My lip curled up in a snarl. Kaiser stood by my side with a matching expression. Bastard truly lived up to his name. He’d tried to kill me and Kaiser four times so far. Twice on Mori Island, and twice here in the Romanian mountains. His true allegiance was to Edgebreaker, who stood for the complete destruction of EDGE Force itself.

He’d come here to finish us off while we were at our most vulnerable. Two of our members were dead, and two others were in bad shape.

“If you try to stop us, I’m going to kill you this time,” I said.

Kaiser barked a single resounding yes before starting up his V8 engine growl.

“You misread the situation,” Bastard called, then leapt down into the battleground right in front of me.

The cobblestones crumbled under his feet as he landed in a burst of blue anima. So, Bastard had some upgrades as well.

I summoned my claws, ready to counter anything Bastard could throw at us. This time, my blessing from Balaur appeared as two intricately constructed gauntlets of green light that matched the rest of my armour, with sharp claws extending from the end of each finger.

“Put your claws away kitty cat,” Bastard said with a grin. I couldn’t see his mouth, but his eyes told me all I needed to know. “Our enemy is behind you.”

With a flash of blue energy, a shadow of Bastard burst forth from him. I thought this anima shadow was being summoned to fight me, but it rushed past me. I turned just in time to see it slice a gash through the thick tongue of the devourer, which flopped around like a fish.

Bastard had defended me?

“I was never your enemy, Hatchet. My enemy is EDGE Force and what they intend to do to humanity. You were only in my sights because you fought for them. Do you still?”

“I-I don’t know,” I admitted.

“There is more at play here than you realise. More than any of you realise,” Bastard said, speaking louder so Xiphos and Naginata could hear. “But we can discuss that later. You have fewer warriors than you need to push that monster back into the void, but now? I’m here to save the world too.”

With that, Bastard turned and ran. He leapt over another searching devourer tongue, ran past Xiphos, and stopped right in front of the blue anima crystal. He reached out and took it like it was nothing to be concerned about. Blue flames burst from his fist, and his eyes shone with the power. A second later, he directed a blue beam of light right into Sare’zmei’s twisted form.

The devourer screamed at the onslaught of two different anima types, and few seconds later Naginata added a golden beam of light to our banishing ritual.

Then, a purple beam of light slammed into the devourer from behind.

But how?

Stiletto had fallen in battle, and I certainly hadn’t taken it up.

Where was it coming from?

Then he came into view.

Kaiser stood on the rubble in front of the standing stone with the purple anima crystal in his mouth. Motes of purple anima floated up from his black coat, and his eyes burned with power. A withering purple beam shot out from his mouth and drilled into Sare’zmei’s back.

Of course.

Kaiser was born of Altrighus’s anima.

There was no-one more qualified to wield its power than him.

Balaur’s voice floated into my head as the form of Sare’zmei crumbled and withered before my eyes.

[Without a conduit, the prison’s lock will not hold. The armour you wear is integrated directly with your anima system. It was designed to channel all four anima streams into a powerful force to banish the Eternal Hunger of Sare’zmei back into his prison. I have reinforced your warriors as best as I can, and I will heal what I can when all of this is over.]

[I will do what needs to be done,] I confirmed with Balaur. Then aloud I spoke. “Okay everyone, I need you all to focus your energy streams on me in five seconds. You’re going to have to aim up.”

After the five seconds elapsed, I opened a portal directly above Sare’zmei and fell through the other side of the portal that widened beneath my feet.

From above, the streets of Adormitzeu glowed green as Balaur took control of his city once again. The black and red stain of Sare’zmei was a small blight amongst an ocean of shining emerald.

The four anima streams slammed into my armour one by one as I fell through the cavernous space feet-first like a meteor. The armour channelled the power into my legs, transforming my originally green armour into a kaleidoscope of blue, green, purple, and gold. The colours danced around each other as I fell.

Sare’zmei’s multitudinous eyes all swivelled in my direction. It let out a harrowed shriek a second before I slammed into its aberrant form. A whirling tornado of anima erupted around me, which tore shreds away from Sare’zmei and channelled it all back into the prison he had come so close to escaping from.

Flesh became motes of red and black anima, which was then forced back into the void. As the devourer’s form disintegrated, Balaur’s anima network closed the tear into the void, until nothing else remained but the cobblestone town square in the centre of the city.

The anima storm around me subsided as green lines stretched out from the obelisk and connected to the standing stones.

[The locks have been re-engaged. The Eternal Hunger of Sare’Zmei has been locked away once again.] Balaur’s confirmation made me breathe a sigh of relief.

In the centre of the town square, I collapsed backwards. The weight of everything that had happened over the past few days was suddenly too much to bear. Kaiser trotted up beside me and dropped Altrighus’s anima crystal in my lap.

The purple anima was gone, leaving behind a dark quartz-like crystal with what appeared to be haze or smoke trapped inside. I held that crystal in my hand for a moment before it crumbled to dust.

The other anima crystals held by the others around the square did the same.

Bastard and Naginata looked hurt, but a green aura surrounded each of them. Balaur held them in his embrace, and they would recover.

Xiphos was a different story.

Kaiser and I headed over to our EDGE Captain to check on her, but things did not look good. A green aura surrounded her too, but Sare’zmei’s corruption had left her covered in a net-like pattern of burns. The scored flesh burned green from inside as Balaur tried to heal her where he could, but something was wrong.

She coughed as I knelt next to her. When she spoke, her voice was pained. “Don’t worry about me, Hatchet. This was a foregone conclusion.”

“What are you talking about? We survived this together. We’re all getting out of here together.”

Kaiser barked a resolute yes.

Xiphos shook her head. “No. Here, put your hand on my chest.”

Still wearing Balaur’s armour, I did as she requested.

I closed my eyes and felt the corruption that burned through her. This corruption was not of Sare’zmei, but of the curse that came with being human. Cancer. Her body was riddled with it.

“They gave me six months to live, and that was almost a year ago,” Xiphos said with a sad laugh. “I told EDGE Force that I’d go out the same way I spent the rest of my career. Fighting for humanity. So they reinforced my augment with a stronger life support system this time around, but it’s time for this to end. Ever since my husband died ten years ago, I’ve been wanting this, Hatchet. When the diagnosis came, it was almost a relief. Ralph wouldn’t have to wait too much longer for me.”

“I’m sure Balaur can fix this. He’s a healer!” I said.

“He probably could, but I don’t want him to. I don’t want him to integrate my soul, either. Now that I know without a doubt that souls exist, I just know my Ralph is out there waiting for me.” Xiphos coughed and winced at the pain. “But if Balaur could make this passing any easier, well, I’d appreciate a comfortable goodbye.”

Naginata joined us. To my surprise, so did Bastard. Naginata knelt with us and took one of Xiphos’ hands in hers. Through me, Balaur heard Xiphos’ wishes and tenderly sprouted a field of green beneath her. A refreshing aroma came from the flowers that bloomed beneath Xiphos.

“Thank you for everything that you’ve done,” Naginata said. “I will make sure EDGE Force knows that without you, our victory would not have been possible.”

“You honour me, but I think there’s one lesson to be learned from this,” Xiphos said. Her eyes had started to go glassy, and she had trouble keeping her head up. “Sometimes help comes from the most unlikely place you can imagine. I’ve no doubt that EDGE Force has the best of intentions, but they may need a push in the right direction. This can only come from inside. Edgebreaker and EDGE Force, they share a goal. The protection of all.”

Bastard took a knee. “You and I are in agreement. But tell me, if I had told you what I meant to do – to summon Sare’zmei into this world – would you have agreed?”

Xiphos shook her head. “No.”

“You would have tried to kill me and my team.”

“Yes,” Xiphos said in a whisper.

“While our aims are the same, our methods will always set us apart,” Bastard said.

Then, Xiphos was gone. I felt her life end, and the tearing sensation of the separation of her soul from her body. I stood once again, unsure of Bastard’s allegiance. If his aims were met, then would he attempt to erase us at witnesses?

I locked eyes with Bastard. “Why did you allow Sare’zmei to be summoned into this world? You could have stopped it.”

Bastard shook his head. “No, it would have happened regardless. By using Trajan, by giving him the resources he needed, I accelerated his timetable and put him on the back foot. Fewer villages fell. I knew that your assault through the caves would take him by surprise.”

“You tried to kill us as we entered the cave system!” Naginata said.

“No, I gave you a push in the right direction and ensured you went in the direction I needed you to go,” Bastard said. “I had faith that Hatchet here would do what he does best.”

“And what exactly do I do best?”

“Disrupt the status quo. Look at you now.” Bastard appraised me with what could have been interpreted as wonder. “A true Balaran Knight. The first on our planet. We might just have a chance to fight what’s coming after all.”

“What exactly is coming?” Naginata asked.

“The reality crash. The moment in which time itself ceases to be, then as time unravels, our entire universe is reformatted,” Bastard said.

“Reformatted? Like a hard drive. I knew it,” I said.

“There is only so much tampering and corruption a system can take before the only option is to restore it to factory settings and start it over again,” Bastard said. “The four entities who locked Sare’zmei away here are not the only ones from outside our universe which have bled into our shard. The Architects have seen this, and they have two options. Allow things to continue along a path where everything in the universe no longer meets their design, and therefore renders it useless, or restore everything and start again. EDGE Force is willing to sacrifice 90% of the planet’s human population in the hope that this will stop the reality crash, but it is folly.”

The longer Bastard talked, the more sense he made, which was a very dangerous proposition.

“So how do we stop it?” I asked.

Bastard shrugged. “We’re still working that out. But one potential piece of the puzzle has now been measured, and I know it won’t fit into the solution. Sare’zmei’s freedom would hasten the Architects’ reality crash, not prevent it.”

“So that’s what Edgebreaker’s game is?” I asked, finally feeling like I understood why Bastard had done some of the things he’d done.

“Prevent the reformatting of our reality? That’s right. We’re ruthless in the short term and view small casualties as a lesser evil. But EDGE Force? Their plan is to wipe out ninety percent of humanity in the hope it will stop the crash, but they have no evidence that it will. That’s why I defected. EDGE Force are not the good guys you think they are.”

“Neither are Edgebreaker,” Naginata said.

Kaiser barked an affirmative.

Naginata continued. “I have done good things in service of EDGE Force.”

“The cogs in their machine are not to blame. They don’t know what wheels they turn,” Bastard said.

“So where does this leave us?” I asked. “We have three friends who lost their lives in this fight, and I- Well, I don’t know what I am now.”

A voice came from behind us. “You are a Balaran Knight, and you have a greater part to play.”

Balaur himself stood behind us in the guise of a kindly old man. He held a long staff in one hand and wore a robe that flowed along the ground as he approached. His beard was made from lichen and ivy, and two great wooden antlers grew from his forehead. Balaur’s skin was the grey of stone, but his eyes shone a bright and clear green.

“I am sorry about your friends,” Balaur said. “Xiphos, especially. She would have made a grand Balaran Knight. But you two shall have to do. Would you each accept my blessing, if it were offered, Naginata?”

“Without hesitation,” she said.

“Then you shall return here to the mountains for training,” Balaur said. “You too, Hatchet. When this matter is cleared up, you shall both return to me.”

“No blessing for me?” Bastard asked in a tone that said he already knew the answer.

“Some are destined to mend, and others are meant for different ends,” Balaur said cryptically.

Bastard snorted in amusement at this, as though Balaur had told a joke.

“I consider our business concluded,” Bastard said as he began to walk away. After a few steps he turned back towards us. “I don’t count any of you among my enemies, but if we should find ourselves on opposing sides again, I will give you no quarter.”

“Nor I, you,” I replied.

Bastard nodded. “If you want to get back to the surface easily, there’s a mirror in the basement of the house with the red door that will take you there.” He pointed at a nearby dwelling that still had its lower level intact. “Just walk through.”

With that, Bastard headed into the building and out of sight.