Will’s ability to stay in the Beyond was limited only by his soul. He was suddenly very grateful for his repeated insistence on torturing himself, which was becoming a disturbing trend. Thanks to the amount of stress he’d put himself through, he had enough capacity to remain in here for a while.

His time here was still limited, unfortunately. Though the strain on him was more manageable than it would have been at any time before, it was still very noticeable. Will wasn’t yet at the level where he could stay in this space for an indefinite period of time, which put a very worrying timer on the window he had to fix this.

The facts he had to work with were not numerous. Nynn hadn’t sent anything beyond a single message asking for help. Given the abundance of corruption present in the connection to the Beyond as well as the fact that it’d been him Nynn had asked for, it was pretty obvious that whatever problem he had was related to the worlds-ending affliction.

Unfortunately, the obvious could only take him so far. Knowing that this was corruption didn’t make it any more possible to cleanse. Will’s connection to his skills was tenuous at best in the Beyond, with only Sanctuary, his soul, and the demon in his eye operating at anything approaching full efficiency. This was a plane not meant for drawn-out battle, not even on the soul level.

Will could practically feel the demon he’d mockingly named Richard practically chomping at the bit now that they were here. The presence of corruption, it seemed, was a fantastic motivator for it.

He did his best to tamp down on it, aided by the reinforcements he’d made to his soul and the lingering effects of the Guardian Angel skill. As much as Aza had been less useful on balance than a similarly powerful silver-rank skill might have been, Will appreciated his influence now, the Dread Executor fragment’s life force washing over him to help him withstand demonic power that much better.

That said, he still didn’t want Richard to get anywhere near that corruption until he had a better idea of what was going on. The demon had been summoned by the corruption of nearly three thousand Users and had only grown in power after eating one of the moons that the trial of the champion had been taking place on. Since its current location of residence was inside Will’s face, the last thing he wanted was to feed it further and see what happened if it tried to replicate its earlier performance while it was in a very compromising position.

There had to be a way to get skills to work in here. Equilibrium Mantle had triggered back before he’d gotten a proper handle on what the Beyond actually was. That was no longer the case now that he actually understood how to handle his soul. On the one hand, that meant that he was much more capable of operating in the Beyond. On the other, it seemed that being more sure in his own soul had also restricted his ability to use skills here, which was a confusing contradiction.

Will didn’t strictly need to breathe while in his soul form here in another dimension, but he did still exhale in relief when he felt another connection met his.

Ayla manifested as quickly as ever, though there was a clear note of exhaustion to her form.

“That idiot went and blew it into here, didn’t he?” she asked.

Will blinked, then noticed that Ayla’s aura was directed straight at the massive string of corruption that Nynn had sent.

“I assume so,” he replied. “Any idea on how to deal with it? Given context, I’m assuming Nynn and probably anyone else in the area are suffering from corruption, but the gate’s been shut off.”

“The first time you came in here,” Ayla said, “did you have anyone warning you about your rare status as a Beyond-accessing corruption wielder?”

“It was Nynn, actually,” Will recalled, taking the sudden change of subject in stride. “He warned me to never try using a skill while I’m in here. Not that I think I’m able to, even.”

“Of course it was him,” Ayla grumbled. “There’s a reason for that, and it’s one that even the random captures in the organization’s helper-slave facilities know. I forget—is your world at the stage of scientific development that you are aware of the existence of antimatter?”

“I thought you were supposed to be an Earth expert,” Will said. “And yes. I see where you’re going with this. Matter is to antimatter as the Beyond is to corruption?”

“Very perceptive,” Ayla said, two hands appearing out of her shoulders to clap. “Oh, they grow up so quickly.”

“Ha ha. Well, that corruption hasn’t blown this place up, so I’m assuming it’ll be alright…”

“Ah, and there’s the patented human brand of idiotic optimism. Why are all of you like this? It’s alright for now, but it’s a good thing you haven’t figured out how to poke it with your skills. The second a hint of mana interfaces with it—whether that’s because it hit one of our sanctuaries or the offshoot of a demon or any aberrant magic that just happens to manifest out of nothing, which is a very real possibility in a place like this—then it’ll break the thin protective barrier.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“As you should. It’s not universe-ending, but something on this scale could easily wipe out the equivalent of a solid chunk of your solar system.”

“Solid chunk, meaning…”

“Earth, its moon, and Mars if it’s in the right orbit, for certain. Venus is a sure bet as well, and anything further is 50/50. Whether or not this would ripple out into the real world is very hard to tell, but the Beyond being destroyed in an area is never good news for baseline reality.”

Will eyed the sweltering mass of corruption with a bit more apprehension than he already had. “Good to know, I guess. That brings me to my second, possibly more important question.”

“As to how to stop it, of course.” Ayla’s form and aura rippled, indicating what Will assumed was a grimace. “This is what Dread Executors are supposed to be for, but your cycle is too early, which makes plausibility much more expensive, and of the two Executors who did interfere, one is at fault for this and the other is currently present only as a silver-rank familiar.”

“So you’re saying that we’re not going to get help from above.”

“It’s not likely, no,” Ayla said. “Our options are limited to trying to summon Dread Executor Azathoth, which is unlikely.”

“How so?” Will frowned, noticing that Ayla seemed to be wavering. He pushed more of his own mana into keeping the Sanctuary active. “Weeding out huge sources of corruption should be a priority, right? Especially if he wants me to succeed.”

“You are not incorrect,” a new voice said.

Will startled. Though his senses were exceptional in general and absurd for his rank, he hadn’t even noticed the new connection until it had slotted into his.

That voice, though…

“Aza?” he asked, then paused, thinking it through. “No. Dread Executor Azathoth.”

Despite having just said that this was impossible, Ayla seemed unsurprised. “I wish I could say it’s a pleasure to see you again.”

“It is good to see you alive and—well is perhaps too strong a word,” the Dread Executor said. “You have an unfortunate habit of involving yourself in these situations.”

It was a bit uncanny to hear Azathoth’s voice. Though it was the same as Will’s familiar, the manner in which they spoke was entirely different, and the physical appearance that the Executor took in the Beyond was more “biblically accurate angel” than “someone’s edgy Tumblr OC.”

Will looked askance at Ayla, who gestured towards the Dread Executor with four hands.

“By all means,” Azathoth said, his presence strengthening Will’s own connection to the Beyond. “At the moment, just like our mutual friend, I am artificially limited. Unlike Nynn, however, I did not make the folly of sacrificing the bulk of my power.”

“Okay, never mind, he’s taking way too long to get around to it,” Ayla interjected. “Peace is spending plausibility, right? When someone does that, it makes it way cheaper to spend plausibility for people like Azathoth as long as it’s in the same area and diametrically opposes what the first person’s doing.”

“Okay,” Will said. “So why don’t you just clear it out?’

“Peace can do the same,” Azathoth said. “The situation makes it so that I can spend just a very small amount to do exactly this. If I wanted to oppose her on the corruption, I would have to use abilities well above the gold and platinum rank corruption that she used to ambush our friend.”

“The moment he clears it out, Peace is free to bring out angels,” Ayla summarized. Seeing the look on Will’s face, she continued, “Right. You don’t know what those are.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I’ve seen Richard—er, a mid-tier demon,” Will said. “I can imagine.”

“I do have a potential temporary solution to this,” Azathoth said. “I cannot act directly. Joining you for a stint in the Beyond is already pushing the limits of what I can do without risking your planet.”

Will sighed. “This really would’ve been so much easier if we weren’t up against a god, wouldn’t it? What the fuck’s her problem?”

“The whims of gods are many and constantly changing,” Azathoth said.

“Thank you,” Ayla said. “Do you know how annoying Nynn was about that?”

“I have worked with him since before you were born. Trust me when I tell you that I understand.”

“About that solution?” Will interjected. “I’m guessing that since you’re here, we do actually have all day, but I’d rather not run down the clock on my solar system possibly blowing up.”

“Of course,” Azathoth said. “Following this to the word will be crucial, so listen carefully. Ah, before we start, one thing.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“I do appreciate you taking care of my aspect. The more childish parts of me need to thrive occasionally, and you have indulged them well.”

“Uh. Thanks?”

“You are very welcome. Now, as I was saying: this will be quite a mess.”

#

In fourth grade, Will had learned about the Cold War, listening with varying amounts of attention as his teacher had described how a generation of people had clocked into work wondering if the world would still be there when they went home for the night.

He had understood that on a logical level, but it was only now that he really got it. As he appeared in a portal roughly two miles away from Nynn—the closest one that was still accessible after the former Executor had cocked up all the other portals in the area—a sense of looming dread passed through him.

Azathoth’s temporary solution was, indeed, a very temporary one. Even if it worked perfectly, it could only mitigate the risk, not eliminate it entirely.

As things currently stood, though, they were almost certainly going to die a horrific, reality-warping death in weeks if not days. It was remarkably short-sighted of Nynn, but Will assumed that it had been that or a much more immediate death.

He shook his head, reaching out for Sen’s eyes. The ones closest to Nynn had been destroyed, which supported that assumption, but Will had left enough of them behind to give himself a jumping-off point. One teleport brought him within a few hundred feet from the three he’d left behind, and from there, he just had to find the island area.

The entire ecosystem they’d been in had been obliterated by what looked like a brutal fight. As Will air-dashed in with Wind Walker, he took note of what looked to be two dead bodies—well, one and a half. They’d been elves. Gold-rank ones.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw Caiyeri’s corpse, so corrupted that it was nearly unrecognizable, but he realized moments later that it was not his Caiyeri that had fallen. She, Jessie, and Nynn were all suffering the effects of corruption, but they were still alive.

Fortunately for them, he was well versed with cleansing afflictions by now.

[Envoy of Mercy] has activated. You have gained one level of [Blessed] and [Purified] for each life you saved. 3 instances of each have been gained.

Just removing the affliction wasn’t enough to heal the damage they’d taken, but that was easily fixed with a few health potions.

Jessie was mostly fine even without the potions, having gotten even better at using its innate corruption resistance and shedding its skin to protect itself from the affliction. Still, it bayed out a grateful cry, which Will acknowledged with a gentle pulse of his aura.

Caiyeri was the next to recover, rubbing her head like she had a terrible hangover. She caught sight of Will and grinned.

“If it isn’t our resident dark angel,” she said. “Thanks for coming.”

Will cringed. “God, I hate that name. I was hoping people would have forgotten about it.”

“Oh, you haven’t heard? It’s your official moniker in twenty-three countries.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“You can double-check with Hua. It’s correct.”

“Good to see that you’re as awful as usual.” Will rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t hide his relieved smile. “So, what happened?”

Caiyeri recounted how she’d been waiting for other elves to come out and the ensuing fight, as well as the abnormally powerful bomb Caiyeri Zero had kept on her.

“Peace,” Will said at that. “Probably using the Contractor as a proxy or something.”

That was around when Nynn chose to get up.

Will hadn’t properly taken a look at the former Dread Executor, using the hunger phantasm to deliver the healing potions while he’d been tending to Caiyeri, but now that he looked at the groaning gold-rank head-on, he was taken aback by how many crimson lines emerged from him. They weren’t all on him—in fact, most of them seemed to connect to a chunk of dead air that still tingled with magic.

If Will had been a betting man, he would have put money on that being his connection to the Beyond.

“Nynn,” Will said.

“Will,” Nynn replied.

“You fucked up.”

“I did,” Nynn said. “I trusted in Azathoth and in you. Was I wrong to do so?”

Will clicked his tongue, annoyed. “I kind of wish people would stop just assuming that I’m both willing and able to save the world, but out of everyone, you probably picked pretty decently.”

“What’s happening?” Caiyeri asked. “Something stupid, I assume.”

“Peace messed things up, then Nynn messed things up further,” Will said. “You know I could have cleansed you the normal way and then we wouldn’t have to worry about this?”

“Not with that weapon,” Nynn countered. “You were not here to witness it, but it was strong enough to obliterate us in instants.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Will muttered, activating Pages from the Past. He hadn’t used that skill as much recently, but it had proved critical in the past for finding what kind of skills had been used in the area.

As the details of the bomb that had been detonated in this area entered his mind, he was forced to concede that Nynn was absolutely correct.

“I knew that Peace would use some bullshit, but this is a lot of bullshit,” Will said. “Wow. An item that’s gold-rank by technicality but releases platinum-rank power? Seriously?”

“Gods don’t play by the same rules as us, in case you haven’t noticed,” Caiyeri said.

“I feel like I’m in a better place to understand that than you.”

She shrugged. “Fair. So, how are you going to deal with this one?”

“Maybe I won’t,” Will suggested. “Maybe this is the one time I decide to go with the natural order of things and let the god do her thing.”

Caiyeri stared at him, lips twitching.

Will made it about five seconds before laughing bitterly. “Yeah, not likely, huh?”

“I think you’d eat glass before you gave up the opportunity to give another god a black eye,” Caiyeri said.

“You’re not wrong.”

“The clock is ticking,” Nynn reminded him.

“I know, and whose fault is that?” Will asked, pointing a finger at the gold-ranker. “Alright. I need you to stay still and the other two of you to back off.”

Jessie and Caiyeri moved back about a hundred feet, which Will judged to be good enough. If he screwed this up, a few hundred miles wouldn’t even make a difference, but this gave him enough room to work.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Ready,” Nynn confirmed.

“Okay, when I say don’t move, I mean it,” Will said, popping an item out of his inventory.

Of all the items he’d received from his so-called sponsors, there was one consumable he hadn’t bothered with using, partially because he didn’t trust the Lady who’d given it to him and partially because he’d wanted to save it for something as big as this. During the trial of the champion, he’d had a maximum attribute potion that served the purpose better, but for this, he wanted this specific item.

Item: [Powder of Perfect Harmony]

Legendary, platinum

Increases the [Affinity] attribute by an amount proportional to the amount consumed, up to a maximum of one full rank above the User’s rank or Platinum 10, whichever is lower.

This was from a sponsor who’d chosen to be identified only as “Ash.” During his time threatening people two tiers above him, Will had found her to be the most threatening. The others had been easy to predict, but she had been something else.

The powders also weren’t mutually compatible with each other. Will had learned that from Ayla during one of their chats in the Beyond—though it had seemed like he would be able to jump a stat up for free, he would only be able to use one dose of one powder before he’d have to get rid of the rest, and so he’d wanted to wait until he either solidified what he wanted to break his first barrier in or had a genuine dire need for a fast improvement.

The need was here now. All that was left was the item and Will’s execution.

“That is a remarkably orange powder,” Nynn said. “Would you like a suggestion on how to consume it?”

“Actually, yeah,” Will said. “I was going to try snorting them, but I was too busy coding in college to try coke. Any tips?”

“These powders tend to be soluble in water,” Nynn said, amusement clear in his aura.

Will rifled through his inventory, finding an unopened bottle of water amongst the supply crates he’d ordered from system shops. Dissolving platinum-rank powders into it to produce something that looked remarkably like orange-flavored Gatorade did come off a bit absurd to him, but the magical power stored within the solution was undeniable.

Will guzzled it down in two massive gulps, wincing as the solution went down. It burned through his soul, inflicting him with pain he was sure would be debilitating if he wasn’t so accustomed to it.

[Affinity] advanced from Silver 7 to Gold 7.

With it bound to corruption, that meant his functional Affinity was now at Platinum 7, higher than anyone else on the Earth-Arcadia planet.

Richard’s contract with Will had included the demon taking residence in Will’s body at the highest rank he could handle. Previously, thanks to his already advanced Affinity being at a functional gold-rank, that was gold.

Now…

[Demonic Eye] has completed the gold rank.

[Demonic Eye] has completed the metal tier.

[Demonic Eye] has advanced to platinum!

Achievement earned: Overpowered

You have a skill beyond the power level of your cycle. You are the first User to possess a gem-tier skill on this planet.

Reward: None. Good luck. You’ll need it.

Power blazed in Will’s eye, and the crimson lines that crossed over the world intensified.

Will, Azathoth, and Ayla had walked through the soul manipulation required to shape a soul-bound item like the demonic eye in the direction he wanted. It was hard to do when Richard actively despised him, but by carving out the hollows that it would expand into and giving it some leeway, Will had been able to roughly judge what he was going to do.

Nynn’s eyes widened in surprise as he processed what Will was doing. Instinctively, he raised his hands, but Will had already been moving, knowing Nynn was going to try to stop him no matter how much he consciously knew what had to be done.

His skill-stealing sword appeared in his hand just in time for Nynn to prepare a defense.

[Eclipse] has spent the echo of a Peace-aligned user. Skill selected: [Pacify].

Though Nynn had a strong aura, he had been expecting neither Will to suppress it nor for him to use a Peace skill. That element of surprise let Will’s aura slip through Nynn’s defenses, paralyzing him for a crucial instant.

Then, Will attacked with both swords, aiming not at Nynn but at the lines around him.

Nynn could do nothing as Will’s demonic eye found and severed every connection he had to the Beyond.

#

Somewhere in the realm of Las Vegas, the Contractor’s senses pinged on a very distant burst of power.

“Oh, lovely,” he said, looking up. “Fate, it’s time. Let Peace know. We’re moving.”

Deep in space, two gods stirred with acknowledgment.