“The problem with just releasing the Black Gates,” Nulokin said after his Pilgrim half-had gorged itself on elemental-core energy for nearly an hour. “Is pressure.”

  A bit on the older side, the man had grey hair on the sides of his head, with a scalp shining blue and purple in reflection from the Pilgrim curiously looking over his shoulder. Though it was only a short while after the Eidolons’ rebirth, different personalities were slowly emerging from the pairs as their souls came to terms with the fact they were no longer quite as intertwined. All of the Pilgrims had an almost extreme level of protectiveness over their human halves, which had nearly led to several confrontations with one of the raid members.

  Protective or not, a flare of S-Rank solar energy was enough to gently remind them that ‘making a scene’ was not in their best interest. After a few of those more primitive displays, and some more time for their heads to clear, things had settled down enough they could talk.

  “What kind of pressure?” Hiral said, the party leaders with him, while the other raid-party members kept an eye on the city. Seeyela had even gone topside, just to make sure none of the rampant energies from the ritual had seeped out and been noticed. So far, they were safe.

  “The pressure kind of pressure,” Nulokin said, holding his two hands out like he was pushing them together around an invisible ball. Over his shoulder, his Pilgrim leaned down and mimicked the gesture, its four, blue-and-purple-flame hands circling Nulokin’s.

  “You’re lucky Seeyela isn’t here,” Seena mumbled. Louder, she asked, “Could you, I don’t know, elaborate on that a bit?”

  “Imagine Genesis is within a bubble,” Nulokin said. “That’s its dungeon, in case you didn’t guess.”

  “Figured that much,” Hiral said.

  “Now, the reason this works is because the pressure exerted both within the dungeon and from outside are roughly equal. I say ‘roughly’ because of the constant venting of purified energy coming through the Black Gates that’s being harvested by the Raze. It’s carefully controlled enough there won’t be any catastrophic implosions.”

  “Uh,” Hiral interrupted. “Theoretically, if the flow changed, say by all three Gates opening to their full size, would that cause any problems?”

  “Quite the opposite,” Nulokin said. “The Gates have been restricted for… I don’t even know how long. If that had continued, it would’ve caused problems. With the Gates opened to their regular values, the flow will gush out until equilibrium is again reached.”

  “Then how is removing the Black Gates a bad thing?” Ilrolik said. “Isn’t that the same as them being open?

  “Not at all,” Nulokin said. “The Gates not only act as valves for the energy, but more importantly, the braces that make the whole system work. The dungeon on its own wouldn’t be able to support what’s happening within it.

  “Genesis is not just trapped within a dungeon, but it’s also trapped in a different time. A different, cyclical time. This isn’t normal!” The man flexed his hands, like he was squeezing harder on that invisible ball. “The whole universe is pushing down on it, trying to crush it with every breath we take.

  “Only the Black Gates are preventing that from occurring. If you simply remove them…” he clapped his hands together with a sharp snap. “Everything within would get crushed like a grape.”

  “Implosion,” Hiral said. “Is there a way around it? Is there a solution?”

  “Easy,” Nulokin said. “Equalize the pressure. Get some of the regular universe into the dungeon. I would say get some regular time in there, but we’re down to our last second out here. Moving some of the energy from here to there should do the trick, though, since it’s primarily what comes out of the Black Gates.”

  “Okay,” Seena said with a nod. “That’s great. How we do we do it?”

  “You can’t, it’s impossible.”

  “You just said it was easy!”

  “The solution is easy, not executing it,” Nulokin clarified.

  “Why isn’t this happening when the Black Gates are open?” Ilrolik asked.

  “Because of the energy venting out through them,” Nulokin said. “If anything, the pressure inside the dungeon is a tiny bit higher than that which is pushing down on it from the outside. Until the Gates get removed. Think of it like this, the Black Gates, while open, are a controlled leak. A carefully monitored amount that keeps things close to equilibrium.

  “However, the Black Gates—even though you’ve seen them—aren’t actually the same size as they look. That’s just how your brains interpret something they can’t truly comprehend. Since the Gates exist within all times, and multiple points of space at once, we see them as a black crack. Like a gateway.

  “In reality, they are four-dimensional beings, and removing one isn’t like taking a door out of the doorframe. The resulting hole isn’t the same size. A more apt example would be a sky-sized hole after removing the door.

  “We might see a brief, momentary expansion of the dungeon, before the external pressure—coming at it from all sides—becomes too great. The total collapse will follow.

  “At least, I think, all of this is from what I gathered from my research… which might be a bit outdated, considering how long I was lying here.”

  “So, just so I’m clear here,” Hiral said. “If we could equalize the pressure inside and outside the dungeon, we could theoretically remove Genesis safely?”

  “Pretty sure I just told you that was impossible,” Nulokin said.

  “Theoretically,” Hiral stressed.

  Nulokin opened his mouth to respond, but held his words. Five seconds, ten, he considered, before he finally nodded. “If the pressure were equalized, by somehow forcing this universe’s energy upstream against the flow of what’s coming out of the Black Gates, then, yes, it would be theoretically possible.”

  “And, staying within the idea of theoretical, would that drop Genesis back to when and where it was taken from?” Hiral said next.

  “That is slightly more difficult to answer, since I don’t know how the Raze plucked Genesis out of its point in time in the first place,” Nulokin said. “However, changing the pressure differential should result in a change of… let’s call it buoyancy. If done properly—gradually but quickly—Genesis should rise backwards through time until it reaches its natural point. The pressure is part of what’s keeping it here. I think.”

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  “The Heart of the City?” Seena suggested. “Everything seems to revolve around that. Is that what did the plucking?”

  “Even if the Raze had an eternity to gather energy through it to empower themselves, could they really do something like that?” Nivian said. “Pull a world from their past into their present, and lock it in a dungeon?”

  “I don’t know,” Hiral said. “But, let’s assume it is connected, for now. Nulokin, if we take care of the force—whatever it is—that pulled Genesis out of its point in time, can you figure out the math needed to ‘gradually but quickly’ change the buoyancy to get Genesis back?”

  “I’m sure I could,” Nulokin said. “With some help from a few associates I have here. Some more recent data would be useful too. However, that doesn’t change the fact it’s impossible. We won’t be able to send any of this universe’s energy to Genesis through the Black Gates.”

  “We won’t use the Gates,” Hiral said, smiling. “And we’ve got more recent data, too.”

  “The Fountain,” Nivian said, the first to catch on. “Just like we’re going to use it to send the Eidolons to Genesis, we can use the same path to send this energy or whatever.”

  “Exactly,” Hiral said. “I’m guessing it doesn’t happen naturally because wherever the Fountain leads, it isn’t directly to Genesis.” As he finished, he looked at Nulokin, hoping for further information.

  “The other side of the Fountain is the Pilgrim’s realm,” Nulokin said.

  “And that’s in a different universe or something?” Ilrolik said.

  Nulokin leaned forward on his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. Above and behind him, his Pilgrim again mimicked the gesture, though it put its elbows on Nulokin’s back, since it didn’t have any knees of its own.

  “This is a bit of a hotly debated topic,” Nulokin said. “The most popular theory—and there are several of them—is that the Pilgrims’ home is an entire plane of existence. Unlike our world—like a marble floating in space—their plane is both eternally long and deep. While there are nine levels…”

  “Nine Hells,” Hiral said, the words suddenly having a new meaning. They weren’t just a curse, but the name of a place.

  “Exactly,” Nulokin said. “Nine levels, with the top and bottom levels both being endless. The deeper one goes, the more powerful the Pilgrims—and Kindred—residing there become. It is said there was one ruler down at the very bottom, the most powerful demon king.”

  “Amin Thett,” Li’l Ur said. “That would explain why he was so fearsome when it came to war, even though he professed he was a lover, not a fighter.”

  “You knew the demon king?” Nulokin said, eyes narrowing like he just now noticed Li’l Ur for the first time.

  “We were besties,” Li’l Ur said crossing his arms proudly—now that the second one had regenerated.

  “What does this have to do with the hotly debated topics?” Seena said, getting people back on track.

  “Of course, sorry,” Nulokin said. “The Pilgrim’s realm isn’t like our universe. Nor, we believe, is it actually part of it. It exists adjacent to it, much like how a dungeon does. One theory suggests the reason dungeons work at all is because it’s possible to temporarily create these other realms in the folds of reality on the metaphysical borders of our universe.”

  “I can confirm that to be true,” the PIMP said. “Both inside the Genesis dungeon, and out here on Terminus, I can detect, as you called them, metaphysical boundaries. I cannot penetrate them, only slip between them. It is there that dungeons are created or maintained.”

  “That’s generally what most of our tools have been able to detect, as well,” Nulokin said. “A few, though, after using the Fountain as a test subject, were able to go a bit further. Not much, and we only got a few seconds of data each time.

  “What we found were several other realms and universes. One of endless Night, another where sunlight turns any living thing it touches to metal, and even one world where the breath of the divine suffuses land, sea, and sky.

  “That is to say, there may be roads through these realms that connect back to Genesis, but none of them will guarantee a direct path there.”

  “Meaning we need to find our way through the Nine Hells to get from this Fountain to our Fountain,” Ilrolik said.

  “Not it,” Seena said immediately.

  “Pardon?” Ilrolik said.

  “We’ll have to do this anyway,” Hiral said, trying not to chuckle at the grin on Seena’s face. “To get the Eidolons back. This just gives us another reason to do it. And, sooner.”

  “I believe I have the highest chance of success.” The words came from the one source Hiral did not expect to hear them from. The PIMP.

  “Again, pardon?” Ilrolik said.

  “I have to agree with her on this one,” Hiral said, pointing at the Shaper. “Why would you have the best chance?”

  “Because I simultaneously exist on Genesis, here on Terminus, and wherever one of my constructs are,” the PIMP explained. “Upon entering the Nine Hells, there is an eighty-three-percent chance I will be able to detect the path back to Genesis.”

  “Are the Pilgrims going to be friendly?” Nivian asked Nulokin, who could only shrug.

  “Was this your plan the whole time?” Hiral said. “You were the one who suggested using the Fountain to return the Eidolons, after all.”

  “While I believe I can make the connection, I cannot construct the passage the Eidolons will need to take. Further, I do not need to physically travel to the other Fountain, unlike one of you. Once I enter the Nine Hells, my predictive algorithms suggest I will immediately be able to forge a connection, and pass it along to one of the constructs I will leave behind.

  “In the worst-case scenario, we will lose one of my three constructs; an acceptable loss. If this plan is successful, we will almost immediately have a plotted path for both the energy and the Eidolons. This body surviving within the Nine Hells will make things easier, acting as a transmitter, but I calculate the necessity of that is only fourteen percent.”

  “That would potentially solve finding the path back to Genesis,” Seena said. “Hiral, any thoughts on the path?”

  “Yeah, actually,” Hiral said. “Your sister and I were talking about it. With her new portal ability—the one she used to bring us here—along with my Edicts, I think we can construct a gateway. Seeyela has been to the Trevallen on Gensis, so she knows the location, meaning she could portal there… if she was on Genesis. Since she’s not, we’ll need to modify things a bit, but I think we can make things work.

  “If the PIMP can plot us a path, it’ll be just that much easier. Then, we’ll just… shorten the distance a bit, and Seeyela should be able to make her portal work.”

  “Just shorten the distance you say,” Nulokin said. “Like it’s that easy.”

  “With Separation and Connection, it’s definitely doable,” Hiral said. “I did it before, though I had some interspatial shenanigans going on that made it a bit easier. I figure connecting two points—the Fountains—through another realm should basically be the same thing.

  “We also had some experience with the Fountain there flaring up and spitting out a bunch of angry Pilgrims. Knowing what we know about how that gateway worked, Seeyela and I have good feeling about this. We couldn’t shut that one down at the time—we were only A-Rank then—but it would be a different story now. We could close it, and we can probably open it.”

  “A good feeling, he says,” Nulokin said.

  “We’ve learned to trust those,” Nivian said. “You should too. Hiral won’t do anything to put you at risk.”

  “What about you, Nulokin?” Hiral said. “If we figure out the way to balance the pressure, can you come up with the math of how fast or slow we need to do it? Taking into account everybody here in Trevallen also needs to make the journey?”

  “You said it’s a portal we’ll be taking?” Nulokin said. “So, instant travel?”

  “Should be,” Hiral said. “Let’s do the calculations assuming that to be true.”

  “I’ll have to get the gang back together for it,” Nulokin said. “But, yes, we can figure it out, if you solve the how. How are you going to move all that energy? Even with a portal? It’s not like it’ll walk through like we will.”

  “When it comes to moving runic energy, I’m kind of an expert,” Hiral said, pointing up to the script still glowing faintly in the ceiling.

  Nulokin grunted acknowledgement of that. “How long do we have, then?”

  “Until we get the gateway set up,” Hiral said. “Nivian, think Bash could help us remold some stone into something more gateway-looking?”

  “He’s been having fun building things instead of smashing them, so it shouldn’t be hard,” Nivian said.

  “Then you probably have a few hours at most,” Hiral told Nulokin. “After we get that set up, it’ll be time for us to go back and deal with the Heart of the City.”

  “Time for round two?” Seena said.

  “Time for round two,” Hiral confirmed, looking at each of the party leaders. “And this time, we’re bringing friends with us.”

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