Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

The time freeze collapsed, making everything go back to normal.

The air blew on Fay's face again. Once more, she could feel the coldness of the ground seeping from below the layer of blankets she laid herself down on.

The human leader's swing continued past Peter's neck, just an inch short of claiming his life.

Fay's heart stopped.

She could no longer process what was happening.

Even with the hex on the time falling apart, the darkness that grew from within its effect didn't vanish. It settled itself firmly within the shadows of the night, waiting for an opportunity to pounce and break free from its chains.

But things weren't over yet.

The axe missed, carrying the leader along its path as it continued past Peter's throat. Her man, though, didn't waste his costly spell on just a dodge.

Before the human leader could escape, carried away by the momentum of his missed attack, Peter finished manipulating his gun before filling the air between the two of them with small projectiles.

Fay was too far to see anything beyond a reflective mist that for but a fraction of a second appeared between the men.

Still, she could see the aura of the man collapse. And that alone was enough of a proof that he was spent.

'It's ove…'

Fay fixed her grip on the gun the moment her body attempted to relax.

'It's moments like that, that are the most dangerous,' she thought, fixing his aim on the powerless body of the human leader… Only to glance at something just above, that somehow eluded her up until now.

A completely fresh unit was approaching fast. Too fast, in fact.

Without a thought, Fay unleashed a hail of bullets, no longer minding the state of the gun's barrel.

For the next few seconds, she desperately covered the approaching cavalry with explosive rounds… but to no avail. For, the first time since Peter brought this gun out, someone appeared that was capable of defending against this attack.

'Shit!' Fay glanced slightly down, only to see Peter calmly approach the dying leader of the enemies.

Mere hundred meters ahead, a group of fifty or so cavalrymen in uniforms visibly more decorative than the armors of the main unit of the horsemen. All around Peter, darkness surged forth, as if drawing towards an event that was only about to happen.

And Peter made another step, ignoring the treat that was just a few seconds away from barreling through him. A threat that even Fay's barrage didn't stop.

'Shit!'

Swish!

'Why isn't…'

Swish!

Four swings of the wrist.

Swish!

Four swings of the writs.

'… he move?!'

Swish!

Four swings of the wrist.

Fay's bullet struck down a bubble of strange air that surrounded her target. And just like usual, the round exploded, spewing out flames and red-hot shrapnels at the man within the barrier… Only for a ball of fire to replace the man atop a slender, elegant horse. Yet, by the time the fires died down and the shrapnels lost all their momentum, the rider's outer barrier finally shattered.

And once the smoke cleared out…

The soldier appeared not to be even bothered by the attack.

There wasn't a single scratch on his body, a single twist in his aura.

Just a looming determination.

'FUCK!'

Not used to swearing yet, Fay felt something boil in her head, in her heart, and in her stomach.

And so, she lowered her aim and changed her target.

Swish!

Four swings of the wrist.

Swish!

Bloody pieces of meat and shattered bones flew through the air, covering the approaching riders in quite a gruesome sight. Some of them, when their horses turned into a bloody mess, fell down, falling out of the charge.

But it was too little and way too late. The slight interruption to the charge only bought Peter a few seconds to escape, at most… And yet, he remained as he was, slowly raising his reloaded gun to finish off the human leader that nearly took his life.

Tentacles of darkness surged even further, almost reaching Peter's feet, greedily and impatiently waiting for the time they awaited to come true.

Peter's body froze, ignoring the approaching cavalry, ignoring the rapid barrage Fay brought for, completely removed from the situation he was in.

Fay's body, on the other hand, is filled with energy.

The sensation she usually tried to hold back welled up low at her abdomen… Only to explode throughout her nervous system.

Sparks of divine aura wrestled within her bloodstream, desperately trying to get out, to once again grace the world with the presence of the creator…

Fay's vision narrowed, limited by the constantly spreading darkness.

By now, she retained hardly half of her usual vision, while the edges she could still see continued to deteriorate, all tunneling towards the motionless figure of Peter.

SwiBOOM!

The barrel of the gun exploded in Fay's hands, hardly leaving a single scratch on the girl's divine skin.

As if pulling herself out of the water, Fay rose up, not bothered with mundane things like gravity and the support of her hands necessary to move up from lying on her stomach.

She simply… moved up. Then, her body leaned forth while her left knee bent slightly...

The darkness filled now two-thirds of Fay's vision. The world beyond the barrier to her sight no longer appeared to exist… Or maybe she was finally witnessing its true form?

Yet, as darkness continued to spread further and further, filling even more of Fay's vision as she made her first step towards Peter…

She also saw something else.

For the darkness was nowhere as empty as it was supposed to it.

Deprived of all the images, all the colors, all the sights… Fay could finally see the paths in the space ahead. The darkness, instead of hiding the reality, revealed it in its truest form to the girl as her body made a second step.

Fay brought her hand up, her vision now limited to just the figure of Peter quite the distance ahead.

All around him, darkness. And in that darkness, a myriad of strange, weird, coiling paths appeared… Or rather, revealed themselves. Paths so thin that with normal sight one could never conceive their existence. Paths too thin, narrow, and short to exist… And yet paths that clearly connected various points in space.

Fay took another step and reached out, her mind in a strange daze. And then, when she somehow realized the fresh unit of cavalry was about to stomp Peter to the ground when she felt he had yet to move or even pull the trigger and finish the human leader off…

"STOP IT!" Fay's mother shouted, rushing up the hill with terror twisting her usually calm and elegant face.

And so, Fay reached out and grasped the path that led to Peter's side, before stepping through.