“So now I am here, and now I am a minor deity in the canon of Mystix,” I say. “I’m not just any S-Ranked hero. I’m the first ever.”

I repeat those words out loud just to confirm them with my own voice.

It’s almost unbelievable. Just... Wondrous.

“Does that mean we can leave dinosaur land?” Francis asks. “It’s a little boring.”

“Of course. Once you are well and I have finished my ultimate plan. Both of which seem nearly complete.”

“Yep,” he confirms. “I’m pretty much healed. Or as healed as I can get after being stabbed in the stomach and dragged around the world and not given proper medical treatment.”

“Sorry.”

“Nah, dude. You saved my life. It’s fine. I was starting to get bored with the whole workout grindset thing anyway.” He nods, as if he has convinced himself that he will return to his streamer ways with ease. But through our [Empathetic Link] I feel his sadness at the soon-to-disappear awesome abs and boisterous biceps. “Anyway, what the heck’s your ultimate plan? You haven’t told me anything.”

“Do you really want to know?” I ask.

“Of course! Tell me, tell me, tell me.”

“I’ll let you figure it all out for yourself.” I open myself up to him with our [Empathetic Link] and give him all the emotional and intellectual details of my plan. It’s long, it’s excessively detailed, and as I go through it all, Francis’s jaw quite literally drops open.

“Holy fucking shit, bro,” he gasps. “You’re going to... WHAT. Eryk, babe, how did you even REMEMBER that?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about our journey,” I say. “And a lot of time to reflect on the strange occurrences that seemingly plagued our lives. I can only ensure that those occurrences happened for our benefit.”

“And you’re gonna...”

“Yes, I am.”

“Okay, let’s get the hell to the present day,” he says. “I wanna see this shit unfold.”

“Well, first of all, we need to make a detour in the not quite present day,” I say. “Or rather, near-present day on Earth, but due to temporal desynchronization it is a century before on Mystix. You know what? Don’t worry about it, Francis. Just leave it to me.”

“I’m basically your husband so I’ll stick with you for the rest of your life, even when you’re doing batshit mad lad stuff like this.”

“Yes. Just hold on and join me on Yoshu as we--” I stop myself. “Did you just propose marriage to me, Francis?”

Suddenly, Francis drops down on one knee.

Then, just as promptly, stands back up. “Just messing with you. We’ll talk about that stuff AFTER the war’s over, remember?”

“Yes, good. Then let us depart.”

I activate a combination of cards, easily obtained now with my S-Rank wonders, that allow us to travel forward in time.

To my understanding, physicists think traveling backwards in time is much more difficult than forwards. I know now, thanks to the momentum needed to travel through time, that this is actually the complete opposite. I need to inform people in the world of physics that all their assumptions are completely wrong.

But with [Irredeemable Force], [Time Acceleration], and a few [Double Dips], Francis and I ride on Yoshu faster than ever, through to the very edges of time.

I wait for Destiny to call me. Aim it just right, and--

[Cancel]!

[Cancel]!

Our momentum comes to a screeching halt and we arrive safely in modern day Mystix.

We are flying overhead, high in the sky as some adventurers venture towards a small town. Far too near that town, there is a dungeon attached to a certain mountain surrounded by thin forest.

A familiar mountain. A familiar dungeon.

I remember it all too well because I was one of those adventurers heading towards that dungeon. One of the five members of Team Fanghook, sent to dispatch a necromancer.

We have arrived in Mystix one day before our adventure into the dungeon to fight off a necromancer.

The day before my story truly began.

And, for me now, the beginning of the final stage of that story.