Chapter 37 Beacon.

Chapter 37: 37 Beacon.

She pouted but complied. "Human protocols are excessively restrictive. Do masters not beat their unruly bitches into submission in your world?" she whispered.

I blinked and shook my head violently like I was trying to ward off a headache. "I–uhh—no."

Elsa crossed her arms and looked up at me with a judgy look in her eyes. "I express the same sentiment regarding needless restrictions quite often."

"And quite loudly," I added, winking at her.

It went well, all things considered.

Despite a few near-disasters—like Ayra’s beret slipping when she tried to sniff the ass of a passing service dog—we escaped the coffee shop without causing an incident. Progress.

The Single Pine Mall was our next challenge. It was a temple to American capitalism that had both women gawking like tourists, but it was also a necessary stop. The girls really needed this experience.

"It’s a palace of commerce," Elsa breathed, craning her neck at the glass ceiling.

"The culinary options are vast!" Ayra exclaimed, nose twitching at the food court aromas. "Do all humans shop in such grandeur?"

"It’s just a mall," I explained, herding them past the fountain before Ayra could investigate whether it contained fish. "Lots of different stores under one roof."

Watching them experience modern retail was like seeing the world through fresh eyes.

Elsa maintained her signature sense of superiority but couldn’t hide her fascination with window displays. Ayra wanted to explore every single store, including—to my horror—the pet shop.

"These are similar to my collar!" she announced, loud enough for three salespeople to hear. "Do many humans keep companions like myself?"

The employee approached with an oddly arched brow. "Looking for something for your dog?"

"She doesn’t have a dog," I said quickly. "Just... window shopping. For a friend. In Canada."

Elsa chose that moment to subtly hip check a display of squeaky toys.

While the employee scrambled to clean up, we dragged Ayra away before she could ask any more incriminating questions about leashes.

The department store proved equally treacherous. Elsa held up a crop top with genuine confusion. "This garment fails to fulfill its purpose. If I wore it, I suspect my breasts would spill out the bottom. Is it damaged?"

"It’s supposed to be short," I explained, aware of the soccer mom eyeing us suspiciously. "To show off your underboob and midriff. Most women would wear it with, like, a sports bra or something."

"How peculiar," Elsa mused. "In my opinion, such exposure should be reserved for fertility ceremonies and private company. For instance, I am happy to expose any part of my anatomy to you, Sir Grey."

The soccer mom speed-walked away.

When Ayra discovered lingerie, I knew we were doomed.

She held up a black lace set that left nothing to the imagination. "Master would appreciate these on my lewd body, yes?"

Every woman in a ten-foot radius turned to stare at me. I was certain that the security cameras captured the exact moment where my soul tried to leave my body.

Returning to the food court was my salvation. Both women were entranced by the options, and watching them discover mall cuisine was genuinely heartwarming.

Elsa went on and on about pizza like she was an expert on the topic when she spotted Pizza Punk in the corner, and Ayra inhaled two orders of crab rangoons from China Prince Takeout.

"Your integration skills are improving," I told them, earning Elsa’s pleased smile and a tail-thump from Ayra that she quickly disguised as adjusting her shirt.

We’d almost made it to the exit when Ayra froze, twitching her nose. Her ears perked up under the beret, nearly launching it into the air. I had to slam my hands down on it to keep it secure.

"That scent..." she whispered.

Elsa’s expression darkened. "I smell it too. Faint but unmistakable."

I scanned the crowd but saw only normal shoppers. I wasn’t sure just what the girls were smelling, but I took it seriously, and my instinct was to get the hell out. "Let’s go. Now."

We power-walked to the truck, Ayra sniffing the air like a bloodhound. Once safely inside, I turned to them.

"Explain."

"Portal transit residue," Elsa said grimly.

"A portal opened here?" My stomach dropped. "At the mall?"

Ayra shook her head. "Possibly. I don’t know. It’s strange, I didn’t expect this."

The implications hit like a sledgehammer. Portals had always been contained to my property. If they were spreading, I had no idea what that meant.

"Perhaps the barriers grow thin," Elsa murmured, voicing my fear. "Black Lazarus may be making an unexpected move. If we can sense it all the way out here, then it must be positively thick back on Grey’s property. We should head back, I think, and prepare for a more significant battle than usual."

That thought haunted us all the way home. When we arrived, though, there was nothing conclusive to discover.

The girls reported no strong portal residue—at least not stronger than usual, and maybe weaker. I still didn’t smell anything.

As dusk approached, we geared up for the nightly monster delivery, but somehow we knew tonight would be different.

I strapped on armor while Ayra produced her war hammer out of nowhere. Even Elsa seemed more alert than usual.

We took our positions in the field and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

After two hours of nothing, unease crawled down my spine like ice water. "This has never happened, yes?" Elsa asked. "You said the portal arrives here without fail."

"It has skipped a couple days here and there, particularly often in the beginning. Maybe we’re being given a break?" I suggested hopefully. "Maybe whatever’s causing them finally ran out of power?"

Ayra’s expression killed that optimism. "The absence suggests something worse. Just what, I can’t say for certain. But... I have a bad feeling, Master."

We retreated to the house, but I kept my sword within reach. As I set it on the kitchen counter, my phone screamed with an emergency alert that made Ayra jump three feet straight up.

I read the notification, and blood drained from my face.

"What?" Elsa demanded.

"Emergency alert," I said, throat tight. "There’s been an unusual security alert at Singe Pine Mall. They’re telling people to avoid the area."

"Where we were today," Ayra whispered.

Elsa’s face looked even paler than usual when she added her thoughts. "So the portal residue we sensed was prophetic, not about a portal that had already opened before. But how can it happen so far away from here?"

I kept reading, and each word twisted the knife even more. "National Guard’s been deployed. There’s a... creature... loose in the area."

The pieces clicked together one by one, and a conclusion was quickly growing in my mind. "The portal didn’t open here tonight because it opened there. Where we were."

Elsa and Ayra shared a look heavy with implication.

"The portal follows you," Elsa said slowly. "You’re the beacon, not this land."

"Then what does that mean for the Tower of Convergence?" Ayra asked fretfully.

Elsa shook her head, frowning as she looked at me with worry. "I don’t know. But I fear this is the truth."

That truth hit me like a punch in the sack. All this time, I’d thought I was containing the threat, protecting the world by fighting the monsters on my farm. But if the portals followed me specifically... I was the threat all along, wasn’t I?

"Then nowhere is safe for us," Ayra finished. "We cannot leave this place, or we will take trouble with us."

Elsa nodded. "We’re stuck here until Black Lazarus arrives, I’m afraid."

I stared at my phone as updates poured in. The authorities were scrambling, but they had no clue what they were dealing with. Regular weapons might not even work. People could die.

Rifts didn’t open in places with few population so their were practically no awakened here to handle this.

"We have to go back," I said, already moving. "We have to help."

"It’s too dangerous," Elsa protested, catching my arm. "How will you explain your knowledge? Your abilities? Your gear?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. "But I can’t sit here knowing I caused this."

Ayra stepped forward and spoke with a steadiness that I hadn’t seen in her before this moment. "Then we go together, Master. As a party."

Elsa hesitated, then nodded. "The princess, the healer, and their champion. Perhaps this is a necessary step in our journey."

I took a deep breath, trying to navigate the fog in my head. If I was a walking portal magnet, everything changed.

My hermit lifestyle had been a necessity all this time. Had I been manipulated into adopting this lifestyle by outside forces? Or was it just the way things turned out? If I died now, would the portals end? Would Black Lazarus—hopefully Black not being a reference to his ethnicity—be defeated just like that?

"Let’s go," I said, heading for the truck. "I have to do something. So much for hiding you girls. I guess it’s time for the Hero’s Party to make its public debut after all."

As we drove toward the glow of emergency lights, I couldn’t help thinking about how quickly life had spiraled out of control.

Somewhere, that god of the multiverse was laughing his ass off at me.

But it wasn’t over yet. As I glanced at Elsa’s determined face and saw Ayra’s fierce eyes in the rearview mirror, I realized something: I wasn’t doing this alone anymore.

Whatever threat awaited me at that mall, it had more than me to contend with. It had a Spellblade princess and a subby dog-girl Cleric, too, and they were not to be trifled with. Grey Jr. knew that lesson well enough.

Yep. The Hero’s Party was about to crash the real world’s party.

God help us all.