Crow had often felt a bit of resentment towards his Eye of Chronos, or rather what it let him do. He’d heard stories of Chronos seeing millennia forward or back in time. Of Chrona Kasta using the very same strain to slow the world around her to a crawl. Crow couldn’t do either of those things, nor any of the hundred other abilities he’d heard tell of in legend. What he could do was glimpse just a moment into the future and see an event which he would find objectionable just before it came to pass, thus allowing him to act preemptively and stop it.

He leaped forward just a second before a spear burst through the wall to his left and jammed itself where he, or according to his vision- his neck, would have unfortunately been. He glimpsed his body igniting and charring from top to bottom, and ducked so quickly that he smacked his knee against the stone floor. He had activated his magical ability, one which augmented his strength, speed and durability, yet the impact with the floor still sent pain raking through the joint- and took a chunk out of the ground. Of course he hardly noticed this in the light of the jet of fire roaring downwards, not quite reaching him as he lay pressed against the floor- but coming close enough to singe hair and water eyes. He couldn't think, couldn't plan, he could only survive. The flames stopped and just when he thought he could get even a second to breathe, he glimpsed himself fall into a seemingly bottomless pit- lost forever in the darkness. He tried to push off from his prone position and move into a roll, but his injured knee was having none of it, he slipped. The world lurched as the ground began to give in. He pushed his palm against the floor and dove forward at an angle just as a large section below him crumbled and fell into the abyss below.

Crow landed on the hard ground and laid there on his back, not daring to move, not daring to trigger anything. His knee throbbed, it told him to scream but he held his breath and waited, waited for another premonition to force him back into action. When all that was left was silence, he released a large breath he hadn’t even noticed himself holding.

"THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!"

Unity yelled from across the passage. Crow turned his head and strained to look over his shoulder. There was a spear lodged in one wall, the ceiling was scorched and a pit that led to Adeus only knew where separated them, but the only thing that was really out of place was the grin the boy had.

Crow looked to Unity and spoke very very slowly as he'd begun to stand up.

"That could have killed me."

He looked to Ethi who seemed even more shocked than he was by what had transpired. Crow, figuring he had probably cleared all of the traps already, rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to a stand- magically augmented arms forcing his body up as though it were weightless.

"Oh don't overreact." Unity rolled his eyes. He stepped forward but stopped as he visibly contemplated how to get over the hole in the floor.

"You could have killed him!" Ethi yelled as her attention snapped back to reality, oddly enough, the burning aura around her had turned orange. She slapped Unity across the back of his head and Crow couldn't help but chuckle at the face he made.

"Ow." He turned to her with a frown. "Look, do you wanna focus on that or how to get across the massive pit? Your pick really, but do keep in mind that if you choose anything other than the one I would then you'd be wrong". Unity wasn't facing Crow but he could hear the smile in his voice.

Ethi took a deep breath, looked to the pit then back to Unity. Crow followed her stare into the depths and suppressed a shiver. The hole was filled with dust from the cave-in, and it was swirled around thickly enough that the bottom was still completely obscured. He looked back to Ethi just as she peeled her eyes from the drop and levelled them at Unity. After a brief pause she spoke very, very calmly.

"You're like...a walking, talking period cramp."

Unity just smirked as she stepped forward towards the gap with inquisitive eyes. She gently kicked a pebble down into it, then waited. All were silent for at least half a minute, and yet the sound of the rock hitting the bottom was nowhere to be heard. Could the drop really have been so great that it couldn’t be heard from the top? Or was it simply such a high fall that the stone hadn’t hit the ground yet….

"I can get us across." Ethi turned sharply to Unity as she spoke with renewed vigour. "You just need to shut up."

"Hey why me?" He whined.

"Cause I can't focus with you around."

He grinned. "Oh well I'm flattered but-"

"Not like that." She cut him off. "My magic relies on my emotions and I need to remain calm to use this part."

Unity just stared blankly. "So?"

She paused. "Do you not see how that's a problem with you around?"

"No I don't. I've been nothing but a calming force my entire life." He had such a sincere tone that Crow would’ve believed him, too. Were it not for the enormous, superior smirk across his face.

Ethi opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed it before getting on one knee. She took a deep breath and Crow watched her chest calmly rise and fall before the bright orange energy that surrounded her body began to flake away- revealing a swirling mass of white beneath it.

She stretched her palm forward into the gap and the energy leaped forwards, molding itself from a free flowing state to what he supposed was a solid bridge that connected the two sections of floor, as white as the energy from which it had been made. It was the sort of sight that made Crow thankful for his perfect memory.

The aura around Ethi was smaller now, She turned to Unity and just as he excitedly opened his mouth to speak, she sternly placed a finger to her lips. His posture deflated and he sighed.

The boy walked across the bridge, ducking below the spear and stepped onto the other side. Ethi followed once he was all the way across. As she stepped from the bridge, it crumbled and seemed to come apart like a sugar cube dissolving in a liquid. After a moment the aura around Ethi turned back to orange, just as she brought her hand around and smacked Unity across the back of the head.

"Ow!" He yelled, turning to her.

She instead looked to Crow and he nodded, understanding. His gaze fell to Unity and he frowned, folding his arms. "You could have killed me."

"Calm down, at worst you'd have been knocked out and teleported to the med bay." He said, idly tending to his head.

"Still, that'd have disqualified him." She said.

"Wait what?" Crow asked, eyebrows raised. "What do you mean teleported to the medbay?"

Unity looked at the device on his wrist. "These gaugers keep track of your vitals, the moment it gets too low you'll be teleported for treatment."

Crow frowned.

“Teleported?”

The looks he received from his teammates made him regret asking.

“It’s when you use magic to make something appear somewhere else suddenly. It’s an application of the Itamis sphere, a very advanced one actually.” Ethi explained it very calmly and inexppressively, yet somehow Crow still got the feeling she was mocking him.

“Basically,” Unity picked up as she stopped speaking, “the wizard uses their magical powers to make a pretty light, and then you wake up somewhere else.” Crow decided he would discreetly ask only Ethi for explanations in the future. Not that the information wasn’t both useful and fascinating. It was good to know he wouldn’t die if he lost, and astonishing to find out that things could be done with Itamis that not even his sister knew about- when Crow had asked her, she’d assured him it was completely impossible to appear somewhere else without first conjuring two portals to step through. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.

“Hang on, what would’ve happened if I’d just been skewered through the head by that spear and instantly killed?”

"Well." Unity shrugged. "That would have been an unfortunate accident."

"You...."

Crow decided not to push the issue of Unity nearly killing him. At the beckon of the constant throbbing pain, he looked to his knee, he winced and started down the corridor.

"Let's go then."

He took all of one step before realising he was not being followed. Looking back at his teammates, he saw they were simply staring at him, unmoving. Unity gestured for him to go on as though Crow’s hesitation were mere politeness.

"Seriously?"

He turned to Ethi who shamefully avoided eye contact.

"You too?!"

"Hey you're our best hope of making it out of here." The Onī replied.

“Yeah!” Unity chirped. “You’re like our canary.”

Crow stared at him and Unity quickly added.

“Oh no, not because you don’t matter. It’s because you’re the best one to survive tripping any traps. And because you don’t matter.”

"Fine."

Crow took a deep breath and activated his physical enhancement ability. Stemming from the Cutaris and Valumis spheres, it worked by imbuing every cell of his body with magical energy to increase their durability- not to mention letting him move his body with otherwise impossible speed. He took a moment to appreciate the rather enthralling sensation of magic flooding and animating his body, then slowly put a leg forward.

He caught another glimpse, this one showing him riddled with metal spikes. He leapt back a step just in time to avoid the flurry of deadly iron projectiles bursting free of the left wall and sticking deep into the right, filling the air with dust and the smell of whatever explosive had been used to propel them Crow coughed, he was covered in some of the debris which filled the air. But not dead. That was good. He eyed the wall where the projectiles now stuck, each of them some fifty centimetres long and embedded well over a foot into the stone. He was glad they had hit the opposite wall rather than his body, even if it was a magically toughened one. The others followed behind as he repeatedly purposely set off traps and avoided them.

***

It was nice to be useful. Crow liked being useful, even when the way in which he was useful was repeatedly almost dying to prevent others from actually dying, however Crow also liked sleeping. This fondness for sleep combined with the several hours he spent acting as cannon fodder meant that the moment he got the opportunity to lie down, upon leading his teammates into a large hall with no glimpses of deadly traps in the future, he flopped down onto the hard stone, deactivated his magic and sighed in bliss at the sudden relief. Magic was exhausting. Crow knew this, he’d been told by his sister after just about each one of her hours-long training sessions, yet he’d never actually spent so long using it himself. If activating his abilities had made each one of his cells feel alive, abusing them to the point of near total stamina deprivation made them feel as though they’d been drained of all vitality.

He heard Unity and Ethi step up next to him as he lay there, staring directly up at the ceiling. It wasn’t black like the last one, or even like anything else he knew- more black like the absence of said things. As if he were staring into some great abyss. Of course it wasn’t quite as dark as any abyss Crow had ever heard of, a warm light filled the chamber from glyphs etched into the walls. Crow craned his neck to look at them a little more closely, noticing they depicted shapes and angles that for the most part seemed alien. Some seemed like crude impressions of people and one was just a massive ball with an eye at its center so yes... mostly alien.

"Good job Crow." Unity beamed, leaning down to look at Crow as he stood beside him. "We did it."

"You mean, he did it. You just sat back and asked what would happen if you tickled him mid trap." Ethi leaned into Crow’s field of view alongside Unity.

Too tired to reply, Crow grudgingly turned to his sides and he noticed the room had two exits facing each other. One led down a passage he couldn't possibly see the end of and the other had a bright golden light that poured out of it. Above the golden room was another painting of the almighty on the wall, it would have been identical to the previous one they'd seen, except this one looked up rather than down. Above the dark room there was a similarly placed painting, however this time it was of something quite different. A snarling, writhing mass of blades dripping with blood- the only vaguely living trait it had was its wide grin. It took Crow a moment to realise it was a picture of the Eclipse, prophesied enemy of the Teary Eyed God- destined to fight, and perhaps kill, his chosen Messiah on earth. Transfixed by the rather visceral depiction of the great destroyer, Crow turned back to the golden room. Next to the one with the Eclipse above it, it looked completely harmless. He was sure it was a trap, anyone that walked in there would probably be viciously mauled by werewolves and never be able to get out.

And then someone walked out.

"Other survivors." The someone gasped with a smile. It was a boy around Ethi’s age, wearing a bright green robe that didn't at all go with his cloud colored hair.

"Come on in, there's a lot of weapons in here."

He walked back into the room, beckoning them to follow. He wasn't anyone from the initial room they started in so that confirmed Crow's guess that other people likely teleported in at multiple areas in the tower.

Crow sat up with a grunt, then exchanged glances with his teammates. He could tell by the looks on their faces that neither of them fully trusted the newcomer, and as yet both of their eyes flickered back to the Eclipse room for just a moment, he realised something. That picture was unnerving, as though the monster it depicted had been watching him just as he watched it. Even as he didn’t. Wordlessly, they made their way to go after the boy in green.

Ethi was the first to go, then Unity. Crow slowly got to his feet, using his hands to push him upwards, careful not to jar his still throbbing knee, and followed after.

He squinted as they passed through the doorway, immediately seeing where the golden glow had come from. The ceiling above was made seemingly completely from the glinting metal, and it was quite the ceiling at that- looking to be at least two dozen metres from one side to another. Great shining lights struck the gold sheen, rebounding from it and streaking across the walls and floor. This was not like the other chambers they had entered, a small stuffy narrow passageway. It was a throne room fit for a king. Dozens of people walked around, picking whatever they needed, and as the green clothed boy had said there seemed to be no shortage. There were piles and piles of weapons, from axes to swords and bows. Crow didn’t need to look to know that his own weapon of choice would be absent, but that was no matter- he could make do.

However even as it sprouted into adolescence, Crow’s budding excitement was crushed by the realisation of what this meant. The Sieve would not willingly arm its challengers for no reason, after all. He glanced to Ethi, the look in her eyes confirming his own thoughts.

"Whatever's coming next is going to make surviving booby traps look like child's play, isn’t it?" She said grimly, her aura turning from orange to red. She picked up a golden spear and began testing its balance

"Eh it'll be fine." Crow smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Just trust in my predictive skills."

"Aren't you getting just a little bit cocky for a fortune cookie?" She grinned.

"Correction. A glorified fortune cookie thank you very much." He smiled back.

"Sure. Just do me a favor and don't become as bad as that one." She gestured over her shoulder to Unity who stood there, outside the room, gazing up at the painting.

"Speaking of which." Crow turned fully, facing the boy, there were about a few feet of passage separating them.. "You coming?" He didn't move. "Hey." He didn't move. "Unity!" Finally the boy slowly looked down at Crow and gave a blank stare before speaking.

"For we were made in his image, we are his children." He said, curiously.

"What?" Ethi asked, sounding just as confused and on edge as Crow felt.

'It's a quote from Solifate scripture." Crow added. "End's End."

"Oh that's what it is? Well that's also what the glyphs out here say" Unity explained and then added. "Why would you look away from your own children?" He asked, eyes fixated on the painting above the passage as if if he were to look away it'd disappear. His tone was calm, too calm in fact, a dropped needle would be deafening next to it.

"What do you mean?" Crow tilted his head, worry seeping in.

"Why would any parent look away from their child?" Unity repeated. He looked angry. No, no he didn’t. He looked like he was experiencing the emotion people called anger, except his own version- as if he’d formulated it himself completely independent of how he was expected to express or feel it from what he saw of other people. His hands were balled up into a fist, his eyes zeroed in on Crow and when his voice next rang out it was with a wavering, chilling calm.

"Help me with this."

Crow suddenly felt very afraid. He tried to give an answer to satisfy Unity’s question, but even just in speaking he fumbled.

"I...I...I don't k-"

"Because they can't bear to see what's about to befall them?" Ethi chimed in. Crow glanced to her, noticing the same look of concern he assumed was on his own face.

"Ah." The cyclone of emotion that looked like they were about to burst from Unity’s seams suddenly died.

What the hell was that? Crow thought. Rather than give any sort of explanation, or even acknowledgement as to what had happened, Unity only said one thing.

"We have to get out of here."

"What?" Crow asked, but the black haired teenager was already walking towards the opposite passage. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he hurried after Unity- bad knee hating him for his every step.

"We just got here." Ethi noted, following behind. Crow cut in front of Unity, being the only thing between him and the passage.

Unity took a deep breath then gestured to the painting.

"The almighty is looking away from us."

Crow would have said something if Unity hadn't kicked him into the passage. The world lurched and came to a sudden halt once he hit the ground with a groan. He quickly tried to stand but collapsed as his legs were having none of it. "What the hell?!"

"I don't have time to argue." Unity said, walking in after him. "Now that you're in and I'm in...well we all have to go."

"I was going to agree with you, you colossal jackass!" He yelled, leaning against the wall.

"You were?" He asked, seemin genuinely surprised.

"Yeah! Why wouldn't I? You haven't been wrong yet."

"Ah." He nodded, taking in the information and stretching a hand out, he continued. "My mistake then." He said, as if his mistake had been to eat Crow’s snack rather than jarr his injured knee.

"Your...oh?" Crow looked at the outstretched hand and realised he was being helped up. He took it and grunted as he pulled himself to his feet with Unity’s help.

"Well I'm not leaving just yet." Ethi cut in, shaking her head. "If you're wrong we'd be going up against god knows what while practically naked."

Unity shrugged, seeming completely at ease as he walked away.

"Oh I'm totally fine with that, goodbye."

"Let's wait for her."

Unity came to a stop so sudden it was as though he had been yanked back on the end of a rope. His head lowered and he made an irritated, half-sigh half-scream.

"Ughhhhh fiiine".

Ethi turned just as a massive ball of black mass dropped from the ceiling with a sickening thump. It had crooked dark tendrils which moved over, under and around one another so erratically and quickly that they could not be counted. It rolled around the ground, writhing like a worm. It's snakelike appendages wrapped around the passage opposite them, sending pulverised chips flying from the walls as they dug in and contracted- using their grip on the stone to drag the massive spherical body along behind them. Crow watched, paralysed with awe, disgust and horror, as the creature’s main body reached the entrance- only to be some fifteen feet too big on all sides to fit through. However as the dark mass slammed itself against the opening, Crow realised its body was actually deforming- squeezing into the passage which had, moments before, been far too narrow for it. Like icing forced through a pastry bag.

By the time Crow had noticed his teammates begin backing away, it had forced itself completely into the passage so that not even a scrap of the golden light could escape out into the main chamber he, Unity and Ethi had fortunately moved into just a minute earlier. And that was when the screaming began. It cut through him like a knife, raking against his ever nerve. Crow had never heard anything like it. The sounds of pain, fear, desperation and misery all condensed into a single, primal sound. He was petrified, all his instincts told him to run but he couldn't, he didn't know why but each scream tore into him a little more, it reminded him of something he'd buried a long long time ago and he was suddenly cold all-over. He felt a tear run down his cheek right before Ethi grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him out of it. "Crow let's go!"

Crow's eyes widened as he stumbled back. Unity ran first, then Ethi. She grabbed his hand and dragged him along with her. The pace she forced him to hurt his knee even more with every step, but he could hear the screams behind him far too vividly for that to slow him. They were a good twenty paces from the Eclipse door, but it felt like they cleared them in a second. Crow considered reactivating his abilities, he could certainly use the strength, but decided against it. He’d already used them enough to drain himself near totally, if the creature cornered them he’d rather have a few extra seconds of fight in him.

As they made their way through the doorway into the Eclipse passage, Crow turned his head and threw a glance over his shoulder for just a second while he ran. He could see the creature's limbs wrapping around the Messiah passage, digging into the outside of the wall this time. It was coming out. Crow expected to see that all encompassing black mass again but instead his gaze met an enormous eye, nearly half the size of the entire passageway. It blinked and for the instant it was closed it looked like a ball of blackness again.

It wrapped it's tendrils around their passageway now and began squeezing in; massive eye first. Crow forced himself to turn away even as he kept up his sprint. He could still hear the soft shuffling as it forced itself through, it's body pushing against sand and stone, its crushing limbs digging into the wall to drag it forwards, the noise was getting closer. It was getting closer. What would it do if it caught them? Crush them? Strangle them? Did it have a mouth with teeth to tear them apart somewhere across that enormous body? Perhaps a stomach with acid to strip away their flesh after swallowing them whole. Oh Messiah. Oh Messiah.

They ran past Unity, and just as Crow met his eyes the boy pressed his palm against the wall. The black haired maniac stopped running and seemed to concentrate just as a bright red pattern as thin as spider thread spread from his hand and laced itself into the surface, then slowly spread backwards towards the ceiling. The creature grew nearer as this happened, now only ten metres away from him- yet Unity barely even seemed to register it. Another moment went by, and the monster was now nearly on top of Unity- barely ten feet away. Crow had no doubt at all his teammate would already be dead if it had sent its tendrils through first, as things were he simply stared into that giant, monstrous eye and leapt backwards. There was a grinding noise through the passage, like God scraping his fingernails against a cosmic chalkboard, and then it all came falling down behind them. The walls, the ceiling, everything Unity’s red pattern had moved across broke apart and tumbled towards the ground. Unfortunately for the creature, it was in the falling rubble’s way. Crow saw that great eye bulge for a second under the sudden weight, and he felt a jarring surge of terror as it occurred to him that maybe a few thousand kilograms of rock wouldn’t be enough to pin down a mass of flesh which probably weighed twice that. This fear disappeared around the same time the monster did, replaced by utter awe as the bulbous form was crushed down against the floor- revealing enough rock was on top of it to fill the fifteen-foot passage entirely.

Unity forced himself up before Crow could think to help him, he turned to compliment the boy- Crow had assumed he was his equal in Potency, but he doubted even a dozen Crows could muster the power to produce a blast of energy powerful enough to do that. Unfortunately his praise died on his lips when he saw the urgency in Unity’s face, and his body turned back into a run further down the passage as Unity drew up next to him. A second later Crow heard that shuffling sound again, accompanied by a similar but smaller grinding noise. Whatever the hell was after them, it was pushing itself through the debris.

Crow had just enough time to take another five steps and wonder what in Messiah’s continent could kill the thing behind them when Unity was yanked back with a faint yelp. Crow stopped, staring back as he saw his teammate dragged back down the way they’d come- back towards the monster- by a pulsating black tentacle ensnaring his legs and pinning them together.

“UNITY!”

Crow cried out for his comrade, just as the tendril slammed him against the wall. He cringed at the sight of Unity’s limp body rebounding from the stone as thin cracks snaked away from the point of impact. There was practically no reprieve, as the monster slammed him once more- this time against the ground. Then it brought him smashing into the ceiling. Each strike was accompanied by a strangled cry of pain. Crow couldn’t see the boy’s face with how fast he was being swung around, which made things all the worse. The impacts did not appear too powerful, Crow was sure he would take little to no damage from any one of them, yet Unity appeared genuinely hurt. Of course he was, the amount of Potency he must have put into whichever ability he’d caved in the passage with would have left practically nothing for any others. Even if his physical enhancement abilities were all activated at full strength, they could not make use of Potency that had been dedicated to another ability- that was the price for over specialisation in a single area that all mystics were familiar with.

Crow looked back to Ethi, and she looked back at him and shook her head. He was only just noticing she was burning red again. you can't save him, her eyes said.

"He wouldn't do the same for you." Her mouth added, hand on his shoulder.

Crow turned away from her, now facing the beast. Looking past Unity, it seemed the majority of it remained pinned beneath the rubble. In fact, only a single tentacle was free- though with the amount the mound of rock moved he imagined that wouldn’t remain the case for long. He took a step forward and thought of what he hoped was a good plan just as the creature slammed Unity against the floor once more, and this time he made no sound. Crow had no plan. It lifted his body like a rag doll, limbs and head lolling back and simply hanging limply. Crow was running now. It slammed Unity against the wall again. He had no plan, he couldn't do this, he'd been ignoring it but his knee burnt and his steps were barely balanced. He couldn't save anyone, he could barely save himself. He had to...he had to turn around.

A bright red blur whizzed past him and towards the creature like a musket ball. The tendril swung Unity’s body like a club, but Ethi avoided the blow with all the grace of a ballerina. She jumped from wall to wall before landing with her spear planted into the base of the tendril clutching Unity. It didn't shriek, it had no mouth with which to do so, but it moved like it would have. The tentacle unraveled from Unity, who fell twelve feet down and slumped against the ground. Crow went to pick the boy up, but the wounded appendage swung both wildly and widely, forcing him to throw himself flat to avoid a heavy strike. Of course the giant eye remained covered and pinned by the rubble.

It was blind. And Ethi made full use of that as she danced around it, spear flashing and biting deep into the oily pillar of flesh with which she did battle. Without his abilities active to enhance his reactions and perception, she was practically imperceptible other than as a crimson blur- and for the occasionally telegraphed move. Crow saw a shifting in the debris and screamed out a warning, which the Oni responded to just in time to avoid being struck by a second tentacle as it burst free- sending what looked like a dozen men’s weight in earth flying.

"Holy cow was that a ride."

Unity groaned groggily. Crow looked down, seeing the boy struggle to even prop himself up on one arm, and clutched the boy to drag him to his feet. Unity leaned on his legs once he was upright, shaking slightly but not collapsing. A few steps proved that he could still walk, but his body was battered and bruised. Crow struggled to hide his shock at the sight of the boy’s face, his attractive features having been crushed into a mess of bruised, broken and swollen flesh.

Ethi called out to the pair before Crow could say anything, and he turned to see her sprinting towards them- two tentacles laying severed several paces behind her, three more now surging towards them and whirling around to strike everything around them as they shot forth. It was a desperate attempt to strike an enemy it could not see, and it slowed their advance immensely. Ethi reached Crow in moments, gripping Unity when she did and helping to carry him from the opposite side. They hurried down the passage for a full minute before Ethi whispered that Crow should let her carry Unity, then, with what Crow could only conclude was her ability-enhanced strength, hoisted him over her shoulders as though he were a child and took off at blinding speed. From the look of her form she was lightly jogging, yet Crow could barely keep up even in a full sprint.

After a while the noise from the creature died down, and eventually it could not be heard even at all. This did not slow them, however. Once Crow reached his limit, they continued forth as fast as he could walk. His lungs burned, his knee felt like it was cracking open and his stomach ached with hunger, yet still he forced himself to continue- pushed onwards by the ever present threat of the thing they had left behind. Crow wasn’t sure how long they walked like that until they came to the end of the passage, revealing a ladder leading downwards through a tunnel maybe half again as wide as a man’s shoulders. They shared an uneasy glance at each other, Unity having remained barely conscious and in a delirium since they first fled, before Ethi broke the silence.

"Only gets worse from here."