The world didn’t gray out or shatter. No Memories rose from the depths of the Empyrean Halls to accost Felix’s Mind. Instead, a simple, staggering weight settled across his Aspects.

He was slammed into the ground.

Bone buckled, deep cracks splitting the floor into jagged segments. Felix’s chest was doing its best to occupy the same space as the ground, but he strained his neck, lifting his face up as he mustered his own Will in return.

Before him was nothing but darkness.

Until an eye opened.

It was so wide he couldn’t encompass it all from his vantage point. What he could see were the thick striations of its iris, a bright brownish-gold interspersed with green and deepest blue. The iris flexed, squeezing around a pupil shaped like a four-pointed star, as if it were focusing. On him.

Oh goddamn…

An awareness sailed forth from that eye, one too large to be gentle. It raked through Felix, seeping into his Body, his Spirit, and his Mind.

Through his Memories.

Recent events played back across Felix’s eyes, overlaid across the great eye before him. Ghostly wanderings across the expanse of Etrionn, tracing him and Pit back as they descended the staircase, exited the Grove, fought against Root and statues. Then further, across empty chambers and the broken Skill Library. Every single moment of their journey through the fallen city was examined, not lingering even once.

Is it looking for something?

It pushed further. The touch on his Mind wasn’t painful, but he could feel it like a cold bar against the back of his head. The Queen reared up, as did the Kings, Princes, and all their swarms. There it did linger, but always around his kills. The Memories turned, rotating around as if the eye were examining something. Then Felix ended the monsters of the Sunsend Peaks, and it moved on.

Time flickered, moving backwards at a dizzying rate. Moments Felix would consider important—his raising of Aeonis and the fight against the Echo of Noctis—were passed over swiftly, as if they didn’t matter at all. Instead the eye focused on smaller things. Quiet moments.

It stopped.

“We gotta go back. Vess is there.”

Someone said something, but the eye wasn’t focused on them. It zoomed in on Felix, the Memories splitting around to view him from new angles.

Felix stood among his friends with an expression on his face that he’d never seen before. Jaw clenched, lip almost curled, and eyes blazing with blue fire and a dot of red-gold in his pupil. He looked…intense. Scary, even.

“Fuck the gods.” Memory Felix swept his gaze around the room. “I’m bringing her back. Who’s with me?”

The Memories moved on, faster now. It zipped past the Hierophant, the gods, but it lingered on the explosive growth of the Spirit Tree before Amaranth. Then it moved on. Fights upon fights flickered past Felix’s gaze, too many to count. Threats to himself and his people, figures that tried to grind others under their heels. All were ended, either by Felix or his friends.

His friends. The Memories slowed around them, where Felix interacted with them in battle or otherwise. The eye peered at their conversations, a voyeur interested in the most mundane details. Primordials, Nymean ruins, and confrontations with the gods were all ignored in favor of these small moments.

Then it was done. The Memories flickered and vanished.

The eye hummed. It was a sweet sound that Felix couldn’t stand. It thundered across the horizon like a whale call, slipping through him like a sharp, freezing gale. His Aspects resonated with it, turning every piece of Felix on edge as metal drawn against metal. He convulsed, tossed back onto his knees.

You Are Worthy.

The eye blinked and was gone.

You Have Completed A Hidden Quest!

Earn Etrionn’s Approval

The Great Beast of a distant land has approved of your judgment and has granted you Authority over its remains! Weep, for it was the last of its kind. Rejoice, for all things must end so others may start anew.

Rewards!

+Platinum Chest

+Increased Authority Over Crescian Bronze

+The Right Of Request

The interior of the skull returned, and Felix was left panting in the quiet.

Felix! You’re back. Where did you go?

“Nowhere,” he managed after a moment. His insides felt a mess after that sweet song was gone, as if he’d lost something valuable he couldn’t name. He wiped his cheeks. They were wet with tears. “I passed another test.”

Beside him, a heavy Chest thumped to the ground. It shone in the dark, its pearlescent silver metal as bright as a mirror. Felix smiled. “Got some loot, though.”

He lifted the lid and Mana surged in the area. Not just Mana, either. That colorless power rushed as well, joining into a roiling cloud above the Chest. Inside was a soft lining of pale velvet as well as no less than seven objects.

“Are you kidding me?” Felix laughed, and it rolled out of him like an avalanche. It came from the soles of his feet and made him tear up all over again. He looked around, stopping at the Root brain. “You did this on purpose?”

There was no answer. Not that Felix expected one. He slammed the Chest closed. “We’ll be holding onto these for later.”

He paused over the other rewards. Increased Authority over Crescian Bronze was amazing, considering his most important items—sword and Chalice and Crown—seemed composed of the stuff in one way or another. But what was the Right of Request?

He prodded the notification, but no further information was offered. That wouldn’t normally stop him, but the air around him shifted, drawing Felix’s attention more effectively than an explosion.

The Dissonance was moving.

No. Felix turned, looking at the gate. It’s retreating.

His Authority now established, Felix could feel the Dissonance peel away from the room—from all of Etrionn, in fact. It wasn’t eliminated, of course; Felix was certain nothing could do that. It was as natural as the elements. Instead, the Seal expanded, calling forth Harmony to balance it. The combination resounded with his cores at his center, and the world upended. Felix stumbled, nearly slipping through the hole back to the Sanctum before it steadied, and everything felt…natural. As if the world had always been this solid and unyielding.

Felix touched a hand to his belly, then his head. The Regalia within himself felt almost stable, and the sword at his hip faintly buzzed with power. "Come on out, Pit."

His Companion appeared in a flash of light. He rushed towards Felix, hopping as he did so. "You did it! Yeah!”

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“So much.”

Felix pursed his lips and kicked the Platinum Chest. “Take this, will you?”

Pit turned, presenting his opposite haunch where there was space. Felix quickly lashed the Chest in place. It wasn’t even particularly heavy, though it should have been.

"Karys?” Felix said aloud when the Chest was secure. “Can you hear me?"

His sword buzzed to life, a cloud of green-gold Mana rising up. "Felix! my Lord, I can hear you now. Can you hear me?"

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I can, Karys. We've fixed the issue that was causing the interference. We've claimed Authority over Etrionn."

"Truly?” His Chancellor laughed delightedly. “That's astounding! There was never any doubt!"

“I appreciate the confidence.” Felix laid a flat gaze on Pit, but the tenku just lolled his tongue from his big, dumb beak.

Sighing, he gently pulled the cutting of Abundance from the saddlebags. Some of the leaves were crumbled at the edges, and the pot was a bit cracked, but it was alive. The cutting even still glowed with a bright blue radiance, unfurling a bit in the new, balanced atmosphere. With a swirl of vapor, Paxus manifested himself in midair.

"Emperor, it seems you have solved the issue.” The spirit's image glitched slightly. “Though it seems damage has been done to the cutting."

"Unfortunately, yeah. There was a great deal of Dissonance here, as well as, I think, something else. It started to wither you away."

Paxus took a look around. "My goodness. Those branches."

"Yes, I noticed them, too. Below us is an entire grove of Spirit Trees, all of them dead. Withered away, the entire forest turned to ash.”

Paxus looked appalled. “Whatever caused this must have been horrendous. Was it the Ruin?”

“I think the Ruin did something here, but not as much as other places. There’s too much significance in Etrionn to be Lost. I think most of the damage here was because of that." Felix pointed up at the hole in the world still above them. While his Authority had stabilized the Dissonance, balancing it with an influx of Harmony, it did not change a thing about the gate.

"That is Desolation," Karys said.

"It is, yeah.”

“But how is Desolation pushing into the Corporeal Realm? That is significant cause for alarm, my Lord!”

“It's stabilized. These Roots of the Aberrant Soil seem to be holding it in place; not that I can figure out how it works. Even so, I need to go through it."

"Excuse me? That is impossible," Paxus said firmly. "Desolation undoes whatever it touches. There's a reason why my people believed all return to the Ethereal at the end."

"What's the reason?"

"The great unmaking,” Karys whispered.

Paxus nodded. “The Ethereal is a confluence of all things. All things spring from it, and all things return to it. Formless before form. Formless after form."

That’s what Vvim meant. Huh. Felix tore his gaze from the gate. “Okay let’s table that for a sec—I have other things I need to know. Karys, has there been any update on our team? How many have died?"

"More than I am happy to report, my Lord. But I will not give you the exact names or numbers."

"Karys…” Felix threatened, but the metal man’s voice was steady. Firm, even.

“No. You will scourge your Body and Spirit with such information. For now, it is better to know that the army still stands—”

“Karys, as Emperor Nevarre, First Of His Name, give me their names.”

A metallic rasp rattled over the connection. A construct’s cleared throat. "My Lord, the Unbound and the commanders are all alive. The army still advances on the enemy. For now, that is all that you need to concern yourself with. Anything else would distract from your purpose."

Felix's jaw clenched, but the knot in his stomach loosened. He hated how relieved he was to hear that, as if the soldiers that had perished were somehow worth less than his friends. "They're moving forward,” he repeated. “So they're engaging with the enemy again?"

"They have been, yes, repeatedly. It seems that Lady Dayne has a plan.”

“I'm glad to hear it." Felix steadied his breath. "I have a plan, too. And that involves stabilizing this gate. Now that the Seal’s completed, I have some ideas on how to do that, but I’ll need help.”

“I am afraid a gate through the Ethereal is beyond me,” Karys admitted, and Paxus nodded in agreement. “Perhaps the answer is within Etrionn?”

“I think it is.” Yet, even with the Dissonance balanced and his control over Etrionn more or less complete, Felix still had no idea how to access the greater part of the creature’s facilities. His control over that was limited, but his Authority there stretched throughout the creature. He could feel it spreading over vast distances, miles upon miles in every direction, filling up his awareness as if he stood within the center of a Territory. All of it contained within one creature. It was too much for him to search.

Pit said as much.

“I agree, but I’ve got a grip on this place. Which means I can do this.” He snapped his fingers and focused his Authority. “Knowledge.”

The little Geist construct appeared in a waterfall of silver sigaldry that formed into robes around weasel-like appendages. Eyes of blank silver stared at him before bowing. "Emperor Nevarre, greetings. How might I be of service?"

Knowledge paused, immediately transfixed by the raw portal above them.

Felix cleared his throat. "I brought you here—"

The Memory construct lifted a hand, stopping him mid-speech. Sigils flickered through its form, brightening and fading by turns. He glitched, his shape turning to static before firming once more. It gasped. "Quite fascinating. Quite fascinating indeed. The raw information available within this place is immense. Elysium was the domain of other constructs, ones far more vast than I. This is…incredible.”

Felix stayed silent as Knowledge waxed poetic or as close to it the Memory construct could manage. He knew that it passively absorbed information from the places in which Felix had Authority. In fact, that was what he was counting on.

"Knowledge, I need your help figuring out this gate.”

Without batting an eye, the Geist fixed him with a blank stare. “It is unstable, and it very clearly leads to the Ethereal. Passage is not advised.”

“Exactly. It needs to be stabilized. I have to go through it."

The construct tilted its head before bowing. "I am made to serve, Your Majesty, but I cannot help. Such things are beyond me."

"But it's just like the Shadowgates or even the Dark Passage," Pit said. "You’re in charge of the Pool of Halcyon Oaths. This has to relate, right?"

"It does not. This is raw and strange, commanding a presence I cannot reconcile with powers too esoteric to be known."

"Good thing that we have a library," Felix said casually.

Knowledge pivoted, affixing him with a leaden stare. "Where?"

Felix merely envisioned the place, layering it over his Intent and passed it over. Knowledge's face split into an eager grin, an expression Felix had never before seen on the Memory construct. It was upsetting.

"Ahem. There's a lot I haven't explored, in addition to the Skills Library and the Core Manifestation Record. There's plenty to see, plenty to learn. Do you think you can handle all that?"

Knowledge quirked his head again, but this time he split into dozens of copies, enough to fill the room. Pit shied back, stepping through several of them with his large paws. "Yes," they all said at once, their voice not loud but overwhelming. "I will handle it."

All at once, the Memory construct vanished, leaving the four of them alone once more.

“So creepy,” Pit shuddered.

"Right. While he does that, we’ve got work to do."

Magus of the Grand Design is level 140!

Off to the side of the gate, in a clear space he’d shaped out of packed earth, Felix worked on an array. He had tested it again and again, altering the construction no less than thirty-five times since Knowledge had left. He wasn’t even sure how long it had been; time felt elastic there in the skull of an ancient citybeast.

Karys and Paxus helped where they could, chipping in about various arrangements and subsections. Yet, no matter what they devised, whether it was a brute force working or a dastardly clever inscription, it never once came close to touching the Desolation. Every attempt to apply their work skittered apart the moment it made contact with the whirling white.

The only thing that came close was when Felix exerted his Authority directly on the gate. Being part of Etrionn, he figured it was worth a shot, and when he reached up and commanded the gate to open, it had shuddered. The whirl slowed, and Felix’s heart rate skyrocketed, but the grin was barely stretching his lips before the Desolation shook off his Authority entirely. Another bust.

“At least we know it involves Authority,” Karys had provided, perhaps a bit too apologetically.

Felix had grumbled something and gotten back to work.

The same question was batted between the four of them over and over again: how could someone slip through the Ethereal? Dozens of ideas were considered, from protective gear to fiddling with Dark Passages at the edge of it, hoping that perhaps a liminal space could form following the trajectory of the Desolation. None of it worked. According to Paxus, not even Crescian Bronze could survive the Desolation.

Hours later, Felix was left sitting on a gnarled branch staring at the whirling disk of white light, muttering to himself. "How do you get through there?"

"You cannot.” Knowledge blinked back into the room.

Felix frowned, immediately noticing a difference with the Memory construct. They were different. A new radiance emanated from its body, like the monitor of an old CRTV where it had been touched by a magnet. Rainbow bruises swirled across the Geist, radiating from several points along its neck, chest, and palms.

Mana Gates? Or maybe just something like them. Inputs where the construct pulled information, maybe. It seemed to do so from thin air. Was that how they managed it all? Now it seemed to pulsate, filling up the space of the strange skull they sat within, though the Geist had not grown one bit.

Felix didn’t bother getting up. "Have you found anything interesting, Knowledge?"

"Oh yes," the construct said, that creepy smile returning to its face. "I found quite a lot. Much is still being categorized, but your Authority over the space is speeding up the process a great deal. It should be done in five glasses."

"I can't wait that long," Felix said with a growl. "People are dying."

"I agree. Your time grows thin. The Ruin will land all too soon."

"What?" Felix's blood went cold. Ice burned across his arms and chest. "How do you know that?"

"How could I not? We Memory constructs are intimately familiar with the Ruin. It is anathema to our very purpose, and I can feel its approach like a spreading stain.” No expression marred Knowledge’s face, but its eyes darkened. The flat silver became a depthless black. “It is close. Already the umber touch of its influence is pressed against the world. Starlit beasts crawl up from the dark, waiting for its arrival."

Felix stood. "When?"

"It will make landfall in..." Knowledge peered up, and his black eyes flashed with glimmers of silver, as if he could see the dark comet directly. “One day.”