Dylan tapped the bracelet a few times. "I think it's broken."

"It isn't broken." the man said. "The bracelet is simply reading into your soul, and telling you your true name."

Dylan stared at the man, with a dumbfounded look on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You shall find out, in time." the man said. "Just know that these hallucinations you've seen were no hallucinations."

Before any more question could be asked, Dylan felt his eyelids feel heavy.

"Be a good challenge for me when the time comes." the man said, as Dylan passed out onto the couch.


"They've surrounded us!" Ningirsu shouted. Everywhere around them, something was shaking. Bushes were rustling, trees were wiggling, twigs were snapping. No figures were visible yet, however they certainly were not human.

"What are we going to do, Ningirsu?" Auram asked. "What's your game plan?"

"Oh, so now you'll listen to me?" Ningirsu questioned. "Not when I told you to stay in the village?"

"Are you really that upset about it?" Auram demanded. "I'm sorry I didn't stay in the boring-ass village." he added, sarcastically.

"I'm not upset about you leaving the village," Ningirsu said. "I'm upset that you dragged my sister along with you!"

"Well excuse me, I needed a companion!"

"Would you two focus!?" Ib exclaimed, turning their attention to the insects crawling out from the bushes. Some had feet, some had arms, some wore armor, but one thing was common among them; they were all giant.

"Ningirsu, you'd better have a damn good plan of attack!" Auram exclaimed.

Ningirsu paused for a bit. "I'm working on something!"

"Now isn't the time to be 'working on something'!" Auram screamed.

Imduk could be heard growling near the floor. Ningirsu stood, hanging his head down.

"Stand down, you two." Ningirsu said. "They've got us without a way of escape."

"Don't you say that!" Auram complained, pointing his sword at him. "If you do that, you'll be just as responsible for Ib's death as I!"

Ningirsu shot his head up, and then back down to look at his sister. She was huddled into a ball on the ground, the knot on her leg plainly visible to the eye.

"Well if you're just going to give up, that's just fine!" Auram said, as the area started to light up. "But I'm not going out without a fight!"

Imduk let out a loud roar, a little deep for his size. Everybody looked over, and Imduk was at least double his size, and still growing. It was difficult to make out his figure, as he was glowing a blinding white, but it was clear that there was a change.

"Imduk?" Auram asked, not noticing that he too was glowing.

"I've taken a liking to you two." a mysterious female voice said. It was very high pitched, as though a rodent was speaking. Everyone looked towards the source of the voice, which was a glowing ball of light, surrounding a blue fairy. Her eyes were completely blue, with no sclerae or irides, and her wings were like 4 crystal shard coming off the corners of her back. She had her hair braided on the left of her head, with the rest of it flowing past the middle of her back. She wore an off the shoulder robe, which was open, however it didn't reveal anything. On her legs were two thigh-high boots, which laced up the knee.

"Who are you?" Ningirsu asked.

The fairy giggled. "Introductions can wait for now. These two have some Krawlers to exterminate!"


Dylan started to stir, feeling quite groggy, as if he'd been smacked upside the head with a wooden baseball bat. He struggled to remember what led him to falling asleep where he was.

Looking at his wrist, he suddenly remembered the strange hooded man in his home.

"It's probably just some dumb toy." he said, sitting up as he grabbed it to pull it off. Once his hands touched it, however, a blue flash startled him, causing him to leap back and fall over again.

Regaining his composure, he pushed himself back up to look at the bracelet again. Out of the left side was a glowing blue holographic blade, reaching up to his middle finger in one direction, and his elbow in the other, with a width roughly twice that of his arm (not that that was saying much, he had pretty thin arms). It was split into 2 rows of 5, with a bend towards himself between columns 3 and 4, with column 5 resting at his wrist. Beyond that was a rectangular compartment, however it was empty, and Dylan was unsure of what went in it.

"Okay, definitely not a toy." Dylan said, moving his left arm around, as he noticed that the apparatus was see-through, however everything on the other side of it was warping. Placing his hand on the bracelet again, the blade disappeared. He tugged at it, but it wouldn't budge in any direction.

Panicking, he reached for his phone, and scrolled through his contacts until reaching the bottom, tapping on the name "William", followed by the square speech bubble above the word "text".

"Dude," he typed, "something weird just happened."

He waited a bit for a reply.

"What?" was the simple response he got.

"You'll probably call me crazy."

"Go ahead."

Dylan took a deep breath before typing in the next message.

"Some weird creepy guy showed up in my house and gave me a bracelet to put on."

"Okay…" William responded.

"So I put it on, and some weird blade thing came out of it!"

"And why did you put it on?"

That was a good question, why did I put it on?

"If somebody broke into your house and told you to do something, wouldn't you comply?"

I knew what the answer was gonna be.

"If somebody broke into my house, somebody's getting their ass shot!"

That's Will for ya.

"So the Will has another question for you." he responded. "What drugs have you been taking?"

Dylan sighed, he knew this would be difficult.

"I'm not kidding, this actually happened." he typed. "I'll even take a picture."

He left the messenger app, and went to his phone's camera. Setting his phone down, he grabbed the bracelet again, and the blade erupted from the side again, still startling him.

As he reached for his phone, it vibrated, and a notification showed up on the top. It read "Dylan, nobody wants to see your photoshop projects."

I ignored him, and pointed the camera at the bracelet. I had to turn the brightness down before taking the picture. Going back to the messenger app, he selected the picture and hit send.

"Oh shit." William replied. "This is awesome, you'll be able to actually be my human shield in fear of being cut!"

I put my phone down, and touched the edge of the blade. I applied pressure, and released, my hand was unscathed.

"Nah, it's not that sharp." I replied. "Maybe it's a shield?"

"Could be." Will replied, but then I immediately disregarded the idea.

"Wait, it's on the outside. What would it be protecting?"

"I dunno, your junk from my kick?"

Dylan laughed. "Nah, it's probably too short."

"Not for yours."

He sighed. "Seriously, though, we should probably figure out what this is for."

"Fine, fine." Will agreed. "Express Shop on me?"

Dylan agreed he could probably use a slushie at that moment. "Sure thing, on my way." he replied, turning the blade off.


Auram looked at Imduk, as the glowing stopped. He was amazed by his transformation.

The cute little dragon he'd gotten to know had become gigantic, easily the same size as any of the insects pursuing them, possibly larger. The little stubby wings he had were now larger than Auram's entire body, and his heads became more pointed, as well as his horns. While looking at him, Auram couldn't stop thinking of his little ball, which, while it used to be the size of his head, was now the size of his tooth.

"Imduk… Auram…" Ib said, astonished.

The fairy giggled. "I know, my powers are pretty amazing, aren't they?"

"What?" Ningirsu asked. "Your powers?"

"That's right!" the fairy claimed, proudly. "I'm able to bring out anybody's dormant power, just as I've done with these two here!"

Auram quickly turned his gaze. "Wait, these 'two'!?"

He looked down to see that his armour had changed. No longer donned he the tan steampunk chest plate with shorts and one armoured leg. Now, his armour was blue, and looked more like armour fit for a knight. Its design seemed to mimic that of a dragon's chest, with brown scale-like guards along the side, and on his legs under his blue leg guards. Replacing his small shield from before was a much larger blue shield, with horns coming off the edges. His shortsword was also much longer, with a proper guard at the hilt covering his hand. It was blue, with a silver-grey blade, and matched the rest of his attire perfectly.

"No need to thank me, Blademaster, Dragon." the fairy said. "Now then, cut down those Krawlers!"

Auram looked at the fairy, amazed, then turned his gaze to the insects coming towards them. "No need to tell me twice!"

He rotated his body to his left, bringing his sword and shield behind him, and his sword began to ignite in a bright blue flame. Dashing forward, he cut through their ranks in one fell swoop, causing a wide line of dead insects to fall over.

Behind him, Imduk was beating his wings, piercing each of the insects on either side of the wide gap created by Auram, and knocking them back.

"Wow…" Ib said, astonished at the duo's display of power. "So amazing…"

The fairy giggled. "I know, I'm awesome!"

"What did you do?" Ningirsu asked.

"Oh, nothing special." the fairy replied. "I just tapped into their hidden potential is all."

"Their hidden potential?" Ib asked, looking at Auram as he sheathed his sword.

"All will be explained in time. Come with me!" the fairy exclaimed, flying off.

Auram whipped his head back, and saw the fairy flying off. "Wait! What's your name!?"

No response, the fairy just continued to fly off. Feeling obligated, Auram and Imduk ran after her, followed by Ib and, begrudgingly, Ningirsu.


"So Dylan, really…" William started, as we walked out of the store on the corner of the street, slushies in hand. "Why did you put it on?"

Dylan gave an annoyed sigh as a response. "Can we just get past that?"

"Once you give me a good reason, I'll let it be."

With a grunt, followed by a sip from his entirely root beer slushie, Dylan held his bracelet up to his face. "I dunno, I wasn't really thinking at the time."

"Take it off, then." Will replied.

"I already tried." Dylan explained, shaking his left arm to demonstrate its firmness on his hand. "It's stuck on there."

"Huh, damn." Will said. "Well, I hope you're alright with having something so ridiculous and obvious attached to your wrist for the rest of your life."

Dylan looked at him, dumbfounded. "Yeah, because that's the issue that needs to be brought up right now." he said, putting as much sarcasm in his voice as possible. "I'm more concerned with what it's used for. I'll figure out what I'll do with it once I know what it actually does."

"Yeah, fine, whatever." Will said, clearly uninvested in the situation. "At least you have your junk shield."

Dylan rolled his eyes, which let him see two teens walking in their direction. He didn't really think anything of them immediately, then he noticed them turn away as their gaze met, as though panicked. "Do those two seem alright to you?"

"I'm sure it's alright." Will said, drinking from his slushie consisting of various flavours, such as cream soda, Sprite, and coke. "Come on, we'll go take a look at that thing at your place."

Dylan continued to look towards the two, who were trying their best to keep themselves discreet, but not being very good at it.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right." Dylan said, as he turned away and walked home.


"Wait up!" Ib shouted, running after Auram, who had reverted to his original form, along with Imduk, as they chased the fairy. "Come on, Auram, let's just go back!"

"I'll go back when I get answers." Auram replied, stepping over a rather large log. "It's looking like we're pretty close."

"And how would you know?" Ningirsu asked, which made Auram stutter in his tracks for a few seconds. Imduk stopped running and waited just ahead of him.

"I just do." Auram said, as he kept walking. "If you want to go back to the village, that's fine by me."

Ningirsu sighed. "Come on, Ib. There's no reason to encourage him."

"But brother…" Ib said, with a soft voice.

Ningirsu looked at her, surprised, and then looked at Auram. Letting out a groan, he grabbed his sister's wrist and dragged her towards him. "I guess somebody's gotta keep that idiot safe."

Ib looked at her brother, confused, but then let out a smile. "Aww, you're worried about him."

"Didn't you see what he did?" Ningirsu asked. "I'm worried about losing that kind of power protecting our village."

"Sure, whatever you say brother."

"Guys, look!" Auram exclaimed, stopping. Ib and Ningirsu looked ahead, and saw a blue glow through the branches blocking their path.

"What is it?" Ib asked. Feeling drawn towards it, she slowly walked in its direction.

Ningirsu looked at her, and rather than stopping her, decided to walk towards it as well. "Be on your guard, you two." he said, as they walked by Auram.

"Huh?" Auram asked, dazed. "Oh yeah, sure." he said, snapping out of it as he jogged to catch up to the two, Imduk running behind them.

Ib, being in front, moved the branches out of the way so she could see. "Oh my various gods!"

Auram ran up to have a look, and was equally astonished.

Beyond the branches was a crater, quite a large one. He immediately compared it to his village, but that size wouldn't even compare to this.

Looking towards the center of it, he saw what appeared to be a giant glass on a stand, with two strands of metal swirling down, wrapping about ninety degrees of the contraption each.

"What is that?" Auram asked, walking forward and sliding down the crater walls.

"Auram, wait!" Ningirsu shouted, sliding down after him. "It might now be safe!"

Ignoring him, Auram continued sliding until he was just mere meters away from the large glass, which was much larger up close. It towered over him and all the trees around the crater, despite being in the very center.

Ib slid down after the two, followed by Imduk running down the side.

Auram walked closer to the glass, as he moved his hand to touch it.

"Stop!" Ningirsu shouted, reaching his hand out.

He was too late, Auram laid his hand on the glass, and a blue light enveloped them all, blinding them. The light lasted for a few minutes, followed by it dimming, leaving the area completely empty. No glass, no Ib, no Ningirsu, no Imduk, no Auram.

Most importantly, no fairy.