Even now, the image of Gabriel's death remained trapped in Nathan's mind. The visual repeated itself in his head, over and over and over.

  He chewed the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste blood.

  Emi pursed her lips. "I forgot that it had looked so disturbing. No, I never got a chance to see in the first place."

  "What kind of a sadist designed this challenge?" Bjorn said.

  Were there any limits to the extent of the game show? Because if there wasn't, there was a very good chance that they were about to learn things about each other that Nathan would much prefer nobody knew.

  The hourglass continued to tick away. Nathan double-checked Dither. Chad and Mara still hadn't been located.

  Keep buying time, he reminded himself. We just need to keep buying time.

  Emi's podium lit up once more. Emi's eyes scanned across the top row of potential questions.

  "I suppose that I should continue to stick to the lower value, yes? If it's anything like the one from home, the higher-value ones are more difficult," she said.

  Nathan shrugged. "Seems logical to me."

  Emi nodded to herself. "I'll take column four for one-hundred."

  The slab turned on an invisible axis.

  This governmental system is one of the most long-running and long-lasting in the history of the orcs. They use it to this day.

  Emi scoffed. "Even I know that." She raised her voice. "Absolute monarchy!"

  Nathan's heart dropped.

  A loud buzzer rang out in the small room. Emi's eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates. Her hourglass turned a bright red.

  Emi stared at it in abject horror. "What happened?! I got it right, didn't I?"

  "You were there, you saw our process, yet you didn't pay any attention." Bjorn scoffed."You believed the lies that your people were selling you," he said. "No, we don't operate off an absolute monarchy. Our system is more democratic than yours, to be quite frank."

  Emi's left eye twitched, and she opened her mouth as if to snap back when she stopped and looked over at her hourglass.

  "I see," she muttered. "I seem to have made quite a fatal mistake."

  Another vision. Orcs in a room, debating, talking, discussing.

  Then punching each other in the face.

  Before Nathan could say anything, his own podium lit up. He bit his tongue and turned back around to face the question wall. There was only one question left.

  "I'll take column five for one-hundred."

  The tablet turned.

  The planet Earth, where the humans reside, has 70% of its surface covered in this material.

  Nathan knew this one by heart. "Water," he said.

  A loud ding. His hourglass topped off.

  Another vision.

  Water. Water covering the surface of the planet. It extended in every direction. It called to Nathan like an old friend.

  Then he was back.

  Bjorn's podium lit up.

  "It seems that I only have two-hundreds and three-hundreds," he said.

  Nathan bit the bottom of his lip. "Nothing for it. Just pick one."

  "I'll take column one for three-hundred."

  The tablet shifted. When Nathan caught sight of the first couple of words, his breath hitched.

  Nathan Lee, also known as the Hero of the Apocalypse, had this job before he was taken away from his home.

  Bjorn looked over at him. "Well?"

  Nathan gulped. He averted his eyes and looked at a convenient spot on the floor.

  "Knowing Nathan, he must have been doing something incredibly helpful back on Earth," Emi said. "Like, like—a doctor! Or maybe an engineer!"

  The edges of Nathan's lips quirked up at their assumption.

  "No," he said. "I was unemployed."

  Emi tilted her head. "Ah, so you were between jobs?"

  Bjorn's eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second. "What is 'unemployed?'"

  A ding. More sand. Nathan braced himself for what he was about to see.

  Himself, in a chair. His apartment was a pigsty. Eviction notices had been slid underneath the door. Mountains of soda and chips surrounded him. His cheeks were pale, hollowed out, and his back was slouched over his desk. The only reason they could make out his face was due to the glare of the screen monitor.

  They were back in the game show room. Nathan's stomach churned at the look of who he'd used to be.

  He hated the apocalypse. He hated what he'd been forced to do and what he'd been forced to become. But honestly?

  He'd take being some weird water elemental freak of nature over being that thing in his apartment any day of the week.

  "Nathan, what was that?" Emi said.

  Nathan weighed the options in his mind, then shook his head. "I'd rather not talk about it."

  Emi cast a concerned look at him, but quickly wiped the expression away and looked over at his podium.

  "Your turn," she said.

  Nathan examined the slabs, then shrugged. It didn't particularly matter which one he picked, did it?

  "I'll take column two for three-hundred," he said.

  The tablet turned and the text appeared.

  This woman was the wife of famed commander Bjorn Bloodson.

  Was? Why would the past tense have been used there?

  Maybe they got divorced?

  Bjorn stared at the text with an implacable look.

  "Her name was Calieth."

  He didn't say anything else.

  Nathan pursed his lips. "Who is 'Calieth?'"

  The hourglass dinged.

  Nathan watched as Bjorn held a young orc child in his hands. To his side, a feminine looking orc had her hands clasped in front of her, looking at Bjorn with an adoring gaze. Bjorn smiled at her—a smile that Nathan had never seen from Bjorn, not once in all of their time traveling together.

  The vision disappeared.

  Bjorn's expression was as stoic as ever. But there was an invisible tension in his shoulders. Emi glanced over at him, then looked away.

  "I had no idea you were a father," she said.

  "He's doing well," Bjorn said. "I don't bring him to meet you, or vice versa for obvious reasons. My work and my personal life ought to remain separate."

  It was reasonable. A perfectly sensible thing, Nathan couldn't blame Bjorn for that attitude.

  "But what about your wife?" Emi asked.

  Bjorn's eyes shut.

  "I believe that it's my turn," he said.

  Nathan tapped his fingers against his podium.

  It wouldn't do to jump to any conclusions. He didn't know anything about Bjorn's personal life, and that was just the way Bjorn liked it. It wasn't Nathan's place to ask any prying questions. It wasn't Nathan's place to try to find out what happened. For all he knew, she was perfectly fine.

  But you know, he thought. The circles haven't been particularly kind to humanity, either.

  He wiped the thought away as quickly as it had appeared.

  "I'll take column three for five-hundred," Bjorn said.

  Before, the tablet turning seemed to happen in a flash. This time, every wheeze and groan and crack of the stone moving seemed to happen in slow motion. Whose secret would next be revealed? What dirty laundry would be aired out in public this time?

  The slab finished turning.

  This FPS gaming tournament was won by a duo 10 years ago. The components of the duo? Nathan and Sarah Lee.

  "It was a regional tournament," Nathan said. "The Southeast Cup."

  Bjorn cast a questioning gaze at Nathan, and Nathan waved him off.

  "It's a good memory," Nathan said. "I don't mind."

  Bjorn nodded. "What is the Southeast Cup?"

  Another ding, more sand.

  Nathan was back with his sister, barely twelve years old. Sarah had lifted him up off the ground and was hugging him fiercely. The audience wasn't particularly big—maybe twenty people at most. Despite being a regional cup, it wasn't very prestigious.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  Still, everyone in that room believed that they'd witnessed the birth of a star team. Sarah Lee, and her younger brother, Nathan Lee. Legends in the making.

  Nathan stared at his hourglass. It was hard to believe that at one point, they'd been that close.

  A bittersweet memory.

  The hourglasses, despite the constant topping off, had lowered significantly. Emi's podium lit up, and she stared at her hourglass.

  The sand was low. Uncomfortably low. In fact...

  "You're going to go for the five-hundred, aren't you?" Nathan asked.

  Emi's lips quivered. "I don't want to, but—"

  Nathan nodded. "No, I understand. I don't want you to die just to buy us a little bit more time. We can get through this, together."

  Emi nodded up and down, her hand shaking.

  "I'll take row one for five-hundred."

  All of the three-hundred tiles shifted and turned, then had their markings scratched out via some sort of invisible skill or spell. They were now limited only to the five-hundreds.

  One of the five-hundred tiles turned.

  Nathan's heart stopped in his chest.

  Emi's grip slackened and her hands fell limply to her side.

  "They're going to make me go through that again?" she muttered. "Why would they? Why would they do that?"

  The text was as clear as day.

  These were the last words of Eminia Laplanta's mother.

  The sand of the hourglass continued to pour into the bottom. Emi didn't have much time left.

  "You need to answer it," Nathan said.

  She turned and stared at him, faint tears gathering at the edge of her eyes.

  "I don't want to have to experience it again," she said. "I don't think I'd be able to take it!"

  Once again, Nathan found himself wondering who the hell had set this up? B32?

  No, this was way too creative for that bastard. B32 was far, far more direct than this. And while he had definitely had it out for Nathan, even at his worst, B32 hadn't done anything quite to this level of cruelty. It was almost like...

  Almost like somebody else had taken the steering wheel.

  "I'm sorry," Nathan said.

  What else could he say?

  Emi choked back a sob.

  "Her dying words were a spell." Her breath hitched. "Something that Fliel refused to tell me."

  Her tone turned softer, more quiet. "But to me, she taught me something. The greatest technique of the Laplanta line. And then…"

  Her voice trailed off. "She passed away."

  Nathan shut his eyes. He was about to see something deeply personal—something that was none of his business.

  But he couldn't stop it.

  The image flashed into his brain.

  Emi, on her knees, grasping the hands of an older-looking female elf. The older-looking elf had a cut across her stomach, one so nasty and large that Nathan half considered it a miracle that she wasn't split in half. Her skin was deathly pale and her eyes were fluttering shut.

  She whispered something into Emi's ears, something only Emi should hear.

  They were back inside of the game show room.

  Emi collapsed to the ground and covered her face with her hands. The sound of stifled sobs filled the room. Bjorn's eyes remained locked on his own hourglass. Nathan looked away from her, trying to give her some sort of sense of privacy.

  Not that it worked.

  "...I'll take column two, for five-hundred," Nathan said.

  The tablet turned on a center axis.

  This well-known orc commander was the one responsible for the Queen of the Elves' death.

  Emi's sobs stopped. She shakily pushed herself up, using the podium for stability. She stared at the text for several long seconds.

  It was like the world had stopped for Nathan. Nothing existed for him outside of the text and his own thoughts.

  Why now?

  Why that topic?

  Emi's jaw worked open, then she spoke.

  "The higher value questions relate to us, directly," she said.

  Nathan nodded as if he was in trance. "Yes."

  Emi tilted her head mechanically at Bjorn.

  "What am I to make of this?" she asked.

  Nathan chewed the inside of his cheek. The taste of iron flooded his mouth. Blood dripped down his chin and onto the ground.

  "Who is—" Nathan spoke the words. "Bjorn Bloodson?"

  His hourglass dinged. He'd gotten the question right.

  Not that it mattered, given what they were about to see.

  An orc stood over a flailing figure on the ground. The figure had a long gash across her stomach.

  He looked… very familiar.

  Nathan's heart dropped.

  He was being ridiculous. Bjorn had told Nathan that he hadn't personally killed her. He'd been responsible, but he hadn't pulled the trigger.

  Bjorn wouldn't have lied, right?

  A flash of light from a fireball launched by the figure on the ground.

  The orc dodged to the side, then threw a throwing dagger at the figure's heart.

  In that split-second of illumination, Nathan perfectly made out Bjorn's features.

  The dagger flew through the air and sank deep into her chest. The figure whispered a few words and Bjorn was thrown backwards by the force of a sudden unexpected spell.

  Two elves rushed forward and blocked Bjorn's path. A third grabbed the Queen and picked her up. Scratch that. A third grabbed the figure off the ground.

  Nathan blinked. The person who'd grabbed the Queen—it had been Fliel.

  The vision changed. Nathan was like a ghost, trailing after the two from behind. Fliel beat his feet against the ground, moving as quickly as he could. He came to a stop in front of a door. It opened on its own, revealing the concerned face of an elf man in guard uniform. Fliel brushed past the man and laid the Queen in a bed.

  Now, without the motion or the darkness of the hallways, Nathan could make out the woman's face perfectly.

  It was the same woman that they'd seen in the last vision.

  Nathan was back in the game show room. He staggered backwards and almost fell into the lava before he caught himself at the last second.

  A sudden wave of heat hit him and he turned in the direction of where it had come from.

  Emi's entire form was engulfed in flames, her hands crackling with magic. Her eyes were locked onto Bjorn.

  "You absolute bastard!" she shouted. "This entire time—every moment you knew me, you'd been the one who murdered my mother!"

  Bjorn didn't respond.

  Nathan understood why.

  The time for words had long since passed.

  Emi's gaze went over to Nathan.

  "Did you know?" she asked.

  Nathan couldn't stop himself from wincing.

  Her shoulders fell and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. The fires surrounding her died away.

  "You knew, and you didn't tell me?" she said.

  "I wanted to tell you," Nathan stared at the ground. "I just thought—I just thought that it wasn't a good time. We couldn't afford any distractions."

  "You thought that finding the person who killed my mother was just a distraction?"

  "I—!"

  The sound of a tablet turning made all of them stop.

  But... nobody had selected it.

  Nathan turned and looked at the tablet's text.

  What happened to Thalassa?

  The text had changed—or the styling of the text. It was no longer a statement, but a question.

  Nathan's mouth dried up to a near painful crispness.

  "I don't know."

  The hourglass behind him dinged. Correct.

  The second to last tablet turned.

  Who is it who's making this text?

  Nathan read it over one more time.

  "I don't know," he said.

  Another ding. Correct.

  The final tablet turned.

  Didn't you think that it had all been a little bit too easy?

  A cold chill went down Nathan's spine.

  It had been a little bit too easy, hadn't it?

  He'd taken note of that right after they—

  Right after they...

  Right after they thought they killed the Mother System.

  The hourglass dinged in response to his thought.

  Nathan shook like a leaf.

  The world turned in and out like he was looking through a kaleidoscope. He staggered backwards and hit the podium.

  What happened to Thalassa?

  How could he forget? How could he have allowed himself not to examine his last encounter with Thalassa closer?

  A vision flashed into his head.

  Unlike the last several visions, there was nothing solid. It was more abstract. Sights and colors and sounds that were hard to make out and distinguish from each other.

  The sea, raging against the darkness. Waves crashing against the void. An impossible battle—and one that the ocean lost.

  His breaths came in and out faster.

  Thalassa had been with him from the very start. Without her, what was he even supposed to do? She was the one who'd wanted to fight, he was the one who'd wanted to run away. Was that what he should do now? Should he just leave? No, that isn't what she would have wanted—!

  The text had changed.

  When had it changed…?

  What's going to happen to your friends?

  Nathan's heart dropped. A black void appeared at the edges of the room and crept toward them. Bjorn backed up, but was unable to go anywhere without falling into the open lava pit below. Emi growled and pulled her staff to her side.

  Nathan gripped the podium behind him, then stood back up.

  The Mother System wasn't invincible.

  Nathan had been tricked, last time, but she was defeatable.

  ...whether or not he still wanted to even bother at this point, he didn't know.

  But at the bare minimum?

  He was at least gonna get out of here with all his friends intact.

  A blue system window appeared in front of him.

  [Personal message from: Gius]

  It's done. They're in.

  Nathan forced himself not to focus too hard on the text. Couldn't let her trace his thoughts.

  His every fleeting plan was perfectly controlled.

  He honed in on the feeling of despair. The feeling of horror.

  It wasn't particularly hard, given what he'd just discovered and learned.

  A message was typed into the return box.

  Every ounce of focus was needed to make sure that he didn't think about what he was sending.

  It dinged back. A confirmation.

  "Hey, Mother System," Nathan looked around the edges of the room. "I know you're watching."

  There was no response.

  Nathan licked his lips.

  "You think that you're so clever," he said. "That you're so invincible. That we're all just puppets dancing along to whatever tune you set. You even faked your own death just to force me to ascend to the next level. And now, you're trying to break me down even further. I assume this is all some sort of twisted ploy in order to make me even stronger in the long run. And I also know that if Bjorn and Emi are with me, they'll be in danger from you, right?"

  A faint laugh just at the edges of his mind.

  "Well, I'll tell you right now, you made one major mistake." He cracked his neck. "I'm a spiteful sort of bastard. It really pisses me off when somebody messes with my head like this."

  Emi and Bjorn looked over at him in confusion. Nathan ignored them.

  "And another thing," he said. "You have no idea how much patience I have. I'm the sort of guy who'll max out every stat in a super grindy MMO that nobody even plays purely so that I can get all the achievements. You might be an eldritch entity, but I bet you've never had to go up against a completionist."

  Nathan was just mouthing off and saying words at this point, and he was fully aware of that fact.

  A black void appeared at the end of the room. It expanded out toward him in particular.

  "Now, Finny!"

  Three portals appeared underneath each of their feet. Each of them fell in. The black void raced toward Emi and Bjorn.

  Nathan grinned, took a step to the side and jumped into the lava.

  The black void stopped and raced toward him instead of the other two.

  I knew it! He thought. She's not going to let her meal die like this, not this easily and not this early! At the very least, she'll want to chew me up first for herself!

  A portal appeared underneath him, right before he hit the lava.

  Nathan fell with a thud. Foggy white and foggy gold surrounded him in every direction.

  The Golden Realm.

  "So, what now?"

  "I can't be with them, that's for sure."

  Nathan leaned back against a cloud. To his side, Finny floated in the air.

  "Are you sure?" he said.

  "Yeah. Too dangerous. I'm a hazard. And besides, I've just about screwed things up so throughly that I don't think they'll want to see me, anyway."

  "You've got a lot of responsibilities, don't you? What about your Soulbound Town?"

  "I'll transfer it as soon as I can. I'm sure Chad will do better than me, anyway."

  Nathan chuckled. It was a dry, dead sound.

  "I really messed up," he said. "I let my guard down. Emi and Bjorn were nearly hurt, and Thalassa is probably dead." He snorted. "Speaking of Thalassa, I couldn't even do my ascension right. She wanted me to absorb Golden Realm water while ascending, but because I was slow and hesitant, I screwed it up. I'm just a water elemental, not the anti-Mother-System weapon we needed."

  He laughed. "I didn't care in the moment, I was too high off my own power to give a crap."

  Finny floated around in a circle. "I can't help but notice, laddy, that you're being awful hard on yourself."

  Nathan shrugged, his hands still behind his neck. "We'll agree to disagree."

  "What now?" Finny said.

  "It's not like I can stay here forever, right?" Nathan said. "Guess I'll go to the next circle."

  Finny was quiet.

  "If you say so, mate," he said. "I'll see you on the other side."

  Nathan pushed himself off the ground. "Let's get going."

  He trailed behind Finny. The fish came to a stop.

  "Here's the spot," he said. "Ready?"

  "Nope." Nathan cracked his neck. "Let's do this. Seventh Circle, here I come."

  "Wait."

  Nathan had dropped his legs, ready to jump into the air and race back to the surface. He paused and looked over at Finny.

  "What is it?" Nathan asked.

  "Laddie, I know you're feeling like shit right now, and I don't blame you. You're facing a monster beyond anything anyone has ever fought. You've lost your mentor. But—"

  "But what?"

  "But you still did some good."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Did you already forget?" Finny barked out a laugh. "That's so typical of you, laddie."

  Nathan frowned. "Can you explain?"

  "Not a single person died, Nathan!" Finny said. "Every person in the apocalypse was brought to the Seventh Circle safely!"

  Nathan paused.

  Huh.

  He'd actually forgotten all about that.

  "…I guess we didn't do a half-bad job," he said.

  "It was a damn fine job, in my humble opinion."

  Nathan hummed.

  Well.

  Maybe he'd done at least one thing worth being proud of.

  "Gotta get going," Nathan said. "Time's wasting."

  Finny moved up and down in the air. "I understand. Good luck, Nathan."

  Nathan jumped into the air. Midway up, he transformed his body into water. The power of the ocean flooded him. He reached the top and burst through.

  Seventh circle, he thought. Here I come!