Time was always a bit of a conundrum. I thought back to earlier today when Ren had said this day would go by in a blaze and then tomorrow would make it feel like a decade ago. We hadn’t finished living in the present yet, and there was so much to do to make sure there was a day after this that we could all breathe easily.

  Now we were being pushed to our limits, a strain between what needed to be done right now and all the other issues vying for attention.

  “We need to split up,” Ren said.

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Sister is correct,” Wolf said, kicking some debris away from his paws to get a better footing. “Trust in us as we trust in you.”

  I had always been the one to put the weight of the world on my own shoulders and feel like I could solo anything, but having them go along with that delusion was almost sickening. We had three targets and no time to sit around dealing with them.

  Whatever new powers the Lady had gained from her second Guardian power seemed to include increasing her Monster summoning capabilities tenfold. An army of creatures of various shapes and sizes had started crowding the city and were pouring down the street toward us.

  Wolf wanted to stand and hold the bottom of the keep.

  The beacons were surely a source of the Lady’s power and control over the denizens of the city itself, perhaps even boosting what she was capable of. That was at the top of the keep, past where the Lady was hiding out.

  Ren wanted to skirt around the outside and land up there to disable it, taking out anything guarding it.

  I wanted them to stay safe while I twisted the head off of the woman who had started off all this madness. As much as I had wanted for them to stand by my side, they seemed keen to do what was most efficient.

  “Fuck. Fine.” I shook my head, interrupted as Ren grabbed me and pulled me close for a kiss.

  “Just don’t die,” she whispered. “It’ll be okay.”

  I didn’t have the energy to roll my eyes. “That goes double for the both of you. Wolf, I’ll leave you with some demons, but they won’t last forever.”

  “As you wish, brother.” He huffed and gave a brief nod, his eyes focused on the door.

  While the elf adjusted my suit collar so that I would look half decent for my main appearance, my demonic ace was ejecting caltrops, marbles, and grease onto the steps of the keep. It made two more quick passes to drop off any other trap or malady I could scrounge from my Inventory to make it as difficult for the attackers as possible. Lastly, I summoned my cannon lengthwise across the door to block it, before three hell-hounds emerged from spell circles beside it.

  “Get going already,” the bear encouraged.

  Ren ran her hand over the side of my face, smiling, before vanishing. The summoned dove fluttered in front of me before fading away.

  I shook my head, weight heavy in my stomach, as I took to the stairs. The army of Monsters were just reaching my gathered traps now, their squawks and yelps echoing through the downstairs chamber. Wolf looked resolute, his singular purpose ready to be performed without hesitation.

  For me, nerves rolled around my core. Something unlike me, but it took me back to my beginner days. Before having an agent or a name for myself. As I stood on the small landing, my arm burning because of what existed on the other side of the wooden door in front of me, it felt like I was going in for a career-defining interview. Make or break.

  My head swimming, I grabbed hold of the handle and pushed.

  Tense and ready for an ambush, I was almost confused when nothing immediately came for me. The thick rug of dark gray that led from this door all the way to the other end of the room had a patch of darkness to it, blood seeping around the lighter stonework. The corpse of the prior Guardian killer lay there. Opposite me was a row of thrones, the center of which was occupied than none other than the devil plaguing this world herself.

  The Lady in Red.

  Almost exactly like her visage that had met me, her long, flowing red dress was darkened in patches from the spray of blood. There was a certain presence to her, her dark eyes almost glowing beneath the brim of her hat while she grinned at me.

  “Max,” she spoke, her silky voice devoid of malice. “What a surprise. Before you immediately attack me, there is something I want to ask you.”

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  My right eye twitched as my right hand curled into a tight fist. I could see it now. Her unnatural ability to sway people. The subtle ways in which she was trying to control me.

  “What could you possibly ask that could mean anything at this stage?” I asked through clenched teeth. Purple energy started to arc around my body as I fought her desire to placate me.

  “Only to ask what you know about the world beyond this area? Is it not a fool who makes a decision without knowing the full picture?” Her smile twisted into a wry grin.

  “We are in quarantine here until you are erased. Then the System will allow us access to the rest of the world.” Blood seeped through my white gloves as I tried to bring forth a magical card.

  The smile left her face, and she tutted, shaking her head. “Shame you are so misguided. It is only fair that I enlighten you, since you’re so interested in saving this… ‘world’.”

  “What do you-” I began, before we both vanished.

  I blinked away the transition to find myself standing on grass and dirt. Swirling in place, the Lady was but ten feet away from me, her expression neutral. I was about to launch an attack, before I noticed the icon affixed to us both.

  We were both Visages.

  “My goal here is to amend what the ‘gods’ could not. Perhaps once you are aware, you’ll see things my way.” Her expression didn’t change, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her.

  “Where are we?” I asked, my jaw aching from how much I was clenching it.

  This time, she did give me a slight smile. “The barrier to the ‘third area’.”

  I blinked, my gaze now turning to the side. After a dozen feet of grass, there was the sheen of a wall. Impossibly high and…

  Although I was sure I didn’t need to breathe as an illusion of myself, my lungs were frozen as I stepped closer to the wall. Now only two feet from the edge, I fought the urge to empty my stomach.

  “Frightening, isn’t it?” the Lady said from off at the side. “Some of the Eternal Wardens knew about this, but swore it to secrecy. Well, until they switched sides, at least.”

  There was no third area. No—that was really underselling the point—there was, in fact… nothing at all after the wall. Just an empty expanse like the world was flat. Infinite, overwhelming space.

  “This can’t be right,” I said. “Maybe this is just how it looks while it’s blocked?”

  “Try to rationalize it all you want, Max. The truth is, you don’t live in a world going through a bumpy period. This is a failed state. An abandoned slice of existence where the creators have long left us to our own devices. We are a ship lost in an unwavering sea and I intend to be the captain.”

  My mouth felt dry despite being intangible. “You? After what you’ve done?”

  “Yes! Why, a god needs followers to ascend, surely.” She stepped up beside me by the edge and gestured toward the oblivion. “There is some irony in you getting more powerful via people disbelieving in you, whereas I am the opposite. With your vanity title, we could rule from above and below. Biblical, in a way.”

  “Didn’t you start this as a way to return to your home world?”

  She was silent for a moment. “Part of me still lives with the hope that in taking control of the System, I could find a way to save us all.”

  I narrowed my eyes, some of the warmth finding a place inside me again. “But what of those that you killed along the way?”

  The Lady rolled her eyes. “I could ask you the same thing. You’re thinking too much like a ‘hero’, Max. I’m looking at the greater world, how it continues beyond our petty squabble. We both know there are still new people arriving in Othea… don’t you want that stopped?”

  “I… want people to be safe and happy.” I glanced off to my right, pretty sure I was able to see the red of Candlekeep in the distance beyond the woodland.

  “So do I, just on a broader scale. I was getting so close to reaching high enough power, before…” her face dropped, and she gave me a dull glare. “Before you and your misguided friends decided to disable two of my beacons.”

  That must mean Fiona’s group was finally successful.

  “Say…” My eyes looked between her and the now slightly dimmer red shade of the city. “This isn’t just a ploy to have me killed off while you talk to my projection, right?”

  She shook her head. “Unfortunately, if the spell was that powerful I’d have killed you much sooner. If your real body detects threatening behavior, then you return.”

  I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I didn’t have the option to the condition away to return to my actual body. “I see. Oh, I wouldn’t say I get more powerful due to disbelief, anyway. I’m more of an entertainer than a cult leader.” I leaned forward to look down into the space below the world.

  “It’s not a cult.” The Lady adjusted her hat and sighed. “The System granted me the opportunity to ascend beyond the normal leveling conventions, so it is my destiny. It would be rude to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  “A horse almost killed me once,” I said idly. It was interesting how she had a similar view of how the System treated her, thinking she was the chosen one due to being powerful. Both of us were just as deluded as each other, at the end of the day.

  Both willing to kill or die for what they believed in.

  “I’m not asking you to take the blood or become a follower, Max. Just stop hamstringing my progress. You’ve seen the Monsters I’ve been able to create? Some with actual intelligence.”

  All I could think of was my friends back at the cottage, nursing their injuries. My found family fighting on their own to buy me time to end this charade. Then finally, the image of Hannah pinned up on that cross flashed into my mind, cementing what I knew.

  I didn’t care how bland or abandoned the System or this world was, as long as those I cared about could be safe. The Lady in Red would never allow us that peace, whether she was a god or not.

  “You really think you could be a god?” I asked, my face neutral. “What level are you, even?”

  “Now that two of my beacons have been switched off, I have an effective level of thirty-five. The Monsters I have created don’t give as much favor as Players do… and you’ve been killing those off as well.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t worry. I appreciate the chat, but you’ll be joining them soon.”

  “Oh, Max,” she replied. “You don’t think I always knew that would be your answer?”

  Before I had the chance to respond, I switched back to my real body—the feeling of disorientation immediately replaced by intense pain.

  I bounced away from the barbarian and rolled across the floor, his horned helmet dripping with my blood and my chest screaming in agony.

  As the Lady laughed in the background, I fought the urge to pass out.