Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Kauku was, all things considered, relatively pleased with the way his plans were proceeding. Granted, the word relatively was doing a lot of work in that sentence.

The seal he'd put over himself was inconvenient, to say the least. He understood why he'd done it, of course. Before that little Integrator parasite had infected him, he'd begun rooting for the little human that dared to go against the Integrators. There wasn't any scenario in which Kauku wasn't planning on betraying and consuming him eventually, but he liked Ethan enough that he wanted him to have a somewhat fair shot at winning.

And in the infinitesimal chance that he lost... well, he would've been fine with it, as long as it was Ethan that beat him. That thought had surprised even him, but he'd had literal millenia to mellow out about the whole being-betrayed-and-trapped thing.

Was it still worth finding the other two Scions and eliminating them? Absolutely.

Was it worth betraying Ethan and rampaging through the galaxy to do it? Also yes, although he would have felt a little guilty about it.

Was it worth rigging the whole battle in his favor through a thousand manipulations and schemes?

Eh. Kauku liked Ethan enough not to do that.

Rhoran showing up in his Concept-parasite form hadn't really changed his calculations. If it hadn't been for extenuating circumstances, he would simply have ignored him entirely. It wasn't like he could be infected in the void of reality.

But Rhoran had to go and try to rewrite the Empty City and its Ritual. Kauku wasn't particularly inclined to let all his efforts there go to waste. The Empty City was one of very few dungeons that could tell him where the two wayward Scions had decided to go after they'd finished building the whole system of Firmament. If he lost it, he would lose his only lead.

That... and Ethan had apparently sent himself a warning about Kauku getting infected. As much as he appreciated the human for passing on the warning, temporal paradoxes were dangerous, finicky things. If he tried to change the events of the future, there was a chance he'd set off a paradox strong enough to cripple even him. Especially with how unstable Hestia's core already was.

So he hadn't really had a choice, as far as letting Rhoran infect him went. He did what he could: rescued the one scirix the parasite sought to kill, then anchored a seal on himself that would, in theory, stop him from interfering too heavily with Ethan's journey. At the time, he wanted their eventual battle to be fair.

Now that Rhoran's corrosive power had infected him, he mostly did not.

Not that he didn't still instinctively like the guy. It was just very much overwhelmed by the hatred that now simmered within him. Rhoran's presence made him feel like he'd been betrayed only moments ago—if it hadn't been for the seal he'd placed on himself, he would have begun a dozen separate schemes and readied himself to tear the Empty City apart.

To his annoyance, the effect of Rhoran's presence didn't stop there. He was like a particularly irritating fly, impossible to stamp out entirely. Fragments of his sense of self clung to Kauku, occasionally reaching out and acting in ways that Kauku found almost offensively villainous. To think he'd been stuck with someone this petty.

"Not... petty..." Rhoran's presence hissed. It swirled around him, Firmament briefly coalescing into the loose form of the Integrator's head before it dissipated once again.

"You spent the entire battle in the Intermediary whining about Gheraa being a traitor," Kauku said, rolling his eyes.

"Your friends... traitors too..." the parasite hissed at him. Kauku stiffened, eyes narrowing, and he lashed out with a fist—Firmament turned solid beneath his fingers so that they were wrapped around Rhoran's throat.

The parasite just laughed. Laughed and choked and laughed until it dissipated again into smoke, unable to hold its form under Kauku's trembling grip.

"That is different," Kauku muttered. Rhoran wouldn't be able to speak again for a while. It always took his mind a few hours to reassemble whenever it was sufficiently shattered.

Though the little pest was getting better at it.

Kauku shook his head. Soon. He could have his revenge soon. Even with his limitations, his seal hadn't been perfect. He could interfere in small ways, make things more difficult, create distractions until the seal wore away entirely. He'd already made the one deal he needed to make—secured the cooperation of a certain Trialgoer that held a certain Talent, unbeknownst to anyone until now.

Teluwat was arrogant, and he was a fool. Kauku saw exactly what Ethan and his friends were planning, and he had no interest in warning the so-called slime king of what was in store. Besides, the outcome was far from certain: the power of Assimilation was not to be underestimated.

Especially with the little boost Kauku had dangled in front of Teluwat to secure his cooperation.

Even taking that into consideration, though, Kauku thought that Ethan was likely to win that particular encounter. Perhaps the trap he'd left in the Empty City would destroy his hope enough to give Teluwat the edge, but he doubted it. R̃АꞐöᛒΕṨ

It didn't matter. Either outcome would benefit him. If Ethan lost, then the greatest threat to his plans would be gone, and he could simply wait out his seal. If Teluwat lost?

Well, it would mean the death of someone that had cultivated a Talent. A Talent he didn't already have.

Technically speaking, the last one he needed.

Abstraction would still take work, of course, but Rhoran had potential. He might have been a pest, but one way or another, he'd been able to trigger the appearance of an Abstraction within the Empty City.

All he had to do was cultivate that burgeoning Talent, and that would leave him with all three pieces of the so-called Transcendance Protocol.

And he would have everything he needed to harvest Hestia's Heart without the help of the Interface.

There's a lot of explaining to do if I want to catch Versa up to speed, but before any of that, I catch a glimpse of what happened to her legs. She's trying to hide it—there's a small film of obfuscating Firmament that's no doubt meant to pull my attention away—but it doesn't take much effort for me to see through it with my Firmament sense.

"Shit, what happened?" I ask. The injury is bizarre. It's like her legs were torn apart and then healed, except the healing went wrong—jagged chitin and broken flesh blurs into solid chunks of stone. It's no wonder she crashed into the clearing I'm in. I'm amazed she was even able to walk.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Teluwat happened, what else?" Versa says, looking annoyed that I was able to see past her trick so easily. She doesn't enjoy appearing weak. "It's not important. I want to know what that thing is, though."

She jerks a thumb toward the Tear that's still holding Ahkelios and Gheraa. I grimace a little and move toward it, even as Versa just shakes her head and continues.

"You know what, I'm not sure I want to know," she says. "Or you can tell me later. Whatever. Listen, I need to warn you about Teluwat—"

"He's working with the Sunken King, I know," I say. I dig my fingers into the Tear and start ripping it apart, much to Versa's disgust; her mandibles reflexively clamp shut and she turns away, not wanting to look.

"You knew?" she says, still looking away but trying to sound outraged. "Why was I trying so hard to find you, then? Next you're going to tell me you know he's trying to turn He-Who-Guards against you."

"I know that, too." Ahkelios and Gheraa both stumble out with a gasp as I finally pull the Tear the rest of the way open. That one was particularly sticky, for some reason.

"Why'd you take so long?" Ahkelios complains, gingerly wiping off some of the residual time that's gotten stuck on his chitin.

"You know that thing doesn't have a lot of space," Gheraa adds, flicking his coat to get rid of all the residue. "Not that I'm complaining, but..."

"I am!" Ahkelios glares. I roll my eyes.

"We have a guest, you two."

They both abruptly stop and turn to stare at Versa. She's no longer looking away—she turned back to stare around the moment Ahkelios's voice first emerged, I think.

"What were you two doing in there?" she asks. "Why are you... wet?"

Ahkelios looks like he's about to reply, but that's before he catches sight of her legs. "You're worried about me?" he asks. "What happened to your legs?"

"Whoa." That one is Gheraa's questionably helpful contribution. "That looks like it hurts."

I just sigh to myself as all three of them start talking over one another.

It takes a solid minute or two to get them all to settle down. In that time, I manage to convince Versa to take a seat so I can examine what's happened to her Firmament. No matter how much she tries to play it off, all three of us are a little disturbed by what's happened to her, and she's clearly in pain as a result.

What I see is... disturbing. Especially when Versa explains how it happened. I might understand on an academic level what Teluwat is able to do, but actually seeing it is something entirely different—especially when my Firmament senses all tell me that this is how her legs are supposed to be.

"This is really gross," Ahkelios mutters behind me. Versa glares at him.

"You don't get to talk. You just squirmed out of some sort of spatial tumor," she says. Ahkelios holds his hands up in surrender.

"I don't mean you," he says. "Sorry. I mean Teluwat. The way you explained it, he just did this to you and... what, didn't care? This was normal for him?"

"That's the way he is, yep." Versa's still glowering, but she doesn't look like she's trying to kill Ahkelios with her gaze alone, at least. "There's a reason no one likes dealing with him. Even if we can defend ourselves, we can't know if something slipped past our defenses. This is just how things have always been for me."

"That's how you got here so quickly," I say.

"Because as far as my core and memories are concerned, I've been living like this all my life. Yes." Versa sighs. "The only reason I know he did something is because this is such an obvious change. And because I left myself a note. But imagine all the other ways he could change you without knowing."

"I read the files," Gheraa offers, looking disturbed. "If he's been doing that, then he's been doing it without us noticing." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Versa pauses. She looks at Gheraa, narrowing her eyes slightly. He's still in scirix form, but it doesn't take her long to put two and two together.

"Ethan," she says. "Do you have a fucking Integrator working for you?"

"Yes," Gheraa says proudly.

"He's not working for me," I say at the same time, glaring at Gheraa. "Gheraa, stop that."

"Absolutely not."

"I don't even want to ask," Versa mutters. "I give up. Look, you're not going to be able to fix this. If you know what Teluwat is doing, then you should go and save your friend right now."

"Guard can take care of himself," I say. It helps that I'm keeping an eye on him through our bond, but Versa doesn't need to know that. "And this is a chance for me to figure out how to fight him, even if I didn't want to help you. Which I do."

"What are you talking about?" Versa frowns. "No one can undo what Teluwat does. We don't know how he does it, but we're pretty sure whatever it is sits beyond the limits of our skills. Even skill-negating skills have no effect... on..."

She trails off. "What are you doing?"

I've stopped paying attention to her, for the most part.

The purpose of Anchoring is to fundamentally alter an aspect of reality. The purpose of Assimilation is to spread. To join things together. Teluwat uses a bastardized version of it to mimic a poor man's Anchoring, but in the realm of change...

It's my Talent that reigns superior. Not his.

I picture Versa's legs whole and complete. I focus on that thought, bearing down on reality as it should be. Teluwat may have corrupted it, but underneath it all, there's the tiniest spark of the truth.

I reach out and Anchor that reality, pouring my own Truth into it. It's a Truth that synchronizes perfectly with the Talent—the Truth of Change.

In an instant, Versa flashes back to the nearest tree, her eyes wide and panicked. "What was that?" she asks, her voice trembling. "It felt—it felt like—"

I shrug and gesture at her legs, and she looks down at them. They're complete—no longer a distorted lump of chitin and stone. "How..."

She shakes her head. Slowly, she makes her way back.

And then she bows deeply, her hands folded in front of her. "Thank you," she said.

I just wince. "Please don't bow."

Versa thought she was hiding it fairly well, but her heart was hammering in her chest. What the fuck—what the fuck was that?

In the instant before Ethan had done... whatever it was he'd done, she felt the entirety of his core bear down on her. It was like nothing she'd ever witnessed. She'd thought she was going to die. Her body had reacted more or less instantly to the perceived threat, forcing her to run away before she could stop herself.

Versa knew she'd felt his core before. She'd left a note for herself about that, too. In that note, she'd said she could probably fight him if she needed to.

Either her past self was very, very wrong, or Ethan had somehow grown enormously since the last time they'd met. It was possible, she supposed. She had no idea how many loops he'd been through.

But that was still terrifying. For a fraction of a second, it had felt like the weight of an ocean was bearing down on her.

A part of her had wondered if she should perhaps side with Teluwat in the upcoming conflict, despite what had been done to her. If they could find a place for her, perhaps, she could survive the loss of the planet. Teluwat certainly seemed sure he would.

But now? Not a chance. There was no way in all the Undergrowths she would bet against this monster.

Versa straightened, swallowing and trying to gather herself. Ethan looked mildly perturbed by how frightened she was, and if she was being honest, she was a little perturbed by it, too. It wasn't like her. She thought back to her Trial, then shook her head. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts.

Ethan probably wasn't telepathic, but she didn't particularly want to risk him picking up on anything about her Trials. Those Trials involved quite a lot of murder.

"Right," Versa said, forcing herself to speak more or less normally. If she pretended hard enough, she could make herself believe she was talking to another Trialgoer and not some sort of Firmament monster that had taken on a humanoid form. "There is one last thing, if you don't already know. I can tell you about Teluwat's defenses. His Great City is full of them. I know you said your friend can take care of himself, but..."

"We still need to get there and retrieve him eventually," Ethan said. His eyes gleamed with interest. "He's got defenses, huh? Tell me more."