ran through the entire chamber under the strain of Milishna’s expanding power. Dark tendrils of energy spiraled outward from the pool, snaking and coiling around the possessed princess.

  However, Rachel’s focus was on the rifts Black Hat created, spotting the raw devastation of the solar system they inhabited. The petals of the cosmic flower were expanding to a scale she couldn’t fully comprehend—many times larger than the planet itself.

  She absorbed the supernova’s immense energy, even from afar in its time-slowed expansion. Shimmering like a jewel, her roots pulsed with Eldritch energy, the chain reaction she’d caused feeding throughout the whole system, as if a hole in reality had opened its mouth and inhaled.

  Ali Baba and El Santo were the first to move, darting toward the portal to pursue Hassan.

  “To glory!” the burned and cut luchador roared. “?Santiago y cierra, Espa?a!”

  The Fable’s grin gleamed beneath the cracks of exhaustion, a spark of defiance still dancing in his gaze. “To glory, indeed, my new friend,” he called out, his voice steady and resonant despite the rising cacophony of power. “I’m feeling the beat in my chest again.”

  He pivoted toward Rachel for a brief moment, lifting his blade with a flourish as if addressing an unseen audience in a tale before winking at Layla.

  “But remember this! In stories of old, those who pursued vengeance and destiny often found themselves entangled in the threads of fate. We chase not just victory, but the right to rewrite the ending of our legend. Let’s make it a tale worth retelling—a triumph that rings across time itself. Sultan, this is only the .”

  He saluted Grace before leaping through the rift, his voice echoing faintly in the crumbling chamber. “Hold me to the dawn and never let me go, oh mistress of adventure!”

  Rachel’s tail twitched as the words hung in the air, accompanied by a grin that tugged at the corners of her lips. It seemed Ali Baba was the type to turn even their most dire moment into a fabled performance.

  Grace exhaled hard, tilting her hat low as she cast one last glance at her empty hand—her revolver gone for good. “Well, ain’t that just peachy. Boss, I’ll tell ya straight: a raise ain’t gonna fix this mess. Strip me down to damn near nothin’? Fine. But takin’ my gun? Now that’s pushin’ a girl past her breakin’ point.”

  She gave a sharp smirk, twirling her remaining revolver with a flourish before tipping her hat up with the barrel. “Got myself a new score to settle. Vendetta’s got my name all over it. See ya soon, Boss.”

  Barefoot, ripped jeans barely holding together and her tank top worse for wear, Grace tugged her belt snug and adjusted her lucky hat. With a devil-may-care grin, she vaulted through the rift. “There better be a bottle of the finest damn whiskey waitin’ on the other side!”

  Black Hat’s glasses flickered, hat hazy as he continued to build authority and strength over Layla. Around her, the petals of her dwindling power circled, the atmosphere between them growing while allowing themselves the momentary pause that benefited them both—a consolidation of power, and the expansion of Melishna.

  Blood dripped between the Sultan’s fingers to pool on the fissuring floor, treasure and priceless artifacts on a continent and world-level power falling into the void—tools too powerful and volatile to wield at this point with their anchor to reality frayed.

  “Layla,” he whispered, a father’s regret on his face and lips. “…Know that I do not blame you… I understand. Just know that… Soon, you will see the truth. None of us had a choice.”

  With that, he turned and entered the portal, his tattered cap billowing behind him.

  Now alone, Rachel steps forward, the petals of the Flowers of the Crimson Corruption infused with the Black Moon energy gracing her cheek, absorbing into her soul.

  Rachel stepped forward, the petals shivered, dissipating into faint pulses of starlight that spiraled upward, merging into her aura. The new Lunar Energy she’d absorbed from the two fracturing moons around the planet began to take effect.

  The Black Moon’s faint adaptability filmed over her with a thin layer of solar and cosmic protection. The presence of the Orchid Black Moon and the Peridot Green Moon—High Moons, above Normal and below Event—reasserted themselves, breaking apart from the fading, god-like power she’d held before.

  Her vision split, mind expanding as she kept track of Nia’s progress. Multiple possible future possibilities overlapped in fleeting afterimages, seeing the cracks before they appeared and shifts in Black Hat’s posture. Each one was followed in a different mental process. Her thoughts become razor-sharp, three mental threads running at the same time.

  Hold in there, Soldier… You’re so close.

  The rift yawned ahead, pulsing with shifting violet and silver hues. Without a word, Layla strode ahead, body held with a regal ease that exuded both control and something quietly volatile. She paused at the threshold, adjusting his glasses as if ensuring they framed the next act perfectly.

  Turning to study her tilting ears and smirk, Black Hat gave her a slight, mocking bow. “As your friend, Green, knows from the tortoise and the hare, often a race is best started slow, my dear. Shall we call this the art of improvisation? Urgency is for those within the confines of time, is it not? How soon until you are dressed for the occasion?”

  Rachel’s vision narrowed as the rift flickered like a mirror, displaying her image with the taunting smirk of the living madness. Streaks of dark hematite-black and shimmering peridot-green ran through her shimmering hair and tail as if reflecting the stars.

  Clothes torn and tattered—hardly decent—her clover eyes gleaming with the vivid dual-colored eclipse. Her nails sharpened with a metallic sheen, while her limbs moved with an eerie fluidity she didn’t have under the White Moon—time itself bending to her reflexes.

  “All you really want is to watch the world burn…” she stated, speaking directly to the princess and destabilizing his assertion in dominance as Melishna’s madness continued to expand beyond it. “So watch it burn in our dance along the lines between fate and chaos, Layla. Isn’t this what you wanted? The beginning of the end of everything your father cherished more than you…”

  Black Hat chuckled softly, a layered sound echoing with both amusement and menace. “Ah, Rachel, always quick to cut through the pageantry. But isn’t that the beauty of it all? The rise and fall…the descent into madness we all love? The writing’s on the wall, carved by every choice we’ve made with Fate’s string taut…ready to snap. This is what stories are built for—fire, ruin, and rebirth.”

  Her words hung like the distant, hypnotic hum of a collapsing star. Rachel’s thoughts split and intertwined, her dual minds parsing his intentions, tracking shifts in his body language and calculating the future threads.

  She scoffed, crossing her arms as his darkness twisted around them both, blotting out the chamber they were in. “Stories? You think you’re the one holding the pen. But do you know the funny thing about improv, Black Hat? It isn’t always the one who starts the play who gets the last word.”

  The princess’ smile widened, shadows curling from Layla’s form like smoke. “True enough. Yet here we are, both players at the edge of creation, dancing along fate’s final act. Tell me, Misfortune…do you know what awaits on the other side of this game? I’ve seen the threads. Every possible ending loops back to the same descent… In who does the favor lie?”

  Rachel’s grin sharpened, her eyes glinting with twin eclipses. “Sounds like a challenge. And you know me—I’ve got a habit of breaking loops and gods.”

  With a dramatic flourish, Black Hat tipped his shadowy headpiece. “Then let’s see how far we can push fate’s design. I’d hate for this tale to end without one last act of defiance.”

  “That’s the thing about myths… We’re not all heroes and will burn the world to ash if we have to… You wanted a performance? Here it comes. Slow, and rising into a crescendo.”

  Together, they stepped through the portal.

  The world beyond unfolded like a cosmic nightmare. Roots as large as continents twisted in endless spirals, their surfaces glistening with starlight and gravitational distortions. Petals from Milishna’s core unfurled, massive as celestial plains, glimmering with the stolen light of countless worlds across her birth, death, and rebirth. The void hummed with raw, volatile power, bending the very fabric of space and time around them.

  Below, the blackness pulsing within the planet raised its hands, symbolic of Black Hat’s influence, hovering at the edges of the cosmic power. Too close, and he’d wake her. He required a lighter touch… Layla’s touch.

  Rachel’s body adjusted immediately, the Black Moon’s veil barely keeping her stable within space. The cloak rippled softly, absorbing stray cosmic energy as her vision fractured into overlapping possibilities. In this place, every step carried the weight of endless timelines converging, Fate’s string assaulted by Eldritch forces, every breath a choice rippling through the threads of reality.

  Layla advanced a few paces ahead, her silhouette fluid and untouchable within the distorted light. Black Hat’s control reasserting itself. “Magnificent, isn’t it? The end and beginning of everything, intertwined in this cosmic ballet.”

  “Sure. It’s a real sight to behold. But we both know what’s really at stake here.”

  He stopped, glancing back with a glint of amusement. “Oh, Rachel, you still think this is about stakes, despite the sight you held? No…it’s about moments. The fall… The spark… The chaos that defines who we are… Who you forgot you were. You’ve already crossed that threshold and haven’t even noticed it.”

  “Maybe,” Rachel replied, flexing her fingers as a pulse of lunar force echoed through her veins. “But I’m still here. Still calling the shots or else you would already be far ahead of me.”

  She locked eyes, the tension crackling between them like static. Then, as if on cue, the petals far above twisted, casting them in fleeting shadows as the path before them spiraled toward Milishna’s core. The race had begun, not in haste, but with the weight of inevitability pressing against every step.

  Rachel took her first step to join him. “If history is dead and gone in this space of reality and fiction… Let’s finish this war.”

  “With pleasure,” Black Hat murmured, vanishing like a whisper in the shifting dark. Rachel followed, her form a blur of moonlight and shadow as they sprinted deeper into the labyrinthine roots of fate and ruin.

  Rachel stepped alongside him, using his own twists in reality, her presence shifting like a shadow caught between moons in their passage. Black Hat calmly adjusting his glasses. The cosmos ripples with each step.

  “We both know this isn’t about saving anyone… It’s no longer purely about your brother. It’s about how far you’re willing to go to cut the strings of Fate. How many lives are you willing to destroy?”

  Rachel chuckles softly, finding her elbow behind her back while looking up at the dream-like scene of celestial bodies around the solar system being drawn in like comets.

  “Truth twisted… It may not purely be about Nam, and the second point is irrelevant. As for the last question, it is projection, really… Isn’t that right, Layla?”

  Their unified voices shifted in tone, becoming more feminine. Glasses dispersing into smoke as Black Hat retreated to fully sink his claws into her soul. It wouldn’t be long until she was only a vessel to the darkness inside.

  “Projection… Maybe. Hmm.” Her eyes became downcast as they continued their journey along the shimmering roots, observing the celestial phenomena swirling around them. “But tell me it isn’t poetic…

  “My father—a so-called war hero, a legend for thousands of years who has conquered world-ending threats—has been reduced to the sidelines while the real fight falls to women.” She chuckled, helding a hand up to the dark hat atop her head, finger sliding along the rim. “Tell me, Rachel, how does it feel to stand in the role I was forbidden from entering?”

  Rachel glances at the melancholy form as reality started to set in, true reality that she only now had gained. “Sucks, doesn’t it? You had almost everything as a princess, but in a fictional world. Now, you’ve lost everything, but are real…with an actual soul.”

  Layla chuckles bitterly. “Almost everything? No. It was all just a fabrication… I was frustrated but content with my place… I was angry at my father, but I loved him. Then…”

  “You learned the truth.” Rachel mumbled, looking ahead as pieces of the planet, whole oceans of sand spiraled around the roots like glittering diamonds. “Once you realized your entire existence hinges on one person…”

  “One man,” Layla whispered, a tear falling down her cheek. “As if no one else matters. Not a single woman in my whole life had a soul… Not my mother. Did she even matter then? Do we even matter? Was my father right? The opinions of women should not be voiced…”

  Rachel swallowed, a shiver running down her spine as she studied the princess. “…You’re justifying triggering the apocalypse of your entire universe, fantasy or not.”

  “Perhaps,” she muttered, lips falling into a frown. “But can you blame me? I was a prisoner in my own kingdom…a plaything of reality—denied power, denied destiny, denied the right to exist as more than an ornament in someone else’s tale. And now, all of this…”

  She gestures at the vast cosmic landscape surrounding them. “This was all denied to me, too. But now I see it. I see ten thousand realities… And now I wonder…is it any different in reality than it is here in a predestined fable?”

  Rachel slows her pace, her gaze distant for a moment. “You’re not wrong. This is how villains are made… No one ever starts out that way. Fate is cruel. Two armies coming at you, one telling you that you were born for someone else’s glory and to disappear without a trace, while the other tells you to burn everything you love to live… To really live… No, Fate hasn’t been particularly kind to me either, Layla. And I won’t deny that I played a part in this. I’m no hero…but I try to do what’s right.”

  Instead of the tension she shared between the Eldritch entity and her, Rachel paused with Layla to look down at her destroyed home. The young woman’s weak chuckle fractured with an edge of guilt.

  “I like that. I’m no hero…but I try to do what’s right. I wish I could have met you sooner… I’m scared. It’s strange, isn’t it?” she cried, brushing away at the tears falling down her cheeks. “I had servants that cared for me… Maybe friends are too strong of a word, but their faces now flash before my eyes. I’m real… They weren’t. So…why is my heart breaking?”

  Rachel exhaled, feeling a different kind of weight than she expected after seeing the crying child, spoiled, repressed, and sheltered—confused by her very existence and purpose in a story that wasn’t hers that she was forced to be a part of.

  Understanding the risks, Rachel held out a hand. A hug would be too much.

  Layla’s body shook with soft sobs and laughter as she took it, looking up at her with the gravity of obtaining everything she’d sought for. “For all the power and stories we carry as Fables, we were never really free. Were we? Maybe Fate itself needs to be shattered, like you said. Did she cause this? Who did this to us? Maybe chaos is the only way out. I don’t know anymore.”

  Rachel’s tail flicked thoughtfully behind her, split, pragmatic minds cutting past the emotion. “I’d love to believe that, Layla. Just like you, I’m thrashing against Fate. But let’s be real—chaos isn’t exactly a guaranteed improvement. Still, it beats playing someone else’s game… We make decisions and live with the consequences.”

  She nods, her gaze softening. “Perhaps that’s why…deep down, I’m rooting for you, Rachel. Even after everything. Maybe you’ll find a way to rewrite what’s been written in stone… To fix everything. I destroyed my fable by breaking away from the norm…creating Hassan.”

  Rachel felt a flicker of doubt—Layla’s words tugged at a part of her she thought she had buried. It hadn’t been Layla who had broken the fable, it had been Ali Baba himself and the chain reaction he’d caused. So…could she really be blamed?

  And it wasn’t as if this were a guarantee. In the end, just like when Conner told me to be the foundation of a legend… All I can do is move forward.

  “Root for me all you want,” she muttered. “But I’m not here to play savior. I’m here to survive… For what it’s worth, I do hope things work out for you in the end.”

  “Thank you…”

  Layla’s form flickered and distorted. Rachel let go as the black, reflective glasses returned, and her tears ceased. Smile curving upward, Black Hat’s soft chuckle vibrated the air as Rachel stepped back.

  “Touching, really. But don’t worry, the crowds get thinner when the noose gets tighter. She’s not sorry…not really. Truly, she struggles to claim her place. And your petals are dying… Gone. Will the vacuum of space take you? If you take one more step into my territory now, your Black Moon protection will fail.”

  “Is that right?” Rachel whispered, lifting her hand while seeing the dark sheen of the Black Moon leaving. “Why ask questions we both already know… You’ve already got me where you want me on this twisted ride. No… I’m winning and your half-truths aren’t meant to shake me now, but plant seeds in the future.”

  Her smile grew and she looked right at him, feeling the embrace of a certain little girl. He wasn’t here, slipping through shifty dimensions that she could no longer follow… Not that she’d need to for long.

  “Layla isn’t sorry? Meaning, she wouldn’t have chosen a different path…but that doesn’t mean she feels guiltless, or hopeless. Does she have faith in me?”

  The beautiful Arabian woman’s smirk grew. “Round and round we go… She’s locked on you, crying to break her from this prison, indeed. But tell me, Rachel…how long can you endure the heroine’s mantle when we both know you are anything but pure?”

  The path ahead splits into a chaotic labyrinth of spiraling roots and collapsing light. Black Hat gestures mockingly, opening a series of rifts filled with shifting, Eldritch barriers, showy tentacles writhing out to flow around the stem, just above the surface.

  “After all, Reality is as much about endurance as it is about power. Time is against you, Misfortune. Many forces beyond your current notice move the moment Fate’s strangling threads are snapped. Let’s see how far you can run through the path you’ve chosen.”

  “Lets…”

  A sudden pulse of radiant lunar energy bursts from Rachel’s core. For a moment, the path before her becomes crystalline and clear. A shimmering veil forms around her body as the Black Moon’s force was absorbed into Nia.

  You there, Little Bun?

  “H-Here, Major Butt… I feel sick. Are we good? Oh, my goodness! What happened?! Are we in space? What is that flower? Are those planets exploding?”

  Take a deep breath. You don’t get paid enough for this, right?

  “Totally right! I’m going to bed…”

  Night.

  Nia yawned as she projected her new abilities and Feats, opening up her status window. “I’m going to be in bed mumbling. Don’t mind me and smash glasses guy.”

  Nia!

  “What? He has glasses?”

  Haha. Big Nia will get it.

  Grumbles followed as Black Hat adjusted his hat, appearing to get serious. Her entire body glimmered with an eerie radiance as Nia’s completed Null Crescent evolution reshaped her very destroyed outfit. Threads of ethereal stardust and shifting moonlight spiraled around her, weaving new garments from cosmic energy and the Black Moon energy she’d had to work with throughout the evolution.

  “So, the little coward bun has returned, but not for long.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I’ll bite him! No, you bite him for me! Grargh! Oh, Nike, Nike, do you see how strong I am now? Look at me flex! Mmmmgm! See? See? It took me so long to customize the outfit. It kept breaking! Like, gahhh! Every time! I pricked my finger, see?”

  Rachel could imagine the funny bunny child red-faced, throwing up her hands and raving during the evolution, whatever that experience entailed, stomping around and throwing a tantrum. Nike was no doubt babying the eight-year-old girl.

  Her gaze was soon drawn to her tattered shorts and tank top, dissolving in a pulse of moonlight, reshaping into something that made her pause, bemused. Black Hat, studying her while preparing his next jump, a cane materializing for the princess to lean against.

  A thigh-high, sleeveless dress formed around her, its fabric shimmering like hematite and diamonds—dark as the void yet refracting cosmic hues in rippling arcs. The dress hugged her torso snugly before flaring at the hem, which brushed mid-thigh, edged with a subtle, silver-glow trim that resembled lunar crescents.

  Beneath the dress, short-shorts provided modesty, the same glistening black as the cosmos above them. Fitted leggings materialized, their texture appearing like a lattice of interwoven stardust, faintly reflecting the shifting light of Milishna’s petals.

  Pulled upward, short-heeled boots with sleek, crystalline accents wrapped around her bare feet, their soles leaving behind faint, twinkling afterimages on the twisting roots—imprints that shimmered like distant constellations before fading into nonexistence.

  Her nails elongated, now crystalline and razor-sharp, glinting under the distorted starlight as if cut from the very fabric of time. The Aetherial Cloak settled over her skin like a faint, glimmering film of stars, absorbing and refracting stray cosmic energy with a soft twinkle.

  “Well,” Black Hat hummed, giving her a critical stare. “As someone who enjoys good fashion, that certainly is…unique. I suppose it does highlight your ethereal appearance, and the affixes certainly are lengthy.”

  “Damn, Nia,” Rachel muttered, running her fingers along her arms where new energy pulsed beneath her skin, gloves forming with form-fitting metal knuckles. “You sure did flex. You designed this?”

  “Yeah, that’s because I evolved, stupid! Oh, not you, Major. Stupid glasses guy. Mmmgm! It’s like…an astral queen of bunny awesomeness. Took me a bajillion recalibrations, though! It kept ripping apart—ugh, Eldritch rules are so unfair. Nike? Mmm… Yeah, I’m tired… I’m yawning a lot… Night, Rachel.”

  Rachel chuckled softly, her voice low as she stretched, feeling the fluidity of her movements, feeling weightless after her petals vanished. She cast a sidelong glance at Black Hat. He wasn’t really there, already far ahead of her along the roots. This was only a decoy.

  Breaking moons above still providing her with energy, Rachel felt Nia lying down and settling in, feelings of success and accomplishment passing through their heightened bond.

  The atmosphere grew heavier, tension crackling like static between them. Rachel flexed her hands, the veil around her shifting like a living shield. Time seemed to stall for a moment, reality bending under the pressure of the two forces preparing to clash.

  “Can you catch up?” Black Hat gestured grandly toward the spiraling path ahead, writhing darkness waiting for her like an obstacle course. “The Black Moon has … Your protection is gone. Welcome The Song’s embrace.”

  Rachel answered with a smirk and pushed forward, her feet hitting the twisting root pathways of cosmic light. She accelerates, easily adjusting to her new speed after experiencing the god-like Dexterity she’d had under Selene’s watchful eye.

  The petals above pulsed in synchrony with the supernova’s energy. The gravitational field tugged at her, but she barely registered it as her speed increased. Lunar power coursed through her veins, her dual minds scanning future possibilities as she navigated the erratic terrain.

  Rachel blurred, time bending as she flickered between dimensions Black Hat had left behind. Her afterimages confused the tendrils of warped space, foresight providing her a path forward as they lashed out around her with the distortions Melishna created. Massive roots curved and shifted in endless spirals, blocking her path as Eldritch constructs rose like shadowy sentinels.

  “You’re losing your touch, Black Hat!” she called out, darting through a collapsing arch of stardust and smoke. One construct lunged—its tendrils slamming down where she had been moments ago. An echo flickered in its place before vanishing. “Having trouble keeping Melishna’s vibrations out with how large you are? Afraid of waking the sleeping flower?”

  His voice drifted like a whisper, layered with Layla’s. “Touch? I don’t need to. You’re already in my world… Let’s see how far that defiance gets you… How much you are willing to sacrifice.”

  Rachel’s gaze sharpened as her path twisted violently. A split-second flicker in the distance revealed Black Hat—half a step ahead, opening new rifts and barriers. He’s toying with me, forcing me to fight through every illusion and obstacle he conjures. We need to get closer to [Void Mind], Nia, c’mon!

  Her feet hit the edge of a gravity-warped bridge, fracturing with each pulse of cosmic light. The darkness overshadowed the moonlight, blocking her sight. Nia’s gentle hums rippled through her, Nike providing some sort of support as she slept.

  “Worry not, Rachel… Victory is with us.”

  Lunar platforms immediately appeared, her Lunar Pool slowly ticking down. The distorted ground cracked apart, and Rachel launched herself forward, leaping through cascading fragments of time and space that the colossal flower created for them both. Void distortions twisted as constructs tried to ensnare her.

  The constructs writhed and shattered as [Lunar Grace] teleported her through the attack and lunar platforms gave her maneuverability to escape the traps with a burst of lunar acceleration. Star Echoes scattered in her wake, misleading her pursuers as all of her Feats advanced at a rapid pace, breaking into new Grades.

  She caught sight of the core—Milishna’s heart—glimmering like a collapsing galaxy. The petals pulled inward toward the core’s immense gravitational center, each pulse resonating like a drumbeat signaling the end, out of sync with time, space, and reality itself.

  The entire Fable realm was unraveling, and Black Hat was near her center, ready to seize control before it collapsed entirely—to infect the colossal Eldritch creature of the ever-shifting Mists to cause the slightest miscalculation. To push it in favor of his dark masters.

  Racing forward, Black Hat paused and turned to look at her, his voice entering directly into her mind.

  As she closed the distance.

  She didn’t slow. Her mind split into dual focus—tracking his movements while locking onto the core’s pulse was blocked by the flooding shadows.

  He vanished, materialized once more ahead of her. His shadow elongated and twisting in the light as he gave her a backward glance, darkness expanding to blot out the light and block her path. He spread his arms wide in mock celebration.

  Layla’s voice broke through the layers of shadow. “Rachel…save me… Or maybe…just let the darkness end!”

  “This is it, Rachel! One touch, and everything we’ve been running from, everything we’ve been running toward, becomes real. The echoes of the ashes of eternity rise in the Red Sea. The Bloody Crown Sings! Are you ready to face the Truth of who you are? No…of who your mother is?”

  “What?”

  The whatever constituted air inside Rachel’s lungs seized as the tsunami overtook her, a hand reached through the void in slow, agonizing reality, entering her skull.

  Her mind fractured like a thin pane of glass.

  The labyrinth twisted around her, mirrors of distorted pasts flashing to life—her own reflection staring back with cruel, baleful eyes.

  Misfortune…

  “Did I not say we would meet again?”

  Then, her mother’s face appeared in one of the mirrors, her lips parting to speak, but no sound emerged.

  “Mom?” Rachel whispered, breath hitching and all thoughts in all three branches of her mind slipping away.

  The reflection twisted, tears staining her mother’s cheeks, merging with her own young, frightened gaze as memories crawled back. The mocking voice of Black Hat slithered through the void.

  “You always hated weakness…because you saw it in her, did you not? You swore you wouldn’t become her. But here you are, broken under the weight of who you know not… Do you know your own mother…or is she a facade? A fake.”

  Rachel staggered, mirrors shattering around her as phantom images screamed in silence. Doubt, guilt, and anger clawed at her senses, her mind spiraling into dark currents as Misfortune stood over her, accusing stares filled with revolution for what she saw.

  Clutching her head, Rachel shouted.

  “You’re not her! I don’t need to know right now!” she roared, forcing herself upright, her outfit quivering as Nia whimpered, twisting and turning in her bed as nightmares assaulted her. “I’ve been through this… Far worse than anything you can conjure up.”

  “Oh? Don’t you? You know…Fate doesn’t want you to know. I can see her truth,” Black Hat taunted, his voice layered with her mother’s frightened tone. “She’s terrified you’ll find out… That’s you’ll hate her. That she kept these secrets from you…just like you keep your own from everyone else. Because you fear losing control.”

  Her pulse quickened, memories of her mother crying in the dark resurfacing—images that made her want to tear her own hair out.

  “No…” Rachel growled, shaking her head. “This isn’t real. I’m done letting you twist me into knots! Using my mother against me when she’s everything to me!”

  The vision of her mother shifted, becoming a towering, monstrous reflection of Rachel herself—eyes burning with crimson misfortune.

  “You’re always running, Rachel. But you can’t run from what you are. What we are.”

  The oppressive weight in her mind threatened to crush her, suffocating in its enormity. The labyrinth darkened further, pulling her away from Melishna’s core. Giving him more time. Each mirror now revealed each time she doubted her mother, her worst fears—faces turning away, shadows of abandonment, of failure.

  Nia screamed in her sleep.

  “Stop it, Rachel! Please, help me!”

  Rachel drew a deep breath, her voice cutting through the void with a chilling resolve. “You think you can trap me in here? Let’s see how you handle being trapped in your own darkness.”

  The mirrors shattered instantly as Rachel cast her thoughts into the void, pulling the psychic presence with her as retribution took its hold.

  “What… have you done?!”

  The abyss twisted violently as the invading force collapsed in on itself. Black Hat’s voice cracked, his hold weakening. The psychic walls crumbled, the void melting away as Rachel forced her way out of the darkness. Layla stood motionless, moments away from touching the pulsing heart of Melishna, trapped in his own hell.

  “Taking back control.”

  Time snapped back into motion, her senses recalibrating as the cosmic labyrinth around Milishna surged forward. The energy field around it destabilized, sending gravitational ripples outward. Her path spiraled like a shifting maze, narrowing to a single moment of decision.

  Rachel hesitated for a heartbeat, the possibilities flashing in her mind. Every path led back to this one moment—confrontation, choice, and consequence. No way forward without breaking something fundamental. At least, at this speed.

  Boots hitting the shifting surface of the spiraling root bridge, cosmic energy cracking underfoot. Time fractured further as Milishna’s core pulsed in rhythmic waves, the gravitational storm intensifying.

  Black Hat twitched, breaking through the mental prison. She pushed as hard as she could, the burst of speed taking her through the paused field of Eldritch constructs. The path narrowed into a single corridor of light and shadow, vibrating as though the threads of fate were being severed one by one, everything moving 1/10th of the speed it should have.

  Black Hat spread his arms wide as if to welcome her, moving in slow motion, turning away from the core. “How much are you willing to destroy to be free, Rachel? Whose side are you on? There lies your sanity… You know what lies beyond. You’re afraid to find out who you betrayed… But you will know. Eventually, you will know who the villain is.”

  She didn’t slow, her voice cutting through his taunts like a razor. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of Fate. I can be the villain!”

  Her hand surged forward, fingers brushing the core just as Black Hat threw his head back and laughed. “…Ah… But are you? What do you fear? You’re not afraid to be the villain…but the at the end of this story.”

  A detonation of starlight exploded from the core, consuming the world in a flood of radiant energy. Rachel’s vision fractured into kaleidoscopic shards as Milishna’s consciousness stirred to life with every shattered dimension she inhabited. The Flower of Light pulsed like a cluster of colliding stars, her presence expanding far beyond the boundaries of the Fable Realm as it was consumed, its shielded people scattered into the spaces between the Red Sea.

  Tendrils of living light lashed outward, snaring Black Hat in a vortex of brilliance as he laughed. Shadows unraveled as the core’s gravitational pull tightened around the princess, drawing her into the nexus of the space between reality and fable.

  “This isn’t over, Karma…” His voice echoed through the disintegrating realm, distorted but humored. “The Crimson Tide rises with the ever-shifting Mists. You’ll see me again, Rachel. Soon… Very soon. Perhaps we will be on the same side this time? Hahahaha!”

  Layla shattered into fragments of shadow and light, absorbed into the core’s pulsing heart.

  Petals scattered like fragmented galaxies, the entire Fable world collapsing under the strain. Cosmic storms tore through space-time, and Rachel found herself hurled into the void, untethered, Grace and the others not far off, passing through similar slits in reality. Her senses blurred as dimensional rifts opened around her, each one revealing distorted reflections of her past and every other fragment of what could or would be, not that she could retain it.

  Abruptly, they were over a colossal Red Sea, the hurricane of the maelstrom of reality spiraling out of control as the endless horizon grew closer to swallow them.

  Then, everything stopped.

  An effulgence beamed from behind them, drilling into the ocean.

  Wall after wall split.

  Dimensions her feeble brain couldn’t comprehend folding back.

  Then, Her eyes opened.

  Colossal globes opening deep, deep within the Red Sea, in darkness—each larger than entire star systems, swirling with infinite universes trapped within their depths. Their gaze pierced through her soul, overwhelming her with a presence beyond gods—a true horror.

  The words fell not from Her mouth, but Rachel’s own.

  “Dre’jna Jaenona Le’thrga…has awoken.”

  The voice resonated like a hymn from the dawn of creation, soft yet omnipotent:

  Rachel’s breath hitched as crimson mist dissipated to gray and cosmic, twinkling brilliance, seeping through the void, coalescing into a vast figure—serene and incomprehensible, radiating boundless power… Benevolent power.

  The presence bore down on her.

  Time froze.

  An unknown period passed.

  Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the figure dissolved into formless light, a fragment rushing past her into the 3rd Dimension. Rachel spiraled backward, through collapsing dimensions, gravity and time folding around her like crashing waves as the others joined her.

  Abruptly, she was falling through darkness, a man falling with her.

  Ali Baba.

  The man was covered in cuts from his battle with Hassan, yet he wore a smile. His voice reached her as if in a dream as he gradually faded away, ceasing to exist.

  “Tell them…I’m sorry. I know I don’t know you…but can you—”

  He vanished into the void before finishing.

  Rachel closed her eyes, breathing in and out in her free-fall through a seemingly endless gap in dimensions. Nia rested soundly within her. This twisted ride was now over, but the fallout remained.

  I can’t do much… Like I keep telling people, I’m not a heroine…but I’ll do what I can.

  Rachel jolted awake, gasping for breath. Cold air hit her lungs, sharp and biting. She sat up slowly, disoriented but alive. Around her, snow blanketed the glade where they had first entered the Fable Realm. The scene was eerily calm, the stars above serene and distant—the blizzard past.

  Grace was already muttering under her breath, stamping her feet in the snow to keep warm as Green, Gray, Red, Black, and the others struggled to their own feet.

  “Ain’t this just perfect… I don’t feel c-cold, Boss, but somethin’ has me shiverin’ to my boots! What now, B-Boss? We done with this nightmare yet, or should I start prayin’ for another miracle?”

  El Santo knelt beside a weakened Hassan, whose eyes still burned faintly with suppressed djinn power. He glared into the snow, silent and brooding, seemingly powerless and trying to understand what had happened, likely one of the few who remembered with her.

  However, Rachel’s body stiffened upon seeing Layla standing nearby, her posture tense, shivering in the cold as she hugged herself.

  She…lived? I guess I did promise the Sultan, but… Is this really how it was supposed to end?

  Her voice was quiet, barely above a whisper. “Is this…reality? Am I still alive? What was that voice? She…sounded so hurt…damaged.”

  Rachel rose to her feet, brushing snow off her legs spotting the black hat atop her head crumbling away. “Yeah, let’s skip all that for now,” she softly muttered, her vision sharpening toward the edge of the forest. “There’s something I need to do… But, welcome to reality. Enjoy the cold. By the way, you’re a prisoner. Milky?”

  “Uh, rope? Rope! Yeah, I’m pretty good with a rope and tying up ladies—eh…don’t read too much into that,” she mumbled, cheeks flushing. “I did a class for some ladies who wanted, eh…hog tying lessons that turned out to be something mighty different than the ad implied.”

  El Santo roared with laughter, dropping down beside Hassan to massage his shoulders. “You are what they call a riot, lady!” he awkwardly said, working through the English words.

  Layla dropped to her butt, unable to handle the reality of it all as she scooped up snow to hold in her hand, tears coming to her eyes. Bawling followed. “Father… I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…”

  Whatever presence had lingered within the hat was gone, leaving only an unsettling stillness deep within Rachel’s core. She didn’t know what he’d meant, but she could feel it—a new truth, buried and waiting within Layla.

  What is in Layla? Melishna, Black Hat…or Jaenona herself?

  Crossing her arms, Rachel gave Layla a wry smirk while Grace pulled out some rope from Jim’s saddle. “Don’t get too comfortable, princess. You’re under house arrest if I have anything to say about it.”

  Layla sniffled, her lips quivering and probably not hearing a word anyone said.

  Grace stomped over, blowing on her hands to fight off the chill. “Seriously, Boss. You gonna tell us what the hell just happened? Are we good, or do I need to start shootin’ shadows again? I’m plum out of booze and need a few bars to fill me up from that adventure… Hold still, sugar.”

  Rachel scanned the glade, taking in the scattered survivors—Ali Baba’s wife, Morgiana, and their son, Kassim, huddled near a makeshift fire. Black and Red stood not far off, the wolf resting on her side. Green and Gray weren’t looking good, showing quite a few scars that would heal badly but holding onto their limbs, it seemed. Maria could fix that.

  That was everyone.

  They’d survived… And tomorrow night, the whole world would be affected by what she’d just done, thanks to Athena.

  How am I supposed to explain this…

  “For now?” Rachel murmured, her gaze lifting toward the stars. “Yeah. We won. I think… I’m not done, though. Before I collapse, I have two more stops to make… Grace?”

  Grace’s vision dulled, glancing down at her torn and almost indecent outfit before looking at Jim. “Buddy, the Boss comes back in blooming fantasy clothes woven by the damn gods and we’re moonlightin’ at a strip club… Can I at least get a sheet or somethin’? Maybe a warm glass of milk to warm the bones?”

  Rachel chortled and walked over to move her toward her horse. “We can raid a clothing outfit on the way. It’s in a bar…because of course she’s in a bar. And, Green…”

  “Give me a minute,” the woman breathed, coughing with her shattered shield lying at her front. “I almost died over a dozen times… My whole body is on fire.”

  Snickering, Rachel stretched out. “What, first time? Probably best to get cleaned up and report to the General. I’ll be by in a bit.”

  “You’re…something else.”

  Rachel exhaled slowly, letting the tension in her shoulders ease as she caught Black’s emotionless stare. Her ears twitched at the Pied Piper’s lingering stoic face before the rat girl’s gaze returned to Red, lying in front of her.

  Fate’s strings are cut. It took damn near everything I’d gained from the moment of The Oscillation… Every higher being I know to accomplish, all my Lunar Pools. It was worth it, though. Everything led here. All the madness. Now, Destiny splintered into countless possibilities. Hmm. It almost seems…too peaceful right now.

  Shrugging it off and looking down at the thick, shin-deep snow around them, she forced herself onto Jim. It really was just the beginning. The stars shimmering above made her mind wander for a moment.

  Grace adjusted her top to be a tad more modest. All of them were operating on fumes at this point. She pushed herself to move due to how many times her soul had adapted under the Black Moon and under such phenomenal power.

  But I know who to talk to to get answers… I’m going to punch a hooved succubus.

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