Solstice Plaza was the kind of place that made you realize just how much money was circulating in a city full of S-Ranked monsters and mana stones. It was a sprawling, multi-tiered shopping complex that looked more like a giant greenhouse than a mall. Lush, genetically modified vines crawled up the pillars, and the air smelled like expensive perfume and ozone.

  I looked at the two girls walking next to me.

  Seraphina was doing her best impression of a secret agent, buried under a wide-brimmed hat, oversized sunglasses, and a silk mask that covered half her face. She looked suspicious as hell, but somehow, people just assumed she was a reclusive celebrity. Beside her, Hana had only changed her hair, pulling the dark locks into a high, sharp ponytail that made her look like a college student on her way to a fencing match.

  And then there was me. Just Elara. No one was going to recognize a D-Rank strategist, so I didn't even bother with a hat.

  "Look at that," Hana said, pointing toward the center of the atrium.

  A massive, floating holographic screen was drifting through the air, projected by a fleet of palm-sized drones. It was flickering through ads for the latest mana-conductive gear and "Gryphon-Grade" energy drinks. Beneath the screen, a small, spherical robot hummed past my feet, its little mechanical arms busy buffing the white marble floor to a mirror finish.

  The place was packed. Kids were running around with ice cream that didn't melt, and hunters in tailored suits were walking alongside regular salarymen. It was a weird, beautiful mix of high-tech and high-magic.

  "It’s so bright here," Hana muttered. She looked around like she’d just stepped out of a cave. I guess, in a way, she had. "I used to come to places like this when I was still a schoolgirl. Before everything went to shit."

  She stopped in front of a fountain where the water was being held in mid-air by a low-level gravity field.

  "My brother used to take me out for burgers near his office," she continued, her voice drifting. "He was a D-Ranker. He worked so hard for so little. I used to think I’d just finish school and get a job in an office, maybe help him with the bills. Then I awakened."

  Seraphina adjusted her glasses, her gaze following a floating display for jewelry. "How does it feel? To awaken so suddenly?"

  "It felt like someone plugged me into a wall socket," Hana said. She turned to me. "Elara, you’re the strategist. Why do we even awaken? I’ve heard a dozen different things from a dozen different people."

  I kicked a loose pebble across the floor. "There are a lot of theories, but the most accepted one is just mutation. They say exposure to dimensional energy from the gates changes our cellular structure. Our bodies start to conduct mana like a wire conducts electricity."

  I stopped to watch a maintenance robot fix a flickering light panel with a tiny laser welder.

  "But that’s just the 'how'," I added. "The 'why' is still a mystery. Why me? Why you? Some people say it’s random. Some say it’s potential. We change, sure, but the system doesn't explain why it picks one person over another."

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  "I like the trauma theory," Hana said, her voice going a bit darker. "That it happens when you’re pushed to the edge. That the soul breaks and the mana fills the cracks."

  Seraphina shook her head. "There was nothing like that for me. I’ve been awakened for as long as I can remember. I could freeze the bathwater before I could read. There are many like me, born with the chill already in their blood."

  We kept walking, moving through boutiques filled with enchanted silks and shops selling mana-infused plants that hummed when you touched them.

  "My parents were hunters too," I said, the words feeling a bit heavy in my mouth. "But they weren't like you guys. They worked for the Association. They chose to work in the Desolate Continent."

  Hana’s eyes widened. "The lost land?"

  "Yeah," I said. "The place humanity lost to the gates fifty years ago. Where the cities are ruins and the monsters are the only things that own the land. They spent their lives out there trying to reclaim an inch of soil. I haven't seen them in years."

  The conversation drifted after that. We shopped for a bit, picking out things we didn't need. Hana found a sleek black coat that made her look even more lethal, and Seraphina bought a small, glowing crystal pendant that she kept clutching in her pocket.

  "Lunch," Seraphina announced. "I know a place."

  She led us out of the mall and down a high-end street that felt like a different world. This was the district for business moguls and high-ranking hunters. The storefronts were discreet, the windows displaying single, priceless artifacts behind thick mana-glass.

  We entered a restaurant that was so lavish it made my apartment look like a dumpster. The walls were made of polished obsidian, and the tables were separated by curtains of falling water that dampened the sound.

  We sat down, and the waiter—who was probably more refined than I’d ever be—started bringing out the food. It was an eleven-course meal. Small, artistic portions of things I couldn't identify.

  I looked at the plate in front of me. It was a single, glazed scallop sitting on a bed of purple foam.

  "Is this it?" I asked, poking the foam with a silver fork. "I think I could eat twenty of these and still be starving."

  "It’s about the experience, Elara," Seraphina said, though I could tell she wasn't really eating much either.

  I took a bite, and some of the rich, dark sauce smeared across my bottom lip. Before I could even reach for a napkin, Hana leaned over.

  Her fingers were quick and warm. She wiped the sauce off my lip with her thumb, her eyes locked onto mine for a second too long.

  "You’re a messy eater," she whispered.

  My heart did a weird, frantic stutter. I looked over at Seraphina.

  Even behind the sunglasses, I could see her eyes widen. Her grip on her tea cup tightened until the porcelain let out a faint, ominous creak. The air around the table suddenly dropped ten degrees.

  "Oh," I muttered. "Thanks."

  The rest of the meal was silent. Seraphina didn't say a word, her gaze fixed on the water curtain next to us. The absurdity of it all hit me. I was sitting between the Ice Queen and the Weaponizer, and I was pretty sure I was about to be the center of a very cold, very sharp civil war.

  Guilt coursed up my veins like mana did, and the absurdity of everything hit me. What the fuck was happening in this life?

  We paid and got out of there as fast as we could. The street was busy, the sun starting to dip behind the skyscrapers. I was trying to think of something to say to break the ice when my pocket started vibrating.

  A second later, Seraphina’s and Hana’s phones went off too.

  It wasn't the usual high-pitched whine of a dimensional fracture. It was a low, steady thrum.

  "Mana signature," Seraphina said, her voice back to that professional, icy edge. She pulled out her phone and checked the readings. "It’s massive. But the system isn't detecting a gate."

  "Then what is it?" Hana asked, her hand already moving toward the coins in her pocket.

  I looked down the street. The air felt heavy. It was like the world was holding its breath.

  "It’s just... mana," I said, my strategist brain trying to find a pattern. "Too much of it. Right in the middle of the city."

  Whatever it was, it wasn't a dungeon. And in this world, that usually meant something far worse.