Oh hell yeah, level 100 at last. Leveling a new character was the same lopsided experience every time. Breeze through the extended tutorial in a few hours and enter the real start of the new league well over level 50. From there, it was a rapid ascend up to level 75 and beyond, followed by the incremental grind up into 90 and then the glacial slog up to 100.

That being said, once you hit the true endgame, most of the true progression had little to do with levels. It was more about how rich you could get and how good you were at knowing how to leverage all your accumulated wealth.

As always, ARPG land was but a small, distilled echo of 'real life.'

Someone was knocking at my door. How annoying. Pausing the game and cleaning up the assorted junk food wrappers by eating them, I stumbled over to my new bedroom door to see what the fuck it was Cassandra wanted.

Although my new accommodations should have been a downgrade, I found myself rather enjoying the semi-suburban, middle-upper class McMansion lodgings. It was basically just as nice as the penthouse in the context of things I actually cared about, and it felt like an actual home.

It was like I was living on the other side of the Hollywood screen and not an oversized six star hotel room. It was just so—cozy.

When I opened the door and got one look at Cassandra, though, I realized that something was up. But is it going to be 'get dressed, we're going out' or is it going to be 'I found out about that additional guy you killed?' Not that I killed someone again. I didn't.

"What's up?"

"Work, that's what." Pushing herself inside, she shut the door behind me and started pulling random shit out of the closet. Is she looking for my dress suits? I didn't get a chance to ask, because she kept talking.

"The big three are mobilizing everyone. You need to get changed." Finally looking at me again, she paused. "Fully changed, you know?"

I was rather confused by this point, but figured I was just going to have to go along with it. "You mean I'm supposed to be the Valkyrie? Was that some kind of euphemism? You know you can just ask me to transform, right? No need to make it weird."

"Yeah, that," Cassandra replied distractedly. "I just don't know whether to tell you to wear one of the suits or not. I'm thinking we should just put you in something we wouldn't mind getting ruined and bring the suit along too."

I rolled my eyes. Okay, mom, great idea, mom. You're not going to find what you need in the closet, though. While Cassandra kept rummaging around in my stuff, I stripped down, released my passive 'grip' that kept me in my Vonnie appearance, and then dug some cheap sweatpants and a t-shirt out of my dresser after my old appearance, plus claws and jaws, had returned.

"Okay, I'm ready," I announced after pulling on some sneakers. "Give me the suit."

If Cassandra was surprised, she didn't show it. She just dumped the suit and all of its associated paraphernalia in my arms and pushed us both back into the hallway. "I don't know what they want from you other than that I was told to bring you along," she explained.

"Okay, but where are we even going? What's happening?" This was all very sudden, and I wanted to know what to expect. Am I going to have to fight anyone?

"I'll explain in the car," she said while continuing to drag me down the stairs and through the kitchen area to the attached garage door. "It would be nice if we could just have you fly, but…"

"Wait, hold up." With a bit of force—well, enough to deglove a normal person's hand and crush their bones—I extracted myself from Cassandra's iron grip. Funnily enough, I was the stronger one—stronger in terms of literal physical strength—but she was still an effective tier higher than me and thus far from weak, even in relative terms.

I understood both why she wished I could fly to our destination and why it wasn't a good idea. She could effectively teleport herself there, although she would claim that it 'technically isn't teleporting.' It was basically teleportation, but unlike my biological father, who was twice her tier, she couldn't bring other people along at will.

And yet there was a way in which her own abilities could transport other Guardians—or in my case, Anathema. Mr. Bones had done it the same day we first met, even dragging me along with him.

Cassandra's abilities all revolved around the concept of an archetypal news anchor, hence her chosen Guardian alias. Her own form of 'not' teleportation was, as she described it, based on creating multiple projections of herself in different locations and switching which one was 'real.'

However, one particularly useful quirk of her powers that developed upon reaching Tier 4 was the ability to allow other Guardians to execute their abilities remotely.

Cassandra could do more than merely broadcast a live view between the locations where her different bodily 'projections' were stationed. She could allow other Guardians to extend their abilities over to the other side of the esoteric 'screen.'

This was, obviously, a ridiculous ability that made her an incredibly valuable asset to any organization like the Bouquet despite her otherwise middle of the road power level.

And as a result, on top of live broadcasting and the remote use of esoteric powers, other Guardians could sometimes piggyback on it to transport themselves as well.

Mr Bones' ability to commandeer other people's skeletons—something which even I found rather disturbing—meant he could hop straight over to the other side so long as there was a viable target—victim, really—there waiting for him.

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And finally, there was one last quirk involved that made it possible to piggyback on the piggyback. Cassandra herself was hardly the only Guardian who could occupy multiple places at once. Mr. Bones could too, and when a powerful enough individual was physically present on both sides of the connection, they somehow stabilized it in such a way as to make physically dragging other objects or people through the wormhole of sorts a real possibility.

I'd experienced that myself, and it wasn't the most pleasant experience. Far from a simple portal, it was like being dragged through a mile of thick, viscous darkness.

Regardless, it would be much faster than taking a car or even flying—something which I couldn't do because of how much it would jeopardize the distinction between my two identities. I assumed that recruiting Mr. Bones or someone else with the right ability interaction wasn't a good option right now either, given that she hadn't suggested it.

But—I'd been wondering if I could do the same trick on my own, using my new metal pushing and pulling ability to drag myself through to the other side.

The ability itself should work—it was, all things considered, a fairly ordinary ability and Cassandra's power shouldn't have an issue with it. The bigger question was whether I could drag the object on the other end through to my side—or to drag myself through, as the case may be.

I quickly outlined the idea to Cassandra, who was surprisingly receptive to it. Or maybe not surprising—it wouldn't take very long and could potentially save a great deal of time.

The ability that let her create windows into other locations in the first place took the form of a luminous, gel-like substance that she rolled and molded with her hands. Once she had a decently large ball of the stuff, she threw it against one of the kitchen walls.

Now that I thought about it—that wall is oddly bare compared to all the others, isn't it? It seemed now to be a deliberate choice to make it easier to use her main powerset.

The liquid light spread out into a rectangular shape, forming a magical screen with a live view into what looked like an imperial palace. I found myself momentarily distracted by how grand and luxurious the visible architecture and decorations looked.

Another Cassandra appeared on the other side, briefly waving at me and then leading the nonexistent 'camera' through several sumptuous halls, eventually reaching a less luxurious area full of industrial machinery. She indicated one of the supporting I-beams.

I was a little hesitant to target anything in an area like this, well, to do so when I wasn't in the middle of a fight. I doubted our bosses would like it very much if I collapsed the roof or ripped a giant leak in the plumbing.

Eh, whatever. I went through with it anyway, and a violet arc leapt from my fingers to the screen—and then through to the other side, where it struck the I-beam and forged a fleeting but potent bond between us.

As I was currently in my petite, not-quite-human form and not even wearing my full 'armor,' I was the one with the lower inertia and thus also the one who got yanked straight off her feet. There was a brief moment where I worried that I was about to go smashing through the drywall.

I did go smashing through something, but the sudden new resistance of a thick, cloying blackness was all the indication I needed to know that the experiment had been a success. Judging by my recollections from Mr. Bones as well as the way it felt right now, I knew I had at least several seconds before I would emerge out the other end.

I wonder what happens if I let go?

I decided I really wasn't in the mood to find out, so I kept channeling the not-actually-lightning and hoped that the steel beam on the other side wasn't about to give out. I also took the time to study the surrounding darkness.

The degree to which it was so palpably dense and physical remained surprising. Whatever the nature of this void beyond space, or reality, or whatever, I would never have expected it to feel like slow-motion water.

Huh. That's a good analogy for it, isn't it?

The darkness wasn't really thick or sticky like syrup or honey. It was heavy and dense like a liquid, but not actually thick in a syrupy way. In that respect it was thin but also slow.

Alex—what the fuck are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense. Regardless, the fact that it was so dense and substantive at all was at the very least intriguing.

I wondered if this in-between, or perhaps outside-of, place was related to us Anathema—to the breaches and the incursions. It seems likely, doesn't it? It was a result of abusing a Guardian's ability, after all.

Finally, I popped out of the darkness and into the normal world again—and promptly banged my head against the sharp corner of a massive steel beam. "Ooooooh fuck."

Dropping to the ground, I cradled my abused skull. God damn it! I'd experienced worse, far worse, but it still hurt like hell, despite being an incredibly minor injury by my new standards. Within just seconds, the pain vanished.

"That took only twelve seconds by my count," Cassandra said, looking up from her phone. "Which isn't at all bad. That was a good idea you had."

"Uh, thanks."

As I stood up and regained my bearings, I started to get the sense that something was—if not wrong, then at least remarkably weird. I had this growing feeling that something deep or even fundamental had markedly changed. Something so foundational that I was having a hard time identifying what it was I was reacting to.

I wouldn't even say it was a bad feeling, aside from the growing sense of unease that came from having a deep certainty that something was amiss but being utterly unable to articulate what or why.

Cassandra was already walking back in the direction of the area that I recalled looking like some grand palace or cathedral. I hurried to catch up to her. "So uh, you said you were going to explain things in the car, but that didn't end up happening so…"

She exhaled. "Right." It was a moment before she spoke again, as she seemingly collected herself. "So usually we're not supposed to talk about what goes on here, but since I was told to bring you specifically, I—I think I should give you at least the basic context. I don't know why they want you here now specifically, but…" trailing off, she came to a stop. "Alex? Where did you—oh?"

I had come to a stop and was now at least ten feet behind her, only half paying attention. I'd finally realized what it was that had changed and was throwing off my sense of normalcy. It wasn't about what I was feeling—it was about what I wasn't feeling.

Really, it was familiar. I'd lived most of my life this way, and only fairly recently had things changed. And right now, I wasn't in the middle of an evolution or anything like that—all I'd done was enter a new place. So why…?

"Cassandra," I said, my voice thin. "I'm not hungry. Why the fuck am I not hungry?"

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