Wind whipped through Damien’s hair, drying the liquid on his cheeks. He blinked, reaching up uncomprehendingly. His hand came away stained red. The sides of his eyes felt wet, as if he had been crying, and there was no sign of the cave that he had been sitting in.

A small pile of snow had built up on Damien’s shoulders. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, nor how long ago he had started carving the runes into his body. He glanced at his hands, but they were unblemished and unmarked.

“They aren’t there,” a voice said from behind him.

Damien turned, but he already knew who he would find waiting for him. Moon sat in a throne of snow, his features still covered by the heavy cloak. The runes covering his body twisted and squirmed whenever Damien tried to look closer at them.

“Why? I need them,” Damien said. “Please. I have to get back to the Mortal Plane.”

“I know,” Moon said. “But you can’t do it on your own. You know how much precision runes need. There’s no way for you to copy my work with such little preparation.”

“Then what am I to do? I have nobody else to help me, and something tells me this isn’t even real.”

Damien swiped his hand across the snow, focusing his senses. It passed through it and the mound flickered, vanishing as if it had never been there.

“This is very real,” Moon promised. “The word you are looking for is physical. Your body remains within the room inside my chambers, but your soul is very much here.”

“And where is here?”

“In my mindscape,” Moon replied. “Or what is left of it, at least. Second’s power has grown too much this Cycle. I cannot stand against him any longer.”

“We were doing pretty well against him in Forsad,” Damien said, starting to stand. Moon flicked a hand and a heavy weight slammed into Damien’s shoulders, pushing him back down.

“He was limited by the location. There was no Corruption to draw on there, but there will be in the rest of the Mortal Plane,” Moon said, shaking his head. “His true strength is that he controls all of the Corruption completely. Without access to the other monsters, he is weakened greatly. And, even still, you were barely able to fight him to a standstill while using the best surprise you had. He will be prepared for it, now.”

“You didn’t bring me here to tell me it was hopeless.”

“I didn’t bring you here at all. You brought yourself,” Moon said. “But you are correct. I’m not here to warn you off. On the contrary, Second must be stopped.”

“So you can help me get out of here? We need your help, Moon. I really don’t understand you, but you can fight against Second. we need that.”

Moon let out a dark chuckle. “I can aid you in escaping the Void, but I am afraid my fight against Second is concluded.”

Moon pushed his cloak back, revealing a jagged hole in the side of his chest. The edges were scarred a sickly gray, and they seemed to be slowly spreading across his body. Moon let the cloak fall once more.

“I am just what remains of Moon. My true body departed to do what it could to protect the Mortal Plane, but it is not long for this Cycle either.”

“But… you beat him,” Damien muttered. “Back in the Crypt. He was losing!”

“He is Corruption. I am just a man,” Moon replied with a grimace. “But you have powerful allies. Delph is an apt warrior with great strength, many of the other mortals you know will aide you - not to mention your companion.”

“Which one?” Damien asked bitterly. “Herald is determined to just watch me die.”

“The Void are little better than the Corruption,” Moon said, leaning forward and putting a hand on one of his knees. “The Cycle is flawed. I have seen countless mortals consumed within the Void and eventually join the Corruption. They are not without point, but if Second achieves his goals, the universe will collapse. The Planes must remain separate.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“If I knew, I would have already done it,” Moon replied. “Now, that burden falls onto your shoulders. There is very little I can still do for you with the meager power this memory of me possesses, but I left enough to do what was needed. I wish I could give you more advice.”

“How can’t you?” Damien demanded. “You’ve been around for Cycles! You might not be as old as Henry, but surely you know at least something I can work with!”

“I know much, but little that will be of true help to you. Much of my knowledge will be mere distraction. All but this: you must focus. Defeating the Corruption will not be a fast process. Even if you can fight Second back, it will be a long, slow war. He will retreat to an area that you cannot follow him to. No matter how weakened he is, you must never follow him through a green portal. Do you understand?”

“No.”

“You don’t need to,” Moon said. “Just… trust me.”

“How can I trust you? I mean, i know you’re on my side or whatever, but you’ve given me nothing but mysteries!”

“The years have not been kind to my ability to speak with those younger than me,” Moon said wearily. “This is what I meant. There is not much I can tell you that will make any sense to your mind. It would simply distract or even harm you. Recall how looking into Henry’s mind for the first time affected you.”

“How do you know about that?” Damien asked, his eyes narrowing.

Shadows condensed around Moon, forming into black tentacles. “You have already determined the answer to that. I have been watching you for some time. This Cycle is a turning point. We cannot fail.”

“So you were really the one that made me summon Henry?” Damien asked, fighting back against the magic holding him down. It broke and he rose to his feet. “Why? How much else have you affected?”

“I have done what I needed to. You will understand, because you will do the same. The Corruption must be stopped. Has my interference really caused you such difficulty? Would you prefer to not have Henry as a companion? Would you have even met Sylph if you did not?”

“I - probably?”

“And would she have survived when her core shattered?”

“How long have you been watching me?” Damien demanded. “Have you seen every second of my life?”

“Every last one,” Moon confirmed. “I wanted to act more, but I could not. Over-interference would destroy you.”

“How do you know? Who are you, really? You aren’t Void. You aren’t Corruption. Why do you care?”

Moon stood, his cloak whipping around his body as the wind picked up around them. “You will understand. This is my last chance, but it is your first. Unfortunately, you will not have the same amount of tries that I did. I leave you the rubble of my failings, but a glimmer of hope remains. Stop the Corruption. Fix the Cycle. Save the people you care about, Damien. If you do not, it will haunt you until the Planes collapse forever.”

“Is there really nothing more you can tell me? Some weakness of the Corruption? Who controls the Void? Anything?”

“I have failed countless times. There is no information I can give you that will aide you. I have tried before. It always leads to the same result. I will influence you no further. You must deal with this in the way that you see best, for Moon has no more place in the sky. The stars have blinked out around me, one by one. Each failing - my fault. Some knowledge will come to you through the runes. They are the only remaining thing I can give. Do not ask for more.”

Moon drifted across the snow, stopping before Damien and placing a hand on his shoulder. “I will guide your body. Once you have the runes, you will understand how to return to the Mortal Plane.”

Damien desperately wanted to ask him more, but he slowly closed his mouth and nodded. Moon let out a slow sigh and the dark tentacles reached out, pressing into Damien’s chest.

Moon hissed. Fragments of his cloak started to burn away, turning into motes of light and vanishing in the snowfall. His body started to fade as well, but at a slower rate. Damien’s body tingled, but he felt no pain.

To his surprise, he found that he could still move. He raised a hand to Moon’s hood and, desperate for at least one answer, pushed it back.

Damien’s own face, weathered by years and scars, stared back at him. A tiny smile tugged on Moon’s lips and he inclined his head. Then he was gone. The snowy mountaintop vanished and Damien was back in his own body.

Black lines surged across his body. Rune circles traced themselves across his skin, covering every spare inch. The thorn dropped from Damien’s numb fingertips and shattered against the ground.

Then, as soon as the last rune had been drawn, the lines faded, becoming nearly invisible. Damien stared at his hands, his head pulsing. Something was there, just at the edge of his mind. He reached for it - and then he knew.

The rune circle on his chest had been worked into the intricate designs now covering him. Runes meant to contain instead now directed and channeled, using the power to every last bit of its potential while protecting him from the worst of its effects.

Damien rose to his feet, visions flickering through his mind. Flashes of a life that he had never lived danced through his memory and vanished into oblivion, leaving only the faintest traces of their passing.

Ideas for spells graced his mind, but the exact methodology of casting them was completely beyond him. They writhed and seethed, slipping free of his grasp as well. Many were so complex that he couldn’t even begin to figure out what they did, much less how to actually cast them.

But not everything was lost. With every miniscule fragment of knowledge that was left behind from Moon’s passing, Damien became more. The tiny remnants of the man who had lived beyond time joined with him, and Damien drew on their knowledge like a parched man at a lake.

And then, finally, it was over. The last vestiges of Moon were gone, either vanished or absorbed into Damien. He placed a hand against the sealed door. It slid open of its own volition, revealing Herald standing behind it.

Damien stepped past his companion without a word. He paused, taking the tarnished ring that Moon had kept on the bracer and slipping it over his finger beside Sylph’s. Its exact meaning had been lost to him, but it had been important to the man. At some point, it had belonged to someone whom Moon had cared about. They were no more – that much, Damien was certain. But the least he could do was ensure that it saw everything through until the end.

“It’s time for us to go,” Damien said.

“You are changed,” Herald said. “Your mind is clouded to me. How is this possible?”

“Sylph needs my help. The Mortal Plane needs our help. Enough asking questions. We need to act.”

“You think the meagre amount of power you have gained is enough to defeat Second?”

“I think you misunderstood me,” Damien said. “That was not a question. I don’t give a shit what you are or if you’ve got questions. Sylph might need my help, and the Mortal Plane is at risk. I will not waste any more time here.”

“You will die. A mortal cannot channel the Void without Ether.”

“Then you’ll be pleased. Teach me. I can access the Void. I know it.”

Herald shook its head. “For reasons that I find myself unsure of, I will not teach you now. If you wish to arrive in the Mortal Plane within any amount of time considered short to humans, you will not have time. Instead, let us arrive at the moment of your death.”

Raising a starry hand, a rune circle formed in the air before Herald. The runes were all twisted and warped, jagged in the parts where they should have been smooth and broken where they should have been whole.

“This is a crutch. A spell I have already created that will do all of the work for you, so long as you can provide the Void energy. However, you are a mortal. You will not survive. It will be an agonizing, slow death. The fragments of your soul will burn for as long as this Cycle continues. I believe that Henry would say it a mercy if you chose death instead.”

Damien scanned the rune circle, then reached out. It floated to his hand and hovered above his palm. “We will determine exactly what Henry would say when we meet him shortly.”

“At least this will be an interesting experiment,” Herald said, cocking its head to the side. “How long will you last in contact with the Void, I wonder?”

He ignored the eldritch creature and reached out to the runes with a strand of mental energy, gently brushing his senses over them. Cold ice spiked into his mind, but Damien suppressed it.

The runes covering his body darkened. Tendrils of magic emerged from the circle on his chest, wrapping around his arm and covering it completely. Miniature tears in reality the size of a fingernail started to split open around Damien’s hand.

Utter darkness slipped out from them, coursing around his palm and flowing into Herald’s rune circle as if it knew where it belonged. As it touched Damien’s wreathed arm, agony spiked straight into his soul.

It was unlike anything he had ever felt. It was not true pain he felt, but rather the lack of everything. Apathy, greater than any he could ever describe, threatened to consume him completely. The complete lack of not just emotion, but also life.

Damien let out a strangled gasp, fighting back against it with everything he could gather. He couldn’t even muster the care to cry out. Slowly, his arm started to droop.

“I warned you,” Herald said. “A mortal cannot channel Void.”

Damien’s fingers twitched. Runes pulsated along his body and he gritted his teeth, forcing his hand to raise slightly. “And I told you. I. Am. More. Than. Mortal.”

Void flared around Damien, searing up his arms and wreathing his head. He accepted it all, drawing it in like Ether and sending it out through his palm, into the rune circle.

“Open!”

A pitch black maw stretched out before him, consuming all the light that touched it. Damien jerked his hand back and the rune circle dissipated, returning to Herald. The endless apathy abated, but it did not leave. It settled down at the back of Damien’s mind, building up like an ocean held back by a thin log dam.

Herald stared silently at Damien for an instant, then dissolved into a streamer of stars and shot back into his chest. Damien stepped into the portal and it snapped shut behind him, leaving the snowy mountain peak desolate once more.