Five people turned in sync to look at me, joining Jun’s gaze to put me in an uncomfortable spotlight. I lowered my shield as I felt the atmosphere of the room growing a little too tense for my tastes, then raised my hands in a sign of hesitance.

“Why are you people in Nia’s house?” I pointedly questioned, looking between Inopsy, the other Matria, and the old young woman who’d saved Harvester’s life. “Weren’t you coming here to fight?”

Inopsy sighed and leaned back while crossing his arms. “Unfortunately for me, a good chunk of war is pointlessly talking it out with the enemy’s leaders.”

A massive armored fist slammed down on our table, but it didn’t even leave a dent. “An act that saves countless lives is not pointless.” The owner of said fist growled, obviously irritated with the conversation up until this point. “You Addia-spawn declared war on us, not the other way around, don’t you forget. And now you’re trying to poach all the new recruits before they even have a chance to choose for themselves? What kind of egotistical rot-feeder are you to think you deserve the moral high ground here?”

“Well, maybe if you talked to the new recruits you’d find out.” Inopsy lazily replied. “They did get a chance, and they all chose to come with us.”

“I’ll believe that when I’m dead and buried.” The massive armored figure grunted, then shook his head and sighed. “What’s actually going on here, Inopsy? I’ve known you for decades, and you never get off your rear for anything that’s less than terrifyingly serious.”

Maybe I’d charged in at the very start of this. But the discomfort mirrored between the other Matria next to Inopsy and the smaller man sitting next to the armored giant told another story; one that had started a long time ago and wouldn’t be finished any time soon.

I decided to skip straight to the end. “Nia is dead, and Endra killed her.”

Empty stares of disbelief met me from around the room. Not a single one of the occupants seemed anything but terrified of the news, which was surprising considering that I assumed the huge man and his friend were two of Endra’s chosen.

“Please tell me Nia isn’t short for Persephonia.” The smaller one of Endra’s chosen pleaded. “It has to be someone else. It couldn’t be Persephonia. She’s… she’s…”

The larger man gently patted the smaller man’s shoulder comfortingly as he devolved into wordless blubbering. They believed me so… readily.

“She was the best of us.” The larger man said somberly, reaching out one hand to touch empty air for a long few moments before nodding to himself. “Her signal’s not completely gone, but it’s shifted. Something’s trying to pass off as her, and if it wasn’t doing whatever it’s doing right now, we never would’ve been able to tell the difference.”

I nodded in confirmation. “Endra took Nia’s face and tried to pretend to be her. If she wasn’t weakened for some reason, I don’t doubt that she would be the one here talking to you right now.”

“Abyss below.” Inopsy breathed, then locked eyes with the woman sitting next to Jun. “Sorry to ask this now of all times, but can we count on you to help evacuate Walkalong? If Endra’s really here, there’s no saving this place.”

“Oh, of course. You’ll have to give me a long few minutes to get myself properly dressed, though. I’m not quite as fast as I used to be.” The old woman said with a kindly chuckle. “Juniper, dear, why don’t you go with your friend? Rootia will meet you in Rainbow Basin at the temple of Moricla.”

Jun looked the most confused out of anyone, eyes narrowed in suspicion as she swiveled to look at each and every one of the occupants. “Why did everyone just believe him? Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, check to make sure he isn’t lying?”

She stood up and slapped my shield, then hissed at the intense heat. “I mean, there’s no way Nia would just die like that. Skies above, she’s almost a prime Matria! She wouldn’t just… die.”

I was about to ask her what the hell she was going on about, but then I saw it in her eyes. She didn’t want to believe Nia was dead. “Jun–”

Jun shook her head and shuddered. “I know, Seb. I believe you. But it doesn’t make sense why these people do. They’re supposed to be enemies!”

“The key word there is ‘supposed’.” The larger one of Endra’s chosen rumbled. “Inopsy, no more lies. Did you call this because you somehow knew Endra was coming down to us?”

Inopsy considered for a moment, then nodded carefully. As if that wasn’t the full truth, but he hoped Endra’s chosen would accept it as such.

“Then we are not enemies; at least not for the moment.” The large chosen decreed, standing to his full height and gesturing for the chosen next to him to do the same. “We’ll work alongside you to banish Endra, but after that, we return to being enemies.”

“Until she returns.” The other Matria muttered nervously, looking between the old young woman and Endra’s chosen with a twitchy uncertainty. “We can’t actually kill her, no matter how much we want to. Am I the only one that remembers the Endurance Embodiments’ agreement?”

Reluctant mutters of agreement met the other Matria’s words. “For those of us that don’t know what’s going on, could you explain?” I asked.

“It’s quite simple, actually.” Jun’s grandma gently said. “The Endurance Embodiment have agreed to completely stay out of each other's way. They don’t interfere with any of the species they don’t represent, so it’s impossible to get rid of Endra for good.”

I was about to ask why that was, but a message stopped me dead in my tracks.

//THE LONE POSSIBLE WAY FOR AN EMBODIMENT TO DIE IS FOR IT TO BE CONSUMED BY ONE OF ITS OWN KIND.

//IN THE CASE OF ENDRA, THE ENDURANCE EMBODIMENTS’ AGREEMENT EFFECTIVELY GRANTS HER IMMORTALITY.

//UNLESS, OF COURSE, A NEW ENDURANCE EMBODIMENT UNBOUND BY SAID AGREEMENT ENTERS THE FRAY.

“Your Matria is… unfortunately correct. I had put that agreement out of my mind, for the thought of an Embodiment coming down to us seemed so far away. I refuse to sacrifice any of us in the name of a delay.” The larger of Endra’s chosen rumbled. “Instead, we shall move to appease Endra.”

“Appease?!” Inopsy spat with disgust. “You don’t ‘appease’ a monster. Endra killed Percy, who was the best of you freaks, and you’re just going to pretend it didn’t happen?”

“What else are we supposed to do?” The smaller chosen squeaked. “Banish her, and live in fear that she might use one of our bodies to come back? We don’t want to die either.”

The tension in the room grew slowly in silence, until it was beyond clear that there wasn’t a chance at coming to an agreement. Jun’s grandma tapped me on the shoulder, and I fell a little off balance from just how strong that one single tap was.

“Oh, oh, sorry. Did I hurt you?” She worriedly asked, gently grabbing onto my arm with hands that were partially coated in a sort of thick, white-pink gel. Vitality surged through me, as if I’d just been stuck with adrenaline and overdosed on caffeine at the same time, but it was gone as soon as it had come. “Since it doesn’t look like I’m needed for the rest of this meeting, let’s leave the chosen to their little argument. You have somewhere you need to take my granddaughter and I, don’t you?”

I did, in fact, have somewhere I needed to take Jun. But how had this woman found out about that? Had Okeria contacted her the moment I was out of earshot?

“I guess I do.” I slowly admitted, offering Jun a hand to help her stand. She gingerly touched my finger, then pulled back with a hiss at the intense heat of my gauntlets. “Right, sorry. I forgot about the whole ‘burning bone armor’ thing.”

Jun forced herself to laugh and pushed herself up, then tapped me on the chest. “You owe me a story after this. I’ve got one for you too, and then we need to give Nia a proper funeral. Even if we don’t have her body, she needs to be remembered right.”

“Right, of course.” I agreed with a nod as Jun’s many times over great grandmother grabbed both of our shoulders. She hurried us away through Nia’s scavenged office, then looked back through the door towards where Endra and Addia’s chosen were donning the last pieces of their armor.

“I’ll be waiting for you in Rainbow Basin, and make sure to bring all the seedlings!” She called happily, then slammed the doors shut with enough strength to shake the entire building. This woman really needed to learn to control herself. “Now then, do we have to make a stop to collect Matria Persephonia’s body, or have you left it with Okeria?”

I tensed my muscles and shot a glance at the countdown for //ENDLESS. I had some explaining to do, and a time limit to work under. “I… I have her. I’ll tell you about it while we walk.”

The walk was strangely quiet for how much I was talking. I recounted everything from meeting and ‘killing’ Inopsy all the way to carrying Nia’s body when I’d found Okeria, and neither Jun nor her umpteen-times great grandmother had said a single thing. It didn’t help that I was hiding a few things from the older woman, such as Nia’s last message to me and how I got the eelbone armor, but I wasn’t keen on trusting her just yet. I’d talk privately with Jun about those things when we got a chance.

No, what finally got a real reaction out of the two women was when I told them where I’d stashed Nia’s body.

Jun loudly exhaled and tightly gripped her bicep with one hand. “I… I guess that’s just like what we did with the eel. Nia… Matria Persephonia isn’t in there any more, so why wouldn’t you be able to put her in your interface.”

“What did you do with her core, Blue?” Jun’s grandmother asked. Her voice hadn’t changed, but there was an unspoken danger lurking underneath her words. “Have you already consumed it?”

“What? No.” I said with a little hurt in my voice. What kind of a monster did this woman think I was?

Jun’s grandmother looked me over, then eventually nodded to herself. “I believe you, sprout. Now, do hurry please. The backlash from whatever you took is going to knock you flat for a good long while, and I’d prefer that we’re in a safe place while I try to stabilize you. Once that’s done, I’m going to make sure all the regular citizens get out safely.”

I continued to grow hotter and hotter as we got closer and closer to the one blue coral tree that Okeria had pointed out to me. A trail of blood led us to a spot on the ground that seemed no different than any other, and as I stomped my foot down against it, I felt two overwhelming sensations at war with each other.

One came alongside the timer for my //ENDLESS consumable reaching zero. It was as if I’d suddenly caught the worst fever of my life while also standing in the middle of a blast furnace, every single inch of my body crackling and burning with an intense pain that never dulled, only intensified. I couldn’t hear much of anything as I watched Okeria pop his head out of a hole in the ground that looked like it was reinforced with the kind of steel beams you’d find dangling from a crane on a skyscraper, but with scars of cobalt blue that shone like a pristine lake on a summer morning.

My eyes stopped working after that, and all I got was the feeling of vertigo from falling down far longer than I’d expected. Feeling my own eyes melt out of their sockets wasn’t something I ever wanted to feel again, and if I could’ve opened my throat or pushed air into or out of my lungs, I would’ve screamed. But I couldn’t do much of anything except stay locked in the fetal position as multiple warnings flashed into my mind even against the blindness of my eyes.

Mixed among those warnings was the other feeling.

//WARNING: Personal health dangerously low. All armor functions suspended until Sebastian Cormier has reached stabilization.

//WARNING: All SLITHERBURN gear has changed, and must be REPAIRED/MODIFIED to continue being used. They will not grant any boosts while altered.

//ENDRA IS AWAKE.

//CRITICAL FAILURE: All brain functions have ceased. Armor and battery alone are keeping Sebastian Cormier alive.

//UNDENIABLE INTERFERENCE: Keratily Keratily has stimulated Sebastian Cormier’s vitals to keep him alive. Estimated time until full stabilization: eight hours and twenty six minutes. Estimated time until movement is possible: six minutes and nine seconds.

//FIND THE HUMAN EMBODIMENT OF ENDURANCE AND ENDRA MAY FALL.