Cassius gazed up at the eclipse and panicked for the Mind sigil had vanished.

”And so it begins…” Silas muttered.

”And so what begins!?” Cassius snapped.

”Finality.” Silas whispered.

Cassius felt his blood run cold as his eyes stayed fixed on the eclipse which dangled above him.

Silas gazed out at the eclipse which had just begun to set beyond the horizon. Before him lay an endless abyss, of which he had no hope of crossing.

”If this is some kind of loop, then just what kind of loop is this?” Silas asked himself.

He smiled and gazed into the chasm before throwing himself down into its depths. Silas could only feel the air rush past him for but a moment as he returned to solid ground.

”So, this is a causal loop. Well then, perhaps I can escape this place after all.” Silas chuckled.

Silas drew his sword and used it to create two portals. One of them was in front of him and the other behind him. The one in front of him would send him backwards 2 hours. While the one behind him would send him forward 3 hours. Entering the first portal would exit him at the second, advancing time by 1 hour. Once he had stepped through both portals, the distance between the two would start to decrease at an exponential rate. Using this method he could escape his prison, or at least that was what he hoped for.

James smiled and walked through the first portal and the eclipse dipped further below the horizon. Yet again he stepped through the portal as the eclipse vanished beneath the horizon. Silas stepped through the portal a third time as the stars began to appear in the sky. He stepped through the portal a fourth, and final time, and found himself staring back at the eclipse once more.

Silas fell to his knees as tears poured down his cheeks, he had won. Slowly he rose to his feet and walked towards the chasm again. Only this time his feet found purchase on the thin air which hung over the abyss. He smiled and strode towards the horizon. The closer he was to the horizon, the less it seemed like the horizon. For the eclipse which hung in front of him almost seemed to wave in the wind. Silas shrugged and put his left hand against it and when he did, he felt warm cloth. So, he smiled and happily tore away the curtain in front of him. Upon tearing away the veil he was met with a pale white void.

So Silas stepped through and into the void. Ayir Halak could just barely be seen from his current position, so James calmly strode towards him. James drew his pistol as he approached Finality’s Reaper who was being held at the end of his own scythe. Silas chuckled and slowly walked over to face Halak whose pupils dilated upon noticing the revenant.

”Are you not still living? If so, then why do wander the prison of the damned?” Halak inquired.

“I fell, though unlike you, I managed to break free!” Silas hissed.

”And yet you ended up here did you not?” Ayir Halak chided.

“And yet you are still trapped here, are you not?” Silas mocked.

Ayir Halak nodded, and James glanced over to the scythe’s current wielder. He smiled upon noticing that Benedict was the one holding Finality’s Reaper hostage. Silas whistled, followed by a bow. before pressing his pistol against Halak’s forehead. Above them, Cassius continued to gaze at the eclipse whose sigils were starting to fade. He fell from his trance once he heard Silas whistling.

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Cassius quickly looked around him yet saw no one, then he focused his attention downward. He cracked a halfhearted smile upon noticing James who stared back up at him. Cassius’s eyes darted from Silas to the creature in front of him to the man holding the creature by the blade of the scythe. He stopped for a moment to ponder just what he was to do in this scenario. After a moment he hastily drew his revolver and aimed it at the creature.

Ayir Halak smiled and muttered something under his breath. His form turned to mist as he darted upwards towards Cassius who opened fire on him. The bullet zipped out of the chamber and shattered the floor beneath him. Cassius scrambled to solid ground as Ayir Halak exited through the opening. Silas caught the bullet and removed his own from the chamber before drawing his sword.

“Stay here, ok?” Silas asked, looking at Benedict.

”He’ll tear you both to pieces! You need me!” Benedict pleaded.

Yet James did not look at him and opened a portal back to the Abyss before stepping through to the other side. Once he was back on true ground again, Silas tossed Cassius’s bullet back to him. His humanity caught the round and loaded it into the chamber. The two of them proceeded to simultaneously aim their revolvers towards Ayir Halak. Halak, who was staring up at the eclipse, payed no attention to the pair.

Silas gazed up at the eclipse and saw that the last sigil had just finished from its face. He smiled, looked at Cassius, and nodded before readying his revolver. Halak finally lowered his head and stared down at the duo, cackling as he did. Cassius and James both groaned in unison before opening fire on Finality’s Reaper.

Halak failed to react to the bullets which were speeding straight towards him. Once they pierced his flesh no pain signal was transmitted to his brain. Halak could barely comprehend what had happened in that moment. When the bullets returned to their chambers the duo holstered their revolvers. Cassius stared at Halak’s corpse which had just begun to sprout roots out of it. Silas whistled once more and called a ring to his location. He motioned for it to pierce through the roots of Ayir Halak’s corpse and to bury him in his prison below.

Silas looked down at Benedict who stared back at him and solemnly nodded his head. The ring then proceeded to coil its chain around Halak’s corpse and flip him over. The knife on the end of the chain then pierced through the roots of the tree which Halak’s corpse had just started to become. Silas guided the ring down the hole into the prison which was sealed up behind it. Benedict watched as the ring proceeded to embed itself in the ceiling. Thus, giving the illusion that a tree was growing from the ceiling of this realm.

Silas smiled and opened a portal to Bethyinine’s domain. Cassius hastily ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulder.

”What’s wrong with you!?” Silas growled.

”I was going to say the same about you.” Cassius answered.

”What, you want me to stay here with you and fend off whatever emerges from there!?” Silas hissed before pointing at the eclipse.

”Well that was what I thought you were going to do. But no, you’re just going to run off like the coward you are!” Cassius chided.

“I’d prefer to be alive for the time being, thank you very much!” Silas insisted.

Cassius sighed and watched as James walked through the portal leaving him all alone. Alone to face down whatever could possibly emerge from beyond the eclipse above him. Franky, he shuddered just thinking about what could be locked up beyond that celestial body. He stared at it one last time and noticed that it was perfectly intact. Cassius breathed a sigh of relief before sitting down on the ground. He smiled and started to whistle Chopin’s Funeral March. After a while Cassius changed the tune and began to whistle a loose version of Lacrimosa. He sat there and pondered what would happen once this was all over. Perhaps James would let him be his own person, perhaps not.

Either way Cassius would still be content so long as he was still alive. The longer he sat, the more the sense of lingering dread started to build up inside him. Cassius tried to keep it at bay for as long as he possibly could. Yet he was swiftly overwhelmed as the dread burrowed deep into him. It burrowed far down into both his mind and his very soul. Cassius in this moment was completely paralyzed with fear. His mind and soul had just been raptured before him. The only thing he had some control over was his body. Even then the amount of control which he had over it was very little.

Little by little the dread began to infect his body. First his legs succumbed to the overwhelming fear. Then his chest followed suit. Next were his arms which fell to the floor like limp noodles. Finally, the paranoia wrestled control of his mind from him. Fear quickly gripped his heart whose beating only increased as the fear spread through him. The last thought on his mind before the paranoia took over was, oddly enough, an overwhelming urge to scream. So, Cassius raised his head to the heavens and opened his mouth.

Yet no sound came from him, for the world was barren and void…