In the center of the Forgotten City, surrounded by mysteries, demons, and the unconscious bodies of his team, Ethan glared at the white knight in front of him. At the man he’d known as a teammate, Valanor’s brother…and the Church’s executioner.

  Savilar had killed Glenn, innocent healers, and who knows how many others. The emotions that came with seeing the man wearing that terrible white armor were almost too much for Ethan, and only his desperate need for answers held him in place. He pointedly looked past the executioner at the still figures of their team in the room beyond.

  Savilar saw the look, and placed a hand on the hilt of his sheathed blade. “They’re simply unconscious,” he said. “I mean it, Bishop, I want to get us all out of this place alive, like I always planned. The Sword of Souls put them down before they even knew I was there.”

  “But you’d let me just walk out, knowing who you are?” Ethan shot back.

  Savilar shrugged. “You’re already known to the Church, Bishop. We let you walk around freely even though you’re a true healer. We’ve had a long time to learn what kind of risks are worth taking.”

  Ethan felt rage burning in him anew. “A true healer? I thought I was a heretic? A charlatan? You killed people because I healed them!”

  Savilar looked away at that. “We–I have killed many to protect the truth. I would hope you know me well enough to believe I wouldn’t do that for blind faith, or any kind of sick enjoyment.”

  “Then tell me the goddamn truth, Savilar! What is this place? Why is the Church so desperate to keep it all a secret?” Ethan demanded.

  Savilar looked at him for a long moment, then let out a sigh and walked toward the nearby wall. His hand traced the pictures and words carved into the green stone. “I’ve scratched out some of these personally, you know. You wouldn’t believe how many of these damned Cathedrals there are across the realms, and they used to love writing their gospel into the stone.”

  “So this is a Church,” Ethan said. “But to whom? The True Gods? Is that what this is about? A challenge to the Church’s power?”

  Savilar paused. “The True Gods? Now where did you hear about that, I wonder?” He shook his head. “No, Ethan, it’s nothing like that. This is a Church–but of the Goddess. The oldest in Viridus, I believe. A Church of healing, as they always have been.”

  Ethan’s eyebrows rose. “So it comes back to this; it’s tied to what you do to people now. Just like that sword.”

  Again Savilar appeared surprised. “You’ve put together more than I thought…I suppose filling in the final blanks isn’t the risk I expected. Yes, it’s tied to this,” he said, tapping the sword at his side. “It’s tied to the Church’s healing, and the price we extract for it.”

  “You really are stealing people’s energy, their lifeforce,” Ethan accused.

  Surprisingly, Savilar looked sad. “Much worse than that, my friend. We’re taking pieces of their very souls. The rest is just an unfortunate side-effect of the process.” He resumed walking around the room, examining the writings. “Long ago, the Church was able to heal freely, and they did so. But then…then the worlds began to collide.”

  Ethan’s eyes widened. “That’s all true? The rifts, the Chosen? The three worlds are really supposed to become one?”

  Savilar nodded without looking back at him. “It’s already happening; it has been for more than a thousand years. But do you have any idea what that would mean? You’ve been to Potentia, Bishop, that world is out of control. How do you think Viridus would handle a few thousand demons showing up? How would Earth handle it?”

  At the mention of Earth Ethan’s mouth went dry. “You know about my world? The Church’s sermons claim it’s a burning wasteland.”

  “I’ve never been there, but I know we paint a false portrait of your home,” Savilar said dismissively. “Part of our many efforts to keep the truth hidden.”

  “Then why, damn it!? The worlds are colliding. Fine. It would be a nightmare–you’re probably right. How does that end with you ripping apart peoples’ souls?”

  “Power,” Savilar said, once again looking right at him, now having walked half-way around the room. As he did so, Ethan had slowly repositioned as well, and was keenly aware he was now a straight shot away from his friends. The white knight continued.

  “We tried many solutions, as I understand it. Even rallied the Chosen to our cause. Protecting Nexum, the only true world, the only real home for our people. In the end though, we’re fighting the will of Gods themselves. They want the worlds to join. The only thing that can hold them back is their own power–the gifts they’ve given us.”

  Ethan couldn’t help but get lost in the explanation. “So you’re harvesting souls all across the planet, and using them to hold back these ‘Gods’?” Through it all, Ethan still had a hard time believing any of this had been real. He’d half-expected the man to admit the Goddess herself was an elaborate lie. Apparently the opposite was true: she was real, and the Church saw her as an enemy.

  “It’s a brutal system, but it works,” Savilar said softly. “We’re taught that it started with volunteers, the congregations being encouraged to give up pieces of themselves for the good of all. But it just wasn’t enough. When it became clear we were actually working against the Goddess, that well dried up completely.”

  “So you started a new narrative. That the Goddess was actually extracting a price for healings now,” Ethan said, and Savilar smirked slightly. Ethan glared. “No, I’m missing a piece–none of that explains this place. There’s no way the Church is this worried about some writing on a wall that almost no one can read.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Savilar nodded. “Correct. There’s more to this place, which should be obvious at this point.”

  Ethan considered, then looked down at the egg in his hand. “Why would the Church have a monster egg?” he whispered. His eyes flickered to the vault, and abruptly he knew what was inside. “Why would the Goddess give the power to heal to those expressly working against her?” The pieces began to fall into place. “It’s all a lie, isn’t it? The Goddess isn’t giving you a damn thing is she?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. We still follow her teachings. We believe in this world she created, and wish to protect it. We just…disagree on the way our world should end.”

  “But the healing never came from her, did it? It came from this,” he said, holding up the egg. Savilar just shrugged, and Ethan continued. “All this time, all these lies…the truth is that your Church just has a monopoly on monsters with some kind of Healing Affinity?”

  Ethan shook his head in wonder and rage. “You need everyone to be treated by the Church. Otherwise you can’t harvest their souls. And you can’t let anyone find this place, because then they’d know the truth.”

  Ethan’s mind raced as he considered the implications. The way medicine and natural healing had been stigmatized. The lengths the Church needed to go to in order to maintain their monopoly–burning his rune had been nothing. They must have been suppressing true healers for a thousand years. And if the vault held what he thought it did, this place could be the key to toppling an empire.

  “Do you understand, Bishop?” Savilar asked. “Do you see why this has to happen? The consequences are too dire. Billions of lives are at stake, on my world and your own. Please, give me the egg. You have no concept of how rare they are, and it can still be used for good. We are good! We help people, and we take as little as we can, but we’re holding back the end of the world!”

  Ethan stared at the man he’d fought beside for months. He’d desperately wanted to believe this was all a mistake, but now it was time to act. “How could I possibly trust that anything you’ve said is true? I’ve met Abigail, I know what the worst of you look like, Savilar. There’s no way I believe that this is all some kind of screwed up altruism, and not some perversion of personal power.”

  Savilar sighed. “Abigail has her role to play, and what we do is messy work. But it’s for the greater good, Ethan. And this isn’t her speaking, it’s me. You’ve fought beside me for months; we both trusted one another. I’m the same man that I was before I walked into this room.”

  “I know,” Ethan said flatly. “You’re the same man I met in the Hunter’s Guild, with the oppressive Familiar. You’re the same man that worked for the Church–the ones who tried to take everything from me. I wanted to trust you when I saw what you meant to Valanor, but I was never that naive.”

  “You can’t mean that,” Savilar insisted, taking a step forward. “How many battles have we fought, how many times have we faced death together?”

  “In the Brightsouls?” Ethan asked incredulously. “You really thought I’d join the Church’s team, and one of their greatest warriors without an ulterior motive? This was always the goal, Savilar. This room, these secrets.”

  Ethan shook his head sadly. “I never trusted you, because you’re also the same man I had Selina look into. The one who needed to be in Corvale for your ‘duties’. You let us believe you were closing rifts, but those days lined up with the last seven recorded executions. I knew who you were when we walked into this place, executioner, even if I didn’t want to believe it.”

  “Then you made many mistakes,” Savilar said in a cold voice. “Because if you’re truly against the Church, you know I can’t let you walk back out of here. I’m not just a higher rank, Bishop, this sword of mine has power you can’t possibly imagine. I’m sorry that you’ll fall to it after all.”

  “I’m sorry too, Savilar. Sorry that the necklace I gave you wasn’t really a protective charm,” Ethan said. The knight’s eyes widened and his hand shot to his neck, only to remember his white armor had covered what he normally wore–including the ‘gift’ Ethan had given him. [Volatile Infusion] had reached First Dusk, and could now be used to charge items that couldn’t be detected.

  Ethan was already snapping his fingers as Savilar desperately tried to reach the necklace. The Rift Hunter’s scream was lost as the explosion of Flare burst to life, swallowing his upper torso in flames, and tearing through pieces of his armor.

  Ethan wasted no more time gloating, instead turning and moving as quickly as he could to the room’s exit, depositing the egg into his inventory as he did so. He had no illusions that a single trap, even a Dusk rank one, could kill a warrior as powerful as Savilar–especially in his armor, and with that mysterious sword. But Ethan had a plan. Possibly a terrible plan. It was one he’d kept in his back pocket from the moment he understood he was entering a place with both rifts, and an enemy he likely couldn’t beat on his own.

  “Bishop!” Savilar's hoarse voice roared from behind him, but Ethan didn’t turn to look. Instead he made his way directly to the portal from which the dragon had squeezed through. The portal that Savilar no longer had the materials to close. Sensing those rifts and forcing the battle earlier had been a lucky break, now Ethan only needed his luck to hold a little longer.

  He spared a quick glance at his unconscious teammates, then dove through the open portal, heading back to Potentia.

  ***

  Ethan collapsed onto hot red dirt, coughing on the sour air of a world he never wanted to see again. He quickly heaved himself to his feet, not knowing how much time he’d have, and began to run from the open rift. He was in the massive, bowl-shaped valley that was a dark reflection of Viridus, surrounded by tall red mountains. Their sharp peaks seemed to scrape the sky.

  Ethan could see he wasn’t far from the Western range–he only needed to charge through one of the sickly yellow forests. As he stumbled forward, his attention was pulled to the East by something that sounded like thunder. He needed to sprint up a nearby hill for a better view, but once he could see clearly, it was all he could do not to collapse from the sight.

  Ethan had wondered what could have possibly convinced a Twilight rank dragon to nearly kill itself in an attempt to reach Nexum, but now he understood: it was running for its life.

  The massive rift was still there, the one Ethan had seen on his first trip to this world, but was mysteriously not present on the other side. Around it was a battle beyond that nearly defied description. Despite being miles away, the monsters fighting were clearly visible, and there were nearly a dozen of them of wildly different types and appearance.

  A stone golem the size of a mountain clashed with an ice dragon of similar scale. A serpent so long Ethan couldn’t see its end was wrapped around what looked like a two-headed elephant. A flaming bird chased a golden dragon through the sky, as a wolf as big as the walking city of Corvale feasted on a four-armed bear.

  As these titanic beats clashed, eruptions of power big enough to annihilate cities were being hurled around freely, and Ethan could immediately tell he wasn’t safe. Miles away or not, this was a battle on a scale he couldn’t wrap his mind around, and when he looked around with fresh eyes, he realized the landscape in every direction was already scarred from it.

  Ethan didn’t know how or why, but he’d arrived on Potentia in the middle of a war between Champions.