Astaroth held on to Jay's neck, laughing after he asked Diamond for help. "What do you think this Diamond is going to do to me?"

  Jay smirked. "Kill you, probably."

  Astaroth returned Jay's smirk. "That's not happening."

  The ground started to rumble. Astaroth looked down with a hint of surprise before dropping Jay. Then he suddenly froze in place, ice growing around him. The ice started to crack. "Jay, run. I have other things to do, so I can't help very much at the moment," Diamond whispered in his ear.

  Jay could tell the ice wouldn't hold for much longer. He turned to look at Striaster, but he was at the ruined circle of runes. "What are you doing? Come on, we need to run!"

  Striaster shook his head. "Astaroth can teleport. He can also travel at unimaginable speeds. No, your only chance is escaping into another world, and the only one I know the runes for is our home. Now that I think about it, we don't really have a name for the world. It's just always been 'home' or something."

  Jay grabbed him. "What do I need to do."

  Striaster blinked. "I need Domination. Voice and Dominion, I believe."

  Jay shook his head. "How do you know what that is? And what is it?"

  "Questions to answer later. I need it, now. I don't have enough myself."

  Jay collected his Voice in his left, and Dominion in his right. "Now what do I do?"

  "Merge them," Striaster said, hunching over the runes.

  Jay shoved them together. They tried to keep themselves apart, but he made sure they stayed together. Slowly, they combined. Images appeared in his mind, of succumbing to the energy and taking over the universe. After the recent close call with his chains, Jay pushed through. He wouldn't do that again.

  The images slid off of him, falling away as he pushed through. The Voice and Dominion slowly crystallized, forming into a jagged shard of power. Astaroth shook off the final bindings of ice behind them. Jay heard his roar, and it shook his soul. He held steady, watching it fully condense. Jay stood up, handing the Domination to Striaster, who casually grabbed it, scratching runes into the floor using one of its ends.

  He turned, expecting Astaroth to lunge at them, but he was once again trapped, the ice encasing him. It started to break again, faster this time. He turned to Striaster. "Faster!"

  Striaster shook his head. "Any faster, and I mess up. Do you want to be teleported into the void?"

  Jay paced in front of Astaroth's prison. They really didn't have time. Striaster stood. "Done."

  He turned, watching Striaster hand the crystal back. Part of it was gone, probably used to inscribe the runes. "Release the power. Use it to start the runes, and make sure to overload them so it breaks after we're through."

  Jay nodded. The images reappeared, but he ignored them. Jay directed the power from the crystal into the runes, at which it shattered. The power pulled from his fingers, launching into the runes. It was far too much for them, causing them to immediately spark and fizzle, about to explode. A violet-black hole in reality appeared, yawning open for them. Striaster stepped through without hesitating, disappearing in the inky blackness. With a single look back at Astaroth, Jay stepped in, following Striaster through the portal.

  He found himself in a bubble, flying through darkness at immense speeds. Striaster was in another one, waiting for him. After he caught up, Striaster started moving once again, matching Jay's speed. "We're in the Void," Striaster said after a moment of silence. "The space between worlds. The portal isn't a teleport. It creates a path between the destination and beginning, which these bubbles rocket down. You can slow or speed up, but you can never truly stop and you can never leave the path."

  Jay heard a roar which only could have come from a massive beast, hitting him with almost physical force through the bubble and space between them. He grimaced. "Are there also giant beasts here?"

  Striaster nodded. "Very few of them have been documented."

  Jay sighed. There was nothing else he could say. It was time for the elephant in the room. "How do you know what Domination is, and what it does? I didn't know about it myself."

  Striaster closed his eyes. "Each species is attuned to a single type of energy. It may be higher or lower. The lower energies are more versatile and less... evil. The higher ones are stronger, far stronger, more numerous, and more evil, until you get to true energy, which corrupts anything and everything. Us Zarlans are attuned to Domination. This is one of the reasons we like to kill and take over."

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  Jay turned over in his orb. "What are humans attuned to?"

  "Humans are an anomaly. Each human is attuned to one lower energy. Then you're an anomaly among humans. You're attuned to all of them and can even create higher energies. Humans have also created a lower energy, which is unprecedented. It means everyone can gain strength, not just the people who happen to be good enough with the energy of their species to get a class and level."

  Jay nodded, staring off into space. He had more questions, but didn't particularly care to ask any of them, except for one. "How long until we get there?"

  Striaster shrugged. "In the Void, time is weird. It changes all the time. It's not going to take years, but a few days or weeks? Possible."

  Jay sighed, settling in for the long haul.

  Xera and Millie watched a black pillar of light erupt from the compound. "They're probably fighting something," Millie said, watching the pillar of light. "We probably don't want to be here."

  Xera stared her down. "We need to be here. We're the ones getting them out if they get too injured after fighting."

  Millie shrunk in on herself, water wrapping around her. "Yeah," she said in a small voice.

  "Get out of here. Now," Diamond's voice echoed next to them.

  Millie looked up, surprised, as Xera stared at the spot of air, bewildered. "They had no choice but to escape to another world. Get out of here so I can make a portal for you, and don't go for them. There's no way to get to their location."

  Millie and Xera started running. Millie heard Xera ask Diamond a question under her breath. "If we can' t get to them, how will we get them home?"

  Diamond's answer didn't set them at ease. "They need to find their own way back. The only thing we can give them is a whole heap of good luck."

  Both of them yearned to go back and find them, whatever it took, but neither did. They didn't stand a chance back there, and they knew it.

  Diamond sat back, checking the results of his scan. Three Metallic Council members, and after the info Xera had given them, he would identify two as tier three, and one as tier four. All of them suddenly died, their necks snapping for no visible reason. Diamond released his scan, clenching a fist. If only he had released the scan and helped them instead. This would all be prevented. And why had he sent them to such a dangerous location in the first place?

  More people were dead because of him. He would keep leaving a trail of corpses wherever he went. It would never stop growing. He would simply forget the corpses at the beginning of the path as he kept walking. He so very much wanted to believe in Jay's survival, especially with that Zarlan, but... no. It was impossible. False hope would make it even worse for him when his death was confirmed. Diamond generated the path of corpses in his mind and looked at them, one by one. Not just anyone was on this trail. Only the people he'd let die because of something he did wrong were here. He started at the beginning.

  His family was arrayed at the beginning, always the most painful part of the hike. He struggled past them, looking over every few moments.

  His teachers were next. Each one was laid out as his last memory of them was, gruesome injuries on each one.

  His love was next. Turning away, he continued. He didn't need to see her like this. Not again.

  On and on he continued. His friends passed one by one, a long row of corpses to traverse. Other people he had failed were interspersed in between. Other Gemstone Councilors.

  At the end, the latest corpse sat. He hadn't displayed it dead just yet, though it was in all but body. Onyx lay there, twitching over and over again, mumbling his insane thoughts.

  At the end, there was empty space. After all, his path of corpses would likely never end. It would only get longer. Diamond created two corpses there. Jay was first, his memory a little blurry given the short period of interaction compared with the other people here. Then Striaster came, even blurrier.

  Diamond sat down next to them for a few moments before leaving the path of corpses. He didn't do justice to them in their depictions, but he had done the best he could. Pushing aside his guilt, Diamond started working once again.

  The king staggered into his bedroom. He watched the doppleganger sneak up to his wife. "Alicia!," he called.

  Her eyes instantly snapped open. They stopped on the doppleganger before resting on the king. Her knife immediately came up, cutting through its head. She watched it dissolve into a puddle as he walked up to her. "Doppleganger," he said.

  "Why are you so emaciated?," Alicia asked, waving the knife up and down his body.

  "I was captured by demons. That was a doppleganger. I was in prison for a while, and they tortured me. One actually attempted to break my chains."

  Amelia's eyes widened. "I thought you were acting weird. When you came in the room, I knew it was a doppleganger because it was looming over me and hadn't felt like... you, before, but it was a pretty good imitation. We need to get you food, now."

  She opened the door, telling the servant next to it to grab food immediately. As the servant scarpered off, Amelia turned back to the king. "Tell me everything. And if you leave out a single detail, I'll starve you for another month." Amelia continued as he opened his mouth. "I don't care if it's confidential. TELL ME!"

  Knowing his wife as a fully-fledged tier four practitioner of poison classes, he told her everything. Amelia's poison was not fun.

  Astaroth released another black beam into the sky. This was the only way he could release his rage without hurting others. The human child had created DOMINATION, which Striaster had somehow known how to use to create runes, tand then they had teleported to another dimension, breaking the portal behind them. Great. Just great. He didn't even have anyone to torture right now, because of those cowardly fools.

  He roared, firing another beam into the sky. All the prisoners had disappeared as well. He had it on good account that this wasn't their work, though. Only one of the cell doors was open. It must have been the same bastard who created the ice. They didn't even attack, just hid in a cowardly fashion, freezing Astaroth for a few moments.

  Astaroth didn't shoot another black beam, choosing to use his power in a different way. Rising into the air, he knew what he would do. He would go for the capital. Alone. That would be a good outlet for his rage, wouldn't it?

  A black ball of energy charged in his palm as he flew in the direction of the capital.

  And when he found Striaster, he would get his vengeance whether Striaster's mother tried to stop him or not. No one defied Astaroth and lived.

  After all, Domination had accepted him as its vessel.