“YOU DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A STATUS, YOU ASSHOLE!” I screamed into the air of Elderwyck, trying to yank my glowing spear out of Rhazal’s skull before I stole a ‘Skill’ from him. If that was even what I was stealing.

But I wasn’t quick enough.

I braced myself as best as I could for what was coming…but nothing could prepare me for it.

Suddenly, a flood of disgusting, corrupted, almost smoky feeling Aether shot up the connection formed by my weapon with the Calamity’s corpse.

When it reached me, it was like a dirty bomb went off in my head. The world went dark around me, my sight suddenly cutting out in a panic-inducing mirror of my restored right eye. Without my prompting, it felt like my body was covered with a greasy misting of smoke, swirling all about my form.

Oh.

Wait.

No, that was because I was falling.

In the moments that I had been blinded both mentally and physically by whatever I was stealing from Rhazal, the dissolution of the Godbound’s physical form had completed. I was now in free fall, plunging through the foul-smelling, grimy clouds of Miasma generated from his death. Panicked, I tried to throw out several Thorn Grapple’s with both hands even though I still couldn’t see. I was hoping, praying that one of them would connect with one of the crumbling towers of Fort Duality before I hit the ground.

They didn’t.

Impact.

I hit the crumbling, shattered stone, and my head bounced off it.

I blacked out.

……………………………………………….

I don’t know how long I was out of it, after I had fallen. But slowly, slowly, consciousness started to return to me.

Only, slightly, though. I was barely aware of my surroundings as my mind swam through what felt like a lake of tar to awareness.

I gazed blankly up at the clouded skies above me as it started to rain. I didn’t even flinch as the drizzle slowly began to soak my ravaged form.

At least as I was able to see still. I had that going on at least.

I don’t know how long I lay there, barely able to form a thought in either my core or outer rings. But, eventually, a noise pierced the fog that had descended on my mind. It was odd. It almost sounded like there was someone pounding on a massive, impenetrable pane of glass somewhere to my left. Sluggishly, I turned my unfocused gaze that way from where I was lying to see what it was.

Ah.

I could see where I had fallen, now. I hadn’t fallen all the way to the foot of the ruined Fort like I had thought. Instead, I had landed not far from the all-important Portal Stone which had been the true focus of everything that had happened.

The noise was coming from it.

I don’t know if it was just my head wound, but it looked like something was trying to almost…break out of it. On the other side of the emerald pane of crystal on the front of the Stone, etched with a seven armed spiral, something lurked. Repeatedly, a scaled, taloned arm was crashing into the other side of it, looking like it inhabited a space that existed wholly on the other side of the glass.

Bang…bang…bang…

Even through the haze I had descended into, it was terrifying. The surface of the crystal was hazy, but I could still see through it like it was a clouded window. Behind the indistinct figure, a swirl of dark red Aether, so similar to that of Nerexxa’s, spun slowly, illuminating the vaguely feminine figure. They never stopped their blows against the crystal, sending crashing noises echoing out through the rainy city. I…it was loud enough that I think the entire city had to be able to hear this.

Bang…bang…bang…

And then nothing.

The crashing stopped, and something else appeared at the crystal that terrified me.

A face.

But…not, at the same time.

It was as if the features of the thing on the other side of the crystal existed on a plane of existence higher than my own. I couldn’t see or perceive a thing about it. I knew there was a face there…but that was it. Nothing about them was truly perceptible. Not on a level I could fathom.

The not-eyes in the face that wasn’t there roved around the world beyond the crystal, before settling on me. They narrowed my way suspiciously, but after a moment, non-existent eye ridges raised in surprise. Moments later, a glower emerged on features that didn't exist.

“I should have known,” A disgusted, feminine voice echoed out from beyond the crystal. “Of course it would be a Precursor that ruined things. It’s all your kind are good for, in the end. Wrack and ruin trail in your wake like flies on shit.”

The voice wasn’t as heavy as Rhazal’s soul speak had been, but it still wasn’t pleasant to hear. What was worse, was that my core ring wasn’t able to shield me from the effects of it, as it was reeling from what I was starting to suspect was a concussion.

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Something at the core of me pulsed in response to the voice.

Something dark.

Somehow, the non-being noticed. “Oh? Hah. Ha ha ha! At the very least, that failure Rhazal was able to inflict one last curse upon you, interloper! I may not be able to return, but at least the thought of his last gift to you will warm me in the storm.” The thing in the crystal sighed, before backing away enough that their face wasn’t nearly smashed up against it. Now, I could see the whole of their form other than their face. That remained shrouded in dimensions beyond my understanding.

They reminded me of Nerexxa in a way. Only…more.

I didn’t have the words to describe them more than that.

They defied explanation.

“I only regret I won’t be able to see the misery you will endure because of it. Still, a decent consolation prize, even though this surprise possibility didn’t pan out,” The voice mused, before flicking a taloned hand almost dismissively. “Oh well. Goodbye, Precursor. Suffer well for me.”

The indistinct figure deliberately turned its back and slowly started to saunter away into the vortex of bloody Aether behind them. In moments they had passed through the eye of the spiral and disappeared from sight, swallowed whole.

The Aether on the other side of the crystal winked out. In fact, a charge that had been present in the air I had barely noticed vanished as well. The last wisps of Rhazal’s murk that had been swirling around the Portal Stone dissipated with the Miasma, and the world went quiet but for the pitter-patter of raindrops.

I limply turned uncomprehending eyes back to the heavens, uncaring as to individual drops falling into them. I didn’t flinch on each impact, nor did I even react as a small puddle began to form underneath my prone form.

Instead, I felt my consciousness began to fade.

But my core ring had recovered enough that it could muse things over, even as my outer ring lost awareness completely. The world started to go fully dark all around me, and I didn’t care at all.

Somewhere, deep inside me, I knew that it was over. The crisis that had threatened to consume all of Vereden in divine malice had been, somehow, averted through a series of last-minute saves.

And I didn’t care. Instead, I was just relieved that my personal struggles were, for the moment, over.

Nerexxa had schemed for years and years to engineer the circumstances that would lead to Rhazal’s awakening, and the possible return of her mistress. Only to be slain at the last minute by an apathetic Lich that had been blackmailed into dealing with her, after previously being turned down by him.

More than she deserved, honestly.

Rhazal had slept for eons, waiting for the day he would be called upon to do his duty once more. I’m not sure if that thing even had real emotions or desires before I killed him, but I couldn’t help but hope he did. It would be a fitting punishment for such an ancient monster, to feel the hopelessness and misery he had likely inflicted on countless others in both the present, and the ancient past.

And Ixiah…

Well, if that had been her at the Stone like I thought it might be…

It seemed like she didn’t care at all about either of their struggles.

I couldn’t help but find the entire thing incredibly ironic. I would have laughed if I had the strength for it.

Instead, my core ring closed my eyes and prepared to drift off into unconsciousness. I couldn’t stave it off any longer. Idly, as darkness closed in, I wondered.

Would I even wake up again? Maybe my injuries from the fall were too much. Maybe the puddle I lay in would grow, and I would drown on dry land in the shallow rain. Here lies the mighty Precursor, bane of Calamities. Slain by precipitation.

Hah…

At the last moment, before the world fled, a faint light pierced my eyelids. I couldn’t open them, but it was warm and comforting. It was as if a ray of sunlight had pierced the clouded skies to shine down upon me and me alone.

It was…nice.

At that, I embraced the darkness once more.

……………………………………..

I almost didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to stay in the cool, comforting nothingness of sleep I had drifted into. No thoughts or worries weighed me down, in this void. No mysterious Spirits intruded upon the vastness of my sleep. No Vampires or Calamities were threatening entire planets, here in my unconsciousness. I didn’t have to wonder if anyone I knew in Elderwyck had survived the chaos of the last few days.

There was only emptiness.

Sadly, I didn’t have a choice.

As if from a great distance, I became aware of a sensation.

I was shaking. No…

I was being shaken. The faintest impression of a hand rested lightly on my shoulder and was trying to draw me from my slumber.

Ah…

Go away…

A voice pierced my comfortable void. “Nate…you…get up…”

That voice was…a bit familiar.

“Nate…fine…” The voice continued, sounding mildly exasperated.

Wait, wasn’t that…Renauld?

That fact pierced straight through both my outer and core rings, sending a bolt of sleep-erasing adrenaline racing down my spine.

Renauld!

My eyes popped open, and I immediately sat up straight from wherever I was. This was a mistake for multiple reasons.

The first was that the world spun around me from the sudden movement, turning the adrenaline that had filled me into stomach-churning nausea.

The second was that my head had instantly collided with the skull of someone else. The only thing I saw in the seconds after opening my eyes was black and white fur.

So…I guess I had headbutted Renauld right after waking up.

My bad.

My core ring thought this was hilarious, as my outer groaned aloud at the unintentional assault, flopping back down onto what felt like a bed. I heard Renauld stumble back from the blow, cursing, as I lay there in mortification. After a moment, I somehow mustered the will to live and opened my eyes once more.

Looking around, I saw that I appeared to be in a…Healer’s…‘shop’? Healer’s office?

It looked more like a repurposed butcher’s shop, honestly. All around me were people in varying states of wellness lying unconscious on cots, lined up neatly against the walls. Some looked to be in…very rough states, to be honest, while others just looked to be unconscious. Some were awake, some were moaning, and moving between them were what seemed to be either harried nurses or overwhelmed volunteers.

Still, they seemed to be handling things well enough.

Speaking of nurses….

It had been Renauld that I had headbutted, alright. The Gnoll was standing next to my own cot and rubbing his head from where I had smacked right into it.

I took in the sight him for just a moment, a bit of relief rolling over me. I…in all of the chaos over the last few days, I had forgotten that Renauld had still been in the city. With the assault on the warehouse, my capture, and then fucking everything with Nerexxa and Rhazal, he just…hadn’t been a priority.

Which I felt honestly terrible about. But thankfully, he seemed to have pulled through the nightmare that had fallen on Elderwyck.

Renauld was wearing his Healer’s robes once more, and they were coated in bloodstains. The Gnoll himself was frankly exhausted looking, which made sense to me. I’m…not sure how long I had been unconscious for, or how I had even been rescued from my deadly puddle, but surely disaster relief had started by now. It made sense that a Healer would find themselves in constant demand after the Revenants had ravaged the twin cities.

I took a deep breath, and with some effort, stood up and approached the Gnoll. He stopped rubbing his head at my approach, looking up just in time to be surprised at what I did next.

I wrapped the fox-like man in a rough hug, letting out a long, relieved breath. “You made it…” I whispered over his head.

Tentatively, Renauld returned the grasp, slumping in his fatigue. “Yeah…” He breathed an entire solemn story in that one word.

“Somehow, we both did…”