Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Rescue from the Nightmare

Despite being almost noon, the sky was dark. Clouds of ash blotted out the sun over a world of shattered stone and broken bodies. The only thing that provided light was the burning remains of towers and bodies.

Dominating one horizon was a long line of sundered stone, the collective corpses of two armies filling the fields in front of it. Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes; their bodies littered the ground among burning hulks. Black scaled dragons that lay torn and scattered like hills.

This nightmarish landscape stretched from horizon to horizon, a scar on the world so brutal it was visible from space.

At the center of this hellhole, the bodies of almost a hundred of the dead dragons lay piled in a small mountain. Perched among the broken spines of the topmost dragon, was Susan.

Currently in human form, she sat curled in on herself with both arms wrapped around her knees. Blank eyes took in the burning ruins, the terrible stench of burning and death barely even registering to her.

She had no idea how or why this was happening, and she wasn't sure if she cared. She barely even moved. Just feeling empty, like the bottom of her soul had fallen open and everything tumbled out.

“What the hell?” Someone swore behind her, and Susan jumped in surprise.

She nearly stumbled and fell, but barely managed to catch herself on one of the spines beside her.

Turning around, she found the source of the noise. It was a woman in bronze armor, holding herself up with one of the spines while she stared around at the burnt landscape in horror.

“Abana?” Susan blurted out.

“Susan!” Abana exclaimed, quickly turning to look at her, “You’re here!”

“Yes?” Susan said, not entirely sure what was happening.

“Amazing!” Abana said, then realized her awkward statement and continued, “You’ve been unconscious for so long I was scared the dream spell wouldn’t work.”

“The- oh,” Susan frowned, “That explains a lot.”

Abana’s face half fell and half twisted up in confusion.

“What did you think was-” She muttered then shook her head and spoke again, “Anyway, you collapsed and we haven’t been able to wake you up. We’ve been trying to use dream magic to communicate with you. Now can you tell me what’s wrong?”

Nodding at her words, Susan made herself think back to what had happened before she had arrived in this world. The thoughts and memories felt hazy, but eventually she managed to pull herself together enough to remember-

“Wait- Anne!” She gasped, “Is Anne alright?”

“Yes,” Abana nodded, “She’s with us.”

“Great, that's great,” Susan sagged with relief.

Abana gave her a moment to collect herself, but eventually shot her another questioning look.

This time when she tried thinking back, it was easier. She had been trying to save Anne. She had shot the Eldritch Creature with her breath, then flown in to get Anne. She had spotted Anne’s crazy uncle standing next to her and flown at him. Then…

“Oh, Joseph stabbed me with Liss.”

Abana continued looking at her expectantly, and Susan pushed through the haze to keep remembering.

“Right, I needed to reduce the radiation, so-

“Excuse me, the what?” Abana cut her off.

“I have a nuclear reactor for a Dragon Heart. With Liss piercing it the radiation couldn’t be effectively contained,” Susan explained blandly.

Abana stared at her for a moment, completely still. Then her eyes slowly raised toward the sky and she let out a deep groan.

“These damn sisters, I swear…” She growled out.

“Anyway,” Susan continued, “In order to protect Anne, I reduced the output of my Dragon Heart as much as I could. But that means that my body doesn’t have enough energy to sustain itself, so I fell unconscious.”

“This was intentional?” Abana raised an eyebrow.

“No, the sword must have gone in deeper than I thought,” Susan shrugged, “Normally my body should be able to remove it.”

“Right, okay,” Abana nodded as she spoke, “So we just need to get the sword out.”

She vanished without another word, leaving Susan once more standing alone on top of the dragon. She stared at the empty air for a few seconds, then sat back down.

She probably should try to do something, but the world around her seemed to suck out any energy she had. Instead her eyes found the burning plain once again and returned to their empty vigil.

“SUSAN!” A scream ripped through the ashy air, and something slammed into Susan’s side.

She caught herself immediately, then looked down to find Elizabeth wrapped around her midsection.

“You’re okay!” Elizabeth mumbled, face pressed into her side.

“Yeah, I am,” Susan said slowly, steadying herself and reaching down to pat Elizabeth on the back.

A moment later she pulled back to look up at Susan. After giving her a good looking over, Elizabeth finally stepped back.

“Sorry,” She said somewhat bashfully, “I was really worried.”

“It’s fine,” Susan said, giving her a wry grin.

Elizabeth nodded a few times, then her eyes went wide as she finally took in the rest of the dream world.

“Uh, by the way,” She started awkwardly, “Where are we?”

She trailed off, head sweeping back and forth to look at the burning vista.

Susan followed her gaze for a moment, then decided to look back at Elizabeth instead.

“This is the Beringian Passage,” She explained, then realized the explanation was somewhat vague, “After a… battle.”

“Yeah, but like,” Elizabeth shrugged helplessly, “Why are you dreaming about it?”

“It’s…” Susan began, then trailed off.

A shudder rolled over her.

“Lets, um… sit down or something” Elizabeth said quickly.

They settled down on either side of one of the broken spines. Elizabeth’s arm immediately snaking around it to hug Susan. They remained there a few minutes, neither speaking.

“This is what remains of the Mages Congress,” Susan finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Wasn’t that the group that the mage who helped you was a part of?” Elizabeth asked, sounding horrified.

“Yes,” Susan whispered.

Elizabeth’s arm trembled, then pulled her closer.

“That… that’s awful,” She whispered.

Silence fell again. The fires continued to roil below them, until Elizabeth finally spoke.

“D-do you want to talk about it?” She asked.

Susan huffed at that. The line was delivered so awkwardly that it was almost certainly something that Hilda or Chay had told her to say.

“Sure,” The word slipped out of her mouth almost without her noticing. She blandly wondered whether or not she should continue, but eventually decided she might as well.

“It started when-,” She stopped, “Well it really started with Liss.”

“Wait, Liss?”

Elizabeth, who had been looking at Susan from the corner of her eye turned her head to look at her fully.

“Yep,” Susan nodded, “Do you remember how Hadwigis thought the Atlans might have causality magic?”

Elizabeth nodded in turn.

“Well, the mages congress was really worried about it. So much so that they decided to build a weapon specifically to counter it.”

“Liss,” Elizabeth finished for her, then frowned and looked around, “It’s here?”

Susan nodded mutely, then pointed down toward one of the larger broken piles of stone. There, only visible because of the flicker light of the fires, was the faint outline of Liss. Thrust point first into the blackened ground, it stood among the hulking bodies of a dozen dragons.

“Oh,” Elizabeth breathed.

“Yeah,” Susan continued quietly, “I was just the person they needed to make it. The mana requirements for forging a Kalian Blade are absurd, literally only a dragon could fulfill them.”

Beside her Elizabeth frowned.

“A… what?” She asked.

“The Themians used a five tier system to denote the power of magical artifacts. Kalian was the fifth tier,” Susan recited blandly.

Elizabeth’s brow furrowed.

“I think we use that here,” She began slowly, “But didn’t Mom say Liss was a tier 4?”

Susan paused, then made herself go through the motions of dredging up the memories.

“Uh…” Susan shot Elizabeth a look. “The Themian tier system is totally different from the Earth tier system and Liss is absolutely a tier 4 on Earth.”

“Uh huh,” Elizabeth said with a raised eyebrow.

“Right, anyway. We spent centuries working on it in between battles with the Atlans. It took about a decade’s worth of my power to finally finish it. We quickly found a pure of heart person to wield it, but before we could do anything, the Atlans…”

She trailed off again. It was several minutes before she spoke again, this time in a voice so low it was only a hint of a whisper.

“The Atlans attacked. We weren’t that worried about them most of the time. With me there to power the defenses they could barely even scratch the wall. Their only real threat against us beyond causality magic was dragons and their whole plan to make them had basically ended in failure.

“They didn’t have my understanding of the body, so their only method of making dragons was to take Takeo’s body and just… copy-paste it onto other people. It was horrible. Incredibly painful and so dangerous that the survival rate was barely one in a thousand.”

“Woah,” Elizabeth breathed.

“I know,” Susan shook her head slowly, “We assumed we would have centuries before they built up a respectable force.”

She fell silent for a minute before speaking again, “They attacked us with one thousand dragons.”

“A-” Elizabeth choked off.

“Yes, a thousand dragons, made with a survival rate of one in one thousand. A million lives thrown away just for that attack. But it worked.

The mages fought with all they had, but it just wasn’t enough. Roland, the boy they chose to wield Liss, dueled four dragons at once and won. I think Hadwigis defeated a dozen on his own. But there were just too many dragons, and one by one the towers fell. Until I was the only one left. Fighting alone against what remained of the horde.”

Susan trailed off as her eyes slowly slid to face the side of the battlefield away from the wall. Instead of the disastrously piled bodies, dozens of deep channels had been carved into the landscape.

“I wasn't a fighter before then. I had never even used my beam attack against a living creature. But in that moment, when it was just me surrounded by dead friends and an army of dragons…” ”

“You…” Elizabeth could barely get the words out, looking over the scarred world behind them.

“Just kind of lost it. The next thing I remember, I was here, and the dragon army was… this.”

Elizabeth didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then her head slowly turned to look at the broken wall again. She finally turned back to Susan again, her expression hard.

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“Did you at least beat up the Atlans though?”

Susan choked out a laugh.

“I burnt the whole damn empire to the ground. Took like two centuries. But yeah, I got them.”

Her voice cracked and she fell silent. Elizabeth turned and wrapped her other arm around Susan in a fierce hug.

“I'm sorry,” She said.

“…I’m sorry too,” Susan croaked, then felt tears spill from her eyes and a sob broke out, “I failed them.”

More tears fell. More sobs came. Elizabeth just held her. Inside Susan's chest, within the twisting knot that was her heart something finally loosened.

They stayed there another few minutes, truly silent this time. After a while, Elizabeth finally spoke again.

“The others say they're ready to take the sword out.”

----------------------------------------

The vent in Susan’s chest loomed in front of Anne. The gill-like flap of scales formed a long trapezoid, the bottom edge of which was almost touching the floor. Hanging open like a door, the flap represented Anne’s only chance of saving her best friend.

When Joseph’s attack had hit home and Susan collapsed, she had been left in a state of panic. Thankfully the Guardians had been quick to arrive, and ferried both of them back to their home base. Once safely enclosed within the blank grey walls, they had begun working to revive Susan.

Now, after a quick dream spell from Abana, they had found a solution. They needed to remove the sword from her chest. Which meant they needed someone small enough to fit inside. And Anne had been happy to volunteer.

She currently stood in mouse form, looking into the same vent she had seen Joseph leap into as the Guardians did the final preparations behind her.

“Are you ready?” Abana asked, her footfalls booming as she walked up behind Anne.

Anne had to look up to meet her gaze. As she was currently the height of one of Abana’s shoes, it was a long way up.

Anne nodded.

“I’m ready,” She said.

“Good, you have the amulet?”

Anne looked down to give it another look. Despite the weight that she could feel sitting against her chest, she couldn’t really see it. Like Liss, the amulet was made of a strange transparent material that was only visible by the faint outline it created.

According to the Guardians, it would grant her a limited form of their protective abilities. Hopefully enough to let her survive the irradiated interior of her friend’s body long enough to remove the sword.

Anne still wasn’t sure what to make of that. She and Susan were going to have to have words about it later though, that was for sure. Friends told friends if they were walking nuclear reactors. Anne was pretty sure that was in the friendship rules somewhere.

Well, they would just have to talk about it if she lived-

Cutting off that thought, Anne looked back up to meet Abana’s gaze and nodded.

“And you’ve checked it is bonded?”

“Yes,” Anne replied tersely.

Abana kept her gaze, but Anne could see her swallow.

“It’s okay if you don't want to-” Abana began only to be cut off when Anne snapped at her.

“I’m going to!” She squeaked, “I have to!”

“You-”

“You don’t get it!” Anne continued, “You weren’t there! You didn’t stare that thing in the faces! Sure, I might die here, but that would be so much better than having my mind erased by that… that…”

She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again and met Abana’s concerned look head on.

“I have to do this,” She said, “Susan can’t die because of me.”

Abana looked like she wanted to protest again, but bit her lip and looked away.

“Alright,” She said, “Go.”

Despite her earlier worlds, Anne still had a hard time taking the first step into the looming vent. The dark inside seemed ready to consume her like the chasm from earlier today.

“Anne-” Abana began, but that was all the push she needed.

She stepped inside, the darkness swallowing her for a moment before the amulet on her chest began to glow with a soft white light.

She found herself inside of a narrow tunnel, the ceiling and floor slanted but still giving her enough grip to move. Almost immediately, she found her way blocked by a strange membrane, the porous material stretched over the vent like a net.

Looking around, Anne spotted a way forward. Above her the membrane had been slashed open, a triangle of it still hanging in the still air.

A leap and a scrabble of her feet got her through it, and she tumbled to the floor on the other side. Then it was further inwards, her footsteps more sure now as she got used to the twisting environment.

Quickly, she found herself at the end of the tunnel. There was another gill-like flap, this one sporting a wide semicircular hole carved out of it.

Stepping through, Anne trailed to a stop as she felt her mouth fall open. She stood in what she assumed to be Susan’s right lung. Though not one anyone would recognize as a lung, the cavernous expanse of the organ was made up of a strange chitinous material that seemed straight out of science fiction.

She was in a sort of transition area. Behind her an array of vents sat against what would have been the top of the lung, while in front of her a series of enormous flaps stretched from the ribs to the back wall of the lung above. Resembling the fins of a jet turbine, they sported thousands of tiny ridges that ran along their length.

Anne couldn’t help but gape at the blatant exhibition of Susan’s scientific knowledge. She had frequently heard the girl complaining about the limitations of the current technology, but she had never quite realized just how valid those complaints were. Apparently this was what Susan could do when she could just magic away things like material costs and time considerations.

Then Anne’s eyes trailed up, and she finally found what she was looking for. Above her at the very back of the lung was an organ, likely the Dragonheart. It was hidden behind a mass of bone and cartilage, but the blue glow that emanated from it allowed her to see the rough outline of a sphere.

And hanging down from it was the rough shape of a sword. Coated in a strange white goop, only the last foot of blade and the handle were visible. The rest of it was solidly embedded into the heart.

Then her gaze fell again, and she spotted a strange outline marring the chitin in front of her. The dark shape resembled a shadow, showing the huddled outline of what might have been a mouse.

“Dumbass,” she muttered, and returned her attention to the hanging blade.

Scrambling up the side of the lung, she quickly got herself to the same height as the handle. Grasping the amulet around her neck and praying that the Guardian’s magic would work, she leapt forward.

Clearing the foot between her and the blade, she barely caught herself on the crossguard of the sword. Scrabbling against it, she quickly felt her paws begin to sink through the strange goop that surrounded it.

Her paws quickly began to grow warm as they sank, the heat feeling uncomfortably similar to standing in the sun. She pressed on though, and she quickly felt her paws hit something hard.

The faintest flash of light was visible from beneath the goop, and then the sword began to shrink in her hands. It popped free from the heart above, and for a split second Anne felt the true heat of the heart above her.

It blasted against her fur, and for the shortest moment she felt a searing warmth that seemed to go through her entire body-

And then the white goop rushed in to fill the hole and the light cut off. Anne hit the bottom of the lung in a heavy sprawl, the sword held above her still pointed straight up.

Body aching with an impossibly dull pain, Anne felt the first twinges of real fear run through her. She let the blade fall to land flat along the ground, before reaching up to feel where the light had touched her with trembling hands.

Her paws touched bare skin, and Anne felt cold fear sap at her. She still wanted to talk to Susan, hang out, make more friends. She didn’t want to go like this.

From her chest, the light of the amulet began to grow. White light washed over her, and Anne felt a shiver run through her. Sitting up, she looked down with wide eyes to take in her body.

The fur on her entire right side was gone and the skin bleached white, though under the light of the amulet she saw the color return. In a matter of seconds her fur had regrown and she had returned to normal.

“Woah,” She muttered, the heady rush of manic fear and elation almost knocking her back over, “I’ve got to stop it with the high stakes magic shit.”

Stumbling to her feet, she began making her way back toward the broken vent. But before she made it even a few steps a rumble rolled through the body around her and knocked her back off her feet.

A teeth shaking hum echoed around her, and the lung began to glow brighter. Wide eyes raised up to see the Dragonheart beginning to shine with that strange blue glow.

The breath hadn’t even had the time to catch in her throat when something moved to block the deadly light.

It was the goop, the whitish substance flowing around her and the sword to form a spherical room.

Her breath shuddered as the weight of the last few moments settled over her, then with a concerted effort she shoved it all to the back of her mind to deal with later.

Standing again, she held the sword close to her side before reaching out to touch one of the white walls around her. The substance was smooth but strangely tough, unlike what she would have assumed from its appearance.

She wasn’t sure what to do now. Abana had outlined a plan that was basically just Anne running in, grabbing the sword and running out. They hadn’t accounted for deadly light or strange goop.

Then the room shook, and she had to brace herself as she heard air thunder around the body as Susan once again began to move. After a few seconds, the clamor stilled and she felt the white room begin to move like an elevator.

There seemed to be a lot of stopping and going as she was shifted around Susan’s body. Then almost a minute later she felt the movement end.

The goop flowed away to reveal a circular tunnel, the walls and ceiling coated with a strange clear substance…

“The throat? Really!” She yelled into the tunnel.

A huff of air nearly knocked her off her feet before Susan stilled again. Anne sighed, then looked back and forth to see where she should go.

Behind her the blue glow of the Dragonheart was barely visible through the walls of the tunnel, so she went forward. Paws squelching in the… eww… she tried to ignore her surroundings as she barreled forward.

Eventually she found the end of the tunnel, and stepped onto a long red tongue surrounded by tall white teeth. With a hiss of breath, the jaw opened to reveal the outside world.

Abana and Elizabeth stood in front of Susan’s mouth, both of them smiling expectantly. Nodding to them, Anne walked to the edge of the tongue and dropped down to the floor below.

A moment later a pulse of mana ran through her and she transformed back into a human. Then shivered as the cold air of the Guardian’s fortress ran over her bare skin.

Abana was there a second later with the bathrobe, throwing it over her shoulders and stepping away. She was followed by Elizabeth, who moved in to take Liss from her.

Anne let the sword go with a sense of deep relief. The knowledge of the impossibly sharp edge had sat in the back of her mind for the entirety of her journey through Susan’s body.

“Is there anything else I need to do?” She asked.

“No, Elizabeth will be able to return Liss without any issue,” Abana said, “Just give us a minute to finish things up and we can talk things over.”

Elizabeth flashed a thumbs up to Anne and Susan before teleporting away. Abana rolled her eyes at the girls' theatrics, then turned and walked away toward a hallway on the other side of the room.

Anne watched her go, then turned around to face Susan properly. The dragon was crouched beneath the low ceiling of one of the side rooms in the Guardian’s base. Anne looked over the smoothly moving limbs and toothy grin with a smile, relieved that she was able to see it again.

Then the smiles fell from both of their faces.

“Sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” They said at the same time, then frowned at each other.

“Hold on a second,” Susan said, “What are you sorry for?

“I could say the same thing!” Anne snapped, “You didn’t do anything wrong! If it weren’t for me getting involved with you, the vampires wouldn’t have been able to attack you like that.”

Susan’s head shook back and forth.

“No,” She said, “I was never in any danger. But I did put you in danger.”

“How?” Anne tilted her head in confusion.

“I came back to earth to hide away, just put my head in the sand and pretend that everything was normal. It worked, but if I had just made it clear to everyone what I was then none of this would have happened. The vampires and mousekin would have never even tried to go after me.”

The apparently unbelievably powerful dragon hung her head and looked away. Anne just sighed.

“You don't know that-”

“Anne,” Susan cut her off, “I’m an archdragon.”

A cough echoed from the corner of the room. Anne and Susan both turned to see the Guardians looking into the room from a tunnel off to the side of the room. The purple suited one’s eyes were bulging, and Abana was tiredly patting her on the back.

They both turned away from the peanut gallery to face each other again.

“So… what's an archdragon?” Anne asked with a tired shrug.

Susan’s mouth opened, then closed and she let out a sigh so heavy that it made Anne’s hair blow around behind her.

“This world is going to drive me insane,” She muttered, then met Anne’s eyes and spoke, “An archdragon is… a really powerful kind of dragon. I guess.”

“That’s it?”

Susan shot her a look.

“That’s the five second version, yeah.”

Anne met her look and rolled her eyes.

“Sure, whatever,” She said, then took a breath, “Susan. It really wouldn’t have worked. Giving everybody in the world a death threat would just make things crazier. Joseph being insane was his own problem. It’s not your fault.”

Susan’s entire head turned away from her, and a shudder rolled over her entire frame.

“Fine,” She rumbled in a quavering voice, “But it's not your fault either, ok?”

Anne watched her shake for a moment, then walked forward. Stepping up to the dragon's side, she opened her arms wide and pressed herself against it in a weird sort of hug.

Susan didn’t say anything, but one of her arms reached around her and pressed her in. It took a minute for Susan’s shaking to stop, and for Anne to speak again.

“By the way Susan?

“Yeah?”

“Being inside your body sucks.”

Susan’s body rumbled again, but this time it was a wheezing chuckle. The rumbling quickly became too much for Anne to handle and she had to step away to let the dragon shake with breathless laughter.

“I mean seriously,” Anne continued, “You made me walk out your throat!”

The laughter didn’t stop, and Anne soon found herself laughing too.

“Sorry,” Susan finally wheezed, “I already repaired the holes Joseph cut on his way in, so the throat was the only way out.”

“Suuure…” Anne drawled out, then fell back into giggles.

They finally quieted, and Anne could see when Susan finally stopped messing around and began properly examining the room they were in.

“So where exactly are we?” She asked, giving the strange gray floor a poke with a talon.

“The Guardians’ home base, apparently,” Anne said.

“Hm,” Susan nodded, “That explains the conjured walls then. They’re using a very advanced form of magic. Almost like Liss…”

Anne smiled as she watched her friend get lost in scientific exploration once again, quickly forgetting about the rest of the world as she examined the building around them.

The soft thuds of footsteps heralded a new arrival.

“Are you all finished up here?” Abana asked as she walked over.

“Pretty much,” Anne said, then remembered the weight that sat against her chest, “By the way, do you want your pendant back?”

“No, you should keep it,” Abana said, shaking her head.

“Really?”

“Yes,” Abana said, her eyes flickering over to Susan for a moment, “Please keep it.”

Then she turned to face Susan, catching the dragon’s attention with a light cough.

“Right, we really need to talk.”

----------------------------------------

Susan stood over the glowing globe at the center of the Guardian’s base, trying to pick her jaw up off the ground. It was hard not to when face to face with the single greatest piece of magical engineering she had seen in her entire life.

Within the globe, visible only because of her enhanced eyes, sat a rune. A four dimensional rune. Filling the entirety of the glowing shell, the spherical construct of glowing lines warped and changed with each passing second. The very fabric of reality warping around it like air around a fire, as if the universe itself was protesting the slight against it.

And the complexity wasn’t the only terrifying thing about it. Running through each of the lines was a channel of mana more dense and powerful than anything she could create in decades.

Susan had studied up to three dimensional runes, but the wavering lines that flickered in and out of reality before her eyes were so far beyond anything she had ever studied it was almost comical.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the absurd scale the construct operated on.

“Could you please stop staring at that thing so we can talk?” Abana almost shouted in her ear, breaking her concentration.

Her voice was filled with a mix of fear and exasperation. She had brought Susan to the center of the Guardian’s base to ask the question she had alluded to after the fight with the dragons. But the second Susan had laid eyes on the globe at the center of the room any questions Abana might have asked took a backseat to her investigation of the thing.

“Don’t you see it?” Susan asked incredulously, waving an arm at the glowing construct in front of them.

“What?” Abana looked back and forth between her and the globe helplessly.

“You’re drawing mana from the planet!”

“Yes! Most spells do that!” Abana snapped.

“No, they draw in small levels of ambient mana. This,” Susan pointed at the globe again, “Is channeling the mana output of the entire planet. It’s permanently restricting large scale spells from even happening!”

“Oh,” Abana said, “Well that’s all very cool, but its not relevant right now.”

“Not relevant?” Susan asked slowly, finally breaking her gaze away from the rune to stare at her.

“Yes,” Abana said, throwing up her arms, “We have bigger problems than a millennia old spell empowering the planet’s guardians!

“That,” Susan went to respond and paused, “Is fair. What’s the problem?”

Abana let out a full bodied sigh as she finally got Susan’s attention again.

“The problem,” She said, “Is that our fight with those dragons was like throwing a rock in a still pond. Every mana sensitive creature on Earth felt it. Each one of the markers on the globe you see is a potential large-scale threat to life, and our fight woke them up.”

“Oh,” Susan’s eyes finally focused on the glowing globe for the first time.

“Which is why the Guardians could use your help,” Abana said, “You’ve proven yourself to be solidly on the side of good, and I was hoping you could step in if the Guardians become stretched too thin.

Susan looked over the speckled globe, eyeing the galaxy of dots that spread across its surface.

“Sure, I’m in,” She said.

“Thank you,” Abana breathed out.

“But uh…” Susan’s wandering eyes sat frozen on a specific spot in Eastern Europe, “What’s the deal with the giant red one?

“That one,” Abana sighed again, this time sounding tired, “Is why this rune, and the Guardians as a whole exist.”

“Oh.”

“That dot represents the Demon King.”

“Oh shit.”