"That's a wild story," Alex said.

"It's true," replied Lanetli.

"I'm getting more convinced. There's still more though."

"Indeed there is," said Lanetli before he continued his story.

----------------------------------------

I woke up about a week later, to the sounds of an exhausted mage running me through the forest on a conjured sled.

"Finally, I got us out of there but I had to stay awake the whole time. Speed was the only thing keeping us alive." She said before stopping and dropping to the ground.

"Thank you, for keeping me safe while I recovered," I said to her.

"Well by my count we're even. You got a safe place to stay or do you drop wherever you fight?" she asked. From her history, I knew she was a Light mage, not uncommon as far as magi go, but odd that she managed to survive. On closer inspection, she did look in a bad way, with bug bites barely hidden by tattered robes, and dark circles betraying much more than one week of lost sleep.

"You're a mage, so you should be fine entering the pyramid, right?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked as I ignored her and drew a circle of runes in the air. I didn't intend to stay in the pyramid with her, she would probably explode with the density of magic in Time's room with that much exposure, but she likely could make it through to the D.O.G.S. base where it would be relatively safe.

My circle completed and her eyes widened, taking in the glory of such a high concept. The power from the gate screamed ETERNITY. She stood in shock, not willing to accept that I had a way to enter the pyramid on my own, without the direct intervention of an icon.

I grabbed the Light mage and shoved her through the portal, walking in after her. I quickly picked her up from the floor where she collapsed, drawing a second circle of runes in the air.

"I can't feel Light! What the hell did you do to me!? It's just like what you did with the demon!" She shouted, a distinct reverberating quality to her voice, the magic she puts off having a greater effect on a conceptual realm than the physical. I roll my eyes and drag her through the portal into the D.O.G.S. base of operations.

I'm met with magical weaponry, which I hit to the side and advance past. The men recognize me but thought I would never return. "I found you a mage. She won't be much help with the crack in the sky but she can train people and shit." I said as I advanced past them, a dazed girl being dragged in my wake. I take her to where I woke up last I was here and dropped her on a bed. There was a doctor, one that was trained to treat dire wounds while a magical doctor made his way over, but it was the best they had.

The mage was asleep as soon as she hit the sheets. I decided to stay and teach what children there were. Some had taken my suggestion seriously and were pregnant, while others from the village I saved already had children. I teach them as best I can, but they don't have any prior magical knowledge, so I have to start with the basics, and simple ritual concepts. They don't get far along in their studies before our dear Light mage walks in.

"You're going back out to fight, aren't you?" She asked.

"Yes. I need to do something. Fighting is the best way I know how to help." I told her.

"I want to go with you." She told me.

"No." That was the only response I gave her.

"Too bad." She said, steel ringing in her voice. "We can protect each other. I can see around corners and I have infrared vision to find survivors, a skill you clearly don't have." She said.

"Fine. We leave tomorrow." I told her. "Get more sleep, you'll need it."

I tell the children to study the diagrams I carved into the wall while I'm gone, and I go meet with the people in charge here.

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"We thought you were dead!" Exclaimed the man as I entered the room. "Did you lose the stone or something? We tried to contact you but nothing happened." He said. I pull out the stone and examine it, finding that the connection had been cut when I entered the tower. Now it was just a pointless rock with carvings on it. I put it on his desk.

"I don't think I need that. I intend to close that gate by the time I get back anyways. Keep your people fed, keep them happy, and prepare to let them out. I won't let this be their lives." I told him.

"That's all well and good sir, but be realistic. You said it yourself. You, and everyone else you know, have no way to close that crack. I want to be out of here as much as the next guy, but there's nothing you can do."

"I'll find something I can do," I said.

"If you do, then my thanks would be immeasurable." He responded, a smile spreading on his face. He seems to have grown up a little bit from the last time I saw him, responsibility forcing the man to grow up more than he previously had. "I guess all I can do is wish you luck in your endeavors then."

"Thank you, for creating a safe place I can send people," I told him.

"We've made quite the safe space. We have up to forty kilometers from the cave secured. We saw a sleigh fly by but knew it had to be a mage, so we left it be. Do you know who that is?" He asked.

"That's our mage I just brought in. She decided she's coming with me. I might be able to cause enough problems that the demons retreat, and if so I will give you the word to come back to the surface." I told him.

"Good luck then. We'll be here, waiting." Without another word, I left to get some rest. I didn't need it, but it would be a while before I got the chance again.

In the morning was awoken by blinding light manifesting behind my eyelids. Colors so bright it left incessantly ringing bells in my ears.

"Oh god, why?" I yelled, not happy as to how I was woken up. The lights dimmed but didn't stop as the stupid mage started talking.

"Morning sleepy head. I think that's what I'll call you because you sleep WAY too much." She said, far too cheery for my liking.

"I am Lanetli, Time mage and icon successor. I am not 'sleepy head'." I told her. Silence finally reigns and I look over at her. The shock had carved its way onto her face.

"You are the Time mage? You almost singlehandedly broke my kingdom!" She shouted at me, rage starting to get the better of her.

"Not that it matters. Humanity is united, one way or another. Are you still coming, or do you want to stay here?" I said, swinging my legs off the side of the hard bed, the mattress barely better than plywood.

She hesitated at that. "I still want to go. You can make your amends during the trip." She said, confidence growing with each word. I waved her to follow me and we make our way outside the compound. Indeed, they had secured the area, defensive weaponry disguised as shrubbery and an electromagnetic dome with emitters disguised as trees, people hiding in disguised boxes atop the emitters.

Our mage wasted no Time creating a sled and now that I was conscious I summoned chickens, changing the variables in the ritual and expending ungodly amounts of magic to actually make it work so that they were as strong as a team of dogs. We took off, speeding over the terrain as dings used magic to fix themselves.

"Steer over to the rift!" I shouted over the wind. She nodded and turned our course slightly.

"I'm Anlamsiz!" She yelled, my mage ears having no trouble picking up the sound. "People call me Ani!"

"Alright!" was all I could think to say. As we drew close to the rift I could see demons swarming out, and on the other side, I could see a greater demon, a regular seeming person standing on a plate of magic, perverted to his purposes. "We need to find a way to close that before that demon comes out! In my experience the stronger the demon the more humanized they are, and this one looks very human." She nods and starts steering into the horde of lesser demons. I sped ahead of her to clear a landing zone, making a wall from the titanic corpses to stem the tide of rushing demons.

She stopped in the clearing, the snow making the landing soft as she bounced over roots. "I don't think we have time to close the rift." She said, pointing to the sky. I looked up and indeed, a demon had come through the portal. It was smiling at us as it leaked corruption into the air and drew in the ambient magic to fill its bottomless hole of an internal magic reserve.

I send my chickens up, but unable to get high enough fall back to the ground without doing any damage. Ani sends a beam of light at it, which it deconstructs midair and absorbs. "Fuck!" I hear from Ani as the attack only makes the thing stronger. I pull my blade from the pyramid, hoping the demon would get close enough for me to use it. I found myself wishing for a more instantaneous teleportation power, or a way to fight at range, as that had never been much of a problem before.

Ani uses a power to temporarily become light and gets right close. I saw this coming and decided to gamble, throwing Sonsuz Kiyamet, The Final Moment into the air in the perfect position to grab and swing. I just hoped that the demon was caught off guard enough for him to miss the opportunity to catch the blade. Luckily he was shocked, though not because I threw my blade. He had been slowly making his way closer and he had gotten close enough for both of us to learn a vital piece of information that would elevate this battle from a fight to an all-out attack.

There was a quality to the magic makeup of his body that was wholly unique to my eyes. Well, almost unique. That strange etherealness in the magical makeup was one that I had only ever seen in myself. This wasn't only a greater demon, this demon was a half incarnate.