Free Dimension Fracture by Corinn Heathers

notice. I didn't want to point the thing at our mysterious mage just yet—not until I was certain this would inevitably end in violence.
    The figure became more visible as the cloak of shadows faded away and I was finally able to get a good look at her true form.
    She was tall and slender, towering over me by a good ten centimeters, and wore a stylish and well-tailored black suit over a neat and tidy black blouse. The whole ensemble was rather masculine in design, but I wasn't about to say it didn't look fantastic on her. Such a study in black was only marred by a brilliant red necktie that stood out starkly, almost jarringly so.
    The mage began to walk toward us, her feet clad in hard-soled leather boots. I could see her face, now: expressionless and fair, with clear, colorless irises and short-cropped black curly hair. Her facial structure possessed youthful feminine beauty, but her clothing, hairstyle and lack of any makeup lent a great deal of androgyny to her natural maiden's features.
    She would have been considered stunningly attractive by the standards of either gender or none. I wasn't one to let a pretty face distract me, though. My gun came up and I kept the weapon pointed directly at the mage's head.
    “No further,” I barked, unwilling to play peacefully any longer. “Who the fuck are you and why do you keep messing with my dreams?”
    The mage stopped in her tracks. I glanced at Misaki and was unsurprised to see the same uneasiness written all over her face and in the position of her ears. We both knew that things were about to get really bad.
    “You will become more , Karin Ashley.” The dark woman's gray eyes seemed to flicker and burn with an incomprehensible power. “Do not fight it. Do not fear it. Welcome it. Your transcendence will begin.”
    Misaki gave me a warning look. “Karin, something isn't right.”
    “Tell me something I don't know,” I muttered. My eyes narrowed at the mysterious mage as I placed my finger on the trigger. “If you don't want to get filled full of lead, you better start talking—and make it fast.”
    The mage stood there, her face as serene and empty as it had always been, but she stared at me with such longing that I was momentarily thrown off-balance. Calmly she extended her left hand and snapped her fingers. Black runes appeared in midair as if they'd been summoned into being by the mage's will alone.
    Misaki's shocked expression mirrored my own as black, crawling shadows emerged from fissures that formed in reality. She reacted as quickly as only a spirit could, tracing out the runes to a potent defensive spell.
    The familiar golden shield materialized only a split-second before the storm of deadly magic slammed into it. Misaki's signature defensive barrier could deflect dozens of bolts of miasma and far more in terms of mundane damage, but the mysterious mage's spell tore through the shield as if it were made of tissue paper.
    Misaki ducked and managed to avoid most of the blasts, but two struck her and sent her careening across the parking lot. She got up immediately, though, and I knew she wasn't truly hurt. I took advantage of the mage's momentary focus on Misaki and fired a rapid three-shot burst. At a distance of less than ten meters, there was little chance I'd miss.
    The mage's flat eyes narrowed as she regarded me. Her form wavered and blinked out of existence, reappearing behind me. I tried to dodge the attack I knew was coming, but my leg just didn't want to work with me. Rather than leap away, I ended up stumbling instead. It wasn't enough, wasn't nearly fucking enough.
    Crackling black doom coalesced around the mage's left hand as she clenched it into a fist. Under ordinary circumstances I'd be able to turn my stumble to my advantage and sweep my opponent's feet out from under her, but the pain that seared the nerves in my leg made that kind of counterattack impossible.
    The black-shrouded fist slammed into my back and detonated. Agony beyond any I'd