Karanos’ blast expands toward me in a spiral of white and yellow light, red ascendant energy frothing at the edges like slow-moving lightning. If I let it hit me, I’m dead.

But I’m prepared for this exact moment. Prismatic soul gems glow with violet energy, Death energy streaming into the lizard-tortoise construct. I add my own ascendant energy into the mix.

The oculus, already aimed in Karanos' direction, converts the energy into a beam that spears straight through Karanos’ light pillar. His attack dissipates in a swirl of light, small rays of radiance peppering the ground in every direction.

Y’jeni. My side burns; I can sense that using so much ascendant energy at once has taken a physical toll, the vitality on my right side graying. I grunt and grit my teeth in frustration. Why does this attack demand so much ascendant energy? Or rather... Why do I have so little energy to spare?

Rather than feeling relieved that I could stop Karanos’ attack, I feel more acutely than ever how wide the gap is between the two of us. I was only able to meet one of the ascendant’s standard attacks because of my preparations. Additionally, while he can continue to aim and fire in any direction of his choosing, I’m limited by how quickly the bulky lizard-tortoise construct can pivot, as well as by my supply of prismatic soul gems and my own stores of ascendant energy.

Empowering the oculus with my ascendant energy isn’t a sustainable strategy, but it thankfully doesn’t need to be: I just need to keep Karanos here long enough for Maria’s array to take effect.

“The array has activated,” Crystal says, her mental voice cutting through the battlefield explosions. “Maria will indicate when she is ready for you to attack Karanos’ soul.”

Karanos didn’t stop moving when he formed his light attack, but his speed seems almost languid as he approaches my location. I try to keep some distance between us, deserting the lizard-tortoise and flying myself off to the side, away from Crystal and Maria’s direction.

The end game is to do a final attack on Karanos’ soul at close range, but of course the ascendant doesn’t know that. If he sees me trying to keep my distance, the hope is that he’ll assume I have nothing short-range up my sleeve. Moreover, if I die far away and respawn on the lizard-tortoise, that will give me some time to breathe while waiting for Karanos to return to my position.

“You know, killing me was rather hilarious,” Karanos says, ascendant energy empowering his voice to reach me from hundreds of feet away.

I continue my assault while retreating. As I slash out with my hand, violet and blue energy cuts his chest from the inside. Light spills out faintly from behind his dark jacket. But Karanos is ready, his body empowered by ascendant energy to resist my intrusion. Rather than dying, he simply glares.

“As I told you before, I’m not a particularly prideful creature. If someone kills me, it’s not a mark of my weakness, but a sign of misplaced trust.”

I continue flying away from Karanos, but the ascendant keeps pace, his expression unworried but stern.

“You are no threat to me, Ian: Attack me as you wish, it means nothing. What bothers me is the lack of respect.”

“He is going to kill you,” Crystal says.

So be it. My void storages are back with the lizard-tortoise. If I die, the only thing I lose are the clothes on my back. I’ll lose my accumulated Death energy, but that’s of little help against Karanos anyway.

“Maria is manually weaving End arrows in her array through Karanos’ defenses. When you revive, continue to distract him. She believes that she is close.”

Alright, I mentally reply. Time to put on a brave front.

Karanos suddenly speeds forward, covering the distance between us in the blink of an eye. Crossing his arms, he addresses me: “You don’t have anything to say for yourself?”

What to say to him? “You see me as a tool, a means to get vengeance.”

Karanos laughs. “So killing me was a rebellious outburst? Are you a teenager, trying to get daddy’s recognition? Please.”

“I killed you because I thought you deserved it, and because I wanted to. I didn’t premeditate it, didn’t plan. There was nothing obvious to gain from doing it.”

The ascendant cocks his head. “You’re not the hot-headed type–that’s why I was willing to make a deal with you in the first place. I refuse to work with emotional pipe bombs.”

I sigh softly and run a hand through my hair. “Everyone has a breaking point.” I pause, somewhat surprised he hasn’t yet killed me.

“I am also surprised,” Crystal interjects. “Keep him distracted.”

Yes, Crystal, I know. But what can I say? I wrack my brain for something to say to keep the conversation going. Brain going into overdrive, I choose the first thing that comes to mind. “Have you heard–”

My body lights up in a column of searing light. The pain is excruciating but only lasts a second before I respawn back on the lizard-tortoise. I take in a stuttered breath and lean forward, hands pressing on the rock-like shell while I cover myself in robes of Death energy.

The breather I was expecting fails to materialize: Karanos is hovering right in front of the lizard-tortoise shell. I can’t believe he’s so fast.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, sneering. “I cut you off. What were you saying?”

I blink at him, at a loss. How petty. “Are you familiar with the...” What was I going to talk about again? “The local minima problem?”

“Enlighten me.”

“A mortal person walks through a plane and is tasked with finding its deepest valley. As they walk, they notice that the entire area is following a downward gradient, and follow it in the hopes of finding a deep valley. The person eventually discovers the nadir and stops, declaring mission accomplished.”

While I explain, I land another attack on Karanos, this time trying to scramble his brain. The ascendant shows no sign of being affected, so I continue my explanation. “In reality, there is another, deeper valley miles away. To find it, the person would first need to scale a small mountain range, going against the downward gradient. Simply following a downward gradient was insufficient to find the lowest point. Ultimately, the person was stuck in a local minima.”

Karanos is frowning by the end of my explanation. “How is this relevant?”

“I’ve always tried to navigate a gradient that brings me success. The ground stretches out before me, with certain paths seeming to lead upward or downward. In the moment, it’s easy and even logical to simply follow the gradient that directly slopes to success and fulfillment.”

Karanos interrupts me, ignoring another Death energy attack on his stomach: “I cannot speak for all people, but ascendants at least see the bigger picture, making sacrifices in the present for future pay-off. They don’t simple-mindedly follow the quick path to middling success when another, more arduous path leads to greatness.”

I take in a sharp breath before forcing more Death energy into Karanos, using my dwindling ascendant energy to try and breach his skin-level barrier. There’s no doubt in my mind that he feels every attack and chooses to ignore them. “We might see the bigger picture, but the canvas of possibility spans far beyond our horizons. While I struggle to follow the best paths that I can see, there still might be other paths hidden from view, taller mountains off in the distance. And sometimes following the logical path keeps us in a rut, a local minimum. We grow comfortable and complacent...and ultimately fail to keep searching for something greater: the best outcome of all possible outcomes.”

“So irrationality is a necessity to escape these local minima?” Karanos asks dubiously. “It’s noble to find the best outcome possible, but it’s also an exercise in futility. You admitted just now that we might never be able to see the entire picture, and thus will never know if we’ve chosen the optimal path.”

“I cannot believe he is being stalled so easily,” Crystal remarks.

Speaking with me like this while I still try to injure him with my practice is an exercise in power on its own, a perfect example of show, not tell. From the beginning it’s been a psychological game with him–perhaps from the very moment I met him, back in Messeras’ plane.

“You might be overestimating his mind games,” Crystal assuages.

Perhaps. I pierce Karanos’ leg with a short spear of Death energy, but it loses its edge, melting like chocolate.

Suddenly his arm snaps out, his fingers digging into my shoulder. As he stares into my eyes, I see tempered madness. “That was an interesting segue, Ian. But I tire of speaking.”

“Now he is really going to kill you.”

Not a moment after Crystal’s mental proclamation, Karanos’ hand crushes my entire shoulder like my bones are paper. His hand glows red, completely disregarding the protective Death energy coating my bones. The limb lunges for my heart, yanking it out of my chest.

Karanos’ hand looks like it’s been dipped in red paint, flecks of organ, white connective tissue, and shards of bone speckling its surface. His palm cradles my heart, while blood continues to leak from the severed aorta and arteries.

Blood rises in my mouth like bile. I force myself to remain standing, controlling my body with my practice. If we’re playing psychological games, it’s the least I can do to keep myself alive, manually forcing blood through my vessels.

I wipe the blood from my lips. “Are you done?”

Karanos chuckles. “Not even close.”

I don’t have time to react as he slaps my cheek, backhanding me. My head literally flies off my shoulders.

I try to stay positive. At least I can’t feel my ruined chest anymore. But really, I resign myself to keeping Karanos occupied as a punching bag.

How is Maria doing? I wonder.

“Close.”

Karanos’ foot smashes down on my ear and everything goes black. I awake on the lizard-tortoise, only a few feet from where I died.

The ascendant brushes off dust on his coat. “One of the best things about killing ascendants is the automatic clean-up.” He holds up his arm. “Clean as can be.”

Without warning, the area explodes in a white conflagration. Everything goes black again, and I wake up in the same spot on the lizard-tortoise. I suck in a breath and clench my fists.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” I ask, forcing a smile.

Karanos snorts. “Not really. You’re too weak–I feel like I’m beating up a child.”

By this point, I’m pretty sure that my ascendant energy has replenished enough to try another oculus attack and still have enough energy left over to attack Karanos’ soul. At point blank range, I activate the oculus, incinerating both myself and Karanos from the waist up. When I come to on the shell, I retch from overexertion, my lungs feeling like they’re about to explode. My vitality is flagging, even though I’m in a fresh body.

Karanos appears next to me, his jacket unmarred. How is that fair? The blast definitely seared that coat in half.

He gestures to the massive eye. “I must admit, this is a rather powerful construct. Unfortunately, it reminds me a bit too much of someone else.”

“Achemiss,” Crystal provides, trying to be helpful.

Yeah, I got that.

Karanos proceeds to kill me over and over again in different, violent ways. I never get the impression that he’s torturing me–he’s not pulling teeth or nails, or flaying skin, for instance–but he is relentless. Moreover, the constant respawning is disorienting. Sometimes the deaths happen in such rapid succession that phantom sensations of pain when I revive persist into the subsequent revival, stacking with other causes of death. My throat is both burned from within and torn open, my legs pulverized then melted.

After what feels like a small eternity of mental silence, Crystal’s voice sounds in my head: “Maria succeeded.”

The world comes back into focus. Karanos stands to the side, lips curled into a frown, his brow furrowed in distaste. He arches an eyebrow as I stand to my feet. “What’s this, a second wind?”

My head rolls back to face the sky. Darkness has been replaced by a resplendent, golden dawn, brought about by Karanos’ practice. “I’m surprised you’ve continued for so long. You stopped having fun long ago.” I scratch at my Death energy vestments. In reality, my fingers split one of the souls I brought from the city into gossamer scraps, tendrils from my ethereal body pressing into them.

“I find that this kind of fun is more pleasing in retrospect,” Karanos retorts. He reaches out and cups my jaw roughly, his index finger tracing the contour of my lower lip. “You are nothing Ian, and you know it, don’t you? A small speck in the landscape of Eternity.”

“Like you’re any better,” I murmur, unable to move my jaw. My heart flutters in trepidation as I send threads of soul-coated ethereal energy over Karanos’ extended arm. The tendrils have no way to enter unless I use ascendant energy.

Karanos chuckles bitterly. “I never said I was better.” He increases the pressure on my jaw; with just a bit more force, it might fracture.

I glare at him in response, teeth gritting. It’s not difficult to feign rage, blue ascendant energy flaring along my body. It’s harmless and just for show...all of it, except for the energy that washed over Karanos’ hand.

“Impudence,” Karanos spits, though a smile plays at the corner of his lips.

The ethereal threads push their way messily through Karanos’ arm, following the lengths of his vessels. I’m so close–but if I die, my ethereal strands will dissipate. I try to think of a topic that might get him talking.

“Why do you hate Achemiss?” Obviously Ascendant Ari’s death is one reason, but their enmity clearly extends deeper than that.

Karanos pushes my head away lightly. Rather than my skull breaking into tiny pieces, I find myself hurtling through the air on a crash course with my construct. I use my practice to regain control of my body and kill my momentum. Hovering above the ground, I cross my arms and try to look dignified.

Considering the question, Karanos looks expressionless. I can’t tell if he’s about to explain or just incinerate me in a blast of light. “Don’t mention his name around me unless I mention it first,” he mutters softly. “If we’re all worms in Eternity, Achemiss is...” He struggles for a moment. “A tapeworm, I suppose. A selfish parasite.”

My ethereal tendrils surge past a snarl of Karanos’ ethereal body, breaching his chest cavity. I keep a straight face as I ram them deeper into his chest. “And how is he a parasite, exactly?”

“Are you familiar with the vast collection in his workshop?”

My threads begin to surround the envelope of ethereal energy around Karanos’ soul. “Not really.”

Karanos nods. In front of him, a perfect three-dimensional projection of a workshop comes into view. The defining feature is a massive wall completely covered in shelves holding all manner of items.

This is the first time I’ve actually seen him properly use his Light affinity. “And how is this relevant?” I ask, parroting his words from earlier.

Karanos snorts and rolls his eyes. “Achemiss has not been in Eternity for very long, less than a thousand years. Despite this, his workshop has enough artifacts to rival much older artificers. His power largely comes from taking the embodied souls of peak practitioners beyond Eternity, using necromancy to turn them into artifacts. The more peak practitioners on a single world, the easier it is for him to send one of his harvester golems to reap hundreds of practitioners from palace and battleground alike. It’s disgusting.”

“I see.” One...last...there. The breath escapes my lungs as my ethereal tendrils coil around Karanos’ soul.

The world slows to a crawl. Now, Crystal!

I suddenly see the world through the eyes of Maria. Though she’s quite far away, her eyes can see the thick, cable-like arrows leading to Karanos at fine resolution.

Her sight is what I need to complete the final step.