In a sense, Jormungandr did not suit me. Its fusion reactor channeled the powers of nuclear fire, in direct opposition to the element of my own mana. My ice and water magic could never fully benefit from Jormungandr's empowerment. But I had one spell which did not incline against the fusion reactor's nature, but rather synergized with it. Nuclear fusion relied on two conditions above all else. The first was heat.

The second was pressure.

"Ascended spell," I declared. "Maw of Leviathan."

I stretched out my hand. My arm, my whole body surged with heat, until I couldn't help but tremble.

Doublerift wasted no time. He fired countless bullets of blazing mana. He warped space, folded and twisted it until I could no longer tell up from down. He was everywhere and nowhere at once. He forced open hundreds of golden portals all around us, and from each he launched volleys of bullets. The world became an incomprehensible tangle of streaking projectiles, millions of disjointed rays piercing every inch of air. It was impossible to dodge, and impossible to aim back.

But I didn't need to dodge. And I didn't need to aim.

I activated the ability of my necklace.

[DEFENSE OF THE ANCIENTS MK. II

You gain 50% movement speed and take 100% reduced damage. 10 second duration. 15 minute cooldown.]

Doublerift adapted quickly. In the corner of my eye, I saw him open a new portal, one unlike the previous ones he had created. This was a cobalt gash carved into space, an entryway into his pocket dimension.

As he was fleeing to take shelter within, I fired my spell.

[Ascendant Maw of Leviathan

COST: 0 Mana

COOLDOWN: -

You create an octagon around yourself of size 3142 sq. kilometers, designating the area within as the Ascendant Maw of Leviathan.

The pressure of star cores then crushes targets of your choice within, dealing 5,000,000 (+200% Arcana Point) magic damage. Targets made of atoms undergo fusion reactions, taking doubled damage.]

A noiseless flash burst from Doublerift and consumed everything.

At once, his bullet-beams dimmed away. His portals flickered and closed. Space contorted back to its innate dimensionalities, so violently that it felt like it shattered.

Doublerift, bloodied and seared, had dropped to 1 HP. I had intended for that spell to knock him out without killing him, a nonlethal strike as permitted by the laws of this world.

But I didn't anticipate that he'd still be standing.

He looked at me. The light of consciousness remained in his eyes, though it was fading.

I lowered my gun.

"Be proud of what you did," I said, "Doublerift the hero."

He took an unsteady step forward, then fell.

I walked up to him. Despite his injuries, he breathed steadily still, and even slowly regained HP. He was stable.

"Please take him back to Earth," I bid the Boundary of Miracles, that great rose towering over us. Within a few seconds, a train materialized out of the void. Its door opened for us, and I carried the now-unconscious Doublerift in, and set him upon the seats. He was still holding on to his guns. I pried them out of his stiff grips.

"Don't let him teleport off like I did," I told the rose. "But make sure he's healed by the time he gets off."

A psionic acknowledgement rippled through my mind. The rose was surprisingly compliant towards my demands. I wondered if it had much of a will of its own, given how freely it bent to the will of Alice before me.

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"And Sylvie," I said. "I think it's time for you to be on your way too."

Sylvie seemed underwhelmed by my final attack. She probably wanted something more grandiose than an instant, unceremonious flash of light. But she lived up to her end of the bargain, and boarded the train as well to depart.

"Goodbye," I said to her. "You were a fine partner."

"That's right," she agreed.

It turned out I didn't need her help dealing with Doublerift after all.

The train departed, leaving Hei and me with the rose.

It was quiet.

The death games were over. I supposed we could finally say we had won. The rules that bound us would no longer be. Ahead of us, the future stretched out, a blank chapter. My heart swelled. Was it fear that I felt, or hope? If I had to give an answer…well, Hei staying here had probably changed the answer for me.

I took a deep breath and looked over at him.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Tell the rose what you wish for," he replied matter-of-factly, as though that should've been obvious.

"I know that," I said. "I mean, what do I ask for?"

He shrugged. "All the things that you would change."

Hei stood by my side now, at the forefront of this world. Was he really just gonna leave it all to me?

I pouted. "You're hopeless."

I sensed a faint jingle from the rose. Was it…was it laughing at us?

I suppose I ought to make my requests while I still could.

"I guess I'm in control of this world now," I said to the rose.

It echoed an affirmative answer into my mind.

"First off, stop bringing more people here. There's too many of us here already."

It answered in affirmation. So far so good.

"There are 3,800 people here, right?" I asked.

Around, the rose seemed to answer.

"How many of them want to stay?"

Unknown, the rose answered.

"Can you read their mind?" I asked.

No, the rose answered.

"OK, so let's assume 3,000 of them want to go back, and the rest are fine with staying. We can send back 52 a year. What's 3,000 divided by 52?"

Unknown, the rose answered.

Wow, it sucked at math.

"Sixty, right?" Hei answered.

"Around 58, yeah," I said. "That's how many years it'll take to send them all back. Crap. That's longer than I thought."

"People will also die of natural causes," Hei pointed out. "You won't need to send all 3,000 back."

"OK but," I said, "if they want to go back and they die here, that's kind of bad, no?"

Hei sighed. "We'll figure something out."

"Do we just get rid of the Seasonal Challenges and all the arena stuff?" I asked.

"Keep them," Hei said. "Just make it so the matches are nonlethal."

"So you survive either way? What's the point then?"

"I don't know," Hei said. "Maybe winning lets you go back sooner."

"So they'll still fight one another to claw their way back."

"Ban PvP," he proposed. "Then they won't have to."

"Why not just do something nonviolent then?" I asked. "Like, just make them compete in chess or basketball, and the top 52 players each year get to go back?"

"We can consider that," Hei said begrudgingly. "People here build their lives around fighting in the arena. You can't just make that irrelevant."

I looked at the rose.

Unknown, the rose answered.

I gave a defeated exhale. "Thank you, very helpful."

I shuffled my feet, then looked at Jormungandr. Not gonna lie, I liked that gun. I had accomplished so much, come so far. Maybe Hei had a point. We shouldn't just remove all combat. I bet that would crash several economies, among other issues. Weapon merchants would starve or something. As would the Combat Institute, I'd imagine. Speaking of…we should probably start moving players to Silvercreek. Bronze had no real infrastructure, Gold was depressing as heck, and Platinum…well, we just blew that up.

"Anything else I should take care of?" I wondered out loud.

Someone is waiting for you, the rose answered.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

The world was dark and empty. A young boy floated weightlessly in the nondescript void. This was no longer the world of the living, yet neither did it belong to the dead. The true body of the boy was on some mountainside, wounded and unconscious and surrounded by monstrous wolves.

He was the most recent arrival to the Boundary of Miracles. He was the last arrival.

I hovered through the void and approached him. But he'd only see a silhouette of me through the haze.

I presented him with three glowing objects. A sword, a book of runes, and a longbow, each full of power and potential.

When he reached out to take the sword, the other two items began fading away. He could only choose one. The sword of the warrior, the spellbook of the mage, or the bow of the ranger.

A glint of fascination lit up his face. He seemed to understand what was happening. The boy raised his chin, looking past the items and at me.

"Am I going to be a hero?" he asked.

I smiled back. 「Only if you want to.」