Glyphcasting].]

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = (262, 266)]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = (207, 208)]

[Level: 54; Experience: 2,917,525; To Next: 121,185]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 10,349 / 8,521; [Ether]: 9,474 / 6,316]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 258 (Base: 79); [Speed]: 260 (Base: 80); [Vitality]: 372 (Base: 105); [Mind]: 498 (Base: 154)]