Die. Respawn. Repeat.

There's a sort of unspoken agreement that as soon as we're done with this stage and with Tarin and Naru, we're going to have to sit down and figure out what this means. He-Who-Guards seems a little put out, probably because he's now the only one in our little party that doesn't have an Interface of his own; there's not much we can do about that, but I point out how he's apparently able to copy what we can do.

That cheers him up a bit. We'll have to focus some of our efforts on specifically figuring out how Guard can interface with regular skill constructs, since they're distinct from the circuits that these Dungeon monsters are using, but Ahkelios and I are both more than willing to help.

Novi seems eager to help, too, actually. We don't have the heart to tell her that she's probably not going to be with us for that conversation.

"We'll have to tell her eventually," Ahkelios admits to me quietly, when we have a moment to ourselves. I glance at him, surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"I kind of told her kids by accident," he says.

"...How did you do that by accident?" I ask, now more confused than before. He laughs awkwardly—it's strange walking with him like this, now that he's essentially eye level with me. I don't have to crane my neck down or up to look at him anymore. The only reason he's taller is because of his carapace.

"It's a long story," he mutters. "Uh, it's mostly because of Zhir?"

"He told them?" I raise an eyebrow. I don't see how that would help his case.

"No, no." Ahkelios hurries to explain to me what happened—and I can't help but snort with amusement when he reaches the part where Juri and Yarun turned the tables on him.

"Novi's really proud of her kids," I say, glancing over at her. She's walking with Guard on the other side of the tunnel, chatting animatedly with him about something or the other; some kind of Archivist discovery, if I'm hearing them correctly. "I guess she's got good reason to be."

"You should've seen Zhir's face when Yarun told him to shut up so he could fix him," Ahkelios says with a little grin. "He's like a tiny version of you!"

I laugh. "When have I ever told anyone to shut up so I could fix them?"

"You don't say it, but you think it," Ahkelios tells me. "Very loudly. I can hear you even when you're not using the bond."

"You're imagining things."

"Am not." Ahkelios pretends to look affronted, but the look fades quickly; I can feel through our bond that there's a lot of excitement bubbling within the surface. He's happy. A little conflicted about Zhir, I think, but merging with that final Remnant restored to him a lot of memories he didn't have before, even corrected ones that he now suspects the Interface artificially filled out.

He feels complete in a way that he hasn't felt for a long, long while. Not as Zhir, not as Ahkelios... Whatever he is now, despite the differences in form, he finally feels like he's himself again. Finally feels like an equal.

"I'm going to need to catch up with you," he says, nudging me. "Think you could help me with that third layer? You've got more experience with it than I do."

"Hmm." I pretend to think about it for a moment. "I suppose I could."

"You suppose?" Ahkelios folds his arms in mock outrage.

"I will," I say, laughing. "Relax. We're just going to need somewhere with a lot of Firmament, and right now the best time for that is going to be when the dungeon is mid-transition. I don't think we want to mess around with that yet."

"Yeah, no." Ahkelios shudders a little at the thought. "Maybe the Fracture? It's got a lot of Firmament if you go deeper in."

"Could always use the Intermediary, too," I say. "Just have to get there again, see what the Firmament levels are like. We'll figure it out."

"Right." He seems happy with that. Ahkelios grins to himself as we walk. Regaining that connection with the Interface seems to be good for him—he's going through his windows, looking at his skills, just... exploring. ℞ἈΝＯᛒЁṢ

The Interface isn't good. Both of us know that, at this point. At best it's a neutral force, and at worst it's trying to achieve a goal we don't understand. One that might very well spell destruction for many, many species across the galaxy.

But Ahkelios's joy isn't about that. It's just the acknowledgement from the Interface that he's real and whole again. More than just a familiar, as it were.

"Do you still have access to all your old skills?" I ask curiously. Ahkelios makes a face, swiping to the skills tab and shaking his head.

"Doesn't look like it," he grumbles. "But I can roll for new ones, at least. I guess all those constructs got cleaned out of my core or something."

"Would've been cool to try out some of your skills," I mutter. Ahkelios grins.

"I'll roll for more once you're done with the whole Naru thing," he promises. "Oh! We can roll for skills together! We should figure out what skill sharing is like both ways, anyway. And if you're still the core of the time loop. Like, what if the reset conditions changed? And there's the whole party thing that's in the Interface now?"

Yep. That's a new one. A whole window that lists our names and nothing else. There's probably more functionality in there, but when I reach out with my senses it feels like the Interface is actively building the feature. Like it's something new it made just for us.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Odd. But interesting.

In the meantime, there's only one thing left for us to do, and it hangs over both Ahkelios and I in the Interface. A shared objective.

[Plant the Seed: 0/1]

Hopefully that doesn't involve anything complicated. Odds are it will, given this is a Dungeon and all, but it'll be nice if all we need to do is stick it in some dirt and be done with it.

"Are you comfortable with... all this, by the way?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Ahkelios seems genuinely confused by the question. I gesture vaguely at him, unsure how to elaborate on the question.

"This isn't your original body," I say. "It's a sort of... scirix-mantis hybrid? Are you okay with that?"

"Oh!" Ahkelios looks down at himself. "I'm pretty happy with it, actually. It feels good and looks good. I'm really flexible now. Watch."

He bends over nearly a hundred and eighty degrees backward so that both his hands and his feet rest on the ground. I stare at him. He is remarkably flexible; I'm surprised the carapace can bend that much.

Then the flowing cloth of his labcoat-robes fall with gravity and tangle around his face, and Ahkelios yelps. "Ethan! Help!"

I just watch, trying not to smirk.

"Ethan!"

"Alright, alright." I reach down and pull the cloth away from his face, helping him back to his feet. To my surprise—mostly because he didn't show this off before—wings emerge from his back, fluttering wildly to take some of his weight; they're similar to the ones he had as a mantis. "I guess you like your new body, then."

"I feel kind of bad about Zhir," Ahkelios admits. "I mean, both the real one and my... other self. But yeah. This is... better."

There's a small pause as we walk. A companionable sort of silence. Ahkelios breaks it first, a small shadow crossing his expression as he finds the courage to talk about something on his mind. "I don't have my vision back, though," he confides quietly. "I was hoping..."

Right. I wince. "We might find a way to fix it," I offer. "But even if we don't, your vision's just like mine now. I bet I'd still love your art if I saw it."

Ahkelios blinks. "You think so?"

"Can't say for sure until I see it, but..." I shrug. "You should spend some time at the next camp making stuff. It's probably been too long for you."

"Shouldn't we be training or something?" Ahkelios asks, uncertain.

"How'd that work out for you during your Trial?"

A pause. "Fair point."

"I know I'm one to talk—" I smile a wry smile. "—but we can't lose ourselves fighting for others. Or fighting for ourselves. Feels a lot like there's no other choice sometimes, to spend every second fighting, but if you do that..."

I can feel Ahkelios thinking back to Zhir. I don't know what kind of memories he has, but I can imagine.

Centuries of nothingness in the Empty City. Centuries of fighting to survive.

"Yeah," Ahkelios says, his eyes distant. "I know what you mean."

To my surprise, the last stage objective is, in fact, completed as easily as just... stuffing the Seed in the dirt. It's not even us that has to do it—we transfer it to the possession of some Archivists, and they immediately start exclaiming over the thing, talking about how it's full of Firmament.

"You do not wish to know what we went through for that," Novi mutters when questioned, and refuses to elaborate. Part of that, I think, is because she appreciates the need for secrecy. She's no fool—she's caught on to enough, through conversaion with Guard and through what she's overheard between me and Ahkelios, that she knows the nature of this whole thing is... complicated.

In fact, she more or less explicitly told us we didn't need to make the time to tell her about what was going on.

"Juri and Yarun know, yes?" she asked, and when we confirmed, she just nodded. "I will ask them. You three seem like you have much to talk about."

It's a breath of fresh air, to have someone not demanding answers—I certainly feel like I'm demanding answers all the time. There are too many puzzles to unravel, too many secrets to uncover, and too many motivations I haven't yet figured out.

But it's probably best I listen to my own advice. The mind needs rest, even if the body doesn't. We'll take some time to talk things through, but after that, maybe a small break is in order. Nothing too big.

Guard did mention hot showers in Isthanok, and that sounds very attractive at the moment.

We watch as the Archivists begin to lower the Seed into Firmament-enriched dirt. "Are you guys ready?" I ask, my voice low. "Because we're going to have to get out fast. I've got the portal ready to open."

"Ready," Ahkelios agrees.

"Ready." Guard nods.

The Seed is planted—

[Seed planted. Congratulations, Heir. Ritual Stage 2 has been completed.]

[Bonus objective complete: Defeat the Concept-Bound in a single try! +200 Firmament credits.]

[Bonus objective complete: Fight a higher tier of enemy than intended! +200 Firmament credits.]

[Bonus objective complete: Thwart the intrusion. +200 Firmament credits.]

[Progressing Ritual: The Empty City to Stage 3. Be aware that the Firmament levels required for dungeon alteration are hostile to fifth-layer lifeforms and below. Evacuation is recommended.]

Both Ahkelios and I react to that fourth message. "Thwart the what?" Ahkelios demands.

I frown at it, but shake my head; I'm already pulling the Dungeon's key out. "No time," I say, inserting the key into the air. With a twist, a golden door blossoms into existence, and the three of us pour through.

For a moment, I entertain the idea of what might happen if we tried to pull Novi with us. I even look for her, try to catch her eye—but she's talking animatedly with one of the other Archivists. She doesn't seem to notice the rumbling in the dungeon, and she certainly doesn't see the door. I have no doubt that if any of them could there would be a whole host of questions to deal with.

So that might not be an option. But it's... something to keep in mind, now that we have an idea of what to expect for the next Stage.

The door seals shut behind us—

[The Empty City has been locked. Time remaining before full establishment of Ritual Stage 3: 4 days.]

Seems even the Interface is enforcing a kind of break. I'm not surprised the dungeon takes longer to reconstitute itself with every stage, although at this rate I worry for how long the final stage will take to render.

For now, though...

[Processing additional reward...]

[Congratulations! By completing two Ritual stages of the S-Rank Dungeon The Empty City, you have earned a Feat!]

"Hey, how come I don't get that?" Ahkelios complains.

"I'll share what I get," I say, shrugging. "We kind of have access to each other's skills anyway, don't we?"

"Good point." Ahkelios seems mollified by that. I look back to the Interface.

[Feat earned:

[The Abstract Crown]

Where an Anchoring solidifies a change in reality, an Abstraction unmakes it: it is an unmooring of a concept, a physical rendering of something that should remain outside reality. To destroy an Abstraction is to restore balance to the universe.

The Abstract Crown is a recognition of this feat. With it, you gain 50% additional affinity to Concepts and Threads.]

My heart quickens just slightly. It's a guess, but...

This is what I need. If I'm going to pluck out a shard of the Interface, if I'm going to do any sort of surgery with the soul—then Concepts and Threads, whatever they are, are going to form the core of what I need. Without the Dungeon and the Ritual, I wouldn't have known about either.

"Come on," I say. "Let's go find Tarin."

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