The High Level glared at him. The base was shaking steadily now. There were booms coming from upstairs, and the walls were shaking. He could smell the sulfur reek. Was it getting hotter? “The Hell do you think that actually achieved? We tattooed restrictions directly on her. Fuck it. Playtime is over.”

The old lady pulled an amulet, obsidian, mirror polished and etched with orichalcum spell formulae. Incisive screamed a warning and Truth rushed her, firing as he went. The needles bounced harmlessly off her personal wards, as she chanted a fast spell. A portal opened behind her. Truth felt his mind glitch for a moment, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

A place of utter madness. Madness that seemed to poison the air around the portal, like blue cyanide spreading through your water glass. All relations of dimension and morality were inverted, perverted or discarded. The hole in space bulged. Straining the fragile bounds of the real. A tumor grew and burst, spilling a many eyed horror onto the floor.

“KILL.” Her voice was ice cold. Her face a ridgid mask of fury. The obsidian and orichalcum shimmered and twisted in her hands, writhing with nameless, indescribable colors. He could see veins throbbing on her forehead. Whatever it was, it wasn’t obedient by nature. Truth didn’t waste a needle on it and fell back.

He kept the barrage of fire up on the old lady, trying to distract her. It wasn’t effective. She had gotten used to the needles plinking off her.

“You have a good spellbreaker sword, but we are MAGES you murderous little shit. I can shred your soul from the other side of the damn solar system!” She snarled. Truth started nodding at that, then narrowed his eyes.

She… could actually do that. So why wasn’t she? Environmental problem? Unlikely to be concerned about the Shattervoid girl at this point. What else was there?

Truth smiled again. He noticed the vein on her forehead throbbed harder when he did that. The unspeakable mass charged him, rolling with terrible speed. He saw pseudopods beginning to fester and extrude from the main mass. He did the sensible thing and ran.

“Oh, where are you going to run to? You worked so hard to get here!”

The horrible thing was leaving a trail of shattered cement behind it. Heavier than it looked. Lab benches exploded into wood and stone splinters as it brushed past them. A pseudopod burst into the writhing, sickening web of worm-threads it used for hunting. They bunched together, then it launched them at Truth.

Truth feinted right, then kicked hard to the left. As he suspected, the horror could steer its pseudopod even after it attacked. The vile thing shot towards him- and stopped.

Truth stood just behind the sarcophagus, the tip of the Tongue pressed firmly to the lid.

“You have no idea what that is. None.”

“I know there is a reason you are still down here while the base fills with lava and the walls crush in from the sides. It isn’t to oversee the evacuation. It isn’t even to kill me.”

“Oh you just went way, way up the priority list. Believe that.” She snarled.

“I do. I also believe that I will spot your horror there trying to sneakily extend a tendril around the sarcophagus and catch me unawares. Behave. We only have a few minutes left to wait. If that.”

“What’s the play, then, Hell Prince? I can get out of here. It might cost me, but I can punch a hole clean through the side of the mountain and walk out without even mussing my hair.”

Well. Damn. He had actually really hoped this would kill her.

“You, though? A piddly little Level Four body cultivator? You are dead. So what is the point of delaying? Do it. Smash it. See what happens.”

“Alright, bet.” Truth didn’t pull back the blade. The shift in his muscles and weight were lightening fast, but the senior had quick eyes.

“Wait!”

Truth stopped and cocked an eye at her. “I’m dead already, right? Make it worth my time. Keep in mind that I have zero trust in any promises you might make.” The walls were shaking hard now, dust falling steadily. “Two minutes left. Maybe less. Tick tock.”

He plinked a needle off her. She sneered. “You know that won’t work.” He shrugged.

There was a bizarre sound, a sort of CRUMP noise, from up above. “Reckon that some upper floors just collapsed?” He kept his voice conversational. It was pure acting, but since she was pushing the persona of the Hell Prince, he decided to lean into it. Display what she expected to see.

“What do you want? You aren’t getting out of here alive, so what could possibly interest you of all people?”

He shook his head. “Now that is an old game. No, you make me an offer. You can start by pulling back that little horror of yours. Then bid. Either my final act is destroying this box and everything in it, and you know I am fast enough to do that before you get a spell off, or it’s… something else. Something that seems like a better use of my time. Something that hurts Starbrite more than losing this.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Truth could feel the lava creeping in. The seconds ticking away. Come on, come on! How long do you want me to drag this out for?!

“Is that really all this is? You murdered THOUSANDS of people, all to hurt Starbrite?”

“Well. Not only that. Eighty percent? Let’s not pretend that Starbrite the person or the company is something nice. For example, I really don’t care if you try to divine my family. I’m quite sure I’m the last of my line. Hint hint. Speaking of, pretty sure we have less than a minute left for whatever, so. You know. Talk fast.”

“You… Want to kill Starbrite’s family?” She looked at him like he was a moron.

“No. Or, well, yes, but not really a priority.” WILL YOU MOVE YOUR ASS?! I swear I can feel the heat starting to scorch my lungs. He smiled “warmly.”

She growled. “Other than mass murder, I have no idea what you want!”

“Simple. I want the System Astrologica.”

“What.”

“I want the System Astrologica. Haul it out. If I can kill it, I can turn the box over to you. Otherwise it dies with me.”

“I cannot. Literally cannot. It isn’t something I can control. It isn’t something you can stab.” He plinked a couple more needles off her shield, glaring at her.

“Not what I want to hear. It dies or this dies. Pick.”

“I LITERALLY CANNOT YOU LITTLE FREAK! Starbrite himself is the bridge between the System and the world!”

Figured. Hope this was enough time, because I am literally hearing the air burning and it’s more cement dust than oxygen at this point.

“I don’t like that answer. Take two needles from me.”

“Oh fuck you and your dumbass-”

Truth let the clip rip, feeling his magic reserves drop like a stone. With an explosive move, he slammed every offensive spell he could into the Tongue, even letting its bane work on the stone as he smashed it into the sarcophagus. He felt something inside crush. The bane spell set to work. Between it and Obliteration, whatever was inside… well, it wouldn’t be coming out. Ever.

Not that the high level cared. She looked at him in horror, the needles filling her face and head. Her body seemed to crumple in on itself, slowly collapsing to the ground.

Not a spellbreaker sword. And why would I keep doing something pointless? Sorry lady. Next life, learn how to fight.

The amulet spilled onto the ground. The horror lurched. Then, to Truth’s utter horror, it started to get larger. The amulet didn’t just summon it, the amulet restrained it. And now it was on the ground, on the wrong side of an abomination.

He turned and ran towards the back wall. Feet tearing up the uncomfortably warm floor with each explosive step. The lead tablets had mostly fallen off, between the thrown bench and the constant shaking of the wall.

*Almost done! There is one more, just over my heart. Shoot it!* Truth saw the burning tattoo, not really paying attention to the scales it was etched over. Obliteration flashed out, and the intricate brand shattered in a spray of blood and seven colored light.

What do you do when you are overmatched? Same thing he did when the gangsters were kicking the shit out of him when he was twelve. Change the game. He never thought he could beat that senior in a fight. So he cheated.

Not to rush you, but there is a horrible monster coming right goddamn behind me!

Chunks of cement started falling, pieces the size of beds, of carriages, smashing down. Lava started dripping in, consuming what little air there was left. The room quickly became unbearably hot.

*Thank you for believing in me, by the way. I have never tried this before.*

But this is what your whole family does, right? Easy as drinking water, right?!

There was a giggling noise as the worm-net launched by the horror spread through the remainder of the room, writhing and flowing towards him. The lumbering horror was slowed by the lava, but not stopped. This much, at least, wasn’t enough to deter it.

*You wouldn’t believe what we do to drink water. Hold on tight.*

Hold on tight to what!? The worms were flying now, actually clearing the dust and falling cement from the air as they swept towards him.

*No idea. Just generally?*

The world vanished.

What he saw…

The night sky. All of it, the billions of twisting galaxies and burning stars. Those great ones, the mighty eminences, condescending to let some part of their immensity touch this universe. The spinning explosions of light and heat, whirling, whirling, whirling around each other, but from, somehow, the wrong side. He was on the wrong side of the light, of the enormity of the cosmos. He felt his apertures fill and flow, spilling down, filling him as he tried desperately to comprehend what he was seeing. He could barely hang on. His rationality could barely hang on-

Truth was looking at the moon from above. He had never seen the moon from this angle, but it was hard to mistake. He recognized the planet behind it. He had seen pictures taken from space before. Home. His little bundle of rock and spite.

Shouldn’t he… be dead?

*Mr. Medici? Can you hear me, Mr. Medici?*

What? Oh yes. I… seem to be standing in the void, and yet, somehow, aren’t dead. Not the strangest thing today, but still surprising.

The giggling sound came back. *Congratulations on being my very first passenger, Mr. Medici! And you don’t seem crazier than before, so I think I did VERY well!*

You did wonderfully, Sally. Sorry, were you expecting-

*One of several reasons we don’t like carrying lower level passengers is they tend to go loony, yes. But at Level Four I figured you would be… fine…*

Truth had heard his siblings use that tone often enough. He was about to scold her when space twisted and they were no longer alone.

All around him, enormous forms manifested. His mind struggled to understand the vastness of what he was seeing. It was like when he dropped in from low orbit wearing spell armor. The planet was so huge, and somehow it kept getting bigger.

Big beyond any human referent. He could walk for hours and not reach the end of them. Black. Darker black than the shattering void itself. Within that inky blackness was a hollow space, where light seemed to bend and twist into ribbons. There had to be at least a score of them. A sound rose, not shaking the air but the fabric of magic itself. The pressure fell on his mind like waves hammering the shore, like the sun bleaching the moon. He tried to hold on. Sally’s family had found her at last.