"Idiot," Reimi hissed, the sound of her shotgun racking echoing like a thunderclap in the enclosed space. "Civilian on deck. Protect the luggage!"

  "Luggage?!" Julian wheezed, trying to push himself up on his elbows and failing miserably. His face was already turning a terrifying, feverish red as his veins popped out from his neck. "I... I'm the rescue party."

  "You're about to be monster chow," Reimi snapped. "Stay down."

  I stood there, frozen, my hands pressed over my mouth.

  The transition from the golden sunset of New Jersey to the rusted, twilight nightmare of the Railyard was bad enough. But seeing Julian - my neighbor, my childhood best friend, the guy who let me copy his math notes and sometimes even homework since the first grade... Seeing him lying on the corrupted metal floor was too much.

  "Jules!" I screamed, the paralysis finally breaking. I scrambled over to him, my knees hitting the cold steel. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! What are you doing here?! You can't just dive into a dungeon rift like that! It’s not a swimming pool!"

  "Saw you..." Julian gasped, clutching his chest. His eyes were darting around, wide and terrified, fixed on me.

  He grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly weak. "Get back... Maya... she's dangerous..."

  I looked up at Reimi. Her head was tilted, her expression unreadable.

  He glared at her, struggling to breathe. "Not... gonna let her... hurt your family..."

  My heart broke a little. He thought Reimi was a thug. He thought he was saving me from a shakedown. He dove into literal hell with a baseball bat because he thought I was being bullied and extorted.

  "You idiot," I sobbed, squeezing his hand. "She's not mugging me! She's helping!"

  He coughed, a wet, hacking sound that made my blood run cold. I looked closely at his neck.

  The veins were pulsing, darkening to a bruised unnatural blue.

  Reimi was already standing over us. She didn't look worried. She didn't look touched by his bravery. She looked at him with the cold, clinical detachment of a butcher inspecting a side of beef.

  "Entropic Saturation," she diagnosed, her voice flat. "The chaos energy in here is too high for a civilian soul without mana cultivation to filter. He has maybe ten minutes before the ambient rot dissolves the sympathetic link between his consciousness and corporeal form. In layman's terms, he's going to melt and turn into a zombie."

  "Melt?!" Althea shrieked.

  "...Zombie?" Val croaked, blinking in surprise.

  "Y-You're joking," Linda stammered, though her face was sheet-white.

  "Do I look like I'm joking?" Reimi asked, her eyes flashing with that crimson light. "He'll start bleeding from the eyes in about two minutes. Five minutes, he'll lose motor function. Ten minutes, he's a screaming puddle of viscera and bad decisions. The Miasma is literally un-making him."

  "Reimi, fix him! Do you have a... I don't know, a potion? A sci-fi inhaler?" I shouted.

  "I have bullets and bandages," Reimi said, straightening up. She looked at Althea. "Topaz. You have a barrier-aligned skill set, do you not? Seal him. Now."

  Althea, who was looking pale and clutching her designer purse like a shield, nodded frantically. "I... I can do a containment field! But I need my focus! I can't exactly cast it in a blouse!"

  "Then suit up," Reimi barked, turning her back to the darkness. "All of you. We have movement in the perimeter. You have ten to twenty seconds before the first wave hits."

  "Right!" I jumped up, wiping my eyes.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Star Heart—a faceted pink crystal compact that fit in the palm of my hand. "Okay girls! Formation time!"

  Alfie and Linda shared a giggle, and then they spread out to the ends around me and Val.

  Reimi blinked at us. Then, she palmed her face, groaning. It was a long, suffering sound. "Just... hurry up."

  "We need it for our full power!" I protested, holding the crystal high. I felt the familiar rush of energy, the warm, comforting hum of the magic waiting to be let out. "Ready?"

  "Ready!" Val, Linda, and Althea shouted in unison, pulling out their own gems.

  "??Star Prism Power... Make Up! ??" we shouted in a chorus.

  For three seconds, the gloomy, rusted horror of the Railyard was bathed in blinding, rainbow light. Sparkles exploded outward. Ribbons of energy wove around us, defying the physics of the grime-covered world, replacing cargo pants and tank tops with the glittering, frilled armor of the Starshine Prisms.

  I landed in my pose, skirt fluttering, the Star Scepter gripped in my hand.

  "The Pink Light of Hope! Star Morganite!"

  "The Golden Shield of Justice! Star Topaz!"

  "The Red Hammer of Passion! Star Ruby!"

  "The Blue Sight of Truth! Star Sapphire!"

  We posed. The light faded.

  [Congratulations! By performing the full transformation sequence, all team members gain a +10% temporary boost to [Mana Affinity] and a minor [Charisma] boost!]

  Reimi was standing five feet away, leaning against a floating train car, checking the action on her shotgun. She looked at us with an expression of profound, soul-crushing pain and disappointment.

  "Wow," she deadpanned. "Are all of you done?"

  "Every bit helps," I huffed, adjusting my tiara.

  "Topaz," Reimi ordered. "The boy."

  Althea nodded, stepping forward. Her golden armor clinked softly. She raised her buckler, the large amber gem in the center glowing warm and bright as she carried Julian with her under one arm.

  "Golden Sanctuary!"

  A structure of translucent, golden hexagons materialized around Julian, locking together like a puzzle until they formed a perfect, airtight geode. Julian slumped back against the golden wall, his chest heaving as the filtered magic stabilized into breathable air.

  "He's stable," Reimi said. "But he's not safe. That dome filters the entropy, but it runs off her Mana."

  She pointed at Althea. "If you run dry, the dome pops. If the dome pops, your baggage dies."

  "How long do we have?" Linda asked, her voice tight. She was already sweating.

  Reimi eyed the thickness of the fog. "At her level? I'd guess... maybe twenty minutes max before she passes out from exhaustion."

  "Twenty minutes?!" Linda shrieked, clutching her glaive. "We can't clear a dungeon in twenty minutes! The exploration guide says finding the core of a standard D-Rank dungeon takes three hours!"

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  "Then we don't explore," Reimi said, turning to face the dark maze. "We hunt. We find the Core, we shatter it, and the dimension collapses. Move."

  She started walking.

  "I'll take point!" I announced, stepping forward.

  I felt powerful in my magic dress. I was a Magical Girl. I could handle this. Totally.

  "I-I'll lead the way!"

  Reimi’s hand clamped onto my shoulder.

  It wasn't a gentle touch. It was like being grabbed by a hydraulic press. She spun me around.

  "Look at me," she commanded.

  I looked.

  And I stopped breathing.

  Reimi’s eyes... they...

  The irises were gone. In their place were burning, jagged rings of red light, swirling against a burning sclera. They didn't look like eyes; they looked like holes burning through a piece of paper, staring into a furnace.

  They looked like the eyes of a wolf staring at a rabbit.

  She scanned me up and down. It felt like she was stripping the skin off my bones, reading the marrow.

  "Soft," she murmured. Her voice sounded distorted, like gravel grinding in a mixer. "Porous. Low density. This is why your level is so low relative to your baseline."

  "W-What?" I stammered, shrinking back.

  "Your Aura," she said, tapping my chest plate with a gloved finger. "You haven't learned to reinforce yourself properly. You're coasting on passive enhancements."

  She shoved me. Physically yanked and shoved me behind Valentina.

  "You are not a duelist," Reimi growled, the creepy red light in her eyes fading back to normal dark brown as she blinked. "You are Artillery. Artillery does not stand on the front lines. Artillery stands behind the armor and rains hell. Do not let anything touch you."

  Then, she dragged Valentina to the front by the ear.

  "Hey!" Valentina protested, flailing her arms. "I usually watch Topaz's six! That's our formation!"

  "Not today," Reimi barked. "Topaz is the ambulance. She can't move fast. You are the bumper. Morganite blows them up. Sapphire keeps overwatch. Move."

  We moved.

  The "Gloom" got thicker as we went deeper. It was a heavy, oily fog that smelled like copper and old batteries. Massive, rusted train cars floated weightlessly a few feet off the ground, chained together by glowing red veins.

  "Movement," Reimi said softly. "Three targets. Nine o'clock."

  I looked. Shadows were peeling away from the rusted metal.

  They looked like wolves, but wrong. Made of twisted rebar, jagged scrap metal, and dripping with black oil. Their eyes were burning red LEDs.

  Linda's Sapphire Lens overlaid my vision.

  [ENEMY: SCRAP-HOUND (LVL 16)]

  There were three of them.

  The lead hound lunged. It moved terrifyingly fast, a blur of metal and claws.

  "I got it!" I shouted. "I'll blast it!"

  I raised my wand, the Prismatic Lens humming with power. I started the chant for my strongest spell.

  "Oh, Starlight that guides the—"

  Something hard wrapped around my waist.

  My legs buckled. I fell, my aim jerking skyward. The spell fizzled out in a shower of harmless sparks.

  The hound snapped its jaws exactly where my head had been a second ago. The sound of metal teeth slamming together made my stomach flip.

  "Too. Slow!" Reimi yelled. She stepped over me, picking me up. "That chant is too long! That hound covers twenty meters in two seconds! Do the math!"

  "I—"

  "Don't use the finisher!" Reimi barked, clubbing the hound away with the stock of her gun. "Use the basics!"

  "Right! Basic! Fast!" I scrambled up.

  I pointed my wand again. No poetry. No flowery chant. Just panic.

  "Prism Bolt!"

  Pew-pew-pew!

  Three shards of pink hard-light shot out of my wand. They weren't massive beams, but they were fast. They slammed into the hound's metal flank—ping, ping, ping— staggering it.

  "Ruby! Crush it!" Reimi ordered.

  Valentina dashed forward, her gauntlet glowing. "Molten Impact!" She smashed the staggered hound into scrap metal.

  The next two hounds were on us.

  "Azure Stun!" Linda chanted, firing a thin blue laser from her lens. The laser cut through the fog and struck one of the hounds in its LED eye. The hound whirred and sputtered, stumbling in confusion.

  Val followed up immediately, leaping into the air and drop-kicking it into the ground.

  "Nice!" I cheered, trying to find a target.

  Then, the last one jumped.

  It sailed through the air, claws outstretched, heading straight for Linda.

  She screamed and threw up her hands.

  But Reimi was already there. She stepped in, grabbed the Scrap-Hound by the jaw mid-leap, and slammed it into the ground.

  KA-THUNK!

  The floor shuddered.

  Reimi put her boot on the hound's head, aimed her shotgun, and pulled the trigger.

  KA-BOOM!

  The hound's head exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. The headless body twitched, then went still.

  Silence returned.

  "Anyone hurt?" Reimi asked, calmly reloading her shotgun. A fresh, red shell slid into the chamber with a satisfying click.

  She narrowed her eyes, glancing back at Alfie.

  "Four minutes gone," she said. "The moron is running out of air. Pick up the pace."

  We went deeper. The landscape twisted. The floating trains started to look like they were breathing. The red veins connecting them pulsed, and the air got thicker, colder. It felt like we were walking into the stomach of some giant, mechanical beast.

  "Status?" I snapped, my head on a swivel.

  "No visual on the Core," Linda reported, her Sapphire Lens glowing against her face. "It's buried deep. The weird energy is messing with my scans. It's like... static."

  "K-Keep looking," I stated. "We're running out of—"

  Something pulsed.

  I stumbled, catching myself on a floating rail. The metal felt slick, humming with energy that made my teeth ache.

  A deep red mist bled from the veins in the space around us. It seeped and pooled, coalescing in sickening clumps.

  "Agh..." Reimi suddenly grunted.

  "Reimi?" Valentina asked, her voice sharp. She spun around, her red gauntlet raised and glowing. "What is it? More monsters?"

  She didn't answer. Her shotgun fell from her hands, clattering to the metal floor with a deafening clang. Her whole body went rigid. Her knees buckled, and she crumpled to her hands and knees.

  "Reimi!" I shrieked, rushing to her side.

  "Whoa, whoa, okay," Althea said, her voice shaking. "Easy there. Did something... I dunno. Bite you?"

  I grabbed her shoulder. Her muscles were locked, spasming under my touch. "Reimi, what's wrong? Talk to me!"

  She tried to push herself up, her arm trembling violently. She collapsed again, her forehead hitting the metal deck with a sickening thud.

  "Is it the Miasma?" Linda asked, her voice a high-pitched squeak. "Is it affecting her, too?"

  I looked at Reimi, a cold dread creeping into my stomach.

  Her face was pale, her forehead slick with sweat. She was shaking, her entire body trembling uncontrollably. She looked like she was in agony.

  "Reimi..." I whispered, my heart sinking. "What's wrong?"

  "Get... back," she gasped, pushing me away with a weak hand.

  "Hold the line, Akane," she muttered. Her voice was unrecognizable. Soft, terrified, and young. "Don't let them flank... Kaito, get back..."

  "Reimi?" I took a step toward her. "Who is Kaito?"

  She whipped her head around.

  I gasped.

  Her eyes were wide, blown pupils swallowing the iris. She looked through me. Past me.

  She looked like she was seeing a ghost standing right behind my shoulder.

  "Get out of my head," she hissed, clutching her temples as a pistol manifested in her hand in a swirl of shadows.

  "Holy shinies," Althea whispered from inside her barrier. "Is she okay?"

  "She's not even here," I responded. A cold knot forming in my stomach. "She's seeing things."

  "Why is it hitting her so hard?!" Linda shouted.

  A foghorn blast shook the ground.

  The mist ahead parted. Blocking the tracks was a massive construct. It looked like a golem made entirely of railway signals and crossing lights, all glowing a hateful, burning red. It had four arms made of twisted track, and it was hovering silently in the fog.

  It turned its main light toward us. A beam of red light scanned the group, landing on the golden geode where Julian was trapped.

  Reimi swayed again.

  "Unit Zero-Zero-Four..." she mumbled, her knees buckling. "Reporting...."

  She slumped against a floating shipping container, sliding down until she was sitting in the dust, breathing hard, her gun hanging limp in her hand.

  We were alone.

  Julian was trapped in a bubble that was running out of battery. Our invincible escort was hallucinating in the corner.

  I gripped my wand. My hands were shaking.

  "Ruby," I shouted, my voice cracking. "Intercept! Topaz, keep that shield up! Sapphire, find me a weak point!"

  "Maya?" Valentina yelled back, looking terrified. "What about Reimi?!"

  "Reimi's down!" I screamed, stepping in front of the golden dome. "We have to hold the line!"