"I can't believe I let you talk me into that," Keith muttered.

"I didn't 'talk you into that'," Nathan rolled his eyes as he pulled Cyrus out of the playpen and carried him into the dining room, setting the infant on the table. "I asked you, told you why I wanted it, and you said 'yes'."

"Still," Keith shook his head. "I'm surprised I let myself agree to that."

"Cyrus, give me your arms," Nathan said, and his son held out his hands, as if expecting to be picked up. "In a minute, Cyrus."

Nathan picked up a metal cuff made of a dark gray metal, set with a trio of gems, a purple amethyst, a blue sapphire, and a clear diamond. He slipped it onto Cyrus's left wrist, and the cuff shrank to fit the infant's small arms. Cyrus stared at it, and Nathan picked up an identical cuff and slid it onto his son's right wrist.

Then, he picked up an amulet made of the same metal, hanging from a chain of the same metal, and set with the same trio of gems as the cuffs, placing it around his son's neck. While the amulet stayed the same size, the chain adjusted itself, links disappearing until it was short enough it could not be removed. Finally, he picked up a ring of the same metal, three smaller versions of the jewels set into it, and slipped it onto his son's right thumb, the ring shrinking to fit.

"There we go," Nathan said, then looked at his sister. "Thank you, Tilara, for the assistance."

"Honestly?" She asked. "Never in all my life did I think something like that was possible, Nathan. It was an interesting experience."

"Yes, it was," Keith sighed, then looked at William, who was passed out on one of the couches in Master Torzin's living room. The wizard had stayed up watching the infants during the night, apart from the brief few minutes when Nathan needed Cyrus. "Did you tell William why you wanted him to do that to the sapphires?"

"To have him infuse his mana into them?" Nathan asked. "No. Why?"

"Just curious," Keith looked at the jewelry Cyrus wore as Nathan picked the infant up, only for his son to begin striking him with magic. "Where are the twins?"

"Father has them right now," Nathan answered. "How do you feel?"

"I can't exactly feel anything but amusement at the moment," Samantha's voice came out of the cuff on Cyrus's left wrist.

The project Nathan wanted Tilara for involved pulling Samantha's soul out of the Soul Engine and binding it into one of the cuffs, so that they could be together forever. Nathan's soul was bound into the other cuff, though until his body died, he could continue to inhabit it. To the demigod, possessing his own body felt weird, but he also found it somewhat amusing and interesting. The project had taken all night to prepare, and he was quite hungry as a result of it.

Hungry and tired. But it worked, and Samantha was no longer suffering from the agony of being used by the Soul Engine. That improved his mood considerably, though the strong hatred and desire to destroy the Soul Engine remained. He knew it was from the forging in his soul, and he didn't care.

All that mattered now was protecting his son. Well, his sons, but the other two didn't matter as much to Nathan as Cyrus did.

"It still amazes me," Tilara said. "That we managed to bind a soul after it passed on. I've never heard of that before."

"We couldn't have managed it without you," Nathan told her. "You were necessary to do that."

"I know," Tilara told him. "It still amazes me, though. It was supposedly impossible. I suppose if we began the enchanting process as the alloy was made, it becomes possible."

"And probably takes a demigod, too," Keith said. "You're not feeling pain, are you, Samantha?"

"You mean from when I was in the Soul Engine?" She asked. "There's some lingering pain, but it's going away. Cyrus seems to have realized it and is doing something that's making it easier to deal with. I know you're in the right cuff, Nathan, but you made four things?"

"Keith is in the amulet," Nathan explained as the psychic began opening up cabinets and the fridge, pulling out stuff to make breakfast with. "And Cyrus is in the ring. Keith, I want pancakes. Can you make them?"

"Sure," Keith answered. "You'll trust my cooking?"

"This time," Nathan answered. "I'm exhausted from forging and enchanting all night. If you make it taste bad, I'll zap you."

"You bound Cyrus?" Tilara asked. "Why?"

"So that he'd stay with us, even after he died, too," Nathan answered. "I hope that takes him a very long time."

"Uh," Tilara interjected. "Cyrus is using magic to ease your pain?"

"Yeah," Samantha responded. "He's our little prodigy."

"Are the awareness enchantments working?" Nathan asked. "Other than the one allowing you to hear us?"

"Yes," Samantha responded. "I can hear, see, smell, and all that. Why did you enchant the jewelry so that they can't be removed except after death?"

"So that only Cyrus can wear them," Nathan stated. "Hopefully, he'll pass them on to some son or daughter of his own."

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen," Keith muttered.

"What's that?" Nathan asked.

"Nothing," Keith answered. "Just that… I used my psychic power to see his future awhile back. He lives a pretty long life, but never has any kids."

"Oh," Nathan fixed his gaze on Cyrus. "Change that future."

"What now?" Tilara asked. "You managed to rescue Samantha from the Soul Engine with my help, but I think they patched up the hole we busted into the dimension, and probably reinforced the barrier."

"Yeah," Nathan said. "The mana orb broke, too."

"That thing," she said. "Was strange. Using the mana in it… it felt like I was touching the universe itself. How did you two create such a thing?"

"Long story," Keith told her. "As for our plan, we're going to keep looking for a way into the dimension housing the Soul Engine. We've already created our Deus Ex Machina, all we need is to enter the dimension, and it will be gone for good."

"What is your Deus Ex Machina?" Tilara asked. "Why are you so confident it'll do what you want it to do?"

"Because it will," Nathan answered.

"Nathan, give me Cyrus," Keith said, eyes glowing purple.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"I think he's about to poop," Keith told Nathan. "I'll change him for you."

Nathan could tell Keith was lying, but figured he should listen anyway. If the psychic's sight was telling him that Nathan shouldn't be holding Cyrus, he wasn't going to argue with that. He handed his son over to his friend, and Cyrus began staring at Keith, a grumpy look on his face.

"He thinks you're mean for taking him away from me," Nathan said.

"Yes," Keith said. "I'm receiving that from him loud and clear. Can I see your necklace, too?"

Nathan still wore the necklace from which a small storage orb hung, for no reason other than he liked it as an accessory.

"Sure," Nathan pulled off his necklace, trusting his friend's reasoning. He handed Keith the necklace, and the psychic pulled it on. "Hey!"

"Oh, leave it," Keith rolled his eyes. "You won't be wearing it soon enough. See you in a few minutes."

"See you?" Tilara asked. "What do you mean? Nathan's not leaving, is he? Are you?"

She looked at Nathan, who shrugged, then found himself elsewhere, standing before the Overseer he'd met before and four others of similar appearances to him, presumably other Overseers. They were surrounded by an endless machine made of a white material that flowed and ebbed, pulsing as it glowed. He could feel the raw power, the immense mana, that flowed around him. He could sense the souls contained within it.

It surrounded him, the six of them in what appeared to be a mixture between a tunnel and a chamber. Some areas of it rose up from the ground, others protruded out of the walls, and more still hung from the ceiling, everything polygonal in form.

"So this is the Soul Engine," Nathan looked around, reaching into his back pockets, letting his hands rest there.

He could feel the card he'd placed in his back pocket, warm from the heat of his body. It was their Deus Ex Machina, and Keith had told him to keep it there, the card protected from bending out of shape or folding by special enchantments placed into it to ensure it remained usable.

Keith had to have guessed the Overseers would summon him upon realizing their actions against Samantha only infuriated the demigod and increased his resolve to destroy the Soul Engine. That was why he asked for Cyrus and the necklace.

It was Nathan's real body which was pulled, not a copy, which meant both Cyrus and the necklace likely would have gone as well had Nathan not handed them over, and neither he nor Keith wanted Cyrus caught up in itwhen Deus Ex Machina was used. The necklace contained an abundance of resources as well, which Keith didn't want to lose.

"Yes, Nathan," the Overseer who spoke to him before spoke. "This is the Soul Engine. You still intend on destroying it, even after our warning to you."

"Of course I do," Nathan stated.

"It is impossible," the Overseer told him. "Can you not feel the vastness of it? Do you not see for yourself how impossible your goal is?"

"Yes," Nathan looked around. "It is… more than impossible for me to do by myself."

"Even those mana orbs of yours," the Overseer said. "Wouldn't manage to destroy this, Nathan. That temporary tear you created was mended in moments. That angered us, by the way. You may have created useful weapons and gear for helping restore our dimension, but that damage you caused? That was nasty. Cease your fruitless attempts at destroying this thing. It will never work. Even the gods themselves would never succeed."

Nathan pulled his left hand out of his back pocket and placed it against a section of the Soul Engine. It filled an entire dimension, just as he had been told. He could sense that, even as insignificantly small as he was. Upon touching it with his bare hand, rather than through his shoes where he stood on it, the feel of the souls contained within it threatened to overwhelm him, the sheer force of mana beyond even what his mana orbs could make.

He pulled his hand away and looked at the Overseer, who looked smug.

"Do you see now?" The one who had spoken asked. "It is impossible, Nathan. Nothing you and Keith could come up with would ever hold the potential of destroying this. Give it up. Give up your quest, and we will disconnect your son from the System, prevent him from ever entering it."

"See, that's a problem," Nathan said. "I'm rather fond of him, and my other sons, too. And they'll have children, who will have children, who will have children… and I don't trust you. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to destroy this."

"You can't," the Overseer said. "It's impossible. Even we couldn't manage it, and we created it."

"See," Nathan said. "That's where you're wrong. I can destroy it. You said 'we'. Am I correct in assuming the five mutes are Overseers as well?"

"We are the Overseers," the main one told him. "The five of us created the Soul Engine, designed the System."

"Any others?" Nathan asked.

"No," the Overseer answered. "It is us, but do not think you can hurt us, Nathan. We are-"

"Overly arrogant," Nathan stated as he pulled his right hand out of his back pocket, bringing with it the card kept back there. "Everything can be destroyed, and the Well of Souls created me to destroy this. Because the Well of Souls created me, there is nothing that's impossible for me when it comes to the quest it's assigned."

He showed them the front of the card. It was black, with "Deus Ex Machina" spelled out at the top.

"This is my trump card," Nathan told him. "My Deus Ex Machina."

The moment he spoke the title of the card, the spell contained within it activated. It was created through the culmination of all of Nathan's and Keith's research into enchanting. They spent a full week pouring mana into it from a mana orb dedicated solely to feeding the enchantment, and Nathan had begun to learn soul magic from Keith's necromancer friend in order to understand the necessary parts of the enchantment.

Before the Overseers could react, even with their own enhanced speed, the card absorbed all of the mana attached to Nathan's soul, erupting into flames that spread out. They licked at the Overseers, drawing out the mana from their souls as well to fuel the all-consuming flames and blast. When the flames touched the Soul Engine, it drew upon the mana in the souls within those sections, spreading further, the which followed vaporizing everything a moment later.

As that happened, Nathan felt his soul snap away, his body destroyed within moments of activating the card. He was aware, but contained no senses, only his thoughts. For an unknown period of time, he hung in that state, then his senses returned to him, awareness of his surroundings returning.

He was within the cuff only a moment before Keith and Tilara screamed, William waking up with a start, screaming in pain as well. Keith had suggested the possibility of the System's end being painful for those who were connected to it, and the response of the three still-living players in the building confirmed it for him.

The three of them clutched their heads and fell to the floor, and Nathan watched, marveling at his new form of viewing the world around him. It looked to Nathan like Keith had placed Cyrus back in the playpen after Nathan left, likely in anticipation of the end.

When the screams finally faded, Keith stood up, gasping as he clutched his chest.

"What was that?" Tilara asked.

"That," Nathan said, and three pairs of eyes turned to the cuffs. "Was the end of the System. The Soul Engine is no more. Keith, did you finish putting them into place?"

"Yesterday, while you were preparing for your speech," Keith confirmed, eyes glowing. "The pathways leading to Earth sealed upon your death. No more can mortal or god alike enter or exit this world, the gates permanently closed."

"Good," Nathan said. "Because in that which will fill the universe in the coming years, I want my sons protected from those who would want revenge upon me for the chaos the universe will soon enter."

If the estimates of Keith, Ichtvar, and Neunar were correct, then the universe would, indeed, turn to chaos with the destruction of that dimension.

"Yeah," Keith said.

"So!" Nathan said. "You get to play daddy now! Raise him right, 'cause don't forget, I can still generate mana in this form. I'll whup that punk ass of yours if you treat him wrong. As soon as I figure out how to cast magic like this."