“Connection established,” the PIMP construct said a few short minutes later, interrupting the others as they discussed the plan to move the Eidolons through the portal.

  “Already?” Hiral said, turning with Seena beside him to look at the little crystal construct.

  “There is a greater-than-sixty-percent probability that Designation: Amin Thett’s influence is to thank for the speed at which the connection was made,” the PIMP said. “Channels of energy similar to the working he conducted, and my systems piggyback off on Genesis, exist within the Nine Hells. Using those, I was able to quickly scour the different levels of the Hells for the connection to Genesis.

  “It should be noted the metaphysical boundaries of the Nine Hells are somewhat thinner than both those surrounding Genesis and Terminus. Care will be needed to ensure the integrity of the tunnel remains intact during the transfer. Wide variance of energy levels on either side has a higher than anticipated probability of creating holes, especially considering the nature and history of the dungeon Genesis finds itself within.”

  “Uh, what does that mean?” Seena said.

  “If I understand correctly,” Hiral said. “Because the Hells’ boundaries aren’t as solid as we expected, too much energy on either side of the portal could cause other openings to appear. Other exits. Genesis already has a history—like the PIMP said—of people from other universes popping in and out of it. Sounds like the same thing could happen in the Nine Hells.”

  “It should be noted,” the PIMP said. “The boundary of the Nine Hells is somewhat different. Measurements indicate it is easier to create exits from the Hells from the outside, like the Fountain. Beyond these doorways created externally, I do not believe it is easy for the denizens of the Hells to leave on their own. Only to be summoned.”

  “But our portal-tunnel would count as an outside influence?” Hiral said.

  “Correct. We are essentially drilling a hole between different levels of the Nine Hells to connect the two Fountains.”

  “The Fountains are on different levels?” Hiral said.

  “Yes,” the PIMP said. “This Fountain is on the third level, while the Fountain connecting to Genesis is found on the ninth level. Again, likely due to the Progenitor’s influence. It is at each crossing between the levels of the Hells there is the risk of this portal-tunnel tearing holes to other universes or realms open.”

  “How high of a risk?” Hiral said, considering ways he could possibly reinforce the tunnel more. He’d already put most of the safeguards he could think of in place, but maybe there was more he could do? Extra levels of Sealing?

  “If conditions remain stable,” the PIMP said. “My predictive algorithms calculate less than a three-percent chance for realm-apertures to appear.”

  “Oh, three percent isn’t bad,” Hiral said. “Still, I’ll see if I can get that a little lower before we go.”

  “Should there be energy variation, however,” the PIMP said. “The chances will spike up to over forty percent.”

  “Yeah, okay, that’s bad,” Hiral groaned. “I can probably whip something up on this side to keep the energy levels stable, but I can’t do anything for the Genesis side of things.”

  “What would cause the energy variations you’re talking about?” Seena said. “Are things stable now?”

  “If things remain as they are, now,” the PIMP said. “With no usage of—calculating—B-Rank or above abilities in the vicinity of the portal, energy levels will remain stable.”

  “When you say around the portal,” Seeyela joined the conversation for the first time, though her head was tilted up like she was looking at—or through—the ceiling. “How around are you talking about?”

  “Based on averages, anything more than ten B-Rank ability usages within one-thousand feet will begin to negatively affect energy levels.”

  “What about S-Rank abilities?” Seeyela said, the tone of her voice making Hiral and Seena both look at the woman.

  “A single S-Ranked ability used within a mile of the portal will cause energy fluctuations. Repeated use of S-Rank abilities would lead to cascading problems.”

  “Seeyela?” Seena said.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Seeyela said predictably. “GG just told me the Endless are on the move, and heading in this direction. It doesn’t think they know exactly where we are, but they’re looking for something.”

  “The other PIMP,” Hiral said. “It must’ve felt the connection.”

  “It is a reasonable assumption,” the PIMP said.

  “If they get here,” Seena said. “It’s going to be a fight, which means a lot of S-Rank energy being thrown around.”

  “Meaning we can’t let them get here,” Hiral said. “But we also have to go deal with the Heart of the City. I guess it’s time for Plan-C.”

  “How many plans do you have?” Seena said.

  Hiral looked at Seeyela before answering. “A through S,” he said.

  “S for success?” Seena guessed. She knew him well. “Can we just skip to that one?”

  “Plan-S comes after Plan-C,” Hiral said. “The earlier plans are to account for differences of… you know what… never mind that. We don’t have time. Everybody,” he said over the raid chat. “Need you at the Fountain now.”

  “On our way,” Nivian said without complaint, Ilrolik echoing the statement.

  With their S-Rank bodies—and the urgency in Hiral’s voice—it didn’t take the others long to arrive. Less than a minute later, Hiral stood in front of the assembled group.

  “Seeyela, how long do we have?” Hiral said.

  “Not long,” she said, still looking to the ceiling. “GG isn’t great on distances. The Endless might be a hundred miles away, or they might be ten.”

  “Nivian,” Hiral said. “Your group is up. Get out there and get the attention of the Endless. You have to keep them as far from Trevallen as possible. The energy fallout from the battle could negatively affect the portal, so keep that in mind. Your only goal is to keep their attention and stay alive. Save any big cooldowns.”

  “For?” Nivian said. “You know what, tell us on the way. We’re going.” Even as he spoke, his—and the rest of his groups’—Skybikes were constructing beside them.

  “You’re only the first distraction,” Hiral said as Nivian and his party mounted up, then zipped off at full speed. “At the same time your group is going out to make some noise, most of Seena and Ilrolik’s groups are going to attack the Raze. They’re going to go big, and hopefully pull the attention of the Endless back to Visionary. At the same time they’re doing this, Left is going to take me to Heart of the City, while the PIMP wages war on the other AI.”

  “Why is Left going to take you?” Ilrolik said. “Can’t you go yourself?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “We still don’t know enough about how the Raze’s reset ability works. Do they use it on an area? On individuals? If I have one of those reset-connections on me, will it keep taking me back to the entrance to the underground at the same time the battle above is happening? We have to avoid that.”

  “Why can’t we all just go down like we originally planned, while Nivian holds here?” Ilrolik said. “If the Raze is as dangerous as you say…”

  “Because there’s a very good chance they’ll notice when I start fiddling with the Heart of the City,” Hiral said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and my original plan is flawed. Altering the connections in the dungeon version of the Heart wasn’t difficult, but it did require concentration. I’d have trouble doing that with the Raze or their Endless crashing through the ceiling to squash me. Somebody needs to keep them distracted, while I do the work. Preferably before I start, so they can’t pull away to interrupt me.”

  “Why do you need Left then?” Seena said. Despite the danger all of them would be in, directly up against the Raze, she didn’t seem overly worried about it.

  “Those reset-connections,” Hiral said. “Left has a pair of tattoos that will get us all the way to the Heart of the City without the connections being able to form. And, by the time they do, it’ll be too late.”

  “Which tattoos?” Loan said, looking from Hiral to the double. As Hiral’s previous trainer, he was more familiar than anybody with the tattoos on Hiral’s body, though the man had focused mostly on the combat-oriented ones. It would make sense if he wasn’t up to speed on all the support tattoos, which is what Hiral was relying on.

  “The first is, of course, Moonlit Murder,” Hiral said. “It’ll allow Left to evade the connections reaching for him. That only works on him, though, which is where Abode of Asinef comes into play.”

  “Why does that sound familiar?” Seena said.

  “Olimpas used the Trunk of Asinef to steal and hide the Urn of Ur’Thul,” Hiral said. “Anything inside it is almost entirely undetectable from anything outside, unless they know where the entrance is. As an S-Rank tattoo, Left can keep the door with him, as he uses a combination of Moonlit Murder, Way of Shadow, and Touch of the Primal to navigate the passages under Visionary. Abode is also…”

  “Contact,” Nivian said into the raid chat, interrupting Hiral. “Directly engaging a pair of Endless.”

  “More on the way from the North, and East…” Igwanda said. “They’re just coming from every direction now. I count nine more. They’re bypassing the entrance to Trevallen.”

  “Good,” Nivian said. “We got their attention.”

  “The giant, blue-armored, mountain-sized Aspect kind of does that,” Wule said.

  “Mountain sized?” Romin quietly asked Wallop, at his side.

  “How long are we holding them?” Nivian said.

  “Not long,” Hiral said. “That’s where Plan-D comes into play. After Seeyela drops Left off at the entrance to the Visionary underground, then the others at the Raze, she’s going to open a portal where you are.”

  “I am?” Seeyela said, looking at Hiral. “Why would I do that? As much as I’d like to have Nivian and the others with us, won’t the Endless just go back to coming to Trevallen?”

  “Not if you leave the portal open for them to follow through,” Hiral said. “They react more than act. Leave the door open, and they’ll chase Nivian’s party through.”

  “Follow? Then I’ll be paying the solar energy cost to…” Seeyela cut off as Hiral tossed a hand-sized ring of crystal in her direction. With her reflexes, it wasn’t a challenge to catch it, and she held it up in front of her face to look at the runes etched into it. “What’s this?”

  Hiral thumbed over his shoulder at the much larger portal the pair had worked together to create. “The runic equations to make the travellers pay the solar energy toll,” Hiral said. “It should work, but we didn’t get to test it.”

  “When did you even make this?”

  “While we were talking,” Hiral said. “But, we should get going. Everybody… this is it. This is the beginning of what should be our final battle with the Raze. Our goal isn’t to kill them, just to keep them from killing us until everything here is done. Once the Black Gates release the dungeon holding Genesis, and it returns to its own time, we win.

  “Your job is to survive that long. Keep each other alive that long. That said, once I bring down the Heart of the City—and I will, feel free to kick their asses across half the planet.”

  “You better hold up your end of the deal, boy,” Laseen said. “And don’t take too long doing it. Those crystal bastards are going to use us as punching bags until you do.”

  “Speaking of taking too long,” Wule said into the raid chat. “Are you all ever going to get a move on? Or do you expect us to just do everything?”

  “You haven’t even done anything yet,” Nivian interrupted. “Bash has done more healing than you have.”

  “Smash booboos!” the Troblin shouted.

  “It’s not my fault you’re so damn tough now,” Wule said. “Besides, I’m preparing.”

  “I can remove one of Dole’s arms if it will make you feel more useful,” Igwanda said.

  “Hey!” Dole said. “Remove your own arm.”

  “I need both for my bow. Since you don’t have one of those, you don’t need two arms.”

  “That’s… almost logical, but not quite…”

  “We really should go,” Hiral said. “They’re fine now—clearly—but if more Endless show up, or start adapting, it could change. Good luck, everyone. I’ll be with you soon. Left, Abode if you would. Then, Seeyela, send Left through first. After that, go stab some stuff.”

  “Hiral,” Seena said while Left pushed energy into one of his tattoos, a simple door forming beside him. “Be careful down there. We don’t know what else they’ve hidden under the city, or if it still has some kind of guardian.”

  “Left and I will handle it,” Hiral said. “You’re the one who needs to be careful. The last time you fought the Raze…”

  “Oh, I remember,” Seena said. “Which is too bad… for them. I’ve got a score to settle.”

  “You’re not the only one, Mistress,” Li’l Ur said from her shoulder.

  “And I’m sure you’ll make them pay for it,” Hiral said, his hand reaching out to take hers. “Just, be careful.”

  “It’s usually me telling you that,” Seena said.

  “So you know how much I mean it,” Hiral said, giving her hand a squeeze. “Remember, we’ve got a dog to get when we get back.”

  “Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” Seena said.

  “Neither have the rest of us,” Yanily said into the raid chat. “Since, you are, once again, talking in the group chat.”

  “Yan,” Seeyela said.

  “What?” the spearman countered. “We’re making it back home. They’re both too strong to die. They have nothing to worry about.”

  Snuff.

  “Yeah, we’re in danger,” Romin said. Beside him, Loan patted the Bonder on the shoulder, as if in accepting consolation.

  “We’ll never forget you,” Loan said, then changed his pat to a slap to Romin’s back as the kid looked up at him in horror. “I’m kidding with you! You two are plenty strong. Just remember what you’ve learned as you’ve grown to S-Rank, hold nothing back, and keep your party alive. They’ll do the same for you.”

  “You just want to hide behind the tanks,” Ilrolik said.

  “You bet I do,” Loan said.

  Through the banter fighting back against the stress of the battle they were about to go into, Seena squeezed Hiral’s hands. “See you on the other side,” she said quietly, that smile just for him on her lips.

  “You bet you will,” Hiral said. “Right…”

  “I’ll watch over them,” the double said.

  “You sure he shouldn’t go with you?” Seena said.

  “Nope,” Right said. “He’ll be able to concentrate better on the Heart if I’m with you.”

  “Another set of eyes watching your back,” Hiral said, then let go of her hands. Nivian’s party had fought long enough by themselves, buying everybody another few minutes to get prepared. “Nulokin, as soon as we’re gone, start the portal up, and get people moving through. Not bothering with the clone. No point.

  “Understood,” Nulokin said.

  “That said, we don’t want the people in the Trevallen on Genesis thinking this is another Pilgrim invasion, so we need somebody to go ahead of you and explain what’s going on while the Eidolons start pouring through the portal.”

  “Who?” Seena said. “We can’t afford to send anybody before we fight the Raze.”

  “Oh, I’ve got the perfect person we can spare,” Hiral said with a quirked smile. “Or, should I say I have the perfect Soul Fragment Rendition?” With the words, and a bit of a dramatic flair, Hiral whipped the scroll from his back. Like it knew what he wanted of it, the string holding it closed came undone, while black ink splashed off the page. Instead of covering everybody in splatters of dark liquid, it all converged into one location. One shape.

  Colos. The Infested Hiral had defeated back in the Tower of Dynamic Trials, and subsequently bound the man’s soul in the scroll he now carried.

  “You called?” Colos said with an unneeded bow.

  “You know it,” Hiral said. “And you know what you need to do.”

  “I do,” Colos said. “I’ll go play diplomat so the Eidolons only need to worry about hurrying through, and nothing else.”

  “Perfect,” Hiral said, turning to Nulokin again. “Follow Colos through, he won’t be able to maintain this form long, once I’ve gone into the Abode.”

  “Got it,” Nulokin said. “We’ll be hot on his very strange heels. Now, go punch those Raze in the nuts for what they did to us. I can only dream they get stuck with that pain for an eternity.”

  “We’ll see what we can do,” Hiral said, putting one hand on the doorknob that would open the way to the Abode of Asinef, while he looked back at his friends and party. There was a nervous energy in the air—Why wouldn’t there be, considering their enemies?—but they held it back the same way they always did. Banter and comradery. If there was anybody on either of the two worlds who could accomplish what they were trying to, it was this group. They were powerful, smart, and determined to protect their loved ones back home. Or, at their sides.

  Still, as Hiral turned and entered the magic, portable mansion Left would carry him to the Heart of the City in, why couldn’t he shake the feeling this would be the last time he would ever see some of them?

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