My circle had grown since the old days. I'd brough Nash and Piercey to Leif and Wren back at our village where we sat in the house I'd once shared with my best friend's family. I would never undo meeting Nash and Elsie or defeating the prophet, but I did miss the simplicity of those days.

Simple was long gone. Though I'd felt bombarded constantly this past year, the last few days had truly overshadowed all else.

"Here's the plan," I said. "We need to get neural implants from Elias's world and figure out our enemy there. When we get home, I also want to look into Gael and his kingdom. We need allies and they seem promising." I held my hand up to Leif when his expression soured. "Before you say I'm being too trusting, I only want to learn about them."

Leif balked. "You once promised not to trust Nash. Now look at the two of you."

"Here I was thinking we were past this," Nash said with a sly smile. "Are you still thinking of killing me?"

"The threat remains forever. If you ever hurt Max, I'll rip your throat out and feed it to you. It went something like that, right?"

The two men laughed while I rolled my eyes. "Come on," I said. "Get serious."

"We've been serious for a year," Nash said. "Maybe that's the problem. I say we hold off on the plan, get drunk, and spar until we can't stand up straight."

As much as I wanted to entertain the idea and joke with them, seeing another version of me and knowing we faced an all new threat had shaken me too much. I was stressed the fuck out. Nash must have noticed because he sighed and took my hand.

"Or we can do that after we get the neural implants," he said. "It'll be more fun after that anyway."

I needed to calm down. I breathed out deeply. "Sorry. I guess I'm on edge. I've been living on edge for months now."

"That's why we need to consider this partnership with Gael." Wren gave Leif a pointed expression. "Max needs help."

"Once we have neural implants, she won't need anyone else." Leif puffed his chest out and thumped it hard.

"They can portal," Wren said. "Maybe we can get them to teach us."

As they began to bicker, I shifted my gaze to Piercey. He'd been staring out the window without speaking. "Hey." I twisted to face him. "You okay?"

"I'm bothered that time does not progress when you leave our world." He turned his pensive face toward me. "The supervisors only deal with one world and one experiment. The Collective wouldn't have made a mechanic they didn't plan to use."

I swallowed uncomfortably loud, a shaky feeling coming over me. Even though I didn't fully grasp the implications, I knew he was right. This might have been more serious than a more powerful world discovering us and potentially invading. "Time passes in our world for Elias, though. Just not his. It's only relative when we belong to that world."

"So whoever they built this for must be connected to multiple worlds."

"You think the gods are really traveling between our worlds?"

"They must be." He looked out the window again and chewed his thumb nail absently. "Why?"

I didn't feel like he was asking me that question. His question reverberated in my mind though. The Collective hadn't told me everything. What secrets did they hold back? When I'd pursued Flare before killing her, the woman had accused the Collective of experimenting on her as well. They watched her devolve according to her. A creeping sensation wound through my gut. I really didn't know what they were capable of.

"Piercey." My voice fell. "I've been so focused on holding this Valley together that I didn't let myself think about the bigger threat. I think I messed up."

Without taking his eyes off the window, he reached out, and squeezed my hand once. "We're only human, Max."

That didn't help us, though.

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Elias had returned to his world to prepare for our arrival. It would be difficult to sneak us in without his guild knowing. Truthfully, I didn't know if it was possible or if we could even trust that he had any intention of doing it. He could lead us into a trap. The only thing that gave me hope was that even though Elias didn't seem as honest as Piercey, I knew that he cared just as much. He'd made the choices he did not out of malice or the desire to deceive but to help the people he loved. We were too good of allies to pass up. Elias wouldn't throw us away by handing us over to his guild. Or at least, he wouldn't turn over someone who looked exactly like the woman he clearly had and likely still loved.

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If he did, I'd just have to kill them all. We needed these neural implants.

While we waited, we traveled to the southern border of the valley where scouts had seen warriors from the coastal lands traveling. We'd had several conflicts with them, though the battles were relatively short-lived. I wasn't sure why they kept returning every few months. Each time, we fought and held our territory. They retreated once they faced too many casualties.

Nash thought they were testing our abilities whereas Leif was convinced they came as a distraction. I wondered if they just wanted in on the fun of wasting my damn time.

When I'd teleported our group to our uninvited coastal neighbors, I dropped us directly where the scouts had reported they camped. We landed in the center of seven tents by a large fire. Several warriors sat beside it, cooking food. Others peeked out from their tents.

"Eclipse." A commander I recognized rose to his feet and grinned. "You didn't wait for us this time. I expected to meet on the battlefield. Excuse me for not being prepared for you."

"I'm short on time these days. Who keeps sending you? My friend Piercey has spoken with several chiefs from your area. They all deny any involvement. I hear it's a few rogue commanders playing around in our lands."

"Commanders like me?"

"Like you." I narrowed my eyes.

"You want to know why. I've heard things as well. That you've been asking questions."

"So stop avoiding them."

"No, I don't think so. Why talk when we can battle?" He unsheathed his sword and the other warriors followed suite, surrounding us now. I scanned each of them and counted sixteen. What I really needed to know was which ones had power.

"You've become a pest," I said.

Was that the point? This commander wanted to be a pest to me? It may not have been that they simply wanted to be a distraction. They wanted to wear me out. What if they were working with the Flatlanders to weaken me by forcing me to fight so many battles? I knew some demon attacks actually happened because of the Flatlanders.

I growled and fired my energy arrow directly between the commander's eyes. As expected, it lodged in a shield and disappeared. My eyes shifted to the right. I'd felt the energy come from a small warrior near one of the tents.

My group moved like we shared a body. While I turned on the one with power, Nash charged the commander, Leif lunged for one on the right, and Wren slashed her sword toward a close enemy. The battle erupted quickly. Piercey stood behind us all and erected shields around our friends.

Swords clashed as I mercilessly tore at the body of the one with power. I could sense his bones crushing into powder. Why wasn't he stopping me? I felt him resisting, but it was so weak. Why did they bring such a weak man?

I regretted it immediately. It felt like killing a helpless child. But I'd prepared a powerful strike thinking he would make for a challenge. In seconds, I'd pulverized his bones so his body fell like a sack of flour onto the ground. Blood oozed his eyes, ears, and nose.

A warrior nearby turned and threw up on the ground.

Damn that had been way more brutal than I meant for it to be.

I twisted, expecting to feel more power. But even as the warriors struggled to break through Piercey's shields to attack my comrades, no one emitted even a blip of energy.

Had they really only brought one person with power? What a foolish decision. That couldn't be. No one else used any power even as Nash's twin swords sliced open a man's gut. His intestines spilled out in a gush of black blood.

This was a pathetic fight. The commander stared at me as his warriors quickly fell to our blades.

"Stop." I lifted my hands and cried out as I flung back all of the remaining warriors so they slid across the ground. I'd missed many of the moves my friends made, but I counted three dead already, and several severely wounded.

"Do you care nothing for the lives of these warriors?" I pointed an accusing finger at the commander. "How can you be so careless?"

By his haughty, taunting sneer, I knew he truly felt nothing about the blood pooling on the ground, or the warrior clutching her torn side, or another holding closed the tattered edges of his splayed hand. Such senseless death and violence. I resented him for forcing me to choose this. I would not apologize though. If I didn't fight, they'd take this valley for themselves. I hadn't warred against the Prophet for my people to fall into the hands of another tyrant.

The ground trembled and then a wall of earth sprang up, blocking us from the commander and those warriors closest to him. I reared back and blasted a hole in the makeshift wall with a forceful wave of power. But he and three other warriors had already jumped onto their horses.

I could stop them. Surely they knew this. The only problem was that someone, perhaps multiple someones, held back their energy. I had no idea how many of them had power and how much danger my friends would face.

It was better to have our scouts watch where the commander went so I could figure out exactly what he was doing.

Sadly, they'd abandoned their wounded on the ground. "That commander is a priority now," I said to Piercey. "Put as many graduates on him as it takes to get answers. They're up to something."

"What about them?" Wren asked quietly. At least four were still alive. I listened for heartbeats and discovered that one who appeared dead actually had a faint pulse.

I didn't like taking captives. After what I'd gone through with my people, I knew how awful it was, and I avoided it. But we needed to talk to them. "They'll come with us. Piercey, will you heal them?"

"Of course."

I looked around at each of the warriors, my anger swelling more with each passing moment. They had no hope of taking over the valley. Clearly, they hadn't come here to win any battles. Just to take from me. To wound me. To slow me down and exhaust me.

Wheeling around, I shouted at everyone, everything. The entire world. "I'm sick of this!" Then, looking at my friends, I managed to barely lower my voice. "I want a meeting with Gael's leaders now."