Boots crunched in unison against grimy tile, scaring away rats and vagrants alike. Perhaps sensing trouble in the air, the streets of the Underground in this sector were eerily clear, save for a spider or two weaving their webs unseen.

“This is the place.”

A stocky man in grey combat fatigues paused in mid-stride, coming to an abrupt halt. He was staring at his watch, which was glowing ominously with a red light shaped like an eye hovering over it. Said eye was currently pivoted in a certain direction, blinking steadily as the center turned a light orange. The man waved the squad of ten to stand ready, even as a single hooded figure came out of the formation to stand next to him.

“Wards are up. Counting on you to break them, Brother.”

The hooded man inclined his head, stretching tattooed hands out as he held a talisman before him. The squad leader stepped back as the mage began to glow, gesturing to his armed men to fan out by the entrance.

Energy rippled across the glowing talisman, now an angry yellow. It burst suddenly, spraying the pavement with heated fragments. The mage staggered back, taking out a second talisman to protect himself even as the first shattered. The eye on the captain’s watch turned to green.

“Well done, Brother.”

The mage spat on the ground. The liquid was flecked with red, sizzling on contact with one of the still glowing fragments embedded into the tile.

“Strong wards. Strong mage.” The tattooed mage warned. He wiped at the corner of his mouth, and it came away bloody. The captain acknowledged it with a curt nod.

“Drones in first. Get the thermo grenades ready, ultrasound after if necessary. We go in hot.”

A pair of drones hovered up even as two of the squad attached charges to the now revealed doorway that had been cleverly disguised with wards of unsight earlier. A short countdown later, the door disintegrated as the charges detonated inward. The drones swept in, their operator hanging back to monitor their progress on his visor.

Gunfire tore through the drones, who returned it at what turned out to be fixed turrets hidden in the walls. The cameras caught a glimpse of blonde just as an explosive round smashed the view into smithereens. The operator cursed and swivelled his other drone to fire at the blur, but the elusive figure had already ducked into a different blind spot out of the drone’s line of fire.

“01 and 02, ward up and bust in. Light the zone as soon as you can, we don’t have eyes on the mage yet. We head in once smokes are ready.”

Intermittent gunfire continued below as the squad readied themselves to enter. The drone operator cursed when his remaining drone was taken down in another barrage from yet another angle. The captain glanced over.

“How many did you spot?”

“At least two, maybe three bogeys. A lot of automated defenses. No eyes on the mage still.” The operator still looked upset. He had been attachedto those drones, dammit.

Consecutive blasts went off as the vanguard tossed their grenades in. The squad was forced into single file in the narrow passageway, but at least the wall turrets had been destroyed by the first few explosions. It would have been a massacre had they gone in without knowing about the trapped walls.

“Can you find the enemy mage?” The captain questioned his own mage, who was still breathing heavily from earlier. The tattooed mage concentrated with some effort.

“Deeper in. More wards. Power source.” The mage hesitated, before pulling out a vial and downing the neon contents with a grunt. The liquid seemed to energize him, and he straightened to his full height, which wasn’t very much to begin with.

The captain nodded, raising his own assault rifle. “We go in to reinforce. If the mage is on the field, neutralize them first. We need to extract our target.”

Tattooed mage cracked his knuckles, the inked serpents coiled around his wrists and snaking up his arms seeming to writhe as they glowed with power. He led the way in, surrounding himself and the captain with a force field that shimmered as they moved.

Drone operator covered the rear, pistol out. He wasn’t of much use without his toys, but with their resident mage all revved up, he wasn’t too worried. As far as he was concerned, the scrubs who were holding their target were walking deaders. Mages were scary, and none more than one of the Initiated. The moving tattoos were freaky , man.

All in all, it promised to be a quick and dirty job. He hoped they got overtime pay though. Flying in from Ulsan via helicopter thanks to the sudden deployment had come as a surprise. Not that he knew why they were being called in, but he supposed someone higher up owed a favor. It didn’t matter though. They were called in, and they would finish the job. That was what professionals do .

Above, the heated shards from the exploded talisman cooled, leaving behind melted gobs of molten metal on the tile. A spider spun lazily on an axis, scattered dust raining past glistening strands. Distantly, the web vibrates, as the hunter readies to tighten the net around unsuspecting prey.

The night was still young. Who knew what it would bring?

Broad lines slashed across rough concrete, vivid crimson on dull grey. There was a symmetry in the chaos, all wide and sharp angles, precisely calculated to within a millimeter.

Candle stubs flickered with blue flames, lending an ethereal glow to the area. In the very center, Eunha lay motionless, like Snow White in slumber. The apple that had landed her in this state lay cradled over her heart, held in place by steepled fingers. A soft red glow emanated from within, contrasting against the milk white of her skin.

Fingers brushed across pale skin, brushing away stray strands of hair from her face. A thumb slid across plump lips, tracing the outline with a lingering touch. An exhale, and a quick flash of obsidian. Fingertips now stained red drawing arcane symbols on skin, gentle but firm.

Yuju straightened, her face tight with concentration. Two hours since breaking the seal around the ruby, and her preparations were almost complete. The external containment circle she had drawn before that isolated her within a bubble of utter silence, but for the measured beats of her own heart.

Outside, she knew the others were roaming, ensuring that no one would interrupt her. She needed all the time they could give her.

Time. The unseen moon above was waxing, but they could not have afforded to wait for it to reach fullness. Other factors would have to compensate.

Yuju carefully paced to her own spot, feeling the nexus beneath her feet as she began to draw on the dormant leyline to power the circle. All around her, the candles flickered and went out, extinguished by an unseen wind.

It mattered little. The pattern on the ground began to glow, intricate lines coming to life like a vast circulation system kicking into gear. A dull throb, like that of a beating heart, began its inaudible rhythm as the light pulsed in time to it.

The door was opening. Yuju needed to widen it, and hold it open. And this was only the beginning. She had a long way to go before the night was over.

Eunha, be safe.

“So you think this will all be necessary?”

SinB attached a charge in the precise spot Umji had marked in the digital overlay of her shades, then started following the marker leading to the next one. A chuckle crackled over her comms.

“Better to be prepared.” Umji’s reply was quick, if slightly distracted. SinB didn’t blame her. No doubt their resident hacker was dividing her attention between all three of the roaming members of their team. They had no direct link to Yuju unfortunately, not with the concentration of magic in that sealed chamber. The interference was too strong even with the best shielding Umji could come up with. Fortunately, the shaman had given all of them something else to communicate with, but it was only to be used in emergencies.

SinB touched the little wood carving suspended around her neck. She wasn’t sure how it worked, but Yuju assured her that she would be able to speak with them through it if necessary, as long as they were not too far out of range. When asked to define ‘out of range’, the shaman had smiled with her eyes.

“As long as you’re still in the city, I can reach you.”

Which, as far as SinB was aware of, was a monstrous range. While magical communications powered with ritual arrays could reach across continents easily, this was a makeshift network powered by one person. Most mages couldn’t reach that far without help, and here was Yuju calmly asserting that she could communicate long distances without any external foci boosting her range.

SinB was glad she never really got on Yuju’s bad side. Eunha was scary enough with her fire, but somehow knowing that someone could hunt you down wherever you ran was a lot more terrifying. Even Umji with her drones and hacked cameras wasn’t quite as omniscient.

“I’m done over here.” Sowon’s voice came over the channel. They had a shared channel for the moment, though switching to private comms was possible. It just wasn’t necessary at the time. Yerin had been suspiciously quiet the entire time, but SinB wasn’t surprised. Yerin had gotten into an argument with Yuju prior to the setup for the ritual, but they had somehow managed to keep it down enough for SinB to be unable to catch they were saying. Not even Umji could fill her in on all the details afterwards, but from what little they had managed to piece together, Yerin had been worried for Yuju. But then again, when was she not?

The shaman had won the argument though. SinB most definitely hadn’t been peeking through a crack in the door to try and figure out what they were doing at the time. Not at all. She definitely hadn’t seen the hug Yuju had given Yerin to comfort her.

It was always those little moments that made SinB wonder how the two hadn’t already been dating when she confronted Yuju that time. They were close, too close at times. There was a casual intimacy in their interactions that made SinB wonder. But at the same time, it wasn’t like Yuju didn’t have chemistry with Eunha. It was a mess, and SinB once again considered if it would be a better idea to just talk Eunha out of it. Surely at this stage of the crush things were still salvageable?

But first they had to bring Eunha back. SinB shimmied up a narrow shaft, climbing spider-like and dangling halfway off a ceiling to reach the marked spot. This was the last one she had to get to, then she would rendezvous with Sowon and Yerin closer to where Yuju was. Umji was safely barricaded out of harm’s way, but her electronic reach allowed her to defend Yuju remotely while the rest were out and about. Amazing what a small army of drones and turrets could do, really. Umji had been very busy the last few days.

“Looks like Yuju was right.” Yerin spoke up for the first time, sounding tense. Umji’s voice cut in.

“Yerin-unnie what are you…”

“I’ve got this.”  The transmission cut off abruptly. Umji almost swore, remembered Sowon was on the channel, and wisely PG-13’d it at the last second. Sowon’s voice echoed in at the next moment.

“Where is Yerin?”

A pause as SinB and Sowon both heard Umji moving stuff around for a second. The hacker didn’t let them down.

“Halfway across town, she got done before you two.” Umji seemed harried. SinB scowled.

“What is she doing?”

“Something dumb.” Umji muttered, connecting to the relevant eyes she needed. “I didn’t think we were seriously going to do this.”

“Is there something you’re not telling us?” Sowon sounded extraordinarily calm. Which was probably more dangerous than her sounding mad. SinB had experienced that firsthand before.

“We ah, had a backup plan. Yuju’s idea. Yerin volunteered to do it. I um, helped a bit.” Umji sounded sheepish. Sowon grunted.

“Details.”

“We were just going to...oh.”

“What!?” Sowon and SinB echoed in unison. Umji sounded a little stressed.

“Uh, later. Yerin-unnie needs backup. Can you two fall back to where Yuju-unnie is first, I’ve got to help her out.”

“This isn’t over, young lady.” Sowon threatened. Umji responded by cutting off her end of the transmission. SinB laughed, switching to direct with Sowon.

“Never thought I’d see that happen.”

Sowon only growled in response. The pair agreed to meet at the pre-arranged spot. Protecting Yuju was still priority. They could only trust that Umji and Yerin knew what they were doing.

It was going to be a long night.

Yerin ducked into a different room as she played hide and seek with her pursuers. All of them were blind to some degree, with the smoke grenades from earlier. But that was okay, Yerin still had Umji, who was better than actually having eyes sometimes.

Her glamour shifted as she crossed over to a different area, brown melting into blonde to project the illusion of more than one adversary. Umji’s mini drones reinforced the illusion with intermittent gunfire from her last seen location as a brunette.

Twelve men. At least two were dead. There was an enemy mage, but the smoke hid Yerin from any direct line of sight, and she was careful to maintain that. She could run rings around mundanes all day, but the Awakened were a different breed.

She wasn’t here to kill them all on her own though. She was here to buy time.

Almost three hours since she had last seen Yuju. Yerin squeezed off a couple more shots, wounding someone in the thigh before disappearing into another hidden passage. This safehouse had been remodeled into a deadly labyrinth with the combined efforts of herself and Umji. They hadn’t had much time, but the effect was decent enough.

Return fire whizzed past her last location, and Yerin chuckled, shifting to a dark brunette not unlike SinB before tossing a flashbang out into the corridor as she crossed it again. Umji’s updates flashed on her shades, marking the locations of her prey in real time.

She almost paid for her overconfidence when a spectral serpent’s yawning maw almost bit her head off, had she not ducked and rolled by instinct the moment she sensed danger. The mage . She cursed quietly, tossing another flashbang as she scrambled to safety.

She couldn’t keep playing like this. A conjurer like this would kill her the moment she made a mistake. Yerin calculated her odds, moving further inward to lure them towards the beacon Yuju had handed her previously. A decoy, to lure anyone tracking the orb.

Even with the containment field Yuju had planned, the shaman knew that the ritual and its immense drain would eventually reveal her location. It was just a matter of time. And for now, every enemy drawn to a different location was one less to look for the actual thing.

The beacon was keyed to the orb’s signature, allowing the proxy to broadcast the correct signal from the wrong location. Yerin’s only task was to keep them here as long as possible, without letting them find the beacon. A competent mage would realize what was going on the moment they laid eyes on the decoy, Yuju had warned.

Yerin smirked to herself. She had plans for when that happened.

Just a little bit more, she promised herself. Hold out a bit longer, for Yuju’s sake. She could do this. She had to do this.

Yuju was counting on her. She would never disappoint her puppy. Ever.

Umji resisted the urge to bite her fingernails as she coordinated her attacks with Yerin’s moves, all while constantly keeping track of the men in the maze they had created. All this, and she still had to keep an eye on Sowon and SinB in case something happened there while she wasn’t watching.

Umji hoped Sowon wouldn’t get too mad about her cutting off the transmission earlier. She was still secretly eavesdropping on SinB and Sowon’s conversation, not that she would ever let them know, of course. She wasn’t that bold.

The young hacker winced when an acid spray narrowly missed Yerin’s face, nicking part of her hair and searing into the skin of her shoulder. The enemy mage had conjured up a second serpent, which was the source of the acidic spit. Umji immediately redirected more firepower in his direction, hoping to ease the pressure on Yerin. She could hear the normally sassy woman’s breaths coming in shallow gasps over their comms channel.

“Yerin-unnie, shouldn’t this be enough?” Umji asked tentatively. Yerin exhaled explosively as she slapped a quick medpatch on her shoulder. Blood trickled down the side of her face where a stray bullet had nicked her in the temple earlier.

“Soon. Just a bit more.”

Between the two of them, they had held the enemy for more than thirty minutes within their death trap. Two more had died since, leaving eight alive, unfortunately with the mage being one of those still standing. Yerin was battered and bruised, but still moving like a lethal shadow despite her injuries. Her eyes were intent and determined.

The enemy was starting to cotton on to their tricks, but she wasn’t out of options yet. Yerin ghosted further inward, leading them towards the beacon. She would have loved to play some more, but that acid had been her last straw. No one messed with her hair and got away with it, dammit. Her shoulder throbbed despite the numbing effect from the patch.

Boots pounded after her, and she grinned recklessly, signalling to Umji. The hacker complied, slowing down the pursuit with a number of y traps, giving Yerin time to slip into the final chamber with the decoy. It was glowing steadily, which reassured Yerin. That meant that Yuju was still holding on strong on the other end.

The wards around the door pulsed, struggling against the onslaught from the other side. Unhurried, Yerin checked her setup. She was just in time. No more, no less.

When the enemy burst into the chamber, guns blazing, they were confronted with naught but a glowing beacon and a recorded message playing back on their entry.

“Surprise! I hope you like my little present~”

They didn’t even have enough time to scream before the entire place exploded into white light.

A discarded vial joined its abandoned siblings on the floor, clinking softly as it rolled to a stop. Vivid orange set the backdrop to a hellish glow, emphasizing the gaunt look on Yuju’s face. Shadows flickered under her eyes, as a trickle of sweat eased its way down her cheek.

Even with the leyline lending her extra power, opening a gateway on the astral plane as a shortcut to summon Eunha’s soul back was no mean feat. Really, a stunt like this usually took a whole cabal of mages working in unison, and not just because of the power drain.

No, it was the mental acrobatics needed to maintain the gateway. The otherworld was always shifting, and nothing was actually permanent. A practitioner was a self contained node floating in a turbulent ocean, and while most of them were able to coast the waves of the fluctuating planes when astral projecting, the natural link one had to one’s own body allowed a mage to triangulate back to their start point without needing a reference...usually. Going too far could still be a problem, and it took skill to navigate back with all the white noise in the background.

In Eunha’s case, her essence was clearly “lost” in the aether at the moment, and before Yuju could call her back, she needed to fix a reference point to call her home to her own body. That was what all the symbols she had drawn on and around Eunha was for. But all that was useless without constantly recalculating the point of reference relative to the volatile ocean of the spirit world.

It was basically doing n -dimensional math while maintaining an active portal, while also repelling any hostile spirits attempting to hijack the empty vessel, and on top of all that, Yuju had to keep calling out for Eunha at regular intervals.

This was where prolonged association with Umji had actually sort of helped. On hindsight, she had already been subconsciously doing something like it before having an actual concept of macros. Yuju was able to mentally delegate repetitive tasks to a corner of her consciousness with something not unlike a macro function. Unfortunately, the n- dimensional math needed her constant attention, and she always needed to keep an eye on the portal that was projecting through the dragon ruby currently placed on Eunha’s body at the moment.

Yuju didn’t quite trust the ruby, but she had no other choice. It was the best way to amplify the summons. Thus far, the ruby had seemed quite docile. Small mercies at best, but Yuju had her guard up. It was almost too many variables to control, but she was managing thus far. Not without help from some chemicals, and she was probably going to regret it when the crash came, but she could hold out still. Just a little more. For now.

Resonance. Like a distant echo, vibrating across the line she had cast deep and far into the other side. A part of her was curious, but not so curious as to follow the trail. Someone still needed to anchor this end of things, for all that she wanted to investigate the echo. But this was promising. It was a positive response, rather than the void she had been casting into.

Eunha? Yuju tried tentatively, magnifying her call into the aether. Beneath her, the red glow of the ruby pulsed in response, the light seeming to contract into itself, coalescing into a deeper crimson not unlike blood. Yuju channeled another flare of her own magic into the ruby, striving to keep it under control. Her face paled by a shade, but still she held steady.

The resonance grew, and with it, the response from the ruby. Yuju gritted her teeth, focusing her power through the ruby while trying to stabilize it. A reflection shot up from the astral version of the ruby, like a ghost from long past. Frozen for a moment, translucent, before dissipating like smoke.

It was enough for Yuju to hiss in surprise, biting deep into her own lip. A frozen frame of Eunha crying? Why was she crying? The shaman’s heart clenched. She had to bring Eunha back, before the girl was hurt even worse. Be safe.

The ruby was clearly the key. Buoyed by the connection, Yuju started feeding more energy through it, straining visibly as her cells screamed at the abuse. No one was supposed to be able to channel so much for this amount of time, but she was doing it. No one had told her before that she couldn’t, but who was going to stop her now?

The ritual circle flared, going from weak orange to a deeper vermillion. The hairs on Yuju’s arms were standing on end as static gathered around her. Her aura was invisible on the physical plane, but on the astral, she was aglow, more lightshow than recognizably human.

The orb is the key . A moment of sudden clarity, and Yuju found her astral self diving right towards the pulsing ruby, which was already starting to shudder and shake from the immense energies being fed into it. Spectral hands closed around the trembling glow.

Eunha!

It was like falling forever, with no sense of time or distance or space. Yuju focused inwardly, yelling with all her might for Eunha to hear her. And through the glowing red of the ruby, she suddenly caught sight of Eunha’s face coming into focus, muddied and bloodied, but recognizably her face regardless.

The image was faltering, sputtering and flickering as if the connection was too weak. Yuju despaired as it started to fade, but she was reaching the limits of what she could safely channel without imploding herself in the process. She needed to do something, anything.

The taste of metal on her lips, from where the skin had broken earlier. The flow of power from beneath, burning her from within. She needed more , but how? There was no way she could draw more of the primal forces from the leyline without burning up like a candle.

Blood . The image was breaking up, Eunha’s face starting to fracture within the ruby’s glow. Something red dripped to the floor, as crimson tears overflowed. It ran down the slight incline, feeding into the circle.

A sudden jolt as it stabilized for a second. Yuju froze for a second, mind whirling. Already, the effect was fading, but she connected the dots in that split second.

Blood is life is power. Nothing came without sacrifice. The thought triggered a shudder, her fists clenching futilely as her fingers dug into her own skin.

Weak. Can’t save anyone. Everyone died. Except you. WEAK.

Old horrors like a distant nightmare. A body hitting the ground. The blood...in her hair her hands her eyes and…

I need power. Grimly, Yuju raised the obsidian knife she had sheathed earlier.

Red, beautiful red, entwining like a lost lover into the ruby glow. Power bloomed like a flower in spring, craning towards the sun. Yuju smiled, reaching into the glow, where Eunha was also reaching out towards her.

Eunha....

Their fingers touched, and everything froze for that one magical second. Before it could end, Yuju yanked, and it fractured into a million pieces, every shard a tiny razor. A thousand, thousand cuts, each an indelible mark, but Yuju was smiling.

She could feel Eunha again, faint and a little weak, but coming ever closer. On her knees -- when and how did she end up on the ground again? -- Yuju crawled closer to Eunha’s body, raising a shaky hand to grasp the sleeping girl’s hand.

I won’t leave anyone behind again.

She squeezed, and then her world shattered in an explosion of black light, taking her with it. An inaudible screech ripped through the area, the ritual circle winking out in an instant, red light sinking back into painted red lines with a sigh. The air trembled, as if frightened of what was to come. The moment was still, and silent. Waiting.

Beneath the bloody grip, a pale finger twitched.