“You sure know how to pick them,” I mutter, beholding the barren expanse of Karanos’ chosen plane. The sky is covered in dark gray clouds, and blue-violet lightning flashes in the far distance. Sah lays off to the side in a pile of gray sand that looks and feels more like soot, still unconscious after I knocked him out. The dragon still can’t stand going through rifts.

Karanos is unflappable. “We aren’t here for a picnic. If we pick a beautiful plane, we’re only going to ruin it. Besides, the dilation here seems to be fairly strong.”

“I wasn’t only talking about aesthetics. There’s not much for me to work with here.” Much like the lightless plane, this place is devoid of living–and decomposing–matter. I can’t see any souls, either.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Karanos replies. “Ian, you’re going to fight Maria. You’re to treat her as a practitioner, ignoring the unique vulnerabilities that come with being undead. You aren’t allowed to use anything in your void storage, nor any of the soul gems you keep on your person.”

“Then there’s no way I can use my practice to actively attack her body, and your terms disqualify just about everything I own. Do I need to use things I find during the fight? The environment?”

Karanos tilts his head. “That’s one way to interpret what I said.”

Maria narrows her eyes. “I’m feeling slightly underestimated, Karanos.”

He shoots her a glance. “You say that, and yet who do you think will win, even with all these restrictions? Can you really bet on yourself?”

“If you gave me time to set up End arrays, I would, easily,” Maria retorted.

“But that’s time you don’t have.”

She crosses her arms. “Plane hopping is rather unforgiving to End practitioners. Still, I have my elementalism and ascendant energy to fill the gap.”

“Your flames aren’t weak, but they aren’t those of a pinnacle practitioner,” Karanos argues. “They alone won’t see you through.”

“At least for now,” I interject. “These are going to be a long five years. If I can improve enough to challenge Achemiss, Maria can at least advance enough to challenge me. Recall that she’s only just awakened her Sun affinity.”

“Well, it’s been about three years since I properly awakened the affinity,” Maria admits. “I raised it up in the Infinity Loop.”

“That’s still within the period of initial rapid advancement,” I point out.

“You’re one to talk,” Maria says. “You’ve still got several months to go before you hit the five year mark, though the exact threshold where growth cuts off is fuzzy.”

Karanos looks between the two of us like we’re mad. “What’s this about a five year cut-off?”

“When someone first awakens an affinity, advancement is most rapid in the beginning before leveling off,” Maria explains.

“It looks like a logarithmic curve,” I add. “For most people, the five-year mark is when the curve tapers off, after which affinity increases relatively little over time.”

Karanos narrows his eyes. “I’m honestly trying to remember what you’re talking about, but it’s not ringing a bell. It’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with the concept of new practitioners. Regardless of who will win or lose now or in the future, it’s time to stop messing around. When you fight one another, I want both of you to keep creativity in mind. Think beyond.”

Maria and I walk off a bit into the distance, putting some separation between us and the mortals, Crystal and Sah. As we walk, Maria doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that she’s scrawling a rough array on the ground. Won’t it just blow away with a bit of wind?

“Karanos didn’t put any restrictions on me,” she says with a small smile. “I’d be a fool not to leverage every advantage.”

“Can we just get started already, then?” I call out, meeting Karanos’ eyes. A thin white rod withdrawn from Maria’s personal void storage continues to swish over the sand with intimidating precision. I realize now that she’s using her fire elementalism and ascendant energy together to transition the sand to glass.

“Sure–start.”

Maria doesn’t immediately spring into action, but instead continues to inscribe her array in the sand.

Dunai, you have to think of battle strategically, Maria says, her thoughts coming over our bond. You’re standing there like an oaf hoping I’ll come at you, but why would I? It’s in my best interest to create an array. You need to think of a strategy and go for it.

I suppress a blush. My hands ooze and crackle with Death and ascendant energy as I come at her. I keep my eyes open, but defocus from the visual surroundings, viewing the world of vitality beyond myself. It’s been a while since I’ve fought in close quarters. I think the last time was with Eury, before the war with Selejo started. I haven’t done sparring since. When I normally go all out, there’s no need for close combat. A notable exception is Karanos, but I can’t hit him properly even if I tried.

You move like you’re a construct, Maria comments. As I send my arms swinging down toward her head, she ducks down and twists to the side. She continues to scribe into the sand even as she avoids me, calling on ascendant energy to empower her legs and dart out of the way. Even though I miss her, my energy splinters her array.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I grunt, kicking at her while manifesting a claw of Death energy from the side, pincering her between the two attacks. Unable to dodge, Maria blocks the blows with arms coated in ascendant energy. But as she defends herself, flames arise from the ground, blasting in my direction.

I curse and fall back. Without a source of Death energy or soul gems, it’s difficult to muster even rudimentary attacks or defenses. I settle on empowering my body with ascendant energy to defend myself. The heat dissipates when it hits my legs and chest.

“Your heart isn’t in this at all,” Maria states with annoyance.

Suddenly Karanos is standing only twenty feet away, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye. “Ian, do I need to explain to you why you’re under restrictions?”

“No.”

He ignores me. “It’s not because Maria is weak. It’s because you’re weak. Against me, none of your typical tricks worked very well, did they? You were most successful when you caught me by surprise. You’re adaptable when your back is up against a wall, when you’re forced to think of a path to victory. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing that kind of initiative now.”

I try to see past my annoyance and consider Karanos’ words. The restrictions are because you’re weak. I frown as I dart around and come at Maria from a different angle, leveraging the untethered combat style I’ve adopted to maximum effect, my feet gliding half a foot off the ground.

Lancing her with a spike of Death energy, I contort my body to slip between two concentrated blasts of fire. “You belittle me, Maria, but you should be fighting more like I am. Look at what I can do without any real combat training.”

“Ian isn’t wrong,” Karanos interjects. “You fight like you still have a living body. You’re cautious, but the reality is that unless someone destroys your phylactery, you’re immortal.”

Maria grunts and ascendant-energy laced flames spread out like unfurling rose petals, scorching the surroundings. As they fade, I realize that Maria controlled some of the flames to connect three separate mandalas together by a rod of glassified sand. Her eyes glint as the array activates.

My body begins to seize, my control subverted. It’s like when Eury and I invaded Cunabulus. Back then, the only solution to break free of her control was death.

That was then. What can I do now? Dying is an easy, almost trivial solution. Before, I needed to kill and resurrect myself by delving into my own soul, but dying is easier in Eternity–soul shenanigans are obsolete. Killing Maria is also a way to break her End bindings.

I have the impression that Karanos won’t look kindly upon choosing the suicide option. If I fight Achemiss after leaving Eternity, death will be permanent.

So then I should kill her–but my limbs aren’t cooperating, making close combat tricky. While I struggle to keep them in line, Maria is already combusting the area around me, conflagrations kissing my coat. It was included in Cayeun Suncloud’s send-off ring, a sturdy dark brown material cut in a style similar to the suit jacket but more rugged.

“This isn’t working,” Karanos says, his voice harsh. Maria halts in place, though her array’s potency doesn’t lessen. “You’re overthinking things, turning ideas over in your head. There’s no urgency. I’m stepping in to give a demonstration.”

Suddenly Karanos is on me, his arm cutting down diagonally toward my face. My heart leaps in my chest as I throw myself to the side. Even if I can’t control my limbs while under Maria’s influence, I can at least move myself over.

There’s no reprieve, though–a beam of light extends out from Karanos’ finger and pierces through my side, burning a hole through my stomach. I grit my teeth and suppress a cough.

“How did Karanos and Cayeun Suncloud fight?” Crystal asks.

Quickly, so fast I could barely follow what they were doing.

“That’s all?”

They pierced through planes, I reply. Oh.

We’re still on the edge of Eternity, where the veil is unstable and easy to tear. I use my flailing limbs to carve a rough hole in the sky and send myself through to the other side. Unlike the dead soot desert Karanos brought us to, the plane I cut into is a green-blue swamp stewing with Death energy. I suddenly realize Karanos’ point all along–it doesn’t matter what plane I’m on so long as I can cut through to others. With that skill, I can make any battlefield my own.

Because I don’t shut the way behind, Karanos tails me. He snares my foot and drags me back out, but not before I strip the surroundings of energy.

“I was wondering how long it would take for you to realize,” Karanos remarks.

“Thought I was getting ready to kill Achemiss outside of Eternity,” I retort. “Plane hopping is great and all, but how will it help me stay alive?”

“The secret lies in rift theory,” Karanos replies simply. “Achemiss can send minion constructs beyond Eternity.”

I sense Maria coming at me from behind to strike while my focus is on Karanos. My limbs are still locked down, but now that I have ample Death energy, I can retaliate.

Suddenly my head is on the ground, separated from my body. My vision goes white, my ears ringing.

Karanos chuckles. “That’s what happens when you let yourself get distracted.”

Ironic, considering I was trying to be aware of both Maria and Karanos at once. I would argue that I wasn’t distracted, but outmatched.

When I respawn, I’m no longer under Maria’s control, and blessedly not completely naked. The coat Cayeun gave me remains, though my black trousers are laying on the ground where I died. The hole Karanos beamed into the coat is gone.

What will it take to get a pair of persistent underwear? I wonder.

“What you want is a mantle that keeps all items near it persistent,” Crystal says.

That reminds me of Holiday’s cloak. It worked reliably on everything but his boots, the article of clothing that was furthest away.

After cloaking my lower body in Death energy, I waste no time in tearing open a portal to the swamp. But rather than diving through the hole in reality, I keep it open. This way, it’s a constant source of power.

Soon I have a sphere of Death around me, ascendant energy coursing through it like a network of veins. Half-decayed bones from the swamp reinforce the protective energy shell. It must look like I pluck soul gems from the air, I form them so quickly, socketing them in nascent bone constructs that I send after Maria.

Karanos appears behind me in a flash, then punches through my shielding sphere with impunity, red energy flaring up like a solar wind. My body flies forward, toward the window leading to the swamp plane...and the gaping hole in the world garrotes me across the throat, the edge of reality sharper than any normal blade.

Maria’s thoughts ring in my head: You have to hand it to him, making you slit your own throat on a rift requires skill.

—

The training session doesn’t actually last all that long, maybe half an hour at most. Karanos calls it off and leads me and Maria back over to Crystal and Sah for a debrief. He explains some of the things he observed and guides us with leading questions to reach a few basic conclusions.

For Maria, the main point was that she needed to adapt her old style of combat to her new reality. More than anything else, though, she needed to improve her elementalism. As soon as I gained a source of Death energy, her flames splashed futilely against my defenses.

Karanos had a lot more to critique for me. He called my movements wasteful, sloppy, though applauded my apparent disregard for my own life. The recklessness I exhibited was one positive thing I took away from learning how to fight in the Infinity Loop.

I was on the right track by using an adjacent plane to empower my practice, but the way that I did so was equally as sloppy as my close combat skills. He lists my deaths and the personal failings that led to each one using his Light affinity, conjuring up a snapshot of my body in various states of dying.

Seeing twenty pictures of my dead corpse is mildly disconcerting.

Karanos clasps his hands. “With that out of the way, it’s time for everyone to practice on their own.”

—

“I don’t think I can do this for five years.”

Maria and I are sitting alone on a rocky outcrop. We headed out on our own after a quick dinner. Crystal elected to stay behind with a still-sleepy Sah, while Karanos had the presence of mind to give us space.

Maria brings one knee up her chest. “It’s always hardest in the beginning.”

In the distance, purple storm clouds roil, giving us an electrifying light show.

“He still pisses me off. I don’t even really know why.”

“He did kill you for half an hour straight and rub each failure in your face.”

I nod. “He did do that, yeah. But.”

“But?”

I pull the transmission artifact from my storage. “I just...can’t be angry after he got this for me.”

She hums her understanding.

“Speaking of the artifact, you still haven’t had a chance to use it. I confess I’m surprised you haven’t asked me for it yet. You could’ve used it back when we were in the palace.”

Maria frowns. “Now that we have it, and I know that Zilverna is alive, I’ve lost my sense of urgency.”

“Maria.”

She exhales sharply. “What?”

I force the artifact into her hands. “You should call him. Or at least contact someone, maybe your retainer, Kaiwen. Your departure was sudden and unexpected.”

“They probably think I’m dead, which is close to the truth.”

“The only thing that’s bad about death is saying goodbye,” I murmur. “Here’s your chance to say hello.”

She snorts, then begins to laugh. “Y’jeni. That’s one way to describe it.” She swallows. “Unlike you, Ian, I’m probably never going back. Karanos has the return beacon but as far as we know, it can only take two people, and it’s going to be you and Achemiss.”

I frown. “We have no idea how it’ll work out. Since you’re technically one of my constructs, I might be able to bring you with. Besides, you aren’t biologically alive, so I might be able to find a way to keep you in a large void storage for a short period of time. But even if all those ideas fail and you remain here, isn’t it better to speak to the people you care about while you still can?”

“Or better to let them remember me as I was.”

I shake my head. “I’m going to leave this with you,” I say, pointing to the transmission artifact. “I’ll keep Crystal company in the meantime. You can choose to use it or not, but I want you to at least take an hour to yourself.”

“Thank you,” she murmurs, her hands clenching the artifact tightly.

Bowing my head politely, I head back, away from the heart of the storm.