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"What\'s a Region Boss?" Aaron asked. "What is going on? I don\'t understand. Do you know each other?"

Alex glanced at him. The guy was a mystery entirely on his own. He seemed like he had a pretty decent head on his shoulders. Even though he\'d been about to get his shit rocked by a relatively weak monster, he himself was literally only Novice 4.

He doesn\'t seem like an idiot… and that monster was fighting this Outworlder in the clearing. If it had cut off her arm and stabbed her in the leg, then she should have been easy to finish off.

Aaron could have slipped away if he was a coward. He must have chosen to try to lure it after him. Someone like that shouldn\'t be this low level, right? Taking attention onto himself isn\'t the move of a coward, and someone who isn\'t a coward should at least be toward the high Novice ranks by now.

"Did you not see any of the information during the Initializations?" Alex asked.

"You mean the message the System sent before the world ended?"

"That was the first one. There have been two more since then. The 3rd one is still technically underway, but you should have gotten a notification for it."

Aaron shook his head. "I haven\'t seen anything like that. Maybe the signal is bad down here? The forest is kind of in a basin."

The thought of a System powerful enough to swallow a planet and slam it together with several others, but not quite strong enough to get the equivalent of a cellphone message out to everyone on the world was more than a little amusing.

"The System doesn\'t make mistakes like that," Orchid said. Her gaze slid to Abby. "But there are ways to restrict information. Someone intentionally kept you in the dark."

"We weren\'t trying to keep anyone in the dark!" Abby exclaimed. She winced, then swallowed. "We were just… evading notice. There are a lot of ways to track somebody. We had to take certain steps to make sure it wouldn\'t be worth it for the other Outworlders to track us. Those methods have side-effects, and if your connection to the System is still weak… I swear it wasn\'t on purpose!"

"They were so new to the System that your cowardice accidentally blocked their access to the System?" Orchid let out an amused snort. "Typical."

"What is going on?" Aaron demanded. "What are all of you talking about?"

"Sorry," Alex said. "This is probably a lot to take in. Your friend — as well as Orchid — they\'re both from different planets. Not the same one. They don\'t know each other, but because they\'re not born here, they\'re called Outworlders. It looks like Abby and her friends have stepped on a few toes to get here, so they hid their presence from the other Outworlders and mistakenly interfered with your ability to get information from the System. That would probably explain why you\'re so weak."

Aaron stared at him. "And you? You seem pretty damn human to me. Are you also an alien? Is that how you\'re so strong?"

Alex sent a pointed glance at Orchid. He made sure she knew he was looking at her before he answered the question he\'d been posed.

"Nope. I\'m from Earth. Grew up here."

"So… that angel of death you saved me with? I could be that strong too? Are you saying it\'s because of Abby that we\'re so weak?"

"No," Orchid said. She gave Alex a slight nod to show she understood he was intentionally hiding his identity and wouldn\'t give his lie away — which was especially amusing given that he was actually telling the truth. "You didn\'t get information, but that\'s it. Never blame someone else for being weak. Disadvantages do not break a man. They forge him. That\'s on you."

Aaron\'s gaze fell and Abby\'s eyes narrowed.

"Taking things slow isn\'t always a bad thing. Not everyone is talented or crazy enough to fling themselves into the thick of things head first. Training and preparing yourself can go a long way," she said defensively. "I swear on my life we weren\'t trying to hinder anyone. That isn\'t our goal."

"I certainly hope you\'re right," Alex said. "Because I\'ve seen what a Region Boss does to a city with its mere arrival alone. There isn\'t going to be much left of anything you\'ve built if you can\'t defend it."

Abby\'s good hand clenched at her side. "That would explain why the monsters were suddenly getting stronger. Damn it. I can\'t believe we were so blind. So… you\'re here for the Region Boss, then."

Alex nodded. There wasn\'t any reason to lie. The more truth he gave, the easier it would be for them to sprinkle in the lies they needed.

Claire seemed to agree. She gave him a slight nod of encouragement.

"Then there will be a horde of Outworlders here soon," Abby said grimly. "We\'ll have to run. Again."

"I think you misunderstood him," Claire said. "There isn\'t anyone else coming. It\'s just us."

"What?" Abby stared at her, then turned her attention to Alex. "Three of you? For a Region Boss? And why are Outworlders working with a Nativeworlder?"

"Why are you?" Claire countered.

The blue-skinned demon grimaced and coughed into a fist. "Okay. I walked into that one."

There was a crack in the distance. They all glanced into the forest where the sound had come from, but the trees were too thick to make anything else out.

"Maybe we should continue this conversation in your village," Alex suggested. "I\'d imagine it\'s better defended than this."

"Yeah," Abby said, blowing out a defeated breath and shaking her head. "I just don\'t know if—"

A green blur leapt from the trees to their side. A second mantis monster. There was barely a second of warning as streaked across the ground. Alex couldn\'t even tell who it was gunning for — nor did it matter.

The air filled with a melodious ring of singing glass. A glistening shimmer danced across the clearing. There was a wet thud, followed by a second one moments later. The two halves of the mantis rolled across the ground.

Blood splattered in their wake. Glint landed beside Alex with a pirouette, his wing trailing through the air behind him like a glittering streamer as it retracted back to his body.

Abby and Aaron both flinched back, staring at the Glasmir with a mixture of horror and awe.

"It\'s real," Aaron breathed. "I was starting to wonder if I hallucinated it."

"Where\'d that thing come from?" Abby asked, swallowing heavily. "It\'s… yours?"

"I\'ve had him lurking around," Alex replied noncommittally. A trickle of energy slipped into his body and he gathered the dead monster\'s Soul Flame, sticking it into a mirror to feed to one of his monsters later.

The moment he\'d killed the last mantis, he\'d told Glint to hang around in the sidelines in wait for another attack. They were wandering around the middle of a forest that housed an awakening Region Boss, after all. Not having some defenses set up would have just been asking for trouble.

"Are you really a Native?" Abby asked in disbelief. "How can you control such a powerful monster?"

I wonder what she\'d do if she found out I have two more… but this is quite the interesting development. I was thinking we\'d just scope the boss out and see what things looked like. We can\'t take this fight lightly. No matter how much I\'d love to try and solo it, that would just be objective suicide.

This is the same thing that destroyed the Towntown area with its mere arrival. Even if it isn\'t a Mirrorlands monster, the monster is going to be incredibly powerful. Orchid said that even groups of Outworlders usually worked together to defeat Region Bosses.

That would normally make a fight like this completely impossible. My best hope would have been hiding somewhere nearby to try and steal the kill from whatever group eventually rolled around to beat this thing.

But if there\'s an entire town of Outworlders here — ones that are hated by other Outworlders — it doesn\'t matter if they\'re weak and on the run. Aren\'t they exactly what I need to have a chance at defeating this thing? Prey with their backs to the wall have nothing to lose — and everything to gain.

"I\'ve been very motivated," Alex said with a small shrug. He could see gears turning in Aaron\'s head. Something told Alex that the other boy wasn\'t planning to sit around and remain weak for much longer, especially now that he\'d seen the extent of the difference that strength could cause. "Now, we were talking about paying your town a visit?"

"Of course," Abby said, inclining her head in surrender. "I don\'t think we could afford to turn you away now, even if we wanted to. Follow me. The others aren\'t going to be happy with this… but please give me a moment to explain things before you kill them."

"I\'m not looking for a pointless fight," Alex said as they all fell in line behind the demoness. "It\'s the Region Boss you should be worried about. Because, if you can\'t figure your shit out quickly, not a single one of you are going to survive this."

"I don\'t think it matters how together we have anything if we\'re up against a Region Boss," Abby muttered. "We\'d need to grow a hundred times stronger in the span of days."

Alex smiled. "You never know what might happen. The world works in mysterious ways."

And so do the Mirrorlands.