"What even are these things?" Stephanie complained while ripping another flying leech off of her arm. "This has to be an ability, right?"

I snickered. The nasties weren't bothering me that much, though not for a lack of trying. We'd been dealing with swarms of obnoxious bugs ever since I demolished those skeletons, and the two shared a striking similarity.

Whatever they were, the bugs weren't normal Anathema. They were more like something in between Mr. Bone's skeleton minions and Mook's bodies—like the brood of some kind of hive. It led credence to the theory that they were the product of a summoning type ability.

But they were Anathema. They weren't normal ones, but they had the taste. My leading theory was that they were connected to Bucket Guy.

Semi-autonomous minions that feel like the manifestation of an ability, but that are also Anathema, and the swarms get worse the closer we get to Katherine's group… I mean what else could it be? There was exactly one person in that group whose abilities were wholly unknown to me, and he was an in-control Anathema like Mook.

I declined to share my insight with Stephanie, though. I didn't want to give her more information than she needed about the broader situation if I ended up being wrong. Not yet.

"This is even worse than that time I thought it would be easier to kill a titan from the inside," the half-human moaned.

So she's tried it too. I snickered again. "Was it?"

"No."

We had to pause the conversation to deal with a Bloodsapper that was blocking off the whole street. The tangle of carnivorous vines fell apart before the edge of one of Stephanie's giant scythes, only for the crimson tendrils to snake back together again.

"Allow me," I said.

I'd never tried doing the classic dragon attack while in my Valkyrie form—you know, with the mouth and fire and all that—but I figured it should be possible. I also figured that the best way to deal with a miniature man-eating jungle was to kill it with fire.

I was right.

With respect to the first part, unleashing dragonfire wasn't meaningfully more difficult in this form than in my big one, only that the resulting effect was proportionally reduced. Now that I knew how to do it, adapting it was as easy as changing the minor details of using my wings.

And with respect to the second part, my beam ripped through the Bloodsapper with the same ease as Stephanie's scythe, but the effect lingered longer. I had to do it a few more times to get proper ignition, but once I did, we had no trouble passing.

I realized once we were through that I could have flown both of us over it. Hell, either of us could probably have just jumped.

But it's the principle of the thing, right?

"Oh, yeah," Stephanie said, picking up our conversation, "it was awful. I thought it was a good idea because its skin was too tough for me to cut from the outside."

I snorted. "Seriously? That's a Hollywood thing for a reason. Skin doesn't magically change thickness depending on which side of it you're on." I tilted my head in thought. "Actually, I think there's even a movie that lampshades that one? Or makes fun of it?"

I came to a dead stop. "Holy shit."

The expression on Stephanie's face morphed from bewilderment to concern. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not supposed to be the main character," I breathed, "because you!" I rounded on Stephanie. "You're the edgy, self-insert protagonist of some mediocre young-adult novel! I bet you're poor and sad and a bit of a shunned loner but that's because you're actually the specialist special girl who's unique because she's both a Guardian and a half-Anathema. I mean holy fuck, you literally have white hair and purple eyes."

Stephanie stared at me like an idiot. "Alex," she asked—slowly, as if I was something between an overexcited child and a rabid feral cat that had lost half of one its legs in a tussle with a radioactive rat. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

I groaned. "How do you not see this?" I pointed at her and shouted out into the night. "Hey, everyone! I found the protagonist! Stick with her if you wanna become awesome too!"

I turned back to Stephanie. "And they told me being genre savvy was a useless skill."

The half-human stared at me. "..Who did?"

"Katherine and Luna. Come on, OC girl. And close your mouth, we are not codfish."

Stephanie "Amethyst Reaper" Shadow

Alex was insane.

By now, Stephanie was certain of it. Guessing why wasn't hard, though. As Stephanie understood it, Alex wasn't half spirit, half human like she was. The other true 'Anathema' was something closer to those Japanese fruits grown in rigidly shaped containers.

A nascent spirit that had been stuffed into a human-shaped mould.

If anything, Alex seemed to have turned out better than she would have expected. But knowing that she was only one of who knew how many experiments…

Stephanie frowned. How many others were there before her, and were any of them less… Intact…?

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

It was a disturbing thought. It also made Stephanie wary, both of Alex herself and of the Star Guardians who she claimed created her.

Stephanie didn't know what Alex's internal thoughts were like, and that was dangerous. She had a suspicion that they might be truly alien, and while that wasn't grounds for her being evil or anything, dealing with things you didn't understand was dangerous.

Especially when they had the superficial appearance of another human and the power of a Tier 3 Guardian.

As for the Star Guardian faction—and they have factions, apparently—well, Stephanie didn't want to gamble on whether they'd try seizing her as potential 'research material.'

Her attention shifted to a group of rather bizarre makeup a block away from them. "Oh," she said, "I think we found them.

Katherine "Nekomata" Legato

"Alex isn't alone," she warned the group, "there's something weird traveling with her."

"Weird how?" Plaguebringer asked. The huge man claimed to be like Luna and Alex, but Katherine knew that wasn't right. There was something different about him.

She didn't doubt his claim that he was an Anathema, nor did she doubt the same when it came to the guy who joined up with them when they ran across one of his bodies a bit later into the incursion.

Plaguebringer and Mook both felt closer to Luna and Alex than anything else she'd encountered, but by this point, Katherine had learned to trust her power when it drew a distinction.

Whatever their origin, they weren't quite the same thing as the other two friendly Anathema she knew.

As for the thing that was travelling with Alex, it wasn't like any of them.

If humans were animals and Anathema were plants, then Star Guardians would be wearing living vine clothing, Luna and Alex would be plant people, Mook and Plagubringer would be people with plants growing out of them, and the thing approaching with Alex was a fucking mushroom.

I bet Alex would respond with some weird fun fact about mushrooms if I told her that, Katherine mused.

But none of that was how she answered. "I don't know. Just…Iit's not something I've encountered before, but it's definitely intelligent and has powers. I think?"

"Lovely," Tim snarked as he took the lead, "because why wouldn't we have to deal with yet another new kind of freak?"

Katherine frowned. She knew he didn't mean it, and probably included himself in that category, but she still didn't like the Guardian vigilante using that word.

"It smells weird," Luna added softly. Katherine didn't know if anyone other than Maria and herself even heard it. "I don't know what it is either."

"Ah, it appears to be person-shaped!" Plaguebringer called out from ahead of them. They were now on the same block, and Alex was clearly heading towards them. "Ah, man. I was hoping it would look more disgustingly mutated."

The three in the lead—Plaguebringer, one of Mook's bodies, and Tim, came to a stop. Peering out from behind them, Katherine got her first proper look at Alex and her new company.

It's another girl?

Katherine's heart fluttered. She couldn't stop a sudden nervousness from spiking through her body. Who is she? What is Alex doing with her?

Katherine kept her eye on the unfamiliar woman. She was hanging back while Alex strode towards them with her characteristic confidence. It was hard to see in the unnatural dark of the incursion, especially when it was already night, but Katherine noticed that the woman had stark white hair.

Her whole appearance and demeanor was shy, but she was quite pretty—Katherine found herself struggling to concentrate. She should have been using her abilities to pay attention to their surroundings for any threats, but her eyes kept darting between Alex and the mysterious new girl.

Alex was in her armored form, the sleek metal doing little to diminish the contours of her body despite its full coverage. If anything, the armor enhanced the other woman's tiny form, accentuating her natural beauty with a boldness and strength fitting of her confident personality.

"Wow," Alex said as she came to a stop a few feet away from them, "you are quite literally the ugliest person I have ever seen."

What?

"Thanks!" Plagubringer didn't sound offended by it.

Alex squinted. "I mean in real life. I've seen worse deformities on the internet."

"Oh, I can make it much worse, I assure you," the big man assured her. "Check this out."

Katherine preemptively turned away. Her stomach was already empty, and had been ever since the first time Plaguebringer used his abilities. She'd spent an entire minute on her knees, vomiting up everything until there wasn't even bile.

The worst part was that she'd gotten control halfway through, only for the man to cheerfully ask her permission to 'use the vomit puddle to help feed the maggots.' She spent another thirty seconds after that hacking up what little there was left.

Katherine did her best to tune out Alex's laughter and the accompanying wet squelching.

"Okay yeah, that wins. Definitely as bad as anything I've seen online." Katherine could feel Alex stepping closer and leaning in for a look. "Hey, I think one of them got stuck."

"You can pull it out if you want," Plaguebringer offered.

"Ooh, for real?" Alex practically cooed, and Katherine had to lean against Maria for support. "Alright little fella. Stay still. I'm just gonna reach in, and…"

There was a moment of silence, followed by a meaty splat and then an eardrum-rupturing shriek. "What the fuck?!" An unfamiliar voice demanded. "Alex, why did you do that?"

Peeking over Maria's shoulder, Katherine saw the girl with the white hair wiping bloody mucus off of her forehead while squishing something under her boot. Katherine suspected she knew exactly what it was Alex had thrown at her, and she nearly started dry heaving again.

The unfamiliar woman didn't have nearly so strong a reaction, but she definitely looked pissed.

"Anyway," Plaguebringer said, "you're Valkyrie, right?" Alex gave him a thumbs up, and he nodded his head at the new girl. "So who's this?"

Katherine's ears perked up. That was the one question she wanted answered the most.

For a moment, it seemed like Alex wasn't sure how to answer. Her eyes lost focus, and she seemed to stop paying attention to them, like she was searching her own mind for answers. Then she smiled.

"Oh, she's uh… Well, it's a little awkward."

Katherine blinked. Awkward how? Do they already know each other? Do—

"I'd rather not get Stephanie involved in any of this," Alex said with an extreme emphasis, pausing to look both Katherine and then Plaguebringer in the eye. "We haven't seen each other in a while, and I didn't even know she became a Guardian too. It's been so crazy lately, and what with being at different schools now and all…"

"Old friend?" Plaguebringer asked.

"Yeah, kind of," Alex sheepishly admitted. Katherine listened intently, both with her ears and with her spirit.

Alex's spirit was going crazy, harmonizing half a dozen competing, discordant melodies at the same time, as if she were having five contradicting thoughts and saying none of them. She glanced back at the girl—Stephanie—and Katherine's power gave her the impression that Alex was giving the girl a pointed look.

She just couldn't get any idea of what it said.

"We're kind of on and off, and I never introduced her to my family, 'cause, you know, but…" Alex blushed as she turned back to face them. "Hey everyone, meet Stephanie, my old girlfriend."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.