The Ophion Titan looked like an artist had begun with a tumor, and sculpted the tumor to be as beautiful as was humanly possible to do, with gold highlights and black recesses, its folds like the folds of a brain or intestine. Black bands and panels formed a sort of jacket or vessel to bind the gigantic tumor’s shape to the rough form of an androgynous human, and black needles radiated out from its scalp, shoulders, and chest.

All wet, head to toe, with moist air wicking off of it in the form of clouds like frozen breath.

And the trio of creatures keeping it company were larger than any of the Titans we’d fought yet. Not so big as the Dauntless Titan, but… comparable to storms on a city’s bay before a weather event that shut down the city. Crafted flesh, towering skyward, reaching from ground to clouds.

He approached from the one direction. The Stranger approached from the other.

Or so I assumed. I couldn’t look in that direction. It wasn’t that I tried and failed… I couldn’t try.

We had more reinforcements, but it felt like so little.

“This is hell,” I said, dividing my attention between four Titans now. Or three Titans and one giant absence. The Nemean Titan kept moving around, flanking, chasing. It passed the Titan Skadi, who staggered, and the two scuffled momentarily before parting ways. The Nemean Titan was hungry, and Titan Skadi had enemies to target.

WARNING: Kenzie’s message appeared at the edge of my field of view. TITAN OBERON AND AUGER INCOMING.

I looked in the direction of the red slash. Auger had been over there. I could guess, now.

“This is actual hell,” I said.

“Yeah,” Crystal echoed me.

“You set a goal,” Aunt Sarah spoke, purple irises bright in the dark. “Get the civilians down there safe and sound, minimum of casualties.”

“There were casualties,” I said, frantically looking between the various targets. What the fuck do I even shoot, now? “There’s about to be a lot more.”

“There were always going to be casualties, Victoria,” my aunt said. “We’ve done a good job of keeping them to a minimum.”

“No,” I said. “Any number above zero was always going to be a failure. Saying it’s anything but is shirking responsibility.”

“Set your goals, keep your goals realistic—”

“—and let yourself be happy when you meet them,” Crystal finished, speaking alongside the woman who was and simultaneously wasn’t her mother.

My laser cannon clacked and roared as I fired at Skadi. She was preoccupied though. The Wardens were taking the primary focus in this moment.

“My mom always said we needed to deny the other side their goals,” I said, quiet. “They want to crush us, slowly and steadily. They wipe out humanity, connect to one another, and discard our planet. They’re succeeding.”