Hiral’s Seeker’s Unmaking fit in the Avatar’s heart like a key in a lock. Gravity turned the tumbler, breaking down time and space around the two men, a ripple radiating from them as everything stopped. Time lost all meaning, the chains that had bound the man for more years than Hiral could fathom, shattering in an instant that no longer existed.

  Around them, the ripple in space gave a glimpse of… everything. Everywhere. Similar to what the caretaker had said, there was no here or there, no now or then. There was only everywhere and always.

  Hiral witnessed the births of a thousand universes, the deaths of a thousand more, the rise and fall of civilizations he didn’t recognize, and could scarcely imagine. In all of them, he saw the Raze burn across them, destroying everything in their paths. Like locusts, they—and their Endless—destroyed everything they touched. There was no conquering, only consumption.

  The constant hunt for the same runic energy that had a hand in creating them. They torched worlds, crushed realms, extinguished suns, and blanketed every night sky in darkness until only they remained. Ninety percent of it they’d done before even finding the Avatar of Time and trapping him. After they had him, another nine percent fell, while only a bare one percent—such as the Nine Hells—managed to escape.

  With his power, they’d gone back and wiped out everything they’d missed in their quest for the next high. When there was nothing left for them to consume, they’d then turned to their own timeline, ripping Genesis free from where it was, to trap it in a cycling dungeon. Finally, they had the perfect source of their drug, and they could stop hunting. Too bad it had taken them until the end of time, the cusp of the end of everything, for them to find their happy place.

  There had hardly been anything else left alive to benefit from their cessation of destruction.

  Looking at it—seeing it—all at once, Hiral could even pick out the moments in time where it got the worst, where the evolution of the Raze tipped into the realm of unstoppable. The power they showed in these visions was beyond what the party had seen. When time and space took hold again, they would regain that power, the might to destroy universes, and his party was right in front of them.

  Worse, in a way, even if the party survived the coming storm and managed to return Genesis, the risk of unleashing the Raze on every other realm in existence was high. With his view expanded like this, and Eclipse on his chest, he could almost see the odds. The Raze were too powerful to let it end. Terminus would follow Genesis back in time, giving them a whole new collection of universes to consume.

  None had been able to stand up to them before, to their extreme growth as they spread. Nothing would be different this time.

  Not unless Hiral did something to tip the odds. He saw it now; his party couldn’t truly defeat the Raze and their Endless here. They could—and would—fight to buy the time they needed for their plan to come to fruition, but it wasn’t their fate to destroy this enemy. Trying to would only result in every one of them dying.

  At least, right now.

  Why? Because Dr. Benza had been wrong. SSS+Rank wasn’t the top end of the scale. It was just the first step to true power. The Raze, unleashed and untethered, had already ascended to that next stage of existence. Only barely, but it would be enough to make them unbeatable.

  Until Hiral and the others had time to grow stronger. Something that wouldn’t matter if the Raze continued to grow when they became unchained from the Avatar of Time. All that meant there was one thing Hiral needed to not just survive this battle, but win the eventual war that would burn across the universes again.

  He needed… time.

  And it was the one thing he could never have. With his sword through the Avatar’s heart, Hiral would never be able to bond with the Rune or Edict of Time. There has to be a way… there!

  The power of time would be severed from the Raze immediately, but would only wane over its hold on Genesis and the Black Gates. That was his chance. The power of the rune would linger, and with it—and his Touch of Genesis ability—he could…

  Hiral’s eyes widened at what he saw. His plan unfolding even before his eyes, watching a thousand eventualities and possibilities of how it could play out. In some, he failed, and Genesis died, while only the Raze went back in time. In others, he failed, Genesis died, but at least the Raze died with them, heralding the true end to all things.

  In even less, he succeeded in sending Genesis back, but the Raze went with them, cursing the wider universes to getting snuffed out a second time at their hands. In none of them did he manage to send Genesis back in time and leave the Raze and Terminus to die at the end of time.

  Hiral didn’t accept any of these solutions, and he pushed hard on Eclipse, the rune burning bright on his chest, while light flared from his eyes, illuminating new paths that had been hidden before. In these, there were new chances, but there was also something else.

  There were costs.

  Terrible costs. His heart broke as he watched what they would have to sacrifice to even give them a chance to both bring Genesis home, and defeat the Raze. Over and over, his friends broke and died. Sometimes it was only one or two, other times it was all of them, the cause of the difference of outcomes nothing more than a split-second decision. A choice to look left instead of right. Protecting one person instead of another. Holding a cooldown instead of using it, or one wearing off at the worst possible time.

  Seena, Yanily, Seeyela, Laseen, Romin and Wallop, Nivian and Wule, even Left and Right; they all died over and over in the infinite number of possibilities. There was no variation where nobody died. And, even seeing how some of the scenes would play out, it didn’t mean Hiral could control them. He couldn’t memorize the patterns that led to the difference results, especially with the role he knew he needed to play. All he could do was focus on the similarities of the successful simulations, and try not to dwell on the price they would have to pay.

  He knew it wasn’t set in stone, that these were all just possibilities granted by his Rune of Eclipse, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch. To know. Worse, as the raid leader, it was his responsibility to make this choice. To decide for them—How much were they willing to sacrifice to succeed?

  He knew the answer. They all did.

  Everything.

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  They had come this far because they were the only ones who could. Because the people left behind were so important to them. They had all come knowing they could die, and they were all willing to make that trade. Their lives for their families. For their friends and loved ones.

  With overwhelming power comes overwhelming responsibility.

  They had a chance, several of them, in fact, and though victory would cost them in blood and lives, Hiral would make sure they reached it. Even if he had to grasp it with broken fingers over the bodies of his best friends.

  Or, even if he had to die himself, to give one of them the chance.

  Making the decision—reaffirming the commitment—was the tipping point for the strange pause in time and space. With it came a flood of power from Hiral, his Black Hole Solar Heart erupting with energy to stream directly into the Seeker’s Unmaking and the Edict of Gravity within it. The singularity that had formed, erupted in a massive burst that literally blew the top off the cavern. The pillar of energy stretched for the sky, far above the tall buildings, and even lanced in the direction of the last sun staring down on them with its white light.

  Wrapped in pockets of Energy, Decrease, Absorption, and Restoration, Hiral’s raid party was protected from the deadly fallout of the explosion. More than that, thanks to the Edicts Hiral had used for each of their little bubbles, they found their wounds healed. Their solar energy topped off. It wasn’t quite as good as what they Raze got from their reset ability, but it was the best Hiral could do with the extra energy donated by the Avatar of Time’s death.

  As for the Raze themselves, Hiral hadn’t done anything to protect them, instead encircling them in spheres of Energy, Increase, and Breaking to magnify the energy as it washed over them and shot them into the sky. S-Rank or not, the deluge of violent power from the Avatar of Time had made a volcano erupting look tame in comparison.

  When the crackling energy faded a few seconds later, it was only Hiral standing in the pit where he’d found the trapped Avatar. Of the other man, nothing was left beyond lingering whisps of his energy and broken strands of the connections he’d had with the Raze and Endless. Connections that—just barely—held an echo of the power he’d wielded.

  And, echoes were something Hiral was very familiar working with. High above him, the battle rejoined, the Raze’s furious bellows rolling like thunder, Hiral’s party intercepting and striking with new vigor, while he reached out for those fraying strands. Catching them with fingers of Energy and Dreaming, they didn’t hold the same volatility they’d displayed when resetting the Raze, but Hiral wasn’t aiming to copy that anyway.

  No, he had other uses for the left-over Time, and Hundred Handed emerged from his back to get to work. There, where he stood was ground-zero, and where the power remained the strongest. Other threads of it would still be connected to Genesis and other locations on Terminus—such as Trevallen, where the people had been trapped so long—but he had to start somewhere. Energy-tipped fingers scarred the ground around him in an S-Rank blur, runic equations carving into the melted stone to glow with internal energy the instant they were finished.

  “These things are getting stronger,” Wule said into the raid chat. “Fast.”

  “You need to hold them off,” Hiral said. “I’m moving up the timetable—by a lot—but none of it will matter if they interrupt me before I finish. You need to keep their attention on you. No matter what.”

  “No matter what?” Seena asked, and Hiral could tell the chat had been reduced to just her, him, Nivian, and Ilrolik. The party leaders.

  “No matter what,” Hiral confirmed. “There can’t be any backing down or running away from this one. All the cards are on the table.”

  “Do we need to win this fight?” Nivian said, the tone of voice speaking volumes of the fight he was literally in the middle of.

  “Win? No. Hold, yes,” Hiral said. “I wish I could say it wouldn’t cost us, but I need you to keep them off me for a few minutes. After that, we all need to hold out just a bit longer—I’ll be able to help then—for everything to stabilize—for the new rules to take hold—then, and only then, we can make for the exit.”

  “How long?” Ilrolik said. “These things are already pushing us. You weren’t kidding when you said they’d get stronger.”

  “And they’ll only keep getting stronger,” Hiral warned them. “I think they’re above S-Rank, and with the Avatar of Time’s power no longer in place, they’ll grow back to that power level the longer they’re fighting.”

  “That’s really not good,” Ilrolik said.

  “No, but it’s also our chance,” Hiral said. “If their power can go up as time starts ticking slowly forward again, then…”

  A massive explosion that filled the sky above—from horizon to horizon—cut off what Hiral was saying.

  “You don’t need to explain to us,” Nivian said. “We trust you. And, we’ll hold until you tell us we don’t need to. No matter what it takes.”

  “Thank you,” Hiral said, the memory of all the possibilities he’d seen flashing through his head. “I wish I could tell you to be careful, but we can’t afford that. All I can do is promise I’ll make it worth it.”

  “We know you will,” Nivian said, before his presence vanished from the chat.

  “Loan would call this a fight for the ages,” Ilrolik said. “A chance to leave our mark in history. None of that was ever the reason I fought. Even in the Amphitheatre of the Sun, for me, it was always about inspiring others. About giving them a hope for what they could be. Their future.

  “That’s what I’ll fight for here, too. And, what I’ll die for if need be. Hiral, thank you for giving this old lady a chance to be part of this.”

  “Thank you, Ilrolik,” Hiral said, unable to bring himself to try and convince her that wasn’t a very real possibility.

  A grunt was all he got in reply—the woman understood—then she also faded from the chat, leaving just Hiral and Seena.

  “That bad, huh?” she said, surprisingly flippant about it.

  “Yeah,” Hiral admitted. “Seena, you need to…”

  “I know what you’re going to say,” Seena said. “I need to burn it all down.”

  Despite not at all being what he was going to say, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—argue the point. That she’d make a joke about it meant she knew what was on the line. And her resolve wasn’t any less than Ilrolik or Nivian’s.

  It would be insulting to her if Hiral tried to convince her of believing any other thing. She was just as strong and just as determined as the other party leaders. Also, just as needed.

  “Burn the whole world down, if you have to,” Hiral said.

  “You hear that Ur?” Seena said. “Sounds like it’s actually time for a little world domination.”

  “I have long prepared for this day, my Mistress,” Li’l Ur said. “Even though my would-be apprentice has my Urn, we shall show these Raze fear.”

  “And fire,” Seena said. “Don’t forget the fire.”

  “Of course, Mistress.”

  “Hiral,” Seena said, though she’d clearly been fighting the whole time, too. “Do what you need to. I’ll be waiting. Like you said, no matter what.”

  “I won’t keep you long,” Hiral promised, the first three of his circles already finished while he spoke to the others.

  “Good, because I’ve got a couple dog names I want to run by you,” Seena said, that smile that was just for him coming through in her voice. Before he could respond, though, she also vanished from the chat, leaving Hiral alone with the work he had to do.

  More explosions and eruptions of solar power in the sky above told him just how hard his friends were fighting. Among them, he could also feel how quickly the Raze were growing in strength. Manipulating the strands of time—especially how it flowed around Trevallen—would speed up the timeline for the end to under fifteen minutes.

  Time Dilation and Time Contraction would allow the Eidolons to move through the portal far faster, even though they wouldn’t even realize it, and help rejuvenate the Black Gates. All that was left was buying time for Hiral’s new rules to settle into place.

  If the raid group ran too soon, the Raze would be able to destroy the runic circles, cancelling their effects. Hiral needed to stick around long enough for them to take effect permanently, with or without the equations remaining.

  And, that was the easy part. After that, there was still the hurdle of getting Genesis back to their own time, though Hiral was no longer fighting to keep the Raze and Terminus at the end of time. Every possibility where he succeeded in getting Genesis out of the dungeon and safely back in time involved Terminus going with it.

  Balance?

  Not that it mattered. It was part of the plan now. And, for the plan to truly succeed, there was one more thing he needed.

  “Seeyela,” he said in a private chat channel. “There’s something I need you to go get for me from Trevallen…”

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