“Again?” Father asked, tilting his head to the side. The tone of his voice made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t talking about Noah at all. He let out a sigh. “I should really stop aiming for the heart. It never seems to work.”

He pointed the Long Night at Spider’s head.

Reality warped.

It was a subtle thing, that. Reality was such a fragile concept. It would have been difficult for it not to be. After all, it was entirely rooted on the one experiencing it. Reality was the ultimate subjective truth. Reality to an ant was the foot falling to crush it from above. But to the human whose foot fell, reality was nothing more than a step forward.

To a mortal, reality was absolute.

But to a god… it was little more than a suggestion.

Spider let the violin slip from his hands. The glossy black wood vanished the instant his fingers released it, absorbed back into the tattoo on his shoulder. He had no need for the violin. The instrument didn’t belong to him.

Instead, his fingers plucked through the air. A series of gentle, almost whispered harp notes danced into being. They joined the faltering formation hanging around Spider to stabilize it before all of Noah’s work could be completely wasted.

And, as Father’s magic tried to slip past the magic coiling before Spider, his fingers strummed once more.

Notes cut through Father’s magic, each one dismantling the orderly power with bursts chaotic red. By the time the attack drew near Spider, no part of the order it commanded remained. It was nothing but a gentle breeze.

A droplet of sweat rolled down the back of Spider’s neck. He was all too aware of the timers ticking away. There were so many of them. He could see an hourglass of draining sand in the dust hanging in the air. Hear the ticking of a thousand distant clocks counting down. Feel the drip of blood in his chest trying to lull him back into infinity.

His time here was limited, and his power here even more so. Father had far more to wield than he did. But there were a dozen little flickering lights behind Spider. They were his lights. And he would not allow Father to snuff them out.

A flicker of surprise passed over Father’s features as he realized that his magic had done nothing.

“You never cease your surprises, do you?” Father asked. “It’s a shame, Vermil. Had you been summoned outside of this empire, you could have—”

Harps sang as Spider swept his hands down. Two waves of crackling red magic tore across the ground, turning the grass to glass as they screamed out toward Father like the yawning jaws of a ravenous beast.

Father drove the Long Night down into the ground at his feet. A wave of Order snapped into being around him and Spider’s magic shattered against it, warped and swallowed before it could reach its mark.

“A change of attacks will not bring you any closer to defeating me. You are still weak,” Father said dispassionately.

“And yet you waste time on words instead of fighting,” Spider said, his fingers plucking the air to fill it with trilling notes. “You are a coward, Father. The patience you claim is nothing more than fear and paranoia.”

“Believe what you will. You know nothing,” Father replied. He held the Long Night out before him. His grip on the ancient weapon tightened.

Power sliced out from within it, building to a roaring tsunami within an instant. It crashed down on Spider even as his fingers accelerated into a blur. Screaming notes twisted into being all around him. They slammed into Father’s approaching magic, sending ripples through the air as they tried to halt it.

But this attack was far stronger than the last. Reality quailed in its approach, finding itself forcibly twisted into line. Spider’s magic begun to crumble. Even as he sent more notes to aid in the defenses, Father’s Order drew closer.

It pushed into the area of their domains. Spider poured more magic into his defense, but Father didn’t sit idly in wait.

He pushed the Long Night forward, reinforcing the wave of Order with even more magic. It continued its advance toward them, snapping grass upright into attention like a tiny army frozen in a march.

Spider’s teeth clenched.

And then one of the flickering lights shot out from behind Spider.

Lee leapt forward, darting to the edge of all their combined domains and right up to where the Order magic warred with Spider’s Chaos.

And then she bit down on it. Her teeth carved through the magic like it was made out of dough. Then, with a slurp like she was vacuuming up an entire bowl of noodles within a single move, Lee swallowed the power that had knit both spells together.

There was an instant of silence. Lee wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she let out a small burp.

But Spider felt her soul. Even though the change was minor, its edges warped. She couldn’t consume power like that without some side-effect. Once was fine. Twice would be okay. But if she repeated it too many times — the candle would be snuffed.

His eyes narrowed. Cold anger tore through him, borne from centuries upon centuries of isolation.

And, as Father’s attention lingered on Lee, the faintest flicker of surprise passing through his eyes, Spider reached deep within himself. He reached to the infinity at his fingertips. And, with a thought, he sank into his Awakened state.

Patterns revealed themselves in an instant. He could feel the strings of the world as if they were an extension of him. Spider’s hands flew through the air in a blur. He played a dozen notes within a second, sending a gentle song coiling up all around them.

Father thrust his staff forward.

One of Moxie’s vines shot up from beneath the ground. It grabbed Lee by the midriff and threw her back, pulling her out of the way of the Order magic an instant before it passed through the air where she’d been.

It continued on its path toward Spider. But this time, Spider could feel far more. He wasn’t just playing blind notes. Order was a pattern in itself — and there was nothing Chaos excelled in more than picking that apart.

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Notes rung through the air. The wave of Order collapsed, torn to nothing but fading motes of molten red energy. Another droplet of sweat rolled down the back of Spider’s neck, but this time, he didn’t feel it.

Father recognized the change instantly. His eyes narrowed. “You know how to reach an Awakened state? On command? How are you still at such a low rank? What are you, Vermil?”

“You still don’t understand,” Spider said. More notes rose into the air as his fingers danced. “I am not Vermil. I am Spider. He is the stone, and I am the mountain he was carved from.”

Father swept the Long Night in a wide path before himself. A huge wave of Order magic rolled out from within it. Spider’s hands blurred as he pulled more song into being.

The Order crashed into Spider’s magic, slowing but continuing on its path toward him. But Father wasn’t done. He brought the Long Night sweeping down once more to send a second attack toward them.

Spider didn’t panic. Such an emotion was well past him. He’d lost the ability to feel it. But his fingers did move faster still. Twisting harpsong filled the air, overlaying itself as if ten men were playing at once.

And it still wasn’t enough.

The gap between Spider and Father was just too immense. Even with the songs practically playing themselves and the Rune Force around him making the air buzz, Spider could feel the Order grinding closer.

If we were in a mindscape, then I would have every advantage. But my powers here are limited. Father isn’t even using his full strength yet. He’s being cautious and trying to determine just how much I am capable of.

Overshowing my hand will ensure I never get a chance to take him down. But I don’t have a choice. If I don’t reveal more, then the Order will reach—

Lee dashed forward a second time. But this time, she wasn’t alone.

Armor of shimmering moonlight encased her body. Lingering traces of Yoru’s magic twisted around her in a protective bubble, melting away even as Lee grew close to the Order. She bit down on the Order for a second time, her teeth tearing the pattern that wove it together into shreds. Her armor cracked. But, before the order could damage her soul further, Moxie’s vines yanked her back once more.

Silvertide was not to be outdone. The man strode forward, hard lines etched into his face. Strands of metal uncoiled from his staff to sway around him like seaweed in a current. He was joined by Ulya, her puppet clicking and chattering as it lowered into a fighting stance.

Tim walked up beside her, his hands clenched into fists. Spatial magic cracked and popped between them. Moxie’s vines bore her forward, and the stench of death coiled in the air around her like a promise.

Bird joined them as well. For some inexplicable reason, she tore her clothes off her body as she advanced.

The only one of the older mortals missing was Brayden — and that was only because he was locked in a fight against Janice to the side.

“We’re not going to stand around here while you fight our battle for us,” Silvertide said with a wry smile.

“You cannot interfere with Order. You don’t have Chaos magic,” Spider warned.

“Lee can do it,” Silvertide said. He cracked his neck, then lowered into a fighting stance. “And I’ve never been a fan of people telling me what I can or can’t do. That’s a privilege that teachers get to enjoy and students must obey. And powerful you may be — you are not my teacher.”

The corner of Spider’s lip twitched. “Do as you will.”

Father’s lips thinned. He grabbed the Long Night with both hands and planted it in the ground before him. None of them could actually advance toward him. If they did, they’d grow closer to the center of his domain. The pressure alone would crush them.

But that didn’t stop them from fighting back from where they stood.

“What a waste of time,” Father said. “The throes of a dying empire.”

Order exploded out from around him in every direction. It rolled out in an enormous wave, aligning everything in its path and advancing toward Spider’s group in complete silence.

To anyone who could not comprehend the pattern, the only way to track the Order’s approach was by watching the ground and air as they were forced into a reality that was not theirs.

Spider sent more notes coiling into the air. He wound Chaos into a shield, trying to prevent the advance of the powerful magic, but it was all he could do to slow it.

Lee ran forward, Moxie’s vines coiling around her as Yoru’s moonlight armor grew brighter. She tore into the Order, trying to rip it to shreds with her teeth, while Silvertide’s silver threads sliced forward.

They passed harmlessly through Father’s magic — but the magic wasn’t their target. That honor belonged to Father. Unfortunately, Silvertide’s attack didn’t make it far. The sheer pressure from Father’s domain warped the attack. The silver strands hit the ground in a few crumpled, worthless balls that amounted to absolutely nothing but a few soft thuds in the perfectly aligned grass.

But his attack drew a fragment of Father’s attention.

And that was just enough to buy Spider time to see into the future. It let his thoughts the pattern that they all wove with their very being. And, though he was no prophet, the way before was so evident that even a blind man could have found it.

There was only one fate left to them on this course.

Father raised the Long Night and slammed it back down.

A second wave of Order tore out around him. It tore through Moxie’s vines. Wove Yoru’s armor out of existence and threw Lee back, all her protection shattered as the edges of her soul warped badly.

Bird caught her and both of them skidded back several feet, nearly shoved out of the range of everyone’s combined domains.

Silvertide staggered. He leaned heavily on his staff, a pained wheeze slipping from his lungs as the pressure from Father’s domain intensified. A droplet of blood rolled down from his nose to crawl across his lips.

“There is something to be admired about your tenacity,” Father said. He raised the Long Night once more. “But I cannot find it in me today.”

Spider played one more note. He let it drift up to join the immense Formation that swirled around him. The pressure from the gathered magic was one of the few things left keeping Father’s domain from crushing them all. It was also the only chance any of them had at actually injuring him — and it wasn’t going to do that protecting them.

The corners of Spider’s lips curled.

I have already walked one path to its completion. I have no desire to repeat the process.

He released the Formation early.

Unfinished.

Father felt the shift instantly. Instead of attacking, he yanked all the Order magic into a shield around him. A glistening dome of white formed around Father in an instant. Even Sunder, empowered by the Formation holding it, couldn’t have dreamt of shattering that shield.

But the streak of power that sliced out from the air before Spider didn’t hit the shield. It passed straight over it in a black flash. It sliced into the white dome behind Father that kept all of them trapped within his domain.

And then there was silence. Silence broken only by the intensifying song of the Night’s Shadow as it grew closer by the second.

“You missed,” Father said, disbelief and disappointment in his tone. The coward had clearly hoped to see more of the Long Night’s capabilities to determine just how much risk he could afford to take. “After going through all the effort to create the strongest attack you could manage… you missed?”

The song of the Night’s Shadow grew louder still. Far louder than it should have been, given the dome of magic encasing them all.

Father’s eyes widened. He spun — and a resounding snap tore through the air. Spiderwebbing cracks raced through the white dome of Order magic. And, even as Father raised the Long Night to try and reinforce it, the dome shattered completely.

And then Garina stood between them, the black sword in her hands hissing with furious magic.

A scythe arced through the air. It thunked down into the ground beside her and Revin dropped down from the sky to land on its hilt, his expression cold as ice.

Father’s grip tightened on the Long Night. He took a step back. Adding a pair of Rank 7s to the fight had suddenly made things harder. A hell of a lot harder.

The tick of time echoed through Spider’s head, but it did nothing to stop the grin from pulling at his lips. He and Noah were not the same. But, at times like this, Spider could get just a hint of why Noah enjoyed life so much.

“Did I miss?” Spider asked. “I didn’t realize.”