If Ekki’s phone call had been intended to light a fire under Adah’s ass, it had succeeded in at least that much.

  With the Sisterhood of the Last Light revealed to the world, their team was finally in a position to capitalize on any attention they garnered. They were armed with a proper brand now, so when photos or videos of their battles showed up on someone’s feed, that didn’t have to be the end of the story. Anyone who looked into who that cool magical girl they saw online was would now find a whole cast of characters to dig into, instead of an obscure magic agency with a generic name.

  That said, there was still plenty of work to do on the branding front. Their team needed a full suite photoshoot in their new transformations, and it would take time for Seb to create their in-character interviews and other content to replace that of their old identities.

  The work kept piling on, but their team’s effort was beginning to bear fruit. Not only had the amount of discussion among their fanbase exploded in recent days, but each girl’s dedicated fans were now interacting in communal comment sections in a way they hadn’t before.

  still_doll: ZERKER KYAAAAAAAAA

  ? ebu_future: ZERKYAAAAA

  obscureZen: Here we see that Heartbreak would only surround herself with companions of a similar spirit. On this day, all piglets who possess a wicked heart have been blessed with three new heroes to cheer for.

  ? karte2222: LETS FUCKING GO ZERKYAAAA

  ? rallyforraindrop: On this day, we declare ourselves the Victims of Raindrop. It was a pleasure to die for her.

  doc__salt: drawing heartbreak x lyrika bathing in lyrikas pond right now and no one can stop me

  ? tasokare_wota: godspeed soldier

  ? goodn1ght: theyre in the bath because they sing in the bath. right?

  The conversations were about as chaotic and deranged as expected, which made Adah worry for her team’s mainstream appeal, but this level of engagement was definitely a net positive. Their fans seemed invigorated to spread the gospel of the Sisterhood of the Last Light to anyone who would listen. Even though they hadn’t done much besides take out that googly-eyed rabbit, their FP growth was spiking across the board and bringing them all more in line with each other.

  Twilight Heartbreak:

  6012 ?? 7052

  Lightburst Lyrika:

  5511 ?? 6667

  The Frostfist Berserker:

  6625 ?? 7002

  The Raindrop Reaper:

  6625 ?? 7045

  These numbers served as proof of the rebrand’s potential. Although FP levels didn’t distinguish between a magic user’s popularity in terms of number of fans versus the passion of those fans, cross-referencing your growth in FP against your growth on social media was one way to get an idea of how things stood. Despite the FP growth, Adah and her teammates hadn’t seen a huge surge in followers. To Adah, that meant the rebrand had energized their fans but hadn’t yet broken them through to the mainstream.

  They’d dipped their toes into the popular conscious during the IndieMagie and when Ami protected the shopping center, but had yet to really make a splash. It would be tough to stick in the minds of the general public before they took on higher ranked Cruelties.

  That struggle meant a project with broad appeal like the Heartshot music video had to be Adah’s top priority. The song and video would be a gateway for the wider world to learn about the Last Light. As a captain, Adah couldn’t let her team down when it came to capitalizing on that opportunity. More importantly, she couldn’t let Rika down.

  This song meant a lot to their team’s growth, but it meant even more to Rika’s dreams.

  As part of making this project the biggest success it could be, Adah and Rika were headed to another C-Rank mission—this time with the goal of recording footage.

  The other day, Sheffa and her manager, Nora, had given Adah some pointers on what aspects of combat looked best when spliced together in a music video. Apex Vox had mastered these kinds of action-packed videos, so their insights were invaluable to a newbie like Adah. On top of that, Sheffa had even agreed to share their video on her accounts once it went live.

  Adah still felt a reservation deep in her stomach about how friendly Sheffa acted, but she couldn’t find a logical reason to doubt the girl’s intentions. They worked in different regions and weren’t in direct competition in any way. Of course, Adah heard her own words echo in her head: there’s always a competition. Yet—with Sheffa and Apex Vox—it didn’t feel like a zero-sum game. They could lift each other up, push one another to do better, rather than cut their competitor’s legs out from under them.

  Sheffa’s reasoning for wanting to befriend another captain rang true to Adah. They both knew how few people you could trust in this industry. Not just among magic users, but throughout the whole government and economic apparatuses that enabled them. Perhaps Sheffa was making a point of proving her sincerity in the face of such an industry.

  Adah would stay on her toes, but she was just as eager as Sheffa to find a friendly team to rely on. When they both reached the top, they could worry about who was better.

  For now, both of their teams were a long way from such heights. Adah needed to focus on the tasks in front of her, which was why she and Rika would be taking missions together all week to film as much combat footage as possible. Seb, of course, would handle the filming.

  Today’s mission had them flying to a farm in the southern countryside. To Adah’s relief, this particular farm tended to tobacco, not cattle. Cows, she had decided, were bad luck.

  Although the locale was standard fare for their region, the battle itself could prove interesting. The mission board had listed today’s Cruelty as an unidentified C-Rank variant. Unknown variants such as this one showed up every few weeks, but typically these Cruelties weren’t total wildcards. Rather than being “new” variants, they tended to be more like minor evolutions of known variants. As an example, the difference could be as small as that rabbit Cruelty trading its eyestalks for a set of wings or some kind of armor.

  The energy signatures between such variants would be similar enough that the Magedars could still discern what ranking the Cruelty belonged in, but couldn’t confidently predict what attributes it possessed. Adah figured these variations were all part of the Cruelties’ experimentation. They were testing what augmentations synergized best with each “base” animal form, and what powers would make a certain variant the most effective hunter it could be without expending more magic essence.

  Perhaps the monsters even understood that they were creating more work and uncertainty for humanity by constantly switching up their forms like this. Adah had to assume they were capable of learning as much, given their recent attack on the Magedars.

  As she and Rika arrived at the tobacco fields, Adah considered how she might turn the tables on the Cruelties. If these new variants were the monsters’ means of experimenting, then she could potentially learn something about how their minds—or mind—worked by observing what they were experimenting with.

  But for now, there was nothing to do but wait. Today’s Cruelty had yet to materialize.

  The fields stood deserted—not only of people but of the tobacco plants as well. The harvest would have ended with the summer, and at this point even the four long drying sheds that lined the dirt path leading from the road to the fields were likely empty. Adah had gained a sense for the agricultural cycle over the past four years she’d spent in this region. She couldn’t ignore the changes: fields of tall corn suddenly flattened, slow-ass tractors clogging the roads with tobacco leaves dangling from them, and the nostril-scorching stench of manure being sprayed over the fields after harvest. At this time of year, these fields would only require some soil maintenance.

  Why would a Cruelty choose such a deserted area to spawn in? Unlike the cattle ranch, this farm had no livestock to feed on, and what few humans may have been working here would have easily evacuated. Would a race of monsters capable of that coordinated ambush of the shopping center waste essence on such a pointless attack here?

  “Looks like it’s going to keep us waiting,” Rika said as the girls hovered over the empty fields.

  While there was no sign of the Cruelty yet, a low rumbling in the distance did signal Seb’s arrival. He rode a small motorcycle down the farm’s dirt path in between the tread marks left behind by the tractors that normally traveled along it, then came to a halt beside the first of the wooden sheds. He had hopped off his bike in a hurry, but relaxed once he noticed Adah and Rika floating around with nothing to do.

  “I’m going to check in with him,” Adah said. “See if I can’t convince him to set up on top of one of those sheds.”

  “Just carry him up there before he knows what’s happening,” Rika suggested. “He won’t be able to get down without you.”

  “Now there’s a devious idea.”

  Although, when Adah went down to greet Seb, he proposed that same idea himself. Between this and the house he had climbed, clearly the boy had no fear of heights. Or respect for the sanctity of someone else’s home. In any case, getting on top of the shed would be essential if he wanted to capture any usable footage today as the flat farmland would otherwise limit his angles. So, Adah flew behind him, hooked her arms under his, and lifted him up with a grunt.

  “Why are you so heavy?” she asked. “You’re built like a stick, shouldn’t you be light?”

  “You’re a magical girl, shouldn’t you be super strong?” he shot back.

  “Magic handles the flying, but it’s still my muscles holding you up,” she said.

  Or trying to hold him, anyway. Her arms nearly gave out and dropped him before they reached the roof of the shed, though she decided that wouldn’t be funny to joke about.

  “Don’t slip,” she told him once he was settled at the peak of the roof with his camera out. “I’m not sure we’d get back here in time to catch you.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Seb said while waving her off. “Don’t worry about me, Mom.”

  “Revolting. I’ll never see you the same way again.”

  Adah flew off to regroup with Rika before he could say anything worse. This explained a lot about how he was able to market her so effectively to her current fans. He was just another piglet at heart.

  “All good down there?” Rika asked when Adah returned.

  “He is, but I’m not so sure about myself,” Adah answered. “Say something sweet to distract me.”

  “Your horns look very sharp today, milady.”

  Adah sighed. “I’m starting to regret this whole Heartbreak thing.”

  As soon as she had been disappointed by both her companions, today’s Cruelty decided to make its entrance. The essence gathering at the far end of the tobacco fields swelled, and the gray silhouette of a bat-like creature appeared in the distance. In a matter of seconds, the Cruelty materialized in full, revealing a monster that Adah had fought once before.

  The Cruelty did indeed take the form of a bat, though it was about twice the size of Adah’s body. If Adah stretched her arms overhead, her total height might approximate the length of each of the beast’s wings.

  The last time she encountered the bat, it had possessed no special augmentations beyond an extra tough hide on the outside of its wings. The bat would zip through the air and divebomb toward its target with its wings wrapped around its body like a shield. The monster was dangerous for its agility and resilience, but would provide a thrilling spectacle for Seb’s camera, much like the lynx had for Emi.

  Yet, something about the bat was odd—at least considering that this was meant to be an unidentified Cruelty. As far as Adah could tell, nothing about this variant was different from the one she’d fought a couple of weeks ago. If anything was different about this monster, it wasn’t anything readily apparent.

  “Let’s stay defensive for a bit,” Adah said to Rika. “See how it responds to some long-range attacks.”

  Rika nodded in agreement and immediately began to charge her [Renova Railgun] for an opening strike. Most likely, the bat would see the attack coming and dodge, but even that would reveal something about its power. So long as Adah and Rika took their time dealing with the beast, they had nothing to worry about. Even if the Magedar hadn’t recognized the Cruelty’s signature, it had at least qualified it as C-Rank in strength.

  As predicted, the bat spotted Rika’s glowing aura as she primed her spell and promptly rolled sideways through the air with its wings coiled around itself. Rika’s bullet missed its target, though not by much, and the bat came to a stop soon after.

  “Seems normal enough,” Rika said.

  “And that’s what’s strange about it,” Adah mused.

  Just as Adah was about to suggest a strategy for a more committed attack, the bat did something even stranger.

  The Cruelty floated to the ground and landed within the flattened fields. It curled its wings in front of itself—not in the fully defensive coil of earlier, but more like a magician holding their cloak in front of themselves to hide a sleight of hand.

  The bat stayed like that for a moment while Adah and Rika watched, both prepared to launch their spells in retaliation to whatever the Cruelty had planned. This behavior from the Cruelty was new to Adah, so she observed with caution.

  After a second or two, the bat pulled back its wings and revealed what had been hidden behind their veil.

  Hovering above the soil was a gray oval—a portal just like the one the girls had seen near Ketzia’s cabin.

  “Fire!” Adah yelled, not willing to spare any more words than that.

  She and Rika pointed their hands toward the gray portal and cast their spells as fast as they could.