{We already knew that, Sebastian.}

{No, not… not like this.} I swallowed hard and looked away from the nameless two whose lives I’d taken. {You said she teleported these people in. Well, they didn’t sound like mercenaries or chosen. They sounded like people who didn’t even know what was going on.}

Okeria was silent for a little too long. {Drown me. I just looked up their armors, and you’re right. Dleif and Lubbe Cotabo–husband and wife from another, much bigger city than Rainbow Basin. Reported missing three hours ago by their teenage daughter, with claims they’d been acting strange for almost two weeks.}

Shit. I ground my heels into the dirt and leaned over the bodies as I said a prayer for them. One of the ones Jun had drilled into me when we thought I’d have to pretend to be a Staura and fit in with everyone else in Rainbow Basin.

“For your lives, I will bear the burden of remembrance. Your loss will not be lost like a raindrop in the poisoned ocean.” I whispered and pressed my hand against gargoyle’s armor. “One day, this will all be forgotten. Until then, I will never forget.”

Something flexed in my mind like a muscle I didn’t know I had. My oil buzzed and shuddered with activity against the sensation. But nothing actually changed. Maybe I’d just accidentally tied myself to a pair of malicious spirits for the rest of eternity. Or maybe it was The End’s stuff acting up again.

Whatever it was, it weighed on my soul like a waterfall of blood. “I’m going to take your cores now. But I’m not going to consume them–I’ll make sure they get to your next of kin. If I left them here, Endra would just send someone to get them while I did everything else I have to do. I’m… I’m so sorry it had to end this way.”

{Same here, Sebastian.} Okeria echoed as I did the horrific deed. I got the sense that he was watching every single grisly motion I made, making it just as much his burden as mind. {We will make sure the bastard that caused all this is buried and forgotten.}

I didn’t consume the copies of the Cotabo’s cores right away. It just didn’t feel like the right time, and it wasn’t the same as everything else I’d done. They were people that didn’t deserve to die–didn’t even deserve to get hurt. But Endra had brought them into the fray. And if she had control over one slightly powerful couple from another Staura city, how large had her army actually grown? Was everywhere else like Rainbow Basin?

No. I couldn’t start thinking that way. If I did, I’d start to have doubts on if we were going about this all wrong. And if I started to have those doubts, I’d want to abandon the plan and Rainbow Basin to retreat for another day. Which would mean so many people dead or enslaved. Or both, in the case of Endra’s parasite-ridden puppets.

I wiped the blood from my weapon and turned away from the bodies. {Annette, are you doing alright? I’m about to move to the third crystal.}

{I’m fine so far. This is just… annoying and time consuming.} She replied a moment later. {I’ll tell you when I’m done.}

{Okay. Keep your eyes open.} I said and set off for the third crystal. All in all, things hadn’t gone anywhere near as badly as they could’ve. Except for the fact that Inopsy was still radio silent, and we didn’t have eyes on Keratily. {If you hear anything from Inopsy, call in right away. We could be ten seconds away from losing for all we know.}

{I doubt it, but alright. Good luck.}

//I HAVE NEWS.

The End’s message plastered itself in the center of my vision. I almost stumbled over the group of horribly disfigured Staura that I’d had the displeasure of dealing with–a puddle of blood and parasites growing slowly from the needless violence. All the cores piled up in my inventory as a grisly reminder of how horrible Scalovera was for working with Endra.

I sent my weapon away and started running again. {On Endra?}

//PARTIALLY.

//THE INFORMATION IS ON TWO OF THE EMBODIMENTS INVOLVED IN THE MURDERS WHO HAVE SOMEHOW FLED TO THE ALL-WORLD.

//WE WORKED UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THEY WERE EMBOLDENED BY ENDRA’S SUCCESS–UNFORTUNATELY, IT SEEMS WE WERE FAR MORE CORRECT THAN WE INITIALLY THOUGHT.

That didn’t sound good. {Were they directly working for Endra?}

//NO.

//THAT IMPLIES THAT ENDRA IS HIGHER ON THE CHAIN OF COMMAND THAN THEY ARE, WHICH IS COMPLETELY INCORRECT.

//ENDRA AND THESE TWO EMBODIMENTS WERE WORKING TOGETHER FOR FAR LONGER THAN WE EXPECTED–POTENTIALLY SINCE ENDRA’S SCHEME WAS FIRST DEVISED.

//WHAT IS TRULY HORRIBLE ABOUT THIS IS THAT ONLY ONE OF THE EMBODIMENTS IS A STAURAN EMBODIMENT.

//THE OTHER IS OUT THERE, POTENTIALLY SPREADING WHAT IS HAPPENING IN RAINBOW BASIN TO OTHER SPECIES’ HOMES.

{So she had help from the very start. I don’t know if that’s comforting, since she didn’t do all this shit on her own, or absolutely terrifying.}

//PERSONALLY, I WOULD LEAN TOWARD ‘TERRIFYING’, AS THESE MACHINATIONS LAY UNDETECTED FOR MILLENNIA.

//NOW THE QUESTION REMAINS–DID ENDRA REUSE THE TECHNIQUE SHE USED TO BRING HERSELF TO THE ALL-WORLD, OR WERE THERE OTHER FORMULATIONS SPECIFICALLY FOR THE OTHER EMBODIMENTS?

{Meaning you haven’t figured that out yet.} I muttered.

//CORRECT.

{Great. So how does that help us out right now? Is Endra’s Staura ally coming to get us?}

//NO, NOT AS FAR AS I AM AWARE.

//AS FOR HOW IT HELPS YOU… WELL, YOU NOW HAVE MORE INFORMATION AND INSIGHT THAN MOMENTS AGO.

//WHICH HAS TO COUNT FOR SOMETHING?

Yeah. Because what I needed during a siege was something else to fucking worry about. I grit my teeth and shoved aside an armored person who’d fallen to their knees in the middle of the road, and they split into five chunks instead of falling down. Someone else had gotten to them before me, and by the looks of it, Endra hadn’t gotten to that poor soul.

{Well, it was nice talking to you. We can talk again when I’m done trying to take the city back from a deposed dictator and his Embodiment backer.} I said tensely.

//RIGHT, YES, I APOLOGIZE FOR TAKING UP YOUR TIME AT THIS TENSE MOMENT.

//WE CAN HAVE A THOROUGH DISCUSSION ONCE YOU HAVE DEALT WITH YOUR CURRENT PROBLEMS.

//GOOD LUCK, AND STAY SAFE.

With that, The End’s influence waned. A near pointless conversation for this point in time, and if it was trying to give me a hint shrouded in riddles, I was going to give it a verbal thrashing when I got to the Ossuary. But maybe that was the problem with being an all powerful not-quite-deity; your view of things had to be pretty damn skewed.

Something else appeared in my path. An armored figure with four ornate razor-like blades hovering over its shoulders. They screamed something at me that was tainted by shudders and shakes, then raised one hand at me and spread their fingers. Two razors flew through the air, controlled by thin strands of near invisible power that connected them back to the figure.

The other two spun around and dug deep into their chest. I frowned and looked around for a saboteur as the two that were aimed at me clattered uselessly to the ground. When I looked back, the figure had removed its helmet and bared the back of their neck to me.

“Please kill me.” They begged through syllables that sounded like they were ripped out of a throat full of razors. “It hurts too much.”

Fucking Endra. “Who are you?”

They looked up for a split second, revealing a tear-stained face that was far too young to be a soldier. “Ticus.”

“No last name?”

No answer. Ticus looked like they were about to pass out from trying to control themself.

“I’ll remember you.”

I summoned my weapon and brought it down in one merciful strike. Ticus closed their eyes right as my blade cut through their throat and unsummoned all of their armor in the same moment. Ensuring that they couldn’t be controlled into reviving.

“God fucking damn it all.”

The cooling body of someone who looked younger than Jun spilled onto the stone below. I blinked away the tears that had started to form, and pushed that despair into hatred. Endra deserved everything that was coming to her. Keratily deserved it for letting everything happen. And Scalovera deserved it for using the chaos for his own gain.

My boots carried me away before Ticus’ blood could drip onto my feet. I removed their core as mercifully and with as little damage to them as I could, and this one I didn’t hesitate to consume. Experience, nodes, and stats filtered in through a much smaller deluge than I was used to. It wasn’t that their core was weak–I’d just gotten past the point that it would be really useful to me.

The callousness of those thoughts let me drag my mind away from the horrors of the present. I cut down a group of shuddering puppets that didn’t even try to vocalize anything, then checked my map to ensure I was still moving in the right direction. We really needed to take Keratily down before Endra teleported in enough troops to get a foothold.

Annette’s voice crackled to life. {I’m ninety-five percent done now, and I can hear voices getting a little closer. They’re confused, so I don’t think they’ll find me in time, but that’s not the real problem.}

{Really? That’s not the problem?}

{Not even close.} Annette said seriously. {They’re talking about Keratily. And they’re calling her ‘Rootia’.}