Hopping universes with the Red Cap was considerably less exciting the second time around, now that I knew to expect the shift. The trips were brief, anyways. Not really much time for tourism in post-apocalyptia.

First stop was a rainforest; I’m guessing the Amazon. Looked Amazon-y. The Red Cap directed us to our first survivor pretty quickly; the man was hiding in a makeshift tree fort above where we appeared. He tried throwing some kind of spear at us, but it passed through the Brute without causing harm. Then he started shouting at us in a language I didn’t understand.

Right, maybe showing up accompanied by several Fears wasn’t the best way to make a first impression on someone here. I ducked behind a tree and tried to think of some way to communicate to him that we were friendly.

While I was mentally working out a series of elaborate hand gestures in my head, the Red Cap flew up to him on a trail of blood. Before he could do anything, it grabbed him by the head, and fiercely kissed him. His eyes widened for a moment, then he collapsed, unconscious. The Red Cap picked him up, tossed him over its shoulder, and came back to the ground.

“Alright. Got one. Let’s get the next.”

Space distorted again, and we appeared amongst a mountain range. Definitely the Himalayas. We had appeared in a small valley, next to a camp someone had set up. A woman looked out of a tent, and when she saw us, she screamed and started to run. Dammit, this is why you don’t travel with someone who is on fire.

“Wait! We’re here to help!” I shouted, hoping talking would work better than the last time.

The woman paused, and looked back at us, still clearly ready to flee. “You… speak… English?” She said. There was a strong accent, but it was still understandable.

“Yes! Yes. Don’t worry; we’re not here to hurt you. We’re trying to get you someplace safe. Now just-”

The Red Cap pushed past me, and with surprising speed caught up with the woman. It grabbed her and kissed her, causing her to go unconscious as well.

“Hey!” I shouted. “I was trying to explain this to her!”

“My way was faster.” It said. Before I could respond to that, space shifted again, and we were back in the Library.

The Red Cap dumped the two survivors on the floor. “Alright, there’s no way the other Fears didn’t notice that. They’ll be here any moment. Get ready.”

The Convocation took to the air, the fires on the Bride roared around it and the Brute, and waves of blood appeared at the Red Cap’s feet. While they all had their impressive power up displays, I stayed by the survivors to make sure they were safe.

And sure enough, they came. A howl echoed through the Library, shaking the dust off the shelves. Then the buzz of a thousand insect’s wings shrieked toward us. The black mass of the Intrusion came with tremendous speed, as one body made of innumerable insects. The Brute and Bride waved a hand, and a wall of fire appeared before the Intrusion, burning any insect who came close to ash. Strings came from another direction, slicing through the bookshelves. Another wall of fire appeared in front of them, burning away the strings. Soon the fire had formed a ring around us. I could see more Fears gathering on the other side. The Wooden Girl glared at me through the fire, while the Intrusion kept sending more of its creatures on suicide charges against it. The Black Dog soon joined them, and stalked along the perimeter, looking for an opening.

Then the Cold Boy appeared. It seemed to smirk at the fire, and walked straight into it. The flames died down around it, and it began to walk through the opening it was creating. It looked like it would make it through, when lightning shot from the Convocation and blew its head off. Before it could heal, more lightning struck it, launching it away.

Okay. Things were looking good so far. We were holding them off. We just had to keep this up until… um… they… get tired and decide to go away? Crap, Fears don’t get tired….

The Fears outside the fire stepped aside, revealing the Archangel, in its long black coat and bone gas mask. It reached a hand into the fire, then quickly pulled it back out. It stared at us from across the fire for a while. And then….

I saw six wings burst from the Archangel’s back, and then was blinded by a burst of light. When it faded and I could open my eyes, the fire was gone. Four of the Archangel’s wings were covering its body, though light could be seen coming through the gaps. With the fire no longer protecting us, the Fears rushed forward. The Wooden Girl went straight for me, strings flying out of its hands. I jumped under and rolled past the strings, and came up with a left hook to its face, tearing off part of the wood. Drew my sword and slashed across its chest; cut through the dress, but only scratched the wooden body underneath. Least it drove it back a little. I would have pressed the attack further, but the wave of insects rushing at me made me realize that running would be a better idea. Even sprinting as fast as I could, the swarm managed to get right at my heels, and I could feel some of the faster ones landing and crawling on me.

Another flash of light, and a shockwave that sent me flying onto the ground. Then another, and another…. The Convocation was shooting off lightning into the Intrusion, like a thunder storm gone mad. Even as the Wooden Girl’s strings cut through the flock, killing dozens of birds at a time, their storm continued.

With that immediate threat to me out of the way, I looked back at the two humans. Still unconscious, but still fine. Back to the fight, the Cold Boy was skating across ice appearing at its feet, going around the Convocation’s storm. I ran at it, slashed my sword across one of its arms and punched at its chest. The sword, again, didn’t really accomplish much. The punch, however, cracked its icy body and knocked it over. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of making me the focus of the Cold Boy’s attention. The temperature around me plummeted. In seconds, ice was forming around my legs, trapping me where I was. The ice kept spreading, no matter how much I tried hacking at it. Then I felt something warm press up behind me, and a voice whisper in my ear, “I’ll handle this, my lady.”

The Red Cap flowed around me, and grabbed the Cold Boy’s hands. Steam rose from where they touched, and the Boy’s arms started to melt. The Cold Boy giggled, and a stronger wave of cold came from it. Ice began growing along the Red Cap’s arms, trapping it to the Boy.

“Okay, bad idea, bad idea!” The Red Cap said. “Hey! Fire people! Little help here?”

The Brute and Bride were fighting the Archangel, who had returned to its more human form. Fire and smoke were so intermingled that it was impossible to tell the two bodies of the dual Fear apart as they swirled through the Library. A quick jet of fire was shot toward the Cold Boy before they resumed their fight with the Archangel. The flame hit the Boy and melted it in an instant, and the Red Cap dissolved into a puddle of blood that mingled with the melted water. The Cold Boy soon reformed its body, but there was now a dark red liquid moving underneath the surface of its ice skin. Steam started rising from its body as it looked down at itself in alarm. Drops of blood broke from within it, melting its body away as they ran down to the floor. The Cold Boy tried wiping the little streams away, but when its hand touched them, that hand began to melt as well.

I saw the Wooden Girl’s strings coming in our direction, so I ducked down. I wasn’t the target, however; the strings hit the Cold Boy, and cut into it. A moment later, they ripped out, trailing the Red Cap’s blood behind. The blood quickly came together in the Red Cap’s human form, still held by the strings. The Black Dog leaped over the Girl, toward the Red Cap. I jumped toward it, swung my sword, and knocked it out of the air mid jump. Soon as I landed I took off running toward the Wooden Girl. Rolled to dodge the strings that came for me, and came up swinging. Hit the Girl hard enough to crack its wooden body, and made it release the strings it was holding. The Red Cap quickly came up to join me once it was free. It didn’t give the Wooden Girl the time to recover before shifting into a bloody spear and striking the crack I had made, breaking through and impaling it.

For a while, I started to let myself get optimistic about the situation. The Convocation had the Intrusion locked down, while the Brute and Bride kept the Archangel busy. Which only left the Cold Boy, the Black Dog, and the Wooden Girl for the Red Cap and me, and we were just managing to handle them. If we could just keep wearing them down, maybe we could drive them away….

The sound of someone coughing broke my focus. I had become so focused on fighting the Fears that keeping an eye on the humans had pretty much slipped my mind. When I looked back at them, I realized what a mistake that had been. While dealing with the other Fears, the Plague Doctor had appeared by the humans. I don’t know how long it had been there; given how fast the Doctor can affect people, it may have only been a few moments. But the condition of the two humans was….

It was like they had been ravaged by years’ worth of diseases in only a few minutes. Massive tumors were visible across their bodies, and each cough brought up more blood. The Plague Doctor raised its cane, and I shouted at it to stop. It swung the cane down, striking each of their heads. Both began to cough viciously, spitting out more blood with each hacking sound. Then they both drew in a ragged breath, and became silent.

Didn’t do anything for a moment. Then, I roared. My vision seemed to turn red, and all I could feel was pure, unrelenting, hatred. It felt like I was losing control of my body, as conscious decisions faded away and instinct took charge. I charged at the Plague Doctor, screaming wordlessly. It waved its gloved hands, and I felt a wave of nausea and dizziness pass over me, but I pushed through it. As I got closer, it started to swing its cane at me, but I ripped it out of its hand, and snapped it in half. Before it could flee, I grabbed its mask. I could feel it breaking under my shadowy fingers as I squeezed, causing cracks that shone with emptiness to spread along its face. The Doctor struggled to escape, abandoning its humanoid shape and becoming a mass of sickly black and green darkness that twisted away desperately. A putrid stench filled my nose, and I the even stronger feelings of nausea hit me. Still, I held on, feeling the Fear break under me.

 With a final burst of strength, I shattered the Plague Doctor’s mask, and the spacetime which it had been inhabiting. In the place of its head was a hole in reality, which quickly consumed the rest of its body. And it spread from there, with cracks rapidly growing across the entire Library.

The rage which had been fueling my actions faded away, and instead I found myself torn between confusion at how I had just done that, and panic at the speed which reality appeared to be collapsing. I felt the Red Cap’s warm hand grab my shoulder, and it shouted at me, “Time to run for it!” Space distorted around us, taking us from the Library just as it was completely consumed by emptiness.