I grabbed a small dark pebble from the sidewalk and showed it to Agatha. “I’m going to kill this rock for you tonight. Please judge that it’s perfectly mundane.”

Her silver-blue eyes flashed as she peered into the Astral. After a minute of staring at the rock she nodded.

Anniya bid us goodnight and departed for her home. The rest of the group had entered the station, went up the stairwell towards the pilot’s room. I placed Saccy in a corner and we all went inside of her.

“So that’s what she looks like on the inside,” Emerald said, looking around the large painted space. “This is pretty neat. How…?”

“She’s a Folding Seed,” I explained. “They’re experts at Folding Magic.”

“They’re also experts at eating people,” Agatha commented.

Emerald hiccuped.

“She’s perfectly safe, I assure you,” I said. “Now, who wants to see me murder a rock? Put your hands up!”

Voltara's and Emerald’s hands shot up. I looked at Agatha.

“It’s not possible,” she said. “You can’t murder a rock. It's not alive.”

“Watch me,” I said, spinning the rock in my hand.

I defined the pebble from every angle, glanced at it in the Astral and visualized it as a standalone concept. I felt, embraced the song of Sempiternity, dove mentally into the infinite void, thought of the infinite city upon the surface of Inaria.

My audience stared at me with eager eyes. Voltara looked with her eyes alone, while the two half-chimeras used their Astral-sight.

I swung Endy at the pebble, wishing it death, wishing its destruction. The pebble was weak. The knife sunk into it and it popped like a soap bubble.

[+0.002 XP] The System Rewarded me.

“What in the freaking Astral was that?!” Agatha gasped. “What in the Astral depths just happened?!”

She stepped towards the small pile of crystalline, white sand and stared at in absolute bewilderment.

“This is how I kill everything,” I said.

“Do it again!” Agatha demanded.

“Do you have an extra pebble?” I asked.

“No,” Agatha shook her head.

I sighed and walked to the bag filled with broken artifacts, selected a shattered self-cleaning magical plate and pushed some mana into it. The cracked plate lit up in my Astral-vision.

I waved the plate to my friends.

“Observe,” I said. “This plate has magic in it.”

“I see it,” Agatha said.

I defined the plate, hummed the death-song, sunk into the depths of Sempiternity. The knife sang in my head. It showed me long dead dreams of dead things, whispered of the eternal night, of the limitless event horizon at the end of everything.

I swung the knife at the plate. The plate gave in only after two hits. It shattered into pale dust. I ran my hand through it, devouring, absorbing its life and magic.

“What the...” Agatha looked like she was going to have a heart stroke. “You really destroyed it. There’s nothing left of the plate. Not even a blip in the Astral. I’ve never seen anything like it. This violates all known magical laws.”

I shrugged.

“Give me that knife,” Agatha demanded.

I handed Endy to the eldest princess. I already knew that she wouldn't sing for her. Agatha wasn’t the key, she didn’t understand the infinite city, didn’t dream of Sempiternity, didn’t touch, didn't understand the End-Gate beneath Undertown like I had.

Agatha spun the knife and stared at it with her magical sight. I permitted her to stab another broken artifact with it. She handed Endy back to me after a few pokes.

“None of this makes any sense,” she huffed. “You’re doing impossible magic with a non-magical knife. I saw it with my own eyes and yet… I can’t believe it happened. You exploded that old plate artifact, released some sort of essence that I could barely define and then freaking absorbed it.”

“Are you going to apologize now?” I raised my eyebrow at her.

“Huh?” Agatha looked up at me.

“You called me a liar, Miss,” I said, sliding Endy back into her sheath.

“Fine, fine,” Agatha groaned. “I was wrong and you were telling the truth about killing... things.”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded.

“Please explain this,” Agatha poked the crystalline dust. “What is this… stuff?”

“Hell if I know,” I spread my arms. “Some kind of purified dust?”

Agatha poured the dust into a small flask that she pulled from her pouch.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m going to run tests on this in Nemendias,” she said.

“Be my guest,” I yawned. “Let me know if you find anything. Anyways, you can chat or sleep or whatever. I’m tuckered and I’ve got leveling up to do.”

Emerald glanced at Grogtilda’s sleeping body.

“I’ll sleep in Grog’s body outside of Saccy,” I said. “So that her tattoo smell doesn’t bother your sensitive chimera noses.”

“Thanks,” Emerald nodded.

I climbed into the hammock and grabbed Grogtilda’s hand, waking up inside of my human body. Then I waved to everyone and climbed out of Saccy.

“Goodnight ladies, see you tomorrow,” I said and listened to a quartet of responses.

I crawled into the pilot’s bed, bundled myself in a blanket and closed my eyes.

“Level up,” I whispered, addressing the System.

An invisible hand grabbed at the power stored within me, compressing it into a singularity. The dot of energy detonated, igniting and rewiring my soul. The memories of dead things rushed through me. It was a very strange experience. Flashes of the life of objects that I had undone flickered through my mind… as if they really were alive.

I opened my eyes inside Chernobyl’s control room and walked to the dials.

Name:

Yulia Ishenko

Juni Tokimorimïtuti

Grogtilda Lic Misem

Age:

[-]

4 years

13 years

Species & Subtype:

Astral Phantom

Chimera Stripling

Juvenile Human

Level:

6

Experience:

221/2450

Health:

6/6

Stamina:

6/6

Mana Capacity:

6/6 [+1]

Mana regen:

6 m/hr [+4]

Strength / Fortitude:

1 [Michell Shield]

Agility / Folding:

1 [Air Compressor]

Dexterity / Dominion:

5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body]

5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body]

Vitality / Anima:

21 [Slow Mirror]

Charisma / Resonance:

1 [Allure Halo]

5 [Invisibility]

Magic / Power:

1 [Battery]

4 [Generators]

Luck / Destiny:

1 [Luck Tree]

Intelligence / Mind:

1 [Organizer]

Wisdom / Seeking:

1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]

Soul: In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]

8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged] In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorimïtuti]:

3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]

1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged] Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 1] [Light Lv 1]

[Voicecast Lv 1]

[Identify Lv 1]

[Pathfinder Lv 1] Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 1] [Light Lv 1]

[Voicecast Lv 1]

[Identify Lv 1]

[Pathfinder Lv 1] Investiture points: 30

Thirty points to spend. What did I really need? More Vitality/Anima could help Grogtilda’s body heal faster and look more presentable for my interview.

I found it surprising that Endy wasn’t listed on the chart and wasn't considered by the System at all. Could my best weapon manifest in this place? Could I summon her to me, into my soul-space or whatever?

I tried to reach out, tried to grab at my knife. It didn’t work. I didn’t have access to my body in this place - only my soul.

I hummed the song of the end, pictured the infinite city in my mind’s eye, accepted Sempiternity, imagined that I was holding Endy in my hand, like an edge, like a key, like the perfect weapon that could end anything, even a god.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually something had happened. When I stared at my right arm she was suddenly there. My Endy. The knife looked wrong here, not exactly hexagon-covered. It looked like a black handle that fit my soul’s hand perfectly. A handle that that extended into a perfect, razor... no, micron-thin... no endlessly approaching zero thin, edge.

The edge that could cut anything.

Was this… some sort of infinite sword logic? I pondered as I stared at the edge in my hand.

I looked at the chart. The System refused to define or even to list Endy. The weapon was beyond it. It was a thing that belonged to Sempiternity, a tool of a god. Not the barely two-centuries old pretend-god like Eunisii… no. Infinity was something else entirely. She was the song that held up the Infinite dungeon, the song that had stretched the Earth, long ago and turned it into the horrid fractal megastructure.

Perhaps not a god. No. The knife wasn’t magic. The knife was an idea, a tool, a device, a concept that killed concepts.

Here, in this space of my dreams on the perfect edge between the physical and the Astral, I suddenly realized that... I could cut the knife with itself, if I so desired.

I could cut the System out of myself if it annoyed me. I could cut unnecessary threads from my soul. I could make myself… free of pain, free of fear, free of love, free of limits...

I could be completely unstoppable. I could have absolute focus with no distractions and no unnecessary pesky feelings. I could be a perfect, emotionless machine if I so desired.

I shook my head. I liked having feelings. Infinity didn’t choose me because I wanted to be a focused robot. She chose me because I was me. Whatever I was… it was already pretty good, already something that Sempiternity approved of. If I carved parts of myself, I would likely become something else entirely, potentially something that couldn't wield Endy.

I stopped thinking about the infinite and the knife dissolved, vanished from my hand like it never existed, like it was just a dream. I knew that I could call her up again, if I only wished for it.

Endy was mine. She was waiting for me to find her. Waiting for me for millennia. Waiting until I woke up in Andross and claimed her.

I wondered if Eunice knew about the knife. If she had one of her own. It was doubtful that the arch-cendai knew about the knife’s full, hidden, limitless potential. It was possible that she only saw it as a tool that was only good for cutting souls. It was possible that the knife didn't work for her like it did for me.

I looked back at the dials, ceasing my speculations about Endy. Yes, I could definitely shove all of my gathered energy into Vitality and look pretty. But frankly… Grogtilda didn’t need to look perfect right now. Grogtilda needed to be a symbol of change. She needed to look more pitiful, hurt and weak during her start at Nemendias so that her later rise would be meteoric, earth-shaking and observed by the eyes of Illatius. What I really needed was more luck. Luck to not screw things up during the interview. Luck to get ahead of the game.

I cranked the Luck dial all the way up.

[Luck / Destiny: 31 Luck Tree Branches]

The luck tree that slowly blossomed in my soul needed something else. I didn’t want to just see the future a few seconds ahead. No. I needed more. The tree felt… incomplete, weak, wrong. It needed fertile ground to blossom. It needed a pinhole… into the infinite. I summoned up the knife into my arm.

Endy appeared for me instantaneously.

I recalled Lambert's lesson about how precognition worked.

Infinity… the knife was a piece of infinity. Infinity… wasn’t just a way to destroy things, to divide them by zero, but also a way to reach towards the impossible, to step towards every star, every world in every universe. It was a gateway towards the endless.

I mentally folded the knife into a single point, into a tiny ball of darkness and thrust this darkness deep into my soul, tethered her deep into myself and let the roots of the luck tree wrap around the dark sphere. The roots of my luck tree sunk deep into infinity.

The leaves of the Luck tree flashed with renewed brilliance, shimmered with impossible colors. They were no longer weak windows into the Astral, but windows into the infinite. The tree felt complete now, perfect - the way it should have been. The way it had been designed by some unseen hand long, long ago.

Thirty one [infinite mirrors].

There.

I opened my eyes.

It was very early in the morning, the window was pink with the first rays of sunrise.

I rushed to the bathroom and then returned to the room and leaned into Saccy.

“Sis, why can’t we just trust her?” Emerald’s voice whispered.

“I… uh,” Agatha replied. “Because she's doing truly impossible magic.”

“But, she got us nice things,” Emerald said, her voice sour.

“Cheese is free only in a mousetrap,” Agatha said.

“Aggie, she’s not doing things for free,” Emerald replied. “She wants our support in the future, when you are Empress and I’m Admiral.”

“You know I can hear you two whispering,” Dawn commented.

“Do you trust her, painting?” Agatha asked.

“Yes,” Dawn said. “She is a nice girl, even if I can’t see her future. You seem overly pessimistic, princess Agatha.”

“I’m realistic, not pessimistic,” Agatha said. “There’s only one thing that can break all laws of magic, turn magitek devices into dust.”

“What’s that?” Dawn inquired.

“Inaria. The curse of the dead gods, the builders of Andross,” Agatha replied. “She said she knows their true names. She said that she can read Inarian. If she can kill objects, vows and spells then she can definitely lie through my truth-rune. What if she’s their agent? What if she’s in cahoots with one of them? One of the things that should never be labelled or spoken of? What if she’s one of them, masquerading as a chimera cendai that's masquerading as a human girl?”

Emerald gulped.

“Oh,” Dawn said and fell silent. The silence stretched on and on.

My heart grew cold. There was pain there, a hollow, dark emptiness blooming in my chest. Agatha still didn’t trust me. After everything I did for her and her sister. She still didn’t bloody trust me.

My right hand instinctively touched Endy.

Was I... an agent of Infinity?

Was I being mentally manipulated by her? How did I know exactly how to make the Infinite Mirrors or even the Slow Mirrors? How did I know how to bend soul-magic to my will, how to weave the threads that the System gave me? How did I know the answers to impossible questions? How did I know her song so well?

Was I being led, puppeteered by some ancient, dark entity via the all-ending-knife? Was I really me anymore?

I felt reality slipping through my fingers, the world getting heavy, my vision getting blurry.

Stupid, stupid, stupid Yulia. You’ve screwed up, let something inside you. You let it kill things. You broke the trust between yourself and your new friends. You don’t belong here. You don’t belong anywhere. All of your friends died millions of years ago, there’s nothing even left of them now. Nothing left of the Earth. The world you knew is long gone. You are a ghost that didn’t die when it should have. You stole the bodies of two others that didn’t belong to you.

After all you’ve done, nobody likes you.

I closed my eyes, leaned against Saccy and started to cry.