D.L.C. LEVEL THREE.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY 12:20 am.

A fist slammed into Noche's face — she spun and staggered as mirror-che came in with another punch. This time the blonde took the punch to the jaw, tightened her knuckles, and slammed them into the clone's temple.

Both girls were pushed back.

"Fuck you, bitch!"

"You're just jealous that I'm not a fucking failure!"

Waves of rage rolled over Noche's body. She ran, screaming towards her thinner doppelganger. Hurricane winds blew both copies away from each other. Boots stood between the two blondes — he kicked the fake Noche.

The reflection was sent tumbling away. She slammed into a white cube and fell to the ground, motionless. Original Noche stood up and grinned as a stream of blood ran a cut on her lip.

"What was that about you not coming to help?"

"This doesn't count... Go fuck yourself," Boots turned away. "I was tired of watching you beat yourself up... Why are you grinning? Stop grinning."

"I could really use your help here," she said.

He sighed. "I'm not fighting Dove."

"That's fine — just find the elevator," she said. "I'll keep Dove's attention focused on me."

In the distance, the bird of death grimaced.

"Do you think she heard me?" Noche asked.

"She doesn't have to," he said.

Boots vanished — moving so fast he turned invisible to Noche's eyes. She paused a moment, contemplating his incredible speed, and ran towards Dove. The bird of death raised her wand and a white cube was flung towards Noche; the blonde dodged.

"Swap."

The cube slammed into Noche from the opposite side — she skid across the water for about thirty feet until she slowed down enough to roll backwards with the momentum. She summoned her sword, slammed it into the floor, and grounded to a halt.

Not missing a beat she raised her left hand and charged a Dead Light Cannon. The grip on her sword became tight enough to pop veins and turn knuckles white. A blue compass began to rotate around Noche's wrist — but it didn't stop there.

Water began to ripple around the blonde as the DLC grew in density. The atmosphere began thick and heavy around her. Her drive was running low, but she was willing to pump the remainder into this one attack.

A white ship's wheel emerged upon her bicep — rotating in tandem with the blue compass at her wrist.

"Level three, DEAD LIGHT CANNON!"

Noche's arm was sent flying back when it fired — Mary's eyes widened and she created a steel dome about thirty feet thick around the group. Dove's reaction was no less, in an instant multiple cubes appeared between her and the rocketing storm orb. It penetrated every block and disintegrated them as it zipped towards bird of death.

Everything within five thousand feet scattered.

Globs of water, the size of houses, flew across the sky like the embers in a firework before coming to a stop and floating in the air like jellyfish. Most of the room was within the radius of the first explosion.

If it wasn't for Noche's intense grip on her sword, she would have been sucked in by the implosion. Her entire body was lifted into the air like a flag on a windy day. It took every bit of muscle to move her left hand towards the hilt and grab on. The vacuum force ripped everything off every surface.

The world went still.

"Avoid this, bitch."

The world went gold — then black.

Noche's eyes fluttered open. For a brief instant, she lost consciousness. The blonde sat up to a dry, marble-white floor; all the mirror-like water had evaporated. Every white cube was gone — disintegrated by the power of her lightning.

Dove stood in the center of the room... Blood dripping down her face and falling from her chin. The blonde smiled.

"Thanks again for telling me swap doesn't work if the event is unavoidable," Noche's grin widened. "I just have to do something so grand you can't avoid it!"

"You would have figured it out anyways. You did in every timeline — even when I stayed silent," Dove said. "You're surprisingly sharp when it comes to fighting."

"Hey! I'm not dumb!"

Dove nodded. "You just make dumb decisions."

Noche growled and drew her sword. Gold sparks surrounded her body as she became coated in an armor of electricity. Her muscles bulged at the same time her left eye clamped shut as she grit her teeth.

"Trying Shaylin's technique?" Dove asked. "You're gonna do more harm than good... But you've always been the kind of person to burn your candle at both ends, huh?"

"So what if I destroy myself — who cares, if it means I can win!"

Noche was gone in a flash. Lightning trailed behind her body as she ran at breakneck speed.

Dove sighed. "Swap."

The entire room gained mirror-like surfaces. Acting on instinct, Noche jumped and created wind to stay in the air — she flew towards Dove. She raised her left hand and aimed at the bird.

"Dead Light Cannon."

"Swa-"

Noche did a front flip that became a drop-kick. An anchor of gold fell from her leg — it slammed into Dove, who twitched and moved backwards.

"That wasn't a dead light cannon," the bird narrowed her eyes. "That was an Abysmal anchor."

Noche grinned. "And people think shouting your signature move is stupid."

"IT IS!" Mary yelled as she threw the steel dome off herself and the group.

The blonde ignored the comment. "I have a feeling in most timelines, when I announce an attack, I don't change it."

She appeared before Dove, summoned her Omni-oar, and swung. The bird dodged the blade with minimal effort. Noche fell to the ground with her swing and spun — her legs became a dervish of kicks.

"Announcing your moves and being flashy — to trick your opponent later," Dove said. "It's smart. Appearing predictable in a drawn-out battle." 

As Noche rose and threw an uppercut a hand grabbed her wrist. Before her was not one, but two Doves.

"But false information won't work on me," the both said at the same time.

From the mirror surfaces that coated every surface, clone after clone of Dove emerged. Noche's other hand swung the sword down — the hand let go of her and the blonde backed away.

Lightning, air, and water coated her Omni-Oar in a sheathe of DLC energy. She swung her sword and a crescent blade of storm energy slammed into a few of the clones. They were launched away, but otherwise unharmed.

"Even if your sword can harm me — your augment and create cannot," the Doves said. "And I would use Swap before any real damage was done." 

"Like you did a moment ago?"

"You can't fire multiple DLCs of that level and we both know it."

"Siren Suffocation!"

Water fell from Noche's palm before she slammed it into the floor. Aqua tentacles grabbed various Doves as the blonde used her move Drowning Derelict.

"Abysmal Anchor!"

A lightning anchor fell from her drop kick on another Dove as Noche did the move she yelled.

"Drowning Derelict!"

Wind gathered into a doll under her hand she shot out to the nearest Dove — encasing her head in a diving helmet of sound and fury.

"This isn't changing anything," the Doves said.

Noche swung her DLC-coated sword and sent energy beam after energy beam into the crowd. Minutes passed as Noche fought the passive, taunting horde. It was impossible to find the real Dove amongst them all.

"Where are you!" Noche shouted. "Fight me seriously!"

"No. Why should I?" Dove said. "This is a pointless battle. Neither of us can win — so I'm gonna keep it at a stalemate."

The blonde screamed, threw her sword, and cut the nearest Dove clone in two.  She summoned the blade back to her hand and cut the arm off another. Despite blood gushing out like a fountain, that Dove seemed unbothered.

"Fight all you want. Tire yourself out," Dove said. "We have all the time in the... Wait."

The doors to the room bust open; the Anglerfish soldier walked in.

Prismatic energy surrounded the group — a cage of pure, force energy manifested around them. The party was trapped as it turned its gaze towards Noche. A whirring noise filled the air as the Gatling gun began to spin.

Noche froze, her eyes locked on the monster, as one of the Doves vomited and fell to her knees. The bird wiped her mouth and stared at Noche with wide eyes. It was the most expression she's done thus far.

"Your fear — I wanted to know why you froze, but your fear," Dove muttered. "It's too intense... Its dominion over you is absolute."

A hail of bullets rained upon all.

Dove clones fell by the dozen as Noche enlarged her sword to its ultra-greatsword form. Noche grit her teeth and closed her eyes. Meanwhile, the bird of death who vomited, the original Dove watched.

"No... No at this rate the timeline will end the same way," she muttered.

The woman scowled and snapped her eyes onto the blonde. She trembled behind her sword as bullets whizzed overhead. All the tension left Dove's shoulders as she sighed.

"I can't win... I can't have a stalemate," she frowned. "I see it's destined to be... Swap."

Noche's eyes opened in shock. Her gaze fell down to her left hand — energy coursed through her veins. It was the same sensation a moment before firing her mega DLC.

Her drive was one hundred percent restored.

Unsure of the sudden power boost, Noche didn't take time to think about it. She grit her teeth and charged a Dead Light Cannon until the blue compass appeared. The air began to distort around the blonde as the density of her attack grew.

The white ship wheel appeared again — but last time Noche only used a third of her drive. This time, she would use all her power in a single attack and even she didn't know how dangerous it would be.

She didn't care.

"A girl whose strength is empowered by fear," Dove said. "What an adventure you have ahead of you."

At the last moment, Noche aimed at the floor.

"Water variant, Dead Light Cannon, ANGLER FISH!"

A flash flood filled the room — a massive whirlpool stretched from wall to wall. Over a mile long in all directions the sudden lake ran thirty feet deep, or three times as deep as a public swimming pool. It was all of Noche's drive poured into one attack and it was enormous.

However, the most dangerous aspect of this creation was at the violent center of this swirling vortex. An anglerfish, made of pure water, opened its razor-sharp jaws at the base of the spinning waves. Everything was being dragged towards its gnawing fangs — drained into its maw.

Jack screamed as the party was flushed away. He held onto Tak for dear life as the rapids continued to gain speed. Vida was the only person who was relaxed as the group was taken by currents that moved faster than the world's most dangerous water slide.

The anglerfish soldier was not swallowed by the jaws of Noche's creation. Instead, it slammed into the wall and exploded into pink paste and the Gatling gun sank into the blue depths.

It was Dove who was first to be consumed by the whirlpool — there was no escape from the all-encompassing white-water rapids. No way she could use swap to escape... But she could use it to trade realities for one with a drain in the floor.

Water filtered out of the room at a rapid pace and decreased to a point where there was no immediate danger. The room grew still. Jack was trembling with tears rolling down his face, the overall party was disgruntled, and the anglerfish soldier was bits of undulating viscera.

Dove laid at the center of the floor, her face blank, as she stared at the ceiling. Noche rose to her feet. A trail of water streamed from her clothes as she walked over to the bird of death. The Omni-oar was summoned, she gripped it in both hands, and held the sword like a sacrificial dagger.

The two locked eyes for a long moment. Dove closed her and Noche scowled. She raised the sword with intent to plunge.

"Noche! What are you doing!"

She halted; her head turned towards Jack. His expression was shock, confusion, and terror all intermingled into one pleading stare. It caused the blonde to hesitate.

"Don't kill her," Jack said. "It isn't right."

Dove chuckled. "You are a good soul."

Both Noche and Jack turned to her.

"Jack... Because of you, there is hope for the future," she said. "Your radiance will shine like the sun."

Her eyes opened.

"It is too bad all of this is fake, dear reader."

The world paused. Everything was frozen in time, except for Dove. She stood up.

"Sorry to trick you, but we never changed the POV from the last chapter," she said. "You were with me the entire time – this is a branching timeline. One of many possible futures."

Walking over to Noche, her gaze lingered on the blonde for a long time.

"I wanted you to trust the experience was real so you'd understand how intensely I experience these branching timelines," she said. "They seem as real to me as this chapter did to you. Yet you can walk away. You can say this isn't the true timeline... I can't."

Her hand landed on the blonde and Noche disappeared into ash. The world began to collapse into piles of sand.

"You may be reading a linear story – but to me, all timelines are the true timeline," she said. "Alas, I digress... As you can see, I cannot win against Noche without reality being reduced to nothingness. Even my attempt for a stalemate is ruined by that anglerfish soldier."

She turned to face the reader, despite the impossibility of such an act.

"My only option is to allow her onto the elevator... No matter what I did, no matter how I fought, or what I planned – every time she failed the world was destroyed," she paused. "Honestly, it was a little terrifying. There are no timelines where she can not get on this elevator."

Her gaze hardened.

"But why?"

She paused.

"Why is Noche not allowed to fail here?" A small grin made its way onto her face. "Well, while you were reading this chapter – I found the answer. I know why she has to get past me."

Dove chuckled and allowed herself a moment to smile. Her gaze drifted from the reader and towards the floor – which she stared at for a much longer duration.

"Well, I don't like being peeked on. Even from beings of different realities," she said. "So, I think I'll keep that revelation a secret."

The world became dark as the last remnants of reality crumbled into darkness.

"Besides, I don't want to overwhelm your brain with information," she said. "Intelligence requires the unknown. You need your wiggle room to compare your zeros and ones."

Her gaze drifted upwards as a finger landed under her chin. The bottom of her legs began to dissolve.

"Although, it would be fun to speak some eldritch knowledge that would break your mind and send you down the flights of insanity," she smirked. "How's that for psychic damage from forbidden text?"

Dove chuckled as her legs vanished.

"Don't worry, dear reader. I won't do that. This time," she smiled. "As to my little secret – that answer I talked about... Well, don't worry. You'll learn it soon. Just keep reading."

Her torso crumbled away, leaving behind her shoulders, neck, and head floating in the air like a macabre portrait painting.

"Well... Maybe just a glimpse," she smiled.

The world exploded into light. Colors that should not exist, could not exist, on the electromagnetic spectrum filled everything and everywhere. As reality regained its sense of the laws of physics everything stabilized.

On a massive battlefield were the strongest three armies on the planet. The Cross army, the planet lance cult, and DeathTech. All three forces were hostile against each other, but for the moment the fighting had stopped. A new threat had united them all under one banner.

The banner of fear.

Everyone was afraid of the tyrant who stood on a mountain of dead – the black knight. Not because of the mound of bodies, but because at her feet laid the four Cross generals. All defeated by her hand. She raised the planet lance – and ensured terror entered every heart.

The world exploded into darkness.

"Like I said," Dove's head disintegrated away; her smug grin the last to go. "Just a glimpse."

Endless void filled the world. There was no light, no sound, no sensation. It was pure nothingness.

"It's time to leave."

Dove opened her eyes.

Noche was pointing to herself, but Dove shook her head and turned her gaze elsewhere.

"No more deception – this is, as you would call it, the true timeline," Dove thought. "Even though it took two chapters, not a second has passed since you swapped POVs."

The blonde narrowed her eyes and allowed her finger to drift down.

"That is what Omniscience is like – and it was only one branching timeline," Dove thought. "Imagine if you had to experience infinite timelines at once and you couldn't turn the omniscience off."

She began to chuckle. Then the bird of death burst out into full-hearted laughter. Noche began to back away from the startling sight. When Dove had composed herself, wiped a tear out of her eye, and patted down her dress she stared at the group.

"There are no realities where I win," she said. "You may all pass."

Noche's eyes went wide. "W-Whaaa?"

Boots was in front of Dove in an instance. His gaze was hard on her blank expression as his eyes darted back and forth. Searching for any instance of deception or falsehood.

"You're serious – aren't you?" He muttered.

She nodded. "There are outside forces at play here. I can't win against your group without there being... Consequences."

Somehow, his expression became harder. Dove stood on the tips of her toes and placed the palm of her hand on his cheek.

"I hate Edward too," she whispered. "I hope you save your sister."

His mouth opened, faltered, and closed. He paused before speaking and when it spoke it was less than a whisper. Yet, within those two words, contained his entire heart.

"... Will I?"

Dove's eyes softened. "It is not impossible. It depends on the timeline we're in."

Her hand fell of Boot's face.

"Choose your actions carefully."

He nodded and vanished. Far behind Dove, a button was pressed; the elevator began to rise. After that, the group approached one by one. Noche was last and she kept her eye on the bird of death the entire time.

When Dove approached in a calm manner and placed her hand on Noche's shoulder, the blonde flinched.

"As the people watching you now know, true omniscience is everything," Dove said. "It really is the same as nothingness... Cause when you experience infinity, you become trapped by it too."

She patted Noche's shoulder a few times before retracting her hand.

"Remember that, Noche."

The blonde swallowed and narrowed her eyes, before resuming her walk towards the elevator. Not once did she turn her gaze away from Dove or blink.

As everyone got on the elevator, the Bird of Death gave them all a gentle smile and waved. A ding echoed in her now empty room as the doors closed. Dove let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well, dear reader... I think we're done here. Despite the creepy intrusion, it was nice," she thought. "Now to make sure you leave and never enter my head again."

Dove closed her eyes and focused.

"Whose the author? Joseph Linder? Ok, Joe – I recommend you switch the POV back to Noche before I say something copyrighted from your reality."

She paused and allowed the silence of her room the fill her senses.

"Still here, are you? Ballsy," Dove smiled. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you. WALT DISN—"

– Noche's brows tightened as the elevator descended. A sharp pain thrummed in her head as if some sort of outside force, related to her, had changed something with such alacrity that it caused mental ailment. The blonde shrugged and assumed it was a headache. Which it, most certainly, was not.

All that filled the silence between the group of Noche, Vida, Tak, Mary, Alice, Boots, and Jack was the incessant Mmmmmmm of a humming elevator. It was some time before the doors opened again and the scent of preservatives and sewage filled the air.

One by one they exited the machine. All unaware of a big grinning maw full of jagged teeth hiding somewhere in the shadows a few steps away. All except Noche – as liquid nitrogen sped down her spine.

She turned and, for a fraction of a second, was sure she saw... Something. Yet wherever she looked there was no creature. No aspect revealing any form of life in the area except for those of whom she was already acquainted with.

The only thing that stood out at that moment was the smell of rotting meat... And the light that began to flicker above her. Instincts told her to run, but the thought was irrational. There was no danger here.

Nevertheless, Noche trusted her gut and was quick to catch back up to the group. She did not notice the crow feather laying at her feet – or the fact it wasn't there a moment ago.