With the control over earth and stone Bash’s Fist of the First gave the little Troblin, it was comically easy for him to grow a large, circular archway. Big enough across for twenty people to walk side by side, it was more limited by how big Seeyela could make her own portal, than anything Bash could do. Since they had to move thousands of people through the portal, bigger certainly would’ve been better, but they’d work with what they had.

  The approximate number of people that could pass through the portal at one time was also an important variable for Nulokin and his group running their calculations. Moving the energy at the same time as the people made a lot of sense. From what the Eidolon’s initial calculations suggested, it wasn’t a small amount of runic energy that would need to go through to balance the two worlds.

  After Bash completed the arch, Hiral worked with Seeyela to engrave runes along the entire thing. Separation, and Connection were two givens to bolster the portal and cut the distance, but Sealing, Gravity, Time Contraction, and Expansion quickly worked their way into the equations. Since Seeyela’s teleportation and portals were all based off the concept of gravity—to somehow bend space—it only made sense for that rune to be there to reinforce her power.

  The other runes would improve the stability of the tunnel, while the time rune would hopefully help make things move instantly. It shouldn’t be needed, but Hiral’s gut told him to throw it in there anyway. It couldn’t hurt. Probably. Expansion, of course, was to actually forge the tunnel everybody would pass through, easing some of the strain on Seeyela’s ability.

  Speaking of strain, the biggest one would of course be the solar energy cost of moving thousands of people. Even at S-Rank, Seeyela couldn’t hope to do that on her own. So, of course, Hiral added his Runes of Energy, Attraction, and Absorption to the arch. The combination—and the equations between them—would pull energy directly from each person who moved through the portal, basically paying the toll of passage.

  There were also a few leftover elemental cores from the earlier feeding frenzy as well, and they’d been repurposed to jump-start the gateway when the time came. Those would open it up long enough for the first people to pass through, and for the toll to be collected. Once it got going, it would be entirely self-sufficient.

  Until then, the portal Seeyela had created through her ability was kind of sleeping. It stood there, like a curtain of black within the arch, but had a glass-like feeling to anybody who came up and touched it. On one side of the arch, Hiral had set up a control panel—with the help of Ur and the PIMP—that any of the Eidolons could use to light the spark that would awaken the portal. And, just as importantly, control the flow of runic energy that would pass through.

  Building the fine equations needed to create a scaling filter for runic energy, one allowing a range of a smidgen to an infinite amount of energy to pass through had been oddly fun. Difficult, no doubt, but enjoyable. It had taken a few tries, sure, with each failure being a little frustrating. When those turned to successes though? It showed just how far he’d come already working with the runes.

  “So,” Seeyela said, looking at the arch in front of them. “Did this all just come to you within the last few hours?” She waved her hand generally at the glowing runes etched into the stone.

  “Pretty much,” Hiral said with a laugh. “Did you think I had this all planned out ahead of time? Sorry to disappoint you if you did.”

  “Not at all,” Seeyela said. “Just, this is pretty impressive, if it works. More than that, have you considered what it means when you get back?”

  “Don’t you mean we?” Hiral said. “When we get back.”

  “Yeah, sure, that,” Seeyela said, opening her mouth to continue. Too bad for her, Hiral’s pulse with his Rune of Sound made that impossible for her.

  “No, you’re not dodging this question,” Hiral said after checking to make sure nobody else was around. And, that he wasn’t talking in the raid chat. “Something’s been going on with you since you got your advanced class. Spill it.”

  “There’s nothing going on,” Seeyela said. “So, back to what I was say…” her voice cut off again with another pulse from the Rune of Sound.

  “Yeah, no,” Hiral said. “Not buying it. And before you try to deflect again, keep in mind I’m the one person who can probably keep up with you even if you’re trying to be evasive.”

  “You want to bet on that?” Seeyela said, crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side.

  “Do you?” Hiral countered, not backing down this time.

  Seeyela looked at the portal again, uncrossed her arms, and clapped her hands. “Then I guess we’re done here.”

  Bamf, and she vanished in a flash of purple fire… only to reappear on a roof in a distant corner of the city, with Hiral standing there and waiting for her.

  “Your armor does make it a lot harder for my sensory domain to detect you…” Hiral started, then stopped as Seeyela vanished within another Bamf. As soon as she reappeared, again with him standing in front of her, he continued. “But your ability using gravity? Like an open book to my Edict.”

  Bamf.

  “On top of that,” Hiral said, looking into her wide eyes for a third time. “I’ve also…”

  Bamf.

  “… figured out a way to use Connection…”

  Bamf.

  “… to tag along with you wherever you go.”

  Bamf.

  “See? You can’t run from me.”

  “I can stab you. I’m not playing.”

  Hiral’s pseudo-aspect erupted with power, the Seeker’s Crown settling on his head, while the white energy of his Seeker’s Regalia flaked and rose into the air. All around them, Gravity and Sealing had shut down any more teleportation, and the Edicts circled at his back, awaiting his need.

  “I’m not playing either, and if you need me to knock some sense into you…”

  Seeyela’s hands actually went to her Fangs of the Lady where they hung at her back.

  The Seeker’s Greatsword appeared in Hiral’s hand, six-foot, pitch-black blade edged in holy energy, and etched with glowing runes.

  The woman opposite him looked down at the weapon, then back to his face.

  “You’d really go that far?”

  “I promised you and your little girl I’d get you home. This isn’t even half as far as I’m willing to go to keep that promise.”

  Without her eight-eyed helm in place, it was easy to see the expressions flashing across Seeyela’s face. The mention of her daughter hit like a slap, making her wince, and some of the tension left her shoulders.

  “Fine,” she finally said. “Just… put that thing away before somebody notices it.”

  A thought dismissed the greatsword, though Hiral didn’t do anything about locking down space. Then again, even with his confidence, would it work against her Unfettered ability? Hopefully he wouldn’t need to find out.

  “It’s gone,” Hiral said, voice softening. “Seeyela, tell me what’s going on.”

  She stared at him without answering. Like she hoped he would go away if she stayed quiet long enough. Instead, he just waited for her. She needed to talk about this, even if she didn’t know she wanted to. Seeyela would not have made the verbal slip up earlier if she was really trying to hide it.

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  “I don’t think Nulokin’s plan will work,” she finally said. “Not entirely, at least.”

  That wasn’t at all what Hiral had expected to hear. “Then why did we just spend the last few hours building the bridge?”

  “That part will work, probably,” Seeyela said. “If you think it will. It’s not that I’m worried about. It’s the part where Genesis floats back up to its own time like a ball from the bottom of a pond.”

  “Why not?” Hiral asked.

  “Cause nothing is ever that simple or convenient,” Seeyela said.

  “There’s more to it than that, or you wouldn’t be worried about it,” Hiral said. “It’s something to do with your new sponsor.” He pointed straight up in the general direction a certain Black Gate hiding within a white sun could be found.

  “Your attunement is annoying sometimes,” Seeyela said.

  “I doubt I’m the only one who noticed anything,” Hiral said. “Your sister knows you better than you think, and even Wule and Nivian asked us if you were okay. So, out with it. What’s wrong with the plan, and what does your sponsor think is going to happen?”

  “It thinks once we free the other three Black Gates, it’ll just pop out Genesis right here. Either beside Terminus, or—more likely—right on top of it. Probably destroying both worlds in the process.”

  “Oh,” Hiral said. That… wasn’t great. Still, something about the way Seeyela was standing suggested it wasn’t the actual problem. “You still said ‘when you get back’, meaning you have a way to get around the two-worlds-one-space problem.”

  “GG does,” Seeyela said. “GG, for Grampy-Gate, and, yes, that’s what I call him in my head. He’s an old Black Gate, and just calling them all Black Gates was getting confusing.”

  “What GG’s plan?”

  “When Genesis leaves the portal, that’ll have to mean time will advance here again, right?”

  “As far as we know, yeah.”

  “When that happens, the sun up there finally dies, taking the last of this universe with it. It also frees GG from where it’s been trapped. In that instant, GG is going to pull us—and Genesis, sort of—through it, back to where we’re supposed to be. That part is kind of the same as Nulokin’s plan.”

  “I’m hearing a but in here somewhere.”

  “GG can’t take an entire planet into it,” Seeyela said. “Not directly at least. It’s not big enough. So, it needs somebody to… carry the world.

  “Somebody with an affinity for gravity magic, a penchant for teleportation, and who has a certain Insatiable ability that will eat—and store—just about anything.”

  “It wants you to store an entire planet inside your ability,” Hiral said. “Can you even do that?”

  “GG says I can,” Seeyela said. “It was part of the advanced class and being S-Rank. Insatiable can hold a lot. I’ve already noticed the difference.”

  “Then… what’s the problem?” Hiral said, words coming out slowly.

  “Remember when you told us what it feels like to use your Rune of Absorption? Like, it burns when you absorb fire? Or it feels like a pressure trying to explode from the inside, out, when you take in too much?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Insatiable is the same way if it eats too much. Not the fire-part so much, thankfully, but it sounds like stuffing Genesis in there isn’t going to be puppies and rainbows. It’ll feel like the entire world is going to get pushed through me. Not a small world, either, apparently.”

  “Getting an entire world squeezed through you doesn’t sound… pleasant.”

  “Says a man who never even has to worry about giving birth,” Seeyela said. “It’s not going to be pleasant at all. It’s also why I got the Last Stand ability.” Just in case Hiral had forgotten what her new class skill did, she shared the window with him.

  Last Stand—When the final sleep threatens, you shall not close your eyes or yield. You shall not die for as long as your determination holds true. No wound will cause you pain, and no injury shall slow you down.

  Note: Last Stand has cooldown based on severity of injuries and duration of last usage of ability.

  Note (2): Duration of Last Stand is entirely dependent on user’s determination to succeed. Should your will falter for even an instant, so too shall Last Stand.

  Note (3): When Last Stand ends, you will be left at 1% health, free of any debuffs or effects that would further damage you. Any new damage will not be prevented.

  “For everybody on Genesis when it goes into Insatiable,” Seeyela said. “The transportation should feel like almost any other teleport. For me…”

  “How bad?” Hiral asked.

  “Genesis doesn’t really have a long distance to go, this is where it’s meant to be,” Seeyela said. “It’s more how far back in time that’s the problem. GG says for all the years Genesis has to travel, it could feel like an instant for me. Or, it could feel like each of those years passing in normal time. And I have to endure it, or Last Stand fails, and the whole world is lost.

  “No pressure or anything.”

  “Does it have to be you? Can you share the load? Can we, I don’t know, use Shared Storage? It’s pretty big now…”

  “Not big enough,” Seeyela said. “You can’t help with this one. This isn’t just about pain. Without Last Stand, the process would outright kill me. That’s why GG made sure I got the ability. Even why some of my other ones may seem a little weaker. You’d explode, and not in your usual way.”

  “We’ll find another way,” Hiral said. “Nulokin’s theory might be prove to be true.”

  “It might,” Seeyela admitted. “And I’d really, really like it to be. But, if I have to decide between my life and saving everybody else on Genesis—including Favela and Seena—the choice is a simple one. Same one I’d make every time. So, I officially release you from your promise.”

  “Denied,” Hiral said immediately. “Promises aren’t something either of us get to get out of so easily. And you don’t get to give up so easily.”

  “Last Stand is literally the opposite of giving up,” Seeyela said.

  “And somehow it still sounds like you’re expecting the process to kill you after torturing you,” Hiral said.

  “Even if it doesn’t kill me,” Seeyela said quietly. “GG said the years of pain…” she gestured to the city of Trevallen. The entire population had just gone through something similar. To imagine Seeyela would have to deal with that. It wasn’t right.

  “We will find a way,” Hiral said, and stepped forward to grab Seeyela by the shoulders to make sure she knew that.

  “Hiral,” Seeyela said. “You’ve done a lot of crazy things, but I think even this one might be a bit outside what’s possible.”

  “If the Black Gate can do it, so can we,” Hiral said. “S-Rank is no joke.”

  “I doubt it’s that easy.”

  “Never said it would be easy,” Hiral said. “Just that we’d do it. And we will. You’re getting back to Favela, with your mind intact.”

  “Hiral,” she said again, quietly. “You know what we’re about to jump back into. Not even talking about freeing Genesis, but going up against the Raze again, too. If we don’t figure out how to deal with their reset ability… not everybody is going to make it home. We have to accept that.”

  Hiral’s jaw tightened at the words. “I have accepted that.” His words were quiet, like he didn’t want to admit it. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot since we first did The Final Sunrise, and everybody was so hurt. Then, again, when we fought the Raze.

  “And, as much as I hate to say it, we had that much trouble, and our group is stronger than the other two. Going back and taking on the Raze is a big risk. Bigger for them. I’d love to leave them behind where it’s safe, but I don’t think we can do it on our own. If we could, we would’ve won the first time we fought.

  “People are going to get hurt. We might lose people I’ve come to care about. A lot.”

  “Then…”

  “But,” Hiral interrupted. “Not you. Not Seena. Not Laseen. Not Romin or Wallop.”

  “Yan?” Seeyela said, eyebrow up.

  “It’s Yan, he’ll take care of himself. Same with Nivian and Wule.”

  Seeyela chuckled and rolled her eyes at the attempted humor, though she clearly agreed with the sentiment.

  “Seriously, though,” Hiral said. “I’ll do everything I can to get everybody home safe, but in the heat of battle, anything can happen. At S-Rank, it can happen—it can go bad—fast. I took on a responsibility as the raid leader, but I also have to trust Nivian and Ilrolik to take care of their own parties when things start going pear-shaped in the middle of a fight. Just like I trust Seena to look out for us.

  “You though, and this plan to get Genesis home. It’s not in the middle of a battle. We’ll have time to figure things out. Maybe we’ll even ask the PIMP.”

  “You know I don’t trust that little bastard,” Seeyela said.

  “When it comes to saving Genesis, I think you can,” Hiral said. “It doesn’t really care about us beyond what we can do to achieve its primary goal, but it won’t throw us away as long as we can help that. It could know a way to increase the world’s buoyancy, that’s what Nulokin called it. Use itself as an anchor point to help pull Genesis back to where it’s supposed to be.”

  “Sounds like a lot of maybes to me,” Seeyela said.

  “We’re kind of in uncharted territory here,” Hiral pointed out. “We’re making this all up as we go along. Just, don’t rush off to play the role of sacrifice, okay? I get you might think it’s the last choice, but you know what they say about last choices…”

  “Isn’t the expression about one choice being no choice at all?” Seeyela corrected him.

  “The last choice is one choice, by definition,” Hiral countered. “So, my statement stands.”

  Seeyela let out a deep breath. “Fine,” she finally said. “Fine! I’ll give you—and everybody else—a chance to find another way.”

  “We’ll make sure Nulokin and the others keep looking for plans B-through-S.”

  “Why not T-through-Z?”

  “S for success,” Hiral said.

  “I’d rather plan-A succeeded,” Seeyela said.

  “Me too.”

  The woman punched him gently in the chest. “You have to do something for me too, for me to agree with all this.”

  “You don’t want me to tell Seena what you’re planning,” Hiral said.

  “That’s one of the things, yeah,” Seeyela said. “I don’t want her distracted during the fight with the Raze. You two have to get a dog, after all.”

  “And you’ll be there to have your shoes chewed on,” Hiral promised.

  “Better not,” Seeyela growled.

  “But, I agree it could be distracting. She loves you,” Hiral said. “I won’t… volunteer it. If she asks, though, I won’t keep it from her. I won’t lie.”

  “Acceptable,” Seeyela said. “Wouldn’t be a great relationship to be built on lies like that.”

  “Besides that, I’m not sure what else you’d want?”

  “Sera,” Seeyela said.

  “What about her?” Hiral asked, taken aback by the woman’s inclusion.

  “You didn’t mention getting your mother back safely,” Seeyela said. “She’s family.”

  “You’re family,” Hiral said. “She just happened to give birth to me. Not the same thing.”

  “Hiral…”

  “Really. But…” It was his turn to blow out his breath. “Dad, Nat, and Milly would be upset if she didn’t make it back. I’ll add her to the list.”

  “Hiral, this isn’t like going to the market to get vegetables,” Seeyela said.

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