Meeo’s betrayal is seeping into her mind like rusted metal shavings into a workman’s forearms— but she will keep on, because she is Lord Knight General Order, Chaos Slayer, and she does not stop for any one, not even herself—especially not herself.

…

“For the last time Kale Benefits Minion, not everything we cook has to have kale in it!” Cooking Minion insists with a moan, pushing back a pile of smelly, freshly-gathered kale the tall, lanky Kale Benefits Minion is attempting to dump onto him.

“But Mister Cooking Minion, sir! Kale is amazing! I even went through all the trouble of gathering all this fresh delicious and healthy kale in the middle of my yoga session!” Cooking Minion screeches in fury as Kale Benefits Minion starts shoving mouthful after mouthful of kale into his Cooking Minion-y jaws. “You just… need to… try so-”

“No!” Cooking Minion shouts with a sputter as raw gatherings of magic coalesce in the room silently. “Kale is for frickin’ dingo-ass losers, man! Don’t you get that? It. Doesn’t. Taste. Good.”

Kale Benefits Minion squeals in offense as he reaches into his fair-trade hemp-fiber bag to throw more amazing kale at Cooking Minion. “Health tastes good, man! If you actually cared about the people you were serving you’d know that!”

Cooking Minion laughs at the irony as they both remain blissfully unaware of the intra-realmic gateway forming, its composition process sounding no louder than the twinkling of the coldest stars in the sky. “You’re saying you know how to take care of people? You’re going to make them happy?”

Kale Benefits Minion scoffs pretentiously at the short Cooking Minion. “Why, isn’t it obvious? Once I convert this tower’s minions to the glories and wonders of almighty kale, I’ll be unstoppable! Chaos will make me his right-hand minion!” He looks away and up through the room, like a classical statue that has something far more important to look at than Cooking Minion. “I can see it now! My destiny! The operator’s lounge! The free massages! The ‘get out of the minion wagon’ free passes! The…” his gaze focuses over to the portal, finally. “The gate…ways?”

The two minions have scarcely enough time to comprehend what’s going on when Royal Knight Order, Royal Knight Redemption, Royal Knight Glory, and some Kanvane-academy know-it-all geek, all blast through the portal.

Kale Minion flips up a fresh sheath of kale, ready to provide twenty percent of the recommended daily value of dietary fiber per cup, but dietary fiber cannot hold out against the focused might of the R.K.O.K.R.’s three strongest and most lauded knights - each immortal legends in their own right.

Usually a fight like this would be described for comedic effect— but like, damn, they didn’t stand anything resembling a chance, and Cooking Minion’s actually pretty tough.

Redemption lifts his visor and overlooks the overlord’s breakfast room with an expression of both distrust, and a bit of humor. “Some quaint tastes, considering who he is.”

Glory, raising his fist from Kale Benefits Minion’s pulpified, quivering face, scoffs. “Mayhaps the spikes and lava get old after a while.”

Order, still and arched over Chaos’ comfy chair as she looks over his collection of weapons and trophies from her old friends, shakes her head. “I don’t feel him anywhere. He must’ve just moved.”

“N-no way!” Cooking Minion exclaims weakly, his lower half smeared across the stove top. “He’s playing billiards in the basement! And once Kale Benefits Minion and I regenerate, we’re going to cook your chivalric asses up for lunch!”

Redemption, the Lord Knight Captain and leader of the R.K.O.K.R., looms over the two crushed minions. “Is that so?”

Kale Benefits Minion cries out in horror. “N-no! They just left! Please don’t hurt us!”

Cooking Minion inhales sharply with a gurgle. “You *[email protected]#&$ idiot!”

Redemption looks to the Kanvanian mage, who’s presently staring into a scrying sphere.

“Nias, is this true?”

Nias, his blue-white hood drawn over his slim shoulders, peers into his sphere a moment more. “It is, Lord Knight Captain, sir. Chaos and his… retinue just crossed the boundary into… Tree’s Weathers….”

“What is it?” Glory asks.

There’s a pause as Nias looks up with wide, fear-struck eyes. “The O.E.L. Headquarters Realm.”

“Son of a bitch,” Glory spits, swinging around to stare at the wall.

“Any specifics?” Redemption asks.

Nias shakes his head. “It’s literally in their headquarters… I’ll go ahead and start the coalescence.” Glory groans while Nias draws out his wand to open the way.

“You’re kidding,” Glory says with a laugh. “They walked right into those bastards’ hands? Chaos or not, he’s dead.”

Redemption sighs. “I’m afraid you don’t know our own overlord all that well, then.”

Glory raises his visor, revealing his steeled gray eyes. “What, you think they’ll be afraid of him?”

Redemption glances over to Order; she’s completely beside herself. He looks back to Glory. “He’s the main reason the O.E.L. have kept their distance all these years.”

Glory squints with intrigue. “That so? Never heard of that. Not too much of a surprise considering no one tells me anything.”

Order finally breaks her silence, while looking over the mounted head of an outman. “Well it’s not like you spend any time in New Reinen, so we can’t really keep you updated when we need you.”

“Right. I have this rank because I’m ‘the best’ like you said, Daniel.”

Redemption sighs. “That’s right. You’ve served us well… when you’ve been cooperative enough to help, at least.”

“Ahh, so you’re the ‘us’ now, Daniel?” Glory asks with a smirk as footsteps approach from upstairs. Music Minion appears with another stack of records, so high she can hardly see in front of her.

“Sir! I figured you’d like some more variety when listening to…” There’s a pause as she spots Order out of her eye, fully suited up for battle and Monument stored at the hilt. “Oh, fudge.” She plops the records on the floor, but they make no sound— nor do her screams when Redemption leaps forward. She, too, is strewn across the kitchen in a deft, undeniable strike from Redemption’s sword. Her head plops next to Cooking Minion’s, who looks over with a smirk.

“Welcome to the club. I’m the headmaster,” he says with a serious tone.

“Sh-shut up,” Music Minion says with a cough as Redemption turns to his party.

“We don’t have much more time before our presence is alerted to. How close are you?”

The golden glow from Nias’ whitewood wand pulsates brightly as the spell continues to completion. “Going to be a few minutes. Unlike here, there’s far more barriers set up by their mages.”

Glory sighs. “So, honestly spoken, what the hell are we going to do when we get there?”

Redemption nods his head gently. “I have a plan. We’re going to come as ambassadors.”

“And you think they’ll be cool with that?”

“Again, based on the reports I’ll assume you haven’t read, they’ve had their eyes on our dimension for ages. They’d be fools not to welcome us. We simply step in, tell them the situation, and they’ll let us get to Chaos.”

“Right, and if Chaos is using it as a trap?”

Redemption shrugs. “Then we’ll have been trapped successfully. There’s nothing we can do in this case but be diplomatic and hope for the best.”

Glory crosses his arms staring down the coalescing elements of the portal. “To choose there, of all places… why?”

“Either to throw us off, or because he has to go there for some reason.”

“Almost done,” Nias says as what looks to be small, human-sized constellations line up in front of him and his wand.

Glory chuckles nervously. “Gotta say, though. Of all the groups to hunt down Chaos over the millennia, if anyone has a chance it’d be us. You’re something else, Nias.”

“Thank you, Lord Knight General, sir.”

“Never seen a person capable of realm transfer, let alone at an age like yours. You’re not even past fifty, right?”

“Only thirty-four, sir.”

Glory crosses his arms once more. “Yeah, see, the soonest I could’ve done anything close to that would have been maybe halfway past one thousand.”

“It’s the only magic I’m good at, sir. I’d venture to guess that by that age you were this good at a hundred others.”

Glory smiles sheepishly. “A youth would think that, but the days just sort of fade and merge…. Really I just improved the magic I used every day.”

“Which was still enough for you to be considered the third-deadliest knight in history.”

Glory sighs as Redemption grunts with a touch of humor. “Fourth, actually,” Glory corrects.

“Really, sir? Who’s the third?” Nias asks.

“Regardless of what the history books tell you, in our… society, us knights know pretty well who’s at the top of the food chain… The third strongest knight is our pal Redemption right here.”

Nias flinches as Redemption presses his hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh.

“Then… then who’s number two?”

Glory leans on the counter, now covered in scattered kale. “None other than the lass we’re chasing.”

Nias squints an eye. He apparently has trouble believing this. “Knight Love— she’s the second strongest knight?”

“I mean… in a direct fight she’s not terrible,” Glory responds with a shrug.

Order sighs as she perks up from Chaos’ fireplace. “The problem is with her magic system.”

“So… realmancy is a real form of magic?” Nias questions.

Glory scoffs and Redemption sighs. “Typical civilian mage,” Glory mutters.

Order nods, still not taking her eyes away from Chaos’ immense collection of artifacts, trophies and weapons. “She can bend the rules as far as she needs to. I saw her pushed, really pushed only a single time, and the rules of our world started to break.”

“Break?” Nias questions as the gate begins to form.

“An overlord ran her through with his lance— right through the heart. She just shot him in the face and got up like it was nothing. I went up and looked to see what happened, and there was no wound. I should’ve asked her the specifics, especially considering we might… we might be facing that, after all.”

Nias’ usually cool demeanor degenerates into the young boy who was once told scary stories at night— about the great witches and killers of their world. “…What….”

“That’s why we’re composed like this,” Redemption says with a curt nod. “Honestly I can’t think of a single time Order and I worked together, let alone you, Glory. We could handle Chaos the three of us, I’m sure, but with Meeo in the mix, it’s going to be… challenging.”

“Yeah, but not quite as bad anymore, I bet,” Glory says, reaching into his helmet to scratch his bright red hair. “Now that we have the A.D. coordinates of this tower, we can probably parse out the whole network. In an hour this place is gonna be overrun with knights.”

The portal finally opens up, a small, dark passage— a crude far cry from Chaos’ mockingly-easy, perfectly-comfortable portals.

“There it is,” Nias announces.

“Alright. Be ready for a fight, but we’re going for diplomacy first,” Redemption reminds.

“Got it,” Glory confirms, getting up from his spot on the counter and sauntering over to the gateway with Redemption taking the front. “Let’s do it.”

Redemption waits a second with Nias and Glory ready at the back, then looks over to the fireplace. “Ranalie.”

Order, busy looking over a dragon’s tooth from the old wars, turns around with a cool, calm certainty. “Yeah?” Redemption motions his head to the portal, and she nods. “Right,” she says, “sorry.”

“Stay sharp,” Redemption warns, “I have a feeling this won’t be a short affair.”

Order nods as she takes up the second part of the line. “Don’t worry about me.”

Redemption sighs. “That will be hard not to do... Are you really okay?”

Her visor protects her expression from being seen. “…Of course not, but we have to move or the trail will go cold,” she persists with an immaculately-even tone. Redemption considers it a feat that she’s this calm, especially in the face of the betrayal of her only real friend for a few thousand years. He could only imagine how it’d feel if Glory stabbed him in the back, though then again it probably wouldn’t feel nearly as bad, considering how far they’ve strayed apart through the years.

Redemption pauses a moment, and then comes to a slow nod. “Alright then. Let’s go.” Redemption closes his visor along with Glory, and the group traverses the stellar spaces.

It’s tight, disquieting, and very, very silent. Realmic gate coalescence is quite a famous magic for how little is known about it, most of its popularity stemming from all the stories of wizards breaking concentration mid-travel, and stranding the tunnel’s occupants out into deep, horrible nowheres.

In only a moment, the stars give way to a bright light along with bleach-white polycarbonate surfaces. In the next blink, the four are piled out into a spot in The Central Library’s grand plaza. The thick silence passes aside to let in the chorus of screaming soldiers, explosions, and klaxon horns.

“Looks like we were just a little late,” Redemption observes with a slant frown as the group at once focuses in upon a giant tower in the distance, falling into a heap.

“So… I guess he went that way,” Nias notes in bewilderment as the group looks upon the enormous void of wrecked buildings and ruined infrastructure down the path.

“Wow,” Glory says in mock admiration, “yeah, gee; that Keruz Academy education is really paying off I see.”

Nias jolts awkwardly when a retinue of O.E.L. operators storm past them with automatic firearms and tech of the likes that no other creature in The Omniverse has seen before. “Uh, sorry, sir.”

“Gentlemen,” Redemption addresses, “keep calm and let’s make a good impression.”

“I can’t believe it… he’s probably still here, too.” Glory says, notching his head over to the fallen tower roughly a kilometer away, now surrounded by several-dozen dropships.

Redemption shakes his head. “Well that’s too bad.”

Order sighs. “No, we should engage, sir.”

“And risk us being blamed for this mess?”

“Ywn’s going to blame us anyway. You know he doesn’t view Chaos as a person.”

Glory scoffs. “Right, more like a force of nature.”

Redemption shakes his head again just as they’re finally spotted by a small fireteam. “The risk is too great. We don’t know what Chaos is working with, nor do we know what the O.E.L. have under their belts. We need to wait and see.”

“Hey, Daniel,” Glory interjects, using Redemption’s actual name. “That’s bullshit, man. We need to nip this in the bud or we’re fucked.”

Redemption turns around to face Glory. “No, we don’t. We need to take this with caution.”

“Because you’re scared of fighting him?” Glory asks with a smirk.

“Because we only have one Kingdamn shot, Clarn. If we screw up we’re all dead.” He pushes into Glory’s space, making the height difference apparent as he looms over his friend. “We’re cut off from all support, about to pick a fight with The Omniverse’s public enemy #1, and he’s out for blood.” Redemption’s posture is strong and straight as always, but his tone is grim, immense. “So yeah, Clarn, I’m scared. If we die, if we fail, this is over. The knights are over, the Western Kingdoms are over. If we don’t return, and Chaos does, there will be nothing stopping him.”

Glory hisses as he meets Redemption visor-to-visor. “I don’t think you’re taking into account how many countries, knights, and overlords he’s going to have to topple befor-”

“And I don’t think you understand the gravity of picking a fight with something that can’t be killed! We call Chaos an overlord because there’s not a word for what he is, you fool. What ‘overlord’ pulls a god from the sky and paints his worshipers with his blood? What ‘overlord’ holds dominion over the fabric of reality itself? What ‘overlord’ breaks the neck of the divine dragon and crushes their fire temples with his bare hands?! What ‘overlord’ crosses swords with our king, which may I remind you almost died wh-”

“Hey,” Order says simply, silencing the debate. “We got company,” she notes as the fireteam holds them up at gunpoint.

“Outlander scum,” addresses the front-most operator, obviously the team leader by the black-white band-paint around his suit’s left bicep. “Hold your peace or die.”

Glory turns from Redemption as he glides his hand along his bow. “You better watch who the hell you’re talking to-”

“And you better get on your Rondi-blessed knees and beg for mercy before my men fill you with-”

Again, Order solves the problem. All she needs to do is draw Monument out at the hip, just a few centimeters; the radiant, gold-light blade curls overflowingly from its dimensional sheath, thirsting for the blood of the wicked. As the massive length of the blade cannot be seen while within its sheath, the team had all assumed them “regular” royal knights.

After a second of horrified silence, the fireteam leader lowers his rifle, leading the others to follow suit.

“Rondi preserve— I’m… I am so, sorry, ma’am. I didn’t… I didn’t recognize you.”

Glory grins crassly under his helmet. “Looks like your sword’s famous even here, Chaos Slayer.”

“Think nothing of it, librarian; we’re here to hunt Chaos and his party,” Order states with a blunt lack of emotion.

The team leader sighs in relief. “Then… then you’re on our side. Thank her heart. I’ll patch you up top, one moment.” At that, the team leader turns and accesses his comms.

Waiting only half a minute, Glory shakes his head in dissatisfaction amidst the ashen wind, stained orange-red with the fires surrounding Chaos’ path of travel. “This is taking too long. We need to move.”

Redemption groans. “Like I just said. If we don’t make the right decision the first time, we’ll start to die, and as far as I’m concerned each and every one of us is vital to the mission.”

Glory scoffs. “You really are terrified. Man, if we wait too long Chaos’ll get the jump, then we’ll really be screwed. We should get him now while he’s distracted.”

Order looks down the line of devastation with a sigh— most of the road has been reduced to curling, molten debris. “As much as I hate to say it, Clarn… I think Daniel’s right, actually. This location is denser than I expected, and we have no idea what’s going on yet.”

“So…” Glory shakes his head. “Whatever. It’s your continent.”

Redemption inhales as if to rebut Clarn, but he can’t find the words. Glory doesn’t have much investment in the knights anymore after a few “slip ups” with following the chivalric code. “It’s our continent, and so long as we all work carefully, we’ll return to it unharmed,” Redemption says.

“Sure,” Glory says without interest as the O.E.L. team leader looks over to them.

“Hey, he wants to speak with you,” he says.

“Who?” Redemption asks with a slant frown.

“Prime Curator Ywn, sir.”

There’s a bated silence, awe-struck and dreadful all at once. “Take us to him,” Redemption requests.

The team leader promptly spins his men into a wedge formation as they rush through the streets at low-point carry.

“This sort of thing normal for you guys?” Glory asks with a smirk as they round a blackened corner.

“The Central Library has never been successfully invaded, knight, sir,” the team leader says, scoping down a street with his rifle before giving the clear to move forward. “This is unprecedented.”

“What’s the situation?” Redemption, ever in the moment, asks.

The team leader sighs as he exchanges a glance with one of his other fully-suited operators. “Bad. Chaos and a small team of uncatalogued individuals… blasted through the West Echelon Gatestreet. Casualties are in the thousands. I’m hearing that they’re moving to the staging array. I don’t… I don’t know what to think, knight, sir.”

“What’s this staging array?” Redemption asks, looking over the street holograms with a mix of marvel and distrust.

“It’s the vast majority of our gate-travel devices.”

“And you all just construct these?” Nias asks, wide-eyed.

The team leader hums. “Don’t you do the same?”

Glory scoffs. “You’re both clueless. Nias, we’re the only dimension in The Omniverse that has custom-destination gates.”

“Oh,” the team leader says simultaneously with Nias.

“So…” Nias starts. “The O.E.L. has to make a gate for… every place they visit?”

“Affirmative,” the team leader says. “I guess that only makes sense why Ywn wants to ally with your people so badly. Space gates like yours would solve all our problems.”

Glory scoffs. “Well I got news for you, buddy. We’re not interested in sharing bed with a bunch of-” he stops, taking a swift nudge from Redemption.

“Lay. Off,” Redemption says, raising a laugh from Glory.

“Ahh, now you want to get aggressive,” Clarn says snidely.

Order sighs and Nias looks away awkwardly while the two legendary knights lift their visors to get eye-contact.

“What’s your malfunction, Clarn?”

“My malfunction is that you pulled me in for a suicide mission, you little bitch.”

“And you hate that just because it gets in the way of you and your family, which you know is a violation of the code?”

“Last time I checked it was pretty clear to you I didn’t care much for your garbage code. Maybe if you lightened up and got a wife too you’d understand.”

“You…” Redemption groans. “You’re impossible. Is this really what happened to my friend? Is this what you’ve become?”

“…I had to say goodbye to Aimera two hours ago, Daniel. She asked what I was going to do… do you think I’d lie to her?”

In a sudden change, Daniel’s eyes become clear and concerned. “Clarn….”

“She started weeping, Daniel,” Glory says with a grim breath. “And no matter what I said after that, nothing could console her. You know why?”

Redemption glances away. “…Why?”

“Because people don’t live when they ‘go on the Chaoshunt’, Daniel. The only people that survive are the people that don’t find him. And you know what?”

Redemption takes a deep breath as the group passes into the central echelon’s administrative sector, filled with slow, lumbering archival droids.

“…What?”

“When I turned for the door, Aimera asked ‘if I finally decided to die’. That’s what this is, Daniel, this is a Rayda-forgotten deathwish. I feel like I’m staring at corpses already; it’s only a matter of time. Don’t you see? We may have the best shot out of every other attempt, but that’s still insects nipping at the heel of a man. I have no idea why I even thought this would have been manageable. Did you look outside?! He’s hasn’t weakened at all! You told me he’d be at his last string!”

Redemption is quiet for a long moment as the group waits for his response. “I do see what’s outside. I’m not blind, but if Rayda were here right now do you know what he’d be doing?”

Glory’s expression bitters immediately. “Don’t you peddle that shit to me.”

“ ‘At the front of the line I was the first to meet my metal with draconic blood,’ "

“Dragon Wars Account, chapter three,” Nias says, somehow impressed a Royal Knight knows historical literature.

Redemption nods as they approach what looks more like a temple than anything else— a far cry from the mirroring, modern architecture of the common streets. “He would be doing just this, bringing the fight to our tormentor.”

Glory scoffs profusely. “ ‘And I did not chase the overlord, for I thought better of it,’ Pretty sure that one’s in-”

“Record of Reinen’s Events, chapter seventeen,” Nias says, just a light smirk on the side of his face where the others can’t see it.

Glory nods. “And that one didn’t have any dragons in it, ‘neither.”

“Either way,” Order says, gracefully chiming in, “He’s not here, so we’re making our own damn decisions.”

There’s a weirdly satisfied, yet disgusted pause, like someone had just defied a god - simultaneously admirable and heretical all at once.

“If you say so,” Redemption says amidst a muffled gasp from Nias, who can’t for the life of him believe The Chaos Slayer herself just said such a thing.

Glory nods with an impressed look. “Alright then, Ranalie. Not like Danny was calling the shots anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Redemption, or 'Danny' asks as they finally enter the Library’s High Catalog.

“I’ll have to ask for your silence now,” the team leader says with a humble bow as his team slings up their rifles.

Glory and Redemption both look to Order, who just nods and follows along.

The halls of the Prime Curator are deep and tall, wonder-filled to the point of overflow. From the dataflow pathways underneath their feet, to the heavy hologram overlay projecting a radiant, ancient forest— it is technology progressed to a point that it is now indistinguishable from magic. Redemption has his hand on his sword the entire time and Glory’s breath is bated for spells, just in case. Order, on the other hand, is a tad too depressed to be on her guard without good reason. At this moment, there’s only two persons she’d be particularly interested in cutting into. She’s on the trail of them both, and Oa’s not one of them.

After a short walk through the gleaming halls of wood and technology, they approach a final set of doors— a clean, beautiful white, heavenly in its appearance. The team leader stands aside the door with his men. “This is it,” he says, striking the position of attention for the ambassadors.

Glory looks around with a smirk. “No security guards? You trust us that much?” he asks, noting the strange lack of people in the entirety of the building.

In a flash moment of unprofessionalism, the team leader chuckles. “He doesn’t need guards, sir.”

“That so?” Glory squints an eye.

The team leader smiles under his helmet. “He is one of the only two Rondian Disciples remaining, sir.”

“Rondian Dicipl-”

The doors open, cuing the team leader to cut Glory short. “He’ll see you now.”

Glory scoffs. “Yeah, but what’s a Rondia-”

“He will see you now,” the team leader reiterates.

As the others file in, Glory just nods facetiously. “Roger that, sir.”

Stepping inside reveals a swirling atmosphere amidst a bright ziggurat built with the same pure, white material that surrounds them. There’s a miraculous coolness to the air, and Order smells a familiar scent; it is like her sword, Monument, like the bright infinities of the farthest reaches of all she knows, like the scent of energy in material— like Chaos.

At the pinnacle of the ziggurat stands a solitary silhouette, a dark hue as it's overwhelmed by the light around it. It is tall, in the slim, compact way, betraying universes of power beyond what is apparent.

Glory and Nias flinch at the scarcely Chaos-like silhouette, but this is Ywn; Order’s certain of it.

“Well well, knights,” Ywn speaks, his voice fraught with long years and immense depth, like the fusion of a star. “I’ve waited a good time for this day.” The figure turns around, a scant light from the head suggests he’s looking at them. “I suppose you’ve come here for that little boy and his playmates.”

Redemption curls his breath. “We’ve come for our overlord.”

Ywn draws his hands behind his back. “Ahh, yes. I considered intervening, but I thought the better of it… I’m usually cautious when it comes to unprecedented situations. At this moment he’s about one kilometer south west from here, threatening a gate technician to open one of our sealed gates.”

“Sealed gates?” Redemption asks.

“One of our forbidden realms. The one he’s attempting to enter appears to be one we’ve sealed off using our magitech, making it impossible to enter without the use of our gate.”

“Do you know where he’s trying to go?”

“He’s saying dimension 4,883,992, which just so happens to be the dimension we expect Oa to be in. We believe Chaos somehow has knowledge of this, and is moving in to kill it.”

There’s a short pause as Order looks away. “The High Tea…. He must have asked for Oa’s location.”

Redemption shakes his head. “That’s impossible.”

“And yet so it is.” Ywn looks aside a second as if in thought. “He has now opened the way to the gate and he and his group have traveled through… it’s only natural to assume he’s out for Oa’s life, don’t you think so?”

Redemption’s features sharpen grimly. “Chaos would be… petty enough to hunt down another monster, I suppose.”

Glory sighs. “Yeah, because last time we checked Chaos loves helping us poor folk out by killing necromancers, namely the most important one of all.” He says this with no small percentage of sarcasm, of course.

Order shakes her head gently as Ywn coos thoughtfully. “Either way,” he starts, “I will let you follow him.”

Redemption looks back up to the figure wrapped in the light of human achievement. “That’s gracious of you.”

“On a condition, naturally.”

Redemption takes a breath. “How may we be of assistance to you?”

“I’ve… to be quite frank I’ve held a long interest in Oa. I have reason to believe that his prime phylactery is actually something of great value to me… just a glance of her, really….”

“Excuse me?” Redemption asks.

Ywn sighs. “I’ll put it this way— take one of my librarians with you, ensure he collects Oa’s prime phylactery, and he will take care of the rest.”

“What are ya’ plannin’ with ‘em?” Glory asks pointedly.

The nebulous ethers surrounding Ywn darken slightly. “Now, how could such a thing interest you?”

Glory opens his mouth to speak, but thinks better of it.

Ywn scoffs with parental sweetness. “You know, while you’re at it, bring that young interloper Meeo Letlind to me.”

Order bates her breath. “…What?”

“I obviously don’t expect you to bring Chaos here for me, but she… she understands quite a bit about a certain style of ethermancy… realmancy I believe you people call it. I must know more, it’s utterly fascinating. You will bring her low and my librarian will spirit her back here as well.”

Order almost reaches up to lift her visor, but if she did, she knows she would stare right into Ywn’s old, evil heart. There are words for the immense disrespect she is feeling, that Ywn would take from her the satisfaction so immensely, immeasurably hers— but worse than that, she is agreeing to trade an old, dear friend for passage. The bridge may be beautiful, but she can spot a counting troll when she sees one. Redemption is failing to speak, no doubt out of respect for her wishes.

“Prime Curator,” Order says with dutiful enthusiasm. “You will have your prizes. We accept your terms.”

At once, the atmosphere lightens, and the silhouette stands tall. “How lovely. I trust that, as knights, you are good at your word and no contract will be necessary?”

Order’s features darken. “Naturally, the knights of today are just as noble as those from your age.”

Ywn beats down a muffled scoff. “Ahh, yes of course you are…. Librarian Caefern.”

From the doors behind them emerges the team leader from earlier. He does not drop to his knees as Ywn’s almost deity-like composure would recommend, but his salute is sharp as a cut from the Kingdom Slayer. “First Librarian Caefern reporting to the Prime Curator, my lord.”

“Take with you situation kit 392,448 and commit to my wishes.”

Without moving from his salute, Caefern responds. “To you, it will seem as only a moment has passed before both object and person are in your hands.”

Ywn nods as the doors are lain open. “Leave me,” he commands.

The knights bow out with Nias and Caefern, leaving Ywn to himself and his multitude of unknown, unspoken projects. He opens up a comm link to an unknown person. “And it should go without saying that you will initiate reaction 13 the moment all class 4 P.O.I.s are unable to act counter to it… Very good… Rondi at the highest.” At that short exchange, he turns back to the swirling amalgam of light that bends off far into the distance.