Chapter 68: Severance
Perspective: Destiny
Destiny stepped out into an upsettingly familiar chamber. Roughly hewn walls. Very little light, just the occasional lantern hung from the crags of the walls and ceiling. Grass on the floor. In various alcoves, more red-and-black portals could be seen. Calling it a chamber was charitable, it was basically a cave. It then occurred to her that grass didn't usually grow in caves. She lit a flame in her palm and stooped to pluck up a blade of grass. It had died some time ago.
Nothing about this room made sense to Destiny, and normally she would have just powered through to get the job done, but this time was different. She just knew it as the place where Glibby and the Grey Ones had jumped herself and David back at the beginning of this whole messed-up situation. The grass had been alive back then. So, she felt entitled to some closure.
"Where are we?"
"This iteration's playground so to speak. Baby's first portals to other worlds. The Entity probably kept it around as a keepsake, or maybe just because it hoards everything."
"Why didn't we notice the portal sooner, then? Carter and Anya… Well, they didn't say it had just appeared but… that was the impression I got."
Freak shrugged. "Look, we have people from different times in the same world. I heard some of the eggheads talk about it and all I got from that was that it's arbitrary and I shouldn't question it."
The phantom walked onwards, and Destiny didn't say anything, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. Some of the portals were open, others closed. Were the closed portals ones for worlds the Entity had absorbed? Or, had the Entity closed and reopened the portal to her world? But, why? Plans of conquest? Pursuit of something? Some sort of nostalgia?
She kept fixating on it because the alternative meant Anya had lied to her. Had always been lying to her. She remembered what Carter said before they left.
"You defeated Martin, but a greater threat awaits. I sense a strong presence in there, so you won't go in empty handed."
And then they'd given David the stupid gauntlet that killed him. And they'd given her those wings which she lost in that very room, not five minutes after arriving on scene.
Carter, Anya, and whatever force they served had known about the portal for a while. They just hadn't seen fit to tell them. She felt a warm, nauseating flush of anger, and her concern at not having Anya with her dropped to an all-time low.
They came to a monolithic staircase, made of large stone steps, each nearly a meter in height and depth. Freak spryly leapt from one to the next, his footsteps less than whispers. Destiny sighed and climbed up after him.
By the time she reached the top of the steps, rising through layers of packed-in rock, she was already exhausted. Sweat all over her. Hands raw from gripping the coarse stone. Lungs burning away. She sat down.
"Could have warned me about the staircase," she grumbled. "I'm supposed to kill the Entity and its architect's already halfway beat me."
There was a door before them, and she could hear the noise of machinery beyond it. Freak stared through a large, glass orb which seemed to act as a peephole, either unaware of or unconcerned by her complaints. Destiny sighed. Truthful or liar, Anya would have been easily provoked into being supportive.
"Where are we?" she tried.
Freak gestured for her to come up. She put her eye to the looking glass. On the other side, she saw corridors lined with pipes, with technicians and scientists and mages marching between. Every here and there an obsidian-clad enderman stood high above the others, a small patrol of human soldiers following in their wake. She couldn't see any lamps - probably because the mages needed magic to work. She heard something loud pounding on the floor.
"Science part of the lower sections, machine's somewhere around here. Not really much else interesting here except for Mercury's lab, very interesting things to be learned there. Well, in the past there were, now she's just trying not to let it show she found out what the Entity plans on doing with all of existence."
Destiny's eyes widened as a world of opportunity opened up.
"Is there a chance we could convince her to help us? Wait, was that what that part of your mind theater was about?"
"She already helped in a way, the thing about the crystals? She and Claw found that out."
"Yeah, but I mean actual help. Not prep-work."
Freak sneered.
"Talk to her if you want. Your friend briefly tried that as I recall, she tried melting his face and handed him over to the Entity. But no, I'm sure if you walk up to her, that addled little mind will hear you out."
"Fine. How are we getting past?"
The pounding sound she'd heard before was louder than ever. Just a few seconds ago it had been distant, now it sounded like it was coming right up the-
"Once this thing's moved on," hissed Freak.
He shunted Destiny away from the orb and threw himself against the opposing wall. The pounding grew louder, and Destiny felt her lungs tighten. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. She summoned an icy sword, quickly realising how little defence it offered her. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Her heart began to hammer away at a similar volume. Clunk. It stopped. A shadow fell over the peephole. She heard a whirring noise, and then a red light poured through the glass.
Through the warped, scarlet-stained glass, Destiny could just about make out a cuboid or perhaps rectangular head, with what must have been a large, red eye dominating the centre of what should have been its face. Its gaze rotated around the orb, and a red dot passed around the hallway. Then, the creature whirred again, and the red light seeped back out of the glass. The pounding resumed. The shadow passed, and the corridor lit up again.
Destiny put her head back to the peephole despite Freak's protests. She caught a glimpse of a huge, square-fisted golem vanishing around the corner. But it wasn't iron, there was something odd, something speckled about the colour, and she knew it wasn't paint. It almost looked like…
"...Bedrock," she breathed. "They have bedrock golems?"
"Yep," chuckled the phantom as he rummaged around in his pocket. "They found them in… I think it was your demon-kid's world. Just lying around in some temples on a green moon. I think they were meant to be guarding something, because they did not take kindly to our guys investigating. Lost half a brigade trying to recover one. Mercury tried to replicate them for months. And she couldn't. Notably it's one of the few projects where Archmage Wisp helping actually contributed anything meaningful. Now, they're guarding the throne room and the machine."
His toothy grin had returned, and Destiny could have sworn he started breathing more heavily, as though trying to drain more oxygen from the air… or something else. She tried to suppress the panic and fear rising within her, but only succeeded so much.
"Catch!"
Destiny grabbed something shiny and metal from the air. She looked at it in the light. Handcuffs.
Destiny's heart sank.
"So, you want me to be your fake prisoner?" she asked with something she hoped resembled defiant snark.
"Yes. I'll say I've taken you prisoner, and I'm taking you for interrogation followed by absorption. Express orders from the Entity. After all, you're a leading rebel - one of the few that could actually deal some damage to Claw."
Destiny remembered pressing the burning shield against Claw's scales, really messing up his arm. That had been pretty awesome. Until Claw kicked her in the head, at least. She smiled a little anyway as she applied the handcuffs.
"You heard about that?"
"I hear about everything," sneered Freak. "Don't feel special."
He checked the cuffs were convincingly attached. Destiny felt them pinch against her skin and yelped despite herself. Freak wrapped his talons around her throat, and she tensed up. For a terrible second, she wondered if she'd been had.
"Our story is that I got the drop on you while you were trying to infiltrate. Look defiant, but more bitter-defiant than unconcerned-defiant. Give me some of that Destiny anger," said Freak.
This only barely calmed her nerves, and before she could even process it, Freak threw open the doors and began to force her onwards. His signature toothy grin had returned, and his yellow eyes were wide with triumph.
"Look who I just caught!" he proclaimed.
The scientists, mages, and technicians cleared the way like someone had just cut the hallway in two. They looked at her with a mixture of emotions. Some confused. Some ecstatic. More than expected terrified. Others merely watching with academic interest. Destiny scowled at all of them equally, scrutinising their faces. She noticed the variety of species. Human, villager, pigman, enderman, skeletons, zombies, she was even pretty sure she saw a blaze or two in there, and all manner of things she could barely describe or understand. It occurred to her that the Entity had gathered all this here, and somehow decided it still wanted to destroy it all.
They quickly passed through a checkpoint. The guards barked out a laugh and joked to each other in enderman. Destiny fought the urge to melt one or the other's face - she didn't need her hands for that. She suddenly realised that she still had her powers down there. Then, she remembered she would have to lose them soon enough. Small comfort and dread crashed into each other.
Freak carried on grinning, and exchanged some knowing looks, but didn't say anything yet.
They approached a gigantic gate made of interlocking spirals. Yet more guards. More bared fangs. More obsidian armour rattling with laughter. More talons scraping on stone. The door slowly unraveled. Tortuously slowly. Until, finally:
"What have we here?" a familiar, theatrical voice called.
A heavy, gauntleted hand settled on her shoulder from behind, and a shadow fell across both she and Freak. She was wrenched around and brought face to face with Glibby the Ape.
"Hello, Destiny. How did a little runt like Freak catch something like you?"
She'd already been terrified, and now he was here. The guy who killed Fristad. Who captured her and David initially. Who crushed their escape attempt. Clad in obsidian. Smug as could be. But as the bottom fell out of her fear and she plunged to even further depths, a pure, visceral hatred entered her.
"Bite me," spat Destiny.
She jerked forward briefly, and Freak tightened his grip.
"Charming. How did you catch her, Freak?"
"Found her snooping around the playground. Jumped her while she was climbing the stairs. Poor thing got herself all tuckered out."
"Oh, the playground," lilted Glibby.
The Ape leaned down to look her in the eye. She glared back. He reached out a finger, and she recoiled, but not far enough to stop him running to cold, jagged obsidian over her face.
"Where we first met. Do you recall? My, how you've changed since then. You had little, then, and now you have nothing. Quite the tragic arc."
Destiny began to shake.
"You're talking real brave for a man with such a meltable face," muttered Destiny for her own reassurance as much as to intimidate anyone. It came out trembling and breathless.
The Ape's face settled into the cold calm of a man who sensed he was about to get exactly what he wanted.
"Hand her over to me, Freak," he said. "I'll bring an end to this sad tale."
"No."
The Ape's eyes flared up.
"Excuse me?"
"Express orders from the Entity. Any rebel intruders are to be taken for interrogation by me, and then handed over for absorption. It wants any and all knowledge on last-minute threats, especially from the rebels."
Glibby drew back, but with a roll of his shoulders had readjusted his face back into smugness.
"Have fun, then."
He began to walk away. Freak began to press forward through the newly opened gate. Then, Glibby stopped and called over his shoulder:
"Actually, Destiny. Do you have any last messages for little Warnado? I promise to pass them on very soon."
Destiny wrestled against Freak's grip, letting loose some blood but successfully forcing him to stop. She screamed over her shoulder:
"Tell him, 'Don't worry kid, so long as Glibby's still talking trash you've got at least an hour left to beat him in!'"
Freak snorted with unwilling laughter, then hastily shunted Destiny forward as he saw the Ape's glare fall on him.
"Not cool," said the phantom. "I have to work with that guy."
"I'll kill the Entity, then I'll kill him even harder," snarled Destiny.
"You're so angry and talking about murder all the time. Are you sure you're one of the good guys?" asked Freak with a sneer.
They passed an alcove containing a statue of some generic hero-looking guy, and Destiny wondered that herself. There wasn't much to say about the statue hero, he had his weapons raised aloft, and he looked victorious about something. Destiny hoped that at the end of the day, she could say the same things about herself.
After following a large, spiral staircase, they finally escaped research, and Destiny felt her powers fading. Purple lamps lined the walls like guards. To Destiny's eyes, it looked as though there were as many purple, magic-dampening crystals as there were people bustling back and forth in the hallways. Her magic, her last safety net, was gone. She focused on the floor, and allowed the rest of the journey to blur together as her panic set in.
Infrastructure and manufacturing came first. Endless, piston-operated conveyor belts; people burning up clay to make bricks, cobblestone to make roads; an apparently infinite supply of lava being doused in water to make obsidian; and rows upon rows of crafting tables at which exhausted, chained-up mages warped the obsidian into armour and weapons. Everything was sweltering.
Next, the entrance hall. Destiny recognised the doorway where Warnado blinded those guards and ensured their escape. Where Tyron had carried David's half-dead body from this dreadful place. She wondered if anyone had ever found that grave they dug for him. She shut her eyes completely when she thought she recognised the place David had shattered his gauntlet. They also passed through a variety of rooms stacked high with different items hoarded by the Entity, some valuable, some apparently random.
They reached the upper layers, full of admin offices and housing. Cafeterias, training rooms, people carrying papers, soldiers just sitting around and shooting the breeze. If Destiny had fallen asleep and woken up here, she would have just assumed the Shelter had been remodeled and gotten a little liberal with its recruitment policy. But knowing what they were working towards made all of these normal, humanising things into a source of shellshock. She caught a glimpse of an office with an iron door. It had the name 'Marinus Bul' etched into it and highlighted in black paint. Dust had settled on the handle. She shuddered.
For a while, she wondered if they'd ever escape this labyrinth of near-normalcy. And then, as they came up a staircase, she heard a familiar pounding. They rounded the corner, and her eyes agreed with her ears - that was definitely a bedrock golem stomping around. Or, rather, four of them. Marching in a patrol. And a slightly more distant stomping from the other direction confirmed they weren't the only one. Destiny felt her breath abandon her.
"There's so many of them. Why are they up here? Isn't the machine down in research?"
"Entity wants them to guard the activation mechanism. It needs the machine protected, but it's also down beneath layers upon layers of security and an awful lot of dirt and rock. Problem with a tower is that anyone who can fly might be able to break through and get around the lower defences. So, Entity wants something to be here to meet any would-be intruders who try to stop the machine from activating."
Destiny nodded. Freak removed her handcuffs.
"Okay, and the activation mechanism is where, exactly?"
"It's in the same place as the dimensional scar."
"Of course it is."
Destiny wanted to punch a wall but realised that might alert the golems to their presence. And so, she removed her shoes and followed Freak. He would go intangible and phase through walls, then come back to tell her if the coast was clear. Then, she would pad forward.
The process was agonising, and every time he slipped out of sight Destiny felt like a sitting duck. She had no more alibi. Before she had been a threat the Tower had neutralised and didn't have to worry about anymore - a too-good-to-be-true trophy. Now, she was back to being a rebel infiltrator to be killed on sight. And the crystals didn't help. The closer they got to the dimensional scar, the stronger their strange pull became, and the more nauseous she felt. She kept readjusting the satchel, but it made no difference.
At long last, it came into view, and Destiny's heart took off at a sprint. She could see no guards, no obvious defences, just a door with a bronze disc. She shot a glance at Freak. He nodded and hurried her onwards, trailing behind as a lookout. Destiny felt some relief when she noticed there were no purple lamps in sight and summoned an icicle to test her strength.
Destiny put her hand on the bronze disc and turned it. The door hissed, and mechanisms whirred, and finally the two halves of the door slid apart. Destiny took a deep breath. She summoned an icy javelin and her flaming buckler, and she stepped forward.
Freak took the lead. He led her through several chambers before they reached their target. The first was a small room, built from obsidian and multi-coloured endstone, with bronze accents in the corners. It was packed full of glass containers displaying different artefacts, many with apparent religious significance. Statues of deities, pedestals with holy books, fragments of altars.
She then entered a series of more severe, more metallic and less varied in their colour scheme. Destiny saw things like tables projecting holograms of constellations and dimensions, and extensive libraries coated in dust.
And then, there it was - the throne room. It was the largest chamber by far. Its circular walls were lined with hermetically sealed bookcases made from endstone. A staircase spiralled up to some sort of spire-like observatory. And, of course, the throne itself sat at the far end, the dimensional scar flickering above it.
It was subtle, if Destiny hadn't known to look for it, she wouldn't have spotted it. It was as if reality was just slightly off at that particular spot. There were no words for the concept, but it was clear that this was Destiny's target.
Destiny looked at Freak, and for the first time she thought she saw genuine worry on the phantom's face.
"It's going to bear down on us the second you start. Good news: there should be no manifestations in the Tower at the moment and it would take too long for it to form any new ones. Bad News: it has several possessed shells lying around, and the main body is here. The Entity being afraid will give me a boost, but there's only so much I'll be able to do."
Destiny nodded.
"Thank you Freak."
She took a handful of crystals in either fist and stood on the throne. She closed her eyes. Breathed. She reached for a power she had only felt a few times before but which she had always known to be there. Between the strange warmth of her ice magic and between the puzzling chill of fire, she searched for a deeper, older and fuller power. A power Martin had tried and failed to take from her. Her hands began to glow. She plunged them into the scar and began to pull in opposite directions.
She heard a sound beyond screaming, like the death of an earthquake. Freak took up a fighting stance, facing the door. His limbs grew long, his talons sharp, and his dreadful grin only seemed to become larger and hungrier by the second.
"Now this is fear!" He roared.
Destiny returned her attention to the scar. It refused to budge. She pulled and pulled until her muscles burned but still, she could only catch the slightest, most fleeting glimpse of the Void beyond.
Freak howled with laughter, and she heard the clang of bronze armour on obsidian alloy. A shell - a being possessed by the Entity and wearing it's armour - rushed through the door and swung at Freak, who dodged and batted it around the head. It staggered away. Destiny noticed a strange sluggishness about the Entity. A second shell entered, and Freak's long arm shot out and pinned it to the wall. He plunged a talon towards its eye, and the second manifestation shuddered for a moment before it sank in. Blood shot out, and the corpse of the Entity's host fell aside.
But before Freak could enjoy this victory, a third had entered. Freak only barely dodged its zweihander. A fourth came in, and moved to flank the phantom, but he kept it at bay with a well-timed kick. The first shell was now back on its feet, its helmet cracked but its resolve undiminished. Freak slowly began to back away as the shells closed in on him.
Destiny continued to strain, and the scar budged a little, but not enough. She could hear the void moaning at her.
One of the shells walked off to the side and in the corner of her eye, Destiny saw its white-gloved hand outstretched in a gesture almost like pleading.
"Cease this," said one of the shells. "You are risking… more-than-you know."
Freak leapt over and slammed a foot into its chest. The bronze cracked inwards, and blood flowed out. It raised its head and continued to speak.
"This world is-"
Freak's talons knocked the head from its shoulders and the corpse collapsed.
"-dying," continued another shell.
It began to walk forward. One of its fellows removed its glove and began attempting to thrust its boiling, grey hand into Freak's chest, to make him a part of the mass.
"Nexus has reached critical mass. The rot-is setting… in. Full convergence is the only way to save it."
Blood ran between Destiny's fingers. She tried to tell herself the gash was widening. It had to be.
"I tried to make it, piece by piece… You are from," it froze a second, it's gaze shooting off in a random direction. "World 257. You witnessed-the-garden. How it rots. How my portals bleed-are-infected."
Destiny thought back to the dead grass. To the black, oily liquid within the frame. The portals were sick…
Light began to shift in a specific spot. Another armoured shell ran through the door and began to assault Freak. He leapt over its oncoming blade but staggered on the landing.
"Keeping the pieces here… keeping them-constant-it-makes them… corrode. It-has-only accelerated since she… Entropy arrived. Since she-began to tear apart my-creation".
"Shadow…" thought Destiny. "Could she be killing this place?"
She felt an opposite force, as though the scar were trying to clamp shut on her hands.
The light continued to swirl, to remix itself, to turn dark. Flashes of bronze, obsidian, glass…
Freak narrowly dodged a strike from an obsidian zweihander. The Entity was speeding up.
"If I do-not-stop it here, create one world, one-stable-ordered-world, the rot will spread. It will destroy-not-only Nexus. It will taint… everywhere I-stood."
An ordinary-looking man ran past Freak, his face flat, emotionless, empty. He made a beeline for Destiny. His arm turned to the same seething, boiling grey as the shell's hand. He was going to try and possess or absorb her or something. She looked at her hands, and knew from the indescribable pain and the rushing of blood that if she removed them from the scar, she would neither be able to do a thing with them, or ever reinsert them back in. She pulled like a frightened dog scratching at a door. She realised her death was imminent. The lights swirled and shifted brighter and darker all at the same time.
Freak's talons caught the possessed man across the torso and split him in half. The grey faded away. A moment of glorious hope. One of the shells caught him on the back with a zweihander. He fell. And Destiny felt emptied of everything.
A white-gloved hand reached from within the swirling lights. A moment later, the main body of the Entity followed it. It looked humanoid only in shape, an imitation of a person made from solid grey static. It seemed like its shape burned itself into Destiny's eyes, refusing to let anything else occupy that spot in her perception.
It began to slowly advance.
"Open!" grunted Destiny, panting. "Open, you stupid wound!"
She pressed her forehead against the top of the throne until it hurt. Anything to distract her from the condition of her hands. She caught a glimpse of the Entity itself, approaching. One of the shells had a zweihander pressed to Freak's throat, and a gloved hand gripping his scalp. Another stood by dutifully, its boiling, grey hand ready to plunge into him. The phantom's claws dug into the ground in fear. His toothy grin was drenched in blood.
Destiny felt the scar winning. It began to gain ground on her.
"Is any of what you said just there," she asked through gritted teeth and streaming eyes. "Is it true?"
She paid attention to its footsteps for the first time, shifting and inconstant. Loud then quiet. Quick then fast. Never actually closing the distance any faster or slower.
"I believe so."
She looked up and saw the yawning, moaning void began to slip out of sight.
"Cease your fight."
"No," she gasped. "Not now. Not yet."
She strained anew.
"Child, your struggle is… ended. Be calm. The convergence is coming. I have maimed worlds. Now let me make them whole once more. Even-if-I die… it will be so."
She roared and pulled even harder. Its shadow loomed over her.
"Do-you-really believe that, even if you kill me, your friends can stop-the-rot-I-have-begun?"
She closed her eyes.
"They have to, because I won't be there to help them."
She rediscovered her purpose. She delved deeper and deeper into her self, for that power, old and ancient and pure. She screamed with her own voice, with Anya's voice, with those of any and all who might have come before, of any and all who would come after, and she ripped the world asunder.
There was a crack like a thousand thunders, and a flash like a thousand suns and she was thrown back. The crystals flew from her hands. And then, a great suction. Something pulling her back in. She tried to use her hands, but they were useless. She instinctively summoned a platform of ice and her feet stuck in place.
Her eyes cleared.
Freak lay on the ground beside her, still hugging the floor with his talons. The shells were scattered across the room, attempting to rise. The Entity staggered and groaned. And behind it, the scar was open. The Void, plain to see, moaned and yawned away.
The suction grew stronger, became like a great wind, and the scar became a maw inhaling everything before it. Destiny strengthened the ice binding her feet as hard as she could. Freak burrowed further into the ground. The shells stood no chance, skittering across the ground and tumbling out of Nexus, one by one, until only the main body remained. Destiny and Freak shared an ecstatic look. Destiny howled with near-victorious laughter.
The Entity slid, slowly, towards the maw, what looked like arms crossed across what looked like its face. It would happen any second now, she knew it. Then, it steadied its foot against what remained of its throne. Panic filled her.
Destiny lifted her wounded right hand and willed all her remaining strength into it. A great, gargantuan, molten fireball formed above her palm. Her body shivered from the heat it was sacrificing. And then she hurled it at the Entity. The shot met its target. The Entity's foot slipped. It fell into the current and shot straight out of the world.
"I WIN, ASSHOLE!" screamed Destiny.
The scar began to close, and the breath of the Void began to slowly weaken.
She kept shaking. She kept trying to talk, but no more words would come. She felt a complete tranquility within her. She looked over at Freak, panting. She almost wanted to thank the phantom.
"Freak…"
His taloned foot was free from the ground. He had it raised, angled down at the ice holding her in place. His yellowed grin was wide as the horizon. She considered asking him not to, or trying to fight him, but one glance at her bloodied hands confirmed there wasn't much left she could do.
"...You're lucky I'm in a good mood," she snorted.
The ice shattered and she hurtled forwards. She saw the endless expanse, and nothing on the other side, and she expected briefly to go anywhere and nowhere. Then, she hit the threshold of the Void, and her speed slowed. She dropped like a rock on the other side of the scar and stopped on what felt like stone. Her hands bled and throbbed a lot, but it had reached a point where it had gotten so intense, she almost couldn't notice any difference in the level of pain.
The only light came from the scar. She saw the Entity stood beside it, absorbing a shell, armour-and-all. She contemplated feeling scared, but she didn't. Its static-like, boiling skin looked different, almost like it were moving more slowly.
"You have doomed us," said the Entity.
Destiny used her elbows to start pulling herself to her feet.
"Ah, you're just… mad that I beat you. Didn't you hear me? I won… asshole."
She laughed until it hurt and began to walk forward on shaking feet. The Entity turned to look at the scar.
"So," Destiny asked. "Where… where are we? I get the Void, but why?"
"It is… where-I-was. Before Nexus."
She could have sworn the Entity looked a little smaller. More like a person. She shuffled. Something felt very strange. No cold or heat in the air, just empty dark and a sliver of light from the scar. Maybe that was it.
"I sat here, at the bottom of Void, for… I don't-know. Until I encountered-a world, too small-for life. But it resonated… I kept it, made it-the first Nexus. Then, later, I found another world, and another, and another. My resonance grew with each world. Until I found a world with life, with minds. The first mind I-found I made mine, used it to understand… the world. Soon-after my world… fell to rot. Then nothing for a long time, until I found another world… other-minds. And again and… again. Each time the first mind allowed me to know more, understand more."
Destiny, not amazingly interested in the interdimensional warlord's unprompted justification, squinted into the scar. She could see nothing. It hurt her eyes to look, but the Entity kept staring longingly through with its unseen eyes and featureless almost-face.
"One day I found a mind that helped-me-not-take other minds. Minds that… are outside of me last-longer, help… longer. After many cycles I gathered more minds around me, built the-first-Tower. Started looking for ways to stop the rot. This first Tower lasted longer than… other cycles, so I built-new-ones, gathered ever more minds. Eventually I reached a barrier, needed-a-way-to bring more matter to… Nexus."
It reached out to touch the scar, but its hand trembled and recoiled. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought the thing was distraught. But she did know better. Destiny tried the same thing. It wasn't emotional, it was just being physically repelled. She still felt very strange.
"A mind eventually told me… about the crystals, how they-chain-worlds together. Then things became-difficult. Minds do not like things being taken… from them, they-band together and send-me-back. I found ways to stop this… from-happening. Sometimes, Entropy would come-find-me, often by chance, not by will. Sometimes, others. This cycle was supposed to be the last, the first-mind-proposed the machine. Now-so close to completion I… fade again."
Destiny began to circle the Entity.
"No offense, big guy," smiled Destiny sleepily. "You really brought this on yourself. Now, my friends are just going to turn up and curbstomp your remaining goons. I'm almost sad I won't get to take part. But still, I got first prize."
She pointed at the Entity with the closest approximation of finger-guns she could manage. Then, she fell to her knees. Something like dust was rising off her hand.
"Well, guess I'm dying… Am I? Doesn't feel like before… You know that kid, Martin? He killed me… I think."
She fell to her elbows, then slumped onto her side. The dust was rising from her face, obscuring her vision. It looked faintly like the shade of her skin.
"I'm coming, Anya… David… please be there."
She felt a tear come out, and it became like a stream of glass shards, lifting off into nothing and vanishing.
"I'm scared."
The Entity stood over her.
"I messed it up. I-I could have done it all better."
It cocked its head.
"All things feel as such, child. Perhaps bravery is accepting… what we-have-done."
It sat down beside her. Behind the dust rising off her body, the Entity looked like a shadow on a lit curtain. She could no longer move.
"I can't go yet. I'm not ready."
"Then slumber a-while."
The Entity grabbed her arm.
"You have earned that… at-least. Be the first-mind of the next cycle."
And she slipped away.
