We cobbled together a set of gear for Pike out of the remnants of whatever we had in our inventory. She had no armour, no weapons except for her namesake edged weapon, and I’d stripped away the majority of the power she’d been gifted by Sare’zmei.

I also needed to sink the last two points I’d earned in the last fight. There only two viable options now that I’d unlocked the use of claws on both hands. Hack and Slash gave me a copy of my Tactical Hatchet, which would have been great had I not had an alternative I could call on at any time now. I could easily skip that skill.

I’d already activated all the bonuses I could from my Houndmaster’s Jacket. It wasn’t until the skill line after this one that I’d gain access to the last boost my jacket gave me.

That last boosted skill – Harbinger of Doom – worried me a little. Investing in it would make Kaiser much more deadly, harder to kill, and reduce the damage enemies did, but would turn him into a Grim. An ill omen, a hound from hell. The black dog that started the moors in the early morning mist, promising bloodshed and terror.

That wasn’t Kaiser. I’d need to talk it over with him before I made a choice that would fundamentally change him. What Balaur had done to me was, I felt, irreversible. Would changing Kaiser into a Grim be reversible? Like when EDGE Force stripped me of my abilities when I finished my mission on Mori Island?

I focussed back on the task at hand while Pike outfitted herself with the gear we’d given her.

On this current skill tier, the first viable option was Second Wind, which boosted Kaiser’s health regeneration and damage reduction when he hit critical health levels. The second was Ammo Efficiency, which gave me a 10% chance for shots to cost no ammo for each point I invested.

We were on the cusp of ultimate danger, so I chose to allocate two points into Second Wind, which increase Kaiser’s health regen and damage reduction by 66% if he reached critical health level. I’d need to do everything I could to keep him alive in the fight to come.

Once everyone had invested their points and Pike was kitted out, she spilled the beans on everything that had happened to her so far.

The wisps of memory that flowed through me during our fight reinforced what she said. There was no hint of deception or treachery in what she told us, and I was quietly happy that Balaur’s own nature had been proven correct.

Balaur was a healer. A purifier. Whatever corruption Trajan had opened Pike to, Balaur had the power to purify it.

“We need to get into the city and stop that ritual as soon as we can, but I fear that we cannot risk assaulting Trajan’s citadel without telling you what I know,” Pike said. “Long story short, our planet was used as a dumping ground and a prison for an evil, ravenous entity. Sare’zmei is a corruptor, and his appetite is insatiable. He exists to consume and integrate living things into himself. Once, millennia ago, he covered the stars in an empire that spanned galaxies. All were one unto him until Balaur fought back. He empowered chosen warriors of righteousness to resist Sare’zmei’s taint and purify the universe. They were called the Balaran Knights.”

I flexed my clawed hands and gazed down at the shining green talons. “So that’s what I am? A Balaran Knight?”

A warm, acknowledging flash of energy pulsed throughout my anima network. I took it as confirmation from whatever tenuous connection I still had to Balaur.

Pike shrugged. “I don’t know. But you did what Sare’zmei is terrified of. You purged his corruption from me and returned me to myself. I remember saying awful things, about power and connection, but that’s not what Sare’zmei’s power truly is. It’s domination of body, mind, and soul.”

“What kind of ritual are they doing over there with the big pointy thing?” Stiletto asked.

“The seven obelisks of Balaur are anchor points for Sare’zmei’s prison. Normally losing one would not be a problem, but Trajan and his Solomonari are bolstering the corruptor’s power from our side of the lock. They’ve built a focus for his energy, and he has been pouring himself into it for days now.”

“That’s why they’ve been taking villagers and corrupting them,” Xiphos said. “They needed a force to defend Adormitzeu while they complete their ritual.”

“And to use as conduits,” Pike said sombrely. “Sare’zmei cannot break through the lock, but his anima can bleed through into hosts, allowing him to coalesce power on our side over time.”

“Do you know what’s happening up on the mountaintop above?” I asked. “There’s another group of people trying to get down here that call themselves Edgebreaker. They’ve already captured the anima essence of three other entities like Sare’zmei.”

“You’re talking about the ones touched by Mnemnhion? Led by Bastard and Scythe?” Pike asked.

“Yes exactly!”

“They’re in the city with Trajan. They’re helping him with the summoning,” Pike said. “Their soldiers offered themselves willingly to be corrupted by Sare’zmei’s power.”

Edgebreaker was working in league with Trajan and the Solomonari? Edgebreaker were powerful on their own, and so was Trajan. Together, combined with the power of Sare’zmei, there might be no way for us to stand against them.

Pike continued. “One thing Trajan has never been able to obtain is a sample of Balaur’s essence. That was needed to open one of the four locks holding Sare’zmei in his prison. That’s why Trajan submitted himself to EDGE Force experimentation, to find intel on their operations here in the Carpathians.”

I sighed. “Edgebreaker found a sample of Balaur’s anima when they broke into the EDGE Force facility in the old ski resort. What other locks do they need to override to let Sare’zmei free?”

“They need crystalised anima of different kinds. Edgebreaker had purple, blue and green anima crystals, and the final golden anima lock is being overridden by Sare’zmei’s corruption from this side, through the villagers-turned-conduits,” Pike said.

Purple for Altrighus, blue for Mnemnhion, green for Balaur, and gold for someone or something else I’d never encountered. Red for the corruption of Sare’zmei.

It would have been so easy to lose hope in that moment, and if I’m being honest, I came close to it. The forces of our enemies had combined to form a shield stronger than they could apart, but I could not give up hope.

I grinned and curled my hand into a fist. “We are meant to win this fight. I’m sure of it.”

“What do you mean?” Xiphos asked.

“Balaur told me that he could view our world all throughout the timeline of our universe, traversing back and forth like we can go up and down a river. The reason he came to our planet is because time just stops in six months’ time. EDGE Force is terrified of it, and Edgebreaker knows about it. They call it the reality crash. Our whole timeline just stops. Like a computer blue-screening.” I shook my head. Was that the best analogy to give? “Do they even have the blue screen of death these days? I can’t keep up. Anyway, that means that whatever’s happening here isn’t the cause, and that’s a great thing. We are destined to stop this.”

Xiphos mulled this over before speaking again. “I never believed in destiny, or fate, or any of those things. I make my own choices and forge my own path.”

“Time isn’t real though, is it?” Stiletto asked with an awkward laugh. “I always thought it was just the way us mortals quantified the time we get to be alive on this pretty rock hurtling through space. It’s imaginary, just like money.”

Naginata shook her head. “No, time is real. My first EDGE Force mission, the yōkai ghosts that I had to eradicate, they were echoes of an ancient conflict. The beginning of that tragedy happened hundreds of years ago, in the time of Kamakura Shogunate. An oni – a demon I guess you’d call it – possessed the head of an evil clan of ninja and committed atrocities in the demon’s name. One benevolent yōkai sent me back in time to defeat the head of the clan and rid the land of the oni’s evil influence. When it sent me back, all I remember is being enveloped in a golden light.”

My eyes widened. “The gold anima, it must have power over time. The yōkai wouldn’t have been able to send you back to the time of the shogunate, then back to modern day without being able to traverse the flow of time, right?”

Naginata gave a small smile at that. “More or less.”

That was a little cryptic, but I figured Naginata would have told us more if she wanted to. We all had secrets we play close to our chests. A flash of recognition and familial warmth spread between us Naginata and myself. That surge of feeling had something to do with her family, but exactly what I could not hazard a guess.

“I didn’t think imagination was a force that could be manipulated either,” I said. “But it is. On my first mission I came into contact with the purple anima source. Bastard was there on the island with me, masquerading as an EDGE Force operative named Sabre. He tried to kill me, then left me for dead, then finally I fought an echo of him while the real Bastard escaped with a sample of purple anima.” I took a second and thought about how much of my real life I wanted to reveal about these people, but we were about to face off against a cosmic dragon. I would need to trust them. “Back in the real world I write books. The nasty kind that people look down their noses at, full of blood, guts, monsters and mayhem. Using the purple anima of Altrighus, I brought forth those imagined monsters and made them fight for me. Not only that, but it let me visit the worlds I made in my head.”

“Your head opens up?” Stiletto asked with sudden laugh.

“No. It just kind of happens. The first time I got sucked through while crafting an item. This weapon, in fact.” I pulled Gravedigger from its holster on my back. “I got it from a character I made up in one of my book series. He was as real as you folks are right now.”

“That is some solipsistic shit,” Stiletto said, laughing again. “How do you know you’re not still in your head, and you’re just making all this up?”

I bent down to ruffle Kaiser’s fur. “Because if I’d invented Kaiser, I would have made him obedient.”

Kaiser shot a look at me that was half amused, half betrayed.

“Four forces, holding one corruptor at bay,” Xiphos said. “Imagination, purification, understanding, and time.”

“Understanding? Is that what Mnemnhion’s blue anima represents?” I asked.

Xiphos nodded. “Most of the modern world’s interconnectedness comes from Mnemnhion’s power. Mnemnhion is legion, and his purpose is to understand the very nature of reality, which to us, is beyond our comprehension. It’s beyond him too, but he sees farther than us.”

“Altrighus always told me that Mnemnhion was her enemy, and I never understood why until now. It’s so obvious!” I felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. “What is the enemy of imagination? Understanding. The reason we create ideas, stories, solutions to problems, is because we see ways around things that are, and imagine what they could be. Mnemnhion only wants to understand what is. Perhaps Mnemnhion sought to anchor Altrighus in our world back on Mori Island so he could understand her.”

Kaiser barked an affirmation.

“I’m glad you people know what’s going on,” Pike said. “Because this is my first week on the job, and I feel like I’ve shit the bed.”

I reached out and put a hand on Pike’s shoulder. “No, you were sent into a situation that EDGE Force didn’t understand. They sent you here like a canary in a coal mine, and the moment you stopped chirping, they sent us in for clean-up and rescue. EDGE Force are responsible here, not any shortcomings you might have.”

Xiphos shifted uneasily. I got the distinct impression that she didn’t disagree with what I’d said, but she also couldn’t voice support for it. She was my commanding officer after all, and in the end, she would answer to EDGE Force once this was all over.

“So what do we do from here?” Stiletto asked. “Go into the city and steal the anima they’re using to unlock Sare’zmei’s prison?”

“Yes, exactly,” I said without hesitation.

I never thought I’d get the chance to use Altrighus’s anima again, and now it was within my grasp. All we had to do was find it, then take it for ourselves. Just a small piece would be enough to open the door back into my creative nexus and bring forth an army that could fight for us.

If the city was overrun by nemorti, then I could open a doorway to the world of Wilfred Kritch, the old man whose last stand against a world full of Feeder zombies let me level up to insane heights during my last mission. That would let me level the playing field.

A bellowing call roared out from the city as the obelisk lit up with greater luminosity. Two great wings rose from beyond the city’s walls and above the eaves of the buildings of Adormitzeu.

Dragon wings.

“Oh no,” Pike said. “The emergence has begun.”