This morning when Jack and I woke up, we found that her face was covered in some kind of weird script. Her entire body was covered in that same weird script. The text shifted and scrolled, like Jack’s entire body had suddenly become a giant touch screen. We quickly realized that this weird script was the language that her Grimoire used to encode its spells so that only Jack could read them. Neither of us minded that too much though, because we also found that we were in an unfamiliar place.

I sat in a comfy, high-backed, chair that looked and felt like some executive’s throne. The chair was placed behind a massive crescent-shaped desk, and all around the desk was a sea, a maze, a labyrinth, of empty shelves. Tall and high, and colored a strange color that could have been white, or black, or neither, but oddly enough definitely wasn’t gray. On those shelves, I saw countless stories. It was definitely more stories than Idle-Clicker System had, for sure. And strangely enough, simply by reading the titles, I knew the contents of those stories front and back, without any need for “study”.

“Mhm...So, we’re randomly naked again, I see,” said Jack. Yawning and languidly stretching as stood and got off the desk that she’d been lying on. Showing off her spectacular breasts as she did so.

“Yup…Seems that way,” I said. Looking down at the smooth brown skin and toned musculature of my body.

“Any chance that this is all a dream?” said Jack. Eyeing the script that crawled up her arm with a look of detached interest, making me think that she too had a weird sense, that everything that was happening, was something normal, despite its alarming nature. Like certain parts of puberty.

“There’s a non-zero chance, but all my senses, and my data-sampling, say that this is reality,” I said. Answering off-handedly. Distracted by all the data that was flowing into my mind from all those countless new stories. A part of my mind chided that dreams and reality weren’t so separate that making those kinds of distinctions held any value.

“Are we in any danger here?” said Jack. Hands on her hips. Inadvertently drawing my attention to what lay in between.

“Considering that I am 110% percent sure that this space is somewhere inside me...and part of my private dimension. I’ll optimistically say...no,” I said. Looking down at my lap with the corner of my eye. Feeling a sense of annoyance as I watched my mighty titanium-general slowly rise to salute the morning and the empress that stood before it. As if I weren’t distracted enough, with all the information and experiences that was flowing into my brain.

“Hm...Okay then,” said Jack. Looking thoughtful. Her cheeks flushed faintly as she noted what was going on in my downstairs area.

“Well, experience says we have a little time before we get back to normal. So...Wanna fool around a little?” said Jack.

I snorted and rolled my eyes...But I didn’t say no.

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I ended up having to make another spatial-doorway to take our people back to the arena. It turns out in the hierarchy of bad-ass entries, teleportation was pretty high-up there, and even I realized, that once you’d shown up one way, even if you weren’t trying to make an “entry”, if you were still concerned about appearances, it wasn’t the best thing to show up in a donkey-pulled buggy, when you’ve already been seen in a flying limousine.

Honestly, it was fine. After making the portal the first time around, it was not only simpler for me to do it again, a second time, it was easy enough for me to do it a little more neatly and efficiently. I was even able to tie it to a talisman I’d created with some jade and spirit-metal I had in my inventory. Which was something I ended up doing because I had this weird feeling that someone out there was going to do something troublesome.

“Here,” I said.

“Uh, sure...What’s this?” said Elder Trefor.

“A control for the door. Or rather, a device that basically will create an identical door just in case something happens,” I said.

“Uh...Okay. But why do you think something will happen?” said Trefor. Looking Puzzled and a bit concerned.

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“Well, senior...I genuinely only have the fuzziest of clues. It’s honestly barely more than a hunch right now...but I’ve got bad a feeling that says that now that things are nearly reaching the end someone might do something dumb, or has already done something dumb...so just in case…” I said. Looking down at the talisman I’d given the High-Elder.

Trefor just looked at me for a bit looking deep into my eyes. Which was something that most people almost never did because as I was well aware, my eyes were freaky nightmare holes, set in the front of my face. Then Trefor slowly nodded. Trefor was still wearing the same concerned and befuddled look. A dim half-smile sat on his face, as if he wasn’t sure if I was just messing around, or not. Then eventually the smile vanished altogether.

“Mhm...Alright, then...Uh, maybe keep me posted if you get something more definitive in regards to whatever it is you think might happen,” said Trefor. His brow lowering and his expression made me feel like, surprisingly enough, he was going to take my vague warning seriously.

“Er... Will do,” I said. Nodding as well. Wondering what it was my data-sampling and my stories were trying to warn me of.

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In a certain place, on an asteroid that had gotten snagged between the middle and high realms of the shattered world, there sat a collection of ancient powerhouses. This group of ultra-powerful seniors were made up of heroes and villains from generations past. A group of once-famous personalities that had all gathered together to form a conspiracy that had been building for the last hundred years.

Now one of those seniors, an ancestor of the legendary Thousand Winter Sect, stood up. Pushing her seat away from the table.

“Yosh... Okay, I’m out,” said the Elder. A beautiful older-woman, whose only sign of age were the faint wrinkles on her face, and her blue-white hair.

“...What?” said a robed old man, with a wind-chime hanging around his neck. The old man who sat at the head of the table. The leader of the group.

“I’m out...This has been enlightening and enjoyable...but, I’m out,” said the woman.

“What?! You’re out? You can’t be out, we’re literally right at the brink of doing the thing!” said the robed old man.

“Yeah...I know. I’ve been divining like crazy this whole time to calculate our likelihood of success and...uh, well, I’m out,” said the woman.

“What?...Shit. Is it that bad?” said another of the old-timers at the table.

“It’s not good…” said the woman. Looking towards the other old man. A rotund, portly-looking, senior who was gnawing on some kind of grilled beast’s leg.

“Shoot...Uh, in that case, I’m out too,” said the portly-elder with the grilled beast’s leg.

“Er, c-can I be out too? It’s been frightfully drafty where I live and I think I might be on the verge of catching something…” said a skinny, petite, old man with feathers in his beard.

“What?! No! No one is out! Sit the fuck down! We’re almost done with the plan...Everything has been prepared...I’ve sealed the space around the Pearls where the stronger juniors are at so they can’t interfere...Just everybody, calm down, and we’ll soon be the new gods of this world,” said the robed old man who sat at the head of the group.

“Uh...First, off. Excuse, you...I’m pretty sure we both know I can take you in a fight...My oaths to this group don’t include committing suicide and what I’ve seen in my divinations are bad enough to let me out of my contractual obligations to this little thing we had going on...and this grandma is definitely out, peace…” said the woman. Glaring at the robed ancient.

With that, the old woman with blue-white hair vanished from the table.

The robed ancient and all the other old monsters stared at the spot where the woman once stood. Then a fraction of a second later, the robed ancient quickly recovered. Snorting derisively.

“Hmph, women eh?... She could have been a goddess, but instead, she’ll be nothing...We’ll finish this plan without her and rule this world without her!” said the robed old man.

Then there were two more cracks, as two more old legends vanished from the table without another word. It was the petite old man and the portly elder. A third ancient sat up and sighed. A tall, slim, old man with a neatly trimmed beard.

“Er...Sorry to do this to you, old bean, but Sister Maeng is generally pretty spot on about this sort of thing. I understand you have your circumstances, but I’ve got a few hundred years left in me to either break through, find a solution for my lack of lifespan, or make peace with the end...So…”

“Tch, just go if you’re going to go,” said the robed old man.

The old man waited a few minutes glaring at the rest of the legends that sat around him at the table.

“What? Are none of you going to leave as well?” said the old man. Grinding his teeth together as he glared at the four empty seats. Regretting allowing for those escape clauses when the conspiracy’s covenant was being drafted.

The rest of the table remained silent. The rest of the conspiracy was made up of people like the old man. People who were either too desperate or too greedy, to back down this close to the fruition of all their efforts. Gratified and relieved, the robed old man smiled. Flashing a set of perfectly straight teeth.

“Good...Now, let the plan commence!” said the robed old man.