Kumo's Fighting Drake jumped backward from a sudden bar of light. For the briefest moment, she thought the Twins had somehow rallied, but that moment faded as she felt the deep antiquity from it. Being so close to it felt like standing too close to a fire where the painful heat sticks to your skin.

The light followed the Fighting Drake, and in that instant, did what Kumo had failed to do for the entire fight. A hole the size of one of the Templar burned through its chest and it fell lifeless to the ground. Kumo wiped blood out of her eyes and flinched as her paw touched the three long gouges across her face.

Her wounds both burned and ached, but when her eyes fell upon the Boss, she knew she couldn't stop. Somehow, he'd returned after having been impaled by the Angelic Mice Progenitor's sword to do the impossible. His strength awed Kumo and she wouldn't let his opportunity go to waste.

While space seemed to warp as Gi flew towards the Queen, Kumo sprinted off to Wane who'd finally passed out. A deep ache bloomed in Kumo's chest as she knelt beside Wax's burned and lifeless body, but she steeled her heart and picked up Wane into her arms.

The long day of fighting made even the diminutive Elite feel heavy, but her brother wasn't a burden that she'd abandon.

The beating of Poe's wings made Kumo realize that the little dragonfly was there too. "No... don't do it..." Poe's whisper confused Kumo. He saw Tiria and Georgia now running over to them, but a brilliant light drew Kumo's eyes to the Queen.

A second sun bloomed low in the sky. Flames burst around the ball of light and heavy streams of fire were sent spiraling outwards. Fighting Drakes that had been rushing to defend their Queen were cut down by the dozens, but all in a silence that keened to a high pitch of nothingness before the wrath of a god was let loose.

An impact wracked the air like a distant bell had been rung, forcing Kumo to her knees where she huddled over Wane's body to keep him safe. Fighting Drakes were launched chaotically through the air and anything close to the sun that Gi had made was obliterated... including the Queen.

Most of her snout had been destroyed from Gi's attack and it was without any life that she fell backwards and lay across the mountain of Igna.

"Boss!" Poe yelled out and Georgia had to grab him to stop him from rushing towards Gi who fell limply from the sky.

"He's still alive," Tiria said, one hand gripping her chest. "We can-"

Cutting her off, their Progenitor turned into white light as he ascended past his current Stage. A small spark of hope bloomed in Kumo's chest. The Boss had ascended! Whatever benefit he got from that would be enough to save him and protect the clan. With it, they could-

The figure of the Progenitor reappeared in another veil of white light. With his reappearance, it felt like a warm light bloomed in Kumo's chest and she was taken by a vision.

A horn blared as her father laid into the steering wheel. Kumo or this... human that she'd embodied turned up the volume of the music on her phone in annoyance.

"These tourists are the worst drivers...," her father muttered from the driver's seat. The sun cut into the car and illuminated the smirk on his wife's face. Her two parents couldn't have been more different. Her father pale and blond practically hunched in their small car while her diminutive mother possessed dark hair and coffee colored skin.

"Weren't you a tourist once?"

Her father grumbled. "They're probably all drunk." Cars were speeding quickly past them in all directions, darting around them on the small highway. To Kumo or whoever she was, her father just needed to go faster and it wouldn't be a big deal. What was a big deal was her growling stomach.

"Are we going to eat anytime soon?" Kumo snapped and her father clapped back quickly.

"Watch that tone, young lady." Her mother just laid a hand on his shoulder and then turned around to the backseat, casting her gaze over Kumo and her two brothers.

"What sounds good, kids?"

"Tacos!," her brothers shouted in unison and Kumo snorted. Her kid brothers had a palate with the breadth of a thimble.

"Empanadas?" Her mother asked.

"Tacos!" Her two brothers bounced in their seats identically, tugging on the seat belt.

"Enchilada?

"Tacos!"

"Sope? Tostada? Chalupa?" Her mother asked, getting increasingly desperate.

"TACOS!"

Defeated, her mother shook her head in a mock sadness. "Dios mio, out of my entire culture my children only want tacos. Mi amor, your bloodline has ruined our children."

"They're young," her father said. "When I was young, I only ate chicken nuggets. Their tastes will expand."

"They probably want tacos with sour cream."

Her mother glared at her father for a few solid minutes, but without any heat behind it, her father just smirked at her until her glare broke and she looked in the backseat with a wide smile.

"Who wants TACOS!"

Her brothers cheered wildly and despite herself, Kumo chuckled along with their enthusiasm. As her mother started telling them exactly what her brothers were allowed to get on a proper taco, she and her father locked eyes in the rearview mirror, sharing mirth at their family's antics.

His eyes darted back to the road and they opened wide in panic. Squealing tires tore through the air and her mother screamed as she turned around, leaving one arm back in some mistaken view that it would keep them safe.

The vision ended.

You've inherited a Unique Heart!

You've gained: Heart of Crossroads

Aspect: Light

The vision immediately started to fade like a dream into a broken memory, but that lingering feeling of family remained. She could tell her body had changed in that instant, but her eyes looked to the sky for her Progenitor instead of focusing on the feeling.

Gi was no longer a figure of white light, but his body still bore all the wounds and destruction that had been caused by all the battles that they'd gone through that day. With no movement, he plummeted towards the ground, reaching it before Kumo could do more than get her eyes to him.

A cloud of dust rose up as his body struck the ground, and like a god beating a great drum, a shockwave tore through Kumo's very self. The warmth that she'd felt from her vision was ripped away as her peak crumbled.

All of her Skills, Knot, and Aether had always felt like a pathway towards the heavens, but now heavens' gates slammed in her face. A physical pain burrowed through her pathways as she was suddenly cut off from the peak. Each tiny fragment of that pain carved through her to form an empty hole in her chest.

It was a hole that would never be filled.

Despair, Anger, Sadness, Fear - Kumo's emotions exploded into a strange kaleidoscope of reactions. Without thinking, her feet took a step forward to go cut down the foe that dared kill her Progenitor, but there was nothing. Gi had sacrificed himself. The Queen was already dead.

All around her, Tiria, Georgia, and Poe all gripped their chests as they stared at the unmoving body of Gi. Poe started to weep openly while life seemed to leave Tiria's eyes.

They weren't the only ones experiencing the severance of their path to the heavens either.

A mournful keen from the Fighting Drakes rose up into the sky, reverberating around the mountain. She'd heard their cry before when one of their number had perished, but this was different. Every member of their race took up the song and flew in a circle over the body of the Queen.

Their cries echoed around the mountain turning into a song that spoke to the tumultuous sea of emotions that Kumo had. It was beautiful and painful, but it also provided a sieve that released some of the conflicting emotions in her heart and forged it into a singular feeling of loss.

The lack of warring emotions only made the emptiness more prominent.

"We need to get out of here while they're distracted." The demon princess had appeared at their side. Her noble attire was little more than rags and the blood did more to keep her decent than any of the little fabric remaining.

Her old instincts wanted to dive at her and tear her limb from limb for the sin of her surviving when Gi did not, but loss and hopelessness drowned it out. If it wasn't for her new Heart and the vision of family that she'd received, she might have just stood there until some other monster cut her down. Instead, she hitched up Wane to carry him over her shoulder and reached out a hand to Tiria who still stared lifelessly at the Progenitor.

"Come on..." Kumo said. Her broken gaze turned to Kumo and she felt her Heart waver. Tiria had been the closest to Gi other than Poe and Kumo didn't know if she had the strength to continue when Tiria looked at her like that. With the feelings pooling in her eyes, how had Tiria not taken her own life already?

"For the Clan," Kumo said barely audibly. The words were just enough to reach past that watery expanse of helplessness, and like a zombie, Tiria rose to her feet.

***

Tiria wasn't sure how she made it off the mountain. The war hadn't stopped as the Queen died, but she wasn't sure what else was left to fight over. Galvina had taken them all the way to the lake before she disappeared without a word.

It felt like she blinked and she was back in the Lake Encampment. Some monsters raged attacking the very buildings in the camp while others sobbed in the street. All of them, newly spawned, Otter or other - they all felt that aching absence in their chest.

The peak was gone.

Tiria found herself in the Control building. Chum had an arm wrapped around her and she stood before Samba who sat limply against the wall. For a moment, she thought he'd joined Gi and Wax in death, but it was only the wounds and lifelessness in his eyes that made it seem that way.

Tiria blinked. Kumo laid Wane down onto the floor, but didn't let go of the former twin. Poe's sobs made it evident that he was in the room somewhere, but she couldn't spare the effort to look for him. Instead, she dropped to floor, only Chum's protective embrace kept her seated.

She was a Subgenitor. Her entire existence was built upon being the second to the Progenitor. That hole in her chest felt like it was going to swallow her completely. "What do I do?" Tiria whispered.

It wasn't a question that was supposed to be answered, but Samba did. "We keep the clan safe. That's what Gi would have wanted. What Wax would have wanted."

The remnants of the Elites let that statement hang in the silence as they tried to consider what a future looked like for them. The Monster Surge had brought them to the human world and into a war that was even bigger than the one between Myshk and Igna.

How could they survive in that? Just hide away as they waited for the humans to come kill them in their beds?

"No," Kumo said and some heat had returned to her voice. "The Boss would have wanted us to fight. When the Illusor Clan sent mercenaries to attack us during the funeral, he went by himself to get revenge. It was that demon princess that forced him to fight."

Some of the heat drained from her voice, leaving only bitterness. "If we can't kill her, we can kill as many of her clan as we can."

Why? What was the point? Tiria couldn't see it.

"That's idiotic," Samba said.

"We don't have a Progenitor," Kumo snarled. "We won't survive as we are. I won't just curl up and die without a fight."

"You don't know that!" Samba yelled and the loud noise knocked Tiria out of her own thoughts for a second.

"I know you two don't like each other, but..." Her voice trailed off. What was the point? There was no future for them.

Confused, Kumo stared at her. "Don't like each other? I-" She cut off as she looked back and forth between the two of them and Tiria could see fresh hurt bloom on her face. "I see."

Maybe it was the pain of loss or the pain of his wounds, but Samba didn't seem willing to back down. "What do you expect when you do whatever you want without considering others?"

Kumo picked up Wane as she stood to her full height. Pain and rage warred in her expression, matching well with the barely healed wounds on her face, but Tiria could still see the loss beneath it all. "I'm sorry my presence was such a pain for you. For the record, you were always a brother to me."

Her voice cracked as she spoke, but she left the Control without another word. No one tried to stop her. They let the silence hang while Samba calmed down. Tiria didn't see that they had anything to discuss, but Samba, either feeling guilty about his interaction with Kumo or from justifying his thoughts, did.

"Jalx and the Coastal Goblins survived when their Progenitor was killed. If they did, we could too."

Scraping by while being a pawn of Igna's army? Constantly threatened by even the smallest clan? Where was the existence in that? She didn't even feel the need to retort. His words had to sound empty even to his own ears.

But it did bring a question to Tiria's mind that she hadn't really thought much about before: What had Jalx been trying to do in the Dungeon with that Child?

Tala burst into the Control. "Kumo is leaving with the Hunters and Inquisitors."

Samba looked to her for guidance, but Tiria was consumed by the question in her mind. Could they have thought...?

Not getting a response from her, Samba scoffed. "We're better off without someone that isn't willing to cooperate. Let them go."

Three crying otters appeared in the door behind Tala and all four of them laid themselves out on Samba as they cried, joining the sound of Poe's sobs in the small space. Chum's face appeared in front of hers.

"Are you okay?," he said. Chum was the only one out of all of them that seemed somewhat okay. He was definitely hurt and broken, but he had some kind of quiet strength that helped him not break down like the rest of them.

Tiria just stared at him as her thoughts slowly congealed. Part of her was terrified to ask the question as it might kill the little seed of hope that had appeared in the vast emptiness inside of her, but if she didn't ask, that too would smother it in its bed.

With barely a whisper, she asked, "Could we bring him back?"

***

The tendrils of shadow and light that made up Gi swam in a sea of shadows and flame. His consciousness was each of these pieces of himself, and yet, there was something more that was Gi. An indelible soul that was him and would be him until time immemorial.

His soul gathered together all the scattered pieces of himself - memories, Aether, his heart, and all of his firmest convictions. Each of these came together until his body finally manifested into the form that felt the most like himself.

Strangely as his senses returned last, he found himself in a medieval castle, darkness lit up the sky and rivers of flame swam across it. Something about this place felt... sick in a way that Gi couldn't describe, but a voice wiped all of that from his mind.

"Welcome home, son."

End of Volume 2