I set the empty strawberry milk glass bottle on the table with a finality that made the girls flinch.

  "I need a basement," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy silence of the kitchen. "If you insist I stay, then I might as well do some equipment inspection."

  Althea blinked at me, her blue eyes wide. "What?"

  I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "A basement. Or a garage. Or somewhere with a lot of space. I need to take inventory."

  Linda looked at me, her brow furrowed. "Inventory? What do you mean? Are you going to take apart your weapon or something?"

  I shook my head. "No. Just take stock of what I have left."

  Maya blinked, her face still pale from my casual dismissal of the Association's economic 'tragedy.' "The basement? Um, sure. It’s mostly just laundry and my dad’s old gym equipment. But Reimi, shouldn't we wait for—"

  "I’m not waiting for anyone," I interrupted, standing up.

  They didn't argue. I followed Maya down a set of narrow wooden stairs into a cool, dimly lit cellar. It smelled of damp stone and laundry detergent.

  Disgustingly... domestic.

  "Will this work?" Maya asked, her voice small. "It’s not much, but my dad reinforced the floor"

  "It’s concrete," I rasped, stepping into the center of the room. "That’s all I need."

  I didn't wait for them to get comfortable. I closed my eyes, reaching into the static-filled void where my reality used to be. My vision flared, the jagged, red-tinted interface of the Astra-Void system overlaying the mundane basement.

  Once the other three - Linda, Valentina, and Althea, had crowded in behind us, I centered myself.

  "Interface," I muttered. "Bloom — Majalis of the Valley."

  A low-frequency hum vibrated through my teeth, and then a massive, blocky slab of dark, matte-finished alloy slammed into existence on the concrete with a heavy thud that shook the house's foundation. I smiled at the floral patterns with wicked fondness.

  "Holy sprinkles!" Maya squeaked, jumping back. "Did you just... pull a bunker out of the air?"

  "Spatial Compression," I said, ignoring them.

  I walked toward the pod, my hand hovering over the interface. My vision flickered, and the red-tinted Legacy HUD synced with the local reality.

  [SUBJECT 0042: STAR ZINNIA]

  [STATUS: LEVEL 459]

  [INTEGRITY: 71%]

  [WARNING: CHAOS FRICTION DETECTED]

  [ENERGY: 12% - REGENERATION RATE: 0.04%/MIN]

  [NOTE: LOCAL MANA DENSITY IS CRITICALLY LOW. SUPPRESSION PROTOCOLS ACTIVE.]

  The regeneration was a crawl.

  In my original world on the brink of death, I’d be at full capacity in an hour. Here, the air was too 'thin' to give back what I’d spent.

  Figures.

  "It's my armory," I said flatly.

  The girls crowded at the base of the stairs, their eyes wide as the internal racks slid out and the main closet opened. It wasn't the row of shimmering staves or crystal jewelry they likely expected. It was a collection of functional, black-iron hardware.

  "Is... is that a chainsaw?" Althea asked, her voice trembling as she pointed to a massive, jagged-toothed motor-blade etched with wilting rose patterns. I grinned as I ran my hand over it, moving to the firearms.

  My precious Thresher of Thorns. It'd served me well since I'd found it.

  "Oh it's that thing!" Linda pointed to the heavy, double-barreled shotgun sitting next to it. The barrels were thick, matte-black, and flared slightly at the end like the bell of a flower.

  "The Withered Calyx," I said, checking the breach.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Empty.

  I ran a hand over the cold metal of the Cinder Bud - a heavy, shoulder-mounted launcher, and the Nectar-Burst Cannon. Every rack was bone-dry. Even my small collection of handguns.

  I turned my attention to the flickering tally on my HUD. The Chaos beasts in the tunnel had been numerous, and the System Hephaestus left behind rewarded the harvest.

  [INCURSION SETTLEMENT: NEW JERSEY TRANSIT BREACH] > Chaos Entities Purged: 738

  Merit Milestone: 241 Lives Saved in Proximity

  [POINTS EARNED: 18,450] [MERIT MARKS: 2]

  Linda's eye scanner flashed. I turned in surprise.

  "Weird..." she whispered. "I can see her screen."

  "What does it say?" Althea asked.

  "It's her point total, I think." Linda's eyes flicked from my interface to her screen. "It's the same as what I just got from the news report. It says that we 'cleared' the dungeon. I didn't get much, but she's at over eighteen thousand points?"

  "What?" Valentina hissed.

  She tapped a few commands on a floating holographic display, looking between the two. “My Nexus ID is trying to ping your terminal, but it’s getting a ‘Foreign Exchange’ error. It says from what I can say you have... eighteen thousand credits? That doesn't make sense. A standard grueling B-Tier raid only pays out a few hundred to a thousand in Association credits. Why are they interfacing and how are they even compatible?”

  “That's because your Association is a middleman sugar lumps,” I said, opening the store menu. “Hephaestus didn't build his Hero system to be a business. He built it to provide tools to people who are too busy dying to fill out paperwork. He just leaves things running until shit truly hits the fan."

  I tapped the screen, the catalogs filling my vision.

  "H... Hephaestus? What?" Maya squeaked.

  I ignored Valentina, flicking through the glowing red menus. I had a lot of points to spend, but I needed to make sure I wasn't wasting what I had.

  I glanced to the side, and to my surprise, I saw that the four of them were staring at a glowing screen in midair, their expressions slack-jawed and their eyes wide.

  "All of you can see the screen?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Linda can sync us up, but it usually isn't worth the mana rather than just asking her to read stuff out for us," Althea muttered, leaning in to stare closer.

  I sighed, pulling the screen in their direction so that they could see it better.

  The four of them leaned forward, their eyes glued to the screen. "Is that... is that a list of weapons?" Valentina breathed, her voice full of awe.

  "Uh-huh."

  "Is that... a list of spells?" Linda whispered, her voice trembling.

  "Yup." I flicked through the lists. There were so many options. I needed to make sure I was spending my points wisely.

  "And is that a list of armor?" Althea asked, her tone incredulous. She pointed to a picture of a full set of armor, a shimmering, silvery plate that looked like a flower's petals. The description was a simple, elegant, and to the point.

  "Flowering Heart Armor: The ultimate protection. A boon from Sarasvati herself."

  "To answer Maya's question, the gods are real to an extent," I said, my voice flat as I stared at the shimmering plate on the screen. "But don't go looking for the versions in your storybooks. The few worlds I've been in tell the tales differently, and the 'true' history of the pantheons is a mystery even to unlucky saps like me who have bumped into them in the dark."

  I flicked a finger, scrolling past the Sarasvati-designed armor. It was beautiful, elegant, and currently far too expensive for a girl in my situation.

  "Hephaestus likely built the System your world uses," I said, scanning through the lists. There was a lot to choose from. "Or — he used his Source function to build the one you have now. He was a god of the forge and of creation. The System Hephaestus made, and the system your Association uses, were born in the same place."

  I scrolled down the lists, trying to decide what I needed most.

  I glanced at the girls, and saw that they were all still staring at the screen, their eyes wide. "You can all stop gawking and say something."

  Maya let out a nervous giggle, her cheeks pink. "Sorry, Reimi. It's all just so overwhelming. I thought this was all a dream until you pulled out the bunker. But I still kinda do."

  I shrugged. "You're not dreaming, pinky. This is reality now. The old one is gone. The new one is here, and it's not going away. Get used to it."

  I turned back to my screen, scrolling down the lists. I needed more firepower. The monsters were weak here, but there was no telling for how long.

  "Hephaestus?" Valentina repeated, her voice skeptical. "The Greek god? You’re saying a god built our Nexus System?"

  "He built the foundation," I corrected, my lip curling in a faint, involuntary sneer. "He’s a cosmic architect with a penchant for automated systems and a complete lack of oversight. He created these Vanguard frameworks as a last-ditch safeguard for worlds that are about to be targeted by the primordial chaos. And he can be quite a utilitarian bastard about it for the 'greater good' - fat load of good that is for a world begging on its last legs."

  "Okay," Valentina said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Assuming you aren't a complete nutcase, why are you telling us this? Why are you sharing so much with us? Aren't we just random people you met?"

  I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Because you need to know the truth. Because you need to understand what's coming."

  "You want us to help you?" Linda asked, her voice incredulous.

  "No. I want you to help yourselves."

  "Why?"

  I crossed my arms, scowling.

  "Because it might not be tomorrow. It might not be next year, but you fished me out of an incursion. And it's not going to be the last one in your lifetimes. Not even close. I know it's hard to accept. It was hard for me to accept when I learned about it. But you need to be ready for when it comes."

  "Why do you care at all?" Valentina asked, her voice hard. "You're from some other world. Some other timeline. Why should you care what happens to us?"

  I paused for a second.

  "Remind me what your names as these... Sentinels were again? Astras? Your titles?"

  Valentina's nose twitched in irritation. "I'm Star Ruby. This is Star Morganite, Star Sapphire, and Star Topaz."

  I rubbed my temples. "Of course. And all of you are named after rocks. Are you the only team that has a theme like that using the 'Star' prefix?"

  "Um... to my knowledge, yeah. I cross-checked all active teams before we took up our names. Why?" Linda asked.

  I shrugged. "It's just an amusing coincidence. A pattern, even."

  "Reimi, what are you trying to say?" Maya asked softly.

  I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "I'm saying that I'm going to help you, whether you like it or not. Because I feel like it. I'm going to help you survive. And if you're the best this world has to offer when the time comes, then dammit it's going to need all the help it can get."