“You want to… what?” Seena said.

  “We both know you heard me,” Nivian said, a smile cracking on his face to make sure the words didn’t sting.

  “Why?” Hiral said, possibilities whirling through his mind.

  “Because they are neither alive nor dead,” Nivian said. “We can’t really bring them back, and we can’t kill them. They’re just… suffering. And, even if we succeed at what we came to this world to do, we are condemning them to death.

  “I protect,” the Death Knight said the words, and the air around him whumped from the conviction of his words. “Sometimes that means I need to use violence—and kill—to protect the things I care about, yes, but the violence isn’t the goal. Just the tool. I don’t think it’s necessary or fair to kill these people. They deserve another chance. They deserve to be protected.”

  “Turning them into undead will do that?” Yanily said.

  Nivian nodded.

  “My undead lantern isn’t muted like my other two,” Wule said. “It’s just the same as normal. Whatever is blocking the other two on Terminus, it doesn’t know how to deal with the undead lantern. That means we have an opportunity.”

  “And you want the Urn to help you with that,” Hiral said to Nivian.

  “Not just the Urn,” Nivian said. “While I’m confident I could direct its power well enough to create a few undead, an entire city is beyond me. It requires an expert.” His head turned until he looked at Seena.

  “Uh, I burn things,” she said. “I don’t… oh. Oh! You mean Li’l Ur!”

  “Yes,” Nivian said. “Ushering an entire city into undeath is a little more in his league than mine.”

  “What if people don’t want to become undead?” Laseen said. “I wasn’t given the choice, and I resented it for a long time.”

  “I can make it so they have a choice,” Wule said. “Using my lantern. Probably. Not like I’ve ever done it before. We’ll figure it out.” He waved his hand like he was trying to dismiss his own concern.

  “I concur with Designation: Nivian,” one of the two PIMP constructs present said. “Transforming the population to undead has the best potential to further our goals.”

  “Furthering our goals isn’t why I want to do this,” Nivian pointed out.

  “Regardless,” the PIMP said. “Having a population of undead with PIMs on this world will act as an anchor I can use to increase my chances to overpower the resident version of myself.”

  “So, you just want to use them too, huh?” Seeyela said.

  The PIMP lowered its square head like it was considering the words, before it looked up at Seeyela again. “New undead suffer from an affliction, Designation: The Hunger. Even with Designation: Ur’Thul’s help, newly awakened undead will be ravenous, naturally and violently seeking out the energy they instinctively know they need to evolve and regain their sentience.

  “I can assist with this. Given they will have a PIM, they can instead consume energy from something other than undead. Something conveniently located nearby, in an almost endless amount, and of varying strengths.”

  “The Cinder-Blokes,” Hiral said. “The new undead can feed off them? Assuming they can kill them…”

  “As earth elementals, the Cinder-Blokes possess cores that will continue to regenerate until they are either destroyed or are taken a significant distance from the ground. Without destroying this core, the elemental itself will reform over and over, as the core is its true self. This likely applies even here on Terminus.

  “If an undead were to hold the core and continuously siphon off the energy to consume, there is a seventy-three percent chance they could satiate The Hunger. At least temporarily.”

  “Does any of this stop them from trying to eat each other?” Romin said.

  “I can help with that too,” Wule said. “Same reason as last time.” He pointed at the middle lantern behind his head.

  “Even if we can bring them back,” Hiral started, eyes going to Nulokin. “And we can keep them from killing each other, what do we do with them after? We can’t leave them here, since there’s a good chance Terminus won’t exist anymore.”

  “We send them through the Black Gates,” Nivian said. “To Genesis. They can either live in our Trevallen, or we find a new place for them. Once the Enemy is gone, there will be plenty of space.”

  “What do you think?” Hiral said to the caretaker. “And, what’s your name?”

  “… I don’t remember,” the caretaker said. “It’s been so long since anybody has said it, I can’t even imagine what it sounded like. As for what I think… I don’t even understand what you’re talking about.”

  “These three,” Hiral said, pointing at Bash, Igwanda, and Nivian. “They aren’t quite alive anymore. They aren’t quite dead, either.”

  The caretaker looked down at his own hand, before shifting his gaze to Nulokin. “Sounds familiar.”

  “It’s a state similar to what you’re trapped in,” Wule said. “Your physical bodies would be transformed into something very similar, but run by a different kind of energy. There are some downsides to it at the beginning—we call it The Hunger—and the fact your bodies wouldn’t be able to do some of the things you could while alive, such as have children.”

  “I haven’t been hungry in forever,” the caretaker said.

  “If you were almost anybody else,” Nivian said. “I would tell you The Hunger is worse than anything you could imagine. Given what you’ve been going through, I doubt it holds the same threat. More importantly, it isn’t forever. We’ve all beaten it. If what the PIMP says is true…”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The Death Knight trailed off as the caretaker practically hissed at something he said.

  “Shhhh, don’t talk about that thing,” the caretaker whispered. “The PIMP sees all. It’s everywhere. If it hears you talking about it, it will slap you down like you can’t even imagine…”

  “I assure you,” the PIMP construct said. “It cannot hear you while I am nearby. While I cannot interface with the world because of its presence, it also cannot perceive an area around me. We know how to counter ourselves far too well.”

  “What?” the caretaker said. “What are you saying?”

  “This is an extension of the PIMP from Genesis,” Hiral explained. “It’s… on our side. If you take Nivian’s offer to become undead, you will become part of its network, and that will—apparently—help it infiltrate the PIMP system of this world. Though…” Hiral looked at his party. “I’m not sure how that even helps us anymore. Everything has changed too much since we came here in the first place.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Nivian reminded him. “We’re not doing this for the PIMP or for us. We’re doing it for them.” The Death Knight extended his arm to gesture to the lines of bodies near the Fountain. “They don’t deserve this. Nobody does.”

  “Are you sure being undead is better?” Seeyela said.

  “Anything is better than this…” the caretaker whispered. “If you can free us from his hell, through death or a renewed chance at life, we’ll take it. Anything is better than this.” He repeated the earlier words again, more strength in his voice.

  Nivian nodded at the caretaker, and turned to Seena. “Ur?” he asked.

  “He’s not completely recovered,” Seena said. “But…” she trailed off, a blue flame igniting on her shoulder for Li’l Ur to step out of.

  To Hiral, the little lich had never looked so ragged before. His robes were still in tatters, he only had one arm, and blue flames only glowed in a single eye socket. Still, despite his obvious injuries, he stood tall on his Mistress’s shoulder, and nodded at the caretaker.

  “With my Urn,” Li’l Ur said. “It is possible. Nivian, your power shall be required while I am in this state. You shall be a patriarch of a new clan. Are you prepared for that responsibility when they return to Genesis? They will need your guidance and your protection.”

  “Of course,” Nivian said without hesitation.

  “Good,” Li’l Ur said. “My would-be-apprentice, I could also use your assistance.”

  “You know you’ve got it,” Hiral said. “And, Ur, thank you for what you did.”

  “We can discuss your gratitude later,” Li’l Ur said. “For now, we have a task before us. Your mastery of the runes will move this from the realm of just possible to probable. I will guide you through what I need your runic equations to do. When I first created the undead, I did it with a rudimentary grasp of the runes. At best. With your aid, we can remove the trauma from the minds of all those in this city without disturbing their memories or personalities.”

  “You can do that, Ur?” Seena asked, worry on her face at her companion’s state.

  “Mistress, who do you think I am?” the little lich said, standing straighter. “I am Ur’Thul the Undying, once known as Ur’Thul of the Limitless Tome. At my fingertips, I commanded magic to rival The Archwizard. I walked the universe in search of knowledge, and mastered all that I came across. Secrets you may never know existed were laid open before my eyes. I was a Progenitor twice over, and the only one who truly succeeded at direct soul manipulation. Amin Thett himself stood at my side and called me friend.

  “And, when I went rogue in my quest to bring him back, even the combined might of my previous friends—and my ex-wife—was barely enough to stop me.

  “Mistress, if there is anybody who can do this, it’s me.”

  “Damn,” Yanily whispered. “That was a badass speech. You go Ur.”

  “Thank you, speared one.”

  “And we’re reminded about the one thing you can’t do—remembering Yan’s name,” Hiral chuckled.

  Li’l Ur waved his one hand dismissively. “My Urn?”

  Hiral pulled the Urn of Ur’Thul from Shared Storage, the object freed from the crystal they’d gone to so much trouble to encase it in before. After its time with Vorinal, having the thing in his hands didn’t feel the same as it had the first time he’d encountered it. It was more… pure. Not necessarily in a good way, but it had felt filtered before. Restrained and limited.

  Now, it felt closer to what it was meant to be, somehow.

  Tendrils of invisible energy reached out, like they were tasting the air. One of them even wrapped around Hiral’s forearm, though he stood ready to rebuff if it tried anything funny. Oddly enough, it didn’t. It was curious, but there was none of the malice it had attacked them with back in the Forge of Ur’Thul dungeon.

  If anything, Hiral would call the sensation coming off the tendril… lonely. Hrm, or, maybe hungry was more accurate? Some combination of the two? It offered him the chance to join the collective of the thousands—millions?—of souls that had passed through it.

  The Urn craved and stored the knowledge—along with a fraction of the power—of anything traversing it.

  Ah, Li’l Ur is going to use the Urn to filter the trauma out of the memories as they cross through it. Those thoughts and feelings will become part of the Urn, stored within until it digests them and transforms them into pure energy. No wonder Dr. Benza and the others used this as a model for the PIMP in our cycle. It has a lot of similarities, except this works as its own power source, whereas the PIMP needs Fallen Reach to energize it.

  “You understand, my would-be apprentice?” Li’l Ur said.

  “I think so,” Hiral said. “Ur’s right, of course, with this, he can do what Nivian wants. We really can give all these people a second chance.”

  “Then, what are we waiting for?” Yanily said. “Let’s raise a city!”

  “No so fast,” Li’l Ur said. “While we could jump right into the process, I believe we’d be better off with some preparation. It won’t impact the raising—as you call it—but it will improve what comes after.”

  “What do you need?” Seena said.

  “Elemental cores from the Cinder-Blokes, as the PIMP suggested,” Li’l Ur said. “They will help control The Hunger when the new undead first awaken. We should also move as many of the bodies—carefully—to common locations, to make the feeding easier. Awakening among others of their own kind will help with the disorientation.”

  “And prevent them from running in random directions looking for something to gnaw on,” Laseen said. “I remember that feeling.”

  “As do I,” Nivian said. “What else?”

  “If there are those who were leaders of this city in life, they should be brought to where Nivian is,” Li’l Ur said. “Undead naturally follow the strongest until given instructions otherwise. Having these leaders know who their patriarch is immediately will ease things later.”

  “I can help with that,” the caretaker said. “Many of our leaders are here, near the Fountain.”

  “Will the process work on Possessed?” Romin said.

  “I will need to make some alterations to account for the foreign presence within their bodies.” Li’l Ur said. “Nothing more. It will work. With those precautions in place, our success is all but guaranteed.”

  “Then I guess we should get to work on doing those things,” Seeyela said.

  “You and me are on elemental-core duty, huh?” Yanily said.

  “Ideally, we need cores of different Ranks,” Li’l Ur said. “Thousands of them.”

  “Which means you need some help out there,” Finotol said. “We’ll come with you too.” She pointed at herself, then at Bash and Igwanda.

  “Just remember, we need the cores to survive you taking down the Cinder-Blokes,” Wule said, looking specifically at Yanily then Igwanda.

  “Probably going to need more than just the five of you,” Hiral said. “Seeyela, could you bring Ilrolik’s group here to help out?”

  “Yeah, if they’re done with the Black Gate,” Seeyela said.

  “Let’s find out,” Hiral said, then spoke into the raid chat. “Ilrolik, you guys almost done examining the Gate? There is something here we could use your help with.”

  “I have recorded a significant amount of data in my Medium and the PIMP construct,” Sera said instead of the Shaper. “It can be further analyzed later, though I admit I lack the knowhow or equipment to do as good a job as I’d hoped. I have a new respect for your friend, Gauto.”

  Hiral looked across the quiet buildings of the city of Trevallen. Laseen had called it the city of learning in their world. Could it be the same here? They were going to find out shortly.

  “I might have a solution to both of those things,” Hiral said. “Seeyela is going to come get you, then we’ve got work to do.”

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