"They're coming!"
The scream cracked the stillness of the cliffs like glass. My head snapped up. The snow carried the sound farther than it should hwve, rolling off the frozen stone around us. I dragged myself closer to the edge and peered down.
There were hundreds of Class Three Fluviums. They were sluggish shapes that lumbered more than they marched. They were humanoid but had black slime coming out of them. They were four hundred, maybe more, their gelatinous bodies quivering like half-frozen oil, some with spines sticking out and others dragging appendages that hissed against the snow. The sheer number made my stomach drop but even as the numbers hit me, one absence was sharper than all of it.
The Octopus was not here.
Verdamona stepped forward. The way she carried herself was infuriatingly calm. Her voice rang with the kind of authority one couldn't ignore.
"Everyone! Get ready to fight!"
She turned, looking at me. "We can't wait this out, Phaser. We hold them here."
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Verdamona…"
"Don't. Don't tell me to stay behind. You said yourself the Class Four will appear."
I forced myself to nod. "It will. Trust me."
I didn't tell her the truth. Thales and I had agreed that this was our gamble. If they knew we'd essentially summoned that nightmare just to chase a clue about the Azure Sword, they would string us up before the Fluviums got the chance. So we lied and said we saw it while scouting. That way, no one would question when it appeared. Verdamona's voice cut back in, dragging me out of my thoughts.
"Then I'll join the others against the army. Phaser, Xaessiarerich, Thales, you three conserve your strength for the Octopus."
I shot her a look. "Be careful. Don't go acting like some hero."
She smiled then she turned as she strode down the cliff path to rally the fighters.
The rest followed. About three hundred of the Fluxers trudged down the narrow, frozen descent. They moved like an avalanche gathering weight. I watched them descend, their small army sneaking downward toward the snow plains where the Fluviums were closing in. We couldn't run, not with this many people, where every footprint glowed like a beacon to creatures who smelled Flux like blood. So we had to fight.
I stayed on the cliff edge, watching. My sister settled beside me, silent as always, her eyes locked on the battlefield below. Thales eased down on my other side. For a moment, it almost felt like we were spectators instead of players. The stage below was set. Verdamona raising her whip high, her voice carrying over the snow and the 297 behind her tightening their grip on their weapons and summoning their Flux.
Then Xaessiarerich's voice broke the silence.
"You know, I'm impressed."
Thales scoffed. "At what?"
"That someone like you is actually skilled with a sword, half-angel or not."
"Wait, what?"
Half-angel. The words kept buzzing in my head like a bad echo I couldn't shake. Thales said it like it was nothing, like announcing the weather. But it wasn't nothing. Not on Altera Earth.
In the very beginning, there were humans, always snuffed out by beasts, conflict and famine. Then came the Six Goddesses, swooping in with their gifts called Flux. They poured it into human veins, reshaping them, warping them, pulling them apart into something new.
Fluxers.
They were not just stronger but different. It was a whole new race carved out of humanity. And from there, everything split like a shattered mirror. Minor tribes, odd lineages emerged but above them all, nine great races rose, the ones who had the most potent, refined Flux. They became the Rulers, who formed The Houses.
And what happened to the ones who didn't change and stayed human? They got pushed to the margins of the world they used to own. The strongest ones made the Abyssal Houses.
Even saying it leaves a sour taste. The "lesser" Houses. The failed cousins, the generations of humans stripped of Flux, surviving only by stubborn will. Every House among them born powerless, except one. House Argemenes, which was the anomaly. They were the only humans whose blood birthed the Concept Flux.
That right there sealed their fate. Resentment festered like rot. Racism, baked into the bones of society, turned humans into scapegoats for every grievance the Fluxers had. And not just Fluxers in general. Even their own cousins among the nine ruling Houses sharpened that hatred into knives. One could taste it everywhere if they walked on Altera Earth.
Fluxers were sneering at humans for being weak, the nine powerful races sneering at Commoner Fluxers for being "impure," everyone sneering at hybrids for daring to muddy the bloodlines and so on. It was a ladder built from prejudice, with everyone desperate to stand on top and stomp the others below.
And Thales sitting right in the center of it all. Of course, I had to pretend I didn't know.
"Half-angel? So what, your dad was House Erdict?"
He gave me the faintest nod. "My mother wasn't."
I didn't need the details. The story was already clear enough. Erdict blood tangled with human blood, and what came out was him. A walking taboo.
"Shit."
Xaessiarerich leaned forward on her knees, elbows balanced, her long hair whipping in the icy wind.
"It makes sense now. That's why you're so sharp with a blade. Why you can cut Flux without flinching. The angel blood gave you clarity. The human side gave you nerve."
I couldn't help it. I barked a short laugh.
"And it also gave him a target on his back the size of a mountain."
Thales didn't argue. He didn't even twitch. He just looked out at the battlefield.
"You know they'll never let it go, right? No matter what you do. You could slay the Class Four, carve your name in the skies and get the sword, and still... half-human, half-angel, you'll always be dirt in their eyes."
That got him to glance at me. I exhaled through my teeth, steam curling in the cold.
"Listen. You're not alone in this. Don't forget, Xaessiarerich and I? We're human too."
"You're not."
"Oh, we are. Difference is, we're the only humans born with Flux. Technically, we're walking violations of every neat little racial box the Houses love to cram people into."
His eyes narrowed. "That's not possible."
"Tell that to House Argemenes. Humans with Flux exist. They just bury the proof so deep you'd never hear the truth. There are families hiding what they are because if the Houses found out…"
I let the sentence trail, but the weight of it settled heavy between us. Because if the Houses found out, they'd burn us all to ash. Xaessiarerich finally broke the silence.
"You wonder why they are hated so much? It isn't just because they're weak or evil. It's because they remind the Fluxers where they came from and that they were human once. That without the Goddesses' gifts, they'd still be fragile little sparks in the dark. It's a humiliation they'll never forgive. So they grind humans down, spit on them and erase them. And if you're a hybrid? If you taint the oh-so-sacred bloodlines of the Houses? They don't even see you as alive."
I rubbed my face with both hands, staring at the battlefield like the war below was easier to watch than this conversation. Four hundred Fluviums versus 297 half-frozen, half-starved fighters. And here we were, perched above it all, dissecting the ugly truth of the world we were trying to save.
"Racism is the real eternal war of Altera Earth. Humans versus Fluxers, Fluxers versus Fluxers. Houses versus commoners, everyone versus hybrids... no matter how many monsters crawl out of the dark, we'll always find time to hate each other first."
Neither of them argued with me because there was nothing to argue. This is another reason why I don't believe Outers will survive on Altera Earth.