The dive is violent. The impact with the water as hard as a wall is sudden. Dazed, I struggle to conceive the speed with which the fish is moving and sinking. A meaningless speed that my body refuses to feel.

Understand.

Accept.

I try to squirm, but the water is thick and—

We resurface, and the noise of the Whirlpool is once again in the background.

“PWAH!” I take a breath of air and look around.

The darkness. Only the body of the [Emperor] shines with a particularly intense opaline coral.

Its corruption must have emerged from the quarantine in which it was isolated. How long could—

[Dungeon path]

I recognize the spell as we disappear into shadows.

We emerge at the base of the crystallized tornado.

Still held in that grip, I gasp and hold back a cry of horror.

Now I see.

Now I see clearly. The illumination of its infected scabs.

The mountainous carcass is pierced by countless heads and limbs. Confusion of fins fangs, limbs, and heads of the [Devil]. The coral created bony ridges, horns, and iridescent webs.

It is as if the [Devil] was multiplying its limbs, forcefully opening its way into the jaws, the bulges, the soft parts of that body.

The two creatures are confused by the mistake. Such a mistake that it is even difficult to watch without feeling infected. Vision suffers. Even that opal light hurts.

“As I told you, only beyond the System's area of influence, on the edge of the universe between real and phantasmatic. Only there all this doesn't happen.”

The [Emperor] releases me. I step back, pushing my heels into the sand.

“I-I—I didn't think the situation was so tragic, forgive me!”

I step back in fear, hurting my arms on some coral protruding from the sand, but it doesn't matter.

That disgusting thing is already expanding, merging with the rest of the storm.

What should I do? I didn't think that…

I wasn't thinking clearly, no.

Reporting the source and existence of every error here was a mistake. If all the mass of corruption converged and flowed out of it, at this point—the [Emperor], or whatever it has become, would become as large as the universe.

It would coincide with what the current universe is!

Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin.

I bite my lip and frown.

“What should I do? What should I do!?”

“You have to take me to the Yellow Queen, remember? Only in this way can we save this world.”

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“I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong…”

My teeth chatter. I repeat the words.

I bring my hands to my face. I cower in terror.

“It will expand, it will expand, it will expand until it encompasses everything!”

“Empress, your mood is not important now. The fact that—”

BOOM!

Boom! Bo-boom! Bo-bo-bo-boom!

…

BOOM!

Explosions make the being roar. A storm of fiery missiles rains down from the starless sky.

I recognize them.

[Fire dart]

Thousands and thousands of [Fire darts].

With my gaze, I search for the origin of that incessant barrage. The parabolic flight of the bullets leads me to look up. I follow the rainbow of smoke and flames in the distance. I see a flare from a promontory, in the desert.

“Dal?”

[Dungeon path]

I emerge onto the peak. A feline figure ceases fire. The magic circles dissolve the animal sprints towards the edge of the abyss.

It raises the fur.

“Gron!?”

The cat hisses at me and runs away. I reach out to grab it but it's too fast and I see it disappear behind the rocks of the steep slope.

“Gron, wait! Wait!”

I don't finish talking before a glitched flame blinds me. Impact force and absolute heat destroy the promontory and my body.

[Immortality] restores me and I fall upon seeing the monstrous hydra that [Leviathan] has become.

Gargantuan even next to the enormous coral front, the being is continually expanding. Its body attaches itself to more and more areas of the Underwasteland, developing new limbs and fins and jaws.

The polychromatic light thickens in incomprehensible shapes around the jaws, the energy is channeled like multicolored electricity. It's getting ready to shoot again.

[Dungeon path]

I appear on the porch, far enough away to breathe a sigh of relief.

The mountain in the background is destroyed and transformed by a tsunami of errors. Headed into the deep desert.

I lean on a beam. My heart is beating wildly. One attack like this in this direction and it's the end.

I have to stay calm.

I'm not calm.

Do I have to comply with the contract?

Even if it attacked me? Surely, the [Emperor] did it to stop the assault and not to hit me. The contract is also binding, after all. I hope.

Since when does Gron have all that power? Also, it didn't use [Shadow Wall] or [Dungeon Path] to escape me. Why?

Ci-cin.

I bang my fist against the beam. My tail hisses.

This is not the time to worry about the cat.

I need to find Y and talk to her about the situation. I brought the [Emperor] back into play to prevent the previous outcome of the game…

What a mistake.

This solution could lead to an even worse ending than a new universe.

Where could Y be?

Mountains are melted by multicolored flames in the distance. They are the effects of diabolical power that continue to operate undisturbed.

Right, Y doesn't see it?

The horror is already as big as the tornado and its filaments, its appendages, form enormous arches and networks and pylons without control.

The shadows of a [Dungeon path] appear just ahead of me. Metallic tails come out, followed by golden hair.

“Y.”

“N!”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was preparing the reset when that thing appeared, and then the explosions. I put some distance. I'm not saying it's safe, but… useful to buy time. I'm done anyway.”

Ci-cin!

“Done?”

“Yep. Even though we argued, I still prepared everything. If you fire a Red sprite, according to what you told me, we should start the nova. You will go back to playing with the God of Wisdom. Everyone will start over again. To infinity, saving the System forever.”

I lower my ears.

“Hmm… that's not really what I thought, honestly.”

In the end, I find myself stuck in this situation again.

A typical situation in certain chess games is where any move the player makes worsens the position. Probably, condemning itself as well.

The error-universe merges with the new [Leviathan].

Or, try playing the God of Wisdom again.

I have to make my move.

Clap!

Y beats her hands.

“There's not much time, N! That being is releasing sewage that fuels corruption. Soon, the System will collapse, and I don't know if my functions—”

I raise my arm to interrupt Y.

“I understand. I get your point. But your solution is equally impractical.”

“There are no alternatives known to me.”

I'm going to counter that I have to think. She has to let me think about a counter-move.

But an earthquake makes me lose my balance.

The ground gives way. A fault opens in the ground and breaks the house. An eruption of purple lava corals.

I try to call, but Y disappears into the shadows.

[Dungeon path]

Better to cut the bad grass at the root. One problem at times is more than enough.

I reappear at the feet of the gargantuan being. The [Leviathan] continues to turn over, curling up on itself into an increasingly horrible mass dripping with opaline drops.

It ignores me and lets out deep moans that make the earth tremble.

Ci-cin, Ci-cin.

I take a deep breath.

I take a step forward.

My snake-headed tail hisses. The barbed tail kicks up ash.

“STOP!”