The current Miasma was a testament to redemption. Over the past few years, it looked like Miasma was on a course set for oblivion. The average quality of life of slum folk was one of the largest reasons.

  It didn't matter how good unification looked on paper. The average person in the slums didn't care about anyone but themselves. The cruelty of life had pushed them to the edge, teaching them one lesson: do everything you can to survive.

  This was engraved upon the mind of every slum dweller. Everyone looked after themselves and only themselves. Miasma could preach about coming together all they wanted, but unless everyone in the slums had enough so that they actually could look out for one another, then Miasma’s efforts would be wasted.

  That was why Miasma became a force of good after the cascade. They were given a lot of funding, and as such they could fund their philanthropic endeavors, as well as actually help the people who needed it.

  Another thing that helped to redeem Miasma in the eyes of the public was the toning down of their gangster image that Yaan facilitated. He had done more bad for Miasma than almost anything. It was through his efforts that perception of Miasma became irrevocably damaged.

  Three months ago, if any of the numerous malnourished citizens of the slums were asked what Miasma was, roughly 99 percent of them would have said that Miasma was a criminal organization, much like Arden had.

  Just before the stargate cascade, Miasma’s dangerous element was detained. That alone brought hope back into the slums. Everyone knew how much of an awful person Yaan was, but they were under no illusions that Miasma would ever punish its young master.

  Until they did.

  It looked like the quality of life was about to take off at an upward angle. The knife was removed, so to speak, and all that needed to happen was patch the wound. Instead, the stargate cascade happened, throwing, not antiseptic spray and bandages, but several fistfuls of salt onto the raw wound that was the slums.

  The cascade was horrible, no doubt. In the history of Foruta, there had scarce been disasters of that magnitude. Tens of thousands bodies were found, but everyone knew that many more had gone unfound or were completely destroyed by the Celestials.

  Despite that, one of Miasma’s goals was achieved. The survivors started coming together under the banner of Miasma, and with the funding of the Starborn Association, Miasma started the long and arduous task of reconstruction.

  Miasma had unity and it had money. The only problem to arise was the escape of Yaan during the cascade, but Miasma didn't care much at the time. The lives of the mundanes caught up in the cascade mattered more than a disgraced prince.

  Two months had passed since the cascade, and life was good in the slums. Honestly, it couldn't really be called the slums anymore. At least not where Miasma was located. Everyone who knew of Arden knew that he lived far out in the slums, and that very little people lived past him. Everything past the old apartment building that he had once called home was still ruins that gradually gave way to the Wilds, the area past the safe zone of Foruta where Starborn routinely hunted.

  The occasional Celestial that made it across the buffer zone looking for food was made quick work of by Miasma and the Starborn Association maintaining public safety.

  As one of the first people to come to the destroyed slums during the cascade, Savish had seen all of it. She was part of the first wave of Starborn contracted by the Association to take back the slums, and naturally, her husband came with her.

  Cayde didn’t do any fighting. It was suicidal for a mundane to fight Celestials, after all. Only the insane or the profoundly bored with life did that. He just stood by in one of the designated safe zones and helped Starbon with any mundane tasks that he could handle. Mostly clerical duties.

  Savish, with her orange-tier physical enhancement ability, was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Only red-tier and the occasional orange-tier appeared, which she was incredibly thankful for. If there was a single yellow-tier gate, then a sizable chunk of Foruta would have been carved out during the fight between the yellow-tier boss monster and the city's few yellow-tier Starborn.

  It had been many years since the mantle beast laid waste to Australia, but its shadow hovered over every remaining continent on earth.

  Starborn had come a long way since then. Yellow-tier Starborn were incredibly rare and incredibly powerful, but they did in fact exist now, unlike back then.

  Thankfully, no yellow-tier celestials appeared during this cascade. There were only red and orange-tier. Savish was able to advance a bit from the prevalence of orange-tier Celestials, but she was still a ways off from the Giant-rank threshold. Not that she cared much about rank.

  Savish was content to live a comfortable life with the money she earned from her powers already. The most important thing to her, Cayde, mattered so much more than being an important Starborn.

  Savish thought about everything that happened here in the past two months, with her husband's arms wrapped tightly around her. The genuine love she felt from Cayde was worth more than any number of deals from reputable guilds.

  When Cayde first woke up and saw Savish, he sprang up from the hospital bed practically attached himself to her. He didn’t want to lose her again.

  With his head pressed against her chest, he spoke softly.

  “I was so worried…”

  Savish’s own arms were wrapped tightly around her husband as well. She pulled him deeper.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I almost broke our promise.”

  “I thought you did.” He looked up at her with glassy eyes. “When you disappeared, I had to be held back by everyone. I didn’t know what I was going to do, just that it wasn’t going to be good, but I didn’t care. The thought of being left behind without you scared me more than the man who attacked you.”

  Savish swallowed the lump in the back of her throat. She knew that she would feel the same way about him if something were to happen to him. She had no doubt that she would go on a rampage trying to kill the one that hurt him. She loved him too much to simply let the law handle it.

  “But you’re okay,” Cayde said. “That much is enough for me.”

  “I'm sorry,” she repeated.

  “Sav, don't be.”

  “I don't want to lie to you. If I died, I'd break the promise and be a liar.”

  A surge of tears ran down Savish’s face. She loved Cayde more than anything. She didn't want to betray his love like that.

  Cayde untangled himself from his wife, and placed one of his hands on her cheeks. Even through the crying, he thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She held his hand in place, not wanting him to let go.

  “I fell in love with you, Sav. You stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. It's in your nature. I wouldn't love you if you were anything less than yourself.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  After a few minutes of silently embracing each other, Cayde asked a question.

  “Did everyone else make it out okay?”

  Savish wiped the tears from her eyes. The Last few minutes had an emotional tour de force for her. She wanted to compose herself, if only a little bit.

  “No one's dead,” she said. “Arden and Vera were able to defeat the two Starborn and defend everyone there. They were the ones who actually got me out of the trap.”

  “I'll need to thank them, then. Are they around?”

  “You can't. Not yet.”

  “What happened? I thought you said no one was hurt.”

  “No one died. Not yet at least. Arden was hit with an affliction that can't be removed. Chorzo has a rotating team of Starborn supplying him with red-tier stellar essence so he can stay alive long enough for the affliction to run its course.”

  “How is he doing?”

  “Not great. According to Chorzo, it's called a hellfire stigmata. It uses stellar essence, and thus the soul, as a fuel source. Once he's out of stellar essence, his soul will be flayed, and he will die.”

  Cayde scowled.

  “How is Vera handling this?”

  He was worried that Vera might do something reckless. He knew personally that all common sense went out the window when someone you cared for was hurt. And he also knew that Vera cared deeply for Arden, even if he hadn't been around to see most of it. There was a closeness there, a spark, of deep mutual affection. Love.

  When he thought Savish was dead, he almost ran out to be killed alongside her, and hopefully kill the bastard who did it. He didn't want to think about what would happen if a Starborn like Vera was put in the same position.

  “Awful,” Savish said. “She flips from cold fury to almost big bang levels of hot rage. The only thing stopping her from going out and killing the person responsible is fear that Arden will die without her essence.”

  “How long have they been feeding him essence?”

  “It's been over four hours now. It's a miracle that Arden is still alive. The same goes for Vera. She’s been giving him more essence than anyone.

  “And who is the one responsible?”

  “Chorzo’s nephew, Yaan. The prince of Miasma.”

  “He's been captured right? Can't they just force him to deactivate the ability?”

  Savish shook her head. Anger was evident on her face as well.

  “Unfortunately, Yaan’s powers are activated and deactivated by touch, and in the fight, Arden destroyed his hands. That also prevents Yaan from using more powers to run out of essence.”

  “There's other ways to force someone to use stellar essence. Don't Starborn circulate it to heal? Can't they just injure Yaan and force him to use essence to heal?”

  “They can't,” Savish scoffed.

  “Excuse me?”

  “They can't,” she repeated. “Whatever Arden did to Yaan left him unable to heal his hands. It's almost like the healing process refuses to see Yaan’s hands as part of him.”

  “So, what about Arden?”

  “As of now, all we can do is hope for his safety.”

  *****

  The Starborn guilds of Foruta, and everywhere really, all followed a set formula, with a few differences smattered across them. For instance, The strongest and most recognizable Starborn of each guild were very rarely the guildmasters. The head of a guild needed a cool head, and a mind for politics, as the guildmaster position was all about bureaucracy and paperwork. Naturally, this ruled out most strong Starborn, as they would rather be in the field splitting monsters in twain than sit behind a desk writing a report about the Celestials that were encountered, or trying to get a collaboration going with another guild.

  Another thing that was common among guilds was the guild complex, a stretch of property owned solely by the guild. It would be used for guild matters such as training facilities, and housing for the guilds’ members and relatives. Since the guilds came into power, one of the most sought after jobs for a mundane was a staffer of a guild, big or small. The perks that came with the affiliation of a guild were hard to ignore, even if the guild was only local.

  The complexes normally consisted of a main building, which was the centerpiece of the complex. It was usually designed to the nines and made to look like a cross between a penthouse and resort, if the guild was rich enough. Parking was a given for the complex, as was the housing. Large training areas made of materials designed to withstand up to mid orange-tier attacks lay in the middle of the complex, and they often doubled as evacuation centers should a stargate rupture happen nearby and Celestials were forced from the stargate.

  This was something shared by the majority of the world’s guilds. Just like how most guilds had a containment center for Starborn and criminals that was off-limits to all mundanes and most Starborn who didn't possess the necessary security clearance.

  This was especially true in the underground prison of Miasma where two rogue Starborn were being held. One of which for the second time.

  Yaan and Hel were in cells on the opposite side of the long hallway from each other. Despite sharing a close proximity, there was a great difference between the class of the two cells. They were both made of reinforced transparent materials, similar to a maximum security cell from movies. Suppression fields covered each cell, preventing any inmate from using their powers.

  Hel’s cell consisted of a small but strangely comfortable bed for a prison, alongside a slew of other amenities, such as a bookshelf with countless books, a coffee table and a minifridge. It was like he was in a tiny hotel room. Ironic, given his job. He almost believed that had been an administrative screw-up and he had been given Yaan’s cell by mistake.

  The reason for Hel’s belief was due to the state of Yaan’s cell. It had a single cot and a single chair, neither of which had anything that allowed the furniture to be comfortable, something that Yaan found immense displeasure in. Hel would have delighted in Yaan’s misery had Yaan decided not to be so vocal about his discontent.

  “Why the hell do you get the suite!? I’m the important one here!” Yaan yelled again. “I was chosen to rule! You were chosen for nothing except stagnation!”

  Hel sighed in response as he flipped through the pages of a book he was reading. Yaan had repeated the same thing countless times over the past six hours. He had yet to grasp that no one cared for the status of a criminal, something that Hel sincerely wished would be a thing before anymore sociopaths and psychopaths were placed in positions of power.

  “Listen to me, Hel!”

  Hel folded the page and slammed the book down on the bed where he was reading. If he was ever going to enjoy this book about the insomniac clerk at a weird gas station at the edge of a weird town, he needed Yaan to shut up.

  “You listen to me, Yaan. You don’t have any power here anymore. You are nothing more than a rogue Starborn who tried to attack mundanes. Just like me.”

  “I am much more than someone like you!”

  Hel glanced at the unrepentant Starborn, focusing on his arms that were still lacking hands. He was healed of all of his wounds, but his hands refused to grow back even with a potion. It was as if his hands never existed, leaving only stumps.

  “From where I’m sitting, it doesn’t look like it. It looks like a random guy from the streets could kick your sorry ass.”

  Hel smiled when he saw Yaan shake with rage from his taunt.

  “Oh right. That did happen. It's funny. That guy who you think is nothing beat the shit out of you. I guess that makes you a step below nothing in the grand scheme of things. How does that make you feel?”

  Yaan slammed his arms against the reinforced wall. Neither his arms nor the wall were damaged, but that didn't stop a loud echo from reverberating throughout His cell.

  “It makes me want to fucking kill him! It's been hours already, and he is still holding on.”

  Yaan sat down on his cot and repeatedly tapped his foot on the ground. Mania shone in his eyes. He just had to wait a little longer. Help would come to him, just like he was promised.

  Hel decided that Yaan’s crazed foot percussion was better than his vocal rage, and returned to reading. Now the clerk in the book realized that the walk-in freezer was filled with several of the exact same corpses, and Hel was invested.

  All of a sudden, Yaan’s tapping stopped. Hel looked up from his book and towards Yaan.

  Yaan's expression was absent of rage. In its place, a twisted form of glee manifested. He was staring somewhere above him, towards one of the medical facilities on the floor above him.

  Hel sighed, while Yaan slowly turned his head to his prison partner.

  “My stellar essence stopped being drained, and I still have a bit of it.”

  Yaan burst out laughing. He didn't get a Status message because of the suppression fields suppressing him, but his essence slowly beginning to regenerate was confirmation enough.

  “Arden is dead!”