Hannah Flos was standing, waiting for the gothic castle gate to open. She had just put in a report to the local police station regarding the unlicensed Passenger, and the local authorities had no jurisdiction over her due to her status as part of the task force, so she had made her way back to the Imperial Residence in preparation for Shifting back to Juhend’s Realm.

  “Helllooooo!”

  Yelling out once again, no response came from inside the Imperial Residence. Resigning herself to breaking in, she made a series of quick jumps, using small crevices in the stone walls as footing. Similar to a mountain goat, she scaled the wall and alighted on top, perching herself and scanning the area.

  Not a soul was in sight. It was as if the entire complex was abandoned.

  Her intuition, setting off a flood of warnings, pricked up with each movement of her head. Something was wrong, and she couldn’t figure out what.

  Resolving to Shift to the bastion and find Juhend to figure out the source of the problem, she stealthily entered through a small doorway. Using the entrance to this herbology room, she swiftly made her way through the empty halls and into an empty ritual room.

  …

  Juhend Sureb positioned himself between Sequence and the children. His eyes, never leaving his target, glowed with constellations of light and energy.

  Sequence laughed. Despite his lack of facial features, the demigod had an air of superiority about him.

  Adam condensed ruby light in his palm, waiting for a chance to strike. Hellig’s halberd was drawn at the ready, and Gusto was positioned well to capitalize on any openings. The trio’s strategic coordination, though still rough and unhoned, was notable.

  Juhend condensed an orb of light in his own palm, reminiscent of the ruby lights Adam occasionally dispensed to opponents. Sequence merely raised his arms in a mocking gesture.

  “Not even so much as a greeting father? I haven’t seen you since Mother died! Is this any way to treat family?”

  Juhend scoffed.

  “You are no son of mine anymore, Sangar. You lost that privilege when you slaughtered Her.”

  Sequence made a tsk sound under his breath.

  “You would have done the same if you had any sense. She wanted to be free of her conflicting emotions. The Moon understood that, Diell understood that, even that false emperor understood. It’s not my fault I’m the only one that could get the job done.”

  Juhend shook his head. Attempting to keep Sequence talking for as long as possible, the demigod had yet to attack again. Likewise, he didn’t want to forcefully Shift the children away. He needed all the energy he could get. In this Realm, especially.

  “You are mad, Sangar. You have been ever since your mother had that vision. That prophecy has corroded your mind.”

  “Really, father? With all your powers of divination, you haven’t seen it?”

  Sequence blipped out of reality, appearing directly in front of Juhend, who swiftly took a step backwards and launched the light in his palm outwards. A kaleidoscope of colors spewed out in a massive cone of energy, evaporating the nearby snow instantly and causing the air to superheat. Sequence was unaffected.

  “Mother had Her vision centuries ago. I listened to Her. You didn’t. It’s as simple as that. Now that Her conflict has been resolved, She can be reborn. All She needs is for the Mother of Crows to perish.”

  Juhend blipped a dozen meters to the right, extended his arm, and sent a shockwave of energy rolling through the air. It collapsed around Sequence, shattering the ground underneath him. Sequence was unaffected.

  Laughing, Sequence stepped towards Juhend, who took a step backwards.

  “You always resort to violence, father. When a threat appears to the order you have seen in your visions, you attempt to eliminate it. But, what happens when you have become that very threat?”

  Sequence suddenly appeared behind Juhend. Outstretching his hands as if to grasp his father’s head, he squeezed. Popping like a melon, Juhend Sureb’s blood splattered on the ground.

  Sequence’s voice took on a more melodramatic tone.

  “You’re no fun, sending illusions to try to mess with me.”

  A burst of freezing cold enveloped the area, causing Adam, Gusto and Hellig to shiver. Sequence’s body was swiftly overtaken by a cocoon of thick blue ice.

  “It isn’t that I haven’t seen the prophecy myself, Sangar. It’s that I choose to keep fighting anyway. I choose to preserve the memory of Her that I knew, and the memory of our son that I used to know.”

  Juhend’s form materialized behind Sequence’s cocoon, grasping it with one hand.

  “You are not the chosen one, my son. You never were, and never can be.”

  Picking up the ice cocoon, Juhend tossed it into the air with a burst of energy. Jumping up to meet it, he brought his cane down. Connecting with a loud shatter, Sequence was split into dozens of pieces, each frozen in ice, falling from the sky.

  Adam wasted zero time. Not believing a being of such caliber would be killed so easily, he let loose the ruby light that he had condensed in his palm.

  The light soared into the air, and stopped abruptly, well before making it to the ice crystals.

  A laughing voice boomed, coming from each of the fragments.

  “You think the Rainbow Pantheon is on your side? He has His own motives. He wants to see the Mind Most High claim the Instrument. Killing me now, why that would indeed put a wrench in the plans of that pair.”

  The fragments dissolved into mist, and suddenly Sequence was back on the ground, even before Juhend himself was.

  “I believe we are missing someone, don’t you think? Just a moment.”

  Sequence snapped his fingers.

  …

  Hrime was training in an underground safehouse. She owned numerous properties in the Empire, and this was one of them. Taking a brief refreshment of iced lemonade prepared by one of her maids, she suddenly felt a familiar, foreboding presence waft over her.

  Materializing her halberd, she was swiftly, and forcefully, Shifted into an all-too familiar Realm of ice and billowing snow.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  …

  Hannah found a series of papers on the table in the bastion, but nobody was present, including even the Emaciated Seraph, which usually frequented the tower section. Sighing and sitting down on the couch, she picked up the papers in an attempt to calm her mind.

  Unfortunately, they had the opposite effect. Her face grew stern, then grave, then terrified. Glancing at the glowing marbles of light and vials of blood on the table, she rushed to the ritual room to Shift.

  …

  Billowing snow was sent flying with each stride the Composer made. Though he could scarcely feel the presence of the Ever-Decaying Lord, he still had faith in his own abilities. In a fair fight, he knew the emperor would be no real match for him. Muttering hundreds of chants under his breath, zombies sprouted up like weeds behind him. Soon, an army of hundreds was at his back. Trolls that lumbered through the ranks, drakes that moved as fast as cheetahs, even a slew of flying dragons that took to the skies. All zombified, these creatures were capable of eliminating a small army even if the Composer didn’t personally act.

  He soon closed in on his prey.

  …

  With a pop, Hrime’s dark black hair and pale white face was materialized directly in front of Sequence. Juhend, who had brought his cane down as he fell from the sky, swiftly changed his course to avoid killing her. The blow instead pummeled into the ground next to her, sending a wave of snow and ice spreading through the area.

  Hrime jumped back, confused and cursing under her breath.

  Sequence laughed.

  “Finally. Both of them are here at last!”

  Spreading his arms as if welcoming the advent of a new age, Sequence dissipated the snow in the air. The clouds seemed to grow more white, the sky grew more azure, the air became slightly warmer.

  Juhend jumped back, narrowly avoiding a newly formed crater where he was just standing. Seemingly having been conjured from nothing, this crater continued to drill deeper and deeper into the Realm below him.

  Gusto, Hellig and Adam immediately locked onto the one threat they could face: Hrime. Her halberd was held in a defensive position, and she was scanning her surroundings. Without an Anchor, it would be a difficult feat for her to Shift back to any other Realm.

  Juhend glanced backwards at the children for the first time today.

  “Run. I’ll handle my son. I-”

  Sequence rushed in to box Juhend, who had to dart between blows. Bringing his cane up to deflect a blow, he sent a wave of force behind him, pushing the group backwards.

  “I’m sorry.”

  These whispered words only reached the ears of himself and the son he wished he never had.

  …

  Vendos Aurelius stood at the front of the column. On either side was Bruenor Flos and Streng Ezel, the two strongest Chosen in the northern hemisphere. Behind him were a hundred royal guards. Each of them were Chosen with years of combat experience. Not a single one of them was weak, by any standard metric.

  His voice bellowed out to the Chosen behind him.

  “Chosen! Begin to pray!”

  Confused, the royal guards began to whisper amongst themselves. Vendos scoffed.

  “Guards! I order you to pray to your Angels!”

  With that second command, each of the hundred royal guards began to pray to every member of the Accepted Pantheon.

  Vendos glanced at Bruneor and Streng.

  “Can the two of you handle a demigod?”

  Bruenor scoffed, and Ezel grimly smiled.

  “Can you handle a Devil?”

  Vendos sighed, preparing for what Juhend told him would come.

  …

  Hrime looked Hellig dead in the eyes.

  “So, you actually do learn one in a while, huh?”

  She laughed, not even bothering to put on a defense in front of the brother she tried to kill so many times before.

  “Too bad it’s a bit late now. Sequence is just gonna kill us anyway.”

  Hellig walked forwards. Hrime didn’t step back, nor did she raise her halberd up to defend herself. Getting within three meters, Hellig stopped advancing.

  “Sister. Please. Just this once, let us put our conflict behind us. We are both still Chosen. We can help Juhend and beat Sequence.”

  Hrime glanced over. Sequence and Juhend had still not yet landed a substantial hit on each other. Each time Sequence would strike Juhend, it would become an illusion. And each time Juhend would strike Sequence, it would be rerouted to the surroundings.

  Hrime chuckled.

  “We can’t ascend without the other dying. And with Sequence here, any chance at ascension is void. He’ll just steal it.”

  Hellig wore a confused expression on his face. The fact that Hrime wasn’t moving to attack was already odd enough, but for her to be downright capitulated, that was something he would never have thought possible.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Hrime sighed.

  “His name, Sequence. It’s His powers, too. He literally steals the sequence of events that is about to happen. He reroutes them to his own benefit. It’s impossible to resist at our level. Even that demigod there is affected.”

  As Hrime talked, Juhend sent a massive splinter of wood soaring towards Sequence. It lit aflame as it got close, but was deflected into the air, landing a hundred meters away.

  Hrime sat down in the snow. Tossing her halberd aside, she gazed up at Hellig.

  “To be clear, if He wasn’t here, I’d still try to kill you and get my birthright back. But with Sequence here, it’s impossible. And He won’t just let me leave. I…lost.”

  She shrugged. Hellig scoffed.

  “Just like that, huh?”

  Hrime looked up towards him.

  “So there’s some demigod in the way, and suddenly it’s over? My sister, who has been fighting for years, has been willing to kill me, to solicit aid from a Devil’s cult and an insane demigod, who has grown to be one of the strongest Chosen in the cosmos, gives up just like that?”

  Hellig was furious. His anger was overwhelming. Gusto, Hrime and Adam were admittedly confused.

  Adam whispered to Gusto, one eye on Juhend and Sequence.

  “Hey, is he trying to give a damn pep talk to her right now?”

  Gusto shook his head, exasperated.

  Hellig looked down on Hrime.

  “I’ve started to harmonize with this Realm, sister. And I know for a fact that you have too.”

  Hrime’s eyes widened.

  She stood up swiftly, her black halberd materializing in her hands. Its blade took on an icy blue tint, which swiftly enveloped her body. Recognition covered her face. Then guilt contorted it.

  “But it’s not possible for two divinities to be from the same Real-”

  A massive shockwave sent the group flying. Juhend’s cane was outstretched towards them. In front of him lay a massive expanse of volcanic terrain. Molten lava spewed from cracks in the surface of the Realm.

  Coughing, Adam stood up. The conflict between the two demigods was getting more fierce.

  Hrime and Hellig, mostly unaffected, both faced each other head on.

  Adam coughed again, on purpose this time, and raised his hand.

  “What uh… What if you just. Both used the Instrument? Like uh, well there’s only one, sure. But that doesn’t mean you can’t both know how to play, right?”

  Hrime and Hellig both glanced at Adam.

  “You really didn’t think of that until now?”

  Hrime coughed.

  …

  A slew of a hundred prayers went out at once. To every member of the Accepted Pantheon. Some even prayed to unaccepted divinities. Their comrades didn’t give them a second glance, for they saw the horizon.

  Littered with thousands of bodies, dozens of dragons flying through the air, and a collection of giants, drakes, trolls, wyrms, and many other zombified creatures besides, the atmosphere was tense.

  The Composer laughed with glee as he sped towards Vendos Aurelius. A sickly tendril of flesh sprouted from his right arm. Bulbous and eye-like, it sailed like a whip towards the demigod.

  A resounding thud sent a wave of energy dispersing through the nearby area. Streng Ezel coughed as the barrier he erected was cracked.

  The Composer laughed. He had made it to his prey.