A shockwave shook the ship. Hana stumbled and fell against the staircase wall, hitting her head and dropping the fre. It rolled down the steps behind her, causing her shadow to elongate ahead in the dimming light. She didn’t have time to waste. She collected herself and pushed forward through the growing darkness. Pharrel waited for Hana at the entrance to the middle level, his face outlined in red light.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Never better,” said Hana, wiping a dribble of blood from her forehead. Another pulsing vibration ripped through the ship. Dust fell from the ceiling. The duo didn’t say anything more. They nodded and moved together.

  Rusty hinges wheezed. Pharrel stepped out first. A fsh of light erupted and split the sky. Hana ran into Pharrel’s back and bounced, stumbling towards the staircase. She caught herself at the st second by winding her arms.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. She gnced up and froze upon seeing Pharrel’s headless corpse. Her scream caught in her throat. She swallowed back bile as magic surged through her veins. Rumbling thunder masked her desperate breathing. Her ability activated in full. She pushed Pharrel’s body aside and burst onto the deck.

  Dead bodies littered the ship, tossed about like common trash. There were no survivors. The streaming camera beeped, registering movement. Something slipped past her without her seeing it. Two glowing eyes watched Hana from the dark doorway to the lower deck. Slowly, they blinked.

  Hana’s eyes opened in surprise. She stared at the horizon and tilted her head. The chatrooms exploded, begging her to turn around. The camera watched the monster, draped in shadow, step forward and raise its cws.

  “A new co—?” Hana’s st words were cut off as the stream went to static.

  Alyssa was the first one to notice something wrong. Arm bells shrieked in her head. She pulled mana from her core and grabbed as much water as she could handle. To the others aboard it seemed as if the storm raged in reverse; the rain fell towards the sky.

  “Alyssa what’s going on?” said Sarah. The escating winds threatened to push her tiny body overboard.

  “Something is here.”

  “What?”

  “She’s right,” said one of the other S-ranks nearby, a hero called Trinity. She uncsped the massive sword from her back and held it with white-knuckled fists. She continued in an upbeat, sing-song manner, “There were 13 of us before. Two went below deck… So why do I count 12 people here?”

  “Sarah move!” Alyssa screamed.

  Sarah’s hackles raised. Her magic reacted before she did. She slipped through a portal as Trinity's massive sword smashed the deck where she had been standing. Sarah reappeared next to Alyssa, whose expression could only be described as demonic.

  “You! You!” Alyssa couldn’t chain together more than a single word. She pointed her hand forward, towards the monster in the shape of a human. A pilr of water struck down but the creature vanished like a mirage.

  “How?” asked Sarah.

  “It’s some kind of recognition filter tampering as an ability,” said Theo, stepping towards the pair. “It seems the monster tricks your senses into thinking it’s always been here.”

  “Hoh?” Alyssa’s fierce smile deepened. A white light shined behind her eyes. “That’s an interesting theory, Mr. Chairman. There’s just one tiny problem.”

  “A problem?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” Water scattered across the deck twisted around the Chairman’s ankles. The pressure eviscerated his legs. Blood bloomed like flowers. “The Chairman went below deck with Big Bird.”

  “Aaaaaaaah!” The chairman screamed and his body transformed. What stood before the team was not a human being. The creature had pale gray skin, electric blue eyes, and no other features; it resembled a faceless mannequin. A sphere of water surrounded the beast.

  “Die.” Alyssa closed her fist. The water sphere colpsed inward. Enormous pressure created from an implosion crushed the monster into literal pulp.

  “Nice, Alyssa.” Sarah bounced on her feet.

  “Not the time to celebrate.” Alyssa’s harsh rebuke cut through her partner’s happy mood like a knife through butter. “There’s more.”

  Sarah tilted her head to the side. She looked around and the rest of the team did the same. All sixteen of them.

  “What are you talking about, Alyssa?”

  “Sarah. I need you to hold onto me and not let go.”

  Lightning fshed again. In the brief dark after the illumination, the duo could see 32 pairs of red eyes glowing. Rumbling thunder signaled the start of the fight.

  Anatoly bumped his head a second time on only his fifth step down the dark staircase. He grumbled. Old ships weren’t built for men over seven feet tall.

  “Hurry up,” said the Chairman who was now on the ptform to the middle level. He didn’t wait for Anatoly. Stepping into the storage area, he waved his fre. Chains and broken shackles littered the ground. Finally his light shined on the walls. They were scrawled with writing, but they only recorded the same question over and over and over again.

  ‘How many bodies have we to pass through?’

  “Huh?” Theo scratched his head. Sarah walked past him towards the wall. She picked up a loose shackle and then touched the writing.

  “When did you get down here?” asked Anatoly as he ducked into the room. He took in everything slowly. Something sparked in his eyes… And then, in a fsh of movement so fast it could only be regarded as instantaneous, Anatoly put his fist through Sarah’s skull.

  “What the fuck!” Theo jumped forward to grab the Russian but paused when Sarah’s body jerked and transformed into a gray-skinned creature.

  “There are monsters that can transform into our likenesses here,” said Anatoly. “That’s fun. Reminds me of practice drills.”

  “It’s more than that,” said Theo, his tone haunted and small. Realization dawned on him about just how bad the situation was. “That thing… It altered my memories. I couldn’t tell until you killed it. While it was alive I distinctly remembered coming here with Sarah. I even remember saying she could help us return to the top deck in an emergency…”

  “I don’t think you need to worry,” said Anatoly. His confidence swelled. A white light shined behind his eyes. “I think I can tell these creatures apart just fine.”

  Scale sipped on her tea. She winced at the grassy taste. “Ah,” she sighed. “Well, first thing you should know about me is I prefer to stay in my polymorphed human form.” She looked up from her teacup but soon turned her snout back down. The eyes sizing her up felt like they were going to burn her pelt off.

  [Do you have reason to prefer a human form?] Asked a gold-colored dragon. Her magically projected voice felt sweet, like honey.

  “Yes.” Scale’s tail wrapped around one of her legs. Her shoulders sagged. “In my first life I was a human. Then I reincarnated as Olimaw’s daughter.”

  [What?]

  [You have memories from your past cycle?]

  [That shouldn’t be!]

  The other dragons at the table showed a variety of reactions, but the most unifying factor among them was disbelief.

  [Silence!] Olimaw quieted the table. [What you have heard is the truth. My daughter was born as trinity: the soul of evolution, the body of a god, and the inheritance of a world.]

  The dragons present murmured among themselves for a moment. The older ones seemed shaken while the younger ones were just confused. Instinctually, every dragon present could feel the weight of Scale’s existence and knew that it was above their own. The hierarchy was clear, but now about half of those present understood just how far up the totem pole they were reaching. Cold ambition shined in their eyes.

  [Please allow me to introduce myself properly.] The golden dragon stepped forward. Magic swirled and her body shrank. Soon, a bronze-skinned woman stood in her pce. She had golden-slit eyes and bck hair, and she draped herself in sparkling, opulent metals.

  “I am named Aurum. I hail from the world of Ta, also in [System] governed space.” She bowed and her bck hair fell over her face like dark water cascading over a falls at night. She pushed her hair back and two horns were revealed. Her polymorph wasn’t perfected but it was close. “I am 244 years old. I ck grace and ask for your forgiveness.”

  For the first time since the meeting began, Scale smiled. It was the first time someone other than her spoke with a real voice instead of with mana. The sweet taste from earlier still lingered on the air, but the feeling of something nostalgic in her heart was sweeter still.