There is no rest for the wicked. While the techno-gnostics had been in a state of tension against the temple for time out of mind, things were now coming more to a head. They were beginning to prepare for the final push, as they believed that they were getting close to the ultimate development of the white lotus. So while they had done several missions in the last few weeks, including the retrieval of the midnight sun, they were already once again at work.

The final preparations for the current mission were now underway. Isaac was put in charge of both locating the pathway to the ouroborous as well as opening the ether bridge. Although he had only been with the techno-gnostics for a short period, in the past, he had a lot of books and time to study the ether network, and so he obtained quite a large knowledge of it theoretically, even if at the time not yet practically. So, applying this knowledge, once he obtained access, he quickly became an expert at maneuvering it. And so, in short order, had become quite proficient at it.

The ether network was the practical aspect of the Noosphere. Using an ether drive, you could manipulate the ether flow in order to do certain things, like interact with an esoteric space. It was however, by its nature, unpredictable. It was possible in theory to use the ether network to do things like generate a kind of explosion or other tangible esotericisms, but the truth is that it was not very practical to do so most of the time. Since there are few situations in which even most skilled users are going to find it more convenient to do this as a weapon rather than simply using a gun. And you might get some strange looks if you were to try.

But as Isaac himself was very adept at using it, he was a useful partner to help Mei on missions now to cover these more esoteric needs, as well as often providing gun backup. Although for this mission as he was necessary to control the link from the outside, he would not be able to follow her in. So they set up a place to establish a link in a safe house, and many others were there with them as defense. Because they were going to need it.

Mei was laying on the table, waiting for transfer. Isaac stood over her, holding the tablet. Isaac was much shorter than Mei, being rather small and effeminate. He always spoke with a soft voice and was often very skittish, although he could be matter of fact when he needed to.

“As you know, the ouroborous compass isn't even located within our universe. It will be difficult to scope the sea of possibility in order to establish a link for adjusting it. Since it is not even being done in real space. You will, in essence, be being transferred to a constructed space. It could be dangerous for you if our link is broken.

"However, the space looks to be unstable now. So we will likely only have one shot at this. Once we establish the link, if we don't see it through, we won't get another chance, since it will likely cause the space to destabilize. And if that happens, we won't have a way to interface with the compass.

“It is going to take a lot of ether to establish the connection. Most likely, if we use this much, the temple will notice basically right away. So once you are in, you will be on your own. Since we are almost certainly going to get attacked fairly quickly after establishing it.

“If we have to abandon this location, the bridge will likely collapse with it. And if this happens, there is a chance you will be trapped or worse, unless we can re-establish the connection. In essence, we will have to play it by ear.”

He looked at his tablet.

“We have some time though, still, before we are ready. Maybe fifteen minutes.”

Mei stared at the ceiling.

“I see.”

Some other people were coming in and out of the room, nervously looking out the window. There wouldn't be anyone out there since they hadn't yet established the link. But being in such a situation naturally put some people on edge. They knew what was coming, even if not when.

Isaac sat back, fidgeting nervously and dropping his more serious demeanor.

“This mission is dangerous. You really shouldn't be the one going in.”

Mei looked up, staring into the ceiling.

“It being dangerous is why it has to be me. Because I am the only one who can.”

Isaac made a sad expression.

“You don't sound like you are saying that with much of a sense of pride.”

She looked over at him blankly.

“Pride? It's not like I am the way I am because I alone got here with radical libertarian free will and my own determination. In a sense, I was born this way. Many expend just as much effort as me. But they will never be able to do the things I can. It's not because I am superior in any kind of moral sense. It's just the roll of the dice.”

She closed her eyes.

“You could say that purpose is a prison of its own. I do this because I must.”

He looked at her sadly.

“But you chose your own life. You are here because you chose to be. You didn't have to come this far.”

She thought about it.

“That's true. But it was the only choice I could have made. Perhaps even your will is predetermined. If I didn't do this, many people would have been abandoned and left to suffer. If no one else can do this, then it is me who would be leaving them to die.”

She looked at him.

“Could you abandon them?”

He looked away in shame because he knew he couldn't.

He thought about how there is a certain difficulty in admiring someone for what they do when what they do is dangerous. Because it creates a paradox where you are afraid to lose them. But if they weren't in this danger, they would never have been the person you are afraid to lose.

It reminded him of another story he had heard recently relating to the group that was operating out of the midnight sun. About the death of a techno-gnostic named Julius Kai in the process of retrieving the Epinoia key. And how this was what drove his friend, the breakaway Weihong, crazy, leading him to start this borderline death cult.

Isaac thought about what it would be like if Mei were to die. He was with the techno-gnostics in part to help people. But also, in part, to be closer to her. Could he handle staying if she wasn't there anymore? Would he go crazy too if he saw her die in front of him?

Isaac didn't have any romantic feelings towards Mei. And not just because of the fact that his inclinations leaned in the opposite direction. But because he viewed her more like an older sister. This being besides the fact that he was technically older than her, even if his mind and body didn't show it. It was a kind of perhaps overly obsessive relationship based on what she meant for him, and what she did for him in the past. Perhaps not entirely healthy. But then again, who is?

“I'm just saying. I feel like you don't take good enough care of yourself.”

She held her arm up.

“I take care of myself. I... ate a salad today.”

He made a deflated face.

“That's not what I...

“...

“What was in the salad?”

Mei looked suddenly caught and looked away to avoid meeting his eyes.

“Um... health. Healthy stuff.”

“What type of salad was it, Mei?”

She waved her arm.

“Let's move on.”

He sat in silence for awhile. Like there was something else he wanted to bring up, but was worried about doing so openly. Mei didn't normally talk like this. But this wasn't the only self-depreciating thing she had done lately.

“But... for real. I... saw what you did the other day.

“I saw you notice a guard take a swing at you with a knife. You looked, and when you noticed that it wouldn't be a lethal stab wound, you didn't move. I know you had time to.”

Mei, still looking away from him, was silent. He continued on.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to notice. But... I know what you were doing. Do you... want to talk about it?”

“No.”

He looked away sadly. And they both sat there, feeling a bit awkward. After a pause, she looked back at him.

“Do you... trust me?”

He spoke back with a soft voice.

“Mei, I would follow you to the ends of the earth.

“But sorry. I don't always trust your judgment.”

She looked back up at the ceiling.

“Good. Because my judgment is not always correct.”

He leaned back.

“Mei, you're not alone anymore. You have people who care about you too. And you should also make sure to care about yourself. I just... I worry sometimes. About you.”

She closed her eyes without looking back at him.

“I know. Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Is this because... it's getting closer to the time where you will have to confront your family?”

“...Yes.”

“Well. When I had to do the same, there was someone there for me. So if you need anything, just know that there is also someone there for you.

"You've been preparing this for a long time. And we will soon be entering the final stretch. But I am glad to be here with you. As you begin the march to the final battle.”

She thought about it for a moment. And then looked at him and smiled.

“Thank you. It means a lot.

She closed her eyes once more to lean back.

“Maybe this is fate. In the end, you are the one who has to look out for me once again.”

“No. I do this because I choose to. And because... good lord, you aren't good at doing it for yourself.

“Heh. Maybe so.”

He held up the beeper as it started going off. And signaled to the teams in the other room.

“Okay, it's time.”

Mei looked up to the ceiling, determined.

“Punch it.”

----------------------------------------

Streams of light rushed past Mei as she fell through the tunnel, feeling a rush of wind and a swirl of colors engulfing her. The tunnel itself was a construct made from tessellations of light to provide a path resembling normal space leading into the esoteric space on the other side. But despite this, the tunnel itself was not true space and did not share all of its properties.

She looked out the side of the tunnel. Out beyond the luminescent walls, you could see into the abstractions beyond the three-dimensional universe. This was the sea of possibility. The primordial nature of Tian, which consists of all the potentialities of existence for actual occasions. As it moved past, it morphed through shapes that, to a limited human mind, were beyond comprehension, as thin tendrils of color and shapes akin to mathematical abstraction twisted and moved in flux. For beyond this barrier was that which was never designed to be traversed by living entities. For a brief moment, she felt she could see the aspects of the extradimensional expanse which intersected into a compactified form, giving rise to limited three-dimensional reality.

But... maybe it was just her imagination.

Time began to lose linear meaning. She checked her counter quickly as she fell, only to see that it could not be read. For time was moving not merely forward but sideways in a way that defied measurement by human instruments. The speed of her movement was no longer definable in human terms. It was because of this that the journey would be perilous. For it was going to be no easy task to traverse through the tunnel from here on out, especially without your feet on solid footing.

But they had predicted this. An immediate concern was that time moving perpendicular to the normal flow risked pulling her in. And if this happened, then, from the sea of possibility, what might come out on the other side may end up bearing no resemblance to her standard self, ending as a scramble of inert, unmanifested abstraction. She tilted backwards against the flow, balancing her velocity against it. And as she did, she could see the silhouetted images flow off of her of the endless possibilities of time. Tesselating realities of the different paths her life could have taken.

There was no distance to the depth you can see from the tunnel, for this path did not operate by the rules of normal space. So though it pained her, and against her better judgment, she looked off into the end of infinity to see a possibility where her life had contained less of the pain that she knew so well. This possibility being a world where her family had loved her. In such a world, she may have never picked up a sword. And she would have been at peace. Seeing this, she reached out for it inadvertently. But then she hesitated. It wasn't real. It was only an illusion. But there was something more. In this possible world, there was no one to fill her role. Isaac was never saved. There was no one to carry them forward to the final battle. She nodded to herself in realization and then leaned back, pulling these out of view.

But she did not have time to rest. For the tunnel was quickly breaking and filling with cross bars that cracked across its fabricated space. She quickly tilted to the side to avoid running into these. But they spread in all directions, for the abstract dimensionality of the tunnel made it so that its linear path did not look like a single direction. She tilted back and forth between these barriers, which, if she bumped into them, most likely pull her out of the tunnel entirely and into the abstract brane space from which there could be no return.

She leaned forward, feeling like she was on fire. The tunnel was shaking. And she needed to get to the end before it spun her out into the void. But ultimately, she broke through. And in time, she came out the other side. And landed in something that looked closer to normal space.

She stood up to get her bearings and look around. She was met with shock as she did so. They did not entirely know what to expect from the simulated spacetime that surrounded the ouroborous. For although it was hypothesized to have an analogue of one, it was assumed that it would be composed of wholly alien structures that bore no resemblance to the human world, being composed of just a mishmash of meaningless data that she would have to structure into an interface.

But what she found was not like that at all, looking more like the ruins of a large city. One not unlike one that would be seen in the human world. But the sky was pitch black, having no moon or stars within it. Giving the sky an appearance almost like a low ceiling or depth of water. The city too had little in the way of lights still operating within it, looking like most of what had been there had run down and fizzled out.

But what made the city come off as ruins did not appear to be on account of age. For it looked more like large chunks of the reality had simply faded away. Large portions of the ground were gone. Not exactly a hole, but simply void. And what little remained of the land and buildings looked as if it were dissolving, trailing listlessly into the starless sky.

And it was quiet. Deathly quiet. One could tell at a glance that there was no life here. Whatever reflection of normal life might have spawned here was long gone. For the world no longer had the capacity to sustain it. It was conferred only to the dark reaches of memory. Or perhaps not even memory. For there was no one here to remember it.

Mei thought about this. And she felt sad. She was here outside the bounds of reality. But it seemed like there were, at one time, real people living here. And they must not have been here long. Just the blink of an eye. They must have seen their small, self-contained world ending, yet been unable to do anything about it. And whenever it happened, there was no one else who knew about them enough to save them. Would it have even been possible had anyone known? Or was their existence region-locked to this abstract space in a way that would not have allowed them to traverse to the normal universe?

Either way, it didn't matter now. It was too late. They were all gone.

There was an idle fountain in front of her that had run dry. On top of it was some kind of statue. But it felt nondescript. Like the type of thing you might see in a dream or a machine attempt to recreate art. She wondered if this was built by the actual denizens of the place. Or whether it was some type of phantasm that emerged wholesale when the space did. Maybe the question had no meaning. For if the people and the space are one, it becomes a paradox of causality where the origin point of the endless cycle cannot be defined.

She felt lonely. She was perhaps further now in a sense than any human had ever been. Even if only by a technicality. But she felt a bit guilty for feeling this way, standing on the graves of countless people who had it worse than she. And she could see now that there were various shapes on the ground around her, like abstractions. They looked like glitched bodies. The remnants of a world that had forgotten its own internal logic as it started to break down.

Lonely...

That reminded her that she was here for a purpose. She didn't have time to sight-see. She tuned her radio frequency to the metrics they were going to use for communication. Even though she wasn't in normal space, they could still communicate through the link if they knew what frequencies they were going to use. That, at least, was one thing they still had going for them.

She put her fingers up to the side of her head.

“Come in, Isaac. I arrived okay. Just barely.”

She waited for a response. But it was long in coming. Since this was a timed activity, she would have to move forward even if there was no response. Although that would make it much more difficult if she lacked more precise instructions on what to do.

----------------------------------------

Isaac walked to the window. Now that Mei was on the other side, there was nothing to do in the immediate interval until she checked in or until they got attacked. There was a small chance that their activities would go unnoticed, and the temple guards would not come at all. But he knew better. The guards may take some time to collect before rushing. But they would be here. The best they could hope for is to hold them off. Or possibly that Mei returns before the guards even got here, and they could abandon the area, leading the guards to rush into an empty building.

They chose a secluded building for this in the hopes no one else would be caught in the crossfire. But they were still in the city. The temple would not risk nuking a building that was so overtly visible. And it is unlikely they would want to anyway, because they most likely would want to take the portal to get access to the ouroborous. They would likely only turn more aggressive and try to take everything down if they realized they were not going to get a chance to reach it themselves.

Outside the window, the streets looked still. He walked back to take a look at the instruments. Everything looked normal. So he walked out to the stairwell to talk to Captain Jack.

At the stairwell, he looked down. They had several people stationed on each floor at various points to make an ascent difficult for any potential invaders. Doing this several floors up was theoretically sketchy, but it did afford more possible avenues of escape if it came to it. Although a more accurate way to phrase the coming events would likely be when it came to it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Captain Jack was out, standing next to the rail with his arms crossed. Isaac went out to lean on it.

“Anything yet?”

“We don't have anything. Right now, it's just a waiting game.”

Jack shot him a sly grin.

“How about you, though? Have you been getting out there?”

Isaac acted flustered. Jack was trying to ask him about dating. In truth, Isaac hadn't felt okay dating before recently. On account of his stunted aging, Isaac looked and acted much younger than he was, coming off as effeminate and barely adult. He often said that it was a strange feeling, feeling like you were both too old and too young for someone at the same time.

“Well, the people I talked to do tend to seem a little weirded out when they realize I am technically older than them. But I suppose that there is probably someone who will like it.”

He sighed.

“Although... there is the other matter. What we do is dangerous. It feels like it would be dishonest to not clarify that I might just vanish one day. Die suddenly, and they never hear from me again. Come and go. Disappear into the void.

“But of course, one can't be too clear on that matter either, for secrecy. But I suppose I don't have to explain all that to you. It's just that I don't feel good having secrets. You know?”

Jack took the cigarette out of his mouth.

“Some people choose to stay disconnected. But there can be a sense of hypocrisy in this if you don't advocate it for others. Just be warned; most people might not like it if more of your life is dedicated to something other than them.”

Isaac thought to himself.

“Other than them...”

He thought this over. There is a dark side to living a life that can make normal relationships difficult. It can come with a sense of isolation. And this is only compounded when you are already someone looking for a type of relationship that is still viewed negatively by many in society, even if it is getting better.

But he didn't have long to think. An explosion rang out on one of the floors. He looked at it confused for a moment before realizing that the intruders weren't even coming from the bottom but had managed a surprise attack by quickly bridging the wall to the building next door. They had lookouts, but they must have managed to establish the bridge in mere seconds.

The soldiers down on the third floor began retreating upwards. Isaac and Jack quickly pulled out their assembled sniper rifles to provide cover. But before they could easily react, the third floor was quickly overrun, and the guards held up shields to block bullets from higher up as they began picking off people on lower floors from above. If the people on lower floors ran out, it would likely be into an ambush, wouldn't it?

He thought this over quickly. No, it couldn't be an ambush. Since they were doing a sneak attack, they likely expected people to think there were guards outside. But there couldn't be, since that would have given them away.

He pulled back and ran over to Jack.

“They should evacuate beneath it and bring down the third floor. With no stairs, they will have a difficult time getting up higher. And they already gave away their trick. We can drop the floor without risking dropping the higher ones.”

Jack quickly looked over the edge. He was skeptical of this plan, but he tended to defer to Isaac. He radioed it in.

Isaac watched as the bottom floor members scattered and set off the lower explosives. The floor caved in, and with it, a lot of temple guards got caught, and it looked like they were now struggling to figure out how to get up the stairs amidst the crossfire. This would buy them some time.

But his heart sank slightly. Because the guards had mobile spider tanks with them, that quickly skittered past the fallen rubble. While larger spider tanks were built for defense, these ones were built for mobility. Some made a leap across the fallen stairwell and then shot back a harpoon that could be used to create a new bridge. Isaac tried to pick them off before this bridge could become useful. But they had shields to hold up, blocking his bullets. A vibro saber would be able to cut through them easily, but he was not Mei. He didn't trust himself to be able to get over there and cut them down by hand. And she wasn't here to help them.

But he needed to buy time. The guards were already climbing the cords. So Isaac ran over, dodging the fire from the tanks, and slid to the edge of the stairwell. He didn't have an explosive on him, but he used the ether drive to call an explosion up and drop the edge of the stairwell. As the edge collapsed, the spider tanks lost their footing and fell with it. He looked down as the tanks fell, hoping that they would get crushed on the bottom. But he could see that only two of them did, and so this wouldn't buy that much time. He ducked and rushed back before he was back in the line of fire.

Captain Jack slowly moved over to him, shooting over the edge.

“Call it. Do we hold, or go?”

Isaac looked down, hesitating. If they close the portal, they might never be able to rescue Mei and would lose the ouroborous. But if they stay, they might all die. He wondered if there was a third option. But if so, he had to find it quickly.

----------------------------------------

Mei played with her scanner radar to try to pin down the ouroborous' intersection location. The coordinates were calculated ahead of time, so she shouldn't be too far from it. But it couldn't be precise, and so it would take a bit of walking.

She was already near the edge of the city proper, bordering on what looked like an industrial district. And the radar was taking her deeper in. Much of the ground was gone now, and so it took some clever footwork at times to avoid falling out of the constructed space entirely. All around were dead bodies. Or things that looked like dead bodies, at least. Many had an abstract shape, as if the moment of death made the logic of the world begin to break down, and it was nothing but their minds sustaining it.

With no stars, the whole city was now dark, with only a few neon outside lights still working to light it. So she had to rely on her own light. This might give away her location if anyone was there. But for the moment, there was no life in the entire world. Finding that there were bodies of people here made her wonder if there would be any still alive. But at this point, it seems that they were all long dead. But they were stationary there in time, as with their passing, time had stopped, and so the world did not keep turning, waiting only to fade away.

She got a call on her radio finally. She had wondered when that would happen. And she had been slightly concerned that they would not be able to make contact. She tuned in.

“M... We had to.. ab....on... …......ard.... … af... …...... cove.. your face.”

“Hello? Are you there?”

She couldn't get a good read. But the radio went dead once again. And she knew that she was likely to be on her own for awhile.

But that's not all. She got the message. They had to abandon the portal, but it was still open. She covered her face and turned around. As she did, the portal shifted and was redirected closer to her. And out from it landed five temple guards. Or, rather, five living ones. For alongside them, several bodies fell. And she suspected that more than five had entered the portal on the other side.

One of them was looking around, dazed and confused. One of the others tried to shake them to get their attention. But they seemed non-responsive.

But there was no time to think about that. They had noticed Mei. And so the four soldiers left behind the one and started to chase after her. She shut off her light and switched to night vision. It wasn't safe to walk around a place like this with no light, but she didn't want them to be able to trace her using it.

She thought about the number of guards. Even though they were elite fighers, four would not be impossible to swing in a fight. But this wasn't a place she wanted to risk it. And the larger issue was that, for all she knew, more would quickly be coming. So she ran. Hoping that at the very least this would cause them to be separated, making them easier to pick off one at a time if it came to it.

Bullets sped by her. She drew her gun and shot back to keep them from advancing further. Their exoskeletons would likely prevent the bullets from doing much damage at long range. But they still wouldn't be eager to take the shots head-on. And they would likely be able to tell quickly that they were dealing with someone who was a decent shot. Even though she needed to keep herself unknown to them.

She got another radio message. This time, more clear.

“Mei, are you there? We had to abandon the location. There were too many of them.”

She ducked behind a barrier and shot over it.

“Little busy. But yeah, I heard you. Stay in touch if you can.”

“Most of them didn't follow us. We are fighting the last ones off, but they were more interested in the barrier. We left the barrier open, hoping the remainder would get caught inside. Be careful.”

She had some distance between her and the guards now, and it looked like one of them was damaged enough that they stopped following. Although unfortunately for her, she saw two more now in the distance, implying that more guards were spewing in. Her plan to pick them off slowly would not be as useful when it was possible they were replenishing themselves at a rate faster than she could fight. And if she sustained any injury that slowed her down too much, it would likely all be over.

She turned forward again to run ahead, but then stopped dead in her tracks. For what was in front of her was like nothing she had ever seen. Its shape defied understanding, and while it looked like it was some kind of living entity, its nature didn't seem to conform to the logic of normal space, having long tendrils sticking out of it at angles that seemed impossible.

“W-what is that? Is that a demon of Sakras?”

She quickly sent a scan back to Isaac.

“What exactly am I looking at?”

There was a short gap before he responded.

“Um... I don't. I don't think that is related to Sakras.”

There was a pause.

“In fact... there doesn't seem to be anything like it on record. What.. what exactly is that thing?”

“That's what I was trying to ask you!”

She wasn't sure what to do, being confronted now by something wholly alien and unexpected. She wasn't clear if her weapons would even hurt it. But she realized suddenly that she had forgotten, in her stupor, the advance of the guards. She turned around as they ran up, but they paused, just as shocked as she was. They shot in her direction as she dove out of the way. The unknown screeched loudly, with a sound unlike that of any living creature. And it started bounding toward the guards. They fired at it. But the bullets seemed to have no effect.

It lurched towards them and swatted one of them headlong into the wall, smashing them into it and killing them instantly. The other two saw that their bullets were useless and backed off. It turned to Mei to swat at her, but she took out her vibro-saber, slashing at the tendril. The tendril seemed to phase out, but then another was restored in its place. She wasn't sure if this was actually hurting it. But she didn't want to stay to find out. She backed out of the opening to run around it.

She put her hand to her head.

“It's not from the temple. It was attacking the guards.”

“Well, we have no way to find out what it even is. So try to stay away from it. It might be vulnerable to ether, but that space is unstable, so it might be dangerous to use it since it could collapse the space.”

But as she saw down the ledge, suddenly a shocking sight sprawled before her. Because quite a few more temple guards had gotten in. But they were now no longer able to chase her. For whatever the unknown creature was, there seemed to be more than one of them now. And the guards themselves were in a full-on battle with them. She wasn't sure if this was a curse or a blessing. But she didn't have time to wait and consider this. An unknown bounded towards her from behind, and she dove and held up her blade to run along it. It stumbled and fell over the edge as she kept running along it.

Two of the guards raised their guns to shoot at her as she ducked behind the wall and turned to enter the target building. But on account of being attacked from both sides, she did not have time to dodge both shots. A bullet pierced slightly through her, spurting some blood in the opposite direction. Feeling this, she looked at her jacket, annoyed that she would have to fix the hole in it. If she survived, that was.

On the outside of the facility housing the ouroborous compass there were two dead bodies. But the bodies did not seem to be related to the guards and were already there before their arrival, denizens of this esoteric space. But she did not have long to notice them, because at this point several unknowns were bearing down on her. She ran inside, leaving behind a last message.

“I'm entering the containment zone. Will likely be going dark for the moment.”

This was the place. The link to the ouroborous had to be somewhere in here. But she would still have to find its exact location. She ran through the corridors, dark and winding. The unknowns followed behind her, moving closer. When possible, she dropped anything she could find into their path to slow them down, but it never seemed to hold them for long. Buying her only a few short moments in each instance.

She had considered earlier the possibility of getting too swarmed and needing to retreat. But she had come too far. With the swarm bearing down on her, the only way she could move was forward. It would be no easier to turn around at this point to try to move backwards through an unknown amount of an unknown enemy. One you can't even comprehend, much less easily deal with.

She came to the central vertical corridor of the facility. This should lead down to the core if its structure followed reason. But as it was a phenomenal construct that was a mere reflection of reality, this could not be guaranteed. It being akin to a mishmash of structures from the real world, assembled at random. She looked back. She could run down the stairs, but with the unknowns still behind her, she needed to cut down on time. She needed a faster means of descent. She thought for a moment and then stepped back to take a running jump off the ledge.

She drew her vibro-saber and lodged it into the wall on the far side so that she could use it to slowly drag her down the wall, like a knife through paper. This made her start descending the corridor as if being lowered. The unknowns screamed behind her. She drew her gun and shot in their direction, causing them to flutter and morph, and temporarily take a step back.

She kicked off of the wall when lower down. They might take some time to get down from the higher level if they were confused about where she went. But she still didn't have time to mess around. She could see now that she was likely at the final corridor leading to the core. So she walked up to it. It had blast doors, but these were no match for a vibro-saber in the hands of a good user. She slashed them out of the way and left them behind her as burning rubble.

She walked down the last corridor hesitatingly. While the rest of the facility had no power and was deep in darkness, the room at the end of the lowest basement was well lit. On arriving at the end she could do nothing but stare in amazement. For the core itself was merged with an unknown that had grown giant from drawing energy from it. While the facility was too faded into the void to have power, within the core itself was the compass, glowing brightly, with the tendrils of the creature emanating off of it.

She was caught now between the creature before her and the ones closing in behind her. She didn't know if she even had anything that could hurt them, but she didn't have long to figure out how. Because there was only a single path backwards, and it would quickly become a problem to retreat if she had no safe means to fight against the things that would be coming along it.

The creature screeched at her, swiping at her, and she barely dove out of the way. She took out her gun and shot into it several times, but it had no effect. She turned to the ouroborous and shot at it to see if it could be dislodged, but the bullets faded into the body of the creature. She wasn't sure the blade was useful either. But she would have to come up with something soon.

She looked back down the hallway. The unknowns were were at the bottom level now and finally coming down it after her. Soon they would be in the room, and she would be trapped on both ends. Looking up, she decided that there was only one thing she could do. She would have to make a leap of faith. She backed up. And as the unknowns bore down on her and were about to grab her from behind, she ran and jumped up towards the ouroborous. As she flew through the air, the arms of the creatures reached for her, but she slashed at them with her blade, causing them to back off. She drove her sword into the reactor and flipped up on it to grab the ouroborous link, activating it. She had no way to know what would happen, but it was her only option now.

As the ouroborous lit up, rays of light spread across the room. As the light grew more intense, pulsating with energy, she felt it envelop her. The creatures hissed and recoiled at the brilliance. She looked at them, hoping this would be enough to get rid of them. In whatever means getting rid of them might entail.

Suddenly, the reactor beneath her began to hum, with its sound echoing through the room. She could feel the vibrations through her feet, and the air around her began to shimmer. She could sense that the compass had started to rotate, as esoteric symbols for it appeared in tangible space, the movement of which conferred that the ouroborous itself was rotating.

The room began to shift, the walls warping and bending as if reality itself were being rewritten. She clung to the reactor, her knuckles straining with the effort. The ground beneath her feet vanished, and she could see the void beyond it. She recoiled, trying to keep to the wall to avoid being sucked in, and jumped back to the other side at the first opportunity.

But eventually, everything stopped. She believed she had been successful. But she could not be sure from here whether it had been effective. From the depths of the building, she would likely not be able to radio in. She saw that the unknowns were gone. But they left no bodies. As if they were never there. And she still had no idea what they were and whether they were dead or simply elsewhere. But it mattered little. If they left her alone for now, it was good enough. She swung back to the partition to avoid the missing floor and started climbing back up.

----------------------------------------

Mei climbed back out to the surface. Doing so was fairly uneventful, as it seemed nothing was pursuing her any longer. She wasn't a hundred percent clear whether the surface would be an easier place for them to locate her to make another portal, but she wanted a chance to see it again one last time anyway. For this may be the last time anyone ever did.

She walked out of the facility and onto the ledge. The two bodies of people from this world on the top of it were still there. Over it, she could see that the struggle that had been going on was now over. Whatever the unknowns were, they had disappeared after the ouroborous was taken out of the core. But the temple guards looked like they had all perished struggling against them. Or rather, all but one.

A final guard was standing alone before her. It was the one who she had seen stay behind when the initial group rushed her. And from their insignia on their armored exoskeleton, they seemed like someone who could put up a decent fight and was designated as a captain. This would not necessarily be a problem for her in normal circumstances. But as she was rather injured from the struggle she had just been through and left behind a bit of blood along the way, she considered that fighting could be a concern.

They looked at each other from across the open plateau. And she slowly walked over to them.

But as she approached, they didn't draw their weapon. They looked listlessly at her through their mask, as if uninterested. Realizing this, she dropped her fighting demeanor, seeing that they did not mean to be a threat. And they just stared at each other silently for a time. Under their mask, they conveyed no emotion. But their body language suggested something was off.

To her surprise, the temple guard began to slowly raise their hands to unfasten their helmet and slowly lifted it off their head, before allowing it to clatter to the ground. After which, they let their arms hang. Underneath was a man who looked like there was no more struggle left in him.

She thought about it for a long time. And then, despite the risk, she slowly took off her own mask.

He looked up at her.

“Who... am I?”

She thought about the question. But he spoke again before she could respond.

“Why am I... dressed like a temple guard?”

She considered lying to get him to stand down. But based on his demeanor, she opted to be more straightforward.

“Because you are a temple guard.”

He looked at his hands.

“I am?”

He looked around, and then eventually back at her.

“What is this place?”

She looked around at the quickly fading ground.

“Nowhere. This is a place outside the bounds of the universe. You were sent here on a mission.”

He looked like he struggled to understand what he was hearing.

“I... but... I'm not a temple guard. I've never particularly approved of the temple. We went a few times, but never made a big deal of it. So I don't...”

He looked at his hands again. And then back up.

“Do you... do you know me?”

Mei walked closer. The fading land around them was making that now more difficult.

“No. Not personally.”

“I... I looked at the chip containing my information. It looks like... I've killed a lot of people. But none of this is me. I wouldn't... This whole life. This whole past. I don't remember any of it.

“I had... I have... a wife and a daughter. But there's no information about them anywhere. Please. T...tell me, what is going on?”

Mei was at a loss. She thought about it.

“What is the last thing you remember?”

“I was... I think... I was out shopping. But it feels very hazy. I woke up crashing through a tunnel of light. And I ended up here.”

“Crashing?

“...”

Mei thought over the awkwardness of that description. He must have meant crashing through the tunnel. And from that, she came to a realization.

“I think... you came in contact with the sea of possibility.”

“What is that?”

“It is a decoherence field. It contains the inert possibilities that didn't manifest in real space. In essence, the easiest way to describe it is that it contains the data of things that didn't happen.”

He looked down, considering this, and gradually turned more pale.

“didn't... happen?”

“What probably happened is that you fell into it, and it scrambled your actual self, replacing it with a possible self. In essence, a version of you that never existed overwrote your real identity. But you didn't fall in all the way, so you still came back out the other side of the tunnel.”

He held his hands up to his face, expressing more overt mental anguish.

“But my... I... my wife and daughter. Are you telling me they never existed?”

Mei looked to the side, unwilling to meet his gaze.

“Sorry.”

He leaned back.

“Or I suppose my wife must have existed at least. But I was the one who saved her from dying. That is how we met. So... I never knew her? She might not even be alive.”

Mei was surprised he was so quick on the uptake. But she realized he had likely been going over this in his head in a daze ever since landing here. So he had some time to come to terms with his situation.

He looked up at her.

“Why are you here? What am I... to you?”

Mei continued looking to the side, not wanting to answer.

“You aren't in armor. I see, I must have been your enemy.”

She looked back.

“...Yes.”

He turned towards the ledge, looking over the cliff at the fading remains of what was once a city.

“My name is Chen. I suppose that much is still true. But even this name doesn't belong to me.

“I assume there is no way to restore my true self. Even if I came in contact with it again, I would just bring forth another of the infinite possibilities. And it's not like it matters to me either way. I can just fade away here, and Chen will disappear from the world.”

Mei stood next to him.

“You don't have to stay here. You must have loved ones in this world, too. Ones who are waiting for you.”

“...No. The one they are waiting for is not me. They are waiting for someone else. Someone who doesn't exist anymore. I am not that person. I don't even have the same birthday. Our lives have diverged since before I was even born. The Chen they knew no longer exists.

“They mean nothing to me either. I haven't met them. I don't know them. The people who gave me meaning aren't even dead. They never existed. My whole life never existed. How can I go on when I'm not even real? What should I do, take over the life of someone I don't know? Pretend to be them?

“No... I can't go back. The world I am from doesn't exist. Nothing that I have is real.

Mei looked at him.

“That's true. But you can make a new life for yourself. As long as you are still alive.”

He stood there, thinking about this for a long time. But shook his head.

“No. This me had a life already. And... you shouldn't be helping me anyway. You said yourself...”

He walked over to where his blade was lying on the ground and picked it up. He looked at it intently, like he wasn't used to holding one.

“...that you were enemies.”

Mei's mood sank, for she could see now where this was going. He held the blade up towards Mei in a battle stance.

“The only thing I have is this situation I was incarnated into. This one moment. This is all that I am. I will follow through with this mission and die the death of a soldier.

“I am a temple knight. I am a killer. Countless people have died by my hands. What is one more?”

Mei looked back with a serious expression.

“You don't have to do this. You don't even know how to fight. If you face me, you are going to die.”

He looked back with tears now streaming visibly from his eyes.

“It's all I have.

“Please... allow me to perish holding a blade and with my head held high.”

After saying this, he took out his combat knife with his other hand. Mei reached out to stop him, but she was not close enough, and before she could react, he pierced his own chest so that he would begin bleeding out.

"No, stop!"

With blood now dripping down his armor, he slowly pulled the knife back out and put it back in its holster. This was an injury that could maybe be healed if treated right away, but she had no way to get him back through the portal without his cooperation. If she knocked him out, an unconscious body wouldn't be able to be maneuvered through it.

"There. Now you don't need to hold back."

He stared back at her now for a long time, waiting, slowly bleeding out. She didn't want to engage, but there was now no other means to save him. So after slowly coming to terms with the situation, she reluctantly held up her own blade, pointing it back at him.

“I am... the messenger of death. I hope that you can find peace in the next life.”

He shook his head. And raised back his own sword again.

“There is no peace for me in death. There is no one waiting for me there. I cannot be forgotten, for there was no one who ever knew me. I have nothing. I am nothing.”

He looked at her intently.

“Prepare yourself.”

He moved towards her and swung his blade around in her direction. With a deft movement, she parried the blade. She swung back in return, and he blocked it in a sloppy motion. This happened a few more times, until the rhythm of their swings intensified. With each exchange getting faster and with less space in between. They stood back from the ledge, alone now in the dead world, with little light but the glow of their vibro-sabers illuminating them.

But eventually, he took a step back. He glared at her, as he could tell that she was going easy on him.

“Fight like you mean it! I am your enemy! And this is life and death!”

He rushed towards her and swung with all his might. She blocked it, being staggered slightly, and took a step back. She hesitated and thought about it for what felt like a long moment. But then, resigning herself to the reality of the situation, she gave him what he wanted. He swung again. She quickly met and slid her blade up his, and then dodging past his hand, she cut off his arm, having it fly away and the sword clatter to the ground.

She stood there, still, in the pose of the end of her slash. She hoped he would be satisfied at this point. But there was no such luck. Blood pouring out of him, he glanced at the bleeding stub and then turned to look at his fallen arm and the sword that had fallen with it. He walked over to it slowly, picking up the sword with his other arm and aiming it back at her.

“Again.”

She gritted her teeth. There was going to be no out for this. He continued swinging, now even more sloppy as he was not using his dominant arm. His original self was no doubt a better fighter, but this version of him seemed to have little knowledge. He could barely parry her before, even with both arms. But now, immediate blood loss and shock were noticeably taking their toll.

Mei, not wanting to hurt him any further, swung at his sword in a way that caused him to lose the grip, flinging it across the plateau. Losing her cool now, she made a last desperate plea with tears in her eyes.

"It's not too late! You can come back with me. You don't have to die here!"

He looked at it and then back at her, shaking his head.

“No. This doesn't end until one of us is dead.”

He pulled back out the backup knife and started walking towards her. She held up her blade in a threatening manner. But he did not stop walking. And so, him having turned down his last offer of mercy, she closed her eyes, lurching forward and driving her sword through him, causing his blood to spurt out the back and drip down the edge of the blade. As she did this he dropped his hands and slowly let go of the knife, realizing now that a killing blow had been dealt. With this injury, he would not last long. And without aid, he would likely bleed out within minutes.

She stayed there for a long moment, holding her sword through his torso. He did not react. He bowed his head in a sign of gratitude but did not speak. They waited, sharing this moment of intimacy. Two lost souls briefly passing by eachother amidst the endless expanse of infinity.

She pulled out the blade, and he collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood quickly beginning to pour out from his wounds. He no longer had the strength to stand, so she propped him up against the ledge and sat down next to him. He closed his eyes. She thought he might not wish to speak, as he waited there for a long period silently. But eventually, he opened his eyes again, looking now like he was struggling to do so. He reached up and began to speak weakly. Mei took his hand to comfort him.

“Please... don't think too badly of me. The me that existed in your world, I mean. I can't say what led him to this path that pitted him against you. But please know... that in another life... there was a version of him that could have been better.

“I wish you luck in your struggle against the temple. I never... particularly cared for it. And now... they will have one less soldier. That will no doubt be... A boon to... y...”

But he could not finish his words, for he was already dead. Mei laid him back down and then put her head in her hands, sobbing heavily.

Turning back towards them, Mei picked up and laid out the two other bodies that were on the ground next to each other, and laid Chen's body next to them. Looking at the other bodies, she could see at a glance that they had been in a fight themselves, and faded shortly after. A fight at the end of the world. She wondered what meaning there was behind it. Or whether meaning could even be found in such a state.

She thought out loud to herself.

“Another life, huh?”

Eventually, she got a radio call.

“Come in, Mei, are you there?? Are you still alive?”

“It's okay, Isaac. I'm alright.”

“Thank Tian! We had to abandon the original portal, but we are in a safe location now and should be able to establish a re-entry point. We prevented the connection from being lost by leaving the original one open.”

“Isaac. There were people here.”

“People? You mean, besides the temple guards?”

“There was a whole reality inside this space that lived and died unknown to us. They valued their lives enough to fight to the end. Feeling this, I feel like I should... value mine more too.”

There was radio silence. Mei could not hear, but she didn't need to. Sometimes nothing needed to be said. And in that moment of silence, they both felt like a lot was shared between them.

“Okay, it should be opening on your end. Hurry in.

“And... welcome home. We've been waiting for you.”

Mei stood up. In front of her, on the ledge, a hole ripped in space akin to the one she had gotten here from. Though the return journey would be less perilous on account of having a less abstract location being the target.

She turned back to take one last look at the fading world. At this point, there was barely anything left remaining. The ground under the city was all but gone, and nothing but the faint outlines of buildings remained to show that they were ever there. The ledge she was on looked now like it was a floating island in empty space. And even that was quickly dissolving as well.

She looked back at the two bodies she had placed next to Chen. She thought about it and walked back. She reached down to look through their jackets until she found their wallets and took out their cards to look at them. She stared at their faces to try to get an idea of who they were. And then, after she was satisfied, she returned the cards to their wallets, and their wallets to their coats.

“Farewell, Chen.

“And...

“Farewell, Samuel and James.

“I will remember you.”