They walked together, side-by-side, through the wreckage of the gate; Sugimoto had not been gentle in his passage. The great hall, choked with ash and motes of shadow, was empty and silent; a single, solitary human form lay crumpled upon the floor, dead center amidst the rumpled stone that bore mute testament to the epic savagery of the clash that had been borne.

"God dammit," Topher sighed, too wrung out even for tears. "I told you not to fucking die." He bent down, gently brushing away a lock of silky hair from a smooth cheek that was far too cold.

"I'd offer my condolences," Yariel commented, "but it might be kind of messed up." He looked down at her with an expression Topher couldn't read; then, eventually, he sighed and kept talking. "She was one of the ones I had to neutralize, too. Getting Sugimoto here to take her out of play was one of the most difficult parts of everything; the timing was draconically unforgiving."

"You realize you're patting yourself on the back about killing two people, one of whom was my friend?" Topher sighed. Opening his Ledger to the last page, he muttered the runes for Minor Illusion and illuminated the partial, incomplete spell they'd found in Archmage Venvaris' notes; Yariel flinched as he saw their shape. "I think," Topher continued, "that your plan was for me to try to figure this out during our fight and distract myself in some way; but it was much easier to do it after I understood everything. After that, all I had to do was look for the spells in the Kilimancy stream that matched the pattern, then work backwards to figure it out." He began to intone the runes, but something he saw stopped him; grimly, he banished the illusion and squeezed his eyes shut in grief.

"It's too late now, though," the other man observed sourly. "And if you try at all to run things, it'll just make things more chaotic anyway; people are hard enough to manage when they can't do that. Consequences are important."

"I'm okay with chaos," Topher demurred, "and I'm not interested in playing God." Bending down, he gently picked up Hana's body; it felt so light in his arms that he felt like it might float away. "I'll take you home," he murmured, feeling like his heart was a lump of ash in his chest; he looked around, numbly, at all the wreckage around him. More ash, he thought to himself. My Aspect. What's left behind after the fire's burned out.

Muttering a handful of spells, he set everything in motion; the stone pedestal bearing Zanasha levitated out of the tunnel behind them, and a portal opened up in the air before them. Stepping through, he found himself back where it had all started; the great hall of the castle in Strathmore, empty and echoing. Yariel reluctantly followed behind him, impotent and mute.

"They're gonna build a statue of you," he said to Hana's body; distantly, he realized that he was beginning to cry. "The girl who saved the world. Not bad for an F-Ranker, kid." Sobs, beginning slowly, intensified as the words coming out of his mouth began to break up. "Ichirou... be glad to see you... and I'll tell Nasha... every day... how hard you fought..."

Beside him, Yariel was observing him as though he were a bee struggling not to drown in a glass of water; Topher ignored him, clutching Hana's body to his chest and gasping for breath as sobs wracked him. His words failed him completely; he knelt, holding the body, and wept without reservation.

And then something unexpected happened.

A hand came up, lightly resting upon his back; and next to his ear, he heard a fluttering, as if a light-winged bird had just flown past his head. Then, behind him, he heard a soft grunt, followed by a sigh of what sounded like relief.

Then several more sounds happened in quick succession.

The first was a rustling, softer than a whisper, followed by a gasp and a stumble; a half-moment later, the grim thump of a body hitting the floor. And then, in Topher's other ear, a whispered regret: "A pity I had to die... for you to hold me."

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The moments after a murder are always a little awkward.

Zanasha, abruptly finding herself in an empty room observing an embrace over a corpse rather than descending to battle the Guardian of the Vault of Bones and Ashes, was nevertheless swift to find her bearings; the sight of her beloved holding her best friend and weeping alarmed her for a brief moment, but when he strode swiftly to her side and gathered her into the hug as well, she relaxed. As usual, it takes very little for Topher Bailey to make Zanasha Jones happy.

Awkwardly, but with intense and honest emotion, he crushed them both to him; tears that had moments before been heart-wrenching ebullitions of grief and sorrow were abruptly transformed into a cascade of relief and reprieve. For long moments, he simply gathered them to him and held on for dear life; heaving breath after breath, loath to move or even think for fear that it might all be cruelly snatched away again.

But, eventually, things became awkward; Hana gently began to push at him, and he let her go with reluctance as she extricated herself and staggered away. He took the opportunity to gather Zanasha even closer unto him with both arms, feeling a balm spread over his soul at her restoration greater than anything he could have ever imagined; it was only when she made a small noise of remonstration that he realized he was being rude. Sniffling, he relented, grudgingly releasing her and turning his attention back to the elephant in the room.

"It was close," Hana commented as she knelt, cleaning her Flux Blade on Yariel's coat and sheathing it once more; she tossed her hair and rose to face Topher and Zanasha over the carcass of the dead man. "I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out for long against Sugimoto-kun -- but I could also tell he was pretty out of it, even if he didn't fight like it. So I took a page from Muchenje-san's book -- stuffed a healing potion in my cheek, then goaded him into a sacrifice play."

"But the Kiku-no-Tsurugi nearly killed me anyway," she went on; "even after he staggered off, I had to drink my last two potions just to keep from bleeding out, and even then it was incredibly close. After that, I passed out for a while; but I woke up when you came back to the great hall. I was barely alive; I think my heart was beating maybe once every ten seconds. But I had figured out what you'd been trying to tell me since Vashyarl; my Flux Blade, working together with my Class, could fit between the threads of magical protections. Even, apparently, those of the Infinite King." She looked down with a strange expression -- a strange mixture of grim, sad, and triumphant -- at Yariel's body; his eyes were closed, and an expression within spitting distance of peace lay upon his features. "Weirdly, I feel a lot better, now."

"Yeah," Topher sighed, "too bad you offed him before I could tell you what it would mean." He shuffled his feet, then looked up at her. "Better check your Status."

Hana mumbled to herself; her eyes widened, and then she nodded. "My Class has changed. Infinite Queen." Her gaze jumped up to meet his. "Bailey-sama, what does this mean...?"

"It means," Topher began gently, "that you should probably get used to calling me Bailey-san again. We're partners now." He looked over at Zanasha with longing, then shook his head; it was going to be a long day with a lot of explanations.

"Okay," he said, giving in; "Honey, could you please go and fetch the guards? We'll need to loop in the King, and Quint, and Rudo; it's gonna be a real shitshow."

"Of course, husband." Zanasha stepped away from him, her fingertips trailing along the back of his hand, then darted out the door; Topher watched her go, basking in the love of her easy and confident movements.

"You don't have to stare," Hana commented drily.

"You don't have to comment," Topher returned with a smile. Hana rolled her eyes, but an answering smirk flickered across her lips as well for a moment before vanishing. "In fact, you might want to start cultivating a little more empathy; the job you just took over kind of does a number on your congeniality if you let it get away from you." He ran a hand over his face and took a long, shaky breath. "I don't understand. He said that if anyone other than me killed him, Nasha would remain frozen forever... I didn't even have time to be terrified when you did it before she rejoined the time stream."

Hana blinked; her eyes widened, then fell, and she stared at her shoes for a moment before looking back up at him. "It's so confusing. Bailey-sa..." she trailed off, swallowed, then tried again. "Topher-san. What do we do?"

"We tell the others," Topher sighed, "that you killed God. And then we figure out how to do his job."

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Zashe's face was unreadable as he stared down at Yariel's corpse. "He seems... small," he commented, finally. "One would think he would be larger."

Topher shrugged. "Kholoth was shorter than me, pal. The whole reason the demons wear giant skin-suits is psychology; even Kalphegor was about my size, underneath it all." He turned to Rudo, who was leaning very heavily on a crutch with a pained expression. "Please stop faking. This is no time to get sympathy for your bullshit, Rudo."

"As much as I appreciate your confidence in me," the older man replied with a grin and a wince, "my injury is quite real. I exhausted my supply of healing potions during the scramble to secrete Vius Mak Ghiroth from this man; and at my age, natural healing is more of a gamble than I might wish."

Topher blinked. "Oh. Uh, well, in that case, Vum Uud Kor Moj Solmi Danx." He waved a hand towards Rudo sheepishly.

Abruptly, a blue light outlined and suffused the older man; instantly, he straightened, an expression of surprise upon his face. "Convenient," he murmured, eyeing Topher suspiciously. "I was under the impression the Clerk Class could not cast healing spells."

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"It can't," Topher acknowledged, "but my Class isn't Clerk anymore." He opened his mouth to say more, thought about it, and closed it again; Rudo tilted his head, but said nothing.

"Are you the new ruler of this world, then?" Zashe asked, his voice full of a surprising amount of gentleness. "Should I make obeisance?"

"The hell with that." Topher scowled and shook his head. "If you want to genuflect to anybody, do it to Hana; her Class is Infinite Queen, now. But she's not gonna be as much trouble as this asshole." He kicked Yariel's corpse, lightly, just to make the point.

"Bail... I mean, Topher-san is right," Hana agreed reluctantly. "My Class has no MP, so I cannot create Edicts or wield the full powers of the Infinite Rulership; I may only benefit from the secondary effects of the Class, significant though they are."

"I don't suppose you will enlighten us?" asked Quint, looking as though he would collapse if his staff were removed. "I admit interest, as a scholar if nothing else." He grinned, his white teeth shining out of his thick gray beard, but there was less mirth in it than usual.

"She doesn't know," Topher interjected, "but I do. I split everything up; all the Power of the Infinite Kingship goes to Hana, and all the knowledge went to me; not that I planned it or anything," he supplied hurriedly, "but it just worked out that way." You might say it was the Object of your desire, commented the distant part of his mind; Topher rolled his eyes mentally but continued on. "Basically, all the past self-buffs the previous Infinite Kings put on themselves are still in effect on her; immortality, invincibility, access to all Skills, the potential for infinite stats, all that stuff. But so are all the 'protections' that made Yariel vulnerable to the side-effects of great power; inflexibility, stagnation, and egomania." He sighed as he looked at Hana mournfully. "I left her stats alone, but they probably won't increase without access to the spells he used; Quint, you know the ones I'm talking about."

The Archmage sighed. "Yes. The rites of ascendancy; all lost long ago except for the tomes they were used to create." He shook his head at Zashe, who looked confused. "A hazardous power, your Majesty; you see its effects in the burdens Archmage Siukh must bear."

"Yeah." Topher nodded grimly; he wondered if Sahlerra had always been sharp edges concealed within sex and seduction, or if she had used that intellect and power to alter herself beyond whatever her original form and temperament had been. He had a sinking feeling that, like Yariel, necessity and ambition had shaped the circumstances of a self-mutilation at which he could only guess. "But she's not the only one," Topher commented drily. "Right, Rudo?"

The older man bowed, sprightly once again; he grinned his rakish grin and swept his arm theatrically before him. "Another of my secrets excavated, I see. How did you know?"

"Attributes don't increase above C-Rank unless you cheat," Topher replied with a grimace. "You probably found a Tome of Ascendant Wisdom during one of your dungeon crawls; Sahlerra probably did the same with a Tome of Ascendant Intelligence. But you both found out the hard way that being mentally superior to other people doesn't make your job easier; it makes it harder, because you can see all the mistakes you'll make before you have a chance to learn from them." He gestured vaguely in a southerly direction. "The Demons' whole society fell apart because they built an ironclad aretocracy around stats and Levels and bloodlines; and as soon as something happened to the guys at the top, nobody was strong enough to pick up their burdens. Now they're an endangered species, and if we aren't careful, they'll die out within a handful of generations."

"Would that be so bad?" Hana asked, shocking everyone; she blinked, then cast her eyes downwards. "Forgive me. I only mean that they're... a great threat to humanity."

"Hana-chan," Zanasha murmured reprovingly.

"Humanity is a great threat to humanity," Topher corrected her; he pointed down at Yariel's body. "The one thing this shithead did correctly was get everyone to stop fighting; he did it wrong, of course, but we can learn from his mistake and try again."

"How are we to do so?" Zashe queried; Topher looked back at him with pity.

"I can't tell you," he said gently. Everyone started to speak at all once; he held up a hand and shook his head. "I can't fix this for you; Hana can't fix this for you either. If this is going to work, it has to be a team effort, do you understand? Not one invincible toy god to rule, not one master mage to solve all your problems. Hana and I will help where you need us; but we can't be in charge. You have to come to us with what you want done, and I don't mean just the people in this room. The other rulers, the demons, everybody -- you all need to be on the same team." He let his hand drop.

There was silence; everyone stood quietly, shocked into stillness by the import of Topher's words. "But how will we avoid making mistakes that doom us all?" Quint whispered, with agony born of too much knowledge. "Without superior intelligence and wisdom..."

"We will make mistakes."

Everyone turned to behold Zanasha; her smile was radiant, her eyes unclouded. "We will err. We will fail. As the Archmage did in the Last Battle," -- she nodded to Quint gently and with great mercy -- "and as we have all done many times before, and will again. It is not our failures that define us."

Zashe was the first to get it; he sighed, looking as though his crown had just doubled in weight. "It is how we make amends."

Topher nodded. "You've got five nations, most of 'em on fire and at the brink of barbarism; start with that. If you need help, come to us; talk with Hana about what you decide, and if she approves, bring it to me. If I approve, I'll craft the Edict and she can apply it; nothing happens unless all of us agree."

"We know it's not a perfect system," Hana admitted, looking shy and vulnerable despite her beauty; becoming the Infinite Queen had, if anything, enhanced her winsome charm. "We can still be tricked and deceived; Topher, at least, can probably still be charmed or ensorcelled. But it is a start."

One by one, Zashe, Rudo, and Quint nodded; Topher nodded back. "Yeah. It's a start."

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As Topher watched, seated on a rock, the sun crested the eastern horizon after what seemed like the longest night in the world; the moon faded back to invisibility, the great crack in its surface repaired after some quick work he'd done on the half-collapsed pylon. It still felt surreal to him to be able to conjure portals to anywhere he wanted; going to the moon had been about as onerous as going to the kitchen. He'd spent most of the rest of the last few hours repairing things in general; he'd cremated Yariel's body, gotten rid of all the monsters on the moon, sealed the inner sanctum as best he'd been able (although he'd left the Kiku-no-Tsurugi there, in the sanctum; he could always go get it again if he needed it), and gone around cleaning up those Edicts which had trigger conditions to allow for them to be dispelled (most didn't).

The Edict that had blocked his and Hana's passage just long enough to buy Yariel the critical last seconds for Sugimoto to arrive had already vanished; it, along with several others, had apparently been terminated with the previous Infinite King's death. But most of the others remained; any Edict that had been formed without a self-destruct clause persisted, obdurate and inviolate, and probably would forever. The worst was the Eschaton Capsule which imprisoned Okano and the other teenagers; he knew, with painful precision, the exact circumstances that would release it, and it was nothing he was in a hurry to hasten. Good luck, kids, he thought wistfully. Enjoy the after-party.

After everything was over, he'd taken them all -- Zanasha, Hana, and himself -- back to Hana's cottage; Rudo he left in the castle with Zashe, since it was obvious where all that was going. Everyone was so exhausted that they all just went to bed without speaking; and now, awake with the dawn, Topher dreaded what was coming next.

The footstep he'd been expecting sounded behind him, graceful and elegant and full of poise; he nodded without turning back to look. "Morning. Hope you slept well."

"I did not," Hana sighed, coming to sit next to him and drawing her knees up to her chest, "and I bet you didn't either." Topher winced and nodded again; the two of them sat silently for a few minutes, watching the sun rise, before Hana could find the words to go on.

"I figured it out, by the way," she said at last. "Why Zee didn't stay trapped in the Edict."

Topher raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

She nodded in return. "You were holding me when it happened, and my Flux Blade penetrates defenses based on..." -- she flailed slightly -- "It's complicated, and kind of hard to explain. But I basically 'used' you -- your aura, maybe... to attack him. Not consciously, but..."

"My Status," Topher breathed, awed. "You used your Flux Blade to stab him with my Status. That's amazing."

She looked distressed. "I didn't do it on purpose. I was just trying..." Her hands made small, awkward motions. "You know, trying to..."

Topher let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "Trying to help. Yeah. Like a Hostess does." He looked at her with new eyes, awed. "You saved both of us from a fate worse than death, without even thinking about it, and you're still trying to figure out if you're right for this job?" He chuckled. "Well, you're damn sure on my Christmas list next year."

Hana smiled and ducked her head in what might have been the fragments of a shy half-bow. "You do me too much honor." Then, after a moment, she sobered, looking towards the sunrise and sighing. "You know what has to happen next."

Topher nodded, his own eyes full of sadness. "Yeah." His gaze fell, as though it were heavy, down towards his shoes. "We have to break up the band."

"It's just..." Hana gestured, agitated, "It's too weird, Bailey-san. Topher-san. Topher. Damn, this is difficult." She buried her face in her knees out of embarrassment. "You and Zee deserve, you know, privacy, and... I can't be..." She sighed again. "It hurts too much."

"I know." Topher gently placed a hand on her back and stroked it gently for a moment; she let out a small squeaking noise, muffled by her knees, but said nothing. "And it's okay. This house was a little small for the three of us, anyway." He patted her back, then let his hand drop. "Do you know where you'll go?"

Hana raised her head, eyes lightly shining with unshed tears; she sighed and nodded. "The Demesne, I think. It's got the best isolation and natural defenses; and Quint will need help stabilizing the situation there for a long time." She looked down, then up at the sun once more. "But I'm not gonna live in that ugly castle. I think I'll grow a tower there instead, out of the ruins; a good place for a solitary Queen." Abruptly, a single tear escaped its prison and ran down her cheek; she scrubbed at her face with the back of her hand, frustrated. "Damn it. All these gifts, and I'm still pitying myself."

"Human nature," Topher agreed; he took her hand, very cautiously. "I know this sounds disingenuous now, Hana -- Hana-chan -- but trust me; someday, you'll find somebody who fits your broken pieces. It'll be painless and peaceful; it'll be the easiest thing in the world." He squeezed her hand gently, then let go; her fingers trailed out of his with something close to reluctance. "You'll be sad for a while, but it'll be good for you; you've definitely got the look for it."

Suddenly, she laughed; a free and easy laugh he thought he'd never hear from her. "I do, don't I?" She chuckled to herself, tossing her hair insouciantly.

Topher nodded back, grinning. "Yeah. When men see a pretty girl who's sad, they always want to make her smile."

Hana giggled, then turned back to the sunrise; she put her hand on his again, lightly, then removed it without lingering. "What about you two? Will you stay here?"

Topher shook his head. "Too easy to find; and too many memories, too. Not bad ones, but still; I think it might be just as awkward for us to be here without you. I think we'll move around a bit, try out some different options; keep our stuff minimal, you know, the whole Marie Kondo thing."

This time, Hana laughed full-throatedly, ratcheting up into hysterics; Topher blinked, surprised, as she laughed so hard that she began to fight for breath. "I saw... a meme... on the internet," she wheezed. "Marie Kondo... throwing away homework... that doesn't spark... joy... ahahahahah!" She fell over backwards, kicking her feet into the air; Topher felt a grin spread across his face as her mirth infected him as well. He fought down the giggles for a while; but eventually, he was defenseless against them. As the sun rose, their laughter joined together, spreading high into the air.