(Zack)

Max is so fun to train. He's eager to please me and to get the candy, which makes this really fun. I spent most of the morning training him, and he's acquired Knife Mastery, I'm pretty sure. He also definitely had Martial Arts Mastery before, and now has Staff Mastery as well. I'm contemplating training him with a sword in our next session.

He learns fast, just like Gold and Aurum. Is it something with all beastborn? Or just the ones I take under my wing? Well, the two I did, and Aurum. The ones I regularly interact with.

Will need further testing, though I know the servants are at least learning the games I taught Gold quickly. The older ones figured out that Gold still mixed-up his numbers, too, and are working with him on that.

Right now, Max is napping, and I'm resisting the urge to draw on his face. He'll probably wake in the next few minutes, anyway. Not that I wouldn't be able to do a lot of 'damage' with my quill in that time.

Sighing, I look up at the sky. It's snowing again, just a little.

Things are so sad lately, and I feel guilty for having fun while Luca's incapacitated, after his brother's been killed. But… having fun's the only way I can cope. The other option, I already did that. I dove deeper into my training, pushed myself harder.

The only way I can really get stronger quickly is to fight a lot of powerful monsters, things that will push me. The only way to do that would be to go deep into the mines or into Kaelmar, and I can't handle the avatar of the Shadow of Life, so the latter's out of the question.

There's also the option of going deeper into the Lost Territory, like Nathan does, but I can't do that with my team forming and here. I need to get stronger, though. For them. For everyone.

Choking back some tears, I force myself to sleep. Max will probably find something to occupy himself while I do. The dream vision starts almost immediately, and it's not like the others. I've seen each member of my full team before, but never all at once.

We're standing at the gates of a Fallen City, chatting. There's me, Luca, Max, and the other two, whose names I don't know. They're both my age, though we're all a little older than I am now. Maybe fourteen or fifteen?

One of the other two is a little on the taller side, with a bit of muscle and brown hair and eyes, dressed in armor with a sword at his hip. He's a knight for sure. The other is shorter, like me, with shaggy brown hair and bright green eyes, and is dressed in a cloak. A rogue of some sort.

Luca is subtly playing with Max's tail, which is flicking from side to side, and I'm saying something to the two I don't know while Max thinks hard about something.

Suddenly, all five of us snap our heads to face the same direction. Luca uses that same, black-and-white staff I've seen him wield before, while I'm using that black-and-white sword from the past visions.

Ever since my Ascension, they've alternated between that sword and another, which resembles the typical Dark Swords of the order, though I know it's anything but.

Max doesn't have a weapon, though I can tell he's ready to cast a spell on a moment's notice, while the knight has his sword and shield at the ready, the rogue with his elegant bow in hand, a magical arrow already nocked, the string pulled back.

Shifting my gaze, I turn to face the threat, only to be pulled out of this vision before seeing it.

An endless plain in all directions… then me. Or is it Bryce? No, it's both of us. Then me again. I'm Ascending? The vision flashes to when I did, to the notices I received. Then I'm back in the endless plains. Or was I always there?

Was the Altar of the Elements always there, too? The ones contained with the Enchanted Halls of the Cities? I'm standing by it, doing something to it. The walls of a Fallen City rise up around me as I do.

The altar begins to glow with a violet light, a light that then radiates out, rushing through the plains and reaching the walls, which reform to whole, a shimmering barrier forming above before fading from sight.

The altar and the walls fade away, leaving me alone in the endless plains once more. But I'm doing something. I then begin to make the Class of my dreams, the one I want to make, by merging together the powers of two Classes. I forge a new Class.

The moment I succeed, I nod, then find myself standing as I face an army, another at my back. The one before me is an endless horde of monsters, the one behind me, a small army of Adventurers. They don't back down, don't show a trace of fear, and attack without hesitation.

They slaughter the monsters with minimal losses, the tide of war changed.

I'm beside Bryce again. Then I'm hit by a car to protect Noah and Bryce is stabbed to protect a little girl. Then he's killed by the Shadow of Life and I'm infected with the Blood Scar.

Just as soon as we're killed the second time, we're okay. Healed, unharmed. We're standing before Alexander, who opens his mouth to talk, only for Bryce to run him through with his sword, a sword of translucent, dark grey metal with a glowing orange core. The scene resets, and I step forward, look the Shadow of Life in the eye.

"I have realized what I need to do," I say. "To bring a permanent end to this war."

The vision ends, and I wake with a start, sitting up with a jolt and a smack, sending Max stumbling back.

"Ow," Max rubs his forehead. "Boss okay? Boss no wake! No, no, no! Boss not wake! Boss not wake! Max worried!"

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine," I rub my forehead as I stand up.

Did my vision get hijacked? By… another vision?

By the prophecy…

The person who spoke the prophecy, they weren't prophesying, they were speaking what they'd seen. My visions generally show the most likely outcome of a situation. That's why the prophecy has two branches two it – they'd seen two outcomes. They weren't giving a prophecy, but stating their visions. There is not prophecy, just a recording of what will likely be.

That explains why it's the only known prophecy. It's not one, and if it's anything like my visions, it's possible it won't happen. I'm hoping it does… I guess? I'm not sure the ending of it all that well.

Me and Bryce were the ones in the vision, but it's likely it was using that because I know Bryce, and we're brothers. Because it was my vision. Bryce is dead, though, and has been for months, so he can't be one of the brothers, which means I'm not, either. I mean, it even showed Bryce using the Spook Sword I had forged for him.

So it was using what I knew for the brothers deal. Two brothers that met death twice where death wasn't simply a part of a process they had agreed to. Ascension.

The vision showed me Ascending, though. And it showed me forging the Class I want to make. Does that mean I will? That I am the harbinger? Or was it using that because it's me, again? Did the person who had the vision of the end see them and their brother?

Did…

"-disembodied voice," Big Flame's chatter to Max catches my attention, and I realize that his presence was there when I woke.

"Big Flame," I say.

"There is no Big Flame here, only disembodied voices."

"Stop messing with Max for a second," I tell him. "The person who originally spoke the prophecy of the end… were they a brother of mine? I know you said-"

"That you're the first of your kind," he says. "Big S told us not to tell you the truth of the prophecy's origins. But what you saw was the same vision as back then. The exact same."

"So that means that Bryce or I?" I say. "We're the ones who-"

"Bryce is dead," Big Flame says. "Permanently. His soul's already moved on to the afterlife, so it can't return. Yet that was Bryce in the vision. Big Breeze doesn't understand it, Big C doesn't understand it, Big S doesn't… none of us do. It literally can't be the two of you."

"I have a theory," Big Breeze's voice enters my head, and I suddenly find myself standing in his chamber, facing him. Thankfully, it's an empty version of it, rather than the one filled with all the dead Boundary people waiting for the afterlife. "See, I think what's happening is that you and Bryce being here 'hijacks' visions. Any and all visions that were received back then but took place in or after this time? You two appeared in."

"And since we're brothers," I say. "The visions use the two of us in place of the actual brothers?"

"Correct," he nods. "We honestly have no idea who the brothers are. When we realized that Luca and Braden were going to arrive, we thought maybe it would be them. But just like you and Bryce… one of the two has received permanent death. There's no escaping death twice for either of the pairs we've thought it could be."

"Me and Bryce, Luca and Braden," I say, and he nods. "Am I really the first Child of Existence since Big S?"

"Yes," he answers. "Which is why he doesn't want you to know the actual source of the prophecy, the one who had the vision in the past."

"It was him?"

"No," Big Breeze shakes his head. "It wasn't. It's a complicated situation, but there are others who can hold the power of sight, not just Children of Existence. They're rare, though. I know he's going to be mad, but I'm telling you anyway.

"A long, long time ago," Big Breeze tells me. "There was a demigod who died in reality and found his way into the Boundary, just like most demigods. He was particularly powerful. Despite how weak magic is outside the Boundaries, he'd had visions regularly, just like you.

"Seal," Big Breeze says. "Or System, or the Crystal of the System, or Big S, or any of the many other titles and names he's had, infused a small portion of his essence into the seer, who had been trying to find out how the war would end. A small bit of his own power of sight, to augment the demigod's. The next time the seer tried to see the end of the war… he had that vision you had. Seal can't utilize his sight like that, and had hoped for a clear answer. We didn't know when the vision took place, though. The endless fields gave nothing away, and we didn't recognize the Fallen City whose altar you restored."

"That was Talorn," I say.

"We know that now," he huffs. "We all believed the moment we saw you in the flesh that you would be the harbinger. But we have no clue who the actual brothers are for the prophecy. Children of Existence… there's never been two alive at a time before. Eternities pass before the next is born, and by then… we don't really know, to be honest. Seal is the only one we know for sure before you."

"And two of us living at once," I say. "Has affected existence in such a way that even visions are affected."

"Correct," he nods. "I'm sorry, Zack. If we knew who the brothers were, we'd let you know, even if Seal doesn't want us to."

Big S wanted to hide the truth of the prophecy's origins from me… but also doesn't want me to know who the brothers are? But if they don't know who the brothers are, why would he say that?

Unless he knows. But why doesn't he want me to know who they are?

"Alright," I smile at Big Breeze. "It's alright, it's not like you know something."

"Sorry," he apologizes again. "We want this war to end as much as you. If we knew, we'd be keeping an eye on them as well, especially since the person you were in the place of didn't actually kill him, just said he'd realized what was needed to end the war for good. That can go either way, just like the prophecy."

"Yeah," I nod, then shrug. "I guess if you guys can't figure it out, there's no use worrying about it. I probably will, though, but I've got other things to focus on. Like a beastborn who's probably confused or freaking out because you suddenly pulled me out of the Boundary to speak with me in-person."

"Oh," he blushes. "Sorry! I guess we're done, so I'll send you back."

When I reappear where I'd disappeared from, Max is definitely freaking out, thinking that his head-bop caused me to just vanish after the disembodied voices started talking.

"You didn't head-bop me," I say, startling the beastborn whose eyes are filled with tears. "I head-butted you. Wrong way around, and you didn't make me disappear, one of the Sacred Crystals pulled me away from here to talk with me about what Big Flame and I were discussing. And they're not disembodied voices, they're the Sacred Crystals."

"We're disembodied voices."

"That's Big Flame," I tell Max. "The Crystal of Dark of Fire. He's a prankster, and he's just messing with you."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"