Die. Respawn. Repeat.
Chapter 264: Book 4: Confrontation

The title, apparently, is a significant one. Gheraa says it with reverence, almost with a sense of worship. I, on the other hand, shut down all his attempts to refer to me by that title.

"No," I say. "Absolutely not. We're not doing this. If I had to choose a title, it wouldn't be this one."

"But just imagine what we could call you if you beat Kauku!" Gheraa practically whines. He's clutching at my sleeve, so I'm sort of just dragging him along with me with every step I take. "Conqueror of the Sunken King! Or Conqueror of the Deep!"

"Nope," I say. There's something I can feel from him through our bond that gives me pause, though. I stop in my tracks, causing Gheraa to bump awkwardly into my shoulder, and sigh as I turn to him. "You're trying to stall, aren't you?"

Gheraa's face flickers—in denial, at first, and then it falls. "I don't know if we can win, Ethan. Even with this. And we don't have time to figure out anything else. I just want..."

Again, so many words go unsaid. It's a reflection of what Novi said to us before. I cannot help but wish we'd had more time.

"I know," I say. "Me too."

I may have gained the power to manipulate time itself, but in this regard, I feel oddly powerless. Eternal Moment could give us time, I suppose, but what would we do with it, with the threat of Kauku and his plans hanging over our heads?

"We're going to have to try," I say at last. Gheraa nods, subdued, even as Guard and Ahelios walk up to stand beside me.

"At least we won't be doing it alone," Ahkelios quips, though his tone is a little less chipper than usual.

"I have a son to protect," Guard says quietly. "And there are many families besides mine. Should the Sunken King get his way, none of us will live to see the future."

"Unless it's all a misunderstanding," Gheraa says hopefully.

I laugh a little, despite the absurdity of the suggestion. Even Ahkelios and Guard both smile slightly. "We can only hope."

There's only one thing left to do before we head back to Hestia. I have a number of points I haven't banked yet, and even if the skills I get aren't very good, I'm going to need every advantage I can get against Kauku.

May as well use every last one.

—

As the new skills settle down in my core, I reflect on my biggest and newest acquisition—Soul Realm.

The skill is a step above Soul Space for a number of reasons. The biggest change is that I can feel the entire space within my core as if it were a part of myself—because it is, I suppose. The city of First Sky has become the centerpoint of a world that exists only within my core, and everything I've stored in here becomes a part of it.

My Chromatic Threads, for example, take up a massive warehouse south of the city. The food and other items I've kept stored are scattered around the homes of the scirix. The skill allows me to treat my soul as if it were a world of my own, and to bring things in and out of it with a simple thought. It doesn't even cost that much Firmament to do so.

Granted, I have no idea how I'm able to exist inside my own soul. Is my body still outside, in some way? If it is, then I'm vulnerable when I'm using the skill to visit First Sky. If it's not, then it's potentially a means of escape.

We find out the answer pretty quickly. As soon as I activate the skill to bring Gheraa, Ahkelios, and Guard back to the "real world," in fact. Apparently, if I'm visiting my Soul Realm, my body disappears.

My core does not. It hovers out in the open, exposed and vulnerable.

"I'm going to have to be careful with how I use this skill," I mutter. Presumably at some point while I was absorbing the dungeon, I was shunted back into Hestia. Fortunately for us, Kauku doesn't seem to have been interested in using my moment of vulnerability against me.

On the other hand, the reason he wasn't interested becomes clear as soon as I return to Hestia.

He's already making his move. Lines of energy stretch through the sky like tendrils, each one following one of the temporal cracks I'd noticed spreading through the planet's atmosphere before. There's an odd familiarity to those cracks, though I don't know what to make of that.

Worse and more prevalent, though, is the distinct and overbearing sense of pressure that matches what we felt when Kauku first confronted us.

Gheraa was right about one thing, at least. This time, I can feel what he's doing and block it out, wielding my soul itself like a shield against his power. It's not exactly effortless, but it doesn't cost me nearly as much as I was worried it might. It also more or less reveals his exact position, as if the tendrils in the sky didn't make it obvious enough already.

He's at the Fracture. He doesn't care about us right now. Whatever he's trying to do, he's evidently decided it's more important than hunting us down.

Small comforts.

"Guard," I say. "I just want to make sure. We didn't get a chance to talk about this before, with everything else that's happening. Are you sure you want to help me? You could hide in my Soul Realm with Harmony."

I don't want you two to lose each other again. I don't say the words—Guard knows well enough what I mean without me having to say them outright. He watches me for a moment, then, to my surprise, he chuckles.

"You surprise me even now," he says. "To offer me such a choice when so much is at stake. I cannot step back from the fight now, Ethan. As I said, it is not merely my own future that I fight for."

"Ahkelios?" I ask. "You're your own person now. You could—"

"Don't you dare," Ahkelios announces, glaring at me. "We talked about this. We're exploring the galaxy together after this. And you said I'd get to visit Earth with you! I'm not going to run away now."

I turn to Gheraa, but before I can even open my mouth to ask, he turns to Guard and Ahkelios. "Do you think he's figured it out yet, or is he just oblivious?" he asks.

"I'm right here," I protest. He grins at me.

"We're with you, whatever happens," he says. "Whatever we need to do. One more impossible feat, and then we can celebrate."

"Wouldn't we still have to figure out what to do with the Integrators?" I point out. Gheraa snorts.

"If you pull off beating Kauku?" he says. "Please. They'd hand you the keys to the Interface and call it a day."

"I somehow doubt it's going to be that easy," I say dryly.

"No," Gheraa says. "But one can hope."

"Aren't you supposed to be the one trying to stall?"

"That was before you tried to pull the heroic sacrifice thing." Gheraa folds his arms and sniffs, though he doesn't quite manage to hide the glimmer of fear in his eyes. "Now let's go. Lead the way, O Fearless Conqueror."

"I told you not to call me that," I say with a sigh.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But the mood is lighter, just like he intended.

Hestia still hovers at the brink of destruction. I can feel time itself winding itself tighter and tighter, like a spiral leading us to a final, unavoidable confrontation. Half the planet is torn open with wounds in time and space itself—even all the way here, I can sense the Hestian Trialgoers trying to hold off what might ultimately be the planet's dying breath.

The future bears down around us with an inextricable truth: one way or another, it all ends here.

And so, for perhaps the last time, we head back toward the Fracture.

Kauku doesn't seem surprised to see us. He stands right at the edge of the Fracture, leaning casually against an invisible wall. A mass of writhing tendrils extend from his back, each one made of pure Firmament; they dive deep into the Fracture, then emerge covered in pure temporal power, spreading through the Hestia's sky.

"You're finally here," he says. "You certainly took your time. Though I suppose that won't mean much soon, will it?"

I feel power ripple out from him, pressing down around us. Kauku's expression sharpens a little when none of us move. "And stronger, too. I guess my little trick won't work on you anymore, hm?"

"What do you think?" I ask impassively. I have my hands behind my back, one of them shining with Firmament from Concentrated Power. I'm under no illusions as to Kauku's strength—without skills that scale my upper limits, I'm not going to be able to beat him.

If I'd had more time, I would have tried to develop some Submerged skills that might give us a chance against him, but...

Kauku chuckles, shaking his head. "It's a true pity that you, of all people, are my Heir," he muses. "I believe we could have been good friends. You might even have been able to convince me to stop all this, although I doubt it."

"You could stop all this now," I point out, keeping my voice even. There's a sense that we both know the outcome of this conversation, even before it happens, but there's no reason not to try.

"I could," Kauku says agreeably. "I won't, but I appreciate the attempt."

"Why?" I ask, genuinely curious. Behind my back, the Concentrated Power I'm holding continues to grow, though I doubt Kauku hasn't noticed. Still, the longer I stall, the stronger it'll get—and the upper limits on that skill are far higher than they were before now that I'm at the fourth layer.

"Revenge, of course." Kauku says the words casually, like it's an obvious thing. He doesn't even say it with anger. But there's a moment, as he says the words, where his Firmament flickers pitch-black with hatred. I see a flash of it in the glow of his eyes, through the sockets of his skull.

Despite this, he offers me a genial smile, his jawbones curving unnaturally to mimic the expression. "I've had millenia to think about how they betrayed me, you know. Millenia to soak in the depth of it. To watch as the universe we planned to take together moved on without me. I suppose you know by now what they did, but I wonder—do you know the extent of it?"

"I do not," I say. Behind me, Gheraa, Ahkelios, and Guard all shift uncomfortably, itching to start the fight; I shake my head slightly to tell them to hold off. Kauku doesn't seem to notice.

"They trapped me," he says. "Locked me in a prison of my own design. They made me watch. It was not an accident, Ethan. It was purposeful cruelty. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't even end myself if I wanted to. Even now, I remain chained by the bonds of the Interface we made together."

His voice turns dark, bitter. "It was meant to represent us," he says. "The bond of the three Scions. It would have revolutionized the universe, given us the power to beat back the ancient monsters that lurk in the void. Instead, they took their portions of our power and squandered it for petty gain. For status, for a quicker route to power. And for what?"

The pressure around him increases; the ground cracks, shattering under the pressure. "To participate in an already broken system," Kauku snarled. "To help the powers that once kept us chained. And if all they had done was turn against me, I might have been able to forgive them. Might. But they chained me into the very power we built and turned me into a battery, then forced me to watch. Is it any wonder, Ethan, that I might want revenge?"

Firmament swirls around him, twisted and wrong, warped by the force of his hatred. He looks at me like he expects me to take a step back. Guard, Ahkelios, and Gheraa certainly have—they look at Kauku like he's a monster.

The evidence certainly suggests that he is. I take a step forward anyway, and he cocks his head at me, like he's surprised.

"No," I say. "I can't say I blame you."

Kauku stops, unsettled and uncertain. The pressure around him fades by the smallest fraction. "You don't?"

"There's clearly a lot I don't understand," I say with a shrug. A lot of what he's talking about has to do with the wider politics of the universe, I suspect, and I don't have the context to understand what he means when he talks about ancient monsters or a broken system. "But some things are universal. Wanting revenge is one of them."

I stop in front of him. "Are you as innocent as you claim, though?" I ask. "Because I've seen what happened to First Sky. I saw the remnants in the Fracture. Your tests and experiments, whatever it was you needed to do to build the power of Firmament and the Interface itself—you hurt and killed people to perfect it."

The sockets of Kauku's skull narrow, and the glow of his eyes dim briefly. "I did," he says after a moment. "We all did. That is... irrelevant."

"Is it?"

"It has to be." Kauku shrugs, and though there's some discomfort in the set of his shoulders, there's a glint of determination that comes with it. "I could blame the others for it, I suppose, but I accept my part in what happened. It's not the reason they betrayed me."

"But you'd be doing it all again," I say. "How much are you going to leave intact to go after them?"

"Nothing," Kauku says, his voice blunt and flat. I feel the others all tense up at the word. "They have no doubt grown in the millenia that have passed. If I want to match them, I must harvest everything this galaxy has to offer. Starting with Hestia, of course." He gestures at the tendrils snaking their way into the heart of the planet. "Temporal Firmament is so terribly convenient."

"And this is something you actually want to do?" I ask. "Harvest the galaxy? Empty it of thousands of civilizations?"

Kauku stares at me for a moment.

"It depends who you're asking," he says at last. "If you had asked me this question a few months ago, from your perspective, I would have said no. I merely saw it as a necessary evil, and I was perhaps more inclined than I should have been to allow you a fair shot at stopping me."

I raise an eyebrow at this, surprised, but Kauku only continues. "It's why I saved that friend of yours in the Empty City," he says. "Varus, I think his name was?"

"So that was you," I mutter.

"Indeed," he says. "I knew doing so would allow that Integrator parasite to find me—Rhoran, I believe his name was? So I sealed myself to ensure I wouldn't be inclined to do anything... rash. Anything too unfair, as it were."

"Kind of you," I say dryly. It surprises me, though, that he has that much of a sense of fairness at all.

"I have spent so much time watching," Kauku says distantly. "Because I was forced to, yes, but it's hard not to grow fond of the creatures you watch over. You especially, I must say. You were particularly entertaining."

"And after Rhoran got to you?"

"He was weak," he says. "But his hatred was strong. Petty, yes. His reasons were so... small. Insignificant. The feeling behind them, though? That was real. The remnants of his will took time to suppress, and even with that done, his influence makes the betrayal of my friends burn like it happened just a moment ago."

Kauku's eyes flash, and there's a bitter, terrifying anger in them. "Can you imagine what it's like?" he asks, his voice low and dangerous. "I can express only a fraction of myself through this tiny, pathetic body, and even that was with eons of work. The rest of me is still trapped and tortured with every second that passes. I said I grew fond of you earlier, but do you know what you feel like right now?

"Insects. Crawling around inside of me. Inside the power that should be mine. I am Firmament, Ethan. The Scions bound me to the very power that now permeates this galaxy. Every use of your power is like an itch I cannot scratch. You worm your way through the corpse of my greater self, claiming parts of it as though it were your own. Is it any wonder that I might want to exterminate the lot of you?"

I stare at him. "You're not the Sunken King, are you?"

Kauku laughs. "Oh, I am," he says. "And I'm not. I'm an aspect of him, you could say. A fragment of his will, reaching out the only way it can. I think you've seen my greater self once. Do you remember it?"

I do, although I say nothing. It was all the way back in Isthanok, when I was experimenting with Hunger Firmament and the Void Inspiration reached out to it. Something happened, back then. A reaction that briefly tore open a gap inside Firmament itself and let me peer at something within.

Something that peered back, and in that single instant, almost killed me.

Kauku grins at me again, but this time, there's something unsettling about that grin. It's manic. Just a little bit wrong.

"You do," he says, satisfied. "Like I said, I'm an aspect. I'm the part of the Sunken King that once believed in friendship. I'm the part of him that wants revenge. And I'm the part of him that will tear this galaxy apart to find it.

"But who knows? If you kill me, you'll kill the part of me that wants revenge. Maybe I'll become something new. Something better."

His smile drops. "But you're not going to get that chanc—"

I don't wait for him to finish. Premonition screams at me, and I react the only way I can.

Amplified Gauntlet.

My fist burns with dense Firmament, compacted over almost thirty minutes of continual channeling of Concentrated Power. My Amplification Gauntlet takes that energy and magnifies it, shining so brightly in the process the sky looks dark by comparison.

For a moment, it looks like I'm holding a star in the palm of my hand.

Then the Gauntlet makes contact. An explosion rocks the Fracture.

And the world turns to chaos.