He felt danger coming from Relian, even at this distance. It wasn’t safe, but the Fallen Shepherd did not follow. Either he could not, or didn't care to. Once Luke realized Relian wasn't coming for him, he breathed a little easier and continued his search. This time, he quested outward for Hannah, startled when he found her right next to them.

  Luke opened his eyes and looked right where he’d felt her presence, and saw a small shadow cast in the dirty corner of the mall food court. He furrowed his brow, closed his eyes again, and felt her still in that spot. And others. Many others. All around them. Everywhere. Hannah was in every shadow. Her thread was muted, half obscured, present but at the same time not. She was not on Earth. Perhaps not in any physical location at all. Despite that, a flash of emotion surged through that thread. Equal parts rage and fear. She was fighting. Locked in combat.

  When Luke tried to follow the thread, thinking he might be able to help her somehow, pulling himself along it, the weave grew dim, darkened further, and then disappeared to him. No, it was still there, but at the same time, not. Luke couldn’t make head or tail of it, but saw no way to progress and get closer to his friend. At least not yet.

  “They have an orb here,” Curtis said.

  Reality crashed in around Luke, and he was startled enough to almost fall off his chair. He opened his eyes, blinking. “What?”

  Curtis was on his phone. “Here, look.” He showed a picture. It was an orb, an exact copy of the one in Chicago, hovering right over what looked like a parking lot next to a school.

  “Oh,” Luke said. “Okay.”

  “Where did you go?” Hiroki asked, grabbing a cold fry and chomping down on it.

  “I’m not sure. I was looking for Hannah.”

  “She’ll be back,” Hiroki said, putting a hand on Luke’s arm. “We’ll find your friend.”

  “I think she’ll come to us,” Curtis said. “Don’t see how we’d follow through shadows to get to her.”

  “I think maybe you’re right,” Luke said.

  Hiroki nodded to Curtis. “What about you? You have shadows too.”

  “No,” Curtis said. He hesitated. “It’s not shadows. It’s darkness.”

  “There’s a difference?” Hiroki asked.

  “Yes,” Curtis said, without explaining further, and Hiroki didn’t ask for an explanation.

  “Dot is coming,” Luke said a second before she turned the corner to approach them.

  She gave a big grin, dumped a bunch of bags from different shops onto the table, and was about to speak when she stopped short.

  Text scrolled over Luke’s interface.

  New Quest: Eradicate the monster threatening humankind.

  “What?” Luke asked. “Did you get that too?”

  Curtis sat up straight, looking around in all directions. “Quest outside of a dungeon?”

  There were quite a few people moving about, but none of them seemed to be in danger. Then a counter appeared under the quest information.

  Integrated casualties: 0.

  Just as it appeared, it ticked up.

  Integrated casualties: 1.

  “What the hell?” Luke muttered, standing. Everything was calm. Peaceful, even.

  Dot frowned. “What’s going on?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “I don’t know,” Luke said.

  Hiroki stood as well. “We should get back to the car.”

  As they walked, both Dot and Hiroki were checking their phones.

  “There’s nothing,” Dot said.

  “What are you looking at?” Luke asked.

  “The social network thing I told you about, IntegratedNet. There’s nothing. No threads about this quest. Anywhere.”

  “Nothing in the worldwide or even US channels,” Hiroki confirmed.

  “Well,” Curtis said, looking thoughtful. “This quest has to be local, then.”

  Integrated casualties: 3.

  “Well, there’s something going on,” Luke said, getting into the car and buckling his seatbelt.

  Something twitched in the back of his mind. He held up a hand to stop Hiroki from starting the car. “Wait. There’s something.”

  “What?” Hiroki asked. "Are your senses tingling?"

  Curtis shushed him. “No, he’s right. I feel… something too.”

  It wasn’t like when a portal opened, not quite, and there were none in Toledo, and it wasn’t like Weaver’s Echo either. Something itched at the edge of Luke’s awareness. It wasn’t part of the weave, but it still tugged at him. The Seeker profession.

  Seek Threat (Seeker): Few places in The Greater System are without threats. The Seeker can locate them either to flee or to fight. The Greater System does not judge.

  “I got a new skill,” Luke said.

  “I got a new skill,” Curtis echoed.

  Luke, sitting in the backseat, met Curtis’s eyes in the mirror. They nodded to each other, and they both pointed. “Go that way.”

  Hiroki started the car, and off they went, toward the threat. Fight or flee? The Greater System might not judge, but Luke would not be able to live with himself if he ran from a threat.

  Integrated casualties: 7.

  It didn’t take long for them to find the monster. Not just because of the new Seeker skill, but because it was huge.

  Between two high-rises, closer to the center of Toledo, a creature emerged. Its appearance was a little too similar to the dragon for Luke's liking, but this one didn't have wings. Instead, it walked upright on two thick legs, long, muscular, and scale-covered arms swinging as it went.

  People scattered, screaming, in every direction. A car flattened under one massive foot as the thing leaned forward and scooped a person up off the street. Squeezing, the monster killed that unfortunate soul in an instant. Blood trickled out of its closed fist.

  “It’s a big one,” Curtis said, a hint of eagerness in his voice.

  Inspected Monster. Lizard King. Level 21.

  “At least its level isn’t a bunch of question marks,” Luke muttered.

  Hiroki stopped the car up the street, shifted into reverse, and began backing, narrowly avoiding a vehicle that stopped right behind them.

  Curtis turned to him. “Where are you going?”

  “Away from here."

  “What do you mean?” Luke demanded.

  “We can’t fight that thing.”

  “I agree,” Dot whispered.

  “You’re not fighting anything,” Luke assured her, then pointed at the Lizard King. "But we are."

  "Right,” Curtis said. “Damn right.”

  He opened his car door even with the car still backing and jumped out. The monster rammed an arm into a building in the distance, sending a deadly shower of concrete, glass, and steel into the street. Most people had fled, but some stood frozen, neither running nor fighting.

  “I’m not fighting that,” Hiroki said again.

  The street was utter chaos, with drivers trying to get away without abandoning their cars. Horns blared. People screamed in terror.

  Luke spoke up, forcing his voice above the cacophony. “Hiroki! Take Dot away from here! Maybe there’s some disaster relief set up, if the DIA knows what they’re doing! There’ll be people to heal there.”

  Dot’s eyes widened. “I can’t do that alone!”

  “You can,” Luke said. “You can do this. Your help might mean the difference between life and death for some of these people.”

  Dot swallowed, fear melting into a tight, fierce determination. She gave a curt nod. “Of course!”

  “Be safe,” Luke said, then climbed out of the car and followed Curtis, who was already running toward the Lizard King.

  Hiroki called, lowering the window. “Luke, this is madness. Look at the size of that thing. You can’t fight it.”

  “Of course I can,” Luke said, forcing a grin before going serious. “With the destruction that thing’s doing, it won’t just be Integrated who get hurt. I don’t know if it came from a portal, but we can’t just let it roam and destroy the city.”

  “Someone else should handle it—” Hiroki began.

  “The DIA?” Luke snapped. “What are they supposed to do?” Then he broke into a mad dash after Curtis, weaving through crowds fleeing the monster.

  The Lizard King grabbed a car and hurled it into a building.

  Integrated casualties: 11.

  Long before Luke neared the beast, injured people littered the street. EMTs, firefighters, and citizens dragged victims to safety. A man with a full-on dent across his chest lay half-dead. Weaver’s Eye told Luke modern medicine couldn’t save him. Luke cursed, knelt, and set to work. The man had lost consciousness, so pain relief wasn’t needed, only stabilization. It took almost a full minute to stitch the man back to the point he could survive without immediate surgery.

  He pushed on. Another casualty. This time, a woman. Her arm was gone above the elbow, sand and blood caking the stump. Luke stopped to bind and suture her, then kept running. He couldn’t leave people to die.

  By the time he reached the zone closest to the Lizard King, civilians were either long gone or dead in the street. Police and even some military personnel fired at the creature, creating a thunder of noise that drowned out all attempts at communication. Helicopters buzzed in the air at a safe distance from the monsters. Not military. Reporters.

  Luke ran, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Integrated! Anyone Integrated? Fight!”