Scale wasn’t aware of the chaos taking pce. The stream’s viewer count continued to climb. Powerful people from other countries tuned in. Civil servants in countries hostile to the United States began drafting reports detailing Scale and attempted to outline potential countermeasures in the event of conflict.

  “Okay I’m going to kill the goblins on the surface for now.” Scale smiled at the camera. She held up her right hand and with a shhhhring sound her nails extended into cws. She leaned forward and took up a ready stance; to the observers she looked like a swordsman preparing to draw a bde. “I learned this from a great knight.” The mana in her body circuted in a new pattern. A darkness fell over her eyes.

  The ground shook. The camera flickered. A sudden gust of wind blew Hana’s hat off of her head but she caught it and pulled it back down with two hands, pulling it too far; it stretched almost to her ears. A storm of dust made her close her eyes and turn her head. She didn’t scream; the noise she made sounded more like a chirp.

  The video, broken by the cloud of dust, caught the flicker of a shadow that cleaved a wide arc. The wind died. The dust screen settled. Scale stood unmarred, without a spot or blemish, surrounded by disfigured corpses. Around her, in a small circle, the wheat crop had been cut down near the base as if by the swing of a scythe. Chaff fell to the earth like snow.

  “W-was that a martial ability?” Hana’s voice broke the brief silence.

  “I don’t know what you mean by martial ability,” said Scale. “That was just a sword technique that I altered to use with my cws. I can even do it with my tail!”

  “No I meant what does the system definition categorize it as?”

  “System definition?” Scale tilted her head in confusion. She could hack into the [System] but her ck of fine control meant finding something so minor would be difficult. She shrugged her shoulders and chose not to say anything. “Let’s just move on to the next part. There are still about 20 left in the tunnels. I’ll transform and blow them all away.”

  “Wait!” Hana jumped in fright and yelled. “This is a valuable gate. Rupert Wheat can be made into food that helps people awaken. Eating it regurly can help Awakeners train and collect more mana, too.”

  “So you don’t want me to destroy the fields?” Scale frowned. It was hard to control her strength to just take out the monsters alone without affecting the surroundings. There were ways, but they were bothersome and she didn’t want to focus that hard. She cked the motivation to put in that much effort.

  “Not just that. We need to leave at least one monster alive or the gate will close once we leave. A gate this valuable… That’d be a shame to lose.”

  “Oh? That’s interesting. The world I lived in didn’t have subspaces like these Gates,” said Scale as she looked around more carefully. “I’m not fully aware of the mechanics involved.”

  “We call it Subjugation,” Hana recovered her lost bearing. “Gates close once all the monsters die. Typically teams that close Gates will have porters follow them to bring out all the monster parts and other valuable materials during combat. Anything not brought out disappears with the Gate. But sometimes when a Gate has a lot of value and isn’t in a dangerous location the teams will try to leave one monster alive. They’ll capture it instead so that the gate can be kept open and farmed repeatedly.”

  “Hmm, that's dangerous.” Scale could tell the problem with this ‘subjugation’ at a gnce.

  “It can be. More monsters will be born from these subjugated Gates over time so even when we farm them there needs to be Awakeners on shifts to ensure no accidents happen. It’s why most of the time Gates are farmed by Guilds who have the money and resources to pay for around-the-clock staff.”

  “This Gate’s rights were given to you and me by the Association, right?”

  “Yes. So if we kill all but one monster and capture it, we can open an auction for the rights to farm this Gate. It’ll be sold to a guild within a day for sure assuming we don’t destroy it too much.”

  “How much money are we talking about?” Scale’s eyes sparkled like diamonds.

  Hana looked at the camera drone and then chose to walk forward and whisper the number in Scale’s ear instead of saying it aloud.

  Scale’s body went stiff. Her head jittered as she mechanically turned to look at Hana. “Ah. T-that’s a joke, right?”

  “Nope! This Gate is that valuable.”

  “Hana, I need you to step back. I’m going to transform.” Scale’s smile in her hybrid form could cut gss. She had found the motivation she previously cked.

  Hana moved back to the shimmering Gate that they entered from. The camera focused on Scale whose body began to bubble. A percoting sound came from her body. A white haze filled the field like fog rising up a river valley. Scale’s body began expanding piece by piece in a strenuous transformation, every inch in the war of polymorph gained through a battle of flesh and blood. Bones ccked. Tendons ripped. Muscles swelled. The halfway between the halfway gave way to something more complete. A shadow fell over the nd. Scale’s body continued to grow. Her presence grew with her. Hana’s knees were shaking. Sweat licked her skin. Even through the video screen everyone watching could feel the rising existence.

  At some point the pressure disappeared. Hana couldn’t expin the sensation easily. Eventually she found the words: “It’s as if the sun became just another star in the sky.” When a power transcends too far beyond mortal understanding it no longer registers. Something cosmic becomes normal, as effervescent as a warm day in spring.

  [This is my true form. It has been a long time since I’ve taken it on.]

  Scale spoke with vibrating magic, afraid her breath would affect the surroundings. She floated off the ground. The camera zoomed back to its widest setting but still failed to encapsute the entirety of Scale’s body. The trinity descended upon the world of this subspace Gate: a human soul, a dragon’s body, and the power of a Grand Consteltion. The Entity named [The Judge] appeared. Her appearance could only be described in short bursts: White scales. Blue eyes. Sleek. Tail. Wings. Scales. Magic. Earth. Sky. Heaven. Infinity. Time.

  Some spectators were enlightened. A few cried. Some with the potential talent even awakened. Most couldn’t understand what they were seeing.

  The cosmic ripple was felt worldwide. It was felt beyond the bounds of the dimension wall. Consteltions that felt fear at Scale’s presence in the past now felt something more. The [System] recoiled in horror and this unsettling sensation was passed on to every connected being, like a tongue licking the back of their necks.

  [Now that the world has seen me, the people will not need to panic when I appear in the future. I mean to protect humanity, not harm it.]

  Scale’s voice projected through the video screen could be heard in every nguage. It could be understood by the deaf. It could be comprehended by those in the throes of madness. And every listener could feel her sincerity.

  Scale’s massive cw stretched to the ground and poked a hole into the field. The earth shook. Hana stumbled. From the tunnel openings spotlights of white light shot into the sky.

  For the first time on Hana’s stream there were no comments. The empty chat box stood as a monument to the absurd.

  Meanwhile, Scale herself was feeling quite proud. She had rehearsed this moment in her mind and, through incredible effort, limited her true form as much as possible. She had to in order to preserve the bance of the world. It felt almost like using an avatar. Completely oblivious to her surroundings, she hoped that those watching could think of her as just a big lizard.

  [There. Only one goblin remains.]

  Hana didn’t respond. Scale sighed and her transformation began again in reverse. Eventually she stood on the field in her half-form. She walked over to Hana and gently brushed the dust from the streamer’s shoulders.

  “I’m sorry,” said Scale. “The dragon fear inherent to my race is hard to control. Part of it probably leaked out.” A gentle light radiated from Scale’s hands and it hugged Hana, healing her.

  “Ha—” Hana exhaled. Her hands trembled. “Scale, can you promise me something?”

  “Hmm? What’s up?”

  “Can you never transform into that form again?” Hana ughed nervously.

  “Ah.” Scale’s eyes dropped. Her snout trembled and her tail wrapped around her waist. “I thought I controlled it well.”

  Scale sighed but repressed the feeling bubbling inside her chest. Perhaps it was impossible for her to ever be truly accepted by mortal kind—just like back in the other world. Would the people here also sacrifice human lives to send her away? Would those she thought of as friends turn against her out of fear? It hurt. But if things came to it, she knew she would let them py out like they should.

  She thought she could handle it: the pain of rejection. She had experience with it. Scale had previously allowed the Archmage’s magic to exile her. After all, what was a little banishment among friends?

  Scale smiled at Hana and nodded. In her half-human state no one watching could see the tragedy in that smile.

  “I’ll try not to transform into that form again.”

  Scale buried her broken heart. What Hana rejected wasn’t a form.