Rome burned beneath their feet.
Phaser and Haruno sprinted across the rooftops. The eclipse cast their shadows long across the tiles. Every few seconds, a tremor shook the city as another building gave way. The air was thick with screams, smoke, and the eerie ringing noise that followed wherever a Faceless appeared. The day had turned crimson.
Haruno leaped over a roof. She landed beside Phaser on another roof, both of them crouched low as they scanned the chaos below. Dozens of Officia Fluxers with the insignia of the House of Augustus were battling the Faceless with glowing Flux weapons of their Combat Fluxers.
It was a losing fight.
"Seeing it in real life is nothing like a computer screen."
Phaser's eyes flicked toward her. "Yeah. It's brutal."
Below them, a Fluxer sliced a Faceless clean in half with a burst of golden Flux energy. The thing split open like a rotten fruit, its innards dissolving into shimmering dust, for all of three seconds. The creature's body shuddered, limbs cracking back into place. Its mouth widened until it covered half its torso. It looked like something that shouldn't exist.
"The Faceless are in the top fifteen most dangerous Fluviums in Altera Earth. And immortal, too. Kill one and it just stands back up like a very angry sleepwalker."
To prove his words, the Fluxer below struck again, stabbing through the creature's chest. It staggered, fell and then its mouth stretched upward, its smooth skin peeling open until it covered the entire face of the Fluxer himself.
There was a wet crunch. The Fluxer's scream was cut short. His head disappeared. People nearby shrieked, scattering like ants. Some ran into alleys, others froze and prayed but the Faceless didn't discriminate. It tore through them like paper. Haruno clenched her fists but didn't move. Neither did Phaser.
They weren't heroes. She knew that. He knew that. They just watched.
"Altera's creepier than before."
Phaser didn't answer at first. His eyes flicked over the battlefield and scoffed. Even though he was looking at carnage, he didn't feel anything.
"This place was always like this. You just never got to smell the fear before."
Haruno sighed, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeves.
"The first time I fought a Fluvium was in March, a month right after I got transmigrated. I was terrified. Thought I was going to die right there."
Phaser gave her a sidelong look. "What kind?"
"Humanoid wolf thing. Had claws that melted through metal. I screamed so hard my voice cracked. Then I tried to cut its tail and it nearly disemboweled me."
"Sounds like you."
She glared at him. "Oh, don't start."
"Hey, I'm not judging. Everyone's first Fluvium leaves a mark."
"Then what was yours, Mister Cool Guy?"
Phaser blinked once, like he didn't want to answer.
"A cow."
Haruno stopped mid-leap on a ledge and turned slowly.
"A what?"
"A fire spewing cow."
"You're joking."
"I wish."
"No, no, no. You can't just drop that on me! A cow?"
Phaser shrugged, stepping aside as a blast of Xana exploded two rooftops away.
"A big one. Black fur, glowing eyes, really bad attitude. Mooed like thunder. I thought it was just some cursed livestock until it tried to burn me to ashes."
Haruno was trying not to laugh but failed.
"You fought a cow?!"
"It wasn't just any cow. That thing had massive horns too. You ever see a cow coughing fire? Because I did. Traumatizing."
Haruno was wheezing now, clutching her stomach even as a Faceless screeched somewhere below.
"You… you serious?"
"Yes. Decapitated it with my strings. Took me a while. It still haunts my dreams."
A stray explosion rocked the building beneath them, shaking tiles loose. They both jumped to the next rooftop, landing in sync. Haruno was still laughing mid-air.
"Oh Phaser. You're the only guy I know whose origin story starts with a cow."
"Hey, that cow started my career."
"Yeah, the legendary Slayer of Cows."
"Better than 'Screamed-at-a-werewolf Haruno.'"
She stopped laughing long enough to punch his arm.
"Hey, that's a low blow."
They ran again, side by side, leaping between the fiery rooftops as below them, the Officia Fluxers continued their desperate fight. The red mist rolled across the city. The Faceless were multiplying like a nightmare and still, the two of them moved as if the chaos were background noise. To anyone else, it would have been apocalyptic. To them, it was just another morning in Masquerade of Dreams: Shattered.
As they reached the edge of a collapsed dome, Haruno skidded to a stop beside Phaser, both looking down at a square where dozens of civilians huddled. The Faceless got closer.
"You ever think we're supposed to feel bad about not helping?"
"I did once when I was stuck in a Fluve Field in Reversa."
"And now?"
"Now I just make sure the cow doesn't win next time."
Haruno laughed again and shook her head.
"You know, for someone who fought a cow, you're kinda cool."
"Kinda?"
"Fine. Very. You're even stronger than me without the Blood Odachi. If I get it, I'll surpass you."
"Haruno. Do you still have it?"
"Have what?"
"The fragment of the Blood Odachi."
Her eyes widened a bit. She hesitated, then reached into her System Inventory, pulling out a small object that looked deceptively harmless. It was a jade-green shard in the shape of a donut. It shimmered faintly under the blood-red sky.
"Here. But Phaser… you can't possibly think—"
He didn't let her finish. Phaser raised the fragment toward the sky. The jade caught the red light of the eclipse, turning it into a crimson glow that shimmered over his hand. The glow pulsed once.
"Wait, wait, what are you doing?"
"The Azure Sword Thales has a condition every year. You have to collect three fragments and fuse them before June thirtieth until it is found. The Blood Odachi is worse. I thought you knew this."
Haruno sighed. She already knew this. After all, she was a Haruno main back on Earth.
"It doesn't care about time. It only cares about blood. It needs blood to awaken and there's a lot of blood close by."
Phaser nodded and gestured toward the street below, where corpses were already beginning to pile up amidst the glowing red mist.
"But this is going to take a while so I'll need you to keep me alive."
The fragment suddenly flashed bright enough to light up the entire roof. The sound. Every Faceless within a few hundred meters froze, their heads twisting unnaturally toward the source. A wave of shadows crawled up the streets. Dozens of Faceless were climbing walls and leaping across rooftops. Their movement animalistic and erratic, like spiders that forgot how to crawl properly. Their eyeless faces twitched toward Phaser's position.
Haruno glanced at him with a very serious expression.
"You're insane."
"I've been told," Phaser replied casually, his hand still raised. "Protect me."
"Fine."
Without another word, Haruno jumped down from the rooftop.
Her boots hit the cracked concrete of the plaza below. Dust exploded around her as she reached into her System Inventory, grabbing the hilt of her weapon. A thin streak of blue light traced along her arm as the odachi materialized in her grip. The weapon was nearly as tall as she was. The blade shimmered teal under the eclipse light. Her blade ignited with teal Xana. The color reflected off the blood-soaked stones.
All around her, the Faceless turned. The smell of burnt flesh and blood filled the air. The civilians that hadn't yet escaped froze as the monsters stopped chasing them and turned their entire attention toward Haruno. She smirked, resting her odachi on her shoulder. The civilians ran away from her when they realized that the Faceless were surrounding her.
"Well, it's been a while."
The first Faceless leapt toward her.
Haruno vanished.
The air whooshed, followed by the sound of metal cutting through wind. The Faceless was split clean down the middle before it even hit the ground. She landed behind it with teal Xana flickering her blade. The corpse dissolved into crimson mist and reformed again. She clicked her tongue.
"Right. Immortal. Forgot about that."
Another one came at her, claws slashing in an arc. Haruno ducked, slid under its arm, and sliced upward, cutting its torso in half. She twisted her wrist mid-motion, sending a slash of Xana that tore through two more.
Phaser watched from above, the glow of the Blood Odachi fragment getting brighter in his hand. It began to hum louder, drawing more Faceless. He closed his eyes briefly. He could feel the ancient power within it. It wanted blood. It wanted to awaken. Haruno leaped again, spinning midair as a dozen Faceless charged her from all sides.
"Fine, you want a fight? You've got one!"
She slammed her sword into the ground.
Her Xana exploded outward in a circular wave, slicing through everything within fifteen meters. The ground cracked, the walls shattered and the Faceless screeched as their forms were ripped apart only to reform seconds later, crawling out of the black mist.
"Persistent little bastards."
Up on the rooftop, Phaser lowered the fragment, his hand trembling slightly. The energy was starting to gather. He could see faint threads of crimson rising from the streets. The spilled blood was responding to the call of the artifact.
"Almost there…"
A Faceless leapt toward him.
Phaser spun his strings from his hand, catching the creature midair and slamming it into the roof tiles. The shockwave blasted it apart. He held the fragment steady again, not even looking down at the monster as it began to reform behind him. The blood all over the steers was already forming a giant sphere above him.
"Haruno!"
"I see it!"
She darted up the side of a nearby wall, used her momentum to vault across a balcony, and decapitated three Faceless mid-leap before landing near the one that had reformed behind Phaser. Her odachi cleaved through it cleanly.
"Next time, give me a warning!"
"Where's the fun in that?"
The sky roared.
A wave of red Xana pulsed outward from the fragment that spread across the rooftops, rippling through the city like a silent drumbeat. Every Faceless froze mid-motion, as if paralyzed by the sound.
"What the hell did you just do?"
Phaser lowered the fragment slowly. His voice was calm, almost reverent.
"The Blood Odachi just woke up."
Below them, the streets glowed faintly. Rivers of blood were swirling toward the fragment, defying gravity. They kept flowing upwards in tiny crimson streams. The smell of iron was thick enough to choke on.
"You sure this is safe?"
"No."
The ground below cracked again as another dozen Faceless emerged from the mist. Haruno spun her odachi once, letting the teal light intensify until her silhouette was haloed by it.
"Fine. Let's make it a massacre. You can fight, right?"
"Yeah. Now we just let it feed the blood."