“B-rank?”

  Flenki nodded. She looked embarrassed, which left Melmarc confused because he had no idea what embarrassment was supposed to look like on a bird’s face.

  “B-rank,” she said, confirming.

  Flenki was the smallest of all the birds. She had dark grey feathers that covered her entire body and her feet, which Melmarc expected to be some level of yellow for reasons related to chickens he’d seen, were actually black. She wore light armor, seemingly made from thick leather. Although, what was left of it wasn’t something he considered protective.

  Melmarc stood where he was, studying the group. They wore actual clothes, pants and shirts. However, their shirts had no sleeves and they wore no footwear. Melmarc could understand the lack of sleeves. The creatures did not have wings at their backs. Instead, like fowls back home, their arms were also their wings, covered in far more feathers than the rest of their bodies. If they were designed for flight, then it made sense that they would not wear sleeves.

  As for their feet… well Melmarc assumed it was talon related or something in that direction, even if he could not necessarily see any talons. The only person with talons on display was the largest of them, a bird covered in deep grey feathers and what looked like a scar on the left side of his face. Melmarc was versed in the anatomy of what these creatures were. For all he knew, what he thought was a scar could just as easily be a color combination of feathers in some way.

  Flenki ran a hand down her face, blue feathers ruffling at the action. None of the people present looked happy about his rank.

  Melmarc couldn’t blame them. If he was stuck in a portal and got a B-rank for a support, he would also be displeased.

  The multicolored bird with the staff looked young. He also looked… squeamish. He looked up at Melmarc, Melmarc being significantly taller, and walked up to him. Melmarc eyes narrowed, wondering what was about to happen next. From what he knew about designated portal helpers, you could not attack them.

  The bird stroked under its beak, peering at him thoughtfully.

  “Step away from the Unkati, Spakkow,” the largest bird said, voice deep.

  Spakkow, the bird in front of Melmarc stopped to look back at the other bird. “Calm your cloaca, Famon. I’m just wondering why this one’s white. The elders taught us that they range from a deep blue to sky blue.” He returned his attention to Melmarc, expression thoughtful. “Never white.”

  “There are exceptions in the world,” Famon said. “Ours and those beyond. We should go in.”

  Flenki looked at one of the others. She was a milky white with bright orange eyes. “Sentib.”

  The bird looked at her. “What’s up?”

  “You haven’t said anything since the summoning?”

  “What’s there to say?” Sentib asked with a shrug.

  The last bird person, grey all over, nodded. “You could always ask why…” it frowned, unsure. “I want to say it.” He shrugged as if coming to a conclusion. “You could always ask why it’s just standing there, looking at us. Do you think it understands us?”

  Melmarc understood them. As for why he was just standing there, Delvers had always wondered at that too. The running theory was that it took a while for a portal to create a mana projection that was very lifelike.

  At least, now he had a possible answer to that question, too. If most of the portal helpers were like him, they stood without doing anything for a while because they were taking in the people that had summoned them.

  That also begged a new question.

  Are all the summoned portal helpers [August Intruder]s?

  Famon, the largest of the birds, walked over to the grey one that had just spoken and steered him in the direction of the cave with a hand on his shoulder.

  “You worry about the wrongest things, Taluk,” he said. “We already know that they understand us to a certain degree but cannot speak to us.”

  That caught Melmarc’s attention. Did that mean that all the worlds had similar beliefs in the portal support system.

  He took a step forward, and Spakkow leapt away from him with a startled yelp.

  “Terry fucking Tut!” he swore. “The thing's like a freaking Bakow tree. Why did it have to move so suddenly.”

  Melmarc ignored him. The world had thought that the portal helpers could not communicate—he had thought that they could not communicate—until the helper that had helped him deal with Caldath the demi-god.

  Ignoring everyone present, he walked over to Flenki. Everyone stood still, silent. He could feel it from all of them. They weren’t threatened by him, they were as sure of their safety as a healthy person was sure that they would wake up when they went to sleep. What had them silent was curiosity.

  When Melmarc got to Flenki, he stopped in front of her. From what he gathered, she was the one who had summoned him, just as he had been the one who had summoned his own portal helper.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked.

  She said nothing. She just stared up at him as if she was waiting for him to do whatever he wanted to do, as if she was simply curious.

  He raised his hand, placed it on her shoulder. It was solid, he could feel her.

  “We’re burning nightlight over here,” Spakkow said, drawing everyone’s attention. He stamped the but of his staff into the ground. “We’ve got to hurry. The last thing we want is to still be in here when the Falk tribe finds the portal.”

  Melmarc’s head snapped to him. Falk tribe?

  Were they going through some kind of war in their world? Was it like American Delvers sneaking into a Chinese portal or something like that?

  “Spakkow is right?” Famon grunted. “We must hurry.”

  With that, he turned and walked into the cave. The mist covering its entrance died out slowly as he stepped into it, revealing what was within the cave.

  The other birds followed suit, showing Melmarc that Famon was arguably the leader. Flenki, on the other hand, hesitate, giving Melmarc one last curious look.

  She can’t hear me, he thought before he walked into the cave, too.

  Maybe the ability to hear the words of Portal helpers was an [August Intruder] thing.

  As he walked into the cave, Flenki walking beside him, he had one more thought.

  I hope they are fine back home.

  …

  Delano was bored out of his mind as he shuffled down a straight line that led out of the school. A few minutes ago there had been an announcement over the intercom of what the principal had called a portal outbreak. So here he was, walking down a line like some prisoner in some camp.

  “It can’t be that bad,” Jake said from behind him, smiling amiably.

  Delamo did his best to feign comfort. “I hate lines.”

  “I think that’s normal,” Jake said. Delano could still hear the smile in his voice.

  At the head of the line, a random teacher was giving them directions. Delano ignored the teacher and brought out his phone. He needed to know what was going on, and he knew that the school would not be a good source of information.

  He went to the internet and typed in ‘portal outbreak.’ He frowned at the search results. All he could see was information about safety and portals breaking out in different countries. He couldn’t say that he was necessarily surprised. It was known in what Melmarc and Eroms liked to call the conspiracy theorists community that with how long there had been no active portal, when the portals returned, it would be with a vengeance.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  A portal outbreak is quite apt, he thought, closing his browser.

  “What are you doing?” Jake asked from behind him, keeping his voice low.

  “Finding answered,” he replied absently, turning on all the security features he needed to be active in order to access the dark web.

  Delano let out a tired sigh. He could feel Jake panicking behind him already.

  “The teachers said no phones,” Jake whispered harshly, but his panic stained his voice. “All it will do is cause a panic. Our parents have already been informed of what is happening.”

  The boy was like a recording tape, repeating everything that the teachers had told him word for word.

  It’s like he doesn’t have a brain of his own, Delano sighed, accessing the dark web.

  “Bingo,” he muttered before he could stop himself. The first article he saw was all the article that he needed to see.

  The teacher led them down the hallway and they took a left turn. It looked like they were not heading to the basketball court or the gym area.

  Where are they taking us?

  Even with the thought, tracking down the actual article he saw on the dark web was not difficult. He found it on the internet. It had barely any views. Almost as if someone is suppressing it.

  Copying the link to the article, he sent it to the group chat he shared with Melmarc and Eroms. Eroms would probably react to it even if he didn’t care, but Melmarc was going to be interested in seeing what it had to say.

  This is a first, he grinned. Much of what the writer of the article was saying was propaganda based, though. The writer was blaming the government for what had happened as if the government somehow knew how to predict the appearance of portals or something. But that was the least important.

  What was important was the reason the school was worried enough to send the students out, instead of keeping them in.

  Portals appeared in nonresidential areas. It was the norm. It was the way. Until now. Nine known portal siting in residential areas, one in a school and one in a house. In their town alone. It was insane.

  And dangerous.

  So, I should probably stop smiling.

  “This way kids.”

  Delano raised his head to find the principal standing in front. They had gathered in a massive hall that the school liked to use for ceremonies. The principal stood at a lectern as the rest of the school gathered in the hall. Next to him were two parents. He knew them. One was the father of Jemina, a class mate of his. The other was the father of a boy that had gone to elementary school with Melmarc. Tot? Tut?

  Delano discarded the thought. All he knew was that it started with a T. The problem was that he knew both parents. Gifted as they were, the stronger of the two was a C-rank, practically weaker than Melmarc and Ark.

  “Good day students,” the principal announced. “Can I have your attention.”

  There were murmurs going through the group. It was a moment before everyone fell silent and the Principal continued.

  “Today we will all be returning home,” he said. “Your parents have been informed to come and pick you up. For those of you whose parents will not be able to come, we have arranged for a method of waiting. First, you will all leave the hall in fives and wait outside, properly interspaced from each other.”

  Delano already understood what was happening. They were being cut down to as low a number as possible and being spaced out so that if a portal appears within school grounds, it would not be close to all the students. If it was close to all the students, then the effect of the portal could affect all the students. Even if it wouldn’t be the school’s fault, the school would not be able to recover from such a loss. No parent would want to enroll their child in the school after that.

  This way, they consider the possibility of only losing a few children.

  It was smart.

  Unfortunately, when they began leaving, each group of five students did not get their own teacher. Well staffed as the school was, it was impossible to think that it would have enough teachers to assign one to every five students.

  Delano was still looking through his phone, absently obeying orders. He didn’t even know the members of the school group that he had joined. At least it wasn’t until Jake spoke again.

  “You really shouldn’t be on your phone, love.”

  Goosebumps crawled all over Delano’s body at the use of the endearment. Even the outside air, now that they were on one of the lawns, did not help him ignore it. He gritted his teeth, keeping himself from snapping at the boy. In truth, Jake was doing nothing wrong, and Delano had to constantly remind himself of it.

  If there was one thing that two dates with Jake had taught Delano, it was that Eroms was right. He was not into guys, not even in the slightest. And while he had refused a third date with Jake, he was yet to tell Jake the truth. Why? Because he kind of felt bad. He’d only accepted Jake’s advances for two reasons. The first was because he actually wanted to know if he was bisexual. The second was because he suspected that Jake was an unregistered Gifted. The second reason left him with some very miniscule amount of guilt that he hesitated to tell Jake of his lack of interest.

  “Jake,” he said calmly, still making his research on his phone. His jaw almost dropped when he learnt that the portals had been opening for over thirty minutes now and there were already two confirmed Chaos Runs.

  “Yes, dear,” Jake answered freely, since they were in the group without an assigned teacher.

  Delano squirmed uncomfortably again. “Please stop using endearments. I’m Delano or dude or hey or big guy.”

  Jake paused. “You’re not big, though.”

  “Then little guy works just fine.” At this point Delano was happy to be called anything that was not an endearment.

  Jake sighed suddenly, as if tired. “Del.”

  “Please no,” Delano muttered under his breath to himself. To Jake, he said, “Yes?”

  “Did I offend you somehow?”

  Delano paused. From his research he just found out that there were rumors of really powerful Delvers going missing. He stopped, horror on his face, and peered at his phone as if he couldn’t see clearly.

  There are three portals in Fallen High?

  “Delano.”

  Delano rounded on Jake like a threatened viper. “WHAT?”

  Jake staggered back. Delano felt horrible.

  “Jake, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…”

  A portal opened behind Jake.

  Delano didn’t wait. He did not hesitate. He did not delay. He bellowed as loud as possible at the top of his lungs.

  “EVERYBODY RUN!”

  Everyone turned. Everyone ran.

  Delano hesitated, grabbing Jake by the arm and pulling him back. He didn’t think he had the strength in him, until Jake came flying in his direction. Jake soared past him, going through the air.

  Delano paused, stunned to silence. What the hell?

  And there it was, standing between him and the very portal that threatened to undo the world, the last thing he expected to see.

  [Delano Nettor you have received skills Reach for the Earth and Reach for the Heavens]

  [Delano Nettor you have gained class Titan]

  …

  [You have gained below stat improvements]

  [Strength +8, Speed +2, Constitution +5, Mana +3]

  A sound slipped from his lips as he stared at the notification, uncaring of the portal in front of him. The sound came out again. It shook his shoulders. It ruffled him. It came from his stomach.

  Delano laughed.

  “Finally,” he said, his laugh ever maniacal now, “the world can be fixed.”

  [Delano Nettor you have gained the trust of your leader]

  [By the laws of association, in the absence of your leader, you must protect your world.]

  What the hell is a law of association? And who the fuck is my leader?

  [Proxy detected]

  [You have received a personal Quest.]

  [Personal Quest: School Proprietor.]

  You have walked side by side with your leader and have found favor in his sight. In his absence, the world is entrusted to you. Protect the school upon which you stand. If there is a Chaos Run, you alone will stand between them and death. But fear not, for you are not alone

  [Quest objective: Protect the students.]

  Delano blinked. I guess with great power comes great responsibility.

  As for who this leader was, he would have to look into that when there was peace once more. Until then… he looked at the portal.

  Do I enter or not?

  It was a stupid question since his hand was already reaching out to the portal.

  Someone has to fix the world.

  …

  “I just don’t get why the portal would give us one of them,” Famon growled under his breath.

  One of them, Melmarc thought, jumping on the word.

  “An extinct race?” Spakkow asked, ever jovial. “You know what knowledge says about them, though. They were powerful, strong.”

  “Arrogant,” Flenki spat.

  Taluk spat to the side, well away from the group. “Their power was too centralized. They got drunk on it, like the Falk tribe. Power corrupts.”

  Flenki looked back at Melmarc as if stealing a glance. “And yet this is the Unkati.”

  From the discussion he had heard since entering the cave. It seemed they had been almost ten when they entered the portal. Their leader had been a B-rank but Melmarc didn’t catch his class. He’d died protecting the current group so that they could get to the portal. They had been in the portal for more than a week and had lost teammates.

  With everything he was learning, being their Portal Helper was beginning to feel like too much responsibility for someone like him.

  But he couldn’t complain, because even if he complained, they wouldn’t be able to hear him.

  “I really thought the final demon would come out immediately we stepped in,” Taluk said. “Isn’t that how it works? That Unkati only comes out when the final demon is on the other side.”

  “Not all the time,” Famon said, leading them down a right turn in the cave. “There are times when there is no final demon, merely a final battle.”

  “My father told me of such times,” Flenki said, eyes ever sharp, watching every nook and cranny. “He said such times are dangerous. He once fought a horde of monsters. But he’d never fought a demon before.”

  Again, she looked at Melmarc, as if checking on him, making sure that he was not bored. If not for how alert he was, he would’ve been bored. After all, he couldn’t stop thinking about the monster that had helped him kill Caldath.

  At the end of the fight, had it died? If he died what would happen? Would he return to his world or would he stay dead? These questions plagued him, but he could not share his worries with anyone.

  “Do not fear the demons,” Sentib said. “They don’t appear in portals often.”

  “They’ve been rampant in the last recorded eight portals,” Spakkow spat. “Don’t be a fowl, Sen.”

  Sentib made a sound that felt like it should have been a growl but wasn’t quite one. “We are not the same as the other group. Demons in your portals are curses. We are not—”

  Her words were cut off by the sound of gargling as if she was drowning. Everyone turned to her immediately. Blood spilled from her beak and a blade protruded from her chest. Horror threatened to seize Melmarc’s chest.

  Demons? He thought, taking a shocked step back as something materialized behind her, holding on to the sword.

  “DEMONS!” Spakkow bellowed, but it came out as more of a scream than a roar.

  Melmarc turned immediately, his hair standing on end, and activated his skill.

  [You have used skill Knowledge is Power]

  Pain flared in his back as something hit him. A new notification popped up.

  [Skill Knowledge Is Power is in effect].

  [You cannot receive or inflict damage.]

  He turned on his assailant, hand raised to deliver a vicious blow, and froze. He stared down at the creature, the demon.

  He stared down at a child with a knife.