"Oh, Master Greg! Glad to see that you made it on time."

  Nathan looked back and forth between Finny and the large, beady-eyed fish half the size of a city block.

  "Wait," Nathan asked. "Is that—"

  "Indeed it is! Nathan Lee, meet the master of fishkind, Greg!"

  Nathan turned and looked at the imposing fish.

  I guess I should say hi?

  He held out his hand and pushed his lips up into an imitation of a smile. "It's a pleasure."

  The fish stared at him and Nathan was starting to wonder if this was all some elaborate prank.

  "Why are you holding out your hand?" Greg said, his voice deep and booming. "What do you expect me to do?"

  At that, Finny ducked foward. "Oh, master Greg, it's a bit of a human thing. They shake hands when greeting."

  Greg looked at Nathan and despite himself he felt a trickle of sweat run down his neck. Given how long this fish had been alive, interacting outside the bounds of the System, dancing between multiple sides in the way that he's done—Nathan had to conclude he was decently powerful.

  This was reinforced by the amount of energy Nathan could feel rolling off him. It was like being next to a rumbling volcano. Except the volcano was shaped like a particularly angry fish. With unknown magical powers.

  "What exactly brings you to me?" the fish said.

  "I think the first thing on my list is dealing with the very minor problem of, uh, not committing genocide."

  The fish was silent. After a few moments, he nodded. "The Sixth Circle. I faced the same dilemma in my youth."

  "Yeah, I don't want to murder the elves and orcs if I can avoid it."

  "The simplest way would be a deal with the System Administrator, but you've made that a rather difficult proposition, haven't you?"

  Nathan looked over at the endless golden clouds off to the side. "In my defense, he started it."

  Greg snorted. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that one of those damned creatures finally got the comeuppence they deserved, but you've put yourself in a difficult situation as a result. Nevermind the next circle, you almost certainly have the eye of the Mother System as a result of your actions."

  Each word was like a dagger to the heart, Nathan realizing that his actions may've had unintended consequences.

  "But that shows something, right?" Nathan scrambled for the words. "The death of an admin, I mean. It shows that this isn't a doomed endeavor."

  "Oh?"

  Greg blinked slowly, the action seeming strangely deliberate.

  "This is going to sound stupid, but I have a plan," Nathan said. "Something bigger than the Sixth Circle. Bigger than the whole circle system itself."

  "Speak."

  Nathan hadn't really meant to arrive to this point of the conversation so early. It'd all sort of tumbled out of his mouth without his say-so. Unfortunately, he was in too deep. It wasn't like he could hit rewind and do things over.

  "I want to kill the Mother System."

  At his words, a frown appeared on Greg's fishy face. Nathan felt a chill go down his spine.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Greg's voice dropped to a low rumble. "Do you have the slighest idea of what you've suggested?"

  "Vaguely."

  "Vaguely, he says." Greg chortled. "I'm beginning to suspec that the death of B32 was a fluke."

  "Oh, it absolutely was," Nathan said. "One hundred percent. A lot of things convened out of nowhere all at once and made it possible."

  "You're not doing a good job of presenting your case, young one."

  Nathan bit his bottom lip. "The way I see it, we have two options." He found his fingers tensing due to his worry over the conversation. "We can either sit here and watch as the circles kill millions, billions, more and more, one after another, until the Mother System eventually gets bored and just goes after those of us who manage to escape this hellhole. That's what happened to the elves after all."

  "Or?"

  "Or we can at least try to figure things out and fight back."

  "Do you even have a plan?"

  "Like, the vague outlines of one."

  "This is also not reassuring."

  "I'm working on the finer details. Look are you in, or not?"

  The seconds ticked away.

  "You are terrible at presenting your points," Greg said. "Awful. If I were anyone else, I would've ignored you and dismissed you as a madman."

  Wait, anyone else? "I'm assuming that you—"

  Greg cracked a smile. Unlike his expressions before, the upturn of his lips was honest. Nathan could tell he was sincere. Which was even stranger. He furrowed his eyebrows.

  "I had already made up my mind before this conversation began," Greg said.

  "What?"

  "I wanted to meet you for myself and listen to your words. I knew going in that you wouldn't be able to present anything particularly compelling, you simply don't have the right kind of personality for it."

  Nathan found a breath of relief coming out of his lungs. His nose twitched in annoyance at the mention of his personality.

  He really hadn't been expecting this, though. It was nice to see that someone wasn't going to have him go on some kind of ridiculous fetch quest or prove his worth or some other absurd cliche.

  "If you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to help me out?" Nathan asked.

  "Because you achieved the impossible."

  The killing of B32.

  "And you were right about one thing," Greg said. "Despite our deal with the System Admins, not even we are safe. The elves were promised freedom, but that was spat upon by this latest iteration of the Nine Circles. We will eventually experience the same treatment."

  Nathan scratched the back of his neck. "We still have to figure something out, though."

  "Ah, the Sixth Circle challenge, yes?"

  Greg turned and swimmed through the air. He stopped and glanced back. "With me."

  "Why?"

  "I have a skill to teach you. You need to understand the problem facing us, and you'll only get that understanding through first-hand experience."

  Nathan hadn't been expecting a training arc but it was definitely a pleasant surprise.

  As they walked—or in Greg's case, swam—through the Golden Realm, Nathan found his thoughts wandering toward what Thalassa had said about him utilizing the power here and adding it to himself. He was hoping that these lessons would provide some sort of insight, though he wasn't counting on it.

  Behind them, Finny swam in total silence. He remained a respectful distance away from Greg. Probably a respect thing, Nathan assumed.

  They came to a stop. Nathan glanced over at the large fish.

  "Navigation of the Golden Realm is a tricky thing," Greg said. "The most frustrating part is that if you make a mistake, the consequences are highly severe. Time doesn't flow equally down here. In a worst case scenario, you could be trapped for seconds but come out and find that years have passed."

  "So I should definitely avoid doing that."

  Greg's voice was dry. "Yes, that would be advisable."

  "How can you avoid those weird spots where time flows differently?"

  "Mostly via feel. I've brought you to the edge of a hotspot, a location where time flows slower. I want you to move in between the two and try to get an idea of the sensation."

  Nathan stepped forward. He glanced back at Greg and noticed that he was moving… slower? Like he was stuck in molasses.

  Nathan stepped back, Greg went back to normal.

  How was he supposed to anticipate these changes in advance?

  "Keep trying," Greg said.

  Nathan ended up spending nearly four hours before he felt the faintest tingle at the edge of his spine as a warning. When he'd expressed this to Greg, the fish had sounded surprised that Nathan had gotten it "so quickly."

  "You see the problem?" Greg said. "The hotspot's been moving. This is a basic, important skill, and it'll take you at least a few days to get it down. And you're a prodigy. How long will it take for an entire species to gain this skill?"

  "…it'll take time. We don't have time."

  "The obvious alternative is to have my people act as guardians, but there aren't enough of us. We have a few thousand? The elves number in the thousands, while the orcs number in the millions."

  "We don't have the resources."

  "Indeed."

  "So I need to find an alternative." Nathan bit his bottom lip. "Damn it, this'll be tricky. Maybe if we divide up the groups? No, there's just no way we'll have enough. What if we try—"

  "Peace, Nathan."

  Nathan's breath caught.

  "I wouldn't have agreed to this if I didn't have a plan," Greg said. "It'll take time to prepare, and it might require some legwork, but…"

  Nathan was silent, then nodded slowly up and down.

  This is what I signed up for, after all, he thought. A partnership.

  "For now, you'd best be heading back."

  "I should." Nathan paused. "And Greg?"

  "Yes?"

  "Thanks."