“Neitra, where’s the Yamastra?” asked Artyom as he looked towards his companion. Sweat drenched his back and brow, and not just from stress. A blazing inferno stood behind them, preventing their escape while radiating an intense heat. “We’re out of options, and that’s our only hope of getting out of this alive, unless help arrives.”

“I dropped it right outside the chapel!” she exclaimed, her voice growing tense. “The explosion forced me to, and I was too worried about getting away from the falling roof.” She looked down apologetically.

“Try not to feel too bad,” said Artyom, comforting her through gritted teeth while trying to keep his mortal terror from showing. “I’ve bungled worse before. But we still need to get that staff if we want to live through this.”

He sighed with narrowed eyes as he looked at Tommy’s old harem as they freed themselves of the building he’d collapsed on top of them. Just as he’d suspected, several pounds of RDX explosives and a rockslide didn’t so much as scratch them, it merely slowed them down. He hoped that delay would’ve been all he needed to get his friends and him out of there, but with his phone on the fritz again, he was once more separated from TOAL.

Even if they moved the artillery team or the Eye of Balor into place, they wouldn’t be able to get a clean shot with the ring of fire blocking all visibility from the ground. Their only hope at that point was to wait for TOAL to find a way around all of these hurdles, or to get back the Yamastra, get off the activation chant, and pray that it would be enough to save their collective hides.

“What are we going to do?” asked Tommy, trying to bite his fingers through an armored glove while standing beside the two. “I… I know they look like this now, and that they’re trying to kill us. But… I don’t know if I have it in me to hurt them.”

Artyom felt bad for the 29-year-old child. He’d been dragged to this World as a kid and made to start his life over, puberty and all. Sure, he had everything here handed to him on a silver platter, even the role as a prophesied hero and a party of supernaturally attractive women who satisfied his every sexual desire… yeah, the kid really did have everything. But he’d grown up soft and sheltered, and now that his entire conception of reality was falling apart before him, it made sense that he wouldn’t take it well. Artyom figured that there’d be plenty of time for him to get the help he needed after they got out of this alive.

“I have an idea,” said Neitra, suddenly looking at the two. “Just distract them until I have the staff.”

“Wait, what is the staff? Is it one of the Goddesses’ weapons?” asked Tommy. “I already have her sword here!”

“If you try to get the chant out all the way over there, they’ll notice, especially when you’ll be so close to them,” replied Artyom, ignoring the Great Hero next to him. “Can you bring it back here so we’ll at least have a better chance of keeping them away?”

“I think I can do that, there should be enough time,” said Neitra after taking a moment to think. “But you saw how fast they are, can you really keep me safe while I’m chanting?”

“Hmm,” replied Artyom, taking time to think as well. “I’ve got two more trump cards up my sleeve, a pair of spells that’ll use up the rest of my magic but can change the tide of a battle. One of them only works on me, but the other should solve the speed problem. Get the staff, and I’ll bring them to a stop for just long enough.”

Neitra nodded in response and turned back to face towards the Fatewatchers with a blank expression as they slowly made their way towards the trio.

“Neitra, what are you doing?” shouted Tommy. “And what even is this Yamastra?”

Artyom sighed as he looked at the hero with a tired expression. “Alright, I suppose now isn’t a worse time than any for a crash course.” He raised his voice loud enough so that the four beasts would hear too, hoping that they’d slow down to listen to his exposition. They’d been delayed like that before, and they didn’t seem like the types to learn subtle lessons that quickly.

“So the goddess that brought you here isn’t even from this World. 600 years ago, she showed up out of nowhere and did something that sealed the actual gods and goddesses of this World to their own planes. So during our quest to find a way to stop her and for me to get back to my friends, I learned of a riddle left by the god of death, Yama, and solving it led to him giving us what sounded like some kind of ancient superweapon.”

“But why would she do that? She’s the Goddess! And what about my quest?” whined Tommy.

“Because she’s evil,” deadpanned Artyom while massaging his temples with his right hand. “I was fortunate enough to get a look behind the scenes, and see the dungeons being constructed mere days before you showed up to clear them out. It was all for show, Tommy. She had the sword and armor with her the entire time, and was in cahoots with the Dark Lord. Your entire quest was some kind of sick experiment, apparently.”

“Bu-but, why? How? What’s going to happen now?” The Great Hero’s breathing began to speed up, and before long he was hyperventilating. Artyom grabbed him by the shoulders and fed an aura of tranquility and courage into him.

“We’ll figure out the answer to all of those questions after we make it out of here alive. This is what it’s like to be a hero, facing down the terrible truths of the world around you and living another day to make things better for the people you care about! Do you think you can do that with us today?”

Tommy returned a jittery nod as he regained control of himself. “Y-yeah. I think I can. So what needs to be done?”

“What you need to do is die,” shouted Xerica as she and the others got within earshot of the two. “It’s hopeless, so if you just stand still, I promise I’ll make it quick.”

“You know, I wonder how many times I’ve heard that line before,” shot back Artyom. “It’s never anyone friendly who says it. But judging from the source material your goddess used to construct those dungeon puzzles, I’m not surprised you don’t have any better lines.”

The four sirens sneered, but remained in place.

Tommy interrupted the banter by asking a question. “Wait, what was wrong with the dungeon puzzles? I thought it was great!”

“Here’s the thing,” replied Artyom, purposefully snubbing the Fatewatchers. “Dungeon puzzles are supposed to be clever and ancient, they’re usually based on the World’s culture or even ancient Earth history back from when it was built. You don’t make puzzles based on a goddamn children’s TV show!” He made sure to face his enemies as he said that.

“How dare you,” snarled Lensa. “The goddess’ wisdom is beyond your meager comprehension! It is limitless!”

“Limitless enough to let her own System work against her?” asked Neitra as she reappeared beside the others, holding the Yamastra.

“The weapon!” shouted Ecole, pulling out a set of throwing knives. “It reeks of the old pantheon’s magic!”

“Neitra, you’re supposed to gloat after you win. Not after it looks like you’re about to win, and definitely not before you’ve actually won!”

“But you were doing it!” she complained back.

“I wasn’t gloating, I was just bantering!” he whined back with a pout. “And I did it to distract them!”

“Oh, sorry,” she replied, momentarily hiding her face behind the staff. “I’ll just start chanting.” She closed her eyes for a moment to remember the chant and began to utter a chain of foreign syllables.

“It feels like I’m babysitting a bunch of first-timers,” thought Artyom to himself. “At least they’re not the only ones making mistakes.”

However, the enemies’ errors stopped there. Despite being thrown off by the out-of-place banter between the two allies, they quickly got back their bearings and a Lensa-supercharged Ecole threw her knife at Neitra.

“Of all the 90s anime references she could’ve made, your goddess stuck with one of the least original ones out there,” said Artyom, channeling the magic in the air, the batteries, and within himself, coalescing it into a single, grand spell. “I’ll show you a real reference! The World!”

Years ago, Artyom had the luck of meeting a master of gravity magic, the absolute apex of magical training and talent within a single living being. And he had even greater luck to have the mage teach him the strongest spells Artyom knew. The first of which was a perfect fit for his repertoire. By generating and coalescing gravitational waves in the space around him, Artyom could induce gravitational time dilation and slow the clock down to a near-stop. With enough practice, he was able to create several bubbles free of the effect which he could surround allies with.

Ecole’s knife thundered towards Neitra as it seemingly crossed the sound barrier, but slowed down as it approached its target, eventually reaching a near-full stop. Neitra opened her eyes mid-chant and quickly side-stepped the attack as it harmlessly passed by her.

“You’ve got… maybe half a minute,” said Artyom in between pants. “After that I’ll be a sitting duck.”

“So we just have to keep her from finishing by then? That doesn’t sound too hard,” replied Xerica with a wicked grin. “And that’s a nice little trick you have there, speeding yourself up like that. It’s still not going to be enough to catch up with us.”

“Dammit, how fast are you people?!” exclaimed Artyom in frustration. He shook his head and turned towards Tommy. “It’s up to us then, we should be able to stand a chance against them now.”

“I-I don’t think I can hurt them,” hesitated Tommy, his nerves starting to get the better of him again.

“You don’t have to, just keep them busy until Neitra finishes chanting,” whispered Artyom, not wanting his enemies to turn their attention back to Neitra. “There’s not much I can do myself with all of my magic tied to this spell, so it’s really up to you.”

“A-alright. I’ll try.” With a nod, the hero filled himself with grim determination and began to run towards his previous lovers, sword raised in the air and armor gleaming in the sun.

Artyom on the other hand stayed in place beside Neitra, no longer having the energy to keep Photonic Pathfinder active anymore with the massive drain from The World.

“Why do you even try, Tommy?” asked Xerica, her voice sounding deeper than usual as a result of the pitch not completely matching the speed of her words. “We’ll kill you before time is up and then the girl. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Please don’t do this, Xerica! I love you! Can’t we talk? We all just want to help everyone! Isn’t that what we fought together for? Isn’t that what the Goddess fought for?”

“Well I never loved you, none of us did,” she sneered back in a casual tone. “And you never knew what the Goddess really fought for. So just lay down the sword and let us end this quickly. Ok?”

Something about the sheer aloofness of her response tore away at Tommy, ripping his heart in twain. From the pain, however, the truth of the world around him finally clicked, and he knew what he had to do. “I-I still have the goddess’ sword,” he replied, holding the blade aloft and once again steeling his confidence. “And if the goddess’ System can be used against you, then this can too!”

He swung the sword’s keen edge at Xerica’s shoulder, but she merely had to step out of the way to avoid the attack. Despite the debilitating effects of The World on her speed, she was still able to avoid the strikes due to Tommy’s merely amateur skills with the blade. He tried swinging again, and a leisurely backstep was all that was needed that time.

“Oh, Tommy,” said Xerica, shaking her head in faux pity. “Just because one thing slipped through the Goddess’ watchful gaze, that doesn’t mean everything did. She knew we’d have to put you down eventually, so she made her sword useless against us. Observe…” She delicately grabbed the sword mid-air with her claws and daintily turned her wrist. The blade snapped in two as she dropped the larger piece to the floor.

“Dammit Tommy, run! Get away from her!” shouted Artyom as he faced down the rest of the hero’s old battle harem. As he did, he turned towards Neitra to see how far along she was. The air around them was beginning to grow dark as the face on the mahogany staff started to glow an iridescent white.

Artyom narrowed his eyes at her, the fugue brought about by the heavily enervating spell bringing out fear and paranoia, and an old memory. “Cesen,” he whispered to himself. It was just like back then. He and the hero were about to defeat the villain and save the kids from Earth with the holy weapon. But Cesen betrayed him to seize his enemy’s power. Neitra had grown up under the shadow of fear cast by the Dark Lord and had been treated terribly as Tommy’s teammate, would she betray them too to claim the Dark Lord’s or Spymaster’s sovereignty?

He eyed her bag. It still had the brick of RDX hidden within it, he could detonate it now, grab the Yamastra for himself, and speed through the chant before his spell ran out of time. It would be simple, nothing more than a thought and a spark of will, and any threat she posed to him and Tommy would be gone. He raised his hand towards Neitra, channeling a spare spark of magic within it, ready to throw it at the rogue.

“Tsk, this is taking too long,” sighed Xerica. “I’ll give you three the pleasure of taking care of Tommy, I’ll finish off Neitra and get rid of our only real threat.”

“How noble of you, sister,” replied Daisy. “In your honor, I’ll make sure to enjoy this!”

The other two nodded and made their way towards the fleeing Tommy as well, sure to make his end as long and drawn out as possible.

Xerica simply raised her hand, took a deep breath, and let loose a white-hot stream of fire towards Neitra, larger and faster than she ever had up until this point. The air around it seemed to bend as the flame streaked across the courtyard towards its target. Even the ring of fire keeping everyone trapped within was but a mere candle to this wicked blaze. Despite the effects of the time dilation still anchoring it down into a temporal quagmire, the attack travelled faster than Neitra could move away from it. Once it hit, it would turn her to ash. There was on question of if anymore, only when.

In that instant, something snapped within Artyom. A brand new flood of memories flowed through his mind of his time with Neitra. She was a young woman who just wanted to fight for the good of her Kingdom and what was right, nothing more, nothing less. He remembered the times she’d saved his life, uncovered the secrets of the goddess alongside him, and how she’d kept him morally accountable throughout it all.

He knew her, she truly was a good person, deserving to wield the Yamastra, a hero in every sense of the word. Not once had she strayed from her duty to him or Tommy, nor to her kingdom. Nor had she done anything to make Artyom doubt that she ever would. In that moment, he knew Neitra would never let him down, and he wouldn’t let her down either.

Artyom cancelled the effects of The World and jumped in the way of the attack as time returned back to normal. He had one last trump card in his arsenal and concentrated all of his magic into that instead. He made it in between the beam of burning plasma and his friend as soon as his spell went off.

“Neutronium Being!” he shouted as he took the full brunt of the attack. This was the upper limit of his body armor spells, built around transforming his entire being into the most dense and durable material imaginable; neutronium, the very substance that made up the heart of unimaginably dense neutron stars. With it, he could endure the most powerful earth-shattering attacks, and that was exactly what he was doing.

The air around him screamed as he held his breath and covered his eyes, scared to inhale the superheated air or look into the blinding light. He couldn’t feel the pain of the flames as the grass at his feet burned and the loamy dirt beneath him began to solidify and shatter, or turn to glass. As his clothes began to burn and dissolve under the white-hot raging inferno, he stood steadfast, confident that he was doing what he knew was the right thing. The assassins’ robes, the Quicksteel underneath, and his magical battery all turned to ash, then glass, and then ash again. The only magic left to power the spell came from within him. He screamed in defiance at the attack against his companion, at the evils and unfairness brought upon this World by that goddamned goddess. He screamed for hope, hope for victory and hope for survival. Hope that his final gambit would be worth it and save his friend!

The force of the flames against him began to die down, and when they were truly gone, Artyom opened his eyes and looked at the Fatewatchers. The effects of The World had ended, but they still stared back at him completely still. A dark cloud had descended upon the field around them, similar to Artyom’s smokescreen but more akin to the blanket of night itself. In it, Artyom was the only one visible as he glowed a bright, shifting, opalescent white, staring back at those who would do him and his friends harm. But he soon realized they weren’t staring back at him.

From the very border of Xerica’s barrier, Neitra completed the chant and raised the Yamastra above her head. The entire staff and her eyes glowed a similar luminescent shine to Artyom, and a quartet of streams of orange flames erupted from its tip. The burning torrent grew in size as it began to head towards the edge of the darkness, travelling in a circle just inside of Xerica’s ring of fire. The orange began to eat at the ring, reducing it to nothingness as they absorbed it into their own beings and increasing in size. It didn’t stop there, however. The tips of the flames grew dark spots, resembling a pair of eyes and a jagged mouth on each of them. The infernos roared as the Fatewatches looked on in fear, barely tracking the rapidly-moving creatures. Before they could act in response, the ignatius storm turned to face them, snaking across the courtyard in sharp, 90 degree turns, charging into the goddess’ servants.

They all let out screams as they were engulfed by the infernos, their feathers and fur turning to ash and then dissolving to nothingness as the rest of their bodies quickly followed suit. As the flames faded, so too did the darkness around them, Artyom’s spell, and any trace of the Fatewatchers.

Artyom collapsed to his knees, forced to use his right hand to keep from entirely falling over. He took several deep breaths as he tried to keep himself conscious.

Behind him, Neitra’s eyes returned to normal as she blinked away the remaining glow. She shook her head as she took in everything around her, realizing what had happened.

“We won,” she whispered. Her mouth curled into a massive, yet weary grin. “We won!” She ran over to Artyom and grabbed at his side with her free hand, helping him back up to his feet. “Artyom, we won! Are you and Tommy ok?”

“Yeah,” he sputtered back. He turned to look at the goddess’ chosen hero/scapegoat who returned a thumbs up and a very bewildered smile through his severely claw-shredded armor. Artyom turned back to Neitra with a tired smile of his own. “I’m fine, I’m just going to need a big meal, a long rest, and an even longer vacation.”

Neitra laughed at his joke, but then her face turned somber. “But we’re not done yet, there’s something really important you still need to do.”

“What?!” gasped Artyom, as he began to look around the remains of the courtyard.

“You need to get yourself some clothes, you’re completely naked!”

Artyom looked down at himself and somehow managed to blush, despite looking incredibly pale.

“What? You said I can act like this after we win, and well… we won! But seriously though, there really is still something left,” said Neitra. “Check your phone again and call your friends.”

Artyom complied, but frowned when he saw the same error message. “The disturbance is still here, but there’s nothing keeping them from me this time, so what’s the-” his eyes opened wide as he understood what she was saying. “The source of the disturbance is still here.”

“Artyom!” shouted Scout as he ran towards the duo. The member of Squad Charlie pulled out a rectangle wrapped in wax paper and shoved it into his compatriot’s face, forcing him to take a bite before he could say anything in reply.

Artyom took several, and swallowed them with a grimace. “I might be the most magically drained I’ve been in years, but even that doesn’t make these sawdust bars taste any better! Seriously, when I get back, that’s going to be the second change I’ll make!”

“Second? No wait, forget about it. Just tell me if you’re alright or if you need medical attention? We can have a medic here soon to take a look.”

“Nah, I’m fine,” replied the half asian man. “But Neitra could use one, she might’ve cracked a rib in the earlier fight.”

“I said I’m fine, I have a Skill to get over it,” she replied in a huff. “But we still need to take care of the disturbance.”

“Oh yeah!” exclaimed Artyom. “Scout, get Gus on the line if your phone is still working. It looks like whatever’s causing our phones to break is still here, and we can at least destroy it before leaving. Neitra here just finished off the goddess’ biggest threat to us, and I think our girl has it in her to take out anything else that bitch can send at us for now.”

After turning to Neitra and seeing her nod, Scout did the same to Artyom. Before following his instructions, Scout pulled out a spare set of linen clothes from his bag and handed them over. As the half-asian man put them on, Scout dialed the war room on his phone and relayed the details of everything that happened, as it was narrated by the two who’d experienced it for themselves.

“Good news,” replied Gus after digesting the details. “I did the math with everyone’s phone data and I’ve triangulated the disturbance to be exactly 100 feet East-North-East of where you currently are.”

“But that’s the chapel,” replied Artyom into the phone in confusion. “And I just leveled the place with several pounds of explosives! Are you sure it’s still there?”

“Wait, the trapdoor!” exclaimed Neitra. “The Spymaster was trying to go down one before he got killed! Maybe what we’re looking for is in there?”

“It could be, let’s take a look,” said Artyom as he finished the meal replacement bar with a scowl.

The two true chosen ones headed towards the remains of the chapel accompanied by Scout and several other TOAL agents. They began to sift through the rubble towards the far end, until they found exactly what they were looking for. With a heave, they pulled the trapdoor open and slowly descended the ladder into the basement below. The members of Squad Charlie were the first to go, ready to ambush whatever creature could be lurking below, or warn the others of a similar attack on them. Fortunately, the way was clear, and they radioed the rest of their compatriots down, albeit with voices full of concern.

When Artyom and Neitra joined them, they understood why. Before them was a gargantuan white crystal that floated above the ground, held between a massive stalagmite and stalactite. It spun slowly, giving off a warm, yet nauseating glow, speckling the room with motes of gray.

Neitra began to blank out as she looked upon it and spoke up in a deep voice. “That is the source of the Cursed One’s power. Destroy it and this World and all of its realms shall be free from her grasp.”

“Alright, I’ll grab some explosive charges and we can-” began Scout, before being interrupted by Neitra.

She held up the Yamastra and the room turned dark. All that could be seen was the crystal and three screaming streams of orange flame that raced at the floating jewel. They struck the white gemstone all at once, shattering it and creating a shower of now inert rocks as they softly rained down on everyone present. As the Darkness faded, everyone looked towards Neitra.

“I thank you Artyom, my chosen one,” she replied as she continued to channel the voice of the god of the dead. “We are now free and may return to the mortal realm once more.”

She lowered the staff and shook her head, looking at the many eyes upon her. “What?” she asked in her normal voice.

“Well, it sounded like you were possessed or something for a second there,” replied Scout, reaching down to pick up one of the fallen shards and pocketing it. “It wasn’t by anyone evil now, was it?”

“No, he’s definitely good. I think he used his staff as a way to tell us-” Immediately, she grabbed her head in pain as her face scrunched up and knees bent. The nearest TOAL agents rushed to her, and Artyom tried to as well, but then he was suddenly struck with a similar yet minor affliction. The pain lasted for no longer than several seconds, but by the end of it, he began to hear words in his head.

[Obtained Class: Wizard (1)]

[Level Up! Wizard (2)]

[Skill Obtained: Magicsense]

[Level Up! Wizard (3)]

[Level Up! Wizard (4)]

[Skill Obtained: Basic Magic Regeneration]

[Level Up! Wizard (5)]

…

The notifications continued on for a while, before finally tapering off.

[Level Up! Wizard (23)]

[Skill Obtained: Advanced Spell Discount]

Artyom could feel his body changing along with his mind, as an incredible new power flowed through him. By the looks of the other TOAL agents, they were experiencing the same, albeit an even lessened effect.

“What’s going on?” asked Scout, looking at his hands and then around the room, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“The crystal was the goddess’ connection to this World,” replied Neitra, with a new level of astuteness in her voice. “By destroying it, we removed her hold over the System, replacing hers with the old one.”

“And it also looks like we destroyed the taint along with it,” said Artyom, turning towards his friend. “How do you feel?”

“Different,” she replied, looking at her arms and flexing her muscles. “Maybe not necessarily stronger, but I feel like I have more potential now with my Skills. Oh yeah, and definitely smarter!”

“I guess that means everyone was freed of the taint then,” pondered Artyom. “Things are going to be a lot different in this World now that everyone’s smarter and has a new System. What’s going to happen?”

“Whatever does happen,” replied Neitra with a warm smile. “I have faith in the people of the Kingdom to make sure things turn out well.”

Artyom closed his eyes in consideration, remembering the many kindhearted and bizarre people he’d met along his journey. “Yeah,” he eventually said with a smile of his own. “I’m sure they will.”