OVER The Moon

The sudden emergence of the moon above brought about a creeping halt to everything going on below.

There was no prelude to its sudden arrival. Only the vicious gales that barrelled outward a moment after its shadow was cast over the ground, causing the trees to tremble and expounding a crushing force on all left standing, acted as some sort of warning, but at this point, a sign of caution was useless.

The moon was a dull shade of yellow, oddly colored like the five others around the planet. It wasn't quite as large as some of the more prominent moons, its bulk explained by a mere six hundred and eighty-three meters in diameter, but its round face was just like that of all the others: cratered, and rough-textured.

Rhos turned ghostly pale as he looked up.

This was bad!

He had arrived just in time to save Julls' life from Bee, but from then, he hadn't at all been having an easier time against the mannequin beauty. From the start, he had had to take an attack from Bee's rifle with a specialized combat shield to stop Julls from being disintegrated, and it hadn't worked as planned. The shield had melted and his right arm had been turned into sizzling jerky.

The only reason he survived the next few seconds before now, was because of his Utility.

"Rhos! Danger!" Rhos heard from his earpiece.

He gritted his teeth. It was too late.

It was all but clear who had dropped the moon over everyone's heads. Rhos imagined that Dein had likely failed in keeping the major threat away, but not in the way he had envisioned the possibility of this failure. Neither Dein nor Rhos had thought someone could survive in outer space, especially with a rocket sending them farther and farther into the dark void, so it was excusable why Dein was late in calling this out.

Rhos, without thinking about anything else, Phantasmed towards Julls who had a partly caved-in face, and raced away with him as fast as he could.

At this point, he had no reason to continue fighting Bee unless he fancied becoming a pancake.

'Damn it! What kind of monster are we up against really? What kind of human can drop a damn moon to Epheria from outer space?' Rhos thought as he hoped he would escape the edge of the growing shadow in time. He couldn't Phantasm that far, nor could he Phantasm too many times in a short period.

On top of this limitation, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maneuver with the rise in the viciousness of the winds.

Suddenly, Rhos' spine turned cold and he found himself diving to the right with all his might, Julls on his back.

He crashed into a few trees and rolled on the ground before stabilizing himself. Cold sweat ran down his temples.

Heavens…

Just now, he had seen it.

The hazy figure of a laser beam boring through his abdomen as it led the way toward his destination had flashed in his eyes.

Turning behind him, Rhos saw Bee jogging his way with her thick rifle aiming at him.

Rhos gulped.

'Why the hell is she still targeting us? Does the falling moon not concern her?'

Just now, if he hadn't dodged, he and Julls would have been goners.

The hazy images Rhos saw were part of his Utility which he called Horizon.

Holders of the Gold Spark like Rhos wielded Seer-type abilities; powers that allowed them to see the future and the past, but with varying stipulations attached that either affected their personal abilities or those of the individuals illustrated in the model of foresight or hindsight they received, like visions, for instance. As one could guess, Speakers, like the one who gave the Ryduun Family the Unlimited Forecast, also belonged to this category.

Rhos' Horizon allowed him to see both instances of the future and the past in the form of hazy images.

That was how he had tracked down Ess and Bee.

"Dein! Where are you?!" Rhos roared as he saw Bee's rifle glow. He coated himself with Fint and leaped out of her line of sight quickly. Because of the hazy image he saw before, he had managed to stop Bee from firing because he had jumped out of her sight. Bee's attacks were unavoidable, but only if the target was in a conceivable position and range.

This had worked to Rhos' advantage, though he didn't know it. Horizon allowed him to see the immediate past as he wished, after all, but visions of the future only visited him when he was in immediate danger.

"Rhos! We need to leave now! I'm coming to find you!" Rhos heard from his earpiece.

"No! Don't!" he cried as he saw another horrifying hazy image of his death, and ducked out of the way before racing towards Bee. "You go on ahead along with anyone else you find! I have my own plan, remember?"

"For goodness' sake, Rhos just let me he—"

Dein's voice suddenly died.

Rhos felt his heart stop. His acceleration towards Bee faltered, and that momentary lapse allowed Bee to Phantasm right up to him, Binky wound behind her as though for a throw!

Rhos felt a measure of despair like no other.

Dein was probably dead and he was next!

Unless…

While huffing hard and fast, Rhos made a tough decision. He spun in place, narrowly saving his life.

The blunt blow from Binky's tough casing, which was meant for his head ended up crashing into Julls, who was on his back, turning his head into a mash of red chunks.

A swift sacrifice.

Rhos fell to the ground, his eyes bulged.

He had afforded himself a second's worth of life.

With it, he took a micro-glance towards Julls, apologized inwardly, and pulled what looked like a tiny remote from his pocket. He continuously pressed the red button on it as fear continued to creep in, augmented heavily by the bellowing winds, the darkening shadow, and the crushing force.

"Smooth move," Bee said to Rhos as she looked at Jull's headless corpse, but the handsome Agent felt that the only accolade he deserved for this betrayal was death. But not today.

Just as Bee was about to serve him a crushing blow to the head as well, Rhos screamed at the top of his lungs.

His torso turned skewed, twisted at a frightening angle, and then his entire body became a spiral that continued to spin like a wheel before vanishing with a loud crack!

Bee looked at where the Agent had been, stunned.

"Well, that's not something you see every day," she said before turning and Phantasming thrice to reach 'Elijah' who was close to fainting from looking up at the falling moon.

Bee heaved him up.

Right then, Twist replaced the corpse of the Agent who had died to Bee's muffin.

"Let's get out of here," he said with barely any hints of strain from lugging an unconscious, legless Jane and the other random Agent whose arms he had chopped off.

Bee's face twitched slightly.

"What about the house?" she said.

"Let's just go."

With a thought, and while grasping the hilt to his J.U.N.K, Twist switched the positions of Bee, himself, and their luggage with five dry shrubs.

The group appeared a far distance away – a kilometer to be exact. After dropping their loot, they found that they were just in time to witness the cataclysmic impact that resounded as the moon crashed into the modest forest somewhat slowly.

BOOOOM!

A shockwave that first crushed all things under the moon and in its immediate range rolled out with ruthless intent, uprooting trees and rewriting the terrain over hundreds of meters. The ground shook as though a vast beast buried deep under it had just growled and for a while, nothing but a dust cloud could be seen.

Bee, Twist, and the gaping 'Elijah' only met the fierce devastation when it had been reduced to a mere dusty gust.

"At least we didn't have anything too valuable in the house," Twist said with a sigh after the winds passed.

Bee, on the other hand, couldn't disagree more. A tear rolled down her emotionless face.

She recalled a large box filled with her perverse treasures.

"My collection…" she squeaked.