For days on end, Max threw himself into work, letting everything he'd seen and learned simmer in the back of his mind as he focused on creating beats, refining pills, fixing things, and making himself stronger. He knew from experience that sometimes, when given new data, it was best for him to engage in other activities instead of fixating on whatever it was he was pondering.

He spent more time on the summoning circle with Lavinia. The breakthroughs they had one after the other made the spellwork safer for Lance and, in turn, for all of Max's friends. These breakthroughs unlocked a new understanding for Lavinia of her own magic formulas. She was still far more advanced than Max, and he suspected that if she had still been alive and had lived long enough to master her summoner Path, she probably would have organically found her way to a second Path through her study of sigils and such.

Thoughts of Tom and Scorn the Ruiner kept running through his mind the entire time he worked on his many projects. Everything he’d learned about Ancilla, things he’d researched just didn’t add up. The…feeling underlying Tom’s memory he’d shared had still been one of pride. Tom had been proud of Ancilla.

How could the spirits be proud of what was supposedly an irredeemable mass murderer?

Finally, after yet another productive day, Max laid down to sleep again. He’d been a bit on edge very night before bed. Ever since the first not-a-dream he'd had, he'd half-expected to experience one again. So when he finally found himself in another strange environment, observing the summoner Ancilla next to the spirit Tom, he wasn't entirely surprised.

Now that Max immediately knew what was happening, he took stock of the scene to understand if there had been any changes. There had been. Now, Max could sense Ancilla's emotions, and other spirits around him. Max took that to mean that since he was viewing the world through Tom's memories, either Tom had probably gotten stronger or deepened his bond with his contracted Summoner.

Ancilla appeared different than before too. Seated behind a large, expensive-looking desk in a lavish room, he’d definitely seized some sort of success. His robe was fine, etched with all manner of wards and sigils. He'd aged, at least somewhat, but now even the space around him practically thrummed with power. Max suspected that Ancilla was still only on the Summoner Path. This new scene definitely cemented the fact in Max's mind that modern Summoners, even the current Summoner Academy headmaster, would be like an ant before Ancilla.

The tall, powerful, dark skinned man suddenly looked up, staring at a corner of the large room where a man dressed in dark green, wearing a mask, had just materialized. When the strange man noticed Ancilla glaring at him, he chuckled. "Good thing I don't underestimate you, or it might have surprised me that you felt me coming."

"Indeed," said Ancilla, his voice full of gravity. "I had been expecting one like you for some time."

"Oh really?" said the masked man. He sauntered over to the other side of Ancilla's desk and helped himself to a chair. "That's interesting. So did you know the consequences of ending the besieged status of your world?"

"Id suspected," grated Ancilla. "While I can't claim to know all the specifics, I have done my own research into those who disappear from besieged worlds, as well as those who disappear from worlds that are saved. It is safe to say there is some sort of culling that takes place. And once a world is saved, the disappearances get worse before it disappears."

"Oh my, you are uncommonly sharp. The masked man scratched underneath an armpit. Max suddenly noticed that on his belt he had four daggers sheathed. The black dagger and the white dagger were both familiar to him. But there were two more.

Ancilla noticed them too. "So, you have four transfer blades. One is purple, and one is crystal clear."

The unknown man shook his head. "No. That one is diamond, and it is the one I hope you will accept being used on you today."

"Oh really now," said Ancilla, "and where would this be sending me?"

The cloth over the masked man's face twitched, revealing that he was smiling. "Normally, telling you this information would mean I would need to kill you, but since you are about to be heading there anyway, I suppose I can let you know. You are about to be going on a one-way trip to the central tower."

"The central tower?" Ancilla's voice and expression turned cold. "I was hoping that place was not real. So, the central tower really exists. The Tower of the Originators."

The masked man leaned back a bit. "Oh my, you truly have been digging up secrets, haven't you? Such a busy little bee. Well, you can't complain about what happens then. If yours had been like all the other greedy worlds, leaving the portals open, perhaps you would have been collected later, or maybe not even at all. But since you've ended this farm, the farmers need to take what they can get."

Ancilla's eyes glittered. "Your masters must have great faith in you to have sent you here alone."

The masked man chuckled. "Of course, I have been doing this a long time after all. Some I meet bluster, some try to bite, but it all ends the same way. You have two choices now. Let me end you here with this dagger, send you on your way. If you resist, you will still end up going, but I will also trigger the destruction of one of your world's most cherished cities. I believe it is called Hendel? It is home to millions of souls, correct? So are you going to come quietly, or do we need to do this the hard way?"

The intruder drew the clear dagger and stood up, and Ancilla stood as well. The Summoner’s face hardened. “My life, ignoring what happens to me, I would still be giving you my consent to steal people from this world. Will you ask permission before you take others? To respect their wishes?”

“No. They will get the same choices you are getting now. None.” The masked man smiled beneath his mask again.

“Then I believe we do this the hard way."

"So be it."

There was a violent flurry of motion. The memory suddenly ended. Just as quickly, Max was in a new memory.

This time, Ancilla looked like he'd aged a bit more. He was standing on a field near a large portal. A large, muscular man ran up to him. The unfamiliar man was bursting with power, and Max realized that Ancilla was stronger than last time too. The two men gazed in the distance at what looked like a dark fortress.

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"Ancilla, I can't be sure, but I think this is where we will get answers.”

“It's been so long," said the Summoner, "and we've come so far."

"That's true," said the big man. He paused. "Are you sure you want to go all the way to the end? You might not like the answers that you find."

Ancilla frowned. "It is no longer an option to back away, not after the enemy has killed so many innocents, so many civilians. It’s childish as well, like a temper tantrum. They have been breaking their toys. For all we know, they began the monster incursions on every world in the first place. If we were to turn back now, after merely conquering a few of their own worlds, what would my legacy be? The enemy already calls me by a different name."

"Yes, I know," said the big man, "Scorn the Ruiner."

Ancilla smiled. "It is true that I ruined many of their plans, not least of which when I blocked my world from them, preventing easy trespassing any longer. Honestly, using pyramids was a stroke of genius. We must go to as many unaffected worlds as we can and tell them the truth, and tell them how to make pyramid defenses," said Ancilla.

"What if the rumors are true, though?" asked the big man, and Ancilla's head snapped around.

"Gerald, are you a doubter as well?"

"Not at all," said the big man, Gerald. "I just…do believe there could be truth in the fact that stopping the process entirely could destroy the universe. However," his face grew grim, "I had family in one of the cities that was destroyed. If we end the universe, so be it. The state of affairs is already a meat grinder. Besides, everything must die at some point."

Ancilla stared at the man for a long couple seconds before slowly nodding. "I fear that you may be right, my friend, but as I've said, I don't know if I can stop anymore on this path that we've chosen."

"Well then, how about we go take this city, get some more information, and go from there?" said Gerald.

"My friend, you have a talent for making the complicated uncomplicated. Yes, let us go."

They moved, both of them traveling far faster than either looked like they physically could, and soon arrived at a giant army. In the center of the army, a flag was raised; Max recognized it. It was called the Mark of Opposition, the symbol that those who wished to destroy the universe would proudly fly, although Max had already begun to question the accuracy of some of what he'd been reading in books.

A sudden darkness in the dream turned into an opulently decorated chamber. Ancilla stood in the middle of the room. He held a silver dagger in his hand.

"Don't do this, Ancilla," said the big man from the previous vision. "Please don't do this, you know it's a trap."

"Of course it's a trap," said Ancilla with a smile. "But, it is also a fact that the staff in every Quartet are vulnerable. If I destroy them, they die."

"But maybe there's something else we can do," said a woman. She was tall and stately, with her hair done up in a large bun. She looked at Ancilla with admiration and love. "Please, there has to be another way."

"There is not, my heart," said Ancilla sadly, "and you know this too. Our protections do not work anymore, and I can no longer attack when I must defend. What's worse, defense is already all but impossible when we never know when they will strike or how. And what's worse, we face the possibility that they can somehow cause our world to be besieged by monsters again. I was willing to sacrifice the entire universe for our cause, but I will not sacrifice all of our world's people on their own."

The woman silently cried but nodded her head. Other people around the room were crying as well.

Gerard shook his head. “But…what about the tower? Isn’t that what they’ve wanted this entire time? You might even survive! You might even win!”

“If that was all they had been asking, we would not be here, friend. I would not have fought a thousand battles on a hundred worlds. Like with every other matter in the universe, they are not content, not fair, not respectful. There is always overreach. I said a long time ago that if it were just my life, I would have gone quietly. But the way a single decision of mine would have led to the slavery of an entire world, and even more worlds later? That I could not do. And over the many years, the people have backed me on this.”

“That’s true,” said the big man. “I hate this. Please consider taking me with you?”

“No. And you know why that is not possible.” Ancilla smiled sadly and said, "Goodbye, my friends. I am sure we will meet again." Then, he gripped the silver dagger in a reverse grip and plunged it directly into his heart. At the same time, his spirits did something that Max couldn’t quite catch. Ancilla also channeled some sort of magic power that Max was not familiar with. He assumed that all the extra measures were to bypass whatever life-saving systems or natural toughness Ancilla had cultivated over his years of conquest and personal growth.

The scene changed. He was suddenly in the Quartet.

Max recognized the forest, which was incredibly odd since this scene happened so long ago, yet everything looked exactly the same. Ancilla was in one of the respawn circles in the Quartet, but in his own body. He was wearing the clothing he’d had on before, too.

A spinning portal suddenly resolved near him. With a grim smile, a man stepped through before the portal widening, growing. On the other side was a semicircle of fifty or so powerful Champions, all glaring att Ancilla. They all stepped through and the portal winked out.

"This is flattering," said Ancilla. "You brought twice as many as I thought you would."

The woman in the center of the semicircle stepped forward. "You are sentenced to death, Ancilla," she said, "unless you go immediately to the tower and throw yourself on the Originators’ mercy.

“Death or servitude, is it?" Ancilla threw his head back and laughed. "What little dogs you are. How about you tell your masters to give me a purple device, and maybe if I can figure out how to get to the tower on my own? I will, out of curiosity's sake, if nothing else. But I am not letting any of you use a tampered device."

There were flickers in the expressions around the semicircle. Ancilla laughed again. "Yes, I know about your dirty little tricks. I know you hate me, and I know that there is no possible way I would get a fair chance at the tower. Especially not now. Even though I fundamentally disagree with the tower's existence, I might have still been willing to try it, if not for your meddling and your control. You brought this on yourself, both with your dishonesty and with your cowardly attacks on my world."

A younger woman stepped forward from one side of the semicircle, and with a start, Max realized he recognized her. Bojana Gala Tassy A’Mind, the current headmaster of the Elemental Shifter academy. Ancilla didn’t recognize her as anyone important, or at least his expression didn’t move. She shouted, "There's no point in further talking to this criminal. Let's get this over with!"

Ancilla responded, "Are you going first?" He arched an eyebrow, and Bjoana snarled at him. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the other side of the semicircle shot at Ancilla, who just as suddenly was not standing where he had been before. In the blink of an eye, the fight began, and Max only caught a handful of flashes of the ensuing madness before the dream ended for good.

As everything went to black, he heard Tom's voice in his head again. "I loved Ancilla. He was a great man who was forced to do terrible things. And those others who did horrible things were never held accountable. Please honor my master's memory by remembering him. And also, there is one last thing I must tell you, but cannot tell you directly, due to a geas. The only clue I can give you is that remnants of spirits are not the only remnants that modern Summoners are kept from ever meeting or even knowing exist."

With that, the dream ended completely. Max woke up slowly. He sat up, ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed. The power that the remnant spirit Tom had granted him was still there, but he couldn't feel any lingering traces of the remnant himself. He intuitively knew there would be no more memory dreams. Out loud, Max said, "Goodbye, Tom. I will remember your master, and I will also remember you."