The words left her mouth like a promise—loud, sharp, and heavier than she meant them to be. The Boss surged forward in answer in slow motion, its bulk twisting, that sickly bioluminescent core pulsing like a threat. Tanya looked to Ishita but she was in slow motion.

I guess I'm on me own for now. I'll come back to get her help after I've designed it.

Tanya turned on her heel and sprinted, boots slapping wet tarmac, her breath burning her lungs. She barely made it behind the dented mail van before a shockwave rocked the street. Dust scattered. Her blade was already wet again—she hadn't even noticed using it.

Blood, black and thick like treacle, dripped onto the tarmac from something she couldn't see. Somewhere nearby, Olena was yelling. Fifi shrieked.

Mrs Eceer's trap detonated with a deep, splitting thunk—not an explosion but a collapse, like the street itself giving way. Concrete cracked outward in jagged fault lines, and the air shimmered as a grid of glyphs lit up beneath the Boss's feet, stitched into the ground by who-knew-what kind of runes and prep work. There was nothing quite like seeing it in half-speed. The monster roared, limbs jerking as a lattice of shimmering force clamped tight around its legs and lower torso. Chains of light burst upward and locked, anchoring it in place like a pinned insect. It thrashed against the hold, but the ground didn't budge. Tanya felt the vibration through her boots. The street itself was fighting back.

Tanya tore her gaze away and ducked back behind the van. The sharpie cap clicked off and she crouched and drew on her thigh. The circles spiralled further and further out as she focused on the image of the monster being teleported to its own world. She had no clue how this new Ability would work so she needed to draw fast and check her overlay.

• • •

Design Analysis: [Unnamed Portal] LOADING… Main Focus: Portal to Original Source Point

Possible Active Parameters:

Open Duration: [Set to 3 seconds]

Pull Type: Passive Siphon

Range: Up to 200m

Target Signature: Assigned to Enemy Class [Boss]

Risks:

Ambient Pull Effects

Instability under high mana pressure

Ingress Vulnerability

• • •

Tanya sucked her teeth. "Ambient pull effects?" she muttered. "That sounds like something that could swallow me up."

She slashed a thick X through the design on her arm and twisted slightly.

"Try again."

She could feel the pull to rush more and more. Looking at how they were getting on would just waste time. This needed to save them but she couldn't be so fast it wrecked the outcome.

The goth boy's didn't have the ambient problem. Maybe I can make it more like his.

She started on the inside of her bicep this time. Tighter radius, sharper edge spirals. Less flourish, more edge. This portal wasn't going to glow. This one would snap.

She re-opened the overlay.

• • •

Design Analysis: [Unnamed Portal] Intentional Focus: Temporary Gate Linked to Emotional Anchor Possible Active Parameters:

Locking Signature: Fear/Escape Motivator

Open Duration: Variable

Collapse Type: Pressure-based Auto-Seal

Pull: Reversal-Based Target Collapse

Note: Design has high control, but low precision. Stability: 42% Overload Risk: Medium

• • •

"Why the hell would I anchor it to fear?" she growled, wiping her arm roughly on her jeans. "That's just askin' to rip me sideways."

The world rattled behind her—an explosion or a car flipping or maybe just something big stomping too close. Her body tensed all over.

Neither of these would work well enough.

Her knees burned. Her ink-streaked skin was starting to sting. The air smelled like blood and spilt fuel.

She re-opened the visor one more time, ready to start again and try with the visor open whilst she worked. After starting with a large circle base, her head was already throbbing from the constant barrage of words.

But then she noticed something.

The interface—those soft white boxes with their neat little dropdowns and warnings—they weren't fixed.

She tilted her head, watching the words shift slightly as she hovered her finger.

Tanya tapped the top box.

Intentional Focus: Portal to Original Source Point

The box blinked.

…Then it let her type.

"…wait."

She added 'Manual Activation.'

The next box listed "Passive Siphon" and "Reversal-Based Target Collapse."

She clicked it open and typed: No Pull. No Vacuum.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The letters solidified and her breath caught.

"This ain't just responding to what I draw," she whispered. "It's respondin' to what I say it is."

She scrolled down. Parameters. Boxes. Every single one flickered with potential.

She felt the warmth flooding her body of a level-up. Realising this had solidified the overlay. She'd check that later.

A fresh set of options flickered open—Open-collapse triggers, Noise Reduction, Afterimage Delay, and Signature Filter Layers.

"Ohhh," Tanya breathed, the grin spreading before she could stop it. "Oh, you cheeky bitch."

She wasn't guessing the design anymore. She was sculpting it.

Still, something tugged at her as she scrolled. She pulled open the previous two designs again.

The fear design had so many collapsible layers it was like trying to stack wet sand. But the sharp one—the first—felt almost balanced.

The design itself shaped what her intentions could latch to —like the structure of the lines built a mental frame, and her words and edits filled in the gaps.

She clicked through more ideas, testing their bones.

A swirl that looped inward could gain too much energy to easily close.

A jagged one with fractal arms had too much pull.

One with geometric runes was too slow to anchor quickly.

She tried another sketch like a layered spiral. Four arcs intersected in a directional gate. Thin outer ring, strong core spine. She watched the values react.

• • •

Design Analysis: [Unnamed Portal] LOADING… Main Focus: Portal to Original Source Point Manual Activation

Possible Active Parameters: Open Duration: [Set to 8 seconds] Target Signature: Assigned to Enemy Class [Boss] Stability Rating: 86%

Risks: No pull No vacuum

• • •

"Just go. You'll get it right."

Tanya turned the corner as the monster roared across the street. Fifi reared up with a scream that rattled the windows. Boris was barely standing, one hand on her flank, face paper-white. Olena's cannon hissed dry—no more juice—so she wielded the barrel like a club, striking two smaller beasts off her side like she was born in a scrapyard.

Mrs Eceer had circled wide. Tanya could just see her through the smog, laying the last of her traps beneath the boss's feet.

Tanya twisted the grip of her tattoo gun, checking it was plugged in properly, and filing it with ink ready.

Tanya launched herself from behind the car, sprinting full-pelt across the tarmac. The trap wasn't sprung yet. She had time—seconds, maybe less. She ducked a lashing vine thing that cracked the concrete behind her and skidded to a stop near a shattered bus shelter. It was easier to duck at this speed, but hitting her would still hurt badly.

She kicked broken glass aside with one boot, dropped to one knee, and started to draw.

The needle buzzed like a hornet. Her first stroke curved smooth and clean. Already, the power was coiling in her gut—responding not just to her lines, but to her will.

Tanya gritted her teeth. "Right. Let's be fuckin' specific."

She drew a deep, steady arc, following the stencil. She knew that the design wasn't the final version; her ink was what really counted. As she spoke, the words before her on the overlay changed. "One-way portal." A flick at the end. "Target locked to origin world. No tether. No residual drag."

She could feel it listening. Each shape formed with a satisfying bite against her skin, more than ink, more than pain. It felt like burning blueprints onto a piece of her soul.

She ducked low as a monster landed beside her, its leg slamming down half a metre away. The shockwave cracked the pavement under her, but she stayed hunched, her left arm shielding the tattoo from debris. The monster turned, sniffed, hissed.

Fifi screamed again. She was tethered to the boss and struggling, restrained by the remnants of her binding mark.

Tanya hissed through her teeth. "Timed activation. Eight seconds open. Nothing gets sucked in unless I say. No pull. No backlash. No errors." She flipped the needle in her grip. "If it crawls out, it's crawling home."

A swipe came too close—she rolled backwards behind a chunk of concrete, slicing her shoulder on the jagged edge.

The pain cut deep, but the magic surged higher.

The portal's shape was taking form now but the world was starting to speed up too.

"Ishita, I need you now," Tanya said.

Ishita backed towards her, the fence post bloodied in her hands.

"What do I do?" Ishita replied, voice still slightly warped through Tanya's senses.

Tanya couldn't look up without risking a line or taking longer. "I guess just get ready?"

A triangle of monster corpses slid near her as Olena shoved through with a grunt, knocking one into the mess with a twist of her cannon. She raised a hand to Tanya, covering her flank without question.

The final stroke connected, and the tattoo snapped into place like a closed circuit.

Her skin glowed white-blue, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. A surge of power coiled up her arm, hot and overwhelming. This wasn't like the others. All of it was thrumming.

Despite her level-ups usually staying out of combat, one appeared at the forefront of her vision.

• • •

Congratulations!

You have unlocked a new Boon Type from A Blink of an Eye.

Minor Boon– Situation of slight risk. You may be hiding from a threat, placating a foe, or surrounded by manageable enemies.

???

Greater Boon– Situation of certain loss. You may be losing a battle, saving another or yourself from near-certain death, or about to lose a limb, ally, or bodily control.

???

• • •

Her vision blurred. It was like holding a lightning strike in her palm.

She rose, staggered, hand clutched around her burning wrist. The design was done. It pressed against the world, begging to be used. The ink writhed faintly beneath her skin. She couldn't feel Ishita's hands on her anymore, the pain was too much.

Her voice cracked as the street exploded in motion around her. The trap under the Boss detonated, Mrs Eceer's final trap dragging half the street into a glowing collapse. Chains of light wrapped the monster's legs, locking it down like an executioner's grip. The Boss screeched.

"Ishita!" Tanya gasped again. "Help—"

Her knees were giving out. The pressure inside her chest mounted—her heart pounding off-tempo, magic backwashing through her ribs. The overlay was still up, numbers flickering red.

Warning: Mana usage reaching dangerous levels.

Tanya bent forward, hand clenched, voice tight. "Just—just hold the pain down. I can finish it."

Ishita knelt fast, both hands snapping to Tanya's ribs. Her eyes lit violet as she tapped into her Ability, mouth tight with effort. "Okay. Okay. I've got you."

The portal began to form.

Ahead of them, the air cracked like ice, opening into a spiralling gate of mirrored light. Shapes turned inside it—shadows of another place, thick with fog and bone-coloured roots. The Boss screamed, flailing inside its trap. It knew what was coming.

Tanya choked, eyes wide.

The portal was hungry—but not pulling. It was precise. Surgical. But it was ripping through her to do it.

The pain grew and panic set in. She had the feeling now that if she didn't stop she could die. She pulled all of her mana out as quickly as she could, tugging against the process already set in motion. It wasn't stopping.

Please. Stop. Fuck.

Her fingers trembled as she tried to lift her hand again. Blood streamed from her nose. She could feel her magic boiling—the reservoir tearing open in real-time.

Ishita pressed harder into her ribs, drawing shimmering pain threads out like smoke.

Am I dying?

The portal yawned wide with a final metallic shing.

And then—movement.

The Boss surged forward—no roar this time. It stopped mid run and stayed there, its legs still moving but no ground being made. Then it began its descent backwards, being tugged against its claws and against the vines. Some of them gripped buildings, another gripped Olena and got bashed to putty. It slammed into the gate like a body falling into water.

The moment the monster disappeared the portal was no longer just light. The image on the other side came into focus, warped at the edges by the rip in space.

Far below, an immense city sprawled out like circuitry built in the centre of some strange forest. It wasn't built for human eyes. Layer upon layer of architecture fanned outward in spirals, each tier glowing with veins of golden light, pulsing in strange rhythms. Towers rose in impossible curves, some arcing sideways or blooming open like metal petals. Clouds rolled beneath her, not above, dragging shadows along the undersides of translucent bridges suspended between hovering structures. She couldn't make out people—they'd be specks from this height if they were even shaped like people at all.

It was the last thing Tanya saw before she collapsed.

Someone caught her just before she hit the ground, lowering her with a hiss of effort.

"No—no no no—" Ishita begged. Her voice was so far away.

Tanya could feel each breath more strained than the last. She was so cold, but all of the pain and anxiety had gone away, leaving her with the fading words and the darkness all around her.

The portal was gone.

So was the Boss.

And so was Tanya.

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