Chapter 20 Red and Phi
Red wiped the sweat off her forehead and pushed forward, emerging from the denser part of the woods and stepping back onto the dirt path that eventually led to After Domini. The forest was still, the air thick with the scent of leaves and damp bark. She paused to catch her breath, adjusting the straps that connected her consciousness to Ursula, the giant robot she controlled.
Phi hadn’t been willing to risk moving Ursula through her portal again. The girl’s range wasn’t far enough yet, not without draining too much energy. So even though portals would get them to the city faster, there were limits—physical ones that Phi simply couldn’t break yet. They had no choice but to navigate parts of the forest on foot. It was still faster than walking the entire distance, but not fast enough to avoid exhaustion.
Ursula was a double-edged sword—protection and danger in equal measure. Everyone had heard rumors of a giant robot piloted by a girl who refused to die quietly. That alone was enough to make people try to steal Ursula from her. Red swallowed hard. She had to stay careful, no matter how exhausted she felt.
“God, I’m so tired,” she muttered, stretching her aching shoulders.
A sudden gust of wind brushed her neck, raising goosebumps along her spine.
“Hello!”
Red jumped with a startled cry, spinning around. Phi stood casually behind her, one hand raised in a greeting, as if she hadn’t just snuck up on someone in the middle of the woods.
“You scared the hell out of me!” Red gasped.
Phi blinked innocently. “Oh—were you surprised?”
Red stared at her flatly. “I’m alone in a forest. Of course, I was surprised.”
“Right, right. My bad.” Phi gave a small, apologetic smile.
Red sighed. “It’s fine.”
“I think we can continue through the portal from here,” Phi said. “I can open one more. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll get us closer.”
Red hesitated. “You still can’t pull Ursula in, can you?”
“Maybe I can. Consider it practice. All the way to Kit’s new workshop.”
The word workshop gave Red a flicker of hope. A safe place for Kit… a better chance for survival. Even if the situation was dangerous, Phi and Flame seemed reliable—at least compared to most people in After Domini.
“Fine,” Red said. “Let’s try.”
Phi lifted her hands. Reality rippled—like glass bending—and a dark tunnel formed before them. Ursula followed, her heavy steps echoing. Red stepped inside the portal after Phi. It was dark, hollow, and eerily silent. The world dissolved, and a heartbeat later, they were on the outskirts of the city.
Phi staggered once they arrived, sweat already dripping down her temples. She bent at the waist, panting.
“Hey—are you alright?” Red knelt slightly beside her.
“I’ll be fine.” Phi forced a breath. “I just need upgrades. My current systems can’t handle transporting something that heavy.”
Red frowned. “Upgrades? Only on Earth, right? That’s what you said.”
Phi nodded. “Yeah. The tech doesn’t exist here on Ohm.”
“Then how are you even functioning like this?”
“AIs designed me for it,” Phi replied simply, as if she wasn’t talking about something terrifying. She finally stood upright again. “For now, we walk. It’ll give me time to recover.”
So they walked—two girls and a towering machine—toward the Support Weapon workshop district. Only Supports received proper facilities; other classes were forced to fend for themselves. If a Support was lucky, they could live where they worked, earn food and water, maybe even sleep safely for a night. But luck was a luxury. Most people weren’t lucky.
“How do you make those portals, anyway?” Red asked, needing to distract herself from the horror.
Phi tapped her chin. “It’s tricky to explain. I’m a humanoid, Red. My skeleton was too fragile, so they replaced my bones with metal. That’s why I wear long sleeves—they cover the prosthetics.”
“That must’ve been hard,” Red murmured.
Phi laughed softly—not a happy sound, but a resigned one. “Yeah. But at least I can walk. And I can still use my hands. Some people didn’t get chances like that.”
Red swallowed back her anger. “So… can normal humans ever make portals?”
“Technically, yes,” Phi answered, though she sounded uncertain. “It’s not impossible. With the right tech, someone could manage it.”
“That sounds like fiction. Like mutants with strange powers,” Red muttered.
Phi shook her head. “It’s not a mutation. It’s physics. Think wormholes, but on a smaller scale. The devices in my limbs open tunnels—same dimension, different coordinates. It’s not magic, Red. It’s science.”
Red exhaled, trying to wrap her mind around it. “So… like a shortcut through space?”
“Exactly.” Phi nodded. “A black hole sucks everything in. A wormhole guides it somewhere else. I’m the second one.”
Red nodded slowly. She still didn’t fully understand, but she understood enough.
Red frowned. “Why would the AIs invest so much in all of you? What’s the point of Metaphysics? Just making you stronger?”
“That’s a question only Viz can answer.”
Red felt something cold crawl up her spine. Viz. The highest AI. The one who created all of this.
“You’ve met her?” Red asked.
Phi looked at her with a surprised expression. “I thought no one knew she existed. Except us.”
“I know,” Red whispered. “I plan to find her. And end this.”
Phi said nothing, but something like respect flickered in her eyes.
“So… we’re heading to Minerva,” Red continued. “When this is over
“Didn’t you realize?” Phi blinked. “When the people were thrown off the ship… that was when Ohm started moving. We’ve already left the moon. We’re en route to Minerva now. It’ll take eight or nine months with wormhole jumps. Without them, it would take years.”
Red’s heart slammed in her chest.
So this wasn’t just survival. It was a forced migration. A hidden journey. Eight months trapped in a death game before they even reached the planet.
And what happened when they got there? If more than one human survived… would they all die anyway?
She didn’t voice the thought. She couldn’t.
They kept walking until a series of sprawling buildings came into view: rows of workshops, clinics, repair bays. Lights flickered in some windows. Machines hummed. People waited in tense lines, grouped by alliances, their faces sharp with suspicion. They eyed Red and Ursula with a mix of curiosity and fear. But when they saw Phi, they looked away. No one wanted trouble with a Metaphysic.
“We’re close,” Phi said, sounding more cheerful. She even clapped her hands. “Kit’s going to love this.”
“Kit better,” Red muttered. “She worked hard.”
“And Flame paid a lot,” Phi added with a grin. “Kit upgraded him. You have no idea—he’s way stronger now.”
Red’s stomach tightened. That wasn’t good news for her. If Metaphysics kept getting stronger… how would she ever fight them? How would she kill Viz?
“All the more reason to prepare,” Red whispered, mostly to herself. “If Kit can make them stronger… she can make us stronger too.”
Phi smiled and nudged her lightly. “Exactly. It doesn’t always have to be a war, Red.”
But Red already knew better.
Sometimes war wasn’t a choice.