Talking with Dee–no, Damian–was painful, yet revealing. We talked for far longer than I expected. So long that Annette’s other allies came back from their scouting trips and joined in. They looked at Jun like a dangerous exotic animal, but once she opened her mouth and introduced herself, they became utterly fascinated with her.

I learned that they thought all Staura were as powerful as Okeria and Inopsy. Considering that the massive lightning strike and Inopsy being unable to die were their only introductions to the species, I could cut them a little slack. In the few hours we were there, I could almost delude myself into thinking that I’d be able to go back to the human lands and forget about everything. Take Jun and all of our allies with us and damn the all-world to its fate.

But The End’s silence said far too much. I asked it for its opinion, and even though I could feel its attention on me, it simply said nothing. Whatever it wanted, it wasn’t going to push that responsibility on me. The Staura and all the other species on the all-world had brought this upon themselves, and The End–along with Stagnation and Flux–were the only ones who could be thought of as responsible.

Just as I couldn’t fully blame them, The End couldn’t justify pushing me to do its dirty work. And as Jun chatted happily with the others, just as mystified with all the other humans as they were with a Staura, I couldn’t bring myself to abandon anyone. Endra had done far too much damage to be left alone. She would bring it to humanity eventually, and even if I helped make them as powerful as possible, they wouldn’t get out of it unscathed.

I came to my decision, which was to stick to my guns and waver off of what I saw. I nodded at Damian, then at Annette, and walked out of the tent. Annette followed a second later, but Damian took almost a full minute to pull aside the tarp and show his face.

“You didn’t want to say this in front of everyone?” Damian quietly asked as he led us away from the camp. “Does it put all of us in danger?”

“We’re all in danger anyway, but I guess so.” I said with a shrug. “The truth is that we’re fighting an Embodiment. Probably multiple. And the only way to kill an Embodiment for good is with another Embodiment.”

Annette nodded in confirmation. “My Embodiment said the exact same thing. I asked if a chosen would do, but no–apparently only an Embodiment can kill an Embodiment.”

Damian grimaced. “So that means we’re about to jump into a war with monsters that put nukes to shame. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, since this armor is both a medical and a military marvel, but it’s a little too early for those kinds of world-ending stakes, don’t you think?”

{Not if the world has an absurdly long history.} Jun said through my communicator. I’d turned it on so she could hear, but that didn’t go both ways. {Does he understand that this world’s been populated for hundreds of thousands of years? Because that kind of thing can really change your point of view.}

I didn’t know if Damian knew that, but from the way his face was set with resolve, it didn’t matter. He complained, just like he always did, but he was ready to do anything that needed to be done. In that way, he hadn’t changed. One of the only ways.

“We’ll have to find all of humanity’s chosen. Each Embodiment should only have one at this point, which makes it so much harder, especially if more of them are like Dylan.” I sneered, then composed myself. “Uh, long story short he was a dickhead. He pretty much killed a good number of our allies’ friends and family, so I killed him. Hopefully that won’t happen with too many of the other chosen.”

Damian crossed his arms and leaned against a tree with a huff.

“Harsh. But it sounds like he got what was coming to him. Question–how’d he find himself all the way out here? And follow-up question: what happens if the chosen we’re looking for got dispersed across the all-world like you or this Dylan guy?”

Okay, that was a very good point that I hadn’t even thought of. And one that I couldn’t actually dispute. I didn’t know how many of humanity’s chosen were confined to human lands, how many had left like Garrett and Annette, nor how many had been spawned in all across the all-world. It would put a massive kink in our plan if humanity’s endurance chosen was somewhere in another species’ lands.

“I can’t guarantee that we’ll find them, but this is by far the best–and the safest–way to do this. I’ve got a trinket that can change where the entrances and exits for a hazard lead to. If we find one around here with a distinct entrance and exit, then find another in human lands, I can effectively teleport people around. As long as the hazard doesn’t take that long to clear.”

“We’ll also need it to be fairly low level.” Annette chimed in. “That way we won’t have to worry about anyone’s hazard tolerance.”

I nodded. “That too. It’ll also serve as an evacuation tunnel if Endra decides she wants to come back and claim Rainbow Basin with her entire army, but there’s one pain point. I have to clear both hazards, which means I have to make the long trek all the way back to human lands.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“That’ll take a long while.” Damian said.

Annette shook her head. “It might’ve taken us a long time, but if Sebastian only takes Jun and Mortician, they’ll be able to get there in a fifth of the time.”

“But then how will they be able to clear the hazard?”

Annette and I shared a knowing look while Jun giggled over the communicator.

“That won’t be a problem.” I said with a smile. “What will be a problem is everyone in this camp. I’m not going to force anyone into anything, but even if they say they don’t want to help, they’re going to have to live here for a while before I can send them back to human lands. Can you go around and tell everyone the plan tomorrow?”

“No need. Everyone here left for one reason or another, so none of us are that psyched to go right back to humanity’s warm embrace.” Damian said with a hint of bitterness. “You saw how they reacted to Jun. Now imagine that they get to live in an alien city with a bunch of powerful people just like her. It isn’t a punishment–it’s a prize.”

I guess that made sense. People didn’t just leave the safety of their homes for no reason, after all.

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. Annette, what do you want to do? Stay here with Inopsy or come back with me?”

“I…” Annette looked longingly at Rainbow Basin, then turned to me. “Shouldn’t that be an easy choice? Why am I struggling with this?”

“Because he’s like you.” I said seriously. “If you want to stay here, Okeria and Acasiana will make sure you’re looked after. Hell, Okeria might even be able to help you with your problem. Or someone else could. They’ve got a lot more experience with this world than we do.”

“Then I’ll stay here for now. I have a feeling I’ll get stronger with them than if I went with you, so when you finally connect the hazards, I won’t be as much of a burden to you.” Annette said with resolve. “And if you need me to, I can try talking to the other chosen you find. They might not have the best views of you in particular, after all.”

I furrowed my brows at that. “What? I know you and maybe one other chosen might have problems with me, but I thought that’d be it.”

“Oh, no, your group was pretty damn famous before this.” She shot Damian a look, but he didn’t seem to notice. “You were the highest tolerance group out of literally everyone, and even though we weren’t a cohesive group of chosen, I kind of had feelers out literally everywhere. A kind of moss in every corner sort of thing. Some people idolized you, others were jealous, and a whole lot were frustrated that you were ‘taking the prizes’ they were owed.”

“Fucking wonderful.” I sighed in frustration. “You couldn’t have told me this earlier?”

Annette shrugged. “I didn’t think it mattered. Then when I learned it really mattered, we were already kind of in the middle of a short lived war. It slipped my mind until now.”

“Damn. Well, I guess that makes this more than a little difficult. But not impossible. If they can’t put their personal grudges aside to fight the hostile takeover of the world, then we’ll just have to find another way to get to their Embodiments.”

{Another way? Then you have a plan to get the Embodiments down from wherever they are?} Jun asked. {Why didn’t you tell me?}

{Because I don’t. Just some theories that probably won’t work out in the end. The same ones you helped me come up with.} I replied, even though I knew she was just baiting me. {We’ll find a way, don’t worry.}

{Oh, I’m not worried. We already know one way to do it, and if the chosen are horrible people like Dylan, then I won’t lose any sleep when their embodiment emerges from their corpse like a cocoon.} She said bitterly. {If we end up killing Endra with an Embodiment that got down to the all-world in the exact same way she did, then wouldn’t it be poetic justice?}

{It’d be disgusting. And I’d feel sick for the rest of my life.} I said flatly. {So we’ll call that ‘plan Z’, and we’ll only use it if we exhaust ‘A’ through ‘Y’ first.}

I could hear her shrug. {Suit yourself. But if they’re Dylan levels of horrible, then they’ll deserve it.}

Deserving or not, I never wanted to see anything like Endra’s emergence happen again. It was so viscerally disturbing, and with the fact that she took over Nia’s face and powers, it might mean that we could end up with an Embodiment that was weaker than me.

And that would spell disaster.

“Is he listening to us?” Damian asked, stirring me from my conversation with Jun. “Or is he using that communicator thing you let me use a few days ago?”

“Communicator, sorry.” I apologized. “Well… I guess that’s it for now. I’ll make sure Okeria has a nice enough place for all of you to live, and everyone who wants to get stronger can clear hazards around here. There are a few Staura that seem like they’ll want to help, but in general, they’re… not really into the whole armor thing.”

Damian and Annette both looked at me like I had two heads.

“How can someone be ‘not into the whole armor thing’?” Annette asked. Damian nodded vigorously in agreement.

“It’s like a miracle in a can. How can anyone not want to constantly be inside of theirs?”

I sighed and shook my head. “It’s complicated, and I don’t really know the whole story. Talk to Acasiana if you want a historical take, and Okeria if you want a more recent one. Now.”

I held out a teleportation anchor and dropped it into Damian’s waiting hands.

“You’re going to come with me. We’ve got one Garrett to discuss in private.”